Chapter 36

Thalia hoped she had read the situation correctly as she had willed a new sword to her hand that she almost felt enter the seal on her wrist.

The sword was quite unique as it was more a scroll with a handle and blade on one side of it and a flat area for the scroll to unroll on the other. The scroll was literally lined with hundreds of explosive tags per segment that was unrolled on the flat side and with her father's blessing she doubted it would ever run out.

"This is a sword of my dad's its called Shibuki and it's a blastsword" she said as she unrolled a segment of the explosive tags with the use of the handle's controls. "Normally you need chakra to ignite these but I think my dad will link it to you or something" she added a bit unsure before handing it over to Hylla who nervously accepted it.

"Are you sure he is okay with giving it to someone like me?" Hylla asked as she held the sword in her hand, testing its weight only to find it incredibly light despite its rather large size and odd shape.

"He wouldn't have gave it to me in here if he didn't want me to" Thalia said while she pointed to her wrist seal. "I think this is my dad's way of asking for you to help with the Camp. I know the Amazons have bad blood with the Romans in the past but it's just that, the past" she said as Hylla smiled and nodded.

"If you can win against Otrera with Shibuki does that mean you will help?" Hazel asked as Hylla nodded with a soft smile.

"She is family, I would be a terrible sister if I did not offer my help. Though I don't know how long I will be able to beat her, even with this powerful sword and my mother's blessing to understand how to use it" Hylla said as Thalia frowned.

"So Otrera has the same shortcut through Death's Doors like how Phineas did?" Thalia asked as Hylla nodded and sighed.

"Yes she has boasted to us all that she cannot die while she is sided with Gaea. Even if I kill her today with this sword she will return and challenge me again with the knowledge of how I beat her last time. This will give me a day but I am not sure how the next will go" Hylla said as Hazel frowned while Thalia rubbed her chin in thought.

"But don't the Amazons have some like special powers or something?" Hazel asked while Hylla shook her head.

"No more than other demigods. We can die just like any mortal. There is a group of archers who follow the goddess Artemis and they are commonly mistaken for us. Though personally they forsake the company of men in exchange for eternal life and we Amazons prefer to live life to the fullest. We love, we fight, and we die" Hylla said with a smile as Hazel only looked more confused.

"I thought you hated men" Hazel said before both Hylla and Kinzie laughed and smirked at her.

"Hate men? No, no, we like men. We just like to show them who is in charge. In all honesty none of these men are prisoners they are ancestors of groups of men who have served under the Amazons for generations. We even occasionally get men who show up and pledge their allegiance to us" Hylla said while Thalia chuckled and snapped her fingers with a smirk.

"So they have a think for being dominated?" she asked as Kinzie blushed mildly as Hylla nodded, a soft blush hidden on her cheeks as well.

"You can say that but that is beside the point. Unless you have a way for me to learn more of this sword beside to use it as just a sword then I doubt I will be able to keep her at bay for too long" she said as Thalia rubbed her left eye before her right widened in shock.

"What if I can teach you? What if I can give you whatever knowledge of the sword that I have that was sent to me by my dad in a matter of seconds" she said as Hylla frowned before her eyes steeled with determination.

"Then do it Thalia, I refuse to not do anything that can allow me to help my sister while my she is in danger" Hylla said before she watched Thalia open up her left eye to reveal the same red and black design that it had had when she had confronted Otrera.

"I don't quite remember how to do this entirely so it might hurt a bit" Thalia said as she knew the name of the technique and with her great grandmother's blessing she knew how to use it but it was still the first time she's used it.

"I can handle it" Hylla said with pure conviction that it made Thalia nod quickly and look into her eyes.

"Tsukuyomi" Thalia whispered before Hylla fell to one knee as a flood of images and descriptions roared through her head.

"Queen Hylla! Are you okay?" Kinzie asked as she quickly rushed to her queen's side only to be stopped by Hylla's hand.

"I am fine Kinzie. Thank you Thalia for your help" she said as Hazel frowned and gingerly raised her hand up a bit.

"Okay now that one problem is dealt with what about our friends? Please you can't let them die" Hazel said as Thalia smirked as she quickly looked at Kinzie.

"Kinzie you said Otrera's guards are the ones guarding our friends right?" she asked as Kinzie nodded. Her smile only grew as he mind raced with plans before her eyes landed on the horse that had gained Hazel's interest only to return to Hylla.

"Well it'd be bad for Otrera if her guards let two men escape with us right? I have a plan and as weird as it sounds we need that horse" she said as she pointed to the horse that looked at her in almost shock.

"Arion is the fastest horse in the world and can't be tamed. He is the immortal child of Neptune and Ceres and has killed two who tried to ride him and ripped off the arm of the last woman who tried to feed him" Hylla said with a frown.

"What does he eat?" Thalia asked as the honey colored horse looked at her and Hazel curiously as its brown eyes looked at them impatiently as if to tell her to hurry it up so he can leave.

