GENEVA

I wanted to strangle Timmy.

As we made our way to Providence, the obnoxious son of a gun kept complaining that he needed to use the restroom. It was like bringing a seven year old on a roadtrip - they would constantly yell and whine until they finally got what they wanted.

Amethyst tried scolding him, but no matter how many times she told him to shut up, the kid would persist.

After about ten minutes of enduring Timmy's whining, Amethyst gave up and let Alexander escort him to the men's bathroom. After that point, he was quiet. I assumed he wanted to try and escape, but with Alexander tight on his back, he couldn't do anything and was likely waiting for another chance to flee his cell.

About ten minutes before we arrived at Providence, the five of us met in the training grounds on the bottom deck.

"Do we have to do this now? I was fifteen minutes through an episode of Friends and it was really starting to get good," Alexander complained.

Amethyst nodded. "Yes, we need to do this now. We need to talk about who's going to go and pick up the supplies."

Kai raised his hand almost immediately. "I'll go. I've been raring for some action. Also, stealing jet fuel from airport guards sounds so fun!"

"And super dangerous," I added.

"Is there really a difference?"

"I'll go too," Rose volunteered. "Geneva, come with us. We're going to need more than two people if we're going to get all this stuff."

Before I could protest, Amethyst said, "Great. You, Kai, and Geneva can go. But remember to be careful. Now that the Mist is gone, mortals will be able to see everything."

"We'll keep it in mind," Kai said.

I frowned. I appreciated Rose's efforts to have me included in our little side-quests, but I really wasn't in the mood. To reiterate, when I agreed to her proposal, I didn't expect to be forced into doing things.

"Before you three leave, I need to ask - can we please get rid of Timmy? He's such a pain in the butt," Amethyst said.

Alexander laughed. "What do you mean? He's hilarious. He wanted to pee in the stall so I wouldn't watch! Hilarious."

"I disagree," I said. "He's really annoying. How are we going to go to sleep tonight if the guy starts asking for food, water, a bed, and a potty break? He needs to go."

Kai frowned. "What's wrong with you two? The guy may be the biggest pain in the butt, but he's still a human being. Throwing him off would be immoral. Additionally, there's potential for us to get info out of him. I'm cool with booting him out once we've gotten some info from him."

"Okay, so we have two votes for and two votes against," Amethyst said. "Rose?"

Rose bit her lip. "I'm not sure. Let's table this discussion for a later time. It's not really important right now." She turned towards me and Kai. "We need to be ready in a few minutes."

With that, the five of us went to our respective cabins. I began packing my stuff, like my daggers, a canteen of nectar, some ambrosia squares, a gold drachma in case I needed to send an Iris message, and some change on the off chance I needed to buy something.

As I packed my things, I recalled the dream that I had had a month ago about my mother, Hebe. I was able to quickly put the memory aside, but thinking about it only made me angrier. My mother had the audacity to try and apologize to me, then tell me I was special in 'more ways than one'. It couldn't have come at a worse time either, as only a few days prior…

I shook my head profusely, not wanting to think of any of the memories I'd been working so hard to suppress over the last year, but alas, being dragged down the rabbithole of my past.

A few years back, I had run away from home, mainly because of an argument my father and Hebe had gotten into. I had been thinking about running away for a while at the time, as my childhood up until I ran away was problematic. I could notice, even as a little kid, that there were underlying problems between my constantly drunk dad and my frequently disappearing mom, but I had felt like I needed a major sign before I ran away.

My father and mother arguing immediately after Hebe returned back home? The biggest sign ever. Despite how bad it may have sounded, I was glad I had run away. If I hadn't, I never would have found Arthur or came to camp.

Arthur.

The mere thought of his name made me want to break down in tears. It was because of my running away that I had met him, that I had been given the chance to get a new life away from my terrible family.

Grief is one of those things that's hard to define because of how different it is for everyone. In my case, it was a cyclical process of anger, sadness, and emptiness. Somedays it felt like he wasn't even dead, and that he was still out there somehow.

