AN: Welcome back everyone!

I'm glad everyone enjoyed the last chapter!

This took a while to come out, especially because I was swallowed up by midterms, but here it is!

Right, enough talk.

Let's begin!

Disclaimer: I, Beowulf, do not own PJO or JJBA. I only own this plot, my OC, and the disappointing truth that I do not possess D4C. If I did, I'd be jumping around universes like a bunny on crack.

~Chapter 23~

"Of course his big plan is to just run away." Thalia told herself exasperatedly as the group immediately scattered, just like they had done for both the Nemean Lion and for the Erymanthian Boar.

Then again, it was the only half-decent plan, considering they were facing off against a damn skyscraper of a bronze automaton, along with smaller machines that seemed eager to cut them to pieces.

Zoe and Phoebe immediately loosed volleys of arrows, the former firing at Talos while the latter shot down the bronze hoplite automatons that marched slowly but surely towards them.

The lieutenant of Artemis's arrows had little to no effect on the giant, simply pinging off of the metal skin while Phoebe had a bit more success as the arrows stabbed into the metallic flesh of the deformed bronze soldiers.

Risotto's eyes glowed a rich blood-red as he stood tall, while Anette grimaced as Scaretale manifested out of her shadow. Grover brayed like a goat before scampering up a mountain of scrap metal with all the agility given by his satyr heritage while Percy had pulled out Riptide.

In his run, Cyrus had grabbed ahold of Thalia, pulling her along as she brought out her shield, holding it up as they ran down the highway.

Stopping for a moment, she noticed Cyrus's eyes narrow. "Why isn't he moving...?" She heard him mutter. Looking back, she was surprised to see that Talos had not taken another step towards them.

"Something's wrong..." Suddenly, Talos swung his sword, taking out a whole row of the power lines, making the two duck as the electrical wires came crashing down. "Note to self...lets not get hit by that sword." Cyrus muttered as he took cover, pulling Thalia behind a broken chariot.

"Wh-what do we do sir?" The two looked down to their side, noticing that Rina had been hiding there as well. Her eyes were wide with fear, her lips trembling. Cyrus gave her a reassuring look before looking at Thalia.

"Well, first things first, we have to figure out why they're attacking us. They had a ton of time to attack us, so why now?" He asked out loud, running his hands through his hair as he tried to understand.

Thalia's nose wrinkled as she racked her brains for a reason. Peeking over her shield, she grimaced as the bronze soldiers steadily began to make their way towards them. "Talos must be acting as some kind of security system...Nightshade was talking something weird about someone having took something, and those soldiers did say something about thieves!"

"But how? Sharkbait and I told everyone that we aren't supposed to take anything from the junkyard!" Even as he said those words, he noticed Thalia's eyes lighting up in unpleasant realization as she looked behind him. Turning to see what she was looking at, his heart sank as he noticed the plushy Hydra in Rina's hands. "Oh...oh that would do it."

Rina noticed them looking at her plushy, before looking back up at them with a sniffle. "This...this is all my fault, isn't it?"

Cyrus bit his lip. If he were to put it very bluntly, it was...but it didn't matter. She hadn't known the exact reasoning why they weren't meant to take things from the junkyard. Besides! They could figure a way out of this...probably.

He leaned down, hugging the little girl quickly. "Don't worry Rina, it's okay. Just next time, remember to do as I ask, okay?"

Sniffling some more, the child nodded, and once again Thalia was struck with how good he was with children. Both animal and human, she noted in her head as she remembered the sabretooth cubs. She let a smile and a blush float across her face for a moment before steeling herself.

"So, we gonna kick some machine butt or not?" She said with a smirk, brandishing her spear and shield. Cyrus glanced at her, grinning as D4C burst into existence behind him. "Oh you bet."

"Wait here, okay Rina?" The girl smiled at him faintly and nodded. Cyrus gave her a little wink as he stood up from behind the broken chariot. He shot Thalia a cocky grin. "Whoever takes down more of them pays for our date?"

Blushing a little at the thought of a date, the punk girl smirked back at him. "Deal. Your ass is going down, Bunny Boy!"

And with that she rushed onto the battlefield. Cyrus watched her go, transfixed for a moment. "Hate to see her go...love to watch her leave..." Shaking off his teenage thoughts, he grinned as he scrambled after her, eager to put some dents in some machines.

