Sorry for taking so long to update…. I'd give excuses, but frankly I don't have any so ENJOY :D

Dakota had been right about arriving at Percy's apartment at four in the morning. Unfortunately, the short nap Halley had taken on the plane hadn't helped improve her mood any. She was still very grumpy… possibly even more so, since sleeping for only two hours when she was exhausted tended to just worsen her mood on any occasion.

Dakota looked at the door of Percy's apartment. "Should we knock, or pick the lock?" he asked.

Halley glared at him. "I'm going to blame that impossibly bad rhyme on your lack of sleep," she said. "And for the record, I'd go with knock… it's safer."

Beside her, Piper nodded. If they hear someone trying to break in, they'll most likely assume it's one of the bad guys. You need to remember that we have some heavily armed friends in there.

"Okay… so I'll knock."

Dakota raised his fist and gave the door three solid knocks. They waited for awhile, but no one answered. Halley grumbled something under her breath, and pushed Dakota out of the way, pulling out her sword as she did.

"This is how you knock, Dakota," she muttered. Then she raised her sword and used the handle to beat loudly against the door.

Dakota quickly grabbed her arm and stopped it.

"What are you doing?" he hissed.

Halley glared at him. "Knocking on the door," she said.

That's when the door opened and they were met with the tired looking face of Percy. He was clutching his pen in his hand, looking ready to uncap it at a moment's notice.

"Oh, it's just you guys," Percy said with a half yawn. He stepped back out of the doorway. Nico and Jason were standing behind him, both looking pretty dead tired. "Come on in. Leo and the girls are still asleep."

…

It took a few minutes to get everyone into the room. It took a considerable amount longer for them all to become coherent enough to actually do anything. But when they did, there wasn't a lot of joking around.

Reyna was looking around at all of them. Annabeth and Percy were sitting on the couch. Annabeth was leaning against Percy, still half asleep. Dakota was laying on the floor, looking very similar to the way Leo had earlier that day. Nico was on Percy's other side, absentmindedly playing with the skull ring on his finger. Halley and Reyna were sitting on the floor with their backs against the couch, doing their best to avoid the other three's feet. Piper and Jason were sitting across from them on the coffee table. Leo was doing his best not to fall asleep from his spot in Paul's recliner.

Halley's mood hadn't improved any, and her grouchiness didn't go unnoticed. The first thing Leo had asked her was what was wrong. She had looked at him for a second before breaking down in tears. Dakota had to explain what had happened because Halley refused to talk.

"Why is this happening?" Jason asked no one in particular, breaking the awkward silence. "Why is Gaea sending all these people after us? Why is she having them steal our powers?"

"I don't know," Annabeth answered with a yawn.

"Well, mine and Piper's are sort of obvious," Leo said. "We use ours when we're fighting all the time, but I don't understand why they took Halley's." He looked over at Dakota. "You said she told you she can't communicate mentally anymore, right? Why would they take those away?"

Halley grumbled and crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't know. Maybe it's just because I really ticked someone off?"

"It's not the first time," Dakota muttered.

Halley kicked him in the ribs.

"Ow!"

"Serves you right," she grumbled.

"Can you guys please try to cooperate for a little while?" Reyna asked. "Hals, I know you aren't in the greatest mood right now…"

Dakota scoffed. "That's an understa… OW! Halley!"

Reyna shot them both annoyed looks. "As I was saying, something serious is going on, and we don't really have any idea what that is." She bit her lip. "We need to figure out more about this, but we also need to find a way to get your powers back."

This last sentence was pointed more at Leo, Piper, and Halley.

"Piper wants to know how you plan on doing that," Dakota said.

"A quest?" Percy asked.

It was just a suggestion, but Reyna looked up at him like he was a genius.

"I'm not used to getting that look," he said. "Why are you looking at me like that Reyna?"

"Because that's exactly what I was thinking," she answered. "Only, I was thinking more along the lines of multiple quests."

