Final Part of The Post-Finals Paintball Crisis

Inspired by Community S2E24: "For A Few Paintballs More."

Piper/Annabeth POV

"This was a good plan, right?" Jason asks.

"Yeah," says Piper. "If anything, it'll split the enemies in half so Annabeth and Percy can get to the RV and rescue Hazel."

"Do you think we're going to... you know... get shot?" he asks. He's so adorable when he's worried; his eyebrows get all squished together and he sort of looks like he's about to cry, and even though she can't see through his mask, Piper just knows the scar on his lip is contorted from his frown. So sue her. Piper likes a sensitive man. Men should be allowed to feel feelings.

"With the genius minds of Annabeth and Leo combined? Not a chance. We're going to win this thing," Piper says to comfort him.

"There's a chance," Leo says.

She shoots Leo a death glare because they should be reassuring Jason right now.

"What?" Leo fires back. "There's a chance."

"Is Plan Twenty-Three ready to go?" Jason asks.

Nyssa hits a couple of buttons on her phone. "East wing secured."

"The stacks are covered," says Malcolm. "Nothing's getting past that tarp." Whatever this Plan Twenty-Three is, it required the team to cover the dozens of shelves of books with a massive tarp, like the kind you use for painting heavy-duty projects. Piper appreciates the dedication to protecting the library books that nobody ever uses, but now she's feeling wary of Plan Twenty-Three. If it poses a threat to school property, what kind of threat might it pose to her?

"How about the west side?" Jason asks. "And the basement too. Where are we at with that?"

Jake drops a Mason Jar of green paint onto the floor. "I... I got to the west side, but the elevator is out of service." He reaches for the jar, but it keeps rolling across the tiling, like a dollar on a string.

Piper picks up the jar and hands it over. "What do you need to do in the basement? We can help."

"It's okay. Beckendorf's got it," Jake says. "God, he's probably one of the best handymen we've got."

Silena clears her throat. "You mean gods."

"It's not catching on," says Mitchell.

"The singular just flows better," Lacy agrees.

"It's been a while," Leo says. "We really should start planning the escape route."

Jason nods his head in agreement. "Somebody text Beck and tell him to meet us at the rendezvous point." He turns to Leo. "Where exactly is the rendezvous point?"

Leo scratches his chin through his mask. "I was thinking through the vents, but there's no way we can get Jake's chair through."

"What about the window in the computer lab?" Nyssa asks. "We could take the pane out and lift Jake through that way."

Jake cracks his knuckles. "I'm really fine if you have to leave me," he says. "It's a worthy cause to go down for."

"Not an option," says Jason. "We're going to think of something."

"Hold on," Piper says, waving her arms around. "Here you engineering majors are, rigging Plan Twenty-Three, whatever the hell that is, and you never discussed an escape route?"

Leo nods.

"And I'm under the impression that Plan Twenty-Three, again, whatever the hell that is, is something that could eliminate all of us?"

Leo and his engineering major friends nod in unison.

Piper smacks her palm against her forehead. "And Beckendorf is potentially trapped in the basement now? I should have claimed the one allotted F-Bomb. Seriously, F-Bomb you guys."

Silena gasps. "No! Charlie is coming back, I know it!"

"Oh?" Nyssa asks. "How?"

"I made him promise me!"

Jake groans because as sweet as Silena and Beckendorf's relationship is, it's not cute enough for anybody else to have to tolerate their constant gushing. Everyone gets it! They're just so in love! Everyone else is so single and lonely and unable to catch the attention of a dense blond boy who's prone to concussions! Or maybe that last part is just Piper, whose boy problems are not getting in the way of the mission.

"Alright, alright, shut up everyone," Piper says. "Malcolm, what is the worst possible escape route?"

"That's easy," says Malcolm. "The front door."

The front door. Yes, the double doors that Jake's wheelchair can fit through. They even have one of those accessibility buttons.

"Okay," says Piper, "and that idea is so stupid that City College wouldn't expect us to do it?"

