Anti-Hero || Leo Valdez

13 - Pat Shows Off His Sparky-Sparky-Boom Arrow

For the rest of the night, Via and Pat took turns keeping Lit company. During dinner, it was Pat's shift. Jo also sat with him, talking slowly and calmly.

Deacon and Stan now rested in the infirmary with IV drips of nectar. Sssssarah had taken a basket of eggs and slithered off to the sauna for the night. Jamie ate with some of the other escapees on the sofas.

This left Via at the dining table with Apollo, Meg, Leo, Calypso, Emmie, and Thalia.

Emmie kept glancing across the room at Josephine and Lityerses. "Our new friend, Lityerses..." She sounded remarkably earnest when she said the word friend. " Olivia and I talked with him during chore time. He helped churn the ice cream. He told us quite a bit about the armies we'll be facing tomorrow."

"There's ice cream?" Apollo asked eagerly. Via sighed internally. Of course that was what he focused on.

"Later," Emmie promised, though her tone said that Apollo might not be getting any. "It's vanilla. We were going to add frozen peaches, but..." She looked at Meg. "We thought that might be in poor taste."

Meg was too busy shoveling tofu stir-fry into her mouth to respond. Via recalled hearing about Peaches, Meg's peach karpos friend and decided that Emmie and Lit had made the right decision.

"At any rate," Via picked up where Emmie had left off, "Lit estimates a few dozen mortal mercenaries, about the same number of demigods from the Imperial Household, a few hundred assorted cynocephali and other monsters, plus the usual hordes of blemmyae disguised as local police, firefighters, and bulldozer operators."

"Oh, good," said Thalia. "The usual hordes."

"Commodus means to raze Union Station. He'll make it look to the mortals like an emergency evacuation."

"A gas leak," Leo guessed, pointing his fork at Via. "It's almost always a gas leak."

Calypso picked the shredded carrots out of her salad. "So we're outnumbered ten to one? Twenty to one?"

"No sweat," Leo said. "I'll handle the first two hundred or so myself, then if I get tired—"

"Leo, stop." Calypso gave Emmie an apologetic frown. "He jokes more when he's nervous. He also jokes worse when he's nervous."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Leo inserted carrot fangs in his mouth and snarled. Meg almost choked on her stir-fry.

Thalia let out a long sigh. "Oh, yeah. This is going to be a fun battle. Emmie, how are you stocked for extra arrows? I'm going to need a full quiver just for shooting Leo."

Via laughed as Leo shot Thalia an indignant look, one of his carrot fangs falling out of his mouth.

Emmie smiled. "We have plenty of weaponry. And thanks to Leo, Olivia, and Josephine, the Waystation's defenses have never been stronger."

"You're welcome!" Leo took out his remaining fang. "Also I should mention the giant bronze dragon in the corner — assuming I can finish his tune-up tonight. He's still not at a hundred percent."

"Oh, yeah, the dragon," Via said. "That'll probably be important."

"Just a little important."

"Calypso," Apollo said, "what about your magic? Has it returned?"

Calypso frowned at her meal in frustration. "Only a few bursts. This morning, I moved a coffee cup
across the counter."

"Yeah," Leo said, "but you did that awesomely."

Via smiled a bit at how supportive he was of his girlfriend, but Calypso scowled and swatted him. "Josephine says it'll take time. Once we..." She hesitated. "Once we survive tomorrow."