((Too tired from tests this week to actually post something...so here I go! Pushing my brain to the limit! And probably not coming up with anything! I don't own PJATO or anything but Hadrian. My wittle cuddle buddy. No homo. Oh, and please check the bottom of my profile page, I've added something cool.))

"Hadrian, wake up." Thalia shook the boy gently, thinking of what would happen to him if she had let Nico go down that waterfall alone.

"hm.."

"Hadrian, wakey wakey, it's time to go steal a lion."

"Five more minutes, Mommy." Hadrian curled back under the blankets on Annabeth's bed (Athena suggested/forced the idea that Percy and Annabeth sleep in seperate rooms until the were married for a year), leaving Thalia stunned.

"Aw. Does that make Nico daddy?" Annabeth laughed, taking the blankets off the bed.

"Just help me get him out of here. We need to take a tour of the zoo." Thalia's face was getting redder by the moment.

"Zoo? We're going to the zoo? Percy! Percy! Where's my Mr. Bubble? I'm going to the zoo!" The demigod shot out of the bed and raced through the room, almost running into the door. A moment later, they could hear the bathtub start and Percy telling Hadrian when enough bubbles was enough. Nico walked in, slightly dazed and looked at Thalia.

"What?" Thalia asked, still stunned that Hadrian had called her Mommy.

"Nothing. I'm just glad we're safe." Nico lied. And I'm pissed that I can't tell her.

"Well, sorry to ruin things for you, but you two need to get showered and changed. Thalia, you can use the shower in the bathroom through there." Annabeth pointed to a door on the side of her room.

"I'll wait till Hadrian's done to get one." Nico suggested, taking a certain interest in his shoes.

"All right. But, be warned," Annabeth started creepily, "Mr. Bubble has hypnotic powers. One pop is enough to send you into the depths of his devious power."

"Then...I'll wait till Thalia's done. And, I'll kill Mr. Bubble." And with that, the King of Ghosts walked out, leaving Annabeth to think of how he would accomplish such a feat. Two hours and a lot of Hadrian's rants about bubbles and how stupid using a comb was, they were ready. They said their good-byes to Annabeth and Percy, packed up their belongings, and headed to the Bronx.

"All right. We've got...two hours until the lion grows and four hours before the zoo closes. What will we do?" Nico asked from the driver's seat of his Spyder.

"First, we take the tour. Find out where everything is. That'll take...an hour. We'll do some practice runs in the park, which will take about an hour and a half. Then, with the last hour and a half, we'll grab a bite to eat and make our way back to the zoo." Thalia decided quickly. Hadrian sat quietly in the back seat, playing with his newly acquired DVD player. Transformers 2 opened his eyes to the wonders of giant robots. And, that Italian sasuage makers are insane and like to get tazed. The time flew by as they drove, making it withing the time limit and even finding a good parking space. The trio hopped out of the car, bought their tickets, and slipped inside. Hadrian looked around for a moment, then did the most predictable thing a five year old can do.

"TOYS!" He yelled, running to the gift shop. Just then, a deeply tanned man walked out, almost knocking Hadrian to the ground. He quickly caught the little guy and placed him on the ground, giving him a reassuring smile. Thalia and Nico rushed over, each making a move towards their weapon.

"Sorry, little fella." The man said with a slight Brazilian accent.

"I'm okay. It's fine." Hadrian shrugged, taking a step back towards Nico and Thalia. Another thing he had learned from Transformers movies: Guys with weird voices usually want to kill Optimus prime, and Hadrian loved that action figure in his suitcase.

"I'm very sorry," The man shook Nico's hand, "I didn't see your...little brother?"

"Yes. Hadrian here is my little brother." Well...Dad was in charge of his reincarnation...so...it's kinda like he is, on a spiritual level. Nico mused.

"So, this beautiful girl here is your sister?" Thalia giggled girlishly at this, attracting both Nico's and Hadrian's attention.

"No, that's his girlfriend, Thalia." Hadrian said slowly, as if just now wrapping his mind around the idea.

"And, who might you be?" Nico asked, forming a shadow on his finger tip behind his back.

"Oh, how rude of me. I am Pedro. I do odd jobs around here as volunteer work. Painting, plumbing, tours, things like that. I could give you a tour, if you'd like." Pedro was facing Nico, yet his eyes were glued to Thalia, who giggled again, turning redder than Ares when he drank hot sauce as a dare from Apollo.

"That would be cool!" Hadrian's eyes lit up as he remembered the plan.

"And, where would you like to start? The flamingos, perhaps?" Pedro did a little dance, wiggling his eyebrows at Thalia.

"Actually, we're here because Hadrian has a report due on African mammals in two days, and we don't really like to wait till the very last minute." Nico snapped his fingers, drawing Pedro's attention back to him.

