Hello, again. I know it's not very smart of me to start a bunch of others stories when my first two stories are still unfinished, but at the moment I've lost inspiration for those two. I'll probably start writing them again later. I'm still actively writing What Happens in Memphis, Stays in Memphis, though. Sorry if you were reading any of my other stories, but to all Sadico fans out there, I still have a contest open for entries until July 5th, 2012. REALLY, one-shots aren't that hard to write people! ~~~~The Romans and Greeks have already met and are getting along with the exception of Octavious. Also, Nico never went missing (HE DID GO MISSING RIGHT?). Sadie and Walt never dated because Walt is dating Jaz. Walt only follows the path of Anubis, he does not host Anubis. Sadie and Anubis never liked each other; they only like each other as friends! The Greeks that came are Nico, Annebeth, Leo, Piper, Lacy, Grover, and Rachel came as well. (Lacy because Chiron thought she'd be important.)

Any way… Disclaimer: I do not, under any circumstances own PJO or TKC!

-Percy Pov-

THE KING OF ABSOLUTE NUT CASES

Chapter

-The-

First

I was indescribably happy to have Annebeth back, and just as happy that the Romans and Greeks were pretty much getting along! Sure there was some awkward tension between Piper, Jason, and Reyna, but I tried not to involve myself in that too much; but I will if it gets too out of hand. There was also some tension between Leo, Hazel, and Frank. The hunters had been visiting often and Thalia and Piper seemed to have hit it off, oddly.

Don't get me wrong, there have been some issues. For example; we didn't get along this easily when my friends first got off the ship. There had been some major fights, as well as some small ones. The Fates had allowed the gods to intervene and show the guilty demigods some evidence to prove the innocence of each other. Rachel was thoroughly creeped out by Octavious. And Octavious himself had started many fights, unsurprisingly. There had been a few monster attacks, but nothing serious. The real problem was we were losing demigods again.

Both Roman and Greek demigods had gone missing, but we had reason to think it wasn't like last time; we didn't think they were joining Gaea. The gods had been more involved with their kids lately, and all the kids had seemed happy. Also they'd left their weapons behind! If that isn't a clue that something's not right, then I don't know what is!

All of the camp was eating supper together tonight. The gods had felt something wrong lately. (And they thought something was going to happen tonight. They had ordered us all together to night for that very reason.) It had started when the Demigods had started disappearing. Their disappearances we unnatural, and even I was starting to get creeped out. Who wouldn't?

One day a demigod would be talking with their friends, happy, and goofing around, and trying to avoid the subject of the inevitable war; just like any other demigod. The next day they would be missing, vanished in the night. There would be no signs of a struggle and even their beds would be neatly made; their weapons where they were left the night before. Not even Octavious could turn this against the Greeks. There was no way we could blame each other if both Greek and Roman Demigods were vanishing. (Although he still tried, but only a few people believed him.)

I'm sure those were the thoughts of almost everyone in the dining hall when a flash of light erupted from the front of the room. I think the best way to describe what I saw would be to say it looked like one giant iris message. A gruff unshaven face appeared on the screen. He had long stringy black hair and a triumphant smirk plastered on his face. There were a few old cuts crisscrossing his face and his eyes looked dead. Nico gasped loudly across the table from me and a panicked look spread across his pale face. I shot him a worried look and he just shook his head in response as the man in the jumbo iris message turned his head in Nico's direction. His smirk grew wider as Nico scowled.

"Ah, Mr. Di Angelo! How delightful to meet you under…. Less depressing circumstances. Do tell your father I said Hello." He sneered.

"Tantalus! How did you get out? We closed the doors of death and everything is back in normal order in the underworld." A confused, yet angry Nico demanded.

"Ohm, Lady Gaea knew you were quite close to accomplishing your goal so she made some last minute withdrawals from the underworld. I was one of the lucky few she chose. Apparently I have great potential for my pure hatred for the gods." Said, apparently, Tantalus. Who the Hades is Tantalus?

Tantalus most have read my expression quite easily because he was sneering now as he remarked to me, "Mr. Jackson. Yes, I've heard quite a lot about you as well as the other six of the prophecy; although I can tell from your expression that you have never heard of me though. Pity. Hmm, seems as though Ms. Chase and Ms. Mclean have heard of me, due to their expressions. Do you want to explain my story or shall I," there was no immediate response from either girl and Tantalus was off again. "You're right I should explain. It'll be much better that way anyway.

I am Tantalus, King of Sipylos. When I was still alive, as Mr. Di Angelo can tell you, I was favored by the gods. In fact I was so favored by them that they allowed me to dine with them. Unfortunately, the gods heard that I was telling mortals the secrets of the gods, which I had conveniently overheard while I ate. Then there was that unfortunate incident where I served the gods my very own son Pelpos. Too bad they were all perceptive enough to recognize that I was serving them a mortal, although Demeter was stupid enough not to recognize my son. She actually ended up eating his shoulder before the other gods warned her of the truth behind my special dish.**" Thunder rumbled and cracked angrily overhead when Tantalus mentioned Demeter, yet he continued on, unfazed.

