Hey!

It's Ivy here! It's Friday, October 2nd, 2020!

This one will definitely be longer, since it's skipping to Percy and Jason's disappearances.

Anyway, hope you like the chapter.

I might be evil, but I'm not Rick Riordan. I haven't even tortured you yet!

Point is, I don't own the characters. Or (most of) the plot.

Chapter 2: I wake up on a bus

FOUR MONTHS LATER:

Jason:

I woke up in the backseat of a school bus.

I had no idea who I was. How old I was. Where I was. Nothing.

I had no memory at all.

The school bus was driving through the desert. I was pretty sure that I didn't live in the desert, but then again, I didn't know my own age.

The only thing I knew was that my name was Jason. I didn't know my last name.

A short guy at the front of the bus, who was obviously a coach, stood up.

"Stand up, Coach Hedge!" someone called.

"I heard that!" he said. He scanned the bus.

When his eyes found me, he scowled.

Uh-oh, I thought. He knew I shouldn't be here.

But the coach didn't say anything. He just sighed, and started giving directions.

He said something about staying with your partner and not losing your worksheet, but that didn't really matter. I was still trying to figure out who I was.

I leaned over the seat and said "hey," to the kid in front of me.

He turned around and grinned. I blinked, because his teeth were blindingly white.

"Um, hey," I said. "Where are we going?"

"Grand Canyon," he said.

"Also, I think I've got amnesia or something. I can't remember-"

"Dylan! Problem back there?" Coach Hedge shouted.

"Nah, we're good!" the kid, whose name I assumed was Dylan, shouted back.

He turned back to me.

"What were you saying?" he asked, flashing me that blinding white smile.

"Um, I think I've got amnesia or something. I don't remember anything."

He furrowed his brow. "Hmm," he said. "I don't know, man. But you can talk to Coach Hedge when we get to the museum."

When the bus finally stopped, it was in front of a building (I assumed it was the museum Dylan had mentioned) in the middle of nowhere.

We walked inside and our tour guide told us stuff, but I didn't really pay attention.

I felt in my pocket and found something. I took it out, and saw it was a coin. A gold coin, with an inscription something like IVLIVS.

What in the world?

I shoved the coin back into my pocket.

We soon walked out onto a skywalk, where we could see the Grand Canyon. It looked like a crazy god had taken a knife to it.

There was a splitting pain behind my eyes. Crazy gods? Where had I gotten that idea? I felt like I'd gotten close to something I should know…

But there was nothing. I remembered nothing. If I had known about crazy gods before, I didn't know about them now.

I shook my head, but something else was bothering me, too.

A storm was brewing above us. But it was only over the skywalk, where we were. It was seriously freaking me out. No storm would be that small or concentrated normally.

I decided to consult Coach Hedge.

I walked over to the coach, who was leaning on the railing of the skywalk.

He didn't look at me, but he said, "did you do this?"

"What?" I asked, surprised. "Make the storm?"

He looked at me. "You're not a monster, kid. I can tell that for certain. But you are a half-blood, which isn't good. There's a monster here, and I don't want to have to protect three of you. They told me an extraction team was coming from camp to pick up a special package. Are you the special package? Is that it?"

I got that searing pain behind my eyes again. I knew that I should know about gods, and monsters, and half-bloods. I should know about camp.

But I didn't. Stupid amnesia!

"I don't know, sir," I said. "I don't remember anything."

He looked at me and sighed. "You're telling the truth. I wish you weren't telling the truth."

"I wish I knew who I was!"

He grunted and looked at the sky. "Hopefully the extraction team comes before-"

Just then, the wind picked up, thunder boomed, and lightning crashed down from the sky.

"I had to say something!" Hedge grumbled. "Come on. It's monster-fighting time."

I didn't like the sound of monster-fighting time.

Dylan and some other kid whose name I didn't know were holding open the doors. When everyone was in, Dylan kicked the other kid inside and the doors closed.

He turned around and grinned at us. And then he changed.

His body turned to vapor. He was still Dylan in his shape, but he wasn't solid anymore. He had glowing eyes that crackled with electricity. He was dark, like a storm cloud.

I'd liked him better as a normal human.

And, as if one creepy storm guy wasn't enough, two others descended from the storm clouds.

Coach Hedge raised his baseball bat. Except that it had turned into a club, which I didn't understand. But whatever.

The wind blew harder. Coach Hedge's cap blew off his head, revealing… horns? Why did Hedge have horns?

But suddenly, I remembered something. I remembered something! These things- monsters- were called venti. Storm spirits.

Coach Hedge charged the nearest ventus, which did absolutely nothing. Except getting him blown off the skywalk. His club was left behind, and I threw it at Dylan. I figured that I'd achieved nothing, since he was made of vapor, but it actually hit him! He flinched.

I let my instincts take over, grabbing the gold coin from my pocket and flipping it. It turned into a golden sword- something told me imperial gold.

I stabbed the ventus to Dylan's right, and it dissolved into golden dust, which the wind blew in a million directions. Dylan gaped at me, and I did the same thing to the ventus on his right.

I started to say, "now for you," but then, he sent a lighting bolt straight at me.

Needless to say, I collapsed on the ground.

When I regained my consciousness, Dylan was laughing. I opened my eyes to see that he was torturing poor Coach Hedge, who had goat's hooves. For some reason, this didn't surprise me. Maybe the fact that I'd been struck by lighting but was still alive was messing with my brain. I tried to get up, with no luck. One of my shoes had been blasted off by the lighting, but otherwise I was perfectly fine. On my second try, I successfully stood up and brushed myself off.

Dylan the storm spirit looked shocked.

"That- that was enough lightning to kill twenty men!" he yelled over the noise of his own storm.

"Yeah?" I said. "Well, I'm not dead. But you soon will be!"

I lunged at him. Bad idea. He grabbed me, and started to rise into the clouds, but Coach Hedge knocked me out of his grip.

Dylan grabbed Coach Hedge, and there was nothing I could do but watch as they ascended into the sky.

I lay there for a minute, catching my breath and trying to decide if any of this was real, and that's when I saw it.

The flying chariot.

Annabeth:

I was hopeful, which was stupid.

Why should I trust a dream vision from Hera, of all gods?

But I was desperate. I needed him to be okay. I needed him to be at the Grand Canyon.

I needed my Seaweed Brain back.

Piper:

I could tell Annabeth was ready for some really good news, which made me worried. If we didn't find Percy (which I wasn't too hopeful that we would), would Annabeth get angry at whoever we did find. I bit my lip, looking over at her. She'd been going out of her mind with worry the past couple of days.

Soon, we got to the Grand Canyon, and I saw a kid laying on the ground. He wasn't Percy, though. He was blond. And he was lying on the ground, like he was dead.

Half-dead, I corrected myself as he moved a bit. We were close enough that I could see him more clearly; he looked about fifteen, my age. He sat up, though it looked like that took a lot of effort.

We landed on the skywalk, and I could see his eyes. They were sky blue.

Annabeth got out first, but I quickly came after her, and made sure I could talk first before Annabeth started yelling at this boy.

"Who are you?" I asked him.

He swallowed and took a deep breath, then said, "My name is Jason. That's all I know."

1,424 words!

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- Ivy Antionette