Logan:

I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and ready. After grimy travel and fighting monsters, a shower last night felt really good. Anyways, I came down and found Mr. and Mrs. Blake in the kitchen cooking breakfast. In the living room, I found Christina and Alec doing the Staring Contest, while Acacia, Lillian, Kyra, and Gordon and his brother Alejandro cheered them on. Alec was pretty good. He seemed to go on forever. Eventually his eyes began to water. Then he blinked.

"Yeah!" Lillian and Acacia yelled.

"Ha-ha, you look like you're crying," Christina teased Alec.

"Ah, shut up," he said laughing.

"Morning, Logan," Lillian greeted.

"Morning," I replied.

"Want to join Logan? We're about to do a championship one now," Christina asked.

"Sure."

"Alrighty. Who wants to verse who?" Christina said.

"I'll take Acacia," Alec said.

"I take my older brother," Alejandro said.

"Anybody want to verse me?" Christina challenged.

"I'll do it," Kyra said.

"And I guess that leaves me with Lillian," I answered.

"Yes. We can see that, Captain Obvious," Lillian laughed.

"Ready. Set. Go!" Christina started. I stared into Lillian's eyes. After a while, I couldn't stand it anymore I blinked. I could tell Alec had lost to Acacia and Kyra had to Christina. But the two brothers will still holding each other's gaze. Finally, Gordon gave in.

"Who won?" Christina questioned.

"I did," Lillian answered.

"And me," said Kyra and Acacia in unison.

"And we know who Alejandro won," Christina said. "Now for the next round…"

We kept going through rounds. In the end, Lillian, Gordon, Alec, and Christina were left. Christina knocked out Alec and Gordon out of the game. Christina stared into Lillian's eyes, smiling.

"I don't think anyone is going to win. You know the trick so you can go on forever like me," Christina told her. Lillian laughed.

"I know right?" After a while, they tied the game.

"Nice one," Lillian said.

"You too."

"Arm wrestling challenge now," I said. Everyone agreed. We split into who we wanted to take on. Alejandro and Gordon watched me and Christina duke it out.

I laid my elbow on the table and firmly grasped her hand. She grasped mine and purposely squeezed it hard.

"Ow, jeez Christina. Trying to weaken me before we even start?" I asked grinning.

"Sure, whatever you say," Christina answered, winking.

We started the contest and I struggled to put Christina's arm down. She was almost impossible.

"You're not beating me because you're powerful or because you doused yourself in water right Christina?" I asked.

"Nope. It's just pure strength from working out at camp for all these years."

"Sure."

I struggled some more as the others cheered us on.

"Your face is turning red Logan," she commented after a while.

"Yeah and your fingers are turning blue."

"That's because you're squeezing them you big dolt."

"Thanks. Feel so loved."

"You should."

"Aw shut up."

"Are you two dating?" Gordon piped in.

"NO!" Christina and I said at once, turning our heads to give him the DUH! Look. Christina glared instead.

"He's my brother. My true brother for your information Gordon," Christina hissed. He sneered.

"Well excuse me, sister," he mocked.

"Step sister or fake sister you little bastard. Learn the difference," Christina retorted, slamming my hand down against the table. I think her anger made her more powerful. She let go of my hand I rubbed it.

"Sorry Logan," she apologized in a different tone.

"No problem."

"And you're the one to talk about being a little bastard," Gordon finally said.

"Took you long enough to think that one out, didn't it?" Christina snarled.

He grew silent for a few minutes and Christina and he glared at one another, a look of loathing showing in their faces. Gordon said something in Spanish and Christina said something else back that made him gasp out loud. He was about to say something but was interrupted by his mom.

"Breakfast!" yelled Mrs. Blake. As we sat down at the kitchen table, she laid out eggs, bacon, Tabasco sauce, hash browns and juice. We served ourselves and dug in. It was delicious. By eleven, we dressed and were getting ready to leave.

"Why are you leaving so soon?" Brianna asked me.

"Because we got a deadline to beat," Christina answered sourly, walking up, her bow slung over one shoulder and a quiver bursting with arrows on her back. Brianna's eyes were as big as quarters as she stared at the weapon.

"Yeah. Ok," Brianna finally answered after a second, as she tore her eyes away from the bow and arrow. She didn't sound convinced. "So exactly why are you leaving so early?"

"Just like Christina said. We got a deadline to beat before something happens," I repeated.

"Oh." As we were still getting ready to leave, Mr. Blake pulled Lillian and Christina aside and talked to them. Once we were ready, Christina and Lillian didn't look to happy as they walked out the door, talking quietly. The three demigods and I thanked Mr. and Mrs. Blake and left with Christina and Lillian in the lead.

We walked for hours. We reached a forest and Christina sensed something. She looked behind us and then her eyes widened. We followed her gaze but didn't see anything. Christina began to move quicker.

