Now that we had a lead, we were able to narrow our searches into everything there is to know about HYDRA. And by we, I mean everybody besides Leo and me, who were busy trying to throw Cheetos in each other's mouths. Even Nixon had joined us.
"Ok, try it while my eyes are closed," he said, closing his eyes and opening his mouth. Being the mature and responsible parent I am, I grabbed a handful of Cheetos and stuffed them in his face.
"Dad!" He shoved me over.
"BOYS!" Annabeth yelled. We both straightened up and looked at her as innocently as we could. I could tell she was going easy on us because Nixon was still upset about Alec. Apparently, that wasn't going to stop her from chewing me out though. She pointed threateningly towards my chair and snapped, silently giving me a glare that told me to sit down and shut up. I did.
"Now, if you could sit still and listen for two seconds, we can tell you again what we've learned."
I nodded innocently. Leo just smirked.
"Yup, sounds good. I am listening,"
She rolled her eyes at me. "HYDRA has a base near New York that we think may be a lead. It's close by so that they could be spying on the Avengers, so we think it may be the best to check them out first," Annabeth said. I was too distracted by the beautiful silver swirls in her eyes to pay much attention to what she was saying. Nixon elbowed me in the gut to get me to pay attention so we wouldn't get in trouble again.
"New York, HYDRA people. Got it," I gave Annabeth a thumbs up and she smacked me. Nixon laughed, holding his hand to his mouth to try to cover it. Rude.
"Ok let's go," Max said, grabbing a stack of papers and messily attempting to organize them.
"Go where?" I asked. "We just got here!"
Annabeth stared at me like you would a small misbehaving child. "Because we are going to the HYDRA base that is located in New York," she spoke like I was a toddler.
"Whatever. I'm ready when you." I stomped confidently towards the door, then realized I had no idea where I was going. I decided to pretend like I did anyway.
"Percy come back here!" Piper yelled. She grabbed my by the cuff of my ear and dragged me back into the living room.
"Ow! Ow, ow, ow, ow! Piiiipes!"
She, like usual, ignored me. "Hermes has agreed to zap us back to New York. From there, we'll get ready and everything then we'll go pay a visit to the HYDRA base in New York," she said. Oh, makes sense. After Piper finally let go of my ear, I walked over to Annabeth and took her hand. She rolled her eyes but leaned into me. Everybody gathered into a circle for Hermes to pick us up and I wrapped my other arm around Nixon's shoulders.
Piper closed her eyes and began murmuring under her breath, probably praying to Hermes and telling to get his godly butt down here.
"Close your eyes," she said, just as a bright light enclosed our group.
…
When I opened my eyes, we were home. Leo and Frank had landed on the couch and the rest of us had landed in the original circle in the living room.
"What in the Hades happened this time?"
I swung around to find the source of the voice standing in my kitchen with a bowl of Cheerios.
Masia was home.
"Mas!" I jumped over the couch and wrapped her in a hug. She laughed and squished past me to put her bowl of cereal on the counter.
"Hey Dad," she said. I smiled and hugged her tighter. My baby girl was finally home. Nixon and Annabeth joined us and we were in one big family hug.
"Where've you been? How have you been?" I asked.
"I've been great Dad, and I've been perfectly safe!"
I gave her a stern look and she punched me in the arm. See? My whole family is abusive!
"Masia," Nico said. She smiled again and gave him a hug. There is one thing Nico learned from Masia joining the Hunters. Masia came home, Bianca did not. I think it actually helped him in a way, the first time Masia came home. It's like he'd finally realized that not all hunters are gone forever. Some of the Hunters lived for thousands of years. It was weird to think that my daughter would stay 13 forever, but it was almost comforting to think that she'd outlive me. In a way. On the other hand, it was kinda freaky. I could imagine Masia, hundreds of years for now. Would she sound like Zoe did? Would she and Thalia grow to completely hate men like most of the other Hunters did? I doubted it. They were just too, I don't know. Thalia does like men a lot less than she did when I first met her though. But what about Masia? Would she be like that too? I shook my head to stop myself from thinking about it. I'd rather focus on the now, spending whatever time I had left with my family and the ones I cared about the most. Save all the deep sappy thoughts for when I'm on my deathbed.
(Hey guys! Sorry I haven't updated in the past couple days :/ I was sick and I just got a Nexplanon implant, so if that means anything, then thank I guess... From now on I will be updating every OTHER day, so thanks for reading! :) )