Alright, so we reached this creepy junkyard and found out that it was massive. Like, really massive. What's worse? We had to find a tiny shield part here? As unrealistic as those statistics were, we were still up to the challenge.

"Alright, where do we start?" Joel asked.

"Looks like there's something shiny over there." Jessica said, pointing to a part of an enormous trash heap.

"Everything here is shiny, Jess." I replied.

She rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath.

We searched the junkyard for at least an hour, until finally, Kylie shouted from atop what looked like the largest pile, "We're never going to find the darn thing!"

"Well, we don't really have a choice, Kylie!" Shouted Jessica.

The ground shook under our feet and then stopped.

"What was that?" Joel asked nervously.

"Let you know when I find out." I replied.

The ground began shaking again and Kylie screamed. We looked up to see a huge mechanical wolf rise from the assortment of junk and stretch its legs. Worse, Kylie was on top of that thing.

But what the heck were we supposed to do?

The Wolf turned to look at us.

"Now what?" Jessica screamed.

"Split up!" Joel shouted, "It can't take us all down!"

Actually, it could. Easily. At that point, I noticed Kylie was climbing down one of the automaton's (as I was later told they were called) silver legs.

Sadly, this wolf didn't want to cuddle. It stomped its foot wildly, causing dust to fly up around it. My heart skipped a beat as the dust cleared. Kylie was getting up from the ground, covered in powdery dust. She quickly drew her bow and fired what looked like a flaming arrow. The arrow caused a small fire to burn on the Wolf's stomach. Kylie scrambled back to us.

"Kylie, where'd you get that arrow?" I shouted.

"Don't ask questions now!" Kylie screamed, "Just focus on taking that thing down!"

The Wolf turned to Jessica, who was running around it with her sword drawn (which, by the way, was, in this situation, about as useful as a small plastic knife). It pulled its head back and in a terrifying few seconds, shot a single, short blast of fire at the daughter of Aphrodite, completely engulfing her in flames. Kylie instantly rushed to her side. She poured the water from her canteen on her. Luckily, it went out, but Jessica was still hurt.

While I had observed that, our mechanical friend had taken a certain liking to me.

Joel was holding something small and round with little designs etched in it. He looked like he was trying to get at a good angle to throw it at our foe.

"Joel," I shouted, "give it here! I'll destroy it!"

"And how do I know you won't hit me with it?" He shouted back.

"Please! Just trust me!"

He thought for a second before tossing me the "something".

"Just throw it and it'll go off!"

I did as he said, throwing it at the machine's muzzle. Instantly, it exploded in green flame.

I quickly jumped back as he Wolf's head burn off, and it fell to the ground, inactive.

We rushed to see if Jessica was alright. Kylie had fixed her up with some of the Nectar, and I'm guessing she had used her own abilities to fix her singed clothes.

"Hey, Joel, what was that thing you made me throw?"

"Greek Fire grenade. Lucas gave them to me before we left."

"And how come you didn't use that thing earlier?"

"I needed to be in the right position. I was about to throw it until it started breathing fire. I knew its torso must've been fireproof, and you happened to be standing right there.

"We're going to need to find that Fragment now." Kylie said. "Jessica, are you okay?"

Jessica nodded, "I'll pull through." She assured, starting to stand up.

"You have to admit, it was pretty clever of him to hide a Fragment in a giant trash heap." I muttered in annoyance.

"I guess so," replied Joel, "My dad is pretty smart."

"So, how does it feel knowing about your sister and all?" I asked as we continued searching.

"He paused for a second, "I hate it." He picked something that looked like a piece of the Shield, but wasn't quite it. "I hate knowing that my sister's out there trying to hunt me down. It's horrible living with it."

"What if she sees how the odds are stacked against her and decides to help us out?"

"I guess that's a possibility." Joel sighed.

"I found it!" Jessica shouted, "I found the Fragment!"

We rushed to take a look. It was the fragment, alright. It was the same shape as the others, but it was a bit dirty.

"Kylie, I meant to ask, where'd you get that flaming arrow?"

"They were in the car when my dad gave it to us."

Well, we got back to that (ever so sparkly but slightly dented) car, and unfolded the map. An area over the coast of California cleared away in a sort of purple fog like pattern on the map, revealing a dot that said

Garden of the Hesperides, Mt. Tamalpais

"Guys!" Kylie announced, "We're heading to California!"