Zane Williams and The Gods of Olympus

by thesuperone342

Ever felt like Jason Grace is a complete disappointment and a failure to what a son of Zeus should be? Ever feel like Thalia was a waste and was thrown away too quickly? Well, this is the fanfiction for you. Join Zane Williams on his quest to be the strongest. Current Arc: The Last Olympian. Yaoi. (Anime Elements/AU) [Bad First Chapter, Needs Rewrite]

5. We Lose Basically All Of Our Time

Chapter 5! Let's go, boys. Alright, lets get into some reviews.

Born In The Second Generation: "wouldn't mind if this story becomes yaoi. My prefer ships are Nico x Zane or Zane x Taylor. I also wonder what will you do with Bianca in this fic. Bianca in the books feels more like a plot device for Nico to go emo after her death rather than a character."

Response: Zane x Taylor would probably be first before Nicro x Zane, since it would be around Heroes of Olympus before anything started between the two. Maybe this fic will have both relationships at some point, but it's too early to decided now. Also, I don't know if I will do anything with Bianca, as she exists mostly to die and give Nico characterization. I would literally have to make up character arcs for Bianca. So I'm not too sure, but we'll see when we get there.

Echoxenvy 1: "saw your response to my comment, and I gotta say that I am super thrilled that you plan on making your story that long. I also want to make clear that mine will most likely reach 1 million words as well. I plan on making The Son of Hercules story a five part series divided into different stories, Hopefully getting close to 250k words per story, so expect plenty of content from me! As for the chapter, I liked how you changed some things and it was great overall. I gotta ask though, will Zane end up with Taylor? Or will you pair him with Percy? As a Percabeth lover myself, I kind of hope that's not true. But if that's what you decide I'm cool with it. Check out Chapter 7 of my story, it's coming out soon!"

Echoxenvy 2: "Also saw your review for Chapter 6, and thanks. Love the suggestion for Talon, he will be in the story a good bit. And yes, I literally stole the Laestrygonian kill from Zane, had to pay homage to you man."

Response: I guess Percy and Annabeth are going to get more than they bargained for on this quest, eh? So much for living peacefully. Like I said above, I'm not too sure where the relationship between Zane and Taylor is going to go. It's something I guess I'll develop as the story goes on. Not too sure between Percy and Zane, though. I'll admit, I've had some thoughts, but Percy and Annabeth will probably be getting together like in canon. Main reason I booted Grover out and not Annabeth. If Talon is the son of Nikandreos, that would be lit. I was thinking about making Zane the son of Nikandreos when I brainstormed this story, but I went with Zeus instead. I definitely will have Nikandreos appear or at least be mentioned. Also, I basically stole the Laestrygonian kill from God of War, so there's that. Basically the same as when Kratos kills the troll enemies in the newest game. Anyway, can't wait to read your chapter if it's not out already by the time this goes up.

Shadowhunter2077(I'm using your PMs as reviews, mostly to boost word count. If you want me to remove them, I'll do so immediately. Just say the word) : "Hey sorry to bother you but i have a question to you that is not related to your story, but how would you rank all the pantheos that people use here in fanfiction not only norse and egyptian but also the likes of maya, hindu, shinto, chinese, sumerian and christian. Because everytime people use them they always maje them so powerful thats almost cringy but thats my opinion what about yours

Also good luck becoming the yoai king of fanfiction"

Response: Okay, I'm going to start off by saying, after researching for around twenty minutes, I could find almost nothing power wise to scale Sumerian gods. So here's all those pantheons from weakest to strongest:

8: Mayans: Mayan gods are barely even that, considering they can often die from being killed by cunning mortals from time to time. That's like the ultimate sin for godlyness is my fanfic, since mortals are basically fodder.

7: Egyptian: For reasons I stated earlier in my fourth chapter.

6: Norse: For reasons I stated earlier in my fourth chapter.

5: Chinese Gods: I couldn't find too much on how strong they were, but God of High School scales them at around Star Level, so that's going to be my scaling I guess.

These next three pantheons are basically almost the same strength, so they would avoid fighting each other in order to not destroy the universe.

4: Shinto: From my prowling on VsBattles, I could find these guys are often scaled to universe level, so they are nearly as strong as the Greeks in my opinion. The Greeks likely had more worshippers however and are more immortalized in modern culture than the Shinto.

3: Greek: They have casual universe level feats in the myths, like Zeus shaking the entire universe my shaking his head, battles between gods shaking the universe, Etc. I could go on and on.

2: Hindu: I didn't do a massive amount of research on these guys, but considering there are millions of them, and the gods I did look up scaled potentially at multiverse level, I'm putting them here, with them only being slightly stronger than the Greeks in this story.

1: Christian: I know it seems cliche, but most scalings for God put him casually as universe level, with him being as high as Outerverse level in the DC continuity. Power is based on belief mostly in my story, and we all know that Christianity/Judaism/Islam has the most worshippers worldwide. Therefore, by my power scaling for this fic, He would be the strongest.

Okay, there you go. That took a while to figure out.

Shadowhunter2077 2: "Are these pantheons with exception of the greeks going to appear in the story, if yes will they have half-bloods like nephilim, hindu demigods because it would be really funny if zane made friendship or relationship with half bloods of other pantheons

Also how demons and angels would scale in this fic.

Ans to you plan in making crossover with others universes beside God of War, like devil may cy , final fantasy, bayonetta

Sorry to bother if my questions are getting annoying say it and i will stop"

Response: The Egyptian ones and the Norse will definitely appear, as they do in the canon Riordan books, but the Christians, Shinto and The Hindu are the only ones who would have a chance of actually appearing in the story. If these one do appear, yes, there will be Hindu and Shinto demigods, as well as Nephilim. Demons will range anywhere from being comparable to the average demigod to being on par with greek gods, depending on the demon. Same with angels. Don't know much about Bayonetta or Final Fantasy but I do know DMC so maybe. I'm thinking on doing a mini arc in between each book, so there may be room for crossovers there. Also, might do a multiversal crossover arc during the events between Heroes of Olympus and Trials of Apollo, so maybe there, too. Also, your questions are fine, they give me time to brainstorm and think where I want to go with this story.

Shadowhunter2077 3: "Well is that i thought that zane would need a rival because percy still wants a "normal life" and zane wants to get stroger so the gap between their powers will only get bigger so to me the solution would be bring demigods of others gods-kings like indra, amaterasu, michael the archangel, lucifer (i think michael and lucifer are comparable to zeus, correct me if i wrong) so zane would at least have a competion and even have people he can understand like the pedastal their camp puts them ( i assume the christians, hindus and shintos gave their own camp correct me if i wrong)"

Response: Percy may be a little different than canon at first, as he will be jealous of Zane's power. Eventually, by the time of Trials of Apollo, he won't care anymore and he'll want a normal life again. There may be other rivals for Zane, as he will outstrip Percy in power completely and permanently by the end of the normal series. I think Michael and Lucifer are actually even more powerful than Zeus, but Zane will eventually get even stronger than his father, so maybe. Anyway, Zane's rival in the GOW crossover will obviously be Kratos, but there could be others, like Echoxenvy's Son of Hercules. Also, not sure if the other pantheons have their own camp.

Shadowhunter2077 4: "About jealous i bet annabeth would use zane during the battle of the labyrinth deting him to make percy jealous just because of rachel this could possibly make their rivalry reach its peak

And how zeus scale from the other beings from other pantheons like can he hold his own against the likes of michael, like he did with kratos, like we could have the likes of the jade emperor or odin stating just how powerful zeus truly is.

Also whats your opinion about fanfic were the greek pantheon is just humilited by other pantheons like there is a fantic here called: solar destruction of the sea, where shiva says something like this " that not even the combine might of the 14 olympians would not even scratch susanoo the weakest member of the shinto trinity" and i was like bruh or when people make the gods only "kage" level in crossovers forgeting all of the olympians feats and saying that kurama is"

Response: I could see Annabeth doing something like that, but Zane doesn't really like Annabeth, at all. At least not now. I probably will have Annabeth pitch the idea to him. Yeah, Zeus is a f*** monster. He's comparable to Michael and Lucifer, and leagues above Odin and The Jade Emperor. And this is Percy Jackson Zeus. GOW Zeus is way, way stronger. Also, that 'Solar Destruction of The Sea' sounds completely retarded. Like Zeus would probably be able to take out the three top Shinto gods by himself. Bruh, people actually only make the gods kage level? That's the funniest s*** I've ever heard. How do people think Kyuubi is on par with Typhon? Typhon is literally as large as constellations in the myth. Also, can I use these PMs as reviews for the story? They contain relevant information I want everyone to know and I don't want to write it twice.

Okay, enough with reviews, lets blow this pop stand.

