A/N: I don't own the rights to any of the Percy Jackson series or it's characters. That right goes to Rick Riordan. I also don't own the rights to Animorph including it's title.

I am, however, the person who posted 'The Tales of...' series.

This is not a crossover of the Percy Jackson series with the book/tv series Animorph, despite what you might think from the title. I just thought it be a proper name for the ability to turn into animals since that's why the tv/book series 'Animorph' was called that in the first place.

If you haven't read this yet, read:

Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Titan's Curse
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Stolen Chariot
Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sword of Hades

Animorph Percy Jackson and the Olympians

The Bronze Dragon

One dragon can ruin your whole day.

Trust me, as a demigod I've had my share of bad experiences. I've been snapped at, clawed at, blowtorched, and poisoned. I've fought single headed dragons, double-headed, eight headed, nine headed, and the kind with so many heads that if you stopped to count them you'd be pretty much dead.

But that time with the bronze dragon? I thought for sure my friends and I were going to end up as Kibbles 'n' Dragon Bits.

The evening started simply enough.

It been a week into another camp session, and we were preparing for the Titan invasion we expect to happen by doing what we do best, doing camp activities. We were trying to make the best of our summer before it starts going downhill.

After dinner, all the campers were hanging out in the pavilion. We were all excited because that evening was Capture the Flag and it was going to be vicious.

The night before, Hephaestus Cabin had pulled off a huge upset. They'd captured the flag from Ares-with my help, thank you very much-which meant that the Ares Cabin would be out for blood. Well... they're always out for blood, but this night especially.

Over the four summers I learn that the cabin that capture the flag gets to be one of the lead teams and the losing lead cabin gets to lead for rematch. So naturally tonight was Hephaestus vs. Ares cabin.

Hephaestus' cabin had allied with Apollo, Hermes, and me-the only demigod in Poseidon Cabin. The bad news was that for once, Athena and Ares-both war god cabins-were against us on the red team, along with Aphrodite, Demeter, and the Dionysus twins.

Most interesting part was that good portion of Aphrodite cabin was joining the game. Most of the time they sit it out unless the Hunters of Artemis was here and we play against them. But after the Battle of Labyrinth, A good portion of them realized they really need to step up in their training if they plan to survive this war, and it turns out a good portion Aphrodite cabin can do a lot more than look good and flirt when push comes to shove.

But it's not Aphrodite Cabin I was worried about. It's my friend Annabeth-daughter of Athena and head counselor of Cabin six. She is not somebody you want as an enemy.

Right before the game, she strolled up to me. "Hey, Seaweed Brain."

"Will you stop calling me that?"

She knows I hate that name, mostly because I never have a good comeback with her being a daughter of Athena. I mean 'Owl-head' and 'Wise Girl' are kind of lame insults.

"You know you love it." She bumped me with her shoulder, which I guess was supposed to be friendly, but she was wearing full Greek Armor,m so it kinda hurt. Her gray eyes sparkled under her helmet. Her blond ponytail curled around one shoulder. It was hard for anyone to look cute in combat armor (even Aphrodite's kids complained about trying to look good in armor), but Annabeth pulled it off.

"Tell you what." She lowered her voice. "We're going to crush you tonight, but if you pick a safe position... like right flank, for instance... I'll make sure Clarisse don't pulverize you too much."

"Gee, thanks." I said, "but I'm playing to win."

Plus I'm not to worried about Clarisse pulverizing me anymore. We sorta build a frenemy bond over the school year when I helped her take Ares' war chariot back from her immortal brothers Phobos and Deimos. We agreed on a frenemy thing so we can keep our rivalry dislike thing while still being friends and hopefully nobody would think otherwise about our behavior. Well Annabeth might, but I started to think she and Clarisse had built the same kind of friendship working together last summer trying to find out if Kronos had a secret entrance into the camp using the Labyrinth.

Annabeth smiled. "See you on the battlefield."

She jogged back to her teammates, who all laughed and gave her high fives. I'd never seen her so happy, like the chance to beat me up was the best thing that had ever happened to her.

Beckendorf walked up with his helmet under his arm. "She likes you, man."

"Sure," I muttered. "She likes me for target practice."

