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”True but you’d be surprised how many people get comfortable with the ease of things. And you should be proud. You may not have seen it but you were bad ass in your first fight,” Ezekiel complimented. He smirked at Kristin and gave her a wink when she half-heartedly complained about his blood. ”Trust me, it wasn’t the plan to be shot twice.” He stuffed the arrow heads into his bag and watched the wound on his leg start to heal. He gave it a few more moments before he pushed himself up and tested his weight on the injured leg.
The girls started to head back to the bus and Ezekiel stuck his tongue out at their backs. ”No no, I’m fine and don’t need a hand.” He gathered his pack, along with his bow and remaining arrows before he hobbled his way onto the bus. He was a bit slow, taking some time to trust his leg again but the nectar was working like a dream.
Ezekiel got back on the bus, taking his former seat with a great sigh and gave Kristin back her bottle of nectar. ”Fun is one word for it. I must admit, it is nice getting the first monster fight out of the way,” he commented.

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"I'm glad you're doing well then. And Em is right, like she usually is. It isn't really black coffee once you add six shots of creme into it." Marco chuckled a bit at that while looking over at his girlfriend and blowing her a small kiss. "And as for how we're doing, as Em said, she's got some planting she's going to be doing soon, and I'm... ignoring college applications until I figure out if Dad's gonna want me to come and join his company." Marco sighed a bit at that as he looked over at Em for a moment. It was something he had been meaning to talk to Em about, but there had been other things going on.

Marco's attention was drawn away from Alexis and Emily as he noticed the two Praetors enter the coffee shop and smiled at them both as well as waved to Niah. "Hey girls." He stood up straight and walked over to the counter and pulled out the little pad of paper and jotted down Nancy's order.

"Got it, your usual Nancy, and what will you be having, Madalyne, Niah?" He knew Nancy's order by heart by now, since she always ordered the same thing, hot or cold, rain or shine. The only thing that changed was if it was ice or hot.

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"Riiiiiiiight. Well I guess I'll wait till later before I go and ask the two to contact Team kidna." Demetri clapped his hands together, clasping them as if to say that subject was over with. Luckily the pair had already moved onto the subject of dating and blood relations. It was definitely an interesting thought, the idea that the blood of gods ran through them yet none were related save those with the same parent. Sure it made it easier to date, but it still felt...off. Then again, so was dragging a mortal into the affairs of gods. Mary had left at this point leaving him alone with Alannah. "So if...I had a child with another demi-god... do they gain both our powers? Are they just human hows that work out?" He leaned against the wall once more, dropping his hands to his side as he awaited the answer. He quickly realized he had essentially asked her about the birds and the bees mythical being edition and his face ran red.

Propping himself off the wall he turned his back to the her as he waved her goodbye. "You know what? I'm fine, I'm gonna go patrol now. Seeyah!" Demetri took a full sprint out as he jumped into the air and became an eagle. He quickly flew about the top of the ship, looking for any enemies or incoming dangers that might lurk on the horizon. In the cloud line he could see some griffins promoting another slew of questions. They had wings like his, the same head and beak, and even talons. Yet its body, tail, and hind legs were of a lion. Was this an ancestor to eagles and lions? Was it a hybrid like a liger, crafted by the gods? Or something entirely different that just was.
He began to think about creationism vs evolution and how the gods may of changed the course of history or even created it. It'd been a while since he gave actual thought to what was happening, having it clash with his atheistic mindset as new evidence kept dismantling what he believed to be true. He quickly swooped down back onto the ship deck, landing next to a railing as his body shifted back and slammed against it. His hands were placed along its top as he leaned forward and hurled. Everything came crashing to him all at once and he could feel his breath quickening in between empty wretches.

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With Andy at his side, Arthur felt a kind of peace, as if the sadness in him had subsided in a way, still there, but no longer tumultuous. He felt like he could function now, without balling his eyes out or screaming at the first person that looked at him. As they made their way into the Galley, Arthur saw Rebecca, the daughter of the monster that killed his friend, and his face twitched for a moment, almost wanting to sneer at her. He knew he couldn't hold her responsible for the actions of her godly parent, but gods, it was hard to be around her right now.

It felt odd, her asking what she could do for them. Nothing could be done, but the fact that she at least wanted to help made things a little better. But, as she broke the tension with that almost horrifying piece of trivia, Arthur actually laughed. It was completely unexpected, but the randomness of it hit him in just the right way. Exhaling he shrugged and said, "I just... need time I think." He couldn't go back to studying now, he wouldn't be able to focus, "I don't want to mess around with the... dead right now." Saying that word made him uncomfortable, but he wanted to be clear with Rebecca.

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Arthur's laughter was like a stone being dropped into a lake. It broke the tension inside Andy and she giggled. "How do you know that? That's just weird. What do you mean by Blessed Be?" She asked tilting her head. Andy had a lot of questions and Rebecca had so far been a good source of answers.

She feared that Rebecca was too much like her mother that had killed Mona. Could she ask questions of Rebecca expecting answers when Andy wasn't confident if she trusted Hecate, or as was becoming more possible any of the gods? Andy hadn't met any other ones yet, other than Mr. D. But there was a sense of tension surrounding them all. Andy wanted to figure it out for herself, but to figure it out she needed answers.

