Hours after they foiled the Trickster’s plans to permanently retire the last of the Weird Sisters, Sam was standing next to Thunder’s bed and watching over her fitful sleep.

“Our timeline’s gotten shorter, hasn’t it?” he asked.

Yeah, kid, Chiron agreed. We’ve got barely a month to find a way to heal Thunder now...

“A month...” Sam repeated. “It took me weeks just to raise Healing Hand up to delta... A month would be impossible.”

Sure... that’s if we choose the conventional route, Chiron replied.

It was the way his master said it that caused a deep frown to grow on Sam’s face.

He sighed. “You’re going to make me go on another dangerous quest... aren’t you?”

Nope, not me, Chiron promised. You should check your notification for more details.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have completed the quest [STOP THE PHANTOM MENACE!] REWARDS ONE: You have earned the favor of Apollo, the shining star, brightest among the gods, the poet laureate of poet laureates, Lord of Singers, etc, etc...

Sam scratched the back of his head. “Um, I’m not sure what to do with this...”

REWARDS TWO: 1,000 Golden Drachmas, a new power born from the [SUPPORT] tree, and an 18in Apollo and Sun Chariot Statue.

A grin grew on Sam’s face. “Now this I can work with... but where’s my Apollo figure?”

Worry about your collectibles later, kid, Chiron chided. Now, look at the last reward.

REWARDS THREE: Learn of an easier way to save Thunder from the Blight. On that note — Farsight’s already got that covered. He-he-he.

“This is officially the weirdest notification I’ve ever received,” he sighed.

Sam felt a tap on his shoulder, and he turned around to find that the teenage superhero was already waiting behind him as if she’d been summoned to his side by magic.

“Are you done talking to your not-so-secret penpal?” she asked.

“Yep... he’s no help at all,” Sam replied.

That’s rude, Chiron complained. I’m the reason you survived this long, lame-brain.

Sam smirked.

“How was your debrief with the Wardens?” he asked Farsight.

“Warden Captain Malarkey was extremely reasonable and not at all as combative as he was with you,” Farsight reported happily.

“So... he’s only a dick with suspected vigilantes,” Sam noted dryly.

“From Malarkey’s point of view, vigilantes like Herculean cause as much problems as the villains they apprehend,” Farsight shrugged.

“Um, let’s stop calling me that... please,” Sam requested.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Crow and I covered for you,” Farsight reassured Sam. “We told him that we didn’t know who Herculean was under the mask but that he helped us stop the Trickster from destroying the hospital and assassinating me.”

“You’re not going to listen to me about the moniker, are you?” Sam asked.

“See,” she slapped him playfully on the shoulder, “you get me already.”

Her lightheartedness reminded him so much of Thunder that Sam’s gaze drifted toward his friend who was lying unconscious like sleeping beauty and oblivious to his worry for her.

“How do I help her, Ashley?” he asked.

“About that...” Farsight wrapped an arm around Sam and stirred him toward the door. “How do you feel about a road trip?”

***

They’d made it down to the front doors of New York Presbyterian before she filled Sam in on her idea.

“How’s your ancient history?” she asked him.

“Not bad... Not great either,” Sam admitted.

He was gazing up at the night sky which was no longer clouded by the plumes of smoke that had sent dread into New Yorkers only that afternoon. Queens was quieter than usual too, almost like the locals were too frightened of leaving their homes.

“The Trickster may have failed his mission, but he did a lot of damage to the city,” Sam sighed.

“It won’t last... New Yorkers are a resilient people,” Farsight assured Sam. “Besides, the Wardens are great at cleanup. They’ve already cleared out the rubble in the streets and stabilized the foundations of Mount Sinai Queens to keep the hospital from collapsing.”

“Yeah, but they’re really bad at arriving to the fight on time,” Sam countered.

“I won’t argue with that.” Farsight motioned for Sam to follow her into a dark alley. “Now, come with me if you want to live.”

“Movie references?” Sam raised an eyebrow at her. “Where’d that weird teenager who spoke in metaphysics and liked to interrupt—”

“—still here, Sam,” Farsight smiled wryly. “Now come on... I’ve got something interesting to show you.”

