GENEVA

All Hades had broken loose.

The demigods instantly charged at us, with three going for me right off the bat.

I analyzed those rushing at me and brought out my daggers. The one leading the charge against me had tan skin, freckles, and brandished a staff, while the other two each carried swords and had cropped blonde hair and blue eyes, making them look like identical twins. The 'twins' flanked me from each side while the brown-haired GHOST ran straight at me.

The staff wielder went for an overhead strike, which I sidestepped. I retaliated by pushing him backward with my foot before ducking beneath the clothesline-esque attack, aimed at my head, from the other two GHOSTs. The two sword users, upon missing, slid on the slippery floor of the venue and stumbled onto the ground.

I quickly made the assumption that these two were not as trained as the staff wielder, and that this pattern of inexperience might be found amongst other GHOSTs in the venue, which gave me a sliver of hope.

The last remaining GHOST swept their staff at my legs. I quickly jumped and launched a kick at their chest, but they raised their staff just in time to block my kick and send me backwards.

I rolled back and swiftly got back up. I went on the offensive, launching an array of jabs and slashes on the staff-possessing demigod. They were level to most of my attacks, but just as I had sent my last blow, they let their guard down and I kicked their staff away. I delivered the final blow with a swift roundhouse kick to their jaw, knocking them out.

The 'twins' rose from the ground and reached for their swords as they hopped back in the battle. I threw one of my daggers with laser precision at Twin #1 with my weapon lodging into their gut as they fell to the ground in pain.

Twin #2 angrily swung his sword at me, but I easily dodged. Their next attack was a jab, which I, again, evaded with ease. From there, I grabbed hold of their sword, ripped it from their hand, and sliced their side mercilessly, as Twin #2 collapsed on the ground.

I retrieved my dagger from Twin #1's abdomen and twisted around, wanting to see how the rest of the battle was going.

Across the venue, Kai and Alexander were taking on six demigods at once, beams of light bouncing off the walls, while Rose and Amethyst were taking on the rest of the GHOSTs present, a stray arrow lodging into the wall not too far from where I stood.

But while all of us were fighting, the ginger-haired guy who had spoken before the chaos had broken out was standing on the stage, watching us as he fiddled with something in his hands - possibly scraps of metal or gold.

I clenched my fists. That guy was not just going to watch us fight while he did nothing on the side. I was going to take him down, and anyways, it was clear that he was the leader. Take down the leader, and the rest of them would fall apart.

I ran up the stage, and snuck up behind the leader. As mentioned before, he had ginger hair and was wearing a leather jacket, along with a pair of black sweatpants and shoes. He wore a GHOST shirt underneath his jacket layer and had sky blue glasses. He had a red band wrapped around his upper arm, which was different from the other members, further supporting my claim of him being the leader or other special role.

Just as I went in for a jab, he turned around and kicked my dagger to the side, my weapon clattering on the ground and falling off the stage.

"Nice try, Geneva Rhodes," the leader said.

I gritted my teeth. "Why are you just sitting here while your troops just fall at our hands? I assume that you're the leader of this whole scheme, and if that is the case, then you seem like one hell of a bad leader."

The leader rubbed his chin. "Well, I was under the impression that my troops - armored and all - were well trained enough to defeat a group of misfits, but here we are."

"Anyways, how's the boyfriend? Heard he had a little bit of a tumble in Times Square."

He smiled deviously as I grunted angrily and dashed towards him, my two daggers at the ready. This sicko was clearly taunting me and trying to get me riled up, and while he had been successful in doing so, I'd defeat him before he could revel in his accomplishment.

The leader then took two metal balls out of one of his pockets and dropped them towards my feet.

Instantly, my vision was obstructed by smoke, preventing me from seeing anything. Before I knew it, a small, red energy ball had struck me square in the chest, forcing me out of the cloud of smoke as I rolled backwards.

Floating overhead were several weird-looking drones, with circle-shaped torsos that connected to multiple, thin metallic legs. The heads of each droid were in a spherical shape, which was located directly on top of the torso. There was a red eye on the head along with other buttons and controls.

"What in the world is that?!" I yelled out loud. I was barely able to dodge the attacks from the drones as they continued blasting red energy projectiles at me.

