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Nancy didn't really know what to say when she was told just why those giant ugly skyscrapers weren't there anymore. Had she not been a Roman demigod, she might've even been in disbelief. But she was used to seeing things rise and fall - her own home had burned to the ground. "Grody," Nancy finally decided on. She didn't feel like asking more questions about it. The world had changed while she had been gone - and it was going to keep on changing no matter what she did, provided that it didn't end.

Besides, the conversation was quickly changing as the Jupiter kid asked to go sightseeing. Nancy did a bit of a double take. Sure, she could understand a desire to see the world - but that was for when the world wasn't in imminent danger of burning to a crisp. "Zeke is right - we don't have time for that," Nancy said sharply. "You can see New York from the window of whatever train or bus we take. Grand Central Station sounds perfect. Let's go." She didn't leave any room for argument.

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Leda's eyes widened as the teenaged cyclops charged at her and hugged her tightly, declaring her mommy. Leda's memory was admittedly a bit hazy on the matter, but she was fairly certain they had killed Hercules' actual mother. And in no way did Leda consider him to be her son. She didn't intend on having kids and was fairly certain that the universe could only thank her for that decision. "Nice to see you too, Herc," Leda wheezed, finding it difficult to catch her breath from how tightly he was hugging her. "Mind letting me down then, mate? We've still got work to do, the rest of the bastards ran on in."

Arthur at least seemed to have freed most of the captives, though about a dozen or so still needed to be helped. Leda would've offered to help out with a few well placed blasts of rainbow light to see if that could get the chains off - if not that then some whacks with Ultraviolet ought to do it - but she was tied up herself. And she didn't want to hurt Hercules. He wasn't her kid, but she didn't want to see him hurt - she wasn't an asshole, after all.

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Everyone was talking about going off on history lessons on what has happened in the past. It was kind of sad really that the whole thing had to be explained more or less when they were in the country where it happened. She'd even heard about that sort of thing, and she'd been raised on a different continent. It was a bit strange, but she said nothing about it. Right now she wanted to go off somewhere else and not be around this group still, and she listened as some people mentioned heading to the train station or something to head off somewhere.

That was fine with her, but her attention was drawn away by Zeke, who decided to actually more or less acknowledge that she was around. Janelle shook her head when he asked about talking. "No, naht really. Why dahn't you talk to your boyfriend, you're so ahbvious you dahn't need to see sahmethin to be able to tell. Ahr was dat suppahsed to be sahme secret, you gettin yelled at earlier and fahr what reasahn was all anyone would talk about" she responded, before going back to ignoring his existence and hearing others chastise Demetri for talking about going sight seeing. "Grand Central Station wahrks fahr me let's go."

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"De lady drahpped 'er purse, so let's see if she 'ad anythin useful inside," he commented when Niah eventually rejoined them. It didn't surprise him too much that she ended up coming straight back, since it made no sense considering there was the chance of her missing the train entirely if she chose to continue going after him. So common sense dictated that she would come back to the pair of them. He actually wasn't sure what they would have done if Niah hadn't come back.

Taking a second, Jason opened up the purse to look inside of the bag, and he was not expecting as much as he did within it. There was enough to help them to get to their destination and probably even more. "'uh, dis seems like it'll be 'elpful to us in de lahng run... and let's 'ahpe dat de ahther cyclahps dahn't show up," he said, looking at the other two. This was going to definitely be a fun quest.

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Mary thought that the map looked interesting to say the least, she wasn't sure what all to really do at this point, since the Labyrinth was just that, a labyrinth. It was a maze, and it would not be an easy feat to get through the labyrinth and not get trapped or something like that within it. So a map, no matter how confusing it looked to be, was going to be incredibly useful in genera. That was a nice thing in general.

"So... What sort of question should I ask the magical map? What is this Dora the Explorer where we talk to inanimate objects and they talk back giving us the answers?" she said that last part with a bit of a laugh, looking at the map still. Mary didn't know what to really think of this whole thing. Eventually, she settled on asking the map a question, "Where is Hades' sword?" she asked the map.

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Grand Central Station:

A few minutes had passed and seemed that the little cyclops and it's father hadn't come back, and then there was an announcement over the loudspeaker. "Train now arriving." As the train then came to a slow rolling stop at the platform, as the conductor got off and helped some of the passengers off of the train and onto the platform itself. It took a few minutes until those who were getting off had gotten off, and the other passengers who were getting on were allowed to board now. There were a few seats that were open. There were a few room compartments that seemed empty while some of them were filled, along with the regular coach seats that were empty. Arbor had fallen asleep in Stella's arms like nothing had happened with the entitled cyclops family.

