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Kristin turned to stare at Zeke, and rolled her eyes towards him. "Maybe we should have left you in the truck or something.." Kristin muttered under her breath, Zeke was so damn annoying in her opinion. She looked at Leda and shrugged slightly it was just a suggestion, Kristin didn't mind the baby monster. But she felt like it was going to be more of a liability issue with it and they were essentially its babysitters now until they could find a nearby beach to drop him off. "Just a suggestion." Kristin said looking at Leda she still wasn't familiar with the compass since Leda always used it.

Hercules the cyclops baby turned to stare at Zeke with a bit of interest now in his headphones and started to reach over for them, managing to yank out the one in his ear, bringing it into his mouth trying to chew on it. Kristin watched the baby for a moment and smirked a little bit, it was going to be a fun car ride for Zeke having to sit next to a baby cyclops.

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Leda's eyes widened a little bit at Zeke's retort to Kristin. It was pretty funny from an objective standpoint - but she didn't want to take a side in their conflict. And if she had to pick one half of the lovers quarrel, she would go with Kristin. Hoes before bros after all. The baby cyclops, Heracles, definitely picked a side though as he tugged Zeke's headphones out of his ears. "So if you could ask the compass where to go, that'd be great - I learned my lesson about not looking when driving," Leda admitted to Kristin, her ears burning bright red.

She wondered briefly which god had jurisdiction on the road, before figuring it was Hermes. She mumbled a silent prayer for his protection as she got the car ready to go and pulled off back onto the highway, relieved when nothing horrible happened. No cops were nearby or anything to question why they had stolen this car and abducted a small monster baby. No monsters ran out into the road and tried to kill them. They were safe, at least for the moment. "Zeke, could you maybe put music on for everyone?"

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Ezekiel was switching songs on his iPod when the music got quieter and he looked over in time to see the baby put his headphone into his ear. "No! Don't do that!" He pulled the headphone back but it was a sloppy mess and probably useless now. Ezekiel unplugged his headphones. "Dammit," he cursed but kept the headphones from the kid. "Choking hazard," he told the brat. He didn't have any money on him to get new ones so he would have to call his mom or something. He hated doing that. Maybe he could work something out with Chiron and Mr. D instead.
"Ya, I guess since I got nothing to use now anyways," he said and shifted through his music again to find an appropriate driving song. He pressed play and leaded back in his seat and stared out the window as the song played. "Texas, here we come."

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Kristin looked over her shoulder as baby Hercules tried to gnaw on Zeke's headphones and seeing his reaction started to make her laugh a little bit. "Looks like baby Hercules is on my side, oh and karma is also a bitch." Kristin said to Zeke as she leaned back a little bit, they lost a bit of time while dealing with the car crash which wasn't really anyones fault they could have contacted Chiron during their next stop. The music wasn't really something that Kristin enjoyed as she preferred something different, but Hercules was pretty content for the most part as well which was good.

Leda's compass would eventually lead them to an RV park just outside of Atlanta Georgia, she looked around for a little bit the area seemed to be a good spot to rest for the night. Hercules woke up, and started to cry rather loudly as Kristin took a moment, and covered her nose. "Ewww someone took a huge shit." Kristin said she looked at Leda and Zeke for a moment. "I'm totally not cleaning his diaper." Kristin said she'd rather set up camp than clean a baby cyclops' diaper.

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By the time they pulled into the RV camp, Leda was beyond exhausted. She had been driving for a little over five hours straight. They still had daylight, as they had left North Carolina in the morning, but the daughter of Iris needed to rest. Maybe Kristin or Zeke could have tried driving, but Leda wasn't feeling up to teaching them and she doubted either of them wanted to risk getting into another accident, especially with baby Heracles on board. Zeke's music hadn't been completely rotten - it had a nice beat to it. She had been horribly afraid for a brief moment that he was going to crank up something awful, like country.

