Hi everyone! Hope you enjoyed the last chapter. Sorry it was kinda lame. I'll try to do better when Percy meets the rest of the Flock, and the Flock meets the other half-bloods. Lol. Thanks for all the support! Enjoy!

Annabeth:

The first place that I need to go was the Athena cabin. I needed to grab my stuff, and put it on the Argo II. Yeah, we figured this quest was serious enough to bust out the flying ship, and of course, Festus was coming too. Since no horses ever occupied the stable onboard, Festus lived there now.

Right now, the giant ship was anchored above the Big House. We were going to California first, then, we would try other neighboring states. Hopefully we would find him somewhere in the desert, free him and six others, and go home quickly. But I knew that was not very likely. Quests were never that simple.

Suddenly, as I passed the Poseidon Cabin, I heard Tyson talking to someone.

"Should I go tell the pony man now?" he asked.

"Yes. Go tell him. Also, tell Annabeth," Poseidon's voice said.

Tyson nearly ran me over in his excitement to get to the pony man.

"Annabeth!" Tyson exclaimed, and wrapped me in a giant bear hug. Then his face fell.

"Percy is not here. Daddy says he talked to Percy,"

My eyes widened and I said, "What else did he say?"

"Daddy says Percy is in California or Nevada."

"Oh," I said, my heart falling. We had already known to search there.

"Anything else?" I pleaded.

"No," said Tyson sadly.

He rushed off to tell Chiron what he already knew. I didn't have the heart to stop him.

I told Leo that Percy was definitely in either California or Nevada.

"Shoot. We've got a lot of land to cover. He could be gone before we even search Las Vegas," Leo said dejectedly.

I grimaced, and Hazel said, "Annabeth, we'll find him if it's that last the we do."

Leo smiled encouragingly, and on that happy note, the Argo II set sail.

Gazzy:

I couldn't believe Max made me stay at home while they went off and recued my little sister. That was seriously messed up. I was so mad, I blew up a tree. Okay, I actually just did that for fun, but you get the point. I was not a happy birdkid.

Iggy tried to comfort me, but I couldn't just sit there while my sister was in danger! We decided it would be a good idea to set up traps in case the Erasers came back. That, and, it helped occupy us.

Iggy rigged a tripwire across the dirt road leading up to the cliff. It would set off mines, and in case they didn't die from that, I hooked it up to bombs strategically placed so that when they exploded, they would knock over trees to block the road up ahead.

We rigged the front door to release an aerosol can filled with one of my deadly farts unless you held the doorbell in for five seconds. Hey, that wasn't my idea! Blame Iggy!

We stocked up on flaming molotovs, hand grenades, and a special type of bomb I invented.

It's hidden inside of a pinecone, so we can drop it from trees near unsuspecting Erasers and watch them go BOOM!

Percy:

The little girl with wings told me how the wolf-men men were actually called Erasers.

"Who are the pencils?" I asked laughing. She giggled, and said, "No, their Erasers, as in they'll erase you out of existence."

"Oh," I said, frowning. "Not very pleasant,"

"The only way you leave here is in a body bag," she told me cheerfully. Well wasn't she a little ray of sunshine.

"How'd you get out then?" I asked.

"We had help from a nice whitecoat. But he's dead now."

"Oh. That sucks," I muttered.

She told me all about the members of the flock. I was surprised to learn that Max was actually a girl.

"Is it like, a nickname?"

"Yeah, kind of. Her full name is Maximum Ride," said Angel.

"Huh, Maximum ride. Continue."

She told me about how Gazzy was known for unpleasant surprises, and how they were the only related ones in the flock. She told me that Gazzy and Iggy loved bombs.

"Oh, okay... Why does Max let a eight year old make bombs?"

"Oh," she laughed. "If anyone knows bombs, it's Gazzy and Iggy. We get them books about explosives for every single holiday."

Okay. I had a pretty good feeling that Max wasn't the best mother ever. But, whatever, this was birdkids we were talking about here. They had survived for this long, so I guess they knew what they were doing.

"What about Iggy? How old is he?" I asked.

"14, same as Max and Fang." she said. "He cooks for us. Max is so bad at cooking, she would find a way to burn orange juice."

