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Kiera looked over at Leda and couldn't help but smile and blush a little bit more and nodded towards her. "I would love to work with you then." She said smiling at Leda, as she watched the others starting to pick their pairs, and listened to Rebecca as she told them a little bit more information on the venti. Or the greek term that she used for them Venti sounded a lot easier though actually in her own opinion, the weather started to get a little bit worse as the rain started to come down rather hard as well. She started to get a little bit of an idea as she held a hand up in the hair, as she made a little shield of water for herself and Leda.

"Cool, so we have me and Lauryn, Kiera and Leda, Mary and Rebecca, Arthur and Andy, Jason and Demetri." Alannah said looking at them all, an then Lauryn made her way over towards the wheelhouse and moved the entire ship to land on the ground, there was a slight thud as the ship landed. "Just stay close and work together, just kill them and use the packs to suck up their remains Venti are still really tough to kill and dangerous to happy hunting." Alannah said, she didn't really mind that Rebecca had given some more information to the others, Kiera wrapped an arm around Leda's waist and smiled towards her. "Lets get going lovely." She said as Kiera made her way towards the rope ladder and started to climb down it.

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Madalyne nodded as she wrote down the gem on the list of things that were in Alexandra's painting of the Prophecy that she had seen, the gem did make her feel uncomfortable when she used it once when they were on their quest together. It really did feel like a lifetime ago when they were just simple centurions, Niah was really lucky she didn't take the praetorship role either. Maddie didn't like the idea of the titans and giants all working together either. "We could ask the greeks if they are willing to give us a ride back to New York maybe." Madalyne said looking at both Niah and Nancy as a suggestion it would save them on resources and time having to make the trip across the country.

She then started to get a little bit of a weird idea, there was a titan literally at their doorstep cursed with holding the weight of the sky. "A little bit of a crazy idea, but maybe we can pay a visit to Atlas maybe he knows something whats going on?" She suggested Atlas was trapped in Mount Othrys which wasn't to far from Camp Jupiter, and it was the titan's former equivalent to Mount Olympus, they did occasionally send groups to check up on things over there from time to time as well. "I don't like the idea of the giants and titans working together one bit either."

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Kristin made her way over towards one of the little brochure and maps of the DC area, as she started to switch over towards the maps finding some local restaurants. She looked around there was a Chick-Fil-A nearby and a few other places as she looked over at the two of them. "Well theres a pizza place called WiseGuy Pizza, but that's a about five blocks away, and then theres a Chick-Fil-A that's even closer that's a lot cheaper to. And then a few coffee places around here as well, and some bars but I highly doubt that they will let some minors in." She said looking at them Kristin didn't really mind they did have some money that Chiron had given them before they all left to go on this quest.

Kristin was really craving for something more than just a bag of doritos or soda as well she was still a little bit curious the girl that Zeke had mentioned earlier. Kristin looked around and scanned the area some more there hadn't been any monster encounters yet and they were in the capitol as well she had a feeling that they would encounter something soon however.

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Rebecca gave Mary a cordial smile, happy that she would be paired with the daughter of Demeter. She wondered if Mary's powers would increase in strength when touching the ground, as Demeter was the goddess of earth. She had a brief image of vines sprouting from the grounds, ensnaring all of the Anemoi Thuellai with ease. It would have been a magical occurrence. Of course, Rebecca felt close to the children of Demeter - their mothers were best friends more or less, as Hecate lit Demeter's way when searching for Persephone.

Rebecca procured one of the packs that had been set aside for them, before heading down the rope ladder after Kiera and Leda. She waited for a moment so that way Mary could climb down, before surveying the terrain. There were plenty of storm spirits running amuck - she wondered briefly how many they would need to capture in order to properly fuel the Argo III. "I'll be invisible briefly," she warned Mary.

"Γίνομαι αόρατος," Rebecca whispered in Ancient Greek. She manipulated the Mist and became unseen, invisible. The Anemoi Thuellai could not see her as Rebecca drew her twin daggers. She snuck up on one and stabbed it with her daggers with ease, before sucking it up into the pack as desired. Rebecca then flickered back into view. "Blessed be, I've got one."

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Leda snickered slightly at Jason and Demetri pairing up together. She wished that she had a subscription to Hephaestus TV, as that was definitely the sort of prime time content that the gods up in Olympus would want to see. She wouldn't have been surprised if Hephaestus actually was filming this somehow, given that Jason was the son of his wife's boyfriend. But then again, some of his kids were on the Argo III at the moment - would he blur their faces out to protect their identities?

Her giggling only got worse as Demetri offered to turn into a gryphon to fly him and Jason up into the sky. "Wait, hold on... You're seriously asking Jason to ride you?" Leda said, unable to contain her laughter. Her face and chest ached from it at this point. She had to wipe some tears forming in her eyes. "Damn it I wish I had a camera..." She just couldn't unsee the image of Jason straddling Demetri as they flew into the air.

She tilted her head upwards as Kiera made a water umbrella for them. Leda poked at it, grinning like mad. That was so cool. Having the kids of the Big Three around was definitely making things more than interesting. It was easy to get used to seeing the things that kids of the Olympians could do, but the Big Three were so rare that it just made her stop in awe for a moment. She grabbed one of the packs and slung it over her shoulder, following Kiera down the ladder once there was enough clearance.

