PERI'S POV

Oh gods. . .!

This boy just loved making my ovaries explode, didn't he?

My hand shakily held the marker against his biceps, drawing on the tattoos as he instructed.

"Yeah!" Leo enthused. "Oh! And write HOT STUFF! Oooh! And put it with a skull and crossbones! Yeah! Awesome!"

I spared a glance up at him.

He'd pulled a pair of goggles from his tool belt and had them resting on his head, making him look like some sexy steampunk genius. His hair was slicked back with machine oil, and he had a wrench in his back pocket. His sleeves were rolled up, showing off his strong biceps. For a fire guy, he looked like the definition of cool.

Much better than Narcissus, I noted.

I capped the marker and rose. "All done."

Leo grinned and examined his new ink. "Aww yeah! This is the best plan ever!"

"I dunno," Hazel said skeptically. "Are you sure this is going to work?"

"About 60/40," he replied.

"What are you thinking?!" she nearly screamed.

"I try not to think," Leo said, strutting towards the pond. "It interferes with being nuts."

I chuckled at his words. "Don't worry, Hazel, just stick to the plan."

She nodded reluctantly, and we ducked behind the crowd to our stations.

I hid behind a boulder where I could still see everything.

I focused on the large Celestial Bronze plate sunk at the bottom of the pond. Just by looking at it, I could tell its dimensions. Narrowing my eyes, I conjured an identical plate of Celestial Bronze plate to lie on top of the original. I took a deep breath and relaxed, holding the copy there for as long as necessary. As long as I focus, the conjured Celestial Bronze would lie on top of the original.

Meanwhile, Hazel was busy slowly sinking the original into the ground, summoning it to her. I knew, as I could smell the bronze being swallowed into the soft earth and being tainted with the scent.

"Leo is the coolest!"

My head snapped up.

"Leo is the coolest!" Echo shouted.

"Yeah, baby, check me out!" Leo was beginning his part of the mission.

"Check me out!" Echo said, as planned.

"Make way for the king!"

"The king!"

"Narcissus is weak!"

"Weak!"

My hands flew up to my mouth, trying to stifle my immense laughter and sputtering, the result being a series of pterodactyl noises.

The nymphs scattered in surprise. Leo shooed them away as if they were bothering him. "No autographs, girls. I know you want some Leo time, but I'm way too cool. You better just hang around that ugly dweeb Narcissus. He's so lame!"

"Lame!" Echo said with enthusiasm.

The nymphs muttered angrily.

"What are you talking about?" one demanded.

"You're lame," said another.

Leo adjusted his goggles and smiled, clearly unfazed. He flexed his very nice biceps and showed off his HOT STUFF tattoo. He had the nymphs' attention, as well as mine; but Narcissus was still fixed on his own reflection.

"You know how ugly Narcissus is?" Leo asked the crowd. "He's so ugly, when he was born his mama thought he was a backward centaur- with a horse butt for a face."

Some of the nymphs gasped. Narcissus frowned, as though he were vaguely aware of a gnat buzzing around his head.

"You know why his bow has cobwebs?" Leo continued. "He uses it to hunt for dates, but he can't find one!"

One of the nymphs laughed. The others quickly elbowed her into silence.

Narcissus turned and scowled at Leo. "Who are you?"

"I'm the Super-sized McShizzle, man!" Leo said. "I'm Leo Valdez, bad boy supreme. And the ladies love a bad boy!"

"Love a bad boy!" Echo said with a convincing squeal.

Leo took out a pen and autographed the arm of one of the nymphs. "Narcissus is a loser! He's so weak, he can't bench press a Kleenex. He's so lame, when you look up lame on Wikipedia, it's got a picture of Narcissus - only the picture's so ugly, no one ever checks it out!"

Narcissus knit his handsome eyebrows. His face was turning from bronze to salmon pink. For the moment, he'd totally forgotten about the pond, and - oh no!

My head jerked around at the pond so fast I almost got whiplash.

