-No one's pov.-

"Well...this is interesting," Mika muttered as the rune spell stopped by a shop named Crusty's Waterbed Palace, the place still has its lights on like some others as she entered the store. "Weird place to look, really..."

"Scooby dooby-do! Where are you?" Mika called out in reference and three heads popped out in her view.

"Mika, you found us!" Percy exclaimed in surprise.

"How the heck did you find us?" Annabeth spoke in confusion and Mika tutted at her question.

"I did say I'm good at tracking, so dare I ask why you're all in a bed shop? Where's the owner of this place anyway?" Mika asked and all of the three looked at each other before looking at me next.

Wow, this is gonna take a short break.

-oOo-

"Ah...I see?" Mika said at their explanation about getting chased by the same group of kids from the last chapter and a disguised Procrustes.

"Anyway, we also found the directions to go to DOH!" Grover spoke up and showed her a yellow paper, which showed her that it was two blocks ahead.

"Neat. When are we going?" Mika asked as she looked at the paper.

"Since you're here, we are heading there now," Annabeth spoke up.

"Now? As in tonight now?"

"Yes, now."

"Really?"

"It's a few blocks away, come on." Annabeth started walking to the door with Percy and Grover

"Can we rest a little though?"

"No"

"Aww, but I just got here..."

"Come on Mika,"

Huffing, Mika grumbled as she followed them out.

-xXx-

They all stood in the shadows of Valencia Boulevard, looking up at gold letters etched in black marble: DOA RECORDING STUDIOS.

Underneath, stencilled on the glass doors: NO SOLICITORS. NO LOITERING. NO LIVING.

It was near midnight, but the lobby was brightly lit and full of people. Behind the security desk sat a tough-looking guard with sunglasses and an earpiece.

Percy turned to his friends. "Okay. You remember the plan."

"The plan," Grover gulped.

"Yeah. I love the plan." Annabeth said,

"I have no fuckin' clue what the plan is. But I'll follow as we go." Mika smiled, and she swears she saw Annabeth's eye twitch.

"...Right," Annabeth said as she side-glanced at the girl.

"We've gotten this far. We'll find the master bolt and save your mom. No problem." Grover nodded at Percy.

"Let's whup some Underworld butt." Percy nodded back and everyone walked inside the DOA lobby.

Muzak played softly on hidden speakers. The carpet and walls were steel grey. Pencil cactuses grew in the corners like skeleton hands. The furniture was black leather, and every seat was taken. People were sitting on couches, standing up, staring out the windows or waiting for the elevator. Nobody moved, talked, or did much of anything. The group could see them all just fine, but if they focused on any one of them in particular, they could see right through their bodies.

The security guard's desk was a raised podium, so we had to look up at him.

He was tall and elegant, with chocolate-coloured skin and bleached-blond hair shaved military style. He wore tortoiseshell shades and a silk Italian suit that matched his hair. A black rose was pinned to his lapel under a silver name tag.

Percy read the name tag, and then looked at him in bewilderment. "Your name is Chiron?"

"Percy, his name is Charon. There's no 'I' in his name tag." Mika pointed out.

"Finally someone pronounced it right!" Charon said in a strange British accent. "Do you know how many times someone confused my name for that Centaur?" He leaned close to the podium to look at the group.

"Honestly? No." Mika shook her head.

"Oh, and we want to go to the Underworld now if that's ok with you?" she simply asked.

Charon's mouth twitched. "Well, that's refreshing."

"It is?" Annabeth said in a tone of surprise.

"Straightforward and honest. No screaming. No 'There must be a mistake, Mr Charon.'" He looked them over again and sniffed the air. "Hm, a mortal, two demigods, and a Satyr. All not dead, unfortunately, I can't let you in."

"We have to get to the Underworld," Percy insisted and Charon made a growling sound deep in his throat.

Immediately, all the people in the waiting room got up and started pacing, agitated, lighting cigarettes, running hands through their hair, or checking their wristwatches.

"Leave while you can," Charon told us. "I'll forget I even saw you."