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"Yep of course sorry mommy!" Hercules said as he quickly released Leda setting her back down onto the ground, Kiera looked at Arthur for a moment he seemed to be really still and quiet, she sighed slightly as she made her way over towards some of the other chained demigods and started to whack at the chain. Kiera started to groan slightly getting annoyed that she couldn't break the chains, as Hercules decided to go and help with the redhead demigod and managed to break some of the remaining chains.

Then there was some loud banging before the other cyclops who had fled came out wearing what looked like junk as makeshift armor, brandishing some clubs as well to one of them had a massive hellhound on a chained leash growling angrily. Kiera managed to break some of the chains now and released the remaining demigods.

"There's a taxi in the nearby alleyway go there until it's clear." Kiera told them as they nodded and quickly fled the scene. "Ready for round two love?" Kiera asked looking over to Leda, as the cyclops started to charge at the group, one of them barely missing Leda with it's massive club, and one of them went to attack Hercules hitting the young cyclops with it's club. One of the cyclops had charged at Kiera knocking her to the ground feeling the wind getting knocked out of her as the cyclops was about to stomp on her, she barely managed to roll out of the way as it's foot slammed down on the ground.

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"Well I mean we live in a world with Roman gods, and monsters and stuff like that it wouldn't be to far fetched if the map suddenly started to talk on it's own." Madalyne said with a slight laugh as she held the torch slightly closer to get a better look at the map, as Mary asked her question. The map still constantly changed and shifted, however one thing that didn't change however was where their intended location to find the sword was. A small sword symbol appeared in the center of the map in a single room that never changed on the map, which looked to be the heart of the labyrinth.

In the corner of the map appeared to be a compass of swords that started to point towards the right slightly down the hallway that was where it was most likely leading the group where they needed to go. There was however what sounded like a loud growling sound coming from the left hallway. "I smell food nearby." Was a voice that came echoing down the hallway. "We should get going who knows how many there are coming this way." Madalyne suggested she wasn't sure if that was one monster or more down the left hallway.

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"You know you could have taken a trip to the city at anytime you've been at camp right?" Kristin said to Demi, Camp Half-Blood was at least an hour or so drive away from the city itself. However leaving camp without a quest was always constantly risky as well to, she looked towards the others and nodded. "Alright then follow me it's not that far." Kristin said, she looked over her shoulder towards Janelle as Zeke tried to talk to her. She kind of did feel bad for Zeke however it was probably something that they should have talked about before they left on their quest.

As they walked down the sidewalk only Demitri would be able to see an attractive woman across the street, she would give him a smile and a slight wave and an impish smile across her face. He would start to feel like he was loosing his grip slightly on his ability to transform his hair started growing longer ever so slightly. When he looked away the woman would disappear.

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Demi couldn't believe what he was hearing from Zeke. And that meant a lot given that he believed two pantheons of gods existed and bore children throughout the world and ages that sparked political climates one could only dream of. Nancy's tone wasn't any better. Was anyone going to back him up on this? Surely Kristin would want to see some historical sites at least. Right? Demetri hadn't heard any of the conversation that transpired between Janelle and Zeke. More focused on the assault upon his line of questioning.

The final straw was when Kristin had joined in. Telling him he apparently could've gone whenever he'd wished to go sightseeing. Had he known that he'd of tried to plan a date for he and Zeke a while back. "Well sorry that wasn't exactly in the camp brochure now was it? But thanks for telling me I can leave whenever I'd like, hadn't known that tidbit of information till now." So far the quest wasn't going as he'd thought, but he silently followed behind as Kristin led the way.

His footsteps began to slow as he noticed an odd woman across the street. She'd waved at him with a smile, that felt oddly devious for a total stranger. He began to feel his grip on his power slipping, worry running rampant inside as he patted himself down quietly to try and not raise suspicion. "Um. Heh, did uh, did you guys see that chick over there?" He looked back to point to where she had been but she was gone. "Wait. No. She was there a second ago. But I think…somethings wrong with my powers." He said as he reached up and gently patted at his hair to make the itch go away.

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Cassian would be lying if he said he didn't want to have a look around the city. He was curious about the Nymphs, Satyrs, and other woodland spirits that resided within Central Park. Given the rest of the city was a concrete jungle, how did they cope? How did they feel about the situation? But everyone was right, this was a quest and they had to remove as many obstacles as they could otherwise someone would get seriously injured, or die. Besides, how was it that Janelle had put it earlier? He would rather do the sightseeing with almost any other group. A few were fine, mainly Janelle and Kristin, but the other three he didn't quite care for. Nancy seemed to have a dislike for him, Demi was too much of a child of three, and Zeke…was an ass.

