ONE LAST TIME . . . heroes of olympus

90.5

"THAT WENT WELL," Julia said lightly.

The phrase would've had more of an effect if she wasn't in a hospital bed. Then again, Katerina couldn't talk, considering she was also in one.

"Disbanding a gang with only the two of us," Katerina agreed, despite their current situation. "JuJu and Katya, the unstoppable duo."

"Did you tell Leo yet about the spear breaking?" asked Julia.

Katerina had rushed into battle to see dozens of gang members barreling into the apartment, and Jules was fighting them all off, so Katerina had joined the fight. Hand to hand combat worked for a while, but then they'd gotten surrounded. She'd seen the leader of the gang, so she'd said, "yolo!" and threw the spear at him. It had surprisingly hit its target, embedding into the leader. As the members realized that their leader had been hit, they'd started flocking to the leader. Instinctively, Katerina had tackled Jules as the entire hotel room exploded. They'd made it out alive, though not without some major burns and debris stuck in their skin.

Julia's phone was less damaged than Katerina's ( though still usable ), so Jules had called Kiara. Half the FBI troops went to the original gang location while the other half went to the hotel, but all of the gang members had been dead. They'd rushed Julia and Katerina out of there and to the nearest hospital, where they were now.

"No, Kiki has my phone," answered Katerina.

"You two are addicted," Kiara's voice suddenly appeared as she walked into the room, as sleek and professional as ever.

"We single-handedly — double-handedly? — toppled a gang, Kiki, can you blame us for wanting to be rewarded with our phones?" Jules smirked at Kiara, who rolled her eyes but handed Katerina her phone.

"I've gotta thank my bestie, who made my exploding spear," agreed Katerina. "It saved the day."

"And gave you two enough first- and second-degree burns for a lifetime," commented Kiara. "You don't have time. They've cleared you for discharge. We're going back to the Lotus. The FBI will take care of any loose ends. And we're going to brief your boss on the plane."

"Yes, sir," Julia rolled her eyes, but they looked glad to have a nurse take away the IV and stuff. Katerina was too. They'd never been good with sitting still. Hospital beds were the worst.

They filled out the paperwork, then were ushered into a car to the airport.

"You two did an admirable job," Kiara told them. "Even though you did explode a hotel room."

"Just a day in the life of JuJu and Katya." Next to her, Julia posed dramatically, so Katerina followed her direction. "Destroying gangs and blowing up hotel rooms."

The car got to the airport, and they got on the airplane and took off a few minutes later. Gods, the jet lag was going to be awful, but oh well.

Katerina just wanted to sleep, to be honest, but she sat in for a call to the boss, telling them about what happened on the mission. It always felt like she was recounting a quest to Chiron, but she ignored that feeling. She always does.

"Come to the office when you get back," the boss ordered. "Is that clear?"

"Crystal." Katerina saluted lazily.

The boss rolled their eyes, then hung up.

"Can we sleep yet?" Jules whined. "We deserve it."

Kiara glanced over at her a little judgmentally before nodding. "Just don't snore too much."

So Katerina immediately fell asleep in her chair, which probably meant that she was sleep deprived. Oops. Whatever, she had an excuse to be sleep deprived. After all, she did just defeat a big bad gang. She can afford to be sleep deprived.