Leo
Well, Leo had gone through a lot in the past few minutes. He had seen Hazel's past life when she had been a little girl at St. Agnes Academy for Colored Children and Indians with the current Hazel as a ghost. Hazel had been a little girl, around eleven years old, and extremely unpopular with her classmates. She had been called "witch girl" by them and bullied while one of them, a brute by the name of Rufus had demanded a diamond from her.
She had refused but he kept scaring her until one had appeared by accident. Then Leo had gotten the big shock. A kid who looked exactly like him named Sammy Valdez, who had been holding a DUNCE hat in his hands from apparently being scolded by a teacher, had rescued her, using quick wits and good use of the crowd of classmates to make fun of Rufus so he stopped, picking up the diamond when Rufus was distracted. They had talked, Leo noticing that young Hazel had been stricken with Sammy, and then left, leaving Leo to wonder why Sammy had been so similiar to him.
But before they could think about it too much, Hazel's power to revisit the past had taken them both to Leo's childhood home in Houston when he had been a baby. It was there that they found out Leo's connection with Sammy. Sammy had been his great grandfather, and he had told baby Leo how he had sold the small diamond, breaking his promise to Hazel that he wouldn't. He had moved to Houston from New Orleans to open up a machine shop. He expressed that he had a good life, but he regretted the fact that he never saw Hazel again. He asked baby Leo to be his stunt double, sensing he was special like Hazel had been, and asked Leo to tell her hello from him.
Now the scene had faded away and they were once again on the Argo II, Leo holding Hazel's hand. The sun had gone down so the ship was only lit with bronze lanterns. Hazel's eyes were puffy from crying over what they had seen.
Leo felt the ship rocking under his feet as the ocean heaved, and for the first time, he felt like they were totally adrift.
Leo took a shaky breath. "Hello, Hazel Levesque," he said in a gravelly voice, fulfilling the task his great-grandfather had given him when he was too young to remember.
Her chin trembled. She turned away and opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, the ship lurched to one side.
"Leo!" Coach Hedge yelled.
Festus whirred in alarm and blew flames into the night sky. The ships bell rang urgently.
"Those monsters you were worried about? One of 'em found us!"
Leo didn't understand for a second. Then the thing that he had felt like he had forgotten finally hit him.
"Oh, stupid, stupid, stupid!" Leo would've smacked his head if he had time. Since he didn't, he had to settled for heading for the helm. The ship kept tilting so he was forced to grab the port rail and use it to climb sideways towards the helm, but when he saw the monster surface, he forgot how to move.
The monster was the length of their ship and in the moonlight, it looked like a cross between a giant shrimp and a cockroach, with a pink chitinous shell, flat crayfish tail, and millepede-type legs undulating hypnotically as the sea monster scraped against the hull of the ship. It's head surfaced last. It consisted of the slimy pink face of a gigantic catfish with glassy dead eyes, a gaping toothless maw, and a forest of tentacles sprouting from each nostril, which made it the bushiest nose beard Leo had ever had the displeasure of seeing.
Leo remembered special Friday night dinners he used to to share with his mom at a local seafood restaurant in Houston when they would eat shrimp and catfish. That idea now made him want to throw up.
"Come on Valdez!" Hedge yelled. "Take the wheel so I can get my baseball bat!"
"A bat's not going to help," Leo said but he kept making his way towards the helm. Behind him, the rest of his friends ran up the stairs.
Percy yelled, "What's going- Gah! Shrimpzilla!"
Tobias took one look at the monster and sighed in irritation. "Oh wonderful. This stupid thing decides to attack when Kazehana and I are crippled."
He drew his sword while Frank ran to Hazel's side. She was clutching the rigging, still dazed from the flashback, but she gestured that she was fine.
The monster reared it's head back to slam into the ship again.
"Oh no you don't!" Tobias clenched his fist and pulled back. "Divine Punishment!"
He thrust his fist forwards and a small shockwave of air fired from it, slamming into the creatures head and pushing it back as it let out what Leo assumed was a cry of pain. Despite that, the creature wasn't pushed back too much and didn't look that hurt.
