Chapter Fourteen

Bianca

Three months later

Friday, November 28th

Bianca hummed as she did her hair in front of the mirror. Today they got to raid one of K's hideouts. She slipped her hair into a French braid as Thalia walked into the bathroom to put her towel away.

"Hey, Thalia," she chirped. "Can I do your hair?"

Thalia glanced at Bianca before glancing at the door, "Maybe later." She dashed out of the door just as Hazel walked in. She began to brush her frizzy hair.

Bianca glanced at her, "Hey, Hazel, can I do your hair?"

Hazel shrugged, setting down the brush, "Sure."

Bianca took Hazel's hair and put a finger to her chin. Her hair was naturally a bunch of tiny curls. Bianca pursed her lips, "It's a special occasion, let's straighten it." Hazel's eyes widened as Bianca grabbed a hair straightener from the drawer and waited for it to heat up. "You're like the sister I never had," Bianca said.

Hazel sighed, obviously any chances of backing out gone. "So," Bianca said as tapped the counter. "Are you excited for the mission?"

Hazel frowned, "I don't know. What exactly are we going to do?"

"Well, Percy told me that K has a bunch of hideouts where he tries to hack into Olympus' computer system. Basically were trying to collect what information he does have and send it back for analysis. To see what he's doing and when he's gonna actually try to steal Olympus. Apparently, he's really doing his research. He wants to attack at the perfect time." At this point Bianca began to straighten Hazel's hair.

"Don't you think it's a bit weird we're fighting our grandfather?" Hazel asked. "He's probably in his seventies or eighties by now. He's an old man."

"We can't underestimate him. If our fathers have powers, he must have powers too."

Hazel shrugged, "He must have a lot of accomplices. Young accomplices."

Bianca was almost done when Hazel spoke again, "What happens after we catch him. Jail?"

"Maybe a sentence to death. He did try to take over America, that must be a felony," Bianca replied as she brushed Hazel's straightened hair. "Or maybe, he'll die fighting." She twisted Hazel's hair into a bun. "All done!" she announced.

Hazel grinned, "Thanks. Now let's go get breakfast."

The two girls headed to the kitchen.

Percy

"When are we going?" Bianca asked as she poured Cheerios into a bowl.

Percy shrugged as he forked pancakes into his mouth. "I don't—"

He was cut off by a knock on the door. Percy slid out of his seat and cautiously opened the door. Annabeth's face filled his vision. "Hey Seaweed Brain."

Percy rolled his eyes, "Wise Girl, what brings you here?"

Annabeth looked at him skeptically, "Chiron didn't tell you guys?"

"Tell us what?"

Annabeth walked into House and Percy closed the door behind her. The two sat by the island in the kitchen. Percy looked in the dining room and saw Bianca, Hazel and Jason eating in the kitchen. Thalia and Nico were in the living room. Annabeth brushed a loose strand out of her hair, "Chiron said that he wants to…" she interlocked her fingers, "Merge the two houses into one. Apparently House is putting too much strain on itself. Did you guys get sick a few months back?" Percy nodded. "That was House. It needed some way to let go of a bit of strain and that was its way of doing it. It let out a gas which causes humans to become sick."

Bianca passed by as she dumped her bowl in the dishwasher, "Percy—" she looked up. "Annabeth? When did you get here?"

"I came to tell you guys that the two House's will be merging," Annabeth explained. "Because—"

Percy cut her off, "Maybe we should tell everyone at the same time. You're starting to sound repetitive."

Annabeth nodded as Percy waved over Jason and Hazel. They joined Thalia and Nico in the living room. Annabeth then launched into a full explanation about the merging.

Jason looked confused, "So the two houses are going to come together?"

Annabeth shook her head, "That's structurally unstable. Chiron and I had decided that the kitchen, dining room and living room would get larger and for the bedrooms…it'll still be girls and boys but in the little cubicle another door will appear. Our bedrooms…and don't worry, we're not invading your bathroom."

"But why are you moving here?" Thalia questioned, "Why don't we move there?"

"We took a vote," Annabeth admitted. "Most wanted to move."

Percy raised an eyebrow. So they took a vote without them? Of all of them, Nico looked the unhappiest, "Seriously? You're moving in because House made a few people sick from a bad fart?"

"Not just that," Annabeth reasoned. "It's better to just have one House. The mist works really hard."

"Wait," Hazel said, "The mist?"

Annabeth nodded, "I'll tell you guys about that later. Anyways, you might want to get out of House. The transition might be painful if you stay in here."

Nico huffed, "I'll take my chances."

"Nico!" Bianca massaged her temples then went on an Italian rant. Nico snapped back at her and Bianca glared at him. Those two had been fighting a lot lately.

Annabeth looked surprised to say the least. "O-kay. Well, let's go."

They followed Annabeth out of House into the arena. The Omada team sat in the bleachers in uniform. Annabeth turned, "You guys can sit anywhere. The Olympians are coming today to talk to us for a while. It's our first mission in a while. The last one was a year ago and half of us couldn't even go."

They all shrugged and walked into the bleachers. Annabeth smiled at Percy, "Sit with me?"

Percy grinned, "Of course." Annabeth led him towards the top of the bleachers where they sat in the middle. After a few seconds Percy spoke, "So, the mist?"

Annabeth nodded, "the mist is what hides House from the mortals."

"How?"

Annabeth shrugged, "It's something the Olympians invented. With their powers or…" Annabeth trailed off. She was looking at something.