I'd been so engrossed in watching the spectacle before me that I'd lost focus on keeping up my end of the plan. You could see plain as day where the huge sheet of bronze was slowly sinking into the sand. If Narcissus or any one of his crazy nymph fangirls even glanced in the pond's direction, then the whole plan was shot.

I mentally cursed myself and my ADHD, before a brilliant idea wormed its way into my brain.

Making sure to stay concealed behind the underbrush, I sprinted to the tree Hazel was hiding behind. Her eyes were shut, and her curly hair was plastered to her face with sweat.

I poked her between the eyes. "Hazel,"

She jumped, then blinked in confusion. "Peri? What are you-?"

"We don't have much time." I said urgently. I didn't know how long Leo could keep the crowd preoccupied while the Celestial Bronze was exposed. "I'm going to help you move the plate."

She hesitated at first, but then nodded.

We faced the pond together.

I took a deep breath, forcing myself to focus and stay focused. I felt the Celestial Bronze, ad even from this distance I could tell it was a good four yards across. Narrowing my eyes at it, I felt the Celestial Bronze sinking into the ground.

Hazel and I worked together, the plate disappearing twice as fast as it was before. The sweet scent of Celestial Bronze was being engulfed by the stench of the earth, until finally I could smell nothing else.

The Bronze was underground.

I blinked in confusion before looking over at Hazel. She still had her eyes closed, pulling the bronze to her like nothing had happened.

Then it hit me.

She's a child of Pluto. Underground metals are a walk in the park for her.

I watched in awe as the Celestial Bronze popped up right before us. It emerged from a sandy hole at my feet, and I couldn't hold back my own grin.

Hazel huffed one last time before doubling over to catch her breath. "Oh gods," she breathed.

"Hazel that was awesome!" I whispered loudly. She only smiled softly and slumped against the tree like a wet noodle.

I shook her a little. "Come on, Hazel. We gotta get this thing outta here - and fast!"

Reluctantly, she pushed herself up off the tree. We stood on either side of the enormous slab of bronze and lifted.

"Ah, shit!" I yelped and dropped the plate almost instantly.

This thing weighed a ton! Gods, I knew Leo had to find all the Celestial Bronze in one place, but it feels like I just lifted all the bronze in the world. Honestly, this plate was easily a hundred pounds - not something a couple of teenage girls should be lifting.

"Oh no!" Hazel put her head in her hands. "We can't lift it! What'll we do?"

I ran my fingers through my hair, desperately trying to think. "I dunno. . . I dunno. . . I-"

I snapped my fingers. "Duh! Our powers! Lift it with your arms and with your powers."

She nodded and quickly put her hands back on the bronze. I followed suit and counted down. "3. . . 2. . . 1. . . LIFT!"

I blinked, and the Celestial Bronze rose into the air - partly because of our combined strength and partly because of our combined demigod abilities. It was still very heavy, but the weight was considerably more reasonable than before.

"Come on," I groaned, and we began trudging up the crater.

Now, it's very hard trying to be covert when you're carrying a plate of shining Celestial Bronze the size of a table that seats eight.

Very hard.

But we moved as quickly and quietly as possible, staying behind bushes and trees as much as we could. We were only a quarter of the way up the crater, and my arms were already burning. I felt lightheaded, my breathing coming shallow and strained.

I bit my lip and climbed harder, determined not to fail the team again.

Hazel's side of the bronze started leaning. "I can't. . ." She huffed. "It's too heavy. . . "

"Come on, Hazel!" I cried over my shoulder to her, but felt horrible about my own words. She was already exhausted as it was, and this weight was too much for any normal person to handle.

But then again, we aren't normal people, are we?

"We're almost here." I lied.

The plate straightened up, and we continued our slow trek upwards.

We made it halfway up the crater, and I wiped the sweat off my brow.

We're gonna make it! We're gonna make it! We're gonna-

"THERE!"

I jerked my head around to see the whole crowd staring at us. The expression on the nymphs' faces went from shock to anger in three seconds flat.

"GET IT BACK!"

All the nymphs charged, wielding their posters dangerously, screaming wildly.

Narcissus unslung his ancient bow and grabbed an arrow from his dusty quiver.

Well, fuck.