Tobias scowled. "Damn it, I still don't have all my control back yet. That attack should've been a lot bigger."
Shrimpzilla apparently didn't like being attacked because it quickly rammed the ship again and rather violently. The hull groaned. Annabeth, Percy, Jason,Tobias, and Yahan stumbled to starboard and almost rolled overboard.
"Leo, what's the damage?" Tobias asked as Leo got to the helm and they started picking themselves up.
Hands flying across the console, Leo looked at the screens. "Leaks below deck, but nothing dangerous and the oars are jammed, probably from that last hit."
"How did it get so close?" Annabeth shouted as she pulled herself up on one of the rail shields.
"I don't know," Hedge snarled. He looked around for his bat, which had rolled across the quarter deck.
"I'm stupid!" Leo scolded himself. "Stupid, stupid! I forgot the sonar!"
The ship had a detection system and it had two modes, air and sea. He had designed it to act through the hull in sea mode. The hull would resonate every few seconds and send waves through the Mist, alerting Festus to any nearby monsters, but the detection system only worked in one mode at a time.
He'd been so rattled by the Romans, then the storm, then Hazel, and finally Tobias showing up as he had, it had completely slipped his mind. And now they had a monster attacking them.
The ship tilted farther starboard. Either the monster was trying to give them a hug or it was trying to capsize them.
"Sonar?" Hedge demanded. "Pan's pipes, Valdez! Maybe if you hadn't been staring into Hazel's eyes, holding hands for so long-"
"What?" Frank yelped.
"It wasn't like that!" Hazel protested.
"It doesn't matter right now!" Tobias snapped. "Jason, can you call any lightning down?"
Jason struggled to his feet. "I-" he only managed to shake his head. Summoning that storm had taken too much out of him. Leo doubted the guy could pop a spark plug in the shape he was in.
"Percy!" Annabeth said. "Can you talk to that thing? Do you know what it is?"
"I don't think we can talk with that..." Tobias started to point out.
The monsters tendrils lashed across the deck so fast, Leo didn't even have time to yell, Look out!
One slammed Percy in the chest and sent him crashing down the steps. Another wrapped around Piper's legs and dragged her, screaming towards the rail. Dozen more tendrils curled around the mast, encircling the crossbows and ripping down the rigging.
"Nose-hair attack!" Hedge snatched up his bat and leaped into action; but his hits just bounced harmlessly off the tendrils.
Jason drew his sword and tried to free Piper, but he was still weak. His golden blade cut through the tendrils easily, but they were replaced faster than he could sever them. Annabeth unsheathed her dagger and ran through a forest of tendrils, dodging and stabbing at any target she could find. Frank pulled out his bow. He fired over the side at the creatures body, lodging arrows in the chinks in the armor; but that only seemed to annoy the monster. It bellowed and rocked the ship. The mast creaked like it might snap off.
"This is very weird and disgusting, and considering where River takes us sometimes, that's saying something." Yahan said as she drew her dagger and started cutting tendrils back, with her own back to Tobias's.
"No freaking kidding," Tobias slashed his sword and cut off three tendrils that were close together. "Leo, you got anything with more fire power!?"
Leo tried to think. They couldn't use the ballistae, the monster was too close. They needed another weapon, one that could make a big blast but not damage the ship. But what did they have...?
Leo's eyes fixed on a supply crate next to Hazel's feet.
"Hazel!" He yelled. "That box! Open it!"
She hesitated, then saw the box he meant. The label read WARNING! DO NOT OPEN.
"Open it!" Leo yelled. "Coach, take the wheel! Turn us towards the monster or we'll capsize.
Hedge danced through the tentacles with his nimble goat hooves, smashing away with gusto. He went straight for the helm and took the controls.
"Hope you got a plan!" He shouted.
"A bad one." Leo raced towards the mast.
The monster pushed against the Argo II again and the deck lurched to forty five degrees. Despite everyone's efforts, there were too many tentacles to fight and they seemed to elongate as much as they wanted. They would have the Argo II completely entangled soon and Percy hadn't come from below deck. The others were fighting for their lives against nose hair.