When Demetri alerted them all to some woman that Cassian never even caught a glance of, he paused for a moment. He could feel something. Someone was tugging at the strings of Chaos and it somehow involved Demetri. There was a heavy sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose before he addressed everyone. "Unfortunately mini-zeus isn't lying. Or crazy for that matter. I can feel something's off. Someone's trying to throw a wrench in our plans already. Call it…a passive effect of my powers." He stared at the spot where Demi said someone had stood, but no one remained aside from the bustling civilians. "We should move. Whoever it was has already left clearly."

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Andy watched the map shifting. It put a marker in a room and then gave them an indication of which way to go. That was cool. She couldn't help but think that. Sure, Aunt Mads was right. They lived in a world aware of the gods and magic. But sometimes, seeing it was still wild.

Her stomach twisted as they heard the growling and voice from the left hallway. She knew at some point during their time here in the Labyrinth, her aunt would be taken from her. She also knew that should be after they got the sword. But that didn't make that knowledge any easier to bear. She hated and feared it.

She started down the right hallway slowly until both Mary and Mads were walking. Then she picked up her pace.




Niah let out a low whistle. That was not an insignificant amount of money. The cards would probably be quickly useless. But maybe they could use them to withdraw cash somewhere. She considered her feelings about stealing and using the cards. Decided it was from a monster, and they would be unlikely to be able to keep up with the train. In the long run, it had been a prize for defeating the monster. So it was fair game.

She picked one of the cabins when they could finally board the train. They were going to want the bed-like seats and privacy. She figured they should still have a sleep watch, even on the train. And with the privacy of the room, they would be able to talk without worrying about being overheard. Though Niah knew couching their language into game terms, no one really double took on kids talking about mystical things.

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Ezekiel just stood there for a moment, stunned when Janelle called him out like that. He couldn't tell if she wasn't surprised, hurt or pissed. Ezekiel opened his mouth and closed it several times, looking like a fish dying on dry land. He shifted his feet and rubbed the back of his neck, feeling lower than the Underworld right now.
"O…okay… For what it's worth, I did really like you…like that. I'm…I'm sorry." Ezekiel backed away from Janelle, giving her more than enough space between the two of them.
He kept moving back until he stood closer to Nancy. He stood on the side furthest from Janelle, wishing for nothing more than to be able to bury his head in the ground.
Of course Janelle had heard about Zeke leaving Demi's cabin earlier that morning. The whole bloody camp had. He should have just gone to her right away, instead he hoped she would hear him out. He had never deserved her anyway, what with him messing with Demetri behind closed doors anyways.

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Stella looked over at the bag, her eyes going wide a bit. That was a lot of coins, and she recognized those pieces of plastic as credit cards, that they could easily use as they looked to be those tap ones that didn't need signatures. Well, that was about to make up for the fact that they almost missed their train, and would cover some travel costs they might accrue on their trip across the country. Thankfully, it seemed that none of the cyclops family was going to follow them, so they could even board the train without worry or interruption.

She went to board the train with them, and smiled as she noticed that Arbor was asleep in her arms, thankfully calm after the run in with the cyclops Karen and her kid. She followed the other two as they picked out one of the sleeping cabins on the train, and gently set her pooch down onto one of the seats. She looked around the cabin, and gently moved to take her backpack off her back and set it down, before sitting as well. "So, what do we do now?"

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Nancy had genuinely had no opinion on Demetri really before this, but she was starting to form one now. He was annoying as shit. His whining about sightseeing and whatnot made Nancy want to gag him with a spoon. And then, apparently he had seen some girl across the street and suddenly couldn't control his gifts, resulting in... his hair starting to grow? Nancy didn't understand it. If he wanted attention, surely there were better ways to go after it? She also didn't understand why Zeke was infatuated with him. Men were weird. No, boys were weird.

She raised an eyebrow as Bacchus' kid explained that Demetri hadn't been lying - that someone was working against them already. She opened her mouth, before shaking her head slightly and closing it. Whoever it was, they were gone already. If the worst thing they could do was make Demetri's hair grow a few inches, she wasn't going to be worried about it. "I can cut your hair with my knives, if that would make you feel better," Nancy offered. It wasn't clear if she was mocking Demi or actually trying to be nice and helpful.

They then arrived at Grand Central station. The front entrance had a massive statue on top of a giant clock, and it took Nancy a moment to recognize who it was depicting - Mercury. "Tuere nos, Mercuri," Nancy whispered under her breath, a quiet prayer to the god.

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Leda groaned as Hercules called her mommy again. She had hoped that it was an accidental one time thing maybe, but now it seemed clear - he thought of her as his mother. Leda, on the other hand, thought of him as the cyclops kid whose life they had almost ruined by accident one time before sending him along to safety. "Call me Leda, LEH-da," Leda told the cyclops. If he called her mommy one more time, then she'd snap at him. But hopefully this small correction would be enough to stop this worrisome trend. "Arthur, snap out of it or get out of here!" she then shouted, as combat resumed as a gaggle of cyclopses came on out.

