Disclaimer: Once again, just playing in the toy box—and borrowed a few ideas from Rick Riordan—I didn't create much of anything outside of the one who's causing chaos.

Chapter 2

"Oh no," Archie said firmly. "No way."

Atlanta put her hands on her hips. The others had already jumped into the water and trying to talk Archie into swimming was getting tiring. "Fine," she said, throwing her hands up in defeat. "Stay up here all day, then. I'm going in."

"Fine, I'll stay here," Archie said.

Muttering in agitation, Atlanta pulled off her sandals.

"How can you go into a river again anyway?" Archie asked, eyeing the area his friends were splashing around in with distrust. "After what happened last time."

"Because it's hot out," Atlanta said irritably, then sighed. "Last time you tried to swim, we were near the ruins of Troy. We're in a Wyoming stream in the woods. Hera has promised that Scamander can't reach you here."

Archie didn't say anything. Memories of the last time he'd attempted to learn how to swim still haunted his dreams. Scamander may have been god of a river near Troy, but the god had a grudge against Archie's ancestor and Archie didn't want to test Scamander's power.

"C'mon," Atlanta said, sitting next to him on the towel they'd laid out on the bank. "I promise, even by that little waterfall, it doesn't go deeper than your chest—look at Odie! He's shorter than you and it's only to his shoulders."

He didn't admit that Atlanta was right, but he was beginning to relax a little. Maybe he'd been overreacting.

"Well?" Atlanta asked, holding out her hand to him.

Archie sighed and gave her a small smile. "Yeah, sure."

He took a few minutes to take off his sweat shirt and ankle brace, but soon Atlanta was dragging him towards the water.

"Look who's coming in!" she shouted to their friends.

The guys cheered and Theresa giggled. "Bout time!" Herry shouted.

"Come on in, the water's fine!" Odie called to him as he started doing a backstroke.

"See?" Atlanta said, going into the water first. "Nothing to worry about."

"Yeah," Archie said, following her slowly. "Yeah, you're right."

He'd barely gone past his ankles when he stopped. Atlanta gave him a tiring look, but soon turned to follow his intense stare. Downstream, was a girl fighting a giant centaur and, from the looks of it, she was on the verge of losing.

"How'd we not hear anything?" Jay's voice asked from Atlanta's left. The taller boy had gotten out of the stream to see why they weren't in the water yet and was now staring in the same direction.

"It must be the noise of the waterfall," Herry said as he joined them too.

"That or the noise you guys were making," Archie said, already putting his ankle brace back on. The girl with the centaur did a flip onto one of the large river rocks, then sprang out of the way seconds before it's fist hit. The rock she'd been on exploded from the force and showered the river with shards of stone.

"She's doing a good job," Theresa commented, looking fairly impressed.

"Yeah, but who—besides us—has anyone heard of taking on monsters?" Odie asked. "The odds are impossible."

"So then, who is she?" Neil asked slowly.

"Doesn't matter," Herry said, a determined look crossing his face.

"Yeah, save her first, ask questions later," Archie agreed and finished attaching his brace.

Jay nodded and picked up the piece of metal which expanded as his sword. The others went for their weapons, if they had one, and followed as Herry set off at a run.

"Stop flipping around like that and I'll only maim you, girl," the centaur said.

"Gee, and I thought all scumbags lived in cities," the girl said, obviously not pleased with his attention.

"Such a delightful little spitfire," the centaur laughed as the girl avoided him again. "Perhaps I should ignore Cronus and keep you for a pet."

The girl gave him a look of disgust and back-flipped out of the way as he swiped for her, but landed badly and fell into the stream. She came up coughing and wiped her dampened blond hair off her forehead. It had only taken a few seconds, but it was enough of a delay for the centaur's hand to encircle her waist.

She let out a gasp as he lifted her into the air and struggled to free herself. The centaur laughed and looked down victoriously at his captive, but his attention was quickly drawn to movement on the ground. The seven heros had finally reached the fight.

