Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any related characters! Please, please, PLEASE review if you read; all feedback is greatly appreciated. You all are awesome, and thank you for reading my story!

They fell out of a shadow cast by a large tree. Percy noticed that the group was getting more and more adjusted to shadow traveling, since Grover only threw up for one minute this time. They had landed at the edge of a forest. Percy left from underneath the tree and walked towards the open area, with Thalia and Grover following. The sky was purple now, beginning to turn a dark blue. Percy looked down at his bracelet; it was glowing a light purple. He looked around. There were a few rock benches; the huge, immovable rocks that have a smooth enough top that people can sit on them comfortably. An old man was sitting on one of the rock benches, feeding a few pigeons around him. There was a small lake in front of them, about 150 feet wide. Across the lake was a castle.

It was a large, old school castle with gray bricks of various shadings. It looked like four 100-foot-tall buildings had been smashed together into one structure. Each of the adjacent buildings had old, Victorian style windows on them, and all the way to the left of the four-building structure was a huge column that looked like a light-tower. It stood about fifty feet higher than the rest of the castle building and had the American flag on it. It reminded Percy about how the Greek gods shifted to make its home in the United States. The entire castle looked like it belonged in ancient times, and all that was missing was a dragon and a princess (Percy hoped there was neither). The structure stood on a large rock structure that looked to be its support. It was surrounded by trees that looked dark due to the purplish-blue sky. Percy heard some owls making noise in the distance and began to get uneasy; it was nighttime and they were supposed to go inside a castle, meet a vampire-demon, and then go to the Underworld? He didn't know if that was his best idea.

Thalia and Grover stepped up on either side of him. Grover looked at the area. "How are we supposed to get across?"

Percy grinned as an idea popped into his head. His petal glowed a light yellow. He put both of his hands out for his friends to take. Thalia took his first. Grover hesitated for a second, then put his hand in Percy's as well. Percy sprinted towards the water and both of his friends screamed for their lives. Once they hit water, Percy began to concentrate. He kept running and he let go of his friends' hands. He screamed at them to keep running.

Thalia told him, "We'll sink!"

Percy shook his head. "Not if you trust me!"

And he ran across the water. As he was running, he created what some call "hard water," which is water with an increased buoyancy (he thought that was the term) so as to allow individuals to walk and/or run over it. He wondered if Jesus may have been a son of Poseidon, especially due to the water to wine act and the running across water, but he remembered Chiron saying that they "shan't deal with the metaphysical."

Water splashed upwards behind and Percy as he sprinted across the lake. His duffel bag was banging his leg as he was running, so he took it off and slid it as hard as he could over the straight hard water path that he had made to the castle. The duffel bag slid as if it was sliding down a water slide and made it to the other side quickly. He made the entire lake into hard water. It felt like he was running on a hardwood floor that was flooded by about an inch of water. He remembered that this concept was proposed by Annabeth in theory, when she was giving him all the different ways that his powers could be utilized. Percy heard his friends' footsteps; they had trusted him and were running on the lake as well. Thalia was screaming in excitement as Grover was screaming in terror. Percy heard the old man back on the shore say, "Look at those crazy kids. Going out to canoe whenever they feel like it. I miss my canoe."

Percy heard and felt something on the back of his neck. He turned to see Thalia pass him. She had perfect running form and every step seemed to be another clap of thunder. She turned to him and her electric blue eyes were flashing with excitement and exhilaration. She continued to run and Percy felt his competitive spirit stir. He sprinted as fast as he could, almost overtaking Thalia. They ran side by side for a few seconds and he flashed her a grin. The gesture took a lot out of him since he was putting his all into running, but he wanted to make it seem like he wasn't exerting too much. However, she smiled back at him and poured on the speed, and she was gone with the wind.

As Percy continued to sprint for second place, he realized that Thalia was only going maybe forty percent. Conversely, Grover was fifty feet behind Percy, panting and telling them to slow down. Percy got to the other side of the lake, about a full twenty seconds behind Thalia. When she had reached the other side, she had taken a huge leap and landed on one of the rocks in the structure that was holding up the castle. In an attempt to match her coolness, Percy had gotten to the other side and used a water blast to propel him up to the same rock structure Thalia was on. He put out his hand and a blast of water propelled his duffel bag to him, which he caught and slung over his chest. He put his hands on his hips, and pointed his head to the sky, taking in as much oxygen as he could. "Good…run…Wonder Woman."

