Haunted || Leo Valdez

41 - Annabeth *Flips* Out

Anne thought she was prepared for anything. She thought she'd be able to see New Rome again without thinking of Rebecca, but of course, as everything else she did, it failed.

As soon as she caught sight of the Roman Camp in the distance, she burst into tears and wallowed in despair until Annabeth came and told her to be upset somewhere else. Therefore, as Annabeth paced the deck of the Argo II, checking and double-checking the ballistae to make sure they were locked down, Anne drifted over to where Leo was standing.

He hadn't been himself for the past week, either. Rebecca may have cursed Anne to explode into a hiccupping fit whenever she even mentioned her name, but Anne had managed to tell Leo, Piper, Jason, and Annabeth that Rebecca was in danger. Leo had seemed distracted in his work, and Nyssa and Annabeth had both been forced to take over finalizing construction of the Argo II.

Annabeth was a task machine, checking everything. She confirmed that the white "We come in peace" flag was flying from the mast. She reviewed the plan with the rest of the crew—and the backup plan, and the backup plan for the backup plan. She pulled aside their war-crazed chaperone, Coach Gleeson Hedge, and encouraged him to take the morning off in his cabin and watch reruns of mixed martial arts championships.

Thanks to her, everything seemed to be in order.

The warship descended through the clouds, and Anne had a bad feeling. What if the Romans attacked them on sight?

The Argo II definitely did not look friendly. Two hundred feet long, with a bronze-plated hull, mounted repeating crossbows fore and aft, a flaming metal dragon for a figurehead, and two rotating ballistae amidships that could fire explosive bolts powerful enough to blast through concrete...well, it wasn't the most appropriate ride for a meet-and-greet with the neighbors.

Leo had sent one of his special inventions—a holographic scroll—to alert their friends inside the camp. Hopefully, the message had gotten through. Leo had wanted to paint a giant message on the bottom of the hull—WASSUP? with a smiley face—but Annabeth vetoed the idea. She wasn't sure the Romans had a sense of humor. Anne had tried to rally Piper and Jason against Annabeth's decision, but her heart hadn't really been in it, and so she had to endure the woes of a WASSUP-less ship.

Anne knew Leo hadn't really been serious about it — he'd just been trying to make a joke to keep the mood light. He usually made a decent job of it, but since Rebecca had been captured, his jokes were starting to seem thin.

Anne sighed. Too late to turn back now.

The clouds broke around their hull, revealing the gold-and-green carpet of the Oakland Hills below them.

The crew took their places.

On the stern quarterdeck, Leo rushed around like a madman, checking his gauges and wrestling levers. Most helmsmen would've been satisfied with a pilot's wheel or a tiller. Leo had also installed a keyboard, monitor, aviation controls from a Learjet — thank goodness he didn't have a Google — a dubstep soundboard, and motion-control sensors from a Nintendo Wii. He could turn the ship by pulling on the throttle, fire weapons by sampling an album or raise sails by shaking his Wii controllers really fast. Even by demigod standards, Leo was seriously ADHD.

Piper paced back and forth between the mainmast and the ballistae, practicing her lines.

"Lower your weapons," she murmured. "We just want to talk."

Her charmspeak was so powerful, the words flowed over Anne, filling her with the desire to drop her bow and have a nice long chat.

For a child of Aphrodite, Piper tried hard to play down her beauty. Today she was dressed in tattered jeans, worn-out sneakers, and a white tank top with pink Hello Kitty designs. (Maybe as a joke, though Anne could never be sure with Piper.) Her choppy brown hair was braided down the right side with an eagle's feather.