Keefe's PoV-

"Keefe!" Sophie whisper-hissed beside me as I accidentally stepped on a twig. It cracked, echoing through the morning sunrise. We fell absolutely silent. I heard voices.

"Maybe we imagined it." A male voice spoke softly, as if anticipating an ambush. A female voice whispered, "That was too loud for it to be a dryad or a woodland animal."

"Maybe a satyr." The boy whispered back.

There was a sickening silence, my heart thumping so loudly in my chest that I was sure the two people could hear it.

"Maybe." The girl decided, and their footsteps faded into the distance. I heaved a silent sigh of relief.

"You nearly got us killed!" Sophia whisper-shouted. I grimaced. "Chill, Foster. We just need to find one kid, and then we can go."

"Quinlin said that he was an extremely powerful...something." She frowned. "He never said if he was a human or an elf or..."

"Or?" I prompted.

"Or...something entirely else." Her face was grim. I elbowed her. "Cheer up, Foster. At least you get to kick another guy's butt instead of mine..." She grinned and shoved me towards the beach.

We tiptoed across the sand, ducking into the shelter of the dunes. I inhaled the fresh sea air. A small spray of salty mist dampened my face. I sighed. "This is actually better than I—" My shirt collar got yanked down and tightened the collar around my neck. Sophie made the international 'shh' signal and pointed forward. A guy with dark raven hair with an orange t-shirt was creeping towards us, examining the footprints we had made earlier when we arrived. I gulped.

"Happen to have a plan, Foster?" Sweat beaded my face as he came closer.

She beckoned to me, backing away slowly into a small tunnel. She crawled through, and I barely fit.

"Little tight," I wheezed. "Dude, tunnel, widen yourself a little more, will you?" I wriggled my way out into a small clearing in the forest.

"That was fun." I winced at a slight scrape on my back. "Can we go now?" Foster gripped my arm and lugged me towards the beach again.

"The guy we need—Percy Jackson—he was on the beach!" Sophie whispered.

"Please don't tell me we need to capture him." I whined. She gave me a death glare and fought through the bracken as quietly as we could. The cliff hung right over where the guy was, still inspecting the prints.

"Levitate on three," She ordered. "One, two, three!" We pushed our concentration against the pull of the earth and hovered straight over him. Sophie let us down from both his sides. We crouched, and I counted to three before grabbing his shoulder.

Percy yelped in shock as Foster pinned him down with her knees. He thrashed, but his legs were immobilized.

"Wha—mmph!" His cry was muffled by Sophie, her hands across his mouth.

"Shh." She ordered him. "Don't even think about moving." As I saw his face, I realized that Sophie had gotten the right kid. He had raven-black windswept hair, and sea green eyes. His skin was a little tanner, and his jawline more visible. Other then that, he was the exact same person. His eyes sparkled mischievously, as if saying, "That all you got?" He squirmed out of her grasp and drew a pen.

Wait...a pen? "Dude," I said. "We have goblin throwing stars and daggers and you have a pen?" He glared at me and uncapped it, springing into a 3-foot bronze sword, its edge gleaming maliciously. I gulped. Obviously, he was much more experienced, and a couple years older, too.

"I take that back." I stared at the shiny brown sword, wondering how a sword could fit into a pen.

"What are you doing here?" He snarled. "Are you two empousai?" He looked us over, frowning. "Scratch that, you guys look way too good to be monsters." I smirked and mussed my hair.

"It seems like Lord Hunkyhair has met one of his faithful subjects!" I announced. The guy raised an eyebrow. "Lord Hunkyhair?"

Sophie rolled her eyes. "We just want to talk—"

"Uh, no." He scowled at both of us. "Last time the Avengers said that and what happened wasn't fun."

Avengers? I shoved the thought away to deal with later. "Then we'll force you." I took out a gleaming goblin star and aimed for his leg. He managed to dodge, but it still clipped part of his calf. He gritted his teeth as blood flowed from the gash. He lunged, slamming the hilt of his sword into the back of my head somehow. Black spots danced before my eyes, and I forced myself not to black out.

"You wouldn't dare." Foster's gaze was icy, even with her usual warm brown eyes. A red beam blasted from her forehead, slamming into the guy's chest. He toppled, and I expected for him to writhe in pain. Instead, he looked confused.

"Was that supposed to do something?" He raised an eyebrow. Sophie looked more confused than ever.

"I don't understand..." She murmured.

"Well, I do." He stood up and grabbed the hilt of his sword. "What are you doing at Ca—uh, my territory?" He growled. "And why do you want to kidnap me?" Sophie blushed. "It wasn't kidnapping—we wanted to bring you for interrogation."

"You mean torturing, don't you?" He snarled.

"What? No. We don't do torturing. Just a little probing—but if you are resistant, I must force you to come."

Percy sneered. "That sounds a lot like kidnapping. Tempting, but I'll pass." Sophie took out a silver disk from her boot and twisted it. White smoke steamed from it, and I held my breath and counted to thirty.

The smoke cleared, and amazingly, the guy was still standing, scowling.

"Tried to poison me, eh?" He snarled. "Nice try." I stood, still feeling a little woozy.

"Look, whoever you are, you seem like a threat to the human world. You're a terrorist among them." He gave me a death glare that rivaled the ogre king's.

"I blow up one building and people call me a terrorist." He twirled a pen in his hand, his sword gone. "Typical."

"So you admit you blew something up?" Sophie asked. He shrugged. "I almost got killed by a Chihuahua. Can you blame me?" Wow. His stormy green eyes were scary.

"Look, I knew you were forced to do this." He said. "So I'll give you a chance. Leave now, and I'll spare your life." Sophie shook her head.

"We don't want to do this, and it's easier if you just come with us." She had a sympathetic look in her eyes.  He just scowled more and uncapped his pen. The blade sprung out and he swiped it in a wide arc. Sophie didn't pay any attention. She dug out her imparted and whispered into it. She was calling backup.

He frowned. "What are you doing?" She ignored him.

He rolled his eyes. "Guess I have to kill you guys now." He swung his blade. "You first, Hunkyhair." I held up a goblin throwing star. "I'm not going down without a fight." He smiled. "Neither am I." I threw the star and he deflected it with a swipe.

"Too easy." He complained. Just then, Fitz and Sandor light leaped into view. The guy gaped.

"What in the Hades is that?" He raised an eyebrow at the goblin. Sandor snarled, which sounded as scary as a little bunny.

"Dude, is that your battle cry?" Percy snickered.

Sandor charged at him.

"Now this is what I call a challenge." He grinned and swiped. They parried, and Sophie did the cognates thing with Fitz. I guessed they wanted to break into the guy's mind.

ZAP!

Percy let out a guttural cry of pain as electricity shocked him, and he crumpled to the floor with Sandor glowering down at him. Fitz and Sophie look startled and Sandor flipped some sort of device in his hand.

"Good job, Sandor." Sophie congratulated him. "Let's put the nexus on him and go." Sandor growled.

"We must restrain him, at least." He squeaked angrily. "This person is dangerous." He took out some cords and tied his hands behind his back as Fitz snapped a nexus around his wrist. We held up a crystal and light-leaped to the Lost Cities.