NOTE:

This is not a single story; this is a mega-book adapting each of the five novels in the Heroes of Olympus series in turn. This is also in line with the similar treatment I gave Percy Jackson and the Olympians, with my mega-book "The Cruel Spider", also on this site. I am a writer, and so I am treating this as a book I would write. That said, forget everything you knew about the PJO world; I'm changing basically everything, because HoO sux major ass baskets. I also changed basically everything narratively The Cruel Spider as well.

****YOU DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE READ THE CRUEL SPIDER TO ENJOY THIS****

I've provided enough exposition and background to get a firm grasp of what everyone is about, though I purposefully left out neat details so as not to rob the enjoyment of The Cruel Spider, should you enjoy this and want to go back and read that.

Without further ado, though, onto the story:

The blond kid jolted up as if he just woke from a deep slumber. It was an odd sensation, because he could be sure that he wasn't asleep, nor did he feel the initial grogginess like he just awoke.

His head was foggy, however, with a million questions running through his head at once. The most prominent question remained at the front and it was one he couldn't answer on his own. "Who am I?"

It was only after a few seconds did he become aware of his surroundings. He was on a moving school bus, though how he knew what a 'school bus' was he didn't know. It was sitting in the aisle seat, sitting next to a girl, who was looking out the window with her earbuds in. He was about to ask her for help, when he realized he was holding her hand.

He shifted in his seat, trying to figure out if he remembered anybody here, and the movement caught the girl's attention. She took her earbuds out and smiled. She did a hand motion, slapping the back of her fingers in her other palm, then moving that other palm to the opposite forearm and then pulling the other hand up. The boy couldn't tell what it was, so he ignored it.

"Um…" he didn't know where to start. The girl looked at him expectantly, and when he didn't do anything, she frowned. She could tell something was wrong, the kid knew that much. Though he couldn't read her through her eyes, only her expression. Her eyes were this odd rainbow-thing, like she was shining a star's light through different colored glass, resulting in a kind of kaleidoscope effect when he looked directly at them. Truthfully, it was mesmerizing; he could stare into them all day. "Focus," he told himself.

The blond was about to try asking who she was, and who he was, for that matter, when he was interrupted. "Oh, finally awake?" another kid, looking to bearound the girl's age, hung over from the seat behind theirs. He wore a pair of worker's pants and a simple white, long-sleeved shirt and a black vest, but not like the formal kind. This one was more bushy and thick. He only wished the undershirt was a darker color; all of the dirt and grime from what must've been the past month appeared on it. "I tell ya, Jason, I don't know how you can sleep with such shitty roads."

"J…Jason?" the blond wondered quietly. "Is that my name?" he asked.

"I know, lame, right?" the small-statured, impish kid sat back in his seat, grinning. "But hey, not everyone has such a badass name as Leo Valdez!"

Jason didn't respond, just kept looking around. Most of the kids on the bus looked their age, and most couldn't really bring themselves to look anywhere but the window. None of them were conversing. In front was an older guy in a suit whose hairline looked to have receded a long time ago. His eyes were droopy like he was tired, but Jason suspected that he just looked that way all of the time.

The girl beside him tapped his arm. He turned to her, thinking she would introduce herself. Instead, she did some more hand motions. "Is that…is that supposed to tell me something?" Jason wondered. The girl cocked her head to the side, confused and worried based on the furrow in her brow. "D…do you understand me?" he asked, wondering if she even spoke or understood speech.

"You wouldn't think she does," Leo teased her. "She hardly listens to anything anyone tells her," he chuckled to himself, only for the girl to stand up, reach back, and thwack him upside the head. "Ow!" Leo yelped, even though it didn't look like that hard a hit, more of a playful love tap. "What the hell, Piper! It was only a joke!"

"Quiet down in the back, please," the droopy-eyed guy up front said, though they just barely heard it over the bus' engine.

