I hummed softly as I munched on a sandwich that we picked up from a gas station. We'd stopped for a quick re-supply on fuel, and to pick up lunch. There was no need to use our rations if we could buy food instead, better to save rations for if we actually needed them.
Of course, Zoe had to use the mist due to her young appearance in order to make sure people wouldn't question someone who looked younger than Thalia was driving. The entire time, Thalia just gave her an 'I told you so' look. Zoe, of course, ignored her in favour of re-filling the van with gas.
"So, where are we going exactly?" I asked finally, rubbing my eyes to get rid of the drowsiness in them.
"We passed by Philadelphia a while ago," Thalia chimed in. "Other than that, I have no idea."
"We shall go wheresoever the trail leads," Zoe cut in, sounding annoyed as she pulled out of the gas station. "Milady's trail seems to be guiding us to Washington. Beyond that, however, I know not."
I just hummed, and didn't question it further. It was obvious Zoe was in a bad mood, there was no need to add onto it excessively.
"Male," Zoe spoke from the Driver's seat. "... How was it thee controlled the water, and yet thou claim to not be the child of Lord Poseidon?"
Penny's eyes snapped to me in surprise. "You did what?" She asked in surprise.
"I'm contracted to Spirits," I responded. "Not the normal kinds of spirits you are familiar with... These spirits are closer to embodiments of concepts created by human fantasy and thought. These special spirits can only be seen by a select few who have a natural affinity for them. I'm contracted to a large number of spirits, temporarily able to merge them into my own body to wield their abilities. That's all I did- merge together with a Water Elemental Spirit."
"Then thou art an Elementalist, of sorts," Zoe deduced.
"Yeah, I suppose you could put it that way," I responded, leaving out that the Spirits I could use were far more numerous and varied than what she was thinking.
Zoe remained silent... It confused me for a moment, but I remembered that Zoe had once had a connection to the sea. One that had been lost after she had given Heracles Riptide- Penny's sword- and had then been cast out of the garden by her father for aiding the Son of Zeus in stealing a Golden Apple.
The ride continued to mostly be filled with silence before we ended up in Washington D.C, and we eventually pulled over. "The Trail leads here," Zoe grunted, looking over at the place the trail guided us.
The National Air and Space Museum.
"Annabeth would have loved this," Penny muttered in a sombre voice once she realised where we were.
"Then bring her here once we save her," I glanced at Penny. "You can make a date out of it."
Penny's cheeks flushed red. "W- We aren't like that!"
"Uh huh," Uta raised a disbelieving eye at Penny, clearly not buying that Penny and Annabeth didn't have something between them.
I personally also suspected the two did have a spark between them, but it seemed Thalia's return had led to Annabeth's spark building for Thalia instead. Penny had been someone left to the wayside, pining for a girl who wasn't returning her feelings.
"Penny," I murmured quietly to her as we made our way towards the museum. "You have Annabeth's Invisibility Cap, right?"
Penny looked at me in surprise before she murmured back, slightly weary, "Yeah, why?"
"Use it," I told her. "I want you to put it on and investigate behind the scenes in the building. I'm getting an 'off' feeling about this place, and I want you to check it out."
Penny stayed quiet for a moment before she nodded in agreement, either agreeing with my feeling or getting her own feeling from the museum.
As we made our way into the museum, blending in with the crowd, I saw Penny slip on the Yankees cap and vanish from sight.
As we made it into the Museum and out of the crowd, Thalia quickly noticed Penny was missing. But instead of saying it out loud, she cast me a questioning look.
I just shook my head silently.
She gave a quick nod, and didn't say a word about it.
We began to investigate the Museum, following the traces Zoe had found with her tracking spell... Really, we were just visiting a bunch of different exhibits, if you asked me. We kept looking for where the trail led, but we were having trouble finding things.
"What exactly are we looking for?" Uta finally asked.
Zoe sighed. "I knoweth not," she admitted. "We are simply following Milady's trail. Mortals cannot witness her hunt for mortals cannot understand the Hunt of the Moon Goddess. Even I, her faithful Lieutenant who has stood by her for years, cannot truly understand her hunt."
I raised an eye... That was new information... "Are you saying that the essence of her hunt is something we mortals cannot understand?" I asked her. "Or is it a case of like seeing a God's true form- where our minds literally cannot understand what we're seeing, and we die due to our brains overloading?"
Zoe looked at me in surprise, clearly not expecting my question, before she put a look of serious consideration on her face. "Maybe both," she finally spoke. "Even still, this does not change our plan. We can only follow the path that Milady has left behind."
Well, that was true.
Finally, after we'd wandered around for a while, suddenly Penny sprinted over. She was clearly out of breath with a flushed face, panting a bit heavily as she stopped in front of us to catch her breath.
"You?" Zoe looked flummoxed, as if just realising that Penny hadn't been with us the entire time.
"Was investigating... In staff only areas..." She panted. "Yuno... Asked me to... He was right... General... Is here..."
Zoe paled drastically at the mention of the general. "Impossible," she hissed. "You lie!"
"Not... All..." She sucked in air, trying to regain her breath. "Sending... Monsters... After us... Know about... The quest... And who's on it..."
Thalia's eyes widened at that. She just cast a look at me without saying a word, while I just silently nodded as though I were agreeing with her suspicions.
There was a traitor at Camp Half-Blood, after all. But I was the only one who knew that it was Silena Beauregard.
"Did you get any hints on the supposed Bane of Olympus?" I decided to steer the conversation away from potential traitor ideas, at least for now. We didn't need to discuss that at the moment.
