"Check, one, two. Can you hear me?"

"Clear as day."

"Great. You know what to do. Get the codes and get out."

"Yeah, yeah. I know what to do.. We've been over this a million times." Leo rolled his eyes at Rachel's excessive mothering as he zoomed down the highway.

"Make sure they don't see you!"

"I got Festus. It's all good."

A new voice butted in. "I still don't understand why we named the car Festus."

"Shush, Jason. We've been over this, too. The answer is just 'cause." (Also, because the best thing he had ever made was named Festus, too. But they didn't need to know that.)

Jason sighed, and Percy snickered. In the back seat, Annabeth rolled her eyes. Every mission. Every last one. The Festus conversation was protocol by now.

Riding in Festus with Leo were Annabeth, Hazel and Piper. Jason and Percy were on their motorbikes. (Anyone remember Blackjack? Well, yeah. Jason was apparently a racer, too.)

"Hey, Seaweed Brain. Concentrate. You're drifting."

Percy saluted and straightened Blackjack out. "Aye, ma'am. But you know, Jason, you should really learn to appreciate the naming of vehicles more. Tempest is hardly a creative name."

"... Blackjack is named after a card game you don't even know how to play."

"Still better than Tempest."

"Hey, idiots. Shut up. This is supposed to be a secure line. Not for your socializing convenience." Salty much, Calypso? Leo wondered what got her all riled up. She was usually nicer on the comm. Usually being the key word.

Tonight, they were infiltrating Titan's old headquarters. Titan used to be a big-shot computing company until a couple years ago, when Olympus found they were working with what used to be an unnamed terrorist group and shut them down. Last mission, they found out that Gaea actually had a company named Gaea Enterprises (they were all flabbergasted that they had gotten her name right) that had bought Titan years ago. Seemed like she had been planning for world domination since forever.

The old headquarters were mostly abandoned by now, but they didn't want to take chances. It was more than likely that Gaea would have kept the security system running case anyone came looking for intel. The team would be splitting up. Annabeth and Piper were to be scouting the north wing, and Jason and Percy would search the south wing. To be honest, Jason and Percy didn't work that well together, but Annabeth and Percy were forbidden to go anywhere alone after the garage incident by Coach. Leo and Hazel would stay hidden until they were sure the coast was clear, then go and do their hacking thing. Hazel was about as out-of-sync with the modern world as you could get, but she was brilliant at hacking. (Oh, the irony.)

In case there was any confusion, Frank was stuck at HQ, sick, with only Coach and chicken soup for company, as Rachel and Calypso were on duty, and Grover was on a recruitment mission. Leo imagined Coach sitting at Frank's bedside, telling him to man up, Cupcake, and get better while force-feeding him soup and Tylenol. The thought cheered him up.

The dilapidated factories came into view. They would be stopping and hiding their vehicles behind a factory and going on foot to the main building from there.

"Festus, run a scan of the buildings. Life-forms and explosives, please."

The speakers whirred and clicked in reply. Yeah, Festus could talk. Suck on that, Jason. (Percy called himself a "bike-whisperer" and would often tell Blackjack that he couldn't have donuts. Leo was very concerned for his mental health. Still is.)

Slow, steady beeping filled the car (which was soundproof, if you were wondering) as Festus scanned the metal skeletons. They looked dead against the scant stars and the midnight sky, imposing and black like talons or prison walls. Leo really hoped they wouldn't collapse on the road. That would sort of ruin the point of a "stealth mission".

They looked like they were once huge, but time and a couple of bombs (courtesy of OASIS, of course) had worn them down. They lay low on the ground, burnt and crumbling and defeated, curled in on themselves like the losing side of a wildfire. He wasn't taking chances, though. He couldn't afford to. Not after that time.

Festus whirred, and Leo was saved from his mind. Distraction from his mission would not be appreciated at the moment. He pressed a button to camouflage the car.

"You're coming in, guys," said Rachel. "You'll be hiding your cars behind that building over there, second-to-last at… North-north-west." A glowing dot appeared on the built-in GSP on Festus's dash. "See it?"