(Disclaimer: I don't own anything here, but if the fact that this is on a fanfiction site doesn't clue that to you, you're fucking retarded.)

(000)

This fucking sucks.

We were currently walking around downtown Denver, completely miserable. It was obvious we had had a shower since leaving Camp Half-Blood, as my normally well kept curled long black hair was now a tangled, dirty mess. My stomach was growling, probably since I haven't eaten since the train ride down here, so it's been about a day.

We were pretty much completely out of money. We spent whatever pocket change we had left on us after the Fury incident on the train for food. The air was humid and hot, completely different from the dry cool air of St. Louis. I was going to mug someone if we didn't come across any money or food soon.

Annabeth had a plan. A plan that didn't involve food, unfortunately. "We need to try and contact Chiron. I want to tell him about the conversation you had with the Naiad at the bottom of the Mississippi River." That's nice and all, Annabeth, but right now, we need food and money, neither of which we had at the moment.

Percy was confused. "We can't use phones, right?" I had told him about the whole 'not being able to use technology' thing that affected demigods. I was not so confused. Annabeth was gong to try and create an Iris Message to contact our centaur camp director. The first time I had seen someone use an Iris Message was incredible. It looked like something straight out of a movie, with the Iris Message literally creating a portal out of light waves that you could communicate with people with.

Annabeth shook her head. "I'm not talking about phones." She didn't say anything else, leaving the poor confused son of Poseidon's question unanswered. He looked at me questioningly. "Don't worry, man. You'll see." I wasn't going to spoil his first experience with an Iris Message. Percy rolled his eyes at our crypticness and we followed Annabeth down the sidewalk.

After a bit of searching, we found a unmanned car wash. You know, one of those Internationally owned things. Annabeth told us to keep watch for cop patrols, since three preteens with no parents or a car hanging out in a car wash parking lot will tip any decent cop off. Percy's curiosity on what we were doing could not go unsaid. "What are we doing here exactly?" Percy asked as Annabeth pulled out a spray gun from one of the car wash stations. I gave her a few quarters to do so, as she was fresh out of money.

"We're I'Ming." Annabeth answered Percy's question as she slipped the quarters into the slot. She set the nob to FINE MIST as Percy's face scrunched up in confusion.

"Instant Messaging?" Percy looked at the spray gun with confusion. "With a car wash spray gun?" He had a right to be confused, as we didn't really tell him what I'Ming meant. I was never going to call it that stupid name ever again, not even in my head. Anyway, I'm fine with being dramatically cryptic, but there is a limit. Looking at you Annabeth.

"Iris Messaging." Annabeth corrected Percy, looking at him as if he was stupid. He kinda was, but not at the level you're insinuating, Annabel. "The rainbow goddess, Iris, carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for Half-Bloods, too." Annabeth finished as she started to spray the water into the air.

Percy just looked even more confused, if that was possible. "You summon the rainbow goddess with a spray gun?" He asked, his face scrunching up as he did so. Not quite the only way to do it, Perce, but yeah.

Annabeth smirked. "Not just with a spray gun, Percy. There's other ways to do it as well." She pulled out a drachma from one of her pockets. "O' goddess, please accept my offering to you." She tossed the drachmae into the rainbow, the drachmae disappearing inside it. Percy's face changed from an expression of confusion to one of bewilderment. "Half-Blood Hill." She requested, as the rainbow shimmered.

Nothing happened at first, but soon, the rainbow turned into some kind of portal mirror thing, showing The Big House on the other side. The porch of the massive house was the only thing in view, but soon, two people walked outside the door of the house. My mentor, Luke Castellan and my best friend, Taylor Smyth. The two of them were talking intently over something, something I could not make out. "Luke! Taylor!" Percy exclaimed, gaining the attention of the two.

The two demigods through the portal looked over, their conversation interrupted. Luke grinned at the Iris Message. "Percy? Is that Annabeth and Zane? Thank the gods! Are you three okay?" Taylor gave me a little wave and a smile, not wanting to interrupt Luke's talking. I returned the gesture, trying to think of what they could of been talking about.

Annabeth broke out into a mad blush. She looked at the portal with wide eyes as her breath became uneven. Hehehe. "We're...uh...fine." Annabeth said intelligently. Annabeth not so subtly tried to iron out her crumpled clothes she wore and fix her mess of a hair. Damn, she had it bad for Luke, huh? "We thought-Chiron-I mean-"

Luke's grin faded away. What was that about? "He's down at the cabins, right now. We're having some issues with the campers at the moment. Is everything cool with you?" Luke looked concerned, as dd Taylor.

Not wanting to see that look on my best friend's face, I answered. "Yeah, everything is fine right now." I tried to move my hair out of my face like Annabeth. "What kind of issues are we talking about here, Luke?" Before he could answer, a Lincoln Continental pulled into the car wash with the radio pumped up at full blast. The ground shook as the vibrations of the music rumbled through it.

"Chiron had to-what's that noise?" Luke asked as the music got even louder as the drivers of the Lincoln Continental rolled the windows down. Shit. Hopefully those asshole would go away soon.

Annabeth saw her chance to escape. "I'll take care of it!" She handed the spray gun to Percy, who looked confused at her. She motioned to me as she started to jog away. "Come on, Zane!" My eyebrows rose in confusion at her command. What the fuck? Why the hell did she need me to help her with a couple of teenage punk?

"Why?" I asked, not exactly looking for a reason to run away from the Iris Message. I hadn't talked to Taylor at all yet, so there was no way I was leaving now. "Can't you just deal with that yourself? You don't need me." Annabeth didn't bother to try and argue, just wanting to get out of Luke's sight as fast as possible.

Luke continued with his explanation, or should I say, started his explanation. "Chiron had to break up a fight. A son of Ares and a son of Apollo." Taylor shook his head at the stupidity of his sibling who was in the fight. "Things are getting pretty tense back here at camp. As I told Zane, the camp found out about the whole Zeus-Poseidon stuff. But someone has twisted the camp's interpretation of things." Luke looked rather irritated. "Everyone has been taking sides and shit. It's shaping up like the Trojan War again. Ares, Apollo and Aphrodite are backing Poseidon while Athena is backing Zeus."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" I muttered to myself, looking over at Annabeth while she argued with the music blasting assholes. I can only thing of all the 'reasons' that the Athena cabin has backed my father. I personally think my father is being a big baby about the whole thing, like a dude who loses all trust once the TV remote goes missing.

Luke didn't seem to hear me, probably thanks to the music. "So, what's your status, you two? Chiron will be sorry he missed you." I'd say we're doing fine. We've only had Medusa, The Furies and The Chimera come after us, so I'd say we're golden at the moment.

Percy basically told Luke and Taylor everything, including the dreams he had been having about that dark abyss person taunting him and asking for help. Luke and Taylor absorbed the knowledge with grim faces, not saying a word as Percy explained. Eventually, the beeper on the spray gun went off, notifying us that we only had about a minute til it shut off.

Luke sighed. "I wish I could be there." Luke looked at the two of us seriously. "We can't help much from over here, I'm afraid. Listen, it has to be Hades who took the master bolt. He was there at the winter solstice. We took a field trip there and I was chaperoning." He motioned to me and Taylor. "These two can confirm that he was there." We nodded, backing up Luke's words.

Percy looked a little skeptical. "But didn't Chiron say that gods can't take each other's magic items directly?" Good point, Percy. He must have gotten a demigod to do it for him. Question is, which demigod?

Luke nodded at Percy's logic. "That is true." Luke contemplated. "But Hades still has the Helmet of Darkness. How could anyone else steal the bolt right under all of the gods' nose on the day of their big meeting? You would have to be invisible." We were all silent as the insinuations of that statement set it.

Luke held his hands up. "Oh, hey." He shook his head. "I didn't mean Annabeth. She and I have known each other forever. She's like a little sister to me." Uh oh, Annabeth just got sister-zoned. Worse than even the friendzone. Sudden't the screams of a few teenagers rung out and the music from the Lincoln Continental stopped completely. The vehicle quickly pulled out of the car wash and zoomed down the road.

Luke, finding a way to get out of the situation pointed out the obvious. "You'd better go and see what that was." He turned to me. "Have those flying shoes been working out for you well, Zane? I'd feel better if they were doing you some good." Well, considering I can fly with the wind, I hadn't actually used them yet. But I would start using them now, since flying with wind outside of my Thunder Form was very tiring.

"Yeah, man. They've been helping me a lot. Thanks for them." I didn't feel bad about lying to Luke, as I was going to start to use the things next time we ran into danger.

Luke grinned. "Really? They fit and everything?" Before I could respond, the water from the spray gun shut off, causing the rainbow portal to start disappearing. Luke noticed the Iris Message start to vanish, so he didn't wait for my response. "Well, take care of yourselves in Denver. I'll see you guys when you get back." He waved his goodbyes as the portal started to vanish. I waved a goodbye to Taylor, who returned it with his own wave and a smile.