"May we ask some questions? I feel like we have just been running around stumbling into answers. I want to know a few things about this world we've been thrust into." Andy was determined. She needed to know what she had gotten herself into, she'd run away again if she didn't like it, and that wouldn't be the first time. This time though she would ask Arthur to go with her.



"Hello Marco." Niah said with a smile. "May I have a large iced chai latte?" Niah preferred her caffeine to be in the form of tea over coffee. She could taste the bitter, even over a ton of sugar, and disliked it.

Niah stepped aside so Mads could order. "Hello Alexia, Emily." Niah smiled at both of them. "If you get a memo, Alexia, that you need to build traps or anything like that from Leandra, you can ignore it. We have gotten some new information since she was told that." Niah said with a slight sigh.

Niah didn't like the new information, but at least it kept the Camp safe. Most of New Rome would fight to the death. She would too, she didn't fear death. But she then smiled. "Good to see you. I hope you're all doing well." The cafe was busy, Niah glanced around. "Think we can grab a table and chat for a bit. We should try to research our little situation a bit too."



Emily winced at the mention of ignoring college applications. She had been doing the same thing. They needed to have a conversation about the matter. She wanted to go to school with him but didn't want to go to school here in New Rome. If Marco went to work for his father's company, she'd go to school in New York so they would be close at least. That was if she could get into a school there. She had the test scores, but not the 'traditional' education that a lot of schools looked at. It was also really hard to explain Camp on an application.

"Praetors, Niah." She said, nodding at them. "How was the meeting?" Emily knew about the tension between her and Nancy; she also knew there wasn't anything she could do about it. Emily just gave her usual sunny smile. "Sounds like it wasn't a great one." She said, glancing at Niah. Leandra was fine in specific settings. Emily was glad she wasn't involved in politics and was happy to keep herself out of it, despite Leandra's attempts to drag her into them.

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Argo III Upper Deck:

Alannah looked down at the little readouts that were in the wheelhouse they were pretty much safe for the time being as well, only seeing two blips that were a ways off and were flying off in the opposite direction. She shook her head slightly at the redhead comment, there were quiet a few of them on this little outing however. She looked at Demetri when he asked him what would happen if two demigods were to have a kid. She was about to answer before he decided to up and leave, Alannah gave a slight shrug as she made her way outside and caught up to Mary.

"Well at least he didn't say that gingers didn't have a soul or anything like that." Alannah said giving a slight shrug, she had seen South Park and saw the episode where they made fun of gingers. She watched Demetri shift and fly off to go on a little scouting run, he eventually came back down seeing him starting to vomit wondering why he was suddenly sick. "Soooo, are you sick now or something and need to go to sickbay?" Alannah asked him.

Argo III Crew Deck:

Lauryn came up from the engine room peering her head into the galley hearing Rebecca spouting off a weird fact about baby teeth, she wasn't sure if it freaked her out or not really. "That is a bit of a really weird fact." Lauryn finally said as she leaned herself up against the side of the wall. She heard Arthur laugh slightly she thought for a moment that it was a good thing then, as she ran a hand through her hair and looked at Andy who asked more about the world that they lived in right now.

"What would you like to know then?" Lauryn asked looking over at Jason figuring that it would be a good way for him to find out more as well, and help Arthur and Andy cope with what everything has happened after loosing two demigods that were friends of theirs not to far from each other either.

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Keira laughed slightly at her comment as she twirled one of her swords in her hands looking at Leda, when she shot off a rainbow blast at her and missed. "I'm pretty sure that it wasn't a warning shot." She said with a slight laugh when she was knocked down with the second shot, her shirt getting wet from the water that was on the floor. Kiera then got up again, she used the water that was in the room and managed to hit Leda again.

She ran forward and swung her sword, but she missed looking over at the daughter of Iris and smiled at her. "Happy Pride Month to you as well." She said, taking a step back she did hear some of the stories of Hera back at camp and shuddered slightly wondering if she did ever have any mortal kids if they were anything like how her mother was. "So, doing anything later? And not talking about watch duty either later." Kiera asked as she hit her with some more water and smirked again, she did want to spend more time with Leda after all.

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"Seems like it's been pretty busy here today." Madalyne said as she took a step and looked over at the menu and thought about it, her choice usually varied from tea, to coffee or just a simple hot chocolate. As she ran a hand through her hair and thought before finally deciding what she wanted. "I'll just have a hot chocolate if you don't mind." Madalyne said, and nodded towards Nancy grateful that she would be paying this time. Alexia looked between the two Praetors and then over towards Niah and nodded towards her, she didn't really like getting into the whole politics side of things. In her mind it sometimes felt a little bit to much like Game of Thrones, who would end up betraying who for political gain wasn't that fun for her.