One of the cyclopses charged at Leda, swinging a gigantic club that she deftly ducked underneath to dodge. In the blink of an eye, Leda was off running at superspeed again, breathing a bit hard due to all of the stamina she was burning through. She slashed through the cyclops that had attacked her, turning him into monster dust - and then repeated this trick four more times, taking out more than half of the cyclopses who appeared. When she came to a stop, sweat was pouring down her forehead, and her sword arm felt like it was on fire. She badly needed a rest - hopefully they'd make short work of this and then they could chill out for a while.

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She was honestly a bit surprised with how bluntly she had more or less called him out for everything. It was a bit difficult for her not to, it did hurt a bit, she wasn't going to lie about that. Not to mention most people usually never saw past the fact that she was blind, ironically they never seemed to really see her for who she was. Hence, she never actually really ended up in a relationship with anyone, and that usually meant she never actually really had felt any real feelings like that toward everyone either. She thought that things with Zeke were a bit different, but apparently she was wrong. That's what happened when, as her brother would put it, she wouldn't be able to really tell a lie or anything even if it was right in front of her. That always was her major downfall, she always trusted what people said or how they acted, never easily thinking that they could be lying to her, at least not at first.

Janelle listened to Zeke's words, and once again, she wasn't entirely sure whether she could believe them or anything. It certainly didn't seem like he was lying, and him not saying anything or even really talking to her for most of the day didn't exactly add to his credibility in that regard. "If it seemed like you actually cared at all about anythin we'd be 'avin a defferent cahnversation... sence you clearly ahnly seem to care fahr yourself and no one else," she responded to him. She wasn't usually this mean or rude to anyone, ever. Generally she typically was a kind person, but even though her words seemed like they'd sting or bite, they didn't. Her voice was a bit shaky as she spoke those words, wavering a bit, and it actually looked like she might cry.

Her attention was drawn away from Zeke (as she heard him walk away) and towards the other bits of commotion that was going on, namely it was all surrounding Demetri, because of course it was. She had no idea what it was that he was going on about, but everyone was still heading along to the train station, so she just ensured that she didn't stray to far away from the group as they got there.

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The money was a nice bonus for defeating the Karen cyclops, so that was a nice thing. He also couldn't help but wonder why monsters were running around using credit cards for whatever reason. Then again, they had been a cyclops family of sorts, so maybe they had an apartment or whatever around? That still struck him as a bit weird to think about, made him wonder just how many monsters were living in plain sight, it was just strange to think about in his opinion, but oh well, not something he wanted to dwell on right now for very long.

The announcement about the train arriving was a good thing, since it meant they could hurry up and move along, get out of there and hopefully not have to deal with too much trouble, at least immediately anyway, from the cyclops family, or well, what was left of it. Jason followed along after the other two, heading onto the train, and following along until they came to a compartment, which made things better for them. They at least would have some privacy and all at least.

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"I mean true, but also this is just proving we might as well be in Dora the Explorer, anyone have a talking backpack to go along with the magical map that even seems to mark where we need to go?" Mary asked as a bit of a joke, as she watched the map swirl around and eventually saw it put a mark on the map, pointing somewhat to where exactly they wanted to go. This map was definitely oddly convenient, she wasn't entirely sure if they were just lucky, or if this was leading them into a trap.

She looked at the compass that appeared, wanting to have them go down the right pathway. The sounds of monsters coming closer was not exactly pleasant, and she instantly started walking that way. Her mind was racing, and she was keeping her eye out a bit, hoping that they wouldn't get jumped by monsters for any reason, or without there being some warning. Yeah, dying in this weird maze was not something that she felt like doing. Not now, not ever. She very much preferred living.

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Amtrak Train:

The window to their private cabin happened to be open as the three of them could hear a rather loud yell. "Where are the puny demigods that killed by wife?!" It yelled and if either of them looked out the window they would see a cyclops that looked a lot like a stereotypical hillbilly coveralls and everything with a cowboy hat. The kid cyclops from earlier stopped and sniffed the air and pointed towards the car. "I smell them in there!" He yelled loudly, just as the train started to move the cyclops threw what looked like a half eaten sandwich at the side of the car, some of it hitting the window as the train started to leave the station behind and speed started to pick up.

Inside the cabin was rather comfortable there was a set of seats for them to sit on along with two beds, one twin sized bed on one side of the room, and then a single full sized bed on the other side of the cabin as well. There was also a tv that they could watch on the one side of the cabin as well to. But then they could hear something landing on the train rather loudly a couple of feet away from their cabin, then it was suddenly quiet again.

