Daniel

"We're Done." Kronin said.

I collapsed onto the floor, and my opponent bowed, before dissipating into Chaos.

"Are... You-"

"Yes, I'm sure. Your power has grown greatly, and everything shows that." He said pointing at me.

I looked at my heaving chest, bruised, but muscled. I had a small amount of baby fat a month ago, though that had long since disappeared.

"I don't feel strong."

"It's because I haven't allowed you to release your true potential. Believe me, once on the battlefield, you'll feel it."

"If you say so..."

"I do. Now once you leave, go to sleep. Leave the Administration for tomorrow. You won't get too many chances to sleep once you start this war."

"This war is already ongoing, ever since Tartarus attacked this Island." I muttered angrily.

"I know. I mean the counterattack. The Guardians of the Mountain are no longer needed, they are now your bodyguards. Use them well."

I stood up and looked Kronin in his eyes.

"Thank you, for all the work you put into me."

Kronin nodded, then smiled.

I closed my eyes and touched my temple. The warm embrace of Chaos wrapped around my body, and when I opened my eyes again, I was in the Grandmaster's Chambers. I hadn't slept in here since that day I met with Harold. To save time and energy, I had slept in one of the Chambers in the Mountain.

Two Weeks had passed since that day. Two weeks since I left Harold a letter, giving him full authority to reform the Chaos Army, Navy, and Assassins of Chaos. I was excited to see what he had done.

But that was for tomorrow. For now, sleep was all that was on my mind. My bruised body was fast at healing, but it didn't help in the short term. My body ached, and yet it felt good. Flopping onto the bed, I fell asleep quickly.

Sophia

I couldn't fall asleep that night, no matter how tired I was. The destruction of Seattle had burned into my mind. It was now dawn, the sky glowing a dark red.

Julius was also awake, driving beside me. He had already sacrificed so much for this quest, and yet he was still sane, not to say willing to lead us. Behind us trailed three mini-buses, along with a Military Truck, filled with the remainder of the Amazons of Seattle and the remainder of the First Cohort's First Century. Once the best of the best, but the battles in quick succession, only hours apart from each other, had taken a toll on the fighting force.

"So, Julius. You want to talk about anything?" I asked, looking for something to pass the time.

"Not really."

"Fine." I huffed, turning on the Radio. I started turning the dial, trying to find some music to listen to. Instead, I found the 24/7 News Channel.

"Attention, this is a Repeating Presidential Alert. The City of Seattle has been destroyed with the use of Atomic Weaponry. Thankfully most civilians had managed to escape the vicinity beforehand, therefore the casualties are low. The Army of the United State of America has been mobilized, and every Highway now has multiple blockades assigned along its length. This way, we hope we can catch further Terrorist Forces, stopping any more Terror Attacks. Do not impede the work of the Soldiers. May God be with us."

"Amazing, just what we needed." Julius muttered.

"Shh." I muttered.

"The Sun Flare, which happened now nearly One and a half months ago, leaves Scientists wondering why Power can't be restored. All Across Europe, tension is high, and Riots are becoming more frequent. A Massive Group of different Ethnicities and Nationalities have banded together, crossing borders both Natural and Artificial, gathering more and more followers in the process. Two groups have now split off, one heading straight for the Pilgrim site of Vatican City, while the second continually collecting new followers. Authorities are underpowered to stop them.

"Tartarus?" Julius asked.

"Most likely. Mortals rarely see the full picture. Mist is powerful, especially if it surrounds hundreds of thousands of monsters and multiple deities."

"Once saw Mortals pet the Chimera because they thought it was a dog. It was an interesting Quest, to say the least."

I snorted, picturing a fire-breathing monster looking like a cute dog.

The radio then went silent, with only a monotonous beeping.

"Seems like that's the end of it." And with that Julius turned it off.

The Next few minutes went by silently until something showed up on the horizon.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Looks like the blockade they were talking about on the radio. Great." The Car started slowing down until we finally pulled up next to an Officer of some rank. Two soldiers stood in front of us, showing an open palm towards us, telling us to stop.

The Officer walked over to our window, which Julius rolled down. Without asking anything the Man looked into the car and saw multiple people sleeping on the back seats. Ostia, John, Desdemona, Tristan, Susan, Robert. All fast asleep.

"Can I help you?" Julius asked.

"I'm guessing you guys are together?" The soldier said, pointing towards the rest of our small convoy.

"Yes."

"Why are you coming this way?"

"We have to deliver a package to Florida. Special Orders."

"I'm afraid I don't believe that. Why do you have a military truck with you?"

