You look at the greatest villains in human history, the fascists, the autocrats, they all wanted people to kneel before them because they don't love themselves enough.~ Tom Hiddleston
Dedication: GlitterArmour, for the always wonderful comments and fantastic votes, thank you so much! <3
Siena
I honestly hate doing work of any kind. I don't know about you, but I'm legitimately one of the laziest people on Earth. I would rather be sitting binging Netflix rather than doing work of any kind, or reading rather than doing homework, or sleeping rather than getting work of any kind done. My problem is more based on me getting to start my work. Once I start it, then I can finish it easily. But getting me to actually start it was a completely different thing.
The paper were spread around out my bed, and it was all I could to not do groan at the massive amount of work that I had to do. The only good thing, as that in this age, people digitized nearly everything, so it was much easier to track down. I had been digging for about an hour, trying to figure out where Lab Assistant No. 3, Dorothy Miles, had disappeared to. So far, I had nearly nothing, except for the fact that she was still in the country.
I sighed and dropped the tree back on the bed, rubbing my eyes with the heels of my hands. I had a newly discovered amount of respect for Shreya, for she had gone through so much work for us. Every time I thought of her, a sharp stab of guilt ripped through me. I would need to know who killed her, but I kinda wanted it to be me, so at least I knew the person would feel remorse.
It was late at night, and I had been up for hours tracking down where Dorothy Miles was. I was feeling a bit restless, so I sent a text to Calli, asking if she and could ask Warrior do meet me back at the house, so we could go over that piece of the clue again and track down a few more. I was feeling like I needed a change of scenery, and was desperate to get out of the house.
Calli replied, saying that she had done so, and for me to head back to the Tenement House, so we could meet there. I yawned and rubbed my eyes, before grabbing my phone and forcing myself off my warm bed. I hadn't told Warrior about the items I had discovered, and I didn't plan on doing so anytime soon. I had to do this by myself.
I grabbed my suit from the car and changed, then, instead of driving, I teleported to the house, back on the fire escape where we had discovered the clue. I generated a lightning ball to see what we were dealing with.
The clue was the same we have previously encountered, obviously. I read it silently in my mine. The next place to go is a structure that rises above, where steel monsters thundered above. For now in your time, it is a place of green, but before when I lived, there was smoke and steam. You must find the love of the feline kind, the one that they adore, no matter the time.
"Hey." A voice said next to me, appearing out of thin air. At this point, I was used to Warrior's sudden entrances, so I just waved him off while I continued to study the words, my lips forming the words as I read them.
"Got anything yet?" He asked, crouching down next to me. I shook my head. I was a bit lost on this one, for I had no idea what this would be. I traced my fingers over the words, and pressed my finger to the end of the clue. I honestly had no idea. But a phrase seemed to be the same. Steel monsters. That phrase had been used before, to describe airplanes. But they didn't use smoke. And they weren't very popular at the time of WWII, at least commercial. Which meant that he was referring to trains. I rubbed a hand over my face.
Trains? Where were trains? All I could think of was Grand Central, but we had already been there. There weren't any stations left in the city.
But I was thinking present times. I had to think more of as back then. What stations were there then? Only one other came to mind, and slowly, all the pieces fell into place.
"What?" He shook my shoulder, trying to get my attention. "Did you figure something out?"
"I think I know the location of the next clue." I murmured, still staring at the clue in a trance. He shook my shoulder again, and I snapped out of it. "The High Line." I answered.
"The park?" he asked, confusion spreading over his features. "That doesn't make much sense. It's not a train station."
"But back in the 1940s, it was. Not now, now it's New York's only elevated park. A structure that rises above, a place of green." I recited back. That was it. The High Line.
"All right then. Let's head to The High Line."
"Wait." I put out a hand to stop him. "We still haven't figured out what the ingredient is."
"Oh, right." He realized, coming back to stand next to me. "Love of the feline kind. Milk?"
I shook my head. "I'm thinking more catnip, because it attracts cats no matter where they are, what they are doing, and at anytime of the day. They can't resist is it."
"They're powerless under its control." He murmured, so softly I barely caught it.
"Hmm?" What did he mean by that?
"Nothing." He shook his head. "Forget about it. Let's head to the The High Line." He jumped off the building onto the ground, and I had time to mull over. Who could he be the descendant of? Who would work, who would be his ancestor. Michael Juno flashed in my head. I hadn't figured out anything on him, like Shreya had said, so I had moved onto Dorothy, who was also proving to be exceptionally difficult. I had a feeling all of these were only going to get harder.
I stopped that train of thought and was jolted back to reality when Warrior called, "Hey, are you ok? We gotta go."
I forced my brain to stop wandering back to the tree, and focus on the task at hand. I jumped down, in the exact style that he had, and landed gently on my feet, like a cat. I stood up and teleported to The High Line, one of the best places to be. Warrior materialized next to me, squinting at the darkness. It took a bit of time for my eyes do adjust, but I enveloped my body in a light energy casing, so wherever I moved, shafts of bright light fell.
"Where to you think this could be?" he asked, moving around me, his eyes scanning the ground.
"I have no idea. There park was built on top of it, maybe they covered the location of the clue.
