"Well, what's the plan now?" Breathed Ellie.

I looked down the corridor we had entered. We were narrowly squeezed between two solid, unpainted concrete walls. A series of dull ceiling lights flickered every few meters until stopping at a second metal door.

I heard a painful groan come from beneath me. I looked down at the guy who I had just dragged inside. He couldn't have been more than a year older than me. I noticed the golden emblem on his purple shirt. "Camp Jupiter? Lexie, isn't that the latin form of Zeus?"

"Yes." She answered quickly but didn't stop as she began stripping the shirts off our three unconscious friends.

"Umm... Lex? What are you doing?" Asked Ellie.

"Well we need to tie them up somehow!" She quickly tossed me one of the purple t-shirts and ordered me to tear it into strips.

Once I had cut the cloth into several strips I handed my pile to Lexie, she quickly set to work tying the three up against an electrical conduit. While that was happening, Ellie and I collected their pikes and placed them out of reach.

"I like these spears" commented Ellie as she ran her finger along it's golden tip.

"You just like gold." My sister had finished with the guards and was now standing next to me.

Ellie shrugged. "Well gold is for winners. I think I'll keep it."

After taking a moment to catch our breath, we all cautiously moved toward the metal door. Ellie's left hand slid between my fingers as Lexie slowly pushed the door open a crack and peeked through.

"Holy Zeus!" Lexie cursed as she pushed it completely open and revealed an enormous valley.

The sun was starting to rise to the east and at the center of the valley was series of buildings that resembled a military barracks. Farther down a stone road was a small grouping of stone white buildings with a central plaza. Dividing us from the buildings was a small river that rushed with sparkling white rapids.

What was even more surprising than the valley and river (and its surprising enough to see a flowing river in California) was the enormous colosseum just outside the farthest cluster of buildings.

"How is this not on a map?" I asked. "This has to be visible by aircraft!"

"Maybe not." Answered Ellie. "The mist can do strange things, keep mortals from seeing the most obvious things to us."

"Like the trap you just stumbled into?"

The three of us froze solid as we looked to our left. I cursed as I recognised the guy who spoke.

Octavian stood in front of a phalanx of soldiers. Each of the soldiers wore golden armor and on their helmet was a purple roman style plume that reminded me of the Trojan Marching band, which now that I think of it, should change their uniforms to something more greek.

Octavian signalled and as if on cue, all eight members of the phalanx lowered their lances at us.

"Oh this is just as I prophesized!" He cheered as he ripped a stuffed animal off of his belt and cut off the head using a golden knife. The coffee addict look he had seemed to go on overdrive and he shook for a moment. "Yes!" He cheered. "I've got some good news for you three, death my gladiatorial combat!"

"You don't have the authority!" Spoke one of the phalanx members. I recognised him from somewhere but I couldn't pinpoint it. "Only the Praetors can give such a sentence!"

"Quiet centurion!" Snapped Octavian. "I prophesied it and it will happen! It's the demand of the gods! Don't worry though, we will have time to know each other first."

Octavian paused for a moment glaring at me as if he remembered me. "Artogious, you have the honors." He smiled.

I heard a deep grunt behind me and felt a heavy hand grab me by the head. Damn it, I had forgotten to watch my own back. The last thing I felt was my skull strike the stone road that I had been standing on.