"If you get in over your head, don't hesitate to shout and I'll dash right on over," Leda promised. She yanked down on her necklace and her Celestial Bronze sword Ultraviolet appeared, glowing a faint pink. She spotted one of the storm horses and she charged forward, trying to slash at it but the horse dove to the side. It went in to zap her and Leda ducked just in time, letting the bolt soar harmlessly over her head.

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Nancy grimaced slightly at the thought of relying on the Greeks - it impacted her Roman pride and honor - but she nodded. The world was about to plunge into chaos and despair, they couldn't afford to be choosy when it came to their allies. "Their flying ship should make good time. Let's do that then." The Greeks were better when it came to naval combat, she had to admit begrudgingly. Rome always fared better when it came to land battles. Of course, they also had a stronger military, able to fight as a unit whereas the Greeks tended to favor more solo fighting styles.

She breathed out heavily as Madalyne mentioned going to pay a visit to Atlas. The thought of climbing up the mountain to visit the titan carrying the sky sent a shiver down her spine, even if Atlas was harmless when underneath his burden. He was still an ancient and powerful force. It scared her even more to think of the chance that maybe Atlas wouldn't be there holding up the sky - that someone else might be in his place, allowing the titan to run free. "Fuck. I've got bad vibes at the thought of visiting Atlas but... You're right. We could go up there, ask him what his damage is, see if he knows anything. We'd need at least three demigods on the mission, probably more..."

They'd need someone skilled with diplomacy, someone persuasive. Her eyes darted over towards Marco the barista. He was a son of Venus. They were some of the most persuasive and convincing demigods she knew. Niah ought to go as well, if they could press Atlas into some sort of an oath to be truthful, she'd be helpful. Nancy needed to be there, the powerhouse player. Madalyne was their magical expertise. But that left them with four demigods. They'd need at least two more to get a number divisible by three. Waverley was a probatio, but she was being trained in magic, she could be good... And as much as Emily terrified her, Nancy felt she had to be the last one in this mission. Maybe she could threaten Atlas with madness.

"The three of us should go - as well as Marco, Emily, and Waverley," Nancy decided. She looked at Niah and Madalyne for any objection.

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Andy nodded and picked up one of the vacuum packs. Then when Arthur was ready she got off the ship onto the ground with the others who were already starting to fight and collect the Venti, which sounded like a type of drink from Starbucks. Andy stepped away from the group a bit, she had plans to let off her lightning as strongly as she could and didn't want to accidentally hit anyone else. Once off the boat she handed the bag to Arthur and looked around for a few of the spirits.

When Andy had two in her sights she let a large blast of lightning go, it hit one and then chained from it to a second one. Andy grinned. She had hoped she could do something like that and this was proof. It didn't knock them down so she did it again this time they dropped.

"Suck 'em up!" She shouted to Arthur. A bright smile on her face. She enjoyed fighting. It felt good to let the steam off or in her case the lightning.



Niah considered their options as she sipped her tea. In the end, she nodded. "So the six of us to Atlas?" She could see the benefits of each member. She only sort of knew about Waverly, but she did know the girl was learning magic. Waverly was also older than most probation, she'd probably be able to keep a clear head. It also would be a good chance for her to rise in rank.

"That's three from the fifth, you know some people are going to complain." She rolled her eyes at the thought of it. Every cohort was going to be represented, but it heavily leaned toward the fifth. Gods, she hated politics and somehow become embroiled in it thanks to their quest for the gem that was suddenly the middle of what was going on.

Niah looked over at Emily who was sitting with Waverly now. Ah, to be free of the entanglements of politics. "I however am not complaining. It means we can give Leandra some 'important' task that'll keep her out of our hair." She wasn't certain how she felt about Leandra being the liaison between the Greeks and Romans, gods help them if she decided to have the Greeks help her with her revolution.



Emily sat down at the table with Waverly. "Nancy had a vision, something about uh..." Emily paused as she tried to remember what all she had picked up from their conversation. "Well the Greeks are on their way." Emily tilted her head thinking if Waverly would have heard anything about the Greeks yet. It wasn't a conversation that happened a lot. Heck, they liked to pretend each other didn't exist more often than not.

"So, I don't know how much you know about the Greeks, to be honest. They are like us but follow the older forms of the gods. Sometimes that can get messy. They also are less organized than us. Tend to fight solo rather than in ranks." She shook her head. Before Camp Jupiter Emily had been going to a military school and that school had drilled her to follow military protocol long before she had met Lupa. That made the transition easier for her. She could see the appeal in how the Greeks worked, but despite her hatred of the military school it worked for her now.

"It never is a good thing when the Greeks and Romans meet though. Lots of blood tends to get spilled. Rumor has it the Civil war was just much us fighting each other as the mortals. But sometimes when things are really bad we have to work together. This is one of those times, you know apocalyptic level stuff." That was a really boiled down version, anything else Waverly needed to know would be learned during a hands-on experience.

