A/N: Let's get ditzy here. There might be flaws in this chapter, so I might want to fix it up more in the future. In the meantime, enjoy.
Also: What do secret spies wear whenever they are stealing something in banks? Black clothing, of course!

Finally Polished in 4/29/12

II

PIPER

Piper didn't like going to Sin city. Sure, it was the most 'fun' place in the world, but there were other things in Las Vegas that would make her uncomfortable.

But here she was, creeping in a ventilation shaft inside the gods' local casino with Leo, about to steal something that could only be used once. Piper was more worried about Jason, though. The casino was not only full of minor gods from Olympus, but there were more monsters than they had originally thought. And Leo noticed in his investigation that the material—Zeus' sky stone—was heavily guarded by a strong barrier that prevented children of the Big Three to go any further. And said material could be only carried by children of Zeus (or Jupiter) because of its powerful force that would, err, blow anyone away. It was up to them to lift the barrier and set the next job to Jason.

Piper jumped down from the shaft to the floor, followed by Leo, who almost slipped when he landed. He said something about marble floors always trying to break his head and scanned the room. It looked like a normal hall from a museum, with displays of ancient vases probably dating way back, and paintings that had people face sideways. Behind them were two oak doors, probably the exit. The only thing that stood out from all of these things, hanging at the end of the hall, was the familiar painting of King Henry VIII of England, except he was holding a red tennis racquet.

"Entertainment within entertainment," Leo said. "If you count staring at two thousand year old pictures fun."

"Well, sometimes it is," Piper said. Reading stories about the Greek gods was fun.

Leo stared at the end of the hallway, rubbing his chin. "I've seen enough movies that would tell me something would trigger if we took five steps forward."

Even if he meant it as a joke, Piper couldn't help but wonder about it. According to the rough map sketch Leo had drawn, they were in the control room. Maybe said controls are hidden behind the paintings.

Leo fished something out from his tool belt, and then knelt down. He sprayed something in front of him, and gold lasers slowly appeared, glowing threateningly on the floor.

He whistled. "Watch your step, Pipes, I don't think these things will just inform about trespassers."

Piper wanted to say, "Please don't call me with that name," but Leo wasn't listening anymore. He was halfway across the hall to the Henry painting, avoiding the lasers while he tiptoed.

They arrived in front of the large painting, having only a couple of seconds to admire the work, then took it down from the post. There was nothing behind it.

"Wait, wait," Leo said, who was searching the wall very closely; "I think I saw a small hole. I need a pin." Before he could take anything from his belt, Piper handed Leo her hairpin. At first, he stared at her, but then he thanked her and used the accessory to prod the wall, like he was inserting a key.

Piper wasn't doing much on this quest. Leo could handle this all by himself without any of her help. She may perhaps be down at the casino with Jason, who probably was distracting the crowd and fighting monsters. Despite the fact it was dangerous and it could get bloody, it was more fun than sneaking around like a secret spy. But from the back of her mind, something was telling her that everything would go wrong if she had let Leo alone to do this.

"Whoa," Leo gaped, "this is hi-tech stuff."

A panel appeared instead of the wall earlier. It was full of buttons, wires and other things Piper couldn't recognize. Leo brought out his leather gloves, put on his goggles and went to work. A moment later, an alarm startled the pair.

"Leo!" Piper started, but her companion already looked stressed.

"I know, just give me a minute…done!" He took of his goggles and eyed Piper, "…and now we have to get out of here."

They started to run toward the oak doors when someone else burst into the room. It was a huge Cyclops wearing a sea-green tuxedo. He was so fat, the buttons of his suit was threatening to fire in different directions. The monster's huge body was blocking the room's only exit. He stared at the two with his green blind eye. "Lady Eos is away and you two are here to steal precious stone, eh?" he said, "Well, not until I eat you first!"

The Cyclops took out a large baton the size of a tree trunk from his pocket and swung downwards. By instinct, Piper rolled to the left to dodge. She pulled out her dagger, Katoptris, and moved behind the monster's back. Leo ran in front of the Cyclops, wielding a two-handed sword and was fighting the monster one-on-one, having a baton-and-sword duel. It was very hard to believe that Leo, like his brothers and sisters, had enough strength to wrestle monsters even with his current stature. But it explained why he could carry large hammers with ease.

Two against one, it wasn't bad, wasn't it? But the Cyclops was so large Piper was considering that the numbers were, like, around fifteen to two.

