The letter fell out of my hands and I ran to my room. 

Hope called my name, but I didn't respond. I fished(pun intended) some drachmas out of my backpack and created a rainbow.

I chanted, "O Iris, accept my offering. Sally Jackson. I don't know where."

I flicked the gold coin into the rainbow and an image formed.

Through the image, I could see my mom, Paul, and Estelle in there apartment.

Estelle was crying, my mom had tear stains on her face and was trying to comfort Estelle, and Paul looked like he wanted to punch someone but couldn't.

My mom and Paul had chains on their hands and feet. Estelle, was just a baby, so she didn't have any restraints.

"Mom," I called out. "Are you okay?"

My mom looked up and asked, "Percy, is that-"

A voice cut in, "Shut up, bitch!"

A muscular figure, who I immediately recognized as Hercules, stepped into the frame.

Through gritted teeth, I yelled, "Let them go!"

Hercules fake smiled, "And I will. All you have to do is meet me at the Golden Gate Bridge like my letter said. If you aren't there, they will die. And if you try to rescue them or bring the Olympians into this, they will also die."

Before I could respond, he cut the call.

1 Week Later

I haven't slept this past week. I mean, how could I? My family is in danger and all I could do was wait for today. It was twenty minutes till 6.

I was sitting on my bed when I heard a knock on the door.

"Come in."

Hope opened the door and said, "I've been worried about you. Are you sure I can't come with you?"

I nodded, "If you do, they'll die. I have no other choice."

Hope tried to lighten the mood, "And here I thought Hercules would've been a decent person at the least. I guess Disney's movie was completely wrong."

I cracked a smile, "Yeah, like Hades has blue hair."

Imagine Nico with blue hair. Now that would be hilarious. Note to self: suggest that to the Stolls.

Hope put her hand on my shoulder. She said, "You'll be fine. You faded Kronos. I'm sure you can handle that arrogant bastard."

I looked at the time. It was 5:57.

I looked into Hope's pale blue eyes and said, "Hope, I've been meaning to say this to you for a while now."

I paused, "I love you."

Before she could respond, I kissed her.

She was caught off guard but eventually, she started to kiss back.

As we pulled away, I vapor traveled to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Standing in front of me was Hercules. I looked down and saw tens, if not hundreds of cars driving on the road beneath us.

Hercules said, "You showed up. Good. I'm a man of my word. Your family will be set free."

I asked, "Why did you want me here in the first place?"

Hercules smiled, "Because, you were offered to become an Olympian. When it was offered to you, you had barely known that you were a god for five minutes. You don't know what it's like to have worked your whole mortal life for that title, and then it's offered to someone who didn't even want to be a god. That was all I ever wanted. I did the twelve labors so the gods would recognize that I was worthy. I even became the GREATEST HERO IN ALL OF GREECE FOR FUCK'S SAKE!"

By the end, he was screaming his head off.

He lowered his voice, "Apologies for raising my voice. The thing is, I'm jealous of you. And I'm not the only one who feels this way. Those missing gods I'm sure you've heard about, aren't really missing. They agree with me. So I would like to give you a choice. One: Convince the Olympians to give me a seat on the Council, and let me live with the Hunt. Or, you can helplessly watch Olympus fall and your friends die."

I scoffed, "Do you know how many times I've heard 'join me or all your friends will die?' Too many. Congrats! You've joined that club. And we both know that you only want to stay with the Hunt so you can rape them all. I'm not helping you do that."

Hercules asked, "What's wrong with that?"

"Everything," I replied.

Hercules scowled, "That's a shame."

He threw a punch at me before everything went dark.