If you told Percy he'd be trying to fend off a small squad of defective- sorry, unwante- no that didn't sound much better either...just a squad of Celestial Bronze soldiers, he would have groaned, just like he was now. Because the life of demigods would never be easy, huh?

Right now he was currently locking blades with two metal hoplites, one of which had a melted face and the other was missing an arm. However, it didn't stop them from swinging their swords in trying to lop off his limbs and head.

Riptide clashed against two half-rusted blades while the automatons creaked and clicked. He gritted his teeth as he strained against the machines' strength.

Unfortunately he failed to account for Half-Face still having a shield, which crashed into his side. He gasped as he was knocked onto his back, the breath sucked out of his lungs.

His trusty blade fell from his hand as the two soldiers towered above him, raising their blades. "Crap, I messed up!" He cursed to himself.

Shink! Shink! Shink!

A hailstorm of metal scalpels suddenly appeared, shoving themselves clean through the bronze hoplites' heads and torsos, making them stumble back. "Critical damage..."

"Wh-what?"

"Hmph, pick yourself up." Risotto's deep voice rumbled as Percy looked around for the tall man, only to see nothing.

"Where are you?"

A pair of glowing red eyes suddenly appeared in front of his face, making him flinch in surprise. His jaw dropped when he realized that was the only thing visible. "How the hell are you-"

"Invisible? My Stand is very helpful when it comes down to it. Now get up, we have some scrap to take care of." The man ordered, before disappearing completely.

Percy nodded, picking up Riptide as the hoplites attacked again. And yet again, metal scalpels and blades sprung up from the ground, taking aim before launching themselves at the soldiers. Try as he might, the son of Poseidon found himself in awe. "How is he doing all that?"

Moving quickly he swung horizontally with his blade, cleaving through the soldiers' necks and letting them fall to the ground, clicking mechanically.

Looking around the battlefield to try and get his bearings, he spotted Zoe and Phoebe firing off silver arrows at the soldiers that trudged towards them as they ignored the hulking metal giant. Smart move, considering Talos didn't seem to be moving very much after seemingly commanding these metal men to attack them.

Grover was frantically playing his pipes from his little mountain of scrap, animating a various bits of metal to fly at his pursuers. The bronze hoplites just kept getting smacked back down the mountain, but again and again they got up and began their slow climb once more.

Anette was doing pretty good as well, as Scaretale defended her by making her shadow extend under a group of their enemies, before rising up to tear into them with its teeth and claws. She was pretty far away from Percy, but even then he could hear the disturbingly cheerful roars of the lupine Stand, crying, "More! That was fun, who will I get to chase next?!" To her credit, the woman just groaned before commanding her Stand forward once again.

Meanwhile, Cyrus and Thalia seemed to be in the midst of a competition of 'who takes down more', as the girl struck down soldier after soldier with combinations of spear thrusts and slashes along with crushing bashes from Aegis. He was surprised to see her grinning as she glanced back at Cyrus.

The Stand User was a whirlwind, unleashing storms of bullets and blue fists as D4C defended its master with barrages of blows while Cyrus gunned down any automaton foolish enough to enter his range. He could hear the teen's counting even from here. "15, 16, 17, I'm still ahead Thals!~"

"Like Hades you are! I'm on 20!" She growled out at him.

"On your six." Percy flinched as he whirled around to see a soldier standing before him, its head completely gone, but still somehow functional as it raised a spear. Blocking with Riptide, he was surprised yet again to see a hailstorm of blades appear out of nowhere, skewering the robot from behind and making it twitch and clack.

Acting quickly, he pushed hard with his blade, setting it off balance before stabbing it clean through the chest. The machine whirred before seemingly powering down as it crashed to the ground.

"Hmph, good reflexes...a bit sloppy, but not half bad..." Looking up at the voice, Percy's jaw dropped as Risotto suddenly materialized into existence in front of him. The man still had his serious expression, but Percy could see a faint hint of curiosity in his red eyes.

"Uh...thanks?" Risotto gave a slight chuckle, before turning serious again. "Get ready."

Percy looked at him in confusion. "For what? They're down aren't they?"

"Damage Control: Self-Repair Initiate." The robots spoke in unison as their eyes (if they had eyes) glowed a menacing white color. Slowly but surely, they began to rise once more. The two that Percy had decapitated got back to their feet, slowly reattaching their heads to their necks, while the headless one that he had stabbed stood up again.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Percy risked a glance as Cyrus's voice rang out in disbelief as the machine that D4C had just punched right through the chest got right back up, ready to keep fighting despite the hole in its torso. Similarly, Thalia backed up a bit in shock as the automaton she was fighting reached up to pull the spear from its shoulder, ripping it out and clicking at her.

