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Mercifully, the harpies were all dealt with. They still had the gravity problem though, as Nancy dug into the side of the mountain, doing her very best to avoid the laws of physics. They really hadn't thought this plan through. She wasn't afraid of heights - she was more afraid of what happened at the end of every fall. Thank the gods that Mads was there, as she managed to stop Niah's fall, helping to prevent the horrible laws of physics from killing them all. "Have I ever mentioned to you how much I love that you have magic, Mads?" Nancy called out.

They weren't too far from the top now. Nancy gritted her teeth and continued her ascent, climbing as carefully and methodically as she could. Even though they were all connected, at least if she was up on the top, she didn't need to worry about hanging onto the side of the mountain while trying to get the others to safety. Her arms were aching by the time she managed to summit and her breath was heavy. She made a mental note to put in a request for more climbing obstacles in the next War Games.

Niah decided she never would go skydiving or any of those other extreme air sports. The feeling of freefall made her stomach twist painfully. Thankfully Mads caught her with a magic net. "Thanks." She gave a sigh of relief. Then turned her attention to the armor hoping to get back up in the air and over the cliff face.

Surely fighting a dragon would be easier than scaling a mountain. She mentally laughed. "Remind me to work on my upper body strength." Though she doubted working on chin-ups would help if a harpy attacked again.

Niah was able to get control over the armor again and flew up to the top of the cliff. She landed, taking a deep breath. That was an experience she didn't care to repeat. But the armor was useful and hadn't actively tried to kill her yet, so maybe it wasn't cursed.

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Madalyne looked up at Nancy and laughed slightly. "Glad that you keep me around then." She said jokingly as she started to get dizzy once Niah had left the net and started to fly up again she dropped the magic net. She was feeling like she was about to pass out but managed to climb up to the top. As soon as she was on the top Madalyne rolled onto her back and started to breathe heavily, whipping away the blood from her nose.

It always did happen when she overused her magic way to much or was concentrating on more than one thing to hard, she then rolled onto her side looking at Nancy and Niah. "Do either of you guys have any water on you?" She asked, she felt like her mouth was leathery from all that climbing and fighting as well to.

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Nancy nodded, panting a bit herself. "Work on your upper body strength," she reminded Niah cheekily, even though she was fairly certain it was something they could all use a little more work on. She was definitely going to have to lobby for more climbing in the War Games. If they were this winded after scaling the mountain, she didn't want to imagine how the poor probatios would have done. While she was a centurion for the First Cohort, she really cared about making sure that everyone in the Legion was safe. The Legion had saved her from the Lotus Hotel and Casino - they were her family, it was the least she could do.

Nancy searched through her pockets for a moment, before producing what more or less looked like a flask. "It's not water, but it's nectar," she offered. She figured for the purposes of getting Mads' throat to not feel like sandpaper, it would probably do the trick - they were both liquids, right? And plus, a little nectar couldn't hurt after what they'd all just gone through.

"No water sorry." She said. She considered taking a sip of the nectar, but she decided against it. She hadn't gotten actually hurt. The Harpy had gone for knocking her off the cliff rather than hurting her thankfully. It looked like it would do Mads some good though since she was bleeding from her nose.

She wished she had something for Mads to clean her face with. Even if it had just been some napkins from the restaurant below. "Are you okay though Mads? You've got a bloody nose." She said, uncertain if she felt it.

Niah started looking around to get a lay of the land and what they had to deal with still before getting to the dragon. She took a slow deep breath. Focusing on planning and what options they had.

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"Thanks Nanc." Madalyne said giving her friend a smile as she took the flask and uncapped it taking a sip from it tasted like coffee to her as she started to feel the strength coming back and her nose stopped bleeding. Madalyne capped the flask again and tossed it back towards Nancy and nodded towards Niah. "I'll be fine that usually happens when I strain myself to much, concentrating on keeping your grip from falling and using magic to catch your fall took out quiet a bit more than I would have liked." Madalyne said as she slowly stood up and stretched out her back while cracking her fingers a bit.

"Should we take a breather and figure out what to do with the dragon?" Madalyne asked both of her friends, while looking at the entrance to a nearby cave that led deeper into the mountain. They were pretty close now dragons were extremely dangerous and they would definitely need some kind of plan to deal with the massive flying fire breathing lizard.