"Gotcha," replied Percy, pulling off the main road toward the building. Leo and Jason followed.

The back of the factory was blown open. Leo stepped out of the car and walked over to where Percy and Jason were. The girls joined them. A cold draft blew in through the hole in the wall, and Leo was glad for his thick, black jacket.

"Is everyone ready?" asked Jason, the mission leader. Nods all around. Leo grinned. As the months went by, he had found that his favorite part of the spy business was the thrill of the missions. Of course, the last time he had gotten carried away, it wasn't pretty. (Leo's nightmares were still haunted by the sound of alarms and Calypso's expression of pure murder.)

"And three… two… one…" Rachel paused over the comm as if looking at her watch. "Go."

Pulling down infrared goggles over their ski masks, the team headed off.

The inside of the main building was dark, ominous, and cold. Leo missed Texas.

Crouching in the corner of the empty hallway with Hazel and trying not to sneeze or fidget was hard. His back was frozen from being pressed again the metal walls, but he didn't dare to move. He attempted to shift his focus away from his discomfort on to something else by peering down the hall. Through the goggles, the world was green. He turned a dial on the side, and it switched to thermal vision. His own invention. Apart from Hazel at his side, there was no movement, so he switched it back. Settling back against the hard corner, he pushed his goggles on top of his head. Hazel rolled her eyes behind her own goggles and turned her head down the hall to keep on lookout. Leo tapped a gloved hand on his arm in boredom as he listened to the other side of the mission happening through the comm.

"North Wing. Have you guys found anything yet?" Jason whispered.

"Nope," replied Piper.

"It's weird here," said Annabeth. "There's no life at all. No heat signatures or anything. But this area seems as if it's regularly in use. The computers are all fully functioning. Stay alert."

"That's my line," whined Percy.

"Shut up."

"Only if you make me." Leo could hear the smirk on his face.

"Guys, stop flirting and get working," said Rachel. His sentiments exactly. "Wrench-head, have you sent me the layout map yet?"

Crap. So that was what he was forgetting. (Also, Wrench-head? That was his mission name? So very creative, Rachel.)

"Uh, gimme a mo," he said, fiddling with his phone. He opened an app and set it on the floor. Blue pulsed dimly across the screen as it scanned the floors and walls of the building. Sonic technology. It allowed Leo to download the entire floor plan and whatever else they might have added onto his phone. Of course, another invention of his. The coding still needed some polishing, though. He was currently working on enabling the app to scan and name technology, too. Knowing beforehand which computer he would be dealing with would be ever so helpful.

Enough about the techno-babble. Focus on the mission.

Leo's phone ding!-ed and a pop-up told him, Scan complete! Put on some clothes, Cupcakes! Oh, did he mention that he had programmed the app to quote Coach Hedge? (Yeah, he was pretty awesome, if he did say so himself.) Grinning, he sent the layout and the pop-up message to Rachel. She would get a kick out of it, though some else (cough, Calypso, cough) might not.

Putting his phone away, he settled in for another estimated three minutes and forty-eight seconds as Rachel and Calypso searched the layout for the mainframe, watching the shadows from the moon play over the wall from the open window.

"No signs of life, and we've searched the whole building," Piper said presently. "We'll start on part two. Team C, you can move out now. Stay on alert."

"Yeah, once command sends us the coordinates." In approximately two minutes and twenty-seven seconds. He closed his eyes and prepared to wait.

"How has adjusting been?" The question came out of the blue and hit him over the head. He looked over at Hazel. Her gold eyes stared at him through the green tint of her goggles.

"Fine. It's been… fine. Why do you ask?"

She shrugged. "Boredom. Concern. Take your pick."

Leo gave a small smile. "Yeah, it's a lot better, now that I'm over the initial shock. Man, that first week was horrible," he chuckled. Hazel snorted at the memory. The two of them sat in silence for the next minute and twenty-three seconds, when Calypso's voice came over the comm.

"Okay, I've sent you the coordinates. Also, really?"

"Serves you right. "Wrench-head"," replied Leo offhandedly, already tapping his phone.

"Blame Rachel, not me."