"C'mon. Stuck in heads for all eternity or not, even you must know that Hades is gunning for Half-bloods. What's he going to think when he hears that you turned us away at the door?" Percy spoke.

"We'll give you this bag of Drachma for your troubles too," Annabeth said as she held up a

bag from what Mika thought they got from the shop owned by a dead robber. She took out a fistful of drachmas and let the coins spill through my fingers.

"Do you think I can be bought, godling? Eh...just out of curiosity, how much have you got there?"

"A lot," Percy said. "You let us in, and we can give you our Lotus Casino cards as well. I bet Hades doesn't pay you well enough for such hard work."

"If you let the four of us in. He might show you some favour? When's the last time you got a raise, Mr Charon? I bet the minimal to be honest." Mika asked, getting the gist of what her friends were getting into.

"Oh please, mate. I get paid two drachmas a head, just like always. A drachma doesn't go as far as it used to, let me tell you," Charon stood straight and adjusted his vest. "You make a valid point about the raise, it's a deal." He patted his table and the group proceeded to hand him the sack and our Lotus Casino cards without question.

"The boat's almost full, anyway. I might as well add you four and be off." Charon stood, scooped up their money and cards, and then said, "Come along."

They pushed through the crowd of waiting spirits, who started grabbing at their clothes like the wind, their voices whispering things no one couldn't make out. Charon shoved them out of the way, grumbling, "Freeloaders."

He escorted them all into the elevator, which was already crowded with souls of the dead, each one holding a green boarding pass.

"Right. Now, no one gets any ideas while I'm gone," Charon announced to the waiting room. "And if anyone moves the dial off my easy-listening station again, I'll make sure you're here for another thousand years. Understand?"

He shut the doors. He put a key card into a slot in the elevator panel and we started to descend.

-Mika's POV.-

Well, that part was kinda easy.

Next off: The Guard Doggos, specifically who Fluffy is from Harry Potter!

I wonder, do I address Cerberus as they? Or just called them a girl or boy? A Good Spot?

Maybe they won't care? Would they even like the treats I got?

"Whoever said death was fair, young miss? Wait until it's your turn. You'll die soon enough, where you're going." My eyes snapped to Charon who spoke, what were they all talking about?

"We'll get out alive," Percy had said to him.

Meh, must be nothing too serious to bother with.

After that thought, I felt a little dizzy...why is it foggy now?

I then noticed that the Spirits began to change shape around me, their attire faded into grey hooded robes. The elevator's floor began to wobble, and I blinked several times as Charon's Italian suit had been replaced with a long black robe, his sunglasses had vanished and there were now empty sockets where his eyes should've been.

He saw me looking, and said, "Well?"

"I pretty much imagined you would look like this in the first place, you have a smooth transformation." I nodded at him as a looked at me curiously as his face was becoming transparent, letting me see straight through to his smiling skull.

"You are quite a strange mortal,"

"Thank you," I smiled at the compliment. While noting Grover's seasickness, all of us were now standing in a wooden barge instead of the elevator. Charon was poling us across a dark, oily river, swirling with bones, dead fish, and other, stranger things- plastic dolls, crushed car-nations, soggy diplomas with gilt edges.

"The River Styx," Annabeth murmured. "It's so ..."

"Polluted," Charon said. "For thousands of years, you humans have been throwing in everything as you come across-hopes, dreams, wishes that never came true. Irresponsible waste management, if you ask me."

"Has anyone tried cleaning the river? Burn those wastes or throwing them to Tartarus or something?" I asked and he shrugged and asked me how do humans clean up their wastes making me shrug back at him, kind of getting the answer. Hopefully there are Underworld clean up crews for that.

I looked ahead, the far shore glimmered with greenish light. Glancing at Percy, I noticed he's holding Annabeth's hand, then wondered if this is going to escalate into something more for them.

The shoreline of the Underworld came into view. Craggy rocks and black volcanic sand stretched inland about a hundred yards to the base of a high stone wall, which marched off in either direction as far as we could see. A sound came from somewhere nearby in the green gloom, echoing off the stones-the howl of a large animal. Cerberus.

"Old Three-Face is hungry," Charon said. His smile turned skeletal in a greenish light. "Bad luck for you, godlings."

