Naruto: Prince of the Underworld

Chapter 17 Time to stretch!

It was Annabeth's idea. She loaded the group into the back of a Vegas taxi as if they actually had money, and told the driver, "Los Angeles, please."

The cabbie chewed his cigar and sized them up. "That's three hundred miles. For that, you gotta pay up front."

"You accept casino debit cards?" Annabeth asked.

He shrugged. "Some of 'em. Same as credit cards. I gotta swipe 'em through first."

Annabeth handed him her green LotusCash card. He looked at it skeptically. "Swipe it," Annabeth invited.

He did. His meter machine started rattling. The lights flashed. Finally an infinity symbol came up next to the dollar sign.

"Whoa." Naruto said, "Heh, good thing I kept mine."

The cigar fell out of the driver's mouth. He looked back at us, his eyes wide. "Where to in Los Angeles... uh, Your Highness?"

"The Santa Monica Pier." Annabeth sat up a little straighter. Naruto eyed her then Percy and he could tell that Percy could tell that Annabeth was enjoying the "Your Highness" thing a lot. "Get us there fast, and you can keep the change." However, maybe she should not have told the man that, because his speedometer never dipped below 95 the whole way through the Mojave Desert.

On the way there, Percy begun to tell them about his recent dream, which Naruto commented on because he too had a similar dream. Though, there was one name the two of them could not remember.....the nickname of that being that taunted them. All that they could remember is that that it ended in One.

"The Silent One?" Annabeth suggested. "The Rich One? Both of those are nicknames for Hades."

"Maybe." Percy said but he felt that the name was wrong.

"That throne room sounds like Hades's," Grover said. "That's the way it's usually described."

"Something's wrong. The throne room wasn't the main part of the dream. And that voice from the pit ... I don't know. It just didn't feel like a god's voice." said Percy.

Annabeth eyes widened while Naruto shrugged. "Who knows what it is. We just know it is evil."

"No, it has to be Hades." Annabeth demanded, "Maybe he sent this thief, this invisible

person, to get the master bolt, and something went wrong-"

"You know, you are really set on my dad being the bad guy." Naruto grumbled. Annabeth gave him a look and he raised his hands in defense. "Alright, I get he was the bad guy in the past but people change, no matter what they are."

"I hope you are right." Percy replied.

"I understand that, but if he stole Zeus's symbol of power from Olympus, and the gods were hunting him, I mean, a lot of things could go wrong. So this thief had to hide the bolt, or he lost it somehow. Anyway, he failed to bring it to Hades. That's what the voice said in your dreams, right? The guy failed. That would explain what the Furies were searching for when they came after us on the bus. Maybe they thought we had retrieved the bolt."

"But if we would have already retrieved the bolt," Percy said, "why would we be traveling to the Underworld?"

"Good question." Naruto replied, "that is something the three old ladies should have taken to heart....or their afraid of something."

"To threaten Hades," Grover suggested. "To bribe or blackmail him into getting your mom back."

"You have evil thoughts for a goat." Percy deadpanned.

"Why, thank you."

"Are we rubbing of on ya?" Naruto commented with a smirk and one eye open.

"I don't know." Grover shrugged.