Here is the next chapter. Please let me know what you think about it. I love reveiws and criticism. It really makes me happy. And even better, share this story with your friends. It would really help me a lot if you could get the word out. And please, follow, favorite, and review! Review! Thank you for everyone who favorites and follows my story. You guys are the real MVPs.

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Percy X

I promise you that you will never see a cab driver more freaked out then when four homeless looking teenagers climb into his cab, tell him to step on it, all the way from Vegas to Los Angeles, and give him a Lotus Casino Credit card, which must have absolutely no limit on it, and tell him not to ask any questions. If you don't believe me, well, I guess it's your loss. Trust me. He was freaked out.

The cab ride took almost only about half the time it would normally take, considering we told the cabby to go as fast as we wanted, and swore to pay whatever fee he had. It was like riding on a rollercoaster, and apparently, Grover got motion sick.

"Uugh." he moaned, his face turning green.

"So," Annabeth said, leaning away from the sickly satyr. "We only have about a day and a half before the Solstice. We need to get to LA, find the entrance to the Underworld, get into the Underworld, find the master bolt, steal it, and bring it back to Olympus."

"All without getting killed in the process." Ari finished, her hands twisting as she rebraided her hair. "Sounds like a case of proverbial cake. Now, first question. Where is the entrance to the U? I mean, I know it's in LA, but where? How do we find it?"

"I don't know." Annabeth sighed, pulling her hair into a ponytail. Wow, she looked beautiful. Her curls fell in front of her face, and her gray eyes were focused. She had a cute little dimple on her left cheek, and her nose was kind of twitching...hold up. Back it up. Back to reality. Focus Percy. I stared at the backpack in my hands. Why had Ares given this to me? He wasn't a nice God. He didn't help heroes. I opened the back and looked in it again. Same stuff, oreoes, water, a flashlight, and...wait. What was this? There was a piece of paper in the bottom. I pulled it out and saw it was a pamphlet, for DOA Recording Studios. What?

"Guys," I interrupted. "Look at this. Where is this place?" I handed the paper to Annabeth. She examined it.

"Huh." she flipped it open. "Driver, bring us to DOA Recording Studios." The driver looked at her through the mirror.

"What? Sorry little lady, but I have never heard of that place. Where is it near?" the cabby asked.

"Oh, uh, Donaldson Avenue, Downtown LA." Ari responded. The cabby nodded and kept going. In a few minutes, we were there. We left the card in the cab and slid out onto the busy street. The street was lined with department stores and banks. People were crowding the sidewalks. No DOA. Huh. Why would Ares give us a brochure to a place that doesn't exist.

"Huh." I said out loud.

(Read my Author's note. Submit a character to my contest and please review.)

We started walking down the street, looking around everywhere. Everything was in place. Nothing was different about it, until...there it was. A huge, marble building with large brass doors, and inscriptions in in Greek at the top. DOA Recording Studios it read. The room seemed to make everything cold, and the wind picked up. The street got a little darker, and everyone seemed to be skirting around it, but absentmindedly, like they didn't know they were doing it.

"Oh yeah." Ari nodded.

"This is it." Annabeth said. Together, we pulled open the giant, heavy door and slipped inside the room. Everything inside was chrome and sleek black leather. There were sofas and chairs centered around metal coffee tables. A large desk, like one you would see at a bank. Behind it, there was a tall man. He had short cropped gray hair, black eyes. When I say back, I do not mean dark brown. I mean black. Solid black. He wore a fancy black suit. There was a silver elevator across from him, and there was a large line next to it. But the weirdest thing about this place was the people in it. They all wore the same blank expression. And they were all kind of, shimmery, like the spirits at Camp.

"Is everyone in here...?"I started to ask.

"Dead?" Annabeth finished. "Yes." We walked up to the counter. The man did not look up."Uh uugh." she cleared her throat. He looked up.

"Can I help you?" he asked in a deadpan voice.

"Yes." Ariana said in a deep, gruff voice. "We need to get to the Underworld." He looked at us skeptically.

"Because we are dead." Grover added, awkwardly.

"Yeah, nice try kids." The guy shook his head, his voice low. "But I know dead. And you, you are not dead. Wait, how did you get in here in the first place?" He studied us for a few moments. "Oh, demigods. Yeah, well sorry. No Underworld for you." I read his name tag.

"Oh come on, Chiron. We need to get in." I implored, stepping closer to the counter.

The man rolled his eyes. "Why is my name always confused with that idiotic centaur. It is CHARON with an A not Chiron with an I. Uugh. And still no. You can not go there."

"Why not?" I asked skeptically.

"Only dead people can go to the Underworld, child. Now, come back when you are dead. Tata." Charon waved his hand at us as if to dismiss us. I shared a look with Annabeth and Ari, and they nodded. I knew what I had to do. I pulled the sack of golden drachmas out of my bag. It was so on.

"What if we were to say, up the bargain?" I grinned, dropping a few gold coins onto the counter. Charon grunted and shook his head. "Fine." I groaned "Fine you win. But, I bet you we come back later, when we are dead, and they are paying you the same amount, forcing you to work the same menial job. And when that happens, don"t complain to me." i said the last few words slowly, adding more drachmas on with every word, until the stack was very high. Charon's eyes widened. After a moment of thought, he pulled the stack closer to him.

"Fine. Fine. I"ll bring you down. Gods know why in the Hades you want to go down there." He shook his head, and walked out from behind the counter. Slowly, he lead us over to the elevator, past the groaning crowd of dead people, and pressed the button. There was a dinging noise and the doors opened up, revealing a sleek silver elevator. We followed him in, and Charon began to shove dead people out who were trying to claw their way in. Quickly, the doors shut, and we were inside of the dark elevator,listening to music that sounded slightly like Bohemian Rhapsody. Weird.

"Just warning you." Charon said slowly. "I can get you in, but I cannot get you out. That is your job. I can't do anything for you."

"It's alright." Annabeth said quietly. "With what we're doing, we should get out soon enough. We have a way out." It was true. Along with the bag, Ares had given us four pearls. When we were ready to get out, all we had was smash them on the ground at are feet and we were home free. Getting out was the easy part. Getting in and finding the bolt, and stealing it, that was the hard part. "We have a way out."

We rode in silence for the rest of the way, until Charon started to change. His suit transformed into a long black cloak. A large scythe formed in his hands, and his face turned dark. The doors dinged open. We were there. The Underworld. Oh what did we get ourselves into?

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Character of the Day- Charon