Two days - that's how long it has been since Percy Jackson went missing. Jason wished Percy's stepfather, Paul, had called as soon as they knew Percy was in trouble, but no, Percy told him to wait, for unknown reasons. He walked into the clearing where Percy had last been seen. He frowned when he saw that there was definitely a fight here. The ground was still wet meaning Percy used his powers. There were also burns and scuff marks in the dirt. Jason leaned down to examine the ground when something shiny caught his eye. He moved some grass out of the way and picked up a dart - a two-inch needle coming out of a small cylinder with thin light blue feathers on the back. Jason tuned the needle in his hand for any identifying features so he could find who it belonged to - a clue on who kidnapped his friend - but it was clean.
Standing back up, he walked to one of the trees. "Surgere" he said in Latin. A sleepy face appeared in the bark. Jason stepped back as the girl, who looked no older than 16, climbed out of the trunk. Her skin was tinted green, which matched her green dress and her sparkling green eyes.
"Sorry to disturb you, but I have a question I need to ask. It is very important," Jason spoke quickly as the girl rubbed her eyes and looked him up and down.
"Demigod?" she asked. Jason nodded "What do you need?" She sighed tiredly.
"I was wondering if you or any of the dryads saw what happened here two days ago around noon?" Jason asked. The nymph looked deep in thought.
"I don't remember anything specific. Time is a little hard…" she said slowly after a couple of seconds of silence.
"Was there a fight in this clearing with another demigod?" Jason asked seeing if he could jog her memory.
"I- I don't think so…" she said carefully. Jason's shoulders slumped.
"I remember!" Jason turned to see another dryad come out of a tree three trees away.
"Really?!" Jason asked, walking over to her.
"Yeah, I remember because one of the attackers crashed into my tree." She spoke angrily crossing her arms over her chest.
"Can you tell me who they were?" Jason asked, careful not to show his impatience and eagerness.
"I remember a demigod. I believe it was that son of Poseidon… oh what's his name?..." her voice dropped to a whisper as she tried to think.
"Percy Jackson…" Jason supplied.
"Yes, that's the one," she jumped seemingly proud of herself "Yeah, he was here then seven strange mortals showed up and attacked him shooting those things into him." She pointed at the dart still in Jason's hand "Then one of them hit him on the head and he blacked out." she finished a slight frown on her face.
"Did they say where they were taking him or who they were?" Jason asked, hiding his surprise that mortals were able to knock out Percy. The only way that could have happened was if Percy wasn't really trying or something was terribly wrong.
"Umm...they said they were these avenging people or something."
Jason looked confused "avenging people?"
"Oh, if you see them one was dressed in red white and blue and has a metal shield with the same colors, can you punch him in the face for me? He was the one who crashed into my tree," she asked. Jason nodded and thanked her as he walked out of Central Park.
A man wearing the colors of a flag, and they called themselves avenging people - what were they avenging and why did they take Percy? He sighed as he walked through the streets of New York. He hadn't gotten to spend much time here, and part of him wanted to explore this massive city with Piper. He thought she would really enjoy Central Park, but that was going to have to wait until he found and rescued Percy.
"The Avengers are at it again causing property damage in the name of 'saving' the city with that masked vigilante Spiderman." Jason turned to see a bunch of TVs in a window. On one of the TVs was a picture of costumed people. Jason raised an eyebrow as the news anchor continued "causing more damage that you taxpayers have to pay for. When will they be held responsible for the damage they cause?"
''The Avengers' - could they be the 'avenging people' the nymph saw attacking Percy?' he thought, tuning out the rest of the man's rambling. Then the picture changed. There was a guy dressed like the American Flag with a circular shield. Jason's eyes widened. It was them, these people were in that clearing but why…and what do they want from Percy? He had to find out where they took him. He began to walk away from the televisions when an image of a giant floating aircraft carrier flashed in his mind and he froze in shock.
Jason looked up to the sky, wondering if that was a sign from his dad telling him that's where Percy is, and permitting Jason to save him. Jason frowned. These were most likely really bad people if Zeus, king of the gods, was helping him. As far as he knew Zeus didn't like Percy, so if they were in the sky why didn't he just shoot the flying ship down? He shook his head. He would have time to ponder it later, right now he had a friend to save.
He ran into an alley and took off soaring through the sky in the direction where the flying ship would be.
Later…
It took longer to find the flying ship then he thought. His father forgot to mention that this ship was also invisible and he wouldn't have found it if he hadn't crashed into it; he prayed that no one noticed. He made his way to the top; when he looked at his feet he saw nothing but sky - no metal was visible.
"How am I going to find a way inside if I can't see the door?" Jason said to himself. He started walking in the direction that he thought the door might be based on what his father showed him. He just hoped he was heading the right direction and didn't walk right off the flying ship or into the propellers. Then he crashed again into something solid. He groaned, stepping back and rubbing his nose. He held out his hand and ran it along the surface until he found a handle. He made his way inside, surprised that no alarms went off and he wasn't being attacked right off the bat. It did make sense though, because of how high they were and he was pretty sure they didn't expect a flying teenage boy to land on their invisible ship this high in the sky.
Jason made his way through the dark metal walls dodging men and women in dark blue, almost black, combat uniforms with the crest of some sort of eagle on the sleeve. Jason silently cursed that his purple t-shirt and blue jeans stood out too much, and he wished he had been more prepared for a rescue mission. Since he was up against mortals, his weapon was useless so he was unarmed.