Hey Guys!

So, I got The Hidden Oracle yesterday. I went to Barnes & Nobles with a friend, where they railroaded us with a membership (not my fault, they caught us off guard by asking us if we were married! Who does that?). I also am getting into a new series (it's actually kind of old) called I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells. Its a good series, and I highly recommend it if you enjoy creepy supernatural/thrillers. Anyways, I need to clear some stuff up now.

I want this series to be authentic, and therefore I want it to match up with both Avengers and Percy Jackson. Surprisingly, after reading the first thirteen or so chapters of The Hidden Oracle, I can say that... It kind of already matches.

SPOILERS: DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT SMALL THINGS SPOILED TO YOU ABOUT THO:

Sally is pregnant with a baby girl.

Annabeth left for Boston for a 'family emergency'.

Zeus is angry (not a surprise).

Percy doesn't play that big a part in The Hidden Oracle, as far as I see. Again, I'm only thirteen or so chapters in, so don't quote me on this.

What I'm trying to say is, maybe this story will actually be even more 'to the story' than I thought before. If possible, I think I can meld these stories together perfectly. I still need to see Civil War, though...

Most of you guys are TeamCap, though some of you are all for TeamIronMan. If any of you are wondering, I have to say that I believe Captain America is right this time around. Again, I'll go watch the movie and maybe my opinion will change.

Okay, onto the story!

Disclaimer: I am not Rick or Marvel.


Piper:

Arts and crafts were not her idea of a good teaching experience. In fact, teaching in general kind of sucked. She just wasn't into trying to control a bunch of twelve year olds while they messed around with all the pottery clay and marble sculpting tools. It was funny the first few times, but if someone ended up getting stabbed under her supervision, she'd probably kill whoever was involved.

"Reggie! The chainsaw is for the advanced classes, not for you! Hank, one more clay fight, and I'll make sure you lose more than a few desserts!" She warned, trying to get back to her book. Jason had been shoving them down her throat for the longest time, and she was tired of it. Now, she'd have the upper hand. Jason hadn't read this one yet, and she was going to memorize every last word.

She'd been moved around teaching positions at camp since she'd turned nineteen, and had settled well in teaching knife defenses. It was the one class she actually enjoyed, so it made sense that she teach it.

Then Jason had to impregnate her with his stupid spawn, and now she couldn't teach anything actually worth teaching. She'd been moved to canoe racing, then got kicked out for 'aggressive misconduct'. But really, Drew had totally cut her off. Then it was cleaning and tidying the Big House, but she put everything in the wrong places and then forgot where she put them. Basket weaving… She shivered at the memory.

Everything had been a bust, so hey simply put her in the least stressful, nonviolent class they could find. Arts and Crafts.

"WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT MESSING AROUND WITH HANNAH'S NECKLACES!?" Piper screamed, putting her book down and standing from her seat. She felt like a swollen tomato, and she must've looked ridiculous waddling towards the crying nine-year-old, but she still put a fond hand on her belly when she felt a kick. She liked to think the spawn was egging her on. Whether to satisfy a craving or kick a counselor's butt, she didn't differentiate. Baby knows best.

It took her a moment to calm the girl sobbing over her matching friendship necklaces (she had been giggling when Darren had walked past last week), and Piper promised her that she would help fix them. Then she had to round on the boy, Archie something-or-another, son of some big shot AND a god, until he'd crapped his fifteen year old pants. Really, he was lucky that Chiron frowned upon spanking because Piper was ready to straight up smack that kid.

She returned shortly afterwards to her lawn chair in the corner of the Crafts pavilion (she was not sitting inside on such a beautiful day) and let the natural shade of the pine tree and cool breeze help her achieve semi-coherent bliss. She kept half an eye open, watching the little parasites work. If she was lucky, maybe she could get in a nap after finishing the next chapter of her book.

She reached for her book that she'd put on the TV tray-

Her hand probed the tray top. Nothing.

Piper sat up from her comfortable position, groaning as she did. If this was some son of Hermes thinking he was being funny again, someone was going to get smacked. She scanned the ground around her until she saw the familiar cover a few feet away, on the grass. She frowned, wondering only briefly how it could've gotten there. There wasn't any wind, there wasn't any forest around her- just the lone tree she rested against.

