What is and what should never be

Chapter 1: We crash and burn a party bus.

Dakota's POV: the end of the world started when a giant Mexican dragon landed on my roof. Until then I was Taking care of very important matters, Saying goodbye to my friends. I was leaning against the balcony of my house in LA while three of my best friends sat in the deck chairs, all in Silence. "How long will you be gone?" My best friend elizabeth asked with shock in her voice, I slowly turned at my heel, "I don't know, you will rally your siblings right?" I asked, she shrugged, I don't know, she said calmly, "You will at least fight with them," I added, she re-focused on her hands in her lap, she wasn't even dressed for combat, she wore black beach shorts, a red hoodie, and pure white running shoes, she was a daughter of Demeter, and she wasn't much of a fighter, I turned on my heel and pressed my back against the railing, "We're going to be fighting a war in less than two days and your sitting around worrying about your status," I snapped "I Don't Fight, I'm not you!" She demanded "no one fights, I added, But as my mother always says, War makes its own soldiers," I stated very matter of factly, "I'm sure, Almost all of us wish this Wasn't happening, But..." I cleared my throat "These things can't be Avoided," I turned to see Ilaria another good friend of mine, who was just as terrified she reached for Elizabeth's Hand "I know," we all sat in Silence, I was thinking about exactly how this was going to go down I  didn't want my friends to hate me, "I want all Demigods on the front lines" I said, "I don't care who's child they are, they still need to defend their home," I knew by tomorrow the Entire monster population would try to destroy Olympus and all of the gods, your favorite demigods have been possessed by the worst monsters you can name, and we would be going against them with an Army of high school aged half gods and mutant goats, at least that's what it felt like, "You are just ignoring the truth," I said to Torrence "that the gods are real, and Everyone is a monster," I know how weird that sounds trust me. "I can't undo what has been done, if I could fight this prophecy I would," I didn't know this was going to be so difficult, I had a reputation for being a bad A word Hunter of Artemis, Immortal, powerful I was a daughter of Hades, lord of the dead, all ghosts, zombies, skeletons and Demons bowed to me, my friends couldn't believe I was actually scared, "I will fight, this is my duty, as for you," I got to my knees, and cupped my hand to Elizabeth's cheek, "go find everyone, Arie, Shannon, Alicia everyone, those who have no demigod blood," I took a deep breathe "go dry your eyes and live your life like their is no tomorrow, forget everything, make them run for cover as far away from LA and Manhattan as possible, whatever you do don't tell them about the gods," I stepped away and everyone stood up for a hug.
Just as I pulled away we all heard a loud CRUNCH! I looked up at the roof, each one of us muttered what the heck...? What I saw made me feel like my insides were being microwaved, I was Face to face with a huge bronze dragon crunching the roof tiles in his claws, I looked up and my eyes lit up, "Hola, Senorita?!" A voice yelled from on top of the dragon, I saw a tiny young boy about 16 he was petite, skinny and Hispanic with gold skin, pointy ears, and a mess of black hair, he wore a white t shirt, Brown leather overalls and black combat boots, he also had a pair of welding glasses, on his head, with gloves on his hands, and armed to the teeth with every magical and mythological piece of mechanics you could think of, "Valdez!" I shouted to Leo the extremely bouncy, ingenious Son of Hephaestus "I asked you not to park your dragon on my roof!" I shouted, before gesturing for him to fly down to the balcony. As Festus, the automaton dragon of Leo's own creation took a nose dive, I caught wind of the other two passengers, A girl sat behind him with unruly chestnut hair pulled into a ponytail a pair of blue shortened jeans, a brown leather jacket over a peasant blouse and a pair of huge aviator glasses, Valerie Choke, another daughter of Hephaestus and little miss junk yard regalia, she was very interested in junk for unknown reasons, the last passenger was a beautiful girl with long blonde hair, braided Ancient Greek Style, she wore a long white maxi dress like a mermaid with a pair of lace of low heel brown shoes, she stuck up her nose very snooty, and waved her hands as if telling the wind not to touch her hair. Leo's girlfriend the Titaness Calypso, daughter of Atlas, tropical princess of the winds. Leo landed Festus on the ledge next to the balcony, I waved off my friends and leaped onto the back of Festus, and without warning we zoomed over the midday Hollywood skyline, "bout time little lady," Leo snapped behind him tugging on the dragons reigns "we didn't exactly have a scheduled meeting time," I added, I took my seat on the back of Festus, in between Valerie and Calypso I sat sideways looking at the clouds soaring around us, "So?" Leo called "ready to go blow up some monsters?" He asked with glee " Absolutely," I added, we had learned from our scouts that a whole tour bus (and cruise ship also) filled with Monsters was headed straight for us, the tour bus was heading for LA and the Boat, for Manhattan, it was currently up to us to rig these babies with as many monster traps as we possibly could, and Take out a legion of the Orders army, and I was ready as I could possibly be, Bring it! I told myself.