Thalia grinned and patted him on the back. Grover got to their side about ten seconds later, and took about the same amount of time to scale the rocks to where they were. Together, they hiked up the rocks until they got to the top one in the structure. They looked up and saw that the highest window of the castle was about thirty feet up; they would have to be Spider-Man to reach that window. Grover had the same idea that Percy had, "Thalia, you think you can float us up to the window using the air currents?"

Thalia shook her head quickly. "I'm good." She took out her spear and gave a savage tomahawk to the castle brick. When the spear contacted the brick, an electric charge erupted out of it, blowing a steaming hole into the castle. Grover and Percy glanced at each other and followed Thalia as she forged into the castle.

The castle was pitch black, unconsciously prompting Percy's wolf senses to go into overdrive. He smelled old furniture and old blood. He heard a few creaks within the castle, but the path in front of them was so black that it looked like a portal to the dimension that people shadow travel through. Percy's petal glowed a deep yellow, which he put together as being the color of him being nervous. Luckily, Thalia opened her hands and materialized a flashlight, allowing them to see in front of them. The three of them saw that they had blasted straight into a large, dark, windy staircase that descended into darkness. Each stair was large, each almost four feet wide and six feet long.

Thalia shined her light down the staircase, only to see more blackness. "Mormo and the entrance to the Asopio pool are a hundred flights down these stairs, according to the modern legend. Since we came through an unorthodox way, I'm not sure what number flight we entered in, but it must be less than hundred. Let's go."

Thalia led the group with her flashlight held vigilantly in front of them. They cautiously went down the cyclical stairs and Percy began to hear small chittering, as well as something that he thought were growls. The smell of old blood was getting closer to them, prompting Percy to take Riptide out lest the smell of old blood became the smell of their blood. Each time they completed a flight of stairs, a torch about twelve feet up the wall lit on fire, illuminating a much larger platform that was about ten feet wide and twelve feet long. It reminded Percy of the checkpoints in video games, so that when his character died, they could start at the checkpoint instead of starting over.

They had only gotten past one flight of stairs when Percy's hair on his arms stood up. Adrenaline coursed through his body and he gripped Riptide with both hands, ready to cleave through whatever threat was approaching. Grover stopped as well, sniffing and listening. Thalia didn't hear Percy and Grover stop their progress, so she continued to go down the steps. She was about ten steps down when she finally stopped and shined the flashlight in their direction, momentarily blinding them and killing any night vision they had developed. "You guys okay?"

Thalia's voice seemed to cut through the darkness and into them; it was so human that it almost caught Percy off guard among all the animalistic noises and bestial scents. Grover nodded. "Yeah, but Percy's having one of those hunting danger senses that he has."

Thalia looked around and shined the flashlight around the stairwell. "I don't see any-"

As fast as sound, a small gray blur phased through the wall, grabbed Thalia's flashlight, and hopped down five minutes' worth of stairs, running away. Thalia screamed, "HEY!" However, her response was lost to the echoes of the chamber. Percy gripped Riptide even harder and Grover got his knives out. Grover whispered to Percy, "That thing was unnaturally quick. We need to get to Thalia now. We need to get ready to make a unified front."

Percy agreed, and on a telepathic "Three!" they sprinted down the stairs to Thalia. As soon as they moved, they heard animalistic growling and hissing. Percy located the sounds to being all around them as opposed to being faint or in the distance. Once they made it to Thalia, Percy's senses were working overtime. He was using every single sense he could possibly use; he could see shapes moving in the darkness, he could smell the old blood coming towards them, he could hear the chittering/hissing moving and shifting around them, slowly getting closer, he could taste the suddenly increased humidity and warmth within the chamber. Through his feet's contact with the stair they were on, he could feel the small vibrations of…something moving towards them. Riptide's glow was giving them a limited amount of light, along with Thalia's spear, which she made sparkle with electricity. Percy's petal was now burning a deep yellow.

Grover looked back at Thalia in the darkness. "You can't make another one of those flashlights?"