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"Okay mo-." Hercules was about to say before quickly correcting himself. "Leda" Hercules said as he charged forward towards the other cyclops and managed to punch him hard enough that the other cyclops quickly burst into dust. Kiera stared at Arthur for a moment rolling her eyes slightly at him. She wasn't going to babysit him at all as Kiera managed to use some of the water that was left on the ground and slammed it into the remaining cyclops. One of them being knocked into one of the trucks nearby, and the other onto the floor, they both burst into dust rather quickly as Kiera dodged out of the way from the hellhound that was attacking her, swinging one of her swords into its side as it burst into dust.

The last of the cyclopses had been dealt with as Kiera took a moment and breathed in deeply looking over towards her girlfriend and then over at Hercules. They seemed to know one another, she assumed that Hercules could be trusted then as Kiera watched the kids that they have saved and turned towards her girlfriend. "What should we do about the kids?" Kiera asked she didn't really like the idea of having to make the drive back to Camp Half-Blood to turn these kids over to Chiron.

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Madalyne took a moment and looked at Mary with a slightly confused look, she wasn't sure who or what Dora the Explorer was since she was actually born way before the show was even a thing. "Probably a really stupid question but who is Dora the Explorer?" Madalyne decided to ask Mary and Andy as she continued to follow them down the hallway. That was until then that they were led into a rather large room with a small bridge in the center of it. And below was what looked to be an endless abyss below it, most likely straight to the Underworld or even Tatartarus itself.

At the far end of the room they would be able to see a group of monsters they hadn't noticed the three of them at all just yet or heard them either. There was of course still the sound of the monsters that had managed to catch their scent and were following them now, as the voices came through the hallway that they had came from. There was a flight of stairs just below them that led them into another hallway as well the compass at the map pointed towards both locations, either way seemed to be viable it seems.

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Kristin wasn't sure what was actually going on at all really as she listened to the others speaking, she did notice that Demi's hair was starting to grow by the looks of it. She wasn't sure who the person Demi had seen at all, she looked between Janelle, Zeke and Demetri for a moment, she rubbed the back of her neck slightly as she watched Janelle and Zeke talking to one another. There was deftintly a lot of tension between the two of them, though Kristin didn't want to get involved really as they made it to Grand Central. She decided to stand next to Janelle, she could hear her voice wavering ever so slightly she considered Janelle to be a friend. "Are you alright Janelle?" Kristin asked quietly enough for only Janelle to hear as she looked around the room, there were a lot of people traveling it seems.

Demetri's changes were continuing to change, as Demi's hair had grown out now past his shoulders, and if he talked his voice started to sound a lot more feminine. If he looked at a nearby mirror or something that casted a reflection, the woman who he had seen turned him into Femme Demi, the same look that he had used months ago when Demi during his first few days back at camp. Kristin then paused for a moment when she realized who Demi had seen, it was most likely Aphrodite the goddess thrived off of relationships and relationship drama.

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Janelle's next words hit Ezekiel incredibly hard. It was the persona he had portrayed when he first started at camp but this last year, Zeke had been really making an effort to change that. Janelle had seemed to be one who really understood him and that allowed him to feel comfortable in relaxing the walls he had built up. However, it didn't seem like Janelle knew him at all. She was hurting, that much was obvious and although Zeke was a healer, there was nothing he could do about this.
He shuffled along, following the group but he didn't really acknowledge anything in particular until Nancy offered to cut Demetri's hair. Frowning in confusion, Ezekiel looked up and over to Demi to see a girl where Demi should have been. Unfortunately, Zeke couldn't pretend he didn't know who that was. He knew this girl very well even if he had only seen her once. He grabbed his wrist, the one where the bracelet she had given him rested. He stared at her in utter confusion before speaking.
"Demetri?"

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Going down the path, Andy snorted when Mads asked who Dora the Explorer was. Then she realized she was serious. "Uh, a bilingual cartoon character with a talking map. The map is always for what she needs it for." Andy explained. She had seen the show often enough in various foster homes. She had picked up some Spanish from the show, not enough to matter.

When they entered the big room, Andy was glad she had stopped talking already. Looking at the pit made her stomach drop. She wasn't afraid of heights. Heck, she had a pet Gryphon that she flew. She had spent most of the winter doing just that whenever she had free time. But that pit seemed to be menacing almost. She looked up at her Aunt and then Mary. Andy didn't want to ask which way next because it might draw the attention of the monsters across the way. She really hoped that wouldn't be the direction they needed to go.

Just in case she put her hand on her dagger charm, ready to pull it to fight if it came to it.