Leo yanked on Festus reigns "Coming in, Bus at 10 o'clock!" He shouted, I screwed my eyes shut, and took a deep breath out through my lips, i gathered all my concentration, I summoned the power of Athena: Goddess of Wisdom, War and Strategy and I had a strategy alright, I looked at Leo "You Got your bag of Explosives?" I asked, Leo held out what looked like a large cloth shopping bag "Never leave home Without It!" He yelled, I grabbed the bag out of Leo's hand and stood up straight and tall, Balancing like a surfer, I planned my Action very carefully, Luckily my hunters uniform included our Hephaestus grade Silver Chastity belt, which includes an almost indestructible grappling hook with a collapsible winch, I have to say it must be odd to see a sixteen year old Native American girl, dressed in silver camouflage pants, a stay wild moon child, tank top, black Spartan military boots, hair in a braid with a silver circlet and matching Chastity belt jumping off the back of a giant bronze dragon, while swinging from a rope, but extreme measures don't wait for a wardrobe change. I leapt from the dragon's tail and began to launch a surprise attack on the Peaches and Dreams travel service, bus holding a shopping bag full of explosives, and plotting my perfect landing, like a pouncing Cat, I leapt right onto the roof of the bus and whilst I ran accross the roof of the bus i continuously dropped every explosive in through the sun roof, I leapt off the roof and grabbed right onto Festus's Scales with one hand, and with the other I took Leo's hand for him to pull me back onto the dragon, "Let's get out of here!" Leo screamed, I had absolutely zero time to process what Leo had just said before he Snapped! The reigns on Festus and our Dragon tore through the sky like a knife through Honey butter. I felt many different emotions right now, which was kind of difficult, as my face felt like it was peeling off, as we sonic speeded through the air, Calypso clearly wasn't enjoying this, my hair kept blowing into my face, my eyes clouded over as my whole body felt practically numb against the cold stratosphere, as we dive bombed right into an LA overpass I could feel the hot air of the exploding bus behind us, "Alright!" Shouted Leo as we emerged on the other side of the tunnel all of us either flushed, shocked or in the case of Leo highly caffeinated "Next Stop Manhattan! The Chicken of the sea is Going down!" I wanted to remind Leo that the Cruise ship we were sent to destroy was actually called Scylla and Charybdis, but it's incredibly difficult to reason with a highly caffeinated, ADHD demigod son of Hephaestus who probably hasn't slept since Tuesday.
Taking out a party bus is one thing, destroying a cruise ship is Another. Something like this took drastic measures, a lot of planning, a perfect enter and exit point, A lot of concentration, And an unbelievable amount of stupidity, Thankfully for us, we had a Leo so we had all that and more. I planned our excursion carefully, As a daughter of Athena, tactics, structure and planning were in my blood, I was trying to calm myself, taking heavy breaths out through my mouth, I kept my hand clasped at the Stygian iron daggers I kept sheathed at my belt. Leo was plotting our excursion, I was too, only mentally, while Leo was gathering all our tools such as Greek fire, explosives, smoke bombs to keep the monsters distracted, he slowly stood like it was nothing, he turned to face Calypso "you coming?" He asked softly "no," she said sternly "I want to live, you handle the absolute stupidity of jumping right into a monster military base," Leo rolled his eyes "okay homicita," He stood up and straightened his belt of supplies, I rose from my seat and grabbed Leo around the waist, and set off my Chastity belt grappling hook and leaped off Festus holding onto Leo. We both hit the Leto deck with the agility of a cheetah,  I kept watch while Leo tore off down the galley to find the control room, I kept my eyes open for monsters while I chased after Leo, after three flights of stairs and a lot of looking behind us to make sure we weren't being followed, Leo lead us down the service stairwell just like we practiced, but we froze when we heard voices above us "I don't care what your nose says!" Snarled a half-Human, half dog voice "Run!" I snapped at Leo "what, why?" Leo asked with concern "those are telkhines, sea demons, and they do not like me!" I exclaimed, On that note, Leo and I tore off down the galley, we raced in the opposite direction as the other, he ran to the control room, me towards the deck, Leo whistled towards me, and tossed me a glass jar of green gel, Greek fire, Leo's specialty, I opened the jar and whilst I ran around the exterior of the boat, I spilled the gel around the edge of the boat, and whistled to Leo, he caught up to me as fast as he could, and while Festus circled overhead Leo wrapped his arm around my waste I set off the retraction on my belt and made it back to Festus Just in Time for BOOM! the entire cruise ship blew to shreds.
We were both panting as we were out of breath from both stress and physical activity, Festus tilted his head affectionately, "I know buddy," Leo said patting the dragon, "I'm okay," he finished we set a course back to Camp. Leo cleared his throat as we took it smoothly, riding the cool winds back to Camp "so Job well done?" Leo asked, "I wish,"I added softly "it's only phase one, we still have to rally the Egyptian Magicians and Norse Enharji," I finished "you're going to do that by yourself?" I shook my head "I have to get back to camp, so I can call in reinforcements," Leo wrinkled his nose "you mean Nico?" He added curiously, "among others, I added," i know it sounded like I wanted to do this all myself, but I knew I couldn't, I needed all the help I could get. Leo continued to drive Festus smoothly as we set a course for Camp Half Blood.