The air around them grew colder and colder still the longer they remained in flight, the further North they travelled. The clouds had thickened and were continuing to do so exponentially, the sun growing dimmer through the filter they provided.
"Where are we headed again?" Lance asked as he reached up to push a few strands of hair back from his eyes.
Jason sighed as he sent a glance over his shoulder, past Piper.
"Quebec." he said simply "We need to speak to Boreas, the God of the North wind."
"And how far are we, Leo?"
"About an hour away," Leo called over the roar of the wind that had picked up suddenly around them.
They landed, true to Leo's words, about an hour after his statement.
The place where they landed as somewhat alike to a penthouse, more than somewhat, in fact, at which they were met by two male figures.
One was tall, eyes as dark as the midnight sky, hair the colour of the snow they could see when looking about themselves, shoulders broad enough to be about two Jason's across. All in all, he was roughly the size of an ox, a great hulking figure with a vacant expression and a multitude of empty spaces in his mouth where teeth should have been, as though he had participated in a few too many fights and his teeth had fallen victim to many of them.
He was dressed as though he were ready to play hockey, thick sweatpants covering his legs, baggy as though they were a size or two too big, a red jersey on his torso. From his back there sprouted a pair of wings, purple in colour.
One of his large hands rested over the hilt of the sword sheathed to his side, it was bronze and jagged, as though you would merely have to touch it with the slightest degree of pressure for it to pierce your skin, almost as though it were mimicking the appearance of an icicle
The other was much different.
Leo took in his appearance with something like amusement.
"He looks like a love god from one of my mum's 80's rock album covers." he commented to Lance who made some sort of choking noise in the back of his throat as he attempted to hold back a laugh.
Leo could remember himself and Piper informing Lance about pop culture and the strange bits of recent history he seemed to have not heard of in anywhere near the depth they knew of. He was somewhat oddly proud at how well that had gone. He remembered the first time he told Lance about the messed up fashion of the eighties and Lance had paused before his expression went blank and his eyes glazed over. Leo had rushed over, knowing there was some hint of a memory resurfacing, but had then fallen into a fit of giggles when his face returned to normal and he had merely muttered, somewhat absently, that one of his friends had a mullet, but was still somewhat upset by the fact he simply could not call the friend's face to his memory.
Lance did have to agree Leo was right.
He was a wiry teenager, pretty unimpressive in all honestly. He had a bad case of acne, his shirt undone for too many buttons.
His hair was the same colour as the other figure's who could be assumed to be his brother, his sword made of the same bronze most demigod weapons they had seen at Camp Halfblood.
His eyes, however, much more intelligent than his brother's, were fixated on a squirming Piper whose eyes would not look back at his properly.
The four of them dismounted from Festus' back, at which point they were greeted by the two.
"I am Zethes," The second began "This is my brother Calais-"
"Cal!" The other interrupted like an echo, the words from his mouth distorted somewhat by the gap left by his missing teeth.
Zethes sighed as he continued "We must ask you to turn back."
Lance looked at him through narrowed eyes as Piper's eyes finally met Zethes.
She spoke in a soft voice that made everyone in her presence listen to her intensely.
"You will allow us entry," She said defiantly, voice slow as she made sure to emphasise and clarify each word to an extent most would not bother to do in conversational speech or speech of any kind.
The eyes of both Zethes and Calais clouded over as the words passed through them.
"We will let you in," Zethes decided "But the dragon must be deactivated. We cannot have fire in here." he looked at Festus with distaste "Fire ruins my hair."
Leo squirmed, rubbing his hands together before pulling some miscellaneous bits and bobs from his pockets, assembling them in someway and tucking the little, partially completed product back into his pocket. Then he turned to festus and made the great dragon retract into a suitcase, sized form of himself that, despite its appearance, almost definitely could not hold anything.
They walked forwards, past Calais as Zethes guided them forwards and he waited to take up the rear.
Leo was paused by the hulking Boread who paused him with a disconcerting, very loud sniff. That then dissolved into smaller, more frequent sniffs before Calais righted his posture and commented something that made Leo want to shrink in on himself, feeling less confident about the subject the dim Boread scrutinised than ever.
"Fire is bad," the ox-sized Boread stated as he followed Leo who had converted his walk into a sort of non-confident shuffle.
As they walked inside, they were met with a young woman whose appearance immediately succeeded in drawing all Leo's attention from his own control over fire to her.
She, however, was watching him through yes that did nothing but scrutinise in distaste, seeming much more friendly towards Jason in the way she gazed at their group.
Her hair was as dark as anything, to the point at which it seemed to be sucking the light from her immediate surroundings. Her skin was quite the opposite, the very unhealthy white colour - like that of the icy penthouse in which they stood - made to appear even more so because of the juxtaposing not-quite-colours.
Her eyes were the colour of coffee and continued to scrutinise Leo after she had examined his companions. She wore a white dress, a decoratively ornate crown of silver perched upon her mane of hair.
As Lance stood there, he could feel the odd, uncomfortable pull of the water in the ice surrounding him. He shivered, suddenly aware of the weight of the rifle in his bag.
"Wow," Leo didn't mean to speak aloud "you're hot!" Lance might have agreed had she not looked as ready to kill Leo as she did at that moment.
"Hot?" She sounded bewildered and upset "You dare insult me? I am cold, Leo Valdez." her eyes scanned him further as they narrowed, somewhat hidden in the sharp lines and angles of her conventionally attractive face "Very cold."