She yawned and instantly regretted it, covering her mouth and nose with her hand. Baby Heracles reeked. "I'll go scout, make sure this place is safe. See if there's some water around so we can hand off Heracles to a nature spirit or Poseidon or something... Once we've gotten him handled, we should find someplace to nosh. I'm starving. Once I get some caffeine and some food, I can probs drive us a few more hours before we'll need to find a place to sleep." She then whisked off in a blur of light, running around at superspeed as she scouted out the area.

For once, the only monster present was Heracles! Hooray!

Leda then ran back up to the truck, leaning in through the window to look at her companions. "There's a pond not too far from here. It's worth a shot, I figure. Also, noes goes on changing the babe," she added hastily, before putting her finger on her nose.

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The drive had been pleasant, if only because Ezekiel was in charge of the music. He avoided any slow songs, if only to keep all of them awake and the bass of the music seemed to keep the baby entranced and relaxed enough to not cause too much of a fuss over the journey. They pulled into an RV park, to which Ezekiel was a little surprised but not overly when he saw Leda yawn. When he smelt the baby, he already knew what the words out of both girls mouths were going to be. Of course he would be the one who would have to change the soiled diaper. They both lacked responsibility within camp, besides Kristin's know-it-all-I'm-in-charge attitude and they were women. They didn't have to do shit all these days if they didn't want to because 'it was their right'. All they wanted to do was fight things and claim glory for it.
"You guys are seriously a bunch of five year-olds. Fine, I'll change the diaper of the baby I didn't want to bring along in the first damn place," he said glaring at Leda. "One of you, can locate the diaper bag for me to use or find something else for me to use because I am not using any of my things." He leaned over and unbuckled the kid from the car seat before getting out with the kid on one arm and the pack on the other. Once outside of the car, he looked around for a picnic table to lay the kid on it order to get him changed and happy before hopefully going back to his dead beat father.

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"Well look at it this was, at least you don't have to carry a baby for eight months or anything like that." Kristin said to Zeke as he complained about having to be the one to change the baby. Not that she actually wanted a baby in the first place either she was still to young to have a kid, and she didn't want to be one of those trashy teen moms and get her own TV show. "Or a period every single month, i'm pretty sure you can handle changing a baby cyclops diaper." Kristin said quickly getting out of the car, and looked around the car for a moment, before opening the trunk seeing that at least the cyclops daddy was smart enough to bring baby supplies.

Kristin came back and set the stuff down, baby wipes and a pack of diapers as well. "There you go Poppa Zekey, have fun." Kristin smirked gently patting him on the back as Leda came back to the group after scouting out the RV park area. Hearing that there was a pond in the area, she hoped that there was an actual water nymph there so that way they could hand off the baby. "That's good, hopefully we can hand the little guy off." Kristin said all the while baby Hercules was giggling and kicking his feet around at Zeke.

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Leda shot a bit of a glare at Zeke as he called them five year olds. She had just spent over five hours straight driving, while Kristin and Zeke just got to chill in the car. She was exhausted and starving - and she did not want to deal with changing a stinky diaper. "Apollo's the god of medicine, right? I think diapers are covered under that," she said. They didn't have much choice though when it came to bringing baby Heracles along - they couldn't just kill him, he was a baby, and they similarly couldn't just abandon him on the side of the road.

"Urgh, do not get me started on bloody periods... I swear, if I get mine on this quest, I'll go positively mental." Kristin had found supplies for the baby and Leda glanced in the direction of the pond, her heart skipping a beat as she spotted a naiad leaving the water. They couldn't go too far from the water. Maybe the naiad would be able to pass the baby along to Poseidon or some other kind god in the ocean. "There's a naiad - I'll go talk to her, see if she can take the babe," Leda explained quickly.

She moved from the truck over to the pond, waving and smiling at the naiad. "Hey, my name's Leda, daughter of Iris... Any chance you could do me a favor? We've got a babe cyclops that needs a home, we were hoping to get him to the sea to his dad..."