"Frank!" Leo called as he ran towards Hazel. "Buy us some time! Can you turn into a shark or something?"
Frank glanced over, scowling; and in that moment, a tentacle slammed into the big guy, knocking him overboard.
"Frank!" Tobias yelled at the same time Hazel screamed. She'd open the supply box and almost dropped the two glass vials she was holding.
Leo caught them. Both were the size of an apple and the liquid inside glowed a poisonous green. The glass was warm to the touch. Leo's chest felt like it was going to implode from guilt. He'd just distracted Frank and possibly gotten him killed, but he couldn't think about it. He had to save the ship.
"Come on!" He handed Hazel one of the vials. "We can kill the monster and save Frank!"
He hoped he wasn't lying. They were about to start heading for the port rails when they felt their hearts suddenly freeze in fear as a thick and dense filling filled the air. Even the tendrils stopped like they had frozen solid. Leo didn't want to look at what was giving off that feeling, but his eyes moved towards the source anyways.
Tobias's body was giving off black mist, which was already disturbing enough for Leo, but that wasn't all. His eyes had changed for silver to white, and his face was twisted into a silent snarl. Leo felt like his heart was now trying to break out of his chest and he was sweating. He wasn't even the target of...whatever it was Tobias was giving off, but he was still more scared then he remembered being in a long time.
"Ok, before I was irritated you attacked us, but now..." Tobias snarled for real this time and Leo felt more sweat on his skin at the sound. "Now you've pissed me off! Everyone cover your ears!"
Leo didn't know what that had to do with anything as Tobias inhaled deeply. "Divine Howl!"
Leo then understood why Tobias warned them to cover their ears as a truly horrible sound came from his mouth that made his skin crawl and eyes water while he pressed his arms to his ears. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard mixed with a wolfs howl, only amplified by a million. He dimly noticed the others doing the same and the tendrils thrashing through the air while the monster roared in pain.
The sound abruptly stopped. Leo opened his eyes to see Tobias on all fours and coughing violently, some blood coming up.
"Tobias!" Yahan knelt next to him.
"Damn it," he wheezed. "I shouldn't have tried that, not enough control." He coughed again, more blood coming up as he did. He looked up and his eyes widened.
"Look out!" He thrust his hand and clenched, pulling back. Leo felt like he was yanked by a fishing pole just as he heard something smash into the deck. He and Hazel both hit the deck with thumps while he almost dropped the vials. He looked to see a tendril had demolished a good chunk of the upper deck.
"Leo, what's in those vials?" Tobias coughed, wiping the small traces of blood that came with it. He still didn't look good but seemed to be recovering
"Huh? Uh, Greek Fire." He said, getting to his feet.
Hazel's eyes widened. "Are you crazy!? If those break we'll burn up the whole ship!"
"Not if we chuck those down its throat. We just need to..." Tobias was cut off as a tendril zipped past and slammed into his chest, causing him to cough up a lot of blood before he was thrown overboard by the force. He sunk below the waves quickly, weighed down by his sword and sheath
"No!" Yahan screamed before she was knocked aside by the same tendril while another one snaked around Leo and Hazel, squeezing them together and pulling them into the air. His arms were still free, but it took everything he had to just keep the vials of Greek Fire in his hands.
They rose ten feet, twenty feet, thirty feet above the monster and Leo saw the battle had resumed with his friends losing, slashing at the nose hairs and yelling. Coach Hedge was struggling to keep the boat for capsizing. He thought he saw Yahan slashing pretty fast with her dagger while she had a snarl on her face. And he noticed offhandedly some sort of reddish-pink marking on the back of her neck when her hair moved out of the way. Maybe a bird or something, but he had bigger problems at the moment.
"Hazel, where's the monsters mouth?" He asked as best as he could. He could see since she was blocking his view with her hair.
"It's right behind me." She said, looking over her shoulder as best she could. "Wait you aren't..."
"Just hope I throw it right." He handed her one of the vials. He needed one of his hands. "Whatever you do, throw this away from the ship."
"But..."
