Tap tap tap.

I looked up at the source of the tapping and gritted my teeth. He was doing it again.

By "it" I meant Leo absentmindedly tapping his finger on the table. He usually did this, and at first I didn't mind. It was part of his ADHD. Most demigods had it—it was a part of our battle reflexes, and Leo had ADHD on steroids.

But after a while it was starting to get really, really irritating.

I tried to ignore it and looked back down at my Polaroid pictures. I was documenting the building progress of the Argo II. It was really coming along; the skeletal frame of the ship was all laid out and the engine was complete. It was hard to believe that it's only been about a month since Leo and his siblings first started to build it.

The first picture was of Leo holding the heavy head of Festus in front of the engine of the Argo II. Grease was smeared across his face and clothes. Another picture was of the rest of cabin nine working together to build the keel, another one of Nyssa rolling her eyes at the camera as Harley gave her bunny ears. Mixed in were goofier pictures of us messing around and making silly faces. My favorite was of me and Leo making stupid faces into the camera. I taped that picture to the wall by my bunk along with other pictures of my friends and family.

Old rock music was playing in the background; an old Journey song that I vaguely knew. On most days, Leo played music whenever he was working; The Rolling Stones, Queen, and a bunch of other old rock bands that my Aunt Lisa liked to listen to. Leo told me that his mom used to listen to this music when she worked at a shop back when he was a little kid. I could relate. I had my grandfather's old Israel Kamakawiwoʻole (good luck pronouncing that) CDs in my music collection.

I gotta admit, I liked the music Leo played, but I'd enjoy it a lot more if Leo would just stop the friggin' tapping.

Leo tapped so often that I was starting to notice a pattern. It wasn't to the tune of the song that was playing, and as far as I could tell it wasn't to any song I recognized.

I was just about to tell him to knock it off when—

CRASH!

Leo froze and looked up from his blue prints. "What the—"

"C'mon." I drew my sword and headed towards the direction of the crash. Leo pulled out a hammer from his tool belt and followed.

I was sure (like a full seventy-four percent) that whoever—or whatever—had caused the crash was an intruder that had no business being in here. Leo was the only one who was able to get in, so he installed a door bell on the outside of the cave that played the beginning of that pina colada song, which was pretty neat until two certain sons of Hermes decided to ding-dong ditch the bunker one too many times.

We made our way to the sound of the crash. One of the work tables had fallen over, scattering the contents on top. To the left there was a hole was in the floor, put there by something that dug its way up through the ground.

Then I saw the cause of the crash. An ant the size of a Great Dane was carrying the metal head of Festus the dragon in its mandibles towards the hole.

The monster noticed us and tried to scrambled back towards it hole. Leo blocked it's path and brought down his hammer over the ant's massive head, but I could tell that he was holding back so he didn't damage Festus. I ran my sword through the ant's thorax and it disintegrating into yellow sand on the bunker floor.

I grimaced. "That will never not be gross."

Leo stared at the remains, bewildered. "What the heck was that?"

"A Myrmeke," I said distastefully. "They're nasty business. They like jewels and precious metals. Oh, and they spit acid."

"Acid spitting giant ants? That's nice." Leo picked up the dragon head and inspected it for any damage. When he didn't find any, he said, "Well, that's one problem solved. Now what should we do with the monster, uh, remains. It'll reform eventually."

I looked back down at the pile of dust. The sand started wiggling around in an attempt to reform. I ground my foot into the pile.

"I guess… I guess we could always send it back down the hole. Does your fanny pack have a shovel in it?"

Leo rolled his eyes. "It's a tool belt. That's like the exact opposite of a fanny pack."

He reached into his tool belt and pulled out a small shovel with floral designs on the handle. Perfect for gardening, but not for shoveling monster dust.

I stared at the cutesy shovel incredulously, then back at Leo.

He raised his hands defensively. "Hey, don't blame me."

"I won't. But your fanny pack is a troll."

Leo started to fix the mess that the Myrmeke made, while I scooped monster sand back into the hole. It felt kinda strange cleaning up after a fight. I've fought monsters in the past, but I never had to do clean up duty.

I finished packing the rest of the dirt back into the hole and went to help Leo with the mess. We talked and Leo joked around, making me laugh. The two of us finished up just as the horn blew for dinner.