The Iris message ended as soon as Annabeth walked back around the corner of the car wash, chuckling to herself. Annabeth noticed the Iris Message was gone. "What happened, you two? What did Luke say?" Nothing too much, to be honest. He just reaffirmed our quest's goal and told us good luck.

Percy didn't even want to say that. "Nothing much." His stomach grumbled loudly, which caused both me and Annabeth's stomach to grumble loudly. "Come on, lets go get some food." We didn't argue with the son of Poseidon as we followed him out of the dinky car wash.

(000)

A few minutes later, we were sitting the a booth of an old fashioned chromed diner that would have fit right into a movie from the 1950s. We probably looked ratchet as fuck, considering we hadn't taken showers in days and both me and Percy had torn clothing, I'd say we looked pretty sketchy. All around us, the diner was full of families and groups of friends eating and drinking.

Eventually, a waitress walks over to our booth, her eyebrows raised and her hand on her hip. "Well?" She looked at us skeptically. Considering how we looked, I couldn't really blame her, but I still got a little angry at her tone. She was looking down on us.

Percy coughed a bit, before awkwardly stating, "Uh...we want to order dinner." The waitress did not look impressed. I guess Percy is our leader now, considering he's apparently doing all the speaking for us.

The waitress' gaze did not change. "You kids have the money to pay for it?" My eye twitched at her disrespect. I had done better things in my meager one and a half years as a demigod than she will do in her entire lifetime. I was not going to take this shit. I breathed in and out, trying to calm down a bit so I didn't smite her.

Percy and Annabeth both looked between themselves and me, probably trying to come up with something to convince the waitress to let us have something. I wasn't going to be nice. "Yes." I snapped, irritated with this bitch's attitude. "We have money. Now can you get us some menu's please." I know we didn't have any money, but we could just dine and dash and they couldn't do a damn thing to stop me.

The waitress scowled at me, but before she could give a retort, a rumble shook the entire diner. All conversations in the diner stopped and everyone looked outside to see a massive motorcycle the size of a baby elephant arrive in the parking lot. The motorcycle was black with red fire designs decorating it, with red headlights. Even the gas tanks had red flames on them. They also had shotgun holsters attached to them, complete with actual shotguns. The leather seat looked like it was made from human skin.

The man on the motorcycle would have made Laestrygonians piss themselves in fear. He was a mountain of ripped, packed muscle. He stood over seven feet tall and was wearing a red muscle shirt, black jeans and a black duster jacket. He wore red wrap around shades and had the most inhuman face you'd ever see on a person. He had a red, almost flaming beard along with long, shoulder length hair about the same color.

As soon as he entered the bar, all the mortals stood from their tables and booths, enraptured by the man's presence. He scoffed and waved them away, breaking them from the trance. They sat back down and continued their conversations, the spell the man cast over the diner broken. This wasn't a man. I reached out with my aura sense and immediately pulled back after getting a whiff of the man. He felt like rage, chaos and death all wrapped up into a big ball and lit on fire and then tossed in lava. He felt like an Ares kid, but a million times more intense. If this wasn't Ares himself, I would suck my own dick.

The waitress, who had also been entrapped by Ares' presence, snapped out of it when he waved his hand. She returned to looking back at us. "You kids have money to pay for it?" Why the fuck did she ask that again? I already told her yes, despite lying. Maybe Ares' utter chadness fried her brain or something?

Ares walked up to our booth and sat beside Annabeth, trapping her into the corner. "They're with me." The scene of him sitting in the booth was almost comical. He was way to big to sit in it, and the fact he was sitting with a bunch of preteens half his size was even funnier. The waitress gaped at Ares, who turned his gaze on her.

Ares' shades turned red. "Why are you still here?" He didn't say that very loudly, or at least loudly for him. The waitress still reacted like he screamed at her and snapped to attention. He pointed at the waitress and she turned around like a puppet held by strings and waltzed her way on to the kitchen

Ares looked at me, his shades losing their glow as his gaze met mine. Feelings of anger, bitterness, resentment and rage filled me. I knew that was just Ares manipulating my feelings and emotions with his godly powers, so I kept the feelings down. "Hello...brother." I didn't react visibly to Ares greeting, but Percy and Annabeth did. Their eyes widened as they looked at Ares before taking on an expression of realization. "You knew it was me, huh?" He said, obviously noticing I didn't react to his statement.

I nodded, gripping my fists to kept my forced anger down. "You feel a lot like your kids. Just a lot stronger and angrier." Ares grinned at my explanation, as Percy decided to point out the obvious once more. "You're Clarisse's dad. Ares, the god of war."

Ares removed his shades and looked at Percy. Where his eyes should have been, were nothing but empty sockets of fire and death. Ugh, creepy. "That's right punk. You're the one who broke Clarisse's spear, old seaweed's kid." He turned back to me, his flaming eyes looking right into my soul. "I also heard you finally beat Taylor in a fight. Good job right there. He's definitely my strongest kid."

My eyebrows rose, my first reaction since Ares sat down. "You pay attention to Taylor?" Really? I thought since Taylor was a total tomgirl, Ares wouldn't like him or something. I guess gods are progressive. I mean, it would be kinda hypocritical if they weren't, considering they get down to some freaky shit in the myths.

Ares nodded, taking out a drachmae. "Yeah. Why wouldn't I pay attention to my best child? Also, he'd be kinda hard to ignore, considering how unique he looks among my kids." Ares finished with a shrug. "Anyway, let me start on why I'm here." Ares fiddled around with the drachmae in his fingers. "I heard you kids were in town, and I got a little proposition for you."

The waitress came back from the kitchen, carrying trays of cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings and chocolate shakes. Ares handed her the drachmae he was messing around with. She stuttered as she took the coins. "B-B-But these aren't..."

Are pulled a massive knife that was the size of a short sword for someone my size and started cleaning his fingernails, which were caked with blood. "Problem, sweetheart?" The waitress trembled and stood there for a few seconds, before wisely shaking her head and walking away with the drachmae.

Percy scowled at his threatening of the waitress. "You can't do that." Excuse me, Percy, but what? "You can't just threaten people with a knife." Percy, did you just tell a god of war, straight to his face, that he can't threaten people with a knife? Percy, he could probably annihilate an entire planet his a finger like it was nothing. Don't go pissing him off.

Ares wasn't exactly mad, just amused Percy just tried to scold him. The god of war laughed. "Are you kidding? I love this country. Best place since Sparta." He looked over at Percy. "You carry a weapon, punk? You should, like your cousin over there." He gestured to the Labrys sheathed on my back with his knife. "Dangerous world out there, which brings me to my proposition. I need you three to do me a favor."

I spoke up before Percy could say something that would get him incinerated. "What sort of favor are we talking about here?" I needed to know what I had to do that the god of war didn't or couldn't do himself.

Ares smirked at me. "It's nothing much. I just left my shield at an abandoned water park here in town. I was on a date with my...girlfriend." He shrugged as he said that word.

I rolled my eyes. "You mean Aphrodite?" If it wasn't Aphrodite, it was probably an ugly bitch Ares would pipe to create more Clarisse clones. Seriously, only Taylor, from the entire Ares cabin, was the only hot one. 'Wait.' I thought. I didn't have time to dwell on that thought, as Ares responded to me.

Ares chuckled. "I guess you could say that. Anyway, we got interrupted and we had to leave. I had to leave the shield behind. I want you three to go and fetch it for me." This raised some red flags in my book. Why couldn't Ares go and get the shield himself? Why couldn't he just use his godly powers and summon it to him? What could cause Ares and Aphrodite, the gods of war and love respectfully to run away? This was something I wasn't going to enjoy.

Percy said something stupid before I could stop him. "Why don't you go back and get it yourself?" I nearly facepalmed at the stupidity of his hostile question. Like I said earlier, why the fuck are you willingly trying to piss off the god of war? He could probably atomize you by looking at you.

I nearly expected for Ares to do so, but his flaming eyes simply became brighter and angrier. "Why don't I turn you into a cockroach and run you over with my Harley? Because I don't feel like it." More like Poseidon would probably kill you and all of your children, which would me that Taylor would die as well. The thought sent a burst of rage through me, likely egged on by Ares' aura. "A god is giving you the opportunity to prove yourself, Perseus Jackson. Will you prove that you are a coward?" Ares leaned in and gave Percy a nasty smirk. "Or maybe you can only fight when there is a river to dive into, where daddy can protect you." Oh, snap. What do you have for that one, Perce?