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"I believe full term pregnancy is 37 weeks, which means nine months superstar, not eight," Ezekiel corrected Kristin. He had no problems agreeing that mothers were warriors when it came to birth. No, Ezekiel's problem was being handed responsibility that wasn't his in the first place. Leda wanted to bring the kid along, as far as he was concerned, this was her task. Driving for four or five hours straight aside.
Ezekiel grabbed the bag from Kristin and shrugged off her touch. He hated being patronized, right up there with having to make small talk. "Sure Kristin, whatever you say," he said when she mentioned diaper duty apparently being in his wheelhouse. Ezekiel shifted out the diapers, finding a pad as well to lay the baby on so he didn't have to lay on the cold, dirty picnic table and made quick work of wiping him down and putting on a clean diaper. Ezekiel didn't even gag during the process.
Before he had arrived at Camp Half-Blood, the neighbourhood Ezekiel lived in had many children and surprisingly, Ezekiel tended to be the more responsible one. When the mothers went to work during the night hours or on weekends, Ezekiel was responsible for them. The girls didn't know this of course and Ezekiel wasn't about to share with them either.
He redressed the little cyclopes baby before picking him back up and followed Leda to the pond. "Fresh and ready for hopeful transport." He wasn't sure how nice this Naiad would be. As far as he knew from history, they were pretty vain creatures and didn't do much for anyone unless it furthered them and their status in some way.

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Kristin kept her distance from Zeke just in case baby Hercules decided to go pee while being changed, which he didn't which was a good thing, seeing the dirty diaper Kristin started to gag a little bit. "Eww, i'm not sure which smell is worse, a human baby's dirty diaper or a cyclops'." Kristin said while gently patting him on the shoulder and smirked. "Looks like you are a father now." Kristin said sarcastically as she quickly made his way over towards the pond that the naiad was in. The naiad itself looked more like a teenager around their age actually with blonde hair, and wearing a light blue bikini. Sitting on the bank of the pond turning her attention over towards the three demigods Baby Hercules would suddenly reach over and yank at Zeke's hair really hard and started to try and eat it as well.

She turned her attention over towards Leda who had addressed her in the first place and then eyed the baby cyclopes with a little bit of suspicion. "I normally don't deal with cyclops, usually our salt water cousins deal with them." She pointed out, before Kristin spoke up looking at the woman. "Please can we hand him off to you? We are on an important quest right now." Kristin said, as the naiad closed her eyes letting out an annoyed groan. "Fine just set him here." She finally said.

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Leda was a bit surprised that Zeke was competent enough to change a diaper without smearing feces all over himself. The naiad reminded her a bit of some of the Apollo campers, with her blonde hair. If her eyes had been a startling grey, she could have passed for one of Kristin's siblings. The naiad seemed more than annoyed at taking the cyclops, but at least she relented and Leda thanked her lucky stars. "Fucking ace. You're the best," Leda told the naiad. "His name is Heracles." She tried to think of something they could give the naiad as a thanks, but she didn't really have anything on her that she could give away.

Her stomach growled and Leda had to hold back a yawn, not really wanting to do anything to upset the naiad. The naiad was a teenager and probably wouldn't have any problems just going back into the pond and ditching them with Heracles. After this, she was hoping they could find some place that had juicy red meat on the menu - she was craving a burger - and maybe the sort of fries that tasted just ambrosia.

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Ezekiel's eyes widened and his nostrils flared from the sharp pain from his hair being tugged. It was a weird sort of pain that traveled down his spine. He looked over at the kid. "Really not okay dude," Ezekiel said. When the naiad agreed to take the baby, Ezekiel sighed and set the kid down where she indicated. "Do you use dracma," he asked her curiously. Other than that, he didn't have anything to give her for compensation.
Ezekiel took a step back as they waited for the naiad to do her thing and his mind drifted to the comedy club and the deadline they were on. This was taking time away but this was also an opportunity to better prepare and maybe have another vision while they got a couple hours of sleep. Every little bit of information they could get at this point would help them and Ezekiel had to keep reminding himself that so he wouldn't grow impatient and rage.

