After Reyna's meeting with Nightwing she was able to report to the Senate that Nightwing had agreed to help them. Erik was going crazy over the fact that Nightwing was helping their camp and now knew of their existence. He kept going over facts about Nightwing, what his skill sets were, his history with Batman, and so forth.
It was decided however they would seek the Auguries for further instruction. Brooke ripped open a stuffed animal and looked into the stuffing. She stared at it for quite a while before she said, "They will not return here you need to find the kids elsewhere and protect them."
"How do I do that?" Reyna said exasperated.
"I don't know." Brooke shrugged her shoulders. "It doesn't say."
"Thanks for the help." she muttered.
"One thing is clear, this takes priority over your other Praetor duties." the head of the Senate said. "Frank can take over all of your duties until this matter is cleared up. You need to focus on saving these kids and the future of Rome."
"Agreed." another senator spoke up.
"All who agree, say, 'aye.'" The head of the Senate declared.
The vote was unanimous. Reyna sighed and accepted her fate. She went to go and call the number Nightwing had given her.
He picked up on the second ring. "Hello?"
"Mr. Grayson, er, Nightwing, it's Reyna." She said awkwardly.
"Hey. Hi. What's going on?" He replied.
"I can't talk long, but the auguries were consulted."
"That doesn't sound good."
"They're not going to capture the kids here at camp anymore. We have to go find the kids and protect them. But there was no indication on how we're to go about doing that. We need to meet to discuss our options."
"Sure. How about tonight?"
"Sounds good. Where at?"
"How about your cafe?"
"My cafe? Fine. I'll see you there at six."
"See you at six." He agreed. She hung up the phone feeling excited and nervous.
She arrived at the cafe promptly at six to find him waiting for her. She entered the cafe and took her seat across from him. He wore jeans with a white button down dress shirt.
"Praetor Reyna." He greeted. "Or would you prefer just 'Praetor.'"
"Reyna is fine, Mr. Grayson." She said as she motioned an affirmative to Bev, who was stuck at the register and was looking to see if she wanted her regular. "We are, after all, going to be working with each other."
"Dick. My name is Dick."
"I'm sorry, but I'm not calling you that."
He looked at her disbelievingly. "Well you're not calling me Richard."
"Is that your real name? Why? Don't you like it?"
"I just have never been a Richard." He said it as though it were a silly name, which Reyna didn't quite understand.
"Well I think that it is a distinguished name. It suites you, Richard." Reyna said with a smile. Before he could object she changed the subject. "So any ideas on how we can find half-bloods so we can protect them?"
He hesitated before he said, "Actually, yes."
Reyna raised an eyebrow. "Really."
"Well, I am a member of the Justice League. Hacking just happens to be one of my superpowers."
"What are we hacking?" Reyna inquired.
He took a deep breath, as though he were about to dive into a long explanation, when he looked at her strangely. "Do you know what hacking is?"
Reyna realized that he mistook her Roman attire she previously wore for someone stuck in that age. She narrowed her eyes. "Depends, are we talking about the removal of a head or breaking into someone's computer?" She said bluntly.
He smiled embarrassedly. "Right. Well, I was going to hack into some systems that keep an eye on some of that stuff. The question is, how do we narrow the field."
"Do I want to know which systems you're going to be hacking into?"
"Probably not. Some of the more high-profile government systems, the Justice League. You know."
"Hmm. And you'll be looking for what?"
"Kidnappings. But there are a lot of kidnappings. She we need to narrow it down to what could possibly be half-bloods. Do you have any ideas?"
Bev appeared with Reyna's hot chocolate. Reyna smiled graciously at her and thank her for it. She stirred it for a moment pondering the question.
"You'll be using the internet, I presume."
"Well, yeah."
"My concern about that is that monsters use the internet to hunt us down. What if your search for half-bloods leads the monsters to them?"
"What do you mean 'It leads them to half-bloods?'"
"We have a saying, 'a Half-Blood with a cell phone is a dead Half-Blood.' Monsters use cell phone towers, radio waves, and the internet to be able to smell out half-bloods."
He seemed to ponder this information for a little bit then asked, "Did the cell phone have an encryption on it?"
"It only lasts so long. The Vulcan kids have been trying for some time."
"I see. How long exactly?" he asked.
"Not sure, I never asked. We just . . . avoid them."
"Do you think you could find out?"
"I suppose."
"Then I can limit the search to that amount of time. It still begs the question how can we narrow the search?"
"Well," Reyna hesitated, "most half-bloods are diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia." Reyna drew out the sentence, reluctant to share such sensitive information.
"Really?"
Reyna shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Will that be enough?"
"That'll help." He gave her a curious look and asked, "I don't suppose you could call those Vulcan kids and find out now?"
Reyna glared at him.
Richard cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Just asking."
"I'll call you." She said bluntly.
"So," he looked uncomfortable all of a sudden, "when I thought the girl was a dog, that was . . .?"
"The empousa covering their activities." She answered the question straightforward.
"Can all monsters do magic?" He asked.
"Some. Most are just hidden by the mist. Empousa are probably the most competent in magic as they are followers of Hecate."
"Hecate." He said it as if he were trying to remember who she was.
"Goddess of magic." Reyna supplied.
"Right" he acted as if he had known all along, but Reyna knew better. She smiled into her hot cocoa as she took a sip. "So wait a minute. I thought the gods were on your side. If they are her followers . . . ?"
"They were more than happy to follow Hecate when she was on Saturn's side. But things have been resolved since then and Hecate now supports the gods. But her followers didn't like getting beat. Since then, they have gone rogue, you might say."
He was quiet for a while until he said, "Huh." He took a sudden interest in his hot chocolate in front of him. "So is there a way to overcome their magic?"
"You mean the seduction." She smiled. He look down embarrassed. She always found it somewhat humorous at how uncomfortable guys got around the discussion of empousa. "I can't speak from experience, but from what I understand, once you recognize the effects, you can resist the feelings and overcome them."
"Really?"
"I know one guy who's not even affected by it now. But I have a theory about that."
"Like he's been exposed so many times it doesn't affect him?"
"That's a possibility. But that's not my theory." Reyna blushed.
Richard leaned forward. "Now I am curious. What is your theory?"
Reyna stared at her cup. "The person in question is madly in love with his girlfriend."
Richard raised an eyebrow. "What? Like true love?" He said with a smile.
Reyna smiled shyly back. "Like I said, it's just a theory."
"But you think I can resist it?" He turned more serious.
"You already started to before I arrived." She pointed out.
Richard stared down at his cup and pondered this information. "I've transferred to Berkeley. I signed up for some Greek and Roman mythology classes. As well as Latin."
"Isn't Latin a dead language?" Reyna asked slyly.
"So I thought, until I heard it." He looked up at her. "I don't like being left out of the conversation." He stared deeply into her eyes.
Reyna blushed again. "Well, I didn't want to scare you off."
"I am curious, what exactly did you say. I only caught one word, 'mortalis,' meaning mortal."
Reyna was impressed. She would have to be more careful around him in the future. "What I said exactly was for them to be prepared. There are monsters among the mortals."
Richard was quiet for a moment until he said, "I would have thought you were just being cryptic."
Reyna laughed out loud. "If only."