I know that the Hermits who left aren't getting much love, but I'm trying to focus on the questers at least for now.

~~~

Percy wasn't sure what they were looking for. A teenager-friendly place to sit down, maybe. All he knew was that it was like a million degrees, they had come out of an even hotter truck, and they had no water.

And every time Percy thought about his dream last night, it didn't help matters.

He made a mental note to tell the others about it later. They, especially Annabeth, would know what to do.

The dream had featured a huge, dark abyss, like many of the others Percy had had. There was some servant with a familiar voice that Percy couldn't place, and the master was in the pit. Last time he had told Annabeth about the voice in the pit, she had assumed it was Hades. Percy wasn't so sure.

They had talked about some sort of "exchange," and something that the servant had stolen. The servant had called the master something... the Crooked One, maybe. And then they had noticed Percy was there and shown him room inside of which was his mother, surrounded by golden light with a final scream still on her lips.

"I'm saying she's being kept, punk. Somebody's holding her hostage," Ares had said.

But at least she was alive. At least Percy still had a chance.

The group passed small replicas of pyramids (that Grian pointed out, wondering if someone named Cub lived there), a pirate ship, and even the Statue of Liberty. If made Percy extremely homesick.

Eventually, they found themselves at a dead end, facing the Lotus Hotel and Casino. The doors were wide open.

Grian huffed, gesturing to the blinking neon lights. "Mumbo would do much better than that."

Gem slapped him, although Percy didn't know why.

Annabeth looked kind of hilariously infuriated, though.

"Hey!" A doorman said, causing everyone to tense. "Do you want to come inside and sit down a minute? You look tired."

Days of every person Percy talked to being a monster had set him on edge. But one look at this guy, and he could tell he was normal.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt," Percy said.

"Maybe we shouldn't-" Gem started, but everyone else had already gone inside.

They took one look around before Grover said, "Whoa."

The entire floor was lined with arcade games, and not like the ancient Nintendo that Chiron had. Most of them were enormous. There were a few kids hanging out, not many.

A waterslide spiraled all the way up to the top of  the lobby, which was about twenty stories high, there was a massive climbing wall, and I saw one kid bungee jumping. This place had everything.

Grover and Ren looked like they wanted to beeline for the snack bar, but a bellhop approached the group before they could steal anything and get into even more trouble. Hey, they were already fugitives for blowing up a bus and the Gateway Arch. Stealing from a hotel that probably wouldn't notice that anything was gone was tiny.

"Hey, kids," the bellhop said.

Ren folded his arms and pouted at being called a "kid."

"Welcome to the Lotus Hotel and Casino! Here's your room key. It should be big enough for all of you."

"Um-" I said.

"The bill's taken care of. No extra charges or tips. Just head on up to room 4001. If you need anything, extra bubbles for the hot tub or whatever, just call down to the front desk. Here's your LotusCash cards, they work in the restaurants and for all the games and rides."

Grian eagerly took the stack of green plastic credit cards and handed them out to everyone.

Percy knew that this couldn't be right, but he wasn't about to complain about a free stay in a five-star Vegas hotel. He held up the card. "How much is on here?"

The bellhop stared. "Um, what do you mean?"

"Like, when does it run out of cash?"

He laughed. "Oh, a joke. Hey, that's cool. Enjoy your stay!"

And with that, he left us alone and very confused.

"Uh.." Annabeth said. "Should we just, like, go up to the room then?"

They all stared at Percy.

He shrugged. "I dunno."

"I'll take that as a yes!" Ren said, and then looked around. "Where's the bubblevator?"

"What's a bubblevator?" Annabeth asked suspiciously.

"It's a water column with soul sand-" Ren started to explain, but then Gem shushed him and pulled him toward the huge glass elevator.

"OH! Is this an Earth bubblevator?"

Percy elbowed Grian and grinned. "He's acting like you guys are from another planet."

Grian smiled uneasily.

They took the elevator up to the top floor and found their room.

Grover whistled. "This is... sweet."

"Absolutely sweet," Grian agreed.

"Absolutely suite!" Ren said. "Because, you know, a suite is like, a nice set of rooms, and... uh... never mind."

"That was really bad," Annabeth said, crossing her arms and failing to hide a smile.

"I know," Ren sighed.

They looked around.

There were clean clothes in the closet that fit them, so everyone grabbed some and took turns in the shower, although there was a small conflict about it between Percy and Ren that Gem had to break up. But after that, everything went smoothly. Percy ate a party-size bag of chips on his own and drank three Cokes. He threw Ares' backpack into the trash can, glad to be rid of it.

Annabeth turned on the National Geographic channel, which Gem and Grian watched with fascination.

"National Geographic?" Percy asked after glancing over for a second. "All these channels, and you choose National Geographic?"

"It's interesting," Annabeth replied.