"Well, we have dealt with another bridge before. We can do it." He asserted. I sighed and looked around. He was right. When we had dealt with the Brooklyn Bridge, the clue had been on one of the support poles that held up the bridge. If I looked in the same place.
I leaned over the railing. The drop seemed pretty substantial, and I didn't have control over the winds. But I made an energy staircase and climbed down in, safely reaching the bottom. Warrior hopped down after me, since he had control over air and he could reach it safely.
I scanned the poles, one by one, and still found nothing.
"Ugh!" I threw my hands up in the air. "Where could it be?"
"Check there." he pointed. I followed the path his finger made and discovered the symbol in the upper corner of one of the support poles. Warrior jerked his hand upward, and caused to ground do shift up, making a platform for us to stand on.
I followed him up the platform, and soon, we were eye level with the symbol. I raised my hand up and pressed it against the symbol. The panel slid over to reveal the next clue. Complaining about how long this was wasn't going to get us anywhere. On the contrary, I had to get this done as fast as possible and find as many of the descendants as possible.
"The journey continues with the the oddest of places, for when I was alive, it never showed its faces. But in your time, it is there to be found. A rounded symbol of the world to be found. You must find the flower of the most beautiful tree, for it beauty is revered all over the world, and sure to be seen." He read, holding up a fireball t see the words easier.
"A more recent structure, crafted after WWII, because it says, when this man lived in New York, it didn't exist." I ran my fingers through my hair and paced, which always helped do clearly my mind and help me figure out what I was thinking about more clearly. A rounded symbol of the world. A symbol of the world. I ran this in my mind over and over and over again.
A globe. I snapped my fingers. "I know where we're going." I led him off the platform and back down to the ground. "Flushing Park?"
"Flushing Park." He repeated, confused.
"Yeah. Was I not clear enough the first time? Flushing Park, the one with the massive globe." I reiterated, waving my hands around for a more dramatic effect. "A symbol of the world. Ever seen Men in Black?"
"Yeah, of course." He nodded.
"Flushing Park is where they defeat the creepy bug animal, the place with the massive metal globe, where the World Fair was, the pretty trees, any of this ringing a bell?" I prodded.
"Yeah, makes sense. Let's go." He grabbed my hand, and we teleported.
We appeared right in front of the globe, on the pathways, lined with cherry blossom trees. Just then, the next piece fell in place. "Look." I pointed to the trees, which were lined in ice and bare, looking like skeletons, the starkness of the bare branches startling against the periwinkle sky.
"What?"
"The next part of the clue. The ingredient. The blossom of the of the most beautiful tree, which is revered around the world. A beautiful garden isn't a beautiful garden if it doesn't have at least one cherry blossom tree. So we need to find a cherry blossom."
"It's January."
"We can still do it." I pushed. "But for right now, let's focus on the next clue." I walked up to the globe and studied it. It truly was an impressive structures, symbolizing harmony and unity. The metal rods reached up heights far above my own, and the continents were big enough that I could have laid on them and not been near one of the metal mesh.
"It's so cool." Warrior voiced my thoughts, coming to stand next to me.
"Yeah. But what would be even cooler is if we found the clue." I said pointedly, scratching my nose and walking around the globe.
"Well, if it was built after he lived in New York City, than he must have put it where it was close enough to the structure but far enough so that it wouldn't be covered when they put it there."
"Found it." I pointed to one of the blocks, and in the upper left corner, a small symbol was etched into the tile.
I pressed my finger against the symbol, but before it could reveal the clue, it beeped. I shrugged, looking at Warrior, and he pressed her fingers against the symbol too. This time, it slid over completely.
"Looks they need two samples from now on."
"Or it could have just been broken." I pointed out.
I read the next clue, but before I could, something caught my eye. A tiny line was etched next to the clue, and I read it.
This clue was written in the memory of Dorothy Miles, wife of Michael Juno and mother of Christopher.
There. That narrowed it down considerably. Dorothy Miles, who, according to my research, was only a year younger than Juno. They got married and went on the run, erasing their records well. But they had left us something. So now I could figure out what happened.
A smile spread across my face, and I adjusted my mask so I could see better. This was so much better than I had thought.
"What?" Warrior questioned, noticing my expression.
"Nothing." I waved him off. "Just glad. How many more do you think there are?"
"Well, It's usually a nice even number. I've been counting, this one is our eleventh clue. If I had to guess, I'd say there were maybe 15? That would be an ideal number."
"Good." I grinned, my features like that of the Cheshire Cat. "We're almost done."
"The next step is within a most magical place, for it would have to be, named after a Greek god, especially one in space. The sun shines on this place from above, where stars performed, no matter the type of love. You must find the grain of the sea, the one who makes your life better, for almost free."
"Sounds like fun to figure out." I remarked dryly.
"Well, I know where we have to go." He smirked. "The Apollo Theater."
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Heyyyyyyyyy. Well, this chapter was a bit longer than the other ones, so I hope that's ok. Towards the end, I'm pretty sure you guys'll get longer ones. I tried to make this as long as I could, I hope you liked it.
*signing off with Lilly and Joey!*
Don't forget to vote, comment and hit that recommend button! Please tell me about the spelling and grammar mistakes!
Love from a Daughter of Athena!
~Vi