I walked up to the front door. I took a deep breath and stepped inside. It was amazing. The building had a hole in the floor between each floor so that from the bottom floor you could see the ceiling at the top. The first five floors were filled with games. Big arcade games with hunting and all manner of driving games and similar stuff.

A man, I assumed an employee, came up to me and said; "Hello sir and welcome to the Lotus Hotel and Casino. Here is your room key, room three-oh-six, and here is your hotel cash card. It can be used to play any of the games. Have a fun stay." Then he scampered away.

I had to admit with all the knowledge I had of Greek myths I couldn't think of anything that could do this. Then as I surveyed the scene I saw him. Apate was off in the corner at a computer that was on a table with four of them on it. I decided, as if I had forgotten all of what I was doing at the time, to go over and join him.

He was working on a computer program something I had never really gotten the hang of so I sat down next to him and tried to check my email. It was more of an impulse than actually thinking that I had an email. I called over an employee. "What gives? I can't access my email."

"Why would you want to?"

"Uh..." He had me I didn't know why I wanted it I just thought of it as a given. "But it has internet so why doesn't it have email.?"

"Don't worry sir, I'll call a manager to field your complaint." He walked away and a few seconds later a woman was walking up to me. She was fat and wore so much make up that you couldn't see any part of her real face. She was wearing a Vegas show girl outfit that was really revealing, it almost made me throw up.

"Hello sir," She spoke with a sickly sweet voice. "I hear you're having com..." At this point there was a rumbling like something far off exploding. Then it was suddenly louder. I remembered why I was here and who I was, things I had forgotten. The other kids that were playing the other games seemed to feel a similar effect. The woman's voice turned angry. "What have you done half-blood?"

I ran. Partly to get away from her, partly to do what I had come here to do. She wasn't hard to pick out of the crowd. She had her mother's hair, and her eyes changed colors like her mother's but they stayed within a human spectrum and changed much slowly. Aside from that she had tie-die just as bright as her mother's. The really odd thing was that she looked like she was about fourteen. It was the first time I had never thought about it but Iris had to have been using a younger body than she would be normally to have kids of any age.

I ran up to the girl and said the first thing that came to mind; "I was sent by your mother to come find you." She seemed to understand and nodded.

At this point she had to yell to be heard over the commotion as more explosions could be heard, the walls cracked and spell broke that had clouded the mind of the kids. She said; "My name is Nephe Doris, thanks for the help."

I looked around and couldn't see Apate I assumed he had made it out. "Come on" I cried. I grabbed Nephe by the hand and led her toward the door. As we neared the exit I heard screaming behind us. I looked back and saw the woman in the show girl outfit half running, half waddling towards us and she did not look happy.

We broke out of the door and saw Sophia messing with a box that looked kind of like a car battery on the ground next to the wall. I ran up to her and said; "Hey what's that?"

"You have really bad timing." She stood up and ran. I didn't need to ask why. The thing was a car battery but it had some other stuff attached to it. I knew this was the thing, well maybe not this one exactly but other ones that had caused the explosions. Nephe and I ran over to Sophia. As we turned back towards the building we saw what I would assume to be the last of the kids filing out. Then the battery detonated. The kids ran but it didn't look like anyone was hit.

Then, the building collapsed. There was dust and smoke obscuring my view as suddenly the world was thrown into chaos. The worst thing was that it wasn't clearing. The smoke and dust lingered long after it should have. Then came the screams from the direction that the Lotus Hotel had just been. Each second the scream of pain or terror of a different person. It was getting closer. Then I heard it.

"You little brat! You destroyed my Palace of Vice." The voice was that of the woman. I thought again but could still not think of a Greek myth that could explain who she was. Even with this new information that she had something to do with Vice I hadn't a clue. "No matter, I can rebuild. But first I am going to kill you!" I saw the dust swirl to my right so I drew my sword and slashed. "Ahhh! Damn that hurt. I will get you. My brothers and sisters and I can control the hearts of weak humans. That's how we got Pandora to open that cursed jar."

Well at least knew who she was now. She was the spirit of Vice from Pandora's Box. I still couldn't remember a name but a known enemy is better than an unknown enemy. "Alright." I cried into the dust. "Come at me then."