Percy looked incredibly angry at the insult, but surprisingly did not rise to it. He must have figured out Ares' rage inducement abilities. I spoke up before Percy could say anything else. "What do you have for us in return, brother?" I wasn't going to refer to my brother as 'Lord Ares.' I may not be asking for trouble from the god of war, but I was no ass-kisser either.

Ares smirked at me. "What ever happened to helping someone in need out of good faith?" Good faith? For Ares? Ha! Yeah, it was as funny as it sounded.

I looked at the war god with a deadpan gaze, trying not to laugh. "Name one Greek myth where a hero does the bidding of the gods completely out of good faith." If Ares could actually name one, I wouldn't ask for anything from him for this quest.

Ares raised his hands in surrender. "Fair enough, brother." Ares finally finished cleaning his fingernails with his giant knife and he dispelled the weapon. His fingernails still looked bloody. "I'll help you three along with your quest for the big lightning bolt if you do this. I'll arrange a little ride west for you three." Annabeth and Percy must have looked shocked, considering we didn't say anything about our quest. "If the entire camp knows about the situation on Olympus and saw you three leave on a quest after finding out, I'm pretty sure us gods should know as well.

Fair enough. Before I could accept the deal, Percy spoke out again. "We don't need your help. We're fine on our own." I elbowed him in the side, careful to not shatter his ribs on accident. I'm going to have a talk with him once we get out of here.

Ares rolled his eyes at Percy's bravado. "Yeah, right. No money, no wheels and no clue what you're up against." He looked deeply into Percy's eyes as his own flaming one stared into Percy's soul. "Help me out, and I'll tell you something you might need to know. Something about your mom." Percy's angry expression turned into one of confusion.

"My mom?" Percy asked, bewildered. What could Ares know about Percy's mother, despite the fact that she was dead.

Are grinned. It was a disturbing sight. "That got your attention. The water park is a mile west on Delancy." Like I knew where that was. I guess Annabeth would, considering wisdom goddess mom. "You can't miss it. Look for the tunnel of love ride." Ares got up from the booth and started to leave the diner.

Something was suspicious. "Hold on, brother." I called out to the war god. He stopped and turned to me, his shade now magically back on his face. "Is there anything we need to look out for? Like the thing that forced you and Aphrodite to flee?" Ares probably wasn't going to tell me. He was probably going to say something like, 'No, it'll be a walk in the park.'"

Are looked at me, his face now scowling. "You will find out about that soon, brother." He turned to leave again. "I suggest you three get moving." Are walked out of the diner and jump up on his monster Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He turned it on and zoomed out of the diner's parking lot, his engine blaring at a massive volume.

Annabeth still looked spooked about the entire conversation. "Ares sought us out, Percy. Not good, this is definitely not good." Annabeth stood up and started to pace outside our little booth. Once Ares was out of sight, I felt the anger that had been coursing through my veins vanish. I hated the feeling of anger he forced into my head. It felt...unnatural.

Percy just waved her off. "It's got to be some kind of trick. Let's just forget about him." It is definitely some kind of trick. If it was really so simple as to just walk in and grab it, Ares would just do it himself. If it wasn't a trick, Ares would have told us what we were up against and not leave it off so cryptic and vague.

Annabeth shook her head. "We can't. Look, I hate Ares as much as anybody, but you don't ignore the gods unless you want really bad fortune. He wasn't kidding about turning you into a cockroach." I stood up from the booth, stretching my arms as I did so.

I motioned towards my friends. "Come on, lets get going. Sooner we get this shit done, the quicker we can get the lightning bolt back and save the world." I walked out of the diner, my fellow demigods following me without a word. I told Annabeth to take the lead, since she had all the maps and shit she grabbed when we arrived in Denver. I walked up behind Percy and grabbed his arm harshly. "What the fuck shit were you thinking?!" I whisper yelled in his ear.

Percy looked back at me, confused. "What are you talking about?" I rolled my eyes. How the hell did he not know what I was talking about?

"I'm talking about you shit talking Ares back there." I tightened my grip around his bicep, which cause him to hiss in pain. "Are you trying to get us killed? He could have incinerated you in a heartbeat if he wanted to. Why are you such an idiot?" My tone was angry, something that I very much was at the moment.

Percy held his other arm up in surrender. "Hey, I didn't mean to talk to him like that. It was his emotion power thing that was screwing with my head back there. Honest." So he actually figured out Ares' ability that the war god was using to try and fuck with our head. I'll let Percy off this once, but if he jeopardizes himself like that again, I'll whack him in the head.

I let go off his arm. "Fine. But you let me handle the talking when we're finished with this shit. I am not letting you get your dumbass killed because you pissed off a war god with your shit talking. Understand?" Percy nodded and I walked ahead of him, trying to see where Annabeth was going. This part of the quest was probably going to suck.

(000)

The waterpark we walked up to was very old looking. I could see the rust and the wear and tear on the old waterslides and attractions even from outside the park. Large tubs and pipes that were once covered up by decorations were now clearly visibly, also covered in rust. There was empty pools with grass growing in them lining up under the slides.

We came up onto the front of the water park, where an old gate with a large padlock resided. Barbed wire topped the fence that surrounded the park, also topping the gate as well. "So how are we going to get in here?" Percy asked as well arrived at the gate. I didn't respond to the son of the sea god as I walked up to the gate. I grabbed the fence in the middle and pulled. The gate ripped right out of the fence, carrying torn barbed wire with it. I tossed the gate around twenty feet away

I walked into the water park. "You two coming?" The two demigods behind me deadpanned at my casual show of strength before follow me. The inside of the park looked about the same as it deal when looking at it from afar. As we passed over some merchandise booths, Annabeth stopped to look over the clothes that she saw. Ugh, women.

"Clothes. Fresh clothes." Annabeth said those words as if she was looking at Ambrosia. She also looked like she was looking at Ambrosia, too. She walked up to the booth and started to take some of the clothes.

Percy walked behind her and frowned. "Yeah, but you can't just-" Damn, when did Percy become such a goody two-shoes. He didn't show this kind of behavior when me and Taylor hung out with him at camp before the quest.

Annabeth glared at Percy. "Watch me." Annabeth grabbed a whole row of clothes and walked off to a nearby bathroom to change. She barely left a few outfits for me and Percy to grab. Women and their obsession with clothes.

I shrugged a Percy before grabbing an outfit from the booth. "Why not? The clothes I'm wearing now aren't exactly appropriate. I look sketchy as fuck." I did look sketchy as fuck. My clothes hadn't been washed in three days and had tears and holes in them from the Chimera fight yesterday. Stained blood still showed even on black clothing. Percy shook his head and grabbed the last outfit at the booth and followed me to the men's bathroom of the water park.

Soon enough, the three of us were decked out in abandoned water park merch, looking for the ride Ares had called the 'Tunnel of Love.' Percy didn't seem to like the silence we were walking in, so he asked a question. "So...Ares and Aphrodite. They have a thing going on?" Percy was referring back to the diner, when I had called Ares' girlfriend Aphrodite, and Ares din't deny it.

Annabeth rolled her eyes and scoffed. "That's old gossip, Percy. Three thousand year old gossip." Annabeth was turning her head in all directions, trying to get a location on the Tunnel of Love.

"What about Aphrodite's husband? Isn't she married?" Percy asked Annabeth, his features marred with confusion.

I laughed a little out loud and answered for Annabeth. "Percy, if there's anything you should know about gods, you should know that they don't let marriage get in the way of love." I shook my head. "But if you really want to know, her husband is Hephaestus, the god of the forge. My father threw him off of Olympus when when he was a baby, crippling him. So he isn't exactly handsome. Clever with his hands and all, but Aphrodite isn't into someone with brains and talent, you know?"

Percy was quiet for a second. "...She likes bikers?" Yeah, and big muscly men and all that. Basically anyone who looks handsome or cute. A certain son of Ares flashed in my mind.

I shrugged. "I guess. But she has definitely been with more than bikers. Have you seen all the Aphrodite kids back at camp?" There's no way any of them came from a biker father. They all look so pretty. The Aphrodite kids probably spend hours in their cabin brushing up their appearances for the day.

Percy nodded at my words. "So Hephaestus know about her and Ares?" Yeah, I would say that he does. One of the most noteworthy myths of Hephaestus literally has him catch them two together and trap them in a golden net and parade them to the other gods on Olympus.

Annabeth answered before I could, but she said the same thing I was going to say anyway. "Oh sure, he caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them. He made a large golden net to catch them and invited all the other gods to come laugh at them. Hephaestus is always trying to embarrass them. That's why they meet in out of the way places, like..." Annabeth stopped and stared straight ahead, tailing off as she did so.

