While Ikki took the elevator down to the lobby where his friends were waiting, Percy continued playing whatever game caught his interest.
Until a particular moment when he noticed the guy standing next to him at the virtual sniper game. He looked around thirteen years old, probably, but his clothes were strange.
The son of Poseidon thought he might be the child of an Elvis Presley impersonator. He wore bell-bottom jeans and a red shirt with black embellishments, and his hair was curly and full of gel, like a New Jersey girl on a high school reunion night.
They played the sniper game together, and the boy said:
"Groovy, man. I've been here for two weeks, and the games just keep getting better..."
Groovy, man? Percy thought it was just the guy's way, an old-fashioned slang. Later, as they chatted, Percy mentioned something was "awesome," and the boy looked at him a little surprised, as if he'd never heard the word used like that before.
The boy introduced himself as Darrin, but as soon as Percy started asking questions, he got annoyed and turned back to the computer screen.
Percy asked, "Hey, Darrin?"
"What?..."
"What year is it?..."
He frowned at Percy.
"In the game?..."
"No. In real life..."
He had to think before responding, "Nineteen seventy-seven...."
"No..." Percy said, starting to feel scared. He asked again, "Seriously..."
"Hey, man. Bad vibes. I'm in the middle of a game..."
After that, Darrin ignored Percy entirely. The son of Poseidon started talking to others and found it wasn't easy. They were glued to their TV screens, video games, food, or whatever else.
He found a guy who said it was 1985. Another claimed it was 1993. Everyone insisted they hadn't been there long—just a few days or weeks at most. They really didn't know and didn't seem to care.
Then a thought struck Percy: how long had he been there? It seemed like just a few hours, but was it?
He tried to remember why they were even there. They were heading to Los Angeles. They needed to find the entrance to the Underworld. His mother... For a terrifying moment, Percy struggled to recall her name. Was it Sally...?
Sally Jackson!
He had to find her. He needed to stop Hades from starting World War III.
At that moment, just as Percy was about to freak out, Ikki tapped him on the shoulder.
Percy, still pale from what he'd discovered, jumped in fright. He was relieved when he saw his friend.
"Ikki..."
"What happened?..." Ikki asked, a bit worried as he noticed how distressed and pale Percy looked, as if he'd seen a ghost.
The son of Poseidon quickly explained everything.
Ikki wasn't very surprised—he had already suspected this wasn't a normal place.
"You go find Grover. I'll look for Annabeth. We need to get out of here quickly," said the son of Zeus after hearing Percy's explanation.
And Bianca and Nico? He thought about getting them out too, but now wasn't the time. Besides, they didn't seem to be in the same state as the others. They seemed genuinely normal. Ikki concluded someone must be protecting the two of them. He didn't want to meddle in something that wasn't his business. And while he liked the two and had befriended them, they probably wouldn't believe him and would most likely think he was crazy.
Percy nodded and went to find the satyr.
Ikki went to look for Annabeth and easily found her at one of the games.
"Anne, we need to get out of here," he said.
The daughter of Athena didn't respond.
He placed a hand on her shoulder and shook her gently. Feeling a familiar, comforting touch, she raised her eyes and looked at Ikki.
"Ikki? Do you need something?" Annabeth asked, still slightly annoyed at being interrupted.
Ikki looked into her eyes and said categorically, "Time moves much slower here—much, much slower. For us, barely any time seems to pass, but in reality, we could have been here for days or even years. The Underworld, our mission—we need to leave now!"
Annabeth's heart raced as he stared deeply into her eyes. A faint blush appeared on her cheeks as she listened to his words. Her mind clicked, and she seemed to snap back to reality. Eyes wide, she asked, "Oh my gods. How long have we..."
"I don't know. Let's go," Ikki said as he went to find Percy and Grover. Spreading his senses, he found them in mere moments and quickly headed their way.
Annabeth swiftly followed Ikki.
They found Percy trying to pull the satyr away, but the flying shoes activated, pulling Grover's legs in the opposite direction as he yelled:
"No! I just leveled up! No!..."
Ikki quickly approached, with Annabeth right behind him. He motioned for Percy to let go, and the son of Poseidon did so, albeit confused.
After his friend released the satyr, Ikki placed a finger on its forehead and knocked it unconscious with a small spell, much to the bewilderment of Percy and Annabeth.
"Dude, you have to teach me how to do that..." Percy couldn't help but say, amazed.
"Yeah, maybe later. Anyway, let's go. Every second here could be minutes or hours out there..."
Ikki replied as he hoisted the satyr onto his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
At that opportune moment, the Lotus messenger ran up to the group. With a pleasant smile on his face, he asked, "So, are you ready for your Platinum cards?"
"We're leaving..." Percy declared categorically.