Taking a deep breath, Leo lifted the vial in his right hand. He pressed his left against the tentacle and summoned fire to his palm- a narrowly focused, white hot burst. That got the creatures attention. A tremble went all the way down the tentacle as it's flesh blistered under his hand. The monster roared, the tentacle lowering them slightly and letting him see it's maw. Leo threw his vial of Greek fire straight down its throat.
Things got a bit fuzzy after that. He felt the tentacle release him and Hazel. They fell. He heard a muffled explosion and saw a green flash of light inside a giant pink lampshade of the monsters body's. The water hit Leo's face like a brick wrapped in sandpaper and he sank into darkness. He clamped his mouth shut, trying not to breath, but he could feel himself losing consciousness.
Through the sting of the salt water, he thought he saw the hazy silhouette of the ships hull above, a dark oval surrounded by a fiery green aura, but he couldn't tell if it was actually on fire.
Killed by a shrimp, Leo thought bitterly. At least let the Argo II survive. Let my friends be ok. He prayed to whatever god was listening as his lungs burned and his vision began to dim.
Just as he was about to give up, a strange face hovered over him. It was a man that looked like Chiron, their trainer back at Camp Half-Blood, the same shaggy beard, curly hair,and intelligent eyes that were somewhere between a wild hippie and fatherly professor. Also his skin was the color of a lima bean. He silently held up a dagger, his expression grim and reproachful, as if to say: Now, hold still, of I can't kill you properly.
Leo then blacked out.
When Leo woke, he wondered if he was a ghost like he had been in his flashback with Hazel, because he was floating weightlessly. His eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light.
"About time." Frank's voice had too much reverb, like he was speaking through several layers of plastic wrap.
Leo sat up...or rather he drifted upright. He was underwater, in a cave about the size of a two-car garage. Phosphorescent moss covered the ceiling, bathing the room in a blue-and-green glow. The floor was a carpet of sea urchins, which would've been very uncomfortable to walk on, so Leo was grateful he was floating. He just didn't understand how he was breathing with no air.
"Leave him alone Frank, he did chuck a vial of Greek fire into that monsters throat." Tobias's voice spoke up, but he sounded a bit moody.
Leo looked to his right to see Frank and Tobias. Frank was levitating nearby in a meditation position. With his chubby face and grump expression, he looked like a Buddha that had achieved enlightenment and wasn't thrilled about it. Tobias was on his back with his arms under his head and he didn't look happy either. In fact, he looked a bit sullen.
The only exit of the cave was blocked by a massive abalone shell, it's surface glistening in pearl and rose and turquoise. If the cave was a prison, at least it had an awesome door.
"Where are we?" Leo asked. "Where is everyone?"
"Everyone?" Frank grumbled. "I don't know. As far as I can tell, it's just you, me, Tobias, and Hazel down here. The fish-horse guys took Hazel an hour ago leaving us here."
"Oh, and they took our weapons by the way." Tobias added. Now that he looked, Leo noticed Frank didn't have his bow and arrows and Tobias was missing his sword. In a panic, Leo patted his waist. His tool belt was gone too. "Took anything that could be a weapon, except this." He lifted his right arm to show he still had his gauntlet.
"Why didn't they take that?"
"They can't. Unless I say a specific password, it's impossible to remove. And if someone were to, say, cut off my hand, then it just self-destructs." He put his arm back under his head casually.
"So, who are these fish-horse...?" Leo asked, wanting to move away from that subject
"Fish-horse guys," Frank clarified. "They must've grabbed us when we fell into the ocean and dragged us to...wherever this is."
"It's about a mile or so below the surface, beyond that, I don't know." Tobias spoke up.
"And you know that because..." Frank prompted.
Tobias looked at them both to show those really unnerving white eyes again. "I have three levels of power, my eyes changing color every time I do. And when I do, my limit of air manipulation get higher. Base level, five to six hundred yards. Next level, a mile. Last level..." He paused for a second. "Ten miles."
"Uh...that's a lot of power." Leo said awkwardly.
"No freaking duh Leo." Tobias snapped back as he looked at the ceiling.
"What's with you?" Leo asked.
Tobias sighed. "Sorry, but whatever those horse guys did also suppressed my bonds with my girlfriends, so I'm short tempered right now. Also, you'll be happy to know the ship survived hat monster attack."
