Enjoy folks!


XXIV

Leo

July 14th

"In. Your. Face!" Leo said. "Nobody messes with my boat so bad I can't fix it! Thanks a ton, Annabeth and Tyson."

"No problem Leo," she said whipping her hands on a towel. It used to be white, but the oil on all their hands turned it black.

"Serious repairs," Tyson said. "Boat no break like that again. Bad."

"Yeah…" Leo said. "If we're flying over someplace and then POOF again… And if we can't land it…" He bit his lip. His friends were depending on this boat to work. That was his big part to play according to Hera. He could not blow that.

"I guess we could send a message to the others." He said to change the subject.

"My drachmas are above deck," Annabeth said. "In my jacket, it should be near the mast. I'll go turn the shower on and try to mist the place up."

Leo followed what she said and replayed some of the building tricks he'd learnt during that.

In the Argo II's maze of pipes and compartments it was good to prop yourself in a tight spot so you wouldn't slip and drop what you were doing, it was always good to keep three sizes of bolts in your pockets just so that you wouldn't have to unstuck yourself from whatever confined space you were in to go get the right one (wisdom of Leo, coming in three seconds too late as per usual)…

Then he saw a vulture flying at them. It landed on the ship as Leo started having sneaking suspicions that it was Frank Zhang, and sure enough it turned into the son of Mars.

"Yo, we fixed the boat." Leo said.

"Good: we need backup." Frank said. His eyes were wide like his senses were particularly awake.

"You got it Zhang," Leo said. "Hey Annabeth, forget the IM!" He called down the stairs. She popped back up.

"I heard Frank, where are the rest?"

"Garcia street," Frank said. "I think. Whatever it's called."

"Leo head there and we'll just follow the emergency vehicles," Annabeth said. "Fail-proof plan to find any demigod, particularly Seaweed Brain." Leo muttered something about how that was why they should still be together, Annabeth hit him.

"Just take off, repair boy." Annabeth said, using the nickname most of the girls had adopted for Valdez.

"Alright, alright! Pushy. And I am way more than the repair boy."

"Yeah, yeah, you're the only one who can fly a ship, so do it!" Frank said.

Frank

Leo pulled on a lever; hit a piston, wacked the GPS and they were off. Or at least that's what it looked like to Frank, despite Leo's insistence that flying the Argo II was complicated and reserved for the intellectually superior.

They flew over Málaga and the view was great, but Frank was just mainly worried about how the others were doing. He wondered if anybody had gotten hurt really badly.

They were only a few meters over the roof line, when they spotted Quinn, still near the chimney.

"QUINN!" Annabeth yelled down. Her sister looked up and Frank saw her shoulders relax in relief.

"Frank, throw her that rope." Annabeth said.

"What rope- oh," he said finding it. He tossed it overboard, holding the other end and Quinn immediately started climbing up.

"She's only using one arm," Frank noticed.

"She's hurt!" Annabeth said with the worried-big-sister red alert coming on.

"She was fine when I left!" Frank said. He pulled on the rope and helped Quinn climb overboard.

"You okay?"

"Yes- it's just my wrist, no big problem. Jason and Piper-"

"Are right here," someone said. They turned around and watched Jason slowly lower Piper on the deck. She was bleeding from about five places, but the worst was her face.

"Oh gods," Quinn breathed.

"Oh, by the way, we need to get out of here." Jason said.

"We noticed bro." Leo said.

"No, I mean, we really have to get out of here. I think the killer feet found friends."

Leo scoffed. "What, the hands of doom? The elbows of fury? Or maybe the abdomens of abomination."

"No, the griffins." Annabeth said.

"Oh hang on tight, kiddies! And someone hold onto Piper." Leo said, taking the steering wheel in a way that told Frank that he was serious about the holding on bit.

Jason

"Quinn, try to take care of Piper, and bandage your own wrist," he said. "Frank, you're going to take a ballista; Annabeth, you too; I'll take the other. Aim for the griffons, and try to harm most of them, don't focus on one kill. If their pack is hurt they'll go; they've got the sense of fidelity in a pack just like wolves. Leo, drive."

"You got it," Leo said. Everyone moved swiftly, and Jason was thankful. He had no real authority on this ship, no more than anyone; but sometimes he'd blurt a plan of action during a crisis moment. When there was no other real plan, he was always thankful they were going with something. Same when Percy did the same, or Annabeth, or anybody.

Annabeth had the wicked aim of someone who'd shot things out of the sky before. Jason didn't think the ballista he was helping her handle missed a shot. Frank had the best aim of the Argo II and it apparently got a boost judging by the number of sleek black and winged panthers running out of the sky.

