Author notes: Sorry for uploading this, after a fortnight break I'm back with chapter 9! This is a long one so strap yourself in :) Enjoy
Chapter 9:
Annabeth P.O.V
I stirred back into consciousness as the car pulled to a stop, the first thing I noticed was Percy's arm draped carelessly around my shoulders and that Daedalus' laptop had been closed and put into my backpack, yet the zipper was still open, how thoughtful of whoever did that. I looked out the window and realised that it and just turned into daybreak, we had been driving for almost 17 hours. I stretched and realised how stiff I was, I gently lifted Percy's arm off my back and hopped out of the car, Grover and Justin were standing outside conversing but I really couldn't be bothered hearing what Grover had to say so I hobbled over to the back of the car, and sat where the spoiler should have been. After stretching a bit and loosening my muscles up I went and woke Percy up, he greeted me with bleary eyes and a pearly smile and then he lifted up his shoulder to stretch. Whilst he was doing this I walked over to where Grover was standing.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"Colorado" he replied. I had never been to Colorado, I looked around sort of expecting to see different things, but I was only greeted with medium sized hills and squawking birds flying overhead, nothing very special. We were out out in the middle of nowhere, the only thing I could see was a run down diner off in the distance with no patrons, it looked particularly depressing.
"What's so great about this place?" I squinted, as the sun glared down.
"Justin says that whatever it is that we're hunting, is here." Grover handed me a pair of dark sunglasses. I raised my eyebrows skeptically but put them on regardless, he whistled at me jokingly and I glared at him, but I realised that the sunglasses covered my eyes and I probably looked normal.
Behind me I heard scuffling as I saw a dishevelled Percy limp out of the car, wincing as he massaged his stiff bones. He looked at us questioningly when he saw that we were in a very non-substantial area.
"Uhh, where are we?" He questioned.
"Colorado." I said, before Grover could say anything, I grinned at him smugly.
"It's boring." Said Percy matter of a factly.
Suddenly the sound of Justin's trademark rustling bushes came from a few nearby and sure enough a few moments later, out came Justin. Cantering at a decent pace he ran at us barking words to Grover.
"Justin says he's found the scent of whatever we are hunting, apparently this one smells a lot stronger than the others." Grover translated quickly.
Justin yapped at us hurriedly we all got ready to follow him on foot, after everyone had finished preparing we set off after Justin, who wasted no time following whatever scent he could smell. In no time we came to a huge mountain and a sign that read "Flattop Mt. Garfield county".
"So that's where we are." Grover exclaimed excitedly, I saw Percy shoot him a confused look.
"Wait, so you were the driver, but you didn't know where you were driving to?" He said.
"Uhh, well I was really just paying attention to what Justin was saying..." Grover defended.
"Whatever!" I interrupted, Justin had kept walking and had almost disappeared into the brush again, he was clearly focused on whatever scent he could smell. We all hurried to catch up, as he led us up Mt. flattop.
My legs were burning as we mounted the steep incline and we eventually arrived at a huge clearing, the sun shone down at us like a hot radiator and my shoulders were slick with sweat. I gazed around the clearing, it was about the size of half a football field and huge pine tress circled the clearing, it almost felt like a boxing ring without an escape. I realised that at the completely opposite end of the clearing, the mouth of a cave opening gaped. Uncannily white mist floated in front of the entrance completely obscuring me from seeing whatever was hidden in the depths. It was obvious that whatever we had to defeat resided in that cavern, and it must have been huge. Beside me I heard the sound of metal grinding against metal.
Percy's P.O.V
I drew my sword and stared at the mist, as though eventually it would clear up and reveal what stood behind it. I vaguely registered Grover's whimpering and Justin's growling to my left, we must have stood there for at least a couple of minutes until it was obvious that whatever was in that cave either wasn't home, or didn't want to come out.
I looked at Annabeth worriedly, we were going to have to approach that cave weren't we?
"Damn, we have to go in don't we?" I said, I knew the answer already, but I just wanted to make sure.
"Yep" said Annabeth sharply. Great, just great. With a sigh Annabeth and I walked side by side to the mouth of the cave, I tried to keep as cautious as I could but with my ADHD my mind kept wandering and my eyes kept flickering towards Annabeth, even slick with sweat and mouth set in a tight, grim line she was exceptionally beautiful.
The one thing I had always regretted was that I had never gotten to do all the normal stuff a usual kid does, like go to a prom and dance with a partner, or sneak notes across a desk in history class. In that moment I promised myself that if I survived what was to come... I was going to dance with that goddamn attractive girl beside me, and it was going to be sweet.
All of a sudden a slow breeze picked up, Annabeth and I were about half way to the cave and almost exactly in the middle of the huge field. The wind picked up, gaining speed until my hair was waving uncontrollably, then I saw what was inevitably the third and final automaton.
