Disclaimer: I only own Tulio and Esperanza Grace. Rick owns the rest of them!

Alrighty, people! We're back to the present, now! Is Leo okay? Answer: Well this story wouldn't happen without him, so...


Ten: Manic Cheerleaders and Useless Mechanics

Leo's head hurt. Like, seriously hurt. It was like an ogre had decided to either tap dance inside his head or to use his head as a maraca. Holy Hera, what a migraine! Leo tried opening his eyes, but the light was just too painful and squeezed them shut immediately. He reached up with a shaky hand and gingerly touched his head.

Bandages? Outstanding. Just outstanding. He exhaled. Alright, think. What happened? I remember…

Leo thought back to Percy arriving and cussing him out. To him introducing his old friend to the twins. To the gong sounding…

Ah, that's it. The customers in the waiting room.


Leo had thought it strange, considering his monster alarms didn't go off, that eight emposai—yes, he could tell, he wasn't stupid—had just waltzed right into his shop. They were in their teenage cheerleader forms, giggling and whispering.

Leo had almost gotten a hammer out of his tool belt to deal with them when the leader cast the spell on him. Leo prided himself on charmspeak resistance (thanks to Piper 'practicing' on him during the war). But the empousa that enchanted him was way too strong. She asked him to bring her and her friends to the forge so they wouldn't be interrupted and he 'happily' obliged.

They had made it halfway through the shop before Leo snapped out of it. It had taken a lot of willpower to slap himself in the face, but it worked. The spell was lifted. And that started the hour-long fight.

He had done well, taking down four of the emposai, leading and egging them all on while weaving through the shop. Leo made sure not to let them get near the house door. Sure, Percy was there and he could help, but then the kids would be in danger. Leo would never ever put them in danger.

He hadn't gotten out without injuries. His left arm had some pretty nasty slashes and he was fairly certain that his ankle was twisted wrong. He couldn't feel it, though—too much adrenaline prevented that. Though, in all honesty, Leo knew he was tiring quickly. Blood trickled into his eye from a gash on his forehead. That gash wasn't deep, he reckoned, or else he'd feel dizzy from blood loss. Right? And was his stomach bleeding? Oh well…

He thanked his father silently that he had been fire-resistant, or else the emposai's flaming hair might have been an issue. Of course, that meant they were also fire-resistant and that made his fire powers useless. But, fire or no fire, he still was still doing well.

It all went wrong as soon as the emposai had backed him into the forge.

Ok, Leo had to admit that he was a tad rusty when it came to monster fighting. He figured Percy or Jason would've killed all of them by now. Most of the time Leo's security system did the job and he would make sure all the traps reset properly every time they went off. So, when he saw Festus—his security system HQ—deactivated and all the security cameras sabotaged, he couldn't help feel pissed and dismayed at the same time.

Pissed because the stupid cheerleader vampires had vandalized his beautiful creation.

Dismayed because he now was trapped inside a weapons forge with four hungry emposai.

The thought of fighting inside an area with unlimited swords at one's disposal—to anyone else—would've been comforting but no; Leo had to be difficult! He made swords. He didn't fight with them. Wasn't his style. All the swords in his forge were pretty awesome—ok, they were kick-ass swords and Leo was freakin' proud of 'em—but they were useless in the hands of the 24-year-old mechanic.

Leo raised his dust-splattered hammer with his good arm. He was just about to smash the first empousa's face in when the gong sounded. He hesitated, if only for a second, and instantly regretted it.

The hammer was knocked out of his hand as the lead empousa tackled him to the ground. The two wrestled on the ground for what felt like hours, knocking over sword cases, axe shelves and blueprints tables. The other three emposai watched on, like they were waiting for a chance to pounce onto Leo should he shake the leader. Leo was sure the gong had sounded three more times during their wrestling match.

In a last stitch effort Leo engulfed himself in flames, but the empousa held strong, screeching like a harpy.

