Chapter 15: We meet Leo
After that little scare we had been a little on edge for awhile, not sure what had decided to pick a fight with us in the middle of the ocean. So to help let everyone feel at ease we decided to take turns keeping watch while Robin did the driving.
This routine continued for a few days, around a week or so, and by that point we got to the Florida keys with little incident, so we got off the boat and left to go find Leo.
We looked for awhile but we couldn't really find him, or his Dragon automaton, so I decided to switch to plan B. I started to untie my bag from my belt and slowly rummaged around in it.
"What are you looking for?" Jason asked.
"Plan B." I said as I pulled out a small white pyramid shaped stone. The stone had a black center and looked like it was made of crystal. "Bingo."
"What is that?" Reyna questioned.
"The thing that's gonna finally track down our missing Son of Hephaestus." I said as I reeled my arm back. Then I chucked it forward as black energy surrounded it and it slowly started to change shape.
The thing that replaced the stone was a hellhound, but this hellhound had no eyes, just a large white circle and was all black and Smokey looking.
"Whoa." They both said in awe.
"Right? I just found out I could do that, apparently I'm able to trap the souls of monsters I kill into those stones and make them work for me." I explained. "Now, where'd I put that rag?"
I pulled out a dirty rag I found in Leo's workstation back at camp and held it out to the hound, it gave the rag a few good sniffs before bolting off.
"Come on, let's follow him!" I said as we ran after him.
It lead us up and down town, through streets and other places, until we reached what looked like a huge scrap yard.
As we caught up to the hound, I called it back and tried to catch my breath. "So...you guys...think, he'd be here?" I asked.
Jason, also trying to catch his breath let out a huff and he held his hands on his back and looked at the scrap yard. "Oh yeah. This is definitely a place he'd be." He nodded.
I looked around to see if anyone was around, no one was home. So I brought out Suppressor and used it to pole vault myself over the fence that surrounded the yard, landing clean across without a hitch.
"And he sticks it!" I cheered.
Jason however, decided to use his powers to get over the fence, landing next to me after floating the whole way.
"Show off." I said as he chuckled.
Reyna just rolled her eyes and just decided to cut through the padlock on the door and went that way. She was smirking the whole time too.
"Don't even start." I told her.
"I wasn't going to." She smirked smuggly.
We started wondering around looking for anything weird, like a giant Dragon for example. Still nothing.
"LEO!" Jason suddenly yelled. "Hey you there?"
I jumped when I heard that. "Dude! Shh! We don't know if anyone else is here!"
"Well it was worth a sho-uh oh." He said as there was a sudden thumping sound coming from around the corner.
There was a loud clang as a sadan fell from the top of a pile of cars and a giant bronze foot crushed it like a soda can. We all looked up and saw that the foot belonged to a huge metal dragon, with drill bits for teeth and what I could only assume were spotlights for eyes.
The dragon let out a loud roar as it's neck started to glow orange before it opened its mouth and breathed fire out of an ignition slot in its mouth like the world's largest blowtorch.
Jason dived behind a totaled Subaru Outback and I tackled Reyna to the ground behind an old beat up Ferrari. "So I assume that's Festus?" I called to Jason.
"Yeah! I don't get it though, he's usually not this hostile, I wonder what's gotten into him?" Jason wondered.
"Hell if I know." I tried to peek around the car after the flames stopped. "Whoa!" Only to have to duck again as Festus fired yet another blast at us. "Okay, It's time for this tin can to take a nap!" I said as I rummaged around in my bag.
"What are you gonna do?" Reyna asked.
I pulled out another stone rolled It between my fingers. "The force of many." I tossed it before up slightly before catching it again and getting ready to throw. "Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." I then threw it directly at the mechanical flying lizard. "HAIL HYDRA!"
The stone slowly morphed until it became another hydra I killed, this one was larger than the first one and it was about the same size as Festus, with five heads.
The two dragons faced off as they bashed each other with their heads and tails. My hydra having the advantage because of its extra heads. This fight went on for a few minutes as they tore through the scrap yard, until a girl in a white dress came running up to Festus.
"Festus! Is everything okay? What's going on?" She asked.
I knew she'd probably get squashed if the fight went on any longer so when my hydra pushed Festus back far enough I called it back, then Jason, Reyna and myself went running up to the girl in the dress.
In terms of appearance she was pretty cute, slightly shorter than Reyna with light brown hair and brown eyes, she was also wearing a headband around her head.
She walked up to Festus who was laying on his stomach and what I can only assume was his version of breathing heavily. The girl stroked his neck tenderly before facing us and glaring at me.
"Why did you attack Festus?" She demanded.
"Me? He attacked us!" I snapped. "And who are you anyway? Isn't this dragon supposed to belong to a guy named Leo?
The girl seemed like she was getting defensive for some reason. "I'm Calypso, why are you looking for Leo? Who are you?"
I was about to give this girl a what for when Jason put his hand on my shoulder and stopped me.
"I'm Jason Grace, Leo's a friend of mine." Jason explained, gesturing to himself. Then he pointed at me. "This is Nigel, He's with us on a quest to help bring Leo back to Camp Half Blood."
Calypso seemed to understand and slowly started to relax. "Oh. I see, sorry." She said as she stroked Festus's nose. "Sorry about festus, he's been programmed to attack anyone he doesn't recognize in case they might be an enemy."
That made sense, like a German shepherd but with wings, and more teeth. As we were talking someone else came running towards us. I could easily recognize him as Leo Valdez, the guy we'd been looking for.
"Calypso, you ran off, everything okay?" The guy asked.
"I'm fine Leo." Calypso said as Festus snorted, which she giggled at. "And luckily so is Festus."
Leo sighed in relief before he noticed us standing there, he stood there in shock for awhile before looking at Jason and raising his arms with a wide smile. "Dude!" They both yelled at the same time.
The two ran up to each other and hugged each other. Both Reyna and I stood there with Calypso as the two kept giving each other noogies, I chuckled and shook my head.
"Yeah they are definitely friends." I nodded. I then decided to whistle to get their attention. They turned as Jason had Leo in a headlock and his fist giving the Latino boy a noogie.
The two separated as they scratched the back of their heads. "Sorry." They said. Leo then walked over to me and held his hand out.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Leo." He said.
"Nigel." I said while shaking his hand. I then turned to the others. "Okay guys let's get moving. We still don't know what that thing that was chasing us is and I don't intend on waiting to find out, now let go!"
"Wait what?" Leo asked as we started to leave the junkyard.
"It's a long story." Jason told him.
As we were about to get to the door, three square nails suddenly were sent right at us and got stuck in our way. I tried to move past them, but then they suddenly grew into long rods, causing us to have to jump back.
There was the sound of someone laughing before a kid who looked around thirteen landed in front of us. He had black hair that was shaved off on both sides, leaving a Mohawk that dropped to the right side of his head. He also had tan skin and the same ethereal green eyes as me, and the same build, but was clearly shorter. He wore some black cargo pants, purple greaves, a black vest, and lastly, he had on a Camp Jupiter shirt. Which matched the brand on his arm, and it had a symbol that I immediately recognized.
"What." Jason said.
"The." Reyna added.
"Shit." I finished as I stepped back.
The kid looked at me as he crossed his arms and flashed several of the same nails that he had between his fingers. "Well well well, it seems we finally meet, brother." He stated.