"So, are we expecting some kind of trouble then?" Alexia asked, as she started to think about it, and decided that she was going to go ahead and just set up some traps around camp. "I can set up something around the perimeter of camp and New Rome." She said, Madalyne nodded even though the information was changed, she did want to make sure that things were still on the safe side. "That sounds good to me, and yes we are." Madalyne said, and Alexia nodded as she turned her attention over towards Emily and Marco and shrugged slightly. "The same old stuff really, though I did order Leandra to shut the hell up that was fun." Madalyne said with a slight shrug, and nodded towards Niah. "We can do this here if you guys want." Madalyne said, she didn't mind either way or just simply doing it in her or Nancy's villa's and plan from there.

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"Actually it was our second monster fight, you don't remember the Harpies back at the bus station back in New York?" Kristin pointed out towards Zeke and shook her head slightly, as she took back her bottle of nectar and stuffed it back into her pack again. She looked towards Janelle and smiled towards her and nodded. "It was pretty fun, at least we won which was a good thing." Kristin said as the bus started to move again and then it started to remind her of the quest that she and Zeke had gone on last summer as she looked over towards Janelle.

"The last quest that Zeke and I were on we got into a little bit of an accident and there was a cyclops that was driving a car. It tried to attack us but we ended up killing it and finding a baby cyclops in the back of the car." Kristin said remembering the baby Cyclops that Leda named Hercules and smiled. "He was kind of cute in a weird way though, we ended up giving him to a naiad but seeing it piss off Zeke was really funny."

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”Ya, but the harpies weren’t really a battle. Just a nuisance like they are back at camp,” he noted. He glanced out the window for a moment before he started fiddling with the new bracelet on his arm. He wasn’t sure it was doing much good but it had been a gift. He wondered if that girl had gotten on the Argo and who she even was. He had never seen her at camp before and there usually was some sort of ceremony to meet new people.
He looked over at Kristin when she started talking about their quest last year. He groaned when she mentioned the baby Cyclops. ”Only because I didn’t sign up for babysitting duty. Leda wanted to save the thing, she should have been responsible for it,” Ezekiel grumbled.
”Hey Kristin, you’re a know it all and pretty well know everyone at camp. Do you know a girl at camp with long dark hair and piercing blue eyes?” Ezekiel remembered she also had a bit of green in her eyes but he didn’t think he had to go into grave detail. It was bad enough he was bringing this up as it was. As he waited for her answer he continued to fiddle with the evil eye bracelet.

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She blushed slightly at Zeke giving her a compliment regarding her fighting and everything. It was one thing for her brother to give her compliments of any sort (he did that a lot) it was something completely different to have other people, especially those that she had just met, give her one. It also didn't typically happen all too often for her. "Well thanks for thinking that I guess..." she finally responded as they went on the bus and somewhat took off a little bit, heading towards their destination of a rest stop in order to get on a new bus.

Janelle couldn't help but giggle somewhat at the conversation as it turned to Kristin and Zeke arguing a little bit about what exactly happened on their last quest. She found the idea of them babysitting a baby cyclops amusing, and she started laughing a little bit at the mental image that appeared in her mind. "I'm seriously guessing that was the most hilarious sort of thing to happen on your quest. That image of you keeping an eye on the baby cyclops is kind of amusing to think about not gonna lie." This was definitely going to be an interesting trip if the other two were going to constantly talk about entertaining things that happened on their last quest. She loved to hear stories of any kind.

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Jason gave Rebecca a bit of a strange look when she mentioned the random (and a bit morbid if he was going to be honest since that was a little creepy) fact about teeth. He glanced over at Andy and Arthur, and was somewhat glad that Arthur seemed to be taking that bit of a random fact well as he started laughing. That wasn't something he had expected at all, but hey, at least it seemed to help at least a little bit, even if it was a momentary bit of distraction from everything going on. He was glad that Arthur seemed to be doing a little better, and the two kids being together was probably something that helped the two of them out.

"Dat is a bet o' an interestin fact, a little random if you ask me, boeht kend o' somethin dat most people probably dedn't know," he finally spoke up, glancing at Lauryn as she came into the room now too, and Andy asked if maybe there was time to ask some questions and Lauryn looked over at him regarding it. It was a smart thing, since most people in his shoes would probably have a bunch of questions. "I can't dink o' any questions right ahff de bat, so if you two 'ave questions, go for it," he said, glancing over towards the kids.

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"Oh please, if he made a comment about gingers having no souls he'd be in a world of hurt, you can trust me on that one," Mary said to Alannah with a bit of an eye roll. Demetri was a bit of a handful, and it made her wonder if he actually was just a little boy or something who had made himself appear to be older then he actually was. That would explain a lot about him, and how he seemed to know nothing about how anything worked. "Hey Alannah, ever think about whether or not Demetri is as old as he says he is? I mean, the guy acts more like a child then Zeke does, makes you wonder if he actually is a teenager and not just someone shape shifting to look like one," she said to her after Demetri had taken off into the sky.

She rolled her eyes at Demetri and shook her head at him after he came crashing back down and then proceeded to hurl over the side. "Wow Demetri, you really need to be careful with that, and getting sick would be a horrible thing to have happen right now of all times. Also it is never a pretty picture, so how about you go lay down or something if you are going to continue getting yourself sick. Maybe we'd have a bit of peace and quiet from your stupidity," she said to him, shaking her head slightly at him. Why did she get stuck with the idiot for the watch schedule?

