Leo Valdez and the House of Nyx

PERCY

PERCY WAS ON FIRE!

No, seriously. Well, not like Leo, but yeah.

He led Leo behind another wall, while Annabeth made an impressive show of

anger, by thrusting out her dagger and shouting, "Where do you run, you nasty

boys?" Leo lit his hand with fire and lobbed it in her direction, but it was poorly

aimed, and went sailing past Annabeth's head. She made a big show of ducking to

avoid that blast. She then glared daggers at Leo, picked up a long spear from the

ground (oohhkay, Percy did not know where that had come from), and threw it at

them. Percy summoned Riptide and deflected it easily. This way Annabeth aimed

many more weapons, which Percy deflected easily, or Leo blasted them.

"Dude, I am on fire!" Leo exclaimed.

"Oh, you bet I'm on more fire than you!" Percy deflected another spear. Then he

looked at Leo, who was giving him a quizzical look. "Uh," Percy's face turned red.

"we're talking 'bout the same kinda fire, right?"

Leo shrugged and was about to answer, when a poorly aimed arrow whistled past

Leo's head. Leo yelled artificially, and staggered back.

Above them, Nike yelled, "What do you think you're doing? Fight like you mean

it. Rip eachother!"

Leo pulled out a long, tubular device from his tool belt, and gave it to Percy. Percy

saw small, round yellow stuff inside it.

"On my signal, press that button," Leo pointed at a red button on the top of the

machine.

Annabeth screamed. She held a broken bow in her hand, and she was glaring at

Percy.

"WHAT DID YOU DO!" she threw the bow aside and shook her fists at him.

Percy laughed heartily and said, "Is that all you got, girl? A bow? Let me show you

how you fight!"

Leo had fixed the second machine to the wire and gave Percy the signal. Percy

pressed the red button, and his hands jolted downward. From the machine, round,

yellow stuff began to erupt high into the air. Percy then realized that they were

cheese puffs... they were...

"Fonzies," Percy said in amazement. The Fonzies kept erupting high into the air,

until finally the machine stopped erupting them, and the Fonzies all fell don like a

shower.

Annabeth screeched, "Oh, no, Fonzies! My fatal weakness!"

She then crumpled to her knees, picked up a sword and aimed it straight at Percy.

Percy led Leo behind another wall. This wall was more like an enclosure. Leo

began fastening the third machine.

"How many more?" Percy panted.

"Three more. I'm trying to build a circle of these stuff, so tht Annabeth's plan will

work more easily," Leo responded.

Meanwhile, Annabeth started blurting out random stuff, like, "My strength... all

gone... ; you boys are gonna pay for this!" and stuff.

Nike swooped down over her and picked her to her feet. "Fool, that was not your

fatal weakness, it was just a trick! Are you all trying to kill eachother or what?"

Leo fixed the third one a heaved a sigh, "Phew. Three done. Three to go. Well,

Nike didn't see us come here, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to stay here... catch our

breath... right?" he wiped th sweat off his neck.

They both sat there, panting and wiping sweat, when suddenly they heard a shriek.

"Aaaaaaaaahhh!"

Percy and Leo looked at eachother, then staggered to the edge of the wall and

peeked. Nike was floating a few feet off the ground, bending over Annabeth.

She had Annabeth's knife in her hand. Annabeth was leaning against the wall,

clutching her arm. Clearly, Nike had stabbed Annabeth in the arm, using

Annabeth's own blade. Percy knew that Annabeth must have told Nike that the

fight was against her, not between the three of us.

When he turned over his shoulder to see Leo's expression, Leo wasn't there. He

had gone to fix the rest of the machines to the wire. Percy stepped out into the

arena. Nike spotted him, and smiled gruesomely.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" she growled.

"Stop attacking her and fight me, Nike," Percy said, raising his sword.

Nike dropped Annabeth's dagger and turned to face Percy. she summoned her staff

and mounted her chariot. Out of the corner of his eye, Percy saw Leo run behind

another wall, getting closer to Annabeth. Great, Percy thought. Just one more left

to fix.

Nike lashed her whip and her horses began to gallop towards Percy. Horses...

Percy got a wild idea. "Stop," he ordered the horses.

Much to Nike's surprise (and his), the horses stopped.

What? One horse demanded, absolutely confused.

Dude, why d'yu stop? Mistress gave orders, the other argued.

"Come on! Move!" Nike shrieked.

"No," Percy ordered as calmly as he could. "If I don't have a ride, then you cannot

be allowed to take your mistress around."

Nike looked mysified. Then she straightened herself and said coldly, "Very well,

demigod. You may have your fathers powers, as you got my horses under control.

So, you want a ride? Well, then, get yours."

Percy thought of Blackjack. He closed his eyes, hoping the fire-breathing horses

won't trample him, and thought, Hey, Backjack, bud, I need you here right now.

He opened his eyes and saw Blackjack soaring down towards the coliseum. He

landed and said, Yo, boss! How ya doin'? Got me doughnuts?

"Um, not now, big guy, but I'll get them for you later. Right now we've got some

fighting to do," Percy said.

He mounted Balckjack and faced Nike. She smiled and said, "Well, we'll keep it

simple – whoever falls off their mount first loses."

Percy nodded, and he and Nike faced eachother, ready to charge.