"What exactly did you see and where are we going?" I asked irritated.

"Didn't you see them?" she questioned.

"No. We saw nothing. I don't know if you're cracking under stress, or what but I think you're hallucinating," I answered.

"I'm not hallucinating!" she snapped. That's when we heard angry barks and a couple of bellows that shook the ground. Acacia, Kyra and Alec froze in their tracks.

"No. It can't be," Acacia gasped looking back.

"I thought it stopped following us," Alec said fearfully.

"Alec, you said you killed it!" Kyra interjected, turning on him.

"I thought I did. I must've misjudged," Alec answered.

"Gods he's that desperate. This day is about to get more complicated. Please don't tell me that that was the sound of the Teumessian Fox and Laeplas," Christina feared. Alec didn't meet her eyes. She looked at Acacia who also wouldn't meet her eyes. Then Alec spoke:

"It is," he whispered.

"Dude, then we're all dead. The Teumessian Fox was designed to never be caught but it still hunts. Laeplas is worse. Do you know what Laeplas was designed for?" Christina said, fear in her eyes. I'd never seen her look like that. Lillian was so pale, I thought she was going to faint.

Alec shook his head to the question. Kyra looked worse. Acacia obviously knew what she was talking about. She was trying hard not to cry.

"Alec. Laeplas. Think," she said, snapping her fingers. Alec's eyes widened.

"I know what it's designed for," he answered.

"Laeplas is a dog with amazing ability to get whatever he hunted. If Laeplas is hunting us, then it'll get us. We can't run because we won't make it," Christina answered.

"Then what do we do. Fight them?" I asked, frustrated. She locked eyes with me.

"We can't Logan, the Teumessian Fox like I said, is designed to never be caught and Laeplas will catch us. The best we can do is run I guess for as long as we can," she replied.

"But you just said we can't run," I remembered. She looked back and started sprinting away without answering my question. We sprinted after her.

As we ran through the forest, shoving aside branches, we could here pounding of paws coming.

"Faster!" Christina panted. But the faster we seem to run the closer the paw-steps got. That's when a huge fox leaped out in front of us. We stopped.

"The Teumessian Fox," Lillian informed. "Born to Echidna, Mother of Monster." It wasn't much of a morale booster.

Then Acacia turned around and screamed. I looked back and saw a dog leap out of nowhere, sailing over our heads and tackling Christina. She changed into an animal and attacked it. They grappled for a few minutes until Christina turned into a human which was her mistake. It lunged at her and landed a forepaw on her chest and another on her stomach. Christina gave a painful gasp. I could see it claws were out so I figured it was digging into her skin. The dog leaned in close to her face and growled. I took out my sword and was about to charge when a voice spoke.

"I wouldn't attack Laeplas unless you want Christina's throat torn out." I looked forward and saw a human form strolling forward. I squinted and Kyra gasped. In front of us stood Dominick Martin.

"What do you want with us?" I snarled.

"Oh nothing really. Except for your guy's pledge to Hades, and of course your death. But I'll leave that to Laeplas. As for the rest of you demigods, you'd better pledge your allegiance or you can die a painful death," Dominick said.

"Yeah, like we'd ever join you," I said. Laeplas growled. Christina gasped again. I could see beads of blood appearing.

"Well fine then, I'll make a deal. I let you fight me. If I'm defeated, then I'll let you go. But if you're defeated, you'll watch as Laeplas leave permanent scars on your sister and Lillian. Then I'll let him kill you, Acacia, Alec, and Kyra," Dominick answered.

"Logan, don't accept the challenge," Christina told me. Laeplas growled again and dug his claws deeper. Christian cried out in pain. I shook my head.

"Only way," I told her.

I looked back at Dominick and said, "I accept the challenge."

"Good, because you are so going to lose," he sneered. He lunged forward and I deflected just in time. That's when a man's voice came into my head.

Save her before all goes wrong. Fail to save her and you'll see how ugly Laeplas will make the scars. Succeed and protect her for some time from whatever you will face next. I knew that voice. It was the voice of Poseidon. I looked at my helpless sister and at the other demigods. Then I attacked Dominick.

I swung blade to his side he deflected. I feigned a blow to the head and he ducked but I hit his feet and he fell. I slashed downwards and he rolled away. He jumped to his feet and swung his sword up and I met it with a kick to his chest. He went flying but he got up and came at me. He tried a head cut and I ducked. He thrust forward and I stopped him. I pushed his blade away and counterattacked. He sidestepped.

Dislodge his blade," said a new voice in my head. It was Christina's. He attacked and I tried to dislodge it but couldn't.