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Ezekiel fiddled with his bracelet when Kristin started to list off the different food locations in the area. Now that he brought the girl up, he couldn’t seem to stop thinking about her. How she looked into his eyes, fears and desperation there it seemed. How her knee pressed against his and how her hair fell. He still couldn’t get around the fact of how desperate she was to keep him safe. Who was she?
Ezekiel’s stomach growled and he came back to reality, looking at the two girls. ”Chick-Fil-A sounds good, we could check out the capitol building too, it’s only a few blocks from here,” Ezekiel said and turned around. He stopped, the colour seeming to drain from his face for a moment. ”How do you feel about scorpion instead?” Ezekiel shifted, pulling his bow around and grabbed a couple of arrows, placing two on the string. Just a few feet away from the three demi-gods stood a giant pit scorpion, who probably hadn’t stabbed anything in awhile.
”Well, can’t say D.C. is boring on the monster front,” Ezekiel noted and took aim. Both arrows fired off. The first sailed over it but the other made its mark and with an ear splitting howl, the creature fell down and didn’t rise again. Ezekiel cocked his head to the side, feeling tempted to poke it with a stick. ”Well, that was anticlimactic. Should I burn it and then we could have roasted scorpion,” Ezekiel joked.

Arthur Stanford

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Location:Upper Deck -> the ground

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With the passage of a few hours, Arthur was starting to feel a touch better, which he didn't know if he should be concerned about or not. He was worried about what this place was turning him into, but he felt like he just didn't have much in the way of options. Andy was nice, though, and he was glad that he could be with her through this. In any case, he managed to make it to the upper deck, regardless of the thunderstorm raging. As the situation as explained to him, it was obvious he would be paired with Andy. As she took a few down with no trouble, he nodded, ready to do his half.

Strapping on one of the backpacks, he sucked up the two Andy had managed to drop, and he shot a smile at her saying, "Lemme see if I can take care of one." He said, grabbing for the knife at his side, and having it fly up, and take a stab into one, before it zipped back in for the kill. "There we go!" Arthur shouted gleefully. He wouldn't normally take joy in the death of another creature, but these were unusual times. Sucking up the dead one, he breathed, and held out a hand to high five Andy, pleased with himself for how he'd picked this up. He wished he could have taken down two like her, but he'd settle for this.

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The coffee shop was starting to fill up more, especially since the Senate had ended. Marco was working on the various pour overs and other drinks, and almost missed what Nancy had said, but his ears almost seemed to perk up when she mentioned not only his name but Emily's and Waverley's. "Wait and Marco, Emily and Waverly will what?" He pulled over one of the college age baristas over and told them in no other terms that Marco was taking his lunch right then and there. This was a conversation he needed to be apart of, and probably Emily and Waverly as well.

"Hey Em hon... you might want to come over here and bring Waverly!" Marco picked up the packed lunch Emily had brought him and then he walked over to the table the praetors were sitting at with Niah. "Excuse me ladies, but I think this conversation now involves me so I think I have the right to crash the party. Also I'm pretty damn hungry and Emily brought me lunch." Marco started pulling things out of the bag and set the food out on the table and smiled. Emily was such a sweet girlfriend, and Marco counted his lucky stars every day that they were together.

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"Greeks?" Waverley inquired when Emily made her first mention of them. She made no attempt to hide her confusion as the older girl attempted to explain the relationship between the Greeks and the Romans to her. Waverley still wasn't very educated in the matters both supernatural and mythical; to be honest, she still hadn't come to terms with the whole multiple gods thing, what with her being raised Christian. Denial helped, though. She didn't think of them as gods, not really. In fact, when referring to them, she'd either call them things like 'the Great Oldies' and 'the Almighty Elderly,' or just gesture wordlessly and vaguely towards the sky. Still, she did her best to follow along with the narrative Emily laid out.

"Wait, hold up, apocalyptic?" Waverley started, her eyebrows furrowed and looking past Emily as she thought. She hesitated for a moment as she tried to work her words out in her head, taking another sip from her iced coffee. "You're telling me that there's a good chance I could be spending my last days on Earth shoveling up elephant shit and cleaning latrines?" She paused for a moment, before beginning to laugh.

"Oh Jesus, I think I owe my dad an apology. I always got pissed when he told me I'd die working under a horse's ass, but he was fucking spot on. Only thing he got wrong was the animal." Waverley exclaimed, her voice too jubilant and grin to wide for someone who was talking about the possible end of days. Her amusement was quickly cut off, however, when Marco's voice rose over the general din of the cafe. "Shit, busted," she muttered under her breath, her body immediately tensing up. There was no doubt in her mind that what was to follow was a scolding for not being at her station digging trenches, so she quickly gathered up her notebook and pencil, shoving them in her bag and readying herself for a hasty escape. Grabbing her remaining coffee and guitar case, throwing the latter over her shoulder, she awkwardly clambered out of her chair, her eyes flitting over to Marco and the girls. "Oh, uh, that's not necessary, I was just on my way back to the trenches. Just, y'know, wanted a coffee break, heh." Her audible gulp was followed by a nervous laugh.

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"No ahffense, but i'd prefer to keep me feet ahn de ground," he responded towards Demetri with a bit of a shrug, but he rolled his eyes at Leda regarding her comment. Sometimes he really wanted to punch people, but considering everything going on and that he'd be stuck on a boat with them for a a while still after this, so pissing them off would probably be a bad idea. "Cahnsiderin de fact dat we're goin to be stuck ahn dat boat a while longer stell, stayin ahn de ground when we 'ave de opportunity to sounds like an amazin idea."