"Unfortunately for me the gods found it fair to send me to the deepest pits of Tartatus. My punishment was to stand knee deep in beautiful, shimmering water and not be able to quench my never ending thirst. For every time I bent down to drink the water vanished before my very eyes. Fresh fruit in every kind imaginable was to grow plentifully over my head, yet every time I reached up to end my ravenous hunger, the fruit would vanish! It was unimaginable, everlasting torture. Ever since the day the gods tossed me into Tartarus I vowed I would seek revenge. Lady Gaea has provided the perfect opportunity to do just that!"

All the demigods began glancing at each other nervously and shifting in their seats even before Tantalus finished his rant. I glanced around to find the rest of my friends (new and old) glaring at the shimmering message. Jason and I stood up at the same time to speak; we glanced at each other and silently agreed I would speak first.

"What does this have to do with us? What are you planning, Tantalus?" I demanded.

"Are you taking our demigods?" yelled Jason. I crossed my arms and the Jason glared at the face of Tantalus.

"Ah, Mr. Grace, yes I am responsible for your missing demigods! How smart of you to figure that out. And, I'm afraid I can't answer your questions yet Mr. Jackson, although I am sure they will become obvious soon. In fact how about I take the liberty of explaining things." His smirk had returned and the uneasy feeling in the room had gotten worse.

Tantalus backed away from the screen and his voice could be heard in the background somewhere. "Just so you know I have two IIM going at once; IIM means improved iris message. One is to Camp Jupiter and one is to Camp Half- blood. With the new age of Gaea comes new technology!" the view of the IIM shifted and we were now facing over the edge of a stone ledge. Below us was a stone floor covered in dirt. What was more disturbing was that there were bones and rusting armor littering the floor. Some of the bodies still had decaying flesh clinging to their bones. Flies buzzed happily at their new discovery of food. Their jaws were still unhinged as they relived the horror of their last moments of life. What was even more disturbing was that the bodies were obviously that of children. Their boney hands desperately clung to their weapons made of celsital bronze and imperal gold.

We had found our missing demigods.

Everyone gasped and began muttering as they remembered their friends that had disappeared. On a meter of 1 to 10 if I was trying to measure the horror and disturbed surprise in the room, it would be a 9 ½.

"Ah yes so you've seen the fate of your fellow demigods. Some of them lasted longer than others; the younger ones barely lasted for one round. A shame really, you'd think with all that they'd endured that they'd be more prepared for a real fight. Apparently not."

The IIM zoomed out and I could see that the stone seats that surrounded the floor were completely packed with chanting fans. (How had I not noticed the noise before?) Some of the fans were but most were monsters. I couldn't recognize all of the types from this distance but they did not look friendly.

Annebeth gasped and muttered, "That looks like the coliseum. But it can't be, the real coliseum is in ruins! But maybe…." She trailed off as Tantalus's voice boomed and echoed around the room.

"Very good, Ms. Chase! It is actually a replica of the coliseum! You see, my plan is to…" he trailed off. "Mr. Jackson you may want to pay extra attention. I will be answering your questions now. As I was saying, my plan, as ordered by Lady Gaea, is to reenact the glorious fights that once occurred in the original coliseum. But seeing as gladiators are in a shortage right now I have substituted demigods for gladiators! Brilliant, if I do say so myself!"

The bar on the meter of horror and disturbed surprise just went fro to a 12. All it took was three minutes. Three minutes! There were terrified gasps heard all throughout the room, and even a few shrieks, as well as some weird mortified satyr noises. (Lacy also made some distinct squealing noises.)

"You kidnapped our demigods to use them as GLADIATORS?" thundered Jason. I made a mental note not to make Jason angry. Ever.

"Yes, that's exactly what I did. Weren't you listening Mr. Grace? In fact we are just about to hold our market. Let's go purchase some new gladiators. Hopefully these last a little longer. The crowd is getting rowdy!"

And with that Tantalus, the King of Nutcases, descended a spiraling stone staircase down to the arena floor.

Sorry this was short and I'll try to update soon.

1st- should I make a prologue to this story to explain how things were before this situation happened? Tell me your thoughts when you review.

**= Demeter was actually depressed over the recent loss of her daughter. She is NOT stupid AT ALL! She's AWESOME!

PM or review if you have any questions, comments, or concerns. And I don't have any of the books and I haven't read them in a very long while so correct me if I got anything wrong.

You can check this site out for information on Tantalus : .

It seemed like there was something else I wanted to say but I seem to have forgotten…. Oh well.

I apologize for spelling and grammar errors!