XIX

Leo

As the Sphinx pounced towards them, Leo ducked and rolled. The sphinx flashed and appeared right above them. There was barely enough time to duck and roll before the sphinx crashed down onto them.

"How do we get out?" Jason yelled at Annabeth. "She's too fast!"

Suddenly, Leo got an idea, the pieces coming together as the snap of a finger. In fact, it was so random that he had to imagine the circuitry again.

Somehow, the badly made circuit board he'd used to make the cheating device was, in fact, perfect for making a timer bomb. It had been all thanks to one bad solder, in fact-that was what had caused an overload of electricity, but he knew it hadn't been destroyed in the unfortunate incident.

Now, he just needed to find it.

"Hey!" he yelled. "Annabeth, distract her!" he yelled. "I have an idea!"

But as soon as he said that, the Sphinx immediately appeared in front of him. He barely ducked- in fact, she managed to claw off a bunch of his hair. She growled in frustration and went again. But at that moment, she reared in pain and turned around.

"Hurry!" Annabeth yelled.

"I know!" Leo yelled back. The Sphinx was too preoccupied with the others to concentrate on him. Luckily, it wasn't too hard to find- in fact, it was right under the table he was working on. He picked it up, then whipped out an electric screwdriver, a couple of supplies from his tool belt, a pair of AA batteries and a pack of breath mints. He popped one in his mouth, and began working.

He welded like never before, completing the wiring in a matter of milliseconds. But then he realized he had a problem.

He looked at everyone else, who were busy fighting. "Hey!" he yelled. "Does anyone have some toothpaste?"

Everyone looked at him weird- even Carter, who blocked the Sphinx's charge with a wicked-looking curved sword. "What do you need a tube of toothpaste for?" Carter asked.

"For this!" he yelled back pointing at the project he was creating on the table.

Carter looked doubtful, but nonetheless, he pushed his hand up in the air-and it disappeared. Everyone gasped. Even the Sphinx stopped dead in her tracks.

He seemed to fumble around for something, and he pulled his hand down. And in it was a tube of Colgate.

The Sphinx hissed and jumped, regaining her composure.

"Catch!" Carter yelled, throwing the tube of toothpaste at him. He clashed into the sphinx head-on.

Leo managed to catch it, and fumbled with it a bit before opening the lid and squeezing a large amount of it into the already potent mixture he'd stored in a separate area of the tiny explosive that was about the size of his fist.

He set his hands ablaze and welded the tiny metal plates together. He slapped on the circuitry, and put in the timer. He could only hope it would work as he applied the superglue on the other side of it.

"Hey!" he yelled.

The sphinx turned around, noticed the sphere in his hands and her eyes flashed in anger. She twisted around and ran straight towards Leo. He just blindly threw the shell towards her, not really paying attention. He just got the heck out of there- just as the sphinx slammed into the table.

She growled and shook splinters off her skin. She glared at Leo, who noticed a tiny black ball stuck to her back leg. He breathed out a sigh of relief. But it wasn't over yet. He still needed to wait for the timer to tick down. He'd set it to about half a minute, with the presumption that he wouldn't be able to hit it the first time.

He grabbed a random black piece of brick from the ground, and threw it at the Sphinx as a distraction. She reared back, avoiding the 'bomb' and then ran right towards him. Leo dived as she pounced for him. He was so close he could feel the claws tearing through his shoes. Annabeth shouted, trying to distract the Sphinx from him, but she wasn't taking the bait.

Leo slowly crawled into a corner, forced by the sphinx. She licked her lips, savoring every moment of it.

And that was when the beeping started.

Suddenly, the makeshift explosive that Leo had created started to glow red-hot. He winced as he heard the ticking, and closed his eyes. She sphinx didn't even notice that there was something stuck to her leg. She closed in for the kill, and when Leo was certain that the beeping was going to end, he closed his eyes. Milliseconds later, he heard the sound of an explosion. Hazel screamed. But he didn't feel anything.

He opened his eyes a sliver. In front of him, blocking him from the brunt of the explosion, was a wall made of precious metals, gems and all sorts of necklaces. He stood up, and the wall fell. Behind it was a giant pile of ash, and a group of jubilant friends.

He walked over to them, stepping in the dust for good measure. "Well, Hazel, thanks." He told her. Frank narrowed his eyes a bit, but Leo thumped him on the back. "We're all friends here, right?"

Frank grumbled something that sounded like a "Yes", but Leo didn't care.

"Come on." He said. He walked over to Carter's sword, which had somehow fallen onto the floor during the fight, and picked it up. "Let's get out of here."

Annabeth nodded. She passed the sword to Carter cautiously, somewhat sizing him up. He did the disappearing-hand trick again, and deposited the sword… somewhere.

They walked out of the doors, and into the maze. But as soon as they went into the hallway, they found themselves at a dead end.