Of course, vapor-travel! Why haven't I thought of that earlier? I reformed a good distance away. Those people were creepy. Telepaths, Empaths, Hydrokinetics?? Not to mention that apparently there's another Atlantis. I pushed the thoughts to the back of my mind. I would deal with those later.

I found a small cave at the edge of the forest. I crawled inside to rest. No food was available. I could scrounge for some later, but for now, I was exhausted. I curled up inside the cave and fell asleep.

>>><<<

I woke up to the sight of three figures in black cloaked just outside my cave. They were looking around for something. Probably me. I crouched low, hoping that no one would see me.

"Hey, you!" One of the cloaked figures pointed at me. I cringed. Oh, joy. They found me. One of them held out a metal thing that looked like a gun.

"Perseus Jackson." The guy who was holding the gun snarled. "Hands up, and we'll let you live." I snorted.

"Yeah, ok. Whatever." I pointed to their costumes. "What's with the creepy costumes?"

"Disguises." A hint of annoyance crawled into his voice. "What did you think?"

"Honestly, I sorta thought you were Charon." I admitted. "But that doesn't matter. You're here to kill me, right?"

"No, maybe not to kill." His cloak covered his eyes, but I could see the bottom half of his face smiling maliciously. "Perhaps control. If you're lucky. You would be a valuable weapon to my army." I rolled my eyes.

"Kronos, Gaea, the Avengers, and now you?" I snorted. "Wow, I'm so famous. Should I add that I kicked all their butts?" He growled impatiently and pointed the gun at me. He pulled the trigger, but I dodged nimbly and uncapped Riptide.

I lunged at him, but I felt a border that made my skin tingle painfully and it forced me back a few dozen yards. Great. An invisible wall.

"Put the sword down, Perseus." He commanded. "Or you can get a taste of what torture truly means."

"How about no?"

"Very well, Perseus. You leave me no choice." He summoned a glassy force field to cover me. "Lightning, do it, now!" I gulped. Lightning? This wasn't going to end well.

A figure next to the guy holding the gun stepped forward. The figure was smaller than the other guy, and based on her laugh, it was a woman. A freaky woman. She snapped her fingers and electricity sparked through the dome. It hurt, but it wasn't as bad as Thalia or Jason shocking me at camp.

"Is that all you got? Felt like static." I smirked. The guy roared and reeled on Lightning. "This is what you get for being expelled from Foxfire! You don't even know how to control your freaking ability!" She cowered.

"More pain?" She grinned savagely. "I can do that." Another zap coursed through my veins, and I doubled over. I tasted a metallic taste in my mouth.

"Let him go!" A voice yelled. It was Sophie.

"Sophie, no!" I tried to warn her, but it was too late. The guy with the gun shot her in the chest. Panic closed up my throat. I crawled as far as I could go without touching the force field. She was still breathing, but she was paralyzed. Horror dawned on me. That wasn't a gun. It was a melder.

"SOPHIE!" Keefe yelled. He turned to the guys wearing cloaks. He took out a melder of his own and shot it at one of the people. He collapsed.

"Fool!" Hissed Lightning. She sent another wave of electricity into my dome, and I fell. I dimly recognized Mr. Forkle, the wrinkly dude and Fitz, along with an Asian guy with silver-tipped bangs and a girl almost identical to the bangs dude, down to the silver hair.

My ADHD wondered why the heck they had silver bangs. I pushed that thought away and slowly stood, trying not to shake.

"Leave them alone!" I snarled. Even though I talked with Sophie for only about 20 minutes, I knew that she was against these creepy dudes. I wanted to help, partly because the cloaked dudes were stupid enough to attack me and also because they were obviously struggling.

Lightning poised her fingers to snap again. "Come any closer," She warned. "And Percy dies." Keefe stopped reluctantly.

"You can't just keep me a hostage." I told her. "You don't know how powerful I am." She scoffed. 

"What can your water powers do to me?" She sneered. I cursed under my breath. I hated doing this, but it wasn't like I had a choice. I lifted my hands let my instinct take over.

[Sorry, cliffhanger! I feel like Shannon Messenger :P]