Alex's heart dropped after hearing about Chaos. The entity hadn't even been topside in years. But now here he was and there they were, falling right into the entity's trap. If Chaos had gotten his hands on Ares' weapon, then that would not turn out well. It would be the next step before something would go wrong. Alex remained calm and tried not to think about Chaos possibly escaping. But he glanced over at Sean, who had gone white like he'd seen a demon or Aphrodite naked.

"Sean?" Alex asked. "Is there something else you saw?" Sean snapped out of his thoughts and cleared his throat.

"What?" Sean said. Alex shook his head, not really wanting Sean to think that he was badgering him. "Wait, why haven't we seen Mark? Where did he go?"

"Mark is probably just gathering firewood." Alex reassured his friend. Not a moment too soon, Mark emerged from the forest carrying bundles of firewood and placed them on the ground next to the firepite that Alex had just created. Alex glanced at Mark who stayed silent and started filling the pit up with firewood. Mark hadn't said anything and it only made things worse. Not willing to take any chances, Alex got up from the firepit and walked away, mostly to get something for them to eat. He walked through the forest making his way toward a river when he suddenly felt something had been off. A loud scream hit his ears, and he covered them. turning around he saw three harpies sitting atop a tree.

"The child of Hades must die!" one of the large-winged harpies screamed. Forgetting what he was going to get, he raced back to camp while the harpies screamed and chased after them. Cursing under his breath, he got to the campsite out of breath.

***

Sean jumped, pulling out his weapon, but when he saw Alex, he relaxed a bit. However, seeing the expression on Alex's face caused him to get more worried than he'd ever imagined.

"Alex?" Sean asked. "What are you so worried about?"

"Problem! Harpies.." he said, out of breath. "Run! Now!"

"Harpies?" Mark asked. Sean and Mark glanced up and their eyes widened at the sight. Three winged harpies with claws for hands and large bird feet, followed by the wings of what looked to be from a large bird. "Oh, shit!" Mark yelled.

"Die, Son of Hades!" a red harpy exclaimed. Despite Sean not understanding why the creatures of Zeus wanted him to die, he couldn't stand around and do nothing. The Harpies who were perched on top of the trees flew down toward the trio, as they had to get out of the way unless they wanted to be grabbed and dragged to Zeus. Sean backed away, but both Mark and Alex grabbed him by the arms and dragged him out of the way just in time for the harpies to miss. They hissed and flew down to attack again, but Mark jumped in and swung his bronze blade. The winged creatures avoided it however, they barely made it. Another fly down. This time, Mark didn't hesitate. He swung his sword and struck the harpy in the arm. The harpy howled in pain as it disintegrated into nothing. Except now the harpies were pissed.

Shadow travel, Sean, it's the only way. A voice suddenly said, Odessa, Texas. Sean didn't know what to make of the sudden sound of his father's voice in his head but no matter, he listened to Hades and grabbed his friends before pulling them into the shadows, together they traveled through the shadows and arrived in the middle of the desert.

***

Mark covered his eyes thinking that they were going to be merged, but when he opened them, he saw they were in the middle of a hot desert. He turned to his friend in confusion, unsure of what had happened. "How did you do that?" He asked.

"I don't know," Sean said. "I just heard this voice, and it said that I had to shadow travel." Mark and Sean glanced at Alex, who was busy spitting out sand from face planting.

"Next time you do that, Sean, give me a heads up." Alex said, wiping his mouth. Mark looked over and saw Sean turn beat red. "Now where are we?" Sean and Mark searched the area for any signs that would point them to where they were. When they found none, they groaned and made their way through the desert. It was going to be a long walk, and the trio had to conserve their food and water. For a while, no one said anything, only kept quiet about what happened. They'd left their campsite without even getting a lick of sleep. Hell, they hadn't even eaten yet since the Harpies paid them a visit. "This is ridiculous!" Alex exclaimed. "Shouldn't we find a place to stop and eat?"

"Well, unless you have a better idea, I'm all ears." Mark said, rolling his eyes. Not long after the trio traveled did they come across a restaurant. For a split second, they thought it was a mirage from the amount of heat, but when they touched the side of the building, it hadn't disappeared and their hands hadn't gone through. "I guess this is better than nothing." Mark thought. He and his friends entered the coffee shop, but the creepy thing had been that there was only one person and no customers in any of the seats except for one that was passed out on the couch by the window.

"Don't you guys think this is weird?" Sean asked, despite Mark and Alex going over to the counter. Mark had to agree that it was strange that there were only two people, but then again, how many people would traverse the desert and stopping to get something to eat? On the way to that coffeehouse, he hadn't seen a single soul, let alone a demigod. It made him remember the prophecy, and he didn't like where Sean was going with this.

"I'm sure it's fine." Alex said and approached the counter where a man dressed in thirties style clothing sat.