"Nah, they always do that. A girl starts trying to kill you, you know she's into you."

"Makes a lot of sense."

Beckendorf shrugged. "I know about these things. You ought to ask her to the fireworks."

I couldn't tell if he was serious. Beckendorf was lead counselor of Hephaestus. He was this huge dude with a permanent scowl, muscles like a prop ballplayer, and hands calloused from working in the forges. He'd just turned eighteen and was on his way to NYU in the fall. Since he was older, I usually listen to him about stuff, but the idea of asking Annabeth to the Fourth of July fireworks down at the beach-like, the biggest dating event of the summer-made my stomach do somersaults.

Then Silena Beauregard, the head counselor of Aphrodite, passed by, Beckendorf had had a not-so-secret crush on her three years. She had long black hair and big brown eyes, and when she walked, the guys tended to watch. She said, "Good luck, Charlie." (Nobody ever calls Beckendorf by his first name.) She flashed him a brilliant smile and went to join Annabeth on the red team.

"Uh..." Beckendorf swallowed like he'd forgotten how to breathe.

I patted him on the shoulder. "Thanks for the advice, dude. Glad you're so wise about girls and all. Come on. Let's get to the woods."

Naturally, Beckendorf and I took the most dangerous job.

While the Apollo cabin played defense with their bows, and Hermes cabin would charge up the middle of the woods to distract the enemy. Meanwhile, Beckendorf and I would scout around the left flank. Locate the enemy flag, knock out the defenders, and get the flag back on our side. Simple.

Why the left flank?

"Because Annabeth wanted me to go right," I told Beckendorf, "which means she doesn't want us to go left."

Beckendorf nodded. "Let's suit up."

He'd been working on a secret weapon for the two of us-bronze chameleon armor, enchanted to blend into the background. If we stood in front of rocks. Our breastplates, helms, and shields turned gray. If we stood in front of bushes, the metal changed to a leafy green. It wasn't true invisibility, but we'd have pretty good cover, at least from a distance.

"This stuff took forever to forge," Beckendorf warned me. "Don't mess it up!"

"You got it, Captain."

Beckendorf grunted. I could tell he liked being called "captain." The rest of Hephaestus cabin wished us well, and we sneaked off into the woods, immediately turning brown and green to match the trees.

We crossed the creek that served as the boundary between teams. We heard fighting in the distance-swords clashing against shields. I glimpsed a flash of light from some magical weapon, but we saw no one.

"No border guards?" Beckendorf whispered. "Weird."

I felt uneasy about it. Annabeth was a great strategist. Even Clarisse wouldn't ignore that. So seem odd that the defense was this sloppy, even if her team outnumbered us.

We moved into enemy territory. I knew we had to hurry, because our team was playing a defensive game, and that couldn't last forever. As good as Apollo Cabin is at archery, they're not that great in close combat, and if Ares cabin by pass their arrows-which they might as arrows won't stop them, Apollo cabin wouldn't stand a chance.

We crept along the base of an oak tree. I almost jumped out of my skin when a girl's face emerged from the trunk. "Shoo!" she said, then faded back into the bark.

"Dryads," Beckendorf grumbled. "So touchy."

"Am not!" a muffled voice said from the tree.

We krept moving. It was hard to tell exactly where we were. Some landmarks stood out, like the creek and certain cliffs and some really old trees, but the woods tended to shift around as the nature spirits got restless. Paths changed. Trees moved.

Then suddenly we were at the edge of the clearing. I knew we were in trouble when I saw the mountain of dirt.

"Holy Hephaestus," Beckendorf whispered. "The Ant Hill."

I wanted to back up and run. I'd never seen the Ant Hill before, but I'd heard stories from the older campers. The mounds rose almost to the treetops-four stories at least. Its sides were riddled with tunnels, and crawling in and out were thousands of...

"Myrmekes," I muttered.

That's Ancient Greek for "ants," but these things were way more than that. They would've given any exterminator a heart attack.

The Myrmekes were the size of German shepherds. Their armored shells glistened bloodred. Their eyes were beady black, and their razor-sharp mandibles sliced and snapped. Some carried tree branches. Some carried chunks of raw meat that I really didn't want to know about. Most carried bits of metal-old armor, swords, food platters that somehow found their way out here from the dining pavilion. One ant was dragging the glossy black hood of a sports car.