Leo went back to whatever he was doing, not wanting another slap. Jason returned his attention to the girl. "P-Piper, was it?" Jason said hesitantly. He felt bad, as this girl seemed to know him, while he didn't have the faintest idea who she was. He considered lying to her, acting normal, but that wouldn't have been fair to her. "Where are we? Where are we going?"

She didn't even get a chance to answer, Leo did it for her. "Oh, we're in the 'glorious' Wilderness School, where troubled kids get to go when they became too much of a pain for the people that are supposed to help them," he said, waving his arms in the air for emphasis on his words. "In other words," he dropped his hands into a shrug. "We're at rock bottom."

"But…why? Why are we here? What did we do? Isn't there somewhere else we can go?"

Leo didn't answer this one, leaving it to Piper, with her hand motions. He tapped the front part of her right shoulder, then the front part of her left. She made the "ok" symbol with both hands, and interlocked her thumbs and index fingers. Finally, she put both palms facing up, and made small circular patterns in the air. She did these motions with a saddened look, her eyes down, her expression melancholic.

"I…I don't…w-what is this? I don't understand, I'm sorry," Jason said, trying his best to sound genuine, which he was, but the sentence seemed a bit dickish.

The girl scrunched her eyes a bit, indicating frustration, before reaching down and digging into the backpack between them. It was the first time Jason noticed it, and alongside it was a skateboard. Was he a skater? How did he know what a skateboard was?

As Piper searched for whatever it was she was looking for, Jason found himself digging in his own pockets, quickly wrapping his hand around a small object inside. When he removed his hand and looked, he saw that it was a small coin, made entirely of gold. On one side was the face of a man who looked really ancient, with the word 'IVLIVS' etched into the bottom, and on the other side was a picture of a sword and battle-axe crossed together in combat.

When Piper finally found what she was looking for, a small notepad and a pencil, Jason had started flipping the coin up and down, again out of habit. How did he acquire this habit?

Piper started writing. 'I said we belong here. It was sign language; I taught you how to use it, remember?' she wrote.

"I…I'm sorry, but…no, I don't," Jason replied, waiting for her to write more.

'Amnesia?' was all she wrote. It was a logical explanation.

"I-I guess, but I don't…" he trailed off. Piper tapped the pencil against her chin for a second. "W-wait, why won't you say anything to me? Is it like-"

"I'll tell ya why," Leo popped back up again, shoving some ear plugs in in his ears, and tickling Piper in her sides. Piper laughed out loud for a few seconds, but then slapped her hand across her mouth, silencing herself. It was too late, though; the entire bus, including Jason, laughed out loud right after her.

Odd…Jason didn't find anything funny. He looked around, seeing that no one had shifted at all to look at them. Piper's face went beat red, her teeth gritted, while Leo fell back into his chair, cackling like a lunatic. "Oho! Oh, oh…that never gets old," he wiped a tear from his eye.

"Hey man, cut it out," Jason warned, though he wasn't thinking. "You're clearly bothering her, so just stop."

"Eh?" Leo wondered. "What are you talking about? I'm just playing around."

Piper didn't say anything for or against it, just wrote on her piece of paper. 'I think Jason is sick,' she showed it to Leo. He waited for her to write more. 'He should already know that this is just how we are; he even already talked to you about it before.'

Leo shrugged after he read it. "Well, he was always stubborn. Maybe he's like a dog and just relapsing in behavior?"

Piper looked unamused. 'Leo, I'm serious. I think Jason is really sick.'

"I don't know…" Leo looked Jason up and down. "Hey, Grover, what do you think?" Leo tapped the boy next to him. He looked slightly older than Piper and Leo, if only by a year, if that.

Grover turned to the trio, and froze when he saw Jason. It was only for the briefest of moments, but Grover seemed to come to an understanding with the amnesiac. He took his headphones out. "What's up, Lee?" the older boy wondered.

"What do you think of Jason here? He says he 'can't remember anything'," Leo used air quotes. Grover considered for a second.

"…Did he hit his head?" Grover wondered.

"…You're serious?" Jason wondered, thinking it would be really lame if that was the case and that was it.

