𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐀𝐄𝐓𝐇 》 LEO VALDEZ ¹

―eleven. or option b: death, with friends!

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𝐙𝐄𝐔𝐒' 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄,
𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐈𝐓 𝐈𝐒
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LEO WAS STARTING TO REALIZE THAT AN ANGRY CYCLOPS MOTHER WAS NOT SOMETHING YOU WANTED TO ANGER. Especially when your only weapons consisted of a universal remote and a screwdriver. The future for Commander Too Belt was not looking so hot.

She stood about twenty feet from him now, next to the cooking fire. Her fists were clenched, her teeth barred. She looked ridiculous in her chain mail muumuu and her greasy pigtails — but given the murderous glare in her huge red eye and the fact that she was twelve feet tall, Leo wasn't laughing.

''Any more tricks, demigod?'' Ma Gasket demanded and Leo hesitated.

Where was Charlie when you needed her?

Leo glanced up. The engine block suspended on the chain — if only he'd had time to rig it. If only he could get Ma Gasket to take one step forwards. The chain itself... that one link... Leo shouldn't have been able to see it, especially from so far down, but his sense told him there was a metal fatigue. If only it was isolated.

And — wait a minute... Was that? Squinting, Leo tried not to collapse in relief when he spotted Charlie with her legs curled around the chain, apparently she had spotted the weak link (literally) as she was beginning to undo the chain next to it, wanting it to be the only one holding the engine up.

She smirked down at him, as if sensing his stare, and waved. Someone tell him why she was holding his screwdriver. He patted his belt down. When had she...?

Gasket growled. ''I don't like being ignored, demigod.''

Leo raised his remote control in threat, all he had to do was get her to take a step forwards. ''Heck yeah, I got tricks! Take one more step, and I'll destroy you with fire?''

Charlie paused, how was he going to manage that? Shaking her head, she continued to unfasten the bolts. She could only hope it would do something useful.

Ma Gasket laughed. ''Would you? Cyclopes are immune to fire, you idiot. But if you wish to play with flames, let me help!''

She scooped red-hot coals into her bare hands and flung them at Leo. They landed all around his feet.

''You missed,'' he said incredulously. Then, Ma Gasket grinned and picked up a barrel next to the truck.Leo just had time to read the stenciled word on the side — KEROSENE — before Ma Gasket threw it. The barrel split in half on the floor in front of him, spilling lighter fluid everywhere.

Coals sparked. Leo closed his eyes, Piper screamed and Charlie stuck her tongue out in concentration — honestly, why was this screw so tight?

A firestorm erupted around him. When Leo opened his eyes, he was bathed in flames, swirling twenty feet into the air. Ma Gasket shrieked in delight, but Leo didn't offer the fire any decent fuel. The kerosene burned off, dying down to small fiery patched on the floor.

 Piper gasped. ''Leo?''

Gasket looked astonished. ''You live?'' Then she took a step forwards, which put her right where Leo wanted. ''What are you?''

''So very grateful that Charlie's a pick-pocket,'' he said, shoulders finally settling down as Charlie whooped loudly from above, tightening her grip on the chain as it released from the engine and fell freely, spinning around the room like Tarzan before Ma grabbed her chain, stopping her in mid-air and Charlie realised that as weak as the other chain was, it was still somehow strong enough to hold the engine.