---

---

Nancy was glad to have Joanie with her as she walked to the Big House, to embark on this quest that she had no desire to be any part of, but that she knew if she was not there, it would end in failure. This group needed her to succeed, as much as Nancy wanted to prioritize her own wellbeing, she had the fate of the world and her friends to consider. She couldn't let Mads' sacrifice be in vain - she had to do her part, even if it meant facing her demons... if it meant facing that night again... that place again...

"Thanks," Nancy said, taking the bag of money from Rosie. Her stomach twisted as she thought of the Lotus Hotel again. Once they got there, they wouldn't need money anymore. The hotel saw that all of its 'guests' had unlimited funds. Nancy had left her Lotus Hotel and Casino card behind when the Romans rescued her and Mads from the hotel; she had an odd feeling that she'd be given back that same exact card when she returned. And that feeling of being sick returned to her stomach. She felt like she was about to puke or faint or collapse to the ground or both. There was a soft ringing sound in her ears and Nancy did her best to take deep breaths, to try to force the feeling to pass.

Zeke then joined them, handing Nancy another bag - she now had the money, her own bag, and now a bag of supplies from Zeke. Being Roman, Nancy didn't complain. She was well within her carrying capacity. "Actually, Joanie's in charge of the money," Nancy said, but her heart wasn't really in the joke. Zeke then lowered his voice, asking Nancy if she was sure she wanted to do this.

"Want has nothing to do with it. If I don't go, you'll fail. And I won't accept that. Rome won't accept it," Nancy replied quietly. "If you fail, then Mads will die for nothing," she then finished, her voice scarcely audible.

---

---

To Leda, the taxi ride was going to feel like it'd take a small eternity anyways. It was one of the downsides of being a speedster - the world seemed to go in slow motion most of the time. It was probably part of why Leda loved going on quests - those moments where the adrenaline in her body spiked, when she could focus on slaying monsters, it didn't bother her as much how slow everything else seemed to be. This happened to be one of those moments. Leda, being a young female, was always paying attention to the cabbie during a drive. She didn't like one bit the creepy smile on his face - or the fact that he was clearly about to drive them inside a larger truck to kidnap them. Or the fact that the Mist was concealing his true form - a fucking cyclops.

"Oh Hades no," Leda commented, tugging her necklace off faster than the eye could see. Her necklace transformed into her glowing celestial bronze sword, Ultraviolet, shimmering a faint shade of red. She didn't spend the time to think about what would happen with the car. No, instead she stabbed through the seat, wounding the cyclops. Leda continued to move at superspeeds, stabbing again and this time turning the driver into confetti. "'Scuse me, luvs," Leda said, as the car began to swerve out of control. She awkwardly climbed her way on over the seats, dropping herself down into the driver's seat that was still covered in monster dust, and taking control of the vehicle.

Luckily, Leda knew how to drive.

She turned the wheel sharply, going away from the creepy truck, and instead taking them the rest of the way to the pier, where she stopped the car. "Okay, everyone out! First monster of the quest already, 'course it had to be a fucking cyclops, when is it not a cyclops?"

---

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She was getting a bit bored with the current conversation really, since they all were talking about Demetri's new sword, which personally she didn't think he should have any sort of thing like that to be able to wave around or whatever. Janelle did have to bite back a slight comment about how it wasn't that difficult to get around without being able to see, but she managed to think better against it. She sort of wanted to just continue to ignore Demi's entire existence at the moment.

"Yeah, I gaht what I needed ahr whatever, let's just get goin ahr sahmethin," Janelle responded to Kristin. She had basically gotten a bag of things that she'd need. She was used to finding whatever she wanted or needed without anyone's help, so it didn't take her too long. Hearing Cassian's comment about grouping, and personally, she didn't think that would actually truly matter. "I also dahn't care what group I'm in, doesn't matter to me," she ended up saying with a shrug in general.

---

---

He listened to what was being said, as the person at the ticket counter was waiting a response of sorts in general. They could save their money a bit by going to Missouri, however they'd likely have to spend more just to get to California, where they were heading to in general. To get there faster, it just made more sense in general for them to take the more direct route since they had the money between the three of them, plus the money they had been given in order to go on the quest in the first place.

"Alright, dink we'll take de direct route and take de Amtrak to San Francesco, makes mahre sense in general dat way, and I dahn't see why your lettle friend would be an issue," Jason said, saying the first part about which they were going to go with, and the second part more directly towards Stella, giving her a smile with regards to her little dog friend. They had enough to get to San Francisco, so who knew how things were going to go in general for them on their trip cross country.

---

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Things seemed to be going well with their sneaking past the Sphinx, however, that didn't last for too long, as Madalyne ended up stepping on plastic that made a bit of a loud sound. Mary couldn't help but shoot a bit of a glare at Madalyne for that in general, since it more or less was her fault as to why the Sphinx woke up. If the Romans were supposed to be so much into the military, you would think that in general they'd have some decent stealth skills. But apparently that was the wrong sort of assumption to make with this one.