Dislodge it by using the move I first taught you! Christina voice said urgently. He attacked again and time seemed to slow. I knew what she meant. As soon as he swung his sword, I hit the base of his sword and thrust downward. The blade fell from his hand and was about to retrieve it but I kicked his blade away and stuck my sword and inch from his chest. He went cross-eyed at the sword.

"I won. You're going to let us all go," I growled.

"You didn't make me swear on the River Styx," he answered.

"What?" I said momentarily confused.

"HA!" Dominick yelled. He thrust out his hand and a black swirling vortex appeared. It grew bigger and bigger until we were encased in the vortex. Everything was black for a moment. Then I hit the ground. I stood up and saw that we were all in the same position when we left. Then Christina screamed in complete pain. I looked over just in time to see her land on her back again with Laeplas on top. I guess the impact had caused the claws to go deeper.

"Let her go!" I yelled at Dominick. He sneered. I summoned the Morph Sphere and Dominick laughed.

"What are you going to do? Throw a water ball at me? It won't do any harm."

Little did he know that I could make the ball solid. I focused on forming it until it was solid. I guess to him it still looked soft. I threw with all my might. I figured he could just easily dodge it but he laughed and said, "I'm just going to stand here because it won't do anything except for get me wet." The Morph Sphere sped towards him and made contact to his stomach. He stopped laughing and doubled over.

"What the?" he gasped. The Morph Sphere reappeared in my hand.

"Want to play with solid water? Try me again," I taunted. His eyes widened and in a whirl of black he disappeared along with Laeplas and the Teumessian Fox.

I helped Christina up and saw her cuts. Laeplas had managed to make big claws slashes across her shirt. I could see the wounds beneath where Laeplas had left huge claw cuts. I gave her some ambrosia and we looked around at our surroundings. Once Christina had figured out where we were, we walked.

"Are we anywhere near Los Angeles," I asked after a while. It was three by now so the sun was in our eyes as we trudged after Christina.

"I think," she said nervously. I stared at her because she was sickly shade of green.

"What's wrong?"

"The entrance to the Underworld is here and something else. Something I can't pinpoint but it's something really familiar. I don't know but I feel like I belong here somewhere but at the same time, I also feel like I don't."

We continued to walk in silence.

After some time, we saw two low hills. As the hills met, in the middle was a wide tunnel with two lanes of traffic each going in and out of a tunnel on either side of a wide sidewalk that was going down the middle. On either side of the tunnel at the entrance was one of the traffic bridges, allowing people to walk across them as traffic flow beneath them. Both of the bridges led to the sidewalk. We needed to get to the other side and as we crossed the bridge, Christina stopped in the middle, staring down at the stairs and across the sidewalk. About twenty feet away was a maintenance door with what was that? Two people in heavy armor, scabbards hanging at their sides and purple plumed helmets? I blinked, rubbing my eyes to make sure I was seeing correctly. Yep I was.

"Christina?" I asked nervously.

She was gripping the railing, looking like she wanted to hurl.

"What is going on?" Lillian asked concerned. The other three demigods were watching carefully.

"It's here. I know I belong here. Oh my gods, what have they done to me? What in the name of Hades?" Christina murmured, glancing at the two purple plumed helmet warriors. She was shaking violently. And she looked different. More military like and stronger and serious. I caught a glimpse of something on her right forearm. But I couldn't see right. Something was definitely not right.

"The gods. Rivarly. A war. Roman. Greek. Roman. Greek," she murmured. She shook once more violently and she began to walk away, still staring at the warriors. She made it across the bridge to the other side. We followed her but didn't ask about what happened. We were too scared to. So I asked instead:

"What did you mean, 'Oh no. Not there again' when Hermes told you Alethia was being kept in Los Angeles?" I questioned.

"I meant that I really didn't want to go to that city again because I hate it there," she told me.

I looked at her kind of funny. "And why do you hate Los Angeles?"

"Because that's where Hades' palace is," Lillian cut broke in. "Two years ago, she was there with Lynch and me for something we didn't do. We barely made out of his palace alive. By the time we got back to camp, we had some nasty monsters pursuing us for making Hades, well, 'unhappy' because we made him look bad."

"Excuse me, but who invited you to talk with us," Christina teased.

"Gee, I don't know." She looked at me.

"What? Why me? I didn't invite you!" I laughed.

"Mmm, you and the questions," Lillian replied. Christina cracked up.

"You girls always gain up on me," I grumbled.

"Deal with it. You're stuck with me for life, unless something happens," Christina answered, bumping me with her shoulder. We continued to walk for hours. By 4:30, we reached Los Angeles drenched in sweat, hot, sticky and tired like crazy.

"Now where in Los Angeles could she be?" I questioned, looking around.

"Some place where mortals wouldn't see them," Acacia answered.

"True," Christina said. She looked around and then gasped.

"There! On the mountain!" We all looked where she was staring and saw blue and black light flashing. Christina looked at the road we were on and started sprinting away.