Risotto frowned deeply as he let his eyes glow a harsh red once again. "They can repair themselves...strange..." He muttered, before noticing that there were little flickers of light around each robot.

His eyes narrowed as he focused a little more, noticing that the flickers of light were in a trail leading back to Talos. "Something strange is happening here..." "You don't sa- where'd you go?!" Percy cried out in annoyance as Risotto disappeared once again.

Grumbling to himself, he knocked away a blade rushing towards his chest before making a run towards Cyrus and Thalia. "There are two many of these things and they can somehow bring themselves back after we beat them down, so strength in numbers!"

Meanwhile Cyrus scowled as the mechanical hoplites he put down kept getting back up despite the damage they suffered while slowly self-repairing. "This is getting really fucking annoying now." He growled out as he put another bullet point blank into one of the machines' faces. I mean how would he be able to win his bet with Thalia if they kept getting up?

"Stay down when I hunt you, metal things!" Anette groaned as Scaretale roared in irritation, continuing to tear away at the horde of machines. It didn't seem to be working too well in terms of keeping them down, but it was defending its master quite well as it kept the machines in a constant state of repair.

"Guys! Little help?!" Grover cried out frantically as he kept hopping around on the metal mountain he'd gotten himself stuck on, still hurling bits of scrap at the marching hoplites that attempted to climb it.

By now Zoe and Phoebe had foregone their bows, instead opting to use their hunting knives to slash at the robotic hoplites as they fought their way through to the rest of the group. "This isn't good, we're going to be overrun if they keep coming at us like this!" The stockier hunter said as she slashed open the throat of one of them, spilling what looked like petrol.

Cursing to himself, Cyrus looked around at the hoplites that were now surrounding them. Getting fed up, he roared out his orders. "Risotto, wipe them out!"

Instantly, a hailstorm of knife-blades that almost blocked out the scenery materialized in mid-air, taking aim and firing themselves at every machine in sight, stabbing and cleaving through them effortlessly as if they were bullets from a minigun.

The robots that were immediately on the group crumpled to the ground, twitching as they tried to restore themselves. They would not succeed, as immediately following that, the knives that were impaled in them exploded outwards into metal spikes, tearing them all apart into shrapnel.(1) Everyone's jaws dropped. Risotto had easily reduced the enemy horde of robots in half. Smirking, the wielder of D4C turned to his side where a pair of red eyes popped into being. "Now there's the Risotto Nero I know."

He couldn't see it, but he was sure the man was giving him a smirk.

"What just happened?" Thalia asked, stunned at the sheer speed with which all the automatons had been destroyed. Anette smirked as she glanced over next to Cyrus where Risotto was standing.

"That...was Metallica. Risi's Stand is arguably one of the more dangerous Stands in the world, maybe second only to Cyrus's D4C." She explained, before walking over and whispering to Risotto. "You know what it does to me when you do things like that~."

Cyrus had to stifle a laugh as he could have sworn he felt shivers next to him. "Who knew that the Abyssal Jester of Passione would end up so whipped?"

Groan...Rumble...!

They all stiffened as they looked up.

Talos...did not look very happy. It seemed impossible for the melted face of a robot to have a displeased expression, but the giant did not seem very happy that Risotto had so easily cut the horde in half.

His remaining eye glowed, and instantly one half of the soldiers that remained fixated on the group. "Invisible thief detected. Locate and terminate."

The three Stand Users' eyes widened just a fraction. Risotto's eyes however narrowed soon after. That shouldn't mean much of anything to him. Their effective range was less than Metallica's. Even if they could now see him, as long as he kept his distance, he would be fi-.

Shrip!

"RGH!" Risotto fell to the ground, his foot flying as it was severed above his ankle. "Risi!" "Risotto!" The grey-haired man gritted his teeth as he had deactivated his invisibility involuntarily.

Looking down near his feet, he noticed that one of the soldiers that he'd thought he'd destroyed was still functioning, and it had slashed its sword from its place on the ground.

Phoebe quickly made to grab the nectar from her backpack, only for Zoe to stop her. "No! He is still a mortal, if thou give him nectar he will burn!" Cyrus scowled as he spotted the soldier that had harmed one of his closest friends.

