"Leo, Calypso, you go front to the cyclops, they're shielding some witches brewing a questionable potion. Hazel, Piper, you guys try and find the demigod. Frank, Jason, the gorgon over there has the missing spell book we lost last month. I'm heading to those buff giants there- they seem to be guarding doors that surely lead *somewhere*," Percy instructs, hurriedly glancing around to make sure no one saw them.

Annabeth spoke up, unsheathing her dagger, "I'll go with you Percy,"

The eight of them sprint off excitedly towards their designated targets- it'd been ages since they got a quest or task- especially a combined task, Camp Jupiter and Camp Half Blood.

Just an hour previously, Camp Half Blood had received a mysterious distress call in the Big House from an unknown caller off the northern coast of Sassnitz, Germany, asking for help against monsters- turns out, it'd been another undiscovered, unclaimed Half Blood, who'd walked into a camp of monsters guarding *something*. By the looks of it, the monsters had decided to attack the half blood and kill him, but somehow, the unaware demigod was able to send out a distress signal. So Percy and the seven- plus Calypso- volunteered to check it out; Blackjack, Arion and their buddies were conveniently flying around, so they hitched a ride on them. When they reached the countryside, they found a band of tartarus spawned wickedness- and no demigod in sight.

Percy and his team's dash into the camp, spotting some evil looking deities that'd surely not been allowed to camp on mortal lands like this in the middle of nowhere. Surveying the camp, Annabeth and Percy charge into battle, attempting to ambush and stab the eight giants from the behind. Four of them escaped, roaring in outrage at being disturbed by puny mortals. Two of them vaporise immediately, without a chance to react.

Annabeth shakes her wavy blonde hair out of her eyes before killing another giant- whose companion lashes out brutally in anger and desperation (to protect whatever was behind the golden doors that were being frantically held together by the last giant) and hits Annabeth's back with his javelin, wounding her and sending violent streaks of blood running down her spine and making her let out a shocked cry of agony. Percy spears the fourth giant in the gut who crumbled to the ground, trying to curse Percy.

The other four giants seem to have gotten a grip, and position themselves to strategically surround the duo, planning to prey on Annabeth who is wounded. Percy, shoves Annabeth to the side, saying, "Wise Girl, stay here. You're injured."

She rolls her eyes, "Duh, I know, but I'm fine-eeee," she winces, flexing her shoulder muscle near the spine. She lets out a gasp of pain, eyes watering up.

"You're not, *stay here*," he told her, as she kisses his cheek for luck.

She defeatedly agrees, yelling out helpful directions such as 'parry right!' Or 'feign left!' Or 'behind you at two o' clock!'.

Soon all the giants are out, and only the gorgon was left. Hazel dashed up to Percy and informed him, "The demigod has been sent back to Camp Half Blood via the new teleportation device Chiron gave Piper before we left,"

Percy flashes a thumbs up, then stalks over to the gorgon, which Frank and Jason seemed to have a hard time decapitating. He approached the gorgon from the behind, then slicing off her head ruthlessly, shaking his head in disbelief at the shamefaced duo (Frank and Jason).

He jogs back over to the doors, yanking them open. He stumbles back, as a blast of wind hits him. He sees a cosmic swirl, sucking him in gently, he pulls away, mesmerised by all the colours swirling willy-nilly.

"Guys!" He calls.

Everyone runs over.

"Woah..." Leo says, hand resting atop Percy's shoulder.

"That is-" he suddenly gets cut off, and before Percy knew it, everyone falls on top of him like dominos, pushing him through the doors. He screams, and grabs Annabeth's, who grabs Frank, who grabs Hazel.

As the bright swirl of lights starts to fade, he glimpses Piper clinging to Jason, eyes shut tight, while Calypso and Leo fall wide-eyed, entwined together.

Then everything fades to a suffocating, nauseating black.