"Hm, never seen this on the maps before." Abigail said.

"Maybe it's like a traveling pet store ." Payton reasoned.

I grabbed a newspaper from a nearby bin and rolled it up. "Yes, because it's definitely not gonna be hard at all to advertise for your pet store, ship animals to the place you're going, exchange the currencies, rent out a building, display everything, get everything organized, pack everything up, and repeat all within two weeks."

"Yeah, that's why I suggested it." Payton said as he stuffed a lonely wallet he found in his jacket.

"I doubt you would have gotten past the fates if the rest of us hadn't gone on the quest." I said as I smacked him with the newspaper then set it on a bench.

A lady with hair tied back in a scarf approached us. She was wearing tinted glasses that covered her eyes and on an army jacket. It was so torn to shreds I thought she could've almost been a half- blood.

"Well, howdy, kids! I don't see teenagers around here as often as I would see snow in Las Vegas!" She with a southern accent. "The name's Aunty Em. Would you kids like to be directed to the reptile room?"

"Um, we don't have money or any-" I said.

"That's quite all right. Kids just love the reptile room. We have a show coming on at seven. It's on the third floor." Aunty Em said and walked away.

Payton shrugged as he wandered near a dark hallway. "The snake emporium. Sounds cool."

"No, it doesn't sound cool. It sounds......... suspicious. We just got here and Aunty Em thinks we've known her for weeks." Abigail said.

"Look at this pair of snakes. They look like the caduceus Hermes has." I said. I was staring at a glass tank with two snakes entertained around an upright stick. They were both boa constrictors but one had blue eyes while the other had black.

Abigail snapped her fingers. "What if this pet could help us? This ties to Hermes, in some twisted way, and maybe they're, like, a reincarnation of the snakes Hermes has around his caduceus."

"I'm not sure a mortal pet could help a lot." Payton said, sitting down on a bench.

"Greek myths are always available to DemiGods. We just need to find something." I said.

I saw a painting of a lady with flowing golden hair and a green chiton. She was in a temple with a handsome man with glowing skin. But an image right beside it had a picture of an ugly lady with grey eyes and brown hair yelling a curse at the woman, causing green smoke to cover the woman's face and hair.

"Medusa." Abigail said.

"My mother cursed her for meeting in an Athena temple with Poseidon. She also cursed Medusa's sisters, Stethnno and Eurayle. " I said, ashamed of my mother.

"But didn't Perseus chop off her head?" Payton said.

"Specific characters like Medusa or the hydra don't have souls like us. They reform for more Heroes to kill them." I said.

I walked closer to the painting. I rubbed my hand over the Medusa's smoke covered head and a light emerged from the painting. I stepped back as a hole burned where the head was as a scroll landed on the floor.

Ancient Greek letters scattered the scroll as I tried to decipher it. "One who was once beautiful, now turned into a creature of evil and ugly." I translated. " The daughter of Kronos must be summoned to help."

"Lots of Gods have Kronos as their dad." Payton said sighing. "But there has to be one specific person in the Greek Pantheon."

"How about someone directly born from Kronos? Who has directly been born from Kronos?" Abigail said.

"Aphrodite!" We all said in unison.

"Aphrodite technically emerged from sea foam, and the exact spot Kronos's remains are." I explained.

"We'll need a rainbow for the Iris- message." Abigail said.

"Would a prism work?" I said.

"Prisms could work." Payton said.

"The gift shop in Utah! Hallie bought a-" Abigail started then went dead silent. Hallie had a bought a prism back in Utah for Iris- messages. And Darrien had claimed it. We didn't object to let him keep Hallie's items. It was his way of grieving.

"Um, do we have to use a prism? We could just summon her." I reasoned, not wanting to take the prism from Darrien.

"Well, besides a prism, it's the only way to directly contact Aphrodite. Gods don't care much if a DemiGod wants to IM them." Payton singsonged.

"Then let's get her mad! What's one way to get Aphrodite mad?" I said, pacing in a circle.

"Sacrificing swine to her. She doesn't like being associated with pigs." Abigail pointed out.

I shook my head. "We can't just go into the street and kill a pig. We'll get arrested for animal cruelty or abuse or something."

"How about an offering? Burning bacon in Aphrodite's name!" Payton suggested.

"And it's not gonna be weird seeing teens light a fire?" I said.

"That's it! Forget it!" Abigail said walking to the pet supplies.

"I'd like a squirt gun and a heat lamp, please." She announced.

The cashier wrapped it up and opened her palm like a beggar. "Your total is 16 dollars and 55 cents."

  Abigail snapped her fingers. It was so forceful I thought that I would be knocked over. She was manipulating the Mist.

"What are you talking about? I just payed you." Abigail said sternly.

The employee's eyes went dazed and snapped back to reality. "Um, really? Sorry, miss, my mistake." She mumbled and fumbled the bag to Abigail.

Abigail narrowed her eyes as she strutted away from the employee with disgust.

"What's that even for?" I said, opening the bag.

"Light plus water equals rainbow." She explained. She scrambled to the nearest outlet and plugged in the heat lamp. She handed me the squirt gun.

"Fill this with water." She demanded. I walked over to Payton, who was making water stream from his fingers into the toy.

"Perfect." Abigail said with pride.

I angled the squirt gun and set it to light mist.

"Um, we have no more drachmas?" I whispered. "The reason we came to the pet store was for DRACHMAS!"

"Oh." Abigail realized. "My bad."

I threw down the gun in frustration as a voice whispered to me: Punch 'Em.

I turned my head and saw a buff man with a leather jacket. He had a motorcycle helmet in his hands and had shades to cover his eyes. His aura was bright red. It made me wanna pick a fight with him or kick down Theseus or just start something.

"Ares." Abigail said.

    You know that feeling of hostility inside of you? Or perhaps that rush of pride you get once you slug someone straight in their nose? Ares at work.

"In the flesh, daughter of the maiden." He said with a smile.

"But weren't you captured?" Payton asked.

Ares frowned. "Aren't you supposed to grow a fish tail and sing like the little mermaid with her purple bikini on to your Daddy? I just like to make the other gods squirm and cry that I'm gone. Except, of course, my shnookums, Aphrodite. She knows that I'm just on vacation."

"Listen, Ares," I started, "We need to talk to your wife."

"Aphrodite ain't my wife. Crippled Hephaestus took that sugar plum from me eons ago. But she is my girl, if you believe the gossip from the Grecian Times." He corrected, rubbing away an invisible speck of mud off his helmet.

"We need contact with her. It's about this clue." Payton explained.

I handed him the scroll.

"This don't seem like my love's time. She's got better things to do: populate your puny earth, mess with mortals, important stuff rather than saving humans." Ares answered.

"Listen here, mouth- breather," I said, grabbing his shirt and pulling him to me, "Who in the Greek pantheon says that you speak for Aphrodite? It'll be her decision if we're worth her time or not, you punk."

Ares snarled. "Fine. But if Aphrodite decided that you DemiGods ain't worth her effort, I'll be sure to beat you and your friends to a pulp." He looked straight at me. "And I'll start with this disgrace to Athena."