The Runaways - A PJO AU

chapter one - "lead" •annabeth chase•

Annabeth Chase had taken into account that demigods don't live very long and she moved on. She had other things to worry about, particularly where she and her crew of forty, give or take a few demigods were going to be headed next. Lots of the demigods wanted to stay and Annabeth could certainly see why.

The abandoned candy factory in Chicago they had been staying in was perfect for them. There was space for training, the structure was sound and the place was like a fortress. Annabeth reckoned that they kept it locked up tight because even she knew of a great number of people who would break into a candy factory. Monsters would have a hard time getting in there, even without Leo Valdez's security system.

The other demigods must have thought that because of that reason, Leo was the perfect candidate to talk Annabeth into letting them stay in the factory.

"Annabeth, just hear me out, okay?" the son of Hephaestus pleaded as he sharpened her bronze knife. She had seen this conversation coming. As a daughter of the wisdom goddess, she needed to be on her toes. Ready for anything. She wanted to stay, but she didn't find it wise. The neighborhood was a quiet one, sure, but sooner or later people would notice kids coming to and from the factory. If they called the police, they'd have a huge problem.

She nodded, signaling for Leo to continue. She respected Leo. Without him, the entire group would be lost. He supplied them with most of their armor and weapons, not to mention Festus, the automaton. The bronze dragon was handy when fighting a large amount of monsters which they had often happened to run into. Annabeth had also thought that Leo had a higher calling. He was a fire user, a gift only rarely given to a child of Hephaestus.

"We should stay here." he suggested, proving her insinuation. He handed her knife back to her and pushed back the curly brown hair that had fallen into his line of vision. "We've got a sweet deal here and you know it. I think we should stay as long as we can. Make your plans, Beth and have them ready for when we absolutely have to leave."

Besides the use of that terrible nickname which she glared at him for, his words weren't hard to consider. But still... "Look, I know it's safe here, but what about the demigods we haven't found yet?" she asked him. Her serious and intimidating grey eyes meeting his brown ones. He wasn't fazed by the look, he'd been on the receiving end of it dozens of times. "I can't leave them out there. We both know what it's like."

His face fell because he knew she was right. It wasn't fair to leave demigods out in the world without a clue who they were up against. Annabeth was a little surprised when his expression brightened with an idea, just as quickly as it fell. "Search parties. We could send out search parties." Leo exclaimed, looking pleased with himself. "We could send Nora out ahead to find them and small group the escort them back."

She felt dumb she hadn't thought of that idea herself and that was not a usual occurrence. Annabeth had to admit, Leo may have been goofy and a little more ADHD than the rest of them, but he was smart. She sometimes forgot how much he really was. "That's actually not a bad thought, Valdez." she admitted, giving him a small smile.

He grinned, "Thanks, I-." he started, but was cut off by the metal door of the armory bursting open with force. They didn't have to look to see who it was. There was only one person they knew that made that type of entrance. "Good afternoon, S'Nora." he greeted her without looking up from his tinkering.

The Hispanic daughter of Mercury rolled her brown eyes and sat in a chair in the corner of the room. "Back at you, Leo-tard."

"Anything new?" Annabeth questioned the girl. Honora Morales was a girl of many talents and being inhumanly fast on her feet was one of them. A gift from Mercury, Annabeth had guessed, but she couldn't be sure being as she never heard of such a thing. Because of her talents, Nora went off ahead of the crew and scouted new hideouts and more importantly, kept tabs on the two demigod camps.