*Snort* And here I thought the chapter was still short for my standards. Well, you earned it, and sorry for the delay!

Chapter 14

"So leave it behind, 'coz we, have a night to get away..." Leo hummed. "So come on and fly with me, as we make our great escape!" He hummed some more tunes and then outright yelled into the ceiling, "Baby are you DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN DOWN!"

"LEO!"

"WHAT!?"

"STOP SINGING!"

"I'M NOT!"

"SHUT UP, GUYS!" Annabeth shouted back at them. "It's getting tiresome! So will you please shut up, and be alert? Who knows when Leo gets smacked while singing Baby Blue?!"

They stopped short, which made the daughter of Athena stop as well, looking at them questioningly. Jason looked at her curiously. "Who's? The Beach Boys?"

They howled with laughter. Annabeth just shook her head and continued walking, with them on her heels. Hazel and Abby caught up to her. "Hey. You okay?"

She nodded grimly. "Yeah, I guess," she admitted. "The prophecy was just really disturbing. If only you hadn't seen us... ugh! I wouldn't be worrying right now!"

Abby pursed her lips. "Well, it was stated in the prophecy that we'll find you," she countered, and it did nothing to help ease the daughter of Athena's nerves. "And it already happened, so here's where we carry on."

Annabeth only sighed in part exhaustion and part exasperation, and kept on walking, looking around for enemies. And then suddenly, Leo's laughs stopped short when his foot got stuck on a slit and he fell on his face. Their laughing ceased and the both quests crowded around him. They flipped him on his back. His face and hands were bleeding from the fall. Abby rushed to heal the wounds.

Jason knelt next to him. "Dude, what happened?"

Leo shrugged his shoulders as best as he could without scratching them further. "I guess there was this small opening in the ground that I didn't catch," he wondered aloud. "My bad."

"Opening?" Hazel interjected, leaning closer to look for it. "Where?" She looked around his feet, but there was not decent opening that his shoe could fit in. Perhaps it was hidden by his feet or his clothes.

True enough, the son of Hephaestus struggled to move to the side- which Clarisse and Abby helped him do. He pointed his finger to a small, three-inch line that was deeply dug into the ground in about a feet. His shoe had made a contortion into the ground easily, which meant that it maybe was soil, not rock.

Hazel touched the patch, closed her eyes, and concentrated. Her forehead creased, and her eyebrows furrowed. Her forehead became matted with sweat. Finally, she opened her eyes, and stood up, panting. She pointed to the line. "Under that... is a hollow… place.. A cave.," she declared as she took deep breaths.

She stumbled, and Annabeth steadied her and looked at the daughter of Pluto worriedly. "That took too much out of you," she noticed. "What happened? That's not normal, is it?"

The daughter of Pluto shook her head. "No," she agreed. "There was this... some type of barrier that made it harder to get in. It took a lot to sense what's down there."

The heroes exchanged looks. There could be anything down there. Monster, god, titan, prison. They didn't know which was worse: titan or prison. When a titan was waiting down there, they'll most likely lose to it or die. When they'd fall into a prison, Zeus knows what's in there, what the guards will do when they found out, what they'd do to them; and the like.

Prison it is.

Clarisse took two tentative steps toward the fissure. She took out her spear, made sure it was charged with electricity, and jammed it into the crack. The ground rumbled. Leo, who was now able to stand, held on to Abby and Jason for support. Annabeth and Hazel held on to each other, trying to steady themselves. Clarisse gripped her spear, refusing to let go.

When the little earthquake stopped, suddenly, the ground they were standing on collapsed. They braced themselves for impact, but they fell straight down into darkness.

The fall seemed endless. Like the fall at the first time they came here. They didn't want to imagine how far down the earth they may have been in. The air was getting hotter. Near the earth's core, maybe? No thanks.

Perhaps stabbing that spear in the fissure wasn't such a good idea.

She was still holding on to it, and she wouldn't know what to do if it gets loose from her grip. This was the third electric spear she has had. She wasn't going to lose it for another defective one that needs taking time to get used to- and get right.

Sure, she has a back-up sword at her hip, but she doesn't always feel like using the thing. She was a daughter of the war god. Spears were more to her taste, but swords also do good. She just preferred spears. Electric ones at that.

