“GET BACK YOU SUN-LOVING NITWITS!”
Leo pushed a button and a small object, about the size of a ping-pong ball, sailed through the air towards the obnoxiously shiny golden chariot. The people on it screamed, and the one in the back tried to keep the black ball out of their way, but it was no use. The thing exploded before coming in contact with the cart and the horses, revealing a huge net of fine coppery threads that tied itself up around the chariot and the driver. Unfortunately, the other dude didn’t have such luck – he was swung off the chariot, only rolling aside just in time as the Aphrodite cabin raced by.
The chariot races were awesome. Not to mention a nice change of atmosphere, considering Leo and his crew (yes, he liked to refer to them as his crew) had been on the Argo II surrounded by enemies for too long. Of course, there was still a fair chance you’d get injured or die during these games, but at least you’d have your friends to blame for it when that happened.
A nice change indeed.
“I can’t believe they haven’t prohibited this stupid game – it’s barbaric!” Piper said, balancing on a chariot lead by beautiful white horses with ribbons and flowers in their manes.
“Actually,” Leo said, grabbing a baseball bat and striking a multi-spiked arrow out of the air only just in time, “they did. But then some dude thought it would be a good idea to reintroduce it.”
“Ridiculous!” Piper said, her chariot slowly getting behind on his.
He waved at her, winking. “But so much fun!”
“VALDEZ – STOP FOOLING AROUND AND DO SOMETHING USEFUL FOR ONCE!”
Nyssa, Leo’s lovely half-sister (long story, they both had the same father, who happened to be Hephaestus, god of forges, craftsman and hot stuff in general – no big deal), could be a sweetheart. But today was not her best day.
Leo pulled an indignant face. “I just took out the entire Apollo cabin in one go!”
“Yeah, good going, Batman. But while you were looking backward, Ares is in the lead!”
He looked ahead and saw that Nyssa was right. The Ares chariot was painted all black, with a rather horrific red skull painted on each side. And the only side they could see was the back. There was one round left and Leo knew that he and Nyssa had to win. Leo looked around at his feet to see what weapons he still had left, which ended up being nothing but spears. Nyssa pulled the strings on their horses and he hit his head – hard – on the handle. Grumpily, he rubbed the sore spot. If only I had been able to fix those mechanic horses, he found himself thinking. He’d tried to repair the old machines that the Hephaestus cabin usually used in their races, but whatever he’d tried, the fault in the system hadn’t gone away nor shown itself clearly.
“DUCK!” Nyssa screamed.
Leo peaked over the edge of the chariot and saw a small flying black ball soaring their way. “Uh-oh,” he muttered. He pulled Nyssa’s arm down violently, swinging the chariot to the right and avoiding the small ball.
“WE’LL GET OUR REVENGE!” A boy screamed from the Nemesis chariot.
Leo went to take a spear from their stock, but Nyssa stopped him. “You don’t want to make them angry. FOCUS ON ARES, FOR DAD’S SAKE!”
Sure, because of course it is wise to make the kids of the god of war angry, Leo thought. He made a second grasp for the spear and this time his sister didn’t try to stop him. He had never been the best with spears or archery. In fact, he’d rather have machines he could control from start to end instead of having to calculate air flow and velocity on the spot. No, Frank was the better person for a task like that.