Percy looked down and saw Thalia smirking as she hiked up the stairs towards them. Percy groaned and placed his head in his hands. "So, Percy." When he looked up Thalia was sitting beside him. "How's it going?"

"It was going good until you showed," Percy glared at her.

"Percy, I'm your cousin. That's the closest you'll ever have to a sister. It is my job to know who you're dating."

Annabeth blushed, "It's not like that, Thalia."

Thalia shrugged, "This also payback for throwing all that popcorn in my hair."

"That was your own fault!" Percy yelled.

"Wait…popcorn?" Annabeth interrupted.

Thalia nodded, "Long story short, it was Bianca's birthday, we watched a movie, made some comparisons and Percy got offended and took it out on me."

Annabeth laughed, "Sounds interesting."

Thalia nodded, "Well, I'm gonna go now."

Percy was relieved. "Bye."

Thalia grinned as he headed back towards her seat. "I like her," Annabeth announced once she was gone.

Percy shrugged, "Thalia can be a pain sometimes but believe it or not, she's pretty useful and can hold up the end of an argument."

Annabeth smiled. A few minutes later the Olympians walked in. Percy scanned the ground. No brothers. He frowned. "Can we have all of you in the first or second row?" Chiron yelled.

Percy and Annabeth got up and joined the others. The Olympians, like always, were dressed fancy. Percy wouldn't be surprised if they showed up at a hot dog eating contest wearing a tie and pencil skirts.

Thalia raised her hand, "Where are our fathers?"

Chiron frowned, "Honestly, I don't know. We can only assume they are caught up. Now onto the mission. We will be arriving in Palolo at five. You're going to be broken up into groups. Each group is responsible for a certain thing: Lookout, Hacking, Location, Fighters. There are twenty-two of you. The groups are as said, no complaining. Group One is lookout. We have Zoë, Will, Frank and Hazel. Group two is hacking. Beckendorf, Travis, Leo, Juniper, Jason and Nico. Group three is location Bianca, Piper, Connor, Grover, Silena and Katie. Group four is fighters Luke, Annabeth, Clarisse, Reyna, Thalia and Percy."

Percy saw Annabeth smiling out of the corner of his eye. Athena stepped forwards. Her grey eyes mirrored Annabeth's perfectly. Her black hair was pinned into a bun, like always, "The lookout group will be stationed outside of K's hideout. The hackers will be going in with the fighters. They will hack into the computers and if necessary, they will fight with the fighters. Location just might be one of the most important groups. We have no idea where K is. We need you to locate him before midnight."

Percy glanced at his watch. It was barely two, they had tons of time. Artemis spoke next, "We're going to have you train for a few hours because, really, any of you could end up fighting."

"Lil' Sis is right," Apollo said. Artemis glared at him. "At five you're going to be in Hawaii. From what we know, he's somewhere in that area."

"But then again," Hermes interrupted. "A very unreliable source gave us that information."

Hephaestus nodded, "Worst case scenario, K is not there at all."

"But, there is another thing we must factor in," Demeter commented.

The Olympians nodded but didn't speak. Before anyone could ask any questions Chiron dismissed them. The Olympians immediately circled around him and they had a heated discussion. Everyone began to head outside but Percy was pulled over by Thalia. She stood off with the rest of his cousins. Annabeth looked suspicious but walked outside. "Did you notice?" Thalia whispered.

"Notice what?" Percy asked.

"When I asked where Zeus and them were Chiron made this weird hand gesture to the Olympians."

"So?"

"So," Thalia snapped, "It was sign-language."

"How do you know?"

"One of my mom's boyfriends was deaf. I recognized some of the gestures. Besides, when he was talking all of the Olympians were looking at his hands."

"Well it's not like we can do anything about it," Percy reasoned. "Let's just let it go."

"Percy," Bianca interrupted. "Do you know Thalia at all? She's not going to 'let it go.'"

"So what are we going to do? They're not going to let us in on their conversation."

"They're our fathers," Nico replied. "They have to."

Thalia nodded, "C'mon." She led them towards the adults. She forcefully elbowed her way in. "Chiron, we demand to know where our fathers are."

"I already told you," Chiron sighed. "They're probably caught up in work."

"Don't lie," Jason argued. "We saw you doing your hand gestures telling them where they are."

"You can't force us to tell you anything," Dionysus growled. "Now go."

Hazel placed her hands on her hips, "Why are you so secretive? It's not a big deal for a child to know where their father is."

"It is when they're an Olympian," Aphrodite said. "I think it'd be best if you didn't know."

Percy frowned. Was it really that big of a deal? "There's a really big reason you're not telling us, isn't there?" Percy asked.

Chiron paled, "Percy—"

"You're afraid we're going to leave!" Percy yelled. "Tell us what they're doing. If it's going to make us want to leave we deserve to know."

"Why would we tell you something that will make you want to leave?" Artemis asked. The look on her face seemed triumphant. Well now Percy knew he was right.

"Because we deserve to know," Nico said. Surprisingly, he said it in a soft voice. Percy looked at his cousin. Was something wrong with him?

Bianca hesitantly placed a hand on her brother's shoulder, "Nico, are you okay?"

Nico laughed, "I'm fine. I just think they should tell us."

Chiron shut his eyes, "Fine, we'll tell you."

Okay, I know that chapter really sucked, I'm sorry. Next chapter is full of emotions. Let's just say it has something to do with their mothers and crying and it's really sappy so sorry in advance.