"We wait and enjoy the ride as best we can." Niah shrugged. "With the money, we have now, we can eat a feast." She had experienced plenty of hungry times on quests. She knew it was good to eat when they could.

When the commotion out the train started, Niah tensed up. She was ready to fight again if she needed to. Thankfully though, the train started moving. She had a hilarious image of the older cyclops man going to Tartus to try to find his wife. That image was quickly sobered by the thought that she would end up going there for Mads after this quest.

She relaxed as the cyclops family was left behind at the train station. She shook her head, still dumbfounded. "Have you named the dog?" She asked Stella.

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No one seemed to offer any real help or explanation as to why it was that this was happening. Cassian suggested whomever was responsible had left some sort of trace he could detect with his powers. But that didn't really open up any new information save for the fact that at least someone appeared to believe him. As Nancy offered to cut his hair in what was most likely a more violent way than Mulan, Demetri took a step back, his hands in the air as a sign of surrender. All throughout the group continued to move towards Grand Central Station. Demi's hair continued to grow as certain aspects of himself began to change along with it.

Once the curly locks hit a desired length, they began to soften and the golden blonde began to stain black as his powers continued against his will. Out of every outcome that could've happened from a power being out of control, Demetri supposed this wasn't the worst that could happen. That is until he passed a placard with a reflective surface showing him exactly who he'd turned into. He heard as Zeke called his name, confused, and all Demetri could do was let out a small "eep" as he instinctively shifted. His body rapidly shrunk down to a pitch black cat, looking like he was about to run in a panic.

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With everything that was going on, it was difficult to pay attention to all the goings on of the party. Cassian hardly clocked what was going on between Janelle and Zeke, though he did catch Nancy's offer to help the child of Zeus. He doubted it would do anything aside from force Demetri to grow even more hair out. Though as he walked he kept his eye out, scanning the people around them to see if anyone matching Demetris description showed up again. As he expected, no one did. They came and did as they wanted to, sewing a seed of chaos with no doubt to hinder their progress to the doors of death.

Cass tried to think of who it could be. Wondering if any of his grandmother's children were on the opposing side. Or was there another celestial being that had a similar taste for this sort of thing running around. But all he had were questions and no answers, having not seen the culprit or their methods he had no real leads. Everything changed once they reached Grand Central Station however. As Nancy offered some words to Mercury, Zeke and Demi seemed to be having a thing until suddenly Demetri became a cat. "Oh great, now he's a cat." Cassian picked him up and carried him, giving Demetri a stern look. "Don't you dare turn into a rhino or anything while I'm holding you."

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Stella felt the train jerk as it started to leave the station, and heard a loud voice yelling at them that they had killed his wife. She shivered a bit at that voice and started to pet her little pup more, to comfort herself. She enjoyed the feeling of his leaves under her hands, and the comfort it brought her to have this little living piece of nature with her at all times. She stroked his back, feeling him settle in more and more. She could hear the thud on the train, but figured it was just normal train noises, nothing to be alarmed about at the moment, right?

Stella looked up softly as she heard Niah speak. "Hmmm? Oh yes, his name is Arbor, and he seems to like it so far. It suits him well, and he loves it so much, I can tell. Also a feast would be lovely, but I could do with just some lunch... we've only had breakfast and then we had that fight..." She sighed, and pet her little pup more, and looked at them both. "Do you think that there is a dining car here? I know that is something that happens with trains right?"

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She honestly didn't want anything to do with this conversation, or the group that she was with. This was just adding fuel to the fire that was going through her head, and she really wanted to go be anywhere else. Of course, because of the chaos going through her head, and her lack of sight, she had no idea what the hell was going on with Demetri, since no one had actually fully explained that whole thing in general. The only thing she could really tell was that clearly Zeke took her advice and went back over to caring about Demi and all.

Her attention turned towards Kristin as she asked if she was okay, and she shrugged. "I just want to be alahne, but apparently fahr sahme strange reasahn de universe declares dat Demetri suddenly 'as sahme randahm issue goin ahn dat no one is explainin at all to me. But persahnally I dahn't care about dat, clearly 'e's de best din fahr everyahne sence de begennin o' time if everyahne is wahrryin over 'im fahr sahme reasahn." she ended up responding, continuing to ignore everyone and everything that was really going on nearby.

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He was glad that they had gotten on the train, and seemed to have gotten away from the cyclops family, or what was left of the family anyway. However the sound of what he assumed to be the father in the family yelling about demigods and clearly referring to them was not exactly a good sign, at least in his mind. The sounds of something eventually landing on the train car, before the silence was not exactly a good thing. It made him wonder if there was a cyclops hanging onto the top of the train car or something like that.