The next thing she knew was that she was skidding along the rough wall. She could feel blood drooping down from her arm. Not anymore able to endure the pain, she bent her knees and kicked the wall, making her fly in the other direction. Before she steadied, she heard a sharp shiiink! from her left. Oh great. There goes that sword.

Below her, a distant roaring of water filled her ears. A body of water in Tartarus? That sounded unlikely. If it were lava, she'd believe it. Wait- LAVA?

Her sword must've fell in there, but there was no sound of steaming or smell of burnt metal whatsoever. But she did hear it fall into it. What happened with that then? If it was lava below her, why wasn't it illuminating the room? Where are her friends? What happened to them?

There was no sign of everyone else, provided that she couldn't even see the spear tip in front of her. She was still holding to it. She felt around for something- a humanoid figure or perhaps a ledge that she can hold on to, but all there is was space.

Before she knew it, she was submerged into some cool liquid. Her spear loosened itself from her grip, and in no time it was not there anymore. She flailed wildly, partly because of the missing weapon and partly because her lungs were about to burst. She felt hands place themselves on her sides and lift her muscular figure up. Her head popped out of the surface, and she stayed there, taking huge gulps of oxygen for her crying lungs.

When her breathing had evened, she looked around for her weapon and the person who saved her. The Roman, Jason, was there, nodding at her before swimming to the black, sandy shore. She nodded back and surveyed the surroundings. Abby was carrying Hazel, who was unconscious, to where Jason was also headed. Leo was already there, shivering from the cold, unexpected bath. Annabeth was out of sight, probably already up to check possible passageways.

Clarisse looked down under the liquid. It turned out shockingly to be water. How was there water here, in this hot, deep underground maze in the first place? She saw her bronze sword at the bottom, lying down on the... bed of this body of water. But no spear. She didn't waste anymore time and dove down to get the only weapon she had for now; another damned spear lost.

Only then when she walked to the shore did she realize that she was cold and shivering. She dropped to the ground, hugging herself. Her backpack and clothes were dripping wet, no doubt about the things inside the bag too. Her sword clattered to the ground beside her. She glared at resentfully, as if it was its fault that she was cold and lost her spear.

She looked around for the missing quest mate. Why wasn't that girl back yet? For a daughter of Athena, she sure wasn't that smart, going off on her own like that. What if they lost her to somewhere? Her own pack was- she looked over her shoulder- here, wet and solid. It was a sign she was already up, not still in that water. Where is.. no, her spear. Her spear was more important.

Abby approached her while she was looking around, brand new clean clothes in hand. Clarisse looked at the daughter of Aether suspiciously. "Where'd you get this?" she asked her, pointing to the clothes in her hand.

The warrior shrugged, looking innocently at the ceiling. "Oh, nowhere important," she replied nonchalantly, a small smirk on her face.

She narrowed her eyes at her as she stood up and snatched the clothes from her, before heading to a secluded spot to change.

When she came back, Abby and the others were by the entrance of the tunnel directly in front of the bank. They were clean and newly dressed. But Annabeth still wasn't back, her pack still resting on the ground beneath it, sopping wet.

Clarisse passed by it, looking at it contemptuously, and stood beside her friends. She raised an eyebrow. "Shouldn't she be back by now?" she ventured impatiently.

They frowned. As if on cue, Annabeth emerged from the far tunnel, walking speedily with her dagger in hand. She extended her other arm toward the bag on the floor, and it flew to her grasp. Jason whistled appreciatively. "I have to learn how to do that."

Annabeth ignored him and continued walking, this time gaining direction to the tunnel beside the one they were standing by. She glanced at them urgently. "Come on, we need to get out of here ASAP," she advised as they scrambled after her. "There are people coming this way; we need to hurry."

They followed her into the tunnel, slowing down once the light from the room with the water disappeared from sight. Leo caught up with them after looking back once. "We must be near," he concluded.

"Very near," she agreed, nodding. "I explored these four tunnels, and this is the safest way I've found. Hopefully the right one too."

Hazel raised an eyebrow quizzically. "The right one?"

Annabeth smiled sheepishly. "Yeah," she said. "I only checked the safety attributes. Sorry."

She smiled at her. "It's fine. It's better to get lost than die, right?"

"Then it would take us longer to find that dungeon," Leo quipped out negatively. "And then we'll eventually die, so we just lived life maybe an extra ten minutes."

Her smile turned into a frown. "I hate you, Leo."

He grinned at her cheekily. "That's not true. You know you love me."

