All was peaceful. The sky was blue, dotted with fluffy clouds, and birds cheerfully flew about. That is, until they had to dodge out of the path of a fifty-ton giant bronze dragon, whose name happened to be Festus. This dragon was looking quite battered, with dents and scorch marks all over his body. However, the two figures on his back looked quite a bit better.

These two people were named Leo Valdez, the son of Hephaestus, and Calypso, former nymph/goddess of Ogygia. At the moment, they were calm, but as Leo scanned the horizon, he let out a cheer loud enough to wake the entire Hypnos cabin. "Land ahoy!"

"Hmm? Where?" Calypso murmured sleepily. The two had been flying for what seemed like forever, so the girl had been leaning against Leo, dozing.

"Right in front of us, look!" Leo pointed downwards, to where the sea finally met land, which was covered in sloping green hills. Much more impressive, though, was the city they were flying directly towards. Soaring skyscrapers and colorful houses were all waiting behind a massive, red bridge that spanned an equally massive bay. Is that what I think it is? Leo leaned forward, squinting. He'd never been here, but there was only one bridge like that.

"Oh, Leo…" Calypso whispered in an awed voice. "It's amazing."

Leo twisted around to grin at her, and found her smiling as well. "Ready to see the mortal world again, Sunshine?"

"Can this dragon move any faster?"

Leo laughed. "Is that a challenge?" He turned back around. "Festus! Full speed ahead!" The dragon roared in reply, then shot forward faster than any airplane. In seconds they reached land. The city they had ended up in was full of skyscrapers and townhouses, and oddly enough, cherry blossom trees. Huh. "I think I know where we are! San Fransokyo!"

"San what?" Calypso asked incredulously.

"San Fransokyo, the robotics capital of the world! It's just south of San Francisco. That means we're pretty far away from Camp Half-Blood, but it's not as bad as it could be!" What Leo didn't mention was that they were just a short flight from Camp Jupiter—a place Leo really didn't want to pay a surprise visit, considering the last time he was there he'd been possessed by an eidolon and forced to fire on New Rome.

But that was old news! "I'm going to land us in that little park, okay? We'll have a look around and see what's been happening." Leo told Calypso. "Is that all right with you?"

"I'd love to see the city!" Calypso said happily. Of course she would. I wonder how she'll react to being around so many people, though. She's been stuck on that island for so long.

Leo steered Festus towards the park, which was luckily deserted. Well, except for a very large, very fat cat that hissed and ran away when Festus touched the ground. It was a nice little place, with the emphasis on little. Leo could see buildings and passing cars even at the center, where they'd landed. There was a nice looking fountain, a couple benches, and a kid's playground off to one side. That was it.

"I can't believe it…I'm really off the island." Calypso whispered. She hardly even waited for Festus to crouch, she just jumped off as soon as she could. Leo got off and landed beside her. She turned to him, her eyes shining. "Leo, thank you…thank you! You did what no hero ever could. I'm free!" She flew at Leo, enveloping him in a tight hug.

"Okay, okay! Don't suffocate your favorite hero!" Leo laughed. "Good to be somewhere new, then?"

Calypso nodded. Then, she leaned even closer and kissed Leo on the mouth. He shrank back in surprise before accepting it, and the two of them remained locked together for what felt like forever, bit was probably no more than half a minute. Then Calypso pulled back and left them both grinning like idiots. Leo probably looked like more of an idiot, but at least there wasn't anyone around to see.

"Should we—should we go, then?" Leo stuttered.

"Yes, of course." She let go of Leo, but kept hold of his hand. "What's the plan?"

"Exploring!" Leo said brightly. "Festus, stay here in sleep mode. We'll be back in a few hours."

The dragon creaked in reply, then laid his head on the floor and his ruby eyes dimmed. Then hand in hand, Leo and Calypso started down one of the short park paths and entered the city. Nearly a second after they left the trees, a girl went hurtling by on a bike. "Watch it!" She yelled to them.

How can she go that fast uphill? Was that even a normal bicycle? Leo wondered. Maybe it had been enhanced somehow, or maybe that speedy girl had just been a really good athlete.

"That was an odd contraption." Calypso observed.

Leo shrugged. "Yeah, it was a bike. As you can see, it's faster than walking."

Just then a car passed them on the road, and Calypso's eyes widened. "I see the mortals have invented many new things. You know what? Don't tell me about all of it. I want to find out for myself." Her eyes were shining with anticipation.

"If you want, sure." Just imagine her face when she sees an airplane for the first time! Leo laughed inwardly. "Now, I'd say we should get food, but we don't have any money. So exploring really is all we can do, unless you want to pay tribute to Hermes." By that, Leo meant stealing.

"Exploring is more than enough." Calypso agreed, and so they started walking again.

