Whiskey Tango KRAKEN (Quest)

[Freedom Blakely]

Shortcuts were generally good. They got you to where you needed to be faster than going around and when you were trying to grab magical items and get back to camp before things went sideways 'faster' was definitely preferable. The only problem was that some shortcuts were better than others and narrow alley ways were the perfect spot for an ambush.

Freedom wasn't thinking about things like that though. She was a doer not a planner and when Daven spoke up about feeling like she was watched it was the first time Free had really considered the fact that this might not be as easy as they thought it would. "Why'd you have to say that?" The raven haired girl groaned as she walked next to Daven. Of course she knew that if there was something there it had likely been waiting there for them and hadn't just come along because Daven spoke it into existence but saying it out loud still seemed like it was inviting trouble.

Nervously Free reached into her pocket and slipped her fingers through the comforting grip of her celestial bronze knuckles. She wasn't afraid of fighting but she didn't like sneak attacks. It was one of the things that made her so angry about that day with the kraken. "I don't see anything...but I guess it wouldn't hurt to keep our guard up." She sighed and looked around. "Let's just hope it's nerves."

[Jay Sun Keon]

Jay looked over his shoulder at Freedom and Daven when Daven brought up the fact she felt like she was being watched. He grinned to himself at Freedom's response and then decided to slow down a bit, coming up close beside Daven and reaching to interwine his hand with Daven's. "We're probably being watched all the time now guys, you know how it goes with demigods." Jay said with a shrug, taking a look around himself. If anything did jump out on them, Jay believed they would be able to defend their selves long enough to get away.

Slowing down to hold hands wouldn't exactly be something he could do to help calm Freedom down, but he could do it to Daven. He'd have to find a way to help Freedom later down the line, after all they were quest mates now too. They were all in this together. "I agree, keep your guards up." Jay said a bit more seriously than previously. Their lives were at stake now so they couldn't take this as a game...As much as he'd like to.

[Daven Davis]

Daven could feel it, but she couldn't see it and that was the scariest part. She could feel her heart thumping in her chest as she looked around. Everything looked like a normal Boston environment, but something was off. Daven couldn't put her finger on it. Jay came up next to her and and grabbed her hand. It caught her off guard, but Daven relaxed slightly as she squeezed his hand back. "That being said... we shouldn't dally around here too," she said as she nodded her head as she tugged on Jay's hand. "Let's get a move on. Faster we can find these lantern things, the sooner we can be safe."

She glanced around once more before she kept her head down and made a move through their shortcut. She thought they would be okay for now... but monsters never stayed hidden for long... or whatever was hunting them.

[Freedom Blakely]

Damn it. Now that Daven had said something Free was finding it really hard to not feel like something was lurking for them in the shadows. She hated that feeling. If some monster wanted to fight them then why didn’t it just jump out and fight them? What was it waiting for? Free didn’t know the answers to either of those questions but she found herself wishing that Audrey could be here to watch her back. She knew the hunter wouldn’t let her down. She didn’t know about these two questmates that she had been paired up with.

Walking along beside the couple Free tried to shove the uncomfortable feeling that they weren’t alone out here aside. Just grab the stupid lanterns and they could head back. That thought pushed her onward and as they came out of the alley she glanced around until her eyes settled on a red brick building with a tall steeple. Granted it was nowhere near as build as some of the buildings around it but Free could just imagine that back in the middle ages or whenever this guy was supposed to have lived it would have been the perfect place to hang a lantern for everyone to see. Raising her hand she pointed in that direction. “There. We need to go there.”

[Jay Sun Keon]

Jay gave off a small smile when Daven squeezed his hand in return, hopefully that was some form of comfort for her. He wasn't sure how much he agreed with the pair by thinking something was watching them. They had every reason to think that, considering all the things they were told at camp, but Jay didn't quite feel it himself. Maybe that was him being overly-optimistic as usual but still it was something he needed to keep in mind. He may not feel like he's being watched but he should still keep his guard up.

As they left the alley way Jay took a glance left and right before looking over to where Freedom pointed. "Looks appealing..." Jay said with a small sigh, rolling his eyes a little. "Find lanterns then leave...Should be simple. Son of Apollo, I should be attracted to light, right?" Jay continued on, wondering if his powers or father would accompany him for this part of the quest. Most likely not. Godly parents weren't too reliable but it was good to have hope.

[Daven Davis]

As soon as Freedom pointed in a direction, Daven made sure to beeline for it. The faster they were out of this shortcut, the sooner they could be out in the open and they could see a monster attack easier than when they were enclosed. But an old church. That was a start. "I don't know how much you'd be able to sense lanterns that haven't been lit for hundreds of years," Daven said to Jay before they finally got out of the shortcut and into an open street. Daven could breath easier as she looked up and down the streets.

"Isn't that it up there?" she asked as she pointed to a church-like building. "It looks like someplace that would have those lanterns or at least tell us where they are."

[Freedom Blakely]

Freedom followed her companions towards the old church building watching as Daven pointed up to where she thought the lanterns would be located. “Makes sense that they would be at the highest point. They would definitely be able to be seen up there.” Trailing off as she spoke Free walked up to old church building and started looking around. She wasn’t sure if that’s where they would keep a priceless artifact or not but it made sense to her and it wasn’t like they had any better places to look at the moment.

“Don’t suppose either of you can fly up there huh?” She asked already knowing the answer. “If we can’t go over it I guess we have to go through it…Hopefully nobody’s home today.” Walking up to the doors of the church building Free pushed them open and held them for Daven and Jay. “Ten bucks says this isn’t as easy as it looks.”

