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Leo XXXVIII

In the light of her golden cavalry sword, she was examining a door. She was so engrossed, she didn't notice them until Leo said, "Hi."

Hazel whirled, trying to swing her spatha. Fortunately for Leo's face, the blade was too long to wield in the corridor.

"Woah, easy with that thing!" Apollo said, holding his hands up in surrender.

"That's demigod reflexes for you," Clarisse remarked.

"What are you doing here?" Hazel demanded.

"The eidolons are back." Percy explained with a scowl.

...She hissed in frustration. "I hate eidolons.

"Join the club," Percy said, crossing his arms.

"They are a pain, constantly haunting random houses, terrorizing the mortals," Hades griped. "Do you have any idea how expensive it is to assign damage control every time a 'ghost hunter' has proof of the supernatural?" he rubbed his temples. "And there's still photos circulating around."

"I keep telling you Father, you worry too much." Nico tried to comfort. "A lot of mortals don't believe in ghosts and would consider the evidence to be fake."

"And yet, there's still fools out there conducting séances and hunting for spirits they know nothing about." the god grumbled, resting his head in his palm.

I thought Piper made them promise to stay away."

"Oh..." Frank said... "Piper made them promise to stay off the ship and not possess any of us. But if they followed us, and used other bodies to attack us, then they're not technically breaking their vow...."

"How are we going to get rid of them?" Percy said, exasperated.

"You can't. Hazel can order them to leave if she concentrates hard enough, but it would only work for so long before they come back." Hades tiredly sighed. "They're like roaches. Once they have their minds set, your only hope is that they find something or someone else to obsess over."

The demigods grimaced.

"So we're stuck with them for the whole trip?" Annabeth said with a sinking feeling.

"No, I took care of them." Leo assured, earning curious glances, even Hades looked caught off guard by his words.

Took care of them? Annabeth frowned. What exactly is that supposed to mean?

"Great," Leo muttered. "Eidolons who are also lawyers. Now I really want to kill them."

Nico snorted. "Kinda hard to do that since they're, ya'know, already dead."

Leo waved his hand dismissively. "Details, details."

"Sound pretty important to me,"

"Only if you let that stop you," Leo said confidently.

"Of course, how could I forget?" Nico deadpanned. "Anything is possible if you believe."

Leo snickered, Nico allowed himself to smile a bit.

"Okay, forget them for now," Hazel said. "This door is giving me fits. Leo, can you try your skill with the lock?"

The demigods briefly frowned.

"Giving me fits?" Lacy repeated, eyebrows furrowed. She really is from the past.

The door was interesting, much more complicated than the Roman numeral combination lock above. The entire door was coated in Imperial gold. A mechanical sphere about the size of a bowling ball was embedded in the center.