AN: I don't own PJO.

Maxine glared at him. "Oh, yeah? Wanna put your money where your mouth is?"
Tommy Ramirez-Arellano grinned. "Fine. Twenty denarii you couldn't do it."

"Thirty drachmas, and your on." Max snapped.

Tommy and Max didn't get along. They were both friendly to everyone but each other-it was something their parents couldn't fathom, and nobody else could either. Not even Max and Tommy themselves were sure why they always fought, they just did. They were both thirteen, so an age difference wasn't the answer. They just couldn't get along.

After the war with Gaea, the children of Vulcan at camp jupiter had built a fighting simulator. Reyna had seen how unprepared the romans were for fighting opponents like the giants, so the simulator had automaton versions of every type of monster there was. You could get hurt, but the automatons were programmed to stop attacking before they killed you.

"Guys, this is a stupid idea," Raiden interrupted, trying to step between them.

"Yeah, we aren't supposed to go over level four." Cassie looked nervous. Charles caught Max's arm and shook his head at her. She yanked away and snatched up her golden sword.

"Don't care. I'm about to win me thirty drachmas." Max said, striding into the simulator room. Tommy went into the operations room. "Level ten, like we agreed!" She shouted, and Tommy nodded from the operations room as her friends crowded in with him to get out of the way.

The ground slid open, and a platform lifted up, with the huge metal monster on it. It was a giant. It whirred to life, straightening its head and holding up it's spear. Max normally would've wondered why it was wearing a leotard, but she was too busy thinking oh shisct I think this might've not been such a great idea after all.

She drew her sword anyway.

Max dove to the side, the giant metal spear crashing into the ground where she had stood a moment before. She scrambled to her feet, sprinted towards the automaton's feet. She leaped up and slashed the giant's leg. The huge health bar built into it's chest went down by only about a centimeter, and she cursed.

The spear swung towards her, and she ducked, feeling it pass over her head by six inches tops. The spear flew back at her again, and she braced herself for the impact as she grabbed the long shaft. The giant metal automaton roared, lifting the spear with the thirteen-year-old legacy clinging to it for dear life. It shook it angrily, and Max wrapped her arms around it to stay holding on.

As she flew past, she saw her friends in the operations booth frantically trying to shut off the automaton. Something was surging towards the booth from the hills-it looked like monsters. But monsters couldn't get into camp, right?

Max felt the spear turn point towards the ground, making her hang there upside down. She squeezed her eyes shut and prayed to any god that was listening that those weren't monsters.

The spear started shaking, and she lost her grip. Max screamed as she fell toward the ground headfirst, but something grabbed her foot. The giant metal automaton lifted her by her ankle, making it flare with pain. She twisted up and grabbed it's fingers, nearly passing out as the blood rushed back to her brain.

Max heard a scream from the operations room. Monsters totally surrounded it, and they were dragging her friends out and trying them up, tossing them onto the ground.

She could only hope that someone in the city would look towards the field of mars and see what was going on. She also cursed her own stupidity-if she wasn't doing this stupid bet, she would be down there to help fight! As she watched, Selena punched a drakon in the nose, snatching its sword. Tommy fought, too, but both quickly found themselves underneath a pile of monsters.

Max knew she needed to get the attention of the campers. Her dad could help, and she pitied any monster that invoked the wrath of her mom. The giant was still holding her, frozen. She had just lost, because she couldn't free herself, so now was the time when someone in the operations room would turn the thing off. But the monsters didn't seem to see her, just the huge frozen metal statue.

She used one hand to cling to the giant's finger, and used the other to reach between the metal monster's fingers to the palm of it's hand. She had watched her dad help built this monster-there was an access panel on the palm of the right hand. She snapped her fingers, conjuring a tiny flame that she used to melt through the access panel. Max couldn't see the wiring inside, but she could sense it. She just had to reroute that and disconnect that….

A minute later, she connected the last wire. The monsters that had her friends prisoner were arguing, like they didn't know what to do next.

The giant whirred to life, just the way Max knew it would. She reached into the pocket of her army jacket with the hand she had melted the panel with. The jacket had been a present from Hephaestus years before-it was fireproof like the clothes her mom made, but also had enchanted pockets like her dad's tool belt. She pulled out a microphone, which she connected to the panel. She pressed the switch on the side of the microphone, grinning.

As Max spoke into the microphone, the huge metal giant started to bellow her words in her voice as loud as it could-so loud her ears rang.

"Monsters are on the field of Mars! About two dozen of them, so bring all your friends! Calling all Romans, grab those torches and pitchforks! Field of Mars, everybody, ASAP! Please and thank you!"

There was no way they hadn't heard that in the city.

The monsters heard as well, and started freaking out. Max guessed they thought they could take the romans, because after a moment of chaos they drew their weapons and charged towards the city. But a wave of romans with weapons and armor was coming at them, and in a moment they were dust.

Max's friends on the ground started whooping and cheering, and she called into the microphone again.

The giant boomed in her voice, "Also, would somebody mind getting me down from this stupid metal giant? My foot's asleep."

Needless to say, their parents were less then happy with their stunt. Well, Leo wasn't. He started talking about the integrity of the panel and how hard that machine would've been to hotwire for a normal kid. He actually seemed really impressed with Max.

Calypso, on the other hand, was irate.

"What were you thinking, you could've been killed there's a reason you aren't allowed to spar with the level ten automatons, it is dangerous, you're only a level four…" etc. etc.

Calypso eventually sentenced Max to a month grounded. But Max didn't mind-she had won thirty drachma off of Tommy Ramirez-Arellano. And that was something.