"I dink we should shut dis fahr a lettle while until we're further alahng," Jason commented, before going over and shutting the window, since no one else had. It mainly just made him feel a little bit better about the entire thing though. So now they were on the train heading to the west coast, and hopefully they wouldn't run into any more trouble. Though he personally doubted that would happen at all knowing how their luck seemed to be working out for them right now.

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"Seriously? You don't get that reference? She also has a talking backpack that has whatever the hell she needs and then there is a fox that keeps trying to steal everything from her. Oh, and the monkey in bright red boots who hangs around with her. Show is a bit insane at times when you break it down to just that and think about it though," Mary responded to Madalyne with a shrug. Most people had at least heard of the character, so she wondered a bit what planet Madalyne was from or something.

She glanced at the map as it gave two different directions that they could go. Given their current situation, she wasn't entirely sure which would be better. The stairs seemed like the better option though, considering the other side of the abyss had monsters, and they were being followed by more monsters. They seemed likely to be heading for a large fight if they went across immediately. Mary pointed towards the staircase, and was slowly heading that way, hoping that they didn't get noticed by the monsters nearby, at least not before they were already on their way and gone.

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Nancy didn't know whether to roll her eyes or sigh as Demetri continued to transform, before ending as a tiny cat. He certainly was a drama queen. Her eyes darted over towards Zeke - she assumed that he probably just liked chaos then, in order to be with someone like that. But beyond that, Nancy didn't really give Demetri and his situation much thought. They were going to get on a train to the worst place in the world, his problems were small and insignificant in comparison.

No one seemed to be making a move towards getting them tickets, so Nancy took it upon herself and she headed on up to the ticket counter, Joanie perched on her shoulders. She guessed that people probably thought Joanie was a dog or a cat or a bird or something. Looking at the schedule and the pricing, there was a train that would get them all the way to Vegas - and for the entire group, it would be $316. Nancy returned to the group. "Cough up some cash everyone, we need $316 for all of us to get to Vegas," Nancy informed them. "Maybe you could turn your hair into money next," she suggested to Demetri.

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Leda paused for a moment, thinking about what exactly they were going to do with the kids. She felt impatient at the idea of having to go back to camp to drop them all off. But she also knew that they couldn't just walk off and leave these kids to whatever the Fates had in store. She had a feeling that Hercules might end up showing up again anyways, he seemed to be somewhat attached to her. "Well, we can't just leave 'em here on their own - I'll give Argus a call, ask him to come pick them up," Leda said. It seemed like a good compromise - they wouldn't have to head back to camp, but they also didn't just abandon the kids.

Leda held out her hand, making a glowing beam of rainbow light stretch out in front of her. She then tossed a drachma into the light. "Oh Mum, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering," Leda said. "Argus, Camp Half-blood please," Leda finished. The drachma vanished and in the rainbow a figure emerged. Leda grinned, happy to see at least this wouldn't be complicated. "Hey, we got a gaggle of demigods here in need of a pick-up - and a cyclops, but he's chill. Would you mind coming and fetching them, so we can continue with our quest?"

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Amtrak Train:

As the train started to leave the station, they were treated with some views of the city as the train headed off towards it's next station there were a few stops along the way of their journey. There was of course a dining car towards the very back of the train that the group could stop by and get some food if they choose to get something to eat. Then there was a crashing sound followed by a scream, if any of them looked out of their cabin they'd see four cyclops walking down the isle as one of them shoved a passenger towards the ground. The one that pushed looked especially pissed off for some reason there was a door to their cabin if they choose to close it and hope that they don't notice them or fight them again as well to.

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Kiera smiled towards her girlfriend as she went over and found a relatively dry spot that wasnt covered in sewage water from using her power, she was sweating slightly as the demigods who were there looked rather terrified still. She made her way over towards them gently ruffling the youngest one's hair. "How did you all get captured by these cyclops?" Kiera asked one of them, as an older kid turned to look at Kiera. "We were all traveling together with the satyrs that were there, and as soon as we got into the city we pumped into the cyclops who managed to kill our guides and chained us here." He answered her. Kiera nodded slightly as she watched her girlfriend making contact with Argus.

Argus turned to look at Leda through the Iris Message and nodded as he pulled out a note and wrote down. 'Be there in a few minutes.' Before the Iris Message ended. Kiera suddenly paused as she could feel the ground starting to shake rather violently, as she looked towards Arthur who looked slightly worried, as the ground opened up around him, as the Furies emerged from the hole quickly grabbing Arthur looking at Leda and Kiera. "Hades requests an audience with his son." One of them said as quickly as it happened they dragged Arthur down into the Underworld, the ground sealing itself again like nothing happened at all.