With a yell and a Stand-enhanced stomp, he smashed the hoplite's mechanical head in, turning into nothing but a piece of scrap as flat as a penny. Seemingly unworried by Risotto's condition, he turned his attention to Talos, glaring up at it as rage burned just beneath the surface.

Surprisingly, Anette had not gotten frantic at Risotto's injury, but still had a worried grimace on her face. Growling at the stinging pain in his leg from where the foot had been chopped off, Risotto's eyes glowed a harsh red once again.

"Wait what-" Thalia's words cut off as Risotto's foot suddenly launched up into the air in front of them. She felt herself recoil a little as she noticed something.

Within the flesh and blood of the severed foot, where tens of hundreds of tiny silvery...things, writhing around with unnerving little faces on them. She could've sworn that she could see little stitches on their bodies, and if she listened carefully, she would hear that the little beings were moaning out the word "Loooooad..." (2)

Percy's mouth went dry and he could feel his stomach lurching a little. "I...I get it now, why you never wanted to show your Stand. Your Stand, is inside your body."

"Ngrh! Correct...Metallica allows me to use Magnetism to attract metal particles and affect them however I wish." Risotto's foot suddenly shot towards him.

Shink!

The foot reattached to the stump, with medical staples forming out of his blood to hold it in place. Percy's mind was in overdrive as things began to click together. "That explains before when those scissors appeared in Brandon's legs! And when he was creating all those scalpels and knives! But how's he able to create so many? And if he could do that, with metal particles...then why can't he affect the bronze soldiers themselves?"

Risotto got to his feet, testing his leg out gingerly and scowling, earning himself a worried glance from Anette. "I should be fine for a while."

"Good, because here they come." And Cyrus was right, the soldiers had split up, with a quarter of the ones still working going for Grover on the mountain while the others came for them.

Cyrus growled as D4C loomed over his form. He had been messing around up until now, but with Risotto getting wounded? All bets were off when you harmed those under his protection. "Knock them down, I'll finish them." He ordered, before pulling the Nemean cloak from his shoulders and triggering D4C's power.

"Have I ever mentioned how scary he is when he gets like that?" Percy asked Thalia, only to get no response from her. Glancing over, he sweat-dropped as he noticed that Thalia was blushing a little.

"What is my life?" The group rushed forward, hacking down the mechanical soldiers with prejudice. Risotto rained down blades of metal from a healthy distance, while Scaretale ripped them apart with its jaws.

Percy glanced at Risotto who was currently impaling a hoplite with half an arm and a sword with at least ten scalpel blades that he had conjured. "If you can manipulate metals, why didn't you just stop all these things in their tracks? And how can you make all these things from nowhere?"

Risotto didn't turn to him, instead opting to look at the next enemy. "My Stand works with magnetism. Bronze is only diamagnetic, meaning it takes immense effort for me to control it. Iron is the easiest for me to work with, and iron is everywhere. In your blood, in sand, in plants and even in spring water...but anything that isn't ferromagnetic is difficult for Metallica to use." (3)

"But I suppose it doesn't matter, now that Cyrus is making use of his Stand." Risotto noted, pointing and prompting the son of Poseidon to look.

As the robots kept getting knocked down, a blue hand would emerge from the ground beneath them, dragging them to Gods knew where.

"What is he doing?" The wielder of Metallica had a twinkle of respect in his eyes.

"If I'm correct...he's told us to knock them down so he could reappear underneath them, and then use the space between the robots and the ground as another trigger for D4C so he can drag each machine into the space in between worlds where he can get rid of them." (4)

Percy gave a low whistle. "Damn that's clever..."

Cyrus emerged from the ground after disposing of the last metal hoplite, cracking his neck. "And now...for the big one." He said, turning his gaze to Talos.

"Wait, we're seriously taking that thing on?!" Percy exclaimed with wide eyes.

"Well why not?" The elder teen shrugged, making some of his friends stare at him like he'd grown a second head...which honestly wasn't out of the realm of possibilities in their bizarre lives.

"Gee, I don't know, the fact that's a freaking giant war machine?! We're gonna get squished!" The son of Poseidon argued, before pausing for a moment, "Well maybe not you because of your Stand, but still!"

