The harpy screeched and fell. Dawn's shot had been good. Unfortunately, Nika had been right. Other stuff was going on.

So the harpy started moving again after only a minute or two, yanking out the knife with a vicious shriek.

Nika froze at that sound. Harpies weren't known for their intelligence, so she didn't think it had been sitting there waiting for something to happen. It had been dead. She could have sworn she saw the arrow go into its heart, which should be enough to kill it. Yet there it was, rising above the trees again already.

Dawn's eyes widened when she saw the harpy take off again, the arrow still sticking out of its heart.

"Oh that's not good," she said, reaching back for something more destructive. Desperate times called for explosive arrows. "I hit it clean, it should be dust by now."

"Yes, it should be," Nika said, frowning deeply. "Damn. I knew something else was going on here."

"Well, now we have to try something else," Dawn said, firing an explosive arrow. It hit just as cleanly as the first arrow, exploding and taking a chunk of harpy-flesh with it. The harpy shrieked in pain, and the police officers across the park whipped around with a shout to look at the girls.

Nika growled quietly and stepped in front of the car, plucking a shield out of her black hole. Hey, she liked to be prepared for anything.

The harpy shrieked again and started towards them, clearly recognizing the threat they presented.

Dawn just knelt down on the roof of her car, presenting less of a target while still giving herself a clear line of fire. She'd shot it through the heart and it didn't die, so it was on to step two: try to take off its head and hope it stayed dead that way. Arrows were terrible for such a thing, but enough explosions would erode anything.

"Hey! You kids get away from here!" one of the police officers shouted. His shout drew the attention of the harpy and Dawn cursed in Ancient Greek. She shot another arrow.

"I don't think so," she muttered. "We're your target, not them."

"Fools," Nika snorted, glaring at the police officers. She moved forward slowly, making herself the bigger target to distract the humans while Dawn tried to take the thing down entirely.

While Nika distracted the harpy, Dawn went for another killshot, this time firing off three consecutive arrows to make sure she hit at least two kill points. One of the arrows embedded itself in the harpy's throat, one through one of its eyes, and the third went to join the very first one in its heart. The harpy shrieked in agony as it fell, but Dawn wasn't at all certain it wouldn't get back up.

Nika managed to jump over to protect Dawn when one of the officers pulled out a gun, aiming at them. Not a good sign. Oh shit.

The officers were distracted, though, by the harpy rising. Again. It was wobbling though this time.

Dawn saw the harpy, and growled a bit in frustration.

"I don't get why it won't die already," she bit out as she reached back for an explosive arrow. Pulling it out, she pulled it back to full draw and took aim for the harpy's remaining eye. "Let's see it come back with half its head blown off..." Once she had her mark, she fired the arrow.

The harpy fell, although in more of a slow wobbly way than an "I just died" way. Nika frowned, clearly unsettled by this point, as the harpy fell to the ground, discorporating slowly to go recover.

"That was very, very weird."

"That was really wrong," Dawn replied, although she nodded in agreement. It was really weird. She glanced hesitantly at the police officers, who were approaching them warily.

"What was that?" one of them asked. He seemed to be the braver of the two. His partner just looked paler as they got closer.

She glanced back at Dawn. "No way to avoid it now, huh?" She was starting to feel a bit wobbly for some reason, and so stayed where she was. Even though she wanted to go hide for a while to figure everything out.

"I don't think so," Dawn replied just as quietly as the officers slowly got closer. She watched them warily.

"Are either of you ladies going to talk to us?" The first officer asked.He and his partner still looked uneasy. Dawn sighed, but nodded.

"That was a harpy," she said. "A particularly stubborn harpy." She didn't elaborate any further on it.

"Harpy?" the second officer asked, sounding a little squeaky.

"Yeah, harpy. You ever read Greek mythology in school and learn all about the gods and monsters and heroes? Yeah. That kind of harpy."

Dawn glanced at Nika, but didn't say anything about the sharp reply. Then she looked back at the officers. Before she could say anything else to them, she got a brief flash of herself sitting at the police station in one of their interrogation rooms, although she didn't seem to be too uncomfortable. She blinked away the vision just as the first officer opened his mouth again.

"I'll go," Dawn said first, cutting him off. She knew what he was going to ask. Fishing her keys out of her pocket, she held them out to Nika. "Take my car back?" she asked. She hoped the more subtle meaning was clear: 'take my car back and tell the others what's going on.'

Nika nodded, taking the keys.

"Sorry, ma'am, we need you to come with us, too," the second officer said, though he sounded nervous.

Nika snorted. Yeah, right. "See you soon." She looked at Dawn meaningfully and went back to the car, ignoring the officers as she slipped into the car and drove away.

Once Nika had left with the gold car, Dawn sighed and unstrung her bow, stashing it back in her quiver for the time being. She made sure her dagger was close at hand, though, just in case.

"Alright," she said to the two officers, "I'll go with you. I'm sure you have questions."

The officers hesitated, and then the first gestured for her to go to the cruiser. He seemed a little uncertain, though, as to whether he should treat her like a normal young woman, the way she looked, or as a dangerous person, the way she'd acted with the monster. After another moment of hesitation, though, he opened one of the back doors of the cruiser so she could get in, though. Clearly, he was raised right by his parents.