"Yes, but- oh! I get it. Lure them up through the back door, and get out through the front. I don't usually do risky strategies, but this is our best shot," Malcolm says.

Piper looks across the glum faces of her teammates. The escape route is incredibly risky, but it's the best chance they have. No way in hell is anybody in this room about to leave Jake behind.

"Are we ready?" Jason asks.

Leo doesn't wait for an answer. "Lacy, Silena, Valentina, and Mitchell, go to the back door and lure the City College students into the library. Do whatever you can to draw as much attention as-"

"Valentina, what are you doing?" Piper asks.

"Putting my clarinet together."

Piper chooses not to open that can of worms. "Go on, Leo."

"Jake, Malcolm, and Nyssa will stand by the front entrance. Still got the security footage?"

"Yep," Jake taps a button on his iPad and shows everyone footage of Beckendorf messing with some piping in the basement. Plan Twenty-Three just keeps getting weirder.

Jason takes the reins from here. "Leo and Piper and I will spread the City College forces throughout the building."

"And when it's time to activate Plan Twenty-Three," Leo says, "I'll text Frank. God help us."

"What about Charlie?" Silena whines.

Seriously? Piper doesn't think she could handle this as well as Jason does.

"We'll try to find him. That's a promise," he says.

"Stations, everybody!" Leo shouts. "It's showtime!"

✎✎✎

Things do not go according to plan, that is, except for Plan Twenty-Three itself, but even that has to be modified.

Where does it even start? Well, thanks to Valentina's awful clarinet playing, the enemies from City College walked right into the library; all that needed to happen was for Beck to join the team at the front doors safely.

Seems like a sound plan, right?

"Help! Help! Jason- oof!" Jason and Silena collide in the middle of the hallway, both falling onto their asses. Yep, good thing Jason's their fearless leader.

"What happened?" Jason asks. "Where did your gun go?"

"I dropped it... Oh, it was horrible! The stormtroopers got to Lacy and Mitchell and Valentina," Silena cries.

"Hey, now," Piper says, trying to reassure the hysterical girl on the floor. "I'm sure it wasn't your fault-"

"I know that!" she snaps. "If Valentina hadn't insisted on playing her squeaky rendition of 'Baby Shark' we'd all be fine!"

Selfishly, Piper feels lucky to not have been present for that incident, but she decides to keep that opinion to herself.

It's Leo who brings the group back to reality. "So there's not enough of us to divide the stormtroopers evenly. Fantastic. Just freakin' fantastic." He tugs on a chunk of his curly hair.

"Woah, chill out Leo. No need to tear your hair out," says Jason. "Let's split up. Lead them to different areas of the building."

"I'll go to the basement," says Silena. "I'm not leaving without Charlie."

"Cool," says Jason. "Piper and I will go through the east side, and Leo can lead them through the west."

"All by myself?" he asks.

Jason pats his friend's shoulder. "You're the one who can climb around up in the vents," he says. "We need you."

Leo stands a little taller at that remark. "Cool. Cool, cool, cool." He whips a screwdriver out of that toolbelt he wears constantly and takes apart the nearest air vent. The metal clatters against the floor. Like second nature, Leo dives in. Even though she's seen it before, Piper watches in awe as his work boots disappear into the wall.

Silena pries the lid off a trash can, not caring that one of her purple press-on nails falls to the floor because desperate times call for desperate measures. Then, she raises it to cover herself like a makeshift shield and takes off down the stairwell.

"Okay, so Barbie's got moves," Piper notes.

Jason chuckles and pushes his glasses up his nose. "C'mon, Beauty Queen," he says, "They're coming."

Now Piper could give all the boring details about how she and Jason have to find stormtroopers—that's what they're calling them now apparently—and divert them from the escape point, and how Leo almost scares them all half to death when he pops out of the ceiling, and how he then proceeds to crack a ceiling tile in half like it was nothing and continue his parkour journey to the center of the library... you know, those kinds of boring details.

On second thought, just imagine a Scooby-Doo chase scene where all the characters are emerging from different doors and running across a haunted hallway to avoid some goon in a mask, capisce?