Piper stood carefully, feeling another kick as she did. Baby wanted Piper to be careful, and so Piper took another long look around her. Nothing.

Piper felt stupid, approaching a book as cautiously as she was, but felt another kick and decided that she would play it safe anyways. When she bent over to pick up her book, she took the small throwing dagger from her ankle (the one blade Jason hadn't found).

Her fingers wrapped around the pages and she jerked her hand up, as she did, her dagger ready.

Nothing. Just grass.

Piper stood up straighter, but kept her dagger out. She looked back towards her 'students,' but no one was staring back. She sighed, patting the kicking baby. "Don't stress mommy out." She muttered, moving back to sit in her chair. As she sat, shifting around to get into a more comfortable position. Her eyes began to scan the page numbers, searching for where she'd left off.

Piper blinked when she noticed the hole in her book.

Not just a hole. Something black and metallic sat through the words of the pages, and Piper had blink again when she realized what it was. Her father's old secretary, Jane, always wore an earpiece. She'd even pretend to take calls from it in order to stop Piper from wasting any time she might've had. The woman had been a constant thorn in her side, and looking at this piece of crap Piper wanted to punch the tree. The fact her book was ruined made the situation worse.

Piper checked around her before carefully removing the device from its seeth. Her anger was building, along with her confusion. How does this happen? She was comforting Hannah for a good ten minutes, tops, but that wasn't enough time to do this, right? She held it in her palm, wondering if it was the Stolls playing some sort of prank. Baby was gearing up for some quick moving, if that were the case.

Then it began to vibrate in her hand. The slimmest of creases in between the outer and inner shells began to glow a blue hue, moving in a circle around its rounded, rectangular shape. Piper could see a button on the back glowing as well, beckoning for her to push it. She ignored the urge, choosing the indecisive route instead. She'd promised Jason that he'd be the first to know if anything weird happened. And this could be a monster (... Prank calling her?). She should get Chiron as well…

The earpiece stopped vibrating, indicating the call had ended. Piper nodded to herself slightly, then looked towards her parasites- students. She looked towards her students, wondering who she could trust to keep the others in line while she was gone. Finally, Piper singled out a Daughter of Hebe that she trusted (though she looked much too young to actually be eighteen). When everyone had settled down, and Piper had given Reggie a decent amount of death glares, Piper began walking towards the sword arena.

The earpiece began to buzz again as soon as Piper was out of view of the Arts & Crafts pavilion, and the fact didn't go unnoticed by her. She opened her palm again, looking down at the blue colors dancing in her palm. Only this time, there was more than just the crease illuminated. The middle of the device began to blink in and out, hard to see. Piper had to cover the device from the light before being able to read the new words.

ANSWR PPR.

Piper's eyes shot up, and she immediately began to scan the valley around her. She could see the rock wall ahead, and the cabins to her left, but that was it. No other structures around her, not even the forest. If she looked farther, up on top of one of the furthest hills, she could see the bronze outline of the metal warrior the Hephaestus campers had been working on all week. They'd told everyone it was a prototype, built for protection. She didn't feel protected right now.

ANSWR NW.

Piper felt a chill go down her spine. Her left hand moved to her stomach, resting over her protruding womb. Finally, with a shaking hand, Piper placed the piece into her ear. She hit the talk button.

Silence. She could tell the device was on, but it seemed to be… dead.

"Hello? Who is this?" She asked quietly. No answer.

Piper began to take half steps closer towards the direction of the Big House. Chiron would be there. He would know what to do.

"That's far enough, Mrs. Grace. Another step, and I will have to act." Said a gruff, almost elderly voice. The character on the other end of the call sounded serious, and Piper held back a comment about her father's acting career. She didn't think his 'acting' would be as fun as a movie of some sort. Piper stopped moving.

"Good. Now, take a sharp left and move around the Big House. Towards the camp store, please." The voice said, and Piper stood still. The voice sounded patient, but stern when he spoke again. "You have your husband to think about, Mrs. Grace. We see him as well."

Piper appeared to be completely relaxed at the mention of her husband, but inside she was screaming. The baby was kicking around, and the bumping was not currently appreciated. "Do not worry, Mrs. Grace. Nothing bad will hurt you, your husband, or your unborn child. I will make sure of that. If you wish to keep it that way, please follow my instructions."

