It was a good plan. After Cole met up with Ash later that night and receive a map of the Woodland Route, he and the other four would get prepared during their free time the next day. Cole made sure he packed up the essentials like he was heading on a sleepover. A fresh set of clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, weapons, his sleeping bag, hoodie, his wallet that held about two hundred dollars, and his phone which he should probably keep off for the entire trip. He didn't know how long it was going to take but seeing as it's just Long Island he was sure they could clear the place out in a day or two at the most.

The map was also going to be packed up with him. Believe it or not, he saw the route for the first time with everyone else that night before curfew, looking it over with them as they saw the entirety of the island. With the other four behind at his sides, he'd unfolded the map to reveal Long Island and its numerous roads, parks, monuments, and five green markings along a major road.

"Damn, Long Island's actually big as hell," said Dante as he looked along the island.

"Yeah," said Cole, "this doesn't look too bad though. I think the green checkmarks are the satyr checkpoints marked along the island, right? We just gotta travel along the route and check out each one and clear out whatever monsters. There shouldn't be too many, sure they can overpower a satyr and a demigod but not FIVE demigods. We can pack up tomorrow and head out after curfew, just keep your heads down until about… ten or so. Sound good?"

The five of them all looked to be on the same page and when Night had come Cole would start to sneak out of Cabin One. The hearth fire blazed into the night as it was tended by a little girl wearing a brown dress. Cole felt tense as he tried to close the cabin door as quietly as possible but the rumble of the thunder from the inside might have given him away. He quickly shut the door and used every bit of stealth training he learned from the Hermes kids to be quiet as he could possibly be as he crept his way out of the cabin area. He was already fading into the darkness of the night when he heard a voice in his head.

Be careful, Cole Thomas. You and your friends will be needed.

The voice had a calm and even genuine tone in his head even though it still startled him. He quickly turned around to look at the hearth, thinking some sort of demon or monster was there but instead there was no one. The little girl had disappeared, and Cole had become more curious than ever about her. Even still, he put it out of his mind and made his way to Half-Blood Hill to meet up with the other four.

"Did anybody get caught?" He asked them as he joined up with them.

"I'm good," said Dante with a yawn, "most of my cabin is asleep early after all the energy we use."

"I'm by myself and I ain't make any real noise," said Regina who might have brought the most stuffed bag along with her bow and quiver.

"I'm all good, I paid one of my siblings to keep quiet after he caught me." Andrew said as he looked around, "this feels too easy."

"I think someone might have heard me," Donna said quietly as she held a small umbrella in her hand, "I didn't have any cash to pay them with."

"Don't worry about it," said Cole, "we should be fine as long as they don't stop us from leaving."

He was starting to feel better about this idea, even under the light of the moon where he could only see them all so well, he thought it was cool of them to be willing to go through with this. He imagines that any gods watching would be impressed, such young kids already taking charge of their destiny.

The five of them looked up to see Aello, Celaeno, and Ocypete all descending upon and surrounding the five demigods. The cleaning harpies were known to catch and devour demigods that snuck out and naturally the five of them were looking to avoid them and slip out of the border.

"Poor Son of Zeus," Aello said, "already breaking rules. Still good meal for harpies."

"Great," said Andrew, "we're fucked."

"Not with that attitude," said Dante as he got ready to brace himself, looking at Cole for any sort of signal on whether to run to not.

Cole looked at the harpies, his eyes darting around to glance at all three of them. No way did they think they'd just round all five of them up that easily. It was almost insulting, what made them think things would work out that well? On top of that, he just didn't like their attitude. Sure, they weren't supposed to be sneaking out of camp, but it wasn't like Chiron was going to address this sort of problem in good time, right?

From his peripheral, he saw Donna clutch onto her umbrella handle. Except when he looked properly, he saw that it wasn't an umbrella at all It was a long and slightly curved knife similar to the ones the dracaenae had back at the battle. He almost told her not to get any ideas but when he thought about it, he had a feeling that their better numbers should be enough to get them through. Besides, something about them was ticking him off. He then exchanged looks at the other three and then back at the harpies.

"Look, we don't wanna fight or anything. We're just trying to help out the keepers by clearing up the Woodland Route for them and then we're gonna head straight back to camp. Cool?"

"Not cool!" The lead harpy exclaimed, "more like lukewarm! Now butter up!"

"If y'all attack us…" said Regina. She frowned in the low light, gripping her bow as her other hand crept onto the base of one of her arrows. "We're gonna be inclined to defend ourselves…"

"You're inclined to be eaten by harpies for breaking curfew," Ocypete retorted.