"I'm serious, man," he returned.

"Well…not that I can…remember," Jason quickly realized how stupid that sentence sounded. Just then, though, the bus stopped. Jason hadn't even realized, but they'd arrived at their destination; the Grand Canyon and a glass overhang to observe it.

The droopy-eyed guy stood first, adjusting his suit and holding up a clipboard. "Please stand when I call your name and regroup with your partner to await further instructions," he said.

"Jeez, I always feel like having a nap when he talks," Leo said as the names began to be read off.

Quite a few names were called out. "Jason Grace," the man said it without hesitation. Jason stood, grabbing the skateboard. Piper offered him the bag too, which he took. The amnesiac found that he was just barely too tall to stand straight up in the bus. Jason exited, but stuck close to the door to wait for the three people he actually knew the names of. The wait was agonizingly long, as the guy read the names so slowly and he waited for about ten years after the kid got off to read the next name. "Piper McLean," the guy said a bit later. The girl exited, immediately shivering.

"H-here," Jason said instinctively, reaching for something to give her, even though she already had a thick white jacket. Still, he persisted. He reached around his neck, realizing that he'd been wearing a scarf; a bright pink scarf, unapologetically. He stared it blankly for a moment, feeling as if it had some importance, before he handed it to her.

Piper raised an eyebrow, probably thinking he'd be cold without it, but he was perfectly fine. In fact, while everyone else seemed to feel the biting cold of the winter wind, Jason felt nothing; it was like a nice spring day. Anyway, whether she was confused or not, Piper accepted the scarf and put it on, wrapping it around her exposed neck. When she was at a resting position, even her chin and lips were obscured by it.

This was the first time Jason took the time to really look at her. Her skin was just a few shades darker than his, perhaps implying mixed heritage in some form, though it wasn't like crazy dark like an African-American's either. Her face was free of make-up, though it didn't do anything to stifle her looks; she was pretty without it. Her hair seemed to be both completely unkempt and very well-cared for. It was braided in several areas, including some prominent ones which tucked around her head on either side. It was tied into a very messy knot bun, tied where a ponytail would be banded, with a lot of it beginning to fall out. It was…cute. Jason found himself blushing when looking at her, and it immediately felt wrong to think about anything resembling that when he didn't even know her, so he turned away, embarrassed.

"Grover Underwood," the guy, who was probably a teacher, said a while later. The kid came out, wearing baggy pants and walking with crutches, like he had something wrong with his legs. Jason felt bad for the guy; he figured if he was sent here, then his folks must've not wanted to deal with him because of his disability or something like that.

"Leo Valdez," the guy continued.

"Aw yeah!" Leo jumped up and bounded off the bus at Mach six, quickly joining the group. It was surprising how fast he moved with his spindly legs. "You ready, Jason? We're gonna 'ace' the assignment, aren't we?" he used air quotes again.

"Assignment?" Jason inquired. Piper hooked her arm into his possessively, making him blush.

"What? But he was my partner!" Leo argued. Grover chuckled.

"Yo, I think she changed her mind," the crippled boy said. "Don't worry, man, I'll be your partner."

"Thanks, Grove," Leo said, shrugging. Eventually, the rest of the kids and the teacher got off.

"Odd…" Jason thought. "I thought he might think something was weird," he thought of Grover. "But now…maybe I was imagining things?"

The teacher allowed the kids time to use the restroom. While Jason didn't have to relieve himself, he wanted to look at himself in the mirror. Maybe there was something on his person that might clue him into his origins.

The first thing that struck Jason was how built he was. He was broad-shouldered, which was where most of that image came from. While his arms weren't like…buff, like the Rock's, they were definitely muscled and lean. It also looked like he had been in more than a few fights, with scars lining his arms.

