I held the battle axe in my hands, feeling the weight. It was battered, hammer marks in a few places, and there were places where I could practically feel where it was weak, but I believed that it would be okay for now.

"Do you like it?" asked Benny. "We're totally going to get arrested for it.

I nodded to both the question and the statement. "Yes."

A week had passed since I had nearly died, and I was happy to have made a full recovery. I could move quicker, and I was stronger than before- I could tell. Benny could barely hold the axe in it's full form, but I could swing it around with ease (well, for about 10 minutes, then I get tired and have to rest but I didn't tell Benny that).

"Ready to go?" He asked.

I nodded, resting the axe against my shoulder.

"Good- I'm just going to send an Iris-message to a friend, make sure that we can visit them."

"Iris-message!" I chirped. "A message, sent through a rainbow with a drachma as an offering!"

Benny rolled his eyes. I had been spending every waking hour leaning all I could about being a demi-god. It was easier than I thought, considering how bad I was at school. "Very good memorization, would you like a cookie?" he said, dripping with sarcasm.

"Do you have one?"

He thought for a moment. "...No."

"Then go get some, I want a cookie."

Benny laughed and handed me a hose. "Set it to mist, I'm just going to turn on the water."

He left and a moment later, a steady stream of water sprayed from the nozzle. I adjusted the setting to "mist" and waited for Benny to come back. When he did, I was holding the hose above my head an pretending that it was raining.

"What are you-"

I jumped, putting my hands rigid down at my side. "Nothing!"

He tilted his head with a little smirk, but said nothing else. He positioned me in front of a window, and waited until a rainbow appeared.

"O, Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, accept my tribute, show me Sean McDonald" he said with reverence and threw the drachma into the mist. It disappeared mid-air, which almost made me drop the hose. "At least, I hope that's how it's supposed to go...," muttered Benny.

It must have been right, or at least acceptable, because, in the mist, a swirl of colours appeared, and they gradually formed into a face of a young man. He was a bit older than us, maybe 17, with a buzz-cut of brown hair and intelligent grey eyes.. He caught sight of us, and seemed mildly surprised to see us.

"Benny!" he cried. "Long time no see buddy, I thought you were dead!"

"Almost was, Sean," Benny smiled and I could tell that he really liked Sean. Not in a gay way, in a friend way. Although, Benny could be gay. He really did like clothes... I decided not to ask; it was his business, not mine. "I'm in Buffalo, and I found another one of us- say hi, Dev!"

"Uh-hi, Sean." I waved awkwardly trying to keep the stream of mist steady.

"Sup Dev!" Sean smiled and nodded to me. "Is it short for Devon?"

"Devitka, actually."

He smiled, a faint blush on his cheeks. "I jumped to a conclusion, sorry!" he apollogized, and turned back to face Benny. "Who's her parent?"

"We don't know yet, but she's definitely a demi-god. We're on the move, she needs someone to explain everything to her properly, I've been trying for a week, and we need a place to stay- can we crash with you?"

"C'mon, dude...I'm with my family, you know that I can't risk them."

"Sean, we'll only be there for, like, two days, and there's three of us! We can fight off anything! She killed a storm-spirit with a scrap of Celestial Bronze! Please, man? I'm low on money and drachmas and there's these new things in the area and I just don't have the smarts to introduce Dev to the new and deadly world of demigods..." Benny turned on the big brown eyes. "Please?"

"Wait, deadly?" I chimed in, only to be ignored.

"Stop that, Benny, I'm not falling for it. You wouldn't have this problem if you were at camp."

"And you wouldn't be getting this IM if you were at camp too." Benny opened his eyes wider, tilting his head. "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?"

Sean covered his face with his hands. "Stoooooooop it, Benny. It's not working."

"It totally is, dude, we need a place to crash. It'll be for two days, and if you can help us out with some drachmas, that's be great?"

Sean sighed, "Fi-ine," he moaned. "You can stay here for a night or so."

"Yes!" Benny punched the air in victory. "We'll be over in a few hours! Where's your address?"

"I live in Rome..." He told us his address and Beny wrote it down.

