Disclaimer: Not my book. If it was, there would be more breaking of the fourth wall.
And just as Apollo was going to keep reading-
A bright light filled the room. By now they were used to this, so it was only sort of surprising when a short latino fell into the room. "Is that me?" Leo asked.
"Who are you?" Past-Leo (Past-Leo is Past-Leo, and Leo is Future-Leo) asked. He sounded scared, and his voice was cracked. He couldn't have been older than 12, and his eyes were terrified. But, they also held determination, and fierceness.
Hestia stood up and laid a hand on Past-Leo's shoulder. He flinched, but her calming nature relaxed him. "We are you and your friends from the future. We are reading a book about the future." He still looked tense, but he looked like he believed her. "Now," Hestia turned to the rest of them. "Introduce yourselves." They went clockwise from the god on the left (Hades) to the demigod on the right (Leo)
"Hades, God of Riches, the Underworld, and Death."
"God?" Leo asked.
"Yes child. The greek gods exist." Hestia smiled.
"Like the Minotaur, Hellhounds, and cyclops?"
"Sadly, yes."
"Dionysus, God of Wine and Partying."
"Hermes, God of the Roadways, Travelers, Merchants and Thieves."
"Hephaestus, God of Blacksmiths and Fire."
"Apollo, God of Archery, Music, Poetry, Prophecy, Medicine, and the Sun."
"Ares, God of War."
"Poseidon, God of the Sea, Bringer of Earthquakes."
"Zeus, God of the Sky, King of the Gods."
"Hera, Goddess of Marriage, Mothers and Families."
"Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, War, and Useful Arts."
"Artemis, Goddess of the Moon, the Hunt, and Young Maidens."
"Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Beauty."
"Demeter, Goddess of Agriculture."
"Katie Gardner, daughter of Demeter."
"Connor,"
"And Travis,"
"Stoll!"
"Sons of Hermes."
"Travis! That's my line!"
"Well too bad."
"Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares."
"Chris Rodriguez, son of Hermes."
"Drew Tanaka, daughter of Aphrodite."
"Lacy, daughter of Aphrodite."
"Mitchell, son of Aphrodite."
"Nico di Angelo, son of Hades."
"Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus, lieutenant to the Hunters of Artemis."
"Will Solace, son of Apollo."
"Tyson!"
"Grover Underwood, satyr, Lord of the Wild."
"Lou Ellen, unclaimed."
"Nyssa, daughter of Hephaestus."
"Pollux, son of Dionysus."
"Clovis, unclaim-" He fell over and started snoring.
"Miranda Gardner, daughter of Demeter."
"Piper."
"Jason."
"Cool." Past-Leo was smiling. "Who are you?"
"I am Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth and the Home." Hestia was happy he asked.
"Cool! What am I doing here, then?" He looked confused.
"You forgot about me!" Leo spoke up.
"Is that…?" Past-Leo stuttered.
"Leo Valdez, humble son of Hephaestus." Leo smiled. Past-Leo looked even more confused.
A couple minutes later, they had summarized the last chapter and a half for Past-Leo, and were ready to read again.
"Jason, go!" Hedge yelled. "Save her!"
"He's not really going to, right?" Annabeth sounded kind of worried.
The coach launched himself at the spirit with some serious goat fu-lashing out his hooves, knocking Leo free of the spirit's grasp. Leo dropped safely from the floor, but Dylan grappled the coach's arm instead. Coach tried to headbutt him, then kicked him and called him a cupcake. They rose in the air, gaining speed.
Coach Hedge shouted down once more, "Save her! I got this!" The the satyr and the storm spirit spiraled into the clouds and disappeared.
Save her? Jason thought. She's gone!
"Thanks Jason. Really, thanks." Piper said, with a voice practically dripping sarcasm.
"Sorry!"
But his instincts won over. He ran to the railing, thinking, I'm a lunatic, and jumped over the side.
Everyone gasped. "Seriously! How are you not dead!?" Percy cried at him.