I had been thinking about him nonstop for more than a month and kept having flashbacks to Times Square and the tragic, world-shattering events that occurred there. That was the first time ever that the Mist had ever just shut off for a prolonged period of time, and of course, Arthur had died there, with his mother also being severely injured in the aftermath. That was the worst day of my life, and it had been running rampant around my head for weeks on end.

And even though I had agreed to join this quest as a courtesy to Rose, I still had my doubts that I could even help. I mean, for the last month, I had been training in the sword fighting arena and cutting down trees in the forest, but that still didn't mean I was ready for a quest. I had gotten skinnier, weaker. I had been eating less and despite my constant training, I was in no shape to be going on this adventure, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

But I had no time to doubt myself. My friends needed me, and I couldn't bear to lose someone else without being able to do a thing.

Maybe that was why I had really gone on this quest. To stop what happened to Arthur from happening to one of my other friends.

I heard a knock on my door, distracting me from my long trains of thought.

"Come in," I said.

Rose entered my room. "You ready?"

"No, not really."

Rose chuckled. "Come on. This will be fun. You can take your mind off of some things, and y'know, hang out with Kai and I."

I could tell that Rose was downplaying the dangers of the mission to try to appeal to my fun side. Truthfully, I don't think I have a fun side anymore, but I'd at least try and play along.

"Fine," I said. "Let's go."

Rose exited the cabin ahead of me, as I turned back to my dresser, realizing I had forgotten something very important; the necklace Arthur had bought for me on my birthday. It was my most sacred possession, and the last thing Arthur ever gave me before he died a month ago.

I strapped the precious necklace on my neck and followed after Rose, the two of us meeting up with Kai on the top deck. He wore his classic stained red jacket, torn blue jeans, and wore a black sheath containing his sword, Scorcher. Oman had parked the BBB on top of a flat grass land, putting us near a large airport and the rest of Providence.

Amethyst wished us good luck before the three of us got off the ship and headed towards the airport.

"Okay, so where do airports usually keep their jet fuel?" I asked.

"Not entirely sure," Rose admitted. "From what Amethyst told me, we can probably find spare jet fuel near one of the airplanes."

As we neared the entrance to the airport, I grabbed a map of the airport from a nearby stand. I scanned the map for terminals where there could possibly be jet fuel as we entered through the glass doors of the building and walked around.

"Based on the map, the closest terminal is Terminal One," I said. "Now how are we going to blend in as normal people that want to steal jet fuel?"

A few seconds of prolonged silence ensued as the three of us scanned our surroundings. The airport was extremely crowded with travelers, who were in long lines leading to multiple desks that stretched out across the airport. There were three lines with signs above them that stated the different areas of the airport.

"Okay, we don't blend in as normal people," Kai said. He pointed his fingers toward three security guards all wearing airport attire. They began making their way down an elevator.

"Those guys clearly work at the airport," he continued. "If we just steal their uniforms, we could blend in as guards, sneakily steal the jet fuel, and make our way back to the ship."

"It's a pretty strange idea, but I have nothing better," Rose said. "Let's do this."

We made our way to one of the seating areas where a large glass window showed Terminal Two.

"There," I said, pointing to a truck near the Qatar Airways plane. There were five large tanks of red jet fuel that were being steadily unloaded by a group of airport guards.

"Now where do we get airport guard uniforms?" Rose asked.

Kai looked towards the second floor and pointed to a closed flight supply store. "We need to create a ruse to get the guards' attention. Then, we can easily take them down, grab their uniforms, and steal the jet fuel."

"What do you have in mind?" I asked.

"I have a really crazy idea," Kai responded.

-------------------------------------------

"I'm really not sure about this idea, Kai," Rose said nervously.

"Look, this is the only way for us to get their uniforms without creating too big of a ruse to get the entire airport's attention," Kai said.

"I feel like you're only doing this for the pleasure of having two girls fight over you," I said.

"There's really no pleasure in a fake scheme," Kai said. "Plus, I've had way more girls fight over me. It gets old really quickly."

"I highly doubt that, but whatever," I muttered.

"Into positions! The guards are coming by!" Kai said.

