Sorry for not updating yesterday!
Might do two today to make up for that ;)
Okay, so the other day two of my guy friends were walking next to each other and one had on
a purple shirt and the other an orange one, and I was thinking like ohmygods, Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood together, but I didn't say anything because nobody knows PJO/HoO here! Grrr...
Thanks for all the kind reviews!
(::) cookie for you all (::)
Not my best chapter, but hopefully, you'll enjoy it anyway

Chapter forty-two: Small Attacks
~Leo's POV~

After the relaxed and fun morning they'd had, Leo had been certain something would crop up to spoil their day pretty soon. At around four o'clock, he was proven right.
They had arrived at the pillars of Hercules, which supposedly marked the place where the ancient guys had thought the world stopped or something like that. (Leo never listened too closely when Annabeth went on one of her history rants.)
But not only were they about to enter really dangerous waters, you know, as opposed to the lovely, calm voyage they'd had so far (not), now they had to deal with the god Hercules, who was waiting for them on an island.
Of course Leo had heard a lot about the guy, last but not least because he'd been quite a Disney fan when he was younger, but he gave him the creeps, even from so far away. Secretly, Leo was glad it
would be Piper and Jason flying down to meet him.
In the mean time, the rest of the crew and himself would polish up the Argo II, making sure everything down to the last door-hinge was strong and working, ready for the Mare Nostrum.
They all said bye to Piper and Jason and then Leo gave out chores.
Percy and Annabeth were in charge of the engine room, Hazel and Frank would check the rooms and stables, Coach Hedge, who had offered to maintain the ballistae, Leo ordered down to sickbay to make sure all the provisions and stocks were full. No doubt they would be facing quite a few injuries soon.
Himself and Pen were up on deck, washing the floors, checking the mast and ballistae, and making sure Festus was well oiled and running.
As they worked next to each other, Leo couldn't help but feel relieved that everything seemed to be back to normal between them again.
They talked lightly about random stuff, and every now and then Penelope would pause to give him a kiss on the cheek or a smile.
After an hour of work, he suggested having a break, and they sat down on the floor with some food.

