Time and Time Again [Discontinued?]

12: Journey to New York. Again. And a Brief Encounter

Nico woke up the next morning to a soft knocking on his door. He grumbled something about being sleep-deprived, got up, shuffled to the door, and opened it to reveal a messy-haired Jason.

"Morning Nico. We gotta arrive early in the city so we have a chance of seeing them on patrol since they do that. And so we arrive just in time for the museum." Nico just nodded his head, rubbing his eyes.

"Gimme time to change..." He said, his words slurred a bit. "Yeah okay. I'll be waiting by Peleus. By the way, I told Chiron that we'd be going into the city and we'd IM him every few nights in case we spend a few days away." After that, he walked off to probably wait by the Athena Parthenos.

Nico closed the door and went through the drawer in his cabin for clothes. After finally deciding, only took about 5 minutes, he decided to wear a light purple shirt, his aviator jacket, skinny jeans with pockets, and scuffed shoes. He also slung his sword across his back in case of monsters. He was debating whether to put on his beret but decided against it.

He headed over to his bed, crouched, and took out the tin box filled with his prized possessions. He took out the compass and the necklace, looked at both of them, then stuffed both into his pocket. "Might give me luck or something..." He said aloud. No one would hear him anyway.

He took the small pouch of drachmas he always kept under his pillow and stuffed it into his other pocket.

He left the cabin and headed over to Peleus greeting a few of the campers that greeted him. They were heading over to the mess hall to eat breakfast. "Nico!" Yelled Piper, heading up to him.

"Hey, Pipes." He greeted, not stopping. Piper fell into step with him and asked, "Do you know where Jason is?"

"I'm going on a small quest with him, no prophecy." Piper sucked in a breath when he mentioned a quest but sighed when he added there wasn't a prophecy. "There better not be or I will beat the Oracle's spirit myself, sorry Rachel." Nico gave a small smile which she returned.

"You should head to the mess hall for breakfast." Piper nodded. "Just let me say goodbye to Jason first." Luckily, they arrived at Thalia's tree where Jason was petting Peleus.

"Pipes! Nico!" He greeted, finally looking up from petting his snout. "Hey, Jason. Nico told me about the quest you two were going on." Jason looked a bit sheepish. He forgot to tell Piper.

"I'll let it slide that you didn't tell me because Nico told me." Jason let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Piper just say goodbye to me and Jason can go and you can have breakfast."

"Nico!" Jason and Piper said at the same time. Nico, who was right on the edge of the border, shrugged and walked through.

Piper and Jason said goodbye and Jason followed Nico through the barrier. "So Jason. Did you have a plan for getting to New York?" Jason nodded and pointed to a newly established bus stop near camp. "We take the bus, of course."

The bus stop was put there by Chiron, who asked for a favor from the gods for an easy way to travel from the city to camp and vice versa. There were newer campers that lived in the city so they had to have some sort of easy travel from New York to camp, hence the bus stop.

Now, a bus that accepts both mortal and demigod passengers follows a route from Long Island to NYC. The bus goes at a normal pace for mortals but for half-bloods and other mythical creatures, it goes as fast as the Chariot of the Damned so, pretty fucking fast. Think the Knight Bus in Harry Potter, but for mortals and mythical folk.

The bus wasn't going to arrive in a few more minutes so Nico just stood there waiting, fidgeting with his compass. He was flicking the cover just to cope with the boredom.