𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋

𝐋𝐄𝐎 𝐜𝐡𝟏𝟑|Maybe I should take things seriously, being this close to death

Leo

Getting me trapped inside a store full of hungry monsters was definitely not on Annabeth's top 10 plan ideas.

I walked in without looking back. The store was big - so probably about half the size of Piper's house. That was a joke. I think.

There were aisles apon aisles of repair stuff, with signs. This was surprisingly easy. Again - convenient.

I'm totally gonna shout flame boy and not repair boy, I thought. I think Percy and I are great influences on eachother. Well, maybe not in Annabeth's eyes...

She can be real scary sometimes.

Focus, Leo, I scolded myself.

There was something off about the inside. I couldn't place my finger on it. Wait, no, I could. The store was completely empty. It was dead silent. Huh. I guess Medusa doesn't get many visitors.

I jogged from aisle to aisle in the eerie silence. I grabbed the last thing I needed and shoved it in my backpack. By the way, my backpack was insanely heavy because Annabeth had insisted I brought a spare celestial bronze knife. I blame her if it slows me down.

I'd brought mortal money, so I wondered if I should leave some cash on the desk. Then I remembered that Medusa was the owner. Guess I'm stealing, then, I thought.

I jogged to the door, hoping Annabeth and Percy had already killed Medusa - as I did not fancy being a garden statue. Even though I'd make a very nice garden statue.

When I tried to open the glass double door, it was locked. I frowned and tried the next one. And the next one. They were all shut.

I peeked through the glass and I could see Percy and Annabeth fighting off loads of monsters as well as Medusa outside, through the blurry door. They were too far away to see me. Hmm, guess I'll just have to get myself out then.

I naturally went to my tool belt, which, as expected, produced nada.

I tried smashing my hammer at the glass repeatedly until I thought my arm would fall off. Nope. Not working.

Then I remembered what store I was in. I ran to the nearest aisle and grabbed a can of paint.

I ran at the door with it. I smashed it against the glass, hard. But nothing broke. I tried again. I mean, I'd say I'm pretty strong, because I build machines 24/7. But I'm still scrawny.

Man, I invented scrawny.

Focus Leo!!! Said a voice in my head that sounded suspiciously like Piper.

When the can didn't work, I planned to go grab a screwdriver instead, so I dropped it and it landed on the floor with a load thud.

"Hey! What was that?" I heard a voice say, it was at a distance away. I gulped. The voice didn't sound human.

"The kid is due in about ten minutes, unless he's early?"
"Dunno, I'll go check."

Okay, time to get moving...

I grabbed a screwdriver off the shelf and ran to the doors. I banged it hard, again and again. These must be some strong doors. Suspicious. I then realised that this wasn't the best idea as I could hear the monsters coming my way.

I set my hand on fire and pressed it against the glass. It began to melt, but painfully slowly. I needed a new approach.

I looked around, for windows or anything - a fire escape? Nothing. Medusa has a seriously weird store. But to be fair, that makes sense. Still, not having a fire escape is risky - largely because I was in the store.

Then, I saw a manticore on the other side of the aisle I was standing in.

Schist.

The only thing I had was my hammer, which isn't exactly the best thing to use to fight a manticore.

It's human face locked eyes with me and it's lion body began to bound towards me.

"Over here! He's over here!" The monster roared.

Just as it went to pounce on top of me, I dropped to the floor and slid smoothly underneath its body. That must have looked so cool. I couldn't believe no one had been around to see that. This always happens!

It turned around slowly and faced me, snarling. I turned around to see that the other direction was blocked off by telekhines.

Yay.

I had no idea what to do. I couldn't exactly fight them all off at once with my hammer.

Then I remembered I am a weapon.

I threw fire at the telekhines and blasted a wall of fire at the manticore. I began to climb the shelves to my right hand side. But I felt something grab my foot, as I reached the top shelf. Telekhine. This is why you need Annabeth everywhere. I had forgotten they were immune to fire.

I had guessed that this was a trap in the first place - especially considering they'd been talking about 'the kid' who I had assumed was me. So that's why Gaia sent fire immune monsters.

I grabbed my hammer and hit it hard on the head and it turned to dust. Phew.

Good news: The manticore was on fire and was freaking out.
Bad news: There was about thirty telekhines after me.

I reached the top of the shelves and leapt over, landing on the floor of the next aisle with a sickening crunch. It made my head pound and the air escape my lungs. I recognised the liquid dripping down my face. Blood. The telekhines were gaining.

My head pounded and I wondered if I had a concussion. I laughed.

Yep, definitely a concussion.

I started to run from the telekhines when my bashed up brain remembered the knife Annabeth had forced me to bring (thank the gods that girl has common sense). I had no idea how to fight with it, but I guessed I'd just have to improvise.

I shrugged my backpack off as I ran towards the check-out area and fumbled around for the dagger. When I found it, it was bent at an acute angle. Great.

I couldn't fight with it, but I knew I wouldn't have been great with it anyway. I had an idea. Probably crazy idea. But I'm good at those, and it had helped me up to that point.

Using walls of fire, I blinded the telekhines whenever they saw me.

I kept running and crafting, running and crafting and grabbing more materials and sprinting and screaming and growing dizzy and blasting fire and...

Dizzy.

Crafting.

Dodging.

Sprinting.

Explosions.

After fifteen minutes, I'd assembled my machine. I'd melted down the celestial bronze into loads of tiny bullets, and made a gun out of various different tools. Finally, I let the fire clear and I rounded on the telekhines. I brought the gun up and fired and fired and fired.

Black spots began to cloud my vision as I saw them slowly turn to dust. I'd fired about fifty times, my aim not being the best in this condition. Finally, they were gone and I sank to my knees. I was dimly aware of the entire building on fire as I began to sink into unconsciousness.

But before I could, the manticore rounded the corner at the other side of the aisle. I couldn't do anything, I was on the brink of passing out.

Well this is it.

But as the manticore pounced, I saw riptide fly through the air and impale its side. The monster disintegrated into dust, it's flecks landing in my hair.

"LEO!! CAN YOU HEAR ME? LEO!" I heard someone scream. Footsteps sprinting towards me. Coughing and shouting. It sounded like Annabeth and Percy.

"LEO!"

But the voice sounded so far away.

I closed my eyes.