The bottom of the boat slid onto the black sand. The dead began to disembark. A woman holding a little girl's hand. An old man and an old woman hobbling along arm in arm. A boy no older than I was, shuffling silently along in his gray robe.

Charon said, "I'd wish you luck, mate, but there isn't any down here. Mind you, don't forget to mention my pay raise."

He counted our golden coins into his pouch, then took up his pole. He warbled some song as he ferried his boat back across the river.

We followed the spirits up a well-worn path.

There were three separate entrances under one huge black archway that said YOU ARE NOW ENTERING EREBUS. Each entrance had a pass-through metal detector with security cameras mounted on top. Beyond this were tollbooths manned by black-robed ghouls like Charon.

The howling of the hungry animal was really loud now, but I couldn't see where it was coming from. The three-headed dog, Cerberus, who was supposed to guard Hades's door, was nowhere to be seen.

The dead queued up in the three lines, two marked ATTENDANT ON DUTY, and one marked EZ DEATH. The EZ DEATH line was moving right along while the other two were slow as traffic.

"What do you figure?" I looked to Percy who asked Annabeth.

"The fast line must go straight to the Asphodel Fields," she said. "No contest. They don't want to risk judgment from the court, because it might go against them."

"There's a court for dead people?"

"Yeah. Three judges. They switch around who sits on the bench. King Minos, Thomas Jefferson, Shakespeare-people like that. Sometimes they look at a life and decide that person needs a special reward-the Fields of Elysium. Sometimes they decide on punishment. But most people, well, they just lived. Nothing special, good or bad. So they go to the Asphodel Fields."

I snorted when she mentioned Shakespeare, what will he speak of to the dead? In poem or rhyme?

I then saw a couple of black-robbed spirits pulling and frisking at another spirit at a security desk. The face of the dead man looked vaguely familiar.

"He's that preacher who made the news, remember?" I overheard Grover.

Ah, the guy that was on the tv news channel a few times at the Yancy Academy dorm. Oh dear, I wonder how some of the servants would react if they watched the news on those days.

"Special punishment from Hades," Grover probably guessed. "The really bad people get his personal attention as soon as they arrive. The Fur-the Kindly Ones will set up an eternal torture for him."

I wonder if Mrs. Dodds will find out that I attacked her at the museum and took one of her claws. She probably won't or ever will.

I got distracted at the thought, not listening to whatever conversation Percy and Grover spoke while walking silently with Annabeth to the gates.

But my thought were quickly shooed away when a howl shook the ground at my feet, but I still couldn't figure out where it was coming from, to be honest this reminds me of Hessian when he howls.

Then, about fifty feet in front of us, green mist shimmered. Standing just where the path split into three lanes was an enormous shadowy kaiju.

I hadn't seen it before because it was half transparent, like the dead. Until it moved, it blended with whatever was behind it. Only its eyes and teeth looked solid. And it was staring straight at all of us.

"He's a Rottweiler." I nodded at Percy's words

A Rottweiler that looked purebred if you don't focus on its three heads, it's the size of a woolly mammoth, and is mostly invisible.

The dead walked right up to him as the ATTENDANT ON DUTY lines parted on either side of him. The EZ DEATH spirits walked right between his front paws and under his belly, which they could do without even crouching.

Cerberus is so cute and yet so terrifyingly huge! Two times as huge as Lobo if anything!!

Cerberus' middle head craned toward us then sniffed the air and growled.

"Does it smell us?" I wondered.

"It can smell the living," Percy concluded my wonder.

"But that's okay," Grover said, trembling next to me. "Because we have a plan."

"Right," Annabeth said and I'd never heard her voice sound quite so small. "A plan."

We moved toward the doggy.

The middle head snarled at us, then barked which sounded so close to Hessian.

"Can you understand the bark?" I asked Grover.

"Oh yeah," he said. "I can understand it."

"Ooh, what did he say?" Annabeth looked at me as if saying 'why do you sound so interested?' Because I am.

"I don't think humans have a four-letter word that translates, exactly." Hm, must be an odd threat of something.

