First Person: Emily
Leo psyched himself up for an extreme makeover. Zy gave him sunglasses from her bag, his hair was greased back with machine oil, he rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, he stuck a wrench in his back pocket (though the reason why still eludes me) and Hazel and I drew a couple tattoos. Hazel did one on his left bicep that said HOT STUFF with a skull and crossbones, while I drew one on his right bicep that said TEAM LEO inside of a heart with the ends of an arrow on either side. Zy pointed at his shirt and it suddenly read HOT STUFF, BAD BOY, and TEAM LEO. She dismissed her wing for her jacket so her normally plum-colored shirt, that had changed to be a white one which said I (heart)LEO, could be seen. She changed mine to be one as well.
"Not one word about the shirt," She said with a serious and threatening voice.
"What in the world are you thinking?" Hazel muttered.
"I try not to think," Leo admitted. "It interferes with being nuts."
"He's got a point there," Zy agreed. "Just concentrate on getting the Celestial bronze. We want to keep the nymphs and not-so-pretty boy over there from noticing its gone for as long as we can. Echo, Emily, you guys ready?"
"Ready," Echo said with a nod.
"We're all set," I agreed. Leo took a deep breath before he strutted back toward the pond as confidently as he could and we followed.
"Leo is the coolest!" I shouted.
"Leo is the coolest!" Echo shouted as well.
"Yeah, baby, check me out!" Leo shouted.
"Check me out!"
"Make way for the king!" Zy called.
"The king!"
"Narcissus is weak!"
"Weak!" The crowd of 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 hand around that ugly dweeb Narcissus. He's 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 glasses. He flexed his biceps, though he didn't have much to flex, and showed his HOT STUFF tattoo. He had the nymphs' attention, if only because they were stunned, but Narcissus was still fixed on his own reflection.
"Leo is way hotter than Narcissus," I said, trying to use my charm speak and influence. "He's got such perfect hair, and an adorable face! And he's so smart!"
"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 was vaguely aware of a gnat buzzing around his head. His head was so full of admiration for his own reflection, it was almost overwhelming, but we were beginning to get to him.
"You know why his bow has cobwebs?" Zy asked. "He uses it to hunt for dates, but he can't fine one!" One of the nymphs laughed, but the others quickly elbowed her into silence. "I bet you can't even use that bow nearly as good as m - I mean Leo!" I felt the distraction pushing its way through Narcissus's daze of admiring himself, and also getting through to the nymphs as well. I added to the influence, and finally, Narcissus turned and scowled at Leo.
"Who are you?" He asked.
"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.
"I love a bad boy like him," Zy agreed, though I could sense her resentment of being so cheesy. Luckily she kept a perfectly straight face, even acting like she was infatuated with him without letting her true feelings show.
"He's so amazing!" I said with a perfect hint of admiration that it was convincing, but not too overdone that it seemed fake. Thank goodness we were actors who knew how to do this so well. Leo took out a pen and autographed the arm of one of the nymphs.
"Narcissus is a loser!" He announced. "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 eyebrows. His face was turning from bronze to salmon pink. For the moment, he'd totally forgotten about the pond, and I could see the sheet of bronze sinking into the sand.
"What are you talking about?" Narcissus demanded. "I am amazing. Everyone knows this."
"You aren't amazing," Zy declared.
"You're amazing at pure suck, maybe," Leo said. "If I was as suck as you, I'd drown myself. Oh wait, you already did that." Zy and I giggled as girlish and fangirl as we could, and I willed some of the nymphs to begin doing so as well. Narcissus growled, which did make him look a little less handsome. Meanwhile, Leo beamed and wiggled his eyebrows over his sunglasses, spreading his hands and gesturing for applause.
"That's right!" He said. "Team Leo for the win!"
"Team Leo for the win!" Echo shouted. She'd wriggled into the mob of nymphs, and because she was so hard to see, the nymphs thought the voice came from one of their own. I wrapped my arm around Leo's for effect.
"He is so awesome!" I bellowed.
"So awesome!" Echo yelled back.
"And handsome!" Zy added, coming up from the other side. "He is way better than lame old Narcissus."
"He is funny," A nymph ventured.
"And cute, in a scrawny way," Another said.
"Scrawny?" Leo asked. "Baby, I invented scrawny. Scrawny is the new sizzling hot. And I GOT the scrawny. Narcissus? He's such a loser even the Underworld didn't want him. He couldn't get the ghost girls to date him."
"Ew," Said a nymph.
"Ew," Echo agreed.