"What, you think there's an unlimited amount of them?"

"Yes! YES, that's exactly what I think."

"Focus," Percy said as his petal changed to a faint red color. He wasn't used to being the serious one, but he was getting a seriously bad feeling about this. Just as fast as the first one, four gray blurs phased up from the floor. Two stole Grover's knives and Thalia's spear in one motion while two knocked Grover and Thalia down. Percy swung with Riptide, but the blurs were fifty feet up by that time. Thalia growled and opened her hands, forming a bow and arrow. Grover pulled out his reed pipes, but those were stolen just as quickly by another gray blur that came flying in from the side. "Aw, come ON," was Grover's response.

Percy became antsy; celestial bronze was a rare enough metal that it would feasibly be of some interest to these thieving blurs. Percy didn't want to take a risk of them stealing Riptide and him being momentarily weaponless, so he capped his sword and it shrank to a pen, allowing him to stick in deep into his battle pants pocket. He concluded that whatever these thieving spirits were, they were going to be almost impossible to stop. They were too fast and had virtually impeccable hand-eye coordination; they never missed anything they were aiming for.

"We need to start going down, now. We can't be waiting on one step for them to prey on us. If your weapons are gone, take some from my duffel bag, which they'll most likely take soon. We can lose those if need be, we just need to get to the bottom or else we'll end up without any clothes. Let's go!"

Percy hustled down the winding stairs, leaping and flipping over multiple stairs at once. Thalia and Grover followed his lead. Using Lupa's sensory training, Percy could tell exactly where every step, railing, and gap was, allowing him to move as quickly as his sprint time. Torches erupted in fire as the trio flew past them. They began to make good progress. He thought it was crazy how comfortable he became with stunts like these. Thalia was holding her own due to her skills as a Hunter, and Grover used his exceptionally balanced satyr-legs to keep up. Percy realized mid-flip that if any other demigod was on this quest, they would have been overtaken immediately. He made a mental note to himself to require Lupa-style training to every demigod, because they will be in a situation like this one, where weapons are useless.

However, the faster they moved, the more aggressive the gray blurs became. It was almost like they were getting more and more threatened by their increasingly fast pace. When Percy, Thalia, and Grover were moving at top speed, the blurs were roaring and screaming while stealing everything they could, from spears to swords, to shields, to hats, to oranges, to ambrosia, to finally the duffel bag itself. Percy was lucky that he still had Riptide, but that was only because it was safely tucked into his pocket. Their groove was stopped when one of them changed their approach and slammed into Grover. Percy heard Grover go flying into a wall at the bottom of one of the stair-sets. Unfortunately, Percy and Thalia were a hundred stairs down already before his reaction time picked up Grover's absence.

Percy stopped on a dime, pivoted and headed back up the stairs. The gray blurs seemed to be faked out. They seemed to have trouble stopping once they realized Percy wasn't heading down the stairs any more, but they changed directions and started to head up the stairs. As Percy was sprinting up, he used his left arm to wrangle Thalia out of the air mid-leap and pull her back up the stairs. He realized that he was holding her hand and he let go. They leapt back up to where Grover was, only to see him cornered by the beasts. Once Percy and Thalia stopped to look at Grover, they saw that they were cornered by beasts as well; the beasts that were following behind them as well as the ones that were in front of them had all gathered into this one corner. Percy counted at least two hundred of them, and if they weren't crowded around Grover, they were shrouded in shadows, perched upon old, dusty windows, railings and stairs as they growled towards them.

Percy got his first good look at the beasts. They were each about two feet tall, with gray leathery skin that hugged their bones so tightly that it looked like each one was sickly. It reminded him of Ella for a second, until he saw their teeth. They had rows and rows of teeth, all of them sharp and rusty. The smell of old blood was overpowering when all of them were there in the same space. They had no hair, and their ears pointed at a downwards angle as opposed to straight up. Their feet were clawed and pronged, like a gray, leathery rooster. They had blank, milky blue eyes, with a small white dot that seemed to be moving at a thousand miles to quickly spot their next target. He couldn't imagine the amount of stimuli that they were taking in over the span of one minute. They seemed to be twitching, as if they couldn't stop themselves from moving.

