Team Jason makes a play

Jason wasn't so excited about the sparring match with Percy that was coming up in a few weeks. That fight against Percy was one of the toughest Jason ever had to face, and he'd fought Titans before. He could pull off a win against Percy, but it'd take a huge amount of effort and some luck on Jason's part.

In fact, Jason was so exhausted from that fight that he ended up sleeping on the floor outside his room. He tried to make it to his room, but the floor was looking so nice, and it was cold. He didn't have Piper to drag him to his room this time.

When Jason woke up the next morning, he was staring up at a grinning Leo and Piper with a disapproving look on her face.

"Dude, why didn't you tell me you liked sleeping on the floor?" Leo asked, "I would've totally made your floors carpet."

"How is your neck not hurting right now?" Piper asked.

"One at a time." Jason said from the floor, "First, I don't always sleep on the floor. Second, my neck is hurting."

"Well, get up then." Piper said, leaning down to help him up.

Once Jason was up, he dusted himself off and flashed Piper a smile, who rolled her eyes and muttered something along the lines of 'you're a baby'

Jason opened the door to his room and walked in. Leo and Piper followed him in, which led to Jason turning around and asking, "What do you guys need?"

"We need to talk." Piper said as she sat down on the spare couch in Jason's room. She played with her hair for a bit before she said, "That fight last night was really stupid and dangerous. That wasn't just some sparring, you and Percy were legit about to kill each other."

Jason rubbed his neck, "I know, and we both didn't mean it. I didn't mean to hit Annabeth that hard."

"Yeah, well, she's not mad. What I wanted to talk to you about is that maybe that spar in a few weeks isn't such a good idea anymore. Percy managed to get a hit on you, that's not easy." Piper said.

Jason flopped back on his bed, "I just want my bolt back."

"Dude, me and Calypso are willing to make you a new one." Leo said from where he was leaning on the wall.

"That's not the point." Jason said, "Even if I took that one, what about the missing one right now? Someone is out there with a lightning bolt that can destroy the Minotaur in one hit. I would know, I used it."

"You never told us how powerful that thing actually was." Leo said.

"It can kill a Minotaur in one hit. Half-bloods don't stand a chance." Jason said, "Even if Percy didn't steal it, then someone out there has it."

Piper seemed to be thinking hard on the couch. Then her eyes lit up. "Wait, how about we change the way we go about this?"

"How?" Jason asked.

"Well, instead of proving Percy and Annabeth stole the bolt, how about we try to prove they didn't steal it?" Piper proposed, "Then if we can do that, we can get their help."

"But how?" Leo asked, "Percy won't let us search his cabin and we don't have any other suspects. Malcolm said that they don't have the bolt in their cabin, he even checked their armory. That guy is horrible at lying."

"Then let's go back to the night the bolt went missing." Piper said, "Percy said that he was on a date with Annabeth, right?"

"Yeah, some seafood place called Ocean Prime." Leo said.

"Wait, I thought Percy doesn't eat seafood?" Jason said.

Leo laughed, "He doesn't. They don't just make seafood, they have a awesome steak collection too, so technically it checks out." He looked at Piper, "What were you saying?"

"I'd assume that the place has a guest list or CCTV." Piper said, "If I can talk to the manager, he might be able to confirm whether or not Percy and Annabeth were really there that night. If he does confirm it, then I can try to track where they went from there."

"And if he doesn't confirm it?" Jason asked.

"Then we have to confront Percy about why he lied about where he was." Piper said, "But I doubt Percy's lying about that."

"Yeah, he did seem pretty sincere." Leo said.

"Okay. You guys will have to do this on your own." Jason said, "I'm still grounded. Chiron still hasn't told me how long I'm grounded for."

"Hey, it's alright." Leo said, "I'll set up the livestream so we can watch Piper go and pull a Karen and talk to a manager."

"I am not a Karen." Piper protested.

"Joking." Leo said with his hands up.

"So when is this all going down?" Jason asked. He was getting interested. If this worked, he'd be able to talk to Percy like he normally did instead of acting like they were about to fight all the time.

"Tomorrow." Piper said, "I have chores today. You and Leo chill out, I'll do all the work."

"Alright, thanks, Pipes." Jason said.

"You're welcome." Piper said as she walked out.

The door closed behind her. Leo turned to Jason and smiled, "Dude, you're lucky. If Piper wasn't here, we'd still be trying to fight Percy and there's no way I'm fighting that guy."

"Why not? I almost won." Jason said.

"You forget water beats fire?" Leo asked, "Plus, he almost ended you in that fight. If he was a little bit luckier, you'd be in the infirmary right now."

"I would not." Jason said. He knew Percy was dangerous, but not that dangerous.

"Whatever you say, man." Leo said as he sat on the couch where Piper was sitting, "Just saying, me and Piper are doing this because we don't want you or Percy getting hurt."

"And thank you." Jason said, "I just think me and Percy could handle ourselves in a spar."

"If this goes wrong, then we'll see." Leo said.