'Who is this? Why are you doing this?" She hissed into the earpiece. She hoped someone would look towards her and recognize she looked like she was talking to herself. Maybe they could save her from whatever was going on.

"No questions shall be taken at this time, Mrs. Grace. Now please, begin marching towards the road."

Piper was goaded past Halfblood Hill with absolutely no human interaction she desperately needed in order to escape whatever blackmail this was. She had noticed a few teens looking over at her, but the moment they made eye contact they looked away. Apparently, her reputation was well known in the valley. She never felt so disappointed by that fact. Usually, she felt pride. Now, she realized it had turned against her.

As she approached the crest in the hill, the voice continued to speak. "Good. You're almost to the top. You'll see a yellow taxi van at the bottom. Get into it."

Piper couldn't stop the scathing comment that bubbled up into her throat. "A van? Could you be anymore cliché?" She didn't regret speaking, but at the same time she felt a deep sense of dread. She hadn't seen Jason since this morning, and now she was getting edgy. She didn't want him to get hurt.

As she reached the top of the hill, and her stinging feet refused to go any further without a break, Piper saw the van. She wondered how the usual guard hadn't seen it on his patrols.

"No questions, Mrs. Grace. Please, get into the van before I'm forced to hurt your husband."

Piper pretended to grumble further, as if the idea of her husband in pain didn't send shards of shrapnel into her heart. Piper honestly didn't know what she would do without Jason in her life. He was a constant rock, an anchor point that she desperately grasped onto, though she knew how fragile the life of a Demigod was. She didn't know how this voice over the phone could hurt Jason, and maybe 'baby brain' was taking a turn for the worse, but Piper continued downwards, towards the cliché yellow passenger van.

When she reached it, she approached with extreme caution. She even went as far as to pull out her knife. She circled the vehicle cautiously, trying in vain to peak through the blackened windows. She looked across the dirt road, wondering if any monster lurked behind the bushes, waiting to let her guard down. She was outside the camp borders, after all. This could just be an elaborate trap, concocted by a monster with a humanistic voice.

Piper shook her head. No monster could get into the camp's borders. No monster could sneak up on her reading spot, or the other campers, without drawing attention. She made sure that her campers were well protected, and they had trained for fights. Piper would've heard the warning horn calling demigods to battle of that we're the case.

The voice, after her thorough inspection of the possible trap, spoke up. His tone was that of a really patient, annoying college professor. Piper felt like she would get a lecture if she didn't do what he asked. "Please, get into the front passenger seat of the van. I swear on the Styx, this is not a trap."

Piper heard the thunder, and knew that he meant his words. That didn't make her feel any better, but she worried about what might happen if she didn't comply. "Well, since you asked so nicely." She muttered, opening the front passenger door. She blinked, waiting for eyes to adjust when she realized that everything inside the van was pitch black. The upholstery, the Windows, the carpets… Nico wouldn't have a problem, but Piper already did.

"I could make a much less pleasant oath, Mrs. Grace, if you don't hurry up. The rest of the passengers are already waiting for you."

Piper couldn't see anyone else, but she took a cautious step inside and sat. She tried to put her hand on the center console, but found a solid barrier between her seat and the drivers. Checking behind her head, she found the same situation as the one beside her. She was getting more and more uncomfortable, and Piper realized what an idiot she was suddenly being! Was she really letting herself be kidnapped?

Before she could make a move towards the door, it closed and locked automatically. Piper was stuck in complete darkness, and the lack of sound was unnerving. When the van lurched forward, her stomach dropped.

She just hoped Jason was okay.

The silence wasn't an issue, ten or so minutes into the drive. In fact, the voice inside of her head was constantly asking her if she was comfortable, if she would like to know how far they were from their destinations, etc… A great host, really. He even politely stopped speaking when she told him to shut up. Judging by the soft jazz that echoed through the speakers, he was trying to calm her down.

But she wouldn't be calm.

She couldn't be calm.

She was in a passenger van on its way to gods-know-where with who-knows-who in the van with her, and without any means of escape (she ran her hands over the locks at least a dozen times. There didn't seem to be any.), Piper was forced to contemplate what the odds were she might have to give birth in this van if the baby decided to show up early. She mentally debated being one of those girls, and faking labor, but decided this person wouldn't care if she was bleeding out or not.