She punched him in the shoulder, shaking her head at his antics. A comfortable silence followed as they walked through the tunnel cautiously, wary of traps that may have been set up. After about a few hours of walking, Abby abruptly stopped in her tracks. The others subconsciously mirrored her actions, looking around for any enemies.

Annabeth stepped next to her. "What's wrong?"

A rush of air went past between them. It came from behind them. Instinctively, they looked towards the direction they came from. More warm air blew past them from the opening. In the distance, they could see a tiny, yellowish white blotch in the middle of the darkness. It was enlarging. Bigger and bigger..

Clarisse pointed to it. "What's that?"

As the thing increased in size, slowly, light filled the walls from afar, nearing where they were. Annabeth's eyes widened in realization. "The rush of air... the warmth, the light..," she murmured just loud enough for everyone to hear. She turned to her friends and spoke in a whispering, shaky voice, "Guys, it's burning. It's a fireball."

Leo looked at her questioningly, his eyebrows scrunched together. "A fireball? Coming straight at.." He spun around to look at the so-called fireball- which was now a few yards away. His eyes widened comically. "Run."

They scurried away from the hot ball of gas coming at them. The fireball was now almost as tall and wide as the tunnel. It explains that it was really large, and that they've come a long way without even making a turn whatsoever. The thing was as hot as a supernova, now that they were at arms' range within it. For some odd reason, the fire wasn't diffusing, and it turned from yellow to red, and then back to yellow again. It was somewhat... summoned especially to chase them until they tire out and stop- and die.

They wouldn't let that, of course. They ran like there was no tomorrow. Before they even reached the end, Abby noticed three more tunnels extending out in different directions- one going straight ahead, the other two to the left and right. She shouted in warning, "Guys! Look out!"

The others looked up, alarmed. But then their faces sagged in exasperation as Jason shouted, "I freaking hate Janus!"

Annabeth was visibly panicking. "I told you it's not fine! I don't know what to choose!"

Hazel closed her eyes briefly, before yelling, "Left!"

They barreled into the tunnel on the left, not breaking strides. After making sure that the thing was not flying after them anymore, they promptly collapsed into a heap, breathless and sweating. Leo was spread eagle on the floor, the others resting around him. Jason propped himself up on his elbows. "Where'd that thing come from?"

"It was obviously summoned by those thugs Annabeth saw," Clarisse gruffly replied. "I think it was a test shot, to, you know, see if we get burnt. Those arrogant buffoons, thinking they could eliminate us with one sweep..," she grumbled.

Abby sighed audibly. "I don't think it was," she commented.

The daughter of the war god sat up, arching an eyebrow curiously. "How so?"

The Warrior sat up as well, and in a flurry the others had followed their example, listening. "Those soldiers stay here, right?" After getting nods, she continued, "Then they should know what tunnel leads to where. If they knew that this was where we went, they'd storm in right away. But they didn't."

Hazel looked at her in confusion. "So you're saying that they don't know where we were?"

The girl nodded. "Yes," she agreed. "That fireball was some kind of... indicator to determine where we are. It wasn't to kill us with it."

Clarisse snorted derisively. "And here I thought they were tracking experts. How pathetic."

Leo shrugged and stood up. "Well, we got away from it. The fireball didn't hit us. They don't know where we are. I..," he trailed off when footsteps reverberated throughout the cave. He gulped and turned back to his companions with an ashen face. "..just jinxed it."

The heroes tried their best to walk along as fast as they could without making a sound. The footfalls were still there- loud and pronounced; they can't lose it without making too much noise. Suddenly, it stopped. The quest took this as their chance.

They ran as soundlessly as they possibly could. As they distanced themselves, someone spoke from behind them. "See? They're not here!" came a male voice. "Maybe that was just an aura it picked up on."

Another replied, this time it was female, and it was a little bit familiar. "No, they've got to be here," she insisted. "My flare balls don't fail. Never."

The guy sighed. "There's always a first time for everything, Lily," he chided, and the quest almost froze in their tracks. Lily? The same, acted-as-a-daughter-of-Poseidon Lily? Oh gods, if that girl sees them, they're toast. Hell, she even has power over fire!

Lily sighed in frustration. "Will you shut up about that?" she demanded. "We're not turning back! Come on!"

