This is azhou1 here! Welcome to The Last Challenge. Please understand that this iols the prologue so this chapter may be shorter than future chapters.

Leo: Dude, can we start already?

Piper *smacks him*: Be PATIENT Leo.

Me: There's one last thing guys.

Leo *grabs a microphone*: Yeah yeah yeah, azhou1 doesn't own us. Now BEGIN!

Me *sighs*: You're so impatient but fine. I will get my revenge though. *rubs hands*

Leo rolled his eyes, "What could it be this time? We just freaking defeated Gaea."

Percy looked at Leo with a serious expression, "Leo. Lord Zeus gave us a deal to never go on any other quests again if we defeat this last monster or whatever. I hate to say this but I really want to go to high school with Wise Girl and I want to finish it. I don't want to be called on a quest in the middle of it."

Annabeth winked at Percy, "Don't worry, I'm sure that you are very excited about high school. We're going to college after this after all, and I will make sure that you go to Harvard with me." If you don't, then I will bash your head into the wall. Percy gulped and looked in the horizon.

Frank held hands with Hazel, "Personally, I don't mind quests but I know that Hazel would not want to fight any more monsters than she needs."

Hazel nodded, her golden eyes darting to her boyfriend, "Definitely not."

She shuddered, "I had enough monsters for a lifetime." Or two for that matter. Leo sighed and nodded,

"Okay, whatever. Monster breath smells terrible on yours truly, of course." He grinned and everyone else facepalmed.

Jason looked at him, "I swear Leo, your jokes get worse every time."

He bowed, "That's your Uncle Leo for you!" The new ship, Argo III, as Leo called it, dipped down onto the destination. In front of them was a cave. In the entrance was a barrier of wood and iron, as well as other material.

Percy blinked, "Err... From my experience, I think we need to go in there."

Annabeth stole a kiss, "No kidding, Seaweed Brain." She offered him her hand and he took it eagerly, as if it was the last thing on his world that would let him keep his own sanity. They walked to the cave first, with the other five following behind them closely. However, they stopped before the wood. Hesitatingly, Percy took out his sword and touched the material carefully. Nothing happened. Then, he took a swing at it and Riptide met the metal and sparks flew everywhere. The others leapt back, besides Leo, to avoid getting their clothes set in flames.

Annabeth sighed, "Seaweed Brain?"

Percy smiled at her sheepishly, "Oops." He capped Riptide and put it back into his pockets. Annabeth was still glaring at him. He went to her and bent down to kiss her on the cheek.

'Wise Girl' blushed, "No fair. You're cheating."

He gave a sarcastic wink, "Am I?"

Leo said loudly, "Get a room, you two. Now, let the master of fire and the queen of metal work." Hazel sent him a glare but it quickly dissolved into a smile. She couldn't really keep a glare while the other person is smiling at he was. Instead of the stab of jealousy Frank expected, nothing happened. Maybe I'm actually accepting that Leo isn't going to steal Hazel. Hazel looked back and smiled at Frank, making his heart explode in his chest.

Hazel held her hands up and concentrated, her eyes closing. The metal began to lower itself, sinking back into the ground. Not all of it disappeared but it did clear a lot of it. She stepped back and opened her eyes, nodding for Leo. Leo stepped forwards and looked at the wood.

Right before he did anything, Annabeth shouted, "Wait!" Unfortunately, the surprise sent a spark out and the wood burned down quickly. However, the fire did not stop there. It continued, the flames getting mightier by the contact with oxygen.

Leo raised his hands, "Aw man!" The fire stopped spreading around, but Leo's face was starting to show signs of strain on it. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do this. Percy stepped forwards and closed his eyes. I am the son of Poseidon. I call upon the seas. He raised his hands automatically and a rush of water stopped the fire easily.

Piper walked forwards and smacked Leo on the head, "Repair Boy!"

He rubbed his head before using the same tone, "Beauty Queen!"

"You almost got us killed, idiot."

He retaliated, "At least the might barrier has been broken by yours truly."

