Honestly, the whole bomb thing was a complete and utter random thing that I wish I hadn't put now as I've been really struggling to come up with a following chapter for it. Anyway, I'm going to try. I have a bag of choccies next to me, so I'm in a good mood- kind of. Long story, don't worry.
Alokia chewed her lip until she tasted blood. She had NO IDEA what she was doing! Leo and his big ideas…
"Kia, stay calm, OK? Have you removed the timer?"
"Yeah…"
"What'd you see?"
"Wires." Leo gave a laugh and she detected a hint of 'no shit, Sherlock' in it. "Um…"
"No, it's OK." Leo assured. He slowly started to give her instructions. There was just over ten minutes on the timer and she was slowly evading a panic attack. "OK, Kia, just breathe slowly. Calm down."
"Calm down?! Have you lost it?! This is a frigging bomb!" Under normal circumstances, Alokia wouldn't dare talk to her parents like that in fear of upsetting them. Right now, panic was coursing through her in waves.
"Yes, I know that, but if you panic, you won't be able to stop it." Alokia gave a nervous laugh. Leo hummed indecisively for a few seconds. "OK, this is like that game we used to play- with those rubber-plastic stringy things that you made into weird 3D key chain thingies."
"Dad…"
"And then we'd put them all in a big pile and you had to pick out a certain colour without moving any others."
"But Dad-"
"Trust me, Kia." Alokia hesitated.
"OK." Nine minutes. "What am I doing?"
Crystal and Ms. Dolan had successfully gotten Alvie to the field. Elsie was right behind them and firing mercilessly. The man with the scar had gained a companion- Crystal had dubbed him Evil Superman.
Blood was still pouring from Alvie's eyes and he was fighting a panic attack. His sight was still missing, blinded by the scarlet. Crystal kept reassuring him as best she could, but there were several close calls. Evil Superman could throw balls of light that set things on fire, caused an explosion or melted things into puddles. Crystal didn't want to be a puddle, as much as she loved jumping in them.
"Come on, Alvie, you're doing great. Elsie, shoot their asses already!"
"I'm. Trying." Elsie retorted through gritted teeth. "Can you see Tobias?"
"What? Why?"
"Can you just see him?! For the love of Zeus's mother, you mortals are beyond stupid."
"Hey!"
"Don't… argue…" Alvie ordered weakly. Crystal, as much as she would have loved to give Elsie a load of sass for calling her 'stupid', stayed quiet.
"Alvie!" Tobias pushed his way through the gathered students. "Oh gods, what-?" He held Alvie's blood-stained face in his hands, concern rolling off of him in waves. "What happened?"
"I don't know." Crystal answered. "I'll explain later, but you've got to help that cow. I mean Elsie." Crystal corrected, scowling. Tobias gave his younger brother a worried glance before pulling a pen from his pocket. Uncapping it, it extended into a sword and he ran to his cousin's aid.
"You should see some sort of container with wires on either end."
"Yeah."
"Don't cut the red wire. Screw movies and that sh- cr- ugh, whatever. Don't cut any wires 'cos that'll trigger a chain reaction. You have to get the core."
"The what?"
"It's in the container."
"What's the core made of?"
"I don't bloody know!" Leo sighed, feeling as stressed as his daughter. Five minutes. "OK, OK, I'm sorry. Um… is there a small hatch somewhere?"
"Uh…" Alokia did her best to check the container from all sides without pulling free any of the wires. "No!"
"Oh gods… you're going to have to cut a hatch into it. But not too deep 'cos you might hit the core and then the whole thing will blow sky high."
"OK…" With shaking hands, Alokia drew her knife. The celestial bronze cut through the metal of the container with ease. "Oh wow…"
"What?"
"It's… it's a blue sphere."
"Magic?"
"It looks like it."
"Right, um… oh gods, I hate it when people combine magic and technology. It gets way too confusing."
"Dad, four minutes!"
"Sorry! ADHD, remember?" Leo gave an exhausted sigh and Alokia could see him running a hand through his curls tiresomely. "You need to get that out."
"How?"
"Balance it on the knife. Try not to stab it though." Alokia carefully put the flat of her blade under the sphere. Blue energy crackled along the metal blade and fear slammed into her gut. Thankfully, it was stopped by the insulating leather wrapped around the handle.