In a not so subtle way, she stomped through the tunnel determinedly, her fellow soldier in tow. They heroes picked up their pace. That was too close. If only she'd fall for it just like her companion, they wouldn't be running like frenzied chickens from ruthless butchers.

They were reaching the end of the tunnel, and was thinking of some place to hide when they were met with another... three tunnels.

"AG-" Jason almost yelled out, if not for Leo who while shushing the son of Jupiter, was staring fearfully at the two most dangerous girls with them who had given them two dangerous glares. Clarisse gave them a warning look. "They're already into us, idiot. Watch what you're doing."

Hazel was staring at the tunnels warily. "I can't seem to... sense the right path," she admitted softly, before turning to them with a panic-stricken face. "What do we do? They're approaching!"

Sure enough, the footsteps were getting louder and louder. In no time, they'd be in their faces, busting their guts on the floor and wiping it clean with their limp bodies. Annabeth narrowed her eyes at the three openings. "Let's go straight. We'll be able to retrace our steps easily in case we get lost."

The others nodded in agreement and headed to the path going straight ahead. As Abby did though, she stepped on some soft soil- that she hadn't noticed- and her foot pressed something. Again, the footsteps stopped and Lily's voice floated to them. In spite of themselves, the quest froze, dread filling their hopeless minds.

"Did you... hear that?" Lily asked somewhat skeptically.

"Yeah. The soil really worked," the guy marveled and barked out a laugh. Wait, Abby thought, Soil?

She looked back to the pathway, and there it was- a shapely footprint had marked itself onto the soil she had stepped on. Because of this, the soil had pressed downward, and up appeared a small button caked and camouflaged in dirt.

She whirled back around, facing friends. She looked at each of them in the eye and continued walking calmly, before bolting into a full out sprint, her friends following behind her.

-*Camp Half-Blood*-

"Heave ho!"

"Heave ho!"

"That's right, heave ho people!" Heracles hollered. "So that you'll grow some muscles. It'd be a shame if my trainees wouldn't be physically flashy."

The campers continued their work while chanting, adding strength to everyone's willpower. Slowly but surely, the canoe forged into the lake with a mighty splash. Weakly, they cheered before abruptly collapsing in exhaustion. Heracles looked around at the unconscious campers around him.

"We'll worry about that, if we get through the passing out part," he muttered and stood from the canoe. He leaped to shore, leaving the canoe capsizing, and almost stepping on a camper's face. "Sorry."

He looked towards the golden cabin. "Apollo!" he called. Nothing happened. He repeated, this time louder and more forceful, "Apollo campers! Medic!" No one came out.

He scratched his head uncertainly. "What happened..?" he asked himself.

"Yo Herc!" came an all too familiar voice. The son of Zeus turned. He was one of the Warriors.

"What's up?" he asked. The Warrior grinned at him.

"Lords Ouranos and Aether," he replied jokingly, to which Heracles rolled his eyes at. "No, I mean you thrashed them all."

The hero arched an eyebrow in confusion. "Them? Who's them?"

The still unidentified Warrior snorted and looked at an unconscious camper. "My siblings," he said shortly as the strongest hero noticed all of the sons and daughters of Apollo scattered all around the lake. When he turned back to him, the Warrior asked, "So what're you gonna do?"

Heracles shrugged, glancing over his companion's shoulder. "I'll leave 'em be. They'll wake up eventually," he replied nonchalantly. "Come on, Orph, there's some report."

Orpheus nodded and followed him, heading towards the Big House. The clouds were unnaturally dark, and they felt something sinister in the air. Something was wrong.

As they walked to the Big House, the son of Calliope commented, "Man, this place has changed."

His companion nodded seriously. "I remember having my first sword-training right here," he said as they passed the arena on the way. "The camp's noticeably smaller."

"I hear ya, dude."

When they both got to the Big House, the head and substitute counselors were already there. Lee and some other Warriors were also assembled. They bowed to Chiron who bowed back respectfully, before gesturing for someone to start the meeting.

Lee cleared his throat, effectively stopping the chatters that had ensued. "We have... news and reports of some things important," he announced. "First thing's first. Good news or bad news?"

"Bad." Almost everyone chose in unison while the others said nothing.

The son of Apollo nodded. "The bad news, is that the monsters roaming around the continent have increased tenfold, and we still don't know the reason. No Soldiers were sighted, however we have some reports... which we'll get to later," he stated grimly.