Leo sighed a breath of relief. "So everyone's ok?"
"Nearest I can tell, being underwater jams my sensing a good amount, plus sensing through this rock." Tobias grunted as he floated upright. "So, can I ask what you and Hazel were doing before the ship was attacked?"
"What do you...?" Leo stopped asking when he realized what Tobias meant and when Frank's expression darkened: the flashback. Things had happened so fast with the monster attack, Leo had almost forgotten about it. Coach Hedge had made that stupid comment about him and Hazel holding hands and gazing into each other's eyes. It probably didn't help that Leo had gotten Frank knocked overboard right after that.
Suddenly Leo found it hard to meet Frank's gaze.
"Oh, uh...look guys, I'm sorry about getting us into this mess. I really jacked things up," he took a deep breath, which was surprisingly normal since they were underwater. "Listen, Frank, me and Hazel holding hands...it's not what you think. She was showing me this flashback from her past, trying to figure out my connection with Sammy."
Franks angry expression slowly unknotted to be replaced by curiosity. "Did she... Did you figure it out?"
"Yeah," Leo said. "Well, sort of. We didn't get a chance to talk about it afterward because of Shrimpzilla, but Sammy was my great-grandfather."
He told both Frank and Tobias what they'd seen. The weirdness still hadn't fully registered yet, but now, trying to explain it out loud, Leo could hardly believe it. Hazel had been sweet on his bisabuelo, a guy who had died when Leo was a baby. Leo hadn't made the connection before, but he had a vague memory of older family members calling his grandfather Sam Junior. At some point, his old babysitter Tia Callida- whom he later learned was Hera- had approached Sammy, consoling him and giving him a glimpse into the future, which meant Hera had been shaping his life since before he was born. If Hazel had stayed in the 1940's, if she'd married Sammy, Leo might've been her great-grandson.
"Oh, man," Leo said when he finished the story. "I don't feel so good. But I swear on the Styx, that's what we saw."
Tobias whistled while Frank had the same expression as the catfish monster- wide glassy eyes and an open mouth. "Hazel...Hazel liked your great-grandfather? That's why she likes you?"
"I have seen some weird things in my travels, but that is one of the weirdest." Tobias commented.
"Hey, I know this is weird guys. Believe me. But Frank, I don't like Hazel like that. I'm not making a move on your girl."
Frank knit his eyebrows together. "No?"
Leo hoped he wasn't blushing. Truthfully, he had no idea how he felt about was awesome and cute, and Leo had a weakness for awesome cute girls. But the flashback. had complicated his feelings a lot.
Besides, his friends and ship were in trouble.
Wow, that was actually new for him. His dad Hephaestus had admitted he wasn't good with organic life-forms and Leo had inherited that particular trait quite well. So yes, he had always been more comfortable with machines rather than people. But he did care about his friends. He had know Piper and Jason the longest, but the others were important too. Even Frank. Even Tobias and his girlfriends, despite the fact he had known them for a short while. They were all like family.
The problem was, it had been so long since he had had a family,meh couldn't remember how it felt. Sure, last winter he had become senior counselor of the Hephaestus cabin, but he had spent most of his time building the ship. He liked his cabin mates and knew how to work with them- but did he really know them? If Leo had a family, it was the crew of the Argo II. And maybe Coach Hedge, but he'd never admit that out loud.
You will always be the outsider, warned Nemesis's voice, but Leo tried to push the thought aside.
"Right, so..." He looked around him. "We need to make a plan. How are we breathing? If we're underwater, shouldn't we be crushed by the water pressure?"
"No we shouldn't," Tobias lifted his right hand, palm up. "Watch this."
He focused on his right hand and Leo watched as a air bubbled started forming, growing larger and larger until it was the size of a grapefruit.
"Neat, huh?" Tobias asked as the bubbled floated upwards and flattened against the ceiling. "I vaguely remember one of those guys touching my forehead with a dagger tip and suddenly being able to breath. Reason being is there's a self-regenerating air membrane around us, and it's pretty thin too. Less than an eighth of an inch thick."
