I bolted upright from where I had been sleeping. My heart pounded like a jackhammer. My eyes flew to where Lexie was sitting, afraid that my dream had actually happened. She rested quietly against her backpack looking at a piece of paper. She quickly hid the paper under her backpack as she noticed I was awake.

"You okay?" She asked noticing how shaken up I had been.

'Should I tell her?' I thought for a moment. 'No, she might think I'm crazy' "Bad dream, that's all." I hoped that would satisfy her curiosity.

"Tell me about it." The truck rattled as she spoke. "Demigod dreams usually are more than just dreams."

"I... umm, I'd rather not talk about it." In truth, I couldn't talk about it. I had seen Lexie beaten, stabbed and god knows what else, there was no way I could explain it to her.

"Sean, as your younger sister and friend, tell me what happened." I decided to tell her about my dream, but left out the second half, with her getting tortured. After I finished telling her she seemed shocked. "You met Mom! What was she like?" She seemed more focused on Athena than what Athena had said.

"Lex, can't you focus for a second!" I said a little louder than I should have, I noticed Ellie laying next to me still asleep. "What about what she had said, what do you think she meant?" I focused on being quiet enough to avoid waking the girl sleeping next to me.

She paused for a moment to think, before she could speak the truck stopped. I was about to ask what was going on when Lexie shoved her hand over my mouth. "Shh, we don't want him to look back here."

I rolled my eyes and licked her hand. She quickly withdrew her hand in disgust and glared at me. "Gross!" she mouthed and then wiped her hand on my shirt.

We sat listening to the man's footsteps getting further and further away until finally I heard the sound of a garage door being pulled shut.

Lexie sighed and then glared at me. "I can't believe you licked my hand! What are you, ten-years-old!" She shouted wiping her hand on my shirt yet again.

"Well then keep your hand away from my mouth!"I hissed.

She scoffed and rolled her eyes before standing up, "Just wake up Ellie, we need to get moving."

I went to make another remark at her, but she had already turned away to gather her things. I sighed and bent over to wake Ellie.

"Five more minutes Dad." She groaned rolling over.

Lexie snorted, and then said in a deep man's voice "Ellie we're going to be late for your game!" I shot my sister an angry glare.

Ellie bolted upright, "No! I refuse to be disqualified!" After a few seconds she came to her senses and glared at Lexie. "Har-har very funny Lexie."

Lexie chuckled, "Man, you children of Nike are as competitive as they get." She walked over to the back doors of the van and opened the doors before hopping out. "Now get up, it's time to go."

Ellie looked at me for support. "Sorry, it actually was kinda funny." I said shrugging my shoulders before following Lexie out of the van.

"It was not funny." Ellie huffed hopping out of the van."

Lexie rolled her eyes. "Does it matter? My method of waking you up doesn't change the fact that we should get out of here quickly." She paused and took off her jacket. "Is it just me, or is it really, really hot in here?"

"It's not just you, I'm sweating bullets and I'm just standing here." I answered wiping a bead of sweat from my forehead.

Ellie gave me a weird look, "Ew."

"He seems to be enjoying grossing us out today, not even five minutes ago he slobbered all over my hand."

I rolled my eyes, "Slobbered is a bit of an exaggeration don't you think?" Lexie gave me a pointed look. "Fine whatever." I said holding my hands up in surrender. I looked around and noticed a ladder hanging about eight feet off the ground. "Hey Ellie help me move these crates, I'm going to see if I can find an exit." I requested as I walked towards a small stack of wooden crates close to the ladder.

"Sure thing" she answered, following me over to the crates. After we had moved the crates under the ladder she looked at me and said "Be careful," her voice reflecting a hint of concern.

"Yeah I've seen you climb the rock wall at camp Sean, it isn't pretty." Lexie called from behind us.

"Will do." I said ignoring my sister before heaving myself up the first few rungs. I was barely half way up when my arms and lungs began to burn. Once I reached the top I pledged to myself that I would start working out.

"See anything up there?" Yelled my sister from the ground.

Once I caught my breath I stood up and searched for an exit. The warehouse was larger than I had thought on the far side was a garage door.

"I see a large door on the other side." I yelled back at my sister, "I think it goes to the outside!"

"Great! Now get down here so we can get out of this oven!"

"Definitely!" I called back right before I grabbed onto the ladder, "I swear it's getting hotter in here by the second." I grabbed onto the ladder, but quickly recoiled my hand and yelped in pain.