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Rebecca nodded sagely as Arthur said he didn’t want to mess around with necromancy at the moment. It was most likely for the best. Arthur had gone through a lot of pain and without a clear mind, she doubted he would be able to command the spirits of the dead. They were fickle and mischievous. And not always sane. She hesitated slightly at Andy’s first question. ”I adore trivia,” she said. It was a lie of omission - not mentioning that her mother was the goddess of trivia. ”Blessed be is a traditional Wiccan greeting. It essentially means hello, although the literal translation I suppose is a wishing for you to exist in a blessed state.”

Jason didn’t seem to have any questions. Andy and Arthur likely had loads. They really ought to record a new orientation video at camp, the current one didn’t seem to really be sufficient although it had been years since Rebecca watched it. Camp was her life. She knew less and less about the mortal world the longer she stayed at Camp Half-blood. Andy and Arthur likely knew more than she did about the real world she reflected with amusement. ”Yes, whatever questions you have we’ll do our best to answer. Don’t hesitate to ask anything. It’s all so new for you three.”

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Leda was giggling and she kicked off her shoes and pulled off her socks. She hated having her feet soaked and trapped inside of those things. It just felt like walking around with sponges instead of shoes. "I dunno, might kill some monsters, see if there's any decent gelato around here, burn some food as an offering to my mum," Leda joked. She suddenly had a craving for bubblegum gelato. Her pupils were dilating a bit and her heart was beating faster. She was pretty sure that Kiera wanted her to make a move - and how could Leda say no? Kiera was incredibly cute. Her red hair caught the light and seemed to glimmer. She looked like one of the sirens that tried to kill sailors at sea - actually, Leda had no idea what they looked like, but she imagined that Kiera could pass for one of them.

She smirked, readying Ultraviolet as she dashed in. Her natural agility carried her through the movements as she disarmed Kiera and sent Kiera's sword flying, clattering to the side. Leda put a hand on the small of Kiera's back, her face flushed as her body began to glow with rainbow light, and she kissed the daughter of Poseidon. She didn't care that she was soaking wet. All she knew was that there was a hot girl who (hopefully) wanted to make out with her and Chiron and Mr. D weren't around to enforce any sort of curfews or prevent slumber parties. "So?" Leda asked plainly, staring into Kiera's eyes. "How's that for an activity?"

Hopefully there wouldn't be any interruptions.

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Nancy glanced at the name tag the barista had on - AMROC. She blinked a few times and the letters rearranged themselves again - MAOCR. It was practically futile. The name tag was so small and she couldn't just stare at the barista's chest for ages to try to learn his name. And at this point, it was definitely way too late to ask. It would be like if she had asked Niah what her name was. But thankfully, Niah saved the day, saying the name of the barista - Marco. A light bulb practically went off over Nancy's head as she realized that was what those nonsense letters had been trying to say. "Thanks, Marco," Nancy made a point of saying. Marco. Marco. Marco. She had to remember that.

"Bleh. Honestly Alexia, you should ignore any memo you get from Leandra. It'll probably be good for your health, add a few years onto your life," Nancy complained. She had no idea how Alexia put up working with Leandra so often. She wouldn't have been surprised if Leandra was the reason Alexia had a bad leg - she probably injured Alexia during one of her weird rants about rebellion and revolution. In fact, Leandra irritated Nancy so much that Nancy started to side with the Empire in Star Wars. "And the meeting was grody to the max," Nancy groaned. Her dislike of Leandra was stronger than her fear of Emily. "Leandra seriously tried to convince the Senate that budget cuts were more important than the lives of everyone at camp. Like seriously? What the hell is her damage?"

"And yeah, let's work here - the aroma of coffee is a great mood booster."

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"Do my ears deceive me ladies, but are you talking about my niece? What has she done this time?" Marco was well aware that Leandra had no friends in the Praetors after her many vocal objections, but hearing that this time was about budget cuts over the lives of everyone else in the camp made him wince. Marco was aware of what the word priorities meant... and sometimes budgets fell by the wayside when quests came up.

"Well if coffee is what you lovely ladies need, I'll get right on it. Hot cocoa for Madalyne, the usual but on ice for Nancy and the usual for Niah on ice. Got it." Marco put the payment that Nancy gave into the drawer, gave her any needed change before turning away to work a different sort of magic.

He started with the hot cocoa first, as the milk needed to be steamed, so he filled the little silver pitcher and put it under the foamer. Then he started up the triple shots of espresso for Nancy. Thankfully Niah's drink would be the easiest, as he pulled out the milk and the chai concentrate he had made fresh that morning. Two cups full of ice were put off to the side, and one of them got pumps of the delicious caramel syrup, and the paper hot cup got several pumps of the rich chocolate that Marco had fought the budget for at the coffee shop.

After several moments, he was gently serving up the hot cocoa with a generous amount of whipped cream and topped with some cinnamon on it towards Madalyne, Nancy's iced extra caffeinated and extra sweet caramel macciatio towards her, and Niah's iced chai with plenty of spices in it. "There you go ladies. If you want, the corner table has a reserved sign on it you can take off it you want to talk in sort of private."