They're shooting stormtroopers left and right, Piper and Jason are. They're like characters out of Star Wars... or the Star Wars knockoff movie Piper's dad Tristan McLean was in back in the nineties. Those movies were tacky as shit.

"We gotta find Leo and Silena!" Jason yells as he and Piper run toward the front doors.

"Duck!" Piper yells.

Jason swoops low to the ground, narrowly missing a knot of wires hanging from the ceiling. He lets out a sigh of relief and rests his hands on his knees to catch his breath. "I can't believe I tore my good jeans over a game of paintball."

"God, I'm so offended by this indecency. Don't you know it's improper for a man to show his kneecaps?" Piper quips.

Even though he totally thinks she's funny, he rolls his eyes. "Since you know everything, where's Leo and Silena?"

Piper squeezes the wiring on her pink mask to keep it from falling more than it already has. She'll need to replace this one if she ever gets back home.

If she were Leo, where would she be?

Oh!

Piper pulls a bobby pin from her hair, ruining her updo as well as Jason's straight face.

"Got something to say?" she asks.

"I, uh-"

"That's what I thought." She used to do this trick all the time when her freshman year roommate would forget to unlock the bathroom door, and when she needed toilet paper to restock but the residence hall office was closed, and that one time when she heard a girl barfing into the handicapped toilet on her floor and was too weak to get to the door to let Piper in. Looking back on that, Piper's not sure what business she thought she had helping out a girl who had too much to drink on Saint Patrick's Day.

Anyways, the bobby pin makes for a perfect screwdriver, and the door comes right off the vent.

"You're not going in there, are you?" Jason asks.

"God, no," Piper says. Then she calls, "Oh, Leo!"

Jason cocks an eyebrow. "Really? He could be anywhere."

Squeak!

Pop!

Boom!

Squeak!

"Hola, Mamacita!" Leo greets.

"Why are there claw marks all over your face?" Piper asks.

"Ran into Annie's Boobs. He's doing well, by the way."

Piper tugs Leo to his feet and motions for them to keep moving. "Silena probably met up with Beckendorf in the basement; let's go!"

"Are you sure that's a chance you want to take?" Jason asks.

"It's one we have to take," Piper replies.

And take it they do. The hallway is starting to feel absurdly long because they've been running down it forever.

"Woah!" Jason yells, throwing his arms in front of Leo and Piper.

There's a huge black mastiff in the hallway. Like, slobbering all over the floor, chewing on a foam finger kind of a dog.

"What the hell is that?" Piper asks.

"It's a dog," Leo says, "but it could easily pass for a hellhound—I mean, look at the size of it!"

"Screw this." Piper takes off her shoe and whistles at the dog. "You want this?"

Slowly, the dog rises to its feet and shakes out its fur.

Piper whips her shoe around in the air, desperately hoping to gain this thing's attention. "C'mon, boy! Girl?"

The dog cocks its head.

Great! Now, time for the windup, and...

Piper tosses her shoe back up the hall, the dog tumbling after it.

That just worked.

How the hell did that just work?

"No time for contemplation, Pipes!" Jason grabs her by the arm and tugs her. He takes off down the hall to catch up with Leo, who has just made a huge mistake.

"Oh, come on! This is excessive! Guys, go the other way!" Leo shouts.

"You gotta check your intersections, man!" Piper yells back. How stupid do you have to run across a hallway without looking down it first?

Apparently, not that stupid, because Leo just got shot by a whole squad of stormtroopers.

He's right. That is excessive. They could have just got him with one paintball bullet and he's out, but they had to go for dramatics.

This tells Piper two things. One: the City College stormtroopers have enough ammo to be wasteful. And two: they just took out the rebellion's strongest mechanic, which is more significant than Piper thought it was a couple of hours ago.

"We have to go after them," Piper says, "for Leo."

Jason shakes his head. "Too risky."

"But Leo-"

"Leo would want us to go on. Stay safe for him."