Then the hammer came down onto Leo's head and that was it.


Leo tried opening his eyes again. Little by little, the migraine allowed him to look into the light-filled room.

He was in his bed, tucked gently into the covers and sheets. He was lying in a semi-sitting position, with about ten pillows kindly keeping him comfortable. Leo slowly turned his head and saw a card next to him on the bed. Well, it was actually a picture from Espie's coloring book: a pretty pink dolphin. There were words scrawled above it. Judging by the hand writing, and by the fact his children were too young to actually write anything yet, it was most likely Percy who wrote them for the kids: Get well soon, Papi. And just below the dolphin were the twins' names, in extremely huge and bad 2-year-old-like writing: Tulio +Essp(crossed out) Esip(also crossed out) Espy(close enough)

Leo chuckled at Esperanza's scribbles, then winced at the pain flaring in his abdomen. Geeze, Leo thought. Percy shows up and I become the damsel in distress. How embarrassing…

He inspected his body. His ankle was splinted, left arm bandaged, and stomach wrapped. Besides the stomach, Leo didn't feel any pain and assumed Percy had given him some nectar or ambrosia. He lifted his good hand and rubbed his neck.

Ok, Ouch.

As soon as his fingers even brushed the right side of his neck, searing pain flared through his neck veins. A shockwave shot down his spine. Leo bit back a scream. He took his fingers away and dared not touch that for a while.

A hissing noise grabbed his attention. Leo looked up and saw TF1 staring down at him from the bed frame. Steam vented out from its joints as it cocked its head, examining the Latino.

Leo smiled. TF1 was his very first miniature Festus prototype. Originally, it was to be a part of the giant swarm of Tiny Festuses (Marks 1-375) that served as a monster defense around the house. However, TF1 stubbornly decided it wanted to be different and refused to serve on security detail. Leo couldn't help but feel a little annoyed that his creation had gained such a personality, so he toned the artificial personality part down in the next TF designs.

So, Leo found another purpose: TF1 became a baby monitor when the twins first arrived. Should one or both of the twins cry during the night, it would fly off and wake Leo. Now TF was watching over Leo, patiently waiting for him to cry out. Oh how the tables have turned!

"Hey, TF," he croaked, feeling his neck throb at every word. "You my babysitter?"

TF whirred and hissed. Leo continued, "Go get the kids, then. Papi's awake now."

TF took off from the bed frame and flew into the hall. Leo wondered how TF had been activated, as he had put the dragon (in ball form) on the shelf high enough to keep it away from Tulio—aka: the Leo in the making. Then it hit him. Tulio got Percy to get TF off the shelf. The little weasel…

Squeals erupted from downstairs, followed by the mad pounding of feet. Leo braced himself as the twins burst into the room. They scrambled onto the bed, both yelling, "Papi!"

Tulio and Espie tried to climb onto their father, but as soon as one of them touched his stomach, Leo recoiled. He held his tongue, but the twins could see their father's pain.

"Papi have owie," Tulio noted.

"No get better?" Espie asked, pouting.

Leo smiled. "Papi has a lot of owies, guys. I think I need about a million kisses before I feel better!"

The twins latched onto that thought. They immediately began smothering Leo in kisses, so much so that he couldn't breathe. Tulio began kissing his abdomen, which tickled, and Espie kissed his ankle furiously. Leo couldn't help but laugh. So he was a teensy ticklish…no problem with that in the least.

Suddenly, he felt Tulio inch closer to his neck. Before he could protest, his son kissed the spot that had previously sent searing pain down his body.

It didn't even hurt.

Leo's neck, which was throbbing before, now felt completely normal. He took his good hand and rubbed his neck. No pain. Not even a prick!

He glanced over at his son. Tulio was smiling, giving his best impish grin. "Kiss it better!"

Indeed. Leo blinked and blamed the sudden healing on ambrosia.

"Aww, that's adorable!"