Crow-Man had been waiting for them at a nearby back alley. Parked behind him was a school bus that had a matte black finish instead of the typical canary yellow. Its windows were heavily tinted, and the hubcaps on the wheels — 20-inch matte black rims — were pretty non-standard too.

As he and Crow-Man shook hands, Sam recalled how the veteran hero had encouraged him to change into some civilian clothes so that the Wardens wouldn’t be able to arrest him for his vigilante activity.

“Thanks for having my back with the Wardens,” Sam said.

“I understand the need to keep your identity a secret until you’re ready,” Crow-Man replied. But as he let go of Sam’s hand, the caped crusader did add, “And when you do decide to re-register, I know Herculean will make us proud.”

Getting complemented by one of his idols was something Sam thought he would never get used to. It was a very uplifting feeling; at least it would have been if he wasn’t so worried that this ‘Herculean’ business was getting out of hand.

“That not my—”

“Actually, I’ve already leaked your moniker to the Herald so they should be printing it in tomorrow’s edition,” Farsight cut in. “So get used to it already, Sam, and let’s see what kind of setup Crow-Man’s given the Argo VII.”

Sam frowned. “You did what?”

Then he did a double-take.

“The Argo VII...” he repeated.

Admittedly, Sam’s grasp of ancient history wasn’t great, but even he knew the tale of the Argo.

“The Argo was the ship built for Jason and his Argonauts back in the Classical Age which they used to sail to Colchis in order to retrieve the Golden Fleece,” a priestess of Zeus had once told Sam and the other children sitting around her. “There have been six Argos throughout history, each one appearing at the start of a grand quest issued by a great prophecy.”

“Is this really the Argo VII?” Sam asked as he stared up at the supped-up school bus. “Can you just hijack the name like that?”

Farsight placed her hand on the side of the bus, causing the logo ‘ARGO VII’ to momentarily superimpose itself on the bus’s black surface before the logo disappeared back into whichever probability she’d plucked it out of.

“As the official seer of this age’s great prophecy, I dub this vehicle the Argo VII,” Farsight insisted.

The revelation that a seventh Argo was right in front of him made Sam’s head spin even more than the possibility that he had a role to play in this great prophecy, whatever that meant.

Prophecies are difficult to understand, kid, and it’s always better not to try because that path leads to insanity, Chiron had suggested.

“So what do I do?” Sam had asked.

Just keep doing what you’re doing... Eventually, the path forward will reveal itself and things will eventually fall into place, Chiron had explained.

“Is this the path forward?” Sam wondered aloud as Farsight ushered him inside the Argo VII.

If the thought of an Argo VII made Sam’s head spin, its interior blew his mind away.

“This is—”

“Awesome, I agree,” Farsight said.

A typical school bus, the Argo VII was definitely not. The driver’s seat alone looked like it had been taken from the cockpit of an advanced fighter jet and retrofitted specifically to fit and drive this state-of-the-art bus.

Sam’s fingers brushed against a dashboard full of glowing buttons and screens, the kind one might find more common on a spaceship.

“I don’t recommend pressing any of these buttons until you’ve read the manual,” Crow-Man recommended.

He shoved an extremely thick paperback into Sam’s hands.

“Um, how many pages does this thing have?” Sam asked as he flipped through the brick-sized tome.

“About a thousand pages,” Farsight answered. “I’ve already read it cover to cover and understand it completely.”

“Guess that makes you our designated driver...” Sam dropped the book into the driver’s seat. “You do have a driver’s license, right?”

“Got it just before I went temporarily insane,” Farsight replied cheerily.

Sam sighed. “That knowledge doesn’t comfort me at all...”

He followed Crow-Man past the stylish bunk beds to either side of him and then past the well-stocked kitchen and lounge — noting how the interior space was far too big for a bus — so that they could reach the rear of the bus which was where the super cool tech gear could be found.

“How exactly did you make all of this fit?” Sam asked.

“We folded an artificial dimension into the interior and made the bus bigger on the inside,” Farsight explained in a nonchalant tone.

“So, science, not magic,” Sam’s brow furrowed. “I see.”

No, he really didn’t see. The science of it all went way past his head, much like how a grand quest seemed too big for Sam’s mind to comprehend.