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Demetri looked over at Alannah and Marygold after having finished emptying what little food remained in his stomach. He continued to dry heave for a few moments, his stomach convulsing as it attempted to free more debris. When he finally stopped he simply turned to the pair and waved weakly at them. Demetri viewed them with a thousand yard stare as his mind continued to think on the bigger questions of life. "Think I'll take you up on that..." There was no sarcasm, no hint of disdain, or mockery. No witty comment, or brash insult. It was very uncharacteristically not Demetri. He turned his gaze towards the stairs that would lead him into the rooms, knowing no amount of time in the sickbay could fix this issue.

As he made his way down the stairs he saw a whole gaggle of Demi-gods. Andy, Arthur, Rebecca, and even Jason, all standing about talking and he could catch the ending sound of laughter. He was glad to see his sister enjoying herself, his thoughts preoccupied with conflict to notice how Des was missing, rationalizing that she was likely in her room. He gave a weak smile and wave towards the group, largely looking at Rebecca and Andy and fully ignoring Jason's presence. Demetri didnt say anything as he passed them, remaining silent as he made his way into his room to sit down and attempt to relax his mind.

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Arthur smiled and nodded at Andy's question, he wanted some things cleared up for sure, especially if he was gonna be staying with these people. The first one that came to mind was kind of an uncomfortable one, "Do we serve the gods?" He wanted to know that up front. After everything that happened, he didn't know if he could help them in good faith. At this point, he felt like the skies could part and the gods could die for all he cared, in fact, he might be happier if that did happen. He hoped that that question wouldn't upset Rebecca, but he honestly cared very little.

Clearing his throat, he also continued to ask, "And, if so, do we need to go on Quests?" He didn't mind exploring and putting his life on the line, but if he didn't have to, he legitimately didn't know if we wanted to. The camp seemed nice, and he didn't mind the idea of staying there forever, especially if Andy was with him. He just, didn't want to be fighting all the time, at least not right now. As cool as having powers and everything was, it seemed like it came with a cost he really didn't want to have to pay. He wanted to be a kid, live life, and have fun, not be a pawn in a god's war.

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Kiera was surprised when Leda easily disarmed her, and then wrapped an arm around her and kissed her feeling her heart beating rather quickly, as Leda glowed like a rainbow. She hadn't really dated anyone before really she had a crush on a few boys and girls while back at her boarding school, but never really asked anyone out at all either except for going to a school dance for those who were in her year she did go to it with a boy. Kiera smiled playfully as she returned the kiss as well, she didn't really care if Leda was drenched or not either as she pulled away her face was bright red.

"I certainly enjoyed that." Kiera said winking at Leda playfully, a part of her did wonder how Leda's ex would have reacted if they kissed in front of her, Rebecca seemed nice enough but she wasn't sure if she was the one who would do petty things or not. Their shift on guard duty would be really interesting actually as well whenever it was their turn. "At least watch duty wont be dull or boring now."

Argo III Upper Deck (Outside of Kansas City Missouri):

It was about four hours since they all had left Camp Half-Blood, Alannah had been monitoring what fuel they had and would need to stop, finding that there was a rather large storm around Kansas City. One of the main things that helped the Argo III move was the Essence of Venti which helped make the ship fly through the air, Alannah walked over towards the nearby radio on the wall calling everyone up to the upper deck.

Lauryn had spent the time answering all of the questions that the newbies wanted to ask to the best of her ability, after the little QnA session she had gone down to the engineering deck again, to make some containment units for the Venti that they would need to capture. And she came back up with five of them in that time as well, Alannah waited for everyone else to get onto the neck. Once everyone was there she looked at them.

"Alright so, heres the thing we didn't really have to much Essence of Venti which helps make the Argo III move through the air, for those who don't know they are storm spirits. Luckily we have a storm, so it should be easy to find some." Alannah said, as she gestured to what looked like some see through backpacks and attached were some tubing and what looked like was part of a vacuum. "Just either take them out or suck them in there it's strong enough to contain them, so start pairing up, does anyone here have any questions?" Alannah asked

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"Leandra does give me a really bad headache a lot." Madalyne said, she didn't even understand why the woman hated her and Nancy so much, and her arguments over budget cuts were really annoying as well. Though she always did try and see the good in everyone, but she pissed off Nancy so much and Nancy was like a sister to her basically as well. She'd do anything for Nancy as well even turning into a dictator almost and ordering the senator to shut up. "Thank you Marco." Madalyne said as she accepted her hot chocolate and started to take a sip from it as she closed her eyes and enjoyed it, she always did have it even when she was really little her mother used to make it for her all of the time.

"I'll keep that in mind thanks." Alexia said giving the three of them a friendly smile as she took a sip from her coffee, and leaned back as she read through some paper, knowing that she'd have a lot of work to do now as well. "Anyway, I should get going then." Alexia said as she stood up and made her way out of the coffee shop. Madalyne turned her attention towards Marco and nodded giving Emily a friendly smile and nodded towards her.

