Percy stared at the huge neon flower above the chrome doors of the lotus casino.

"Are you sure that your chips will work?" He asked reproachfully.

"The third level gamma radiation coupled with the raw power your dad gave us should negate the effect of the monster's brain waves." Annabeth said shakily.

"In English please."

Annabeth sighed. "Yes. The computer chips should work."

"Maine's very nice this time of year. Why couldn't Akantha be in Maine?" Grover muttered as they hooked the chips into their baseball caps. His had a tree on it, Annabeth's said 'I'm with Stupid', and Percy's said 'In English please'.

Percy was not entirely thrilled with going back into the Lotus Casino after they almost got trapped there three years back.

"Ready?" Annabeth asked, perfectly concealing her own fear.

"Whenever you are." Percy shot back. The only uncertainness left was a glint in the backs of his eyes.

"Why is it never Maine?" Grover muttered as they stepped through the chrome doors.

The chips Annabeth made might stop the magic of the place, but it did nothing to make the room full of videogames and such any less breathtaking. It took all of their self restraint to not forget about the mission and charge over to their favorite games.

Percy, Annabeth and Grover quickly discovered an annoying side effect of the chips, Grover was sure that cancerous bump hadn't been there before.

Percy pointed at Annabeth and then to the left, then he pointed to himself and the right. Annabeth nodded. Split up.

Annabeth went to the left and started shaking girls; Percy went to the right and started shaking girls as well. Grover pulled out a tin can and started chewing on it, totally confused.

The first girl Annabeth shook was named Samantha. No.

The next one was Debra. No.

Henrietta. No.

Mandy. No.

Sandy. No.

David. Definitely NO.

Percy wasn't having any better luck finding his half sister Akantha. The first girl he shook said "back off, I have a boyfriend." And went back to her game.

The next one slapped him, but he got her name, Lucy. Nope.

Teri. No.

Whitney. No.

Katie. No.

Then he realized that the first girl he shook hadn't given him a name, he turned back a studied her for a moment, she had that mischievous smile, the half-blood trade mark. Jack pot.

Percy shook her again, this time she took a swipe at him. Percy dodged, grabbed her wrist and asked her name.

"What's it to you?" she spat at him.

Why was this weird guy grabbing her wrist? She had already told him to bug off.

"What is your name?"

"What's it to you?"

"I'm looking for my Half-sister."

"I have six brothers, and none of them happen to be you."

He tightened his hold on her wrist. She winced.

"Akantha. The name's Akantha, now let go already!"

The guy let go of her wrist, grabbed her elbow, then turned and yelled to a blonde girl, "I found her!"

"I. Am. Not. Your. Sister. Freak." I growled at him, just before I bit him. Boy did he let go quick.

Grover finally caught up when Percy yelled "I found her!" then of course things can't for once go smoothly, the kid bites Percy and starts sprinting down the room for the stairs.

Grover ran after her, but suddenly hotel security shows up.

They didn't want Akantha to leave apparently, because they were surrounding him and Annabeth. They didn't quite have Percy, but he wasn't the fastest guy in the world, and it was only a matter of time before one the goons caught him.

Annabeth went invisible and Percy uncapped riptide. Grover threw a tin can at one of the thugs. He really needed to visit the armory.

Akantha skidded to a halt behind a soda machine, and looked back. The creepy guy now had a sword out and was slicing down hotel security guys by the bucket load. But the weird thing was that instead of falling down dead the goons turned into some sawdust type stuff and blew away like they had been hit with a leaf blower.

Could this day get any weirder? First she runs away because of her stupid step dad her stupid half brothers, and then she finds this cool but weird Hotel/Casino place.

Next thing she knows she is getting chased by a guy who looks like he could be her brother who keeps calling her sister, then he starts whacking away at people but the people of course can't just die like normal folks. They have to get sandblasted!

This was almost as weird as the time in first grade when she was on that water slide and it snapped when that old lady touched the beam and she fell down 70 feet into chlorinated pool water. And then the water before she hits has to act oddly by cushioning her.

Akantha pulled herself back to the present. The creepy guy didn't seem evil of anything and the hotel staff was creepy, so she decided to do something her ADHD counselor would have sued her for.

She jumped off the side of the stairwell into the ultimate water splash down game. It caught her just like the water at the pool did, setting her down behind the kid who walked funny.

She ran over to that kid named Darren who thought it was 1972, grabbed his pellet rifle aimed and fired at the nearest guys head. She hadn't counted on the bullet going straight through without a scratch, as if the guy wasn't there.

The Hotel guards then turned on her.

"Oops."

Annabeth swore under her breath in Greek. Stupid Percy's stupid sister had managed to tick off her protectors.

She ran up behind one of the two monsters now chasing Akantha, pulled of her baseball cap, and pulled out her bronze knife.

The monster spun around, a blank look on his face as if he'd been programmed. Annabeth shoved her knife into his gut and twisted. She unsheathed her knife from his bladder then jumped through the dust cloud he left behind, chasing after the other one, who, while Annabeth had been preoccupied, had grabbed the girl and now was attempting to tie her to a puffy pink chair.

The girl spat something at the guys face, and then kicked him in the shins.

"No thanks, I don't really like pink." Akantha snarled at the burly guy trying to tie her to the pink chair.

Then she kicked him in the shins, as soon as he started cursing and bending over she slugged hit him the gut, watching gleefully as he bent over.

Akantha kicked him so hard in the head that she heard cracking. Then he was dust in a power sander.

Akantha coughed, dusted off her clothes, and then she ran over to the blonde girl who was gaping at her.

"Tell me what the hell is going on. Now." Akantha poked her between the eyes, since she was still in gape mode.

"As soon as we're done here I'll tell you everything, but first we have to help seaweed brain."

"Who?"

"Your brother."

"You mean the creepy guy?"

"No, I mean your brother. If I had meant 'the creepy guy' I would have said 'the creepy guy'. Come On." The blonde girl grabbed Akantha's arm, she could practically see a plan formulating in her eyes.

"Here, take my knife. Put on the baseball cap," She pulled out a dusty Yankees cap from her back pocket, "and run up behind the monster, wait until I yell now, then stab it with the bronze knife." Akantha got the impression that she should do whatever the girl said.

The blonde girl ran up behind 'Seaweed Brain' (weird name!) and vaulted over his arm just after the back swing of the beheading viper strike (how did she know what it was called?).

Akantha all the while snuck up behind the monster and raised her arms, ready to strike, but her arms weren't there!

"NOW!" the monster had the blonde girl in a chokehold, and Seaweed Brain was pulling uselessly at his arms. The weird goat/boy thing was chucking tin cans.

Instinct took over, even though she couldn't see her arms or the knife she knew she had hit her target when with a satisfyingly 'puff' the thing disintegrated.