Heroes of Olympus: The Aftermath of War

PERCY

*Rick Riordan owns all of the characters*

PERCY FELT LIKE SCREAMING AT the top of his lungs when Leo literally got so excited that he forgot to tell Festus about landing. The guy almost burst in flames. Things weren't pretty. Annabeth and Calypso tried getting his attention by calling him tons of times, but both (unsurprisingly) failed. Turns out, the son of Hephaestus was too busy entertaining the other demigods with the fact that he was indeed alive. Percy wanted to slap him, but it wasn't in his nature, so he backed out on the rather bad idea.

Nah. He smacked him instead. (Though in a slightly 'brotherly' way. Nobody wanted Leo to end up in a hospital on such short notice. Health insurance was tough.)

"Ow. What was that for?" he complained, glaring at Percy. "Causing head injuries are not cool, man!"

"I'm terribly sorry for hitting you, Your Majesty," Percy replied, rolling his eyes. "But, as you can see, we are about to fall to our deaths in, ah, a lovely day in Central Park."

"Say what, now?" Leo asked. "Oh, yeah---okay, Festus land somewhere---There, right there!"

"We won't make it!" Calypso screamed, her hands covering her face.

"I'm all about possibilities, Sunshine!" the demigod yelled back, staring determinedly on the spot he had pointed to.

Actually, they were already too close to the ground for the metal dragon to achieve a successfully harmless, safe descend. Fortunately, Jason, who was currently down below, had anticipated the stakes, and used the wind to lift the heavy metal dragon towards the clearing. Percy noticed the others aboard Festus sigh in relief, and was more than glad to get off 'Happy the Dragon'.

Leo? Not so much. By the time his feet touched the grass, the crew of the Argo II surrounded him in a large, big circle, probably demanding for some sort of acceptable explanation. Everytime he moved, his friends' positions shifted, so he was practically stuck in the center. Fun.

"Now, let's talk about this..." Leo said, trying for a handsome, winning smile. Only, there were three loopholes in that action. A) His smile looked more of a plea for help, B) Nobody was going to fall for the 'hot stuff' mania this time, and C) Everyone was too caught up with all the drama to basically think of reason 'C'.

Calypso just shrugged and got out of the way, which Percy found a little weird but quite...teasing. He guessed she knew that this was, I don't know, normal?

"See? Told you my plan would come in handy." Piper smirked, an evil twinkle in her eye. Now, Leo really did panic a bit.

"What plan?" Annabeth and Percy inquired at the same time.

"Well, just follow what we do," Hazel responded, grinning. "Pretty easy."

Jason took a step closer to Leo, smiled, then performed some killer Taekwondo moves on him (If otherwise implied in a joking manner, Percy wasn't so sure himself). Afterwards, he hugged and pat the demigod on the back so hard that the latter's spinal cord might as well have given up or gone to early retirement. No one told Jason off.

Piper, Hazel, and Frank did the same, but Annabeth and he decided to pass. Leo [obviously] didn't need more suicidal welcome gestures and a very likely back support installed for future purposes. Poseidon's beard, their friend could even be dragged to the Demigod Emergency Room anytime now.

"I---miss you...too," he breathed, finally disentangling himself from all the hugs and whatnot.

"If you ever do that again..." Piper warned, a challenged smile blooming on her face, "Then the consequences will be most definitely---"

"Tough." Jason finished, smirking. "We're happy you're alive, dude."

"Yeah," Leo nodded. "And I get killer hugs for deciding to show up. Totally awesome."

"It's not that bad," Frank pointed out. "We could've strangled you with endless affection."

"Okay, I'm going to act grateful," he finally grinned. "Nice to see you, Zhang."

"Likewise, Valdez," the Roman replied, smiling.

Percy saw two guys stand back with Calypso, noticeably keeping a safe distance from the recently made argument. He nudged Annabeth and gestured at the peculiarly unsuspecting teens, silently speaking through simple eye language they'd come to understand. Something was off. Ironically, wasn't there always a bothersome thing with demigods?

The boy to his right had silver hair and gleaming, silver eyes, his face gentle and calm. He wore stylish jeans and a silver suit, currently laughing at a joke that the dreadlock dude had said beside him.

"Damasen, you really need to be a comedian these days. You're funny when you want to be!" he commented, laughing wholeheartedly.

BADUMP.

"It's hard to make lines, you know," Damasen replied, grinning. "Try them yourself, Bob."

BADUMP.

The names hit Percy like knives. How could he not have seen them all this time? Well, how'd those two even end up as teenagers, anyway? Huh. Easy answer. Hazel, of course.

That girl really had some serious Mist-bending talents. Hecate surely was proud.

Annabeth and Percy didn't really care if they looked awkward, foolish, or weird. Nothing mattered. For once, they felt like hopeless kids about to cry. They were certain that the Titan and the Giant had been left in the hands of Tartarus himself. Emotions kept coming and filling inside their heads. Laughter, happiness, shock, and confusion washed through them. The others noticed at some point, but they just smiled. Nobody teased him or Annabeth for blinking out the tears on their faces. Bob and Damasen were alive.

"Hello, friends---" Bob began.

Running straight for the Titan and the Giant, Percy and Annabeth hugged them tight and heaved out great sighs of relief, realizing that these two were basically intact---flesh and bone. For a moment, the two of them just stayed like that, awkwardly in the disguised Titan and Giant's embrace.

Nothing could be more---

Clang.

A weird, 16 year old guy could be seen falling from the sky in a very painful manner, cursing the gods, moaning about acne and flabby muscles, and shrieking so loud that the birds within a 3 mile radius immediately drifted away. He landed face first to the ground with a startling 'Bump!' and turned to face the demigods in jeans, dirty shirt, and all.

Way to ruin the moment.

"Who are you?" Hazel inquired, eyeing the teen suspiciously.

"Apollo, obviously," the guy rolled his eyes and crossed his arms in reply. He acts like the god of prophecies all right. Stubborn. Ignorant. Annoying. "But don't call me Lester Papadopoulos. I hate that name."