Chapter 1:The Clandestine Cookie Consumer
Annabeth's Point of view (POV): It had been two months since Gaea died in a blazing inferno, and I was bored. Percy was teaching a sword fighting lesson and it was the weekend.
Since I was in need of something to do, I went to the public library to look through old newspapers hoping to find something out of the ordinary that might possibly lead to an unfound demigod.
After an hour or two of searching through old newspapers from years ago I had kind of lost hope. That is until I stumbled across an article from three years ago about a twelve-year-old girl named Sophie Foster with the mind of a college student who made her teachers look like fools without even trying. What's more, in the picture printed on the front page of the paper the girl had grey eyes.
Author's note (AN): We are going to ignore that they should be brown and just say they were grey instead because it just works with the story. It's an artistic choice.
A few days after the newspaper was published the girl disappeared. With her parents and sister following suit a day later. I had no reason to believe that the girl was still alive, but I also had nothing to lose.
I went to bunker nine and asked, "Hey, Leo, would you do a camera search for this girl's face." I held up the girl's picture. "I think she might be a child of Athena."
AN: for the purpose of this story, Leo never left on his journey to find Calypso, but will do so once he can fix the Odysseus astrolabe navigation tool which in this timeline broke during the fight with Gaea.
Leo was hunched over a table working on something. As I approached he nearly jumped out of his skin and hit his head on the table lamp, before turning around and very eloquently asking me, "What?"
I held in a laugh and repeated my question, to which he responded, "Sure, but geez, knocking would be nice."
"Do you have a picture or something?" he asks.
"Oh yeah," I responded and handed him the picture. He took out a little gizmo and scanned the picture. He opens an app and uploads the picture file.
He turned around and asked me, "Where do you want me to search first?"
"Well, she could really be anywhere, so just try a major city," I responded.
"You got it. Up first, New York." We wait for a second or two until it beeps, and a red x comes up. "Nope, how about Paris?" He types some more, and it proceeds to show a green check mark.
"Wow" I said, "I can't believe that worked. What did you get?"
"One sec." He pulled up a window that showed two young teenagers. One was Sophie. The other was a boy about the same age. They looked like they were trying to sneak out of a back alleyway without being noticed.
Leo switched through a bunch of frames before coming on to another picture with Sophie and the boy, "OK so they walk along for a bit then the boy robs an ATM, I'm thinking that the boy could be a child of Hephaestus because that would explain his ability to rob the ATM so easily." He said.
"If this is going to lead to a whole new group of demigods that we don't know about, I am going to be so annoyed," I commented, "So, what do they do next?" I asked.
"Looks like they got some sandwiches with the money they stole from the ATM. And then go to a. library?" Leo said, clearly confused. "OK, so they go to a computer. They search something up. Then the pair leave, walk a couple of blocks to a bridge, and completely disappear," Leo explains.
AN: Leo is annoyed because most demigods have dyslexia and ADHD so libraries and demigods don't mix very well
"Of course they do," I sigh. "How long ago was this?" I asked.
"Um... two years ago," Leo responded.
"Dang it. That doesn't help at all," I say. "Try some other cities."
"Ok. But this might take a while. If you want, you can sit over there while I check some more cities," Leo offers.
"Sure." I say before I walk over to the very well loved armchair in the corner. I waited for only like four minutes when Leo called me back over. "Wow, that was quick."
"Yeah, I know. It was the second city I checked, London," Leo says.
"What happened?" I ask.
"The girl was alone this time, she got some E.L. Fudges from a street vendor, then went into an alley and never came out again. Sounds like a ghost story I know. But this happened just a few days ago, so it's the best lead we've got," Leo explained
"You said you made some modifications to Festus to help him fly faster and longer, right?" I asked Leo.
"You bet I did. And if you're asking what I think you're asking, I could get us there in under an hour," Leo said confidently.
"Wait, you got Festus to go at Mach 5. How?"
"Face it, I've got skills. Also, I added a field around Festus, so we won't instantly die when we fly on him."
"Um cool," I say, "I'll go see if Percy wants to come. Also how soon do you want to leave," I ask.
"Uh... I don't have anything to work on right now, so we can leave whenever," Leo says.
"Would you get Festus ready? I ask.
"You got it," he affirms.
I ran off to find Seaweed Brain.