The centaur smiled down at the new comers, specifically eyeing Theresa and Atlanta, but his eyes darkened when they fell on Herry. "Hercules," the centaur huffed. "Cronus warned me you'd be coming. Is this one your's too?"

"What?" Herry asked, not even hiding his confusion.

Odie's eyes, though, went wide. "Nessus? The river guardian?"

"The one who wanted Hercules's wife?" Theresa asked.

"Yeah," Odie said, still staring at the centaur.

"Let her go, Nessus!" Herry shouted.

Nessus laughed. "So you do claim her."

"Hey!" the girl shouted, her face going pink. "I can speak for myself!"

"Ooh, so feisty," Nessus commented, grinning down at her.

The girl glared and squirmed in his hand. Herry and Jay charged forward, making the centaur step back to avoid Jay's sword. Herry charged headlong into Nessus's leg, making him whinny in pain and kneel in the water. Atlanta fired at the centaur's forearm while Archie sent his whip around Nessus's wrist.

Jay took that chance to jump onto the centaur's arm and graze him with his sword. Nessus let out a howl of pain and released his grip. The girl let out a quick scream and dropped. Herry was quick, though, and caught her before she hit water.

"Thanks," the girl breathed, looking at him with shock and relief.

"No problem," Herry said awkwardly. She smiled meekly and tossed her braid of blond hair back over her shoulder.

"Herry!" Jay shouted.

The pair looked up to see Jay dangling upside down from the centaur's hand while Nessus himself seemed to be more interested in crushing Atlanta and Archie.

"Yeah," Herry shouted. "I'm coming!"

He quickly tried to set her down, but as soon as she put weight on her right leg, she crumbled sideways and landed on a large rock. Herry turned back to help, but she waved him away.

"No, help them," she said, pulling herself onto the rock. "I can deal with this."

Herry nodded, but looked to Neil who was still on the bank. "Neil, get her out of here."

"Oh, but my sandals!" Neil whined, motioning to his new footwear.

"Just do it," Herry yelled and turned to help the rest of his friends. Neil sighed and kicked off his sandals.

The fight didn't last too much longer, and eventually the heros had Nessus unconscious and tied up in some trees.

"Well, that should hold him," Jay said, tucking his sword into the pocket of his swimming trunks. "At least until the—uh—," he glanced at the blonde girl, whom Neil was helping, "authorities get here."

"Authorities such as in Hermes, Hera, or Zeus?" the girl asked. The heros glanced at each other and the girl smirked. "You didn't think you were the only descendants of heros left on the planet did you?"

"I, well, we—," Odie stuttered embarrassedly.

"Honestly, I don't think any of us had time to think about it," Jay said smoothly.

The girl nodded. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense," she said, checking the wrap around her knee. "I didn't realize it either until I moved back home. You must be part of that prophecy, right?"

"Yeah," Herry answered, smiling at her. "How do you know about that?"

She gave him a small smile. "I was part of one myself, a couple years ago," she said, and showed them her dagger. "Got this from one of my incredibly distant ancestors, Hephaestus—who I'm sure you know."

The elegant little weapon glittered in Jay's hands as it caught the sun.

"What's the design for?" Theresa asked. "It looks a little like the scroll used for the water symbol."

"That's because it is," the girl said as the dagger was handed back to her. "Another side of the family came from water—river gods to be exact."

"And despite that, Nessus still attacked you?" Odie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"My ancestors don't control this area," the girl said simply. "And Nessus will go after any female who comes close enough. I just hadn't seen him there while I was swimming."

"What are you doing all the way out here, anyway?" Jay asked, knowing that there weren't any towns nearby.

"Besides swimming you mean?" the girl asked.

"In sandals?" Neil demanded, looking horrified. Jay couldn't help noticing his point, the girl was fully clothed in a deep purple tunic and capris—there was no way she'd been swimming.