"They love shiny metal," Beckendorf whispered. "Especially gold. I heard they have more gold in their nest than Fort Knox." He sounded envious.

"Don't even think about it," I said.

"Dude, I won't," he promised. "Let's get out of here while we..."

His eyes widened.

Fifty feet away, two ants were struggling to drag a big hunk of metal toward their nest. It was the size of a refrigerator, all glittery gold and bronze, with weird bumps and ridges down the side and a bunch of wires sticking out the bottom. Then the ants rolled the thing over, and I saw a face.

I just about jumped out of my skin. "That's a-"

"Shhh!" Beckendorf pulled me back into the bushes.

"But that's a-"

"Dragon's head," he said in awe. "Yes. I see it."

The snout was as long as my body. The mouth hung open, showing metal teeth, like a shark. It's skin was a combination of gold and bronze scales, and its eyes were rubies as big as my fists. The head looked like it had been hacked from its body-chewed by ant mandibles. The wires were frayed and tangled.

The myrmekes were struggling to drag the head just a few inches per tug. Now due to my knowledge of animals from years of having interest in learning about them, I know the strongest normal ant-the leaf cutter ant-can carry up to 50 times its body weight. So if these guys can lift that much times their body weight or more, then I'm betting that head must weight a lot.

"If they get it to the hill," Beckendorf said, "the other ants will help them. We've got to stop them."

"What?" I asked. "Why?"

"It's a sign of Hephaestus. Come on!"

I didn't know what he was talking about, but I'd never seen Beckendorf look so determined. He sprinted along the edge of the clearing, his armor blending into the trees.

I dropped down and morphed into a ground squirrel and scurried the other way so we can surround the two ants from either side.

Beckendorf then leaped into the open and struck one of the ants. His sword clanged off the thing's carapace. THe ant turned its pinchers and bit Beckendorf in th leg. Beckendorf crumpled to the ground. I morphed into a rhinoceros and charged between Beckendorf and the ants. The ants split off as I ran pass them.

"Percy, go get help!" Beckendorf yelled as I morph back to human.

"What? No!" I responded.

The ants regain composure and one spit goo at Beckendorf while the other shoot at me. I was able to dodge with ease, but Beckendorf wasn't lucky as the goo hit him in the face, and Beckendorf.

I clenched my teeth but I morphed into a peregrine falcon and flew out of there. Meanwhile more ants showed up, swarming Beckendorf. They grabbed him by the armor and dragged him toward the hill so fast he was swept into the tunnel.

"Percy! Over here!" I heard a familiar voice around the edge of the clearing. I saw what would be a strange sight, Silena Beauregard struggling with something invisible.

I quickly realized Annabeth must be wearing her cap of invisibility flew down to them and landed on the ground and morphed back to human form.

"Annabeth?" I responded.

"Yeah I know her voice said from behind Silena. "We were watching you two waiting to capture you."

"Charlie!" Silena yelled. "We have to save him!"

"Percy go back and get the dragon's head," Annabeth said.

"What why?" I asked.

"Those are Myrmekes. They're like fire ants, only a hundred times worse. They bit poison. They spray acid. They communicate with all the other ants and swarm anything that threatens them. The three of us alone won't stand a chance trying to save Beckendorf. Fortunately, they don't kill right away, and we got about half an hour."

"Then why not just get the other campers?" I asked.

Annabeth shook her head. "They're scattered all over the woods. It will take too long to gather everyone. And even if if we do, the entire camp won't be strong enough to invade the Ant Hill."

"Then what good would that dragon head do" Silena said.

"That dragon head is part of an automaton," Annabeth said. "It's the bronze dragon."

That didn't make me feel better. Automatons were magical bronze robots made by Hephaestus. Most of them were crazed killing machines, and those were the nice ones.

Silena's eyes widened as she stop struggling long enough for Annabeth to remove her cap and shimmer back to visibility. "You mean the old guardian? But that's a legend?"

"Whoa." I said. "What guardian?"

