Heyy wassup? Heyy sorry about not updating in like... forever but I was on vacation for the past few weeks and I was planning on updating a few days ago but I found out that while I was on vaca my mom accidently mistook my notes for this story as trash and threw it away so I was at a just right as you go with it sort of stage. Did you know how much research it takes to come up with just one chapter... lemmme tell you... a lot. It may not seem like much research but I had to google local cafes in NYC, I had to google Pandora, I had to google Thanatos and death and good gravy so much research... but if it means making the story that much more awesome then it's worth it. Big disclamer this time: I don't own... Percy JAckson and the Olympians, The Atlas Cafe, or Google. Thanks! Hope you enjoy... I love feedback btw =)

~ArtemisFrimm

The next morning, I awoke to a knock on my door. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and tried to smooth out my shirt before I opened the door. I opened the door and was greeted by Annabeth.

"Hey seaweed brain, planning on sleeping the day away?"

I looked over at the fish clock and realized that it was already 11:45. Oops. "Sorry, I didn't sleep well last night."

Annabeth shrugged. "Well hurry up and get dressed so we can get going."

I nodded and once she left I got dressed into fresh shirt and jeans.

I met up with her again outside of the Empire State Building, and I told her about the Council Meeting, and my encounter with Artemis.

"Wait, so Artemis is joining us on the quest?" Annabeth asked.

"Yea I guess. She told me to meet her at the Atlas Café."

Annabeth nodded, "That's not too far of a walk I suppose. I wonder if Thalia will be coming."

I shrugged and began wishing that Grover was here, a quest with all girls didn't exactly sound like a walk in the park.

After about thirty minutes, we finally reached the Atlas Café. Now, I'm going to be quite honest and say that I was a little bit nervous going in there; I had met Atlas and he wasn't exactly a nice guy to hang around, so going to a café named after him wasn't exactly a walk in the park for me.

We walked in and to my relief; it was just a normal looking café. I looked around and surprisingly didn't see Artemis anywhere.

"Didn't you say Artemis would meet us here?" Annabeth asked me.

I thought for a moment then remembered something that Artemis had said the night before.

I walked up to the counter where a middle-aged guy was reading a magazine. When he realized that I was standing there he didn't glance up, "Can I help you?"

"Uh, I was told to ask for Pandora."

The guy looked up at me with a suspicious look on his face, "You got a reservation?"

I glanced at Annabeth who looked almost as confused as I was, "Uh no sir, we're meeting someone."

"Whatever," he let us through behind the counter, "Go through the door behind the coffee maker, and make sure no one's watching."

I glanced at Annabeth again and we made our way through the door. I was expecting some sort of storage closet to be behind the door but no; behind the door, was another café with dim lights and a mysterious atmosphere. It smelled of coffee and pastries but looked like a sort of club. Kids were sitting in large beanbag chairs and drinking coffee or looking at their laptops. A large graffiti sign hung over the entry way. I could tell it was in Ancient Greek because I could actually read what the sign said; The Twelve Evils Café.

A woman with strawberry pink hair who looked in her late 20's came and greeted us at the hostess stand. Her nametag read; Pandora.

"Hi, welcome to the Twelve Evils Café, safe haven for demigods and gods since 12 A.D. My name is Pandora, and may I ask; do y'all have a reservation?" She had a southern accent and a look of arrogance on her face.

"Uh, no ma'am, we're meeting someone here. I'm Percy Jackson."

A smile slid across her face and she reached out and put a hand on my shoulder, "Why hello there Percy Jackson. Ya know I've heard an awful lot of news about you. I heard that you defeated Kronos. That's very impressive. You didn't by any chance see my ex did you?"

I glanced at Annabeth for help but she looked like she was thinking of plans to get rid of Pandora.

"Who?" I asked.

"My ex B-F Prometheus?"

"Oh yea we saw him." I said.

"Did you kick his ass?"

"Uh, well…"

"Oh forget it, so Percy you know, usually I don't allow demigods without reservations in here, but ya know, since you're… well 'you', I'll make an exception this once, but your blonde friend will have to stay out here." Pandora smiled.

"Actually Annabeth's with me, and we're meeting someone here." I said; beginning to feel a little annoyed with Pandora.

Pandora pursed her lips, obviously annoyed that I didn't want to ditch Annabeth. "Well, Percy, a lot of people 'meet' here. And there are so many different types of meetings, it would be impossible to find the meeting y'all are looking for. I mean, we have monster hunting meetings, council meetings, friendly meetings, and even the occasional make-out meeting, which is highly frowned upon by the way."

"We're here meeting Artemis." I said slowly.

Pandora backed away from me quickly as if I had some contagious disease. "Percy, why would you be here having a make-out session with Artemis? She is the virgin goddess you know."

"Oh my gods, I'm not here for a make-out session with Artemis!" Gods this lady was getting on my last nerves.

Pandora looked relieved, "Well, that's good because it would be a little awkward with her goth-chic hunter girl here."

"Thalia's here?" Annabeth asked looking excited.

Pandora looked over at Annabeth as if eying a disgusting insect, "Excuse me but was I talking to you? No, I wasn't. I was talking, don't interrupt; rude!"

I sighed. "Is Thalia here?"

Pandora rolled her eyes, "The goth-hunter chic. Yea she and Miss Don't-Bother-Me are over at table three." She pointed to a small table in the corner.