"Multiple quests?" Annabeth asked. "What are you thinking these quests are?"

"Piper and Leo each go on their own quests to try and get their powers back, or at least find a lead of how to get them back. They can choose their companions, but I have suggestions for Leo since he's going to have to go against Khione. And Dakota should probably go with Piper." Reyna looked over at Piper. "I guess you can make Jason your other companion."

Piper smiled slightly.

"She says thanks Reyna!" Dakota said.

"What about me?" Leo asked. "You said you had a suggestion for who I should choose? And I'm guessing that fifty giant flamethrowers don't count."

"This might sound crazy," Reyna said, "but I think Leo needs to take those two campers from Camp Jupiter we were talking about earlier. Hazel and Frank."

"But I don't know them," Leo protested. He frowned. "Can't I take Halley or someone else? Annabeth or Percy? What about Nico?"

"Leo, Hazel and Frank aren't that bad," Jason said. "You guys should get along fine."

Leo didn't look happy about this. He started to say something else, but then Halley spoke up. She got to her feet, placed her hands on her hips, and glared at Leo.

"Look… You have to take Frank with you. In case you haven't noticed, you sort of don't have fire anymore. Frank has certain powers… they could really help you against Khione."

Leo looked at her in surprised. Halley's expression had softened. She looked tired, which wasn't surprising. But her grouchiness had suddenly vanished.

"What kind of powers?" Leo asked. "I thought you guys said he was a son of Mars? What powers could he have, except maybe being meaner than normal?"

Jason and Halley exchanged glances. "Frank… Frank's a descendant of Periclymenus. He has shape-shaping abilities."

Leo blinked. "A shape-shifter? I thought they were just myths."

Everyone just stared at him for a minute, until Dakota spoke up.

"Piper would like me to point out that last she checked… we are pretty much living myths. Shape-shifters aren't exactly that surprising."Piper a pointed look

"You just love to prove me wrong, don't you Beauty Queen?" Leo asked, giving Piper a pointed look.

Piper just grinned in response.

Suddenly, there was a loud thump out in the hallway. Everyone who had been almost asleep jumped up from their seats, scrambling for various weapons. Nico, Halley, Dakota, and Jason all unsheathed their swords. Percy pulled Riptide out of his pocket and quickly uncapped it. Annabeth and Piper both had out their knives in no time, and Reyna didn't hesitate to transform her necklace into her bow, notching an arrow in the same fluid motion. Leo didn't have a weapon or his tool belt on hand, so instead he sprinted into the kitchen and grabbed one of Sally's big frying pans.

"What was that?" Halley asked in a whisper.

"Hopefully someone friendly," Nico said.

Another thump resonated through the apartment. Immediately following it was a loud banging on the door and the sound of a familiar female voice shouting from the other side.

"Percy! Open this door before I break it down! I know you guys are in there!"

"Is that Thalia?" Leo asked.

"Thalia?" Percy called out.

"No, it's Steve Jobs! Open the door Seaweed Brain!" She banged on the door again.

"Better let her in," Annabeth said. "Or she'll most likely break down the door."

Percy opened the door and Thalia walked calmly into the room.

"Gods, it took you long enough," she stated. She looked around at the group gathered and the various weapons they were holding. "Did you guys think I was some monster coming to get you?" she asked with a grin.

"Thalia, if you knew the past few days we've all just had, you would be doing the same thing," Halley muttered, lowering her sword.

"What's up Sis?" Jason asked.

"Dad," Thalia responded coolly. When they all just stared at her with a "really" look, she frowned. "Too early, I guess. Anyway, I was at camp, trying to get some sleep when Rachel all of sudden broke into my cabin. She looked totally freaked out, and was holding a paint canvas…"

"That's never a good sign," Percy said, remembering all of Rachel's doomsday pictures he had seen. "What was on it?"

