The heroes had missed each other. It was years since they last got together and talked about their lives and how they were coping with the aftermath of the war. They had houses, jobs, and children, which gave them a certain level of normalcy. Percy and Annabeth decided to invite them all over to their estate in Sonoma. To describe this wonderland in one word, it was amazing. It had beautiful rolling hills, vineyards, roaming meadows, and the seemingly far away dark forest.
They had two children, Luke and Silena. Luke was pixie-like, with green eyes that sparkled with intelligence and sandy blonde hair, just like his namesake's. Silena possessed hair as black as night and stormy gray grey eyes that seemed to disguise a hurricane . Soon driving up the path was Piper and Jason, who brought their children, Charlotte and Adam. Charlotte had blue eyes and hair that shined like copper but that sparked with electricity. Silena's jaw dropped when she saw Adam. He had blonde hair and the most beautiful bluest eyes she had ever seen. The animals and plants even seemed to gravitate towards the charm radiating off of him.
"...H-Hi…" she managed to stutter out towards him, and she was flashed with a pearly white grin, which led the parents to give each other knowing looks and smirks.
A little girl with curly black hair matching her mother's and brown eyes that had flecks of a diamond-like color sprinted down the road, pushing Silena to the ground, running with glee from a bear, with a laughing Hazel following in pursuit, saying, "Romana-slow down!"
A metallic dragon popped out of the clouds, which was not odd at all, carrying four people on it. Leo, Calypso, and two kids. Silena was obviously in for some competition with this Samantha girl, who had dirty blonde perfectly coiffed hair and almost golden luminous eyes and surveyed the property and locking her eyes on Silena and then flicked them over to Adam. Jack practically did a flip off of Festus, landing on his back. He had brown disheveled hair and brown eyes, just like his father, even the same toolbelt and that cheeky look on his face. "Come on in everyone!", Annabeth said, and the kids gave some looks of animosity, but others of possible friendship.
"What do you guys want to do?", Silena asked.
Samantha seemed to not register this question, and said to Charlotte, "Why don't we play dress-up?" She seemed excited at this proposition, so Silena cast one more backward glance at Adam, and ran up the stairs.
"We could go to the Training Grounds!" Luke exclaimed, eyeing his possible friends hopefully. "Sure, but where is it. I didn't see the training facility on the way up here?" Adam somewhat worriedly stated. "I saw it on the way here! We could take Festus, I know how to operate him!." Jack volunteered eagerly.
The boys ran outside to find Festus loyally waiting for them, and they hopped on him. "Luke, how far away are the grounds exactly?" Adam stated queasily from motion sickness. "It should only be another minute, since we are travelling at a rate of 457.89 feet per second." He added, "I inherited Athena's powers.", after getting confused looks from Jack and Ethan.
"We're here!" Jack chimed, and Festus started to make the slow decline.
Silena worked the water in her glass into the form of a spectacular ball gown, and solidified it, while simultaneously wrapping it around Romana. She thought, "I would much rather be at the training facility with my friends instead of doing...this." she mentally added, looking at Charlotte drowning in pink tulle and Samantha giggling. Silena then remembered that Romana was there, and she was using her powers, gathering and putting on an obscene amount of diamonds.
Samantha noticed Silena staring off, but then glancing at her, but she was used to it. Being the daughter of someone who rivaled Aphrodite in beauty definitely led to some stares. Samantha wasn't just pretty, she was smart to. Not as smart with mechanical things as her brother was though, and almost positively not as smart as Luke. She did have something that she knew no one else had, she could create fire only using willpower. As she thought about it, flames suddenly lept with great height from her hands to the air, landing on Charlotte's dress, which caused Silena to hurriedly put it automatically set up a rivalry with Silena.
They whirled around each other, just metal and flesh combined, creating an almost ethereal scene. Jack was carrying a weapon made out of the finest Imperial Gold, slicing through dummies set up for practice in a matter of nanoseconds with a confident grin. It was scary to think that he was only 11 years old. Luke was doing the same repetitive exercise, only with Celestial Bronze. Adam was still somewhat sick from the ride there, so he wandered into the woods for some peace and quiet.
