"Alright, it's morning, everybody up." Blake called loudly, his voice echoing in the cavern. Skylar rolled over with a groan into Jacob, who was being shaken awake by his older sister Irene.

"Owens, up." Alexander said, nudging her unceremoniously with his toe. Skylar glared at the disowned son of Zeus, marked by his father's lightning. His coarse wavy hair suck up with bedhead in an amusing way, and she fought back a snicker. She sat up and stretched to get the kinks of sleeping on the uneven floor out of her bones.

"Ace, do a headcount," Blake told the boy who woke up Skylar as he passed around the peanut butter jar and a box of cheez its.

"Skylar," the boy called.

"Here," she replied, putting her shoulder length red-brown hair into a ponytail.

"Irene."

"Mhm," she grunted.

"Jacob."

"Here."

"Blake."

"Yup."

"And I'm here obviously," Alexander said to himself, once everyone that was left was accounted for, and got a handful of crackers from the box as it passed him. He saw Jacob look at the box sadly, and remembered that they had been Karen's favorites. The son of Apollo wore her necklace. If it wasn't for it's history he'd have joked about the girly rainbow pendant, the symbol of Iris, who had been Karen's mother, but he had better taste than that.

"We're getting low on supplies again," Irene reported, "We're gonna need to go out today."

"If only Meg had come with us," Jacob commented.

"Are you kidding me? Meg can't pick pockets for shit all she can do is break locks and look unassuming under suspicion," Ace scoffed, and Skylar nodded in agreement.

"Okay, well," Blake started, pausing when he caught the sharp glare from Irene, "I'll take some people to raise a little hell with me."

"You will not be 'raising hell', Thompson," Irene said sternly, "Theft isn't supposed to attract any attention."

"Remember to give me the wallets after so I can drop them by the police department!" Skylar reminded, and Ace rolled his eyes.

"Why do you need to do that again?"

"So they get their wallets back, all we need is the cash."

"Besides," Jacob added with a wry smile, "if you don't give it to her she can't write down how much we took from who and their address off the driver's licenses so that she can pay them all back when this is over and she has another source of income."

Ace snorted, and Blake burst out into laughter. Skylar bristled.

"I guess the scales really do fit you, kid," Irene joked with a smile, and Skylar made her face into a tight, comedic frown, causing the older girl to fully burst out into laughter.

"Okay, okay, back on track you guys," Blake said, clapping his hands together several times to get everyone's attention, "What were we talking about?"

Everyone collectively either grimaced or frowned.

"Theft?" Jacob guessed.

"Yes!" Blake said, pointing in accomplishment of having re-aligned his train of thought, "We need to get supplies. Ace, Irene and Skylar, you're with me. Jacob can hang by the subway and play his shit or something, we won't be far away."

"Wait, you aren't going to make me stay behind and guard camp?" Jacob asked, surprised.

"No, we're not doing that anymore, not after last time. Besides, we can hide most of what matters and keep everything else on us. Not like there's many other living things down here anyway."

"And if there's any demigods who find our shit they can just join us anyway," Irene added, and the group nodded in agreement.

"The fact that we get anything done at all with how distracted we get amazes me." Ace muttered.

"Gives me a new appreciation for Chiron," Blake admitted, "Poor guy must feel like he's herding frantic cats."

"The fact that he even bothers to give us schedules is truly hopeful on his part, that's for fucking sure," Irene laughed, and everyone joined in.

"Damn. How're we gonna face him after all of this?" Jacob asked quietly, looking at the ceiling.

"With victory of a new republic," Skylar said with determination and sureness.

"But would he see that as victory though? I mean, how much blood is gonna have to be spilt? Zeus sure as shit ain't gonna give up his throne easily," Irene muttered the last part bitterly, and Ace nodded sternly.

"Well, we need to get going guys, get the rope," Blake said, managing to divert everyone's attention from the dark prospects of their futures and cause. Soon they were all tied together by their belt loops and holding hands in a big line, following their eldest through the oily darkness to their destination.

Bunch of new characters that I didn't actually anticipate having at the beginning of this story, so here's some info to keep them straight for you guys and for me.

Alexander Rosales, son of Zeus, age 15, Cutler Maine.

Skylar Owens, daughter of Dike, age 16, Waldport Oregon.

Jacob Slater, son of Apollo, age 16, Naperville Illinois.

Irene Perez, daughter of Apollo, age 18, Waco Texas.

Blake Thompson, son of Eris, age 20, Berea Kentucky.

I also wanted to make sure this was clear too, Greeks and Romans are the same camp, in the same Olympus, so like Ace is a son of Zeus, he'd also be considered a son of Jupiter and vis versa. All demigod residents have their parent's symbol on them, most of them being the planetary ones if their parent has a planet or astral body or sorts (like Eris). In the case of Skylar, she has a set of scales, for justice.

Sorry the chapter is so short, but with how close I'm posting it to the last post that's how it goes! Thank you all for the views and feedback as always!