Second Generation Heroes

Luke

"Ambrosia?" Brooklyn called out. I searched the pile of stuff, "Check!" I responded.
"Weapons?"
"Check!"
"Money and food?"
"Double check!"
"Okay, we're good," Brooklyn said, swinging her backpack over her shoulder. I grabbed mine and headed outside. I immediately spotted everyone at the top of the hill. Literally, everyone. All the campers had been excused from their activities to see is off. The mob of campers slowly parted to let us through until we were standing beside our friends and parents. The moms had tears in their eyes, and the dads, well, they were just smiling like idiots. But they all had a proud look on their face. Skylar, Lily, and Jake stood by awkwardly as we hugged our parents. I kinda felt bad for Skylar. Her Mom is in the army and no one knows for sure where her Dad went. Some say Dionysus' spell wore off and he was now in an asylum. Others say he just left.

The latter of the two seemed a bit more believable. I'm sure Skylar heard what they said, but she didn't seem to care. She just punched them in the face and walked away. Okay so maybe she didn't just punch them in the face. She also screamed profanities at them and made them her target of torture for the rest of her life.

"Do not use a phone, do not trust strangers, as cliché as it sounds it could mean life or death for you," Chiron told us, looking at all of us intently. "Dont eat hamburgers with Medusa," Dad said, his signature grin spread across his face.
"Yeah, and don't turn into a giant goldfish," Frank told Diamond.
"Don't let an evil snow goddess and her dumb brothers crush on you," Piper said, a smile now on her face even though her eyes were still glistening with tears.
"If two of Snow Whites dwarves take your stuff remember those bombs I taught you how to make," Leo said putting his hand on Charlie's shoulder, who began to smile like an idiot, obviously wanting to make the bombs.

I made a mental note to start checking my stuff for homemade bombs now and then.
"Don't let psycho goddesses wipe your memory," Mom said, glaring at the sky. There was a distant rumble of thunder to which mom just rolled her eyes.
"And most importantly, be safe," Jason said.
"Yeah, yeah, "Dad said, "That too."

We all smile and gave one more hug before heading down the hill towards the van with Argus sitting in the driver's seat. Squished on top of one another, we drove into town, stopping at a bus stop. Argus mouth curved at the edges, and he gave us a slight wave, the eyes on his hands blinking rapidly. I waved as he drove off. When I couldn't see the van in the flow of traffic anymore I suddenly realized, We're on our own.

"Okay," Brooklyn said, looking at the map, "We need to take green. That'll get us out of the city."
"What do we do when we're out of the city?" Diamond asked. Brooklyn shrugged, "I dunno, take a bunch if buses, rent a few cars, maybe just run." Diamond's eyebrows furrowed, "We aren't old enough to rent a car."
"Rent is the code word for borrow," I said, looking around.
"And borrow is code for steal." Arizona added.
"So basically we're going to steal a car," Diamond said.

"Look, I know the Romans are all strict and stuff, but would you rather walk?" She rolled her eyes, "I'm okay with stealing, I do it a lot, but I was just wondering how would we start the car?"
"Hotwire it." Me, Brooklyn, and Charlie all said at the same time.
"Does anybody know how to hotwire a car?" Charlie's eyes narrowed, "Are you testing my ability? Because it seems like you are."
"Well, no, it-" Diamond was starting to say but Brooklyn finished the sentence for her, "Doesn't matter," she looked down the street, "Here comes the bus."
"Plus Dad taught me how to hotwire a car once." I added just for the sake of conversation.

Brooklyn's head whipped around, "When?" I shrugged, "When we were nine and you and Mom were shopping." Brooklyn shook her head, "Typical. Well for the record, Mom let me throw daggers in the house."
"Dad took me to see Mrs. O'Leary last week." I smirked. Brooklyn's jaw dropped open.

Ever since Dad told us about Mrs. O'Leary, Brooklyn, being the animal love that she is, begged and pleaded to go see her. Dad was going to take her, but then all this quest stuff came up and it didn't happen.
"Are you serious?"
"Oh yeah."

He didn't actually take me, but she didn't need to know that.

"Are you guys coming or what?" Charlie asked as he walked onto the bus. I nodded and followed.
~^~

I really regret telling Brooklyn I saw Mrs. O'Leary. Because the whole bus ride was, "How big was she? Was she sweet? Did you play with her?"
I answered each question with a smug look on my face, although I was mentally banging my head against the window. She made a little 'humph' and flopped back in the seat.

"Alright! Everybody off the bus!" the driver called as we stopped right outside the city. We grabbed our stuff and filed out as quickly as we could. Their weren't a lot of people at the bus stop. Just an old, fat woman with her way to much makeup, holding a little chihuahua that growled at us as we walked past. "Now, now, sonny. Don't bite." And I thought I might have heard say yet, but I wasn't sure.

"Sorry, he smells you," she apologized.
"Hopefully we smell good!" Brooklyn laughed.
"Oh yes! Very good!" the woman said.
Her skinny, forked tongue flicked out of her mouth for just a second.

Holdup! Was I the only one that just saw that? I looked around, trying to catch eyes with someone. Skylar looked over at me, a bewildered look on her face. I nodded. We both knew we had to get out of here. Now.

"Hey Brooklyn," I said, nudging her, "Remember that story Dad told us about that time at the St. Louis Arch?"
"Yeah, why?" she asked, clueless.

Mental face-palm. Major mental face-palm.

Come on, I made a face and looked at the lady.

"Oh! I know your father!" she hissed, "Perseus Jackson."
"Run!" I yelled, turning tail and sprinting in the other direction.
"Sic 'em!" I heard her yell. I glanced over my shoulder to see the chihuahua sprinting at us, full speed, fangs bared, it's paws pounding against the pavement.

Oh Holy Hades, I thought.