"I must say, you've got to have serious balls coming down here after Zeus told the gods to keep you away," said Hades. I never thought I'd hear the God of the Underworld comment on the size of one's balls.

"We know, but unfortunately, we must be going," Nico said with a fake sad voice as he tried to shadow travel. "This usually works," he grunted.

"As you remember Nico, you persuaded me to become loyal to the Olympians," Hades said with a smirk on his face. "In order to stay loyal, I must take the son of Gaea and any accomplices to Olympus. However, if you give them to me, I will keep you out of trouble."

Nico looked back at Alexis and I and looked down in shame. He turned towards Hades and pulled out his stygian iron sword.

"I'm afraid that would be too easy," Nico said, gaining respect from me.

"What a shame, you were always my favorite son," Hades said as he rose an army of the dead from the ground and faded into darkness. I went to reach for my knife and quickly realized that I had lost it in the river. However, I had more control over my powers… I concentrated on the ground beneath the now growing army and felt a different kind of tugging sensation in my gut as the ground opened up and swallowed the entire army. The weirdest part about this is 1, the ground in the underworld isn't technically Earth, so I shouldn't be able to control it, and 2, I wasn't tired in the slightest. Oh, and the looks I was getting from Nico and Alexis were also pretty weird.

"How did you do that?" asked a bewildered Alexis.

"No goddamn clue," I replied, just as surprised as them.

"It's not safe here, and I can't shadow travel," Nico said. "However, there's an opening to the realm of the living not too far from here."

I nodded and we began walking. During the walk, I couldn't stop thinking about how I flew out of the river, and how I managed to control the flight. As far as I knew, Gaea didn't have any powers like that, and I didn't have wings, so I had no idea why that happened. I had been so lost in thought that I accidently walked into Nico when he stopped walking.

"We're here," Nico said as he pointed to an open in the ceiling above.

"How are we getting up there?" I asked. Nico and Alexis looked at me expectantly. "Come on!" I yelled. "I don't even know how to do the whole flying thing!"

"Better learn quick, dirt face," Nico said as he pointed toward the Styx where Hades and an angry Zeus had just spotted us. I cursed and grabbed Alexis' and Nico's arm and thought of myself flying out of the Underworld. Nothing happened. This time, I focused on the wind around me and willed it to carry me upward. Much to everyone's surprise, we started to rise from the ground.

"Great job, just 100 more feet to go," Nico remarked. I willed to winds with more force and soon we were in the mortal world. I could feel Zeus' presence coming closer. Just as he should have appeared from the ground, I heard a dull thud and realized that I had subconsciously closed the entrance of the Underworld. When I looked around, I realized we were somewhere that felt somewhat familiar.

"Are we in Central Park?" Alexis asked. Yep, that was it. In case you were wondering, we had visited New York while on a quest to help kill some monsters that were escaping from the Underworld.

"Why is your eye blue?" Alexis asked with concern and surprise in her voice. I pulled out my phone (Yes, demigods had phones now), and looked at myself in the camera. Sure enough, my eye that was previous brown was now an electric blue. Nico looked over with an equal amount of surprise on his face. Well, not much time to dwell unfortunately, let's get out of here.

It was nearly noon by the time we had escaped the Underworld, so we went to find a place to eat lunch. Nico, for some reason was really craving McDonald's, so we found one about ten minutes from Central Park and ordered. I went to reach for my wallet to pay, but Nico blocked my hand and pulled out some green credit card. When the cashier put the card in the machine, he had a surprised look on his face, but he still put the order through. We got our food and sat down.

"Are you sure you aren't a son of Zeus?" Nico asked with a bit of humor in his voice.

"I wouldn't think so, no way Zeus and Gaea are having any one night stands," I replied, getting a disgusted face from Alexis and a chuckle from Nico. I noticed the cashier still eyeing us, but I didn't think much of it.

"Once we get to Camp Jupiter, you could always pose of a son of Jupiter," Alexis started. "With that and having the Achilles' curse, your strong aura would seem justified." I always had serious doubts that she was really a daughter of Aphrodite and not a daughter of Athena. Even if she was only was 12, she never expressed an interest in makeup and she didn't really fan girl over guys, which I was thankful for.

"Yeah, I guess I could always do that, but wouldn't Zeus find out about it?" I asked.

"No," Nico replied. "You would be a son of Jupiter, not Zeus. The Greek and Roman gods are no longer intertwined like they once were, they are completely separate." As someone who was constantly at Camp Jupiter, I trusted his word.

"So that means that the Roman Gods wouldn't be on a manhunt for me?" I asked.

"Not unless you give them a reason to," Nico replied. I let out a sigh of relief. We finished our food and walked out the restaurant. Nico motioned for us to follow him into a dark alley so he could shadow travel. When Nico turned the corner, someone immediately knocked him out with a gun and pointed it t Alexis and I. When he revealed himself, I recognized him as the cashier.

"That card had an unlimited amount of money," he said with a look of insanity in his eyes. "I don't know how you got it, but it's mine now." I tried thinking. I could always just kill him, but after what happened at camp, I wasn't up to the task. Instead I thought of a less violent way.

"He has the card in his pocket," I said. He grunted and with the gun still in our direction, kneeled down to search Nico's pockets. Being a demigod, Nico was already coming to, and that didn't go unnoticed by the cashier. Just as he went to subdue Nico again, I burst forward kicked the attacker's arm, launching the gun across the pavement. Just as he went to pull a knife from his belt, Nico kicked his legs out from under him, causing him to stab himself the stomach. I retrieved the gun and tucked it into my waistband. Alexis was still in shock, but she understood that we needed to leave the scene before the police showed up. Once we were a mile or two away from the alley, we stopped.

"We really shouldn't try finding dark places in New York City," Alexis said.

"True, but how are we going to get across the country?" I asked.

Nico smirked. "I know a guy."