"We'll have a long discussion later. But for now, ciao. Cinnamon roll, we're off." Leo stood and slid his goggles back down.

"Who, me?" Hazel looked confused.

"Yes, you."

"Why cinnamon roll?"

"Why not?" he grinned. "Less talking, more mission-ing! Now come on. We've got places to be and stuff to do."

"Careful out there," said Calypso. "You heard what was said. This place is weird." Psh. Like he wasn't going to be careful (but let's forget last mission).

"Profound words of wisdom by Owl Face.."

"Watch it, Wrench-head." Leo could feel her glowering over the comm.

"Sorry," he whispered. He really needed to start watching his words.

Percy snickered. Someone sighed exasperatedly, followed by Jason's, "Every single mission. Every last one." Well, it wasn't his fault command came up with horrible names. He would have to bring that up next meeting.

Pistol in hand (under the guidance of the Wise One, of course), Leo made his way to the first turn in the hall. Thermals showed no signs of life, so he jerked his head and indicated to Hazel to follow him around the corner.

As they headed down the empty corridor, Leo's phone set a loop on the security cameras, just in case. Oh, the benefits of technology. No more fiddling around with the cameras. All you need is the type and model, and Buford will do it for you. (In case there was any confusion, Buford was Leo's phone.)

At each corner, they stopped and checked for people, just in case the preliminary sweep missed something. It was almost too easy. There was nobody in the entire building apart from their own team. The halls were identical. Dark, steel gray, some halls glowing silvery-blue by the sliver of moonshine coming in through the windows. The gaping windows of the doors stared at them from the wall, and Leo was feeling more than a little paranoid that they were being watched.

They made it to the room containing the mainframe without seeing a single soul, and Leo was about ready to scream. It could not be that easy. Something was going to go wrong. Titan once had thousands of workers and high security, but they were just breezing in. An alarm was going to go off or something. Leo could feel it.

They snuck into the room (and the alarms were yet to go off) and made their way through the rows of computers. At the end of the room was the mainframe, and as soon as they reached it, Leo began fidgeting with the controls while Hazel notified the rest of the team.

"We're in," said Hazel.

"Good job. Stay in," replied Calypso.

"That's what she said," muttered Percy absently.

Calypso sputtered over the comm at a complete loss for words while Leo snickered and Annabeth sighed. He looked over at Hazel, and found her blushing furiously, obviously uncomfortable and trying to hide it by starting up the computer and typing frantically. He hid a grin and plugged in a USB. No point in getting Buford accidentally scrambled.

Silence.

Leo hated it.

"We almost done?" he asked over her shoulder.

"Eep!"

"Constant vigilance," he quipped.

Taking a few breaths to calm herself, she went back to typing and huffed, "Yeah, yeah. Almost there. Just a few lines left."

"Wrench-head!" said Rachel. "I never knew you were into Harry Potter!"

"Should've mentioned something sooner, Weasley," he grinned.

"Har, har."

"Shush, guys. You can talk about your nerdy wizard stuff after the mission." Way to be a killjoy, Calypso. (Not that he would ever say that in her presence. He'd probably get castrated or something.)

"Okay, we're good," said Hazel she sat back and cracked her knuckles.

"Great. Hurry up so we can leave these creepy ruins."

Rolling her eyes, she pressed enter and sounded the alarms. Well, crap.

"Well, crap," said Leo.

A/N: AGH I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG. After my writer's block, it took a while to get back into it, and i'm trying to write a few chapters before i submit anything. This used to be one long monster chapter over double of my usual chapter lengths, but I cut it so i could do another update eheh... I have finals soon, so the next update might not be for a while, unless i finish chapter 7 by finals week, which i doubt. So. I'll try to update by the end of June. I've started to kinda write when the next estimated update will be on my profile, which you can all check from time to time to know where i am with writing.

So yeah! As usual, read, review, and give your good advice! I'm always up for suggestions for what you want to see in the updates, and I read all the reviews, even if i don't reply... eheh i should start replying to them. Anyhoo, i hope you enjoyed this sort-of-filler chapter, and stay tuned for the next one!

~Yumi