Mary didn't say anything immediately, at least not at first, as the Sphinx addressed them, clearly wanting to eat them, which would not be fun at all. Though she listened as she heard the riddle, and she couldn't help but roll her eyes. It was such a simple riddle, not that hard really, and was this the best that the Sphinx could come up with or something like that? "The answer is stars, they only appear at night, and then seemingly disappear during the daylight hours, or are lost," she answered.

Arthur Stanford

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Location: Pier
Skills: N/A

---

Arthur flinched a bit at the fact that his deflection failed. He didn't have a good way of articulating why, but he really didn't want to play that game. It was just a like a ball of indecision, and flashbacks, and anxiety welled up inside him at the prospect. He felt like he wanted to throw up, but this wasn't like the fear that he'd die, or that someone he knew was in danger, it was just like a bad thing had already happened, and now that bad thing was always going to have happened, and there was fundamentally nothing that could be done about his feeling because of that.

It was for this reason, that the kidnap attempt by a monster was almost preferable to continuing to focus on the feelings inside him. Spilling out of the car, Arthur fell to his knees while trying to get out, only to shakily stand back up after that. His body felt like jello, shaking under any pressure. He had to calm himself down if he was going to be actually useful in this fight, he had to calm himself the fuck down. Taking a deep breath in, he drew his weapon, and closed his eyes for a moment, pushing down the feelings inside him for a few moments, for the sake of survival.

---

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Big House:

Rosie smiled and nodded towards Nancy as she watched Zeke coming up and joining the rest of them and gave him a slight wave, as she waited for the rest of the group to come up. Bryan gave his half brother a nod as he returned the hug and patted him on the back looking over at Nancy. "Make sure he doesn't get into to much trouble with that mouth of his." Bryan said jokingly to Zeke as he headed back off towards the cabins. Joanie made a little sound as the little dragon nibbled slightly on Nancy's hair, tilting it's head at Zeke for a moment, wanting some attention clearly by the looks of it.

Grand Central Station:

"Alright then three tickets on the Amtrak to San Francisco, that will be $214." She told the three of them as she started to print out the three tickets for them and then gestured towards the flight of stairs. "The train should be here in about an hour, and it'll be about a three day trip." She told them as she then handed out the tickets to whoever was going to take it. The little puppy that was in Stella's arms was really happy and licking while wagging it's tail rather quickly, loving all the attention that Stella was giving it.

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Kiera started to tense up seeing that their cab driver was indeed a cyclops which she really hated those things as Leda quickly took the initiative and took their monster friend out. She watched as Leda climbed into the front seat and quickly drove them away and out of the situation that could have probably been a lot worse, once they were at the pier Kiera quickly got out of the car. She decided to check the front of the cab for a moment. "Nice work love, I'm going to see if there's anything useful." Kiera said as she tried opening the glove compartment, but she couldn't open it, she then decided to take her sword and started to pry it open after a few tries she was able to open it up revealing it's contents.

Inside she saw a collection of various State ID's, seeing that some of them were young kids around their age, and had to assume that they were most likely demigod victims of the cyclops. She sighed slightly as she put them aside and eventually found a shoe box and pulled that out, and saw a wad of cash inside that was around 500 in total which Kiera quickly grabbed. "Found some money could come in handy." Kiera said tossing it over to Leda. "Also some state IDs to." Kiera told them as she closed the car door.

---

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Madalyne looked back at Mary seeing the look that she was giving her and glared back slightly, it really wasn't her fault that the area was fairly dark and she didn't really see all that well. It could have happened to either three of them by accident, she just happened to be the unlucky one this time. She drew out her sword just in case the Sphinx decided to break it's own rules as it let out a rather annoyed hiss as Mary answered the first riddle correctly and glared at her. "Correct." It said with a low growl as it started to think of a new riddle and stared at the three of them.

"Alright then next riddle What goes with a carriage, comes with a carriage, is of no use to a carriage and yet the carriage cannot go without it?" The Sphinx asked the three of them, Madalyne groaned slightly as she couldn't think of the correct answer she didn't want to say anything as Madalyne looked between Mary and Andy hopefully either one of them could answer it correctly.

---

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"Actually I think the two trips meant that the first group that had just left and then us, because that would be a waste of time if we ended up taking two separate rides." Kristin said to Cassian, and it was a very good way to end up getting totally separated from each other easily a monster attack outside the safety of camp was highly likely. "Plus those vans are pretty big and could fit all of us in it." Kristin had ridden in those vans all the time especially during the Winter Solstice event at Olympus that they all went to in order to visit their parents there.

"Lets get going." Kristin said as she started to head out of the shop after she paid for everyone's stuff, and made her way over to the Big House, she looked at the others who were there now. "I'm ready to get going if you all are." Kristin told the group as she heard their ride had just gotten back from the city now as well to.