Annabeth pointed forward. "Like that." We followed her finger to a large open empty pool that would have made Tony Hawk gush. It was at least fifty yards wide and was shaped like a bowl. Around the empty pool were a dozen Eros statues with their winds spread and their bows ready to fire. On the farthest side of the pool was an empty tunnel with a sign above it that said, 'THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS TUNNEL OF LOVE!' Three guesses what this place was.

Annabeth moved her pointed finger to the middle of the empty pool. "Look." What she pointed at was a marooned two seater boat with a canopy over the top with little hearts painted on it. In the left seat of the boat, was a bronze spartan styled shield. The thing radiated power, but not enough power that it was incredibly noticeable. That was definitely Ares' shield.

Percy wasn't buying it. "This is way too easy. Are we supposed to just walk down there and go get it?" I was with Percy on this one. If this was this easy, Ares didn't need us to come and grab his shield. He could just teleport her in a split-second and grab it and leave. I knew this had to be a trap. Luckily, I had a plan.

Annabeth walked up to an Eros statue and ran her fingers down the base of it. "There's a Greek letter written her. Eta. I wonder..." Annabeth trailed off, obviously in thought. Great, that was very helpful Annabeth. Good job.

Percy nudged me. "You feel any monsters around, Zane?" I reached out with my aura sense and could only feel the faint aura of Ares' shield and an aura that was similar to the Aphrodite kids at Camp Half-Blood. No monster in the immediate area.

I shook my head. "No. I can feel nothing."

Percy looked skeptical. "Nothing? Like, 'not being able to sense Medusa in the forest or Echidna and The Chimera at The Arch' nothing, or like actually nothing?' This funny fuck. I turned around and glared at the son of the sea god, who actually took a step back from my look, remembering what I did to those monsters he just mentioned.

My glare held up. "For your information, Percy, I could feel those monsters when we met them. I just let them think they had the upperhand. And don't get me started on Medusa. You and Annabeth both just wondered into a warehouse of photo-realistic statues in the middle of nowhere and trusted a middle eastern woman who didn't show her face the entire time to you." Percy looked down at my outburst at him. Guilt filled me, I shouldn't of exploded on him like that. "I'm sorry, man. I didn't mean to snap at you like that."

Percy waved me off. "No, it's fine. I was the one who started it anyway." Percy looked at the obvious trap that lied ahead of him. "Okay, I'm going to go down there." Before he could jump into the empty pool, I held him back by placing a hand on his shoulder. "Dude, what are you doing?" He looked at me, confused and with a hint of frustration.

I shook my head. "No. That is an obvious trap right there, Percy. Didn't you hear what Annabeth said? Ares and Aphrodite go to places like this so Hephaestus doesn't find them. What do you think made Ares send us here in his place? What is something that even Ares can't handle? It's obvious some kind of trap is going to come up when you grab the shield or something."

Percy contemplated my words, before he conceded to my logic. "What do you suggest we do then?" He asked, motioning towards the shield that sat in the marooned two-seater boat in the empty pool.

I looked at the boat and smirked. "I have a plan." I lifted my arm in the air, like I was preparing to use the Force. I guess I was, in a way. I commanded the wind to bend to my will. The wind responded to my commands and started to form a mini wind bubble around Ares' shield. I commanded the wind bubble to return to me. The bubble floated in the air, the shield along with it. As the shield left the boat, a tripwire attached to the shield ripped away. The shield came floating safely in my hands as the Eros statues started to draw their bows back.

I grinned at my handiwork. "All too easy." The Eros statues fired at each other, silky cables following the arrows where they flew. The arrows landed outside the large empty pool and created a golden asterisk. The asterisk started to split apart and create a giant, glowing golden net over the empty pool. The Eros heads popped open to reveal cameras that were hidden away inside them. Large spotlights rose all around the pool, illuminating the area that the golden net was covering. A loudspeaker voice boomed out of nowhere about being live to Olympus in about a minute. If we had actually grabbed the shield, we would have been fucked. Luckily for us, I can use the wind like the Force.

Percy and Annabeth looked over the glowing net trap with wide eyes. The rim of the pool opened up like a trapdoor and out poured millions of tiny mechanical spiders. Annabeth verbally screamed at the sight, while me and Percy looked at her oddly. She didn't care about our looks as she unconsciously backed up from the pool, trying to get further away from spiders. I turned back to the pool, which looked like a bowl of cereal, if the cereal was spiders. "Well...that would have sucked." Percy said, always the master of stating the obvious.

I nodded at Percy's words, not caring enough to roast him on it. I gave the shield I held in my arms a lookover. The shield was around half my size, which was incredible. Most people my size would not even be able to hold the shield, much less use it in battle. I obviously could, thanks to my godly strength. The design was simple, not something I would expect from a item that a god used. It simply looked like a bronze spartan shield, not really special about it. Whatever, lets just get this shit to my brother before he turns us in anteaters.

"Come on, guys. Lets get this to Ares." I held the shield like a Frisbee in my left hand. I turned and walked in the opposite direction we had came into the park in, Percy following me. I stopp when I realized Annabeth wasn't follow and turn back to see the daughter of wisdom standing terrified at the millions upon millions of spiders that almost threatened to burst out of the golden net. Yeesh, I don't exactly blame her. "Annabeth." I said firmly, causing her to turn around. "We need to go." She didn't say anything as she followed behind me. I led our group outside of the abandoned water park, and back in the direction of the diner.

(000)

Ares was waiting for us back at the parking lot of the diner. He didn't seem like he was in the best mood, probably cause a twelve year old demigod had gotten his shield easier than he could of had. Percy also wasn't in the best mood either, probably from Ares causing his anger and realizing that Ares knew all along that the water park was a trap. I mean, duh. He had already been there and didn't want to go back, pawning the whole retrieval on a few demigods.

Are looked me dead in the eye. I could imagine the flames burning behind his red shades. "Well, well, well." Ares crossed his giant, bulky arms. "Looks like you didn't get yourselves killed." I tossed the shield to him like it was a dinner plate. He caught the shield and it morphed into a bullet-proof vest, which he threw over his shoulder. He motioned towards a semi-truck that was parked on the side of the road by the diner. "See that? The truck over there? That's your ride. One way ticket straight to Vegas." The semi had a sign on the back of it that read: KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE ANIMALS. I grimaced. Not the best ride in my opinion, but I wasn't complaining.

Percy had other thoughts. "You're kidding." Percy, what did I say about the conversations with Ares? Ares snapped his fingers, which caused the back doors of the truck to unlatch in a ramp that could be walked up into. He was not kidding.

Ares turned his glare to Percy, or what I assumed was a glare, considering I couldn't see his flaming eyes. The scowl told the story, however. "Free ride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here, something else for the job." He summoned a blue backpack and tossed it to Percy. Percy opened the bag to find fresh clothes for all of us, two hundred dollars in cash, a pouch that was filled with drachmae and a box of Double Stuffed Oreos.

Percy scowled at the bag and looked at Ares to say something, probably something that would get him incinerated. I didn't let him however, as I answered first. "Thank you, brother." I glared at Percy, who realized what he had been saying and cringed. "Thanks a lot." I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the waitress that had served us earlier was watching us along with another co-worker. She told the co-worker something I couldn't make out, but I could guess what she said when her co-worker pulled a camera out and took a picture of us. Fuck.

Percy wasn't done with Ares. "You owe me one more thing." Percy called out to Ares as the war god mounted his massive Harley-Davidson. "You promised me information about my mother." That he did, Percy. Just imagine if Ares said 'She's dead, kid.' and drove away. I would do my best to not laugh, for Percy's sake.

Ares turned his head to Percy as he turned the key of his motorcycle. "You sure you can handle the news?" Are cranked his motorcycle. "She's not dead." Well that was surprising. After the story Percy told me, I was fairly certain that Percy's mom was dead. Percy had the same thoughts, as he voiced his confusion to the war god.

Said war god looked irritated. "I mean she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She turned into a shower of gold, right? That's metamorphosis, not death. She is being kept." Oh, thats what Ares meant. Three guesses who she's being kept by.

Percy didn't look like he understood. "Kept? Why?" Perhaps for Mister Shadow man to use as a hostage against you. Why do you think, Perce?

Ares chuckled at Percy's ignorance. "You need to study war, punk. Hostages. You take someone to control someone." Ares wasn't wrong, but considering the fact that he was the god of war, I'd be surprised if he was.

Percy glared at the god. "No one is controlling me." Those sounded like the words of someone being controlled.

Ares smirked at the son of Poseidon. "Oh yeah? See you around punk." He looked like he was about to zoom off on his motorcycle, but Percy stopped him by speaking up.