"Is that why I was sent here? Because I'm too violent?" Jason wondered, and shivered at the thought of even coming close to a fist-fight. His hair was cut short-ish. Not like a buzz cut, but close. It was blonde as well. Jason noticed a small scar on his lip. For some reason, it filled him with warmth, as if reminding him of feelings from another time. "I wish I could remember…"

Another stand-out about him was his arm; there was a tattoo on it. It was a small etching of an eagle, closest to his hand, right at the wrist. Below that was four letters, SPQR, followed by a series of twelve parallel lines. "Hm?" Leo looked over. "When did you get the time to get that?"

"I don't…"

"Right, sorry, Mr. Amnesiac," Leo teased. "So what does it mean, anyway?"

"Senatus Populusque Romanus," Jason said instantly. He reached his hand up to his mouth, confused as to how he knew that. "It means…" he held his head, feeling something trying to resurface. "It means…I…" he found himself light-headed, leaning on the wall to keep from doubling over. He dropped to one knee.

"Whoa! Jason, you okay?" Leo, for once, looked genuinely concerned, kneeling down with him. He offered his hand, though with his physique, Jason didn't think he could help get him back up at all.

"Y-yeah, I'm…fine," Jason returned, feeling the light-headedness fade.

A moment later, they were all standing on the overhang, which was glass at the bottom. Reinforced glass, they were assured. Piper met Jason and smiled. She had something written already. 'I'll do the worksheet; I know you're not feeling well.'

Jason smiled back. "Thank you, Piper."

From then on, Jason just walked around with her, as she filled out the worksheet they'd apparently been given a few days prior. Most everyone completed the worksheet long before their allotted time on the catwalk was over, so they all just hung out, with the teacher watching everyone lazily. "Odd…" Jason thought. "…Are his clothes caught in the wind or something?" he wondered, seeing them flow slightly, even when he wasn't moving and there wasn't any wind to catch it.

Jason shook his head; he was growing paranoid. Piper had gone over and started playing pranks on the others, along with Leo. Jason didn't want to be a part of that, so he just leaned on the railing, looking down into the canyon below. He almost expected to feel nauseous, but he didn't. "What I wouldn't give to just dive down and soar through there…" he found himself thinking as he sighed. It wasn't until a few seconds later did he realize how strange that desire was. He would die, wouldn't he?

"Hey," Grover approached, breaking up Jason's thoughts. "It's…Jason, right?"

"Wait, you're asking?" the blond wondered. "Does that mean you don't know me?"

"Never seen you before in my life, man," Grover admitted. "But hey, doesn't mean we can't meet now. Name's Grover," he offered his hand.

"Jason, I guess," Jason shook the man's hand.

"I guess you must be the Saving Grace, huh?" Grover wondered. "Well, don't worry. The extraction team should be here soon to-"

"Whoa, hold up," Jason interrupted. "Saving Grace? Is that a codename? And what extraction team?"

Grover blinked. "…You weren't faking your amnesia?"

"No, I actually don't remember anything."

Grover grimaced. "Well…that could complicate things just a bit. Tell you what; you've just got to go along with everything. I can tell you're a half-blood, so it should be safe to bring you to camp."

"What camp? What do you mean 'half-blood'?" Jason continued asking questions.

"Jason, relax. Everything will…uh-oh," Grover looked above them. Out of nowhere, massive stormclouds formed above them, only to disperse a moment later. "That can't be good. Damn…where's the extraction…?"

"Grover? Hey, Grover," Jason got his attention. "You wanna fill me in? What's going-"

The skywalk shook violently, causing most everyone to fall. Grover, surprisingly, caught himself. "Everyone grab a rail!" the older boy yelled. A few seconds later, the glass below them shattered.

Thankfully, most everyone had grabbed onto a railing in time, except for Leo, of course. He was too busy trying to pants a guy.

Leo fell through the glass when it broke, screaming bloody murder as he did. "Leo!" Jason called, reaching toward him. Obviously, though, he couldn't reach the impish boy.

