This chapter contains graphic violence and death, including Aura's reaction to killing someone for the first time. It also includes a sex trafficking ring and mentions of rape and abuse. I will put a condensed version of the scene at the end of it. Scroll until you see the three dots. It's safe to continue reading once you see the bolded words.

Also, I forgot to mention that monsters and Celestial Bronze weapons can harm mortals. It's just way easier to not worry about that rule.

Chapter 3: Count your mf days

For most people, a fun night out involved a bar, a movie, or maybe a nice restaurant.

For a bored half-blood, a fun night out involved fingerless combat gloves with reinforced Kevlar knuckles, and plenty of knives.

Aura was currently sitting on a heavily graffitied shipping container, silently watching five young women being abducted.

The women were screaming and crying, but two men kept lugging them towards an empty shipping container, which another man was standing by.

"Scream all you want, no one's going to help you," the burly man said, laughing unkindly.

Aura had heard about a small sex trafficking ring centered in Hell's Kitchen, and had spent several tired nights dinking around on her phone while sitting on shipping containers, waiting for them to show up.

Aura didn't like being bored, so on top of the three men being terrible people who sold women into sex slavery, she had a lot of pent-up anger towards them for making her sit around waiting.

Aura started quietly climbing down from the shipping container as she heard the women being threatened with tasers and pushed into the shipping container.

Once she got within fifteen feet, she stopped being quiet and sprinted at the burly man.

He yelled in alarm and lifted his taser, but she kicked his feet out from under him and punched him in the throat.

He started hacking and coughing, clutching at his throat.

She slammed her fist into the side of his jaw, knocking him out. He crumpled to the ground.

The second man came up from behind Aura and grabbed her arm, twisting it behind her sharply.

Aura yelped in pain.

Instinctively, her arm burst into sunlight, the heat making him gasp and let go.

Aura swung around, sliding a knife from its sheath on her upper arm, and stabbed him in the heart.

He put a hand to his chest, looking down in shock.

Then he collapsed. Blood started dribbling from his mouth.

He wasn't dead yet, but he would be in a few minutes.

Aura had never killed someone. She was well acquainted with violence, sure, and she had come after the sex traffickers knowing that it would probably end in death, but actually killing someone felt different.

Aura's hands started shaking, which always happened when she was upset.

She took a few steps back, breathing unsteadily and trying to collect herself.

He had sold women for a living, had probably raped them himself. The world was a better place without him in it. She didn't regret his death, and was going to have to kill the other two men.

That didn't stop her hands didn't from shaking.

The third man had made a move to come after her when the second man had grabbed her, but now he was just staring at the body on the ground in shock.

Two of the women in the shipping container were still crying. Another was eyeing the third man like she was going to take him on herself.

Aura flung herself at the man and stabbed him in the side of the neck.

She stepped back and turned away. She could hear the blood and the hard thump of his body hitting the ground.

Before she chickened out, she moved towards the unconscious body of the first man and slit his throat.

She sheathed her knife, her hands starting to shake again.

One of the women, a pretty brunette, stepped out of the shipping container unsteadily. She couldn't have been more than twenty.

Aura walked towards her, trying not to seem threatening.

"Hey. Are you okay?"

"U-uh, yes. I think so."

The four other women started making their way out of the container, two holding hands and one with her arm wrapped around the other, who had tears running down her face.

Aura came closer to them. "You're safe now. It's going to be okay."

…

Short version: Three men take five women to an empty shipping container, planning to sell them into sex trafficking. Aura stops them, killing all three to stop them from doing it again. The five women escape, unharmed.

…

By the time Aura got back to her apartment, it was almost one in the morning. She had to get up at three to be at work at three-thirty, so she didn't bother changing or brushing her teeth before falling onto the bed and passing out.

Between her long shift at Starbucks, her inconsistent shifts at Barnes and Noble, taking care of the unusually large number of monsters who roam Manhattan (who prefer to come out at night, the fuckers), and her constant prophetic dreams (Apollo's children often have especially powerful and confusing nightmares, and she was ready to throw hands over it), Aura was used to not getting much sleep, so she managed to pull herself together by three-thirty.

…

A few days later, Aura was investigating the kidnapping of a child.

See, the problem was, Aura was getting a weird feeling about the number of monsters gathering in Hell's Kitchen. At first, she had dismissed it as partly her fault. Being able to summon and manipulate sunlight, on top of her other child-of-Apollo abilities, made her demigod aura notably large. Any monster within up to ten miles seemed to make a point of trying to kill her.

But a lot of the monsters she came across weren't pursuing her like monsters usually did. Frankly, she seemed to run into them by accident. Sometimes they even seemed annoyed to see her.

In the demigod world, something like that should never be ignored. Monsters don't gather in a place for no reason.

So when a child was kidnapped, Aura looked into it. She researched the family and found that the mom was a single parent. The other parent wasn't even listed on the birth certificate. The kid was probably a demigod. His name was Samuel Ferreira, thirteen years old. He had gone missing while walking to a friend's house.

Lucky for him, he had his phone on him during the kidnapping.

aura: a thirteen year old named Samuel Ferreira was kidnapped last night. he was last seen in front of his house. i think he's a demigod. his mom said he had his phone on him during the kidnapping. can you trace it or something?

kai: How are you doing, Kai? We haven't talked in a while, Kai. It's been two months since I've seen you, Kai. I just want to let you know that I miss you, Kai.

aura: i love and miss you, and want you to know that i appreciate your child of Athena smartness very much. but can you trace the phone or not

kai: Yes, I can trace the phone. I'll ask my siblings for help. I'll get back to you when we have something.

aura: thanks, you're the best

kai: His phone is in the sneaky basement of a warehouse. I can text you the address. But I can't find blueprints or anything, so you'll be on your own navigating it.

kai: Also, Amber heard that you were investigating the kidnapping of a thirteen-year-old demigod and wanted me to let you know that she'll be at your apartment at eight and is expecting Twizzlers.

aura: no? what?

kai: Good luck. Be safe.

Amber showed up at Aura's apartment at seven fifty-five. She was sixteen, the same age as Aura, with white skin, long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, striking emerald green eyes, and a flirtatious smirk. She was wearing black leggings, a cropped light pink hoodie, and lace-up black doc martens. Her razor-sharp ridged shortsword was strapped to her waist. Her makeup was perfect, as always.

Aura chucked the packet of Twizzlers at her the moment she stepped in the door.

Amber's hand flew up and caught it just before it would have hit her face. She tore it open and shoved one in her mouth, grinning.

Aura grinned back.

She and Amber stepped forward at the same time and hugged each other tightly.

"Gods, I missed you so much. Capture the Flag isn't as fun without you," Amber said as they released each other from the hug.

"I missed you so much too! It's so weird living on my own."

"So. You ready to kick some butt?"

"Always."

…

What's up? I would like to clarify that other demigods helping out won't be a constant thing. But year-rounders spend nine months alone together every year, so I imagine they would be like family. Also, demigods get bored easily, so little excursions like breaking into a warehouse basement are practically nothing. Thank you to everyone who's favorited, followed, and left kudos. I promise that this fic is going places. The first two chapters were mostly setup for later, and this chapter is when the plot actually starts. If you have any critiques or suggestions, feel free to comment them. I'm still interested in beta readers and ADHD/dyslexia sensitivity readers if anyone has time on their hands and wants to help with the production of this fic. Also, I have no update schedule for this other than updating at least once a week. If you want me to update sooner/write longer chapters, bother me about it in the comments. It will work, promise.