"Those are my deployable security drones. They've got one nasty shot," the leader answered.

I took a deep breath. As one of the droid's eyes began to light up, preparing to shoot at me, I threw my dagger. My weapon landed right in its socket as the droid began falling to the ground, sparks coming off its torso. Just as it was about to hit the ground, it blew up, taking another one of the droids down with it.

There were now three more droids left, all levitating next to each other. I quickly retrieved the dagger that I had thrown at the first drone's eye and threw it into the eye of the middle droid. Just as the first one did, the middle droid exploded, destroying the last droids along with it.

The leader blinked, expressionless as I heard footsteps behind me.

"Why the long face? Was you and your friends getting their butt kicked not part of your plan?" Kai taunted.

Kai then turned to Rose. "This is the guy?"

She nodded.

"No way!" Kai said. "That was the weird, nerdy kid from your dream three months ago? I'm surprised he wasn't in Amethyst's dreams. He reminds me very much of Jake."

Amethyst groaned. "Once again Kai, Jake is just a friend!"

"That's what they all say," Alexander muttered.

The five of us began to corner the leader into the stage curtains, the rest of the venue filled with knocked out GHOST members.

The leader began backing up into the curtains. Before we could react, the leader pushed the curtains aside, dropped a metallic ball on the floor, and ran off.

"Smoke bomb! Everyone, move!" Amethyst yelled. While the others followed her command, I persevered and dashed through the smoke and into the backstage room.

Although my vision was a little foggy and blurred, I kept going, determined to catch the leader.

When my vision cleared up, I scanned my surroundings. The backstage was filled with chairs, all set up in an orchestra formation surrounding the director's podium. There was a foosball table as well as a back room that was completely dark. I assumed that was where the leader was.

I ran into the dark room and found the light switch, turning it on. I looked around the small space, which didn't have much other than an electric keyboard and a few spare tuners on the floor.

After about twenty seconds of searching, I groaned in frustration. Where did he go?

That's when I saw a whiff of his ginger hair move from the corner of my peripheral. I ran towards the movement, but I was enveloped in a large cloud of smoke once again.

I groaned in frustration as I quickly tried to clear my eyes of the smoke.

I listened attentively to hear if he made another sound, my vision unreliable, but the only noise I could hear was a drilling sound, along with quick footsteps.

When my vision finally cleared, there was a sizable hole in the back wall along with a drill on the ground. The leader had made himself an exit, and in a really quick time.

My friends then ran in behind me.

"Where'd he go?" Rose asked.

I shrugged and pointed to the hole in the wall.

Amethyst looked through the hole before turning around and shaking her head. "He's nowhere to be seen."

"Well, whatever. Let's just get back to the ship. I have some sweet new tunes to play on this guitar," Kai said.

"Did you… just steal that guitar from here?" Amethyst asked.

Kai grinned mischievously. "Possibly. No one knows for sure."

Alexander and Rose giggled a bit while Amethyst rolled her eyes.

The five of us left the venue and made our way back to the ship, with me quickly retrieving my other dagger that the leader dude had knocked down earlier. Oman waited patiently on the top deck.

"So, how'd it go?" Oman asked.

"Well," I said. "It turned out to be an ambush and we gained nothing by going. Pretty useless trip if I'm being honest."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"I beg to differ," Kai said, acting offended. "I mean, without this trip, I wouldn't have been able to steal.. Er, find this sweet guitar!"

"Oh, shut up about the guitar already, will you?" Amethyst said, cracking a bit of a smile.

Alexander and Kai laughed at her response as the three all headed down to their cabins, Rose and I staying on the deck with Oman.

"Hey," Rose said to me. "Are you doing well?"

"I'm doing just fine," I replied, blatantly lying.

Rose picked at her nails. "Look, I know this must be difficult for you, but I want you to know that I'm here for you and that you can confide in me whenever you want."

Pssh. Like I'd ever do that.

Still, I didn't want Rose to feel bad when she was just trying to help me, so I said, "Thanks, Rose. That means a lot."

And it did mean a lot to me that she was willing to help, but I wasn't going to get her involved with what I was going through. I only agreed to go on the quest for Rose's sake, not to open up about my problems like a therapy patient.