She took a few steps forwards, her sweeping skirt trailing behind her as she moved elegantly.
"You will stay here," she commanded him as his heart dropped just a centimetre or two in his chest "With my dearest brother, Calais." from the tone of her voice, dry and sharp, not at all affectionate, it was evident she was not being earnest in her statement.
So Leo was left with the great mountainous Cal who soon seemed to cement the idea that he could not speak words consisting of more than two syllables, confirming the origin of his nickname to be the simple fact he was incapable of saying his own name.
Khione, the daughter of Boreas with whom they had united moments prior, walked alongside Jason who kept his eyes fixed on Piper who was, in turn, being trailed by Zethes who was adamant with his body language he was not going to move away.
For once, Lance was glad of the fact he was left alone, not wanting to be trailed so closely by the immortal figures, one of whom was intimidating, the other of which was just not particularly pleasant and was clearly trying to be much cooler than he actually was.
His attempts were somewhat futile.
There was a man, sturdily built with long hair and facial hair that appeared to be frozen as though he had drenched them in water before standing in the coolest spot he could find for a few hours, sitting on a throne on a raised platform in the room. He was dressed in a suit that looked to be quite literally made of snow, wings like those of his son protruding from his back.
He looked over them for a while before speaking, interrupting whatever Jason was about to say, most likely, judging by the personality of the boy in question, a polite introduction to the God.
"What is that on your forearm, demigod?" he asked Jason whose eyes flitted back down to the dozen lines on his arm beneath the symbol of his father.
"Please, Aquilon-" he began, only to be cut off by Boreas' form flicking between how it had been at the beginning and into one of a sterner seeming entity.
"Demigod," he pleaded as his form settled back to how it should have been "I request of you - please use my Greek name exclusively."
"We were told you know where Aeolus is?" Lance asked a little while later, growing impatient with the conversation that was going absolutely nowhere.
The god sighed as Khione took a step forwards, halted by the god's raised hand.
"He became angry with the gods when they defeated Typhon in the war. It released a wave of wind spirits and now he is expected to gain control over them. I am afraid, as he cannot take out his anger on the gods, he is doing so on you, their children. He has ordered us to kill any demigods who come in request of our help," Lance and Piper both edged backwards uneasily.
Boreas did not seem to notice, though Khione and Zethes did, and merely continued as though he had said nothing to be even mildly concerned about.
"He did, however mention a child of Zeus to whom we need to listen before passing judgement."
Jason began to uncharacteristically stutter over words that refused to form in either his head or in reality, finding himself incapable of explaining their position when so much was at stake. But, luckily, Piper stepped up and began that response for him.
As she finished, he looked at her, nodding knowingly.
"I know of these storm spirits of which you speak," he began contemplatively "and, consequently, of their mistress. She resides in a windy city within the gods' control,"
"That being?" lance asked with a single cocked eyebrow as it became evident the god did not intend to elaborate.
"Chicago."
"You accept this?" A sceptical Khione asked her father as she continued to look at the demigods disapprovingly, Jason with a bit more fondness than the others. She would not admit her jealousy of Piper and was somewhat strange about Lance who was clearly directly descended from the past lover of hers, Poseidon.
"Do you have any alternative proposals?" The composed god asked with genuine curiosity.
"I suggest we turn them to statues," She grinned maniacally "I would love to expand my collection, the blonde one would make a fine addition."
"I second that proposal." Zethes added, looking over Piper who didn't know where to tread as moving away from him would only bring her closer to Boreas.
"I reject." Boreas told them but he had missed the optimum timing and neither of his children seemed willing to turn back as they lurched forwards to attack.
They were much in their element, their inherited powers useful and much useable in the surroundings.
With nothing else to do, Lance, Piper and Jason all ran, skirting around the sides of the two immortal beings who were approaching them relentlessly.
Lance slid across the floor, easily standing, isolated in a corner away from Piper and Jason who were, luckily for him, the main targets of the two.
Less luckily, his weapon was concealed in the bag worn on his back and, therefore, not the easiest to retrieve. He was forced to watch the battle going on to his side, watch his friends running about as they were attacked, neither in their element as it was loud and Piper had nothing she could think to say and Jason's control over wind was not that helpful as a defensive tactic from the onslaught of ice, wind and snow that approached them.
But, the second he had the rifle cradled in his arms, he threw himself in front of them, silently cursing the fact he did not have control over his inherited powers or even the knowledge of how to activate them.
Still, he shouted in protest and the defence of his friends.
"You won't hurt them!" He declared as he shot a warning bullet to the wall besides Boreas who did not seem to care about the actions of his children. The God recoiled slightly in surprise but Zethes had something to say.
"But we're immortal. You can't kill us."
Lance didn't have a response prepared and was merely trapped with Jason and Piper, right in the line of fire of the two immortal beings, essentially defenceless.
He was just left to wonder about how Leo was doing in that moment...
A/NHi. So my laptop isnt working so i had to write this on someone else's and am typing this A/N on my phone so I apologise if this is full of typos. I just thought I'd say now that I'd love to have another chapter up on Lance's birthday (July 28th) but won't be able to unless my laptop decides to work again so Im just gonna have to wish my fav happy birthday now and apologise if I cant get that chapter up when I mean to.