"We'll be right over!" he chirped. "See you when I see you, Sean."

The Iris-message faded, and I turned off the water. "Old friend?" I asked.

"Pretty old. We fought together a while back." Benny shrugged, like it was no big deal. "Do you want to call your mom now?"

"Are you sure- what about the whole monster thing?"

Benny shrugged. We'll be leaving in a few minutes, and... I know that it means a lot to you."

I nodded. "Okay, I-I'll be done in a few minutes..."

Walking away, I pulled out my phone, glancing around me. I dialed the number, and my mom picked up on the first ring.

"Devitka!" she shouted. "Where are you, are you okay, why haven't you called before?"

"Mom- Mom-" I said, trying to get her attention over her frantic questions. "Mom, I'm fine, I'm... fine. I had to go awa for a while, something- something was following me, it was about my real dad. I didn't want to get you involved. I'm with a-a friend. He an... expert about these things," I glanced over to Benny, who was fiddling with his bangs in a broken mirror while humming an Lady Gaga song. Bad Romance, I think. "I'm going to be gone for... for a while, okay, mom?"

"NO DEVITKA GUPTA THIS IS NOT OKAY," screamed my mother, so loudly that Benny stopped preening himself. "Get back home! Now!" A lump formed in my throat.

"Did Mrs. Gordon talk to you, Mom?" I asked. "Did she explain anything?"

"She was hallucinating! She'd lost a lot of blood!"

"So you didn't even listen?" I tried to put words together, explain what was happening but there were just so many weird things, and things I didn't know how to explain... I covered my face. "I'm sorry Mom, but- but it's complicated! It's not- It wouldn't be a good idea if I came back- I need to figure stuff out, and then I get back, I swear, I will explain it all, but I just need to-"

"Devitka! You can't do this to me!" my mother screamed. "I AM YOUR MO-" I covered my mouth and looked away as I hung up on my mother.

"...And that is why we don't call home..." said Benny softly. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah," I sighed, picking up my axe. "How are we getting there?"

"Public transportation was not how I imagined we'd be getting around..." I frowned, grasping my gift-wrapped weapon.

"Do you have a car?" retorted Benny, shrugging on his backpack. I was surprised by how much he managed to cram in there and how much of it were designer clothes.

"No," I sighed.

"Do you know how to hot-wire a car?"

"Does it have any- actually, uh- no."

"Public transportation it is then."

"Did we have to cover up my axe?" I paused, looking at my weapon. With some of the money I had, Benny had tastefully disguised my axe with Christmas themed wrapping. Now it was a later Christmas present. Sooooo discreet.

Benny stopped in his tracks, turning to me and rolled his eyes. "What are mortals going to tink when they see it, Dev? You can't take long-poled battle axes on a Greyhound bus. They're really strict about that sort of thing since the shootings."

"What about the Misty-thing- can't it just-" I waved my hands. "-Mist it up?"

Benny groaned and started to walk away. "I'm embarrassed for you, Dev. I really am. The faster we get you to Sean, the better."

We boarded the bus, passing our tickets to the driver, and shuffled into our seats. We sat next to a an old man, who took a glance at my 'package.' "Bit late?" he commented.

I shook my head. "it's a Harry Potter broomstick. For my cousin. Santa's just early this year." Benny rolled his eyes but said nothing.

The bus ride took about three hours, in which the I fell asleep twice. I had a dream about me a face in the dark.

It was like the dream I had had the night the Venti attacked me, with the huge face, and the hand, but it was different. I fell and fell and then I was on a street corner, resting heavily against the brick wall of a building. In a corner, I saw a dark figure crouch and run, a huge mechanical cat stalking her. It lay low to the ground, crouched behind a bench. Its joints and springs strained to pounce and I woke up, just as the bus ran over a bump. I glanced out the window at a sign, welcoming me to Rome, New York.

As it turns out, Rome wasn't in Italy like I had thought it would be.

Benny must have caught the look on my face because he leaned over to me, whispering "Did you really think we had enough money to go to Italy?"

I ignored him.

