Alright. So this is my first story. Hopefully I'm not too shabby. Rated T for mild cursing/cussing and sexual activities implied.

Disclaimer: I don't own

It was a hot, summer day in Florida. Families stand off to the side of the runway. They are waiting. It is easy to tell because they continuously look to the skies. They are expecting something, or rather someone.

Then a plane descends out of the clouds, a military plane, a jet. Many of the families get excited. Some even begin to jump up and down. But not two certain women who happen to look fairly similar, one of which held a very small child. These women squint at the plane as if they know who will come out and resent them terribly.

The plane lands almost directly in front of the families. The families push forward. They are longing for the door to open, to reveal who comes out. Finally the hatch is opened and an officer steps out first. He directed the operation. The most dangerous operation approved and performed by the military since World War II. This man is named Valdez, Leo Valdez. He is only a lieutenant, but through several friends' positions, he had enough contacts to organize and eventually direct the operation. When he descends the steps from the plane, he steps to the side and other men come out. The next man to descend the steps is the admiral who convinced the United States congress and president to approve of the operation. He was the admiral on site in a destroyer. His name is Admiral Zhang, Frank Zhang.

As more and more men descend the steps, more and more families surge forward to greet them. But they are held back by a military unit. Two certain women have not even attempted to greet anyone yet, although they know several men who have stepped out of the plane. These women are standing next to a close friend. Her name is Thalia Grace. Thalia is expecting her cousins and brother to come out of the plane. The women are expecting the Captain and his cousins. His cousins are the same as Thalia's. Another man steps into the doorway. He is Thalia's cousin and a mere sergeant named Nico di Angelo. When he steps into the doorway, there is no way to see another man peeking over his shoulder. Many families realize what this means. This means he has the hand that is not visible on a casket handle. Someone died in the operation. Thalia and the women noticed that the men that already came out were waiting on both sides of the steps.

Nico seemed to be searching for someone. He was scanning the crowd of families being held back, by a military unit, until all the men had exited the aircraft. His eyes landed on Thalia and the women and turned sad. This made the three women inhale sharply. If his eyes were held that emotion, one of their loved ones had died and was in the casket that he held. Nico began to descend the steps. The families knew that whoever would descend holding the back of the casket would determine who was inside the casket. The families all knew that caskets come out of an aircraft last, after all the other men had exited.

The man holding the back half was Captain Perseus "Percy" Jackson. The man in the coffin was Sergeant Jason Grace. The military unit that had been holding the families back let them go forward as Captain Jackson finished descending the last steps out of the plane. Many families immediately ran towards their own friends or husbands or fathers. Sergeant di Angelo and Captain Jackson set the casket gently on the ground as Thalia and the woman without the child approach them.

Thalia arrives first. Captain Jackson and Sergeant di Angelo straighten up and turn to Lieutenant Valdez. Lieutenant Valdez formally gives Captain Jackson an American flag. Captain Jackson then turns and formally gives the flag to Sergeant di Angelo. Sergeant di Angelo then presents the flag to Thalia. Thalia is not crying. She stares down at the flag, now placed in her arms, then down at her brother, Jason's, coffin. Captain Jackson and Sergeant di Angelo both give her a hug of comfort. She is left with only her cousins and father. Admiral Zhang comes over and asks Thalia formally if she would accept a military burial for Jason. Thalia simply nodded her head.

Captain Jackson rests a hand on Thalia's shoulder. She lays a hand over his briefly. When she removes her hand, he removes his. He walks a few feet away from their group. Sergeant di Angelo gets a call on his mobile phone. He walks a few feet away from the group the opposite direction that Captain Jackson went. Sergeant di Angelo answers the call once he had checked the caller ID.

Thalia sank to her knees next to the coffin. Lieutenant Valdez and Admiral Zhang walked towards their own families to give the grievers space. They could tell they weren't needed.

Thalia looked up at the woman who came out and stayed next to her. Thalia said, "I don't get it. I just don't get it. Why couldn't they all survive?"

The woman answered, "Who knows Thalia, who knows?" then she lowered her voice to say, "I guess the fates decided his time was up and gave him a mortal hero's death."

Thalia nodded and stood. She asked, "How do they move the coffin and when and where is the funeral?"

The woman replied, "I don't know. That's something you'd have to ask Percy or Nico. Or even Leo and Frank."

Thalia gave a small grin and said jokingly, "Annabeth admit she doesn't know something? That's a first!"

"Shut up, Thalia!"


Percy Jackson slowly made his way over to the water without being noticed. The place the plane had landed was a military base on the ocean coast. Percy knelt down and put his hand in the water. He didn't speak. He didn't close his eyes. He just stared out into the distance of the vast Atlantic. About five minutes later, he stood. Nico di Angelo then came running over to him. Flying past the women who had just finished asking their questions to Frank Zhang and Leo Valdez of the funeral arrangements.

Thalia, Annabeth, Leo, and Frank turned to see where Nico was running. When they figured it out, they followed slowly. They could all see Percy's reaction to whatever Nico was telling him. Percy's eyes widened and he and Nico both ran back past the group of four. As they passed them, Percy grabbed Frank's arm and Nico grabbed Leo's. Leo and Frank stumbled along as they attempted to keep pace and balance with Percy and Nico.

