-ˏˋ°•*⁀➷
Rebecca was worried they would lose their target. The ventus moved like ... well, like the wind.
"Speed up!" Jason urged.
"Bro," Leo said, "if I get any closer, he'll spot us. Bronze dragon ain't exactly a stealth plane."
"Slow down!" Piper yelped.
Rebecca huffed. "Let the man fly!"
The storm spirit dove into the grid of downtown streets. Festus tried to follow.
"Get above the buildings," Jason suggested. "We'll track him from there."
"You want to drive this thing?" Leo grumbled, but he did what Jason asked.
Rebecca raised her hand. "I want to."
Leo laughed. "When pigs fly."
Rebecca grumbled with her arms crossed like a child.
After a few minutes, they spotted the storm spirit again.
"Oh joy," Piper said. "There're two."
"The more the merrier." Said Jason.
She was right. A second ventus blasted around the corner of a Hotel and linked up with the first.
They wove together in a chaotic dance, shooting to the top of a skyscraper, bending a radio tower, and diving back down toward the street.
"Those guys do not need any more caffeine," Leo said.
"I guess Chicago's a good place to hang out," Piper said.
Then the screens went dark. The venti swirled together into a single funnel cloud and skittered across the fountain, kicking up a waterspout almost as high as the monoliths.
They got to its center, popped off a drain cover, and disappeared underground.
Just like the Ninja Turtles, but less funny and less less.
"Did they just go down a drain?" Piper asked. "How are we supposed to follow them?"
"Maybe we shouldn't," Leo said. "That fountain thing is giving me seriously bad vibes. And aren't we supposed to, like, beware the earth?"
Rebecca shaked her head. "We have to go in, they went in thinking we couldn't follow."
"Put us down in that park," Jason suggested. "We'll check it out on foot."
Festus landed in an open area between the lake and the skyline.
Festus flapped his wings unhappily and shot fire into the sky, but there was no one around to notice.
The wind coming off the lake was bitter cold. Anyone with sense would be inside. Rebecca's eyes stung so badly, she could barely see.
Rebecca jumped off the dragon and caressed Festus in his snout, as response he huffed a cloud of vapour giving her a momentary warmth.
Leo pulled a whistle and told Festus that whenever he heard it he had to come back, Festus nodded happily and flied off.
Piper took one step and winced. "Ah!"
"Your ankle?" Leo asked.
Rebecca inspected it. "That nectar we gave you might be wearing off. It's won't be healed for a couple of days more."
"How do you know?" The brunette asked.
"I used to break my bones quite a lot- Will Sollace ended up sick of me."
"The blonde Apollo kid we saw."
Rebecca smiled family. "The one and only."
"Let's get out of the wind," Jason suggested.
"Down a drain?" Piper shuddered. "Sounds cozy."
They wrapped themselves up as best they could and headed toward the fountain.
The giant monitor walls stayed dark. The drain hole was easily big enough for a person, and a maintenance ladder led down into the gloom.
Jason went first. As he climbed, he braced himself for horrible sewer smells, but it wasn't that bad. The ladder dropped into a brickwork tunnel running north to south. The air was warm and dry, with only a trickle of water on the floor.
Then went Rebecca that didn't see a plaque of ice, her foot slipped for a second losing balance of the stair.
Jason caught her, she tried looking anywhere but him.
He was warm, and it was so cold.
She slowly looked up, their eyes meeting, his eyes... They were so blue, his entire face seemed perfect.
Except the little scar, she remembered when they had kissed years ago.
She could feel her wild heartbeat and his hot breath. Their noses brushed.
Electric blue against violent green.
The memory of the kiss had made her blush.
He smiled stupidly. "Are you blushing?"
She rushed out of his arms. "No! Don't be stupid! It's cold! And I wouldn't blushed because of you!"
His smile fell. "That's great, because I wouldn't want you either."
Piper and Leo climbed down after, oblivious to what had happened and the tension between the two.
"Are all sewers this nice?" Piper wondered.
"No," Leo said. "Trust me."
Jason frowned. "How do you know-"
"Hey, man, I ran away six times."
Rebecca turned to him. "No way- I've run away six times too!"
They both high fived, it seemed so odd to see Rebecca high five, Jason had to blink twice to make sure it was real.
The blonde tilted his head, listening, then pointed south. "That way."
"How can you be sure?" Piper asked.
Rebecca crouched and picked some sand that was left there as debris, she released it and the wind blew south.
"That's how you know."
It wasn't much of a lead, but nobody offered anything better.
Unfortunately, as soon as they started walking, Piper stumbled.