"Anything but he likes gold the most" Kinzie said as Hazel's eyes widened and she almost seemed to walk over to the cage in a trance.

"Wait be careful!" Kinzie tried to warn before Thalia held up her hand to stop her.

"Hazel knows what she is doing, I think" she said as she watched her friend pluck a chunk of gold out from the ground and gingerly stick it into Arion's cage on her open palm. She let out a slight sigh of relief as she saw the horse gently eat it from her hand and even allow her to pet him.

"Well I think we found a horse tamer so how about it? We get free and Otrera loses a huge chunk of influence by having her guards fail their job" she said as Hylla looked from Arion to Hazel and then to her with a smirk.

"Okay we can make this work but you have to things carefully to ensure you get out safely and Otrera is blamed" Hylla said as they spent the next ten or so minutes ironing out the plan.

"I am sorry that we cannot talk more but I am thankful for everything you and your father have done for me, I will wield this sword with honor. Please tell Reyna that I plan to come to help her and I wish you luck on your quest" Hylla said as she kissed the back of Thalia's hand again making the girl blush again.

"It is really nothing Hylla, my dad will be happy to hear you are doing this well, if he doesn't already know. Keep yourself safe and I'll see you at the battle when you are leading the Amazons into the fight" Thalia said with a smile as she and Hazel walked off after Kinzie had 'bound' their wrists and started to lead them out of the throne room.

Thalia frowned as she realized just where the Amazons were keeping Frank and Percy. She was expecting a jail cell of sorts, not two large metal cages that were suspended by cables at least 60 feet in the air.

"Okay this is going to be a bit more difficult than I thought. Hazel I want you to get Arion and the chariot and meet me back around here. I can keep their attention on me and cause interference towards those who are with Otrera" she whispered to Hazel, who subtly nodded as Kinzie led them up three different ladders.

"I think I know of a way to get rid of the guards if you can get them back towards the crates of bracelets and jewelry" Hazel whispered back as she nodded before Kinzie, having to act her part shoved them towards the guards.

"Stop reading on those tablets and focus on guarding the prisoners! Put these two other prisoners into the jail. Queen Hylla will issue her sentence after thinking it over in her personal chambers" Kinzie said as two of the three guards that were guarding the jail stepped forward to grab them.

"I wouldn't be so testy Kinzie cause when Queen Otrera takes her title as our leader back you might want to get some points in with her" one guard said as Kinzie sneered at them.

"Hylla is queen! That won't change and she is queen now so obey her first and foremost or should I tell her you disobeyed her so she can punish you while she is in power" Kinzie growled out as the guards sighed and grabbed them.

"Fine but we have a special cage for you" one guard said to Thalia as she mentally sighed, already expecting this only to raise an eyebrow at the odd looking cage.

"It's rubber coated so your lightning won't work" the other guard said before they tossed Thalia and Hazel inside of it and slammed the door to it shut.

"Hazel go warn the others quickly, we don't have much time and we need to do this fast" Thalia said as she started to gather chakra into the palm of her hand until it started to form a swirling ball a little bigger than her fist.

She tried her best to remember the fuzzy memory in her head of her dad showing her a fire version of this before the ball started to flicker red with slight flames covering it. It only took a few extra seconds before it burst into life of a bright ball of swirling flames in her hand.

"Hazel hold onto the bars! Great Flame Rasengan!" she yelled as she quickly slammed the orb down on the rubber coated ground before the floor of the floating cage exploded and broke under her.

Thankfully she had toned it down or else it would have been a lot more destructive and dangerous.

She didn't have much time to reach as she used the falling bits of debris to jump of off to let her land next to the guards who were too slow to react to her Swift release speed. It was simple for her to knock the three of them out with a powerful chop before stealing their key cards and opening the cells.

"Percy help Hazel and get your guy's stuff! We are on time restriction!" she ordered as the alarm was already blaring signaling the Amazons to their escape.

"What are you going to be doing?" Percy asked as he landed on the catwalk next to her while he set Hazel down on solid ground.

"Causing distractions while you all get our ride out of here. I'll make my way towards the stairway that we came down originally and you can pick me up there" she said as Percy nodded and they ran off leaving her on the catwalk.

"Well hopefully those on Hylla's side remember to look the other way" she thought aloud as she watched Hazel control the precious metals and gemstones around her like waves of water to push back Amazons and bind them to shelves and chains that hung from the ceiling.

She let out a sigh as she summoned her lightning armor and disappeared in a burst of speed before she quickly appeared in front of a group of Amazons that had Otrera at the front, standing on top of a battle forklift as two others parked next to her.

"You! How did you escape!?" Otrera yelled as Thalia smirked and summoned a ball of fire in her hand before it died out.

"Lightning isn't my only element, your girls were way too easy to escape" she said as Otrera narrowed her eyes. "As much as I'd love to chat and maybe break a few of your bones I'm going to have faith that Hylla will do it for me" she said as she held up her hand, her ears quickly picking up on the sound of hooves.

