Chapter 9:
Zoe was woken up by Bianca who was frantically shaking her arm. "C'mon Zoe, it's daytime and the train has been stopped for a couple minutes already." She quickly gathered herself and traveled to the small town that the group had reached.
She kept on noticing the weird glances Jon was giving her, and ignored them.
They kept heading through the town until they spotted a Starbucks.
"Great, let's go inside and warm up." Thalia said as they quickly made their way inside and ordered hot drinks and pastries.
"So what are we going to do? We don't have a vehicle to travel West." Bianca said.
"Well, why don't we go around town asking about transportation." Phoebe suggested.
They all agreed, and grabbed their hot drinks and split up to ask cashiers about their need, coming up empty handed.
They walked in silence towards the outskirts of town, thinking quietly until one of them noticed something.
"Skeletons!" Shouted Jon. They looked up and noticed several of the skeletons in guard costumes, guns ready to spray at them.
Thalia drew her spear and activated her shield, Zoe, Bianca and Phoebe notched arrows, and Jon took out his sword.
"What's the bet that we can run away from this?" Zoe asked. Her answer immediately presented itself as two more skeletons appeared behind them.
"Listen, I suggest we each take on one with one of you Hunters staying in the middle to fire arrows to help anyone in trouble." Thalia suggested.
"Agreed." At that moment, a strong, strange warm wind had taken it's time to blow through the valley.
"On go, ready? 3…2…1… GO!" Zoe stayed in the middle as Bianca and Phoebe drew their hunting knives. Jon hadn't even come close to his skeleton before one of the others had missed their original target and shot him in the back. Strangely to Jon, it just felt like a light pat on the back. Then he realized, the Nemean Lion's pelt shielded him from the bullets. He quickly wrapped himself in it and resumed his battle.
Suddenly, a massive boar appeared from the forest to the right of them. "REEEEEET!" It squeaked.
"Stop Thalia, you can't kill it. It's practically immune to all attacks like the Nemean Lion.
Thalia brought her spear back down, instead attempting to stab the undead in front of her.
"Guys run!" Zoe yelled as the boar raced after them at surprisingly fast speed.
The beast waved it's tusks wildly, hitting the soldiers that didn't react to the will boar chasing after the demigods. "Start running in different directions." They did as suggested and started splitting up.
The boar slowed down at first then charged full speed at Zoe. "Damn thy!" She yelled as she tried running as fast as possible away from the animal.
"Use the doll." A voice said in her mind.
She quickly fumbled in her bag, taking out the miniature Percy. "Stop the boar!" She threw it down, causing it to immediately grow in front of the boar's path.
The doll then got in a ready stance for the approaching boar that had no intention of stopping. "REEEEET!" It yelled as Percy grabbed it's by it's horns and stopped it.
"Everybody get on!" Zoe yelled as her fellow quest members crowded around the animal. When they had all mounted the animal, Zoe grabbed Percy as he shrunk back into his little figurine form.
"How are we supposed to steer this thing?" Asked Jon, bringing up a very valid point.
At the moment, a rod with an apple attached at the end of the string appeared in her bag.
"How did that just appear?" Asked Thalia.
"I assume it's from the same god that hath given us this pig." Zoe guessed, throwing the rod in front of it, causing a quick take off by the animal.
"What do you mean god?"
"Did thy not feel the air that had blown through the valley?"
"I did, but what does that have to do with anything." Thalia still looked heavily confused.
"The godly presence that had brought such a wind was there. The god of nature, Pan." Zoe finished.
Thalia got the idea and grabbed the beasts fur to prevent her from falling off.
They had been riding for 5 long hours, traveling over many landscapes before the boar had gone down and fed itself with cacti and muddy water.
"This is our stop." Bianca said as they all got off.
Where they got off? Only a sign reading Gila Claw, Arizona told them, but that wasn't even much information. None of them had ever heard of the town, and it was barren of all life at the moment.
"So what we going to do?" Asked Jonathan.
"Well, we obviously aren't getting a car so we can try to hitch hike towards the nearest city." Suggested Phoebe.
Suddenly, a white limo appeared out of nowhere, stopping right next to them. The hunters immediately reached for their bows with Thalia activating her shield and spear and Jon getting out Riptide.
"That's no way to answer an Olympian God now is it?" A gruff voice exiting the limo said.
"What do you want Ares?" Jon said, ready to engage in combat with the only god he had ever battle and the only god who he had defeated.
"Nothing with you kid, or any of you besides her." He said, pointing towards Zoe.
"What does thy want with me?" Zoe asked, arrow still pointed in his direction.
"It's not me that wants you, it's the immortal in the car that does. And put your weapons down." He snapped his fingers and their weapons found their way to the ground.
"Who is it that thy speaks of?"
"Just get in the car, the rest of you get some food." Ares said, annoyed.
"Where, all the shops are closed." Thalia pointed out.
With another snap of his fingers, a burger joint opened up. "Now go." Zoe nodded her head and they went to grab a bite.
"Inside you go hunter." Zoe climbed into the back of the limo and noticed Aphrodite sitting there.
"Aw Zoe, so glad you could join me." She said excitedly.
"Lady Aphrodite, what does thy want?" Zoe didn't trust the love goddess and kept on high alert.
"I'm just here to ask a few questions. For starters, why are you no this quest?" Aphrodite didn't even look at her as they conversed, focused on fixing her flawless makeup.
"I'm here to save Milady of course." Zoe said, a little sass appearing in her voice.
"Oh please, what's your true reason?"