"How do you know this stuff?" Frank asked.
"Air is my business Frank. Anything involving it, I can learn everything about it or at least make an educated guess," Tobias explained. "So Leo, I would recommend not using your fire power unless you want to suffocate from burning of all you oxygen."
Good advice, Leo thought. He didn't fancy going out by suffocation due to his own power.
"Well, we're going to be here for a while yet," Leo spoke up. "Any ideas to pass the time?"
"Well I know you guys still have questions about me, so ask away. I'm bored anyways." Tobias leaned back and floated like he was in a hammock.
"Um, ok," Frank sounded surprised by the sudden offer but he asked his first question. "Uh, where do you come from? Like, your home?"
Tobias snorted and then chuckled, but Leo didn't get why he found the question amusing. "I guess you'd say England."
"Really? You don't sound English." Leo pointed out.
"You also don't sound Hispanic and Frank doesn't sound Chinese. What's your point?"
"Uh, nothing. So, how long have you had your powers? I mean, you said you weren't a demigod, so..."
Tobias lifted his hand and two fingers as a air bubble formed off them. He took his hand away and it simply floated there. It then wiggled before taking the shape of a cube. Then a four sided pyramid.
"I've had them since I was born, but I didn't start learning to control them until I was four or five. It then took me ten years to get to the level where I only needed to think with minal gestures to get what I wanted. But I never really stop improving my control." He made his point by snapping his fingers and making the pyramid form into a rough mold of Kazehana then Yahan's face. He frowned and said, "Ugh," before letting the mold collapse and float towards the ceiling. "It's not the same. Frank, you have any questions?"
"Yeah," Frank shifted uncomfortably. "Uh...how do you and your girlfriends trust each other so easily? I mean...you never seem to doubt each other."
Tobias chuckled. "Are you really asking me for relationship advice Frank?" The Roman demigod blushed but didn't respond. Tobias sighed, still sounding amused. "Sorry to disappoint, but I can't help you there Frank. My relationship with Kazehana and Yahan are nowhere near normal. But I do have a sort of metaphor about love. Care to hear it?"
"Sure."
"Ok then. I look at it like making a painting. You start off with a goal in mind, an end result. Along the way, that goal will change as you learn new things. You make mistakes that you have to fix. Sometimes you change something about yourself to make yourself better. And if you put in the effort, then the end result will be a work of art. Something good, something you put a lot of work in and you're proud of the end result."
"Wow, that's...philosophical." Leo commented.
"You can't see as much as I have and not get like that sometimes. Plus, River was always a bit weird, so it's rubbed off on me." Tobias explained.
"Why do you call your mom River?"
"That's her name," Tobias shrugged. "River Song. Plus calling her mom or mother always felt weird to both of us so we keep it casual."
"So what about your dad?" Leo wished he could've taken that question back considering how much Tobias's face darkened. Sometimes he wished he had more social skills so he could avoid these situations.
"Never met him." Tobias said flatly. "Don't really care either. Actually, correction, I've never met my biological father, I have met my stepfather."
"Ok, what's he like?" Frank asked.
Tobias chuckled and then burst out laughing for a few seconds, which really confused Leo and a quick look showed the same expression on Frank's face.
"Oh, I can't possibly describe him. It'd be like trying to describe eleven different people." He chuckled for a few more seconds before taking a breath. "Oh, that was good I needed a laugh. Um, well he does have some consistencies. He travels around a lot and uh, solves people's problems for them. He's a...doctor."
"Really? So he just, what, goes around tending to the sick and wounded and whoever else? And he doesn't ask for anything?" Frank asked.
"No. He just likes help people all the time," Tobias shrugged. "So does River and some of my other friends actually, but that's not important. What about you two? You have any stories or things I should know? Like Leo, what's the story with your fire power?"
Wow, that seemed rather insensitive but Leo couldn't blame the guy. He didn't know that Leo had some bad experiences with his powers. He also noticed that Frank winced slightly at the word fire. He remembered what Hazel had said- that his fire made Frank nervous. He'd seen the discomfort on Frank's face before but Leo had never taken it seriously. Frank had seemed way more powerful and scary then Leo was.
