GENEVA

Caca smiled, flashing her pearly white teeth as her fiery silhouette cast an exuberant glow. She smiled maliciously, a feeling of intimidation and fear washing over me.

Her hands burst into flames as a long stream of fire was sent towards us. If we hadn't been in a mine with large boulders to hide behind, we would've been screwed. A few more streams of fire followed, and our rock hiding strategy continued to work.

"Trying to hide, I see," Caca observed, stopping with her onslaught of fire blasts. "Well, that act won't hold up." She turned behind her, facing the cyclopes. "Attack them! And don't lose the Celestial bronze, Nimbus!"

The cyclopes began rushing forward, and within seconds, they destroyed the boulders we were hiding behind into mere pebbles. Kai, Rose, and I continued to hide behind as many places as we could, darting down the tunnel and behind multitudes of rocks like frogs bouncing on lilypads.

We then found a wide minecart about fifteen yards away from the cyclopes to hide behind, the cyclopes continuing to destroy rocks, still under the impression that we were darting behind each individual rock in the mine.

"Okay, what's our end plan here?" I asked, trying to keep my voice as quiet as possible.

"Well, we got to take the bronze and then bolt out of here," Kai responded. "The only problem is how we do that."

Rose scratched her chin. "Here, we need to separate the cyclopes from one another. Then, we can single out that Nimbus guy, take the bronze, and get out."

"Any ideas?" I asked.

Rose peeked out from behind the minecart and began moving her fingers around. I furrowed my brow in anticipation, wondering where this maneuver would lead to.

When she stopped moving her fingers, a large scream erupted from behind the cyclopes, drawing the attention of both Caca and the cyclopes.

"Okay, my main command group, come with me so we can locate the scream. The rest of you, stay here and make sure those miscreants don't escape," Caca commanded.

About half the cyclopes followed Caca, including Nimbus, the Celestial bronze-carrying idiot.

I was about to groan as our hopes were now completely dashed, but Caca turned around and said, "Nimbus, you need to stay behind. We can't give the three a chance to steal it, so stay here and secure the perimeter."

Nimbus reluctantly nodded and sat down on the rock floor, his expression filled with sadness. The remaining cyclopes joined Nimbus on the floor, their faces all defeated and sad. One of them patted Nimbus on the back, muttering "Welcome to the club".

"Man, why do we always end up as the ones left behind? I can do things too!" one of the cyclopes groaned.

"Caca is the worst," another said.

The rest of the cyclopes laughed and cheered in agreement.

I turned towards Kai and Rose and whispered, "Okay, we can use that to our advantage. They seem to hate Caca a bunch. Maybe we can turn them over to our side."

Rose shook her head. "That's not the smartest idea. There's still a risk that they're going to turn us over to Caca. They may hate her, but they sure as hell don't like us."

"Yeah," Kai said. "I'm not sure what to do here. We seem to be at an impasse."

Rose's face lit up after a brief moment of quietude. "Hold on. There is a new spell I'm learning in my spellbook that can imitate the voices of people I've heard. I haven't used it yet, but it may be our only option."

"So what? You're going to spread false rumors about them while trying to not get spotted?" I asked.

"Yup," Rose replied.

"I like it," Kai said. "I don't have any ideas anyways, so we kind of have to try."

The two looked at me for approval.

"Fine," I answered. "Just be careful. I don't like our odds if they find out we're messing with them."

Rose closed her eyes, mumbled what I could only assume was an Ancient Greek incantation, and then reopened her eyes.

"How does this sound?" Rose asked.

Her voice sounded almost identical to one of the cyclopes; deep, goofy, and immature.

Kai nodded. "Knock them out, Parrot Girl."

Rose glared at him and playfully punched him on the arm.

Rose sneaked her way behind a boulder, almost twenty feet behind Nimbus. Thankfully, none of them noticed her as they continued jabbering about Caca.

"Caca's almost as bad at leading as Nimbus is," Rose said. "Nimbus is one bad leader, let me tell you."