Annabeth and Thalia looked at each other then sprinted after the men.


Percy, Nico, Frank, and Leo could hear Annabeth's and Thalia's noisy footfalls against the pavement of the runway. They knew they had limited time, so they quickly stopped on the side of the plane that the families couldn't see. They figured that both Annabeth and Thalia knew where they went, giving them even less time to speak.

Nico turned to the other men and said, "We got a problem. And when I say problem, I'm not talking just a problem that would concern the just USA government. No, I'm talking about the Agro II, this is an A2 problem. An international military crisis."

The men were silent for a brief moment. Then Leo said, "Jeez Nico. Dramatic much?"

Nico just glared at him and said, "This is no joking matter. The four of us need to get going now. Like right now."

This time all the men agreed and they ran around the tail end of the plane and boarded the steps to get in. None of them had the opportunity to say goodbye to their families and friends because they knew it could be too dangerous.

The pilot had already exited the plane with the other officers before Nico and Percy had come out with the coffin. Percy knew how to fly a jet and Nico ended up being his copilot. There was only one other officer who knew about international military crisis because he was told immediately after Nico got off the phone. His instructions were simply to keep their families where they were and take care of Jason's funeral arrangements, but postpone the actual funeral until the four men returned. This man was a lieutenant by the name of Solace, William "Will" Solace.


Little did the men on the plane know, but Thalia and Annabeth had heard their entire conversation. The two women looked at each other when the men had boarded the plane without even a glance back. They quickly checked to make sure no one was eavesdropping on their conversation then turned to each other to figure out what they should do with the information they just heard.

Thalia immediately said to Annabeth, "You go and I'll stay."

"What! Why?"

"Because if it's you that gets caught as a stowaway, Percy will be soft on you," Thalia explained. "Plus if I'm the one who stays, I can watch the funeral preparations and hopefully postpone them until the boys get back. I have to tell Dad about Jason too."

Annabeth sighed, causing Thalia to grin knowing that she had won the argument. Annabeth said, "Alright. I'll go, but you owe me. And keep away prying eyes when I get on!"

Thalia's grin widened. "I will. Good luck Annie!" she shouted as she turned and ran to the families.

Annabeth glared at Thalia retreating figure, then turned and slowly climbed the steps to the plane. She looked inside the plane from the steps. She could see all four men gathered at the front around the cockpit. Two of them were sitting in the pilot and copilot seats, the other two were leaning on the seats from behind. Annabeth could hear them speaking in low voices but she couldn't distinguish what they were saying. She looked to the back and she was able to see places that she could easily hide until it would hopefully be too late to turn back. She sprinted in and hid behind the second seat on the right side. There was only one seat on each side and about ten rows. Not including the cockpit seats, the plane held about twenty people in seats.

Now that Annabeth was inside the plane, where there was no wind or voices to interfere with the noises inside the plane, she would be able to figure out what the men were saying. She could hear no voices though. All she heard was the people in the two pilot seats messing with all the controls.

Then she heard low voices. It sounded like Nico to her, "We gotta hurry up. How long Percy?"

"I know, I know," Percy said that, Annabeth had no doubt about that. He waited a moment then said, "Alright we should be good. Put your headset on Nico. Frank call down to Will over the A2 radio. When you're done, you and Leo sit in the front row."

"Yeah alright," Annabeth figured that would most likely be Frank responding to Percy's command.

Annabeth could see Frank's feet as he went over to a window to look out towards the families. She peeked over the seat in front of her to watch what Frank would do. He put a hand to his ear and a small beep could be heard. Then he hit a button on his watch and another beep was heard throughout the small jet.

Frank then began to speak as if Will was right in front of him. He didn't speak into his watch or touch his ear to speak. He said, "Alright Will. Come on up and close the hatch."

Annabeth figured that he was the only one who could hear Will's response, but then all four of the men chuckled simultaneously. She then assumed that only people with some sort of earpiece that Frank had would be able to hear what was said over the wire.

Footsteps could be heard from inside the plane on the metal steps. When Annabeth heard the footsteps, she ducked back behind the seat. Most of the natural sunlight was closed off when Will shut the heard one of the men, probably Nico, say out loud, "Thanks Will."

There was a pause then the men laughed again. The engines could be heard starting up. The jet began vibrating with the engines alive. Annabeth could hear Percy say with a grin in his voice, "Frank, Leo? You guys strapped in?"

Leo put on a falsetto and said, "Yes Captain! We are ready for takeoff!"

All of the men chuckled at Leo's antics. Frank shook his head and said, "Just take off already."

"I'll call in to the tower," Percy said. Then he said, "Tower this is Ghost Rider Oh-nine-zero requesting takeoff."

Half a minute later, the engines lit up and the plane surged forward. Annabeth looked around the side of the seat to see what the men were doing. Frank and Leo seemed to be conversing without looking at each other. Their eyes seemed to be glued to the backs of the pilot seats. Annabeth turned her attention to the cockpit. She could see both Nico and Percy manning the controls with ease.

The jet left the ground. Annabeth didn't know where they were going, how long the journey would be, how many fuel stops they would take, or how long it would take them to figure out she was there as a stowaway. All she knew was she would be alright because she was in the company of excellently trained men, who she would trust with her life.

Please give any feedback you have in the reviews. I'm very welcome to constructive criticism.