Jason wasn't scared of heights. He was scared of being smashed against the canyon floor five hundred feet below.
"I agree." Leo, Piper, Annabeth, Percy, Past-Leo, Nico and Will said. Thalia nodded shakily.
"Wimps." Ares murmured. He got multiple glares sent his way, all of which he ignored.
He figured he hadn't accomplished anything except for dying along with Piper, but he tucked in his arms and plummeted headfirst. The sides of the canyon raced past like a film on fast-forward. His face felt like it was peeling off.
In a heartbeat, he caught up with Piper, who was flailing wildly. He tackled her waist and closed his eyes, waiting for death.
Piper screamed. The wind whistled in Jason's ears. He wondered what dying would feel like. He was thinking, probably not so good. He wished somehow they could never hit bottom.
Zeus nodded. That should work.
Suddenly the wind died. Piper's scream turned into a strangled gasp. Jason thought they must be dead, but he hadn't felt any impact.
"J-J-Jason," Piper managed.
He opened his eyes. They weren't falling. They were floating in midair, a hundred feet above the river.
"Zeus…" Annabeth asked, threateningly.
"Yes, Annabeth?"
"Did you have another kid?"
"Maybe…?" He ran from the room. The campers were a mix of surprised, curious, amused, angry, and extremely confused.
Hephaestus turned to Apollo. "Keep reading." He whispered.
He hugged Piper tight, and she repositioned herself so she was hugging him too. They were nose to nose. Her heart beat so hard, Jason could feel it through her clothes.
Her breath smelled like cinnamon. She said, "How did you -"
"I didn't," he said. "I think I would know if I could fly..."
But then he thought: I don't even know who I am.
He imagined going up, Piper yelped as they shot a few feet higher. They weren't exactly floating, Jason decided. He could feel pressure under his feet like they were balancing at the top of a geyser.
"Cool!" Percy shouted. "That is so cool!"
"The air is supporting us," he said.
"Well, tell it to support us more! Get us out of here!"
Jason looked down. The easiest thing would be to sink gently to the canyon floor. Then he looked up. The rain had stopped. The storm clouds didn't seem as bad, but they were still rumbling and flashing. There was no guarantee the spirits were gone for good. He had no idea what had happened to Coach Hedge. And he'd left Leo up there, barely conscious.
Yes." Leo said. "Don't forget about me. I am very important."
"We have to help them," Piper said, as if reading his thoughts. "Can you -"
"Let's see." Jason thought Up, and instantly they shot skyward.
The fact he was riding the winds might've been cool under different circumstances, but he was too much in shock.
"He's doing a lot better than me in my first monster fight." Percy commented.
Annabeth just looked at him. "You defeated a fury."
"Yes, but I was super confused, and the mist was still affecting me."
She thought for a moment. "Good point."
As soon as they landed on the skywalk, they ran to Leo.
Piper turned Leo over, and he groaned. His army coat was soaked from the rain. His curly hair glittered gold from rolling around in monster dust. But at least he wasn't dead.
Leo groaned, and slumped over in his seat. Piper, who was next to him, looked at him. She gasped. "His head is bleeding!"
"I'll be fine." He promised. "I just want to know why it's there."
Suddenly, a cell phone fell from the sky and landed on Hades. "Ow!"
"What is that?" Thalia asked, confused.
"That is a cell phone." Nico spoke slowly, like he was correcting a child.
"I know that!" She smacked him. "I meant, what is it doing here?"
Hades spoke. "It has a text."
"You know what texting is?" Percy asked, surprised.
"Yes! I know what texting is!"
"What does it say?" Demeter interrupted.
"It says,
This is a magic phone. It communicates between the future and you guys. We are adding a fun twist. Every chapter (or so), one of the gods adds a requirement. This is Ares's."
"Crap." Percy said.
"Sh!" Hades said. "That's not all!"