Annabeth took a deep breath. "Percy, in the old days before Thalia's tree-back before the camp had magical boundaries to keep out monsters-the counselors tried all sorts of different ways to protect themselves. The most famous was the bronze dragon. The Hephaestus cabin made it with the blessing of their father. Supposedly it was so fierce and powerful that it kept the camp safe for over a decade. And then... about sixteen years ago, it disappeared into the woods."

"And you think this is its head?"

"It has to be! The Myrmekes probably dug it up while they were looking for precious metal. They couldn't move the whole thing, so they chewed off the head. The body can't be far away."

"But they chewed it apart. It's useless."

"Not necessarily," Annabeth's eyes narrowed and I could tell her brain was working overtime. "We could reassemble it. If we could reactivate it-"

"It could help us rescue Charlie!" Silena said.

"But why did the dragon disappear sixteen years ago?" I asked.

"Some say its motor wore out so it went into te woods to deactivate itself. Or its programing went haywire. No one knows. But it's Beckendorf's only hope! Besides this could be a sign from Hephaestus. The dragon should want to hello one of Hephaestus' kids. Beckendorf would want us to try."

I didn't like the idea. I rather I stampede in there as a distraction for Annabeth and Silena to save Beckendorf. But if Annabeth is right, this dragon could do a lot more.

"All right, watch my beck," I dropped down and grown and expanded until I was an african elephant-hoping its strung enough to carry this dragon head, or at least push it across the ground. I lumbered over to the head and used my trunk to lift it and carried it back to Annabeth and Silena.

We searched forever, or maybe it seemed that way, because of the whole time, I was imagining Beckendorf in the Ant hill, scared and paralyzed while a bunch of armored critters scuttled around him. If Myrmekes eat like most carnivorous arthropods, I'm guessing they're waiting until Beckendorf tenderizes before using their acid to melt him down into juices for dinner. Not exactly a pleasant thought.

It wasn't hard to follow the ants trail. They'd dragged the dragon's head through the forest, making a deep rut in the mud, and I carried the head the entire way.

We must've gotten a quarter a mile -and I was getting worried about our time-when Annabeth said, "Di immortales."

We'd come to the rim of the crater-like something had blasted a house-size hole in the forest floor. The sides were slippery and dotted with tree roots. An stracks led to the bottom, where a large metal mound glinted through the dirt. Wires stuck up from the bronze stump on one end.

"Hephaestus must've unearth this. Hephaestus wanted us to find the dragon," Silena said. "He wanted Charlie to..." She choked up.

I might argue that Hephaestus isn't good with mortals and this might be a coincidence, as I met Hephaestus and he said so himself that he had trust issues. But I also know from that under that tough untrusting exterior Hephaestus did care about his kids. All you got to do is bring up his kids being in danger and Hephaestus would go from a god who don't trust those around him to a concern father who would step up to help them if he was allowed in a blink of an eye.

"Place the dragon head next to the neck so we can get working, Percy."

I wasn't about to try and go down the crater in elephant form. So I dropped the head at the edge and kick it down the crater. It tumbled right down the slope and hit the neck with a loud metallic BONK! Reconnecting it was harder.

We had no tools and no experience.

Annabeth fiddled with the wires and cursed in Ancient Greek. "We need Beckendorf. He could do this in seconds."

"Isn't your mom the goddess of inventors?" I asked.

Annabeth glared at me. "Yes, but its a rare blessing for Athena to give to her children."

That made sense, but it didn't stop me from blurting, "If I was going to pick one person in the world to reattach my head, I'd pick you."

It was meant to be a word of confidence, but it now started really stupid.

"Awww..." Silena sniffled and wiped her eyes. "Percy, that was sweet!"

Annabeth blushed. "Shut up, Silena. Hand me your dagger."

Silena did and Annabeth used it as a screwdriver, to open a panel in the dragon's neck. "Here goes nothing," she said.

And she started to splice together the celestial bronze wires.

It took a long time. I figured the Capture the Flag game had to be over by now. I wondered how soon the other campers would realize we were missing and come looking for us. I didn't even want to think how much time Beckendorf had left.