"Do tell Gaea that my dad is going to kick her and the Giant's asses for me when you see her tonight after you die" she added with a smirk before a blur shot by above her and grabbed her.

"Took you long enough" Thalia complained as she quickly used chakra to stick onto the chariot that was being pulled by Arion as Hazel rode the godly horse.

"Sorry the horse called Frank a Chinese baby man and then the chariot was guarded so it took a bit longer than expected" Percy said as he helped keep Frank stable as they sped through the Amazon warehouse and ultimately up the stairs.

"Hazel! Once Ella comes back we need to get out of here fast!" she yelled up to Hazel, over the sound of the rushing wind as Hazel nodded just as they burst out of Amazon headquarters.

"Ella! Come on sweetie we need to go!" Thalia yelled, hoping the little red harpy was close enough to hear them. Hazel kept the speed low as Arion ran through Seattle at a decent speed only for a 'squad' of battle forklifts to skid onto the street behind them.

"Of course those things are faster than normal forklifts" she grumbled as she noticed a red blur in the sky. "Ella come on! We have to go!" she called up, smiling as she saw the red blur basically drop out of the sky and into her arms.

"Ella is here. Amazons are pointy. Go now" she squeaked out as she nuzzled into Thalia and wrapped her feathery arms around her.

"Okay Ella hold on tight" she said quickly as she kept herself planted in the chariot and held onto Ella before nodding to Hazel who took the signal.

"Arion run!" Hazel yelled as Thalia heard the words elongate and noticed sunlight almost bend around them as Arion shot away from the Amazons and sped through, from what she caught mere glances of, downtown Seattle.

She helped Percy keep Frank stable as the sped towards the docks, going over cars and barreled through intersections. Arion didn't even stop once he roared off the docks, going at such a speed that it caused a sonic boom as the horse sped over water and turned seawater behind them into steam in their wake.

'Oh damn, with this we might make up a hell of a lot of time' Thalia thought as the left Seattle far behind them.

The speed was immense as the landscape rapidly changed around them from the blurs they could see. She saw the Puget Sound and zoomed past islands, fishing boats and pods of whales.

The only real indicator of how fast they were going was Ella as she muttered "750 miles per hour, 800, 803. Fast Very fast" as they kept going.

Arion only seemed to stop shortly after the wheels fell off after they had went onto solid land again and onto the highway.

"Hazel! The chariot is falling apart! Slow down or we might end up as skid marks!" Thalia yelled as Hazel nodded and pulled on the reins to slow Arion down, something she noticed he didn't like all that much.

Arion finally slowed all the way down on top of a wooded hill after crossing what she recognized as the Ironworkers Bridge in North Vancouver. The second the horse stopped the chariot literally fell apart in smoking pieces of rubble, spilling them out of it and tumbling onto the wet and mossy ground.

"Ugh that was hell, I'm confident that was worse than when my dad used the Hiraishin on me the first time" Thalia groaned out as she watched Ella flutter around in dizzy circles while bonking into trees and muttering "Tree. Tree. Tree" with each bonk.

"Ella sweetie stop that" she said as she held onto the harpy and made her lay down with her for a moment.

"That was fun!" Hazel said as she got off Arion, the only one completely unaffected by the ride.

"Yeah, so much fun" Frank said as he steadied himself, his face turning from green back into its normal color before Arion whinnied.

"Arion said he needs to eat. Makes sense after he probably burned about six million calories" Percy translated as Hazel studied the ground at her feet with a frown.

"I'm not sensing any gold here. I'll find something soon but why don't you go graze Arion? We'll meet you-" she said but before she could finish the horse quickly zipped off, leaving a trail of steam in his wake.

"He'll come back right?" Hazel asked as Thalia nodded from the ground as Ella, still dizzy, buried her face in her stomach.

"He will come when he is needed I think. Might be a solo kind of horse but he reacts to you. For now where the hell are we?" Thalia asked as Percy pulled himself to his feet and went to check on the chariot wreckage and whatever supplies that were left over from it.

Ella didn't stay lying on her for long as the mere sight of a book, a copy of 'Birds of North America', the harpy had stolen in from Percy and fluttered up to the nearest branch to scratch through the pages at an incredible speed.

"I-I think we are near my home. This is where I grew up. My grandmother's house is right over there" Frank said as he pointed off into the distance.

"How far?" Hazel asked as Frank shrugged his shoulders.

"Just over the river and through the woods" he said as Thalia let out a loud laugh.

"Seriously? To grandmother's house we go?" she asked as Frank embarrassingly cleared his throat and nodded.

"Great hopefully we can bum some rest, maybe a shower or something from her. Come on guys! To grandmother's house we go" Thalia said with a smirk as she desperately needed a shower and somewhere she could change clothes and rest.

Her memories were returning faster and faster. She needed to go over what she knew to see what could be useful to them on their quest. They were up against a Giant, who was waiting for them, they need all the help they can get from whatever is hidden in her head.