Talos was not willing to give them the option apparently. With only a few of the smaller robots left, the giant seemed to have had enough, taking a step forward that had the ground quaking from the weight, then another.

And Cyrus felt the unpleasant feeling that he was going to be the hulking mass of metal's main target. "Wonderful..."

Or at least it was until..."Hey Talos!" Grover cried out from his mountain as Cyrus noted that the few soldiers left had almost made it to him. The giant turned at the shout as Grover played a quick melody on his pipes.

The power lines that the giant had struck down began to come alive, dancing to his tune before flew to Talos's leg, wrapping around it and sending sparking currents of electricity through its body. It jolted and twitched as electrical current arced through its body, shuddering as a few of the tips of its fingers fell off of its non-sword hand.

Percy's eyes widened as he noticed this, with Cyrus grinning in approval. "Good, he's learned."

It turned to Grover slowly. If it could make expressions, Cyrus was sure the giant machine was very ticked off.

It raised its gargantuan blade, and he could see Grover gulp.

"No!" Thalia yelled out, thrusting her spear forward. Instantly, an arc of lightning shot out, nailing Talos in the knee. It stumbled, crashing to the ground, and the swing that would have slammed right into Grover on the top of his scrap metal mountain, instead slipped to the side, crushing the last of the poor metal soldiers that had been trying to scale it all this time. More segments of the fingers fell off, crashing into the ground.

As for the satyr, he bleated in panic as the colossal blade crashed into the mass of metal, losing his balance as an avalanche of shrapnel ensued, covering him up. "Grover!" Percy and Thalia cried out in worry. Unfortunately, all it did was draw attention.

The monster of metal began to rise again, forgetting about Grover due to the satyr now being out of sight, and instead opting to turn its attentions to Thalia and the rest of the group.

"Shit."

Talos raised its blade once again.

Cyrus swore loudly. "DOWN!"

Everyone dropped to the ground. Swinging horizontally, more power lines fell to the ground to Talos's sword as the giant advanced. It wasn't fast, but its stride made it clear that it would outpace them.

"Any ideas?" Anette asked, the calm in voice betrayed by a slight tremor in her tones. While she was used to battle due to being involved with la Squadra's takeover of Passione, this was on a different level. She didn't sign up to fight the equivalent of a metal fucking kaiju!

"Well I was gonna say we could use those power lines...but Jet Jaguar over there seems to have trashed that option pretty well." Cyrus grimaced.

Percy would have laughed at that reference if he wasn't halfway to losing it. His best friend Grover's fate was unknown, and he was NOT looking forward to having "Death by Squish" on his gravestone. "So what's the plan now? We can't keep running away from this thing! We can get tired, Talos can't!"

Cyrus grinned as he looked to all of them, "Risotto, Thalia, you two are the key to beating him."

"We are?" The punk daughter of Zeus asked confusedly, while the assassin nodded, awaiting orders from his Boss.

Cyrus nodded, before turning to the rest. "You guys distract our metal friend!"

"Wh-" "Go!"

Nodding despite her misgivings, Zoe led the way, taking aim with her bow alongside Phoebe while Percy held Riptide lightly but firmly in his hands. Anette ran alongside them, letting her shadow surge forward, extending itself to connect with other shadows and letting Scaretale manifest.

Turning back to Thalia and Risotto, Cyrus asked them, "You saw what happened when Talos got shocked, right?"

"No..?" "Its fingers began to fall off." Thalia and Risotto spoke at the same time, before looking at each other. Risotto sniffed a little, "You need to pay more attention."

Thalia huffed, glaring at the assassin, but before she could retort, Cyrus caught her gaze with an admonishing half-glare. "Focus! Every time that thing has been shocked with electricity, it's been dismantling. It's unstable, that's why Hephaestus left it in his junkyard. So..."

"You want me to shock it to death." The raven-haired girl finished, with Cyrus nodding. "Well what's he supposed to do then?" She asked, jabbing a thumb at Risotto.

Risotto however, was one step ahead in his thinking, nodding a little as he had figured out what Cyrus was concocting. "I've got it." His eyes glowed as he knelt on the ground, burying his hand in the sand. Slowly but surely, iron pulled itself free from the sands, coagulating in the air.

Cyrus didn't like this, if he was honest. Risotto was still wounded, and he was asking a lot here.

Meanwhile, Grover finally climbed his way out from his impromptu burial, dazed from the avalanche of scrap metal and shaking his head to clear the spots from his vision.