Finally Annabeth stood up and exhaled. Her hands were scraped and muddy. Her fingernails were wrecked. She had brown streak across her forehead where the dragon had decided to spit grease at her.

"All right," she said. "It's done, I think..."

"You think?" Silena asked.

"Let's just pray to Hephaestus this works," I broke in. "Otherwise, we don't have time to try anything else. How do you, uh, start it?"

Annabeth pointed to its ruby eyes. "Those turn clockwise. I'm guessing we rotate them."

"Worth a shot," I said as I turn the eyes of the dragon.

Immediately they began to glow. Annabeth and I backed up so fast we fell over each other. The dragon's mouth opened as if it were testing its jaw. The head turned and look at us. Steam poured from its ears, and it tried to rise.

When it found it couldn't move, the dragon seemed confused. It cocked its head and regarded the dirt. Finally it realized it was buried. The neck strained once, twice... and the center of the crater erupted.

The dragon pull itself awkwardly out of the ground, shaking clumps of mud from its body the way a dog might, splattering us from head to toe. The automaton was so awesome, none of us could speak. I mean,m sure it needed a trip through the car wash, and there were a few loose wires sticking out here and there, but the dragon's body was amazing-like a high-tech tank with legs. Its sides were plated with bronze and gold scales, encrusted with gem-stones. Its legs were the size of tree trunks, and its feet had steel talons. It had no wings-most Greek dragons don't-but it's tail was at least as long as its main body. Which was the size of a school bus. The neck creaked and popped as it turned its head to the sky and blew a column of fire.

"Well..." I said in a small voice. "It still work..."

Unfortunately, it heard me. Those ruby eyes zeroed in on me, and it stuck its snout two inches from my face. I instinctively went for my sword.

"Dragon, stop!" Silena yelled. I was amazed her voice still worked. She spoke with such command that the automaton turned its attention on her.

Silena swallowed nervously. "Charles Beckendorf, son of Hephaestus, is in trouble. The Myrmekes have taken him. He needs your help."

At the word Hephaestus, the dragon's neck straightened. A shiver rippled through its metal body, throwing a new shower of mud clods all over us.

The dragon looked around, as if trying to find an enemy.

"We have to show it," Annabeth said. "Come on, dragon! This way to the son of Hephaestus! Follow us!"

Just like that, she drew her sword and the three of us climbed out of the pit.

I morphed into an elephant as Annabeth and Silena climbed on my back so we can move faster.

"For Hephaestus! Annabeth yelled, which was a nice touch. We charged, through the woods. When I looked behind us, the bronze dragon was right on our tail, its red eyes glowing and steam coming out of its nostrils.

I led the dragon to the Ant Hill.

When we got to the clearing, the dragon seemed to catch Beckendorf's scent. It barreled ahead of us, and I had to turn to avoid it. The dragon crashed through the trees, joints creaking, feet pounding craters into the ground.

It charged straight for the Ant Hill. At first the Myrmekes didn't know what was happening. The dragon stepped on a few of them, smashing them to bug juice. Then their telepathic network seemed to light up, like: Big dragon. Bad.

All the ants in the clearing turned simultaneously and swarmed the dragon. More ants poured out of the hill-hundreds of them. The dragon blew fire and sent a whole column of them into a panic retreat. More kept coming.

I found myself glad that I didn't lead the charge now. Although I can morph into a dragon, I can't breath fire as it wasn't a power of Poseidon, and it seemed fire was very effective against the ants.

"Inside, now!" Annabeth told us as she and Silena slid off my back so I can morph back to human form and not draw the ants back to us by charging in as an elephant.

Silena led the charge, it was the first time I'd ever followed a child of Aphrodite into battle. We ran past the ants, but they ignored us as they saw the dragon as the bigger threat.

We plunged into the nearest tunnel and I almost gagged from the stench. Nothing, I mean nothing, stinks worse than a giant ant lair. Not even skunk spray, and believe me, I use it enough times to know. I could tell they let their food rot before eating it. Somebody seriously needed to teach them about refrigerators.

I had thought of morphing into a bloodhound once inside the hill during the charge, but now that I got a whiff of this place, I changed my mind. Instead, I used a bat form to echó locate our way around the dark moldy tunnels. Ants didn't mind us as they surged past us on their way to the tunnel.

