Amber was afraid they'd lose their target. The storm spirit moved like...well, like the wind.

"Speed up!" she urged.

"Bro," Leo said, "if I get any closer, he'll spot us. Bronze dragon ain't exactly a stealth plane."

"Isn't," Amber corrected automatically. "And, if you speed up by about-"

"Slow down!" Piper yelped.

The anemoi dove into the grid of downtown streets. Festus tried to follow, but his wingspan was way too wide. His left wing clipped the edge of a building, slicing off a poor stone gargoyle who was just trying to live his statue life in peace before Leo pulled up.

"Get above the buildings," Jason suggested. "We'll track him from there."

"You want to drive this thing?" Leo grumbled. "Wait, no, I didn't mean it literally! Amber--wait, how are you even able to move around Piper like that?"

Amber took the reins from Leo. Her glasses helped her understand the controls, although she'd already figured most of it out. She tried to ignore the pain in her wrist, pushing it to the back of her mind. "You were taking too long. Plus, I can do the proper calculations."

After a few minutes, Amber's glasses spotted the storm spirit again, zipping through the streets with no apparent purpose--blowing over pedestrians, ruffling flags, making cars swerve.

"Oh, great," Piper said. "There're two."

She was right. A second storm spirit blasted around the corner of the Renaissance Hotel and linked up with the first. They wove together in a chaotic dance, perfectly in sync, as if they were each other's second halves. They shot to the tip of a skyscraper, bending a radio tower, and dove back down toward the street. (Why do I ship those venti now tho. I totally didn't add detail just to be able to ship them or anything, though...)

Those guys do not need any more caffeine," Leo decided.

Says him, Emerald hissed.

"I guess Chicago's a good place to hang out," Piper said. "Nobody's going to question a couple more evil winds."

"More than a couple," Jason said. "Look."

Amber made the dragon circle over a wide avenue next to a lake-side park. Anemoi thuellai were converging--at least a dozen of them, whirling around a big public art installation.

"Which one do you think is Dylan?" Leo asked. "I wanna throw something at him."

"Now you know how I felt as soon as he appeared and my glasses identified him as a storm spirit," Amber remarked.

"Wait, you knew? Why didn't you attack him?"

"I was waiting to see if he was just another monster from Hades, or if someone else sent him. He appeared the same day the gods went silent, and I wanted to see if he had anything to do with it, or at least knew why it happened," Amber replied. "And look."

She pointed at the art installation, putting the reins in her left hand for a moment and trying not to wince in pain. The closer they got to it, the more she worried. As she watched, the images on the screens changed from random advertisements to a woman's face, made completely out of dirt, with her eyes closed.

It can't be her. Right? If it really is her...

We're dead, Emerald stated.

"I see her," Leo said. "I don't like her, but I see her."

Then the screens went dark. The anemoi thuellai swirled together in a single funnel cloud and skittered across a fountain in the middle of the installation, kicking up a waterspout 55 feet high. They got to its center, popped off the drain cover, and disappeared underground.

"Did they just go down a drain?" Piper asked. "How are we supposed to follow them?"

"Maybe we shouldn't," Leo said. "That fountain thing is giving me seriously bad vibes. And aren't we supposed to, like, beware the earth?"

Amber hummed in thought.

We could just abandon the quest, Emerald suggested.

"Put us down in that park," Jason suggested. "We'll check in out on foot."

"Yes, let's go down on the earth, the thing we're supposed to avoid," Leo agreed.

"Well, do you have any better ideas?" Amber asked. "If so, do share with the class." There was a silence. "I don't like it either, but it seems to be the best option."

Amber landed Festus in an open area between the lake and the skyline. The signs said Grant Park, and it would've been a nice place in the summer, but now it was a field of ice, snow, and salted walkways.

The dragon's hot metal feet hissed as they touched down. Festus flapped his wings unhappily and shot fire into the sky, but there was no one around to notice. The wind coming off the lake was bitter cold. Anyone with sense would be inside. Amber was thankful for her glasses being magical, since they would've fogged up so much she'd be as blind as a bat if they weren't.

They dismounted, and Festus the dragon stomped his feet. One of his ruby eyes flickered, so it looked like he was blinking.

"Is that normal?" Jason asked.

Leo pulled a rubber mallet from his tool bag. He whacked the dragon's bad eye, causing Amber to wince, and the light went back to normal. "Yes," Leo said. "Festus can't hang around here. They'll arrest him for loitering. Maybe if I had a dog whistle..."

He rummaged in his tool belt, but came up with nothing. 

"Too specialized?" he guessed. "Okay, give me a safety whistle. They got those in lots of machine shops."

This time, Leo pulled out a big plastic orange whistle. "Coach Hedge would be jealous! Okay, Festus, listen." He blew the whistle. The shrill sound most likely rolled all the was across Lake Michigan. "You hear that, come find me, okay? Until then, you fly wherever you want. Just try not to barbecue any pedestrians, please and thank you."

The dragon snorted. Then he spread his wings and launched into the air.

Piper took one step and winced, grabbing on to Amber's left forearm for balance. Said girl sucked in a breath, trying not to cry out in pain.

"Sorry!" Piper immediately apologized and let go.

"I've been through worse. Your ankle hurting you again? That ambrosia and nectar must be wearing off."

She shivered, and Amber reached into her bag with her right hand and grabbed a soft gray sweater out and handed it to her.

"Th-thanks," she stuttered, putting it on. "How many clothes do you have in there?"

Amber thought for a moment. "Actually, I don't know. I've been stealing them for years."

"Wait--this is stolen?" 

"Yeah. I think I took it from..." she trailed off, realizing it was from Alexa, an unclaimed demigod who died in the war, fighting for the other side. "Doesn't matter. She was fine with it."

"I didn't think you'd be the type of person to just steal things," Jason remarked.

"It's a daughter of Hermes thing. Basically uncontrollable urges to cause mischief at times. Thankfully, I have enough control over it to only do it to people who either deserve it or won't mind." Amber shrugged. "Although there was the time I hacked Bill Gate's Smartfridge. I was also with...with my brother, then, and he wasn't exactly the best influence."

"Wait, that was true?" Piper asked. "I assumed it was just a cover-up story as to why you were in the school once I realized we're demigods."

"Nope. That was a crazy few hours. It was also when I learned how to drive a police helicopter."

They all stared at her for a moment.

"My brother was a really bad influence, okay? Oh, that day was also the day I realized I could somehow dual-wield katanas, even though they're supposed to be two-handed weapons."

I miss Luke, no matter how much I hated/hate him, Emerald hissed.

Same.

"Where did you even find katanas?" Leo interrogated.

"Bill Gate's place. He just had them on display."

"Do you know how you can dual-wield them?" asked Piper.

"It's a child of Athena thing, and I inherited it from my mother, apparently," Amber replied.

"Let's get out of the wind," Jason suggested after a pause. 

"Down a drain?" Piper shuddered. "Sounds cozy."

Amber distributed more sweaters to everyone else, and they wrapped themselves up as best they could and headed toward the fountain.

I feel like these chapters are getting shorter and shorter. But here you are! More of Amber's background (though most of it is just useless junk I felt like putting in cause why not).

Guess what? This is actually edited! *Pauses to hear everyone's gasps of shock.* Yes, I know, I stopped being lazy for a moment, go me and all that jazz.

Anyways, cya later.

-Eevee