Chapter four.

After some minutes, Annabeth decided to break the comfortable silence.

"But Vice, in order to enter the Labyrinth a Half-Blood has to touch the mark, and, as far as I know, you aren't a half-blood, but a descendant of a god, right? Then how did you enter?"

"Well," I started. As Luke already knew, I think there was no need to actually hide it, specially to your closest person. "I... uhm... I'm Zeus's son, actually."

She turned her head at me.

"What?" She asked in a repreensive voice.

"I think you already heard." I said in an annoyed tone looking away and rolling my eyes.

"Since when do you know?"

"Since last winter. Zeus told me that and... well. He gave us his blessing." I blushed.

"And why didn't you tell me that?"

"First because my father told me not to as it would be too pollemic for him to have another kid. And second because both me and him thought Luke could find out if I told anyone. Unfortunately, I think someone-Luke's spy-eavesdropped my dad telling me that and told Luke, who, naturally, already knows about it."

"And you call yourself genius..." She muttered.

"Hey!"

She glared at me.

"You're annoying." She stated.

"Yeah. Thanks for brightening my ego."

"You're welcome."

Then she walked off giving me a quick peck on the lips.

"Women are so troublesome..." I muttered once Annabeth was out of earsight.

"That's Shikamaru's slogan." Naruto said inside my mind.

"The guy's been dead for three thousand years. I think I can steal that single slogan and use it nowadays." I replied.

"Tsssss... You're not original."

"And you are too original."

"Try me." He said.

"Okay, what would you do if Hinata was kissing you, you didn't want it and Sakura caught you at that same moment and got the wrong idea?" I said in a mocking tone.

"Uh... well... I would try to apologize to her."

"Doing what..."

"Paying for some bowls of ramen for her." He said.I mentally slapped my forhead.

"See? Too original."

"... Shut up." He said, embarassed. I chuckled.

:::::

I was walking towards the guys, who were talking to Eurytion, a son of Ares kinda in charge of the ranch.

"Oi, Grover, Tyson!" I said. "I think you need to apologize to someone here."

They instantly kneeled in front of me and got their hands in a prayer position.

"We're sorry, Vice. We're really sorry, we weren't aware of-"

"Ok, guys," I said. "I got it, you're sorry. No need for drama."

"Oh, right," They said, ashamed. "Uh... what were you talking about, Eurytion?"

"Ah, yeah," The son of Ares said. "I was saying that I have something here that'll lead you towards Hephaestus. He gave me it after I helped him put Aphrodite in some golden net... don't question it."

He then got a necklace out of his black leather jacket and clicked on a botton. It jumped out of Eurytion's hand and expanded, to reveal eight robotic legs. Annabeth jumped on me and I caught her bride style.

"Spider!" She screamed and turned towards my chest. I blushed.

"Why's she acting like this?" Eurytion asked.

"She's daughter of Athena. You know, Athena and Aracne thingo..." Percy asked.

"Oh, right. Sorry." He said, obviously ashamed.

"Hey, you'll have to get over your fear, at least by now." I told Annabeth. She nodded and got off me.

"Uhm... well, I think it's a good bye, then." Percy said.

"Well, bye." Eurytion said and he, together with Nico went back to the Greek house.

We followed the machanical spider that was already moving, and in no time we were back to the darkness.

:::::

We were some time already in the Labyrinth, and my first impression of the spider was: troublesome. The thingo scuttled through the tunnels so fast, and that added to it's size made it invisible most of the time. If it wasn't for Grover and Tyson I wouldn't have been able to follow it; only if I had touched it so that I could hiraishin to where it was anytime. But I hadn't touched it, so I had to get happy with following Tyson's and Grover's instructions.

We ran down a marbel tunnel, then dashed to the left and almost fell into an abyss. Well, Percy almost did as Tyson grabbed his collar. I fell but was able to stick fingers in the floor (I literally sticked them there. I channeled chakra to them and broke the floor) and pulled myself up.

"Thanks for helping me, guys." I mumbled.

"Oh, that? It was nothing." Percy said, his lavender eyes shooting a death glare at me.

