Chapter 45: Power Plays
A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!
Percy puts his foot down and meets new people.
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Percy would be lying if he said he wasn’t tempted… for half a moment, anyways. Drawing his eyes up from the woman’s cleavage, he shakes his head with a smile.
“No. Thank you.”
Then, because he can tell she’s about to continue the charm offensive if he doesn’t say anything else, he cuts her off again.
“I’m going to need you to retrieve Bianca and Nico di Angelo for me. Right now.”
He doesn’t exactly do the last bit on purpose, but even he can feel the Authority he inadvertently injects into his voice. And while he notes it, the woman behind the counter shudders under its effects, her eyes widening as she pulls back as if struck.
“… Of course, sir. Very well. Please, have a seat and they’ll be right out.”
She quickly scurries away after gesturing him to a seating area that Percy was pretty sure hadn’t been there when he’d first come in. He’s not sure why it hadn’t, waiting areas in the lobbies of high-class hotels like this one were pretty common, right? Only, it’s completely abandoned as he goes and sits down.
Part of him wants to protest even this much of a wait, but that feels unreasonable… and besides, there’s no one to protest to anyways at this point. The woman behind the counter has run off, presumably to do as he’d told her, and the lobby of the Lotus Hotel and Casino is otherwise abandoned… deserted even.
It’s kind of eerie, Percy has to admit. To be fair, it wasn’t like Hades would stick his children somewhere random. This place had to have some form of protection on it for the Lord of the Underworld to stash his kids here.
That said, Percy can’t help wondering what Hades’ children will be like. The names imply a girl and a boy, he thinks… though Nico was gender neutral, so maybe it was two girls. Bianca though, that was definitely a female name. What would a daughter or son of Hades even be like? Would they be all goth and shit? Would they be ‘one with the shadows’ or something?
… Or would they be mostly normal, unbound by their parentage? Percy supposed he would find out soon… any minute now, really.
An hour passes before he’s forced to recognize that he’s either been bamboozled, or this entire operation has the efficiency of a snail. Either way, after more than sixty minutes have elapsed, Percy realizes he could have likely located Hades’ children on his own faster than this. Really, this was ridiculous.
Rubbing his eyes, the demigod rises from his admittedly VERY comfortable lounge couch and begins heading for the big opening that he presumes will lead him deeper into the Hotel and Casino. He’s not surprised in the least when he barely passes through that opening before being bombarded not just with a bevy of sights and sounds… but also all but ambushed by a familiar face.
“Ah! Sir, have you chosen to partake after all?”
The woman from before smiles at him brightly, even as Percy takes in his surroundings. He’d been able to hear some of this from the lounge area… small bits and pieces perhaps designed to entice and intrigue him. But passing through the opening into the hotel proper, it’s like there was a barrier muffling much of it, because now he’s downright overwhelmed by everything.
It's everything the woman behind the counter had offered him. Slot machines, roulette tables, other games of chance. There’s also bars and restaurants, eating areas filled with the most delicious aromas Percy has ever smelled. And of course… her. She stands there with her hands clasped in front of her, framing her ample bosom like that of a heart as she beams at him.
Percy almost feels bad about shooting her down. Almost. But after being made to wait more than an hour, he’s not feeling very bad about anything at all… except for all the time he’d wasted here.
“No. I’m here to collect the children of Lord Hades. The children YOU were supposed to bring me an hour ago.”
The smile grows pained on the woman’s face.
“Ah, my sincerest apologies sir, they’re on their way, it will just take some time. Please, return to the waiting area and I’m sure they will be out in just a moment. Or, if you’ve gotten hungry, you could pick a restaurant and I would be happy to wait on you hand and foot while we waited for their arrival!”
He’s sure she would. Percy shakes his head, still not fully understanding this place… but obviously time is a factor somehow. What was it she’d said? Hades’ children had been her quite a while? And now she was trying her best to keep him engaged as well. Percy didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one bit.