Charlotte wanted to get out of this stupid dress. It was itchy and hot, but her parents told her that she needed to be polite, so she silently suffered. Electricity crackled, created by friction between the layers of her dress and her natural conductivity. " I want to go see what the boys are doing!" she whined, motioning towards the outdoors. "The guys took Festus though." Samantha said. "No problem!" Silena exclaimed, excited to be useful, tacking on, " Who likes waterslides?!"
Jack and Luke were tired. They had just spent two full hours fighting a literal dummy. Luke was the first to notice. "Where is Adam?" He questioned, looking around and not seeing him. " I think he went into the forest." Jack gestured over in his general direction, not seeming to recognize the importance of this. "Jack, This property is under a disguise so monsters can't get in. But out there, in the darkness of the woods, there are no such protections... I should've stopped him." Luke mumbled guiltily.
"This..is...amazing!" Charlotte and Romana squealed in unison, over the roar of rushing water. Silena was bending the waves to her will, and even Samantha was impressed. The water did hiss once in awhile though, because Samantha was trying to turn some of it into steam. To the average spectator, it looked like one giant wave was being moved across the entire property, with people sitting atop, but it was so much more. The amount of perseverance it took to maintain that could only be achieved by someone with great skill, like the daughter of Perseus Jackson. She was not alone. Charlotte added clouds that thundered and poured rain, to give Silena an energy supply. Romana was not doing much, she was just a goldfish swimming around inside of the wave. And then, they reached the training ground.
When the girls walked up, they were immediately worried. Luke looked distraught, Jack looked confused, and there was no Adam in sight. "Where is my brother?" Charlotte cried. "He went into the forest." Luke stated somberly. "Well let's go get him!" Romana exclaimed. Silena and Samantha understood the seriousness of the situation, and jumped into action. In unison, they said, "Romana, shift into a bloodhound. That way he will be easier to track. Jack, using the weapons on the grounds, can you make some sort of mechanism that will help us?" "Sure!" He replied. "Charlotte do you have enough energy left to create a cloud where you can survey the area?" "I'll try." "Lastly, Luke, we need your map of the forest." "Getting it right now!" He shouted back. Samantha and Silena nodded at each other, and the plan was put into action.
Adam had been wandering for what seemed like days or even months now. He regretted coming in here. Adam had no clue how to get back. Eerie sounds started coming out of the shadows. He thought of his sister, and his parents. Adam's Mom and Dad were so courageous and were key players in winning the war. Charlotte, even though she was younger, inherited the best of the powers. He did not even have the ability to charmspeak, that he knew of yet. His lack of powers made the darkness seem more absolute. The darkness seemed to close in, enveloping him.
They raced into the dark, dark woods, the sun slowly falling down into the hills behind them. Time seemed to slow down and yet fastened up at once. There was a reason people stayed out of that forest. It's inhabitants were not the friendliest of neighbors. Minotaurs, Dracanae, Empousa, Hellhounds, and Harpies. Slowly, they started to walk out of the darkness with fangs, claws, weapons engaged, flitting in and out of the trees. The kids subconsciously took note of this, but chose to ignore it. They were deadly silent, ready to strike. Then the spark lit the fire.
A twig snapped.
They launched with a furious battle cry, and so it began. Silena threw with all of her force, the water she could summon from nearby, and threw it in a drecanae's face. That seemed to make it more angry. They all tapped into their abilities, and with more force than ever. Clouds were created, and the ground rumbled from the thunder and lightning. Torrential rain was mixed with it, and the storm started. A ring of almost purple fire was presented to the hellhounds, who howled in fear. Romana darted in and out, shifting in and out of the monsters, causing mass chaos. Luke did not have any elemental abilities, but he could fight. Celestial Bronze mixed with smoke as monsters were extinguished, but they just kept on coming. A circle was forming around Jack as he tried to create his mechanism, but he was failing under stress. They couldn't hold out for much longer.