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Nancy caught her flask, glad to see her friend hydrated and healed, and she put it away. She hated alcohol, so the flask may have appeared to be something uncharacteristic for her to own. It had been her mother's. It was the only thing that Nancy still had of hers. She had issues with her mother - loads of them, really - but as her mother was long dead there wasn't much that could be done about it. She kept the flask anyways. It was useful to have nectar on hand as a demigod. Whenever she thought about it too much, Nancy reassured herself it was purely out of practicality that she kept it.

"Beyond taking back the gem?" Nancy teased Mads lightly. She then frowned, thinking it over. "I guess the first question is - are we going to kill the dragon or just steal from it? I feel like we'll inevitably have to kill it, so maybe we can engineer some traps. Like... cause a large chunk of Mount Rushmore to fall on top of it somehow?" Nancy suggested. "Or I can scream at it until it dies, but that might take a while."

"I can distract it while one of you goes for the gem. Once we have the gem we can either escape or kill it?" Niah would be perfectly happy dropping the whole of the mountain on the dragon if it came to that. She wasn't totally excited about the idea of playing distraction for the dragon, but she was decent enough with a sword, and out of the three of them could fly which gave her an advantage that the other two didn't have. As long as she was able to control the armor...and more importantly it didn't turn out to be cursed. A part of her still expected something to go wrong and the armor to try to kill her.

"Mads...Do you think you could make yourself invisible? Long enough to get the gem and get out?" Niah wasn't certain if the ability was possible, or if Mads had the strength after climbing. She still looked exahusted. "Even better if you can do it to both of you and you guys get in and out without being seen. Hopefully, the dragon doesn't have any extra back up." She looked toward their goal. They could sit and watch for a bit and see if they saw other creatures.

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"Lets bring the mountain down on him as a last option or if we have to absolutely fight him." Madalyne suggested as she thought for a moment and looked over seeing a few Harpies flying into one of the president's noses as another entrance. "Great this is also a nest for harpies it looks like." Madalyne said with a sigh as she listened to Niah she was a bit tired but she still had enough strength to keep going right now as she thought of an idea.

"I have a bit of an idea it might be a bit weird." Madalyne said as she sat down for a moment and started to concentrate the three of them would feel a breeze going around them, and then three misty figures appeared behind Madalyne and then eventually detail came through as she managed to recreate mist versions of them. She stood up and turned to look at them then over towards Nancy and Niah and smirked at her handy work a bit proud of herself. "Hopefully these will work as a nice distraction, meet your twins." Madalyne said proudly. "I am using all of my concentration on the three of them though so I can't really use magic to make us invisible, so we have will have to sneak in while our mist clones distract our flying lizard buddy."

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Nancy pouted slightly. It would've been so wicked cool to drop a mountain on a dragon - especially one, as Niah had pointed out, that was basically racist. She wasn't very surprised about the lair being next to a harpy nest, especially after they had just fought a bunch of harpies just to get up here - it made sense. They probably enjoyed stealing things from tourists or whatever when they were around and Nancy doubted people were free climbing enough to make them relocate. Although, she did wonder - did dragons eat harpies?

Nancy whistled softly, appreciating the mist clones Mads had made. "Damn, we look good," Nancy quipped. They just needed to sneak in now, take the gem, and then be on their merry way - quest over and done with. "I think I have an idea on how to help, quiet's never been my thing but..." she concentrated, and it took her a few tries, but she managed to soften all of the noises the trio made. Their footsteps would be quieter, their heartbeats a little softer, their breath more muted. She held up a finger to her lips, gesturing for them to be quiet, and Nancy began to sneak her way into the cave. Inside, she saw an insane amount of gold, as well as a dragon sleeping - and the gem!

"Oh fine, we won't destroy the national monument to old white guys." Niah said, though she was amused. She didn't want to take off the armor considering it both offered protection and the ability to fly if one of the harpies or the dragon decided to toss her off the mountain. At least it only appeared that the armor was difficult to start using. She'd have to practice that...a lot.

She followed beside Nancy and Mads into the dragon's lair. There was so much gold. It was enough to make Scrooge McDuck feel poor. She wondered if they'd be able to take some back. With that kind of gold that could buy everyone in camp their own...anything. They could buy a school bus, or even just a dang truck so people wouldn't have to hitchhike or catch trains for their quests. Though that was part of the point of a quest so the truck would probably break down or end up possessed or something equally impeding.

She assessed the situation. Getting to the Gem would be impossible to do without making noise...on foot. She could fly over to it. Niah concentrated and felt the armor respond to her desires. She flew over to the Gem and picked it up. Touching it sort of set her teeth on edge. Like something was wrong with it. She looked at the Dragon hoping it was still sleeping. No such luck it was waking up.