"It wasn't good," Thalia said. "Well, actually the picture would've been awesome if it hadn't been so… doomsday-ish." She sighed and pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket. "Rachel drew this copy up before I left."

Reyna took the paper from Thalia and examined the picture. It was excellently drawn, even if it had been done hastily. Reyna had to force herself to focus on the actual drawing instead of the artistic skills. The scene in the drawing showed two large caves that seemed to be underground. Standing in front of the caves were twelve figures, all with their backs turned. From the picture, it was hard to tell who the twelve figures were, but Reyna had a sneaky suspicion.

She passed the picture around to the rest of the group. When Nico got it, he made a strangled coughing sound.

"I've seen these caves before," he said. "In a dream, I think."

Annabeth took the picture from his hands and studied it closely. "We need to figure out more about this," she said. Looking up at Thalia, she added "Did Rachel say anything else?"

Thalia shook her head. "Not much… just two words: 'occulta mundi', whatever that means."

"It's Latin," Halley said grimly. The other Romans in the group looked just as disturbed about Rachel's message as she did.

"It means 'hidden worlds'," Jason translated.

"Invenire viam ad aliis mundos," Reyna said almost as if she was in a trance.

"What does that mean?" Leo asked nervously.

"Roughly," Dakota answered. "It means 'find the path to the other worlds'."

"That's what we have to do," Annabeth said. "We need to find out what is going on."

"But we also need to get our powers back," Halley stated.

Annabeth frowned. "That's true…" she paused, obviously thinking up a plan. "Okay, here's what we'll do: Piper, Jason, and Dakota will go try and find Drew. Halley, you'll go with Leo to Camp Jupiter and make sure he gets a quest with Frank and Hazel to find Khione. Then you can come back here and help Percy and me try and figure out what's going on."

Percy groaned. "Can't I go kill some monsters or something?"

"You could come with me to find these caves," Nico suggested, gesturing to Rachel's picture.

Percy considered his options. "Blind, deadly quest, or research project with Annabeth…"

Annabeth glared at him, then rolled her eyes. "Ugh, fine. You can go with Nico." She shifted her eyes to Thalia, who smirked.

"I'll make sure they don't get in too much trouble, Annabeth. Don't worry," Thalia promised.

"Who invited you to go with us?" Nico protested.

"Quests have three members; remember that rule, Death Boy?" Thalia said with a grin.

Percy and Nico groaned, though it was mostly for show. After their last adventure in the Underworld together, the three of them had grown to really respect each other as reliable back-up.

"I'll stick around and help you Annabeth," Reyna offered.

Annabeth smiled. "Thanks Reyna. You'll probably be way more help than Percy anyway."

"Hey!" Percy protested. Then, after considering Annabeth's comment, he added: "Though, you're probably right."

Piper yawned. Dakota spoke up for her again: "Piper says we try and get a few more hours of sleep, then we set out on our quests in the morning."

"Sounds like a plan," Thalia said. She pulled out some sleeping bags from her Hunter's pack. "These might come in handy."

It was probably the lack of sleep, but the others seemed to find this really funny. They had all settled down to sleep when Dakota finally asked Leo a question that had been bugging him since Thalia had gotten there.

"Leo…"

"Mmm?" Leo responded, half asleep already.

"How exactly were you going to use a frying pan as a weapon?"

So, I just got TANGLED on DVD about a week ago, and I've been watching it quite a lot. My favorite part is where Flynn is fighting Maximus sword vs. frying pan, and I just had to add that into this chapter, and Leo seemed to be the most likely to pick a frying pan as a weapon. (It was either him or Percy, but since Percy has a definite weapon of choice, I went with Leo.)

Anyway, I've been contemplating whether to have any Thalico shipping or not. Normally, I wouldn't ship Thalia with anyone (because of the whole Hunter deal), and if I did, it would probably be very minor. But since Nico is about fourteen or fifteen in this story, I figured it could be possible. Tell me if you'd like to see that or not.

Review!