Waves of Fire || Leo Valdez

V - Eating Blue Food and Talking About Our Doomed Quest

As soon as we made it back to the Argo II and dismounted, I keeled over and Leo and Hazel had to catch me.

"It was that earthquake," Hazel deduced. "If I'd known you were going to do that, I would've stopped you."

"I'm fine," I insisted, though my legs felt like rubber. I tried to stand on my own but no avail. "Okay, maybe just let me sit down."

"Gods of Olympus," Piper gasped, staring at Leo. She sat beside a now conscious Jason, looking concerned for our sanity. "What happened to you?"

He probably looked strange with his hair greased back, the welding goggles, the lipstick mark on his cheek, tattoos all over his arms, and the T-shirt with HOT STUFF, BAD BOY, and TEAM LEO.

"Long story," he said. "Others back?"

"Not yet," Piper said.

Leo cursed. Then he noticed Jason sitting up, and his face brightened. "Hey, man! Glad you're better. I'll be in the engine room."

He ran off with the sheet of bronze, leaving Hazel and me in the doorway.

Piper raised an eyebrow at us. "Team Leo?"

"We met Narcissus," Hazel said.

"Also Nemesis, the revenge goddess," I added. "Like Leo said, it's a long story. I should probably untie my shirt so Percy doesn't kill me and Leo when he gets back."

Jason sighed. "I miss all the fun."

On the deck above, something went THUMP, as if a heavy creature had landed. I quickly undid the hair tie on my shirt and put it on my wrist. Annabeth and Percy came running down the hall. Percy was toting a steaming five-gallon plastic bucket that smelled horrible. Annabeth had a patch of black sticky stuff in her hair. Percy's shirt was covered in it.

"Roofing tar?" Piper guessed.

Frank stumbled up behind them, which made the hallway pretty jam-packed with demigods. Frank had a big smear of the black sludge down his face.

"Ran into some tar monsters," Annabeth said. "Hey, Jason, glad you're awake. Laia, where's Leo?"

I pointed down. "Engine room."

Suddenly the entire ship listed to port. We all stumbled. Percy almost spilled his bucket of tar.

"Uh, what was that?" he demanded.

"Oh..." Hazel glanced at me, looking embarrassed. "We may have angered the nymphs who live in this lake.

"Like...all of them."

"Great." Percy handed the bucket of tar to Frank and Annabeth. "You guys help Leo. I'll hold off the water spirits as long as I can."

"On it!" Frank promised.

The three of them ran off, leaving Hazel and I at the cabin door. The ship listed again, and Hazel hugged her stomach like she was going to be sick.

"I'll just..." She swallowed, pointed weakly down the passageway, and ran off.

"Alaia, do you need to sit down?" Piper said. "You look like you're about to faint."

"That would be nice," I agreed, and Piper pulled up a chair next to her own, which I collapsed onto.

Jason, Piper, and I stayed below as the ship rocked back and forth. Waves crashed against the hull as angry voices came from above deck—Percy shouting, Coach Hedge yelling at the lake. Festus the figurehead breathed fire several times.

"What did you do to make the nymphs mad?" Jason asked incredulously.

"Oh, we took a bronze shield Narcissus was using as a mirror and upset his fan club."

Jason blinked. "Huh."

"Yeah." I grinned sheepishly. "But you should've seen Leo. He was out there, like, 'Narcissus is so ugly his mama thought he was a backward centaur when he was born,' and 'Narcissus is so weak he can't bench press a Kleenex.' "

Jason and Piper cracked up.

"That sounds like Leo," Piper said.

In the engine room below, it sounded like Leo and the others were doing an Irish line dance with anvils tied to their feet. After what seemed like hours, the engine began to hum. The oars creaked and groaned, and I felt the ship lift into the air.

The rocking and shaking stopped. The ship became quiet except for the drone of machinery. Finally, Leo emerged from the engine room. He was caked in sweat, lime dust, and tar. His T-shirt looked like it had been caught in an escalator and chewed to shreds. The TEAM LEO on his chest now read AM LEO. But he grinned like a madman and announced that we were safely underway.

"Meeting in the mess hall, one hour," he said. "Crazy day, huh?"