---

---

Andy didn't quite agree with Mary. And she was not excited to find what was at the bottom of the stairs. She bit her lip, following after her aunt. But of course, things went badly. She rubbed her wrist, touching the dagger hanging from the bracelet, ready to draw it if the need arose.

But the sphinx gave them a deal. Andy stood there wide-eyed at the first question. She had no idea what the sphinx could mean, but it sort of made sense once Mary answered and explained herself. The answers were logical, even if they were sort of silly. The second question was even weirder. She thought of horses and wheels, but those were all necessary. Andy looked up to see Mads didn't seem to know what to guess. She closed her eyes, thinking hard about carriages.

She built a scene in her head. Bouncing moving noisily. She tilted her head. Gods, she hoped she was right, "Noise? Carriages make a lot of noise but don't need it to function. Noise comes and goes with the carriage; even though it doesn't need it, it can't go without it. Right?" She looked to the Sphinx, fear written on her features. If she was wrong...well they had one more shot.




Niah nodded in agreement with Jason. She paid the lady with the money she had and some from Stella. They'd be a little tight for cash for food, but at least they had a direct route. And if they had to, they had other options. Since the ticket lady didn't say anything about the dog, Niah figured whatever the mist was doing made it fine. She might try to fine-tune it later to ensure they didn't get questions. But she took the tickets and handed Stella and Jason one each.

"Let's head that way then. Best to wait near where we need to be." She got out of the line so the next people could go. She started walking in the direction the ticket lady had indicated. "We'll have to be on our toes and ensure we don't get separated if anything happens. And more importantly, we don't leave the train unless we have to." She could just imagine them ending up off the train and being left behind.

Three days was a long time, but it was faster than walking across the whole of the US. Once they had found a quiet spot near the Amtrak train tracks, Niah started explaining to Stella something. "I expect the mist is manipulating that puppy, so it seems normal to others. I'm going to try to have the mist create a vest and leash." Niah didn't have a lot of practice manipulating the mists, but she had been working on it for the last couple of years. She pulled, and nothing happened. Niah sighed, remembering herself and how the mist worked. She closed her eyes, placed her hand near the puppy, then lifted her hand. This time a leash was in her hand.

"Here you go." She said, handing the leash to Stella. The vest said 'service dog in training,' and the leash said 'do not pet.' That should give them some leeway.

---

---

Nancy rolled her eyes slightly at Bryan's request for her to keep Zeke out of trouble. She didn't think that Zeke needed her to do that; she thought he was fairly competent. The rest of the Greeks, Nancy had her doubts about. It was the entire Greek system really though that she had a problem with. Demigods were bound together through a common struggle, a pact that they reinforced in blood; it was only right for them to fight as a unit. With the Greek system prioritizing individual fighters... how could anyone trust anyone else in the group? How could you know that your brothers and sisters in arms had your back?

The rest of the Greeks were starting to show up, and the ride was ready. Nancy gave Joanie some affectionate scritches, knowing that she was likely bored and/or hungry. Truthfully though, Nancy never really minded it when Joanie chewed on her hair. Her hair was naturally so bushy and big that she figured she'd still have plenty after whatever Joanie ate. "We're ready."

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Leda caught the cash that Kiera had tossed her, though she was frowning at the mention of all the Drivers Licenses. This wasn't just a lone cyclops, that much was clear; it seemed like an entire operation. Killing this driver wasn't going to stop this or slow things down more than just a touch, as long as the nest was still operational. She glanced at Kiera and Arthur, wondering for a moment. "Bollocks," Leda said with a sigh. "Dunno about you two, but... I don't feel good about just leaving this cyclops nest behind to kill kids. If we're fast, we could catch up with the ones in that van - see about taking out the whole operation."

Leda knew that logically, in the grand scheme of things, it was more important for them to stick to the quest that they already had. But she couldn't help but feel guilty at the idea of walking away from this. All of those licenses, maybe some of those demigods were still alive - and if they weren't, maybe there'd be more demigods in the days to come who wouldn't stand a fighting chance. But Leda believed that Kiera, Arthur, and herself could handle things - they could make a difference. The micro scale was just as important as the cosmic.

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Stella was simply beaming as it seemed that there was no issue with her bringing along her new little friend. She would have to give them a proper name later, but for the moment, her companions had agreed to bringing them along, and the ticket seller didn't seem to have any issue with the dog. She handed the money that was needed over to Niah, and watched as she handed it over to the ticket seller. She gently pet the little pup in her arms, feeling their little tail go wild at all the attention they were receiving. "Don't worry, I'll come up with the perfect name for you later," she whispered to the little pup and held them out when Niah said she as going to manipulate the mist.

A leash soon appeared in Stella's hand and a rather dapper little vest the proclaimed the pup a Service dog in training appeared, and the pup gently moved to allow Stella to put it on them. "Thank you Niah, and thank you little one." She gently put the vest on first, then attached the leash and looked around. The mortals were none the wiser, and things were going well. She gently pet the pup and looked up at the older two demi-gods. "So, she said we have an hour right? Should we go wait at the platform or can we explore a little bit?"