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Madalyne turned to look at Mary for a moment and shook her head slightly. "Well I am technically fifty three years old, I was born in sixty eight. Sooo a little bit before your time since I was trapped in the Lotus Hotel and Casino for that time so I haven't seen the show before." Madalyne answered Mary, she was pretty old and still some of the newer things that they have now was completely different back then to her it was a major change. She stared at the monsters across the chasm then over towards the enterance to the nearby staircase she nodded towards Mary. "Lets head that way." Madalyne said to Mary as she turned and started to make her way down the stairs deeper into the Labyrinth. As soon as the group entered the staircase the Labyrinth shifted, and a wall closed behind them and then there was quiet once more.

However there was what sounded like rushing water nearby as Madalyne started to follow the sound, there was some sunlight barely shining down through an opening in the ceiling. It looked like it was a grotto of sorts with a waterfall flowing down it as well to, she looked over at the two of them. "Seems like a safe enough spot for now, if you guys want to press on or take a moment up to you." She told the two of them. Then there was a barking sound as Choclate managed to shadow travel all his way over to Andy quickly jumping into her arms barking happily.

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Kristin watched as Demetri started to shift again into a girl, she couldn't help but snort slightly at the sight of it, she wasnt sure if Demi was begging for attention or there was something actually wrong with his powers. Her attention turned towards Janelle, she could understand her frustration right now. "Apparently Demi is loosing control over his shapeshifting powers or whatever, and he's a girl now." Kristin told her, as she then watched Demi changing into a cat now as Cassian picked him up in his arms. Nancy had gone off to get ticket information "Apparently he's a cat now to." Kristin said trying not laugh so loud.

To the people of the train station it looked like Joanie was a bird resting on Nancy's shoulder thanks to the mist, Kristin then turned her attention towards Nancy as she came back. She dug into her pack, grabbing her wallet she kept on her and dug through it and managed to find a fifty dollar bill. "I have a fifty, and then the money that was given to us is a hundred and fifty now." Kristin said as she handed it over towards Nancy as she looked at the others.

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Ezekiel continued to stare at Demetri in utter confusion, even after he panicked and shifted into a cat. Now Zeke couldn't demand answers from him. He wasn't even sure what he was feeling beyond confusion. Zeke had been heavily attracted to that raven haired female that cared so deeply about him. He should have known it was someone playing a trick on him but Demi was the one to pursue him all those months ago. So what did it mean to him now? Zeke didn't have the faintest clue except for feeling some disappointment with the confusion.
Nancy came back over and told everyone how much the train would cost for them. Ezekiel sighed, glad he had managed to pack himself some snacks this time because he was about to give Nancy his last bit of change. Zeke rummaged through his pack for his cash and handed Nancy a crumpled up twenty. He didn't bother to say that was all he had. It was pretty obvious enough as it was.

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Andy smiled a bit as Mary and Mads talked. It was kind of funny to her. They made it into a quiet corner of the Labyrinth. Andy had a sinking feeling that something was off. She felt like this might be the last relaxing moment they would have. Then Chocolate was there, leaping at her. She caught him confused. Chocolate was supposed to be with Arthur.

"Chocolate." She said, confused. Giving the hellhound puppy some pets. "What is wrong?" Not that the puppy could actually talk to her. "Where is Arthur?" She asked the puppy again. Not really expecting an answer, but worry was building in her gut.




"Yeah, there should be a dining car. We can check it out." Niah started to head out and look for which end of the train the dining car was on. However, there was a disturbance.

She ducked back into the room and closed the door quickly. Then pressing her hand on it, she thought of an electrical access door. Letting the mist manipulate their cabin door. It should be a good enough disguise. It was unlikely but not impossible that the cyclops would still try the door. Especially if they had their smell.

"Well, there are four cyclops on the train. I had the mist disguise the door. Hopefully, that's good enough. Unless you feel like fighting." She said the last part with a creeping grin on her face making it clear she'd be fine with a good fight.

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Stella heard the screaming and crashing and looked up to see the cyclopses through the window. So, they had gotten on the train. So much for that hope that they had escaped them. Thankfully the window and door were closed, and Niah used the Mist to manipulate the door, so that did buy them at least some time. She gently put her sweater over her pussy, as to not wake him when she went to fish out her dagger. She held it tight in her hand as she could tell that Niah wanted a fight, and she didn't want the people on the train to get hurt.

"I don't really want to fight, but they'll tear apart the train looking for us if we don't get rid of them. So, while I'm not fond of the idea, we should... take them out." Stella also pulled out her bag of seeds, and looked around. "If you want, I can try to tangle them up if you both want. It might help." She dug out some seeds and felt them. "Kudzu... strong and fast growing... I can also get ivy or thorny vines..." She was musing over what to use, what to do, and how to do it.