"I'll let you guys know if we need anything then." She said as she made her way over towards the reserved spot and sat down looking over at Nancy and Niah, she had completely forgotten a pencil and notepad, but she managed to summon a pen and a small little note pad. She started to write down everything that she could remember while looking over at her two friends, as she pushed it forward. "So, the greeks are on their way right now, you get a vision of the next prophecy and confirmed it with Alexandra. We confirmed that something is going on in the Pit. Quickest way to get into the Underworld is somewhere in New York City, oh and your dad for some reason has a shrine down there to am I missing anything?" Madalyne asked, Marco and Emily would be able to hear what she was saying easily.

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"Oh yeah it was really funny, and Leda or I would have watched him but Leda wanted me to use her compass and make sure we are in the right direction and Leda is the only one who knew how to drive as well." Kristin pointed out as she shook her head slightly as she leaned back and watched the windows as they continued to drive, before Zeke asked her a random question. She wasn't on a first name basis of every single camper at Camp Half-Blood, and there were a lot of girls with black hair and blue eyes as well. "You might want to be more specific, since that's a big chunk of people there that probably look like that." Kristin said.

They did make a stop at a nearby rest stop where another Greyhound bus was there waiting for them, and they got on that which eventually took them to the Capitol. Kristin got off of the bus they would have to transfer to another one at some point as well, she looked at their ticket and their next bus wasn't due to leave for another couple of hours before they could leave DC. "So, is anyone hungry at all?" Kristin asked, having some money on her that Chiron had given her.

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Andy had asked a fair amount of questions as well. Some answers had been reassuring, others had just made her more confused. She wasn't certain still where she stood with the gods. Andy also wasn't certain if she wanted to stay with the other half-bloods still. Though she couldn't see herself leaving Arthur or Demi.

On the Upper Deck she was prepared for a fight. Andy did raise her hand and asked "What do they look like?" She was nervous about flying the ship into a storm, but if they needed the storm spirits to fly it was better to get them than not. Andy didn't have much fear when it came to fighting monsters. She had been doing it before she had gotten to camp. It had felt like her whole life was fighting.

At least she understood why now, and with that knowledge, she might be able to protect herself better in the future. She was determined. Determined to become a better fighter, and better at using the mist. With all of what she could be potentially, she had a chance to survive.



"Thank you Marco." Niah said. She smiled holding her fresh mixed drink. It was best cold during the summer, but the smell was best when the drink was hot. Niah took a deep breath of her tea. It was a relaxing smell, which helped ease her tension a bit. She sat down at the 'reserved' spot. Mads was spot on for what Niah figured of the situation.

"Sounds about right." Her mind was racing as she went over the options and everything that they were facing. "We should figure out who we can take. I know you saw some people in the vision. But is there anyone we should take? Or send on a secondary mission? Are there any details we might need to know?" She figured it would be a good idea to have multiple groups taking on separate tasks that might need to be finished before or while the core group went to New York and down to the pit.



Emily sipped at her drink near the counter. When she realized she could hear the Preator and Niah talking she listened a bit curious what the big issue was. She winced as it became clear what they were talking about. "I'd rather be shoveling Hanible's poop, then deal with what it sounds like the Preator's are dealing with." She shook her head.

Emily had heard enough of the Preator's chatter. She did not like where it was going. Emily moved away out of earshot. She spotted Waves and waved at her. Waverly reminded Emily of herself when she first arrived at Camp Jupiter, minus the dysphoria.

"Hey Waverly." She said. Her usual sunny smile appearing. "How are you?" Waverly was in her cohort, and even though Emily was just a Legionnaire she gave advice to Probatios sometimes. Waverly would be a nice diversion from the chaos that was heading their way.

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Ezekiel frowned a little when Kristin asked him to be more specific but he just shrugged and looked away. ”Not a big deal,” he said. He didn’t want to get into any more details and he certainly could. Ezekiel decided to just settle into his seat, chiming in here and there about his previous quest with Kristin while they headed down the road.
It was pretty uneventful the rest of the trip into D.C. for which Ezekiel was not upset about. They disembarked in D.C. and Ezekiel stretched himself out before he looked at Kristin and nodded. ”I could go for some food, hopefully we can eat before we run into anything that wants to eat us,” he noted. ”Anything you are in the mood for Janelle? We have the classic yet always satisfying vending machines or we could find something with more substance,” he offered, a grin on his face and in his voice.

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"They're also called Anemoi Thuellai for us Greeks. The Romans used the name Venti for them, though I suppose since it is shorter to say it has started to catch on at Camp Half-blood too," Rebecca mused. Her interjection was borderline the embodiment of someone going Did you know that... and then hoping people would be impressed with their knowledge. Of course, the difference was there was no ego in this for Rebecca. Just as she loved magic and dark forces, she also adored trivia and stating random facts for her friends (and enemies, too).

"The Anemoi Thuellai basically look like creatures made of storms - a horse made purely out of storm clouds, thunder, lightning, and so forth," Rebecca then explained to Andy. Andy was likely going to be the most capable of them all, as she was the daughter of Zeus. Rebecca paused for a brief moment, realizing she had forgotten about Demetri. She was sure he would be good at this sort of thing too. She doubted that Andy or Arthur would wish to partner with her, as the two seemed particularly attached, glued at the hip. Leda had already inched over to Kiera, signaling her choice in partner.