The next day, I headed to Bunker Nine, book in hand. I looked forward to today; the rest of cabin nine was going to be in the bunker, though I was a bit disappointed that I wasn't going to be alone with Leo. No need to read into that.

As I got closer, I heard noise coming from the direction of the bunker, which was weird since the bunker was soundproof and usually closed. The closer I got, the more I could distinguish what the noise was. It wasn't just music…it was the sound of combat.

I dropped my book and started to run. I came through the clearing and reached the limestone cliff.

Bunker Nine was under attack.

Dozens of Myrmekes were swarming the bunker as "Honky Tonk Woman" blared from above. Cabin nine was doing their best to fend off the monsters (thankfully they all had their weapons. You weren't supposed to go into the woods unarmed.), but as soon as one was killed, two more would appear in its place. Eventually we were going to get overrun.

I jumped into action—slicing ants as quickly as I could before they knew what hit them. As I fought, I noticed that the ants were trying to advance toward a single area, like they were after something…

Then it clicked. Of course! They wanted Festus.

I quickly looked around the bunker, and through the combat I spotted Leo defending the head of Festus that sat on one of the few tables that weren't overturned. He held what looked like a joy stick; he'd move the handle, and a crane arm that I hadn't seen before would swing down and smash ants into piles of dust. Occasionally, Leo would shoot flames from his hands if any ants manage to get too close to him.

He was holding out pretty well until, I saw that one Myrmeke managed to sneak up on him from behind. It coiled back and I knew what it was going to do.

I ran and kicked the Myrmeke in the head and chopped it in half. My foot started to tingle and I noticed that acid was eating away at my shoe. I chucked it (along with my sock) off and flung it at another ant. Leo promptly turned it to dust with the arm of the crane.

"Thanks!" he yelled over the chaos.

A Myrmeke lunged at me with its pincers. I blocked its attack, silently cursing myself for not bringing my shield. "I think they want Festus!" I pushed against the monster and ran it through with my sword.

"Yeah, I kind of figured that." The crane arm swooped in front of us and took out a group of Myrmekes that were advancing on us.

Another Myrmeke shot a spray of acid at me. I was a second to slow. The acid hit me in the sword shoulder. Hot white pain erupted in my arm. I yelped and nearly collapsed.

"Kai!" Leo shot fired at the Myrmeke that hit me.

I forced myself to regain my posture and held the sword with both hands to keep steady, but every little movement shot pain through my arm and sent black spot dancing in my vision. I didn't dare look at the damage the acid was doing to my skin. I cursed myself for being so stupid and allowing myself to get hit by the stupid ant.

"I have an idea," Leo said.

"Ideas are good," I said, trying to ignore the searing pain in my shoulder.

"Here's what we do…"


Forget what I said earlier. Not all ideas are good.

Funny, you'd think I'd know that by now…

The plan was this: lead the Myrmekes away from the bunker long enough for Leo and his siblings to build some makeshift, acid proof, mechanical thing-a-ma-jing to capture the Myrmekes all at once. In about five minutes, run to the top of Zeus's Fist and strand all the ants at the top. I didn't understand exactly what Leo was planning to do, but he had that gleam in his eye that he got whenever he had a crazy idea. I learned not to question it.

I grabbed the heavy-as-all-Hades metal head of Festus and swore up a storm as the pain flared in my wounded shoulder. I blinked away the black spots and whistled like I was trying to catch a cab. It worked a little too well. They all turned towards me in an instant and noticed Festus in my arms.

I dashed out of the bunker as fast as I could before they could swarm me. I heard a rumbling noise that probably meant that that a horde of giant, murderous, acid-puking ants were after me. Hurray.

I ran along the creek, just in case I had to stop and fight. I was pretty good at manipulating the water, but I had no clue if I could take out nearly twenty killer ants if I had to, especially with the pain in my left arm.

I was having trouble finding a speed that was fast enough to keep a good distance away from the Myrmekes, but slow enough that they never lost me. On top of that, it wasn't easy running and carrying a gajillion pound hunk of metal that kept getting heavier and heavier with your shoulder screaming in pain. But Leo and his siblings were counting on me to keep them busy. So I kept running.

I zipped through the trees, hopping over logs and startling a few Dryads. I backtracked a couple of times. By sheer dumb luck I wasn't over run by the ants. Once in a while I'd slow down to taunt the ants with Festus's head so I wouldn't lose their attention. I even chucked my other shoe into the crowd, working them into a bigger frenzy. I was pretty good at pissing off people as well as monsters.