To his right was a worktable full of tools that could create or repair gear and consumable items. It was interesting to note that while there were a microscope and centrifuge among the equipment, there was also a portable anvil and furnace stacked beside them too, almost as if Crow-Man was anticipating every need the team might have on this journey.

On the left side of the bus was an empty weapons locker that Farsight prophesied would one day be filled with the greatest weapons and armor in all the pantheons.

“There’s even a place here for that bow you lost in the city sewers,” she teased.

The back wall was covered in computer screens. All of them connected to the state-of-the-art computer system on the desk next to them.

“This next-gen system is connected to the Flint Consolidated satellites orbiting the US,” Crow-Man explained.

“Hold on... Flint, you mean Malcolm Flint the tech billionaire?” Sam confirmed. “Why would we have access to his satellites?”

Crow-Man ignored Sam’s question though, and instead explained how the Argo VII’s computer could assist them with evidence analysis, tracking and facial recognition software, sorcery integration, and even next-generation variable computing.

“Basically, whatever you might need for the journey,” Crow-Man explained.

“You...” Sam repeated. “Wait... you’re not coming with us?”

“Someone has to stay behind and look out for the city while you’re away on your quest,” Crow-Man answered.

“Wait... what quest?” Sam asked.

“Our quest to find the Golden Fleece and heal Thunder of the Blight, of course,” Farsight chimed in.

“What?” Sam did a double-take. “You want to go find the Golden Fleece?”

The Golden Fleece was an ancient relic from the Classical Age that could heal any sickness no matter how grave. Ironically enough, it was also the same relic responsible for forming the original Argonauts, a storied team of heroes that included the great Hercules among its roster.

“But the Golden Fleece has been missing since the fall of the Roman Empire... No one knows where it is,” Sam argued.

“Not anymore,” Farsight smiled an impish smile. “I’ve actually seen it in a vision I experienced during my sabbatical from reality.”

“Hold on... You have visions?” Sam’s eyebrow arched. “But I thought your shtick was probable futures?”

“True, but things have changed slightly since the fall of my sisters,” Farsight admitted. “With them gone, it feels like all the prophetic responsibilities now fall on me...”

“You mean you can now—”

“No, I’m not saying I’ll keep getting visions, just the important bits like that great prophecy I finished for you,” she deduced. “I expect that they’ll be no less annoying than the probabilities that haunt my waking hours.”

There was a sadness in Farsight’s face that Sam couldn’t help feel responsible for. After all, Maeve had fallen on his watch, and now the burdens meant for three had fallen squarely on Farsight’s shoulders alone.

“I’m so—”

Farsight shook her head. “It’s fine, Sam. I don’t blame you for my predicament. The Fates need their avatar, and I’m it — for now.”

“Alright...” Sam’s brow furrowed as he was a worry-wart. “So... this new vision, did it show you where the Golden Fleece was?”

“Not exactly...” Farsight tapped a few keys on the keyboard and made a map of the USA appear on the screens. “I envisioned a vague trail that will take you, me, and Sarah on a trip across the country.”

She tapped on the keyboard a second time, causing a red dot to appear in Pennsylvania.

“Our first stop’s in Philly,” Farsight revealed.

“Why Philly?” Sam asked.

“The first trail marker’s there... Finding it will lead us to the next marker,” Farsight answered.

“And how do we find this marker?” Sam asked.

“We need to find a rabbit,” she replied.

Sam’s eyebrow arched. “Um, is that some kind of metaphor?”

Farsight shook her head. “We’ll need a rabbit if we’re tumbling down a rabbit hole, don’t you think?”

“You’re talking about a guide,” Crow-Man guessed.

“Yes, maybe, I don’t know,” Farsight sighed. “Maeve was always the dreamer. This is all new to me to be honest.”

“Then why—”

“Because this is the only way to help Sarah in time,” Farsight insisted.

She’s right, kid, Chiron chimed in telepathically. This might be the only way to save Thunder from the Blight.

And that was the one thing anyone would ever need to say to convince Sam to go on this road trip across America. To save Thunder, he would even travel to Hades, although he hoped that wouldn’t be necessary.

“Alright...” Sam glanced at the fist he’d just formed, a fist that had closed over hope’s fleeting light. “I guess we better pack our bags since we’re going on an adventure.”