Wile arrived with Echo at the cave where the nymphs’ stayed on Mount Olympus. When they went into the cave and saw that there were pieces of entrails and gore splattered over the place. Echo was then picked up by a woman who looked feral and feline holding a spear and another was with her. Wile gave chase through the pine forest and pursued the women through a protal created by driving the spear into the earth. Through the rift, Wile saw a spiralling shroud of flaming chains descending to the the Coit Tower in San Francisco. Apparently terrified of him, the two feral women began to drag themselves down the flaming chains, pursued by Wile on Haemus. With a spectacular display of divine glory, and after dodging a few flung spears, Wile managed to convince the woman to hand Echo back to him, and was magnanimous enough to save one of the women with the crook of his umbrella when she caught alight and fell.
Meanwhile Aggro, Eric and Chen where on their way to the tower where they believed HR was going to be sacrificed. They saw the tower and Aggro and Eric saw that H.R. was chained by his wrists within one of the tower's roof arches, flanked by two armed men.The sharper eyed Scions also spotted the shifting buzzing form of something concealed behind the chained form of H.R. Aggro saw that covering the tower were flaming iron chains that reached into the sky. Eric, however, saw runes running over the tower, representing connection/bondage, while HR had the rune for sacrifice over him and the two men were marked by the rune for hunter. Aggro turned to Eric and asked him if he had seen X-men and realisation hit Eric.
Aggro then threw Eric at one of the hunters and Eric mediated on the strength of the bear in mid-flight. The two hunters took aim at Eric as he was travelling towards them and shot at him causing him no harm. Eric impacted with the shield of chains and fire wreathing the tower. The hunter Eric was trying to get at just smiled at him and stepped back slightly. Aggro closed the distance to the tower and mediated on the ram. Eric tried to break his way through the shield which caused the shield to buckle and made the hunter behind snarl, showing pointed canines.
Since Aggro had closed the distance one of the hunters decided to try and leap at him. Another man appeared apparently out of nowhere and held a machete to HR's throat. Aggro used Asbo’s speed to intercept the leaping hunter and threw him at the new arrival with extreme force, tearing a rent in the shield and dividing the man into flaming gobbets of flesh which tore half of the astounded machete wielder's face off.
Provoked, the man decapitated HR in one stroke, before driving his fingers into the dead man's mouth and flicking his fingers at Eric. Eric’s head filled with HR’s death scream and he was taken out the fight, falling to the ground below. Aggro then threw his golf club at the man that had just killed HR, who left a writhing skin of flies behind on impact, before diving into the stones of the tower. The remaining hunter decided to try and take a lunge at Aggro.
Aggro was out for the man’s blood and wanted to take revenge. Aggro then using his brilliant understanding of maths calculated where the man would be in his descent. Aggro directed Asbo to the exact point through the tower and the chains opened and allowed him to pass. Inside the tower the man had managed to stop his descent and Aggro leapt up and grabbed the man driving him into the wall. Aggro looked round and saw that all the muralson the walls had grinning skulls for faces. After a brief scuffle, Aggro, drove the man into the marble of the wall, staving in his ribs in the process. Unperturbed the man spat out a gobbet of blood and trimuphantly yelled “we have him” at which point the people in the murals came to life and stepped forward wielding machetes. The man then turned an evil grin on Aggro and he was forced to flee. Aggro managed to get out of the tower and fled away.
Above, Wile and Haemus attempted to contort themselves through the small rent in the flaming chains, but the peacock was badly burnt in the process. As the smouldering trio fled to a pond to extinguish the flames, the second women let go of the chains and plummeted to the tower's roof, breaking her legs in the process. Wile saw Aggro fleeing the scene quickly and found Eric embedded slightly in the ground and managed to get him out, showing immense forbearance, the Scion of Hera collected the broken-legge women and healed her enough that she could walk before, everyone got on the back Haemus and they went in pursuit of Aggro. All the Scions realised that Chen had disappeared and were unable to find him or contact him. The luckless Scion of Dionysus lay below in the flaming ruin of the tower, briefly knocked unconscious by descending masonry.
