Thought I'd say who inspired me to write finally write fanfiction. Mainly Anaklumos14 (No surprise there, I mean the guy has essentially become the god of Percy Jackson Fanfiction, even after vanishing). But others as well. I love Pertemis, my favourite's being 'The Life of Percy Jackson', 'Zayden Blaze', 'Everlasting Promises' and 'The Queens Champion'. I also like some of Pluto's Daughter 11's stories, like 'Broken' (The only good Perciper) and 'The Colour Silver', (I love Pertemis). But being brutally honest, it was what I didn't like about my favourite fanfics that made me start. Cause that's what this is about. Writing whatever the heck you want.
As we walked towards the junk pile, I couldn't help but feel nervous. I glanced around, as if first noticing we were in a desert. As we all walked in, I noticed all the items stacked in the giant piles. Magical swords, bows, and other armour parts. I gulped.
"No one touch anything," came Zoe's order. "It's here for a reason."
"No touching. Got it," I replied. Bianca rushed forward.
"What do you mean? How can this stuff be junk?" She picked up a bow, as it shrunk into a white pin. I saw Zoe frown at the sight of the accessory. Grover seemed to agree with the Italian huntress. He was munching on what looked like a pure gold crown.
"I know right? This. Stuff. Tastes. Delicious." His voice was punctuated with loud munches. I pulled the thing away from him.
"Didn't you hear Zoe. Don't touch it!"
He grumbled, but we walked on, scrambling over more metal artefacts. After maybe a couple of minutes, I heard a loud clang. Grover had thrown something at ten cylinder looking things, all in a line. I glared at him, but he looked miffed.
"What? I hate fake feet."
I frowned, looking back at the shapes. They did look like toes. I shrugged.
"Come on," I beckoned Grover over. I saw Percy and Thalia ahead of me. Percy made a joke about murderous fridges, and Thalia just scowled at him, warning him to take it seriously. I sighed. I know we weren't gonna get out of here unscathed. Someone will pick something up. I just know. As we left the fake feet, walking around, Zoe exhaled the moment we exited the junkyard.
"Thank the gods," she sighed. Apparently, the gods were being grumpy, because what sounded like an airplane's turbo engine sounded behind us. We all spun around. The toes were moving. The scrap mountain we had all walked around was standing up. A skyscraper with arms and legs, dressed up in full battle armour. A scabbard was on his waist. Something made me hope he couldn't separate the sword, maybe they were welded together? The statue drew the thirty-metre-long sword. I sighed.
"Talos!" came Zoe's and Thalia shocked voice, together. Zoe wheeled round.
"Someone took something. Who?" she cried. She glared at Percy, who denied it. I was looking at Bianca, who was looking down, twiddling her fingers. Right. Not guilty at all. It was too late regardless. Talos took one step towards, and he was almost next us. One step.
"Run!" cried Grover. Great advice. We'd sprint for five minutes, then it'd take another step. I'm sure we could outrun it.
We all ran in opposite directions, like with the Nemean Lion. Talos swiped at powerlines, and they flew towards Thalia. Thrusting out my hands, I froze them in mid-air, letting her run forward, before releasing them, and they crashed behind, the sparks licking her coat. I saw Percy scold Bianca for something. I'm guessing it was her who took something. Talos was swiping at Grover. He stepped on a spot on a hill. Just seconds before, Bianca and Percy slid down the pile. After Grover failed to beat the giant killer statue with awful reed music, Zoe call, called out to me,
"Can you do the thing you did with the Nemean Lion?"
I glared at her. But then noticed Percy, Phoebe, and Bianca all staring at me expectantly. Cursing silently. I thrust out my hands. I knew they were all expecting me to just judo flip the giant statue, but that's obviously not what I do. I twisted my hands, ignoring the gasps as I started glowing. Percy was staring at me, open mouthed. The giant had a very, very pale glow surrounding him. But he was too big. That stretched out, my slowing didn't work. He broke through the shield, the energy hardening as golden shards flew off him. Turning to me, he raised his sword. Brilliant. Nice work Fayden. Now he hates you. A foot came down, and I had nowhere to run. The appendage was too big. I wouldn't make it. I noticed a small latch on his foot. Almost unnoticeable on his giant sole, but I saw it, just big enough for human to squeeze in. The now familiar thick feeling spread over my head, and my eyes glowed. His foot slowed. Now my power was focused on one spot, it worked. Everyone watched in fear, not being able to do anything. I lined myself with the hole. Even as I moved, my arms trembled. He would break free soon. Then he did. The foot came crashing down as I squeezed my eyes shut. A loud scream could be heard outside.