Rebecca had to catch her.
"Stupid ankle," she cursed.
"Let's rest," Jason decided. "We could all use it. We've been going nonstop for over a day. Leo, can you pull any food from that tool belt besides breath mints?"
"Thought you'd never ask. Chef Leo is on it!"
Piper, Rebecca and Jason sat on a brick ledge while Leo shuffled through his pack.
Rebecca was glad to rest, her entire body ached, and past memories surfaced, but she was scared to sleep and face her dreams.
She glanced at Jason that seemed to be lost in thought, looking at the ground, bitting his lip. Piper had gotten up to go talk with Leo, so it was just the two.
She shuffled closer, immediately noticing his warmth.
"It's not your fault what happened with the Cylops, you can't fight a concussion- trust me I've tried."
He didn't look at her but he was listening.
She sighed and did what she had done very very few times in her life. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been so mean."
He finally looked at her. "You are mean, and I really don't know why."
She smiled grimly. "That's who I am." She nudged his shoulder. "And don't beat up yourself over what ifs. They'll haunt you for a long while."
He nudged her shoulder back. "But I'm the quest leader."
She rolled her eyes. "Ugh, you and your hero complex, don't you know it will get you killed? You can't save everyone."
He rolled her eyes imitating her. "You're mean."
She pocked her tongue. "What are you? A five year old?"
"Says who pocked her tongue."
"And bingo!" Leo announced.
He came over with three plates stacked on his arms like a waiter.
Rebecca had no idea where he'd gotten all the food, or how he'd put it together so fast, but it looked amazing: pepper and beef tacos.
She decided not to ask many questions for once.
"Leo," Piper said in amazement. "How did you-?"
"Chef Leo's Taco Garage is fixing you up!" he said proudly. "And by the way, it's tofu, not beef, beauty queen, so don't freak. Just dig in."
Rebecca wasn't sure about tofu, but the tacos tasted as good as they smelled.
While they ate, Leo tried to lighten the mood and joke around.
Rebecca realised was grateful Leo was with them.
Jason and Piper soon fell asleep, but Rebecca was to scared too.
So she decided to talk with Leo.
"Your fire powers are cool"
Leo's smile faltered. "Yeah, well..." He opened his hand. A small ball of flame burst to life, dancing across his palm.
"Why didn't you say anything?"
Leo closed his hand and the fire went out. "Didn't want to look like a freak."
Rebecca laughed. "We have a walking electrical outlet, Piper can scam people whir her voice and I can talk to ghosts. You think you're weird? You're the coolest."
Leo snorted. " Hephaestus cabin doesn't see fire powers as cool. Nyssa told me they're super rare. When a demigod like me comes around, bad things happen. Really bad."
"Fuck them." She said clearly. "When you being to care about what others think is when you lose yourself."
Leo cleared away the plates. "Hm. But I'm telling you ... it's not always a gift."
Rebecca fell silent. "Why?"
Leo was silent for a minute but decided to speak. "I provoked a fire that killed my mother years ago."
Rebecca blinked. "Are you stupid?"
He stood there confused. "Huh?"
"How on earth were you going to provoke a fire if you didn't have an idea of your godly parentage, powers like those have to be activated." She stopped. "Were you in danger?"
He looked bewildered. "No!"
"There you have it, it's impossible to activate them without training, or claiming or danger."
He looked at her. "Really?"
"Duh, safest bet is that someone is trying to make you feel less. You're not Leo. You're important."
He didn't know what to say. "Thanks."
"I just said the truth. If you aren't you wouldn't be in a quest,"
A while after Rebecca had dozed off to sleep, Leo wanted to keep guard.
She was in a forest, but the Camp's forest, the scene was far too familiar, Rebecca recognised it instantly.
In the dream she felt dizzy and light headed, the noise sounded static and fragmented. Glimpses of her pulling out her sword, ready to aim for the kill.
But somebody beat her to it, another sword sank into her abdomen, crimson coating her orange shirt and the soil below.
Rebecca clutched her stomach, her sword dropping to the floor, some tree roots enveloping it and swallowing it into the land.
She went limp in the floor, she was dead.
Pain. Lots of pain.
She woke up shuddering, Jason closer to her, worry scribbled on his face. Rebecca glanced down at her abdomen, there was no blood.
The dark haired girl felt guilt, she had lied to him when it was clear he just wanted answers.
"I lied." She said, her forehead sweaty from her nightmare.
"I know." He whispered.
She blinked surprised, she thought she was a good liar. Rebecca laid down again with Jason's help and dozed off into sleep again, even though she tried to fight it.