"Stop!" Narcissus got to his feet. "This is not right! This person is obviously not awesome, so he must be…" He struggled for the right words. It had probably been a long time since he'd talked about anything other than himself. "He must be tricking us." Apparently Narcissus wasn't completely mindless, as realization dawned on his face and he turned back to the pond. "The bronze mirror is gone! My reflection! Give me back to me!"
"Team Leo!" One of the nymphs squeaked, but the others returned their attention to Narcissus.
"I'm the beautiful one!" Narcissus insisted. "He's stolen my mirror and I'm going to leave unless we get it back!" The girls gasped and one pointed.
"There!" Hazel was at the top of the crater, running away as fast as she could while lugging a large sheet of bronze.
"Get it back!" Cried a nymph.
"Get it back…" Echo muttered, straining as she most likely said it against her will.
"Yes!" Narcissus unslung his bow and grabbed an arrow from his dusty quiver. "The first one who gets that bronze, I will like you almost as much as I like me. I might even kiss you, right after I kiss my reflection!"
"Oh my gods!" The nymphs screamed.
"And kill those demigods!" He added, glaring handsomely at Leo. "They are not as cool as me!"
"Time to go then," Zy said before she stepped forward and pounded the ground as hard as she could. Instantly a wave of dirt, sand and water jumped into the air all over the nymphs and Narcissus, creating a wall of the stuff that blinded most of them. "Run!" We did so. We could run pretty fast when someone was trying to kill us (sadly all of us had plenty of experience) and we all quickly overtook Hazel, which was easy considering she was struggling with fifty pounds of Celestial bronze. Zy quickly took it from her, still able to run with it at her normal speed thanks to her strength. I looked back to see Narcissus nocking an arrow, but it was so old a brittle, it broke into splinters and the bowstring instantly snapped.
"Ow!" He yelled. "My manicure!" Normally, nymphs were quick - at least the ones at Camp Half-Blood were - but these were burdened with posters, T-shirts, and other Narcissus TM merchandise. The nymphs also weren't great at working as a team, stumbling over one another, pushing and shoving. Echo made things worse by running among them, tripping and tackling as many as she could. Still, they were closing in rapidly, and only Zy was keeping a good pace, mostly because of her godly stamina.
"Call Arion!" Leo gasped.
"Already did!" Hazel said. We ran for the beach and made it to the edge of the water. We could see the Argo II, but we had no way of getting there. It was much too far to swim, even if we weren't toting bronze.
"Zoltan!" Zy shouted, her voice booming across the lake. The horse suddenly appeared in front of her. "Emily, get on." I did so, and she passed me the bronze, making sure it was properly supported on the horse for a trip. The mob was coming over the dune, Narcissus in the lead, holding his bow like a band major's baton. The nymphs had conjured assorted weapons, some holding rocks, some holding wooden clubs wreathed in flowers. A few of the water nymphs had squirt guns - which seemed not quite as terrifying - but the look in their eyes was still murderous.
"Oh man," Leo muttered, summoning fire in his free hand. "Straight up fighting isn't my thing."
"Get behind me!" I ordered.
"Get behind me!" Echo repeated. The camouflaged girl was racing ahead of the mob now. She stopped in front of us and turned, her arms spread as if she meant to personally shield us.
"Echo?" Leo asked. "You're one brave nymph."
"Brave nymph?" She asked.
"I'm proud to have you on Team Leo. If we survive this, you should forget Narcissus."
"Forget Narcissus?"
"You're way to good for him." The nymphs surrounded us in a semicircle.
"Trickery!" Narcissus said. "They don't love me, girls! We all love me, don't we?"
"Yes!" The girls screamed, except for one confused nymph in a yellow dress who squeaked, "Team Leo!"
"Kill them!"
"Arion!" Zy called. The horse raced out of nowhere, joining Zy to began circling the mob so quickly they created a sandstorm - or lime-storm, I suppose - showering the nymphs in white lime and spraying their eyes.
"I love this horse!" Leo declared. The nymphs collapsed, coughing and gagging. Narcissus stumbled around blindly, swinging his bow like he was trying to hit a piñata.
"Get on!" Zy ordered. Hazel did so, and offered Leo a hand.
"We can't leave Echo!" Leo said.
"Leave Echo," The nymph repeated. She smiled, and her face suddenly seemed to become clearer.
"Why?" I asked. "You don't think you can still save Narcissus…?"
"Save Narcissus," She said confidently. Even though it was only an echo, I could tell that she meant it. She'd been given a second chance at life, and she was determined to use it to save the guy she loved - even if he was a completely hopeless (though mildly handsome) moron. Leo looked like he wanted to protest, but Echo leaned forward and kissed him on the check, then pushed him gently away.
