MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!

And I am back with another chapter! Awesome! I apologize for the grammar mistakes people said I've been making. I don't have a Beta, and while I do proof read, sometime it's not enough.

On another note, I read the past few chapters again. I was shocked by the stunning amount of dashes. WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME ABOUT THIS BEFORE? I overuse the dashes so much it's annoying. I promise I will try to stop doing using them too much, and once I'm done I'm going to go back and try to fix any errors I made. Thanks to Crackers414 for pointing out the dashes problem!

Now on with the chapter!

Leo's POV:

Why did his life have to suck so much?

Leo tried to think of a reasonable answer. In the face of a hot teenager, however, that was a bit hard to pull off. Sure, she was an extremely angry-looking girl, but hot nonetheless. Not to mention the ideas of what he should say were totally random and weird.

Hi, I'm Leo. My friends call me Repair Boy, but you can call me Supreme Commander!

No.

WASSUP?

Now that was just weird.

Can I have your number?

Where had that thought come from?

Finally, Leo managed, "Um, I'm Leo. Leo Valdez. And, um, about your plant... it was an accident."

The girl did not look impressed. Why, Leo would never know. He was awesome! Okay, his reply to her question hadn't been totally amazing, but it was something, right? "Really. And are you going to pay for it?"

"Pay for it?" Leo exclaimed, shocked. "Why should I have to pay for it? Plants aren't that expensive, pay for it yourself! I'm kind of in the middle of something!"

As he said that, Leo looked around again, scanning the area for the guards.

She watched him and frowned. "Like what? Hide and seek?"

"No! This is life or death situation!"

The girl snorted. "Please, I doubt that if you don't win this game, you'd die."

Leo's insides went cold. Even though he knew that she had every right to think he was only joking, it was beginning to tick him off. This wasn't a game. Why wouldn't the girl just shut up?

He opened his mouth, ready to deliver the best insult in the history of insults... and then closed it.

"Speechless?" The girl crowed, sounding slightly surprised and incredibly smug. Obviously, she didn't think he would give up that easily. "Sorry you didn't like hearing the truth, Mr. Valdez, but-"

"WHERE IS HE?!" Footsteps pounded down the sidewalk as the burly men that Leo had distracted earlier dashed down the street. Leo froze for a second before realizing that if they saw him, he was screwed. He crouched down and tried to make himself smaller. Hopefully the shrub would cover him.

Meanwhile, the twin uglies had lowered their voices when they saw the girl. They glanced at each other before one of them walked up to her. "Excuse me, miss, but have you seen a boy anywhere?"

"A scrawny one," The other supplied, being smart enough to know that for a description, 'a boy' wasn't going to cut it. "With curly brown hair, elf-like features, and dark brown eyes."

Leo winced, partly because of the 'scrawny' thing, partly because he was waiting for the girl to turn him in. Why would she lie for a person she barely knew? He braced himself, preparing to run. Maybe if he sprinted fast enough, he could lose them again.

He was so preoccupied with his thoughts, he almost didn't hear the girl's reply.

"Sorry, I didn't," she said. "He might have gone done a different street. Why?"

"No reason," The smarter one said hastily. "Come on Otis, lets go."

He took off, with the other guard following.

The girl waited until they were out of sight and the sound of their footsteps had drifted away. Then she turned to Leo, and the look on her face made him gulp.

"Now," she said sweetly, a murderous look on her face, "You are going to come into my house, and explain what is going on."

He did.

Leo told her about the Kronos Incident, and what happened after. He told her about Gaea and Nico's kidnapping. He even told her about the ransom note and the scouting trip. From what he figured, he had nothing to lose. Surely nobody could hear them in her house? Also, it just felt so good to get it all out. This whole thing had been so crazy, it was really a relief to be able to tell someone about it. And who knows? Maybe she wouldn't think he was totally insane and help!

...Okay, not the last part. That was pretty far-fetched.

To his surprise, though, the girl didn't scoff or roll her eyes during his story. All she did was stare at him, a serious look forming on her face, and when he was done, she announced, "I knew something was up."

Leo blinked, wondering if he'd heard wrong. "What?"

"I mean, Grandmother had always been a bit of a nutcase, and she was really angry when Kronos died-" she rambled, making no sense at all.

"What?"

"-Sure, she was sad at first, but then she got this weird look in her eye, like she wanted to murder someone-"

"Okay, for the last time," Leo interrupted, holding his arms up in a T-shape as if to say, time-out. "What? 'Grandmother'? Murder? I think this is my turn to demand an explanation, lady!"

The girl sighed, looking as if she was dreading saying this. She stuck her hand out as if introducing herself, looked him right in the eye and said, "My name is Calypso Titan. My father is Atlas, and your cousin's kidnapper happens to be my another one of my extremely dysfunctional relatives."