The only options left really were Jason, Demetri, and Marygold. "Marygold, would you care to be partners for this exercise?" Rebecca invited.

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Leda was in a pretty fantastic mood. Finding out that Hecate had come and killed Mona hadn't impacted her as much as Ash's death had. Ash had been young with her entire life ahead of her - Mona apparently had dissed a goddess. And besides, Leda could be a bit selfish and self centered, particularly when an adorable ginger daughter of Poseidon returned her affections. Demigods died on quests all the time. It was normal. Ordinary. When they got back to Camp, they would burn Mona's shroud. And once again, in Leda's mind, Mona had been playing with fire - entirely different circumstances than what had happened to Ash.

It did increase her feelings of wariness towards Rebecca, knowing Rebecca's mother had been the one to commit the act.

"They're--" Leda began to explain, only for Rebecca to interject. She rolled her eyes slightly. Rebecca wasn't the only one around who knew what Storm Spirits looked like. In her mind, Rebecca looked rather smug and proud of herself, begging for people to remark on how bright and aware she was. Leda wanted to gag. "Kiera, luv, you wanna play Ghostbusters together?" Leda invited, inching towards her. She did not want to end up paired with Demetri or Jason or Rebecca.

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"Ugh, she's your niece? I'm so so so sorry for you," Nancy quipped sympathetically to Marco. She didn't think too much about blood ties usually. Camp Jupiter emphasized the Legion and its cohorts over godly parents, a habit more attributed to the Greeks. A letter of recommendation from Mars would get someone placed into the First Cohort, but so would one from Proserpina or Clio. Strictly speaking, they were all probably related to each other one way or another. Nancy only really paid attention to the other Apollo kids - maybe sometimes she'd even stretch, considering the kids of Mars and Mercury cousins, but that was typically the extent of it.

"The gem we retrieved from our quest last summer, that was in the prophecy too," Nancy added. She was certain it was important. It had shown up in Alexandra's rendition of the prophecy. She took a long sip of her drink, savoring the sensation of the cool drink hitting her tongue and flooding her senses. "It also showed the giants and the titans, working together as one." She shuddered slightly, a brief flash of the hellscape she had seen coming to mind. "Whatever number we take, it should be a multiple of three... Bad things happen when you go beyond that sacred number. People don't come back."

She sighed, taking another sip of her coffee, as if drinking it could lift her spirits. "I know Leandra, you and Mads, me, and those two Greeks from the Arcus Message are supposed to be there for sure. That's six already... If we're all moving to New York, that'll be slow - we might want to send a scouting party ahead. See if someone can get an idea of the lay of the terrain in New York. It's Greek territory, which I don't like, but we have to deal with it."

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Jason still was really trying to wrap his head around the whole thing about being on a flying ship. His mind didn't really want to accept it as a fact still, but then again, everything was still insanely weird to him, no matter how he tried to reason with his brain, it did not want to accept everything. After hearing Alannah call everyone to the upper deck, he headed that way, and once he got there he started listening to what was being said about what they needed to do. He was glad that it was explained what exactly the Venti were so he didn't have to ask.

Mary did not really want to be on watch with Demetri, ever again. The guy was crazy in her mind, and really needed to learn how to shut up. She was somewhat glad that everyone was being called to the upper deck for some reason. She wasn't sure what it was about, but at least she wasn't going to have to deal with being stuck with Demetri with only Alannah for company anymore, so that was a good thing. She listened as Alannah spoke about them needing to catch Venti, the storm spirits, and everyone needing to pair up and go catch them.

She heard others starting to pair up, and her choices of partners were going downhill quickly, but at least someone else asked her to pair up, and it was anyone but Demetri. It was Rebecca. Thinking for a moment, she gave Rebecca a smile and nodded her head. "Sure thing Rebecca, that's fine with me," she said towards her as she walked over to stand by her. "Dealing with storm spirits sounds like fun to me, let's give it a go, you also seem to know more then a few things about them, so let's do the best that we can."

Jason wasn't too sure about this whole thing, chasing after storm spirits that apparently looked like horses or something like that, and he wasn't too sure what to think. Everyone else was choosing there partners for the whole thing, and that left him, Demetri, Alannah and Lauryn. He knew that he and Demetri didn't exactly get off on the right foot, and he still felt bad for the whole incident earlier. "'ey Demetri. want to pair oehp wit me? If you want to pair wit Alannah ahr Lauryn dat's alright too, joehst thought i'd ask first..." he said, glancing towards him, waiting for his response.

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She couldn't help but giggle as they spoke about their last quest. Janelle was still getting used to everything as the bus went along, carrying them down to Washington DC. Another first for her, she'd never been to DC before in her life, and now here she was, in the capital city of the country she had moved to. It was also nice for her to be able to get off of that bus, it was getting a bit cramped for her, not to mention she never cared much for long trips since she couldn't ever see the scenery passing her by. It was something that made long car rides more then a little bit annoying to her.

Janelle didn't realize how hungry she really was until Kristin mentioned getting food or something, and her stomach somewhat rumbled at that. "I could go fahr sahmethin... And preferably sahmethin not frahm a vendin machine. Chips and stuff like dat can ahnly last you so lahng befahre you go crazy and thinkin anythin wooehld be better," she said to the other two. She really wanted something else for food, considering her taste buds could be considered a bit wonky and made it so that she could tell the difference between good and bad. There were some perks to having all of your other senses take over and kick into overdrive.