One of the tunnels I led them too was a huge cavern with huge, goey sacks-ant larvae by the looks of it. On the ground was heaped with gold coins, gems and other treasures-helmets, swords, musical instruments. And Jewelry. To my amazement Silena ignored the jewelry and wanted to forge ahead.

The next cavern smelled worse than the last. The remains of old meals were piled as high as sand dunes-bones, chunks of rancid meat, even old camp meals. I guess the ants had been raiding the camp's compost heap and stealing our leftovers. The Camp Cleaning Harpies probably didn't think twice as it was less work for them. At the base of one of the heaps, struggling to pull himself upright, was Beckendorf. He looked awful, partly because his camouflage armor was now the color of garbage.

"Charle!" Silena ran to him and tried to help him up.

"Thank the gods," he said. "My-my legs are paralyzed."

"It'll wear off," Annabeth said.

Annabeth and Silena hoisted Beckendorf up and I led them back the tunnels. I could hear the distant sounds of battle-metal creaking, fire roaring, hundreds of ants snapping and spitting.

"What;s going on out there?" Beckendorf asked. His body tensed. "The dragon! You didn't reactivate it?"

"We had to in order to distract the ants," Annabeth said.

"But you can't just turn on an automaton! You have to calibrate the motor, run a diagnostic... there's no telling what it'll do! We've got to get out there!"

As it turned out, we didn't need to go anywhere. Because the dragon came to us. As I was leading them to an exit (you got to love echó location), the entire hall exploded, showering us with dirt. Suddenly we were staring at open sky. The dragon was right above us, thrashing back and forth, smashing the Ant Hill to bits as it tried to shake off Myrmekes crawling over its body.

I landed and morphed from bat form to Pegasus form as Annabeth and Silena can get Beckendorf on my back so I can fly him out as they climb.

Our friend the dragon was in trouble. The Myrmekes were bitting at the joints of its armor, spitting acid all over it. The dragon stomped and snapped and blew flames, but it couldn't last much longer. Steam was rising from its bronze dragon.

We reached the clearing as I landed next to the girls.

"We can't let it die," Silena said.

"It's too dangerous," Beckendorf said sadly. "Its wiring-"

"Charlie," Silena pleaded, "it saved your life! Please, for me."

Beckendorf hesitated. I can's see his face on my back, but I'm sure he's still showing signs of the acid hitting him earlier. "Get ready to run." He told the girls, "Percy, get me closer to him."

I neighed in complaint.

"Just in shouting distance," Beckendorf reassure me.

I reluctantly took off into flight and got Beckendorf into shouting distant of the dragon. "DRAGON!" Beckendorf shouted. "Emergency defense, beta-ACTIVATE!"

The dragon turned toward us. It stopped struggling against the ant, and its eyes glowed. The air smelled of azone, like before a thunderstorm.

ZZZZAAAAPPPP!

Arcs of blue electricity shot from the dragon's skin, ripping up and down its body and connecting with the ants. Some of the ants exploded. Others smoked and blackened, their legs twitching.. In a few seconds there were no more ants on the dragon. The ones that were still alive were in full retreat, scuttling back toward their ruined hill as fingers of electricity zapped them in the butt to prod them along.

The dragon bellowed in triumph, then it turns it glowing eyes toward Beckendorf and me.

"Go, Percy!" Beckendrof said.

I didn't need to be told twice as I flew away as the dragon chased after us, spewing fire and zapping lighting bolts all while having a great time. Down bellow I see Annabeth and Silena following us, although not being chased themselves.

"Fly down to the girls," Beckendorf told me.

I lowered myself to them.

"Annabeth! Silena! Distract the dragon!" Beckendorf told them.

"Got it!" Silena shouted. "Dragon, over here!"

I don't know how Silena did it, but the dragon turned to the girls and thundered after her and Annabeth.

"Percy, fly me up above the dragon's head.