They passed more and more people as they headed into what looked like a shopping district. Leo didn't know how long they wandered, but he didn't care. Calypso looked at everything with such amazement and shock it was pretty impossible to be bored. They made a game out of her trying to guess the function of modern objects, and she actually got most of them right. Beautiful and smart. Leo wondered how he'd gotten so lucky.

The sun had started to sink when they stopped for a break in front of a café called "The Lucky Cat". Leo could see all kinds of pastries being sold in the crowded store, which made his stomach growl with longing. Oh, well. At least he'd had a good afternoon.

"I don't think I've seen a lot of those things before." Calypso commented, staring into the window beside him. "Are they all desserts?"

"Most of it. Sure looks good, huh?" Leo sighed. "Too bad neither of us have any money."

"True. And did you not say that it would take a couple days to get to Camp Half-Blood? What will we do for food until then?"

"I can probably find something for us, somehow." Leo hadn't needed to do it for a while, but his tool belt could produce food. Jason and Piper had really liked his tacos—man, he wished he had that cornucopia right now.

"What was that?" A woman's voice asked from behind them. Leo turned and saw that it was a woman, middle aged with short brown hair. She was carrying some shopping bags.

"Oh, we were just talking about the stuff in that café. It looks good, but we're totally broke." Leo shrugged.

"No, that part about not being able to get food and going on a trip. Are you two kids all right?" The woman asked, a note of motherly concern in her voice.

"It's nothing. We should probably get going, we—"

"Nonsense!" The woman cut Leo off. "Come on inside, the café isn't too busy right now. I'm closing early for the showcase anyway. My name is Cass Hamada."

"It's all right, really, we—" Cass waved off Calypso's protest.

"I'm the owner here. If I want to treat two nice kids then I can. What are your names?" They introduced themselves quickly, and then Cass started walking past them, up the small steps to the café door. "Aren't you coming?"

Leo and Calypso shared a look. Leo shrugged and nodded after her. Who was he to turn down free food? And this lady didn't seem like any kind of monster. So, they followed her in.

Oh man, the way that bakery smelled! Chocolate and sugar and coffee all at once…it was enough to satisfy any hyperactive demigod's wildest dreams.

"Just sit down at a table, I'll be with you in a second!" Cass called. "Just let me put this stuff away."

Leo entertained himself by people watching. A girl in her twenties was working at the register, this old lady in an uncomfortably revealing outfit was sipping coffee by the window, and various others populated the room.

Calypso was inspecting their surroundings too. "People here are so odd." She said. "And the clothes are different too."

"Not from around here, huh?" Cass asked, once again appearing behind them. She set down a plate with four awesome looking bagels on it, as well as two glasses of water. "Here. These are leftover from this morning, but they should still taste all right."

"Thank you, ma'am. And no, I'm actually from Greece." Calypso said politely.

"What about you, Leo?"

"I grew up in Houston but I live in New York now. Long Island, actually." He said with a smile, thinking of Camp.

"You're both pretty far from home. That must be hard."

Leo shrugged. "I'm used to being in new places." Considering all the times he'd run away and all the random towns he'd visited on quests, Leo felt like an accomplished world explorer. "At least you speak English here."

Cass laughed at that. "It sounds like you get into as much trouble as my nephew Hiro. He's younger than you but he got himself arrested a couple weeks ago."

Now it was Leo's turn to snort, but he tried to hide it. After all, mortals had no idea the troubles a demigod went through. "Arrested, huh?"

"Yes, but hopefully he won't be doing anything illegal anymore. He's actually entering an invention at his older brother's college tonight."

"What kind of invention?" Leo asked curiously. This was San Fransokyo, after all. Who knew what kind of cool tech it might be?

"I'm not too sure, they've been very secretive about it. But if you want to see, come to the showcase tonight. All the robotics students are showing off their work. I think I have a flyer here…" Cass reached into her back pocket. "Ah, here we go! All the info is on there. Come if you want, but enjoy your food first!"

Leo hastily unfolded the paper. "This will be awesome, Calypso. We can stay and go to this, then get an early start tomorrow morning."

"Let me see." She leaned over. "SFIT? What is that?"

"San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, that's the school name. Let's see, it starts at eight o'clock, then…" Leo trailed off when something on the paper caught his eye. That couldn't be the date, right? There had to be some kind of typo.

"What's wrong?" Calypso asked, probably noticing Leo's shock.

"Th-the date on the paper." Leo stammered. "The battle with Gaia happened on August first."

"So?"

"It says April fifth. April." He turned and looked directly into her eyes. "Calypso, I've been gone for more than eight months!"

Yes, the girl on the bike was GoGo.
And fair warning, the first five or so chapters will be pretty much just him and Calypso.
We'll meet Hiro and Tadashi next time, but...well, I'll leave that up to your imagination.
Please review!