Some hours after they finally broke camp and started down the tunnel.
It twisted and turned and seemed to go on forever. Rebecca expected a dungeon or a creepy place like that.
Instead, they found polished steel elevator doors, each one engraved with a cursive letter M. Next to the elevator was a directory, like for a department store.
"M for Macy's?" Piper guessed. "I think they have one in downtown Chicago."
"Or Monocle Motors still?" Leo said. "Guys, read the directory. It's messed up."
Parking, Kennels, Main Entrance: Sewer Level
Furnishings and Café M: 1
Women's Fashion and Magical Appliances: 2
Men's Wear and Weaponry: 3
Cosmetics, Potions, Poisons & Sundries: 4
"Kennels for what?" Piper said. "And what kind of department store has its entrance in a sewer?"
"Or sells poisons," Leo said. "Man, what does "sundries' even mean? Is that like underwear?"
Rebecca looked around suspiciously. "Sundries are random objects not important enough to be mentioned individually- like toiletries."
"Huh."
Jason took a deep breath. "When in doubt, start at the top."
Rebecca widened her eyes. "There's a monster here a thousand percent, we should think of a plan or..."
The doors slid open on the fourth floor, and the scent of perfume wafted into the elevator.
Jason stepped out first, sword ready.
"Guys," he said. "You've got to see this."
Piper joined him and caught her breath. "This is not Macy's."
"I could've told you that." The taller girl grumbled. "This is a trap for the gods sake."
Jason didn't look very worried. "Nah, I'm sure everything will be fine- let's just be alert."
The department store looked like the inside of a kaleidoscope.
The entire ceiling was a stained glass mosaic with astrological signs around a giant sun.
The daylight streaming through it washed everything in a thousand different colors. The upper floors made a ring of balconies around a huge central atrium, so they could see all the way down to the ground floor.
Gold railings glittered so brightly, they were hard to look at.
Aside from the stained glass ceiling and the elevator, Rebecca couldn't see any other windows or doors, but two sets of glass escalators ran between the levels.
The carpeting was a riot of oriental patterns and colors, and the racks of merchandise were just as bizarre.
Leo stepped to the railing and looked down. "Check it out."
In the middle of the atrium a fountain sprayed water twenty feet into the air, changing color from red to yellow to blue.
The pool glittered with gold coins, and on either side of the fountain stood a gilded cage -like an oversize canary cage.
Inside one, a miniature hurricane swirled, and lightning flashed.
Somebody had imprisoned the storm spirits, and the cage shuddered as they tried to get out.
In the other, frozen like a statue, was a short, buff satyr, holding a tree-branch club.
"Coach Hedge!" Piper said. "We've got to get down there."
A voice said, "May I help you find something?" All four of them jumped back.
A woman had just appeared in front of them.
She wore an elegant black dress with diamond jewelry, and she looked like a retired fashion model-maybe fifty years old.
She seemed very familiar to Rebecca.
Her long dark hair swept over one shoulder, it was the same hair as Rebecca's, and her face was gorgeous in that surreal super-model way-thin and haughty and cold, not quite human.
With their long red-painted nails, her fingers looked more like talons.
She smiled. "I'm so happy to see new customers. How may I help you?"
Leo glanced at Jason like, all yours, Jason looked back like it's okay, for you.
Rebecca shoved past them, boys.
"Is this your store?"
The woman looked at her curiously, with a spark in her eyes.
She went to touch her face but Rebecca slapped it away.
The woman proceeded as if nothing had happened. "I found it abandoned, you know. I understand so many stores are, these days. I decided it would make the perfect place.
I love collecting tasteful objects, helping people, and offering quality goods at a reasonable price. So this seemed a good ... how do you say ... first acquisition in this country."
She spoke with a pleasing accent, that just made it clearer to Rebecca that she was a monster or something.
"So you're new to America?" she asked.
"I am ... new," the woman agreed. "I am the Princess of Colchis. My friends call me Your Highness. Now, what are you looking for?"
"We are not your friends." Rebecca stated earning wild looks from her friends.
The woman laughed, "you were never sweet dear Rebecca."
____________________________
- this was looooong but necessary
- not much action but next
chapter ....
- as usual do you have any
theories or ideas of their pasts
or anything??
- how are you liking rebecca?
ik she's a bit... but that's what
you get when you go through what
she went
- i can't make her nice bc it's not
v realistic, she has to deal w everything
the only way she knows how, being mean
and pushing people away, nobody told
her to act otherwise
flo <3