They were waiting at the bus stop, Eirene still mourning the loss of her ring. She was plotting how many different ways she could kill the guy when she found him. So far, she had come up with nine.

Connor must have seen her dark expression, for he tried to brighten up the mood. "Seems a bit mundane, doesn't it?"

Both demigods stared at him questionably.

"Demigods waiting for a bus like normal mortals." He chuckled to himself. "Not really the extravagant questing experience."

Eirene immediately went back to plotting, while Andrew continued to stare. Connor sighed and gave up, relieved when the bus finally came and whisked them away to their destination. They weren't too many people on the bus, but a couple of them did give the demigods strange looks. Eirene couldn't blame them; they were probably still showing signs of their last battle with the Lamia and her minions.

They all took their seats and attempted to properly rest for the first time in hours, Andrew leaning his head back and closing his eyes; Connor dropped his head and attempted to sleep too. Eirene couldn't sleep. She was scared because she felt like she would face some retribution for losing the ring Zeus gave her, she was tired because she had exerted too much energy throughout the course of today, and she was angry because she'd let her guard down and allowed her ring to be stolen from her. Her mind was fluttering with so many thoughts there was no way she could sleep, so she tried to clear her mind by looking around her. She saw many civilians sleeping too, some looking out the window and others listening to music. As her eyes drifted, something caught her attention.

That 'something' being birds; two giant birds, hanging loosely in cage and staring at her intensely. She looked around in alarm; did no one else see the birds? They were certainly something to stare at, they were a little big larger than adult parrots, with beaks made out of bronze and feathers that looked almost mechanical. Their large red eyes seemed to zoom in on her, its pupil contracting and extracting as its neck swiveled from side to side. Its talons were golden and sharpened like a knife, and as saw it open its beak she knew that they had to get off this bus immediately.

Its teeth were as sharp as a shark, laced with the faint colour of blood.

She shook Connor and Andrew frantically. Eirene considered telling them that they had to evacuate, but a pit in her stomach told her that fighting these birds would be mandatory. "Ready your swords, boys. We've got another battle on our hands."

As soon as she spoke, the birds let out a squeal that sounded of nuts and bolts, and then charged. Eirene dove to the ground just before the bird slammed against the bus walls, creating a dent. The boys both jumped up, swords and shields already drawn out. Connor made a bold move and attempted to slice the bird in half, but instead he sliced the cushion in half as the bird it zipped away and took a hold of the pole with its talons, turning its head to glare at Connor with its calculating eyes.

The bus was soon in chaos, with people jumping out of their seats and yelling insults at the group of three. Eirene wondered what the mist was showing them.

"What the hell are those things?" He asked, just as the second bird charged for Eirene's head. She was able to extract her shield and put it up just in time, using it was blunt weapon as she slammed it against the mechanical bird several times. It made no damage.

"Stymphalian birds!" Andrew yelled, jabbing his sword at the bird and knocking it to the side. It opened its bronze beak to reveal a row of sharp, jagged teeth. He shuddered. "Man eating birds."

"Man—what?" Connor wailed, keeping his eye on the bird staring directly at him. Its neck twisted in a perfect 360 degrees, before it flexed it feathers and revealed rows of knives hidden in its body.

"With knives hidden in its body," Andrew added dejectedly.

The bird unleashed its weapons towards Connor, who held up his shield to block the attack. Though it did the trick, the force of the impact moved him back several feet and when he looked at his shield, they were several dents caused by the knives.

The other bird with its shark-like teeth looked about eager to sink its daggers into Andrew's skin. He reached into his bag and threw what looked like a sandwich into its mouth when it charged. It paused, shredded through the plastic bag and the sandwich, and squealed again, obviously not satisfied.

Connor shook his head. "Dude, a sandwich?" He slammed his sword into the bird as it lunged once more.

Andrew ignored him. He turned to Eirene instead. "You have to evacuate the others."

