I do not own anything to do with PJO, HoO or Rick Riordan. The only character I take claim over is Andi. I now give you...

The Lost Stoll

What happened to Connor during The Lost Hero

Travis was sitting at the end of the Ping-Pong table and for the first time in his life he was bored. So, like any bored son of Hermes waiting for the son of Zeus to arrive, he dug his hands into his pockets to see what he could find. He pulled out a couple of drachmas, a small bottle of super-glue, about seven pairs of shoelaces (stolen from some of the newer and unsuspecting campers including the recent addition of Clovis's shoelaces) tied together and with a… something attached to one end, an open packet of Mentos lollies, a lighter, about three or four unused water balloons, a couple of bird feathers, a hand full of broken flower buds, a small pair of tongs, and a folded piece of paper (a photo of Clarisse and Annabeth sleeping together during one of his and Connor's pranks) which he instantly replaced back into his pocket before Clarisse or Annabeth were able to snatch it from him.

He looked down at the contents of his pockets and, after a few seconds, noticed a Ping-Pong ball just randomly sitting on the table next to him. Getting an idea, he placed everything back into his pockets. But he left the lighter and the pair of tongs out. If you haven't already guessed, he decided that it would be a great idea to test a newly thought of theory of his…can Ping-Pong balls catch fire?

So that's how he got to holding a lighter under a Ping-Pong ball. However he was fast becoming bored of that too. After about two minutes of waiting for Jason to arrive and the Ping-Pong ball to catch fire, he began wondering how his partner in crime was doing. Before he knew it, his mind had wandered to what had happened only a couple of hours earlier.

Two Hours Earlier…

Travis and Connor were lying on their beds, trying to work out what their next prank was going to be. At least, Connor was. Travis was thinking about Katie and wondering how long it would be until she returned for the summer… not that he liked her or anything! In fact, he was slowly but surely starting to fall asleep. A sudden burst of excitement from Connor instantly jolted him awake and he sat up, ready to deny that he was falling asleep. He never got the chance.

" I've got it!" Connor exclaimed excitedly, jumping off his bed.

" Got what?" Travis asked, having forgotten that he was supposed to be thinking of prank ideas.

" An idea for our next prank! Come on, Trav! We've got super-glue to get!"

" Wait! Super-glue?"

Connor sighed, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, as he watched his brother get down off his bunk. Once Travis was standing in front of him, he looked around the cabin for any prying ears before he began explaining his plan. Before Connor was even half-way through explaining, a mischievous grin had crept onto Travis's face.

" Well? Let's go prank some campers!" Travis cheered, once his brother was done.

About half an hour later, the two brothers were taking a leisurely 'stroll' down by the archery range. In their pockets they had a ton of small bottles of super-glue. And on their faces they had a look that said 'don't-trust-us-we're-trying-to-hide-our-mischievous-grins'. It wasn't very effective. Just the fact that they were taking a walk and not up to their usual pranking selves was enough to visibly put everyone on high alert.

The Apollo kids were testing out the new mechanical bows and arrows that some of the Hephaestus kids had managed to build while Jason, Piper and Leo were busy freeing Hera from whatever doom she had managed to get herself into. So far, there hadn't been any problems… until now.

Looking back on it, it was pretty stupid. The Hephaestus cabin was only just getting over their 'curse'. But then again, the Stolls were bored. And when the Stolls are bored, they play pranks. And unless they were caught, this one would be thought of as something to do with said curse. However, that also went for the fact that if they were caught, they would be in serious trouble not to mention serious pain.

That was what they were thinking… at the time, anyway.

But Travis and Connor, being Travis and Connor, had decided to risk everything and were suspiciously hanging out around the archery range. Of course they did have to wait until the Apollo kids had turned away before they could play the prank. So they waited. What made it even more suspicious was that they had their hands in their pockets, over the super-glue that they were going to use. And the only thought buzzing through the boys' heads was 'I hope this will work'. It almost did, too.