He headed to the ground with one of the vacuum things, figuring that Demetri would either follow him or not, entirely his choice, he didn't care either way. Pulling out his dagger Spire, which shifted into it's full length sword form, and he instantly went charging at one, managing to slash at it, but wasn't able to get out of the way fast enough to avoid getting zapped by it. However he instantly turned, and using the weird Ghostbusters vacuum thing managed to suck the thing up. "Gottcha," he muttered under his breath, glancing around at the other Venti or whatever they were.

Mary couldn't help but giggle slightly at Leda's comments, but she didn't add any comments of her own regarding it. She glanced over at Rebecca and followed after her down to the ground from the flying boat. "Alright, thanks for the warning on that one Rebecca," she responded to her when she commented about being invisible for a few moments. When she saw Rebecca reappear again, she gave her a smile, "Nice one," she said towards her, before her attention turned towards the storm spirits still around them. Well no time like the present to get in on everything going on around her.

"Let's see how this goes," she said, before she started moving her hands around and instantly was able to wrap up one with vines. Smirking slightly, she moved more vines around and instantly managed to wrap up another one of them. "There we go, that should make this a whole lot easier," she commented with a laugh, before she used one of the vacuum things that she had and sucked up the two storm spirits in front of her. "This definitely is kind of fun."

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Janelle thought for a moment as both Kristin and Zeke commented about where to eat and everything, "I'm fine either way, it doesn't matter too moehch to me, as lahng as it is food dat isn't frahm a vendin machine," she said to the two of them, before Zeke said something about a scorpion. There wasn't really much time to do anything or even react to it before it sounded like Zeke had already taken whatever it was down. "I guess there are worse things that could happen, we could be sitting here still in a fight over the whole thing, but thankfully the thing is dealt with so yay!"

That's when she heard something, it was somewhat far away, but she wasn't even too sure what it was that she was hearing. It sounded like the sound of a club or some other blunt object being dragged along the ground. That probably was not a good sound to hear in their current situation. "...Hate to break up the conversation about food and that being a bit anticlimactic, unless you want a fight. Something nearby, I can't really tell where though, has a big heavy club or something that it is dragging along the ground... So maybe we should see about getting out of here..."

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Demetris ears burned hot as Leda teased him about his proposition to Jason. He hadn't meant for it to be in that nature, but genuinely believed that it would be faster to divide and conquer land and air. He felt as though things were already fairly rocky for him and the gingered haired child of Ares, and he didn't need Leda to create more fissures where there should be bridges. Ofcourse, Jason declined his offer and made a valid counter point. They should enjoy the land while it lasted and Demi wanted to do just that. He nodded towards his partner in affirmation about going on land and as Jason began to depart he simply called out to him "Hey wait up!"

The others had seemed to get a head start on hunting the Venti. Demi grabbed his pack as he watched his little sis blast a pair with her lightning, Rebecca went full Violet from the Incredibles, and everyone seemed to go about and do their thing. Before he knew it Jason had run head first towards a Venti, taking one out while getting slammed by lightning in return. Demi ran towards a Venti that was on his way to Jason, his earring coming to life as the dagger spring into his hand. He quickly flicked his wrist at the creature, missing and immediately jutting to the right in an attempt to avoid being hit by an attack. The Ventis lightning hurled at Demetri and grazed the demi-gods side as he stopped dead in his tracks. His dagger came flying back into his hand and he thre it once more with deadly precision, killing the Venti and going to scoop it up before going back to back with Jason. "Watch my back and ill watch yours?"

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Kiera looked over at Leda and smiled towards her and nodded, she was happy that Leda was able to watch her back as well. "I'll let you know, let me know if you need any kind of help as well." Kiera said as she turned her attention over towards two of the Venti nearby and drew out her swords and charged forward. She wasn't as skilled as the others were or didn't have as much experience either but she was able to take out one of them. Kiera then aimed the little suction hose at the Venti remains that she had just killed and easily sucked it up rather quickly.

Her attention then turned towards the next one, and sent a wave of water towards it, sending it crashing into a nearby tree the spirit looked completely dazed from it as Kiera drove her sword forward and killed it. She looked over her shoulder at the little pack it looked like a small thunderstorm was being contained in them. One of the Venti turned it's attention directly at Leda and sent a bolt of lightening at her, but missed again.

A vent turned towards Demetri as if it was a bull it bull rushed Demetri and knocked him to the ground, while zapping him as well to singing and burning his clothes a bit and stared down at Jason. And then another charged at both Andy and Arthur completely, missing the two of them. And another Venti shocked both Mary and Rebecca knocking the two of them backwards and onto the ground rather hard.

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Madalyne turned to look at Nancy and nodded slightly, normally it was usually just three people per quest usually any bigger number than that it usually meant some kind of disaster or death. But if they had six then they could split off a little bit, she thought the reasoning was pretty sound in her opinion. "I think those are good choices." Madalyne said giving Nancy a slight nudge and smile towards her in approval as well. When Marco decided to come over and inviting both Emily and Waverly over, she didn't really mind if he wanted to butt in on their conversations or anything they were talking about them after all.

"Come on over Waverly this is important, don't worry about your duties for now." Madalyne said towards her and waved her over to join the rest of them, before looking at the three of them. "The three of us are going to make a visit to Atlas, you know the Titan holding the weight of the sky as his burden?" Madalyne said. "It's kind of in the middle of Monster Territory not to far from here, and could use your help talking t him and act as a bit of backup and your skills as well."