The world had officially reached a new level of weird.

Calypso explained how her mother died when she was young, leaving her father to raise her. While she recounted that part of her story, her face went blank, as if she was trying to stop raging emotions inside her brain. She then quickly moved on, saying how Kronos had come to Atlas' house a while back, asking him for help with something. Calypso claimed she hadn't know anything about what her father was really helping with, and would have contacted the police is she had. Leo wasn't sure she was telling the truth, since Atlas was her father and all, but he decided to let it go. The judge had believed her enough to let her get off with complete innocence at her trial, anyways.

Leo sucked in a breath once she was done. "Anything else I should know? I'm half expecting Gaea to turn out to be an alien from way, way outer space trying to invade the world with rabbits now."

"I think your brain's in way, way outer space," Calypso grumbled, but Leo noticed she was trying to stifle a laugh. "I wouldn't put it past her, though. She can be-"

The doorbell rang, making Leo jump. Calypso ran to open the door. "Hazel! Frank! My gods, I almost forgot you two were coming!"

"Gee thanks," A Chinese boy stepped inside her house, kicking off his shoes as they entered. Leo had to make a conscious effort not to gawk, since that guy could pass for a mini-wrestler (Why wasn't he that buff? Honestly, life was unfair). He stopped sulking, however, when Mr. Muscle turned and looked at him. "Um, not to be rude, but who's he?"

"I'm Leo, and is she your girlfriend?" Leo asked, gesturing at the pretty African-American girl with golden eyes beside him.

Wrong question.

The aftermath was almost hysterical, with Golden-Eyes looked flustered and fanning herself while Mini-Wrestler turned into a tomato, cheeks reddening. Before any of them could reply, Calypso forced a laugh and stepped between them.

"Ignore him," she said, tossing Leo a dirty look when Hazel and Frank weren't looking. "He's terrible at making good first impressions."

"Hey!"

Calypso huffed. "What? It's true. Leo, these are my friends Hazel and Frank, who already know your name. I've known them since forever, and they've always been the most kind, loyal, and trustworthy people I've ever met."

She put an emphasize on 'trustworthy', giving him a look as if to say, can I?

"Wow," Frank said, sounding flattered. "Calypso...it's really awesome that you think so highly of us, but why are you looking at him like that...?"

Leo's reaction was different. "What? No way! I told you that Gaea said not to tell other people!"

"You told me, " Calypso retorted. "And besides, they aren't just 'other people'. They're my friends! They can help!"

"I don't want them to get involved in this!"

"Too bad!"

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute," Frank waved his arms around to get their attention. Leo thought he looked like a chicken. "Gaea? Isn't she your grandmother?"

Calypso gave Leo a glare that said, let. Me. Tell. Them.

Leo puffed out his cheeks and sighed. "Fine. If Nico dies I'm blaming you."

"What?" Hazel asked.

"Sit down first," Calypso advised her and Frank. She then preceded to tell them what Leo had told her, while he observed their reactions. Hazel just sat there, nodding like a bobble-head at everything Calypso said, taking it all in. Frank's reaction was significantly more comical, eyes nearly popping out, jaw wide open. Seriously, Leo was sure that mouths weren't made to drop so low. His was practically grazing the floor.

"And that's basically what happened," Calypso finished. "Any questions?"

"I don't believe it," That was the first sentence out of Frank's mouth. "This is insane. Completely, utterly insane. Still, I've never known you to lie. And in a crazy way, it makes sense."

Hazel's eyes were wide, making the gold in them stand out even more. "I agree. We were just there, and something seemed up! A bunch of the staff seemed really worried about something. They even closed down early, I thought they were acting weird."

"Me too," Frank agreed. "Speaking of weird, I saw a bunch of drawings on the ground next to the area. Probably nothing, but all those random dots and dashes looked kinda odd."

Leo straightened. "Dots and dashes? Was it Morse Code?"

"How should I know?" said Frank, shrugging, obviously still a bit ticked at the 'girlfriend' comment. "I don't know Morse Code. It could have been, or it could have been random doodles a kid made. I don't think you should go back to see them, though. They'll recognize you for sure, and me and Hazel would look suspicious if we went back to look at them."

"Do you remember what it looks like?" Leo asked, a desperate edge in his voice. Maybe this was nothing, but his instincts told him otherwise. If Frank and Hazel couldn't remember, then what hope did he have? This could be a valuable clue!

"I don't, but Frank might," said Hazel, "He's got a good memory."

They all turned towards Frank, who swallowed. "Um... I think I might."

"Great!" exclaimed Leo, as he handed him a pencil and a piece of paper. "Write it down. Now."

"Um, I said I might..."

"Write it!"