Leo, covered in red paint, clears his throat. "Jesus, I'm covered in paint, not dead. If I were dead, I'd probably want you to Rickroll my funeral."

"Actually?" Jason asks.

"Go through the vents." Leo tosses a container of Vaseline.

Piper catches it, barely. It's still slick from Leo's last escapade in the vents.

"No," says Jason. "No freakin' way."

"Careful, Sparky," Piper says, rubbing Vaseline on her arms. "Annabeth will kill you if you take away her one allotted F-bomb."

He rolls his eyes. "Gimme that." Jason reluctantly rubs the Vaseline on his arms and legs and then peeks into the vent. "There's no way this is safe."

"What about this game says safe?" Piper asks.

Jason sighs in defeat and then, more cautiously than Leo, dives into the vent.

"We'll remember your sacrifice. Get a move on, Jason!" Piper shouts down the vent. Her voice probably would have echoed had Jason's body not muffled the sound.

Piper can't believe she started her day at a pirate-themed barbecue, ready to eat fried Oreos and play cornhole with Annabeth. Actually, that sounds like a perfect day, and those don't exist at New Rome Community College, so yes, Piper can believe that this morning's events can coexist with her crawling through a vent with Jason's butt in her face. It's not the worst butt that's ever been in her face, but still. It's a butt in her face. When has anybody ever wanted a butt in their face?

The journey through the vents, like most of the past twenty-four hours, is a blur. All that she can remember is trying not to be too loud and wondering how Leo does this so often. Oh, and then, of course, there's the looming fear that Annie's Boobs, Frank's lost bulldog from last year, might attack at any moment.

So needless to say, Piper is relieved to drop out of the vent in front of the front doors.

And she's even more relieved that the rest of the team found-

Let's try that one again.

Piper McLean is relieved beyond what she ever thought possible that the rest of the team managed to find-

"Where are Beck and Silena?" Nyssa asks.

"We thought they'd meet up with you," Jason admits.

If Beckendorf and Silena didn't make it out of the basement by now, then that means...

No, think positive.

At least they're together?

Not that kind of positive.

"Somebody pull up the security footage," Malcolm says.

Everyone just stares for a minute, like they don't want to know the answer to the question they're all asking. To be fair, even Piper doesn't want to know.

But they owe it to Beckendorf and Silena.

"Do it now!" Piper demands.

Jake jumps and pulls the iPad from a pouch in his wheelchair. He taps his grease-covered fingers across the screen and then turns it around for the rest of the group to see.

Piper squints. Why is security footage always so grainy?

But there they are—the less-than-happy couple cornered against a dilapidated bookshelf by way more City College stormtroopers than necessary. Beckendorf looks directly into the camera, a pleading look in his eyes and an arm wrapped tight around Silena.

Silena mouths Oh my gods!

Beckendorf gives a thumbs up to the security camera like he knows his friends—the friends that failed him—are helplessly watching from the sidelines.

"We're too late," Jason says. "We couldn't save them. Beck, Silena, Leo... Oh, and those nice kids... Lacy, Valentina-"

"Hey, uh, hate to interrupt a nostalgic moment," says Malcolm, "but it might be too late for us too."

Two little lines appear between Jason's eyebrows. "Dumb that down for me."

Nyssa tugs on the doors. "They're locked!"

"Then get them open!" Piper shouts.

Blank stares. That's all she gets.

"Seriously?" she asks. "You guys are engineering majors and not one of you can get these doors open?"

Even more blank stares. Forgive Piper for thinking one of the geniuses in the room could figure this out.

Piper tugs on the handle once, twice, three times.

"That's enough," Jason says. "It's over."

Only then does Piper realize it doesn't have to be over. "Malcolm," she says.

"Piper, it's pointless..." Malcolm groans.

"I refuse to believe that. You're in the chess club, right?"

"Yeah, I'm the treasurer."

Now is not the time to contemplate what kind of funding the chess club might need, so she just cuts to the chase. "So that's one of those games where you sacrifice pieces to win? Like a bigger picture sort of thing?"