Some of the cyclopes began to laugh, not suspecting Rose at all.

Nimbus's face stiffened. "Who dare say that? I'm more a leader than any of you!"

"Leader?" Rose asked again. "Yeah, right. More like a leader in losing charades games!"

The cyclopes howled in laughter as Nimbus began to stomp his feet on the ground angrily. He frantically looked around, his fists balled up.

He turned towards one of the cyclopes and pointed his finger at him. "Bob! How dare you say that, you imbecile!"

The cyclopes made an 'ooh' sound.

The cyclopes he had pointed to, Bob, stood up off the floor. "I'm no imbecile, and I'll prove it to you!"

Bob ripped off his shirt.

The cyclopes began to chant, "Fight!"

As Nimbus threw his shirt off, he placed the Celestial bronze sheet right next to it.

What the hell was this?

"Winner of the match gets to hold the plate!" Nimbus shouted.

"Fine with me," Bob replied.

One of the other cyclopes made a whistle sound and said, "Fight!"

The two cyclopes began trading hits with each other. The other cyclopes began howling and cheering the fighter's names. Punches were launched between Nimbus and Bob, as each of the cyclopes grunted like tennis players.

Kai turned towards me and mouthed, Now.

I slowly crawled out from behind the cart and made my way towards the plate. As I reached out to grab it, my dagger fell out of my sheath and began rolling on the ground, producing large clinking sounds as it tumbled across the floor.

The cyclopes stopped their fight and turned towards us.

"The intruders!" Nimbus shouted.

"What are you talking about?" Kai asked, trying to make an impression of Bob's deep voice. He then cursed under his breath and muttered, "That isn't convincing at all."

"Attack!" Bob yelled.

I was able to grab the bronze plate before jumping into the cart with Kai. Rose came out from behind the boulder and joined us. Rose stuck out her hand, my dagger coming into her possession. She then passed it to me before turning to Kai, who sat in front. "Make us move!"

Kai held his hand out to the side of the cart. Fire came out of it, boosting us forward as the cyclopes hopelessly swung their fists at us. We were free.

"Thank the gods," Kai said. "We escaped."

"Not exactly," Rose replied. "Look out!"

A large chunk of the roof descended upon us. As I braced myself for death, Rose threw her hands up and the rock stopped moving. She groaned in exertion as she threw the rock to the side of the railway and our cart continued forward.

"What kind of mine has loose pieces of rock falling down from the roof?" Kai asked.

"You're right. That's not natural," I replied, turning behind us. "We have company."

Riding behind us in a cart was Caca and three cyclopes, including Bob and Nimbus. Behind her, hordes of cyclopes in carts carried large pieces of rocks, reading their arms to throw them at us.

"Kai, we need to move faster," Rose said.

"On it," he replied.

He boosted us further with his fire power, the flames of his hand expanding in size and power. However, despite the headstart we had and Kai boosting us forward, Caca's cart was catching up gradually.

"She really doesn't quit, huh?" I asked.

"Seems so. Kai, continue moving us forward. Geneva and I can deal with her," Rose said.

Rose snapped her fingers as vines began to grow out of the railway behind us. They almost reached Caca's cart, but she burned them down before they could reach the cart or cause any danger.

Rose then cast a fire spell at the railway, but Caca countered with a fire blast of her own to stop the fire from reaching her cart. I felt a wave of heat hit my face from the collision of blasts as my hair was swept aside by the hot air.

"Dang," Rose muttered, panting slightly. "She's hard to beat."

I growled in frustration as I racked my brain for solutions, not finding any as Caca approached.

"Here, let's switch seats," Kai offered. "I want to give this fire queen a piece of my mind."

Rose and Kai traded seats as Rose took the head of the cart. I then swapped with Kai, now sitting in the middle of the cart.