"Leo, is the boat holding up?" Jason asked without letting go of his position. Annabeth let another shot soar. Jason was seeing newspaper headlines. Mysterious Projectiles Destroy Roofs Across Cities- whatever that was in Spanish.

"What kind of question is that? My baby is A-Okay." Leo said.

"Quinn, how's your wrist?"

"Fine."

"And Piper?"

"I-I'm working on-on –umm- it," she stuttered. "On her."

Jason took that as a 'not that well but I'll keep trying'.

Frank took another griffin down and suddenly what was left of the pack retreated, hissing at them.

"Leo, you can slow down," Annabeth said. Leo stopped the fancy flying tricks.

"Dudes, I should just join the air force," Leo said. "I'm getting good at this."

"Yes amazing," Frank said. "Think you could swoop down now? Percy and Hazel, three o'clock."

Percy

"Okay, so I know monsters come in all shapes and sizes, but really?" Hazel said looking through remnants of the pastry shop. Oddly enough the door was still there, and the 'closed' side was flipped to show, or at least that's what he thought 'cerrado' meant. At least he hoped so; because if not, the baker had just been swallowed by feet. What a horrible death.

What Percy guessed was the Spanish SWAT team were barrelling in and trying to rip them away from each other and away from the oven. Percy suddenly got really scared that one of theirs was lying in that oven.

"There's blood on the ground," Hazel said pointing to the pavement.

"Oh yeah, they were here." Percy said wondering whose it was. Frank? Jason? Piper? Quinn?

"So why did they go?" Hazel asked.

"My guess is they ran." Percy said. "From that."

"We should run too." Hazel suggested.

"They're not noticing us. We're big three." Percy said. "Why aren't they noticing us?"

"Why don't you ask them?" Hazel suggested. Suddenly a few at the back froze and looked at them.

"More pawn of Gaia!" He cheered. Percy froze in shock when he heard the soprano come out, but he just ran because he realised that he was 'pawn of Gaia'. The feet stampeded towards him, swamping over the police officer standing in their mists on their way out. That was too big a crowd to consider standing up to without the curse of Achilles, especially while he had Hazel with him. If she got hurt Frank would not only kill him, but make it hurt.

He and Hazel charged through the circle that the police was making. They got some Spanish yelled at them, but they ignored it and charged.

This was the oddest thing that had ever happened to him, or at least a top ten. 'Chased by feet' ranked up there with 'being switched to a Roman camp' and 'formalities with poodles'; hands down.

He and Hazel were running like Hades. He looked over his shoulder and saw how fast they went. They could leap, and their running did. It was a flash mob of body parts; and Percy saw them leaping high and far; sort-of like popcorn that time he hadn't put a lid over the pan.

"Look!" Hazel said pointing up. Percy looked up hoping he wouldn't clothesline or something. "It's the boat!"

Someone onboard seemed to spot them too because it lowered down and a rope was thrown down for someone to catch onto.

"Hazel- go!" Percy said.

"What? Where are you going to go? Why?"

"Because it'll be too heavy and too slow if both of us go and the feet monsters will catch up, because those things jump!" Percy said. "I can keep running!"

Hazel didn't argue with him (sometimes Roman habits like obedience got really handy), grabbed onto the rope and she was immediately pulled up. Percy kept running, zigzagging through streets and people that mostly shouted and jumped when they saw him and his load of feet coming.

He shifted into an alley, and the good news was that most of them got stuck on the way in.

Percy ran out of the other end, and suddenly somebody else was running right alongside him, muttering words he could just tell were swearing. Plus she was running super-fast, like; run for your life fast. He looked at her quickly; army jacket, black yoga pants, hiking shoes, and gloves with the fingers cut off. He looked behind her and saw a hellhound that was barking about a million decibels loud. All of these monsters…

"Need a way out?" He asked her. She looked up at him; with warm brown eyes.

"Ay, diosmio - what was your first clue?" She said with a thick and cultured Spanish accent. Suddenly the rope from the Argo II dangled down, and Percy had no choice but to go up two at a time. The half-bloods on board wouldn't recognise her, and she'd be caught up with. He grabbed onto the rope with one hand.

"Come on," he said holding out his hand. She grabbed it without hesitation and they were pulled up. They dangled over Málaga, and the girl had a mix of more swearing and holding her breath.

"Percy you way a ton- what the heck?" Frank yelled from above. Hazel leaned over the railing.

"Umm…" She said. "Percy's not… alone?"

"What, more Monopods?" He heard Jason asked panicky.

"Nope." Hazel said. They were at the railing now.

"Go," Percy said. The girl grabbed the edge of the boat and Percy let go of her hand to grab it too, and they were both helped aboard.