Now that Tobias had brought up his powers, it occurred to him that Frank might have a bad experience with fire like him. Leo's own mom had died in a machine shop blaze. He'd been blamed and grown up being called a freak, an arsonist, because when he got angry, things burned.
"It's ok if you don't want to talk about it, I was just curious." Tobias spoke up, looking at them both.
"No, no it's ok, you have guys have a right to know," Leo took a breath. "I was born with my power. It's a...gift from my father Hephaestus, since I was apparently destined to be on this quest since before I was born, so...yeah I got fire at my fingertips, and arms, and feet, pretty much anywhere on my body can burst into flames."
"Hhmm. Neat," Tobias nodded. "But I'm guessing something that powerful has some drawbacks."
"Um, yeah. I can't always control it. When I get really mad, or...scared of something it goes out of control." He admitted quietly. He didn't want to give them the whole story. Not right now.
"Oh. Well, that's better than my powers drawback. If I use it too much or push myself too hard, I end up getting a killer headache and that causes my control to start slipping," Tobias offered up. "And if I get really angry my powers go a little out of control."
"Um, how out of control are we talking?" Frank asked.
"Well, one time Kazehana nearly got killed right in front of me, which almost resulted in me destroying an entire city bridge and killing the person responsible. If events hadn't played out like they did...well, let's say a city might've gone missing and I might've been killed from overuse of my powers."
"Wow, that's...that's out of control." Leo said shakingly.
"Don't worry, that was before I really connected with Kazehana and Yahan. Now they can use their bonds to pull me out of that kind of anger if they need to, but I doubt I'll ever get that bad again." Tobias said flippantly. "What about you Frank? You have any weakness that comes with your shape-shifting?"
Frank seemed like he was saying how much to say. "Well...mine is sort of linked to fire. And I don't have good experiences with it. My home...my grandmothers house burned down. And..." He stared down at the sea urchins on the floor. "Annabeth said I could trust the crew. Even Leo. And I think you're an ok guy Tobias."
"Even me, huh?" Leo wondered how that came up on conversation. "Wow, high praise."
"Thanks Frank. That means a lot." Tobias nodded with a small smile.
Frank took a deep breath. "My weakness..." He spoke like the words cut his mouth. "There's this piece of firewood-"
The abalone door rolled open with a slight rumble.
Leo turned and found himself face-to-face with Lima Bean man who actually wasn't a man at all. Now that Leo got a proper look at him, the guy was by far the weirdest creature he'd ever met, and that was saying a lot.
From the waist up, he was more or less human. A thin, bare chested dude with a dagger in his belt and a band of seashells strapped across his chest like a bandolier. His skin was green, his brown beard scraggly, and his longish hair tied back in a seaweed bandana. And pair of lobster claws stuck up from his head like horns, turning and snapping at random.
Leo decided he didn't look so much like Chiron, he looked more like a poster Leo's mom used to keep in her workspace. One that showed the old Mexican bandit Pancho Villa, except with seashells and lobster horns.
From the waist down the guy was more complicated. He had the forelegs of a blue-green horse, like a centaur, but towards the back, his horse body morphed into a long fishy tail about ten feet long, with rainbow-colored, V-shaped tail fin.
Now Leo saw what the other two had meant about fish-horse guys.
"I am Bythos," said the green man. "I will interrogate Frank Zhang and Tobias Song."
His voice was calm and firm, leaving no room for debate.
"Two questions first," Tobias spoke up. "Why did you capture us and where's our friend Hazel?"
Bythos narrowed his eyes and the two had a small stare off. Tobias never blinked or looked nervous so the horse-man looked away first, at Leo. "You, Leo Valdez, will go with my brother."
"Your brother?"
Leo realized that a much larger figure looking behind Bythos, with a shadow so wide, it filled the entire cave entrance.
"Yes," Bythos said with a dry smile. "Try not to make Aphros mad."
A/N: Ok, that's finished. So the two guys got more information about Tobias and I showed a hint of his darker side earlier, so I think I did ok. But can you please leave some reviews and let me know how I'm doing? It really helps with motivation like with every other author. Bye.