Percy then took out what looks like a part of a bedpost and tried to smile which doesn't look as convincing with his words.

"Hey, Big Fella, I bet they don't play with you much."

"GROWWWLLLL!" Yeah Perce, be more convincing.

Percy waved the stick and Cerberus' middle head followed the movement. The other two heads trained their eyes on him, completely ignoring the spirits. When Percy threw the stick I heard it go ker-sploosh in the River Styx.

Cerberus glared at Percy, unimpressed. His eyes were baleful and cold as of saying 'Really Demigod?'

I looked at Percy, unimpressed. Cerberus wouldn't leave his guard dog duty just for a stick, a ball would probably work, but still.

Said guard dog was now making a new kind of growl, deeper down in his three throats. I would be so terrified if not for the screeches of banshees I remembered years ago, or during the times when Hessian decided that he doesn't want a bath, or Penthesilea started chasing Achilles screaming bloody murder. You know, normal Chaldea stuff.

"Um," Grover said. "Percy?"

"Yeah?"

"I just thought you'd want to know."

"Yeah?"

"Cerberus? He's saying we've got ten seconds to pray to the god of our choice. After that... well ... he's hungry."

"Oh! That's perfect, I have just the treats!" I said which made the dog's ears perk up, interested? Shocked that I wasn't all that scared perhaps?

"Hey boy! Want a treat-treat?" I asked while shaking the paper bag in my hand making it rattle which made the dog's heads tilt sideways.

"I bet you do! You've done a wonderful job guarding that you must have a treat for being a good boy, right? You're a good boy aren't you?" I asked with a fearless smile as I saw its tail wag slightly. Their eyes shined when spotting the treats I got out of the bag. Tossing the treats, Cerberus ate them with its tail fully wagging. How cute!

"You're really fearless..." I looked at Percy with a chuckle, telling him I played with my 'uncle's' big wolf dog before.

After giving Cerberus his treats, Annabeth also decided to give the good boy something as well in the form of a red rubber ball.

I wish I got to video Cerberus fetching the ball and following commands! I need to integrate this scene into my memory!!

"How did you do that?" I heard Percy asked her, amazed.

"Obedience school," Annabeth said breathlessly, and I was surprised to see there were tears in her eyes. "When I was little, at my dad's house, we had a Doberman..."

Ah, then they must also be a good dog in the end, huh?

"Never mind that," Grover said. "Come on!"

We were about to bolt through the EZ DEATH line when Cerberus moaned pitifully from all three mouths. Annabeth and I stopped and turned to face the dog, which had done a one-eighty to look at us. Cerberus panted expectantly, the tiny red ball in pieces in a puddle of drool at its feet.

"Good boy," Annabeth said, but her voice sounded like melancholy uncertainty.

Cerberus' heads turned sideways, as if worried about her.

"I'll bring you another ball soon," Annabeth promised somewhat. "Would you like that?"

The monster whimpered. I didn't need to speak dog to know Cerberus was still waiting for the ball.

"Good dog. I'll come to visit you soon. I- I promise."

"Yeah, Cerberus! Just do your duty and be the good and greatest boy in the underworld! Yeah?!" I said to the dog.

Annabeth tugged me to follow her, Percy, and Grover through the metal detector, which immediately screamed and set off flashing red lights. "Unauthorized possessions! Magic detected!"

Cerberus started to bark.

We burst through the EZ DEATH gate, which got even more alarms blaring, and raced into the Underworld. A few minutes later, we were hiding, out of breath, in the rotten trunk of an immense black tree as security ghouls scuttled past, yelling for backup from the Furies.

I pretended not to see Annabeth wipe a tear from her cheek as she listened to the mournful keening of Cerberus in the distance, longing for his new friends. I'm so sorry Spot!

Grover murmured, "Well, Percy, what have we learned today?"

"That three-headed dogs prefer red rubber balls and treats over sticks? Mika is not afraid of any dog?" Lol, yes.

"Yes and no," Grover told him. "We've also learned that your plans really, really bite!"

I chuckled at the unintended pun.

I wonder what will happen next when we meet Hades.