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Kristin turned around to see Zeke poking the dead Pit Scorpion she had never really seen one before but she knew that they were really poisonous and could easily kill a demigod within minutes if you were stung by one. "Yeah, no i'd rather not eat that, you can though Zeke since you probably eat just about anything." Kristin said shuddering a little bit. Kristin didn't really care much for Chick-Fil-A mainly because of their views on certain subjects and their food wasn't the best but it was food and it was the closest thing as well.

Kristin turned to look at Janelle when she pointed out that something was coming, usually cyclops held clubs as their usual weapons, she wasn't sure how many or if it was just the one. "Lets go and get out of here then, there could be more than one." Kristin said gesturing towards the remains of the Pit Scorpion as well. "And maybe that was it's pet or something to." She said as she walked over towards Janelle letting her keep close.

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Ezekiel smirked when Kristin said that he could go ahead and eat it. ”You never know, fried scorpion could be good. Minus the tail of course,” he said. He was about to put his bow away when Janelle pointed out that she could hear something dragging a club. Ezekiel couldn’t see anything but he wasn’t about to question the blind girl with super sensitive hearing. ”Agreed, let’s get a move on,” Ezekiel said.
He was about to move towards Janelle when Kristin did instead. Well, so much for that plan. Instead Ezekiel took the lead and started to head away from the bus depot, down the street towards the capitol building and hopefully food and not a cyclops. ”Let us know if you hear anything more Janelle. I might be able to start tracking it if we can pick up a trail and know what streets to avoid.”

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Andy high fived Arthur. The storm and the lightning seemed to charge her. Andy's face was bright as she drew more electricity and hit another Venti. It died immediately. She remembered fights that had seemed so close and running and hiding and all the things that had happened to her on the run. Andy had been scared during those times. She had known nothing but fear and trying to survive.

Now she had fear, but it was tempered with some happiness. She was having fun. She felt powerful. That was what the camp had given her. Hope. Andy didn't know if that was good or bad.

She turned back to the Venti from Arthur and sent off another blast of the lighting that had been a part of her since before she could remember. It hit one of the Venti, which stopped moving. Arthur had the vacuum pack thing so she let him worry about getting it before letting more electricity hit another. This one still stood so she hit it again. It fell too.



"Oh no..." Emily said as Marco called her over to the Preator's table. She did not like politics but it seemed Marco deemed the conversation important for her. She stood, grabbed her chair, and moved toward their table. Madalyne dropped a bomb on them though saying they would be going to speak with Atlas. "Uh, what? Are you sure?" She glanced at Nancy. Emily knew that Nancy didn't like being around her. Emily knew why, she was an intuitive person she could make some guess. Though, Emily didn't know the full story so she didn't know why Nancy didn't like Baccus or her ability of madness.

"Yes, we are certain. Please sit." Niah said. She wasn't a Preator but her words carried weight. She also smiled gently at Waverly. "Waverly, this will be a good chance for you to prove yourself." There was a lot to explain. "I'm afraid there is a lot we should explain." Her voice was soft and caring. Much like Niah was herself.

Emily sat down with her borrowed chair at the Preator's table. "Well, we've got a bit of time I suppose." Emily said. She liked quests. She liked the adventure. Emily was especially thankful that she would be going with Marco. Who she leaned over to and whispered "Hope you like your lunch." She looked between the Preators and Niah, "You have my attention."

"Nancy would be best to explain part of it, but Emily and Marco you were both here when we went to get the gem from Mount Rushmore. That is involved in what we'll be facing." It all felt so long ago. Emily and Marco had been with the camp longer than any of the three of them that had been on that mission. As Niah thought back on it she laughed to herself about the young man Donald. She hated the kid and remembered the fear that the senate at the time would force her to go on the quest with him. The Gem had been her quest. Nancy's vision had been tied to her with it, and after Nancy had had the vision they had come to this very coffee shop to talk about it before going to the Senate. She had been so scared and nervous and young.

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Rebecca was glad that she had paired with Mary - and even happier to learn that the Anemoi Thuellai were tangible enough to be ensnared in vines. She hadn't been certain, given that they were made out of rain, lightning, thunder, clouds, and other various elements of chaos. Her admiration distracted her as an Anemoi Thuellai sent a bolt of lightning at both her and Marygold. The pair were struck and the next thing Rebecca knew, she was flat on her back on the ground, painful aches racing up and down her body. Her vision was a bit blurry and given her relatively defenseless position, she decided to summon help.

"Serve me!" Rebecca commanded, her hand outstretched. The ground around her cracked as four bony hands shot up. The cracks expanded until four skeleton warriors had emerged. "Kill the Anemoi Thuellai - the storm spirits," Rebecca instructed, adding the additional clarification as she wasn't sure if the skeletons would speak Greek. Not all spirits under her mother's domain were Greek - the afterlife system was messy and complicated, but at least for Greek demigods, they had a guarantee of ending up in Hades' dominion once they expired. Not that Rebecca intended on dying of course - her dream was to become an immortal sorceress such as Circe or Medea, her idols.