---

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Nancy was probably right. The need to be on the quest to keep the team together and moving forward was more than any want to be on this trip. He looked down at his hands, staring at the bow and held on to the familiarity of it in his hand. He leaned from side to side before looking up at Nancy and nudged her with his left arm.
"For what it's worth, I'm looking forward to being on a quest with you. I don't want to leave camp mind you but if I'm going, at least we're going together." And that's what it really came down to. Their hands were tied. Their fate already sealed with this quest they were called into. To ignore it would be death and to go on it, well someone might die but they still had to go on it.
Nancy's dragon made a noise and Zeke watched her cock its head and lean towards him a bit. Zeke smiled a bit shyly and held his hand out for the dragon to inspect.
"Hey, it's Joanie, right? I'm Zeke." Slowly the others trickled back into the yard around the Big House. It was time to leave. Ezekiel nodded, watching Bryan go before scanning his eyes over the camp. Zeke didn't want to go, he was still pissed about having his life run by others but he had to go and so he would put the self pity away and fight alongside his half-sister and hopefully kick some ass and help her avenge the demons of her past. And if he got more time in with Demetri, all the better.

---

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She was just wanting to get everything over with in general, and for the most part had been all set to really go off on their little trip for a while now, and everyone else was just sort of taking a while. Janelle just wanted to get this whole thing started and head off or whatever to this weird casino place or something, whatever it was that they were supposed to be going. She still wasn't entirely sure what they were supposed to do, or where they were going, she just knew that they were going somewhere really.

"I'm all ready to go, let's just get goin so we can get dis over wit as soon as pahsseble. De faster we 'ead ahff, de faster we can get back," she said, more then happy to head off back to the Big House. Since she figured that was where they were meeting up with the other two who were going. This was definitely going to be a fun quest, totally. Personally with this group she'd prefer to have gone on one of the other quest groups then be stuck with a few of the people they were going with.

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"Dank you," he said to the ticket counter person, as they paid for their tickets in order to see about getting to San Francisco. Niah handed him his ticket, and he figured that now there was nothing left for them to really do but wait around until the scheduled departure for the train. Which meant that they were going to be sitting around a train station doing nothing for the most part, which made him a bit wary that they might run into trouble just by being there.

He couldn't help but be a little annoyed by Niah who was more or less stating a bunch of rules, most of which honestly weren't even rules but more of common sense. Of course you wouldn't want to leave the train unless absolutely necessary, since you didn't want to be left behind or anything, and not getting separated was another common sense thing. "Can you stahp pointin out de obvious dings and rules about ridin trains? Sence why would you ever want to separate frahm dahse you are travelin wit, and why leave de train befahre arrivin at your destination fahr no good reasahn?" he said to Niah, following along in the direction that was the platform for their train.

---

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She was a bit relieved that she had managed to solve the riddle. Though honestly it wasn't that surprising, it was a really easy riddle. Her attention turned towards the second riddle in general now, and she thought for a moment on what the answer to it could be. Madalyne was annoying her again, by not actually seemingly thinking about the riddle, and not figuring it out in general herself, which left her and Andy to more or less figure out the riddle in general, which was annoying, since usually three minds would be better then just two.

Before she could say anything or even give a potential answer, Andy spoke up, giving a potential answer to that riddle. Noise made sense to her, so she figured that likely was the correct answer. "That seems like the answer to me..." she mused a bit, giving Andy a smile to try and reassure her. If Andy's answer was wrong, they'd likely end up dead, but because of how this was, there was nothing that could really be done, so she did just wait to see how the Sphinx reacted.

Arthur Stanford

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Location: Pier
Skills: N/A

---

Arthur exhaled as the cyclops went down, and cursed himself under his breath. He wanted to be useful, and he quite frankly felt like he wasn't. He was just sort of, a thing for people to take care of, maybe occasionally kill something, but it didn't change the fact that he felt like a massive liability to everybody. He desperately wanted to stop being that, to be the child of one of The Big Three, to be brave and outgoing and dangerous like Andy, but, he just wasn't. Connecting with most of his powers felt like touching something dark, parts of him he just hated.

He agreed with Leda. "We can't let kids die. We gotta do something." It felt like he was just echoing her heroism, but he agreed with it. He knew he could do something that might actually make people's lives better, and he needed that. Even if he had to fight, or put his life at risk, or even summon up armies of the dead, he wouldn't let children die. That was what had to happen, and he would make sure it would.

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He heard voices behind him, some he recognized while others he hadn't one stood out the most among them, Zeke's. Even before they had started dating, the voice of Apollo's son had always caught his attention. He could hear him in a crowded room, each word spoken like poetry to Demi's ears. That is until the insults began to get slung and they started their typical bouts of wit and crass. He'd heard Bryan mention keeping Zeke out of trouble from his mouth, and Demetri wished he could retort to that. Either by saying not to worry because he'd make sure to keep his mouth busy, or simply by declaring that to be impossible and how the gods would have to create a separate quest just for that. Instead Demi simply kept his mouth shut, waving to Bryan as he left before finally standing up to meet the others atop the stairs.