"Of course. Let's start with the lions."

"Cool! Lions are my favorite animals! This silly band is a lion!" Hadrian was about to take it off and show Pedro, but then remembered that it changed into a shield and decided not to.

"Great. Let's get started." And so, they made their way through different sections of the zoo, hearing all kinda of animal calls and fun facts from Pedro about the animals. Thalia, like the teenage girl she was, laughed at all of the muscled tan foreigner's jokes.

"Pedrophile." Nico muttered under his breath. Thalia reached over and poked his arms.

"And this is the... Nico, where did your eyebrows go?" Pedro asked as they approached the lions.

"Oh...um..those were false eyebrows, because...I had to design an experiment for chemistry yesterday, but someone messed with it and it singed off my eyebrows?" Nico turned towards the professional liar, who shook his little head.

"He was doing the Mesla boil thing but some mean person took a screw off of my brother's project so it hit him in the face! It's all over youboob." Hadrian smiled innocently at his statement, as if he didn't know that it's youtube and that he had just called Pedro a boob.

"Tesla Coil? Very nice...and, I believe you mean Youtube."

"Yeah, it worked perfectly at home. Now, where are the lions?" Thalia took off her black jacket, revealing a form fitting tank top. Pedro gulped and looked away.

"Ah, here they are, all three of the new cubs. And, wow, that one has grown in size."

"I'll say." Thalia said, her eyes travelling to Pedro's pants. Nico's phone went off, only to find it was Thalia texting him. Nico, we need to get Dalia out of here! Pedro's weird. Nico threw a dirty look to Hadrian, who was now playing brickbreaker on the Blackberry and trying hard not to smile.

"That was my mom. We have to leave, my father was in some sort of accident a few streets away." Nico said, putting on his best disbelief face. Geeze, no wonder so many actors are Aphrodite's kids. We have to lie so much, our acting skills shoot through the roof.

"Oh, I am sorry, my friends. Please, go to your father. And, if you need my help with any other...projects, give me a call." Pedro turned back around and handed a small white card to Thalia. Who, by that time, was already being dragged away by Nico and Hadrian. They went to the park and practiced for a while, trying to get Thalia to snap out of her daze. Finally, they just gave up and hit a Mellow Mushroom, towing her along.

"That Pedro guy was weird." Hadrian complained between bites of pizza.

"Yeah." Hitting on my girl. I'll teach him, someday.

"He talked funny."

"That's an accent, Hadrian. A charming accent." Thalia sighed. Both boys recoiled, having never seen Thalia under any man's charm.

"No, I mean, he talked too heavily to be Brazilian. I've met a few Brazilians cuz of mommy's job. He made too many sounds during his speech." Hadrian's eyes darted from side to side before he softly spoke again "I think he might have been a monster."

"Really?" Nico asked, instantly thinking of the perfect revenge.

"Yeah. And, the way he knew everything about the animals! Like, the hippopata-hippopotais-hippo." Hadrian decided after a moment.

"Huh...interesting. Anyway, while Thalia here is off in La La land, let's dig in." After finishing their meals, going through one more run-through of their plan, they changed into their work they arrived at the zoo, the guards were just locking up. They sat in shadows for a moment, all dressed in black. They saw the last guard leave, then jumped the gate. Well, Thalia and Nico climbed up the gate. Nico had to lift a large chunk of earth out of the ground and into the sky to get Hadrian safely over. They made their way to the lions, only stopping to pillage a snow cone stand. Thalia and Nico where arguing about the best flavor, when Hadrian suddenly threw his silly band-shield into the air, catching it coolly.

"What's up?" Nico asked, taking his Stygian iron sword out of the ground. He tapped the Hematite ring Thalia had given him and it expanded into a shield ((This may seem weird, but on Wikipedia it says he might be able to do the whole geokinesis thing, so why not be able to increase their size as well?)) with a skull carved into it. Thalia tapped her bracelet and took out her spear, now on high alert.

"There's a squirrel." Hadrian whispered, making the others do a sweatdrop type movement.

"Okay? It's a zoo, there are tons of squirrels." Thalia chided, about to put her shield back.

"No, I mean the cage the lions were in is empty. There's only a squirrel." Hadrian looked around for a moment, before he had to duck behind his shield to avoid giant claws rushing towards him. Hadrian quickly laid down, curling up under the shield. The Nemean Lion roared in anger, now four feet tall on all fours, and turned towards Nico. The demigod took a knife out of his pocket and slid it under the shield as he ran past, striking his sword against the Nemean Lion's impenetrable hide. Thalia shot lightning bolt after lightning bolt at the beast, not finding any result.

"Eight freaking years! I can't remember a thing about how Percy killed it!" Thalia roared in anger, sending a lightning bolt off it's path and into a wall. Or, what appeared to be a wall. A man walked out of the shadows, groaning slightly.