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Kristin looked at Zeke and smirked again as the baby yanked at Zeke's hair the baby cyclops giggled at Zeke's reaction before trying to do it again but was put down. Then Kristin could hear the baby starting to cry and started to crawl over towards Zeke to try and get picked up again before the Naiad waved her hand, and some water started to wrap around the baby and brought him back into the pond of water. The Naiad looked at Zeke and nodded as she picked up Hercules in her arms. Looking more like one of those Teen Moms on TV now with the one eyed baby monster. "Everyone uses drachma. It'll be a good payment for watching this thing." She said.

Kristin felt bad for the little guy having killed his pops earlier and then just dropping him off by a small pond, but it was the best they could do. They could watch over the little guy forever either, as she looked at the others, Kristin felt her stomach growling a little bit. "We will see you again someday little guy." Kristin said giving Hercules a slight smile before taking a few steps away and made her way towards the truck again, hopefully Hercules wont turn out to be a bad monster. "Theres a strip mall nearby I think we could see if theres some fast food place." Kristin suggested

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Leda carried 20 golden drachma on her, with one lucky silver drachma that she never spent on principle. She pulled five drachma out of her pack and handed them over to the naiad. She really hoped they wouldn't meet baby Heracles again. Leda liked to imagine that Heracles would grow up to be a decent cyclops in the forges under the sea - not one of the horrific monsters that tried to turn demigods into stew. If she never met him again, well, she would never know how he turned out, allowing her to choose the version of reality that suited her. And if Leda were to be completely honest... She didn't care about Heracles - she just felt she had an obligation to him, as she had killed his parent. Once he was someone else's responsibility, she could move on, forget about the little bugger. "Thanks again, luv."

She made her way back over to the truck with Kristin, her stomach growling loudly again. Her mind was already off the baby cyclops and onto burgers. She had a little under $100 on her, with 50 quid (though she doubted they accepted British currency here) as well. Once Zeke and Kristin were both in, she drove them over to the nearest strip mall area, parking in front of the Wendy's. "Let's dine in, yeah? Gives me a chance to recharge, inhale some double cheeseburgers and a shake, before we hit the road again." It made them prime targets for monsters, sitting in one place, but they needed to eat. That wasn't negotiable.

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Ezekiel shifted out his money but Leda paid the naiad already so he returned the coin to his bag. He looked at the cyclopes baby one last time before nodding to the naiad and said a quick thanks and hurried back to the car before she could change her mind. He grabbed his pack from the picnic table before getting into the car, shoving more junk out of his way and buckled in before Leda drove off. His stomach continued to grumble at the mention of food and then the smell of food.
"So, could one of you ladies spot me for food? I can pay you back at camp or something," he said. He reckoned they would have to feed him something. Hangry was a real thing and it was no different for demi-gods. Ezekiel was going to have to get a job or find some other way to get US dollars as he usually only ever had drachma on him these days. He didn't exactly want to go to his mother asking for money. She had done enough for him and he was trying his best to look after her and make sure she didn't have to go back to stripping and work more than two jobs.

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Kristin climbed into the front seat again looking back over towards the pond the Naiad seemed to be more focused on the baby now, she felt bad for him, but she hoped that the cyclopes that worked with Poseidon would help the little guy out. She let Leda take the wheel again and she leaned back in the seat looking back at Zeke and nodded again. "I'll spot you again, but you owe me again, since we paid for the motel room to." She pointed out and smirked at Zeke slightly.

The stop to Wendy's wasn't to far and they were in the parking lot seeing the nearby strip mall, she probably would do some shopping if she could for something new if they did have the time but that would never work really either monsters were always around somewhere. "Dining in would be fine with me, it would be kind of nice actually." Kristin said, as she handed Zeke five dollars, that should be enough for a meal of some kind. "I actually have been craving Wendy's lately their nuggets are really good." Kristin said, though their fries weren't her favorite she loved McDonald's more in her opinion they were way better as she made her way into the fast food restaurant and got into line.