"Thanks." I said as we walked over to the table, and as we left I heard Pandora muttering something that sounded kind of like: Snupid Munter Fitch.

We walked over to the table that Artemis and Thalia sat at. Artemis was skimming over an Olympus magazine with moving pictures kind of like in Harry Potter, under the headline article was a 'have you seen these immortals?' ad. Thalia was listening to her iPod. When Thalia saw us, she hopped out of her seat and gave Annabeth a big hug. Artemis just glanced up from her magazine, "You're late." She said irritably.

Annabeth and I sat across from them, "Sorry." I couldn't help but notice that Artemis had circles under her eyes. Obviously she hadn't gotten much sleep after our meeting last night.

The tension around our table was almost so thick that you could cut it with a knife and serve it on a Pandora Plate, luckily, Thalia broke it, "So Percy, you had a dream about some of the missing gods? What exactly happened in your dream?"

I told them about my dream… again. Once I was done everyone was quiet with thought. Artemis was the first to break the silence, "Well, at least we know where we have to start looking."

"We do?" I asked trying to think of what she meant.

Artemis nodded. "Yes. The minor gods and my brother are being held in the Labyrinth."

I glanced at Annabeth and could tell that she was thinking the same thing that I was. "The Labyrinth was destroyed."

Artemis shook her head, "No, most of the Labyrinth was destroyed." She reached into her bag and pulled out a map of the Underworld, "A small section of tunnels ran through the Underworld so they weren't destroyed. It runs through Tartarus which also makes sense because if the minor gods are being held in the Labyrinth tunnels then they would be close to Kronos enabling him to keep a close eye on them and on Katrina's progress."

"Wouldn't Hades know if his wife and the other gods were being held in the Underworld?" Annabeth asked after a moment.

Artemis shook her head, "Tartarus is very far down beneath the Underworld. It is hidden in the deepest, darkest, scariest corner of hell. That is why when Kronos was rising last time, Hades couldn't –" She faltered and looked around suddenly.

Thalia eyes widened in alarm, "What is it?"

"Don't you feel that?" Artemis asked warily.

"Feel what?" I asked wondering what the heck she was talking about.

"Someone is watching us." She said.

Thalia looked around as did Annabeth and I, "No one's watching us." Thalia said finally.

Artemis opened her mouth as if to say something but changed her mind.

"Well… changing subjects, what was the shadow thing in my dream?" I asked.

"Death." Artemis answered simply though she still seemed bothered by the strange feeling she had.

"You mean Thanatos?" Annabeth asked.

Artemis shook her head, "No, this 'Grim Reaper'-like creature is far older than Thanatos; older than most of the gods are actually. Thanatos is not 'evil' in a sense he just represents death or the circle of life if you will. Where as Death, the creature we are dealing with is all of the evils associated with death and torment. He represents and practically is all of the eviler aspects of death such as murder, suicide, poison, etcetera." She whipped her head around again and looked around the café again. She let out an annoyed sigh, "Hermes I know you're here."

"Damn." Someone muttered from behind a large plastic, blue fern.

Hermes stepped out from behind the artificial plant and walked over to our table. He looked a little different, he looked in his late teens or early twenties and instead of salt and pepper hair, his hair was now a dark brown.

"Hermes what in Hades are you doing here?" Artemis asked irritably.

Hermes sat down next to Annabeth and me. "Excellent question, but an even better question would be 'What are you doing here?'"

"That is none of your business Hermes, now leave." Artemis answered sternly.

Hermes arched his eyebrows in mock offense, "Well fine Artemis, if I'm not welcome here than I guess I'll just leave. I've got a lot of messages to deliver. One of the messages I have to deliver is to Zeus actually, someone just wanted me to tell him that a certain goddess is planning on joining Percy on his quest and just so happened to have lied to him about going hunting in Alaska." Hermes smiled at Artemis and Thalia who looked stunned then he turned to me and winked, "Good luck on your quest Percy."

He turned to leave but Artemis stopped him, "Wait, Hermes!"

He turned around and smiled at her, "hmm?"

Artemis scowled at him, "What do you want?"

Hermes smiled and pulled up a chair at our table, "Well, now that you mention it, I'd really love to join you on your quest."

Artemis narrowed her eyes at him, "Why?"

Hermes shrugged, "Multiple reasons; my mother and one of my… erg, closer Olympian friends has gone missing and I kind of want to help get them back, also, Demeter and Hera have been driving me insane with the constant messages they have been sending to each other about their missing daughters. Plus, I know every single passageway in the Underworld from having to escort the dead there for over a thousand years. I could be a very useful asset."

Artemis glared at him, "Any other reasons?" she asked coldly.

Hermes shrugged, "Well you know, like I said earlier, if you don't want me to come then I could always tell the old man what you're up to and he could stop you from going too."

Artemis glanced over at Thalia who looked annoyed. Frankly, I was actually hoping that Artemis would refuse to let him go. Two gods with us on a quest would probably be pretty dangerous. If Hermes told Zeus, than maybe just Annabeth and I could go and we wouldn't have to worry about being blown up.

Artemis let out a long sigh, "Fine, you can come." She muttered.

Crap.

Well, that's it for the time being, I'll try updating whenever so yea... I hope you enjoyed... tell me what'cha think!

~ArtemisFrimm

BTW while I was on vaca I got to try some boiled crawfish and lemme tell u, if you ever get the oppertunity to try them I'd reccomend doing so... they are amazing. Yea thanks!