"Now the good news, is that there seemed to be no sense of titans stirring from Tartarus, which meant that either they and the Soldiers were resting from all the action, or they've... been planning something. Which I think shouldn't go here in the good news 'cause, you know.. They're plotting."

"Seemed?" someone piped up.

Lee sighed. "Yeah. We don't exactly know what's going on in the inside; we only determine that by monitoring the Doors and the rate of reforming regularly," he finished, and turned to Orion and nodded. The hunter nodded back and stood up.

"So for the reports," he started. He snapped his fingers and a screen of mist formed in front of him, displayed to all of the occupants in the room. It was a moving spectacle of the top view of Camp Half-Blood, including about a few yards from outside the borders. He snapped his fingers again, and another screen formed itself beside the first one. This time, it showed one of Camp Jupiter's living quarters.

Orion waved his hand at the one showing the Greek camp, and it zoomed a bit and cleared the foggy effects. "My scouts had once told me that they'd seen something moving around the border. They said it was very fast that the thing wasn't visible to your eyes; but with trained senses more than the others, my scouts have seen it." At the time, a black blur was seen leaping quickly from tree to tree at the borders. It then became more visible when it stopped, before disappearing completely. Just like that.

A wave of uproar hit them. The Warriors calmed everyone down.

"That's a spy!" one was saying.

"What's it doing?" another asked; apparently the activity the figure was doing wasn't clear to a few. True enough, the latter nodded affirmatively.

Before they could answer, though, some people entered the scene. It seemed that Orion wasn't aware of this either, so he zoomed in to the people. It was some newbie campers. Their backs were turned, and it looked like they were looking for something.

"Who're they? They look like my campers." Brian, the head counselor for Athena, mused. The hunter fixed the angle. It was Daria and Kaemon.

This caused a few head scratches. "They could see it?"

"Newbies, again?"

"Maybe they're spies!" the Apollo counselor, Will, suggested loudly. Everyone turned to look at him. "Just, you know, we don't want to make the same mistake again."

Chiron shook his head, although hesitantly. "We shan't make assumptions. But we can keep a close eye on them," he added quickly, seeing that some counselors were going to protest.

"So yeah," Orion said again, gaining back the attention. "If this was a Soldier, then we still don't know their motives."

"Spying?" someone asked.

He shrugged. "Okay, so alright, they were spying. Then why should they when, for example, they already have spies stationed here? Like the people you're suspecting?" No one answered. "See. The Soldiers are pretty skilled; we know that by experience. If they were to spy, then they don't miss anything. Unless it was hidden or intentional, then yes."

"Intentional, right?" Brian pressed. When the hunter nodded, he continued, "Then what if they did that... that jumping thing," he gestured frantically to the screen. "To make us think that we have no spies inside the camp?"

A Warrior son of Hephaestus nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, yes it could be," he agreed. "I think I really need to make an anti-Soldier dome generator.."

"Then we just have to keep a close eye on both inside and outside of the camp," Theseus nodded affirmatively, before continuing. "Now, from our troops at the Roman camp."

He spoke to something on his wrist. In seconds, a person was shown inside the screen. It was a Warrior. "Yo, Theo."

The son of Poseidon blinked emotionlessly. "I hate that name," he muttered to himself, before speaking to him. "Um, say your reports."

The guy in the image nodded. "So our sentries have spied a black... thing skirting around the valley. It didn't stay in one place too long, so it must've known that someone was watching it. It did it in the manner of... well, looking for something," he said.

Theseus narrowed his eyes. "How long did it stay?"

The guy frowned. "I guess... about a day, since the camp is you know, large. Why?" he asked, clueless of where this is going.

The son of Poseidon was silent for a moment, pondering this over. A few minutes later, his eyes widened. "I think it's, um.." he glanced around at the questioning looks he was receiving. He slumped on his seat, his expression thoughtful. "Never mind."

He got a lot of odd looks. Chiron sighed. "Well then, I reckon we just have to be extra careful," he concluded. "We still don't know what this Soldier has in mind, but whatever it is, just be ready. Alright everyone, onto dinner." As the counselors and Warriors filed out of the room, he blew the conch for dinner.

Hi! Again, sorry for the delay! I got held up with the excitement of... other stories, if you know what I mean. ;)

So, is there anything more to say? I guess I could tell you to review. SO REVIEW! I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Yeah. Woo.

~Smartzyfan