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

We Visit the Junkyard of the Gods

We rode the boar until sunset, which was about as much as my back end could take. Imagine riding a giant steel brush over a bed of gravel all day. That's about how comfortable boar riding was-or at least Erymanthian boar riding is. Either way I wasn't to keen to offer rides as a boar.

I had no idea how many miles we covered, but the mountains faded into the distance and were replaced by miles of flat dry land. The grass and scrub brush got sparser until we were traveling through the desert.

As night fell, the boar came to a stop at a creek bed and snorted. He started drinking muddy water, then ripped a saguaro cactus out of ground and chewed it, needles and all.

"This is as far as he'll go," Grover said. "We need to get off while he's eating."

Nobody needed convincing. We slipped off the boar's back while he was busy ripping cacti. Then we waddled away as best as we could with our saddle soars.

After its third saguaro and another drink of muddy water, the boar squealed and belched, then whirled around and charged back toward the east.

"It likes the mountains better," I guessed.

"I can't blame it," Thalia said. "Look."

Ahead of us was a two-lane road half covered with sand. On the other side of the road was a cluster of buildings too small to be a town: a boarded-up house, a taco shop that looked like it hadn't been open since before Zoë Nightshade was born, and a white stucco post office with a sign that said GILA CLAW, ARIZONA hanging crooked above the door. Beyond that was a range of hills... but then I noticed they weren't regular hills. The countryside was way too flat for that. The hills were enormous mounds of cars, appliances, and other scrap metal. It was a junkyard that seemed to go on forever.

"Whoa," I said.

"Something tells me we're not going to find a car rental here," Thalia said. She looked at Grover. "I don't suppose you got another wild boar up your sleeve?"

Grover was sniffing the wind, looking nervous. He fished out his acorns and threw them into the sand, then played his pipes. They rearranged themselves into a pattern that made no sense to me, but Grover looked concerned.

"That's us. Those five nuts right there," he said then pointed to the left. "That cluster right there, that's trouble."

"A monster?" Thalia asked.

Grover looked uneasy. "I don't smell anything, which doesn't make sense."

"Could it be some kind of machine?" I asked. "Like the one back at the Waterpark."

Two years ago, Annabeth and I got caught in one of Hephestus' traps that was meant for Ares and Aphrodite at the tunnel of love. I asked Grover as he didn't smell anything from ride either.

"The acorns don't lie, so it's possible," Grover admitted. "Either way, our next challenge..."

He pointed straight toward the junkyard. With the sunlight almost gone now, the hills of metal looked like something on an alien planet.

We decided to camp for the night and try the junkyard in the morning. None of us wanted to go Dumpster-diving in the dark.

Zoë and Bianca produced five sleeping bags and foam mattresses out of their backpacks. I don't know how they did it, because the packs were tiny, but must've been enchanted to hold much stuff. I'd noticed their bows and quivers were also magic. I never really thought about it, but when the Hunters needed them,, they just appeared slung over their backs. And when they didn't, they were gone.

The night got chilly fast, so Grover and I collected old boards from the ruined house, and Thalia zapped them with electric shock to start a camp fire. Pretty soon we were about as comfy as you can get in a rundown ghost town in the middle of nowhere.

"The stars are out," Zoë said.

She was right. There were millions of them, with no city lights to turn the sky orange.

"Amazing," Bianca said. "I've never actually seen the Milky Way."

"This is nothing," Zoë said. "In the old days, there were more. Whole constellations have disappeared because of human light pollution."

"You talk like you're not human," I said.

Zoë raised an eyebrow. "I am a Hunter. I care what happens to the wild places of the world. Can the same be said for thee?"

"For you," Thalia corrected. "Not thee."

"But you use you for the beginning of a sentence."

"And for the end," Thalia said. "No thou. No thee. Just you."

Zoë threw up her hands in exasperation. "I hate this language. It changes too often!"

Grover sighed. He was still looking up at the stars like he was thinking about the light pollution problem. "If only Pan were here, he would set things right."

Zoë nodded sadly.

"Maybe it was the coffee," Grover said. "I was drinking coffee, and the wind came. Maybe if I drank more coffee..."

I was pretty sure coffee had nothing to do with what had happened in Cloudcroft, but I didn't have the heart to tell Grover. I thought about the rubber rat, and the tiny birds that had suddenly come alive and how all my senses opened up when the wind blew. Grover once told me I should have better understanding of wild than most humans because of my powers, and I had been getting better at understanding animals since I learned how to shapeshift, but nothing I done before compared to what that wind did.