Rose and I went into positions, fists raised. As the three security guards walked by the closed airplane supply store, we began reenacting the plan.

"Oh my god, you piece of literal crap, he's mine!" Rose yelled, exaggerating her words immensely.

"What are you talking about, he's my boyfriend!" I retorted.

The line wasn't my favorite, especially because it reminded me of Arthur, but I had to stay composed if this plan was going to work.

Kai seemed to barely be able to keep it together, with giggles escaping between his breaths, but he managed to say, "Girls, don't fight over me. I haven't made my decision yet!"

Rose fake-scoffed. "It's too late for you to make a decision, I'm throwing this trash into the dumpster!"

Rose dashed at me angrily. Now before this, we had planned not to go too hard on each other. Rose didn't seem to follow this principle.

She punched me in the face pretty hard. Near the railing, the three guards turned towards us as one of them gestured to the other two to go forward. We had gotten their attention.

I kicked her square in the stomach as hard and as softly as I could, knocking her down to the ground. Before long, the three guards came over to us.

"Ladies, you need to stop!" one of the guards demanded.

"Nope," Kai said.

He jumped in front of the guard and kicked him in the jaw, knocking him out.

"What the heck?" another of the guards asked.

The other guard pulled out a Taser from his pocket. Before he could do anything with it, Rose kicked it out of his hand and elbowed him in the nose. She then kicked him in the crotch and he slumped down to the floor.

I turned towards the last guard and delivered a quick hook to their jaw to knock them down.

Kai laughed and gave Rose and me a high-five. "Well done, you two! "

Thank the gods that whole thing was over with.

He put on one of the guard's uniforms and pulled out a fake mustache from his backpack. He put it on and turned to us. "How's it look?"

"Where'd you get that from?" I asked, pointing to the mustache.

"Alexander brought one on the trip just in case. As for where he got it, I have no idea," Kai explained.

Rose and I quickly took the other guard's garments and put them on.

"Ugh, this one's too big for me," Rose groaned.

"This one's too small for me," I complained.

"Just tuck it in or something," Kai suggested. "We don't have a lot of time to get the jet fuel."

I reluctantly nodded. The three of us then made our way back to the first floor and went down the elevator we had seen the guards take earlier. Apparently, we weren't alone. There was another guard on the elevator.

"Hey, what are you three doing here? Only three people were supposed to get the jet fuel, and I count four," the guard said.

Kai nodded. "Exactly. So what are you doing here, trying to find your hairline?"

The guard huffed angrily and scowled, and when the elevator reached the ground, the guard stormed off, yelling at us, "I'm gonna tell the boss about this!"

"Wow, that was cold," Rose said.

"Eh," Kai said. "I could've said worse."

The three of us made our way to a Qatar Airways plane, where a truck had three gallons of jet fuel.

The driver of the truck looked at us. "Hey, where's Ulani? I thought she was assigned to this truck."

"She was sent to a different one," Kai blurted. "So... the commander sent us here."

"Commander?" The guy chuckled. "Rookies. Anyways, go ahead and unload the jet fuel."

"Sure," Rose said.

Kai looked around frantically before grabbing one of the tanks in his hands.

"A little help maybe? These things aren't as light as they look," Kai grunted.

Rose went ahead and picked it up with him. We began to slowly walk away from the terminal, being careful to not get heard.

"Hey, what are you three doing?" the driver asked. He had gotten out of the truck and was now a few yards behind us.

"Um, giving the commander his daily drink of jet fuel?" Kai said.

The driver looked at us like we were chimpanzees. "They're imposters! Get them!"

"Run!" Rose yelled.

The three of us ran as quickly as we could. Multiple guards trailed us, very soon catching up with us.

"We're not going to make it!" Rose wheezed.

"Not on my watch," I said. "You two, get the fuel back on the ship and tell Oman to start the engine. I'm going to try and hold these guys off."

They nodded and began heading towards the direction of the BBB. I turned around and faced the guards.

A group of about six guards carrying batons converged on me, attacking all at once. I slipped between one of the guards legs as they all bundled into each other with their batons.