Getting off of the bus, I glanced around for anything out of the ordinary. The weirdest thing I could see was someone busking for spare change by trying to play the clarinet. I tilted my head. He probably wasn't too dangerous to anything besides our eardrums. "How far is this place?" I asked.

"It's pretty close- just around the corner..."

We walked around, finding our way to a residential housing area. It was a nice neighbourhood, with clean cut lawns, prefect garden and long drive-ways. I think they were called town houses. Benny led me over to one particular house, that was different because there was what looked like a lizard, the size of a shitzhu, was resting on the stoop, and the claw marks that were carved into the brick walls of the building. The house looked like it had been a giant cat's scatching post. My mind went back to the dream I had on the bus. Maybe the gods were trying to tell me something. I frowned. If the gods cared at all about me why didn't my 'dad' tell me who he was.

The lizard woke up as we approached and started yapping and belching little jets of flame, jumping manically around. I stopped in my tracks, keeping my distance from the little monster. "Is that a dragon?"

"Drakon. It's a tiny one, awwwww aren't you cute." Benny cooed, bending over and petting the manic drakon. It gave him the stink eye, shooting a tiny jet of flame out at Benny's pants, singeing them. Benny's face turned sour. "BAD tiny drakon BAD."

The front door opened, and a woman stood on the stoop. She took a look at us, and our generally scruffy appearance and sighed. "Sean!" she called into the house behind her. "Your friends are here!"

There was a clatter and a young man nearly fell down the stairs. He was recognizable almost immediately as Sean- the same buzz-cut hair, and the same grey eyes.

"Benito!" he shouted, tackling the owner of that name and lifting him into the air. Benny burst out into laughter, grabbing Sean's head and noogying it. "Sean!"

Sean released Benny, giving him one last beaming smile before turning on me. "You must be Devitka! Nice to meet you, congrats on surviving." He grabbed my hand and shook it.

I smiled, "Thanks.. I guess." But Sean wasn't paying attention to me any more. He turned back to Benny, pulling him inside the house "Just ignore Achilles there-" he pointed to the tiny drakon "-I just got him to alert me if any of those automaton come back.."

"Does it work?" I asked.

The woman, who I assumed was Sean's mother snorted."Certainly barks at everything..." she sighed, and held a hand out for my axe. "Please, let me take care of that." I handed it over and she put it in the coat closet.

Sean wrapped an arm around Benny and pulled him in close patting him on the chest. "You have no idea what you missed at camp this summer, I swear it was intense," he started rambling as he led Benny into the hallway and around the corner, leaving me standing awkwardly on the doorstep. I ducked in, taking my shoes off.

The inside of the house was almost nice- I could tell that a lot of time and effort to keep it with the Joneses, but it was taken over by what looked like the weaponry and defenses of a small militia.

"Don't mind the mess- we've just been needing to up the security lately..." Sean stepped over a large crossbow that was laying, primed, loaded, and pointed at a window. A thin trip wire ran across the window sill, and I realized that it was a trap. I stepped around it. "We've had a few attacks already, as you can see," he said.

I chuckled without humour. "And you were worried about us endangering your family?"

Sean shot me a dirty look. "More demigods in one place just means more monsters will be able to sniff us out." He nodded and stepped into what looked like the kitchen.

It was in the same shape as the rest of the house- an odd mix of suburban domesticity and military weaponry. At the table, a man and a young girl, and boy sat in their pyjamas, eating supper. The man, who I assumed was the father, was a handsome man, in his mid fifties and he nodded at us without blinking an eye. He launched back into his meal as the to children peered at us from their chairs.

"Who's dey?" asked the boy, revealing missing teeth.

Sean clapped his hands. "Right! Introductions!" He placed a hand on me and Benny. "Family-" he spoke to the people seated at the table "-this is Benito, or Benny. I told you about him, he used to go to camp with me. This is Dev, she's a demigod too, but she's new so I'm going to teach her stuff."

He paused and turned to face me. "Dev, this is my family." They all waved. "Starting with Johnny, over here, he's the youngest, then there's Amelia, my little sis, she's a dear. Then my lovely step-mum, Darla, and my father, Lucian, although I just call him Dad."