Maybe it was Pan, I thought.

As if reading my thoughts or emotions, Grover said, "He send us help. I don't know how or why. But it was his presence. After this quest is done, I'm going back to New Mexico and drinking a lot of coffee. It's the best lead we've gotten in two thousand years. I was so close."

For Grover's sake I hope he was right about the lead. Even if I'm right about coffee, they got a location now that they can start with.

"What I want to know," Thalia said, looking at Bianca, "is how you destroyed one of the zombies. There are a lot more out there somewhere. We need to figure out how to fight them."

Bianca shook her head. "I don't know. I just stabbed it and it went up in flames."

"Maybe there's something special about your knife," I said

"It is the same as mine," Zoë said. "Celestial bronze, yes. But mine did not affect the warriors that way."

"Then maybe it's some kind of power from your divine parent," I said. "Possibly a rare blessing like my shapeshifting powers." I turned to Zoë, "Do the demigods still retain any powers or blessings they inherit from their divine parent when they join the hunters?"

"They do, and we encourage mastering it if we find it useful in our hunts or to control it better to prevent incidents," Zoë answered. "It's possible what Bianca did is a power she got from her divine parent."

Bianca looked uncomfortable with everybody paying attention to her but she seemed relieved to have some kind of explanation.

"In the meantime, we should plan our next move. When we get through this junkyard, we must continued west. If we can find a road, we can hitchhike to the nearest city. I think that would be Las Vegas."

I was about to protest that Grover and I had bad experiences in that town, but Bianca beat us to it.

"No!" she said. "Not there!"

She looked really freaked out, like she'd just been dropped off the steep end of a roller coaster.

Zoë frowned. "Why?"

Bianca took a shaky breath. "I... I think we stayed there for a while. Nico and I. When we were traveling. And then, I can't remember..."

Suddenly I had a really bad thought. I remember what Bianca had told me about Nico and her staying in a hotel for a while. I met Grover's eyes, and I got the feeling he was thinking the same thing.

"Bianca," I said. "That hotel you stayed at. Was it possibly called the Lotus Hotel and Casino?"

Her eyes widened. "How could you know that?"

"Oh, great," I said.

"Wait," Thalia said. "What is the Lotus Casino?"

"A couple of years ago," I said, "Grover, Annabeth, and I got trapped there. It's designed so you never want to leave. We stayed for about an hour. When we came out, five days had passed. It makes time speed up."

"No," Bianca said. "No, that's not possible."

"You said somebody came and got you out," I remembered.

"Yes."

"What did he look like? What did he say?"

"I...I don't remember. Please, I really don't want to talk about this."

Zoë sat forward, her eyebrows knit with concern. "You said Washington, D.C., had changed when you went back last summer. You didn't remember the subway being there."

"Yes, but-"

"Bianca," Zoë said, "can you tell me the name of the president of the United States right now?"

"Don't be silly," Bianca said, "George W. Bush."

She was right about that, I remember that day. Of course I was at a boarding school as what I didn't know at the time my mom trying to keep me as far from the city but at the same time close to home as possible to protect me at the time, but for a while after the terrorist attack on the trade center, my mom kept calling daily to check up on me, and every tv in the dorm rooms were on the news.

"And who was the president before that?" Zoë asked.

Bianca thought for a while. "Roosevelt."

Zoë swallowed. "Theodore or Franklin?"

"Franklin," Bianca said. "F.D.R."

"The son of Zeus," I responded. "Not good."

"What do you mean?" Bianca asked.

"Bianca, I'm the only living child of Zeus since-" Thalia hesitated as if trying to figure out how to say the next part-which I guess was because of how old the oath of the Big Three is. "Since the Big Three made a pack to have no more half-blood children at the end of WWII Seventy years ago."

"That's impossible," Bianca said. "I... I'm not that old."

She stared at her hands as if to make sure they weren't wrinkled.

Thalia's eyes turned sad. I guess she knew what it was like to get pulled out of time for a while. "It's okay, Bianca. The important thing is you and Nico are safe. You made it out."

"But how?" I said. "We were only in there for an hour and we barely escaped. How could you have escaped after being there for so long?"

"I told you," Bianca looked about ready to cry. "A man came and said it was time to leave. And-"

"But who? Why did he do it?"