"I thought I sensed a minor annoyance around. Figures it'd be Sunshine here standing behind me." He said gesturing towards Zeke. He gave his boyfriend a slight punch to the arm, possibly killing a cute sibling moment, but hopefully not further ruining any relationship he may have with Nancy. With Kristin, Cassian, and Janelle, finally meeting up and following their way, Demi had a wide grin on his face before taking a few steps down again. "Oh! Hold on before we leave, just stay there." Demetri quickly went a few paces back as he rummaged through his bag and pulled out an old Polaroid camera. Holding it up and snapping a group picture of everybody that was going on the quest. The familiar whirring sound of the camera began as the photo slid out and he quickly placed it inside his bag. "For the memories. Alright now I'm ready."

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The tips of Cassian's ear got warm as Kristin corrected him. He had wondered why they were taking two vehicles, though he didn't wish to question it. Figuring it had something to do with the scent or whatnot. But now that Kristin said it out loud, he felt almost foolish for having thought otherwise. "Right. Makes sense. Wouldn't wanna get split up by a monster attack or anything." He'd placed the item he was inspecting down, giving the two a smile. Luckily Kristin had the same idea in mind, it was time to leave.

So he followed the pair out, taking in the scenery of the camp one last time before they went off onto a quest. He hadn't thought of it before, everyone and everything one leaves behind when going off to do the bidding of the gods. He knew others would help look after the nature spirits, and that they didn't truly need his help, but he'd grown close to them and hoped they'd stay safe while he was gone. While the Big Three's presence was bad luck, it was also a wonderful monster deterrent. Some might be foolhardy enough to try and attack, but he doubted they would when all of them were present. Now all of them were about to leave, and that worried him a little. After Demi snapped a photo of them all, Cassian gave him a leveled look. "Really?"

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Grand Central Station:

The Amtrak platform was pretty crowded, there were a few little stores nearby for them to buy something if they chose to, there were some people sitting by and talking amongst themselves while they waited. There were a few benches nearby for them to sit as well to, there was also a screen nearby that showed the train's route from New York to San Francisco. There were a few stops along the route as well to, for other passengers to get on and leave as well to.

"PUPPY!" A kid that was no older than maybe four or so quickly running over to Stella and started to pet the little puppy not even caring about the service dog in training vest. Stella's puppy was clearly loving the attention as well licking the kids hand, nearby was a woman with short hair and wearing a pair of sunglasses talking on her phone not even paying attention to her child petting the dog she looked oddly enough like a stereotypical Karen. However there was something off with the kid, and the three of them could see that the kid had a single eye the kid was clearly a cyclops as well to.

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Kiera took a moment and stared at the State ID's that were there before putting them away as she looked between her girlfriend and Arthur, she had to agree with the two of them that they shouldn't let the kids to suffer the fate of becoming cyclops chow. "I agree then we should take out their operation." Kiera said to the two of them as she looked at the car, they had the taxi and they could drive back to the place where their cyclops driver was going to most likely try and kidnap them.

"I guess you are driving then love. Once we get there we should scout out the area first in case there are any kind of traps and see how many we are dealing with to."[ Kiera said as she quickly opened the front passenger seat door and got inside, she really did need to get her driver's license. Maybe once this whole quest thing was over she'd start studying for it that way she wouldn't have to rely on her girlfriend driving all the time in case they did go out on another quest together further into the future.

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Madalyne looked over at her niece as she started to think of the riddle a little bit before nodding, she didn't get the answer to the riddle but she had to assume that was the actual answer. When the Sphinx let out a rather annoyed growl and a hissing sound staring at the three Demi-Gods. "The answer is correct." The Sphinx said to the three of them glaring as she started to slowly circle around the three of them. "Now for the final riddle." The Sphinx said as she started to think of one before looking at the three of them and spoke up once more. "What is black when you buy it, red when you use it and gray when you throw it away?"

Madalyne quickly started to think of it, before realizing what the answer actually was. "It's charcoal, starts black whenever you buy it, turns red whenever it is in a fire, and then is gray and brittle once it's burnt out." Madalyne told the Sphinx as she let out another hissing sound and glared at the three of them, before grinning maniacally. "You answered correctly." She said as she started to get into a pouncing position glaring at the three of them. "But I am very hungry and haven't had a good meal in such a long time." She said before running directly towards Mary. Madalyne quickly used her magic to create a barrier between the Sphinx and Mary as the massive monster crashed into it completely stunned letting out a hissing sound as it was disoriented from crashing into the barrier.