Percy saw that they were taking all of Grover's clothes, and decided to to take a gamble. He screamed, "HEY!"

All the small gray creatures turned towards him. Milky blue eyes and small, white dots trained onto him, glowing in the darkness and shaking as if they were moving at super-speed.

Thalia grunted. "Those are the Kobold. They're goblin-like creatures who love to steal and trick. They especially love rare or deadly weapons. I thought they had gone extinct!"

Percy thought that she sounded like Annabeth for a quick second, but pushed that out of his head. He took out his pen and whispered to Thalia, "Play along."

Thalia looked at him as Percy gave a brilliant grin to the league of tiny monsters. "It is you all's lucky day! Because in your presence is the hero, Percy Jackson!"

A ripple of excitement ran through the crowd of beasts. Percy thought they were probably calculating if they could just take him as a person. He saw Thalia roll her eyes in his peripheral vision. Percy continued. "And this is an item that is unique within the entire world…no one has ever possessed it before…you have not lived until you have seen…from OLYMPUS ITSELF, THIS PEN!"

Percy held up the pen, and the Kobold all tilted their heads in unison. Thalia caught on and presented it with jazz hands as if she was one of those women who present game show answers with a leg pop and a smile. One of them turned on Thalia's flashlight onto Percy, as if it was a spotlight. Another one spit light green saliva towards Percy, missing his head by an inch. Percy fought the urge to throw up and continued. "THIS PEN can write letters…and store ink…and make some cool beats! But this is no ordinary pen!"

Thalia decided to improvise. She grabbed his hand. "NO! Honey, we can't! We can't give it to them! It's too valuable and rare! It's worth a fortune!" She put her hand on her head and Hollywood fainted into him. Jitters, mutters and growls of excitement washed over the crowd of beasts. Percy wasn't sure why she decided to act like they were married, but he decided against arguing in the moment.

In a terrible thespian voice, Percy replied, "But we must, my love! Because this is no ordinary writing utensil…it's also…"

Percy uncapped it and Riptide sprang to life. The Kobold all gasped and began to clap. As many times as Percy has uncapped it, he still felt the urge to join in with the Kobold in praising this awesome weapon. As Percy expected, there were about sixteen gray blurs towards Riptide. Percy had planned for this and started swinging Riptide as soon as he had presented it. When the multiple gray blurs tried to take Riptide, mid-swing, he cut through them. They turned into dust, agitating the other Kobold. Percy got into a battle stance. "NOW! This sword also gives me increased reaction time. I am willing to give this to whoever behaves the best! I don't want to kill any of you, but the one who gives all our stuff back and follows behind us in a single file line will get the sword for themselves."

Thalia put her hands up as if she was herding campers. "Keep in mind, this celestial bronze sword is both a weapon…and a pen!"

The reminder spurred the Kobold into action, and as a wave, they got in a line as well as returned the duffel bag full of weapons that they had taken. One of them handed Thalia her flashlight back. They passed Grover to us, passing him down a Kobold-edition assembly line like an artist crowd-surfing. When he got to Percy and Thalia, they felt bad for him. Grover had no clothes on, a few black eyes, scars, and his horns looked like they had tried to take it out of his head. His eyes were wide and shaking, and he was just barely whimpering. Through their empathy link, Percy felt pure fear. He couldn't imagine being attacked by the Kobold in a pitch-black castle was anyone's idea of activities for the sane.

Thalia led the way with her flashlight and Percy carried Grover down the stairs, along with his duffel bag. Grover was surprisingly light, maybe about a hundred pounds. Torches erupted into flames as they descended the stairs. The Kobold followed along obediently, but every few minutes or so, they would start to get restless. However, Percy would hold Riptide up and the celestial bronze glow would hypnotize the creatures into obedience once more. After a solid hour of walking, they finally reached the bottom of the stairs, which led to a door that stood about ten feet tall. The door seemed to be Victorian-era, with red and purple stained glass in the center. The stained glass depicted a woman with chalk white skin devouring a child, which eerily reminded Percy of Arachne. Thalia turned and nodded to Percy.