"Okay, okay," Frank mumbled, scribbling down markings on paper. Every once and a while he would stop, as if trying to recall what it looked like. Whenever that happened, Leo prayed frantically that his 'good memory' would kick in and help. Eventually Frank finished and looked it over, scrutinizing it. Leo bounced up and down impatiently, which earned him some unusual looks from Hazel and Calypso. He ignored them, practically snatching the paper away from Frank when offered to him, decoding it.

The first word, supermarket, made sense. So did 'trapped, Will and Nico', 'and 'Gaea'. It was the last part that confused him, but when he thought about it a bit more, the whole thing made sense. He grinned. "I've got it! Will's amazing! Or Nico's amazing! Whoever wrote this is amazing! Not as much as me, but still! They've discovered Gaea's weakness!"

His three companion's heads snapped up. "Really?"

Leo relayed the message to them and explained his theory. Calypso nodded, the pieces of the puzzle coming together in her head. "Yes, that makes sense. I can't believe I didn't notice it sooner, but me and Gaea weren't really close. She preferred Kronos to my dad and didn't visit often."

"Good thing too," Leo joked. "With her around all the time, you might have grown up to be a jerk. As it is, you're semi-decent."

Calypso almost smiled, but Hazel cleared her throat. "There's still the problem of using her weakness against her."

"True," Frank said. "Don't you have some, Calypso?"

"Yeah," she said. "I'll go get them now. It might take some time, though, since my fridge broke down a while ago. Mr. Castellan was kind enough to let me put my groceries in his so they wouldn't rot until I got my new one, I'll have to go to his house to get them. Do you want to wait until I'm done or should I deliver them to you later?"

Leo considered both options. "Well, it might take some time, and I really should tell my friends where I am. Can you bring them to the supermarket?"

"Sure, when?"

"I'll give you a signal when we're leaving," Leo answered. What the signal would be, he didn't know. He'd think of something. "You'll know what it is. Now that that's settled, I should probably make my way back to Percy's house."

"Are you going to walk?" Hazel asked, sounding worried. "Because I don't think you should, they might spot you and continue the chase. Why don't me and Frank drive you instead?"

Calypso frowned. "But they might see him anyways."

"No problem," Frank said. "He can stay in the trunk."

"I'm going to stay in the what?"

"That's a great idea!" Calypso beamed. "Problem solved. Thanks guys! I'll get the stuff we need and meet you there. Bye!"

Hazel and Frank dragged him out of Calypso's house and practically threw him into the back of Frank's car. Leo felt like a hostage. "What if I die? I haven't got a seatbelt!"

"You'll be fine," Hazel reassured him. "Who knows? This might actually be fun! I always wanted to ride in the trunk when I was younger."

Leo was tempted to say that if she still wanted to see what it was like, they could switch places, but just then Frank chose to start the car. "Better duck down, Leo. We wouldn't want any of Gaea's minions seeing you."

The Chinese-Canadian sounded a little too pleased at the position Leo was in.

Grumbling, Leo did as Frank instructed. The ride to the others was terrible. Leo seriously suspected that Frank was trying to drive over every bump in their way just to torture him.

Many bumps and self-assurances from Leo that he was going to get revenge later, the car finally stopped. Leo couldn't get out quick enough, dashing up the stairs to Percy's apartment. Hazel and Frank followed him, the latter panting all the way and yelling at him to slow down.

Leo didn't, instead choosing to press the doorbell multiple times once he'd reached it. Come on guys, open it already...

The handle turned and the door swung open, revealing Piper's face. "Hello, who is this- LEO!" Eyes lighting up in realization, she promptly tackle-hugged him. "You're okay!"

Leo's friends took that as the cue to come running. Jason punched him in the arm. "That was for worrying us. You've got to be less selfless, you know."

"Dude, where were you?"

"You're an idiot, Valdez, you know that?"

"Hey, who are they?"

The last one was directed at Hazel and Frank, both of which just awkwardly standing there gazing at the scene. At Annabeth's question, everyone turned towards to look at them. Frank shuffled uncomfortably while Hazel forced a strained smile, waving.

"They," said Leo, "are my friends that I just met a while ago. Hazel, Frank, meet Percy, Jason, Thalia, Piper, Reyna, and Annabeth. And vice versa. Now lets all come into the house, get Percy's mom to make us cookies, and I'll tell you something very important I just discovered, along with my plan."

And another cliffhanger! I am a horrible person, I know! 0.0 What is Gaea's weakness? And what is Leo's plan?

Sorry if anyone was OOC. And if this chapter was boring. It was mostly a filler, really...

Random Question: What did you guys get for Christmas? I got a $50 Indigo gift card and lip balm. I liked the gift card. The lip balm... -.-

If you want to give me a present for the holidays, review. If not, review anyways. Just review.

LAST EDITED: 08/22/15