Slowly and carefully, she drew the knife out. Her fear subsided a little as the sphere balanced on the knife's surface. "Don't touch it." Leo told her.
"I'm not." By the time there was three minutes, she had the sphere well out of the container and balanced on her knife. "Now what?"
"Um… I'm not sure." Leo hummed tunelessly for a few seconds in thought. "Do you have one of your mom's arrows?"
"The sea energy ones?"
"Yes."
"I think so."
"Right, put the sphere thing on the floor and shoot it."
"What?!"
"Just do it!"
Tobias cracked the hilt of his sword on Evil Superman's head and he dropped like a sack of flour. Scarface wasn't as easy to take down, hacking at Tobias viciously. Tobias could only defend himself, not given an opportunity to attack in return. Elsie was still firing arrows, but Scarface simply waved his hand and she screamed, dropping her bow and crumpling to the floor, clutching her head in agony.
"Elsie!" The slight distraction gained Tobias a solid whack in the ribs from the hilt of his opponent's sword. Crystal heard his ribs crack and the grimace on his face told her all she needed to know.
A dark shape darted down out of nowhere and smashed into the scarred man's face. A few more followed and then a dozen. Crystal had no idea what they were or what was causing them until Alvie was leaning on his crutches heavier than before.
One shape circled out before dashing back in to slice at the man's face. In that short moment, Crystal recognised the shape as an owl and it looked like it was made of dark clouds…
The owls swarmed together, creating a thick, writhing mess of storm and ice. The clouds twisted and swirled before beginning to take shape as a larger owl. It beat its large wings and dived once more at the man, its icy claws extended to slash his throat.
The man cried out in alarm, turning and running. He hit the dirt before the owl could take his head clean off. It simply swooped round and took another diving attempt at him.
After a few more of these dives, the owl managed to drag its claws along the man's back before settling on the man's leg and hamstringing him.
Alokia stared at the timer.
0:02
Two seconds later and she would have died. Despite having the core removed, the bomb still would have exploded, but without its main power source, it could have caused less damage than intentionally planned.
Her knees gave way and she sank to the floor, laughing and crying in relief and releasing the pent up stress.
"You did good, Kia." She could hear her father's proud smile in his tone. "Get yourself some coffee and a chocolate cake and just chill, OK?"
"Sounds good to me." She smiled watery. "I've got to find the others first though."
"Meh- choccie cake first." Laughing weakly, she wiped her face on her sleeve.
"Never again."
"Agreed." Leo smiled. "We'll be there in ten. Be careful."
"I'll try. Bye Dad."
"Bye Kia." She hung up and slipped her phone in her pocket before shakily getting to her feet. She cast her eyes over the deactivated bomb and self-pride swelled in her. Finally, she had done something worthy of one of her godly grandparents.
Stumbling out the door, Alokia couldn't help but smile.
A small, dark blob was floating towards her. Her smile faded with curiosity and caution.
She relaxed when she saw it was one of Alvie's storm owls.
It circled her head once before flying off, leaving clear intentions of its wish to be followed. Alokia picked up the pace and sprinted after it.
She slammed through a door, coming out onto the pathway to the school field. A larger storm owl was attacking Luke while Harvey was unconscious on the floor a few feet away. Tobias smiled when he saw her, but there was a layer of pain beneath the smile. He was massaging his ribs and wincing.
"Elsie!" Alokia ran forward, ducking the large storm owl and dropping to her knees next to her sister. She checked for a pulse, relieved to find it strong and steady. "Elsie, wake up." She fumbled in her pockets for ambrosia, but came up empty handed. "Elsie!" Alokia shouted, trying to get her sister's attention. Elsie stirred, but didn't wake.
An ear-damning screech emitted from behind her and Luke cried out in pain. Then everything was silent.
Alvie groaned in exhaustion. Alokia glanced round to see Crystal and their art teacher holding him up, even with his crutches. Tobias moved forward, checking on his brother before walking towards Alokia and Elsie. He too checked for a pulse before capping his pen and returning it to his pockets. Despite his ribs, he managed to pick Elsie up in his arms with ease while Alokia gathered her sister's bow and dropped arrows.