Just then, however, a sort of…wind spirit thing, caught Leo and guided him toward an outcropping in the cliff face before flying up to the group, causing an intense wind to pick up, drowning out anything but yells, which there were plenty of. "Jason!" Grover said, climbing onto the railing and displaying an incredible balance. He'd kicked off his shoes, revealing…hooves? With what has happened in the past thirty seconds, Jason wasn't even shocked. "Get to Piper! Don't let the Anemoi Thuellai get to her!"

"What did you call it?!" Jason questioned, though Grover ignored him. He stepped into the air, and a small circle of grass and leaves appeared beneath his hooves. Grover had dropped one of his crutches, and looked to be using the other one as a weapon.

The wind spirit seemed to have a vaguely humanoid shape, though its face was a mystery. It dove for Piper, but Grover intercepted it, bashing it away with his crutch. The wind monster made another dash, thinking that the attack had been a fluke, when Grover did a spin kick with his hoof. "A watcher?!" it snarled, just realizing that Grover had goat legs.

"Aw yeah!" Grover challenged. "Come on and feel my goat-fu, ya big fart beast!"

"What am I watching?" Jason thought, dumbfounded at the ridiculousness of it. Then he shook his head, remembering that he wasn't supposed to be watching. He climbed his way over to Piper, who looked too shocked to even breathe.

"Hey, hey," he eased her into his arms for more support. His voice was level, surprisingly. He'd expected to be as terrified as she was, but it felt as though…as though he'd been in this kind of situation before. "It's gonna be alright. Grover has this handled."

But he didn't. Grover handled himself well, but he was fighting a half-intangible wind spirit. He tumbled with the thing in the air, grappling with his goat legs, but was ultimately thrown off right where Leo was. Grover stood, though couldn't move back up to where Jason and Piper were. Instead, he focused on Leo. "Hey man, you cool?" Leo nodded, too stunned to speak. "Alright, alright…okay we've gotta find a way up there, aight?"

The wind spirit met Jason again. "Get off," he ordered Piper, all but shoving her away; he knew this thing was after her, and he couldn't protect her when she was hanging on him.

Jason felt a strange energy well up within him, and he vaulted onto the railing. The spirit looked confused that this weirdo would challenge him so foolishly. "…Do you know what I am, mortal?"

"Shut it, ventus!" Jason found himself yelling, reaching into his pocket and grabbing his coin. The creature charged. Jason swiped the hit away, pushing the thing back without actually touching it. It was like…he controlled the air around him to repel the attack.

He wasn't thinking about his actions or words; they just flowed naturally from within him. This was what he did; he knew it.

The ventus, the wind spirit, charged the blond, but Jason flipped up his coin. The motion startled the spirit, with it almost being repelled by the gold trinket.

Jason caught it in his palm, and then smashed it into his other, sweeping his hands apart. As he did, the coin changed shape into a blade, with Jason gripping its hilt in his right hand. He only just realized what he did, and stared at the golden blade.

The ventus looked equally as confused. Jason turned back to the creature and then readied himself, holding the blade in both of his hands. The storm spirit charged again, but Jason could see its attacks coming, parrying its blows with strong swings. The blade never made contact with it, the air around it repelled the attacks like Jason did himself earlier.

Soon, though, the monster broke through, taking advantage of Jason's precarious footing, and knocked him off balance. Jason fell, just barely catching himself by grabbing onto the railing. He slammed against it hard, but he hardly felt it.

The wind spirit was on him quick, which Jason being forced to parry a good few more attacks, with some even making contact, feeling like a sharp sting. Jason flipped back up, surprised at his own athleticism, and combatted the ventus again, only focusing on keeping it away from Piper, who could only hang on for dear life.

"Gah! I was never told they would send a trained bodyguard!" it complained. "Fine! Maybe I'll give him a little incentive!"

The spirit started to make a break for the others that were there. "What?" Jason couldn't believe what he was seeing. "No!" the spirit didn't listen, drawing close to its first victim. "Get away from them!"

Jason wasn't thinking, and he must've had the devil's own luck to have this stunt not get anyone seriously injured. He threw his blade up into the air, flipping it. Then he smashed his hands together, feeling a tug in his gut as he did. The clap was a thunderclap, sending a sonic boom arcing out from the impact point in a sphere, the pressure of the air bursting violently. He then caught what was once the sword, now turned back into a coin because of the flip.

