Percy's POV:

It has been about a week since I've seen Mike. Apparently, he went to work at our sister location, Circus Baby's Pizza World or something. Everyday, we can hear screams coming from the door where Mike goes through. Just because our crew has decided not to kill nightguards doesn't mean the rest decided to as well, and we just went with the 'agree to disagree' system.

"Hey, should we check on Mike, or do we leave him to his own devices? I mean, the screams are getting worse and worse by the day" I asked Gabriel. Gabriel just shook his head and told me that the screams weren't his voice. Makes sense, considering my hearing wasn't the best. Out of everyone, Jeremy's hearing was the best, then came Gabriel, Cassidy, Kelsey, Susie, and Fritz. I think my hearing isn't that good because of being springlocked. Afterall, William's hearing was about the same, if not worse.

"Alright, though it Mike dies, we're going down there and they're gonna regret what they did" I said, and Gabriel nodded. Then, we heard Mike's voice coming from the door.

"H-h-help!" I heard, as the door burst open and Mike staggered out with a bloodstained uniform, collapsing without the added help of the door. Gabriel and I rushed over and helped him up.

"WHAT HAPPENED?!" Jeremy yelled, bouncing (wait, bouncing? Oh yeah, he possesses a bunny animatronic) out of the kitchen. He saw Mike, and gasped. Then, he helped us get him on the kitchen table.

"What happened, Mike?" Gabriel asked, as Mike grunted from the force of being put down on the cold iron table. Jeremy and I left to go and gather round the rest of the group.

"Hey guys, Mike's back but he's bleeding real bad" I said, running through the portal and going to grab the med kit from Chiron's office. Nico saw me and started chasing after me.

"Hey Percy, what's going on?" Nico asked. Usually when I came through the portal, it was with a group or for an emergency. This seemed like a pretty bad emergency, and I don't think we had any spare suits in the backroom (not to mention that we didn't have another source of income for our shopping).

"Uh, one of us got hurt real bad from a knife in the kitchen or something, so I'm fetching the medkit from Chiron's office" I told Nico, still running. Once I got to Chiron's office, I burst open the door and grabbed the medkit. Chiron, who was sitting in his chair and reading a book, looked up at me.

"hichironsorrydon'thavetimetotalki'llexplainlaterthanksforthemedkitandbye" I blurted out before charging back towards the portal with Nico hot on my tails. Nico continued charging after me, even as I stepped into the portal.

"WAIT, I WANNA SEE WHAT'S ON THE OTHER SIDE" Nico said, jumping in after me. I face palmed, before running to the room where Mike was. I heard Nico gasp behind me, as I brought out the medkit.

"GUYS I GOT THE MEDKIT!" I yelled, as I heard Nico mutter something about there being too much blood to be a knife wound. I ignored him as I sent Susie to fetch William so he could help me patch Mike up. Aside from me, William was the only one who knew how to patch up a wound.

"Hey Percy, why is this pizzeria built on top of a river in the underworld?" Nico asked, tapping my shoulder. I just looked on in shock. This pizzeria was built on one of five rivers of the underworld? Why didn't anyone tell me?

"Wait what?" I asked Nico. Nico nodded.

"Yeah, I can clearly feel the effects of the river Acheron from here. And although the river isn't exposed right here, it's like somewhere really deep. There's also a bit exposed behind those doors" Nico said, pointing towards the doors that led towards the sister location and the toys. I paled, remembering that the sister location was underground, which probably meant that it was closer to the underworld, and that the toys had a 'river' made out of 'Gasoline and mud'.

"Hehe, yeah let's talk about that after we deal with Mike" I said, turning back to Mike. Suddenly, William came to us, but in his Scraptrap form. I looked up and hissed.

"Scraptrap, go and get William here" I hissed. Scraptrap looked confused for a second, then saw Nico, and turned around, going to the other room. I looked back at Nico, who had his eyes blown wide open.

"What is Tartarus was that?" He asked. I started thinking of some excuses, but before I could, William came out from behind the wall as, well... William. I looked desperately at him, hoping that he could make some excuse. William took note of my desperate eyes and started talking.

"That was an old model of a self-aware robot. There are many more, but I haven't gotten the chance to update or fix some of them for a while now" He said, grabbing a cotton swab and swabbing at the wound. Then, he frowned.

"What even happened to him?" He asked. I shook my head, as Susie started:

"We don't know. He just came out of the room looking like this" she said. Nico walked over to the door, but Cassidy stopped him. She shook her head.

"We don't even know what's down there. For all we know, there could be something really murderous down there" She said. Nico just pulled away from her.

"I can feel all the souls down there. There must be a reason that this place was built on the river Acheron" At this, William's head snapped up. His eyes widened, as he continued to work on Mike.

"You know about the underworld? The five rivers? What things could be done when someone dies on top of a river? Specifically Acheron?" William questioned, and I face palmed. Of course Nico knew about the underworld and the five rivers, but saying the rest could give Nico ideas.

"Yes I know about the underworld and the five rivers. I've actually gone there many times, but what was this about when someone dies on top of the Acheron?" Nico asked. I gave William the look that said 'great, you blew our cover'. Unluckily, Nico caught that glare.

"Hey Percy, why are you giving William, sorry you're William right?" Nico started, then turned to William. William nodded. Nico sighed, and I could see why. He was already dealing with Will Solace at camp.

"Anyways, why were you giving William that look?" He turned back to me. Oh Hades, what do I say?

"Is there something you guys aren't telling me?" Nico asked. I started sweating, then I tried to walk as calmly as possible to William. William lifted his hands up from Mike.

"Mike is fine now" He said, and I brightened up a bit. At least something was going right today.

"William, we have to talk. And I think we owe Nico here an explanation, but we need to talk first." I said to William. William looked up at me, and nodded, walking away from the table.

"Agreed, we need to talk about your... Friend here" He said, narrowing his eyes at Nico. I could tell they weren't going to get along very well already, but I didn't say anything about it.

"So, Nico is the son of Hades, and you literally blurted out something that he doesn't know about the underworld. Yeah, he's suspicious" I told William once we were out of earshot. William paled.

"Aw shucks, you didn't tell me about that" He said. Then he sighed.

"Oh well, I guess we owe him the truth. Let's just hope that he won't send us all to the underworld" He said, stepping out from behind the wall. I stepped out too.

"I guess we owe you the truth, Nico" I said

"Yeah, tell me about it"