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Joanie inspected Zeke's hand as he held it out to her giving it a few little sniffs before leaning forward and bit into Zeke's finger which would hurt like hell and drew a little bit of blood. Joanie looking rather proud and let out a few chirping sounds like it was laughing as she nuzzled back into Nancy's shoulder giving Zeke a slight glare, for some reason the little dragon didn't like him clearly. Kristin looked at the group as Demi decided to take a group photo of them, she didn't mind it though she'd rather have permission first really. "Lets get going if we are all ready." Kristin said as she started to make her way over towards the van seeing Argus standing just outside the van waiting for the group to get in.

Upon seeing Kristin Argus started to make his way back into the driver's seat and started up the van again Kristin quickly went over and got into the back seat of the van while waiting for the rest of the group to come and join her. Once everyone was inside the van Argus started to drive and out onto the road and back into the city for the second time today.

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Joanie didn’t seem to be a fan of Zeke as after sniffing his offered hand, she bit his finger. Zeke sucked in a breath and snatched his hand back, examining the wound to his finger. Dragon bites didn’t carry any diseases but it still hurt.
”Bloody gods, Joanie! That really hurt!” He cursed. Zeke frowned and looked away in time to be punched in the arm by Demetri. He gave his boyfriend a look and an eye roll, keeping up with the pretense that they weren’t dating. He still needed to talk to Janelle.
”What you sensed was greatness. I can understand how it might seem like an annoyance to you since you don’t have any.” Zeke smirked and looked away, noting Argus moving towards the van. He turned to ask Nancy if she wanted to sit together when Demi announced a group photo.
The group didn’t really have any time to form a pose of any kind so Zeke tried his best to smile and keep his eyes open before Demi snapped the picture. Who knows how it turned out. Zeke turned back to Nancy after.
”Do you want to sit together?”

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Stella had been so distracted by the cute little puppy now in her arms that she had missed a bit of what Niah had said earlier, mostly about staying together and staying on the train, and so she hadn't minded it until Jason pointed it out. She was sure Niah had mostly been saying those things for her sake, and she felt a little ashamed that she had not listened to her, and it had just irritated Jason instead of being helpful. She gently pet her puppy, still feeling ashamed until a much younger child walked up and started petting her puppy. She was about to say something when she noticed the fact the child only had one eye.

Stella couldn't remember what they were called, but she knew they were monsters, even if the child looked so innocent at that point. Her puppy was clearly loving the attention, but she was afraid. "Hey, sorry but you can't pet the puppy right now, he's on duty and learning how to do his job." She gently shifted and moved away, closer to Niah and Jason, just in case anything happened. She could see the kid's mother was wearing sunglasses and not paying attention at all to her child. Stella could only hope that the child would leave after being told he couldn't keep petting, as she waited to see what would happen.

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Demi rolled his eyes back at Zeke. Out of the two, Zeke had always been more quick witted and tended to have the last word at times. Though Demetri would like to believe it was more of a 50/50 split on the banter wins. He walked up towards the group that was now fully formed and waiting on their driver. Janelle seemed to be off to herself, Zeke and Nancy were sibling bonding, and Cassian and Kristin were patiently waiting for Argus to arrive. As Argus began to pull up with the van, Demetri immediately noticed the logo and display off the side panels.

A part of him wished there weren't any actual strawberries inside that van. Sure it was likely just a cover to allow them to go in and out unnoticed under the guise of a delivery service. But if the van was actually used for strawberry delivery and any scent remained, well, he wondered how well Zeke would cope with that. He'd made it very clear to Demi before his distaste for the scent of one of Demetris favorite fruits. It made sense though, but he worried any lingering scents might make Zeke car sick. Once it finally stopped, Demetri made his way into the van, scooting down and leaving space for Nancy and Zeke to sit next to him.

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Cassian watched as most them all mingled amongst one another. The nervousness of the mission beginning to sink in more and more by the minute. He took in a deep breathe, going over a mental list of everything he'd gathered just before arriving here. Whether or not he'd gotten everything he wanted however didn't matter anymore, as Argus began to pull the van back into camp, driving towards them and getting out before realizing there was now yet another group of quest goers ready to embark on their own journey. The thought got caught in his mind, as he looked towards Demetri for a second.

Supposedly having a Big Three kid show up meant something big would happen soon. Having four show up must've meant something even more disastrous. And as he stood there thinking about all four quests now being handed it, the gods being at war with themselves, and the fall of Rome, it was clear those superstitions held some sort of merit. Cassian began to make his way towards the van, making sure to pass Zeke on the way there, stopping just short of Apollo's son. "I got some trick arrows for the quest. I can share some with you once we've left the van and are on the road. Don't need a smoke arrow to accidentally go off inside while Argus is driving."

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Nancy had never really felt an actual sibling-like bond with any of her siblings before. She didn't have any siblings from her mortal side (at least, none that she knew of and Nancy didn't care to look), and she had far too many to keep track of from her godly side. Zeke and maybe Alexandra were the only two that Nancy really considered to be her siblings in the traditional sense - it was something more than just being connected as a child of Apollo. "You're the only Greek that doesn't make me want to gag myself with a spoon," Nancy said with a slight shrug.