Percy clenched his fists, as well as his jaw. "You're pretty smug, Lord Ares, especially for someone who is afraid of Eros statues." Ares engine revving stopped immediately when Percy said those words. He turned his head to the son of the sea, his red shades seemingly having vanished. He started directly in Percy's eyes as the fires in his own glowed to the hottest and most intense I had seen them glow to. Percy's face turned white as he had a 'thousand yard stare' on his face, seemingly looking miles away.

Ares must have shown Percy something fucked up, cause even I could feel the anger and dread Ares was emitting. Suddenly, Ares aura calmed, the fire in his eyes dimming. "We'll meet again, Perseus Jackson. Next time you're in a fight, watch your back." With that ominous threat, Ares revved up his Harley-Davidson and zoomed away, booming down the road.

I tapped Percy on the shoulder. "You okay, dude?" Percy shakily nodded, very much not okay. He was trembling as he looked on in the distance. I noticed two people leaving the dinner behind us who were wearing overalls that had the same sign on them that the semi-truck did. "Well. if we're going to be going on that semi, we should probably go now." I said as I motioned to the truck drivers leaving the diner. My fellow demigods nodded at me as we entered the foul smelling semi, closing the truck doors behind us.

(000)

The trailer of the semi-truck was fucking awful. It smelled like a toddler shit and then took his shit and smear it on the walls. Then a herd of Chihauhaus came out of nowhere and shit everyone too. It smelled that bad. Sitting in the rusted old cages were three of the most pathetic zoo animals that I had ever seen. An Albino lion, a skinny old Zebra and some weird antelope thing. The lion was staring at a sack of turnips on the ground, while the other two ate like starving wolves off a plate of hamburger meat. See Percy, this is what disrespecting gods got you.

I mostly zoned out for the next twelve hours, bored out of my mind and thinking about being home back at camp. Despite only having like three friends back at camp, which included Luke, Percy and Taylor, I missed the place. I missed training with the Hermes cabin, teaming up with Taylor to try and beat Luke in a two versus one fight. I missed sitting with Taylor at dinner, talking about how the day went. I missed sitting with Taylor by the bonfire, just looking at the night sky with the son of Ares.

Percy and Annabeth talked about stuff while we were on the drive, stuff I honestly couldn't care about. At some point, they began to talk about my half-sister, Thalia Grace. I didn't really know what to feel about her. I had never met her, so I wasn't exactly sad that she was gone. But she had sacrificed herself to save Annabeth and Luke, so I knew she was a good person. Her existence also showed that I was abnormally strong for a demigod. I was the same age as her now as she was back when she got turned into a tree. She must have not been very strong, considering I was around a million times stronger than she was. I guess my Thunder Form was unique or something. From what I had heard back at camp, Thalia was killed by the Furies. I had easily destroyed the Furies back on the bus like they were nothing with just my bare hands, proving my abnormal strength.

At some point after driving for half a day, the drivers stopped to check on the animals. The animals were treated like shit. I almost growled in anger at the treatment of them by the drivers. After witnessing what fate awaited the zebra, something about the drivers mentioning that the zebra would get cut in half, Percy freed the Zebra and the other animals. I would normally scold Percy for such a careless act, but I didn't have the heart after he freed those poor animals. We had to leave the van immediately after doing so, luckily not being seen by the drivers as they chased after the zebra down the streets.

When I stepped out of the van alongside my friends, the first thing I noticed was that it had to be close to a hundred and ten degrees outside, at the very least. Ugh, I forgot that Las Vegas was basically in a desert. I surveyed the city around us, which I noted was much larger than any city I had been to, not counting New York.

After around half an hour of wondering around the burning hot city, we were lost. Plain and simple. We had passed many buildings that looked the same, including several attractions in the city I really didn't bother to pay any real attention to. Eventually, we got even more lost after turning down an alley that led to nowhere. We groaned at being so lost and turned back, only to find that a massive hotel-like building stood in our path. Huh, that wasn't there before.

We walked into the building, the doorman politely ushering us in the building. I was suspicious. Building do not just appear out of midair like that, not unless they were a weird creepy monster building. The entire building smelled like some kind of flower I had never heard of, but could easily recognize. The lobby we walked into was legendary, as it was some kind of giant ass game room, complete with the most recent game consoles, large extremely advanced TVs, a giant waterslide snaking up a glass elevator that went up around forty floors, a climbing wall, an indoor bungie jumping bridge, virtual reality laser-tag, the whole shabang. Holy shit, this place was cool as fuck. There was even waiters and waitresses handing out food on platters.

"Hey!" A bellhop wearing a white and yellow Hawaiian shirt with lotus designs along with khaki shorts and flip flops approached us. "Welcome to the Lotus Casino. Here's your room key." The bellhop handed us a key with a lanyard attached to it that read: ROOM 4001. The bellhop waved off any questions we were about to ask. "The bill is taken care of. No extra charges, no tips. Just go up on the top floor, room 4001. If you need anything, like extra bubbles for the hot-tub, or skeet targets for the shooting range, or whatever, just call the front desk. Here are your LotusCash cards." The bellhop handed us three silver cards with lotus plant designs on them. "They work in the restaurants and on all the games and rides."

I stared at the card in suspicion. This was way too good to be true. Even if it wasn't we couldn't just stay here. We're on a quest, with only like six days left. We had to get on the move, pronto.

Percy, however, had a question to ask the bellhop, who was walking away. "How much is on here?"

The bellhop turned back, confused expression painted on his face. "What do you mean?" What do you think it means, dumbass? I looked at the absolutely amazing lobby. Maybe we could stay here for a bit. I mean, we've been hounded by monsters and a war god for the past four days, so maybe taking a break for a day or two doesn't seem half bad.

Percy elaborate his question. " I mean, how much money is on here?"

The bellhop smiled. "Oh, I see. You're making a joke. Anyway, enjoy your stay, children." With that, the bellhop walked away, leaving us standing in the lobby like a bunch of idiots. The three of us demigods looked at each other, before shrugging and taking the elevator to the top floor. We opened the door to our room to check it out. There were three separate bedrooms and a snack bar filled to the brim with just about any kind of food you could imagine. There was a hotline straight to room service, fluffy towels and water beds with feather pillows. A massive big-screen TV with high speed internet and a Xbox and a PS2. There was a balcony that had it's own hot tub. There was, amazingly, a skeet-shooting machine and a shotgun.

Taking an actual shower for the first time in four days was amazing. The dirt and grime and dried monster blood washed off my skin as I bathed in the high quality shower. I stepped out of the shower and looked over myself in the mirror. My physique in the mirror looked rather impressive. I wasn't bulky by any means, but I was very defined. My hair fell down to my shoulders, a complete mess. I didn't have Taylor here to curl my hair for me, so a brush would have to do.

Stepping into the main room with the TV with a new hairstyle and set of clothes that fit perfectly, I saw both Percy and Annabeth sitting on the couch watching the TV. The two demigods had gotten changes of clothes as well, now no longer wearing the atrocious water park merch. I glanced at the TV and saw Annabeth was watching the National Geographic Channel. Heh. "Nerd." I said to the daughter of wisdom as I plopped down on the couch

Her cheeks colored as she glared at me. "Shut up." She muttered. She went back to watching the channel as I turn to Percy, who was to my left looking over the LotusCash card. She leaned back into the couch. "So what now? Sleep?" That sounded amazing, but the lobby of games and food looked even better.

Percy agreed with me. He looked from his card to me and grinned. "Play time." I returned the grin as I nodded in agreement. The three of us left our new hotel room, washed up and newly clothed, for the game room down stairs. We split up almost immediately as we arrived, each of us going off to explore the game room on our own.

I didn't even know how long I spent at the game room. I played just about every game I could find. Shooter games, casino games, card games, virtual reality, climbing, bungie jumping, you name it. I even found a gym with a bunch of weights and shit. The people in there working out were in utter shock seeing me one arm bench a barbell with plates loaded to the brim on each side like it was a two pound dumbbell.

Eventually I came across a little card game tournament. Or at least, like a virtual card game tournament. It felt like Yu-Gi-Oh but Greek. Seriously. The game was called Myth-O-Magic. I, at first, scoffed and thought it was a dumb name and wasn't even going to give the game a chance, but then I saw a holographic Dionysus destroy a holographic Artemis with a vine branch. I gave the game a try and somehow ended up in a tournament. The game wasn't that hard and most of the people playing the tournament were absolute garbage. In the final round of the tournament, I got obliterate by this black haired kid around a year or so younger than me. This kid was like Yugi or something, without the crazy haircut.

Anyway, I lost fair and square to the kid, so I decided to give him some congratulations. "Yo, kid." The black haired kid turned away from the dueling table. "Good job on that last duel. You completely wiped me in like five turns. How are you so good?"

The kid blushed a bit before looking away, embarrassed. "I've just been playing for a while." He turned back to me, confidence back on his face like the duel. "But you're pretty good, too! What's your name?"