The Cyclops knew better than let anyone sneak behind him, for a moment he swatted Leo away and then grasped Piper like a Barbie doll. "Ha! You think you can fool the great Polyphemus? Think again, little girl!"

The Cyclops threw his head backwards and laughed. While distracted by his delight, Piper made a quick move with her arm and stabbed the Cyclops' stomach. Polyphemus released Piper and clenched his wound. It didn't look like the dagger went deep, but the monster looked furious.

"Human," Polyphemus scoffed, "You're a tough o-" He was cut off mid-sentence, paused, and then all of a sudden passed out cold on the ground with a huge THUD. Leo's sword clattered on the floor. The thrower was behind the KO-ed Cyclops, looking wild.

"Bull's eye!" he cheered. "Now, let's just get outta here and find Jason!"

Piper and Leo ran to the door behind Polyphemus and sprinted through the small hallway. Suddenly, they both tripped and stumbled on the carpet floor. A small thread caught them off-guard.

"We got them, we got them!" a rough voice cheered.

Another one said, "Good work, now wake up Polyphemus and let's bring these two to the dungeons. Lady Eos will be pleased with our catch."

Piper gripped her weapon, though she knew it was useless to attack the tripper while lying face-flat. Someone grabbed her by the legs and dangled in front of a monster. It was one of those Cyclopes in the casinos with their stretched out suits. "I'll take that, missy." He made a reach for Piper's dagger. She lashed her weapon to the monster's face but the Cyclops was too fast. He swiped of Piper's dagger with his other big hand. She was about to shout help to Leo when she saw from the corner of her eye that he was also being held tightly by the other Cyclops, who came back with a dazed Polyphemus. Three biggies over two small people. She didn't like it, but she would have to charm-speak them out of this mess.

"Uh, hey guys," Piper said soothingly to the Cyclopes, which took a lot of energy coming from her. "Can you, like, put us down so we could escape and find our friend down at the casino?"

Two of them looked dreamily at Piper, muttered "Yes, your queenliness," and put her and Leo down safely. Polyphemus simply stared at his fellow brethrens, looking annoyed.

"What are you doing, you pair of dolts!" he shouted; he didn't look he was affected. "Why are you releasing them?"

"And can I have my weapon back?" Piper added. The Cyclops who took hold of her gave Katoptris and bowed.

"Thanks," she said. "Now, go to sleep and don't wake up until the next hundred years, or something like that."

Surprisingly, the two Cyclopes lied down on the floor and started to snore. Polyphemus was starting to fight the urge to obey Piper's order.

While maintaining a rather serious face, Leo gave Piper a thumbs-up. "Let's go," he said for the umpteenth time and they started to sprint toward the end of the hall where another door was waiting for them.

But the real problem was still on their tail. "You cannot escape easily!" Polyphemus shouted.

Leo pulled a grenade from his tool belt (the sight of it startled Piper). He threw it to his back and smoke started to gather, overflowing the hallway. Piper's throat was drying up from inhaling the smoke. She couldn't see clearly, but Leo grabbed her arm and led the way through many corridors, often entering monster locker rooms (Leo and Piper had to move quickly out of the room before the giants in under pants would catch them), rest rooms (toilets broke out from their places and started chasing the two momentarily) and dressing rooms (Piper noticed her Latino friend staring at some women in skirts). Finally, they burst into the main casino attraction.

And then they saw a distressed and tired Jason fighting a good number of dracanae.

His clothes were soiled with his own blood and he looked like he was having a hard time opening his right eye. What on earth happened to him?

"Jason!" Piper called out, trying to catch his attention.

Jason turned and eyed at them. "G-guys, I'm in a little trouble here…"

Leo wasted no time as he rushed to his friend's side and helped him up to his feet. "We have to go, buddy." Leo said to him.

Piper moved to Jason's defense, parried a few attacks from the monsters with her dagger, and showed the way to the (only) exit of the building. For a while, she didn't want to take one more look at Jason. It was bad enough to see him injured all over. By-standers watched incredulously; some looked amused, like they were watching a stage play.

Polyphemus busted in and stared at the retreating group. "Come back here!" he bellowed.

Like they would ever want to be eaten or captured by fat Cyclopes.

Reaching the exit, Piper let her two friends go first. Then she turned to take another look at the whole place. Sirens were blaring, red lights flashing, and monsters were gathering all over the place. If only they weren't on a quest, visiting Vegas might not be a bad idea at all. She exited the building with Jason and Leo, running through the streets like they had never ran before.

A/N: Reviews are always nice.