Talos was currently swinging its blade down at its feet where Percy and the two Hunters were 'fighting' it, if you could call it that. It was really just dodging the yacht-sized hunk of rusted bronze that carved mini chasms into the ground where it struck. Percy was dodging and diving out of the way each time, yelling and hurling (terrible) insults at the metal giant, while Zoe fired arrows into its face, keeping it distracted. Phoebe was currently doing first aid to Anette, who had gotten a head wound from a flying piece of shrapnel that had whacked her in the head.

"Any day now!" Percy shouted out as he stabbed Riptide into Talos's foot. That proved to be a mistake, as Talos looked down, raising said foot to stomp on him like a bug.

Percy's complexion drained instantly as he realized his predicament. "...Oh shit."

He ran to the side, just in time for the foot to come down right where he was standing. The shockwave of the foot hitting the ground knocked the breath out of him, sending him flying and getting friendly with defunct refrigerator. He shook his head woozily as Talos approached.

Creeeaaak...

The monster turned at the sound of heavy metallic bending and twisting, as did everyone else. Their jaws fell to the ground as they took in the sight.

Forming in the air just in front of Risotto, Thalia, and Cyrus was a massive pole of iron tipped with a sharp point. Fashioned from the iron in the sands and the junkyard, it was easily twice the size of a normal spear, and at least half as thick as a person. And even now, more iron was being taken and added to it, forming into a chain attached at the other end of the tip, while the sharp point grew barbed and hooked.

"That's enough Risotto!" Cyrus barked out, his eyebrows creased slightly in concern. The wielder of Metallica generally never created such large objects, instead sticking to things like knives and razors, as larger objects took more effort and strain to make. Not to mention Risotto had literally lost a foot! (5)

Risotto shook his head, gritting his teeth as blood began to leak from his nose. Thalia stood next to him with a wide-eyed expression of awe, looking in between the Magnetism Stand User and the spike of metal he'd created.

"Ptgh!" Blood spewed from Risotto's gritted teeth, but the iron harpoon continued to grow in size. "You of all people know me Cyrus. Prosciutto said it best...We are la Squadra! We don't release our Stands' powers until the deed is done! Until victory is within our grasp, now give the order!"

Cyrus closed his eyes and sighed. He'd have to have a talk with Prosciutto about this...but for now he gave a nod.

Instantly, the spike shot forward, launching with awe-inspiring speed towards the metal monstrosity as the chain clanked behind it. The massive spear of iron ripped clean through Talos's chest, impaling it as it stumbled back from the impact. It made to try and remove it, only for the tip of the spear to deform, becoming flatter and harder to pull out.

"Hera above!" Zoe exclaimed, her bowstring going slack in shock. If Percy wasn't seeing birdies in his vision, he too would have gone slackjawed at the feat.

"Do it." Risotto croaked, spitting up a bit more blood from exerting his Metallica's power so much. Thalia shook herself out of her disbelief. "Wh-what am I supposed to do?"

Cyrus gave her a grin that seemed almost manic. "Fry that fucker."

Grasping what he meant, she stepped forward, grabbing hold of the iron chain formed by Risotto with both hands and concentrating.

Her eyes snapped open, crackling with blue lightning as she let the power surge through the iron spear. Cyrus grinned as arcs of blue electricity raced up the metal pole before colliding with the giant's bronze skin.

It began to twitch, its fingers spasming and clicking as the joints began to overheat from electrical overload.

Clang! Clang!

Piece by piece, Talos began to fall apart at the joints. "Keep going!" Cyrus urged. Thalia gritted her teeth, before letting loose a yell. "Take this!"

A massive surge of lightning shot through the spear into Talos. By now the joints of the giant were burning a bright red as the electricity heated it up to melting point.

Its arm fell off. Then a leg crashed to the ground, then the other arm, the other leg.

Talos's chest collapsed inwards, with the head lolling before just falling right off its shoulders. The machine had fallen at last.

Everyone sighed in relief at that. Zoe and Phoebe lowered their weapons, with Anette groaning as she rubbed her head wound. Percy panted from his place next to the dented and defective refrigerator, while Grover finally pulled himself out of the scrapheap he had been trapped in. Cyrus grinned at another victory, turning to Thalia.

"You did it Thals! You go-" He cut himself off as Thalia began to crumple, her knees buckling. In an instant he was by her side, holding her in a bridal carry.