I gave the kid a smirk. "I'm Zane Williams." I held out a hand for him to shake, which he took. I was careful to not crush his hand as I continued. "And thanks. Who are you?" The kid was around a few inches shorter than me, about four foot ten. He was wearing a brown jacket than looked like something straight out of a museum and a black shirt with a skull on it.

He gave me a smile. "My name's Nico di Angelo. Nice to meet you!" That was the start of an amazing friendship. After the tournament was officially over, me and Nico hung out together. We played just about every game in sight together, including the stuff like the climbing wall. Nico was really bad, but he was having fun. It felt like we were playing for a few hours together, when we finally started to have more conversation.

"So where are you from, Nico?" I asked the black haired boy as I grabbed some grilled chicken from one of the snack bars outside of the gaming area. The food here was really, really fucking good.

Nico looked like he was trying to remember something but just couldn't. Like when you forget the name of a TV show you used to watch. "I...think I'm from Italy or somewhere around there. I don't really remember all that much." Nico shrugged his apparent bad memory off. That was weird. Why didn't Nico remember anything? "What about you?"

Flashes of my mother being eaten entered my mind, before I shook those thoughts from my head. "New Orleans. I used to live there about a year and a half ago before my mother died." I tried to to think of her death in my mind, to no avail. "I moved to live in New York around a week or so after her death." A lie, so I wouldn't sound weird saying I moved literally right after she died. "Good thing I moved, too. Last year, Hurricane Katrina came in and basically leveled the whole place."

Nico looked confused. "Hurricane Katrina? What's that?" Huh? Did this kid not know of Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest storms to ever hit the United States? Come on, everyone knew about Hurricane Katrina.

I looked at him with a deadpan expression. "Are you serious? You haven't heard of Hurricane Katrina? One of the worst events to happen in the year of 2005? One of the worst storms to ever hit America?" Nico looked incredibly confused. Especially after I said 2005. What the hell?

"2005? You know the year is 1939 right?" My blood ran cold as the black haired boy said those words. Holy shit, what? I looked closer at the jacket he was wearing. It did look like something straight from around that time period. I looked around me at the people playing the games in the massive room. People had different eras of clothes on and were speaking in different dialects. My eyes widened. This hotel was a trap. The hotel trapped people in here with epic looking games and attractions, and apparently stopped you from aging.

I turned to Nico, my eyes wide and my skin almost as pale as the kid in front of me. "We need to leave, right now." At the same time, I saw Percy with a wild look in his eye come up from behind one of the gaming consoles.

"We need to leave." "We need to leave." Both of us said the same thing at the same time. I stood in silence for a second and Percy coughed at the weird moment. "Yeah, I figured it out, too. We have to go right now. Where's Annabeth?" I asked Percy.

Percy looked at me. "I think she's on those trivia machines and stuff." He looked at Nico, who was still confused. "Whose this?" I was about to answer, but I noticed Nico had a power aura around him. The aura's nature was concealed, but it was extremely powerful, nearly as much as Percy's. Holy shit, this kid was a demigod. And not a normal demigod either, considering the strength of his aura.

I was silent for a moment, contemplating this little nugget of information, before I realized Percy had asked the question again. "Oh. This is Nico di Angelo. I've been hanging out with him for the past few hours." Was it really for a few hours? Or was it for a few years? Was the world outside already fucked by my dad and Poseidon's war? I didn't comment on my thoughts out loud as I leaned into Percy's ear. "I think he's a demigod." I whispered to the son of Poseidon. He looked at me, confused. "He has an aura almost as powerful as yours but it's concealed. This kid isn't normal."

Percy nodded to me. "Okay, we'll take him with us, I guess." He knew better than to argue with me. It probably wasn't the best idea, taking an inexperience demigod who didn't know the year was 2006 and probably didn't know about the gods with us on a quest to save the world, but I wasn't going to leave him here or anything. "Come on, lets go find Annabeth." He walked off, trying to find the daughter of wisdom.

Nico, still looking confused behind me, said, "What year did you say this...Hurricane Katrina was in?" He looked at my back and saw my Labrys sheathed on it. He must have not seen it before, which was dumb considering I have had it one since I started hanging out with him. "Why do you have an axe?" He looked down at my belt, which had my dagger sheathed on it. "And a dagger? Did they just let you in with those?"

We didn't have time for this. "Come on, Nico. I don't have time to explain, but I'm going to anyway." I grabbed is arm and dragged him along with me, following the direction Percy was in. I never really noticed before, but this game lobby was absolutely gigantic. Like, as big as a football field. "The year is 2006, and apparently this place traps you in here for way longer than you think it does. I feel like we've only been here for a few hours at most. How long do you think you've been here?"

This was too much for Nico to process, it was clear on his face. But he still answered me, probably not understanding what was going on. "M-Maybe a month or two?" Oh. That was probably really bad. I didn't say anything else, as I found Percy, who was currently shaking Annabeth. She was completely enraptured by the city building game she was playing.

"Annabeth?" Percy asked the daughter of wisdom, who had her attention on the game she was playing. Her eyes had glazed over and seemed to be looking at something miles away. Percy shook her by her shoulder. "Annabeth." He said, more sternly this time.

This kind of exchange kept on for a few minutes. I didn't pay too much attention as Percy tried to convince Annabeth to leave her game, with Annabeth really not wanting to. I turned back to Nico, who had about a thousand different emotions on his face. I didn't bother to ask if he was good, since he probably wasn't good. I tapped the black haired kid on the shoulder. "We're going to get you out of here. The world has probably changed a lot since 1939." That didn't make Nico feel much better as he looked at me, worry all over his face.

"I-I have to go get my sister, Bianca." He had a sister? Was she also a demigod? That would make this quest even more complicated if we grabbed her, too. But I would feel terrible if we left her, so I would make sure we grabbed her as well. However, Nico wanted to get her now. I couldn't let that happen. I grabbed him by the arm, easily keeping him in place. "Wha-?!"

"Hey. Calm down. We'll grab your sister after we get Annabeth to come with us. I can't let you go off alone. You could get trapped in the games again and spend another seventy years here on accident. Okay?" Nico reluctantly nodded at my words. I could tell that he wanted to go grab his sister right now.

Percy finally jarred Annabeth out of her game induced trance by saying 'huge hairy spiders.' Her eyes widened as she realized what had happened. "Oh my gods. How long have we been here?" Percy and I shrugged as Annabeth's eyes came upon Nico. "Who is that?"

I waved off her question. "Long story. We don't have time right now. We need to go find his sister," I motioned to Nico. "...and get the fuck out off here immediately." I turned to Nico to ask where his sister could be, only to find four massive security guards standing behind the black haired kid.

The biggest security guard smirked a bit. "Why don't you kids get back to your games?" The other guards walked up behind him and did their best to look intimidating. "We don't want to cause any problems, do we?" His mouth widen into a yellow grin. My eyes widened and then narrowed in rage. Laestrygonians.

I walked up to the security guard and stood in front of him with my arms crossed. The guards started to laugh as they thought I did my best to look angry before I punch right through the Laestrygonians stomach. The other guards shut up as my fist went through the Laestrygonians back, blood covering my arm. The guards roared and grew to their true sizes and tried to rush me. I looked at Nico, who stared at my blood covered arm with wide eyes. I knew I couldn't get too physical with him so close, so I waved my arm to create a large gale of wind to blow the Laestrygonians back. The Laestrygonians flew back into the game machines, causing a whole bunch of noise.

After my little punch and wind stunt, I felt the aura of dozens of monsters. Laestrygonians started to run towards us, all growing to their real sizes. We needed to leave, now. "Let's go!" Annabeth shouted as she dodged the fist of a Laestrygonian, taking her dagger from her sheathe and sliding it across the Laestrygonian's arm, causing it to turn to dust.

Nico didn't want to leave. "But my sister!" He right in the path of an angry Laestrygonian security guard who was about to eat him, but I practically teleported in front of him. I punched the Laestrygonian in the face, causing it's head to explode in a shower of gore before it turned to dust. I picked Nico up like a sack of potatoes and started to follow my fellow demigods, who were fighting through the Laestrygonians.

"We don't have time, Nico! We have to go, now!" I jumped kicked a Laestrygonian in two, literally. To my left, Percy decapitated a giant while Annabeth stabbed her dagger in a Laestrygoian's ankle to my left. I handed Nico to Percy, who awkwardly put him down. "Get him out of here! I'll deal with the Laestrygonians!" Percy nodded as he took Nico by the arm, who was trying to fight against him to get back to the game area. I turned to see a whole crowd of Laestrygonians charge at me, there raging ugly faces turning to expressions of rage as they saw my friends escape the hotel.