List of things I don't like:

Bullies;

Beans;

Ares;

Hera;

Hecate;

Hyuugas glaring at you. Mainly if it's a death glare;

Country music.

That's pretty much what I hate.

In other words, I took some steps back when Percy glared at me, almost falling off the cliff.

The tunnel continued in front of us, with a small gape of a hundred feet where you couldn't see the floor and a series of iron rungs in the ceiling. The mechanical spider was halfway across, swinging from bar to bar by shooting out metal web fiber. Hehaestus really fascinated me with all his inventions. He should show his inventions to humanity-if humanity had those inventions, we would surely be at least three centuries more advanced than where we were now.

"Monkey bars," Annabeth said. "I'm great at these."

She then started jumping from one to one. We followed, Tyson and Grover being the last ones as Tyson was the heaviest and was giving Grover a kind of goatybackride.

Well, I didn't quite follow Annabeth, I shunshined to the other side.

Just for you to know, the shunshin has a range of three miles.

As Tyson and Grover jumped to where we were (the last monkey bar ripped free under the big guy's weight). We got on with the travel, dodging some obstacles until Percy tripped on a pile of hundeds of broken Pencils. I struggled not to laugh my ass off.

Suddenly, a blinding light hit us. My eyes took some seconds to get used to it, and the first thing I saw were skeletons, nearly the same quantity of the pencils. Some were old and white and others more recent with and still had some meat in their faces, and you could see some of the blood dried under their bodies. I didn't want to know where most of the blood had gone.

Unfortunately, I instantly knew where it had gone. It was a huge lion with the head of a woman. She wore a lot of make-up and her black hair was tied in a ponytail. She had a blue ribbon pinned to her chest that read: THIS MONSTER HAS BEEN RATED AS EXEMPLARY!

I didn't know why, but I had less difficulty in reading stuff than Percy and the others.

Tyson whimpered. "Sphinx."

Percy looked sympathetically at Tyson. I stood there, oblivius of why Tyson was scared and of why Percy looked at him in such a way.

Spotlights blazed on both sides of the monster. The only exit was right behind it. The spider scuttled between the creature's paws and dissappeared.

Annabeth moved forward, but the Sphinx roared and bars blocked both exits, behind and in front.

You must be thinking: Why didn't I grab the guys and shunshined towards the exit of the room? Simple. The Shunshin no Jutsu, as the Hiraishin, is a movement technique, as much as the gods'. If there isn't enough space for me to pass between those bars (which obviously there isn't), I would just get smashed against those bars if I tried to shunshin. So if I couldn't alone, put less five people.

Suddenly, the creature's snarl turned into a brilliant smile.

"Welcome, lucky constentants!" She announced. Lucky? In my worst nightmares, maybe. "Get ready to play... ANSWER THAT RIDDLE!"

Canned applause blasted through the ceiling. I sighed and got into a depressed stance.

"Man... this thing's getting SO RIDICULOUS!" I said, the first part mumbling and the second one screaming at the top of my lungs.

"Calm down, Vice, calm down. It'll soon be over..." Percy said, tapping my now facing-the-floor head.

"Fabolous prizes!" The Sphinx said. "Pass the test, and you get to advance! Fail, and I get to eat you! Who'll be our contestant?"

I was crying on the ground, hopeless by now and screaming "THIS IS TOO RIDICULOUS FOR MY MIND TO TAKE! STOP IT! PLEASE, I BEG YOU! STOP IT, DAMN!" and then I let out a sequence of sobs.

Everyone (including the Sphinx) glared at my crying figure.

After I stopped sobbing and finally stood up, Annabeth grabbed my arm.

"I've got this," She whispered. "I know what she's going to ask."

"Can't you say 'gonna' for once in your life?" I whispered back. Annabeth just rolled her eyes.

She stepped forward to the constentant's podium and pushed aside a skeleton in school uniform.

"Sorry." She told it, as if it was living or something.

"Welcome, Annabeth Chase!" The Sphinx announced.

"Hey," I said. "Can you try not to shout? My head's aching."

The monster just glared at me, then turned towards Annabeth.

"Are you ready for your test?" The Sphinx asked in the same tone as before. I sighed.

"Yes," Annabeth replied. "Ask your riddle."

