One second ago, everything was normal. Now, as Percy stood on the deck of the ship, anxiously waiting for Blonde Superman to hurry on back, he realized someone was missing.
"LEO?!" Percy shouted, his voice barely audible over the wind speeds as the ship neared the forest below. Maybe 300 feet until it crashed? Percy wished he could navigate in the sky like he could across the ocean. Then he'd be able to judge exactly how much time they had before crashing. Instead, Percy was stuck being useless. He didn't even get to fight anything!
Turning around anxiously, Percy scanned the deck for any side of Fire Boy. Nope. Not here.
"VALDEZ!?" he yelled at the top of his lungs.
"What's wrong, man!?" Jason cried, zooming next to Percy, causing him to jump a little with surprise.
"Can't find Leo," Percy gasped, "I bet he went back to the engine room or something without telling anyone. Probably thought he could fix the ship, knowing him."
"We've got less than a minute!" Jason exclaimed worriedly, "Get him out of there!"
Wasting no time, Percy whipped around and flung open the door to the hallway, shouting Leo's name over and over until his voice was hoarse. Leo wasn't in his room. (And jeez it was a mess! How did he even sleep in there?. Leo wasn't in anyone else's cabin, to no surprise. Finally Percy reached the end of the hall, wondering anxiously how much time he had left. Twenty seconds? Tops? Ever since Tartaurus, his whole sense of time had been thrown off. "Not good." Percy thought aloud.
The light in the engine room was still turned on, but with the small space and all the wires across the room, it was shadowy and hard to see.
"You in here, Leo?" Percy exclaimed, running into the room. He half expected to see Valdez crying like before. Everyone in the Argo II knew something was up with Leo. And though there wasn't enough time to process it and really help Leo, when the Latino opened up to Percy only a few moments earlier, that proved that everyone's suspicions were right.
Percy did not expect the response to be silence and the room to be empty. He searched the whole ship. That meant Leo was gone. He ran a hand through his floofy hair nervously. Did he really abandon his ship and crew? But Percy never got a chance to dismiss the thought. With a heart-dropping crack that sounded like trees snapping. There was no time to react.
He was thrown around the little room like a rag doll. His head hit the wall, causing his whole body to rebound to the wall opposite of it and Percy's consciousness dimmed.
He feebly reached an arm out toward the door, too weak to shout for help, even if his voice wasn't already hoarse from shouting for Leo. Percy's ribs ached, and his head wasn't supposed to be ringing this loudly, right?
Then the Argo II hit the ground beneath all the trees, and he was violently flung around the room once more. The last thing Percy remembered was smacking into the door, forcing it closed by his weight and thinking so that's how long a minute takes.