"FAYDEN!" Was that Thalia or Zoe? I cursed. It probably looked like I'd just been crushed to them. I heard thunder rumble, and my eyes widened. A giant lightning bolt would fry everything inside Talos. Good news for all this circuitry. Bad news for me. I held onto the thick bronze wires as Talos moved again. I could feel the ozone in the air, even from in here. I had to run fast. Racing up his leg, I found a hatch by his back. I kicked it open, then nearly threw up. If I fell, I would die. End of. Naturally, being a half blood hero, that was my escape route. I rushed up to the where his central processing unit would be. A giant metal ball lay whirring inside his head, blue wires running along the outside, and disappearing to the centre, like neural pathways. Reaching for, my sword, I realised I had dropped it. I looked around, panicking. I heard Thalia's cry of concentration coming from below. I was running out of time. There was nothing around me. I looked up at the 'brain'. Somehow, I didn't think pulling all the blue wires would work. Even so, I wouldn't be able to move them. Cursing, again, I thrust out my hands, again. Already exhausted, I was surprised to see my hands light up. The cool band was around my wrist, and I twisted quickly, wasting no time. I could hear the crackling sky. Goddammit Thalia. If you kill me, I'll… kill you. Without me going slow, I didn't see the wires unfurling. I saw them blur past me, like a video montage, as the 'brain' slowly came undone, separating into its original parts. The giant shuddered, and started swaying. Leaping down, I landed on the mound separating the shoulder and body. I saw no other hand hold. Jumping, the inside of Talos blurred as much as the brain had done. I reached my hand and grabbed the bottom of the latch. Then nearly fell. I sharp, incredibly painful jarring shot up my arm, as I realised, I had just pulled my arm from its socket. Wordlessly switching arms, I pulled myself up, half my body 55 metres in the air, the other half still inside the giant. I could hear Thalia give a shout, and looked up. A giant black cloud, easily the size of the junkyard was engulfing the blue sky. A funnel had appeared, hovering over Talos' head. I'd feel touched at how angry Thalia had gotten over me dying, if she wasn't about to kill me. I rolled off the latch, and started falling. A lightning bolt to rival all lightning bolts smashed into Talos, almost three feet by three feet of pure electrical energy, with tendrils leaping off it, and his swaying head exploded. As the body tumbled sideways, the blast had propelled my forward. Unfortunately, it had blown me off course. My armour started transforming. I had forgotten that. My black hoodie and jeans started hardening, and twisting. Gold patterns twirled up the chest plate and greaves. The Faulds were golden and so was the plume on my pure black helmet. What was even cooler, was the sword that appeared. It was in a black scabbard, with a golden jewel set into the handle. It was strapped to my back. Thirty metres. I twisted in the air, trying to regain control. Twenty metres. I heard a distant scream and yells of shock. Ten metres. My arms under me, I focused. Hard. Harder than ever. A metre from the ground, I started to feel the air compress, as if I'd landed on a trampoline, and it was slowly stretching, waiting to shoot me into the sky. I touched the ground softly, groaning, before struggling up. Now was not the time to collapse. Limping over to where I had seen the rest of them, I saw them huddled around a small, broken body. A giant piece of Talos' head had lodged through the chest of Bianca Di Angelo. They all huddled around her, while Zoe held her hand. I herd her take a slow, rasping breath, then she saw me, and her eyes widened. It seemed adrenaline coursed through her body as she sat up, screaming. They all turned, shocked. I stood there, in full battle gear, my left arm hanging limply from my side. Thalia was the first to move. She ran at me, and leaped onto my chest. I hugged her with one arm as she wrapped her legs around my waist. Her head was buried into my neck. Long, drawn-out sobs could be heard. She was crying so hard, she started hiccupping. Then I felt two hands repeatedly pummel my chest, before stopping, finding metal there instead of cloth. She hadn't even noticed my amour. As she jumped off me, she stared at it, mouth open to ask, but I had walked over to Bianca. She lay there, her eyes dull, a smile still on her slowly cooling lips. I gazed around us. A desert.