As soon as the Apollo kids had turned away from their arrows, Connor gave the signal. It was only a small nod, but at times like this you didn't want anything loud as your signal. Together, he and Travis ran up and down the line of archers, pouring super-glue into their quivers and all over their arrows. They only stopped when they found themselves almost out of super-glue and when the Apollo archers returned with some Hephaestus campers.

On sight of the new audience, Travis slowly backed into the shadows and hid himself under a bush. He motioned for Connor to do the same, but Connor was too busy looking curiously at the archers. And there was no way that Travis was going to ruin the silence now. So, like Connor, he watched the archers from the safety of his bush.

" Are you ready to see what these babies can do?" Will called over to the group of Hephaestus campers that weren't working on some major project in the forest.

" Ready whenever you are." Jake called back from his wheelchair.

" All righty, then." There was a few minutes of silence where the son of Apollo returned to his own place among the archers. Then he called out, " Archers at the ready!"

That was when Travis realised that Will's arrows were the only ones not coated in super-glue. Silently and desperately, he tried to get Connor to see this mistake. But Connor was already hiding himself from sight. They could only watch as, with the exception of Will, half of the Apollo cabin couldn't get any of their arrows out of their quivers while the others had managed to get their arrows from their quivers but weren't able to move them once the arrow had touched the bow.

The only one to have any luck at firing was Will. And when he noticed the trouble his siblings were having he turned to the Hephaestus kids, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. Of course, most of the Hephaestus kids, like Connor and Travis had pointed out earlier, were thinking about the curse…or what remained of it. Except Jake, who had seen Connor slink into hiding not long before Will's arrow was fired from his bow.

Connor, not realising that he had been spotted, was more impressed and slightly worried about the power in those mechanical bows and arrows. Will's arrow hadn't just hit the target…it had literally snapped the bullseye in half. The arrow itself was now embedded into a tree that was behind the target. It was clear that any monster would soon feel the wrath of the Apollo Cabin's new mechanical bows and arrows as fast as a chocoholic going crazy in a chocolate store. In fact, there would be nothing left of them. And those monsters that were left… they would become very, very scared.

" What the-?" Will began, clearly confused.

" I don't get it. They were fine earlier." One of the Hephaestus kids muttered under their breath.

" It's stuck! I can't separate the bow from the arrow!" a rather red-faced Apollo girl growled, trying to separate the two components of the weapon.

" What do you mean 'it's stuck', Andi?" Will asked.

" I mean it's stuck! It won't budge! And it's sticky too. If I didn't know better, I'd say that someone has put glue on it!"

We need to get out of here now. Travis thought, but he didn't know how.

Connor, on the other hand, did. He cuffed his hands around his mouth and called out " Ready or not, here I come!"

Then he casually walked out from behind a tree like he really was playing a game of hide-and-seek.

Honestly. Was that the best he could think of? Travis mentally face-palmed himself.

" What are you up too, Connor." Jake called, not believing the fake hide-and-seek game.

" Playing a game of hide-and-seek with Travis. Speaking of, you haven't seen him around, have you?" Connor replied with a goofy looking smile on his face and a mischievous glint in his eyes.

" No I haven't. But I have found you."

" What do you…no way?" Will asked, only just realising what had happened as he and Andi tried to remove the stuck arrow from the bow.

" Where there's one, the other won't be far away." Jake muttered, looking around for Travis.

Busted. The Stolls thought, stealing glances at each other.

" TRAVIS AND CONNOR STOLL! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" Will roared, notching another arrow to his bow.

Connor, afraid for his life, started throwing his empty super-glue bottles at the Apollo cabin leader in a desperate attempt to defend himself. This, unfortunately, only made him angrier and he loosed the arrow. The bad thing, Connor got hit. The good thing, Will, being the good archer that he was, was only aiming for the shoulder. At that point, the Stolls made a mental note to never go for the Apollo cabin's bows and arrows again or they would have a very angry Will Solace after them. That is, until he calmed down.

In any case, Travis suddenly burst from his hiding place and started running, urging Connor to do the same. Will and Jake had other ideas, though. Will fired another arrow at Connor, which just managed to nick his heal as the son of Hermes fled, but the way it dug deep into the ground in front of where Travis was running sent the older brother face first into the ground. Instantly, Jake had his siblings jump Travis. He would have done it himself…if he wasn't currently pre-occupied.