Nancy bit back a slightly mischievous smile as Joanie bit Zeke's finger. "Good girl, Joanie," Nancy whispered, giving her dragon an affectionate pet on the head. She didn't actually want Joanie to hurt Zeke, but she was slightly amused that Joanie had bit Zeke - in the same way a mortal kid might've been a little bit amused by a cat nipping at their sibling.

A moment later, the Jupiter kid took a group photo - Nancy didn't intend it, but she ended up having a serious case of resting bitch face in the photograph. She shrugged slightly at Zeke's offer to sit next to him, but it wasn't a dismissive shrug - paradoxically, it was Nancy's way of assenting. She overheard the Bacchus kid - his presence sent a chill down her spine - offering some arrows to Zeke. She didn't like that a Bacchus kid would be on this quest. The Lotus Hotel and Casino... that horrific place... it was everything that Bacchus idolized.

And that terrified Nancy.

She got into the van, taking the offered seat next to Zeke, with Joanie curled up in her lap.

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Leda was chuffed to see that both Kiera and Arthur agreed with her read of the situation - she had honestly been expecting some pushback. She had figured that they'd both be antsy to focus on their actual quest, rather than going off and getting sidetracked. Leda though wasn't too concerned about the waste of time personally; in her experience, quests tended to work themselves out anyways. There would be inevitable delays, at least this would be one that they could choose. And when they needed to be somewhere, she trusted that they would be there.

"Right, back in you lot," Leda said. Her sword reverted to a necklace around her neck and she hopped back into the driver's seat of the cab. Once Kiera and Arthur were in, she drove them towards the place they had narrowly escaped. Hopefully the cyclopses (or whoever was there) would assume that they'd given a bit of a struggle before being overpowered. "Be on your guard, you too - cyclopses are big and dumb, but they're nasty motherfuckers," Leda warned. "One good hit to the head and they'll knock you out cold."

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A group picture? Seriously? Who the hell did that sort of thing anyway? It was a bit idiotic in her mind, seriously why would you want to do that sort of thing at this point? What was he planning on doing, making a scrapbook or something like that? She didn't say anything immediately with regards to it, at least not right now. She figured that she could just sort of continuing ignoring Demetri and Zeke for the entirety of the quest considering they were currently in a decent sized group of people for it.

They were heading off for the van now, and she personally just wanted to see about getting this entire quest over and done with. Make their lives a whole lot easier, since then they could then go back to not worrying about that sort of thing. Janelle followed the others to get into the van, finding the first available seat that she could. If she knew exactly what seats everyone else was in, she likely would have gone for the seat farthest from Demetri and Zeke, but since she didn't want to mess to much with specifics or trying to get to a different spot, she just took the closest seat there.

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He figured that they might as well get moving on towards their destination in general, well, hopefully anyway. They still had some time to kill before their train left the station, which meant that they had to just sit around and wait a little bit for it so they could move on. Jason wasn't paying too much attention to everyone else in the station around the group, so it took a moment for him to even notice the other kid who had come running up to see about petting Stella's new puppy.

Something looked a bit odd about the kid, and it took a moment to notice the one eye that the kid had, and that made him a bit wary of the kid. He wasn't too well versed on anything relating to mythology, so he had no idea how this entire interaction really could go. Not to mention, the kid's mom who didn't seem to be paying attention to what was going on, so she could potentially turn on them in a second too, but there wasn't much he could really do, aside from hope that the cyclops would leave or something like that.

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Well, they seemed to be doing alright with the riddles so far, so they actually had a decent shot at surviving this whole thing with it really. She was about to give another answer, when this time, Madalyne decided to actually give a full answer instead of her and Andy doing all the work on the riddles. That was fun, wait until the last possible moment to actually seemingly do something helpful. Made sense, trying to seemingly be the person to get them out of trouble or something like that right?

"Wow, rude to go back on your word don't you think?" she instantly said after the Sphinx decided to try and attack her, but Madalyne decided to be ore helpful for once and actually put up some sort of barrier to protect her from getting hit. Mary instantly drew her sword, and went charging straight at the Sphinx. The creature was fairly quick and managed to dodge out of the way of several of her sword slashes. However she did manage to give it a good slash across one of its eyes, at least managing to hit the thing.

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Andy froze for a second. A moment of indicesion, fight or flight. She picked flight. She ran for a gate that she saw, but when she got there it was locked. She rattled the gate some. Then turned back to face the others and the Sphynx. This thing was huge, but she had done a lot of fighting in her short life.

She pulled her knife from her bracelet. Wishing she had Arthur with her. They had gotten some good strategies made over the last year. She didn't want to throw her knife and then not be able to retrieve it. Knives were too much for close combat. She started to pull at the air to create electricity. Not yet losing it on the Sphynx.