"Where were you?" Tobias asked her.
"Deactivating a bomb." He stared at her as if she had gone crazy. "Dad talked me through it, somehow, but I did it!" She beamed proudly and Tobias smiled.
"You Valdez lot are crazy."
"You're related to us."
"Yeah, but I'm a Jackson. I'm not included in that 'Valdez lot'."
"Oh, shut up and help Elsie." She glanced at her cousin. "And Alvie."
Their parents arrived ten minutes later. Leo and Percy used thick rope to tie the two villains up separately before dragging them off. Leo returned a short while later and hugged Alokia fiercely.
"That's my girl." He beamed. Alokia returned his hug, laughing.
"I thought exams were stressful."
"Ugh, I never really did my exams." Leo told her quietly. "Didn't stay around long enough." Alokia looked at him curiously, knowing little about her father's past. Leo didn't elaborate, declaring that he wanted to check the remainder of the bomb. He left Annabeth and Louisa to sort out Elsie and Alvie, who had been taken inside and away from prying eyes. Charlie was with her.
Tobias was sitting in the corner and munching on ambrosia. His ribs were slowly mending. Annabeth had gently washed the blood from Alvie's face and folded a clean, damp cloth over his eyes, like her husband did when Alvie woke up in the hospital. Alvie slowly relaxed, Crystal standing next to his chair and holding his hand. Louisa had used the Mist on the Art teacher and sent her out to join the rest of the school, who she would Mist later on. Right now, her main worry was Elsie. Whatever she tried, her teenage daughter didn't seem to wake up.
"Lou, stay calm." Annabeth advised.
"Oh, I'm perfectly calm!" Louisa snapped.
"Yeah, sure." Tobias gave a dry laugh. Louisa glowered at him and he wisely kept quiet.
Alvie tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair before sitting upright. The cloth dropped from his eyes; Crystal caught it, amazing herself with random ninja skills. His eyes weren't as red and there was no longer blood pouring from them. He squinted at his aunt before turning his gaze to his cousin.
"Amphitrite." He told her. Louisa frowned in confusion. "Take… Elsie… to Amphitrite."
"Why?"
"I don't… know… I just… got a… feeling…" Louisa glanced at Annabeth, who nodded.
"Fine." Louisa held out her hand, her lips moving silently. Green light extended from her palm and a few seconds later, she was holding a trident. "Mind ya eyes." She told them, taking Elsie's hand. Crystal replaced the cloth over Alvie's eyes before redirecting her gaze like the rest of them. There was a thud followed by a burst of sea green light that filled the room. When that died down, Louisa and Elsie were gone, leaving a sea breeze in their absence.
"Dad can't do that. Can he?" Tobias looked enquiringly at his mother.
"He can. Poseidon gave them the power to summon tridents that can teleport them anywhere, as long as they turn up at some beach or something- they'll end up in the sea somewhere. It's really cool." She grinned.
"Whoa- you travelled by, uh, trident and didn't invite me?" Annabeth rolled her eyes, still smiling. "No fair, Mom."
"Tobias, shut up."
"Never!" He grinned childishly. Annabeth sighed, redirecting her attention to Alvie.
"Feeling better, Alvie?" He didn't respond straight away.
"Bit." He mumbled. "My head hurts." He added. Before Annabeth could reply, the door opened.
"Found them." Leo grinned triumphantly.
"Daddy!" Charlie bounced up from his seat near Tobias and ran forward to collide with his father's legs. "And Kia! Where you go?"
"We had to check something, Charlie." Leo said kindly. "Where're Lou and Elsie?"
"They travelled by trident to go to Poseidon's place to see Amphitrite who could help Elsie." Tobias grumbled. "I want to go too."
"Where's Dad?" Alvie asked.
"He's… running an errand." Leo settled with, glancing sheepishly at Annabeth. By 'errand', he meant 'disposing of Harvey and Luke's unconscious bodies' (unless they suffocated in the boot of Percy's car, which Leo hoped for).
Long chapter, all made up on the spot. I will not do anything random, unless I can come up with something worthwhile afterwards. Let me know what you think, PLEASE!