"I said it's a Package, top secret." Julius said.

"Right. Let me check a few things." He looked at me, and frowned, before walking away.

"I'm not liking this." I muttered.

"Something's gonna go wrong." Julius agreed.

The officer started talking with the other soldiers, who were looking at a small tablet, they were frowning towards our Military Truck and our SUV, at me in particular.

After a few seconds, the Officer walked back.

"Can you show me some sort of Identification?"

Julius looked at me.

"Umm." He hesitated.

Without asking again, the man pulled a pistol from its holster. The two soldiers standing at the blockade also pointed their Assault Rifles towards the Vehicles.

"Get out of the Vehicle. Now!"

"Wait, what? Why?" Julius said, putting his hands up.

"The vehicle at the back has the same License Plate as a Truck that went missing in Seattle. Furthermore, you are transporting a Criminal who is on the FBI's List of Terrorists."

All of a sudden Rebecca awoke, startling all of us.

"A monster." Rebecca whispered. I looked at Julius, who didn't look too happy. He had heard it too.

"GET OUT OF THE CAR!" The Soldier Roared.

"SIR! Something's coming. It's another vehicle."

"I don't care. Help me get these scum out of the car."

"Wait, I'm getting out." Julius said.

"Sarge!"

"WHAT?" The sergeant roared, glancing at the two soldiers. Their Guns were wavering, and they were looking at something at the back. I couldn't see anything through the side mirror, seeing how it was still fairly dark.

"It looks bigger than-"

A horn sounded from the back of our convoy. A Scream crackled on the Radio.

Before the Officer could react to the noise, our Military Truck flew sideways into the Checkpoint, taking out the Entire thing, and exploding into smithereens. The two Soldiers had disappeared into dark patches on the side of the Truck.

"Wuh-" The officer was cut off by Julius, who opened the door and kicked it hard, smashing it into the Officer, who fell onto his backside.

A Bellow rang out, and without thinking Twice, Julius stepped on the Gas, swerving past the wreckage and the Bodies of Mortals and Demigods. The opened door snagged on something, and it broke off. Another scream cut through the radio, followed by an Audible crumpling of Aluminium.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?" Roared the normally calm Amazonian Queen. Everyone had been shaken awake at the sound of the explosion.

"God damn it, it's the Minotaur!" Julius said, grabbing the Microphone, and shouting orders into it. "Everyone! Split up, we'll discuss where to meet up once things calm. Centurion out." He hung the microphone back as multiple replies came in, acknowledging the order.

After a few minutes, Julius eased off the Pedal.

"It's gone after one of the Mini-Buses. We're good for now. Sophia, find the closest town we can go to."

"Right away." I could see Julius gripping the wheel tightly.

I grabbed a GPS and looked at it for a few minutes.

"Well?" He asked impatiently.

"There." I said, pointing at the Map. "Nampa."

Julius grabbed the Microphone once more, and relayed the information, before laying back into his seat.

"That's a half hour drive."

"It's a big enough Town, we can hold out there for a bit before continuing."

"Fine by me. We need some Gas anyway. Running low here. Could also use a coffee"

We all lay back, knowing that we had just lost two Cars, and possibly a third one. Our Company of Thiry-Five Romans, Greeks, and Amazons had once again lost more. One Mini-Bus remained in total, as well as the SUV, not counting the one the Minotaur had decided to follow. The Buses were definitely not as cramped as they had been when we left camp.

Viscount

"Come On! Hurry up!" I shouted, making the Soldiers packing up the remainder of the camp walk a bit faster. Our Sponsors had been quick about gathering together every vehicle they could afford to help with our plans. In the matter of a few hours, a number of Trucks, Buses and even a Cargo Plane had arrived. From then on it took no time to pack in the important things.

Most Citizens had already left for Camp Half-Blood, taking only the most essential things with themselves. While the city would remain intact, the actual Camp Jupiter Fort would be burned to the ground, so that the Persians won't have anything to use once we were to take this place back from them. The entire Armory had been packed onto the plane and carted off to New York first, followed by the Animals.

One problem still remained, and it was an annoying one. Terminus.

The god had been offended when we had told him the Plan, and he wouldn't move no matter what we said. Ever since the Greek Ship, the Argo II had fired on New Rome, Terminus had held a grudge against the Greeks, even though we were technically now allies.

"Any luck?" I asked Severus.

"No. He won't budge." He grunted.

"I AM NOT LEAVING THIS PLACE TO BE RAVAGED BY SAVAGES!" The God roared, popping into existence beside me.