This is where Mormo is, Percy thought. Thalia pushed open the door and it led into a large, dark corridor. The corridor was lit with torches on either side every ten feet or so. It was lined with a long lavender carpet and it stretched about ninety feet to another door. Percy had an idea of how he was going to get rid of the Kobold; they wouldn't be docile forever. Percy deliberately left the entrance door open. He and Thalia marched to the end of the corridor, and he gave Grover to Thalia. He pushed open the door and forced Thalia and Grover through the door.

He began to exit the corridor, but as he did, he tossed Riptide in the middle of the room. The Kobold swarmed it, and Percy exited the corridor while slamming the door behind him. Percy took a few long wood beams that were right by the door and put it through the door handles so they wouldn't open easily. Percy knew his pen would return to his pocket in a matter of seconds, and just waited for them to realize as such. Until that happened though…

Percy knelt and put his hand on the cob-web filled floor. Though it was an old building, he still knew that this structure was used for tours and other attractions for visitors…so they must have water. He felt the water moving like vibrations under the floorboards. He felt the water move through the pipes, going their usual route towards sinks, fountains, water fountains and toilets. Percy also felt the water in the lake outside. His gut tugged, and in one silent command, Percy willed all nearby water to come to him. In a bit of guided chaos, he felt the toilets burst, the sinks crack, and the fountains explode one by one. The water from the lake flowed in through the hole that Thalia had made earlier in the evening. All the water from the multiple sources met at the top of the stairwell, and, in a huge wave, flowed straight to him. Percy closed his eyes and felt what the water felt; he willed it through down the stairs.

Percy felt his pen return to his pocket and he smiled to himself. The Kobold began to bang on the doors, undoubtedly wailing about how they had gotten cheated and they want a refund of their time and energy. However, before they could break it down, Percy felt the water crash through the corridor door that he had left open. He willed all the water to crash and swirl through that room, but willed none of it from seeping underneath the door that he, Thalia, and Grover were behind. Percy had created a cyclone of coursing water. The Kobold may have been fast in the castle, but they were terrible swimmers. He could feel them struggling to stay afloat.

In a moment that scared even himself, Percy said through gritted teeth, "This is for Grover." Some of the water by the first open corridor door formed into a hard water hand and closed the corridor door to create a cage for the Kobold; they were trapped in the area between the first and the second corridor doors. The water level began to rise to a height that almost as high as the ceiling. And one by one, the Kobold began to drown. Percy felt every drowning, every single kick, thrash, and final roar they gave. Percy continued to will the water to swirl around and within a span of three minutes, the Kobold in the castle were dead. Percy released control, and the water spilled underneath the first corridor door.

Percy was breathing heavily and turned to see his friends' reactions. However, in all his effort drowning the Kobold, he saw that he was in a very big room. The room was covered with stained glass and murals, that were all red and purple colors. Red velvet lined the floors, and around the perimeter of the room were cages of beings of all different races and breeds, from humans to monsters to animals. There was a large bed at the back of the room, bigger than any human should need; it could have fit ten large men. Lined along the walls were torches that burned rotating colors of red, orange, and purple. The sight right in front of Percy made his breath catch in his throat.

His friends had been tied up and gagged by two large, muscular telkhines. He recognized the sleek bodies and the dog faces from his adventure investigating Hephaestus' forges. Percy was especially worried, however, that he didn't even smell him or hear him while he was drowning the Kobold; was he in such a rage that he didn't hear them? Or are they odorless and soundless? The telkhines holding his friends captive were about ten feet apart. Between the monsters was a red satin couch about ten feet long. There was a woman with pale-ish white skin lying on the couch in a suggestive manner.

She was human sized, about 5'10 and she had on a revealing maid's costume with fishnet stockings. Her toned arms and thick legs coursed with muscles and power. She had long, dark black hair that reached the bottom of her stomach. She had one of those mature faces that looked anywhere from 25 to 45 years of age. Her hair reminded Percy of Medusa's snake hair. What struck Percy about her most was her eyes. She had black eye shadow that covered a lot of the area around her eyes, but her eyes were glowing a soft purple.

She smiled at him. She had four small, sharp fangs that gave an animalistic quality to her grin. Percy took in her smell, which was the most intoxicating thing he had ever smelled. Despite his friends being held captive, Percy noticed that his…libido was definitely being aroused. His petal glowed a deep orange.

This was Mormo. And she (they?) was sexy.