"Pedro." Nico said, butting the Nemean Lion over the head with his shield.

"Please, call me by my middle name, Chrysaor."

"Brother of Pegasus, born of Medusa's blood Chrysaor?" Thalia asked quietly.

"Yes, my dear." The accent was gone now, replaced by an edgy calm in his voice.

"Oh, yeah. The fat boar guy." Hadrian laughed from under his shield. Chrysaor punched the ground and roared, the sound filling the air around them. Greek fire rose in a ring around them, blocking their escape. Hadrian clambered out from under his shield, only to dodge the Lion's fangs.

"Oh, I remember now. Percy told me this story earlier!" Hadrian cried, now playing Limbo with its muzzle.

"My story?" Chrysaor asked hopefully, his eyes almost turning to puppy like proportions.

"No, how he killed this guy."

"You see, this is why I don't like demigods. Well, except my friends." He snapped his fingers and pointed to the cage. Smoke filled it, blocking their view. When it cleared, two boys and a girl stood together in a phalanx formation, each sporting a black helmet.

"Hired help? I thought you did all the work around here." Nico teased, throwing a shadow at Chrysaor, who simply moved out of the way. He snapped his fingers again and the cage disappeared. The smaller of the three ran fowards, aiming his bow at Hadrian. Hadrian threw his knife at the boy with amazing accuracy, splitting the bow string in half and embedding the knife in a crack in the armor. The warrior fell down, blood seeping out of his wound.

"Alex! You'll pay for that! Seth, get 'em!" The girl threw a knife into the air, making the boy behind her, Seth, jump into the air, catch it, and spiral down towards Hadrian. Nico jumped into his path, feeling rather odd. Time began to slow, his legs felt like Jello.

No! It can't be! Nico thought as the knife clashed against his slowed body. A huge gash appeared across his cheek, sending blood down his shirt. The spell ended, leaving NIco feeling drained.

"Oh, I forgot to mention. Alicia and Alex are children of Hecate, and Seth here is one of three demigod sons of Kronos."

"Kronos had sons?" Thalia was angry now, imagining Luke lying in bed with some random woman.

"Oh, yes. The Titan lord spent quite a long time rediscovering himself, and adjusting to his new body. And, apparently, he has a very strong libido." Chrysaor strolled calmly towards Thalia, who shot a huge bolt of lightning at him. He was thrown into the fire, but bounced back off of some invisible wall. He stood back up and smiled, spitting out blood.

"Kill them." He told Seth, who nodded and began to cackle evilly. Hadrian appeared out of nowhere with Alex's sword raised above his head. Nico tried to grab him, but the Nemean Lion jumped between the two of them, staring Nico down. They stood there for a moment, having a staring contest. Thalia shot a thunderbolt at Alicia, who began volleying fireballs. Hadrian threw the sword at Seth, who easily side stepped it and smiled down at the boy. He hid under his shield, only to have it picked up from above him. And, picked him up with him. Then, Hadrian's face looked puzzled.

"Wait. Hold everything!" And, oddly enough, everything stopped.

"What now?" Chrysaor said, leaning against the wall with a bag of popcorn.

"How is Seth so old?"

"Oh, magic. Accelerated his age."

"Master Chrysaor, should you really be telling them all this?" Alicia complained, dropping the fireball in her hand.

"Please, you and Seth are more than a match for these buffoons. And, the child is young, he deserves to know a few things before he dies." And after that, the fighting began again. Thalia took her spear out and began hitting the fireballs like baseballs, one landing in Chrysaor's popcorn. He balled it up and threw it into a nearby trash can, grumbling about the burnt smell. Hadrian ducked under all of Seth's attacks, as if he knew what was going to happen. Which, thanks to Luke's spirit inside him, he did. He took the arrows out of Alex's quiver and began throwing them like darts into Seth's armor, making it look like random places. Nico and the Lion continued to stare each other down, until Seth took the wrong step backwards and landed on it. The Lion's maw quickly swallowed Seth, leaving nothing behind. Suddenly, the lion exploded into dust. Nico looked at Hadrian for an explanation.

"Arrows fell out of the armor." Hadrian smiled, looking a lot like Luke. Thalia's battle was still raging, each blow getting weaker and weaker. Finally, Chrysaor just came up behind her and pushed her to the ground. Nico threw Alex's knife at Alicia, implanting it in her neck. Chrysaor was about to grab Thalia's neck when a stinkbomb hit him in the face. He looked over at Hadrian, who looked oddly happy for a five year old who was about to die. Hadrian took his shield and threw it, impaling Chrysaor's leg. Then, Nico came from behind and eased his sword into his back, destroying the monster's essence. After a moment of silence, Hadrian spoke up.

"Not cleaning up! Called it!"