(Disclaimer: I don't own PJatO or FEAR, Rick Riordan and Sierra Entertainment do.) Percy's POV
Since it was the middle of the night, we had to sleep in an abandoned apartment in downtown Frisco' which was cluttered with nailed planks and molded walls. I figured this place was left to rot. In the morning, we stopped by at Golden Corral to catch breakfast then Annabeth lead the way to her dad's apartment.
She knocked first. It took a while for someone to open it, and it seemed to be one of her younger half-brothers.
"Annie-Beth!" he hugged her.
"Hey, Matt. Tell Dad that we might be using his bathtub."
"What for?" asked another voice inside the living room. The man looked like he was in his forties, round aviator's hat, and a doctor's scrub, "Hey, Annabeth! I thought you were at Camp."
We followed her in, "Quest."
"All the way out here?"
She nodded, "In order to free a demented little girl."
"From what?" asked another voice from the kitchen. I figured out it was her step-mom. Bobby and Matthew started to run around all over the place, chasing each other.
"Some place called Armacham." Annabeth said. Her parents didn't say anything afterwards and let us use their bathtub for an Iris-Message.
I fished out a golden drachma, a gold coin the size of girl scout cookies with the empire state building on one side and one of the gods on the other. Turning on the hot tap of the tub, a rainbow faded in, and I threw the drachma into the steam and disappeared.
"O'goddess accept our offering,"
"Hestia of Jericho, Kansas," Annabeth said. The image shimmered to show a porch of a house where the goddess Hestia was rocking in a wooden chair. She turned to look at us.
"I see you grabbed a golden apple for Hephaestus," she said. I took out the apple to show her, "Close your eyes," Hestia commanded. Everyone did. After they reopened, the apple was gone.
"Hephaestus will meet you shortly, but give him a tip. He doesn't do this for free, you know."
I nodded. Just before I was about to wipe my hand through the image Hestia said, "By summer solstice, you will need to come to Olympus. The gods have arranged a meeting for the children of the Big Three. I convinced Zeus not to shoot you out of the sky so you have clearance to fly. I cannot say anymore of this matter, but I do wish you luck in catching the Stag and freeing and convincing Alma Wade. May the gods be with you," And just like that, she wiped her hand across the Iris-Message and the image disappeared.
John's POV
I chose to stay on the concrete porch outside of Annabeth's apartment because I felt like I was a stranger. A F.E.A.R. point man with a gun walking into a house with kids? No way. Finally, the rest came out of the door.
"Well?" I asked.
"Hephaestus will come shortly once he's done making the net," Grover spoke. Suddenly, I saw a ball of fire racing across the street and towards us. This is weird. The ball of fire stopped before the steps and a guy about as tall as me with a deformed face and overalls appeared out of the flame.
"Ah, we meet again, Perseus." He said in a hoarse voice. Snapping his fingers, a staff-length pole with a net attached to the ringed end appeared in the guy's hands.
He handed the golden net to Percy, "The golden net is re-forged once again."
"Thanks, lord Hephaestus," Annabeth said, awestruck at the net. The guy named Hephaestus held out his hand and rubbed his index and thumb together like he wants a tip. Grover dug out two gold coins the size of giant cookies and handed them to the guy named Hephaestus.
Suddenly, Hephaestus burst into the same ball of flames and raced across the street with a loud BANG! We were alone once again.
"That was short," Grover dryly said.
"All we need now is how to find the Hind," Annabeth said.
A cloud of shadow and dust faded in next to us. Great, I thought. Fettel is going to make an entry. He appeared as a black silhouette and his colors faded in afterwards.
"I believe I know where to find the legendary deer of Artemis," he said, crossing his arms over his leather vest.
"I thought you said you were only going to appear when the Stag is near," Percy said.
"Ah, yes. And it is!"
Annabeth impatiently hesitated, "Aren't you the guide then?"
Fettel dropped his hands, "Alma needs guidance. I am your guide," he looked at me, "but you're hers," then he turned back to the rest, "For the Olympians, Miss Chase,"
Paxton walked down the porch, "We must be quick and stealthy if we are to capture it."
Percy's POV
While we were walking towards one of the San Francisco parks, Annabeth designed a plan to capture the Stag by cornering it in an alley. Very simple and yet to the point where the Stag could leap right past us in a probability of... what did she say? Seventy-six percent. But that was the only way to capture the Stag anyway. Grover would puff his "Long Long Time" song so the grass would grow across the street and create a barrier-like wall over the alleyway. John and will be keeping the Stag at bay while Paxton Fettel will lure it with some type of bait he wouldn't tell me about.
By the time we'd reached the park, the Stag was already in view, and drinking from the pond. Its skin glittered like the biggest brick of gold in Fort Knox and the six-point antlers shimmered with silver. John and the rest were already in position next to the alley way while Paxton was off to the right, hiding behind one of the trees next to the Stag. I did the same.
He gave thumbs up as the signal, and then lurched at the deer. Quick as lightning, it leaped out and darted towards my hiding spot. It saw me a split second ago and jumped the opposite direction before I could bring the net down on the Stag. The plan was working so far, but this thing was fast. Soon, I was sweating like crazy from trying to get the Hind in the alley way. I was so frustrated right now, huffing like a freight train with a strained axle or something.
I couldn't stand it anymore, the thing—deer—whatever you want to call it—kept darting off to somewhere random and it looks like Fettel just gave up. I thought he had superhuman reflexes like John did... apparently not. The deer ran over to the pond once again and looked at us with his ruby eyes and shuffling his emerald hooves, unlike Grover who had regular goat hooves. It probably thought, Suckers! Can't catch me because I'm the Gingerbread Man! This made me a whole lot madder.
"Nice plan, Annabeth," Fettel sarcastically said, leaning on the brick alleyway.
She crossed her arms, "Humph." She hated it when people make fun of her plans that turn out bad. I am definitely not giving up, I thought, sticking the golden net into the grass. Remembering what I saw two years ago on Olympus, with the water bubble holding Bessie the Ophiotaurus (I can't believe I still call her that), I thought if since I'm Poseidon's son, maybe I could do that. I mean, I went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with Dumbledore using some kind of magic powers to hold Voldemort in a sort of water bubble. The light bulb of crazy ideas suddenly flicked as an evil grin spread across my face.
Everyone stared at me like I was nuts while I explained to the rest about my plan. After I was finished, Grover said, "How can you be sure?"
"Ever see Order of the Phoenix?" I asked.
"No."
"You see Be—the Ophiotaurus in the water thing?"
It took him a while to remember, "Oh yeah!"
"That's what I thought."
Hey guys, I'm deeply sorry about not updating earlier. I just had a bad case of five-day Writer's Block, plus I kind of needed a vacation. Along with that, I was discussing the RuneScape story with my friend, LordofDeath (yes, the perverted one and it's better to have him talk with only one reference to stuff he looks at), and haven't figured out a plot just yet. Having to do major research on the Cerynian Hind, I couldn't find a perfect image of what it looks like, so I just made it up. Another note: I didn't want much discussion with the Chase family because they don't really fit in with the storyline which probably explains why I had to ditch Rachel (I hate her anyway so EFF her)