I think that's where Rose's perception of what I was going to do on this quest differed from mine. I was coming here so I could protect my friends. Rose brought me here so I would open up.

Which I won't. It wouldn't be that big of a struggle to keep my true feelings hidden for seven days - after all, I'd done so for much longer than seven days.

"Well, where are we heading next?" I asked Rose after an awkward silence.

"Um, we should probably start heading for Greece now," she replied. "Feels weird that we're already set to head to our end destination."

"Actually gals, the BBB needs some repairs. It's been flyin' for a good while now, and it had some close calls in the storm," Oman chimed in.

"Fine," Rose said. "We'll head to the nearest place for repairs and then we need to fly across the Atlantic. We're already down a day in our quest."

I nodded. "What repairs do we need?"

Oman took a few moments to remember what exactly it was that we needed before speaking. "We're going to need some jet fuel, a bucket of tar, and a plate of Celestial bronze."

"Where are we going to find all of that?" Rose asked.

"Well, if we stop in Providence, we can get all three of those things," Oman answered.

"Well, it's decided. We'll head to Providence to get repairs for the ship, then we'll set flight for Greece," Rose said.

Having made a plan for what to do, I began heading downstairs with Rose as Oman headed back to his cabin to start flying the ship. We had lifted off the ground a few inches when a sudden scream emerged from behind me and Rose.

The two of us turned around and saw a teen boy of around fourteen years of age carrying a sword and rushing at us. He wore a GHOST T-shirt, some ripped grey leggings, and black sneakers. He had salt-and-pepper hair, pale skin, and hazelnut eyes, sort of like Alexander's.

He aimed a wide swing at my head, which I effortlessly ducked underneath. Having left his chest exposed, I kicked him squarely on his chest and he stumbled onto the deck, dropping his weapon and falling flat on his butt. Alexander, Kai, and Amethyst went up to see what the commotion was while Oman had stopped the ship's movement in midair as it no longer moved upwards.

"What happened here?" Kai asked curiously.

"Some random GHOST member climbed on deck and surprise-attacked us," Rose answered.

"Ah," Alexander said. "So… what do we do with him?"

Rose shrugged, just as stumped as everyone else was.

Alexander walked up to where the GHOST member was and asked, "Hey, buddy. What's your name?"

"How's that supposed to-" Amethyst began, Alexander cutting her off with a snap.

He again asked, "What's your name, buddy?"

This time, the GHOST member responded with, "What do you care?"

"Not an answer. I asked, 'What's your name'?"

"It's Timmy!" the GHOST blurted. "Now, leave me alone!"

"Timmy," Alexander mumbled. "So, Timmy, what's your favorite color?"

I facepalmed. Why was Alexander trying to befriend Timmy, the GHOST member who had tried to slice my head off?

Rose stepped in, saying to Alexander, "Stop with the questions, okay?"

Alexander raised his hands up and backed off. "Fine, you take him. Little bugger's hard to break, I'll tell you that."

"You tried your best, buddy," Kai said, patting a disappointed Alexander on the back.

"I say we keep Timmy in the confinement cell until we find out what to do with him, okay?" Rose suggested.

"You do realize I'm right here, right?" Timmy asked.

"Shut up, Bob!" Alexander exclaimed.

"My name is Timmy."

"I don't care, Billy!"

Amethyst contained her frustration, saying, "That sounds like a good idea, Rose. Kai, Alexander, help me bring him to his cell."

The two boys helped Timmy off the ground, each taking one of his arms as they escorted him downstairs, Amethyst behind them.

"Oman, continue towards Providence," Rose instructed.

"Yes, ma'am," Oman said, heading back to the monitor to continue the flight.

As Rose and I headed back down the stairs, I asked her, "Why are we keeping Timmy on board? He's just gonna be a nuisance."

"I considered that, and we'll get him off in due time, but we can't just throw him off the ship."

"Yes, we can."

"How do you suggest doing that without killing the kid, Geneva? We're more than 1,000 feet above land as of right now and there's no way he survives a drop like that."

"Whatever," I muttered.

"Look, you don't have to pay any mind to him. We can figure out some alternative to the cell option."

"For right now, just head back to your cabin until we arrive in Providence, okay?"

I nodded and split ways with Rose, entering my cabin.