"Ha! You'll regret ever picking a fight with me you..." Her voice died away. Then the smoke settled. Sophia had snuck up behind her and stabbed her in the back with her sword.

"Pegainete ston Tartarus, skula!" That confused me. I knew it was Greek because reading the myths had taught me what the words sounded like. But I also understood what they meant (something I would prefer not to repeat), and apart from that to the best of my knowledge she didn't know Greek either. The whole situation confused me and apparently Sophia as well because she looked just as confused as I did. She walked away from the body of her fallen adversary who was now turning to dust. "Did... did I just speak Greek?"

"Uh, ya. That was odd. Wait where is Nephe and Apate?" I had just noticed that Nephe had disappeared in the commotion and of course we had never found Apate.

"Nephe?" Sophia looked at me quizzically. "Who?"

"Oh, that was the name of the daughter of Iris."

"Oh, well I saw a girl leave with you but I didn't see Apate..." She trailed off staring into the wreckage. I followed her eye's and saw what had stunned her to silence. There sticking out of the wreckage was a bronze spear.

We stood there for a long time, just looking at the last reminder of our friend. At some point Nephe walked over but saw what we were looking at and must have put together what had happened and just walked a bit away and sat down. I had never exactly thought about what it would feel like if Apate died, but I knew I would never have thought it would feel like this. We had argued often, we hadn't been best friends but we had been good friends. We had hung out almost everyday and this whole 'demi-god' thing had really put an end to most of our arguing. We had become better friends just in time for him to be killed.

After a long time I walked through the rubble and up to the spear. I unscrewed the head which I only now saw had a grape vine inset on it. I picked up a bit of what looked like the chains they used to keep the guns attached to the shooting arcade games and secured the spear head to my belt.

It was dark so there was no chance that Iris would be coming to pick us up any time soon. Which was good because I knew that it wouldn't be too hard for me to convince myself that this was her fault. I walked back down the rubble to where Sophia and Nephe were and said; "Let's go. I don't feel like fighting anymore monsters tonight."

Nephe stood up and grabbed Sophia's hand. She lead her over to me and we all together walked down the street and out onto the Vegas strip. It was bright and overly flashy. I noticed in passing the Luxor and a few other casinos that Apate had told me about. He had been to Vegas a lot in his travels, he said it was his favorite city. I was sad that he had to die here.

We walked through the entire city and out into the desert. We got a mile out before we finally sat down on a sand bank at the side of the road. We sat there for hours. I fell asleep for a few minutes once but was awoken by nightmares of grape vines strangling me. We sat until the sun rose over the mountains in the distance.

At the moment that it rose I heard a noise next to me. I looked over and saw a young man, about eighteen. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, a tad cliché I thought but he definitely fit the stereotype for beauty. I was about to cry out in surprise when he made a shushing motion and pointed at the girls next to me who I saw were sleeping. I kept quite deciding for the moment that he was not a threat. But I whispered; "Who are you?"

He laughed quietly. "I'm hurt that you don't recognize me." He made a pouting face.

I thought about the circumstances of his arrival and I thought of a possibility. "D...dad?"

"Ah, good boy. Took your brothers and sisters about three times as long to figure that out when they first met me."

"Wait brothers and sisters?"

"You didn't think you were the only son of Apollo did you?"

"Well I guess I never really thought about it. I've been too busy trying not to die."

"Ha! You shouldn't worry about that too much. I think you could handle much worse than Kakia."

"Damn! That's who it was. I can't believe I didn't remember that." I began to feel a bit higher spirits. My father seemed to radiate happiness.

"Ya well I've come to deliver a message."

"From who?"

"Iris. She over stepped the line of interference according to Zeus. The way he sees it if she hadn't sent you to save her daughter you wouldn't have blown up the hotel. On top of that since she didn't make a binding oath to help you that her punishment takes president over her agreement with you."

"So she's not taking us to New York?"

"No, I'm sorry."

"Well you have the sun chariot. Can you take us?"

"The sun chariot goes only west." I sighed. We were stuck and more than that Apate had died for nothing. I mean I was happy that we saved Nephe but she could have stayed there a few more years. Apate didn't have to die. "There's only one person who I know could think of a way to help you." Apollo said.

"Who?"

"The goddess Athena."

"Why would she help us?"

"Because she's Sophia's mother."