"One shall be lost in a land without rain," I whispered, the venom dripping from my mouth. Everyone else seemed to have come to the same conclusion. They were all too shocked to move. Zoe stared at me as I walked off, looking for transport. Now, I cared for Bianca, as much as the rest of them. But I think this is what Chiron meant when he said I had to help this quest. More of us would die if we sat here crying. An old run-down truck sat maybe twenty metres from us. It had a full tank. I walked back, to find Bianca, laying in the nicest pieces of gold they could find. Her hunters bow lay across her chest. Someone had closed her eyes, and wiped as much of the sot off her face as possible. Everyone stared at me as I stepped in front of her, turning.
"Guys, come on. We need to go."
Percy was staring at me, shocked at my lack of respect. Phoebe was more verbal.
"How. Dare. You." She spoke with such anger, I stepped back.
"Look. We need to go. I cared as much about Bianca was you did. That's why we need to go. Funerals are for the living, not the dead. And its selfish. I want her to be the only death. And we have a deadline."
Thalia seemed to get my logic, and followed as I walked to the truck. I turned back to see the others trudging along. I sat in the driving seat, and pulled the handbrake off. Having never drove before, I was a little nervous. But it was easy to grasp. I just didn't change gear from three as we drove silently along the desert road. As we passed a river canyon, the truck shuddered to a stop. Thalia looked over from her shotgun seat. I glanced at the fuel metre, Empty. Great. Climbing out, I saw Grover, Phoebe, Zoe and Percy climb out the back. Grover looked around. He spotted a small path running along the edge of the canyon.
"There!" he cried. "A path!"
Now, I was too scared to want to go down that thing, being a tiny track I had trouble noticing, so, glancing at Thalia, I wasn't surprised to see her trembling, her face white. Her being scared of heights was one of the first things she ever told me, after I had dared her to climb the wall back at camp. God. Camp. I swore, if I made it, I'd climb that thing.
"No. Absolutely not."
Grover seemed offended.
"It's a goat path, Grover!"
"So?"
"We aren't goats," I gestured to everyone else. He started to open his mouth, but I cut him off, quickly closing my fingers together, and pursing my lips in a 'zip it' kind of way. Percy seemed to agree.
"We'll walk."
Grover sighed, defeated.
We walked for maybe half a mile before coming to a canoe rental shop by the side of the river. I looked at Percy.
"Do you think you could…" I started. He nodded, and ran inside, coming back out shortly with keys to the locks on the chains surrounding the canoes. We grabbed three, placing them in the river. Phoebe and Zoe got in one, Percy and Grover got in the second, leaving the last for me and Thalia.
"Do you think, that, you know, Percy can hold the canoes?" She pointed at the rapids. I pretended to look thoughtful.
"Hmm. I don't know. As a Son of Poseidon, I'd say it isn't one of his stronger skills."
Thalia slapped my arm, embarrassed. Percy didn't even need to control the water though. As soon as he stepped in, three naiads materialised out of the water, holding the back of the boats. Percy asked them if they could push us upstream, and they just giggled, and pushed. We were going so fast, Percy fell back into his, before sitting up. I saw Zoe muttering something, before being splashed by the nymphs. She reached for her bow, but Percy leaned across the boats, and held her arm. It looked like she wanted to cut the arm off. As we 'sailed' on the river, I leaned back, my eyes closed. Thalia's questioning brought me back to reality.
"So. The armour?"
I looked down. I'd forgotten I was wearing it. Narrowing my eyes, I watched as it became lighter, turning back into a hoodie and jeans. Thalia watched, shocked. I reached across my back. The sword had vanished as well. I hadn't managed to save my old sword, the one I'd taken from Camp Half-Blood, so now I was weapon-less. I hoped the sword that appeared with the armour wasn't just for show. Thalia coughed; eyebrows raised. I realised she wanted an answer.
"Oh! Um. I got it in my…dream," I finished awkwardly. She understood, nodding sadly. As I lay back down, I winced. I'd lain on my pulled arm. So much had happened, I'd forgotten about it. Thalia frowned.
"You ok?"
I tried to say, I'm fine, but winced instead. She called over to Percy for some Ambrosia. He saw me, nodded, then rummaged through a backpack, fished out a few cubes, then chucked them at Thalia. She gave them to me, and I took them with my good arm, relishing the delicious tasting healing food. My arm, which wasn't a serious injury, popped back into place instantly. I cried out. That was a lot worse than when I fixed my nose once. The boats suddenly stopped. A large shadow past over them. I looked over my shoulder, and saw the largest dam, ever. Easily the size of a football pitch. The Hoover Dam.
Dam (Ha), that took longer than the others. I don't know why. I'm tired. Please Review…etc. etc. Askinar The Dark, over and out.