She gave a giggle as her normally sharp gaze was dazed and unfocused. "Hehe...I did it."

Cyrus raised an eyebrow at that. She wasn't one to giggle like that, and if she was all there, she'd have punched him for daring to hold her like this. Then it hit him, and he groaned.

This had happened once when they had been traveling to camp. They'd been surrounded, and in an attempt to clear them all out, Thalia had summoned a massive blast of electricity around her to fry them. It worked...but that day Cyrus learned an odd truth.

Whenever Thalia overdid it with her electricity powers, she tended to...well...

"You short circuited yourself..."

She giggled again. "Noooo...you short circled...short circa...thingy..."

He chuckled. "Adorable."

"Proud of you Thals." She smiled up at him, reaching up to boop him on the nose. "I won tooo~." She drawled out, her eyes drooping closed.

Quirking a brow, Cyrus gave her a confused look. "What?"

"I won the bet~"

Cyrus scrunched up his nose, glaring half-heartedly down at her. "Wh-I took down more of those machines than you did!"

She gave him a woozy smirk. "But I took out Talos hehe..."

His jaw dropped a little. "That still counts as just one!"

"Sjhhhh..." She put a finger over his lips before passing out in his arms.

He just smirked down at her, before grinning at everyone else, who were slowly making their way back to them.

"We did it yay...I'm going to go pass out again now." Percy muttered before giving into the exhaustion and just passing out. Zoe scowled at the boy going unconscious, considering the battle was over and they could be back on their way to California...but then again, she was tired too.

Cyrus grinned at that, before looking around. "We can take a short break and get going in a bit. Phoebe, could you look over Risotto and Thalia? They might need some attention."

The huntress nodded, and he smirked as he glanced over at the fallen head of Talos.

"Well, hope we gave them a good show."

Hephaestus could only smirk back as he watched the footage from his junkyard. This kid was something else, being able to destroy all those automaton soldiers along with the plan to destroy his Talos prototype...plus, now that his creation was now scrap, he could probably make some use of that.

He winced however at what would probably be coming up next for them, considering that a certain grey-eyed goddess had enough of not getting answers and was going straight to the source.

"Hope you're ready kid. She's not one to be denied..."

AN: Phew, and done.

Honestly that ending seems kind of weak in my opinion but I really didn't know how to end that part.

SO! Talos and his little mechanical gremlins destroyed, Risotto shows off Metallica's immensely destructive power, though of course not as good as it could have been if they were iron.

Now its onwards and upwards for our merry crew! Well...at least until Athena comes knocking.

Notes:

(1) So, Metallica's Stand power is technically meant to be Iron Manipulation according to the wiki, but his powers are based on Magnetism as a whole, so I've opted for a mix of that. Here, he freely manipulates the iron, shaping it into knives, then making the metal in said knives spike out. Considering Risotto's full Stand power is never shown, I thought it would really solidify him as a powerhouse of Passione. Plus, he's moved further in this story than he has in the source material because he...well, you know.

(2) So this is actually a funny little reference I found. Metallica's little colony forms inside of Risotto's body, and all the little things seem to be chanting 'Load' which is a reference to the Metallica album.

(3) Bronze is not a ferromagnetic material like Iron is. Instead, it's diamagnetic, much like most things people would think is not very magnetic. Since Metallica works via magnetism, it would not work on Bronze...or at least, it would take so much effort for Risotto to manipulate it that he might as well have not bothered. In terms of difficulty of manipulation, diamagnetic material would be the hardest, with paramagnetic being slightly easier, but not really, and ferromagnetic being a nobrainer.

(4) Once again, much thanks to Mr. Kosaku Valentine for this idea of using D4C to pull people into the space in between dimensions and just using the gravity to dismantle them completely!

(5) Again, Risotto's full potential is of course never explored, but it makes sense that creating larger things would take more energy from Risotto to use, considering that if he could do larger items, he would have easily won his battle in the source material.

Metallica

Destructive Power: C

Speed: C

Range: C (5-10 meters)

Stamina: A

Precision: C

Developmental Potential: C

Ability: Free manipulation of metals via magnetism. Utilizes iron with the highest effectiveness.

And that's that!

Hopefully you guys enjoyed the chapter as much as I enjoyed making/struggling with it.

Remember to leave solid reviews if you would be so kind. The criticism and feedback sustain my mind.

Cheers!

Beowulf