"I FOUND A TISSUE BOX!" Grover yelled from the bathroom. "I'MA EAT IT!"

Nobody paid any attention to him.

Ren took the remote from Annabeth. "This is boring," he said, and changed the channel. "Now, that's more like it."

Annabeth looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Cartoons?"

Percy decided that it wasn't National Geographic that Gem and Grian liked. No, it was the TV itself.

Annabeth snatched the remote back and went back to National Geographic.

Nobody except Ren seemed to mind.

Grover came in and took a large bite out of his stack of tissues. "So, what now? Sleep?"

"Nah," Percy said. He held up his green plastic LotusCash card. "Play time."

He couldn't remember the last time he had had so much fun. Percy bungee-jumped the lobby several times, played laser tag and several rounds of VR sharpshooter, went down the waterslide (and got wet because he wanted to) and spent a while in the arcade. He saw Grover, Annabeth, Grian, Ren, and Gem several times, going between games. Annabeth really liked a 3D city building game, and Grover had a lot of fun with reverse hunter games where the deer were the ones with the guns. Gem was pretty good at Mario Kart. Grian didn't bother with any of that and flew around the lobby on his... wing things and almost died a lot. Ren had found a game called Minecraft that he told Grian was "exactly like home." Percy had no idea what he meant by that, but he sounded a little disturbed.

He didn't know when he first realized something was up.

Maybe it was when he met the Elvis impersonator named Darrin who called everything "groovy" and said it was 1966.

After that, Percy started to get a little scared.

He went around, talking to everyone he saw. Most people didn't even aknowledge him. They were glued to whatever they were doing, food or games or shopping or whatever. But there were kids who talked to him, and they said it was 1949, 1962, 1924. And they all said they had been here for a few days, weeks at most.

We have to get out of here.

He ran into Grian - like straight into Grian. They knocked heads really hard, and then Grian yelled at him before realizing who it was. "Oh... sorry, Percy. We have to leave. Now."

"We need to go-" Percy started, before realizing that was exactly what he had said. "Yeah."

Grian nodded. "Something isn't right. I met a kid who just casually mentioned that it was 1935."

"1966," Percy said. "Help me find the others."

Grian nodded again and took off.

Percy shuddered. If he did that for even a second, he would probably be struck by lightning.

He found Annabeth still at her city building game.

"Annabeth, we need to go," he said.

"Why?" she asked.

"Time goes slower here. There's people from the 1920s here."

"So?"

"Our quest!" Percy tried again. "The Master Bolt!"

It took him a minute to remember it. That scared him.

He grabbed Annabeth's shoulders. "This is a trap. This whole place is a trap."

She pulled away and went back to her game.

Last try.

"Spiders. Large, hairy spiders."

She jerked out of the... trance that they had all been in. "Oh, gods."

"Grover," Percy said.

He wasn't at his reverse hunting game, so Percy had to assume he was somewhere else. They found Ren instead, murdering zombies with a diamond sword in that Minecraft game.

He looked at Percy and Annabeth and grinned. "I didn't think I would get this far in a couple hours!"

"Sorry, Ren," Annabeth said. "It's time to go."

His grin faded. "But whyyyyyy?"

"Because this place is a trap," Percy said patiently, even though he was anxious to get out of the hotel.

"Let me just kill the Ender Dragon," Ren said, turning back to the screen.

Then he yelped as Annabeth dragged him away from it, toward the main entrance.

He kicked at her and yelled at the top of his lungs. "I'M SO CLOSE! NO! LET GO OF ME, YA FILTHY-"

Nobody paid him any attention.

Grian and Gem came in from a different row, glanced at us, and then moved to show us Grover, who was reluctantly following them.

Percy looked to make sure everyone was there, and then started towards the exit. Nothing was blocking it. There was nothing stopping them but the temptation of what they were leaving behind.

The bellhop from earlier hurried towards them. "I guess you're here for your Platinum cards? A whole other floor of games, only for Platinum members!"

They walked right past him. Or, four of them did. Grover reached for a card and Gem had to pull him away. Ren just yelled some more.

"OW!" Annabeth yelled. "Did you just bite me? What was that for?"

"No. Bad Ren," Gem chided, as if talking to a dog. Then she turned around and waved. "Bye, Bianca! Tell your brother bye too!"

A girl with black hair who was playing an arcade game absentmindedly waved back.

And then they were out.

Grover breathed in the horribly polluted air as if he had just been released from a spell, which Percy guessed he had. Ren stopped struggling. "Oh, gods. Sorry, Annabeth."

"It's fine," Annabeth grumbled with a tone that said she would get him back later. "But you owe me."

Ren paled. "Not an IOU."

"You can't get out of it," Grian said.

Annabeth smiled in a very scary way.

"I didn't even get to introduce you to my new friends!" Gem said. "But it's okay. I'm not going back in there."

Percy looked toward the west. "Me neither."

~~~

I thought summer break starting would make me update faster.

I think the opposite has happened.

-Indigo