"Sure, fine. No more advice." Niah said. Her voice was cold. She struggled to keep her emotion in check. She hadn't been trying to be an ass about it. She just knew that neither of them had been on a quest before. And Stella is a little kid. s

Niah was quickly distracted from her rising anger when she noticed the kid who had come up to pet Stella's strange dog. She frowned as she realized the kid was actually a cyclops. It was a toddler one basically. Niah knew most of the time cyclopses would abandon their kids when they were babies. Some ideas crossed her mind as she assessed the room.

If they could take the cyclopse with them it would sort of scare away other monsters. Overriding the urge of monsters to attack, even with the cyclopse so young. She hoped though, as Stella told him no petting the dog, that the kid wouldn't Hulk out on them.

Arthur Stanford

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Location: Pier
Skills: N/A

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Arthur nodded at the advice. He could deal with somebody being stronger than him, in fact, if he was smarter than them, he preferred it. If they were bigger than him, then he was probably faster, and could keep distance and attack with his knife at range. This felt safe, compared to the total warfare at the battle of Camp Jupiter. He felt a kind of adrenaline; a part of him knew how to fight, knew how to slay monsters and be a hero, it was literally in him. He didn't like that part much, but it was one that he was willing to indulge if it meant keeping people safe.

He ran over the tools he had in his head for the upcoming encounter. He had his knife, something he could use to attack at range, of course, but if he could control metal, there was a good chance that the surrounding area itself would be something he could use to fight. He was pretty settled on not using his necromantic powers, and he couldn't think of anything but a life or death situation that would lead to him employing them here. It felt like a principal that he was adhering to, one that wouldn't be easily shaken, Arthur Stanford wanted to never raise the dead again.

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Grand Central Station:

The little cyclops looked up at Stella and glared at her with it's one eye before screaming out. "Mooooooooooom they won't let me pet their puppy!" The baby cyclops yelled which ended up getting the Karen Cyclops' attention and stood up before pausing for a moment and started to sniff the air. She then turned to face the three demigods taking off her glasses revealing her single eye and glared at the three of them. "We are going to have some dinner tonight." She said to her evil little crotch goblin as he looked at the three of them, before trying to snatch the puppy out of Stella's hand. The puppy started getting distressed and bit into the cyclops hand and wriggled out of Stella's arms and ran off to hide under one of the chairs nearby.

"The puppy bit me mommy!" The child cyclops yelled before running over to his mother, which made her angry and charged forward grabbing Jason and started growling before throwing him into a nearby wall, turning her attention towards Niah. "I'll turn the three of you into a tasty stew!" She yelled at Niah and Stella.

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Kiera smiled towards her girlfriend and nodded as quickly climbed into the front seat next to her girlfriend, she took a moment to look around the front seat once more, it was rather nasty as well. There was half eaten food on the floor, which made her cringe slightly and it did smell a little bit. "Eww the front seat smells like shit." Kiera said as they ended up making their way back to where they would have been kidnapped. The area itself looked like a warehouse of sorts, there were a few trucks and whatnot driving through as well the outside seemed to be lightly guarded for now.

Kiera managed to get out of the front seat as well grabbing the case of state ID's and driver's licenses of their fellow demigods, Kiera then paused for a moment and noticed something slightly odd. There were a few cyclops as well as some demigods who appeared to be in chains as they were unloading some of the trucks nearby, while there were other cyclops that seemed to be in charge. Leda would notice a rather young looking cyclops who was also on the chain with other prisoners it was Hercules the cyclops that Leda, Kristin and Zeke had rescued. "So whats the gameplan?" Kiera asked looking over at her girlfriend.

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The Sphinx hissed and yowled in pain as she held her bad eye now, Mary managed to gouge out one of it's eyes which was a good thing then Madalyne looked towards Mary. She watched as Andy started to make a run towards the gate, it was locked shut pretty tightly as the Sphinx turned it's only good eye now towards Andy and smirked. "You should never trust anyone who uses riddles." She said looking at Mary, before charging over towards Andy.

Madalyne saw the Sphinx going after her niece and she quickly did the same thing she had done with Mary and managed to create a shield wall in front of Andy. The Sphinx hissed as she ran into it, and backed up slightly stunned, shaking her head slightly as Madalyne charged forward with her sword drawn out and attempted to swing it at her, but missed as the Sphinx managed to hit Madalyne with her tail, knocking the demigod onto her back a few feet away as she groaned slightly dazed.

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Kristin was a little bit annoyed with the photo, she chose to take a seat in the back taking off her backpack and setting it onto the ground, the van was a little bit cramped as the rest of the group started to get into the van now. Once everyone was inside of the van now and Argus started up the van again and started to pull out onto the road making their way towards the city. Kristin looked towards Janelle who sat down next to her and gently patted her on the shoulder. She thought for a moment as she looked at the rest of the group as they were in their seats.

This was now her third quest and turned her attention to Janelle. "So how do you feel about your second quest?" Kristin asked Janelle, as she looked out the window as the scenery moved by. Joanie was curled up in Nancy's lap and continued to eye Zeke as if she was contemplating on whether to eat him or set him on fire, before curling up and fell asleep in Nancy's lap.