I sighed inwardly. The Senate had been easy to convince once word of the Persian Army got to us. The god of boundries was much harder.

"Well we're doing just that, and I advise you to do the same. The civilians will still need defense, and I'm sure the Athena Parthenos will happily coexist with you. The City is doomed, whether we stay to fight, or no."

"YOU ARE SAYING I AM NOT GOOD ENOUGH DEFENSE?" The God roared, nearly toppling over.

"Terminus, we've already gone over this. Get in the Truck, and we will take you to Camp Half-Blood. If you don't come, we'll leave you here for the Persians. They don't care about sacrilege. I'm sure you'll be able to hold out against a few thousand, but this army is much too big for even a god."

"Wait, what?" He frowned.

"They'll probably destroy your statues, maybe take them back to their base as decoration. You'll be a part of their war spoil."

"Those savages will not plunder me!" He exclaimed indignantly.

"Without the armies of Rome to defend against their army, they definitely will. So choose, the Greeks or the Persians."

The god frowned for a second.

"I will not work alongside the Greeks though. That is asking too much."

"You don't need to." I said, smiling.

"Then I'm going. These talks are over." He erupted into a puff of yellow smoke.

I wiped the sweat off of my brow, before looking at the buses leaving one by one, their target Rhode Island.

The Fauns hadn't returned since we had rebuilt the city, so we didn't need as many buses as we first thought. The Lares had also disappeared, from one day to the next. With the power of the gods diminishing, they had gone into hiding, fearing for their own existence.

One car was still waiting.

"Sir?" Severus questioned. The black SUV was already running, and it was all but full with my personal guard.

"Yes, sorry. You have the device primed?"

"It's already been set off. It'll take a few minutes for the flames to light the Greek Fire. You sure you want the City spared?"

"I doubt the Persians will destroy buildings that can give accommodation to their armies. Also, we need someplace to return to once this war is won." I smirked.

"True enough."

"Okay, let's go then. We have a long way to drive. "

"Right away!"

Sophia

"Well thank the Gods we arrived." Julius said, looking at the Fuel Gauge. It was on the red and had been for the past five minutes. The engine was on the last dregs of fuel we had.

"Looks like the others have also done so." I commented.

It looked like Horatius was the one who had arrived, meaning we were still missing one Vehicle. Most probably the one that the Minotaur had chased after.

We came to a stop next to the Mini-Bus.

"Sir." Horatius said from the rolled-down window.

"We need gas." Julius said.

"Same here."

"Shit." Julius muttered.

"The problem is, the Van which had been carrying the Scorpio, had also been carrying most of the Funds we had brought with us. In bags."

"Did you manage to save anything from it?"

"It had been stomped into a pulp. The Defenders of the Buses hadn't been able to get anything from it. Neither could we."

"We definitely don't have enough on us to get us what we need." Julius turned towards the Queen of the Amazons. "You have a credit card, or anything we can use?"

"You think my first thought when trying to escape the Headquarters was bringing money with me?" She questioned, raising an eyebrow.

Julius huffed, turning to me.

"You guys?"

"We have a couple of dollars on us, but it's not that much." John said. "Our questing gear was mostly in that Bus. Including the Cash."

"I have some cash, maybe two hundred dollars. Is that good?" Tristan piped up.

"Really?" Julius asked.

"Yeah. I had emptied the Cash from the taxi before jumping out."

"And once again, you've come to our aid." I said, smiling.

"Just give me the money. We won't be budging from here, that's for sure. I'll take some of the lads with us to bring back a few Jerry Cans." Julius said, grabbing the stack of bills.

"What should we do until then?" Robert asked.

"You, you're going to come with us boy." Julius smirked. "The Girls can buy all of us some coffee from that Starbucks. We need something to keep us going. Just get whatever costs the least."

"Sure."

We all got out of the Car. All the boys marched off, Horatius looking at a map. It was a Girls party then.

Beatrice came over to us, along with three other Amazon warriors.

"Some coffee sounds good." She said, and we all nodded, walking towards the Starbucks. On the way there, I spotted a Wanted poster, something I had never seen before in real life, only in movies.

It was a warrant for the arrest of me and Daniel, his picture was the same I had seen in the Newspaper, while mine was a sketch. I ripped off the poster and threw it into the nearest bin.

Once entering the Starbucks, we realized it was just as dead as the Town. Nobody had been on the streets. The Barista raised an eyebrow like it was surprising to have so many people in here at once. A slight silvery glow surrounded her, but that was probably my eyes playing tricks on me.

