madness and ecstasy // leo valdez

-thyrsus/staff-

Bacchus clicked his fingers once, his own gaze turning a lot colder when he turned to see Teqi holding his thyrus in one hand, her other curled in a fist. "You foolish demigod, first you take my sacrifice, now my-"

The god faltered when his weapon shifted like the mist was covering what was really there. The brown wood hardened, gold creeping from where Teqi was clutching it as if King Minos had decided he wanted it instead. She grinned down at Bacchus, not needing to look  at the pinecone to know what was happening to it.

However, her friends watched as the pinecone twisted around and became a gilded skull. Of a leopard, that is.

"My friends, are not your toys to play with."

Bacchus stepped forward, his eyebrows creasing as he watched his thyrsus change shape in front of him. "You are messing with matters of which you have no understanding-"

"I understand what's going on very well, actually," Teqi grinned, watching him out of her left eye. "One, if you ever think about using my friends again, I will kill you. Two, you claim to be the god of parties, yet you've made the Colosseum look like a day-care, it's pathetic really."

She held the staff in two hands, ready to fight the god. "And three, you have no control over your own weapons."

Bacchus glared, seemingly understanding the double meaning she weaved into her words, vines twisting up from the sandy ground around his ankles in a protective way. They were as thick as snakes, and Teqi had to focus to make sure she didn't light headed at the thought.

Internally, she was freaking out.

On the outside, however, she challenged the god.

She had never thought Mr D, or even his Roman counterpart, could look so threatening, but then again, the angriest she had seen her father was when he lost a poker match or the one time she asked to know who her mother was.

She saw Jason staring in shock from where he was standing next to a large toy unicorn. Percy seemed to have recovered quicker though, because he stepped forward, eyeballing Teqi meaningfully. She cocked her head, still holding the sceptre out at Bacchus's chest as if it would stop him. 

"We need him to kill these two," Percy snapped, pointing at the piles that were meant to be giants. They groaned uselessly on the ground. The brothers looked like sludge.

Bacchus, lunged forward with alarming speed for a potbellied man, his hand outstretched for his weapon, but Teqi sidestepped, her own plants curling around her legs and making it quicker to move.

She felt the presence of Leo, Frank, Hazel, and Coach Hedge further away, their aura's moving quickly. Instead of looking for them, she disappeared. In the blink [wink?] of an eye, she was behind the god again, holding the golden staff out near his shoulder. She had never played golf, but it couldn't be that hard to hit someone with such a big head.

"You will have no help from me now, heroes!" Bacchus roared, and before he could teleport himself, Teqi whacked him in the temple, the gold skull making a thunk sound. Her muscles burned. The staff was a lot heavier than it looked, but she still managed to twist it around and face the god once he had leapt away.

"Teqi, a god can take out all their power on you if you strike first!" Percy yelled. Teqi threw her empty hand up in the air, and the vines around Bacchus's legs travelled up his torso until he snapped his finger, and they fell to the ground, still.