Eric woke up and found himself on the back of a giant white peacock and Eric believed it was a dream as he didn’t see Wile arrive back. Wile convinced Eric that he wasn’t dreaming and that he was really back properly. On their way to find Aggro he passed them on his way back to collect HR’s body. Eric phoned Aggro and arranged to meet him at Chen’s warehouse.
A storm was slowly closing in over the city. At Chen’s warehouse the storm was starting to pick up in intensity. The women said that they were unable to talk about what was happening now and that they would have to wait until later when they were in a safe place. They loaded up the van as the windows were blown out in the warehouse and the women said that they were being followed. The temperature plummeted in the warehouse, and on the frosted panes an invisible finger wrote, "Brother, sister, you." Unwilling to stay and investigate, the group piled into the van and Aggro lifted it up and they started to fly. Aggro headed to the San Francisco Peaks, as he believed they would be a fitting place to hold a ceremony for HR.
On the way there the Scions discussedwhat had happened in the time Wile had been away and Wile told them what had happened to him. The women chatter in the back of the truck in an African language that Eric picked up rapidly enough to deduce that they were talking about whether they should trust the Scions. Wile consulted the fates about where Aggro’s sisterwas disovering that she was in Guinea and they decided that after going to the mountains in Arizona they would go to New Orleans and they couldn’t get hold of Theodore. Wile also got information about what happened on the Tower and the bloody legacy of a Xhosa war leader, Segun Arinze, famous for ransoming the kidnapped siblings of his political enemies. Arinze was said to have made a pact with the scavenger spirits of the deep caves to have avoided death.
The Scions arrived at the mountains and held HR’s funeral with all the Scions, as well Echo and the cat women. The bad spirits of the mountain weere destroyed by the beat of the drum, even as thunderheads rolled in from the east. Lightning hammered the peaks and the long dormant mountains spat fire into the leaden sky. A rousing beat marked the culmination of the ceremony, as Aggro cradled his brothers flaming body to him, before HR was taken into the sky by a bolt of lightning and the other Scions were each struck by lightning as well, divine energy infusing their bodies, as HR's fatherfather bestowed his blessing. Mournful but reinvigorated, the scions continued their journey to New Orleans.
In New Orleans they went looking for Theodore by searching the French quarter and then they decided to check the mausoleum Theodore was always at. At the mausoleum they found two of Cusco’s men and arranged a meeting with Luis. Eric and Aggro managed to persuade him to take them to see Theodore's followers who were being kept in a safe house in the Bayou. However after talking to the remnants of the Open Grave Houngan Posse the Scions were disappointed to find that hey didn’t know where Theodore was either. The the daughters of Erzulie it was suggested, might know more.
The cat woman talked about what had happened and said that a man with hair like Wile’s came to them and had made their sisters confused and so they attacked the Singing Girls. The pair claimed they were trying to save Echo. They said that they normally protect the borders and that when they are away the scavengers start to take everything. Wile said that while he was on Olympus there were lions guarding Aphrodite from leaving her compound which he thought might be of some relevance. Aggro and Eric rapidly came to the conclusion that because of the Greek’s the Loa were getting screwed as their borders were no longer being guarded.
Eric said that he needed a few minutes of time to get prepared and he ran into town and grabbed the kit he needed from the armoury including several grenades and flash bangs for Aggro. He summoned his Einherjar and got them geared up and picked up the dragon Fafnir and drove back to the safe house.
Wile said that he wanted to go into the city as he had some business to take of before they went to the underworld. He was in the south side of the city and descended on Haemus into the street and grabbed everyone’s attention while he did so. He then started to recite the tales of the band. Some of the people in the crowd broke the spell on them and approached Wile and showed that they had baseball bats with obsidian shards in them and asked him to go with them.
Back at the safe house Luis got a call telling him that they had caught someone fitting Wile’s description. Luis asked Eric and Aggro if they were going to take care of it or if he should. Eric and Aggro said they would. When Wile got back to the safe house Eric explained to Wile that New Orleans was divided between a number of Scions and they had agreed on this between themselves. Aggro explained to Wile that he should have asked permission first and that he should apologize to Luis. Wile apologized to Luis and the Scions agreed that they were ready to go to Guinea and that the Lion women were going to get them there quickly.
Back in San Francisco, a groggy and confused Scion of Dionysus slowly began to come to…