I knew I shouldn't have slept.
I knew what was going to happen and I still passed out like an idiot.
And now, I was falling through the air to my death.
Not the best way to go.
"Can someone help me or something? Dang it, I'm dying here!" The wind whipped up around me as I hurtled to the ground.
"On it!" Jason swooped down and took my hand. I saw Piper on the other side. "I don't think I can hold it any longer! It's too heavy!"
"Oh, so you're saying I'm too heavy?"
"No, nothing like that. I just mean..." I smirked at Jason's haggard face.
"Just messing with you. Now, hurry up Blondie and go get Leo!"
Jason's face turned determined. Next thing I knew, we were crashing into Leo and I quickly extended my hand for him to grab on to.
"Festus!" Leo looked heartbroken.
"Look, Leo. Festus is going to be fine, alright? So stop looking like your only love rejected you."
Leo gave me a look. "That was uncalled for!"
"I think not." Suddenly, we were falling. "Jason, what's wrong?"
Jason's voice was strained. "It's too heavy..." Our fall stopped and we hovered in the air before it started again.
I burst out laughing when I saw his face. "You look constipated, you know that?"
"Shut up Hope. I'm concentrating here." He gasped. "I just... can't..."
We dropped.
"JASON! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" All three of us screamed bloody murder as we free fell through the air.
I crashed through the roof and fell on the floor, groaning. "Piper? Blondie? Where the Hades are you guys?"
"Right here." I heard Piper hiss in pain.
Leo's voice sounded throughout the warehouse. "I'm not dead! Hallelujah!"
"Leo, shut up." Jason walked toward Piper. "Hey, you okay?"
I rolled my eyes. "No, she's not. Her ankle's broken or something, she needs help."
Silence.
Idiot! Stupid! Big! Mouth! Ruining! Everything! I felt like stabbing myself.
"How'd you know that?" Jason sounded suspicious. Again. This was getting tiresome.
"Easy," I hoped my voice sounded casual. "I saw Piper try to land on her feet and I know that is not a good thing to do from a hundred feet up."
Jason looked like he wanted to question me some more, but Piper tapped his arm. "Ankle? Help? Anyone?"
I quickly gave her a piece of ambrosia. "You shouldn't eat any more right now. Blondie, set her foot."
Jason gave me an annoyed look. "Can you quit calling me Blondie? It gets annoying after a while."
"Yeah, not gonna happen. Hurry up and help your girlfriend."
As Jason set Piper's foot, I walked up to Leo. "You should probably go look for Festus. I'll come too." I really didn't want to get knocked out by a Cyclops.
"Yeah, just wait a second." Leo walked up to Jason. "Look, why don't you stay with Piper? Me and Hope will just scout around for Festus and try to fix him."
Jason said something quiet that I couldn't hear and shot a look at me. I shrugged my shoulders and walked over to Piper. "I'm going to look for Festus with Leo and before I go, I want to tell you something."
Piper looked confused. "What?"
"Cyclopes have the ability to make their voice sound like anyone else. That's all." I turned around and started walking out. "Come on Leo, time to look for Happy the Dragon."
As Leo ran towards Festus, I couldn't help but wonder why I said that to Piper. Now, knowing my luck, she would think I was some sort of future telling weird demigod. My mind was going through the pros and cons of being treated like an Oracle when I heard a yelp. Leo was staring at the Porta-Potty in horror.
Great. Evil Snow White has appeared.
I had to admit, I was a bit scared. I mean, this was Gaea we were talking about, a deity that was eternal. Plus, her voice was more than a little bit creepy. It sounded so reasonable, like those crazy people in fanfictions that actually believe they're doing the right thing when any sane person can tell that they're not. Leo was shaking badly as Gaea pushed all his buttons. I couldn't stand it anymore. "Hey! Leave him alone!" I yelled, successfully getting Dirt Face's attention.
Hope Foster. Her voice sounded in my head. Perhaps the next Percy Jackson, the next Hero of Olympus. Her voice was mocking and I couldn't help but put in a sarcastic comment.
"Personally, I would like to be smarter than Percy, no offense to him of course." Potty Sludge chuckled like an old granny. You have so many weaknesses, so many chinks in that armor of yours. Walk away, both of you. Walk away now.
Leo apparently had enough of listening to Queen Porta-Potty because he suddenly threw a Porta-Potty seat at Gaea's face. "Leave us alone!"
As the face dissolved, I gave him a look and he shrugged. "What?"
"What took you so long? You know what, never mind. Let's get back to the warehouse. I'm pretty sure Piper and Jason are in trouble."
When we both got to the warehouse, Leo stopped dead, knees shaking like a leaf. "That's not possible. There's no way... Oh my god, is that Jason and Piper?"
I shook my head. "Why doesn't anyone listen to me?" Taking a few tentative steps forward, I continued. "I mean, seriously. I was suspicious that there were Cyclops in the area so I even gave her a warning."
"Be quiet!" Leo hissed. "They're talking!"
I strained my ears to make out, "...purple shirt...Latin..."
Oh, they're at that part of the conversation.
I looked over at Leo. He was fidgeting, making something with wires. "Hey, Leo. When they notice us, I'll try to take at least one of them out."
"Yeah, yeah. Wait, how do you know they'll notice us?"
"Call it intuition. Anything that can go wrong on a quest, always does go wrong."
Leo made a few adjustments with the machine; at least I hoped that was what he was doing. "So, Murphy's Law then."
"Something like that."
The wires sparked and the Cyclopes turned their heads. Big Mama Cyclops yelled, "Get them!"
I charged, intending on using my hard earned fighting skills to take one out. Unfortunately, it did not go the way I planned. I ended up getting picked up by a Cyclops. Leo was too busy running and setting off tiny metal machines to notice my situation.
I have to handle this on my own. Activating my throwing knives, I quickly stabbed the Cyclops in the hand, which I found out, was not the best idea. He dropped me and I tumbled to the floor. Fortunately, my monster fighting classes came in handy as I did a flip that Annabeth would have been proud of. Landing on my feet, I quickly faced the Cyclops and made a running jump. Vaulting up his body, I threw my knives straight at his head.
Landing on the floor again, I turned to help with Leo, only to find out that he was in the middle of his confrontation with Ma Gasket. I grinned as I heard him say, "I don't think so." Boom! I couldn't help but cheer when the block dropped.
"Yeah! Go Valdez!"
"Oh shut up." Leo tried to sound like it was nothing, but I could hear the slightest hint of pride in his voice. "It's nothing compared to your mad monster fighting skills."
After getting Piper and Jason down, I knew that the monsters would reform so I tried to hurry Leo and Piper up. Unfortunately, they noticed. Leo blinked and frowned, confused. "They're forming again."
"That's impossible." Piper looked scared.
"Look, guys," I cut in. "They're definitely reforming so we have to get out of here. Like now."
Leo shrugged. "Sounds good to me."
"Then let's hurry to Chicago and get those storm spirits back!"
And with that pep talk, we took off into the sky.
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Hi! So, once again, I'm stuck in an airport. The one I was in when I posted last week (last week?) We have, like, 15 minutes to get to the plane so I need to finish this up.
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~MEA