"Sean what happened?" Ellie shouted up.

I looked down at my hand and saw a bright red burn mark traveling across the palm of my hand. "What the heck?" I heard the loud flapping of wings behind me and spun around. "What the heck is that!?"

On the other side of the landing perched on the rail was gigantic bird It was a fiery red and orange with magnificent plumage. It stood three feet and had a wingspan twice it's height. At its taloned feet were causing the metal rail to turn red hot.

I reached to draw my saber when it squawked a ball of fire at me and I froze.

"Sean! What's going on!? What was that?"

"Some sort of large... scary... fire bird...thing" I responded best I could.

"Fire bird?" I heard Ellie ask. "What the heck is he talking about?"

"The only thing I could imagine is a Phoenix... that would explain the feather we found." I heard Lexie say. "Sean! Don't panic-

"How do I not panic, this things gonna barbecue me!" I whimpered.

"If it's what I think it is, it's a rather peaceful creature, just don't threaten it. Just back away slowly and come down the ladder."

I reached to grasp the ladder again before I remembered it was too hot to grasp.

"I can't, the metal is conducting the heat from the bird, I'll burn myself."

"He's going to have to jump." I heard Lexie say to Ellie

"He can't jump from up there, he'd kill himself!" Ellie said back

"You think I didn't realise that!" I she snapped, "Sean we're going to see if we can find something to break your fall. Stay put and don't do anything stupid." Lexie shouted up at me before she and Ellie split up to find something to help me get down.

After several minutes I started getting nervous under the beady stare of the bird. Just when I thought I was going to scream for them to hurry up I heard Lexie.

"Sean! I found some bags of...bird seed that you could jump onto. They aren't the softest thing in the world, but they should keep you from killing yourself."

"That's comforting Lex! Now where are they?"

"There on your left side, but you're going to have to walk past the bird to get there. Once past it you should be able to see it if you look over the rail."

"Is this your way of getting rid of me?!" I answered as I slowly took a step towards the Phoenix. THe monster cocked its head as I grew closer. "This is freaking crazy..." I groaned. As I got closer my feet started sticking to the metal walkway, with every step I took a muffled plop sounded. As I went to take one last step my foot refused to move and I fell to the ground. AS my hands made contact with the searing hot metal I let out a painful scream.

The Phoenix shrieked.

"Sean!" I heard Lexie shout, "You have to get up come on! I know it hurts, but if you don't you're going to hurt even more in a few seconds."

I pushed myself to my feet and tried to move them again, but they refused to budge. I looked down and saw the rubber had melted and was stuck to the metal. "I can't move! My shoes melted!"

"Are you kidding me!?" I she shouted. "Sean you're going to have to take your shoes off."

"What!? If I do that I won't be able to walk at all! The floor's too hot!"

"You have no choice! It's like walking on coals! You just have to be in the right mindset, it's possible to do it without burning yourself so long as you walk normally. Like you would down the street!"

I sighed. "You are so trying to get rid of me." I bent down and untied my shoes and pushed myself upright. I slipped my feet out of the shoes and stood on top of them. I took a deep breath and stepped onto the metal. I hissed as the metal blistered my feet and I walked along the walkway as fast as I could. As I ran I looked for the stack of bird seed. When I reached the rail I had yet to find it.

"Lexie where- Ahhhhhh!" I had leaned over to call for Lexie and had grabbed on to the rail with both hands.

"Sean! Shhh! Be qui-" Before Lexie could finish her sentence I was launched into the air. The Phoenix must have rammed me over the edge.

'Well, now I'm gonna die'... Is what I wish I had said as I fell, but it sounded more like "AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" When I landed the wind was knocked out of me.

"Sean come on!" I heard Lexie shout. I groaned and started digging myself out of the bird seed. As I pulled myself out of the pile I heard the loud crashing of crates and a high pitched scream from somewhere inside the warehouse, closely followed by the lights turning off, leaving me blind.

"Lex! Ellie!" I called. "Where are you!" They didn't answer.

Then I heard a painful shriek! I turned around to face it. The phoenix blazed brightly in the inky black on top of a stack of crates a few meters away. It crowed again and shot a molten column of flame towards me.

Just before it reached me, somebody flew into me with enough strength to knock me to the ground out of the fire's path.

