Leo

I was not happy when I got to my daily routine. After a light breakfast of cereal and milk, I went off to Bunker 9 to get back to working on Festus.

And I found the doors to Bunker 9 open.

I don't know who could have managed to sneak past the Harpies, or this far out of the forest without anyone noticing. But they'd done a good job of not getting caught, and pushing me towards crafting an alarm system for the Bunker.

I was sure I'd locked it last night. So no one would get in. But, contrary to what I thought. There were two sets of footprints inside the bunker.

What confused me was that one set belonged to some kind of canine. The prints were close to the wolf ones I'd seen before. Judging by the size of them, it was a larger dog than I would have liked in my workspace.

The other set of prints were in the shapes of shoes. But as I'd seen from Satyrs, anyone can fill shoes to make themselves look human.

I did an inventory of the bunker, and found everything in its proper place, nothing stolen. But there was somewhat of a mess on one of the workbenches. One the side, a metal tab was screwed into the wood. The letter "H" engraved in the metal. Probably some demigod child of Hephaestus.

The blueprints on the bench were all unraveled and spread over the table. Even the first draft of Festus's design. The one I liked to call "Dark Festus" and "Nico's Dragon".

Aside from the footprints and the table, everything was in order. I put together that the intruders must have been looking for blueprints on that workbench, didn't find the one they wanted, and left.

I put creating a security system for the bunker on my list of things to do while I was still at camp. Fixing Festus was my main priority, but it was taking longer than I thought.

Everytime I turned him back on, I went off searching for Henry. I thought it was odd, since I thought automatons didn't go after humans for no reason, and he'd never seen her before. Not really. Yet, even when he first arrived at camp, he bolted across the river towards her.

And then he didn't burn the new kid to a crisp.

I couldn't win. No matter what conclusion I came to for why Festus was acting weird, there was always one piece that didn't fit. And what caused Festus to fly back to Camp at lightning speed was insane all on its own. Mainly, because I still couldn't figure it out.

I decided to take a break from analyzing Festus's malfunction and design a security system for Bunker 9. This time, no one stole anything. Next time could be different.

"Leo!" someone called out. I thought it was my sister from another mister.

I was right.

Piper walked through the doors, with Nico at her side. Both of them had slight bags under their eyes. For Nico, that was normal. For Piper, not so much.

They saw me and Piper gave me an incredulous look. "What are you doing up there?" she asked.

By "up there", I guessed she meant the pipe I was sitting on close to the ceiling. It's funny. I always forget how I get up here until I'm in the act of doing it. Then I forget how to get down until I'm going down.

Yes, I'm weird. I know this.

"I'm doing some maintenance," I told them. "And hopefully adding some kind of security system."

I took a handful of screws and an electric drill from my belt. Maybe the system could be some kind of Rube Goldberg machine. One that could fling a pie in the face of intruders. Or a boxing glove full of cement.

"Why a security system?" Nico questioned.

I pointed to the doorway my friends just entered from. "There are two sets of tracks leading up to the doors. The doors I found open when I got here. One set could be from a demigod. But the other ... not so much."

Piper and Nico shared alarmed expressions. "You think someone broke in?"

"Like I said," I repeated. "I found the doors open, after I locked them last night. And those tracks go all around the bunker."

Nico traced the tracks from the door to the workbench just as I had. "Was anything taken?"

"No," I said between drilling in each screw. "But I don't like the idea of someone sneaking around my bunker at night while I'm not here."

I scooted down the pipe as I drilled in more screws. In no time at all, I had an entire rafter with screws sticking out. A perfect place to put a wire for the security system.

"Why this workbench?" Nico was shifting through the blueprints on the workbench that the footprints led up to. "They go here, and then off in that directions."

Nico gestured to the miniature forge I'd placed inside during the creation of the Argo II. I shrugged, unsure of what that could mean. It seemed unlikely to me that someone would break in only to use the forge. The one the Hephaestus campers used was one during the day. Why wouldn't the person who broke in use that if they truly needed to.

My best guess was that the intruder was searching for specific blueprints and couldn't find them. Maybe the first draft of Festus was a clue. Maybe whoever came in was looking for Festus's blueprints.

"Okay," Piper sighed. "We've got a break in, a loose monster, an unknown demigod, and no Chiron. What else could go wrong today?"

I'd heard about the new demigod, and met her. I knew about the break in because I discovered it first.

However, I hadn't heard about the loose monster or that Chiron was gone. "What's this about a monster on the run and our head camp counselor not here?"

"Chiron left for Olympus," Nico answered. "No one knows why yet, but he did. And Annabeth's in charge for the time being."

"Really?" I shoved the drill back into my belt. "Wouldn't it be Jason, or Percy?"

"They fought over it for a few minutes," Piper smirked. "But just like on the Argo II, Annabeth took the head of the table to end the squabble."

The brief memory of that day made me feel tense. That day had been strenuous for everyone. Lightning and water battling for control was like the Titans vs the Giants. Football or otherwise.

Thankfully, the two were passed all that and fast friends now.

"Okay, and what about a crazy monster?"

"Something went to Aphrodite Cabin to scare the campers. I woke up and found it waiting outside ... like a reaper," Piper divulged, recalling the incident. "It scared the life out of one of the younger kids, and we have no idea who, or what, it was."

I glanced at the floor. "Do you think it had dog feet? Or had a dog companion?"

Nico and Piper squinted at me. "Why would you say that?" he scoffed. He shut up when I gestured to the prints on the floor.

"I say that because the thing that tried to scare the Aphrodite campers could have been the same thing that broke in here."

Taken aback, Nico studied the prints again. "Was the figure human, Piper? Or, did it look like one?"

She crossed her arms over her chest and grimaced. "I told you. It looked like a grim reaper. It had an ax and everything. But it could manipulate darkness and take out the nightlight Raymond had inside the cabin before I opened the door."

I shimmied across the pipes and onto the catwalk. From there, I got back to the ground level of the Bunker. Watching my friends from up there made me feel like a security camera.

"Security camera!" I blurted. Nico and Piper turned to me like I was a freaky street performer. "I should install security cameras in the bunker! So we can see who sneaks in next time!"

Nico pursed his lips and nodded. "You do that, Leo."

"Aside from fixing Festus, I've got nothing else to do. Calypso is going to kill me," I muttered.

I didn't have a way to contact the Waystation. I had no way of telling Calypso of why I'd left or what was going on. If she'd noticed I was gone yet, I was going to get such an earful when I got back.

Then, that's when it hit me. Should I tell my friends about the Waystation? Should I let them know about another demigod hideout besides Camp Half Blood and Camp Jupiter? ............ Nah.