A / N: So so so so sorry for the wait on the chapter. I couldn't write because my dog ate my laptop. No, not really, but I was very busy over the school holidays, and when I did get back to writing, I had a lot of work to do. Thanks to all those people that waited this long for a chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HOO at the moment, but I can be very persuasive.

4

The bus pulled up at the curb, the screech of the tyres lost under the raging city sounds. Leo, Jack and I hurried out of the door, not wanting to repeat history and become a bus door sandwich. Las Vegas was like a busier version of New York. However, unlike New York, which was easy to navigate, the designers of Las Vegas seemed to of gone out of their way to make it as hard to go around and confusing as possible.

"Where to now?" Jack asked, shuffling from foot to foot.

I looked around. It was night, and all the lights on the buildings were blurring my vision. Neon advertisements shone through car windows and shops displays. Across the road, an enormous neon casino dominated the street.

"How about there?" Leo shouted over the noise of the traffic.

He pointed at the casino, the words Lotus hotel and casino flashing in rainbow letters across the screen. I shrugged. We could try, but a casino as fancy as that was bound to be expensive. There were no pedestrian crossings in sight, so Jack, Leo and I jay walked across the road, dodging cars and mostly taxis.

The entrance to the Lotus Casino was a huge neon flower, where chrome doors lay open in the place the yellow pollen would be. No one was going in or out, but warm sweet scented air wafted through the glittering doors. It sort of smelled like flowers - lotus blossoms, maybe. I wouldn't know; I'd never smelled one.

As we approached the centre of the flower doorway, a smartly dressed man appeared next to us. I narrowed my eyes.

"Hey, kids," the man said, with a soft southern accent. "You guys look tired. Come and sit down."

I'd learned to suspicious. By now I figured anyone could be a monster or a god. You couldn't always tell. Still, I knew this guy was just a regular mortal. One look at him and I could see. Anyhow, I was so glad to hear somebody who sounded sympathetic that I nodded and walked into the Lotus Casino after him.

I almost forgot to breathe. My eyes reflected the shiny colourful surfaces as I stared in amazement. The whole lobby was a game room, and I'm not talking about those dodgy rows of game machines at a cinema entrance. No, there was none of that here.
At one end of the lobby was an indoor water slide spiralling around a glass elevator which went up at least forty floors. A small kid whizzed down it in funny clothes, whooping with glee. On another side there was a climbing wall, and indoor bungee jumping bridge, and a gymnastics obstacle course, and – well, you get the idea. Whatever you want, this place had it.

There were a couple of kids playing the games, but not many, so no one had to wait in line for anything. There were tail coated waiters holding silver platters full of lotus flower cupcakes, and snack bars adorned the room. This was a place where you would never get hungry. With a sharp sense of loss I thought how my little sister Emma would have loved this place; she was constantly wanting food.

"Hi!" a bellhop said cheerfully, sliding into place next to Jack. At least, I think he was a bellhop. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and too-short shorts with thongs, but still, he looked like a bellhop. "Welcome to the Lotus Casino. Here's your room key," he said holding a golden key out in his well moisturised palm.

"Um, but..." I stammered. We hadn't booked a room yet, and we probably didn't have the money to do so by the look of this place.

"No, no, the bills taken care of," the bellhop said, waving an airy hand. "Just go up to floor 42, room 4003. If you need anything like extra bubbles for the spa or whatever, just calk the front desk; there'll be a little telephone on the table. You'll see it once you're up there, it's not hard to spot. Oh, I almost forgot. Here are your Lotus Cash cards. They work at the restaurant, and any of the games and rides. Just swipe them through the machine and wait for the little green light."

He talked so fast I could barely keep track of what he was saying, and I was no less confused when he handed us each a little green Lotus Cash Card. I knew there must be a mistake. He obviously thought we were some billionaire's kids, sent here because our parents didn't have time for us.

"How much is there on here?" Leo asked, holding up his plastic green card.

The bellhop looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, how much cash? When does it run out?" Leo said.

The bellhop laughed. "Oh, you're making a joke. That's cool. Enjoy your stay."

The bellhop left us, after showing us the route to the frosted glass elevator, where we lugged our bags inside the small box. There were so many buttons for the elevator floors that Leo had to give me a boost before I could reach the little button with the number 42 on it.

In room 4003 was a movie star's apartment. Luxurious soft carpet lay around the long couch lined room. There was a bedroom through a door on the right, with soft red velvet covers. An antique wooden wardrobe had been painted white and sat timidly in the corner, with a small pink vase on top of it.

We dumped our bags on the beds where they landed with a thump.

"What now?" I asked. "Sleep?"

I was really tired; it was in the middle of the night. The boys, however, had other ideas.

Leo and Jack held up their cash cards, grinning. "Play time."

We went back down the elevator, having to crouch down this time to reach the button with the number one on it. We explored the ground floor, smiling uncontrollably. There was a game for every type of person. You like architecture? Edit the blue print of Manhattan to your own pleasure! In to politics? Play a quiz on all the PMs of the past a hundred year!

