Leo and Calypso's Garage: Auto Repair and Mechanical Monsters, Year 2017 C.E., Leo Valdez POV
I didn't know what to make of it.
The small, silver cylindrical device, like a sword with its blade cut off. I didn't quite recall where I'd seen it before- we had hardly been able to afford movies and the like in Mama's workshop, I had been on the run for most of the time after that, and we sure as heck weren't allowed it at the Wilderness School. Maybe I had seen it in the armory at Camp Half-Blood?
"Yo, Cali?" I yelled into the dining area of our commercial garage, or as our customers frequently called it, Valdez's Mess.
My girlfriend yelled back, "Yes, Leo?"
"Could you, um, come in here for a sec?"
"Fine. Jason, Piper, Percy, Annabeth, you know the drill."
Ah. So that was whom Calypso was speaking to.
"Actually, on second thought, bring them in too."
The door to my forge swung open and the four other demigods entered.
"'Sup, Leo?" asked Percy. "How's eighteen treating ya?"
Lucky quack. The black-haired menace had turned twenty last week.
"Percy," cautioned Jason. Jason was nineteen, but he still acted like the sixteen-year-old struggling through the Giant War. I was grateful to him for that- it didn't make me feel like I was the youngest there. Even my girlfriend was older than me- but only by a few thousand years.
"Kay, fine," said Percy, holding up his hands in surrender. "So what did you call us in here for?"
"Strange swordless sword hilts that I found in the smelting oven," I replied as I disappeared to get the hilt.
I held it up.
Annabeth turned her grey gaze from the clutter of partially melted tools (hey, I was just starting at this job) onto the hilt. "Hold it up closer."
I did.
"Isn't that a lightsaber?"
"Lemme see that," said Piper, grabbing for the hilt. "Yeah, I recognize it from when Dad worked with George Lucas."
"Your dad was in Episodes 8 and 9, right?" asked Jason.
Piper smiled. "Yep. One of his better roles, might I add."
"Anyway," said Percy, cutting across Jason and Piper's small conversation and snatching the hilt. "Leo, what is a lightsaber doing in your forge? Are you a secret Star Wars fan and we never knew it?"
"Aside from those Darth Vader lines that ridiculous megaphone was spouting all the time," said Annabeth.
"What is everyone talking about?" asked Calypso, slightly cluelessly.
"I'll explain later," I said. "Okay, now give me back that hilt."
"Sure," said Percy, handing it back to me.
But the instant both our hands were on the 'saber, a white light, like the kind you see when a god is in its divine form, engulfed us and we were gone.
When I opened my eyes, we were in a completely different place, with a redhaired, bearded man and a younger man about our age both wielding cerulean lightsabers at our throats.
Percy made an attempt at small talk to distract them. "Whoa, dudes, that is some wicked cool photon mechanics you got there!"
The redhaired man shot a look of disbelief at his companian, who shrugged, edging his lightsaber toward my throat.
I had faced worse. I reached into my tool belt and pulled out the single most helpful weapon for this situation.
"Breath mint, anyone?"