Malcolm knits his eyebrows. "Well, you sacrifice your pawns to trick the other player into losing their more powerful pieces. It's a game of strategy. For example-"

"Okay, thanks," says Piper.

"Where are you going with this?" Jason asks.

"Plan twenty-three," Piper says. "What exactly does it do?"

Nyssa sighs. "I've got a bad feeling about this..."

"Wait, you're onto something," says Jake. "That's like, half the City College stormtroopers that'll be taken out!"

"Including us!" Nyssa shouts.

"It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make," he replies.

Jason pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Me too."

The rest of the team agrees: it's time to activate Plan Twenty-Three.

"There." Jake puts his phone away. "We just have to wait for Frank."

"You mean to tell me the whole plan rests on Frank?" Piper asks. Not that she doesn't trust Frank, it's just... Frank can be a little unreliable when he's got a 'nervous tummy.'

"Stop right there!" a voice sweeter than honey shouts.

Oh no.

Oh no.

Piper raises her hand at her old rival from high school, Drew Tanaka. Her stormtrooper helmet is tucked under her arm so her smooth hair can, like, flow in the wind or something.

"It's all over, Drew!" Piper shouts because hopefully, it is all over.

"Uh, no, silly! It's all over for you. What is this lame-ass team you've got? A couple of greasy nerds and your debate team hunk?" Drew asks.

"Well, you kind of took out the rest of 'em!" Piper shouts.

Jason steps forward, gun pointed at Drew. "I've got some questions for you."

"Well, I don't work for the admissions office, but I would be more than happy to put you in touch with the transfer department, cutie. Isn't he just a cutie?" Drew asks one of her teammates, who just nods in reply. Can they do anything but nod in those helmets? And if the answer is no, then how is City College able to operate so smoothly? Piper has questions.

Bzzt!

Jake checks his phone and nods before pulling his ball cap low on his head.

"It's been an honor, guys," Malcolm says.

"Oh my god. Stop being so dramatic!" Drew says.

"I think you mean oh my gods," says Piper. If Silena ever heard her, she'd die of embarrassment, but giving in to the stupid catchphrase seems like the nice thing to do. You know, since Silena got shot by paintballs in the basement. Repeatedly.

And then it happens. Piper finally learns what Plan Twenty-Three is, and wow, it's risky as hell. How long have Annabeth and Leo been cooking this up?

The fire alarms start to go off, and so does the sprinkler system, but instead of water pouring from the ceiling, it's purple paint.

A few thoughts are running through Piper's head, and none of them are to evacuate immediately or even stop, drop, and roll. Chief Festus from the local fire department would be disappointed in her.

Instead, Piper realizes that this must be why the fire safety systems never seem to work properly and why she's never had to participate in a fire drill at New Rome Community College.

Instead, Piper thinks that the purple rain is dramatic—romantic even. If only she had someone to-

Without thinking, she pulls her mask below her chin. "Jason..."

"You good?" he asks.

"Oh my god, my hair!" Drew shrieks.

Ignoring her old enemy completely, Piper yanks Jason's mask off and draws him in for a purple kiss. He probably can't even see through the now-purple lenses on his glasses, but it's worth it. It's better than any movie she's ever seen. This takes kissing in the rain to a whole new level.

And Jason must be into this too; his lips are moving in perfect sync against Piper's. It's like they've done this before. To be fair, they have, but it's never been this dramatic.

Not caring about who might be watching, they kiss until the paint in the sprinklers run dry.

✎✎✎

"I'm hot!" Miranda Gardner whines.

"I'm thirsty!" says Sherman Yang. 

Percy unloads his backpack on the quad. "Kool-Aid?"

"Please shut up and put the juice pouches away," Annabeth says. "This is supposed to be a stealth mission."

"At least call them by their proper name," Percy says. His arms brush against the bush they're hiding behind as he puts the foil pouches back in his backpack.

Annabeth can't believe she had sex with this guy on multiple occasions.

She pushes a branch out of her line of vision so she can see what her team's up against. Yep, a bigass paint cannon with several dozen guards surrounding it.