The huge bronze beast thumped into the ground in front of the cave entrance, then I realised what animal it was modelled after, it was in the shape of a huge dragon. It elongated to its full length and I realised it must have been about 25ft tall whilst it stood on its hind legs, this one unlike the squid was perfectly finished and was an exquisite piece of machinery, it rivalled the beauty of the orbs tucked deeply into my backpack. The metallic plates that covered the dragons whole body, gave it the look of a oversized eagle. The feathers were very intricately carved to look extremely elegant, and that they did. It's head was very cool it reminded me of the dragons that you see in the movies, it had two elegant horns that each had a twist near the middle, both were completely symmetrical to the other. It's shiny snout was gaping open slightly and I could see cogs and a metal barrel inside, it looked complicated, something that the Hephaestus cabin would have a field day with, it's eyes glowed an immense crimson. I noticed that it had rotated its head 45 degrees and was regarding Annabeth and I in what seemed like question, or maybe it was wondering how quickly it could kill us.
After a few moments of holding the dragons gaze, I noticed that Grover and Justin had snuck around the dragon and were appearing out of the forest about 50 metres behind it.
I saw Grover bend down and whisper something to Justin, then he took out his reed pipes and started playing, I was a good 200ft away from him, yet I could hear the frantic jig he was playing as crisp and fresh as though he was standing in front of me playing. The ground around the dragons razor sharp talons ruptured and roots the size of my arm burst forth out of the earth, enclosing the dragons feet in a matter of seconds.
Perhaps Grover had been practicing.
The dragon peered down at its legs, seemingly only noticing that's the roots were holding it down, just now. It lifted its front, right clawed paw, but the thick roots held fast... I smiled hoping that Grover could enclose the giant thing and make it extremely easy for me to slay the dragon. Even as I looked over, I knew that that was entirely out of the question, Grover was swaying on his feet and toppled over as I looked. The roots at the dragons feet stopped writhing up his legs and froze as though magic had stopped pulsing through them, and as I watched it tore its front right paw out of the roots and started swiping at the other limbs protruding out of the ground.
I sprinted towards the dragon, because if that thing got entirely free I stood no chance. As I ran towards the beast I, its wings extended to their full length and were no longer plastered to its sleek body, they were flapping like a bird in panic and resulted in strong gusts of wind hindering my progress. Even now as the dragon freed its 3rd constricted leg (the back right), I knew there was no way I'd make it to the beast at this rate, I then noticed a brown streak bolting towards the dragon from the side. The streak payed no attention to the wind, and it didn't hinder its progress at all. The trouble was that the dragon noticed that the brown streak was Justin at the same moment I did, as Justin sped towards the beast it stopped pawing at its last leg and turned to face the oncoming threat.
Justin was sprinting so fast he turned into a blur, I had trouble even seeing him run towards the dragon. But unlike me the dragon had a mechanical brain and was following his progress precisely, the dragon reared up onto its hind legs as Justin arrived, but instead of crushing him like I expected he would try, his mouth whirred open and let loose a hurricane of brilliant orange flame. It engulfed exactly where Justin had been standing and just like that my companion was gone. I couldn't see a body... Poor guy must have been incinerated to ash. The dragon was regarding the ground it had just burnt as I pounced on its back.
It bucked insanely, and I flew off its back. Mid-air I saw its bronze tail flick towards me, and as I sailed past it, I twisted my body to try and grab the fine plates. It amazed me when I realised I had actually grasped onto one, the amazement was cut short when I realised I was going to be whipped into the ground. I let go of the tail as I was tossed towards the grassy earth, I hit the ground and I could practically feel the bones in my ribcage shudder under the pressure of me thumping into the dirt. I vaguely noticed a blur of blonde whiz past me as my brain rattled around in my skull.
Annabeth's P.O.V
Percy leaped onto the Dragons back, and as it flailed around I noticed that on the side of the largest plates on its breast it was engraved "Jim", who in their right mind names a huge, killer dragon Jim?
I zoned back in and realised that Percy was now being whipped around on its tail, seaweed brain was probably going to need a little bit of help. Percy was flung to the ground and landed with a sickening thud as I sprinted past him, dagger in hand. Usually when I get into a fight I know what I'm going to do, and how I'm going to defeat my adversary, this time... I was going in blind. I'm pretty sure I was going to die, but I've got to try.
I mounted its tail and ran up its back, using the scales to my advantage. The dragon shuddered and I knew it was going to buck, so I quickly threw myself down onto its back and used the most comfortable plates as handholds. It started to throw itself around and I was vaguely reminded of the time bronze bulls broke through the camp borders and wreaked havoc. It was still throwing itself around when I noticed a loose wire poking out from between two scales on its neck, just out of my reach.
The dragon was not going to get tired from this I realised, because it was a robot. So either I kill it or get flung to the ground painfully. Then I realised something... It was a robot. I felt the movements of the dragon and started to memorise the order in which it did them, this guy had a programmed sequence to his bucking movement. Suddenly my left hand slipped from the scale it was supposed to be clenched onto and I realised that the jarring of the dragon was making my muscles cramp and fail, I had to do something quick or we were all going to die.
I flung my body up in desperation hoping that this was the moment in the cycle where the dragon lulled for a second. My hand grasped around the red insulated wire and I wrenched it pulling it into a U shape, I dragged the blade of my knife across the wire and slit it cleanly in two... The dragon froze for a second, and then the second part of its cycle was started and I felt my weight lift off its back, before the blackness in my head took over the I saw the dragons bronze head swivel around, its mouth lit up, sparks flew and I knew a flamethrower was priming to fire, and then it faltered.
