Chapter 4

"So what has been going since we left?" Cassie asked Chiron after he welcomed the group back.

"Well yesterday the Hunters of Artemis came since Lady Artemis decided to go hunting on her own. They have recruited Bianca di Angelo when they came so she will eventually leave with them. Later today we will be having Capture the Flag against the Hunters like we do every time they stay, so you six may want to go meet with your fellow campers." Chiron answered smiling when they ran out to meet up with the others to discuss strategies for capture the flag.

The next two hours were spent with the two sides coming up with strategies. The campers had decided to go with Luna's strategy to have most of them on the first line of Defense, the next largest group will be in the middle, they then decided that Connor Nico and another boy from Hermes would get the flag, and they would have Cassie and Luna guard the flag. Luna would hide the tree and shoot arrows at any who approached while Cassie would be on the ground fighting anyone who got past Luna's tree.

"All right everyone you know the rules. No killing or maiming, a flag must be in plain sight, only two people can guard the flag, and the creek is the boundary line. Whichever team gets their opponents flag to the creek first wins, now everyone get you weapons. Start!"

The plan worked perfectly and soon within the next half hour the campers won making the score Camper's – 1 and Hunter's – 55. It was still bad but they had finally won, during the after game celebration the oracle had walked out to them, turned to Zoe Nightshade, opened her mouth and said, "I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python." Walking closer to Zoe she said, "Approach seeker and ask."

"What must I do to help my goddess?" Zoe asked her eyes burning with determination.

Mist started coming out of the oracle's mouth forming a ghostly mountain. A girl that was obviously Artemis was standing on the summit but she seemed to be chained and was in much pain, even if she was locked in a pose that suggested that she was ready for an attack. The oracle spoke up once more saying the words that sealed everything.

"Six shall go west to the goddess in chains,

One shall be lost in the land without rain,

The bane of Olympus shows the trail,

Campers and hunters combined prevail,

The Titan's curse must one withstand,

And one shall perish by a parent's hand."

The mist once again entered the oracle and she sat down by the creek and didn't move. Whispers broke out before Chiron spoke up, "Quiet, now we need both hunters and campers for this quest so how shall we split it?"

"We need three of each to go." Luna said her eyes glassy and looking unseeing off into the distance.

"Who will go then?" Chiron asked looking around.

Before anyone could speak Cassie beat them to it, "Luna and I will go. We should also take a saytr with us as they can connect with nature and help us along the way."

"I shall take Bianca and Phoebe with me." Zoe stated with finality.

With that said Chiron called an immediate council meeting and the three hunters walked off quickly wanting to take their minds off the goddess. In the end it was decided that Grover Underwood would accompany them. Aphrodite had approached Connor to have him try and get Phoebe out so that Percy could go but Cassie walked up to them, told Aphrodite off and dragged Connor to Ethan who she wanted him to keep an eye on since he gave her the creeps and she wouldn't be surprised if he betrayed them.

After getting the keys to the camp van Cassie turned to Grover and said, "You can show us which path to take, right?"

"Huh, oh yeah I got the acorns. First we need to go south towards Washington D.C."

"I shall drive." Zoe stated getting into the driver's seat.

"There is someone hiding in the back of the van." Luna stated as she got in causing Phoebe to head towards the back and pull out Percy Jackson.

After much protest from Percy Cassie ended up tying him to a tree so that he couldn't follow them while Chiron looked on in amusement. Next to her, Bianca was nervous and was checking, and double checking, all of her things. Cassie had to say, she looked good as a hunter. She didn't hide her face behind her hair or her hat anymore and looked much healthier, like she had been working out.

They didn't stop until they reached a rest stop in Maryland. After parking the car, Zoe and Luna led the way into a nearby convenience store. After picking up some essentials, aka, candy bars, they were making their way to back to the van. "So, we're on the right track for Lady Artemis, right Grover?" asked Bianca.

Grover nodded, "the acorns never lie."

About an hour later, Zoe parked on the curb in downtown D.C. and everyone got out. Grover looked around at the big buildings, "it's one of these buildings here, the clue we need to find."

Zoe looked skeptical but agreed to follow him. Cassie and Luna had no problem with following him, Bianca bringing up the rear. Bianca told her about some of the buildings and what they had been when she had lived there, but apparently a lot had changed. According to her, some buildings had different stores since the last time she had been there while some new ones had been built where old buildings had been. Cassie smiled as she looked around they were at the capital of America. Grover led them to a big square building next to the mall that said, NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUESEUM. Bianca looked at him, "The Smithsonian?"