We all wandered our separate ways, finding the game to suit our interests. I must have looked a bit lost, as a staff member pointed me to a foam maze for playing laser tag. Only in this version, if you got shot, you were momentarily paralysed from the neck down. Sounded like my sort of game.

I soon found out that Leo and Jack were already in there, playing a one VS one. When I entered, in was declared a free for all match.

My laser passed over the blue foam, until it lit up green. Leo was right in front of me, facing the other way.

"Hi!" I said cheerfully, grabbing his gun so that he shot himself as he whipped around to face me.

Leo froze in his tracks.

"Not fair!" Leo complained.

I shrugged. "It was necessary."

"I'll get you back," he said.

"If you can catch me," I said, giving his a quick kiss before running off to find Jack.

When I saw Jack around the corner, I figured the same trick wouldn't work on him; Jack was smart, and was likely to see it coming. I considered charmspeak, but figured that would be cheating. Instead, I snuck through the maze until I was positioned behind him, and then shot him in the back. Jack swore in Greek and called me a backstabber, but laughed all the same.

After almost half an hour of play laser tag we got tired of the game, and split off again to do our own separate sandwiches.

Leo went straight to bungee jumping and Jack almost went on the water slide, until I reminded him that unless he wanted to wear wet clothes for the rest of the day, he should buy new clothes from the gift shop. After seeing the ridiculous flowery clothes in the shop, he decided against the idea.

I started looking at all the other people at the casino. Pretty much everyone was dressed in outdated clothes. I shuddered. I hoped that dressing weirdly wasn't some sort of condition of stay.

Two red headed teenager wearing identical green sweaters were playing ping pong, while grinning devilishly. One of them had the letter F on their jumper, and the other one G. I jumped as the ping pong ball sailed past my left ear.

One my other side was a freckly boy with glasses, who kept wiping his nosing and sweating wildly. He was playing the quiz game on politics, and seemed to be having a bit of trouble.

"It must be broken!" the boy wailed as I came closer. "I know this is the right answer. I'm Buford. Can you help me?" he added hopefully.

I resisted the urge to laugh at his name, and bent over the screen to see the question.

The question on the screen. Who is the current president? I frowned. How could he not know this question? I decided to talk the teacher's approach.

"Who do you think it is?" I asked kindly.

Buford sniffed and wiped his nose with a limp handkerchief. "President Franklin Roosevelt."

"Um, no," I said, slightly startled. "That was around 70 years ago."

He looked at me, puzzled. "No. That's not right."

I frowned. "It definitely is."

Buford still looked bewildered, so I told him the correct president, only when he asked who that person was, then I started to get worried.

"What year is it?" I asked.

"You think I'm dumb," accused Buford.

"No, that's not why. I just want to know. I've forgotten," I said quickly.

He still looked a bit suspicious, but said, "1937."

I backed away. No wonder Buford was dressed funnily; he was from the 1930's. But how had he lived this long? Then I thought of all the other funnily dressed people, and how formal some of them sounded. Buford wasn't the only one. The Lotus Casino had probably been trapping people for decades. The haziness I didn't know I was feeling was gone, and suddenly the casino didn't feel dreamily happy; it was crowding and noisy, the sounds of the games blaring into my ears.

"What's wrong?" Buford asked, his dark eyes staring into mine.

"Nothing," I said, trying to keep the trembling out of my voice.

I didn't want to stay here. I wouldn't let them trap me.

"I've just got to go find someone," I told him, before walking quickly away from the arcade room.

I found Jack a floor below, playing a battle game. On the screen Jack was disarming a catapult when I pulled his hand off the controls.

"Jack, we've got to get out of here!" I told him urgently.

"Maia what are you doing?" he said, sounding irritated and pushing my hand away.

"We've got to go!" I said over the gun shots from the game.

"But I just got to this really cool part!" he whined.

I turned Jack around by the shoulders and looked him in the eye. "Spiders. Big hairy spiders."

That worked. The dazed look left his eyes. He pushed the off button on the console and looked around before facing me again.

"How long have we been in here?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "But it doesn't matter now. We have to find Leo."

Jack and I raced up stairs and grabbed our stuff, plus Leo's, and once checking that he wasn't in the luxurious hotel room, we pushed open the door and let it fall shut with a bang. I could still hear the games down stairs, and all the lights seemed too bright, and too blinding. Jack and I raced down the emergency stairs; the glass elevator would take too long.

We met Leo and the top of the bungee jumping bridge, but Jack didn't bother persuading him to leave, he just dragged Leo along, holding on to his wrist.

Leo was still complaining loudly when we reached the ornate flower doors.

"Be quiet," I moaned, but the bellhop had already appeared by our side.

"Are you're leaving already?" The bellhop said, looking genially upset. "But you've just unlocked your platinum cards!"

He held the shiny cards out, and Leo stared at them longingly. I glared at him. If we took one, we would never be able to leave.

"No, thanks," I told the bellhop. "We're leaving."

A / N: Please review! It really makes my day!