Percy crashed on the deck and leaned against the wall. Oh heck with that… Feet were fast. He meant… Hard to outrun... No, there was just no way to make that statement sound intelligent.

"Percy, who's this?" Annabeth asked nudging towards the girl. The look in her eye brought him back to when they were twelve and she hated every single atom or molecule or whatever in his body. It kind of really hurt after spending all those moments, fights and years with her.

"Umm, I don't know. I was running for my life, she was running for her life, it just felt right to haul her onboard." Percy said.

"Life?" The girl said. "Umm, more like running from the police."

"What? What are you talking back, there was a hellhound." Percy said.

"I didn't notice." The girl shrugged. Percy got a better look at her; she was skinny like she hadn't eaten in a while, and she had dark hair pulled up in a ponytail, greasy as it was. Her clothes were dirty, and so was she in general. Percy had seen enough demigods coming in to camp, and he'd seen his reflection when he got to Camp Jupiter; she'd been homeless.

"I'm Jason, that's Percy, she's Annabeth." Jason said so he wouldn't overwhelm her with all the names and faces just yet.

"What's your name?" Annabeth asked.

"Giozetta Esposito, but if you call me that you're going to suffer. The health conscient people call me Josie." She said. "Now what the hell's a hellhound?"

"Smooth, Percy, smooth." Annabeth said shooting him a look. Percy scowled even if part of him tore.

"Shut up Annabeth, she could've been a demigod." Percy defended.

"Demigod?" Josie said, stiffening.

"Yes," Annabeth said. Oh, now she was all nice. "Have you heard the word before? Do you know what it means?"

"I've been called that before." Josie said nonchalantly. "Are you telling me that's a real thing? Flip, yo, that's pretty intense." She said taking it like it was cool.

"You better believe it," Leo said. "We have a flying boat, don't we?"

"Who called you that? A teacher? A monsters?" Annabeth asked.

"No, it was my mother," Josie said, getting up and stretching towards the side, her eyes scanning the boat.

"She told you?" Annabeth said. "That's… That's not safe."

"Well, when she was kicking me out of the house, I doubt that my safety was one of her concerns." Josie said.

There was an all-around shocked silence as Josie looked them all over. There was something in her eyes that was waiting for a reply, and trying to hide something she'd been hiding forever.

"Josie, what do you mean 'kicked out'?" Annabeth asked.

"Oh, so now you want my life story?" Josie asked, crossing her arms. "I don't even know you freaks. All I know is that your boat flies, which is so wrong on so many levels."

"If you don't like it, we could throw you over." She suggested.

"Annabeth!" Percy snapped. Annabeth shot him the look that meant there was work in progress and that he who interrupted suffered for it.

"You make a strong case Blondie," Josie said.

"Annabeth," she said.

"In ten seconds I'll be calling you Hazel or whatever, so sticking to Blondie does both of us a favour," Josie said. Percy cocked his head. When had they told her about Hazel?

"Anyways, so before my life story, can I maybe get a talk though this 'demigod' nonsense?"

And so Jason and Annabeth went through the story since they'd done this more often than anybody else, and Percy wasn't really in the mood to do anything but glare at Annabeth and pass the question through his head again about what the Hades he'd done wrong to screw it up that bad. Everyone looked bored. Percy noticed Frank, Hazel and Leo engaged in a rock-paper-scissors tournament behind Jason and Annabeth's backs. He was about to try and get in, but Josie started talking again.

"I see." She said, crossing her arm across her chest and propping her chin on her fist. "Are you extreme psychotic fans of some book I haven't heard about?"

"No. We're not the biggest fans of our lives either." Frank said, hiding scissors behind his back.

"Alright, just thought I'd check. So, life story, eh? Alright. My mother had me; my dad was never around, average sob story. It got a bit trickier… last fall I think was when the apocalypse took a step forth."

"Shoot me now." Percy muttered. If there was any other half-blood Gaia was messing with out there…

"The only thing she really knew about my dad was his name. He traveled a lot; and one day he just didn't come back to Málaga. That was the day she found out I was going to show up, conveniently enough. But you know, Mama sucked it up, I was born, she worked two jobs, it was okay." Josie shrugged. "Then I had this insane teacher who'd apparently filed to teach Mythology but got stuck with English instead. Anyways, our assignments all spun around mythology, one way or another. Than on day my Mama was helping me study and she recognised a name from the paper and freaked out. She even called a university. Now tell me, what on the face of the earth tried to bite her face off." She asked nudging her head towards Piper. "Was it him? Because I don't trust him." She said pointing towards Frank.

"I am fully trustable!" Frank protested.

"They were feet," Jason said. "Monopods if you want the real name."

