I was affected by the cliffhanger myself, so I decided to start on the sequel to "Demigods and Metahumans" right away! I hope you guys enjoy it. Please review if you do.

Percy

The sun shone down on the stucco buildings of New Rome, making them glisten with an almost magical light. It was a perfect day to go out walking, which was what pretty much everyone was doing. Roman legionnaires strolled the pavement, laughing with their friends, while families and senior citizens stopped at the shops and cafes. Percy and Annabeth, however, were sitting on a park bench and munching Roman donuts.

The Seven demigods went back and forth between the camps, enjoying the friendship of Roman and Greeks, and the summer break. It had only been a couple of weeks since they had ended up in Central City and defeated an evil energy-stealing metahuman, thanks to the Hera, everyone's least-favourite goddess. But, Percy had to admit, he missed the place.

He had made friends with The Flash, a young man named Barry Allen who could run really, really fast. And Percy missed Barry's team, too - they had stood by his side and helped him and his friends a lot.

"Whatcha thinking about?" Annabeth asked, bringing Percy out of his thoughts. She scooted a little closer to him, the scent of her caramel latte going into his nose.

"Nothing," Percy answered.

"It's obviously not nothing, Seaweed Brain. Your eyes were all scrunched together."

"Fine. I was thinking about S.T.A.R. Labs."

Annabeth looked up at the sky and smiled. "Yeah. That was a nice… vacation."

"You're calling it a vacation?"

"Well, every vacation we go on, we get attacked, don't we?"

"That's true." Then Percy frowned. "What vacations have we -"

"We're on vacation right now," Annabeth replied, giving Percy a kiss.

"So… We'll probably get attacked, won't we?"

As soon as he had said it, something came hurtling out of the sky at full speed. Percy realized that it was a pegasus; his pegasus Blackjack, actually, and riding it was Camp Jupiter's praetor, Reyna.

She whooped as she came in for a landing. Percy had never seen her this excited before.

"I love riding!" she exclaimed, dismounting Blackjack. "Your pegasus is great, Percy."

Blackjack whinnied.

"He says thank you," Percy explained, "and that he wants donuts."

Reyna frowned. "Is it safe for a horse to have donuts?"

Blackjack huffed and stomped his hooves.

"Okay, okay, buddy," Percy said, then turned back to the praetor. "He says that he is not a horse, and that nothing can keep him from donuts. I agree to that."

"Here." Annabeth handed Reyna a bag, which consisted of a rainbow sprinkled donut. Blackjack almost reared with excitement and gobbled it up.

"Anyway," Reyna said, turning to Percy and Annabeth, "I came to tell you that Hazel wants you to meet her at Temple Hill."

"Why?" Annabeth asked.

Reyna shrugged. "She invited everyone. We'll find out."

And so they trudged through New Rome and up Temple Hill where, indeed, temples and shrines lined the path. All the Roman versions of the gods - Mars, Venus, Mercury, Neptune (though that shrine was just a shack), and, of course, Jupiter at the top. But they found Hazel and the others at the shrine of Pluto, who was her godly father, looking worried.

"What is it, Hazel?" Percy asked as he ran forward.

"I came here to see my father's shrine, just like I always do," Hazel explained, her voice hoarse, "when I saw a vision of... of -"

She took a breath, then gulped.

"Nico."

The demigods exchanged glances, each one of them knowing exactly who Nico di Angelo was. The son of Hades was sort of an emo and not the socialist guy, but he was still a friend of theirs and had helped them many times.

"What happened to him?" Jason asked.

"He was in a room, chained up and unconscious," Hazel said. "And over him stood…" She took a breath. "He was a big man, and he was vibrating. B-But I think I know who he was."

"Who?" her friends pressed.

"Zoom," Hazel finished. "The person Barry was talking about."

All of the half-bloods paled. Except for Reyna, of course, since she hadn't been on the trip. And they hadn't told her.

"What?" Reyna asked. "Who's Barry?"

"Reyna…" Piper said, biting her lip. "We should probably explain. A couple of weeks ago, we were at Camp Half-Blood when…"

And so, the tale was told, with each demigod weaving in their own part of the story. Reyna's face was calm, just like it always was - she had a way of hiding her fear, her anger, or her confusion.

Percy was worried that she'd be mad that they hadn't told her, but she understood. "It was a task from Juno," Reyna said. "Er, Hera. And it was definitely… odd."

"Odd doesn't really sum things up when you're a demigod," Leo muttered.

"So you think Zoom really has Nico?" Frank asked Hazel.

She nodded. "I don't think so, I know so. I saw it. It was a vision, from my father or something."

"Or maybe because you and Nico share a connection," Annabeth said. "Whatever the case, we have to save him. From what I heard, Zoom is dangerous. But how do we get to Central City?"

"Last time, Hera opened those doors for us," Piper said. "Who's going to convince her to do it again?"

"Yeah, what if she asks us to pray to her or something like that?" Leo asked. He crossed his arms across his chest. "I am not doing that."

"Then we have to reason with her," Percy suggested. "Or find a way to summon the doors ourselves."

"Let's go to her temple first," Reyna offered. "Uh, I mean, you can go to the temple."

"No, Reyna," Annabeth said, putting a hand on the praetor's shoulder. "This time, you're coming with us."

I think I might make the chapters shorter for this story. I'm not sure, I'll see.