The Hidden Son (Percy Jackson / Marvel's Agents of SHIELD Crossover)

12. The Best Time For A Snowball Fight Is All The Time

          ANNABETH REALLY WISHED her day was going just a little bit better. Granted, they'd made a few new friends (?) and discovered (??) a secret government organization, but still, they'd already fought off some dracanae earlier that day and now she was dragging two people through the woods after a gryphon that had kidnapped a really buff guy. Honestly, sometimes she felt like she was living a sitcom. This day had just been so long she wasn't even sure if it counted as one day. What time was it, even?

          She almost slipped on a patch of ice and snapped back into the present. She was sprinting through the snow. The gryphon was tree-hopping just a ways ahead—she could hear the rustling as well as Mack's loud string of obscenities with every landing. He must've been a little too heavy for the thing.

          She kept running, Daisy right behind her, and Fitz at the tail end. Annabeth didn't really care whether or not he made it up the mountain at the moment. Her main priority was a rescue mission. The trees were becoming sparser—they were nearing the tree line. After that, the gryphon would have nowhere to land but the ground. She could see it now, actually—a black mass jumping from tree to tree. She ran faster. It was only a matter of time before Mack was speared with a tree branch. She prayed the gryphon would run out of trees before that happened.

         The gryphon stopped. Annabeth slowed. She didn't want to surprise the thing if it didn't already know they were there. She was really grateful for the thin carpet of snow.

          They'd reached the tree line. The gryphon sat in its tree for a few seconds, weighing its need for support against its desire to get to the peak. Mack just hit the thing, swearing.

          Ultimately, the peak won out. The gryphon launched itself from the bough and landed as gracefully as a gryphon could when it held Mack in one of its feet. It started upwards, using its wings to hop fifteen feet at a time.

          "What are we doing?" Daisy hissed in her ear. "Why did we stop?"

          Annabeth put a finger to her lips. "We don't want to surprise it," she whispered. "It could impale him by accident or something. Also," she gestured at the awkwardly hopping gryphon, "it really wants to get to the peak. It might just want to get there because  it likes high places, but gryphons don't necessarily kidnap people. It might want to put him in its nest, and it might not. Whatever it's doing, we need to find out why."

          Fitz trudged over, panting, and hefted his EMP cannon. "I really hope we're going to need this, or I carried it all the—all the way up here for nothing."

          "We'll use it," Annabeth affirmed, not taking her eyes off the gryphon, "but there's no guarantee it'll work."

          They stood there a couple more seconds, watching the monster.

          "All right," Annabeth breathed, "once it gets over that ridge, it shouldn't be able to see us. Run when I tell you, and stop when I do." She didn't wait for a confirmation. She just watched.

          The last of the gryphon's tail disappeared.

          "Go!"

          They ran. Annabeth quickly took the lead, trying to line up the edge of the ridge with the next one, but it was hard with the blinding whiteness. Finally, when she could just barely see the mountain beyond the section right in front of her, she hit the dirt.

          Fitz and Daisy followed suit—she heard the light thump of bodies against the snow. She waited. The black mass lumbered over the next ridge and disappeared.