I frowned. "Step-mum? Then, who's your real mom?"

"Athena," Sean shrugged. "Come on, I'll show you my room."

"Grab a plate," said Darla, handing a plate of food to the three of us. "You can take it with you; don't want you to starve."

I nodded a thank you, and followed Sean up to his room.

I wasn't sure what I expected, but the room was just like my room; posters on the wall, mounds of dirty clothes and a funky smell. The only difference was that the posters featured mythical heroes like Hercules and Jason and the Argonauts and a few people I didn't recognize, but assumed were heroes of some sort. The mounds of clothes weren't just dirty, they were torn and bloodstained, and there were a few weapons lying around, but besides that it was the same.

Sean shoved some stuff under his bed and gestured for use to sit down. I crept forward, wondering where I should choose. Benny flounced in, leaving me at the door and sat under a poster of a raven-haired boy with a caption in Greek underneath that read PERSEUS JACKSON, HERO OF OLYMPUS. I blinked, surprised for a moment that I understood Greek. I shrugged it off. I had had worse surprises this week.

Sean sat down heavily into a chair under a poster featuring a fierce-looking girl with stringy brown hair named CLAIRRISE LA RUE, THE DRAKON SLAYER. "So," he said. "You're a demigod."

I nodded, sitting under a poster of a blonde haired girl with the Greek caption of ANNABETH CHASE, ARCHITECT OF OLYMPUS. "That's what they say."

"And you don't know who your dad is?"

"Not a clue."

"Hmmmm, well, that's odd, as all of the gods are supposed to claim their children by the age of 13, and take them to-"

Benny started coughing loudly and I didn't hear what Sean said. I shot him a look, and he shrugged, flashing a smile. "Sorry, something in my throat." I glanced back at Sean to find that he too was giving Benny a look. After a moment, he sighed and turned back to me. "Any way... You should have been claimed by now, claimed being the term for when a god 'claims' you as their child."

I couldn't help but feel... rejected. "But I'm not. Claimed, that is...," I said in monotone.

Sean tilted his head as if trying to look sympathetic. "Don't feel bad, it used to happen all the time, the gods get really busy-"

"When were you claimed?"

He looked awkward and coughed, "All children of Athena are claimed at birth."

It felt like a dagger in my gut. The gods were too busy to claim me, but Athena claimed her kids as soon as they were born? Busy? Yeah, sure. I turned to Benny. "And you?"

He sighed. "I always sort of knew, I mean... she told my dad who she was, and he told me, but even without that, it was sort of obvious." He waved at himself, and managed to look gorgeous with minimal sleep, crumbs on his chin and in a stained shirt. "I certainly wan't about to be a son of Demeter cause I suck at keeping plants and there aren't as many female Olympians who aren't on a sex-free diet, so Aphrodite. Also she claimed me when I was ten. It was a bit weird. A dove appeared above my head, and I had more-perfect-than-usual-fashion for a day or two. Was sort of underrated."

I lay back, the corners of my mouth starting to turn down, "Oh.."

"Don't be sad, Dev. We were sort of the exception." Benny took a deep breath, standing up, pacing. "The problem with you- Dev- is that you have a mental image of what being a demigod should be like. And it's wrong, okay? It's wrong. If you're lucky, you get a protector who will take you to- I mean- who will train you before the monsters eat you. Three years ago, if you were really lucky, your parent would take the time out of their busy day of hooking up with mortals, nymphs and other gods alike to actually tell you that they're your parent."

"That doesn't make me feel any better," I shot back. Benny shrugged helplessly. "I'm sorry Dev" he said. "But this is just how it is for you. Unless you want to go to Olympus yourself and demand to know your father, then you're sort of stuck..."

"How much does a plane ticket to Greece cost?"

Sean burst out laughing. "Olympus isn't in Greece anymore! It's in the Empire State building!"

I rounded on Sean and gave him a death glare. "Are you high? Because I swear I don't understand half of what you're saying."

The son of Athena sighed, picking food off of his plate. "Get comfy. We've got a lot to cover..." He turned to Benny. "We can discuss the automatons later."