The five minutes felt like five hundred hours. I ran towards Zeus's Fist and burst into the clearing.

It was totally silent for an eerie moment. I heard stories about the Battle of the Labyrinth. A lot of demigods were killed here. No one even came through here, even though placing the flag on the rocks was a pretty smart strategic move for Capture the Flag.

I shook away those thoughts and sprinted towards the hill. Climbing was a nightmare when you have to carry something that weighs almost as much as I did. I had to perch Festus's head on small ledges to hoist myself up at times, and prayed that he didn't fall.

I looked towards the woods just in time to see the Myrmekes flood out with newfound rage.

I cursed in ancient Greek and looked around frantically for any sign of Leo and the others, but they were nowhere to be seen.

The Myrmekes were climbing up the rocks now, clicking their mandibles and staring at me with black beady eyes.

"Come on, guys…" I muttered.

The Myrmekes kept advancing up the boulder.

Just then there was a rustle from the woods, and Leo and the others emerged from the trees. His siblings still had their weapons, while Leo was carrying something that looked like a steam punk nerf gun. We locked eyes and he mouthed not yet. I nodded.

Cabin nine crept closer, trying not to get noticed by the Myrmekes. I dangled the head of Festus in front of me and taunted the ants to keep their attention. I scooted closer to the edge.

I looked back at Leo for a sign. He mouthed go!

Without hesitating, I grabbed Festus and leapt off of Zeus's Fist. Now you might be wondering how I can do that so casually, but I've been flung out of the ocean (long story) and have fallen off of the climbing wall at camp more than once. This was nothing.

As I tucked and rolled, I heard a whoosh over head. A second later, something landed in front of me: a large black mesh bag that was wriggling around.

I jumped to my feet and backed away in disgust.

Leo was the first one around the boulders. He looked at the black bag of wriggling ants and grinned in satisfaction.

I smiled weakly at the others. "Well that… wasn't fun."

There was no argument there.


One Irish message later, the Hecate cabin was over to Bunker Nine to put a protective spell to keep the Myrmekes from coming back. Will and his siblings also came by to fix up the wounded. While bandaging my shoulder, Will gave me a "seriously? You're hurt again?" look. I countered that at least I kept getting hurt in different ways, but he just shook his head.

"The spell shouldn't take too long," Lou Ellen said explained to Leo as. "We have enough magic for the protective spell at the moment, but not enough to clean up… all this."

She motioned around the bunker, which was a complete mess. Tables and equipment were knocked down. Blue prints and tools littered the floor. There were multiple holes in the ground that the ants tunneled through. The rest of cabin nine was busy trying to clean up all the damage.

Lou grimaced. "It wouldn't be a problem if some people hadn't been manipulating the wind to flip skirts." She shot a pointed look towards her siblings; some feigned innocents.

Will scoffed, but I can tell that he was trying hard not to laugh.

Leo surveyed the damage. For a moment, he looked a few years older with a frown and a few worry lines forming around his mouth. "This is going to set us back, cleaning up this mess."He started muttering to himself in Spanish; no doubt swearing at the ants (swears he still hasn't taught me, by the way).

"We can fix up the bunker," I said, trying to cheer him up. "The important thing is that you're okay." I felt my cheeks start to burn. "And everyone else. And the ship. And Festus, of course."

Leo nodded absently and went back to inspecting the damage. Lou Ellen was making kissy faces to me behind Leo's back, but when he turned, she stopped and started whistling innocuously. Real subtle. Like an acid shot to the shoulder.

With everyone's help, we were able to clean up at least part of the mess that was caused by the fight before dinner. The Mass Hall was buzzing with talk about what happened at Bunker Nine, but the hype had died down by the time it was time for the campfire sing-a-long.

I munched on s'mores, too exhausted to obnoxiously sing about my grandma suiting up for mortal combat. I just wanted to enjoy a moment of peace.

Leo was anything but quiet; he relayed the incident to Jason and Piper, who were concerned but didn't seem all that surprised for whatever reason.

I exhaled and enjoyed the warmth that was filling up inside of me. I noticed that my feet were particularly warm. I looked down and my bare feet. I'd forgotten that my mismatched converses were destroyed.

I playfully nudged Leo in the arm. "Dude. You owe me a new pair of shoes."