I charged lightning into my left hand. My left hand turned white as the power of my father coursed through it. I held the lightning for a few seconds, to let the Laestrygonians get into range. When they were a few meters away, I let the lighting loose. A wall of powerful lightning burst out of my hand, incinerating the Laestrygonians right before they touched me. The lightning slammed into the game area, destroying hundreds of gaming machines and letting out a powerful shock wave. I was pretty sure most of the people ran away after the security guards turned into giant cannibals, but if not, oh well. They were just mortals.

I turned around and walked to the doors of the hotel. The bellhop we had ran into before looking at me in complete fear as he saw me walking to his direction. He stood close to the doors, shaking in fear. I looked at the destroyed gaming area, happy with my handiwork. I just effortlessly killed dozens of Laestrygonians without even having to draw my Labrys. I turned back to the bellhop, who looked like he was pissing himself in fear. I glared at the man. I had no regrets about what I was about to do. This man helped out people who trapped kids and teenagers in this fucking hotel and robbing them of their chance to grow up in their true eras.

I raised a pointed finger at the bellhop, who flinched at my movement. I let out a burst of lightning out of my finger, which instantly killed the man. His skin burned black as the lightning struck him and his eyes literally popped. Woah, that was disgusting. After my casual killing of the bellhop, I walked out the doors of the hotel.

(000)

Walking outside of the Lotus Hotel, I found my fellow demigod sitting outside on a dumpster, looking rather bored. Nico looked anxious, as if he was waiting for something. He turned to me and pointed to gain the attention of Percy and Annabeth. "There he is!" The three jumped up from their spots and walked over to me, who was just closing the door.

Percy looked relieved, although worry still lingered on his face. "Dude, what took you so long?" Huh? It was only about twenty seconds. I literally just lightning blasted those dude and walked out, after murdering the bellhop. What the fuck does he mean 'what took me so long?'"

After informing this to him, he shook his head. "Zane, we've been waiting out here for two hours for you." Oh. Oh shit. Time really does travel faster inside the hotel , huh? Speaking of that, how long were we in there for?

"How long were we in there for, Perce?" I looked up at the sky, which was now covered in a massive thunderstorm. That's not a good sign. I could literally feel the anger radiating off the clouds. Looks like dear old dad was very angry.

Percy looked hesitant. "We were in there for five days, man." My jaw hit the floor. That meant we have only one day left to save the world and find the master bolt. Fuck. We're so screwed. We don't even know where the underworld was and now we have an untrained demigod to watch out for with us. Speaking of said untrained demigod, he looked like he wanted to ask me something.

"C-Can we go in there to go get my sister?" Shit. I could not, with good conscience, go after this kids sister with the amount of time we had left. If it took even ten minutes to find her in that giant ass hotel, it could literally be a day or two before we came out, which meant death for life as we knew it. I felt awful about it, but I explained it to the black haired kid, who took it surprisingly well. "I-I figured we couldn't get here yet." He motioned towards Percy and Annabeth. "Those two told me about the situation."

I tried to reassure him. "Don't worry, Nico. When we are finished with this quest, I'll come back with you to go get your sister." Nico's face paled, which was amazing-considering how pale he already was, as he looked behind me at the hotel. I followed his gaze, only to find that the Lotus hotel was literally gone. Well, shit. It kinda makes sense, considering it appeared out of nowhere beforehand. I turned back to the demigod. "Er...well, I help you find the hotel again once this quest is done, okay? Now, come on guys. We need to get moving." I motioned to Percy and Annabeth, who followed me out of the alley we had just gotten lost in before being trapped at the Lotus Hotel.

While Annabeth came up with a plan on the side of the street in front of a highway of traffic, Nico bombarded me with questions about my father. "Is it true that Zeus does five thousand six hundred and three damage with his thunder bolt attack? Is it also true that he is the only god with for mana abilities instead of three? Is your father S tier among the Olympian class?" Myth-O-Magic questions about my father. I didn't even have my father as part of my deck when playing the game in the tournament.

"I don't really know. I didn't even have him on my team, dude." A thought came into my mind. "Oh, yeah. Nico." I said, gaining the black haired kid's attention. I pulled my dagger away from my belt, sheathe and all. I handed the weapon to him, which rewarded me with a confused look from the black haired kid. "You're going to need a weapon for the rest of this quest, man. Here, take it." He accepted the weapon gingerly, not knowing if he should take it. "Don't worry, man. I'll try to make sure you don't have to use it. But if you do, just stick them with the pointy end."

Annabeth interrupted whatever Nico's response would have been by basically rounding us all up like a bunch of sheep and dragging us into a taxi. Annabeth used the LotusCash card she still had on her to pay for the drive. I nearly laughed out loud as I saw the drivers face when he saw the card had infinite money on it. This dude drove like a maniac after he saw that.

While we were on the drive, Percy talked to us about some more 'Demigod dreams' that he had. He couldn't remember it all that well, probably courtesy of the Lotus Hotel, but he mention he heard stuff like 'The Silent One' and 'The Rich One.' Both nicknames of Hades. Look, I won't bore you with the details of the conversation, but the main thing we got from it was that Hades may not be the one with the bolt. Or that's the gist I got. Nico just looked completely confused and overwhelmed with the whole thing. He has had quite a noteworthy introduction with the divine world, huh?

Eventually, at around sunset, the taxi dropped us off at Santa Monica. The sky was looking rather scary and I was really anxious as to whether we would be able to pull this thing off. We arrived at a beach, which looked like it was ripped straight from Jaws. The movies never really prepare you for how bad the beach smells over here in LA.

We walked up the the shoreline of the beach. "What now?" I asked. Percy didn't answer, as he slowly began to walk into the water. Ew, do you see that water, Percy? It was almost green with pollution. Annabeth tried to point this out to the son of the sea god, but he continued to walk into his father's domain. Eventually, he went completely under the water, leaving us on the surface. I dared not go directly into the sea, remembering what Poseidon had tried to send after me when he found out about my existence. "So, we're supposed to just sit here and twiddle our thumbs?"

A few minutes passed with no sight of Percy. Nico looked worried. "Is he going to be okay?" The normally hyperactive and upbeat card game anime protagonist was anxious.

I waved Nico's concerns of with my hand. "He should be fine. He's literally in his father's domain. Poseidon would have to be a relatively shitty father if he would just let his son die while in his own territory." Nico bristled a bit at my language. I forget, this kid was younger than us. He told me back at the Lotus Casino that he was only eleven, same age as I was when my journey into the divine world began. The water shifted slightly at my words. Aw, did I make mister big bad sea god angry?

After a few minutes of silence, Percy finally surfaced from the disgusting looking water. He had five pearls in his hands, and a rather nice story to tell us. Apparently, a Neirad, the saltwater cousin of a Naiad had come to him in place of his father. She told him about some shit that had to deal with Poseidon and gave him those five pearl that you smash when you were in need of something."

Annabeth grimaced when the story was complete. "No gift come without price." That's probably why the Neirad said, 'don't trust the gift.' It had to have a double meaning, wise chick.

Percy looked confused at Annabeth's answer. "But they were free." Up front they were free, Percy. But upfront, so are some school lunches. They aren't free, you just don't have to pay for them. You get what I'm saying, or er...thinking.

Annabeth shook her. "No. 'There is no such thing as a free lunch.'" Annabeth quoted. "That's an ancient Greek saying that transferred pretty well into America. Just you wait. There will be a price." Hopefully someone's taxes in Poseidon's kingdom wouldn't increase because of our quest. Meh, whatever, we're saving the world for them, so they better shove it.

"So we're really going to the Underworld!?" Nico asked, not sure whether to be terrified or ecstatic, as we walked away from the shoreline. That seems to be the plan, Neeks. Neeks. Thats a...rather dumb nickname, I'm never calling him that again. Percy took out a picture slip from his backpack that Ares had given him. I forgot he even had that. It was apparently the address for the Underworld.

"Yep." Percy nodded and put the picture back into his bag. "Next stop: DOA Recording Studios." We walked away from the beach like we were in a movie, not looking back at the polluted ocean. I felt badass as hell. But then, the whole image was ruined as Nico started to geek out and ask questions about the Myth-O-Magic stats of various Underworld monsters. Ugh, I felt like this journey has just started.

(000)

Okay, so very different from canon now, huh? Yeah, I got to skip the whole Tunnel of Love scene by Zane just Force pulling the shield to him, lol. Also, we have Nico here! A LOT earlier than he should be. Zane's presence has changed a few things, it seems. Saying it now, if I get anything wrong about Nico's backstory, I'm sorry. It's been forever since I've read the books where it was explored, so I'm literally using the Wiki for him. Anyway, at the time of writing this, Echoxenvy just posted chapter eight of Son of Hercules, so I'm going to go read that just after I post this. Later, y'all.