Chapter Title: I Get Nothing But Frustration At The Grand Canyon

(Note: With the completion of Book One, chapter updates for this story will now be as I complete chapters, instead of early releases.. unless you are on Wattpad where you can get chapters from both Part I (The Lost Heroes) and Part II (The Son Of Neptune) as I work my way through this story.)

(A/N: This chapter takes partial credit from Fanfiction user "AC and AM", who wrote an unfinished fanfic about Annabeth's POV in the "The Lost Hero" that I am using to base this on. So some of their writing will be interwoven here in mine.)

We all knew something was wrong the minute we saw it. The clouds sweeping around the rocks in such a motion that it could send anyone unlucky enough to be caught in it flying multiple feet into the air. I looked over at Butch, whose face was equally filled with worry and confusion about the sight that confronted us right now. I then turned to Kayla, and a similar expression was on her face.

I descended the chariot down towards the ground. As I did, I noticed the forms of six teenagers come into view near the skywalk. No sight of Gleeson Hedge though, which was troubling to be honest. When we landed there and looked at the six teenagers, I wanted to scream and tear Hera to pieces. Percy wasn't there, neither was Luke, Michael, or Colton. Kayla was starting to sob behind me, and as much as Butch could try to get her to calm down, he could only do so much. Kayla, despite where she had gotten to in the few years we at camp had known her, had always been a fragile kid since that summer she first came to camp. She had improved dramatically in the years since, largely thanks to Colton, but she was still fragile. Right now, she was demonstrating that perfectly.

I hopped out of the chariot before it had even finished stopping. I pulled out a knife and ran over to the group of teenagers. They were.. a curious bunch, I'll admit. Three guys and three girls. They all looked to be around our age - me, Butch, and Kayla's — maybe even a few months older, and all of them looked confused, were soaking wet and covered in monster dust.

First up, there was this Hispanic-looking boy that looked like an elf with elfish-like features, dark curly hair, and eyes that sparkled with mischief, it seemed. His curly hair was glittering with monster dust and his fingers were bleeding as he fiddled with random objects. For a moment, I thought that he might be a child of Hermes, but something about this kid told me that his real godly parent was likely someone else.

Next up, there was a black guy that was taller than the Hispanic boy, with brown eyes, close cropped black hair, a good bit of muscle, and seemed familiar for some reason.. or resembled someone familiar, to put it more accurately. I'm not sure who.

Then, there was this Asian girl - whose face looked Asian, to be clear here — she could be possibly be of another ethnicity. She had short black hair, brown eyes, and honestly looked like she had been through a very bad day.

Next was this blonde haired girl next to the black haired one, and this girl was slightly shorter than the other girl. With short blonde hair, blue eyes, and a couple of scars on her forehead, she had a fiery aura about her that felt similar to the aura children of Ares - including Colton - had, yet it was also different at the same time.

The third girl was taller than both of the other two girls, and also fit with a tan complexion along with eyes that seemed to change color every-time she blinked, changing from green to blue to brown and back again. It was.. weird. Her hair was dark and choppy, with small braids littering the brown strands of her hair in places.

I gasped at the last guy. This one was taller than all of the other teens, with sharp and regal features that for a moment made me feel like I was looking at a god in the flesh, but still looked like inside he could be a big softy. He had electric blue eyes — which made me question if I was even seeing what I was seeing right now. Thalia was the only child of Zeus that exists right now, there is no way that this guy could be another one of Zeus' kids. His hair was blonde, with messily styled strands and some strands simply plastered to his forehead because of the storm.

He was incredibly built and lean, reminding me a bit of both Percy, Luke, and Colton at the same time, Colton been included among this list for.. reasons that one of us back at Camp Half Blood will explain later. And no, they do not have to do with him being the Monster King. There was also a small scar right above his lip, along with a couple of other scars on his arms and forehead. The part that made me gasp, even with my angry face since Hera had basically lied to us, was that this kid had one shoe. Just like Hera said he would.

- — - — - — - Switch To Third Person POV - — - — - — -

Bryce Harper, the black kid with the short cropped black hair, was having a very unusual day at this point. Well, unusual was putting it mildly if you asked him. Between their coach having donkey legs, Jason apparently being able to fly and also have a coin that turned into a golden sword somehow, and Dylan the jerk actually being a monster, this field trip had gone off the rails like he couldn't believe. Oh, he plus Jason and his friends Alyssa and Clara also apparently had amnesia.. somehow, he and Alyssa and Clara had managed to figure that part out. Jason didn't know yet, but Bryce was determined to let him know.

Now though, the four teens along with their friends Piper and Leo, just stood there in confusion as the angry blonde with a knife came towards them.

"Where are they?" she demanded, her grey eyes fierce and startling. Bryce honestly wondered if he had done anything to piss her off in the past, since his memory had 'gone to shit', as he himself put it.

"Where are who?" Jason asked back, trying but failing to come up with an answer. The blonde frowned like Jason's answer was unacceptable. Then, she turned to Leo and Piper. "What about Gleeson? Where is your protector, Gleeson Hedge?"

Bryce felt like he had to speak up. "Coach was taken.. during that storm.. hard to describe what went on in there.. but man, was it unbelievable.." he said out loud.

Leo spoke up next. "He got taken by some . . . tornado things."

"Venti.." Jason and Bryce said at the same time, with Clara and Alyssa nodding. Jason continued, "Storm spirits."