Stepping away from her without answering, Percy clears his throat as he looks out over the casino floor. This time, he purposefully tries to draw on that feeling from earlier… that feeling of Authority.
“Bianca and Nico di Angelo, I have come to collect you on your father’s behalf! Present yourselves to me!”
The casino is loud. Not just the machines, but the people too. Trying to shout over all of it to be heard would have been a fool’s errand, normally. However… Percy’s little trick makes sure everyone hears him, no matter what. They have no choice. People flinch, heads turn, and there are many, many scowls directed his way. None more so than the woman at his back. Even though he’s not looking at her, he’s still aware of her eyes burrowing into his back, and if he did look at her, he suspects he would be receiving a death glare at this point.
So long as she doesn’t attack though, she can glare at him all she wants. And if she does attack… well, Percy has his hands stuffed in his pockets and holds Riptide’s pen form in one hand, ready to pop the cap and pull the sword out in one smooth motion.
However, before violence can occur…
“Our father sent you?”
A young woman steps away from a slot machine, looking surprised as she walks up to Percy as if in something of a daze. With an olive complexion and dark hair, she honestly doesn’t remind him of Hades much at all. Not with how pale and pasty white the Lord of the Underworld had been. She probably took after their mother though, because Percy can sense that this is a demigod standing in front of him, not a trap by the casino itself.
Smiling at her, Percy nods.
“Bianca, I presume?”
She hesitates for only a moment before nodding back.
“Y-Yes… that’s right.”
Unfortunately, while Bianca has stepped forward, Nico is nowhere to be seen.
“Your sibling, Nico… where are they?”
Blinking, Bianca looks around for a moment.
“Ah… well, Nico is still a kid… so he’d be in the kid’s section, right?”
She seems almost uncertain of that, her brow furrowed as if trying to remember something. Percy wonders how long Bianca has been here. He wonders what this place has done to KEEP her here.
Still, there’s no children here. And there’s no ‘kid’s section’ that Percy can see. With a huff, he whirls around on the woman from before once again, this time no longer playing around as he stares her down.
“You have five minutes to produce Nico di Angelo or I’m taking Bianca and leaving.”
That gets a squawk from the female demigod in question, and a look of confusion from the obviously inhuman woman. Percy smiles thinly as he continues on.
“At which point, I will return Bianca di Angelo to her father as requested… and let him know that the Lotus Hotel and Casino is holding his son against his wishes with her testimony to back me up.”
Throwing Hades’ name around before hadn’t done much… but the threat actually seems to land this time. The woman freezes, her eyes widening as the possibility of an enraged God of the Dead coming here himself, or sending someone with more power than Percy, clearly plays out in her mind. Finally, she bows her head.
“Nico di Angelo will be retrieved post-haste, sir.”
“Five minutes. Four, now.”
She rushes off and Percy turns back around to Bianca, only to find her already glancing back at the slot machine she’d been playing at before. With a huff, he grabs her by the wrist and drags her out through the opening, back into the hotel lobby and waiting area. This provokes another squawk from the young woman, who blushes a little bit.
“S-So forward! I’m… I mean… what was I…”
Percy looks at Bianca weirdly, frowning as two questions come to mind.
“How… old are you exactly?”
She looks eighteen, but she might be a little younger or a little older. However, as it turns out, Percy is right on the money.
“A-Ah… I turned eighteen a week ago.”
That might explain why Hades felt the need to stash her and her younger brother away, though why he did it with both instead of just Bianca… well, maybe he wanted to keep them together. Or maybe it wasn’t the monsters he worried about, but the other gods. After all, it was rather telling that Hades was having Percy retrieve his children only after Zeus had been deposed.
Unfortunately, the second question on Percy’s mind has to wait, because with literally ten seconds left in the ultimatum to spare, the woman returns with a young man walking behind her. The young man looks a lot like Bianca, with the same olive complexion and the same hair color. He also looks quite put out for a moment… until he sees his sister.
“Bianca!”