I nodded and flew up high above the dragon. Beckendorf gathered his strength and jumped off my back and landed on the dragon's neck

The dragon reared back and shot flames, trying to shake Beckendorf, but he held on like a cowboy. As the monster bucked around. I watch in fascination as he ripped open a panel at the base of the dragon's head and yanked a wire. I knew instantly what he was doing as I did something similar to a malfunctioning Talos two winters ago-just from the inside (long story).

Instantly the dragon froze. Its eyes went dim, it was only the statue of a dragon baring its teeth at the sky.

Beckendorf should count himself lucky. When I did that to Talos, it toppled over with me inside.

Beckendorf slid down the dragon's neck. He collapsed at its tail, exhausted and breathing heavily. I flew down and landed and morphed back to human form.

"Charlie!" Silena ran to him and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. "You did it!"

Annabeth came up to me and squeezed my shoulder and gave a smile to let me know I did a good job too..

"So... what do we do with the automaton?" I asked/

Beckendorf wiped his forehead. Silena was still fussing over his cuts and bruises, and Beckendorf looked pretty distracted by the attention. I don't think Hephaestus ever got this much attention from Aphrodite.

"We-uh-I don't know," he said. "Maybe we can fix it, get it to guard the camp, but that could take months."

"Worth trying," I said. I imagined having that bronze dragon in our fight against the Titan lord Kronos. His monsters would think twice about attacking the camp if if they had to face that thing. On the other hand, if the dragon decided to go beserk again and attack the campers-that would pretty much stink.

"Did you see all the treasure in the Ant Hill?" Beckendorf asked. "The magic weapons The armor? That stuff could help us."

"And the bracelets," Silena said. "And the necklace."

I shuddered remembering the smell of those tunnels. "Maybe we should wait until the dragon is working properly," I said "Otherwise it would take an army of demigods even to get close to that treasure."

"Yeah, good idea," Beckendorf agreed although disappointed.

Silena studied the frozen dragon. "Charlie, that was the bravest thing I ever saw-you jumping on that dragon.

Beckendorf swallowed. "Um... yeah. So... will you go out with me?"

Silena's face lit up. "Of course, you big dummy! I thought you'd never ask!"

Beckendorf suddenly looked a whole lot better. "Well let's get back, then! I bet Capture the Flag is over."

"Yeah. Clarisse probably got her revenge by now," I agreed.

We walked back, although Beckendorf and Silena walked ahead of us, holding hands, and Annabeth and I gave them space. After three years, Beckendorf finally gotten the courage to ask Silena Beauregard out. Something tells me they will have a better relationship than their divine parents. Still it didn't make things less awkward for Annabeth or me.

Just then, three of Annabeth's siblings from Athena's cabin burst out of the bushes with their swords drawn. When they saw us, they broke into grins.

"Annabeth," One of them said. "Good job! Let's get these two to jail.

I stared at him. "The game's not over?"

The Athena campers laughed. "Not yet... but soon. Now that we've captured you."

"Dude, come on," Beckendorf protested. "We got sidetracked. There was a dragon, and the whole Ant hill was attacking us."

"Uh-huh," said another Athena guy, clearly unimpressed. "Annabeth, great job distracting them. Worked out perfectly. You want us to take them from here."

Annabeth turned as she drew her dagger and pointed it at me with a smile.

"Nah," she said. "Silena and I can get this. Come on prisoners. Move it/

I could have morphed into some kind of rodent or bird and fly out of there, but after being chased by a fire breathing lightning firing dragon, I was too exhausted to turn into anything.

Instead I found my self staring at her stunned. "You planned this? You planned this whole thing just to keep us out of the game?"

"Percy, seriously, how could I have planned it? The dragon, the ants-you think I could've figured all that out ahead of time.

It didn't seem likely, but I'm sure Annabeth was planning something she exchanged glances with Silena, and I could tell they were trying not to laugh.

"You-you little-" I started to say, but I couldn't think of a name strong enough to call her.

I protested all the way to the jail and so did Beckendorf. It was totally unfair to be treated like prisoners after all we'd been through. But Annabeth just smiled and put us in jail.

"This is so not fair," I groaned.

"Tell me about it," Beckendorf responded. "I think I rather deal with a haywire dragon again."

So we waited while the girls won the game.

A/N: The Bronze Dragon is completed. Next up is the main event: The Last Olympian