Adam knew that the monsters were coming. There was a wet, musty, pungent odor in the air, the horrible musk of monsters. The hellhounds appeared, and did not hesitate. He only had a blade made of Imperial Gold, which was reflective in the night. Slashing, chopping, and slicing, he wove his way through the horde. He was slowly becoming more and more exhausted, which made the monsters more eager to tear him apart.
Jack knew he had to finish now. There was no other way. He got down on his knees and begged, that the pieces would come together. Suddenly, it was enveloped with a strange golden glow, and the pieces came together. Jack screamed, "Hit the ground!" and everyone dived. Then he threw the orb into the air. It split and let out a great sonic boom, which knocked even the most fearsome of monsters to the ground. The rag-tag group sprang up, knowing that the orb's effects would only last for a few minutes. There was slaughter on a mass level.
Adam began to feel despair. His eyes seemed to droop, even in the heat of battle. He then smelled something sticky sweet, and felt very warm, with a tingling pain. Adam looked at his shoulder, which now had a gash with singed flesh surrounding the cut. He fell to the ground.
Samantha took a deep breath. All around her was carnage. Some would expect her to be used to battle, though she never was in an actual fight before. She looked in horrified awe at the destruction she caused. Luke took a deep breath, and pulled his sword out of the ground wiping dirt off of the blade. Silena was collapsed on the ground, exhausted from all the energy she spent summoning the rain. Charlotte was close by, drifting in and out of consciousness . Jack was frozen in the same position he was after the sphere was released, refusing to believe that he created that. Romana was still a bloodhound, sniffing around for any sign of Adam. Then, she barked.
Adam shook his head, thinking that he was dreaming. Then he heard a bark, and voices. He was elated. Trying to stand up though, proved difficult. He was riddled with nausea when he attempted to sit up. "Where did the hellhounds go?" Adam mumbled to himself. A dog ran over to him and licked his face, but he was too tired to register it.
Luke barely noticed when Romana ran away. He was just sitting and staring at his dagger, but he saw her reflection was in it. He stood up and turned around to see her weaving a path. Luke said, "Samantha- I think Romana found Adam." She shot up with a determined look in her eyes, and ran over to Charlotte, shaking her awake. "I need you to create a cloud that we can put Silena on. We need to get to Adam." Charlotte nodded and went to work. Luke and Jack set out, behind Romana. Charlotte conjured a cloud under Silena, and the girls left, with the cloud trailing behind. They found a sorry sight ahead of them.
Adam was lying on the grassy earth, unmoving. An angry red gash came into view on his right shoulder. Luke rushed up, and force-fed him some nectar. His eyelids fluttered open. "Where am I? Who are you?" The group gave glances at each other, and Charlotte created another cloud. Adam drifted back into a coma and they hoisted him up onto the cloud. The group hurried back to Festus, and was shocked to see that the monsters had been reduced to gold dust. Jack leaped onto him, gave the command, and they took to the skies. Soon, they reached the house.
The parents stood in an anxious huddle in the kitchen, thinking about where their children could possibly be. The kids came bursting in, panting for breath, and the newly relieved parents hugged them. Then the seemingly unmoving children were floating past. Percy hurried to get ambrosia and nectar for the teens. Everyone was ready to tell the story of what had happened, all shouting over each parents faces changed from pleased to confused to worried then shifting to panic to despair, and finally to relief. They glanced over at Adam and Silena, hoping that they would wake up soon. There was then a gasp of air, and coughing. They sat up and looked around. Everyone was then excited to see that they sat up. Someone ran to get them some water so they could speak. Adam took a gulp of water and spoke, but not in his normal voice. It was like he was channeling someone else, and monotonically, he prophesied,
7 will go to the west
into the creature's nest
Darkness will come and fear will soon follow
All the way down into the Underworld's depths
Only 5 will leave
Adam collapsed yet again, parents and children alike staring at him. They had a new prophecy to fulfill, and if they did not complete it, the future of the mortal world would come to an end as they knew it the next generation had begun, and with a running start- that would change the lives of this Next Generation ...