"Fascinating. So tell me, when is this nut-boat landing next? How fast do you guys run? Do I have any chance of outrunning you guys? Or are you all demigods too? Half Greco-Roman -perhaps Egyptian- god, invincible and dashing, super-human from whom peasants such as have no chance of survival or escape?"

"Josie, we are all demigods." Jason said. "Annabeth and Quinn over there are sisters, even."

"Ah; so Blondie and Blondie-tiny. I get it." Josie said. Quinn blushed fiercely.

"Stop it," Hazel said defensively. "Stop being sarcastic, just accept."

Percy wished Piper could just wake up, wipe the blood off her face and charmspeak Josie into belief because this was getting old to him.

"Accept what, that you're all lunatics?" Between the new kid's sarcasm, Annabeth's attitude towards him, and the general smell of dirty feet that hung around the air; Percy had enough and he slammed his foot on the deck. Immediately a water bottle flew up into the air, and the top popped like champagne. The water spun around like a halo above his fingers and following their movements for a bit, before dousing Jason because it felt right.

"See that, Josie? My dad's the sea god." Percy said.

"Yes; and my dad's the sun god. See, that's why the sun's shinning." She said sarcastically.

"It actually could be," Frank said. "Who did your mom say he was?"

"I don't know, I never believed her. Something like Marco Paulo."

"Apollo, maybe?" Annabeth suggested.

"That," Josie nodded, "whatever Apollo's supposed to be, real or not real." Her way of saying it was different, the 'o' sounded different, more Spanish.

Jason rolled up his sleeve to show his tattoo.

"I've been serving the legion for twelve years. The legion operates with descendants of gods, Josie. Don't you tell me that isn't real."

"I'm not saying it isn't real I'm just saying… Okay, you got me, this is so It's not real; there are scientific explanations and et cetera to explain the sun, not Marco Paulo- sorry, Apollo…"

For about an hour, Jason and Annabeth tried drilling it into Josie's head. Once Annabeth left to go check on Piper -who Quinn had told them to move out of the sun, thus downstairs- Percy went and showed her stunts with water. Jason summoned electricity on his fingertips and made the wind blow. They showed the kid Riptide and Jason's gladus, Percy's Camp Half-Blood necklace…

It took a few hours and Josie seemed just as sick of being talked to as they were sick of talking to her. She was sitting crookedly, leaned back against the railing, her knees propped up.

"Keep talking all you want, chaps. You're just giving me more time to figure out how to establish contact with the casa de locos and escape." She said.

Jason took his gladus and stabbed it in the boat next to her, making her jolt.

"My baby!" Leo yelled.

"Jason!" Hazel reproached. Jason didn't listen and Percy was confused, but he put his hand on Riptide just in case.

"Look Josie, sit up straight, pay attention." Jason said. "I don't know if you're Greek or Roman- but you're a demigod, so one way or another, you're going to have to learn some respect."

"To you?" Josie asked, like the idea was funny to her.

"If you're Roman, yes. If not, then acting decent with human beings is good practise for when you have to talk to gods." Jason said. He stared her down wolf-style, but Josie was pretty good at meeting his glare with one of her own.

But she pulled her legs up closer to her and straightened her back.

"Thank you." He said. "We've given you proof, explanations and such. You're just going to have to believe us and tell us where you're from because on that boat- that seems to be one of the most important things."

Josie put her head in her hands and muttered something in Spanish to herself. "The second I believe like my mother did is the second I accept the fact that I'm a freak and that I was thrown out for a reason, and that I've been starving and freezing and pretending I'm not homeless for a good reason."

Percy froze. That was why. That was why he'd found her on the streets, starved and dirty and running from police. She was homeless. Gods, he couldn't help but think back to Annabeth, Thalia and Luke. Even himself for a while- during that trek from the Wolf House to San Francisco and Camp Jupiter… He wouldn't wish that kind of hardship on anyone as a lifestyle.

"Josie, don't worry." Annabeth said. Percy noticed she was a bit more pale. He was going to go hug her but he caught himself. They weren't a couple anymore, he had to drill that in his mind.

"Parents have a harder time coping with the god idea, it happens."

"Easy for you to say, Blondie! Your parents are all pretty much great! Pocahontas underdeck's dad's been protecting her from the Hollywood craze, your mom married a pig for your protection, I don't even know where to start about your mothers, your dad gave up going to university for you, your mom cared in the very end, and your dad flew a freaking bi-plane into battle to save you and your friends!" Josie said pointing to Percy, Leo, Frank, Quinn, Hazel and Annabeth in respective order. "My mom? None of that; absolutely none of that, she hated me, and I hate her."

They stayed quiet and looked at each other for a bit. Annabeth was the one to speak up.

"Umm, Josie? How do you know all that? Because… We never told you."