"What's taking Piper and Jason so long, you think?" Leo asked, munching a taco.
"No idea. Maybe they have to entertain Hercules." Penelope shrugged, peeling an orange.
She offered some to Leo, who took a quarter.
They ate in silence, until Penelope sighed, looking out at the sea. Her eyes were troubled, and the little furrow she got when she worried was clearly visible on her forehead.
"What's wrong?" Leo asked, nudging her. She blinked, and tore her gaze away from the ocean.
"Nothing, really. I'm just...wondering." "About what?" Leo realised his voice sounded worried, which made Pen give him a reassuring smile. "Just same old, same old."
"Oh." Leo knew he should have something more worth-while to say, but he couldn't think of anything. Sometimes he forgot how much they still didn't know about Penelope' history.
She had now absent-mindedly taken out an odd black stone with a golden engraving.
"What's that?" he asked, pointing at it.
"Amazonite." Penelope explained, holding it out to him. It was beautiful, engraved with two golden torches. "We used it to heal you." Pen said, telling Leo about how they'd used the stone to stop him dying.
This gave Leo a shiver. This small rock was his saviour? "Where did you get it?" he wanted to know.
"Chleo gave it to me. It used to belong to another daughter of Hecate, Samantha Davis was her name." Penelope took the stone back and turned it in her hand. "Chleo said I reminded her a lot of Sam."
That was news, Leo thought. He hadn't been at camp long enough to know this Sam, but he heard the appreciation in Pen's voice.
"What happened to her?"
"She...died. On a quest for our mother. That was three years ago."
This made Leo uneasy for some reason. Maybe he just didn't want Penelope compared to some girl who had died on a quest, maybe it was something else.
"Demigods die all the time, sadly." He said, trying to console his friend.
"Yeah, I know. But the odd thing with Sam was, they never found her body, or found out how she died."
"Then how do they know she did?" Leo asked.
Penelope looked at him. "Her permanent enchantments stopped working. One day, every spell she'd ever cast just ceased and a purple shroud appeared on her bed. Chleo said that was a definite sign that Sam had died."
Leo suddenly felt really bad for Chleo, even if she wasn't always the nicest person. It must be hard to have lost one sister to a quest, and then watch the next one, who incidentally reminded her of the first, to go off on one as well. But mixed with the pity was gratitude that Chleo had given Penelope the Amazonite, and he made a mental note to thank her, if he ever got the chance.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to get so depressing." Penelope suddenly laughed, getting back up. "Come on, there's more stuff to -"
VOOM. Something flew straight into Pen, knocking her to the ground. "Pen!" Leo yelled and sprang up, but all around him more VOOMS sounded as maybe ten weird green-blueish creatures that looked like men but were covered in scales, jumped onto their deck, wielding spears and draped in algae.
The tallest one, probably their leader, stepped forward and swept the shaft of his spear underneath Leo's legs making him fall. "Hey!"
Out of the corner of his eye he could see Penelope, throwing off one of the weird fish-men and making him topple over board.
"Surrender" hissed the leader, baring his sharp, piranha like teeth at Leo.
"Er, how about no?" Leo shot back and jumped up, conjuring flames in both his hands.
This had an effect on the fish-men, who backed up a little. Penelope, seeing what Leo was doing held out her palms as well and made them blaze with purple light. Involuntarily, Leo grinned.
"Not so brave now, are you?" he remarked, letting his flames grow higher. Sadly, that had been the wrong thing to say. Apparently, the fish-men didn't appreciate being called cowards, even if they were facing incineration. Pointing their weapons, they formed a circle around Pen and Leo, who now stood back to back, and advanced.
"Shoot!" Leo called, and from the shrieks that followed, he gathered that Pen had obeyed. He himself sent jets of fire at three monsters, making them evaporate. But more were now arriving, closing in tighter, and even though Leo and Penelope kept shooting flames at them, they were heavily out-numbered.
"Who are you, anyway?" Leo asked randomly, desperately trying to play for time, as the fish-men came at them ever faster.
"We are servants of the old gods of the sea." hissed one, lunging at Penelope who ducked and stabbed it with the stylet she now held in one hand.
"Phorcys." Leo cursed under his breath. If only Percy were here, he might be able to control these weird sea-monsters. But the others were under deck, and Leo had no idea how long it would take them to realise the ship was being attacked.
"You should leave." Penelope said, her voice stern and powerful. It reminded Leo a little of when Piper used charmspeak, but sadly it had no effect on the monsters, of whom there were now around fifteen. How could the others not hear them?!
The fish-men leader laughed coldly, facing Penelope.
"A desperate try, girl." he hissed, advancing menacingly while Leo tried to hold off his cronies.
"You have no control over us, even if you bear the-"
But the monster was interrupted by a shout. "Hey, fish-guys! Look who joined the party."
And before any of the monsters could react, a wave of ocean water swept onto the deck, caught hold of every single one of the creatures and ripped them away, so that all that remained were two broken spear points.
Percy stood before them, his hands raised and a little cloud of water surrounding him.
It dropped when he stepped forward.
"You guys okay?" He asked, putting a hand on Pen's shoulder.
They both nodded their heads.
"Yeah. What took you so long?" Leo asked, half-jokingly.
Percy's brow furrowed. "I don't know. It's like one moment we were working in the engine room and the next I heard a commotion and ran up. Why, was I that late?"
Pen and Leo nodded, but Penelope quickly added "It doesn't matter now, we managed to hold them off. I guess we're going to have to face loads of attacks like that now we'll be travelling in that sea."
The boys agreed with her, and they all went downstairs to inform the rest what had happened.
On the steps, Leo caught hold of Penelope's arm and whispered. "What do you think that guy meant?"
Pen shook her head "No idea. Apparently, I bear something, but who knows what it is. Just another thing to put on our list of things we don't know about Penelope, isn't it?"