She shook her head. "Just said... They were tracking it... Also sending skeleton warriors..."
"Impossible," Zoe exclaimed. "They should not be able to send such things without a Child of the Underworld by side!"
"Dragon Bone Warriors," I interjected. "They are very similar, but fundamentally different. If it was those, then it should be possible- correct?"
Zoe paled heavily at the implications. "The van," she finally said. "We must get back to the van-!"
She was cut off by a loud roar echoing through the museum, along with a child crying out, "Big Kitty!"
All of us turned as one- and bore witness to the sight of a giant lion creature bounding through the halls of the museum. It roared loudly, causing many people to scream about needing to call animal control about a rampaging lion that got free from the zoo, while they began to file out of the museum.
"The Nemean Lion!" Zoe gasped, her eyes wide. "Bianca, Uta, we must get to high ground!"
"On it!" Bianca nodded and quickly began to climb up some exhibits.
Uta hesitated before she followed Bianca's example, scaling up and getting a better vantage point to shoot the lion.
"Weapons!" Thalia barked, pulling out her canister and shaking it, causing it to grow into a spear. She tapped her shield and barked out the command, "Aegis!"
Instantly, the Bracelet on her wrist expanded- taking on the appearance of a shield with the snarling visage of Medusa burrowed within. It was so hideous that the Lion visibly flinched away from the sight of the fake Gorgon's gaze.
Penny quickly followed suit, tapping a button on her wrist and calling out her shield- adorned with intricate markings that showed her journey through the sea of monsters. She uncapped a pen, causing it to turn into 3 feet of deadly celestial bronze- Riptide.
Meanwhile, I tapped my own bracelet. "Redeemer," I murmured, the bracelet twisting and morphing as I grabbed hold of a scythe, resting it on my shoulder as the celestial bronze blade glinted with dark intentions.
There was tension in the air, all six of us staring down the Lion that only one Greek Hero had managed to kill before. One widely lauded as the greatest hero of Greece, who ascended as the God of Strength after his death.
The beast finally roared as it pounced at me, believing me to be the 'weak link' with no shield.
Thalia stepped in front of me, blocking its attack with Aegis- but it wasn't easy. The Nemean Lion weighed several hundred pounds, so the force sent her stumbling back into me.
Penny used the opportunity as she lunched in, aiming for its open mouth. The monster, sensing danger, pounced away and turned its head as arrows whizzed by where its mouth had been opened moments before.
My eyes narrowed as Thalia and me separated... The Lion had two weak points that I'd noticed.
The first was its mouth, it was how the lion was defeated in the original timeline. It was tricked into holding its mouth open thanks to Percy's ingenuity, and Bianca and Zoe unloaded arrows into its mouth to kill it.
However, it also had a less obvious weak point- its eyes. While the rest of its body was protected by its impenetrable fur, and it needed to rear for its mouth to become available... Its eyes were a constant target. Small, but also leading directly to its brain for an easy kill.
I ignited flames on my scythe and swung, unleashing a wave of flames at the lion which it took head on. It let out a roar of anger at my audacity but was quickly wayside by a blast of water controlled by Penny- the pipes in the walls becoming great fuel for Penny's demigod abilities.
I took the opportunity and sent a quick message to Uta in our private chat.
Yuno: AIM FOR ITS EYES.
Uta cast a glance to the side and quickly began to aim for the Lion's eyes. Bianca and Zoe quickly picked up on Uta's actions and began to aim their own fire at the Lion's eyes.
The Lion also noticed what they were going for and began to move around and dash as it attacked us. It was trying to keep constantly moving, to avoid being killed.
"Buy me time!" Penny called out as she rushed off.
The Lion tried to follow her, but I controlled its shadow to trip it up subtly. I pounced on its back while it was momentarily vulnerable, wedging the shaft of my scythe against is through and pulling hard to choke it out.
I may not be able to strangle it barehanded like Heracles, but I could sure as fuck strangle it with a celestial bronze scythe!
The Lion began to thrash and bound around. It clearly remembered that this was how it had died last time, and it began to roar and flail in an attempt to get me off of it, bucking into the air.
"Thalia, lightning!" I called out.
"But I'll hit you!"
"We have Ambrosia! Lightning!"
She grit her teeth before she let out a roar as she unleashed a blast of lightning from her fingertips, striking the lion dead in the face and causing it to scream as lightning coursed through its body. Of course, I also wasn't spared. I grit my teeth and tightened my grip, enduring the lightning as I pulled harder on my scythe.
The Lion roared and jumped around, before finally the pain became too much, and I couldn't hold on any longer. It bucked me off, sending me spiralling away on the ground. I gasped for air and held myself, still feeling the lightning coursing through my veins.
The beast let out a gasp for air... Only for it to get a mouthful of disgusting ice cream sandwiches, courtesy of Penny's remarkable pitching skills.
Two more were buried in its mouth, leaving it wide open and unable to roar... And then arrows pierced its mouth. Three. Then six. Then nine.
The lion tried to roar and squirmed around before it combusted into golden dust, leaving behind only its pelt.
I panted heavily, gripping my scythe in my hand. "R- Redeemer," I groaned, the scythe morphing and turning back into a bracelet on my wrist once again.
Thalia and Uta quickly made their way over to me, helping me up as my body spasmed slightly as the lightning in my system was slowly dissipating.
"We need to go, now," Thalia said. "Penny, grab the pelt, we'll discuss who it belongs to later."
Penny nodded and hurriedly grabbed the pelt, and the six of us made our way back to the van. We needed to get out of this place, before the monsters decided to send us to Hades the hard way.