I laughed.

"What's really weird, is that he's the one who's blind," she said.

I gasped. Blind, blind, how was that familiar.

Angel peered at me, he wings brushing the bars of her cage.

Her wings.

Hawk wings.

Blind.

Then I remembered my dream.

My eyes widened and I exclaimed, "That's it!"

"What?!" cried Angel.

"I dreamed about you!" I exclaimed. That was what the birds in the dream meant. The wolf... sorry, Erasers, had taken the smallest, white hawk with them. That signified Angel being captured.

"What was it about?" she asked excitedly.

"I saw a flock of hawks, fighting a pack of wolves. They were all odd colors, and one looked blind. The smallest one was white. I saw all of the hawks get knocked out, except for the little white one, which they took with them. It must have been you being kidnapped," I explained.

"Oh. Are your dreams normally prophetic?"

"Yeah. It's a thing with demigods," I shrugged. Suddenly, I remembered a question I was going to ask her earlier.

"Angel, how are those Erasers so strong?"

"I don't know, I think they might have them on steroids or something," Angel laughed.

"How is my blade harming them though. It should pass right through them."

"What?" Angel asked, confused. "How would it pass through them? It looks pretty solid to me."

"Celestial bronze only harms monsters and half-bloods, it just passes through mortals. They're not important enough for it to kill," I explained.

"Oh. I guess that makes sense,"

"Wait, how do you get through the airport's metal detectors?" she asked, frowning.

"Umm, I don't ride airplanes..."

"You don't?" she asked. "I mean, we don't ride airplanes either, but only because we can fly."

"Son of Poseidon thing. Zeus almost knocked me out of the sky the first time I rode an airplane," I grumbled.

"How do you get around?" she asked.

"Normally, I ride Blackjack. He's a Pegasus I rescued on one of my quests.

Angel:

He grimaced, as if remembering something unpleasant. I entered his mind.

He was standing on the deck of a cruise ship, surrounded by monsters. A boy with blonde hair, and a nasty scar trailing down his cheek, stood facing Percy. He smiled, and said, "You'll never leave this boat alive."

Percy chuckled, and said, "One on one, what are you afraid of?"

The boy curled his lip. The monsters advanced. Some looked like giant dogs. Others were obviously cyclops. There were several dozen women with snakelike trunks for legs. They hissed, and jabbed at Percy with their barbed spears.

Suddenly, a man who was obviously half bear, lumbered onto the deck, hauling a pure black horse. It had wings. A pegasus. This must be Blackjack.

"Sir," cried the bear man, "Your steed is ready!"

The boy ignored him and kept staring at Percy. He growled, "I told you last summer, Percy. You can't bait me into a fight."

"And you keep avoiding one," said Percy. "Scared your warriors will see you get whipped?"

I liked this Percy already. He was the male version of Max.

The other boy glanced at his men uncomfortably.

"I'll kill you quickly," the boy said. He raised his sword, which was half steel, and half celestial bronze. So, I guess it could kill humans and demigods. It was about four feet long. That was a foot longer than Percy's sword.

The boy whistled, and a dude threw him a leather and bronze shield.

"Luke," said a girl standing beside Percy. "At least give him a shield." She had intelligent looking gray eyes. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail. She had a small bronze knife drawn.

So the boy's name was Luke. Huh. Luke smiled wickedly, "Sorry Annabeth. You bring your own equipment to this party."

Suddenly he lunged at Percy. The sword went straight through Percy, and I had no clue how he was still standing, when I realized it had slipped between his side and his arm. His face contorted and he leaped back. He dove to the right of Luke, slashing at his unprotected side, but Luke was faster. He brought up his shield, and Percy's sword crashed into it, sending up sparks. Percy danced nimbly away, as Luke swung wildly at him.

"My, Percy," he sneered. "You're out of practice."

Percy suddenly jolted out of the memory.

He narrowed his eyes at me, and snarled, "You're in my mind again aren't you?"

"Sorry... Who's Luke?"

Percy grimaced, a sad look clouding his eyes. "It's a long story," he said.

"We have lots of time," I said.

And so, Percy started his tale, telling of a man he called Smelly Gabe, and how he had vaporized his Pre-algebra teacher.