Somehow, Travis managed to get the arrow out of the ground and throw it at the Apollo cabin leader. As usual, his aim was off. But that was a good thing. If it wasn't off, then Will would have been in a lot more pain than just a cut on his wrist. As it was, Andi, who had reacted in anger to the attack on her half-brother, threw her sticky bow at the two fleeing sons of Hermes like a boomerang.

Travis was too late in calling a warning to his brother before the flying bow hit. And, of course, Connor turned to see what his older brother was talking about. What followed afterwards was Connor fell to the ground unconscious, Will yelled at his sister and Travis managed to break free of his Hephaestus attackers and ran to his brother.

" Connor!" Travis called out, shaking his brother slightly to try and wake him up. " Come on, man. Wake up!"

No response. Not even the slightest hint of movement.

" We should get him to the infirmary." Will's voice came from beside Travis, making him look up.

" Yeah."

With that, Will and Travis had hung Connor's arms around their shoulders and began dragging his unconscious body over to the infirmary. There was mainly silence between the two except for the odd new camper calling out to them and asking if Connor was going to be okay or ask what had happened to him. As soon as they were at the infirmary, Will helped Travis put Connor on an empty bed before disappearing with a bandage and some cream of some sort. One of his other siblings then came in and, after giving Travis a small square of Ambrosia, practically ordered the son of Hermes out of the infirmary.

Travis placed the square of godly food in his mouth and ate it as he returned to the archery range. He needed to clean up the empty glue bottles before Chiron noticed them despite the fact that he practically already knew he was in trouble. The good thing was he could feel the cut on his lip healing and his bruises and aches disappearing. What he couldn't understand, though, was how he managed to not get severely hurt like his brother. And he made a mental note to never judge the strength of a child of Hephaestus again.

Back In The War Counsel…

" …Travis," Chiron said, snapping the son of Hermes out of his memories. " If you'd kindly extinguish the flaming Ping-Pong ball and, Butch…"

Travis shook his head slightly and blinked a couple of times, returning his mind to the present, as he slowly realised that his experiment worked. In front of him, being held by a small pair of tongs, was a flaming Ping-Pong ball. He had the strange urge to scream out 'Success!' at the sight of it, but by that time Jason has cleared his throat so he quickly extinguished the fire and began listening. But he made a mental note to tell his brother of his success when he went to check on him when the meeting was over.

Connor was sitting up in his bed in the infirmary, trying to figure out what had happened. The last thing he remembered was running away from the archery range and Travis calling out to him to watch out. He'd woken up in the infirmary only five minutes earlier with a sore shoulder, a really painful itch over his right heel and a major headache. He had actually thrown up, the headache was that bad. But he seemed okay now. That is, until Travis came into the room holding a burnt Ping-Pong ball.

" Connor, you're up!" the older Stoll exclaimed happily.

Connor groaned in pain " Okay, two things. First, can you keep it down? I've got a major headache. And second, what's with the Ping-Pong ball?"

" This Ping-Pong ball is the result of one of my latest experiments." Travis explained, though with a sorry grin on his face and in a quieter voice.

" And that would be…?"

" I was waiting for the war counsel to start when I got the urge to try and light a Ping-Pong ball on fire. And it worked!"

" Wait. There was a war counsel? How long ago was that? What did I miss?"

" About twenty minutes ago. It just finished. And you totally missed Butch stuffing pencils up Clovis's nose."

" Seriously?"

" Yeah. But Chiron caught him at twenty. Anyway…" and from there, Travis went into full detail about what had happened in the past two hours, starting from the place where Connor left off.

this took me 2-3 days to write. damn pranks causing writers block.

and yes, i did take what Chiron said from the book (well, at least the part about Travis). word for word, i admit. but it was neccessary. i literally had the book sitting next to me while working on this. and i'm sorry if i didn't get the characters completely right. i did try my best, though. anyway...

please R&R