I do not own any of the characters in this story
Leo
The cold morning air stung Leo's eyes as he stared out into the distance. All he could see ahead of him were clouds and the gleam of a certain golden dragon at the head of the ship. Then again, they were thousands of feet in the air. Below the rolling hills of Berkley seemed to go on forever. Leo could almost see the morning dew on the grass as it shimmered in the sunlight. He gave a great sigh as he thought back to everything that had happened in the past six months and what was probably about to happen.
After the quest, everything had seemed to happen in fast forward. After he showed his cabin-mates bunker 9 they started right away on the ship. It always amazed Leo how fast things could be accomplished with teamwork. It also helped that he had a magic tool-belt and there were magic items everywhere to help.
He had also learned a great deal about fighting. Leo had never thought of himself as a fighter, but the day he got to the top of the lava wall without even being touched by the lava (which wasn't that big of a deal considering he couldn't be hurt by fire) he knew he was different than he was before. He could even use a sword, a skill he would've never thought of having a year before. Of course, sometimes he missed the quest, Festus, and just having Jason and Piper around, but he knew that this was something he had to do. The ship was his big contribution to the quest and he couldn't let his new friends down.
Of course, Jason and Piper had become a little more than friends….
"Leo! How much longer?" Annabeth called, waking Leo up from his thoughts. Annabeth had gotten even more anxious since they had taken off, which was saying something, considering Leo had been positive that Annabeth had taken the prize for "most annoying girlfriend in the world" months ago. Then again, what did Leo know about that? He'd never even come close to having a girlfriend. And Annabeth had been away from Percy for 8 months… She didn't even know if he was alive until a few days earlier when Grover had finally gotten a connection with Percy through this weird mind-link thing. Annabeth had been going crazy ever since.
"I don't know, you just asked five minutes ago!" Leo responded, exasperated. "Probably just another couple of minutes, but I can't be sure."
Just then, a bell rang from above Leo's head. He looked up to see Jason in the crow's nest grinning down at him. His golden hair had gotten longer in the last few months, and now it blew wildly in the wind. He looked like a god up on a pedestal, well except for the fact that he was wearing and orange "Camp Half-Blood" t-shirt and some old blue jeans. "Land ho!" he shouted over the wind. Then he jumped down nearly thirty feet, which would have killed any other person except that Jason was the son of Zeus. So instead he landed gracefully (hehe, gracefully Leo chuckled to himself) on the deck of the boat in front of Leo. "I can see the Caldecott tunnel from here" he said, "we're almost there."
"Great" Leo responded cheerfully, "who's ready to be attacked by a bunch of Romans?"
"Leo, I told you they won't attack once they see me on board!" Jason said as he walked over to the head of the boat and began to wave down at some grey mass that must've been the tunnel.
"If you say so…" Leo grumbled in return as he got behind the wheel. But he did start to land the boat, which just happened to be the part of the voyage that he'd been most afraid of. As they got closer to the ground he started to make out shapes that looked like people below him. Then, suddenly, the boat began to drop.