Niah threw the Gem at Mads, seeing that her friend was watching her. Mads caught the Gem and Niah flew in a complicated pattern trying to keep the Dragon's attention before flying over and joining the illusions of the group. "Run!" She shouted. It seemed like the Dragon was falling for the ruse. It at least didn't seem like it knew which group was which.

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The dragon stared at the two pairs of puny demigods in it's lair and started to stand up on it's four legs it's massive wings started to spread they almost were able to touch ceiling of the massive cavern. It started to roar rather loudly as it started to breathe fire, their only exit being sealed by a wall of fire. Madalyne caught the gem looking at it for a moment, feeling a really strange and dark presence coming from it hearing a whisper saying only she would be able to hear it. 'Release me now mortal and i'll give you all the power in the world.'

Madalyne was about to run towards the only exit only to be blocked by the wall of fire, turning around to face the dragon, as it fired again, managing to easily destroy her mist clones of her friends. Madalyne turned to Nancy, it was a really risky thing they were inside of the massive mountain after all as well to. "Hey Nancy? You wanna try bringing the ceiling down?" Madalyne suggested it really was risky since they were inside otherwise they would have to fight the massive fire breathing lizard.

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Nancy mouthed the word NICE as Niah flew on over quietly and snatched the gem. If they had some way to whistle and get a friendly godly ride, their quest would pretty much be done now. Unfortunately, the dragon was waking up - they weren't going to be able to skip the boss fight. Nancy sighed slightly, even though she was secretly pretty excited. Fighting a dragon was probably the most totally radical thing they'd ever get to do in their lives. She didn't know anyone at Camp Jupiter who had even seen a dragon before. Like a game of hot potato, Niah tossed the gem at Mads and luckily, Mads caught it. Nancy didn't want to know if the gem was breakable.

The dragon started to rise to its full height, its massive wings barely small enough to even fit inside of the cavern. Nancy flicked her daggers into her hands and started off at a run, only to skid to a halt as their way was blocked by a column of fire. Nancy glanced up at the ceiling of the cavern at Mads question, shrugging slightly. It was super dangerous and could easily end in getting them all killed, but at least they'd take the dragon out with them. "Yeah, I think I can bring the roof down," Nancy said, sounding a bit nonchalant to hide her panic. She took a breath and whistled, focusing on the vibrations traveling up to the roof. A few cracks formed. Nancy curled her toes. She whistled again, knowing that they only had seconds before the dragon killed them, and this time a stalactite fell, pinning the dragon. It wasn't dead.

Nancy then charged forward with her daggers, and stabbed her daggers into the dragon's eyes. "Die die die die!!!" Nancy shouted, her most fearsome of battle cries.

Maybe the gods thought it was actually a pretty good one, as the dragon died by Nancy's hand.

"Damn, Nancy that was badass. Make sure you get the trophy." Niah said. She was laughing a bit as the adrenaline that had hit her system caused endorphins and all sorts of fun chemicals that no longer had any use coursed through her. She flew over to her friends. Her body shaking a bit. She felt like she might throw up at the same time she wanted to just run a mile.

"Let's get out of here." She started for the exit. Mads had the gem. The dragon was dead. She paused. "We could bring back some of the treasure." They'd only need a little. Gold was worth a lot of money. "Also, do we think I'm going to be playing pilot all the way back? Or can we take a train again?" The return from a quest wasn't always as dangerous, and usually there was a quick way home since the return trip wasn't part of the quest usually.

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"Well remind me to not get on your really bad side Nanc." Madalyne said with a slight laugh as she water the dragon dying at her friend's hands and started to walk over towards the body, and inspected it for a moment. Getting a bit of an idea she took out her sword seeing three large fangs still sticking out of it's mouth. She ended up removing the three teeth, handing the largest one towards Nancy and smiled towards her friend. "Here you go." Madalyne said as she handed one over towards Niah as well to.

Madalyne stared at all of the treasure that was there, it kind of reminded her of the movie National Treasure the Legion could use the gold as well. "I wouldn't be opposed to taking some back." Madalyne said as she looked down at the gem, seeing a slight evil purple glow from it and a pair of eyes staring back at her sensing an evil presence coming from it she quickly stuffed it back into her pocket. "We should also suggest some expeditions senate so that the rest of the Legion can take the rest of this gold back as well."

