Orphis Brown and the Stolen Crown

Chapter 10

Right... Hope Henry is satisfied now. Otherwise the 7-11 cashier is gonna get rich quick. Even Silena could not produce unlimited mortal cash. And also, nobody wanted to remind Henry again that he was supposed to be on a diet.

Just like Apollo had said, they headed to Las Vegas. Silena didn't have plane tickets so Apollo had kindly teleported them back to Manhattan, where it was much closer to Las Vegas. They took a bus, and this time Silena was at least able to provide train tickets all the way to New Jersey.

Unfortunately, Oliver was not the greatest tour guide like the others had hoped so. Orphis had imagined Oliver striding across Las Vegas, karate kicking anyone who gets in their way, the five of them defeating Porphyrion and retrieving the stupid crown for Hera.

Instead, Oliver had taken a detour when he saw a pretty girl in a clothing store, and the others literally had to drag him out and stop him from spying the changing room door.

'Why you interrupting my love life' Oliver complained, 'Can't a son of Hades have some peace?'

'No.' the others all said and dragged Oliver, who was kicking and screaming and cursing unprintable swear words.

Reluctantly, Oliver agreed not to take anymore detours, but he still took a bunch of wrong turns. Once, he accidentally located a toilet door lock in a shopping mall, which happened to be made out of gold. They all left immediately, right after Wendy took it off so she could design some jewelry later on.

It was getting dark, so they decided to stay somewhere for the night. They found a hotel called the Lotus Casino, and they decided to stay there, because it seemed pretty decent.

Sorry, I take that back. The Lotus Casino hotel was awesome! They made themselves right at home. Henry stayed in the hotel room and watched wrestling matches until midnight. Selina kept herself busy by pickpocketing rich dudes, Wendy went straight to the arcade, where she played an architectural game. Oliver preferred the toilet, where the toilet seats were made out of solid gold.

Meanwhile, Orphis was the only one not having fun. He was too busy thinking about the quest.

Yeah sure, the hotel was awesome and everything. Pretty ladies offered lotus flowers and the others all seemed to fall into a spell after taking a bite, but Orphis seemed unperturbed. He decided to let them stay for a night. After all, they still had like a week.

Bad idea.

In the morning, the others still seemed to be addicted by all the features of the lotus casino. Orphis tried to tell them that they had to go and they were on a time limit but they just didn't listen.

A familiar voice in Orphis's mind said, Wake up Orphis. It's a trap!

Orphis didn't know what that meant, but he immediately knew that the voice was his dad, Zeus. Orphis figured it must be some useful advice, but Orphis didn't know what.

Finally, Orphis realized that most of the other people was wearing old fashioned 19th century clothing, and they looked like they were in their twenties. He walked up to one of them playing a game and asked innocently, 'What year is it?'

The 19th century man looked up at him with a dazed expression, '1874. Duh.'

That sent a chill down Orphis's spine. He now realized most of the people had dazed expressions, even Wendy, who never wore a dazed expression.

He asked some more people, and the answers were all around the 19th century. Their replies ranged from 1632 to 1943. Most of them looked no older than forty.

Realisation dawned on Orphis. 'No. NO.'

Orphis ran to tell the others. He ran straight into Selina, who was helping herself to another lotus flower. She said, 'Isn't this place amazing? We should stay here forever!'

'Nooo.' Orphis said slowly. 'We should not. We have a quest and a time limit.'

'What do you mean?' Selina asked, 'This place is perfect.'

Orphis slapped Selina in the face and dragged her to find the others. Selina yelled, 'Where are you going?'

'Time limit!' Orphis hissed, 'Come on!'

Selina looked around and her eyes widened, she appeared to understand too. 'Let's go!'

They easily found Oliver, who was trying to take a golden toilet seat right off the toilet and once more dragged him out.

'Hey!' Oliver screamed, 'What are you guys doing?'

'We are going on a QUEST! Wake up!' Selina snapped.

Suddenly, Oliver seemed to have woken up too. He charged out of the toilet, Orphis and Selina in his wake.

A lady came in their path and said, 'Would you like another lotus flower?'

'No, we really don't.' Oliver told her, 'Thank you anyways.'

The three of them gathered up the rest of them, who woke up much more quicker, with three people convincing them. Soon, the demigods were ready to be out of there.

Security guards tried to stop them, and Henry punched them. Selina stole a baton from a nearby security guard and used it to knock another guard of his feet.

Oliver dived into a ferrari on a pedestal with a sign that proclaimed, Chance to win this car!.

The demigods piled in, and Oliver drove straight out the exit, the security guards cussing like drunken sailors.

Then Orphis saw a newspaper rack nearby and glanced at the date. They had been in the hotel for five days.

They had one more day to find the crown and return it.