"Psst, Wise Girl," Percy whispers.

"Shut up."

"I'm serious-"

"I said shut up!"

"But Clarisse..."

Shit. Clarisse waves to Annabeth from the big oak tree, the one dedicated to a dead alumnus or something. She pulls out her phone and points to it.

Annabeth, who put her phone on silent since this is supposed to be a sneak attack, unlocks her phone. She expected some complaint from Clarisse about how there hasn't been enough shooting or how she has to pee, but it's a text from Frank.

Plan Twenty-Three is a go.

And then: Jason and the others were still inside.

What should we do?

Are you okay?

Annabeth?

:(

Annabeth rolls her eyes. Way to spam text, Frank. She types a short reply: Fine. Stay put.

"What was that?" Percy asks.

"Plan Twenty-Three... Jason and the others didn't make it out," Annabeth says.

Miranda drops her gun and slumps against the bush. "So that's it? We're all going to die."

"No we're not," says Annabeth.

"How can you be so sure?" Sherman challenges. "We lost Leo and the engineering majors, and we never had Hazel to begin with... god, even I know she's a stellar sharp-shooter. Ugh, even those dweebs that were hanging around Silena would have been helpful!"

"Woah, chill," says Annabeth. Great. Now she needs Percy. She gives him a pleading look because even though he's not good with her, he is good with people.

Percy clears his throat. Here comes the motivational speech. "Look," he says, "none of us wanted to be in this situation. I get that. But we can't let City College just shit on us like this. We earn the right to shit on New Rome every day because we pay an ungodly amount of money to go here."

He's on a roll, so he stands up. "You know, when I first got here, I thought you were all going to be a bunch of idiot weirdos, but I've learned that everyone here has their own stories. Miranda, you got the Starbucks on campus to start using paper straws instead of plastic. How cool is that?"

"Save the turtles, right?" Miranda says sheepishly.

Percy continues. "And Sherman, your various party dips are amazing! You're like, the most versatile frat guy ever!"

"I have some Velveeta in the fridge if you want..." he offers.

"And Annabeth-"

Pop!

Sherman clamps a hand over Miranda's mouth to keep her from screaming.

Annabeth would be lying if she said she didn't want to hear Percy's thoughts regarding her accomplishments, but really, what has she accomplished at New Rome? Scavenging for recycling? Getting a nose piercing that later got infected? Sherman's hot tub party?

Clearly, he got way too into his main-character hype speech because he drew too much attention to himself. Yes, he got shot by an enemy from City College.

"Well, uh, good luck everyone... Would it be weird if I got a snowball and watched from afar? Any objections?" Percy shrugs and wanders off to the snowball stand.

"Over there!" A city college student with an eyepatch jumps into the seat of the gunner and starts shooting.

"Oof!" Clarisse falls from the tree.

"C'mon, babe!" Sherman grabs Miranda by the arm and tries to lead her away, but his efforts are pointless. He and Miranda are both shot by the massive gunner.

"Watch out, Annabeth!" shouts Miranda. "It hurts!"

Annabeth slaps her palm against her forehead. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Miranda just gave away her location and now she's pretty much toast.

Meep-meep!

Or is she?

Normally Annabeth would punch the lights out of any man who dared grab her by the waist, but a) Will Solace is not interested in her, and b) this is sort of life-or-death.

"Hello there," Annabeth pants as she lands in the backseat of a New Rome campus security golf cart driven by none other than Nico di Angelo.

Nico salutes as if this is the most casual thing he's ever done. "Ciao."

"Hey, Annabeth!" Frank greets from the shotgun seat.

"I told you to stay put," she says.

"Isn't this cool?" Will gushes. "It's like we have our very own X-Wing!"

What a nerd. "Duck." Will dives to the floor and Annabeth shoots the gunman.

Holy shit. Holy shit—she just shot the guy firing the massive paint cannon. "Somebody go for the cannon... Oh, shit!" Nico's shouts become distant as he falls out of the golf cart. That's what happens when you get shot, Annabeth supposes.