"Hey! Wait! Don't you know where you're going?" I yelled. She didn't answer but she was beginning to get out of view. We caught up with her as the road wove its way up the mountain. We kept running and Christina veered to the left, following on small trail. We soon heard yells as the flashing got brighter. Up ahead were some bushes but Christina to a stop before them. She nodded to Lillian who gave her bronze dagger to Kyra. Christina gave her bronze dagger to Acacia. Alec had his sword ready. It was an extra sword that Christina had found at her house. Christina, Lillian and I took out our swords, looked at one another and burst through the bushes to find a fight going on.

A girl with black and hair and electric blue eyes had a spear that crackled with blue electricity. I figured that was Alethia. Another guy with blonde hair and blue eyes was fighting her. I realized with a shock that it was Lynch. I saw Hades standing there, observing. Christina and Lillian gasped, lowering their weapons. Alethia spun around and saw us standing there but while she was distracted, Lynch knocked her down. Huge giants came forward and Alethia tried to fight them. They grabbed Alethia and held her down while Lynch walked forward, twirling his sword.

"Lynch, what is going on? Why in the world were you fighting Alethia?" Christina asked. "I thought you had been captured!" Lynch smiled.

"It's good to see you alive Christina. However, I wasn't captured. I took Alethia. I sided with Hades."

"We thought Dominick was behind this! He was consulting with Hades. He went after us! He talked to Alethia when we tried to Iris-message you which didn't get through very well," Lillian answered.

"Yes, but he was just an assistant to help me with my great victory. I consulted with Hades long before he did. I sent him after you with the Teumessian Fox and Laeplas. They caught you so you could be sent here more quickly. The Iris-message had been cut off so I wouldn't have you nosing about in my business unless you were going to join," Lynch explained.

"Why did you want us to get here more quickly? How did you stop the Iris-message? And why did you want my throat torn out, Logan to fight and everyone else to be in danger? If you wanted only one or two of us, you should've just have taken us instead!" Christina yelled.

"I didn't want your throat torn out. I told Dominick to reason with you and not try to kill you. As for stopping the Iris-message and getting you here quickly is a different matter. I managed to use a little magic, thanks to Hecate to convince Iris of cutting any message to me or Alethia or anyone else who had sided with us. The reason I wanted you here more quickly is something that I'm not explaining to you. And maybe I wanted all of you so the Olympians could grow more weaker," Lynch explained. Christina snarled.

"Maybe you should've just kidnapped me instead. I trusted you and so did Lillian. You're a traitor to your family and to the Olympians!" she said.

"And why did you take Alethia if you wanted us?" I asked. "You went through all that trouble to get to us. I mean, like Christina said, you could've kidnapped her from the start but then I would have to kill you for that without the truth. However, you went through all that trouble. Why?"

"Because, I needed a powerful child. Someone who was the son or daughter of the king of the gods which happens to be Zeus. So I took Alethia so she could join me to help overthrow her own father. It was also a trap to lure Christina and you. Christina is the daughter of two powerful gods. Her mother, Athena is the daughter of Zeus and Christina could easily overthrow her mom. Also being the daughter of Poseidon, brother of Zeus, this could be another way. But as soon as you were claimed, I knew you could also be another person to use to overthrow the Olympians. As for Lillian, we could use her intelligence and her help to overthrow Athena also," he told us. "All I need now is for you guys to join me so I can be more powerful than I am now." Christina shook her head.

"Well if you think you're so powerful, fight me. You know everyone at camp sees me as the greatest fighter of this millennia. If you've got the strength then come over here and see if you're any match to my skills," Christina challenged.

"Everybody may see you as that but I'm the second best fighter and you know that deep down. Just because you're better than me, doesn't mean that I can't still beat you. And I will," Lynch said.

"Then you're a fool. You don't know what you're facing. You'll never match my skills," Christina growled.

"Lynch. Think who you're about to fight. You won't make it. I've fought her before and I have fought next to her. I know what you're about to face," I cut in, trying to reason with him.

"Oh, I know what I'm facing. But you're too weak to beat her, Logan. Besides she's blind to see what the Greek world is becoming of," he said, looking at me.

He looked back at Christina. "One on one just like the old times." The color drained from Christina's face.

"Those times were different. This is now Lynch," she answered. "But fine then, one on one it is. I win, you free us. I lose, do whatever you want with us or kill us. What are you afraid of?" He hesitated. I guess he could see now on the downright side, Christina was probably going to win.

"It's a deal. And we'll have no distractions," Lynch smiled. He snapped his fingers and a huge pitch black cloud swirled around me and my friends. I heard Acacia and Kyra scream. Then Alec yelled. I was standing shoulder to shoulder with Lillian at the time but I felt her leave my side, then the next thing I knew, I was grabbed.