Eh ma gawd. An almost-regular update! Quick, grabbbbbbit!

I am back from my holiday, though I hope to be back soon, and have… five weeks of school left. Class of 2010, ftw!

Well, enjoy.

A bit of trivia:

This story has 101 reviews, far more than I expected it to when I first published it. This is my third PJO story published, and my seventh overall. It has ten thousand and three hits, fifty-four favourites, and fifty-five story alerts. It has also been added to two C2s, and is my third most successful story ever, and my second on this account.

Thank you, each and every one of you, for such an enormous effort. It makes my day, time and time again.

I fell to the floor, clawing at the ground, trying to approach the man who was trying to kill me. It sounded weird inside the bubble, noises distorted and my head swimming with a lack of oxygen. The water swirled around, un-relenting, and I was hoping that if I touched him, it would somehow help me.

As such, I was crawling along the dull carpet towards Percy. He looked at me, coldly, not a trace of pity or compassion in his coal-black eyes. He was absolutely content to watch me suffocate.

I touched something. His shoe. He didn't move as I felt up to his ankle, which was as cold as ice. He was absolutely motionless, and any hope I had for him to recognize my touch flickered and went out. So, I did the only thing I could.

I pinched him.

"Yeah-ow!" he said, jerking away and stumbling back. It was only a few seconds of distraction, but it was enough. The water flowed away from my face, sinking in to my shirt and dripping onto the foor.

Years of battle reflexes saved me as I dived behind the reception desk. Half a second later, a chair crashed into the wall behind me, followed by another.

"Come back here," he screamed, and it was two voices talking, one dark and menacing, another higher and more human.

There was a door leading to a storeroom behind me. I made for it, standing up for a second in front of it.

He sprung at me, moving incredibly fast, and I dropped to the ground. He smashed into the door, and then through it, leaving a large hole behind. I jumped back over the desk, and ran up, out of the waiting area. An inartuclate howl of rage followed me, and the wall exploded, chunks of masonry smashing through the waiting area. The hospital was going to have to completely re-build it, but that was the least of my problems now.

I ran down the corridor, a golden glow dancing behind me. I spared one look back, and immediately wished I hadn't.

He stood behind me, covered in plaster dust and small shards of stone. There was golden fire spurting out of his fingers, and his eyes were like black holes. He pointed, and a lick of golden fire roared up the corridor after me.

I dove around the corner, and the golden fire hit the wall just centimetres from me. It blasted through, more like an explosion than a flame. The sprinklers came on, and he laughed, a deep, mirthless chuckle behind me. The sprinkler system did nothing to put out the fire, and it was filling the corridor with smoke. Hopefully, this would make me harder to follow, but I had no idea what powers Kronos had given him.

"Someone," I yelled at the ceiling, not at the people who might be in the hospital, but at the higher, more ethereal beings. "Anyone! Help me!"

"Oh, Annabeth," said a cold, mocking voice behind me, the twisted tone only barely recognizable as Percy's. "Where are you?"

It was not well known, but originally the hospital had been a great mansion, whose last owner had fallen in to bankruptcy. Instead of pulling it down, the board of directors instead elected to remodel it, which had cost less. The room that Annabeth next stumbled into had originally been a large reception hall. It was also the room that had been least remodelled, as it was used for cases that were not serious enough for a bed upstairs. The room was long, and fairly wide, running down the entire end of the hospital. It was unique in that there was nothing above it except for roof. Huge windows looked out onto the hospital lawns, and all in all, was one of the nicest places there. In fact, the only way to distinguish it as a hospital room were the two rows of beds, one on either side, stretching from one end to the other.

Annabeth slammed the door shut and dived behind a fountain, which was tinkling merrily, the coins in its depths sparkling in the moonlight that came through the high windows.

The doors burst open, flung off their hinges. One sailed over my head, smashing into a bed. The other went through a window, showering the floor with shards of glass.

Percy walked through, the smoke and flames billowing out of the corridor behind him. He looked like an avenging angel, utterly without compassion as he grinned wickedly.

"Don't worry, Annabeth," he said, his voice a gross imitation of worry. "I'll find you."

He blasted with the fire, blowing the beds away. Golden fire swept across the hall, incinerating everything and leaving smoke and scorch marks behind. The windows blew out, and a cold wind whistled in.

All the while, I crouched behind the fountain as it tinkled merrily above me.

"Ah, there you are," he said, stepping into the fountain. Steam swirled around his legs as he called the water up in a vortex above his head. "I told you that you couldn't hide from me. Now," he continued, the water writhing above his head. "To drown you, or smash you to pieces? Decisions, decisions."

He reached my side and dropped down out of the fountain, standing in front of me, still grinning.

"I think I'll drown you," he said, and I accepted my fate. He was stronger, quicker, and better than me. I had no hope.

He was about to hurl the water at me, but faltered, looking up at the fountain.

"Stop."

The word was powerful and authoritive, echoing around the hall. The water evaporated, and all fires in the hall immediately went out.

I knew that voice. It was a lot like his son's.

It was Poseidon.

More soon.