"That is not the strong defense that you think it is…" said Donna as she frowned.

Cole isn't sure why the harpies suddenly got extra mad at what Donna said but he knew that he was not about to be eaten that night. It was almost a relief to him to see them strike first, somehow. When Aello lunged at him with her talons ready to rip him open he quickly hit his watch to activate his shield. He felt the harpy slam into the celestial bronze as he heard the other four spring into action.

"Don't attack first, just counter!" Cole yelled as he reached into his pocket for his highlighter. He pushed the harpy back, quickly uncapping his sword and allowing it to grow in his hand. If this was going to happen, it needed to be quick before the harpies woke up the whole camp. Three harpies, the five of them should have this in the bag.

Cole lunged forward to attack the lead harpy. He kept his shield up, blocking a couple of slashes from her talons as he waited to push her back once again and give her a good swing with his sword. The faintly glowing xiphos cut through the air… right into more air. Aello was faster than she let on and didn't seem like she'd go down easily.

Meanwhile, the other four were getting busy on their own. While Cole occupied one, they'd split in duos to gang up on the other two. Dante kept Celaeno distracted as Regina nocked her arrow, Ocypete was being faced by Andrew and Donna. Andrew had a ten-foot spear out to keep the harpy at a distance while Donna had her curved knife to try and sneak in on their adversary.

Cole had a good feeling about their chances as he faced off against Aello. She flapped her wings, gaining some lift so that she could come down on him once again. Cole raised his shield to block her attack, cringing at the awful sounds of talons scraping against metal. Seeing in the dark wasn't easy for even a demigod, but something about how she flapped her wings made it very easy for him to figure out how to visualize her in his head like he was looking right at her. When she lunged again, he dodged and rolled back to his feet. For a moment he felt like he was at the battle again, that strange feeling he had back then had returned and with a frown, he decided that they didn't have time for games

"Fuck this," he said softly.

Gritting his teeth, he dashed towards her bringing in his sword for a good slash. He could feel the air around him carry his body as he moved, his sword cut through the air this time as if it was going right where it needed to. For a moment he thought his sword would slip out of his hand but instead, it found its way into the harpy's breast slicing through her and coming out the other side. She let out a shrill scream as Cole pulled his sword back and went for the kill. He swung once more, this time at her neck, and lopped her head right off the cease the noise and cause her to disintegrate.

As soon as Aello was down, he looked around to see how the others were doing. Dante looked like he'd been scratched as he kicked Celaeno in the chest to send her back. Andrew swung his spear at Ocypete to smack her to the ground and allow Donna to pounce on her for the kill. Meanwhile, Regina only needed Dante to get clear for her to shoot as she would hit Celaeno through her left eye. Within seconds both harpies followed their sister back to Tartarus and there were only the five of them.

For a moment, it was quiet. The five of them stood on the hill in the shadow of the Athena Parthenos and Thalia's tree as they looked at each other. The harpies were done for and the five of them could only look at each other for a moment. As the seconds passed, Cole felt a smile creep on his face, one that was being shared by Dante as they would soon exclaim in unison.

"Oooooohhhhhhhhhhh shiiiiiiiiiit!"

"Bruh…" Andrew said with a chuckle as Donna looked confused and Regina cracked a smile.

"Yo, you've NEVER been that fast!" Dante said to Cole as he collapsed his kopis.

"I've never TRIED to be that fast," said Cole as he and the others put their weapons away and would walk on out of the border. "I dunno, it was like… I wanted to take her out and I realized just how. The wind sorta helped me get there."

"The wind carries you now?" Andrew asked as they started to head down the hill. "Sounds like a sky kid thing to me."

"Yeah, that's probably it." Cole nodded as they would soon find the street where they would continue their path.

"Since you've been claimed, your powers are probably coming in faster," Donna said thoughtfully out of nowhere, "identity is key to elevation. You got better at fighting just by learning who your dad is."

"Uhm… how do you know that?" Cole asked with a look of concern.

"Fundamental power distribution within the domain of the respective god," she responded, "it's a theory I thought up. I think as we learn more about ourselves, we get more comfortable with what we can do."

"Huh…," said Cole.

"Damn," said Regina, "I thought it was just puberty."

"It might be that too," Donna responded.

"That's a cool theory," said Andrew, "I feel like there's a lot of ways the gods and demigods channel their power that we don't even know about yet. Also, I've been meaning to ask, should we like… tell each other what kind of cool things we can all do?"