((Anyone else, who has read the new book notice how many grammar errors there were? Like with that Rheay girl... Rick doesn't own a grammar book, but I don't own PJATO, so we're even.))
"Welcome to my humble abode." The boy said, waving a hand around the room. It looked like every other room in the hotel. Meaning, it was freaking awesome.
"Wow," whistled Thalia, "snazzy. I wouldn't mind spending some time in here."
"Yeah, you would." Nico clenched his teeth. Thalia showed a guilty look for a moment, but it disappeared like a flash of lightning.
"Ah. A little mad about spending so much time in here? Just be glad you got to take a swim. It stinks to be in here for over a thousand years and still know what is happening outside." The boy threw a newspaper towards Nico, who quickly caught it and scanned the headline.
"This is tomorrow's paper?" Nico read the headlines carefully, searching for any clues to it's falicy.((fakeness in other words.))
"No, Nico di Angelo, that is today's. You of all demigods should know that...well, time flies." The boy sat up on a counter and looked at an orange in a fruit bowl as if it were the bane of the gods.
"Who are you?" Nico asked, throwing the newspaper into a nearby trash can.
"I prefer to be called Marcus these days. I used to be an oracle and a great prophecy teller, but then I came here to warn people of their fates, and oops! I fell into it all. But, I get daily newspapers from Hermes' mailing system, so I get updated every...four hours. I got that an hour ago, which means you have sixteen hours left in this day, and three days till the Kraken arrives. Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock."
"All right...Marcus, we want to know about Hadrian." Thalia looked around the room carefully, as if everything in there was going to pounce on her and trap her forever.
"Hadrian...son of Hermes?"
"That'd be him." Nico looked out the window, watching the cars blur by at impossible speeds.
"He's been kidnapped."
"Thank you, Marcus, captain of the Obvious Squad." Thalia muttered under her breath.
"Welcome. But, you have to get me some information to recieve information. Didn't Tweedledee and Tweedledu- I mean, Chuck and Norris tell you that?"
"Wow. We're in Wonderland. But, no, they didn't. Look, we're on a time restricted schedule...so..." Nico tapped his watch a few times.
"Yes, yes. I want to know more. About...life."
"What do you mean?"
"What does it feel like, to wake up one morning and realize you've grown? What is it like, to find your body growing more mature? What is it like, to have someone to care for you? Do you know how dreadfully boring it is here, never aging, never having someone to express you're emotions to?"
"Yes." The half-bloods replied together.
"Seriously? But, you had you're sister, and you had the Hunters."
"Sister died, nobody to talk to in the Underworld."
"I did some things I'm not too proud of in the Hunters." Thalia's head dropped, her eyes locking onto her shoes.
"Thalia, it wasn't that bad."
"Yes, it was!" She started to cry, charging the air with ozone.
"No, it was all a misunderstanding."
"I could have killed you!"
"What?" Marcus shouted in shock, his eyes darting between the two.
"Oh, relax. She pantzed me and Percy during a capture the flag at camp and we almost fell onto our own sheathed swords. Though, that wouldn't have hurt Seaweed Brain much, considering the fact that...it's a pen."
Meanwhile, at Annabeth's house, Percy shot up off the couch and looked around.
"What is it, Percy?"
"My Seaweed-Brain senses are tingling. Must. Burn. Hair. Off. Arm." And, back to Thalia.
"Oh. But, tell me, what it is like, and I will tell you where you're friend is." Marcus turned around, finding a black sword pointed at his throat.
"Or, you could tell us now and we won't cut you." Nico threatened, very unlike him.
"Oh, thanks. Or, you could tell me and get an answer." Marcus dropped the orange on the blade, splitting it directly in two. He smiled as the orange disappeared into nothing, it's essence absorbed by the Stygian iron.
"Life's...a mixed up thing." Thalia began, rolling her eyes. Then, for the next two and a half hours, they basically turned Marcus into Jerry Springer.
"Now, Nico, what do you think about that?"
"Well, Marcus, I think it's not nice that she made me eat her rug. The taste is indescribable. It didn't match the curtains, I'll tell you that much."
"What? You think children of Zeus just get black curtains? No, this is special."
"Oh, whatever. That throw rug tasted horrible though. And, then, we went back to playing truth or dare like it was nothing! I vomited wool for a week! Grover nearly kicked me out of camp because he thought I ate a sheep whole!"
"Yeah, right. Everything's because of truth or dare. You pantzed me because of truth or dare, you had the Stolls make a BOOK on jokes about me because of truth or dare. And, here comes the big one. I hope our dads are listening..." Thalia grinned wickedly.
"You wouldn't!" Nico's eyes grew wide in horror.
"Oh, I would! And, YOU STOLE CONDOMS BECAUSE OF TRUTH OR DARE!" Thunder rumbled harshly outside.
"Okay, first, I did. It was a dare for me. Second, at least I didn't use them on you like a few Aphrodite campers did. Stupid rite of passage. Hades' spawn can't do that."
"O...Kay...You guys have issues...so...That's all the time we have!"
"What?" They asked Marcus in disbelief.
"Yeah, you have five minutes till you have three days to find Hadrian, find the Kraken's...patron, and kill it. Head to the base of Mount Tam, and look for the golden one." And with that, Marcus left...to go to the bathroom. The sound of falling water filled the air and Thalia and Nico rushed out, heading back to their car, even though they shadow traveled.
"So..we go to Mount Tam, find The Golden One and rescue Hadrian?"
", he's already been beaten."
"Hadrian?"
"No, our enemy."
"Who would tha-No."
"Yeah. Think about it, we didn't kill him, just trapped him in a tree in New York. Six years ago. I'm pretty sure that he could have broken through some of it."
"But, if he really is back.."
"Then Hyperion's going to be really mad at Percy, yeah. That's why he's starting in the West. He wants it to be brutally tempting for Percy. Either come out and die, or stay home and die."
"Cheery thought."
"Yeah, Thalia, but what worries me?"
"What?"
"If we have three more days, then why do I get the feeling we're in trouble?" Then, just as they were heading out the door, something knocked Nico over the head, knocking him out cold. Thalia almost screamed at the creature before her, but she was knocked out as well. When they awoke, they couldn't believe what a nearby newspaper said.
"How..."
"We're still in the hotel. We've wasted too much time. We've been out for eight hours."
"But, who-Hyperion's goons did this."
"Yeah. Now we only have a day to get to the base of Mount Tam."
"I've been there before. You can only enter during the sunset."
"Then, looks like we've got some time to kill. I've got an idea, come on."
((As you can see, this chapter was...horrible, and more like a filler chapter.))
