My apologies for not updating.

Leo's pov

We reached the ladder quickly, and climbed up one-by-one, I going first. At the top was a metal trap door, which swung open surprisingly easily. I climbed through quickly, pulling Chris up behind me.

The stench was unbelievable. We had obviously landed in an old abandoned sewer, which, unfortunately had not been cleaned in a while.

"There is no way I'm walking in that." Chris spat angrily.

To be honest I couldn't blame her, the floor was covered in mud. At least I hoped it was mud. And there were huge rats scurrying around.

Of course, I couldn't let such a perfect opportunity to mock her like this go to waste.

"Aww, is ickle Cwissy-Chris-Chris scared of the big bad rats." I sang in my best baby voice.

"Shut up." she spat back, too busy glaring at a huge black pack rat to hit me. A fact I am quite grateful for (hey, her punches really hurt).

I was just standing there sniggering, planning my next move on Chris when I felt a small nudging on my shoe. I looked down, vainly hoping that Chris was playing footsie with me (hey, it could happen) when I saw the fattest rat you have ever seen nibbling on my shoe.

With a very manly shriek I leapt into the air, kicking it as hard as I could. I landed shaking, and flung my arms around Chris' shoulders (purely to comfort herof course)

I realised, too late, what I had done. In a vain attempt to retain my macho image I released her, and stood there like an idiot pretending that nothing had happened.

She, on the other hand, stood there, doubled over laughing.

"Who's afraid now, Valdez?"

"Shut up and get walking" I grumbled, feeling ever so slightly emasculated (not that it mattered that much, I was still by far the hottest guy at camp)

Very cautiously Chris and I stepped into the muck, watching carefully for rats. Thankfully, they all seemed to be afraid of the fire that I kept burning in my leveled palm.

We were passing past the third bend when we saw a ladder which would almost certainly lead to a manhole which would mean freedom. Unfortunately, we also saw a huge number of beady, red eyes glaring at us from one of the walls. From beside me I heard Chris give a small whimper of fear. I, thankfully, only whimpered internally.

These rats, for some apparent reason, did not seem to be afraid of us and just refused to move. Chris, although plainly a little bit scared, found it necessary to hum the jaws theme song under her breath.

I seized this opportunity to show Chris just how manly and awesome I truly am, by rescuing her Leo-style. Summoning a huge fire-ball I shot it at the (somewhat intimidating) rats. Some managed to escape my epic wrath, while others were…not so lucky.

Chris sniffed daintily, obviously impressed with my pyromaniac skills, but refusing to show.

I bowed slightly, gesturing towards the ladder saying "Ladies first."

She stuck her tongue out at me and strutted towards the dirty ladder, sidestepping the pieces of charred rat as she went. She shivered distastefully as she touched the dirty ladder and began to climb quickly. Honestly, the girl could stand blood, guts and having the crap kicked out of her by her siblings but couldn't stand a bit of dirt, come on now.

I clambered up after her, purposefully keeping my distance so she couldn't step on my face…by accident of course. Soon we hit a trapdoor which swung open fairly easily, and we hauled ourselves through the manhole.

We emerged onto a small back alley in what could be New York (although I honestly wasn't one hundred percent sure).

"Come on, let's go." Said Chris "trust me, this is not a good neighborhood."

"How do you know?" I asked uncertainly, wondering if she had been here before.

"It's pretty obvious by the amount of bullet holes in the house walls, and the graffiti message on the wall which says 'Die demigod scum'"

"Ah." I replied intelligently, as we sprinted out of the dirty neighborhood.

We ran for several minutes as fast as we could (I was very pleased to see that I was faster than Chris). Finally we came to a stop in a hopefully less dangerous area, and I wheezed out

"So, whatta we do now?"

"Look, it's simple, we break into that car dealership over there, you hotwire a car, and we drive away. Now stop being such a pussy, and let's go jump that fence."

Did she just call me a pussy? Oh no she didn't...

"Fine." I shot back angrily.

"Fine." she replied, her face unemotional, but her lips twitching.

Chris walked purposefully towards the chain-link fence, she reaching it just before me. Instantly she leapt onto the gate and climbed up it like a monkey. She landed gracefully on the other side, laughing at me.

As I was standing there looking like a stupid, if extremely sexy, retard, I came up with a killer plan.

Quite nonchalantly, I lifted my right index finger and conjured up a white hot flame, which cut through the bars like a knife through butter. Very carefully I parted the fence and stepped through, smirking. I used all my will power not to gloat (apparently girls don't like that, who knew?). I didn't need to though, Chris turned as red as a tomato, with a mixture of anger and frustration.

"So, which car?" I asked innocently.

"That one." She replied simply, pointing towards a gleaming silver BMW inside the building.

"What about the window?" I asked, thankful for having outsmarted her.

She merely smiled evilly, bent down and picked something off the ground. With a small smirk she turned towards the window and hurled the object. It passed through the window, shattering it, landing only a few feet away from the convertible.

"What the hell?" I screamed "The police will be here any second."

"Work fast." she replied, patting my face before skipping through the smashed window.

I sprinted after her and threw open the hood. After Festus and the Argo II hotwiring a car was child play. It took me barely thirty seconds.

"Are you done." Asked Chris excitedly as soon as I slammed the hood down, obviously thrilled to drive the sports car.

"Yup." I replied, relieved that the police hadn't arrived yet.

"You're a genius." She replied, sprinting around the car towards the driver's seat. In her euphoria, as she passed me she threw her hands around my neck and smashed her lips against my cheek for a few agonizingly brief seconds.

She released me all-too quickly and, looking a little flustered, hopped into the car, shouting "Come on."

Well, they finally-sorta-kissed.