The girl raised an eyebrow and smirked at Neil's expression. "Papa and I have taken to moving every so many months—to keep any monsters from picking up our scent," she said, turning back to Jay. "We've been hiding out in an abandoned cabin near here."

"Wait, you mean monsters follow you—even when you've been away from New Olympia?" Theresa asked.

"Yeah," the girl said and shrugged. "You get used to it after the third move. How are Athena and Persephone? Zeus still on clean-up crew?"

"Yeah, they're good," Odie said, rolling his eyes as he watched Neil—who'd started fussing over his sandals again.

"Speaking of which," Archie said, glancing at his watch. "We should probably get going. We told them we'd be back by four."

"Right," Jay said, then turned to the girl. "It was nice meeting you—uh—?"

"Harper. And it was nice meeting you, too," she answered and shook his hand. "Say 'hi' to everyone for me."

"Yeah, will do," Odie said, shaking her hand as well.

"Are you gonna be ok getting back?" Herry asked, glancing back at Nessus. The giant centaur was still unconscious.

Harper shrugged. "It's not that big of a hike," she said and pushed herself onto her feet.

Instantly a surge of pain shot through her knee and sent her falling into Herry for the second time that afternoon, but he easily cradled her in his arms.

"Where's your cabin?" he asked her.

"No, really," Harper said, trying to wriggle out of his arms. "I can make it."

"Maybe you should let us get you there, Harper," Theresa said.

Harper stopped fighting and sighed. "If it was still standing, I would," she said bleakly. "Your pal Cronus destroyed the place."

"Cronus," Jay repeated, instantly tensing up and glancing around.

"Wait a minute," Archie said, eyeing her suspiciously. "Didn't Nessus say something about ignoring Cronus instead?"

"To keep me as a pet, yeah," Harper said, returning his suspicious glare with one of her own. "What's your point?"

"Do you think, maybe he's after her?" Herry asked.

Jay mulled the thought over. "Could be," he said. "We can't really know for sure yet."

"Then what should we do?" Odie asked.

Everyone looked to Jay, their leader, and he pinched his chin in thought. "There's not much we can do," he said slowly. "We'll have to take her with us."

"What?" Harper and Archie yelped. "No."

The others looked at them and the two exchanged glances.

Archie rubbed the back of his head uncomfortably. "It's just that—."

"Really, I can handle it," Harper said. "Plus, if he knows how to find me, then it'd be really stupid to bring me with you."

"Yeah," Archie agreed. "What she said."

Herry, Atlanta, Theresa, and Jay shot him a warning look. Archie looked away sheepishly. Harper, though, looked determined.

"If I prove I can walk, will you let me go?" she asked.

Jay sighed and looked up at Herry to decide. Herry looked like he wasn't happy with the idea, but he did put the girl back down. Harper nodded in thanks and seemed fairly steady as she took a few quick steps.

"See?" she said after a few paces. "I'm fine."

"Really," Theresa said, clearly not believing her.

"Yeah, really," Archie said, clapping Harper's shoulder sportively.

But that set her off balanced enough to take another step. She gave a small cry of pain and was caught under the arm by Atlanta before she could go down. Instantly Herry was at her side to pick her up again as she cast Archie a scathing look.

"Nice try," Jay said, then waved to the rest of his group. "Alright, let's get going."

"C'mon, Neil," Odie called back to the blonde model.

"But my new sandals!" Neil cried as he followed them. "They're ruined!"

"It's not like you don't have twelve more pairs," Theresa said, rolling her eyes at Jay as they walked back towards the jet they'd borrowed from Hephaestus.

"I know," Neil said, folding his arms and pouting. "But that doesn't mean these were any less important."

Five of his friends groaned and even Harper rolled her eyes, but Archie walked quietly with his arms folded. Something didn't feel right about that girl, he just couldn't figure out what.