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Leda had a wicked grin on her face as the venti sent lightning at her, only to miss. "My grandmum can aim better than that, you bloody wanker!" she taunted. Had she been just a few years younger, she might have been dashing from side to side while going na na na na you can hit me! to infuriate the spirit. But that wouldn't have been cool and she wanted to impress the daughter of Poseidon. The two of them could have Cabin Three all to themselves, as Kiera didn't have any siblings... and that was a highly motivating and enticing idea.

She dashed towards the venti that had attacked her, hoping to make quick work of it with her sword. She ducked and weaved in an out, trying to find a good opening, slashing her Celestial Bronze blade a bit more cheerfully than perhaps she should have. Each of her cuts only went through the air, not managing to catch the elusive body of the storm spirit. The venti probably was mentally taunting her in return - could venti speak? "Urgh, stay still and let me kill you!" Leda complained.

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Nancy groaned. "I swear, if Leandra starts bitching that we're taking three people from the Fifth Cohort, I'll jab an arrow in my brain." The Fifth Cohort was generally regarded as the very worst at Camp Jupiter. Mads was from the Third Cohort, Niah from the Second, and Nancy was from the first. She laughed involuntarily that without meaning to, the only cohort not represented in this mission of six was the fourth - Leandra's. It hadn't been intentional and it wasn't on purpose, but damn, Nancy couldn't help but be a bit wickedly pleased that was the way the cookie had crumbled. She raised an eyebrow as Marco came over and joined them. A lot of people from the First Cohort probably would've thrown a slight fit, if someone from the Fifth just went and sat down at the praetor's table. Nancy didn't care.

"Mmm, that smells delicious. Mads, why don't you bring me lunch?" Nancy pouted. Waverley was acting a bit skittish, falling in line with what Nancy knew about her from their training sessions. Madalyne gave the straight forward version of the sales pitch for the quest, just omitting the spooky prophecy at the center of it all. Nancy finished downing her iced coffee and sighed slightly. Her veins were probably 50% coffee at this point and it still wasn't enough. "Okay, ugh, so here's the deal. Super horrible prophecy. Titans and Giants teaming up against the gods. In the pit. The gem we got last summer is somehow key to it, as is a shrine to my father. We have to work with the Greeks, blegh, but odds are most of us will die. Painfully. It makes the Prophecy of Seven look like a bitchin' cake walk... The Greeks won't get here for a few days, so we were going to go see Atlas, find out what he knows and hopefully he's still there. Marco can use his Venus voodoo magic on the Titan to get him to talk. Or Emily can curse him. Waves and Mads can bring the magic. Niah can hopefully force him into an oath to be truthful. And I'm the muscle."

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"Lunch does smell good, thank you for bringing it to me." Marco whispered back to Em at that point and smiled as he relaxed a bit at that point as he started eating. Oh yes, lunch was good but as the topic turned from one thing to talk of Atlas and going to check on his prison on the island... Marco had lost his appetite and soon he pushed his food off to the side to wait for his stomach to catch up with the hungry part of himself.

"Okay Nancy, I do appreciate you wanting to use my wonderful talents at this time, but I am not sure my, as you put it, 'Voodoo magic' can work on a Titan. I have Charmspeak but I do not have it as powerful as some of my siblings... I mean I have it more than others." Marco was trying not to be insulted when Nancy called his charmspeak 'Voodoo' as it really did not work out like that. Charmspeak was... more... influence from what he understood of having used it before.

"So, the Titans and the Giants coming back huh? Well I'm in to help prevent that from happening. Honestly, war is not something I enjoy."

Arthur Stanford

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Location:The Ground

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As Andy blasted lighting off into the air, Arthur watched in a kind of wonder. It really was something cool to see, sure, he could raise the dead, but that was pure power. He watched as it fell down to the ground, and it took him a few moments for him to properly react. Fumbling around for the controls, he pointed the sucker towards the monster, only for it to jam. Cursing under his breath, he shook he head, and pulled it back for a moment, before sucking the creature up without problem, He found it easier and easier to lose focus recently, but that really wasn't something that should be happening right now.

Letting the knife fly through the air once more, it embedded itself in another one of the monsters, but it didn't seem to kill it properly. Pausing for a moment, he sighed. He didn't know if he wanted to get better with weapons or not, but it was feeling like more and more of a thing he'd need to do. These creatures didn't seem to be a major threat, but he knew someday he'd be standing down a monster that would be. At the same time, 'getting better at killing things' just quite frankly seemed like the type of thing that hew shouldn't have to do as a kid.

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Waverley's body somehow went more tense than it already was when Madalyne invited her over. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out. She didn't really know what to say. Perhaps in search of some sort of guidance or backup, she turned to look at Emily, only to find the older girl already walking towards the table. Waverley cautiously followed behind, nervously nibbling on the tip of the straw poking out of her beverage. She kept her place standing behind Emily as the praetors and Niah explained why they asked them over. As they did, Waverley slowly shuffled out from behind Emily, realizing she wasn't in any sort of trouble. Most of the words that left their mouths went over her head. She didn't know what the pit was (though it did sound ominous), nor did she know what the Prophesy of the Seven was, and her knowledge on Titans and Giants was limited. But she did recognize one name.