The blond girl arched an eyebrow at both of them, confused a little. "You mean anemoi thuellai? That's the Greek term. Who are you all, and what happened?" she asked back, and Jason just explained everything.

Bryce, Alyssa, and Clara all clarified during Jason's tale that they were having trouble trying to remember who they were too. About halfway through the story, the other two people from the chariot came over. One of them was a bald dude that had his arms crossed, also had a good amount of muscle, and had a tattoo of a rainbow on his biceps that was somehow visible since the part of the shirt that covered that area was torn off, which Jason, Bryce, Alyssa, and Clara all found to be a little unusual. The other one was a girl and man.. was Bryce and Jason blown away by her, much to Piper's frustration when it came to Jason.

From the mid back length red hair with green highlights that glowed and shimmered beautifully in the sunlight, to the blue bell eyes that seemed to have waves lapping around inside of them that you could just lost in like the sea — even if she was also crying with tears coming out of her eyes at the moment, the way she carried herself in the orange t-shirt and blue shorts she wore with lots of elegance and grace, even with looked like an archery bow strapped around her back, to her lovely face with lots of freckles, her beauty was so effortless she could make heads turn in her direction without even trying to at all.

She, for lack of a better description, essentially looked like a goddess in human form in Bryce's opinion. But the way her eyes seemed to stare out into space at the moment made it clear to him that her heart was already set on someone else, and that someone else was incredibly very dear to her as much as the one that the blonde was thinking about.

When they finished the story, neither the blonde nor the redhead looked very satisfied. The redhead simply broke down, crying into the bald guy's shoulder as he tried to calm her down, and was partially succeeding a little bit.. key word being "partially".

"No, no, no!" exclaimed the blonde. "She told me that they would be here. She told me that if we came here, the answer would be here."

"Annabeth.." the bald guy said. "Check it out." He pointed at Jason's feet. Bryce turned and noticed that Jason had lost one of his shoes. What did that have to do with anything? Bryce was so confused now.

"The guy with one shoe.." said the one dude. "He's the answer."

"No, Butch.." Annabeth said back to him. "He can't be. Kayla and I were tricked, so were Thalia and Jake since we got their hopes up for nothing." The girl named Kayla left Butch's arms, and with tears dripping from her cheeks, took Annabeth's hand as both of them stared up at the sky as if both of them had done something wrong.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US?!" Annabeth screamed. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THEM?!"

"Give him back, please.." Kayla wailed. "I want him back! I can't live without him!" She was shaking uncontrollably now.

The skywalk shuddered, and the horses whinnied urgently. Bryce had to admit, he definitely felt sorry for Kayla and Annabeth, about whatever they were suffering from right now. Nearby, the five other teens felt the same way.

"Annabeth, Kayla.." Butch said nervously. "..we gotta leave now. Let's get them to camp and figure it out there. Those storm spirits might come back."

Annabeth fumed for a moment. Kayla was still upset, but just reluctantly nodded. "Fine.." Annabeth agreed. She then turned to look at Jason with a resentful look. "We'll settle this later."

She turned on her heel and headed towards the chariot, Kayla following right behind her.

Piper just shook her head. "What's her problem honestly? Or their problem, I should say?" she asked, annoyed a bit. "What's going on?"

"Seriously.." Leo agreed.

"Someone definitely needs to tell her to take a chill pill.." Alyssa added.

"We have to get you all out of here.." Butch said. "I'll explain all of this on the way."

Jason didn't like the sound of that at all. "I'm not going anywhere with her.." he said, gesturing towards Annabeth. He definitely was uneasy about her right now. "She looks like she wants to kill me."

"That goes for all of us, honestly.." Clara added. "..also, what's with the girl Kayla? She seems more in hysterics."

Butch hesitated for a moment, then sighed. "Annabeth's okay. Kayla's just.. emotionally unstable to put it bluntly. You gotta cut both of them some slack, they're not the only ones like this. Annabeth had a vision telling her to come here, to find a guy with one shoe. That was supposed to be the answer to their problem."

"Okay.." Piper started. "Who is they? And what is their problem?"

"To put it bluntly, Annabeth, Kayla, Jake, and Thalia.." Butch replied, and Jason thought that Thalia was a bit familiar to him, but didn't know why. "..have been looking for four of our campers, who have been missing for three days. They are all going out of their minds with worry. They had hoped they'd be here."

"Who?" Jason asked.

"Their boyfriends.." Butch answered.

"Mind telling us their names, buddy?" Clara said.

"Annabeth's boyfriend is a guy by the name of Percy Jackson, Thalia's is Luke, Jake's is Michael, and Kayla's boyfriend, oh boy.." Butch said, with a ominous tone on the last part. "If you two are just finding out now that monsters and myths are real.." He pointed to Piper and Leo. "..then trust me.. none of you are prepared for her boyfriend. This guy.. he's one who not only has the word 'brutality' as his middle name, but one who also defines the phrase 'expect the unexpected'."

Bryce didn't exactly like the sound of that. He didn't like that at all to be honest. "Who exactly is this guy?" Clara asked.

Butch took a deep breath and then said a few words that caused Jason's, Bryce's, Clara's, and Alyssa's blood to run cold for a very good reason, even if none of the four knew what that reason even was. Leo and Piper looked on, very confused and worried. But soon, they all would find out exactly who this guy was, not just from what Butch said next.

"His name is Colton Reynolds, and aside from having the nickname 'The Beast Of Camp Half Blood', he's also known as.. the Monster King."