Percy thinks he sees a momentary grimace on Bianca’s face, but it’s gone in the flash of an eye as Nico runs forward to hug her and she meets his rush, hugging him back.
“Nico! I… s-sorry it’s been a while since we last saw each other…”
“Oh! It’s okay, I was having lots of fun anyways. Were you?”
“… Yeah, I was.”
It’s clear Bianca is finally starting to realize something was wrong about all of this. Nico isn’t quite there yet though, and hearing them talking, the woman from before speaks up again.
“Ah, perhaps the young sir and miss would like to stay then. If you wish to stay, you need only say the world. I’m sure your father would not mind.”
That, as it turns out, is the wrong thing to say though, because Nico jolts in a way that even Percy doesn’t understand at first.
“F-Father?”
The sheer wonder in the boy’s voice and on his face is a sight to behold, even as Bianca slowly nods.
“Yes… this man here… he says he was sent to retrieve us… by our father.”
You know, suddenly Percy wasn’t sure if the two children of Hades even knew their father. Or that they even knew he was still alive. He wondered if Hades wanted that kept secret or something. But then, if he did, he really should have said something in the letter, honestly.
Still, invoking their ‘mysterious father’ seemed to be the golden ticket. Neither Bianca nor Nico even pay the woman or her offer to stay the slightest bit of mind. Straightening up, they both turn to him instead, stepping forward hand in hand.
“We’re ready to go now.”
“Yes! Please take us to our father.”
Well, Percy wasn’t sure that was in the cards, but he also wasn’t going to say that right now. Instead, giving the woman one last look to make sure she wasn’t going to give them any further trouble, he leads Bianca and Nico di Angelo out of the Lotus Hotel and Casino at long last.
He’s on edge, waiting for one final shoe to drop, expecting the caretakers of the weird casino to make one last attempt at keeping them. Which is why he damn near jumps out of his skin when Bianca gasps as they step out onto the sidewalk.
Whipping around, pulling Riptide from his pocket, he barely refrains from uncapping the pen when he sees that there is no attack. In fact, nothing is coming from the casino behind them. Rather, both Bianca and Nico are staring past him at the sights of Las Vegas with wide, shocked eyes, like they can hardly believe what they’re seeing.
Something niggles at the back of Percy’s mind, and he frowns as he finally finds himself asking the question he’d meant to ask earlier.
“Bianca… how long have you and your brother been staying at that hotel?”
She almost doesn’t seem to hear him at first, so caught up in everything as she is. But eventually his words manage to penetrate her mind, and she looks at him with a slow, confused blink.
“It… it was a couple months. But we… we were in Washington D.C. last. What is this place? Where are we?”
Percy frowns. That sort of explains it, but something still doesn’t track with him.
“We’re in Las Vegas, Nevada. Have you ever heard of it?”
Bianca looks confused as she shakes her head.
“N-No?”
Dread pooling in his gut, Percy lets out a shuddering breath.
“Bianca… what year is it?”
Before she can answer, Nico jumps in, clearly getting over the sights enough to finally want to be included.
“Oh! I know that one! Its 1930!”
Well damn. Something of his dismay must show on Percy’s face, because Bianca takes another look around for a moment before staring Percy down.
“… It’s not 1930 anymore, is it?”
Wondering how to tell the two of them that seventy years had passed, Percy grimaces and shakes his head, opening his mouth with no idea what he’s going to say. But then… the true gravity of the situation hits him and he curses.
“Fuck! Tyson!”
If two months in the casino was seventy years, how long was over an hour?!
Bianca and Nico both look confused, and Bianca looks a little upset that he’d cursed. But before either of them can complain or question him, Percy grabs them both by their hands.
“No time to explain! Come on!”
He drags his fellow demigods down the Las Vegas Strip, towards the arcade he’d sent Tyson to. Sure, he could have stopped and checked how much time had passed, but every moment he wasted on that was a moment he wasted on not getting to Tyson as soon as possible.
[X] Switch to BIanca POV - 61%
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