[Jay Sun Keon]

Jay shrugged his shoulders a little when Daven doubted how able he'd be able to sense the lanterns. To be fair she raised a valid point. Surely if they were long out of commission than Jay wouldn't be able to find them...Not easily at least. There was probably something inside blocking his powers too, quests were never as simple as that. He looked up and then let out a small sigh. "That's going to be a lot of stairs...Hopefully not as many challenges on the way up." Jay replied, rubbing Daven's hand slightly with his thumb.

Being able to fly would be a great power. It'd come in handy in many situations but sadly he had no such power. "I'm afraid not." He replied, watching Freedom as she walked up to the door and opened them up. "So much for knocking." Jay mused to himself, beginning to walk into the church as well, looking around and being sure to take in all of it. Possible escape routes...Possible hiding points, all of it. "Remember to keep your eyes open, don't get sidetracked." Jay let out seriously, he didn't want anyone to get hurt badly due to a let down in their guard. They couldn't afford to get reckless, this was their lives at stake and possibly even the camp's.

[Daven Davis]

Daven was keeping her guard up as she looked around as Freedom opened the doors to the church. No lock picking this time it looked like, but there was no telling what this quest had in store for them. But she couldn't help shake the feeling that something or someone was watching them. And it felt malicious. Holding Jay's hand only seemed to calm down some of the nerves as they entered the church, but not all of them. Especially when he told them they needed to be on their guard. "We need to look for stairs," Daven said as she looked between her two quest mates. "I remember something about a tower? They might be up there... we just need a way to get up there."

She took a deep breath as she let go of Jay's hand. "It's probably best that we split up. Yell if you find anything, especially stairs that go up." She nodded her head before she headed towards the back of the church to start looking.

[Freedom Blakely]

Stairs? Made since if they needed to get up to the tower but where were you supposed to put stairs in a place like this? Free wasn’t exactly the church going type. There were too many judgmental people that had no business messing with her life and it wasn’t like this was built like some of the ancient temples she had seen. She guessed they were just going to have to look for it until they found some way up and hope that it didn’t take very long. Splitting up though? Well that was another matter entirely.

Free glanced at the pair of lovebirds with a raised eyebrow when Devan dropped Jay’s hand and suggested they split up. The little chickadee wanted to split off from her protector? That was odd but Free did want to be done with this as soon as possible and splitting up would probably help them find something quicker. “Alright I’ll start checking around this front area to see what I can find.” Turning in the opposite direction of Devan the daughter of Heracles headed down a hall leaving Jay in the area they had been standing in. “Watch your back.” She called back to them and then she disappeared inside one of the rooms lining the hall.

[Daven Davis]

Freedom disappeared into a room while Daven was making her way towards the back of the church. It took her a few minutes to find the stairwell, but at that time she heard a loud crashing noise. She turned back around to make sure everyone was alright, but one person was missing. Jay. Daven's heart dropped as her eyes widened and she rushed to the place she last saw her boyfriend. "Jay?" she called out as she started searching around for him. But her search was turning up useless. "Jay!" she cried out as tears were starting to fill up her eyes. "JAY!"

[Freedom Blakely]

Free had entered what she could only guess was a small antechamber where maybe a priest or the caretaker of the church building would stay. There wasn’t much to see and Free was about to head back out and give the all clear when she heard the loud crash back in the main room. “Shit, that doesn’t sound good.” She grumbled to herself as she reached into her pocket to slip her celestial bronze knuckles over her fingers and rush back out into the hall. Daven was shouting for her boyfriend and things didn’t sound good.

She found the girl back in the main room looking around frantically for that Jay guy. Free rushed over to her side trying to see if she could find out what happened but Jay was nowhere to be found. A large crater in the floor boards where they had left the boy didn’t bode well either. “What happened? Did you se...” Free began trying to talk some sense into Daven but that was as far as she got. From out of nowhere something erupted from the floor and hit Free like a freight train knocking the air right out of her and sending her sailing across the room. She didn’t even get a good look at it before crashing back into the lectern with jarring force.

[Daven Davis]

Daven looked up as she saw Free walk into the room before she looked down at the crater. What could cause a thing like that? And did it take Jay? There was a lot of questions that were running through Daven’s mind at that moment, but there was a blur of a figure popped out of the ground like a daisy. It managed to knock Free to the side and Daven was about to rush to her side, but caught sight of the creature. It had multiple heads moving around like a snake. A hydra. Daven gasped as she reached for the bow that was slung across her back.

“Free?” she called out to the girl as she kept glancing between her and the many heads of the hydra. “I think we got company… you ready for this?”

[Freedom Blakely]

Free came to a rest against the back wall with a groan. That did not feel good and worse than getting hit she hadn’t even gotten a good look at what hit her. She was alright, at least she thought she was in any case but right now there was only one thing on her mind. Whatever hit her needed to find out what happened when you started trying to throw around a daughter of Heracles and Freedom thought she knew just the way to teach this lesson.

Getting up from where she had fallen Free heard Daven calling to her back from the front of the church building. “Yeah I’m here and I’m pissed.” She said and locked eyes on the hydra. Free thought she remembered something about her dad fighting one of these things back in ancient times and maybe that was why this one went for her first but whatever the case she was about to kick its ass back to Tartarus. “You worry about shooting it as many times as you can and I’ll keep it busy.”

That seemed like a good enough plan to Free. She couldn’t remember how exactly her dad had killed these things but she had never met anything that didn’t die when she beat on it enough. Cracking her knuckles and clenching her fist she stared down the hydra and began running at it. “You want to dance big boy? Then let’s dance.” With that said she launched herself at the monster with a flying punch.