But now, the cart is spiraling out of control, and they have no choice but to evacuate.

"Jesus Christ!" Will swears as he tumbles into a puddle of paint. "It's a trap!"

It should've been a perfect tuck and roll. It would have been a perfect tuck and roll if not for her dud shoulder.

Annabeth cries out in pain from the impact—you would too if you had been hurt this badly—and draws a little too much attention to herself.

Pop!

The pale kid with the eyepatch, still lying in the grass, shoots Annabeth right in her aching arm.

"Annabeth!" Percy shouts.

And there's another shot. Isn't mutilation against some sort of rule? Maybe she'd know if Dean D had given Mr. Brunner a chance to explain the rules.

A third shot. Yep, that's going to turn into a bruise.

"Nobody touches her!" Percy shouts. He places his arm under Annabeth's good shoulder and eases her to her feet. "You okay?" he asks.

Annabeth smirks. "That'll teach me to let an undergrad student pop my shoulder back in place."

He chuckles. "Hospital?"

"Wait. I want to see this."

Frank Zhang flies out of the golf cart so fast, that you'd think he'd caught air.

The popping of his gun echoes throughout the quad as he takes out stormtrooper after stormtrooper. Annabeth's never seen him like this before.

She remembers learning about this hero in her mythology class this year, some guy named Horatius. Well, not just some guy. He fought off an entire army on a bridge all by himself.

That's pretty much what Frank's doing right now.

This is it. This is what Annabeth's been waiting for—her perfect moment.

"Holy fuck."

Her one allotted F-bomb.

And goddammit, there goes Frank, shot by one of the very last stormtroopers. It's all over.

Frank looks at the others with wide eyes. "I'm so sorry..."

But then the shortest stormtrooper shoots the ones on either side of her. A betrayal? Who would betray City College?

She takes off her helmet. Of course, only the best sharp-shooter.

"I find your lack of faith... disturbing," Hazel Levesque says. Then, she breaks character and giggles. "Too much?"

"Just enough!" Percy shouts.

"Great!" Hazel pounds on the door to the RV. "Phil! Luke! Get out of here! Y'all lost!"

Phil Swift and Annabeth's ex—who has undoubtedly seen better days— emerge from the RV, releasing Dean D and Mr. Brunner from their restraints.

"Now get out of our barbecue!" Mr. Brunner shouts.

"Wait!" says Dean D. "I have something to tell you, my boy."

Luke crosses his arms and puts out his joint.

"Luke... I am your father." Dean D can't keep a straight face for long. "Nah, I'm kidding. Get the hell out of here or I'll have you arrested for trespassing."

✎✎✎

The final study group meeting of the year used to just be a formality, but now that Hazel might be leaving the group for good, it's time to decide what class the group is taking together next semester.

"Hazel's taking biology," says Frank. "We could do that too."

"I have a science credit to fill, but do you think she wants us?" Jason asks. "I mean, I'm going to miss her too, but is it worth pissing her off?"

"What's not worth pissing me off?"

"Hazel!" Piper doesn't care. Piper jumps to her feet and wraps Hazel in the biggest hug she can manage after yesterday's traumatic events.

"Does this mean I can still study with you next year?" Hazel asks.

"Not that we got much studying done in the first place, but yeah," says Percy. "Always."

Hazel passes a pamphlet across the table. "It's a syllabus for the biology class I signed up for with Nico. I know you all still need science credits. Please say you'll take it with me!"

Leo wrinkles his nose. "Do we have to like, dissect stuff?"

"Don't worry," says Jason. "I'll be your lab partner."

"Not if I beat him to it!" says Piper. "We'll look out for you, Leo."

"Good, 'cause I've got some great ideas for next season," Leo says. "I'm thinking about another documentary, and a social media tag, and a new episode of Frank and Leo in the Morning, and sports-"

"Okay, let's take things one step at a time," Annabeth says. She tugs her backpack over her shoulder. "Have a good summer."

Everyone echoes, "Have a good summer," except for Leo, who is still rambling on about what he has in store for next season.