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"Well technically yes, she's my niece and I only remind her of that when she's annoying me. Her father is my sibling through my mother. But... anyways I'm glad I'm not on the council or senate. I think I couldn't handle all that. Em knows how I am with drama sometimes." Marco sighed a bit at that as he leaned over the counter and looked around the little cafe.

It was picking up for the afternoon, so he knew that he should prepare, but his ears perked up when he heard mention of Nancy's vision and the Greeks arriving soon. He had always been interested in meeting Greek demi-gods, especially ones from his mother. Aphrodite/ Venus was one of the few rare gods that seemed to not be torn apart by their various sides. Love was love after all... and if there was anything his mother was known for, was love, as well as starting wars.

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Waverley's teeth dug into the wood at the top of her pencil, just below the heavily used eraser. She stared down intensely at the words written on the paper of her notebook; above them, the paper was worn down to the point that it very well might tear if the eraser so much as touched it. There were still some visible bits of words overlapping one another, clear evidence of her numerous rewrites. It was a fun anecdote, the story of Bug-Eyed Ben, a particularly odd man that her and her friends had met on the road. But as much as she loved her little vagabond stories, they were always difficult to squeeze into musical rhythm and rhyme. After a few moments at staring at the page, as if hoping that somehow her magic could make the song write itself. She let out a huff through her nose and leaned back in her chair, putting her pencil down beside her notebook. Deciding to take a little brain break, she picked up her coffee, and began sipping it up through the straw. Just as she did, however, she saw the praetors come in, causing her to nearly choke on her drink.

The girl was on good terms with both the praetors. She'd even consider them friends. The reason for her less than pleasant reaction was because she was technically speaking supposed to be out with a group of the other probatios digging up trenches. She'd decided she'd wanted a coffee break, and snuck off. A coffee break that ended up being 46 minutes and three iced coffees long. She wasn't sure how informed the praetors were when it came to such details as who's working the trenches when, but just to be safe, Waverley lowered her head. Not that it helped much, considering her recognizable purple highlighted hair that rested on her shoulders.

She listened to the praetors talk amongst each other and those around them. Call her nosy, but Waverley felt spent trying to write, and she was willing to look anywhere for a distraction. The first bit she didn't catch, with them arranged around the counter. But when they went to sit down, she could hear them a little clearer. Something about needing to go to New York. When she heard that, she perked up a little. She'd travelled through New York before, and she'd have loved to go again. Plus, like so many other places across the states, she knew plenty about how to navigate the city. She raised her head from its position staring down at her iced coffee with the intent of inquiring further, but when she did, she was met with the familiar sunny face of Emily Richardson.

"Oh, I'm doing alright. Taking a coffee break from all that sweaty grunt work," she griped, rolling back her shoulders, giving Emily a smile. She then shot a glance over to the praetors, sitting not too far away. "Saw you talking with the praetors. What are they up to? I heard something about New York."

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Demetri lumbered over toward towards the Upper deck when they were summoned. He hadn't really cared much for all the chores that they had the demi-gods do. He hadn't agreed to go on what appeared to be a not so perilous journey (compared to what Zeke and the others were doing) just so that they could put him to work. Although he understood that they couldn't exactly move any faster, he felt that every day wasted aboard the ship was simply a day closer to the days that Thanatos had spoken of. Luckily for him, having gotten sick earlier had alloted him more time to shove off responsibility and just relax in his room alone. Those four hours were a bit of bliss, knowing full well no one outside that door had probably missed him else they would've invited him over for a spot of fun.

When he had finally made his way topside, it appeared that everyone else was already there. Alannah began to explain to them how the ship was fueled, Rebecca using her smarts to explain further what exactly it was that they were looking for. Demetri had to admit, this sounded like it could be quite a bit of fun and whats more he could hopefully pair off with Rebecca and watch her use her magic. However before he was able to grab her as a pair, it appeared thst everyone else had already started to team up. For a moment he was taken back to school, the days in gym when no one would want to pick him for any teams, leaving him the last to be forced into place. His eyes dropped low and he rubbed his elbow slightly as he awaited the inevitable awkwardness that followed being last. What he hadnt expected was for Jason to come up to him and ask to partner up.

Jocks didn't usually speak to, let alone want to join, those who were deemed nerds or lovers. Something he had been branded long ago. Jason however seemed to feel bad about their previous encounter, genuinely sorry for his behavior and Demetri had to remember that no matter what they were their godly parents. Jason didn't have to be a jerk and hot headed, he could actually be sweet. Demetri made his way over to Jason, giving him a gentle punch against his bicep. "Oye that sounds like it could be a spot of fun. Sure we can go all Ghostbusters together, just try not to cross the streams." He punctuated his joke with a little chuckle, really hoping that Jason understood the reference. "Anyroads, We can attempt to take some from the high ground if you'd like. I can try and turn into a Gryphon and fly us up so we arent all competing for the spirits lingering along the ground."