"What a shame," said the messenger, and anyone would have been surprised by his sincerity, feeling as though they were breaking his heart. He sighed sadly as he said, "We've just added a new floor full of games for Platinum cardholders..."
At the end of his words, he showed the cards, and Percy wanted one. But he knew that if he took it, he'd never leave. He would stay there, happy forever, playing endlessly, and soon forget his mother, the mission, and maybe even his own name.
He would be playing Virtual Shooter with the groovy guy Disco Darrin forever.
"No, thank you..." Annabeth replied, glancing at the card a few times.
"Yeah. We have things to do..." Ikki responded, not tempted in the least, and began walking toward the exit with calm steps.
Percy and Annabeth quickly followed him. The three walked toward the door, and as they did, the smell of food and the sounds of games seemed to grow more and more inviting.
So much so that Percy thought about their room upstairs. They could just spend the night, sleep in a real bed for a change...
Then they stepped out through the doors of the Lotus Casino and ran down the sidewalk. It felt like mid-afternoon, about the same time they had entered the casino, but something was wrong. The weather had changed completely. It was stormy, with bolts of heat lightning flashing in the desert.
Ares' backpack was slung over Percy's shoulder, which was strange because he was sure he had thrown it into the trash can in room 4001. But at that moment, he had other problems to worry about.
As soon as they left the street of the Lotus Casino, Ikki spotted a newspaper nearby. With his vision, he could read it perfectly.
Ikki read the year first, which relieved him greatly—it was the same year as when they had entered. Then he noticed the date: June 20th.
They had spent five days in the Lotus Casino.
Only one day remained until the summer solstice.
One day to complete their mission...
The group, seeing the date, felt as though the weight of the world was on their shoulders.
Only one day until the solstice.
A few hours before a war of the gods and, essentially, the probable extinction of humanity—unless they returned Zeus' Master Bolt, his symbol of power that had been stolen.
Thinking about it, the whole situation was bad. Terrible, in fact.
The probable end of the world was knocking at the door. A war between Poseidon and Zeus, each with their supporters. Destruction. Carnage. Millions dead. Western civilization turned into a battlefield so vast it would make practically every war recorded in human history seem like a simple child's squabble.
The fate of the world was in their hands, and the pressure they felt at that moment surpassed anything they had ever felt in their lives.
Except for Ikki, who didn't seem concerned about the imminent war of the gods.
The three quickly agreed that they should resume their journey immediately. So, wasting no time with idle talk, they left the area of the casino where they had spent the last five days and went in search of a taxi.
After a brief discussion about what they should do, Annabeth came up with the idea of hailing a taxi as if they actually had money.
Knowing a war was just around the corner left Annabeth very nervous and worried, though she didn't show it much. Percy was only worried about bringing his mother back; however, he was also nervous. After all, the fate of millions of people rested on his and his friends' shoulders.
Once they reached a street full of vehicles, Ikki woke Grover up. By this point, the satyr had returned to normal. The three demigods explained everything to him, and after learning there was only one day left until the imminent War of the Gods, he was absolutely nervous.
With nerves on edge and a heavy feeling in their hearts, they got into a taxi. As soon as they settled into their seats, the daughter of Athena said to the driver, "Los Angeles, please..."
The taxi driver chewed his cigar and measured the group with his eyes, as if wondering whether they could afford this kind of trip. After all, they were practically just kids.
After a moment, he calmly said, "It's four hundred and eighty-two kilometers. For that, you'll need to pay upfront..."
Annabeth put her plan into action. She asked, showing the card she had received at the casino, "Do you accept casino debit cards?"
He shrugged and said, "Some do. They work like credit cards. I'll need to run the card first..."
Annabeth handed him the green Lotus Cash Card. The driver looked at the card and then at the daughter of the Goddess of Wisdom with a suspicious air.
"Run the card," Annabeth invited, unfazed by his skeptical look.
He did so.
At that moment, the taximeter began to crackle. Lights flashed. Finally, an infinity symbol appeared next to the dollar sign.
The cigar fell from the driver's mouth.
He looked at the group with wide eyes. In a respectful and polite tone, a stark contrast to before, he asked, "What part of Los Angeles, uh... Your Highness?"
"Santa Monica Pier," Annabeth said, straightening her posture slightly. It was clear she enjoyed being addressed as "Your Highness." She spoke in a commanding tone, as though addressing a mere servant. "Take us quickly, and you can keep the change."
Ikki glanced at the daughter of Athena with mild amusement before turning his gaze to the window on his right, taking one last look at the city of Las Vegas.
Although he was slightly intrigued by the card, he didn't need money to get what he wanted. He had the skills to steal without being detected, so he decided to give the card as a gift to his mother.
She would absolutely love it!
She loved shopping even more than a typical woman. He remembered the few times he had gone shopping with her. They weren't exactly wealthy, so those trips were rare. His mother loved buying clothes for him, especially ones that looked cute on him.