"Can I take your order?" She asked.

"Yeah, we'd like-" I quickly counted how many there were of us. "Sixteen Freshly Brewed Coffees. Grande. We'd also like some scones, those look nice." I said, looking at the glass display case.

She didn't even ask what names to write on the cups. There was no point. The place was empty, even though it was Seven in the Morning.

"That'll be Forty Dollars." The Barista said once she was done.

Then I remembered, Julius hadn't even given me any cash.

"Uhh."

The Barista frowned.

"Wait, I think we have enough. Let's put it together. I have Twelve Dollars." I said, taking all of my remaining money out of my pocket.

"Six here." Susan said.

"Four."

"Ten."

"Fourteen."

"Okay, that's enough. Thank you, Ladies. Enjoy your coffee." She smiled, before closing the cash register and handing us our coffees. Rebecca pocketed the change.

We walked outside, placing the tray of coffees and the bag of scones onto the hood of the SUV. Now, all we had to do was wait.

Time passed quickly, but the Boys were nowhere to be seen, even after ten minutes.

We had already drunk our coffees and eaten a few scones.

Then we heard it. The clunk of metal and the roar of an engine. A black Mini-Bus skidded out of a Junction onto the main road. It was one of ours! It was badly damaged, with multiple crumples, and the rear-end sliced into with an axe. Other than that it was still running.

"YEAH!" Susan yelled upon seeing the Vehicle. We all started cheering.

Upon noticing us, the Driver started honking tunelessly.

We didn't even have time to react when a double-headed axe smashed into its side.

The Mini-Bus flew off of the road, into the nearest building, which promptly collapsed onto it. Nobody could have survived that, but somehow, two people did. They had jumped out of the Vehicle and were now running towards us as fast as they could.

Our cheers died in our throats, and we had dropped everything to get into some sort of formation, grabbing weapons from our Vehicles.

A loud bellow rang out in the quiet town, and a massive creature entered our line of sight. It's bottom half wore a metal Skirt, while its top half was bare, and coated with shaggy brown fur. Two Horns rose from its head, easily making the beast three meters high.

The Minotaur ignored us, walking over to the ruined bus instead, and grabbing its axe. Then it found us interesting.

"OH SHIT!" I heard Julius yell, and very soon we were joined by the boys.

Meanwhile, the monster was slowly walking over to us, taking its time. Savouring every moment. As it drew closer, I noticed something glinting on its face. It was a golden nosering, reflecting the light of the sun.

We were a sorry sight, but we weren't done with fighting quite yet. The wait for it to get close was agonizingly long. We had made a shield wall out of the crumpled shields the Romans and Amazons Still had, but it looked as protective as a piece of paper. The Two soldiers hid behind us, breathing heavily.

It was now only a few meters away, getting ready to swing. We all held our breaths, but the strike never came.

A Silver blur appeared in the air, flying straight towards the Minotaur, then another, and another. Each hit with a wet thwack and the beast staggered for a moment, roaring at the sky, before simply turning to dust.

"What-"

"HALT!" Came a voice from behind us. We heard the stretch of a bowstring, and that stopped us from turning around.

"Who are you?" Julius asked.

"Your Saviours, now look at me and tell me what you are doing here. Romans and Greeks have rarely worked together, even as allies."

I turned around first.

A Girl, no older than fifteen stood alone in the street, holding a taut bow in her hands. She had an aura of Silver light around her, whilst wearing a Chiton, also glowing silver. A Silver Headband was holding her Black hair in a ponytail, and lightning-bolt shaped earrings hung from her ears.

"We're on a Quest of sorts."

"Oh really? You better speak up. Rarely does the Minotaur attack a normal group of demigods. Especially in times like this."

"Okay, okay." I said, trying to calm her. "We need to take her-" I pointed at Ostia, "To Florida. She is the Queen of the Amazons. My name is Sophia Whitefield from Camp Half-Blood, and I know who you are too. The Hunters of Artemis."

"I see." The Girl whistled, and a bunch of other silver-wreathed girls appeared from different buildings. One of them was the Starbucks Barista who had served us.

The Girl let go of her bow.

"See? That wasn't so hard. Follow me."

"Sure, but tell us who you are." Julius said.

"My name is Thalia Grace, Daughter of Zeus, and Lieutenant of Artemis. Welcome to our Forward Outpost."

A/N Another Chapter done. This is the first of many Characters of the Original Percy Jackson I want to bring back. I hope I didn't leave it on too big of a cliffhanger. That's about all.

-Good day.

-ServantofRagnos.