Nika drove back to camp as fast as she was able so she could go report back to Chiron. Hopefully he'd have a bright idea or two, because she had nothing at the moment.

Dawn, on the other hand, stayed quiet on the way to the precinct. The officers both glanced back at her every so often, seeming nervous, as if she might try to kill them both at any time. When they finally got there, she tried to get out of the car herself, so that they wouldn't have to open the door for her, but the doors were locked from the outside, so she had to sit there and wait for them to gather the courage to let her out.

"We may as well go inside and get this over with, then," she said as she strapped her quiver on her back again. She wasn't going to let it get far from her at all. There was no telling when another monster would show up.

There didn't seem to be any sort of protocol for the situation, so after a moment or so of hesitation, she was taken to one of the interrogation rooms and told to stay there for the time being. She nodded and sat down, wishing that she had her lyre with her. She was going to get very bored, very fast.

Nika got back to camp in record time, running straight over to Chiron. "Monsters aren't dying like they're supposed to," she said without preamble. "We went to go investigate that harpy that people were seeing, and we both tried killing it. Didn't work. Son of a bitch kept flying around."

"So what happened?" Chiron frowned.

"Police arrived, we sort of killed the harpy. Or at least it finally discorporated to go recover. And the police got Dawn."

Chiron sighed and rubbed his temples. "Well we need to get her back before her father gets pissed and starts killing humans."

"Yeah, I know. But unless you have any bright ideas, my best idea is just go blast in there and get her. Which isn't real bright."

"Wait, they got Dawn?" Jason asked. He'd been checking in with Chiron frequently for any sort of update from the outside world. The security breach had them all nervous. "Sonovabitch."

Meanwhile, the police had started to interrogate Dawn. She gave them all truthful answers, but the interrogation didn't seem to be going anywhere. Frustrated, the head of the department finally came in to talk to her. Dawn was a little surprised that the one in charge was a woman, and even more surprised to hear hardcore death-metal from the woman's heart.

"Are you willing to give us straight answers?" the woman asked frankly.

"I have been," Dawn replied.

"You've been spouting nonsense," the woman replied.

"It isn't nonsense just because you don't believe it," Dawn replied.

"I follow the 'seeing is believing' idea," the woman said.

"Two of your officers saw it," Dawn pointed out. "That should count."

"They don't know what they saw."

"They told you what they saw, and I told you the same thing." Dawn shrugged a bit, and then paused for a moment. "You know, you don't seem like the type to like heavy metal." The woman froze.

"What?"

Dawn grinned a bit.

"Behemoth?" she asked, naming the group. The woman blinked.

"Nobody knows about that," she said. "Nobody."

"It's always the ones you least suspect," Dawn replied sagely. The woman looked at her for a moment, and then left the room silently. That didn't strike Dawn as a good sign.

"Yeah." Nika started pacing nervously.

"Where?" Seth moved over to them, having been keeping tabs on the parking lot so he'd know when they got back.

"Police station a few towns over." Nika shrugged. "Why?"

Seth grinned. "If you can knock people out instead of killing them, I can get us in and get her out. And I'll probably have to mess with the security tapes so they don't have footage of us, but I can do it."

"Done. Get in the car."

"I'm coming too," Jason said, following them. He already had his bow and quiver. "Never know if you may need a healer." And damn if he wasn't going to save his sister. Or at least, keep an eye on Seth and Dawn. Either one.

Dawn was eventually taken back to a holding cell. The police still didn't know what to do with her, she knew. She was an unknown to them, and they were assuming she was dangerous. They were right, of course, but she wasn't dangerous to them.

All was quiet for a little while, and she was just starting to get really bored when a vision slid across her eyes. She saw the police station in ruins, and the silhouettes of a Gorgon and a pair of Harpies visible through the settling dust. The vision vanished just as quickly, and she rushed to the gate of the cell.

"What's with you?" the guard there asked warily.

"You have to let me out," Dawn said urgently. "I need my things. You have to let me out right now."

"I've got orders not to let you anywhere," the officer said. His expression was a bit tense, however, as if he expected her to somehow hurt him magically.

"And I just learned that this place is going to be razed to the ground by a pair of Gorgons and a harpy soon," Dawn snapped. The guard hesitated.

"Maybe you should talk to the director," he said. They both jumped when there was a shriek and a crash from the other end of the station.

"Time's up," Dawn said. "Let me out, I can help!" Her last words were worthless, though; the officer ran off to see if he could help the others, leaving Dawn still locked in the holding cell.

Nika didn't protest, just ran back to the car and barely waited for them to be in before she started driving, ignoring all the speed laws and weaving through traffic expertly. This clearly wasn't the first time she'd had to rush from one place to another with a time limit.

By the time she pulled into the police station, though, the Gorgons and Harpy were already doing their worst to the place, sending humans running left and right. She swore and got out of the car, reaching behind her to get her sword.

"You two go in and get Dawn out. Make sure she's safe. I'll hold these three off until you can come back and help me." Her voice left no room for argument, and she advanced on the Gorgons without waiting for a response from them.

Seth glanced over at Jason. "You find her and I'll break her out." Because he was good at what he did, even if it was less than legal. He got the feeling that right now Jason wouldn't care about that part.