It didn't take long for a battle to ensue as Kai and Caca locked themselves in an intense fire-fueled fight, with each countering each other's fire projectiles. The two were matched shot-for-shot, chunks of the long tunnel and the railroad being set aflame as a result of their long bout. Their missed shots struck the ceiling as rocks rained down from the cavern ceiling. The cyclopes behind Caca's cart were sent off track and fell into the deep cavern abyss in an attempt to avoid the falling rocks and fire.

I was actually pretty surprised. Even though Kai was very impulsive and reckless, he was one of the most powerful demigods I had ever seen. Of course, much of his fire power was lended to him via the curse Hephaestus had given to him fifteen years ago, but he was still so skilled with his abilities that he could match minor gods and goddesses in confrontation.

"Hold up," Rose said, distracting me from my thoughts. "I see light up ahead!"

I turned around briefly. The railway stopped about twenty yards in front of us in a mine. Behind that was the exit to the entire mine.

"What are we going to do about Miss Fireface back there? She's only a few yards behind us," Rose said.

Kai laughed. "We'll see about that."

He shot a large fireball at the ceiling, chunks of rock falling behind us. As our cart reared to a halting stop, the railway behind us was completely covered in rocks.

Rose gave Kai a high-five as the three of us exited the mine. Thankfully, I had been able to keep track of the plate.

The next few minutes were spent with us jogging back to the ship, dodging the locals of the area so as to not be asked questions. We soon caught sight of the BBB and clambered aboard.

We gave Oman the celestial bronze plate as we went to talk to Amethyst and Alexander in the training room.

"Why do you always look so grumpy?" Kai asked Amethyst, opening the conversation.

"Seriously," Alexander said. "You look like Ross when Monica revealed he had gotten married and divorced to Rachel in Las Vegas."

Amethyst pulled a cell phone out of her backpack.

"Woah, you have a cell phone? I thought demigods were bad with technology," Rose asked.

"They are, but Chiron gave me this phone in case of emergency," Amethyst explained.

"Cool. Does it have any games on it?" Alexander asked.

Amethyst glared at him. "No, it doesn't." She messed with the phone for a few seconds before showing us the daily news.

There were three newscasters, two of which were girls and the other a guy, who were looking at a picture of Kai, Rose and I.

"And on to our next subject today: these three individuals are wanted across the country. You see, these three teenagers stole jet fuel and beat down a bunch of guards at a local airport in Providence. They were then caught stealing a bucket of tar from construction workers not too far from the airport. Their latest crime? The collapsing of a mine in central Providence," one of the female newscasters said.

"Now, there has been a large cash prize placed on the heads of these three individuals. If any viewers have tips or the location of these three, please report them to the police immediately," the male newscaster reported. "Many believe that these incidents might relate to the earlier events of Times Square last month, where the world beared witness as the entire city was surrounded by lightning and turned into a destroyed hellscape, but that's just speculation."

I winced at the thought of Times Square as I worked to remember past the tragic memory.

The other female newscaster nodded. "They are top priority criminals. But that is all we have on the subject so far as police and investigators are still trying to find out more information on the individuals. That is all for this segment, please tune in next time as we report on the mysterious disappearance of Chicago teen, Macy Davids."

The video ended and Amethyst turned off the phone.

"That's not good," Rose said.

"Seriously," Kai said. "I mean, how hard is it to get a professional artist to draw accurate pictures of us? My drawing looked like the latest edition to a clown clothesline."

Amethyst scoffed. "That's seriously the only thing you got from that video?"

"Why are you freaking out?" Alexander asked. "Becoming a wanted criminal is the first step to becoming a world famous vigilante superhero. Just look at Batman, or Green Arrow."

"Alexander, not right now," Amethyst snapped. "You three now have a large bounty on your heads, so we're going to have to be more careful in public. Erebos is now not the only problem we have; the entire world is against us."

The rest of us went silent. She had a point.

"Okay, we'll try to be more stealthy next time," I promised. "We should set sail across the Atlantic now, right?"

Everyone else nodded as we headed back to our cabins.

Oman's voice soon came on the speaker, announcing, "Alright folks, we have an ocean to fly across! Let's get journeyin'!"