He shuddered slightly at the memory, his lips tightening... Every time he wore a new outfit as a child, his mother would smother him with hugs and kisses to the point that, if he were an ordinary kid, he probably wouldn't have survived.
And she'd take pictures. Lots of pictures...
He briefly reconsidered giving his mother the card as he remembered all this. But he wasn't a kid anymore, so he figured he was safe...
Probably.
The taxi left Las Vegas, heading toward Los Angeles.
Maybe Annabeth shouldn't have said that to the taxi driver. The taxi's speedometer didn't drop below one hundred and sixty kilometers per hour the entire way through the Mojave Desert.
On the road, the group had plenty of time to talk. Percy thought it was a good moment to share his latest dream, but the more he tried to remember, the fuzzier the details became.
The Lotus Casino seemed to have short-circuited his memory. The son of Poseidon couldn't remember what the "servant's" voice in his dream sounded like, though he was sure it belonged to someone he knew.
The "servant" had called the monster in the abyss by another name besides "my lord"... Some name or special title...
In a place he couldn't recall clearly, Percy only remembered seeing a throne before the location changed.
"The Silent One?..." Annabeth suggested after hearing everything Percy said. She pondered for a moment before speaking again. "Rich? Both are nicknames for Hades..."
Listening to Annabeth's suggestions, Percy spoke thoughtfully. "Maybe... though neither feels quite right..."
"The throne room seems to be Hades's," Grover said. He thought for a moment before adding, "At least that's how it's usually described..."
"You're looking at this too superficially. If you analyze it well, based on what Percy said, the throne room wasn't the main part of his dream." Ikki thought for a second before saying, "So, I think it had nothing to do with Hades."
He couldn't help but wonder why everyone always assumed Hades was to blame for everything. Just because he was the God of the Underworld? Honestly, Hades was the god who did the least amount of bad things in mythology. The only thing he did was kidnap Persephone. Sure, he might hate the demigods of Poseidon and Zeus, but that was because they broke a promise the three of them had made. He must have felt really upset about that. The irony was that he was the only one who kept his word.
He also kidnapped his friend's mother, but compared to the other gods, his "evil deeds" didn't even come close.
Percy nodded and said, "Ikki is right. Something definitely feels off. That voice in the abyss... I don't know. It just didn't sound like a god's voice..."
Hearing the two boys' words, Annabeth's eyes widened. She turned terribly pale, as if she had remembered something awful.
"What's wrong?..." Percy asked, noticing the paleness on the daughter of Athena's face.
"Ah... nothing. I was just..." Annabeth began, unsure of what to say. She then shook her head and firmly asserted, "No, it has to be Hades. Maybe he sent this thief, this invisible person, to steal the Master Bolt, and something went wrong..."
Ikki remained silent, looking at the girl.
"Like what?..." Percy asked the daughter of the Goddess of Wisdom.
"I... I don't know," Annabeth said hesitantly. She thought for a moment, narrowing her eyes slightly as she said, "But if he stole Zeus's symbol of power from Olympus and the gods were hunting him, a lot of things could go wrong. So this thief had to hide the bolt, or he lost it somehow."
"Either way, he didn't manage to take it to Hades. That's what the voice in your dream said, right? The guy failed. That would explain what the Furies were looking for when they came after us on the bus. Maybe they think we recovered the bolt..."
"But if I already had the bolt..." Percy said strangely, then asked, "Why would I be traveling to the Underworld?..."
"To threaten Hades..." Grover suggested. After some late reflection, he added, "To bribe or blackmail him into giving back your mom..."
Ikki looked at the satyr with mild amusement. He said, "Oh? You've got some wicked thoughts for a goat..."
"Why, thank you..." Grover replied in a somewhat humble manner.
"But the thing in the abyss said it was waiting for two items," Percy said with a furrowed brow. He asked, "If the Master Bolt is one, what's the other?..."
Ikki placed a hand on his chin. After considering a few possibilities, he concluded that it might be Hades's symbol of power.
That would explain why the Furies seemed so interested in both him and Percy.
Hearing Percy's words, Grover shook his head, clearly perplexed.
"You have an idea of what could be in that abyss, don't you?..." Percy asked Annabeth, rephrasing his question, "I mean, if it's not Hades..."
Annabeth wished Percy hadn't asked that question. She spoke as if wanting to avoid the subject. "Percy... let's not talk about that. Because if it's not Hades... No. It has to be Hades..."
By the end of her words, her voice suggested she was certain it was Hades, though there was an almost undetectable hint of insecurity.
The others didn't notice, but Ikki did easily. However, he said nothing. He looked out the window, the desolation of the desert passing by.
They drove past a sign that read: California State Line, Twenty Kilometers.
And they continued their journey.