Grover shrugged, "Hey, I'm just reading the acorns, they led us here. Besides, there is a monster scent here, maybe lady Artemis stopped here before she was godnapped?" No one had a better idea and the place didn't seem to be busy so they walked in. School was out and it was freezing outside, so they had the place mostly to themselves. Altering the Mist so they didn't have to pay admission, they started looking at the various exhibits. The place had three stories, with huge spacecraft's hanging on wires from the ceiling while various other ships and planes were on display.

Zoe grinned at the mention of the space program dedicated to colonizing the moon. For some reason, it kept breaking down; it was not like a certain moon goddess disliked the idea of mortals on her property and had cursed the program or anything like that.

Cassie's eyes widened as she continued to look at the ground floor, "guys."

"What!" Zoe exclaimed annoyed

Cassie pointed to the bottom of the stairs where they saw the monster. Everyone backed up as one little boy yelled out, "kitty!" The beast that was currently bounding up the ramp toward them was no kitty. The huge claws, the fangs, and the fact it was as big as a pick-up truck squashed that hope.

Phoebe looked faint, "the Nemean Lion, don't move."

The lion gave a huge roar that parted everyone's hair; fangs gleaming.

"Separate on my mark," said Zoe, "try to keep it distracted."

"Try to attack its mouth; its fur is impenetrable to weapons!" Cassie yelled.

It took twenty minutes of distracting and attacking it before Luna got a shot at the inside of its mouth. And the lion dissolved into gold dust leaving nothing but its fur coat that shrunk until it was the size of a normal lions pelt. As Luna picked it up it shifted so that she was holding a long brown feminine trench coat that she immediately put on. "We must leave," was all she said while putting it on causing everyone to get out of the building.

They got back in the van only to notice that there was a helicopter following them. Zoe only said one thing, "Mercenaries'."

"There!" yelled out Bianca as she pointed to a car park, "That parking lot!"

"We'll be trapped," warned Zoe.

Bianca shook her head, "trust me."

Zoe shot across two lanes of traffic and entered the off ramp for the car park. Parking, Cassie saw that it was for an underground subway system.

The helicopter was still coming for them, "let's go south," said Bianca, "Alexandria."

They purchased tickets and within minutes they were on a southbound train, riding away from D.C. The train came above ground and they saw the helicopter hovering over the car park but weren't following them.

"Nice job Bianca," said Grover, wiping his forehead, "thinking of the subway."

Bianca looked pleased, "yeah, well, when Nico and I came last summer before we went to Westover Hall I remember we were really surprised it was here. It wasn't here when we lived here."

Grover frowned, "new? That station looked really old."

Bianca shrugged, "I guess, but when we lived here, there was no subway."

Phoebe became alert, "wait, no subway at all?"

Cassie also looked confused, "this whole thing must be decades old at least."

"Bianca," said Zoe, "how long ago…" she never finished as the sound of helicopter blades was heard again and getting louder.

"We need to change trains," said Phoebe, "Next station."

Over the next half hour, they changed trains twice at random stations, only thinking of getting to safety. None of them relaxed until the sound of the helicopter blades disappeared entirely.

"It's getting cold so let me place some warming charms on everyone so that we don't get hypothermia." Cassie suggested quietly to Luna, so for the next ten minutes she was placing the charms and then Luna placed one on her.

Eventually, the train forced everyone to get out and they found it was the end of the line. Cassie stared at the dirty overturned boxcars; the warehouses, snow everywhere and some homeless guy warming himself with a trash can fire. It also seemed much colder and they were all glad that Cassie and Luna placed warming charms on them.

He gave them all a toothless grin, "y'all need to get warmed up, come on over here!"

"Maybe we should contact camp," Bianca suggested.

"No," said Zoe, "Chiron cannot help us any further. We must find our own path."

The guy smiled, "You know, you are never completely without friends," he grinned at them, which looked terrifying without teeth, "looking for a ride west are ya?"

"Yes, sir," said Bianca, "you know of one?"

The guy nodded, his face was grimy and his beard was tangled but he seemed to be a nice guy. Suddenly, everyone noticed a nice train on the nearby track. It was obviously a cargo train but it was full of brand new cars. The logo stated it was a SUN WEST LINE train.

"That's…convenient," said Phoebe "thanks, uh…?"

Looking around, the guy was gone, even his trash can fire was taken, leaving it as empty and lifeless as if he had never been there.

An hour after their talk with the homeless guy, they were headed west and everyone had crashed in their own car. Zoe, Bianca, and Cassie chose a Lexus on the top level of the train and Phoebe and Luna shared a car.

Phoebe had grabbed a black Mercedes SLK and had hot-wired the radio to pick any good stations from D.C. Grover was playing racecar driver with a Lamborghini.