Leo jumped at the sudden voice. He looked at the doorway. Percy was standing there with a smug look on his face, his arms crossed. "Seriously, it's cute! I didn't know you had that side, Leo."

Leo grinned. "There's a lot about me you don't know, Horse Whisperer. Like how awesome the super-sized McShizzle has gotten over the years! Or how I can make great enchiladas!"

Espie shot up at this. "Ench-lada! Want lunch! Want Ench-lada!"

Tulio shoved Espie off the bed with pompous flair. "Taco better!"

Percy and Leo chuckled as the twins began to argue about dinner. Percy sat down at the foot of the bed. "Guess you're feeling better?"

"Better than before, I guess," Leo answered. "Thanks for the rescue. What happened anyway?"

"You died."

Leo waited for the punchline. It didn't come. Percy didn't laugh. "Pardon?"

"We're pretty sure you died for a few minutes, man," Percy explained. "You had stopped breathing. But then, you gasped and started breathing again."

Leo blinked. Then he smiled. "Well, you can't get rid of me that easily! I'm Leo Freakin' Valdez! Death can't stop me! Mwa ha ha!"

"I would love for you to tell my father that," came a new voice. Leo glanced around Percy and blinked.

"Hazel?" he asked, completely shocked. "Hazel Levesque? Is that you?"

Hazel moved over to the bed but didn't sit down. She had one of the biggest scowls Leo had ever seen on her face. Leo couldn't remember her ever showing that much of a negative emotion before. Suddenly pain seared across Leo's face and it took him a second to realize that he had been slapped. And then, before he could say something else, the other side of his face burned from a second slap.

"I'll make you wish you did die, Valdez, should you ever do something so stupid again!" she screamed, making the twins flinch. Leo stared at her in complete and utter shock. Percy's eyebrows raised slightly.

"S-stupid…" Leo echoed. "Specifically…"

"Specifically leaving without warning, leaving no note, not contacting, and just plain ignoring us for eight years!"

"Hazel, we talked about this," Percy warned.

"No, no," Leo held up his hand. "I deserve it. She's not wrong…"

Hazel took a deep breath, closing her eyes, like she was in a yoga studio. Then, when she opened her eyes, she smiled. "I'm good. I got that out of my system." She paused, her golden eyes sparkling. "For now."

Leo shuddered.

"Oh, and by the way," Hazel continued. "It's Zhang now." She held up her left hand, which now had a simple golden band occupying the ring finger.

Leo grinned. "Well congrats on that! You were the one that proposed, right? I can't imagine Frank actually raising up the nerve to do it!"

Hazel lightly punched him on the shoulder. "Shut up, Valdez."

Leo rubbed his shoulder in mock-pain. "Ow, woman! Easy on the goods! Ain't I beat up enough?"

"It never seemed to hinder you before," Percy interjected, smiling.

"TACO!"

The sudden outburst made all three demigods jump.

Tulio was sitting triumphantly on the bed, looking down at his sister, kicking her every time she tried to clamber back up. "Taco better! I get bed! You stinker! Nya nya!" he mocked, sticking his tongue out and swiveling his hips as he sat.

Espie growled and pounded her fists against the bed. She stomped her feet. Leo could just feel the tantrum rising. His children hadn't hit the tantrum stage yet, to Leo's relief, but he could sense Espie was about to have her first one. This isn't going to bode well, is it? he thought to himself as Espie screamed, "MEAN TUI! YOU MEAN! MEAN, MEAN, MEAN, MEAN, MEAN!"

The temperature in the room rose dramatically.

Percy's forehead was beaded with sweat.

Hazel began to fan herself with her hand.

"Phew," Percy sighed, wiping the sweat from his face. "Who turned up the heat?"

Leo gulped. Shit! You're kidding me! Shit shit shit shit SHIT!

Just as that curse was about to come out of Leo's mouth, Esperanza Grace Valdez exploded into flames.


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