The Lost Hero

Piper wakes up and is falling through the sky. Jason saves Piper and Leo, and they land to find Festus crashed to the ground. Piper’s foot is injured; her friends find ambrosia to hasten the healing process. She becomes convinced that Enceladus caused Festus’s malfunction. Leo goes to fix the dragon, and Piper has alone time with Jason. She asks him about the picture of Thalia, and is jealous at the idea that she might be his girlfriend. She wants to tell Jason the truth about Enceladus, but suddenly, they hear a door slam. Jason goes to investigate. A Cyclops appears, and speaks to Piper in an imitation of Jason’s voice.

Leo tries to fix Festus, who has crashed into port-a-potties. He feels somewhat excluded from Piper and Jason’s clear romantic bond, and like he is not important. A face appears in the port-a-potty sludge, and it tells him that he is in fact important. He blames the familiar voice for his mother’s death, and the voice tells him, “I am your mother too—the First Mother” (253). He throws a toilet seat at the face, and then hears a noise from the warehouse.

Leo hears Piper’s voice crying out, and finds Jason and Piper dangling from crane arms. Two Cyclops, Sump and Torque, flank them. Piper tries to charmspeak them into letting her go, but then their mother, Ma Gasket, arrives. From his magical tool belt, Leo summons the tools to build a universal remote, and operates a crane to attack Torque and Sump. They both shatter into dust. Ma Gasket approaches and throws Kerosene at Leo, but he withstands the flames. He uses a focused stream of fire to break a chain link, loosing an engine block that lands on her head. He frees his friends, but they soon discover that the monsters are already re-forming out of the dust.