The ventus was sent careening down into the canyon, and most everyone had hung on. "Jason!" he heard behind him, the voice unfamiliar. The blond turned, seeing that his sonic boom had damaged the railing closest to him; the one that Piper was hanging onto. She'd called out to him just as she slipped off and started falling. "Catch me!" she pleaded.

"Oh, I'm probably gonna die," was Jason's only caught as he leapt down after her. She was significantly farther down; he needed to find some way to pick up speed. The canyon walls raced by as Jason tried to think. "The skateboard? Birds? A Falcon?" were his desperate thoughts. He thought about how you picked up speed going down a hill. He tucked his body in, lowering his center of gravity. He tucked his arms into his body and backward like a falcon diving through the sky. He actually found himself going faster. He willed the winds to help him…and they obeyed, blasting him farther down. His arms were behind him, his feet facing straight, one right behind the other.

Leo looked on. It could've been his shock or some kind of hallucination, but it almost looked like Jason was flying, diving, down to Piper. "I see wings…" he muttered, in awe. He put a hand to his chest, feeling it heat up in excitement. "I want them too…"

Piper was only a few meters from the river below when Jason swooped under her and caught her. It took him a few seconds to regain his balance, like he'd just landed from a jump while skating or snowboarding.

Piper's eyes were closed. "That's probably for the best," Jason thought, taking a glance at his feet. He seemed to form visible air currents, which he was skating on using whatever weird powers he had control over for some reason.

"Piper…" Jason said her name softly. "It's alright, we're safe, I think."

She slowly opened her eyes, seeing that Jason had caught her and was carrying her bridal-style. She didn't even care either, considering that it was either this or being a red stain on the canyon floor. She only shifted to hang onto his neck as he air surfed upwards, towards where Grover and Leo were situated. They never made it, however, as the extraction team came just then.

xxxXXXxxx

Winona's flying chariot broke the cloud barrier to see the extraction point in shambles. Winona could see at least one of the targets along with Grover, perched on an outcropping. The other, she couldn't see, but she could see the Anemoi Thuellai that was attacking them.

The girl took a deep breath and summoned her bow, pulling a sunlight arrow from a quiver that didn't exist, and knocking it. Once it was pulled back, Winona twitched and flexed her fingers, and suddenly there were a dozen arrows notched between them. Another breath, and then Winona fired them off.

xxxXXXxxx

Golden streaks of light rained down from the sky all of a sudden. Unfortunately for Jason, the ventus was between where they were fired and him, meaning that the streaks that missed the ventus, which was all but one, Jason had to avoid frantically, swerving and ducking between the attacks. Through it all, Piper didn't make a sound, just clutched onto Jason's neck and sealed her eyes shut in terror. He couldn't blame her.

"And now there are more of them?!" the ventus roared. "Fine! I'll retreat for now; we will have our revenge soon enough."

And then it darted away, disappearing on the horizon.

Author's Note:

Hey! I'm early...sort of. So I've been debating with myself for a while over whether or not to start uploading, and as I'm writing this note, I'm still debating, but I'm leaning towards yes. If you're reading this, then the answer was such.

A note about uploading. I'm uploading daily until I get to The Son of Neptune. Then I will stop uploading until that one is finished, and then I'll upload that one daily. And so on until I'm done. No ifs ands or buts about it; I putting down the hammer on this. Given how the Lost Hero adaptation is 90,000 words long, you can imagine that it's going to take a while for each adaptation. I have a daily word count goal that I've been keeping to, and I've been successful thus far. Hopefully I can keep that up.

Anyhoo, onto the usual. Thank you all so much for reading, don't forget to leave a review and let me know what you thought. Expect this fic to be slower-paced than The Cruel Spider. That's just because I have a larger central cast and I want them all to have a lot of development. We'll see how it goes.

See you tomorrow!