His twist is…
Everytime the book characters gets hurt, the futures feel the pain too.
Leo groaned again, but managed to concentrate and listen to the message.
Signed, The Fates,
The Gods,
And Calypso, who is still mad at you, Leo.
Leo choked. "What!?"
"How do you know Calypso?" Athena asked. Zeus probably wasn't going to keep his pardon-the-good-titans promise, so the only way he could know her…
Aphrodite reached the same conclusion as the wisdom goddess. She squealed. "Caleo!"
"What!?" Leo choked again.
"You two are together!"
"No."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Swear on the river styx?"
"I swear on the river styx." That I actually am 'with' her, Leo finished in his head. Jason and Piper looked confused, then they realized his plan.
Aphrodite looked visibly less happy. "Anything else, Hades?"
"Nope."
"Then please continue, Apollo."
"Stupid...ugly...goat," he muttered.
"Where did he go?" Piper asked.
Leo groaned even louder. "What happened? The tornado guy, the gold sword...I hit my head. That's it, right? I'm hallucinating?"
Jason had forgotten about the sword. He walked over to where it was lying and picked it up. The blade was well balanced. On a hunch he flipped it. Midspin, the sword shrank back into a coin and landed in his palm.
"Can you show us?" The Stolls pleaded.
Jason frowned, remembering what had happened to it. "No." They looked curious, but Apollo kept reading before they could ask.
"Yep," Leo said. "Definitely hallucinating."
Piper shivered in her rain-soaked clothes. "Jason, those things -"
"Venti," he said. "Storm spirits."
"Okay. You acted like...like you'd seen them before. Who are you?"
"Good question." The campers and Past-Leo looked at the futures. "Good question indeed"
He shook his head. "That's what I've been trying to tell you. I don't know."
The storm dissipated. The other kids from the Wilderness School were staring out the glass doors in horror. Security guard were working on the locks now, but they didn't seem to be having any luck.
"Course they didn't." Jason murmured, a little upset about having his head pried open.
"Coach Hedge said he had to protect three people," Jason remembered. "I think he meant us."
"And that thing Dylan turned into..." Piper shuddered. "God, I can't believe it was hitting on me. He called us...what demigods?"
Leo lay on his back, staring at the sky. He didn't seem anxious to get up. "Don't know what demi means," he said. "But I'm not feeling too godly. You guys feeling godly?"
"Leo?"
"Yes Piper?"
"Stop being annoying."
"No."
There was a brittle sound like dry twigs snapping, and the cracks in the skywalk began to widen.
Thalia gasped. "Get off of there!" She was worried about the trio, especially since learning Jason was a son of Zeus. Maybe even her Jason, son of Zeus.
"We need to get off this thing," Jason said. "Maybe if we -"
"Ohhh-key," Leo interrupted. "Look up there and tell me if those are flying horses."
"Pegasi." Percy automatically corrected. "They hate being called flying horses."
At first Jason thought Leo had hit his head to hard. Then he saw a dark shape descending from the east-too slow for a plane, too large for a bird. As it got closer he could see a pair of winged animals-gray, four-legged, exactly like horses-except each had a twenty foot wingspan. And they were pulling a brightly painted box with two wheels: a chariot.
"Was I driving?" Percy asked.
The threesome glanced at each other. How is he going to react? Leo spoke first. "No, but you're mentioned."
"Cool!"
"Reinforcements," he said. "Hedge told me an extraction squad was coming for us."
"Extraction squad?" Leo struggled to his feet. "That sounds painful."
Artemis looked at him. "Can you ever be serious?"
He looked at her. "Yes." He smiled, but his eyes were sad and dark, not bright and humorous, like they normally were. She shut her mouth.
"And where are they extracting us to?" Piper asked.
Jason watched as the chariot landed on the far end of the skywalk. They flying horses tucked in their wings and cantered nervously across the glass, as if they sensed it was near breaking. Two teenagers stood in the chariot - a tall blond girl maybe a little older than Jason, and a bulky dude with a shaved head and a face like a pile of bricks. They bother wore jeans and orange T-shirts, with shields tossed over their backs.
