CHAPTER XLII:Five Tickets To Chicago Please!

The quest room lay quiet. Seth was examining a map of known entrances to the Labyrinth, Penny was reading another book relaxing after gathering everyone's gear. Meanwhile Olivia was sitting quietly staring off into space, and Adam was probably by the archery range with Luna.

I looked at the reinforcement markers and counted seven total. The glass held powerful markers one for Poseidon, one for Athena, one for Zeus, on for Apollo, and three for Hades.

"Hey sis? Why do we have three markers for Hades with different symbols?" Seth asked looking away from the map.

I studied the markers carefully realizing he was right. One marker held a symbol of a three headed dog, another held a symbol of a shield and spear, and the last held a symbol of a map and a skull following a dotted line.

"One calls Cerberus to our aid, one I'm pretty sure calls Pluto's guard, and the last one probably calls a guide for the Labyrinth." I answered studying the markers closely.

"It's a shame Mino isn't here to get one. He could definitely use the Strikers right now." Penny said not looking up from her book.

She wasn't wrong, he was a son a Zeus meaning that would be the marker he would get. However, I doubt any of the Strikers are crazy to go into Tartarus.

"Yeah, he could use them." Olivia said bitterly.

Seth went to say something, but stopped himself before he made it worse for Olivia. Olivia's wounds were still fresh since her home was under siege, and the gods were still arguing over who to send.

Adam walked in with slight nicks in his leather armor cursing under his breath.

"Huntresses chase you away man?" Penny asked looking up at him for a brief second before returning her eyes to her book.

Adam nodded sitting down "distracted Luna too much apparently." he said.

"So what are we gonna do for transportation? Chicago's pretty far, and even then, the Labyrinth's never opened there so we don't know where the entrance is." Seth asked taking a seat as well.

"We could fly." Penny said, Seth's eyes widened and he shook his head quickly.

"He has a huge fear of heights. Even then if it gets dark, and I'm flying Selene will kill me. She hates children of light flying during her hours." Adam said.

"She might kill us anyway." Olivia said, I nodded in agreement thinking about how Selene and Helios were some of the first minor gods to leave.

"How about a boat?" Penny suggested.

"I have no more ghost ships that I can raise." Seth answered sarcastically.

"We can walk it." Adam joked smiling.

"How about you walk it with Seth and the rest of us fly." I said looking at Adam.

"Maybe we can ask Hermès to deliver us." Olivia said.

"That could work. It poses dangers to the physical well being, but it could work. Unless anyone knows how to just drive." Penny said sarcastically, shrugging, still not looking up from her book.

I weighed the options a bit. I've heard of broken bones, disorientation, and almost dying due to being vague on the stickers but I never heard of death from Hermès travel (not that anyone would be alive to tell the story).

"Nope, I travel on foot." Adam said.

"I travel with shadow magic, same as Mary. At least when she can. Plus I'm not driving us that far, gas is fucking expensive and I can't pay with drachmas." Seth said.

I nodded in agreement thinking about all the times Hades sent me to the steps of the Underworld using shadow magic.

"I travel underwater quickly, most children of Poseidon do actually." Olivia said.

"My mother just brings me with her at five in the morning." Penny added to the conversation.

"Ok, so how do we travel using Hermès' system? Pack ourselves in boxes, and slap stickers on them?" Adam asked.

"Close, everything but the box part actually." Penny answered still not putting down her book, for someone hardwired for war she sure loved to read, but her multi-tasking was impeccable.

"Well write them out Owl Eyes." Adam said.

"Reading." Penny said quickly, I was honestly waiting for her to write them out while reading still.

"How about you, Mary? You took Athena's calligraphy class. You've probably been looking for an excuse to use it." Adam stated looking at me.

Lucky for him he was right, and I was the only person with packaging stickers left in their backpack. I went over to the travel bags, and pulled out five stickers all of them marked 'Fragile'. I wrote into the 'To:' and 'From:' square making all of them match.

I looked at Seth who seemed to be dreading the decision, "Sis, I don't know about this…..what if I have a panic attack like last time…or worse?" Seth muttered out, he was probably thinking about the time we went on a plane and it nearly crashed.

The plane got caught in a 'severe storm' AKA children of darkness flying in Helios' hours, luckily Helios thought better of it, but Seth never set foot in the sky again.

"If you don't calm down you'll have one now, and I'll send Penny after you." I said calmly.

By the looks of it, what I said brought little comfort to him. He hesitatingly grabbed his gear, and I put the sticker on his arm. He disappeared in a puff of smoke, and a bright flash of light.

I went over to Penny, who already had her gear ready, as she put her book away, "Ready!" She said excited.

I slapped the sticker on Penny's arm, and she disappeared the same way Seth had.

I went over to Adam, as he grabbed his bow, and got the sticker ready.

"FedEx me, Mary!" Adam said smiling.

I slapped the sticker over Adam's mouth, and he vanished as well.

I walked over to Olivia, after grabbing the reinforcement cards left and putting them in my bag.

"Ready to go whenever." Olivia said putting a bag over her shoulder.

I slapped the sticker on her, and she vanished just like everyone else.

I grabbed my weapons, and slapped my sticker on me. Everything became a blur of motion. There was no sign of clarity, and wind cut through my clothes like cold daggers across my skin. The wind got colder and colder and cut through my jacket easily.

When the blur finally stopped I was standing on a snow covered sidewalk. My breath misted in front of me. I looked around, and saw no one in my team around. Should've been specific, I thought to myself walking down the sidewalk.