"I do not know what thy means." It was a battle of stubbornness as Zoe looked defiantly at the goddess.
"Really? Well then you won't mind that after this is all done I'm taking Perseus as one of my lovers? Of course he might be coerced, stupid loyalty as his fatal flaw. And despite how strong you think he is, I'm still stronger. I'm the oldest god, born from the sky titan's bollocks."
"You will do no such thing." Zoe threatened.
"I will not if you admit to me why you're really on this quest." Aphrodite had finished her makeup and was now simply taunting the lovesick hunter.
"Fine, I have come to save Milady so that her, Perseus, and I can live a happy life."
"That wasn't so hard now was it? Now, I just love me a good tragic love story, so I'll be sure and give you some more twists and turns." Zoe fumed at the goddess and was about to interrupt her before Aphrodite continued.
"Also, do be careful when entering my husband's territory. He's very sentimental about some things so you'll be careful to not take or even touch anything. Toodles." With that, Zoe was out of the car, spinning in a full 360.
When she finished, she noticed that the town was once again barren of all human life, the limo had disappeared, her friends had come back, and they were in the middle of a junkyard.
"Who was the person in the back?" Asked Bianca.
"It was Lady Aphrodite."
"What did she want?"
"Simply advising that we should be wary while in Lord Hephaestus's junkyard." Thalia as well as Phoebe looked warily at Zoe, but didn't further push the subject.
"So how we going to get out of here?" Asked Jon.
"That way, that is west." Phoebe pointed.
"And how do you know that?" Asked Jon.
"Well boy, Ursa Major is north, so that must be west." Despite directly pointing towards the constellation, Jon still couldn't see it and gave up soon after.
"Look at all this stuff." They had just reached the crest of a mountain made of junk, with Bianca pointing out just how much seemingly useful objects there were.
"They even have a hunter's bow." As soon as she said that, it transformed into a hairpin. "It even acts like Jon's sword."
"Bianca put that down, there's a reason these things are thrown into the gods' junkyard. Anything here is either cursed or defective." Thalia said, setting the bow Bianca had picked up down.
They soon saw the end of the junkyard, picking up several things that were quickly put down after berating from Thalia and Zoe. However, there was one problem. The hill of junk that was longer and bigger than any that seen before.
"What is that?" Asked Jon as there seemed to be several columns that were tight together.
"Are those toes?" Bianca asked.
"If they are, they are some really really big toes." Thalia remarked. "C'mon, let's go around. I don't like the feeling of going over this behemoth."
"C'mon Thals, we've already wasted enough time. The road is right there. We'll be there in no time." Jon whined.
"No, we go around. Thalia is right." Phoebe said.
Jon eventually relented, the toes starting to freak him out as well.
They reached the highway several minutes later, everyone sighing a sigh of relief at avoiding any major trouble.
Suddenly, a loud sound brought their attention to Jon, who had just thrown a pice of metal that hit one of the toes.
"What the fuck Jon? Why did you do that?" Thalia screamed.
"I don't know. Chill out, it's not like anything happened." At that point, he couldn't have been more wrong.
The wound of crashing brought their attention back to the junkyard where currently, the heap of metal started rising and falling.
"Fuck, who stole something?" No one replied, but Zoe thought she saw a hint of guilt appear on Bianca's face.
The metal beast finally stood up as they realized that the defective creation of Hephaestus, Talos, was there.
"Everyone run!" Phoebe yelled as the demigods ran in different directions, all except Zoe and Bianca. They were currently hiding behind a barricade with Zoe shooting arrows that harmlessly deflected off the metal.
"Bianca, what did you take? Was it the bow?" Zoe asked.
"No." Bianca had tears starting to from in her eyes as she realized her mistake.
"Whatever it is, drop it." From her pocket, she pulled out a figurine of a god, saying it was for her brother.
"Bianca just drop it, maybe Talos will power down." Reluctantly, she did as told. That didn't stop the mountain of metal as it started walking over towards their position.
"Hey metal bird, over here." Yelled Thalia. She aimed her spear at the beast and gave a surge of electricity.
It fell to it's knees, but it soon got up. In that time however, Zoe spotted something on it's foot. It said For Maintenance Only.
"Listen Bianca, there's a way to turn it off, but you got to create of distraction." Zoe said, stopping her shooting to face her fellow hunter.
"No, let me do it. I'm the only reason we're in this mess." Bianca argued.
"No, I'm your lieutenant, and besides, you're far too young for this."
"Listen, I have to make up for my mistakes. Here, give this to Nico if anything happens and tell him I love him. It's been an honor being with the hunters Zoe." She handed Zoe the figurine as she made a mad dash towards the left foot of the bird.
"Bianca no!" Zoe yelled, but it was too late. Bianca had made far too much distance between Zoe and Talos.
"Get it to raise it's foot." Yelled Bianca as she mounted the beast.
Jon ran below Talos and stabbed it's foot, his sword made of celestial bronze tearing his toe.
It raised it's foot, about to squash Jon, but it stopped suddenly and slammed his right foot onto his left.
"Bianca no!" Zoe yelled as the beast's left leg was separated from the rest of it's body. It was quickly followed the ripping of it's left arm out of it's socket then a loud crash.
They cried Bianca's name, searching through the hollow limbs of the metal creature, but their efforts were fruitless as the line of the prophecy was fulfilled.
Zoe and Phoebe cried at the loss of one of their sisters.
Thalia and Jon soon persuaded them to get moving, trying not to have another run in with the remaining skeletons.
At the edge of the highway they found an abandoned car that had a full tank of gas and drove away.