"Twenty riddles, actually!" It said gleefully.

"What? But back in the old days-"

"Oh! We've raised our standards! To pass, you must show proficiency in all twenty! Isn't that great?"

Aplause switched on and off like somebody turning a faucet. I tapped Percy's arm.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Did you have a sudden urge to blow up whoever is doing this?" I asked.

"Yep," He answered. "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Ever since then I want to blow 'WIDTS' up."

"WIDTS?"

"Whoever Is Doing This Shit."

"Agreed."

"Okay," Annabeth told the Sphinx. "I'm ready."

A drumroll sounded from above and The Sphinx's eyes glittered with excitment.

"What... is the capital of Bulgaria?"

Okay. If this is a riddle, then I don't know what a quiz is.

"Sofia." Annabeth answered. "but-"

"Correct!" Canned applause. The Spinx smiled so wide her fangs were showing. "Please, be sure to mark your answer clearly on your test sheet with a number 2 pencil."

"What?" Annabeth looked mystified.

"Vice, don't loose control Vice, don't loose control, please..." I muttered to myself.

A test booklet then appeared on the podium in front of Anna along with a sharpened pencil.

"Make sure you bubble each answer clearly and stay inside the circle." The Sphinx said. "If you have to erase, erase completely or the machine will not be able to read your answers."

"What machine?" Annabeth asked.

The Sphinx pointed with her paw. A spotlight moved to where she was pointing to reveal a bronze box with a bunch of gears and levers and a big Greek letter Eta on the side, the mark of Hephaestus.

"Now," The Sphinx said. "next question-"

"Wait a sec," Annabeth protested. "What about 'What walks on four legs in the morning'?"

"I beg you pardon?" The Sphinx said, clearly annoyed.

"YEAH! GO ANNA! ANNOY THIS LION AS MUCH AS YOU CAN!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. She seemed to ignore me.

"The riddle about man," Annabeth explained. "He walks on four legs in the morning, like a baby, two legs in the afternoon, like an adult, and three legs on the evening, like an old man with a cane. That's the riddle you used to ask."

"Exactly why we changed the test!" It exclaimed. "You already knew the answer. Now second question. What's the square root of sixteen?"

"Four," Annabeth said, "but-"

"Correct! Which U.S.-"

"Listen here, you ugly thingo." I said as loud as I could without shouting. "You said that we already knew the answer to the other riddle, right? Well, you're just spitting facts we already know the answer for, so can you bother to let us pass? I'm simply getting bored hearing those canned applause. Sincerly, haven't you got anything better there? If you don't then LET US SOME FUCKING PASSAGE BECAUSE WE ARE LOSING OUR SPIDER OKAY?!"

If I wasn't in an underground place, I think japanese people would be able to hear my scream, as my head got much bigger, kind of anime-style.

"Sorry, half-blood, but do you want me to kill your little girlfriend here?" Asked the Sphinx. Annabeth smirked.

"Try me." Annabeth simply said.

The Sphinx charged forward at Annabeth. I felt time kinda slowing down around me-but I could still move freely. I saw the Sphinx slowly charging at Annabeth. I shunshined to the monster's front where she was already jumping towards Annabeth and stabbed it in the stomach, and thanks to the jump, I just kept the sword in place while it cutted all the way down the Sphinx. The monster vaporized two feet before getting to Annabeth. Time seemed to go back to normal. A scared gasp was heard of the ceiling.

I moved aside to the room exit and signaled to it.

"Tyson, if you may, please." I said. Tyson smirked and charged.

After transforming the bars nearly to dust, Tyson gave us passage.

"You should've let me complain, you know." Annabeth told me.

"You'd just get eaten, you know. And I like you too much to let that happen." I explained.

"I'm a daughter of Athena. I've gone through worse stuff than a psychopatic lion woman."

"I know," I said. "but I can't help it. Instinct to protect you, I guess."

"Are you gonna talk much longer? If you don't worry, we've got a spider to follow." Said Grover.

End of chap, guys. I know, in this chapter I got a lot exactly from the book, but I didn't quite remember the whole thing with the Sphinx and all. Anyways, whatddaya think? Like it? Hate it? Did I make any mistakes? Please review!