"Atlas? Like the-" she began, but instead of articulating it into words, she raised her hands above her head in what she had intended to be representation of holding the sky up, but looked more like a really awkward dancer raising the roof. The story she'd always heard about Atlas was that holding the heavens up was a responsibility, not a punishment. It hurt her optimism a bit to hear otherwise. When Emily sat down, it didn't take long for Waverley to realize she was the last one standing. Naturally, that fact made her uncomfortable, but seeing as there were no seats left around the praetor's table, she resolved to awkwardly squatting to meet the eye level of the others. "Huh. I...didn't know he was real." She hesitated a moment, trying to decide whether she should disclose the fact that she'd been eavesdropping on them. Having only heard a bit of their past conversation, she assumed New York had something to do with Atlas. After a few moments, she continued. "I heard you guys mention New York. Is that where Atlas is? Is he, like, secretly the Empire State Building? That...that'd be cool. God, I really hope that's the case. Uh, anyway, I'm asking because I've actually been there before, so I can recommend all the best cheap hotels and hole-in-the-wall restaurants and stuff, if we need, like, a tour guide or something," she offered, unaware that, even if they had needed knowledge of the city for the mission, what she knew from travelling through the city would likely have been trumped by Marco's experience living there.

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"Naht me fault if you were a bet slow to join de party or whatever, learn to keep oehp and naht just stay in de back o' de group ahr whatever. Chargin in first sometimes ends poorly, but it also tends to be de mahst fun," he called towards Demetri in response to his words. Jason wasn't too sure what else to really say regarding the entire situation, especially considering everything was still a bit chaotic around them. There were so many different things going on that made it difficult to really pay attention.

He instantly charged towards a few more of the Venti, swinging his sword at them. His sword connected with one, and the storm spirit was killed rather quickly. However, when he tried to slash at the other one he stumbled somewhat, almost falling but barely managing to catch himself. "I really 'ate dese sahrt o' dings..." he muttered to himself before he used the vacuum thing to vacuum the Venti that he had managed to kill up. "Anythin wahrks fahr me, 'ow about less talkin and mahre dealin wit dese dings."

Mary was watching the storm spirits around them as they seemed to get more then a little bit pissed off over their friends dying and getting stuck in glorified vacuum cleaners. She got thrown backwards and hit the ground, seeing Rebecca had as well. "Well, guessing they are more then a little annoyed with us, but damn that one hurt," she said towards her as she stood up off of the ground, looking at the venti that were still in the area. This was definitely going to be a fun fight that was for certain.

"Okay, let's try this again and maybe not get smacked around again," she muttered under her breath, before she started using her abilities to once more see about wrapping up a few of the storm spirits. Vines shot up and wrapped around two of them, and she smirked slightly, glad that she had managed to grab two more as she then switched to using the vacuum cleaner thing and managed to get them into the vacuum. "Alright, how many of these things do we need to nab anyway?"

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"Who wooehld want to eat scorpion? Dat joehst sounds insane to me," she said with a bit of a giggle in agreement, "And o' cooehrse you wouldn't want to eat de tail, de stenger would prahbably get you pretty good." Janelle was giggling quite a bit now at the thought of it. She was perfectly fine with getting away from the area that they were in. She heard the sounds again, and she fell silent, just listening as she went along with Zeke and Kristin away. Something was a bit unsettling though as she listened to the sounds around her.

"We should mahve a bet quicker... De sounds, it's gettin closer, and louder, so we should prahbably get de 'ell ooeht o' 'ere. Like right now, please?" she said, listening to the sounds of whatever it was nearby behind them. A cyclops likely would not end well if they ended up having to fight one based on what most stories involving them said about them. Though she did feel a little bit better regarding the fact that both Zeke and Kristin seemed to have fought them before, hopefully they could avoid it if they could.

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Demetri felt the wind knocked out of him by the embodiment of nature. His back slamming against the ground as his hands managed to catch himself so that his head didn't hit the ground. He grumbled a bit as he got up and dusted himself off. "Oh you're asking for it now!" He flicked his wrist towards the Venti and killed it in a single blow, sucking it up into the vacuum before pressing his back against Jason's again. "Yeah these Ventis are a Trenta pain in the arse." Demetri could feel Jason's absence as he stumbled and almost fell, turning to see the beast that had gotten away from him. "Dont worry I've got it." He spun over Jason's side and threw his dagger at the creature, killing it and having the weapon fly back into his hand.

He watched in awe all the others seemed to used their powers to overpower and overcome the Ventis. A tinge of jealousy hitting him as he watched. He looked at Rebecca and smiled as she summoned some skeletal goons to fight for her. "Thats soooo cool" His eyes darted back to his sister as she unleashed her lightning against the storming spirits. "Well, I think I know who Zeus's favorite child is. You got the pot with powers." As soon as he looked back there was a Venti standing before him as it launched a powerful bolt of lightning towards him. His side began to burn as it singed away at his clothes. He quickly clutched his side, haggard breathing for a few moments as he attempted to focus away from the pain.

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Kiera turned around as she looked around the field there were seven Venti left in the area now, as she looked up the storm clouds above them lessened slightly. She turned towards the next closest Venti and it sent a bolt of lightening at her, knocking Kiera back into a tree letting out a slight groan as she looked down at her shirt it was singed slightly. There was also a bad burn on her chest as well, which stung quiet a bit as well, she slowly got back up to her feet. She ran forward again and swung one of her swords at the Venti only for it to dodge out of the way letting out a bit of an annoyed groan.