Another brought out their Taser. I quickly picked up one of the unconscious guards' bodies and held it in front of myself. The guard with the Taser hesitated, not wanting to shoot his buddy. I took advantage and threw one of my daggers with pinpoint accuracy. The butt-end of my dagger hit him right in the eye, knocking him down. I quickly retrieved my weapon, dropped the body of the guard I had been carrying, and ran towards the ship.

I heard the heavy footsteps of the guards behind me as I entered on board. Alexander, Kai, and Rose lugged the canister into Oman's cabin as I looked to the approaching airport guards. I had them back for a good bit, but they were still hot on our trail.

"Quick Oman, go!" Amethyst yelled.

The ship flew off the ground, leaving the terrible airport behind us.

I breathed a sigh of relief. "That was one of the worst trips ever. Where do we need to go for the bucket of tar?"

"From what Oman tells me, we can pick up a spare bucket at a nearby construction site," Amethyst said, seemingly annoyed.

"What's wrong with you?" Kai asked, reading her angry expression.

"I told you guys to be careful, and now we're probably wanted for stealing airport property and beating down a bunch of guards," Amethyst said.

"Oh yeah," Kai recalled. "Well, that was basically impossible. It was gonna happen anyway."

We rested on the couch in Oman's cabin before we arrived at a construction site. Oman parked us behind a few trees near the site, trying to conceal the ship.

Kai, Rose, and I made our way through the small stretch of trees before arriving at the construction lot.

"There's one," Kai said.

A bucket of tar was left on the sidewalk of the in-construction house.

"Do you not see the weird things guarding it?" Rose asked.

There were a group of black, squishy creatures around the bucket. They were sludgy and moved around like snails.

"Ah. That's not weird at all," Kai responded.

"Are those… tar monsters?" I asked.

"No idea," Kai responded. "Bet they'd like some fire though."

Kai shot three straight beams of fire at the tar creatures, and they melted back into the floor as little tar puddles. However, the tar creatures emerged from the puddles once again.

"Yippee," Kai said. "They can't be killed."

After a good thirty seconds of taking down the tar creatures, we gave up trying to kill them.

"Here, let me kill them once more, and Rose, just levitate the bucket towards you," Kai suggested.

We tried his plan and Rose very steadily moved the tar bucket into her hands.

Just as we were about to celebrate, two guys in construction outfits came out from behind the house.

"Hey, where'd the bucket go?" one of them asked.

The three of us ran as fast as we could to the ship, the two construction workers still clueless about the situation. Oman got us up in the air quickly and we flew off from the construction site.

"Why do you have black liquid on you?" Amethyst asked.

"Tar monsters," Kai responded.

"Ah. Those things suck," Alexander said.

"Okay, where do we find this last thing?" I asked.

I was ready to just lie down and rest. These tasks had not been easy.

"We can find a Celestial bronze sheet in a nearby mine," Amethyst answered.

"Great," Rose muttered. "Mines."

After a few minutes of flying, Oman dropped us off at a nearby grassy field next to a long and winding mine. Once again, he concealed the ship behind a few trees to keep it out of common sight.

The three of us headed towards the mine. There seemed to be no workers in the area so we were able to enter easily.

Of course, that had to be a bad omen of some sort, but I ignored that and entered the mine.

As we went through the dark, vast mine, we scoured around for the Celestial bronze sheet, but were unable to find it.

"Dang," Kai said. "The celestial bronze is nowhere to be seen."

"Are you sure about that?" a voice asked.

Coming out of the darkness in front of us was a beautiful woman that had fiery red hair, startling copper eyes, and brown skin. She was wearing a white dress and sandals along with several golden bracelets on her arms and wrists. She looked extremely terrifying, as if she could wipe out an entire town with just one glance.

Following in a line behind were a bunch of ugly, one-eyed giants carrying hammers. I knew these as cyclopes, big giants with immense power.

One of the giants was carrying our target: a plain sheet of Celestial bronze.

"Hello, heroes. My name is Caca," the woman said. "And I've been tasked with killing you."