━━━━HURRICANE!
❝ it's all we know,
the hurricane. ❞
( the mark of athena & the house of hades )
( l. valdez x fem!oc )
( p. mclean x male!oc )
( heroes of o...
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━chapter seven, ❝monkey dwarves pay a not-so-friendly visit!❞ 『L E O』
☆
━━━Leo is vaguely aware of Hazel shouting, "Go! I'll take care of Nico!" as if he is going to turn back. Yeah, he hopes di Angelo is okay and all, but he has headaches of his own.
He bounds up the steps with the others behind him. The situation on deck is even worse than he'd feared.
Coach Hedge and Piper are struggling against their duct tape bonds while one of the demon monkey dwarfs dances around the deck, picking up whatever isn't tied down and sticking it in his bag. He's maybe four feet tall, shorter than Coach Hedge, with bowed legs and chimp-like feet. His clothes are so bright that they give Leo vertigo. His green-plaid pants are pinned at the cuffs and are held up with bright-red suspenders over a striped pink-and-black woman's blouse. He wears half a dozen golden watches on his arm, and a zebra patterned cowboy hat with a price tag dangling from the rim. His skin is covered in patches of scraggly red fur, though ninety percent of his other body hair seems to be concentrated in his magnificent eyebrows.
Valentina looks mortified.
Leo is just forming the thought, Where's the other dwarf? when he hears a click from behind him and realizes he has led his friends into a trap.
Leo shouts, "Duck!"
He throws Valentina to the floor, his arms trapping her to the ground as the explosion rocks their eardrums. Leo's heart races as Valentina clutches to him, her face trapped against his chest as he had pulled her into him.
Note to self, Leo thinks groggily. Do not leave boxes of magic grenades where dwarfs can reach them.
At least he and Valentina are alive. Leo has been experimenting with all sorts of weapons ever since he recovered in Rome. (He'd cried thinking of how much Regina would love the Archimedes sphere). He'd built grenades that could spray acid, fire, and shrapnel (Jason has noted Regina has several of those already made, and Leo wasn't at all surprised).
Judging from the ringing in Leo's ears, the dwarf had detonated the flash-bang grenade, which Leo had filled with a rare vial: pure liquid extract. It doesn't kill, but it leaves Leo feeling like he's just done a belly flip off the deep end.
He tries to get off of Valentina. She groans from underneath him. His limbs are useless. He can hear Valentina mumble his name, trying to push him off. Then her tone turns more urgent as if she's trying to warn him ━ what is she saying? ━