The Venti that Leda was facing seemed to be running around her as if taunting back at her for her poor aim as it shot a bolt of lightening at Leda's feet but missed her again as well. Kiera looked over at Leda seeing that she was having some trouble as well, turning to the one she had her attention and sucked it up.

The four skeletal soldiers that Rebecca summed seemed to be from different times, one looked like it wore a WWII uniform, while another looked like someone who had been from the American Civil War. While another was from the colonial times as well, and the fourth one appeared to wear some native American clothing as well. They growled at each other as if they were communicating with each other before they focused on a single Venti the four of them tacked the Venti to the ground and savagely started to stab the pour spirit until it finally died able to be sucked up by Rebecca or Mary.

One of the Venti turned their attention to the skeletal soldiers that Rebecca had summoned, one of them sent a massive bolt of lightening which instantly killed the WWII soldier it's remains spilling everywhere. The one that zapped Demetri turned it's attention towards Jason now and charged at him, but missed as the others zapped each of them again once.

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Madalyne got up for a moment and grabbed a chair for Waverly and motioned for her to take a seat so that way she wouldn't have to squat awkwardly to listen. She smiled slightly when Nancy mentioned the prophecy that she had seen, which she had forgotten to mention about, as she looked at Waverly when she asked her question and shook her head. Madalyne shuddered slightly when Nancy mentioned Leandra and looked at Nancy making a gagging motion just by mentioning her. "Not like she's going to care that her cohort is going to be apart of this mini quest." Madalyne said before turning to address Waverly.

"No, that is all Greek Territory Mount Olympus is the Empire State Building actually. The titan Atlas is actually much closer it's on the outskirts of San Francisco, to the mortals it's named Mount Tamalpais or Mount Tam for short as well. To all of us we call it Mount Othrys which is the titan's equivalent to Mount Olympus, Atlas has always been there." Madalyne said as she took a sip from her hot chocolate looking over at Nancy and smirked slightly and laughed slightly.

"You'd have to ask me out if you want me to make you some lunch." Madalyne said jokingly, she had known Nancy for years and knew that Nancy really wasn't into the whole dating thing. And she saw Nancy more as a sister figure than anything and didn't see herself dating anyone really either. "We should probably get going soon, and pay another little visit to Alexandra see if she can see anything when we go to see Atlas."

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"There are some suckers or lollipops whatever you want to call them that have bugs inside them, that is really nasty to." Kristin said shuddering slightly she didn't like the idea of that very much. "And people sometimes each scorpions to which is just as nasty to." Kristin really hated bugs, and like any other child of Athena they all had arachnophobia, she turned to stare at Zeke and gave him a slight glare. "And if you mention anything about spiders i'll stab you." Kristin said, as she looked over her shoulder and spotted the cyclops coming towards them carrying what looked to be a club of some kind as well her eyes going wide as she saw it picking up a bench and threw it at the three of them.

Luckily the bench didn't hit any of them, as it crashed right in front of them send splinters everywhere luckily none of them hit the three of them as Kristin pulled off her bracelet and it turned into her spear again. "And here I thought we wouldn't run into anymore monsters until after we got some food." Kristin said as the cyclops got much closer as Kristin ran forward and swung her spear managing to hit it in the leg.

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"All I can do is shock things. You can turn into animals and people that's super cool!" Andy told her brother. Then he was shocked by one of the Venti. Andy had been surprised she could hurt the Venti because they were made of storm and lightning and her power was just the lightning. "Hey! That's my brother you're hurting." She yelled at the spirit. "Stop it!" She stamped her foot down on the ground. Angry at the creatures for hurting her brother and friends.

Andy reached out and pulled as if a rope was in front of her. When she did some of the lightning that was inside the Venti that had hurt her brother came out of it. Her eyes went wide startled. She hadn't expected it to work. Quickly she changed the direction of the lightning so it hit another Venti. Neither fell, but she could tell she had done a lot of damage to the second one. Andy was stunned by how well it had worked. That wasn't something that she could do for another creature necessarily, but it worked really well for the storm spirits.



Emily considered making a joke about Marco being a lover, not a fighter, but she held her tongue as the Preator's explained what was happening. She did agree with Marco she had no idea if her power of madness would work against a Titan. "Honestly, from what I know about Atlas it might be better to cure him than curse him if my power could even work on a Titan." She shrugged slightly.

"I feel like my power would work on him." Niah said after tilting her head to think a moment. "My mother's works on all the gods so why not a Titan. Though the gods are more likely to survive I swear on pain of death than mortals." She shrugged. Her mother wasn't even completely a Roman god. It was complicated. Lupa had accepted her though so her ability should work.

"So when should we leave? Think we can get it done before the Greeks get here? Or wait till they get here and organize then?" Emily asked. She was excited about meeting the Greek kids. Sure, there were always tensions between the two groups but they had to be an interesting bunch. They were similar to the Romans. And Emily liked focusing on similarities to make her friends.

"Personally I think we should go immediately. If we are quick about it we can probably get there and back before the Greeks land. They estimated three days, and Mount Tam isn't too far." Niah said, giving her opinion. She sat back in her chair and sipped at her drink. "We have less we have to do here now that the war isn't coming to our temple." She still wished it was because at least they'd be on their home turf, and wouldn't have to literally go into the Pit.