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Nancy was moving lightly on her feet even after the dragon's death, her blood pumping thunderously throughout her body. She felt like she had just downed seventeen coffees all at once, the caffeine going straight to her heart and sending it into overdrive. "Thanks, it felt pretty badass, not gonna lie," Nancy told Niah with a wide grin. She felt so incredibly alive. It was like the world around her was clearer, sharper, more in focus. She felt everything more intently, like her senses had been kicked up to an entirely new level. But mostly, she was living completely in the moment, her mind focused on where she was, the when and the now of it all. This was what Nancy did best - she was a hunter at heart.

She chuckled a bit as Mads handed her a gigantic dragon fang - it was easily the size of her arm. "Neato," she commented, feeling the weight of it. "Yeah, taking some of this back would be rad, as long as we avoid anything that's cursed. Isn't that a thing with dragons and their gold?" Nancy asked. She vaguely recalled hearing some things about how it was bad luck or that misfortune would come, but if a little gold meant they didn't need to worry about Niah dropping them to their deaths on the return trip, Nancy didn't care about a minor curse.

"It was badass and if I were good at storytelling I'd make it the best epic of our age." Niah said seriously. She grabbed a couple of handfuls of gold coins and put them into her bag. Niah shrugged at Nancy's question. She wasn't certain about dragons and curses, but it sounded plausible. Heck, she was still ready for her armor to turn out to be cursed. You could never really be sure.

"We can go back to town and sell this at a pawn shop. Then we'll have the cash to get home." They could easily take the reverse trip back home. This time with less theft since they knew the route. She looked at one of the coins to see if she knew where and when it was from, which was doubtful unless they were Roman coins.

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"You were really awesome there, like seriously." Madalyne said looking at Nancy as she smiled towards her best friend as she looked around the room seeing the various gold coins, bars and other various things that were made of gold. "Maybe the dragon was friends with Midas?" Madalyne said jokingly as she knelt down and picked up a few golden coins. To Niah the coins were made of gold, but it looked like they were from various cultures, some even looked Mayan in origin. "I can see if any of it is cursed or not." Madalyne said as she held out her hands and chanted a small spell and looked to Niah and Nancy.

"The coins arent cursed or anything, though i'd be more cautious on the larger stuff here." Madalyne told them as she filled some more of her backpack with the gold coins. "Lets head on out of here." Madalyne said as she took a moment and stared at the gem in her hand before heading out stuffing it into her pocket. She looked down at the ground below as she thought a little bit, she wasnt really looking forward to climbing down. "Maybe if you are up for it Niah you take us down one at a time?" She suggested to her.

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Nancy snorted slightly - she found it very funny how Niah shrugged about the potential curse, and then suggested they pawn the potentially cursed items off to some unsuspecting mortals. She had a tendency in her mind to see Niah as this pure sweetheart of a person, but every now and then she was reminded of how human - and even somewhat apathetic - her friend could be. "Love that, the mortals could use a good curse, call it an early recession or whatever," Nancy quipped. She pouted slightly when Mads declared that the coins weren't cursed - but that some of the larger items might've been. "Aww, rats. That's too bad."

But hearing that it was all good, Nancy filled up on golden coins as well. They'd have plenty of money for a trip back to New Rome - hell, they could definitely afford airfare as long as they weren't ripped off. Nancy positively swooned at the idea of maybe even getting to go in First Class - the hot towels, the drinks, the little snacks, the leg room - it sounded absolutely divine. And calm. She'd never been on a plane before, having only really seen them in movies, but they seemed so peaceful and quiet. "I'll give you a nice tip," Nancy joked, holding up a gold coin to 'entice' Niah to carry them down - as if Niah wasn't also rich with gold at the moment.

Niah laughed. It was good to laugh. She was smiling as she headed toward the mouth of the cave. In a way, she felt invincible. Some of the coins she had grabbed looked familiar and were from all over the world and at different times. This dragon had done a lot of hoarding. "Feels bad to leave so much behind. Maybe we can convince the Senate to send a group here just to gather it. Obviously, leave anything cursed behind."

She didn't take the coin from Nancy, there was no reason. She had no idea how much gold she had shoved into her bag, but she was not concerned about money at the moment. Maybe she could send some to her dad. He only had her baby brother, since her sister had disappeared and she had been sent to America. Maybe she could hire a private detective to find her sister? She let the pipe dreams play across her mind and then let most of them die.

At the mouth of the cave, she tried to get the armor to lift her up again. Nothing happened. Stupid probably cursed armor. "Grab onto me." She told her friends. Yes, friends. There was no way around that now. Once they had a hold of her she focused on the armor again getting it to lift her and then out into the nothingness, before decending them back to the ground.