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Leda wondered if Kristin was keeping an accurate log of Zeke's debt to them - though she imagined the daughter of Athena probably was. Everyone in that cabin had a hard on for math and its applications, and this surely counted. Leda on the other hand wasn't too picky when it came to the money she had, mostly since it largely came from Chiron or Argus - her grandparents didn't exactly wire her funding for her demigod adventures. She hadn't seen them since she discovered she was a child of Iris, goddess of the rainbow.

She headed inside the Wendy's and waited in line, ordering two double cheeseburgers, medium fries, and a large vanilla shake. Once she paid and got her receipt with the number, Leda went to wait by the counter for her food, when she spotted a young girl sitting alone in a secluded area of the restaurant. Her jaw dropped. Aside from her mother, she was looking at her favorite goddess. "Guys, it's her - Lady Artemis," she whispered to Zeke and Kristin, before Leda headed over to the goddess. Her food could wait. Her exhaustion could wait.

"Lady Artemis - it's a bloody honor to meet you," she said, doing a little curtsy. "Erm, did you want something? I have extra cash, the food here isn't half bad..."

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Ezekiel bowed his head to Kristin. "I live to serve," he said, winking at the demi-god. They shuffled out of the car and into the Wendy's. Ezekiel shouldered his pack and stretched while they waited in line before he ordered a double baconater, large fries, a frostie and an iced peach tea. He had a habit of dipping his fries into the chocolate ice cream and it was superb. He glanced over at Leda, watching her face shift as he had to order after her and so saw her face change into awe and was slightly confused until he watched her walk over to a woman and call her Artemis.
Ezekiel grabbed the receipt with his and Kristin's order number on it before he followed suit and pulled up a chair, sitting down and smiled at Artemis. While Leda was all star struck, Ezekiel took the friendly approach since she was his father's twin sister. "Hey Auntie, what brings you to the great Georgia peach?" For the last few months Ezekiel had been working on a couple tattoo ideas in respect to his father and his mother. Apollo's sun and a moon, which was also a symbol for Artemis, so really, he would be representing her as well once he got these tattoos.

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Kristin ordered herself a spicy ten piece nugget, and a large fry with a large coke with her own meal, and she waited in line with some of the others, until she heard their order being called. Kristin perked up a little bit when she heard Leda mentioning Artemis, she quickly moved over to see that it was indeed her. She was a little bit younger than they were, and wore a simple white hoodie and white camo pants as well. "It's really nice to meet you in person Artemis." Kristin said smiling brightly at the goddess and gave her a quick bow as she heard their food and quickly grabbed her bag and went over.

Artemis watched Zeke sitting down across from her, though she didn't really make any indication that she was annoyed by it or not, though she smiled at Leda and Kristin and motioned for them to join her. "I am good but thank you though for your kind offer." Artemis said as she lifted a bag of her own, before setting it back down where she sat. "I know that the three of you are on a quest given to you by my brother, and thought i'd stop in and see how your progress is going." She said.

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For a brief second, Leda wondered if Artemis might just vaporize Zeke right there for talking about peaches - but then she remembered that the Goddess of the Hunt likely didn't know what the peach emoji meant and she was probably just overthinking things. She wondered as well what had brought Artemis there. She knew that the goddess typically traveled with her hunters, though she was all alone at the moment. Kristin had grabbed all of their food, including Leda's, though Leda didn't feel comfortable eating in the presence of a goddess, no matter how much her stomach was growling. The gods typically didn't stay very long whenever they visited anyways.

She hesitantly took a seat down across from Artemis, not really feeling right to sit next to her. "We've... We've had some setbacks," Leda admitted. "One of them was m-my fault." She didn't want to lie to Artemis. Sure, Apollo was the God of Truth but she was fairly certain Artemis would be able to tell if they lied to her. "I think we'll be able to get to Texas tomorrow maybe, so... we should be able to rescue Calliope then in time for Lord Apollo's competition."