We spent the night at Sean's place. After being taught the ABCs of the demigod world, it was well past eleven o'clock at night. His parents were surprisingly cool with it. I couldn't help but wonder if my mom would be that cool when I told her. If I tell her.

I'd gotten a small room to myself while Sean and Benny bunked together. It used to be a linen closet, but it had since been re purposed to being a weapons cupboard. It had been cleared of most of the weapons, and a cot had been shoved in. I thanked Mrs McDonald, and crammed myself in, settling down for the night.

I had bad dreams again.

First, I was in Sean's room. It was dark, and I couldn't see. I heard heavy breathing. There was rustling.

"Benny?" I heard Sean's voice.

Benny responded with a murmur.

"I need to talk to you about-" Sean's voice caught, but after a second, he continued. "-about the automatons."

In the darkness, Benny groaned "Do we have to do it now? I mean.. now?"

"Y-yes.. Now.."

There was a sigh, and I heard footsteps. The lights turned on, and I blinked away spots. Benny, wearing nothing but boxers, stood next to the lightswitch. Even though this was a dream, I averted my eyes quickly. He had a nice body, but I felt awkward looking at him. I turned instead to Sean, who was on his bed, pulling his covers up to his chest. "Alright, what is it...?"

"I've been talking to the other demigods I know, and at least two of them aren't responding."

"So? Who?"

"Regina, daughter of Demeter and Johnathon, son of Hermes."

"Okay."

"But what I don't understand is... I talked to their siblings, and they said that the automaton attacks suddenly stopped after Regina and Johnathon disappeared."

Benny rubbed his eyes, his eyebrows pulling together. "Are you sure this couldn't have waited until morning?"

"No!" Sean suddenly became animated, his fingers drawing shapes and ideas in the air. "The attacks didn't stop for anyone else, but it did for children of Demeter and Hermes..."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that specific demigods are being targeted."

"Can this wait until after we-"

Sean sighed and smiled a little bit. "Fine, we can talk about this in the morning. Why don't you turn off the light now?"

A look of joy flashed over Benny's face as he turned off the lights.

My vision swirled, and I felt like I was being sucked backwards. I jerked awake in the cot, covered in sweat. I felt odd, icky dreaming about Benny and Sean, and a jolt of pain shot up my leg. I nearly screamed, clutching my leg. Crap! A leg cramp!

I threw off the covers, and opened the door. The hallway was cool and dark. Outside was quiet. I was pretty sure that there wasn't anything deadly wandering the streets, so I sneaked downstairs to the front door. After carefully taking my axe from the closet, I left.

The air was cool and there was a brisk wind as I walked down the street. I wandered out of the residential area and into downtown.

Suddenly I was hit by deja-vu. This was the alley way I saw in my dream on the bus- near identical, save for the giant metal cat and girl-

Speaking of the devil- a tiny form darted out from within a doorway, followed closely by a shadowy figure atop a building.

I swore and broke into a jog. "Hey!" I shouted. "Hey, you kid!"

The little girl looked up, surprised to see me, and I stumbled at her appearance. She was wearing a shirt that was pink once, but was now faded beyond recognition, and a raggedy tutu with bare feet. Her skin, however was what threw me. She was white- and I don't mean Caucasian, I mean paper white, bone white, snow white, and so was her hair, but her eyes- her eyes were solid black, eyelid to eyelid. I pointed my axe to the automacat. "Get out of here!" I shouted. The little girl followed where I was pointing and gave out a shriek of fear. She dashed away into the shadows of an alley, disappearing.

Above me, the mechanical cat growled like a dozen cars backfiring. I swallowed. Crap. Turning tail, I ran as fast as I could. I heard it jump from the top of the building, the sidewalk being crushed under it's weight and it starting to run toward me.

My legs froze up, fear paralyzing me. I couldn't move! I swore to myself again, looking around for something to help , I turned to face the automacat, and held out my axe. This would be it. Oh gods, I'm going to die.

Just as the cat was about to pounce, I felt a little hand grab the back of my shirt, and then I was sucked into a blackhole.