She nodded, a part of her knowing he was only giving her this task because she didn't have a weapon to fight. She fought away the feeling of dread in her stomach as she ran to the driver's seat, ignoring his protests as she slammed on the brakes and tugged open the lever that released the doors.

The passengers didn't even need to be told to evacuate, they ran out screaming on their own the moment the doors were opened. Eirene guessed that the mist was hiding them from the truth, but they still saw something that was causing terror in their eyes. A thought passed through her mind that it might have been just the sight of teenagers wielding weapons in a close-knit area. As soon as the last of the passengers, including the driver, had exited the bus, Eirene closed the doors.

Andrew and Connor were constantly jabbing and slicing their swords at the impenetrable birds, getting more and more tired and seeming to have no affect on the mechanical monsters. She racked her brains for what she might know about them, anything she may have read about how they were defeated. And then she remembered a legend about how Heracles had defeated them with poisonous arrows…

But seeing how they were a bit short on poison and arrows, that information was useless. She was about to just give up and charge at the birds with her shield when she noticed that the bird that was attacking Andrew seemed to be faltering every once in a while. A glitch, she saw, was causing the bird to pause before attacking and twist its neck into an uncomfortable position, letting out a cry that sounded of gears scratching against each other before it spread its talons and attacked. It reached out to scratch him, but he blocked it with his shield and slashed one of its legs off with his sword. Eirene was desperately trying to figure out why that bird was malfunctioning; maybe it was something they'd done earlier?

Then it hit her: The sandwich. Or better yet, the plastic bag.

"Andrew! You're bag!"

"What?" He glanced back and almost had his head taken off. "Kind of busy here!"

"Do you have any more sandwiches?" She questioned.

He sliced the birds other foot clean off and knocked it back a few feet, then turned around to give her a funny look. "Yeah, I think. Why?"

She didn't answer but just rushed to his bag, pulling out two other sandwiches and swinging them in the bird's eye view. She started taunting it, calling it names and then chucked her shield at it. It squawked at her, and then lunged.

Connor had trapped his bird under his shield and slammed into the ground. When he saw the bird lunged for Eirene, he yelled in protest. "Eirene, get away!"

She waited a few seconds before testing her theory and throwing the bag of food at the bird. It halted for a second to swallow the bag whole before threateningly squawking again. She stepped back as a precaution, but smiled when she saw her predicted effects already taken place. The bird had already started sputtering and flinching, with one of its wings trying to eject its deadly knives but failing.

"You've hurt it!" Connor exclaimed gleefully, now sitting on top of his shield to keep the thrashing bird down. But the smile on his face faded when he saw what the bird was doing next. "It's started to smoke."

Uh oh, Eirene knew that with machines, smoke was definitely not a good sign.

Andrew grabbed his backpack. "We have to leave, it's going to explode!"

"I'm kind of busy here!" Connor gestured to how much he was bucking under his shield.

Andrew eyed the smoking bird cautiously. It was no longer attacking, but flying in a circle spitting out nuts and bolts with smoke emanating from its head. He then looked to Eirene before setting his eyes back on Connor. "You're going to have to be really fast, Stoll."

Realization set in Connor's face, but there was no time to think or argue. Any second, the bird was going to explode and take Andrew and Connor with it. So without thinking, Eirene ran to pull the lever that opened the bus doors and yelled at both of them.

"Get out!"

Connor rushed out with Andrew right behind him, the escaped bird lunging at Eirene instead. Though before it could release its outstretched knives, the other bird exploded; taking the bus with it and engulfing her in flames as it shot her into the air thirty feet back. She slammed into a building, her head getting most of the impact, and struggled to open her eyes to see the damage of the explosion.

There was too much smoke and fire, she could only make out sounds of screaming and see people frantically running to safety. She tried to yell out one of the guys name but only a whisper came out, though she couldn't even hear herself.

Slowly, she felt herself slipping into unconsciousness, still saying the guy's name before completely blacking out.