"Sean, you are an idiot!" Lexie's voice uttered. I could barely see her form next to me. "Be quiet, or it will hear you and follow me"she whispered, before bolting around the corner of a stack of black crates.

I followed her and soon saw Ellie ducked between two piles of "Calypso's planting soil" bags. "You told him he's an idiot right?" she hissed as she shook her head. "I can't believe you grabbed the rail! How did you forget that it was red hot!?"

"Sorry! I was more focused on ignoring my feet! Why are the lights out?" I asked quietly.

"So it can't see us." Answered Lexie "We have a plan."

"If I remember right, our weapons will melt the moment they piece the Phoenix's feather, how do you expect to kill it?" Lexie was surprised I remembered that.

"Glad you remember something from monster class at camp." She praised sarcastically. "But we don't need to use our weapons. You see those?" She pointed toward the fire sprinkler system above us. "We're going set them off, and in the process put out the flaming bird."

"How are you going to set them off?" I asked.

"With this." She said holding up the Phoenix's feather we had found in the van. "I'm going to use it to set the bags of bird seed on fire." She explained with an evil glint in her eye.

"I see one flaw in your plan." I commented. "Somebody would need to distract it so you can get over there."

Ellie crawled over to us and placed her arm seductively around me. "That's where you come in." I could see Lexie's eyes roll in the dim light.

"You seem to have a knack for attracting that flaming menace. Plus you're covered with bird seed any way." Added my sister muffling a slight chuckle.

I sighed. "Fine, you two go get in position. And Ellie, try to keep me from getting killed please." She smiled at me before disappearing behind the crate.

I waited behind until I saw Lexie was close enough to make it to the pile of bird seed in a couple of strides. "I have a bad feeling about this..." I mumbled. "Come here Phoenix!" I bellowed while clapping my hands like an idiot. "Fresh demigod ready to be fried!"

Good news: it worked. Bad news: it worked. I could hear the flapping of large wings first. Then like an angry sun rise, the Phoenix appeared in front of me. It locked both of it's large, beady, charcoal eyes on me. The heat coming off the creature was blistering. I looked over and saw that Lexie was about to set the bags of bird seed on fire. I realized that she needed more time if we wanted to set the sprinkler system off.

I picked up a clipboard, that had been left by one of the warehouse workers, and hurled it at the bird, and when it was a few feet away from the Phoenix a ball of flame shot out from the creature's beak and incinerated the clipboard.

"Worth a shot..." I grumbled before taking off despite the complaints of my feet.

It released another loud "shriek!" took off after me. I rounded a corner when I heard Lexie shout out "Hahah! Yes!"

"Only a matter of time now." I said to myself as I saw the bird gaining on me. It lowered its head preparing to dive. I made a simple prayer to my mother, and watched as the bird dove, opening its beak to squawk a ball of fire at me and then "ring!" A wave of hot steam washed over me as the sprinkler system went off dousing the bird and everything else in water.

I opened my eyes when the steam had settled. A soggy pile of gray ash had settled three feet away from me. My legs shook like earthquakes, my adrenalin rush had ended, and left me drained of energy.

"Now that was a fire!" Lexie shouted while running over to me,

"Good shot Lexie!" I heard Ellie cheer above me as the fire alarms blared and water drenched our clothing. "Sean you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just a little burned... maybe more than a little." I answered as ran over to me. "What about you?"

"Pssh no kidding. Just a few cuts and bruises." She flung her arms around me in a tight embrace. "Next time, don't scare me like that, when we get to safety let me look you over."

"I don't mean to ruin your moment," interrupted Lexie nervously. "But you can't kill a Phoenix, it's reborn out of its own ashes, remember." At that moment the pile of ash, that had once been a Phoenix moved. "It may be small for a minute, but they grow fast! And the place is kinda on fire. So we should probably get out of here before the bird or firefighters get here."

"Probably a good idea." I responded, I released my grip on Ellie reluctantly and pointed in the direction I remembered the door to be in. "I think the exit is that way."

Author's note/Sean: That took longer than I expected, gods Lex takes for ever to revise...

Co-Author's note/Lexie: What he means to say is "I made so many mistakes that it took Lexie forever to correct all of them."

Author's note/Sean: Yes, Lexie got promoted to co-author, but she's probatio for a while... and on thin ice.

Co-Author's note/Lexie: Don't kid yourself, I've been the coauthor of this from practically the beginning.