Jason shrugged, "Good enough. Let's go already." The seven turned to face the cave and walked in together, holding their weapons out. That is, if people could even call a hammer a weapon. The soft glow of Riptide lit the path as they walked into the darkness of the cave. Soon, Riptide wasn't even needed as a few gems that lit a soft glow lit the correct path. Hazel studied the gems and deemed in safe to touch after a few glances.

They finally reached the center of the cave, where they was an eerie glow around the middle with darkness surrounding it. Behind them, the entrance closed and the seven tensed, ready to attack. A wisp of wind reached gem and they shuddered a little bit, before realizing that a cave could not have any wind. That meant that something was creating the wind.

"Welcome," a voice called out from the middle, "to your last. I am the last one you will ever face, dead or alive. I hope that all of you are ready to face your separate challenges. I hope you succeed, as it would be interesting to see how you did. If not, then I get another tasty meal."

It laughed, "Good luck."

Annabeth called out, "Wait! What do we do?"

"What is the fun in telling you, little girl? Blonde and stupid girls are always together. Now, let me continue."

Percy said, anger clear in his voice, "What did you just call my girlfriend?"

Annabeth squeezed his hand and whispered, "Percy, he's only trying to get a rise out of you. Ignore him."

It hummed a little, "Hmm... Perseus Jackson. As arrogant as ever, I can see. Hasn't anything told you to respect beings above you?"

Percy glared at the thin air in front of him, "I've faced worse."

"Have you? You haven't even faced me yet and you've already gotten angry. Loyalty isn't always a good thing, you know. Selfishness is necessary at time of need. Who am I to lecture you thought? For all you know, you're talking to thin air."

"I've done weirder things, trust me on that. What do we even call you? Air of thinness?"

"Names are powerful things. Surely you have realized it," the voice replied.

Leo interrupted, "Chill out Mister Whatever. Get out and face us. We're prepared to kill you."

It laughed, "Mister Whatever, how curious. I can't appear in this setting. As I have mentioned before-"

"Yada yada yada. Same old speech of killing us. Just get to the point already."

"You might want to listen," the voice insisted, "As I was saying, all of you would face individual challenges. Chances are that you would die. No one who has passed by has ever left without changing. Mental and physical illnesses would be the best anyone has gotten, and that was only one person. Still, that person has suicided before anything could happen so it wasn't a complete loss. Every single gem that has led you here represents another spirit that I have taken into my collection."

Hazel gripped her new dagger that Leo had made for her, "You will not add any of us into your... your freaking collection of cursed gems." Everyone in the group stared at her in surprise. Hazel was usually not the one to curse at other people. Even though 'freaking' wasn't a bad word in the whole, but it was as close as she would get for the time being.

The voice laughed, the sound echoing off the walls, "Hazel Levesque. It's a wonder why you would say that, considering that you're the master of the accursed gems. I can only wonder what the color of your gem could be and what curse it would contain."

Frank shouted, "You would never defeat her, never! She is stronger than you think."

Hazel blushed, "Frank, it's okay."

The voice said, "Frank Zhang. I heard that you are the one with the latent powers. You don't even appreciate Mars. You always wished for Apollo to be your father. I can only imagine how hurt that Mars is from this, considering the fact that you're supposed to be talented." Frank stared ahead without any expressions on his face. After a few second, the voice seemed to get bored and moved on from him.

The voice shouted, "Let the games... Begin!" Colors exploded in front of their eyes and they sank into sweet, sweet unconsciousness.

Okay okay. That was way shorter than I would've liked. Unfortunately, I felt like it was a place to stop, as I would start zoning in on separate characters.

Anyways, I promise that the next chapter would be much longer than this one. It will certainly surpass the 3000 word benchmark.

This is how chapters would work from now on:

If the next chapter is about Hazel, then I would write about Hazel. After I finish, I will write a few alternate ending that could've happened but didn't. Only the original ending would actually count for future chapters.

Also, I have to thank sunshinemonster, who had agreed to edit this chapter.

Hazel: Umm... Can you please spare my life? I really don't want to turn into a gem.

Leo: I'm too awesome to turn into one!

Frank: Haze, you'll be okay.

Me: Shut it and let me finish this.

What was funny? What was sad? What made sense? What didn't?

Percy: None of it made sense.

Annabeth: Seaweed Brain!