The girl leaped off before the chariot had even finished moving. She pulled a knife and ran toward Jason's group while the bulky dude was reining in the horses.
"Where is he?" the girl demanded. Her gray eyes were fierce and a little startling.
"Annabeth? Why are you there? And who are you looking for?" Percy questioned his girlfri- no, just friend. His great, maybe even best, friend.
She shrugged. "This is the future. I have no clue."
"Where's who?" Jason asked.
She frowned like his answer was unacceptable. Then she turned to Leo and Piper. "What about Gleeson? Where's your protector, Gleeson Hedge?"
The coach's first name was Gleeson? Jason might've laughed if this morning hadn't been so weird and scary. Gleeson Hedge:Football coach, goat man, protector of demigods. Sure. Why not?
Everyone burst out laughing. Leo turned to Jason. "Inside your own head, you're hilarious!" Jason blushed, and everyone laughed even harder.
Leo cleared his throat. "He got taken by some... tornado things."
"Venti." Jason said. "Storm spirits."
The blonde girl arched an eyebrow. "You mean anema thuellau? That's the greek term. Who are you, and what happened?"
Jason did his best to explain, but it was hard to meet those intense gray eyes. About halfway through the story, the other guy in the chariot came over. He stood there glaring at them, his arms crossed. He had a tattoo of a rainbow on his bicep, which seemed a little unusual.
"A rainbow tattoo? Why does he have that?" Dionysus asked.
"You'll see." Leo promised.
Annabeth thought for a second. "That doesn't sound like anyone at camp." She said. "Is he new?"
Piper smiled. "Sort of."
When Jason had finished his story, the blond girl didn't look satisfied. "No, no, no! She told me he would he here. She told me if I came here, I'd find the answer."
"Annabeth,"the bald guy grunted. "Check it out." He pointed at Jason's feet.
Jason hadn't thought much about it, but he was still missing his left shoe, which had been blown off by the lightning. His care foot felt okay, but it looked like a lump of charcoal.
"The guy with one shoe," said the bald dude. "He's the answer."
"Is he crazy?" Artemis banged her head on the armrest of her throne as her twin brother asked another stupid question. "No one? Okay."
"No, Butch," the girl insisted. "He can't be. I was tricked."
She glared at the sky as though it had done something wrong. "What do you want from me?" she screamed. "What have you done with him?"
The skywalk shuddered, and the horses whinnied urgently.
"Annabeth," said the bald dude, Butch, "we gotta leave. Let's get these three to camp and figure it out there. Those storm spirits might come back."
She fumed for a moment. "Fine." she fixed Jason with a resentful look. "We'll settle this later."
Percy looked at Annabeth. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know." She replied.
She turned on her heel and marched toward the chariot.
Piper shook her head. "What's her problem? What's going on?"
"Seriously," Leo agreed.
"We have to get you out of here," Butch said. "I'll explain on the way."
"I'm not going anywhere with her." Jason gestured toward the blonde. "She looks like she wants to kill me."
Butch hesitated. "Annabeth's okay. You gotta cut her some slack. She had a vision telling her to come here, to find a guy with one shoe. That was supposed to be the answer to her problem."
"What problem?" Past-Leo asked. The campers and gods didn't know, and the futures didn't make a move to speak.
"What problem?" Piper asked.
"She's been looking for one of our campers, who's been missing for three days," Butch said. "She's going out of her mind with worry. She hoped he'd be here."
"Who?" Annabeth asked again. Percy felt a weird sensation in his core at Annabeth 'going out of her mind with worry' about some dude who wasn't him.
"Who?" Jason asked.
"Exactly." Percy said quietly.
"Her boyfriend," Butch said.
Percy froze. Aphrodite almost had a heart attack and died, right there.
"A guy named Percy Jackson."