Bianca di Angelo & The Olympians

Monster? More often than not

Annabeth POV

I woke to a steady beeping in my ears as an argument went on in the background.

A girl's voice rang out "If you take me from my friend right now, I'll tell my father about that night you came home drunk a week ago while you were supposed to be watching me!"

A woman's voice, "You wouldn't dare-"

"I'd do it. You want that on your 'impeccable record' Jane?"

I opened my eyes slightly, so as to not alert them to my consciousness. The woman (I assumed she was Jane) was wearing a black dress shirt and beige, pressed pants. She had a clipboard pressed to her hip, and looked very agitated with the girl. The girl had brown hair just longer than her shoulders on her back, and what looked to be a school uniform that was dirty and torn.

Jane sent a deadly glare at the girl, scoffed, and left.

The girl turned to look at me, noticing how I was more tense than I must've been when I was knocked out. "You're awake! Thank God."

God, not gods. Noted.

I tried to sit up, but the searing pain in my arms and chest prevented me. "Oh yeah, your, umm... really hurt."

I summon all my energy, "Who are you?"

"Oh, I'm Piper. Your friend Bianca, she-"

"Is she okay?" I cut in as the memories came rushing back to me. The attack, the boys using the 

pearls, me passing out as Bianca carried me, a cold feeling.

Piper shifted in her spot, "Well, she was covered in your blood when I found you, and she 

seemed pretty tired." she pursed her lips, "She ran off after there was a 'gas leak' saying something about finding a guy named Percy."

I noticed how she put her hands up and used her fingers to make quotations as she said gas leak. "Gas leak?" I croaked out

"Oh, there was some explosion over by the beach. They say it was just a gas leak that caused the explosion, you know, from the earthquake-" The earthquake? It must have been Hades, I thought, "-but yet they didn't talk about the huge ring of sand on the beach. The helis just flew over it like it was nothing, it was like they didn't even see it."

I frowned. I could understand mortals ignoring it if it was caused by a Godly being, but then why would Piper see it?

A demigod? Perhaps. A monster? More often than not.

"Here's the thing. I'm not judging you or anything, but there was another newscast. It said something about how a heroic boy named Percy Jackson fought off his leather clad captor in a 

gunfight. But they were still missing a blond, 12 year old girl. Now..."

"Ares." I accidentally said out loud, but I didn't care. Percy had fought Ares, and... "What happened?"

"They raised money to send him home to New York on a flight." New York. The quest.

"What time is it?"

"Uhm... about nine pm... same day as you passed out. Hey, can I ask you something?"

I figured I owed it to her, so as much as I wanted to ask more, I nodded.

"There was this bag. Yours, or Bianca's I'm not sure. It, er, had a dagger in it?" My eyes widened. She must have been a demigod.

How convenient.