A/N: don't own any characters you may recognize from the PJO or HoO serieses. I really like getting reviews…(hint hint).
To guest: Ella is a daughter of Hermes, but I forgot and wrote that she was a daughter of Apollo. Sorry for the confusion.
Casper's POV ~
The throne room flew into uproar. Zeus shouted at Hades, Hades shouted at Zeus, Poseidon shouted at Artemis for shouting at Apollo for shouting at Zeus for shouting at Hades, Aphrodite checked her makeup, Hera and Hephaestus started bickering, and Ares bellowed at everybody.
"SILENCE!" I bellowed, and believe me, I was really surprised at myself too. But I was mad. "EVERYBODY SHUT UP!" The gods all silenced. "For gods sake! Your gods, pull yourself together! Now let Hades explain." I stepped back and nodded to Hades, who flashed me (what I think was) a grateful look.
"Yes. Tell us, what exactly did happen Hades?" Zeus growled.
"I put the helm in the safe in my throne room. I went to oversee some new souls arrival, and when I got back, the helm was gone." Mutterings ran through the gods again.
"How do we know that you speak the truth?" Poseidon asked. I glared at him, and he pointedly didn't look at me.
"What motive do I have to lie?" Poseidon opened his mouth to speak, but Hades started again before he could speak. "Have you forgotten? Tartarus and Hecate are working together! Hecate could have used her magic to steal it for him." A couple of people nodded. All through the school year, we had been waiting to hear more about why the goddess of magic had gone rogue, but all we had gotten was lots of nothing.
"That makes sense!" Ella burst out. I stomped on her foot and she gave a little squeak, but kept talking while scooting away from me. "Hecate could have used the mist to sneak into Hades palace, steal the helm, and get away safe!"
"It is very logical." Athena admitted. "The perfect cover to turn us against each other, and to get the helm away from you, uncle."
"Then it is surely these demigods duty to retrieve the helm" Artemis put in.
"We will." Percy said. "Thanks for telling us, we'll go get it."
"And we will try to locate Hecate." Zeus said. "Now go demigods, we have other matters to discuss."
We quickly left the hall and headed through the city to the elevator. The first few bars of music in the elevator made me plug my ears right away, so I can't tell you what it was.
We got lunch at a hotdog stand and were back in the van in ten minutes. Annabeth drove this time, with Nico in front so Percy and I could keep each other entertained with endless games of "eye spy", thumb wrestling, and trying to play "hangman" when we were both dyslexic. We were getting kind of desperate for entertainment by the time Nico interrupted.
"Okay you two, if you play another game of go fish with only half a deck I'm summoning an army of the dead to eat you." Nico said grumpily, crossing his eyes and sticking out his tongue at us.
I snorted, and then suddenly realized something I should have thought of before. "Oh my gods!"
"I was only joking, Casper." He said, but I waved my hand dismissively.
"No, not that. Besides, I could kick the ass of an army of the dead any day. Thats not it." I grabbed one of his arms so that he turned away from the view. "Is the helm of darkness what allows your father Hades to control all the dead people?"
"Well, ye-"
"Thats why Tartarus and Hecate wanted it! They can use it to bring up an army of dead people!" I chewed my lip. Nico looked like he was about to hurl, and everyone else was white.
"At least it can't geet any worse." Biron offered.
Suddenly, the car exploded.