Mark's POV

I pointed my finger at Dan. "I knew something about this wasn't right!"

Jack elbowed me before calling into the dark room, "Who's there?"

"Go ahead and walk in to receive an answer."

I grimaced. "We aren't actually going to walk into the mysterious room with the familiar sounding bad guy, are we?"

"You have a good point," Logan complimented. "Since we know that Percy isn't down here, we could just walk back up the stairs and wait for the wall to be removed."

Dan leaned over to peer into the room. "Yeah, I'm with Logan. This seems like a pointless boss battle."

We all nodded in agreement before turning back the way we came. As we walked away from the room, Jack glanced back. "Was that supposed to be a distraction? If so, they did a pretty shit job."

I nodded. "Yeah, I can't help the feeling that the person speaking sounded familiar, though. You think it might've been someone we know? That would've made it a clever distraction."

Jack shrugged. "I'm not all that interested in finding out. They sounded a little too intimidating for my taste."

"Would you morons get back here before I have to do something I might regret?" The mysterious person called after us.

"Not interested, sorry!" Phil yelled over his shoulder, earning a high five from Dan.

The person sighed, "You're asking for this."

Before any of us could make a snarky remark, a wall came crashing down at the end of the hallway. Thomas nearly fell backward from the impact.

"Alright, mysterious person, would you stop making walls block our path? It's starting to get annoying," Dan grumbled.

"Oh, but the fun's only begun," the person snickered from inside the room.

I groaned, "I'm starting to get sick of people I can't see giving me weird messages. Would you come out of that room so I can punch something with good reason?"

"Were you considering punching something without good reason?" Thomas half joked.

I stared straight ahead toward the open door. The person made no response, but after several seconds of silence, a figure, who's face was covered by a black hood, walked out of the room.

Dan and Phil took a step toward me and Jack. Logan and Thomas remained planted in front of the wall, trying to figure out a way to move it.

The hooded figure's wicked smile shined through the darkness of its hood. "If it wasn't already made clear, you aren't going anywhere."

"And why's that?" Dan asked.

"There's nowhere to go to at the moment. Everything is being taken care of as we speak. Well, everything except you six and that dog. I decided to take care of you all myself."

Now, after hearing the person speak and seeing him with my own eyes, I realized who it was. A shiver ran down my spine, but I put on a brave face. "You're the one behind all of this, then?"

He snickered, "Not even close, but for right now, I'm in charge of the Underworld."

I sighed as I searched for an answer. All the other demons we've found that we knew in the human world had been relatively nice. I hadn't met Felix, but I was beginning to think that everything I'd been told about him was a lie. That left me with the figure in front of me. The person ruling the Underworld from behind the scenes for who knows how long.

"Cry, if you're the one in charge of the Underworld, then what happened to Felix?" I inquired, trying to ask the question that would give the most answers.

I heard Dan gulp and saw Jack stare at me in disbelief out of the corner of my eye. I ignored them and kept my eyes trained on Cry for the response. I hardly heard Phil whisper, "Remember, he's a demon, not your friend."

Cry's grin grew wider. "As much as I'd love to answer that, I'd rather this go quickly. I've got an execution to catch, after all."

"You son of a bitch," Dan murmured next to me. I glanced at him and saw his fists clenched at his sides while he stared at the ground.

"Unfortunately," Jack rested his elbow on my shoulder and seemed completely calm, "we can't let you do that. You see, if you were to murder Percy, then a friend of ours would die. To add, if you think you'll get rid of us quickly, you've got another thing coming. I understand that you're oblivious to what us humans are capable of, but you should surely be able to comprehend that all you've accomplished thus far is pissing off six great fighters and one police dog. So, if I were you, I'd wipe that stupid smirk off your face and try not to get beat up too badly."

At this point, Jack had moved his arm from its place on my shoulder. He was standing in a fighting stance and looked as if he could slap a bull and knock it unconscious.

Cry's smirk had disappeared and was replaced by a look I assumed was concentration. I turned to face Jack. "Where did that come from?"

He shrugged, remaining firm in his fighting stance. "I don't know. He was pissing me off and it just kinda flowed out."

I stared at him in disbelief. "Regardless, you're giving all the inspirational speeches from now on."

He chuckled, "Sure thing, but first you guys have to help me beat the shit out of Cry."

"It won't be that easy," Cry commented as he moved into a fighting stance.

Dan and Phil exchanged a glance, then erupted into laughter. Dan chuckled out, "It's three demons, three humans, and one police dog against one demon. I think you should be more concerned about your wellbeing than ours."

Cry smirked, then whistled. Two pugs trotted out of the dark room. I heard Dan and Phil inhale sharply, but Jack and I exchanged confused glances.

"What're Edgar and Maya gonna do? Roll over?" Jack asked.

Chica darted over to Edgar and Maya, wagging her tail excitedly. "So that's what she smelled," Phil mumbled.

"I'm sorry, but why are Edgar and Maya with you? And what about them is supposed to threaten us?" I inquired.

Chica's tail abruptly stopped wagging, then she turned back to face the rest of us. She whimpered quietly before laying down and staring up at us dreadfully.

"The fuck did you do to Chica?!" I yelled pointedly at Cry.

Cry glanced down at her. He almost seemed confused, but shook it off. "I did nothing. It's likely the king's doing. Now, prepare to fight!"

Chica whimpered and buried her head in her paws. She was pulling at her ears to try to cover them.

Cry took a step toward us, and as his robe lifted, I noticed that his skin was glowing a deep shade of blue. I looked down to the three dogs on the ground next to him and noticed that Edgar and Mays's eyes were shining the same blue. Chica was still whimpering and hiding her face, but I got the feeling that the same thing was happening to her.

Under my breath, I whispered, "I think they're all under some sort of trance. Probably something the king set up."

Jack straightened up out of his fighting position. "You think?"

I nodded. "All of them are glowing dark blue from somewhere. I think Chica's trying to resist it."

"That would mean that you fall under the trance if you get close to them," Phil commented.

"Exactly, so we need to figure out a way to fight them without getting close to them," I replied.

"We also need to bring them out of the trance somehow," Thomas added as he jogged up to the rest of us.

"How would we do that, though?" Jack inquired.

My eyes widened. "Cry seemed shaken up a bit when I accused him of doing something to Chica. I think that if we convince him that he's under someone's control, he'll break out of it."

As everyone was thinking of ways to do that, Cry took a few more steps toward us. Edgar and Maya trotted loyally behind, leaving Chica to shake furiously behind them. She looked up to meet my gaze, and I witnessed her eyes changing from a night blue back to their natural brown.

"Chica's going back to normal now that Cry walked away," I reported.

"How's that help?" Dan asked.

"We need to get Cry away from himself."

A/N

IT'S SO CLOSE TO SUMMER

I CANNOT WAIT

I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO READ FANFICS FOR SO LONG YESSSSSS

IF YOU HAVE ANY FANFICS YOU WANT TO RECOMMEND TO ME, KNOCK YOURSELF OUT IN THE COMMENTS

Anyways, BUH-BYE BROTATOS!