"Leo, we have to go!" Zy shouted.
"Go," Echo agreed. The other nymphs were starting to recover, wiping the lime out of their eyes which were now glowing green with anger. I looked for Echo again, but she had dissolved into the scenery. I could still sense her there, her feelings of determination and resolve, and I knew that we needed to leave her. We'd need to visit her sometime, preferably without the other nymphs trying to kill us, but Echo deserved more in life, at least to have some kind of help or company.
"Yeah," Leo finally said, his throat dry. "Yeah, okay." He climbed up behind Hazel.
"Go! To the ship!" Zy ordered. Instantly the two horses rocketed off.
Zy summoned her sword and then smashed it into the sand, blinding the group once more before summoning her wing and flying after us, the nymphs screaming and Narcissus shouting, "Bring me back! Bring me back!"
We raced to the Argo II, and I remembered what Nemesis had told us. "Perhaps they'll teach you a lesson." I thought she meant Narcissus, but maybe she was talking about Echo - invisible to her brethren, cursed to love someone who didn't care for her. I would never forget Echo, I was determined to never forget her face. She deserved at least one person who saw her and knew how good she was. Yet when I closed my eyes, the memory of her smile was already fading.
We made it back to the ship, waving to Audrey, who gave a "Seriously?" look when she saw the nymphs coming behind us, and waved us away. We ran below deck, stumbling to a stop in the doorway of Jason's room, Zy carrying the sheet of Celestial bronze. Jason was sitting up and looked to be doing well, and Piper was sitting next to him, looking relieved. At least until she saw Leo.
"Gods of Olympus," She said, starting. "What happened to you?"
"Long story," He said. "Others back?"
"Not yet." Leo cursed before noticing Jason sitting up, and his face brightened.
"Hey, man! Glad you're better. I'll be in the engine room." He ran off with the sheet of bronze, leaving the rest of us in the doorway. Piper raised an eyebrow.
"Team Leo?"
"Not another word about it," Zy threatened.
"We met Narcissus," Hazel said.
"Also Nemesis," I added. "The revenge goddess. We'll explain later." Jason sighed.
"I miss all the fun." On the deck above, something went THUMP, as if a heavy creature had landed. Annabeth and Percy came running down the hall, Percy toting a steaming five-gallon plastic bucket that smelled horrible. The two of them were covered in black sticky stuff.
"Roofing tar?" Piper guessed.
"Just tar-tar," Percy said. Zy snickered.
"Tar-tar."
"What?"
"Long story. Later." Frank stumbled in behind them, which made the hallway pretty jam-packed with demigods.
"Ran into some tar monsters," Annabeth said. "Hey Jason, glad you're awake. Hazel, Emily, where's Leo?" I pointed down.
"Engine room." Suddenly the entire ship listed port. All of us stumbled and Percy almost spilled his bucket of tar.
"Percy, get your ass up here and help me!" Audrey called from above deck.
"What was that?" Percy demanded.
"Oh…" Hazel said, looking embarrassed. "We might have angered the nymphs who live in this lake. Like…all of them."
"Great." He handed the bucket of tar to Annabeth. "You guys help Leo. We'll hold off the water spirits as long as we can."
"On it!" Frank promised. The three of them ran off in opposite directions, leaving Hazel, Zy and I at the cabin door. The ship listed again, and Hazel hugged her stomach like she was going to be sick.
"I'll just…" She swallowed, pointed weakly down the passageway, and ran off.
"That's not gonna be pretty," Zy muttered. She fished something out of her bag and tossed it to me. "Tell her to take those pills. They should help with the seasickness." I nodded and walked after Hazel to assist her in her sickness. The ship rocked back and forth, and even I was getting a bit dizzy. Waves crashed against the hull as angry voices came from above deck - Percy and Audrey shouting, Zy ordering things, Coach Hedge yelling at the lake. Festus the figurehead breathed fire several times. Hazel was moaning in her cabin while I got her to take a pill and try to lay still. In the engine room down below, it sounded like Leo and the others were doing an Irish line dance with anvils ties to their feet. After what seemed like hours, the engine began to hum. The oars creaked and groaned, and I felt the ship lift into the air.
The rocking and shaking had stopped, and the ship became quiet except for the drone of machinery. I walked out, seeing as Hazel seemed to have calmed her stomach as much as she could. Leo emerged from the engine room, caked in sweat, lime dust, and tar. His T-shirt looked like it had been caught in an escalator and chewed to shreds. The TEAM LEO on his chest now read AM LEO, but he grinned like a madman and announced that we were safely underway.
"Meeting in the mess hall, one hour," He said. "Crazy day, huh?"