She eventually felt her eyelids drop, and the black world around her dulled into a world of nothing.

Demigod dreams suck.

Especially when it was your parent trying to talk to you. Piper had to listen to Aphrodite fawn over her the night before her wedding, and then again when the goddess was going through a rough patch in her relationship with Ares. She'd had love advice dropped in her subconscious, and had once, three years ago, been influenced to try and seduce Jason (that failed horribly).

But when it was another god or goddess that Piper hadn't even met personally, Piper was less than ecstatic to receive some divine intervention in her life. If she could avoid her family without getting blasted to bits or turned into a mongoose (oh, the horror), she would've cut them out of her life a long time ago.

But she was in Malibu, on her beach. She'd learned to ride these waves like a pro, though it had taken her much longer than it had her father. She could feel the sand in between her toes, and the sound of the ocean waves lapping on the shore… Beautiful. More beautiful than it had ever been, in fact. It was like Piper was listening, seeing, and smelling in HD.

If she looked far enough down the coast, she could see her neighbor's old home… Yep. Tony Stark's UFO-looking house. But that couldn't be right, of course. It had been destroyed years ago.

She remembered the van. She remembered the voice.

"You picked a nice beach."

Piper wasn't aware of the man standing knee deep in the water until he spoke, but she wasn't startled or attentive. She barely glanced at his swim trunks and Hawaiian shirt. The bright blue and green patterns seemed to move as he swayed with the sea breeze. "I prefer East Coast, usually. Closer to home, but breathtakingly beautiful. The beaches in the Carolina's… Gorgeous." He said, his voice as gentle as the waves lapping around his legs. "But in Malibu, the setting sun makes the water look tempting, doesn't it?"

Piper didn't think he was actually waiting for a reply. They were just two strangers meeting on a beach. She couldn't deny the beauty of the setting sun. "Apollo did something right, didn't he?" She said, ignoring the fire building in her belly. Oh, she recognized this god. In fact, she'd been wanting to put him in his place for nearly five years.

When she saw his green eyes, not a shade off from his eye color, Piper had to quickly look away. She stared at the sun, hoping blindness might provide escape. "Helios, actually, created the best sunset and sunrise. I do miss his artistic inclination." The sea god sighed, turning back to the sun. "I'm afraid you haven't seen a real sunset, Mrs. Grace. Merely a shadow of what it once was, if I'm honest."

Piper felt the fire growing, and the urge to punch Poseidon was becoming irresistible. Instead, Piper tried to subdue her anger. Metaphorical or not, the fire she felt was dangerously close to her baby. Too much stress or anger was bad for a developing child. (Though she only had three weeks left.)

"I've just been kidnapped," Piper said slowly. "And you want to talk about sunsets?" She said, folding her arms in front of her and looking at the god in front of her.

"I suppose we could save that chat for a later date. And as far as I could tell, you went willingly." He said.

"They threatened Jason." She said, because that actually did explain everything to her. Poseidon simply tilted his head, and she could see that same stupid teen she'd been friends with for so long.

Gods, she missed him.

"Yes. Yes they did." He said. "Are you aware of who has kidnapped you? Of who is currently waiting to meet you?"

Piper shook her head, and Poseidon nodded. "I suggest you get your facts in order, then, when you wake up and meet the others. Until then-" Poseidon reached into the water, and his came up holding water. The water, as it fell from his grip, slid over some invisible surface until it was encased with water. Then, before Piper's very eyes, the water solidified into a simple jar. Something she might put jam in.

Poseidon inspected it, then snapped his fingers. A lid popped into existence, and he quickly screwed it on. When he was finished, he tossed it to her. "When you see him, do not let him speak. Do not let him show his face. He is as dangerous as he ever was. But, if you catch him in this, he bring him to me. Toss the jar into the ocean, and I will get it."

Piper had no time to ask him any questions, or scold him before the dream around her lost its color. She felt herself being shaken, as if she were being woken up.

She blinked once. Twice. Thrice. The light from outside the darkened van was too much for her blinded eyes. At first, she began to struggle against the arms trying to pull her out.

Then she saw his face. "Jason?"


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(PS: I have a new story out! Read Complications, and tell me what you like and don't like!)

LHG :)