.||Subject Five||.

~*Chapter Six*~

- - Annabeth's POV - -

The Olympus Daily newspaper had an exciting headline. "Mysterious Winged Hero Takes on a Horde of Giants and Saves Hundreds" I read it hastily, but was disappointed to read that no one knew the hero's identity.

"Hey Seaweed Brain, you here about what went down last night?" I said, waving the paper in Percy's face. He frowned and smacked it away, his eyes glued to the TV. "Um something about some winged freak?" I whacked him on the head with the newspaper as he chuckled and playfully pulled me onto the couch with him.

He looked tired, as if he didn't get enough sleep last night. I pulled the blanket over both of us, as we cuddled while watching Finding Nemo. "Percy, don't pretend like nothing happened... You've been gone for months! I missed you so much.."

He smiled warmly at me and pulled me closer. "Thanks for worrying about me, but I'm fine.. really. It's good to be home." I kissed him on the cheek and ruffled his hair, making him blush. We stayed like this all morning until eventually Percy fell asleep, drooling on my shoulder.

~*T I M E S K I P*~

It's been almost 3 months after Percy came back. We had resumed collage and had spent some more quality time together. Even though it was great that Percy was back, I was worried and confused about something else. The mysterious hero has committed many more acts of selflessness and has defended civilians from monsters, fires, and other perilous situations.

We still have no idea who this person could possibly be! Last I checked, I know no one with wings. I finally have come to the conclusion that we have to find a way to unmask this hero, in order to make sure that they have good intentions. Someone with this amount of power can not go unchecked.

I decided to bring this idea up to my friends and the gods. They seemed to be on the same page as me. "This person is only spotted at night, so we should start there." said Athena. "I've also sensed that they are able to manipulate the mist, which let's them mask their face! If we could capture him, I might be able to unmask him!" exclaimed Hazel.

"That's an awesome idea Hazel! Let's set this plan to action tonight." said Jason. Everyone nodded in agreement and set the meet-up time to be at around 2 am. "Hey, where's Percy?" asked Piper. "He's at the beach right now with Frank. I didn't want to bother him with this because he doesn't seem to care for this guy." I said while shrugging my shoulders.

~*T I M E  S K I P*~

We all met up at the base of a large tree that was overlooking the town. Piper was prepping her charm speaking, Jason was harnessing the winds, Hazel was focusing on the mist, and I was fiddling with the nets. Athena took out her checklist and scanned it if we had missed anything. She nodded back to us and gave a thumbs up sign.

After about 20 minutes of waiting, Jason let out a grunt when he felt the presence of the hero. He used the winds to force the figure into our net throwing range. I could barely see anything in the dark. "Stop resisting. Relax honey, and let us talk with you." said Piper, using heavy amounts of charmspeak on her sentence. I could now see raven-black wings hovering right above us.

Hazel nodded to me as I threw the net onto the hero. He let out a shriek as he came tumbling down onto the grass beside us. I gasped as I examined his beautiful wings, which were now entangled in the net and were flailing around helplessly. I tried to get a look at his face, but he used his trembling wings to cover it.

"Relax... Relax..." chanted Piper as Hazel squinted her eyes and focused on trying to remove the mist. Piper's charm-speaking seemed to calm him down, but not for long. The winged hero then extended his wings to as far as they could go, then stood up shakily. He took out a familiar looking sword and cut through the ropes.

Before I could react, a gust of wind blew me back as he shot back into the sky, leaving a few black feathers behind. "UGH! I was SO CLOSE" shouted Hazel, who kicked at the grass angrily. Athena looked back at us calmly, though she looked frustrated as well. "It was a good try, young heroes. Though, I have a new strategy." she said, tapping her checklist thoughtfully.

"Well? Spill it!" said Jason. Athena frowned at Jason but then explained, "We have to set up our own situation to make it seem as if we are in danger. That would bring him to us and we could use sedatives to bring him down. We tried doing it peacefully, but now we have to resort to this as our only option."

We all nodded and headed back to the palace empty-handed.. for now...