Before she could answer, we were hit with a blazing light from down the road. The headlights of a car appeared out of nowhere. I was half hoping it was Apollo, come to give us a ride again, but the engine was way too silent for the sun chariot, and besides, it was nighttime. We grabbed our sleeping bags and got out of the way as a deathly white limousine slid to a stop in front of us.

...

The back door of the limo opened right next to me. Before I could step away, the point of a sword touched my throat.

I heard the sound of Zoë and Bianca drawing their bows. As the owner of the sword got out of the car, I moved back very slowly. I had to, because he was pushing the point under my chin.

He smiled cruelly. "Not so fast now, are you, punk?"

He was a big man with a crew cut, a black leather biker's jacket, black jeans, a white muscle shirt, and combat boots. Wraparound shades hid his eyes, but I knew what was behind those glasses-hollow sockets filled with flames.

"Ares," I growled.

The war god glanced at my friends. "At ease, people."

He snapped his fingers, and their weapons fell to the ground.

"This is a friendly meeting." He dug the point of his blade a little farther under my chin. "Of course I'd like to take your head for a trophy, but someone wants to see you. And I never behead my enemies in front of a lady."

"What lady?" Thalia asked.

Ares looked over at her. "Well, well. I heard you were back."

He lowered his sword and pushed me away.

"Thalia, daughter of Zeus," Ares mused. "You're not hanging out with very good company."

"What's your business, Ares?" she said. "Who's in the car?"

Ares smiled, enjoying the attention. "Oh, I doubt she wants to meet the rest of you. Particularly not them." He jutted his chin toward Zoë and Bianca. "Why don't you all go get some tacos while you wait? Only take Percy a few minutes."

"We will not leave him alone with thee, Lord Ares," Zoë said.

"Besides," Grover managed, "the taco place is closed."

Ares snapped his fingers again. The lights inside the taqueria suddenly blazed to life. The boards flew off the door and the CLOSED sign flipped to OPEN. "You were saying, goat boy?"

"Go on," I told my friends. "I'll handle this."

I tried to sound more confident than I felt. I don't think Ares was fooled.

"You heard the boy," Ares said. "He's big and strong and a shapeshifter. He's got things under control."

My friends reluctantly headed over to the taco restaurant. Ares regarded me with loathing then open the limousine door like a chauffeur.

"Get inside, punk," he said. "And mind your manners. She's not as forgiving of rudeness as I am."

When I saw her, my jaw dropped.

I forgot my name. I forgot where I was. I forgot how to speak in complete sentences.

She was wearing a red satin dress and her hair was curled in a cascade of ringlets. Her face was the most beautiful I'd ever seen: perfect makeup, dazzling eyes, a smile that would've lit up the darkside of the moon.

Thinking back on it, I can't tell you who she looked like.

Or even what color of her hair or her eyes were. Pick the most beautiful actress you can think of . The goddess was ten times more beautiful than that. Pick your favorite hair color, eye color, whatever. The goddess had that.

When she smiled at me, just for a moment she looked a little like Annabeth. Then like this television actress I used to have a crush on in the fifth grade. Then... well, you get the idea.

"Ah, there you are, Percy," the goddess said. "I am Aphrodite."

I slipped into the seat across from her and said something like, "Um uh gah."

She smiled. "Aren't you sweet. Hold this, please."

She handed me a polished mirror the size of a dinner plate and had me hold it up for her. She leaned forward and dabbed her lipstick, though I couldn't see anything wrong with it.

"Do you know why you're here?" she asked.

I wanted to respond. Why couldn't I form a complete sentence? She was only a lady. A seriously beautiful lady. With eyes like pools of spring water... Whoa.

I pinched my own arm, hard.

"I... I don't know," I managed.

"Oh, dear," Aphrodite said. "Still in denial?"

Outside the car, I could hear Ares chuckling. I had a feeling he could hear every word we said. The idea of him being out there made me angry, and that helped clear my mind.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said.

"Well then, why are you on this quest?"

"Artemis has been captured!"

Aphrodite rolled her eyes. "Oh, Artemis. Please. Talk about a hopeless case. I mean, if they were going to kidnap a goddess, she should be breathtakingly beautiful, don't you think? I pity the poor dears who have imprison Artemis. Bo-ring!"

"But she was chasing a monster," I protested. "A really, really bad monster. We have to find it!"

Aphrodite made me hold the mirror a little higher. She seemed to have a microscopic problem at the corner of her eye and dabbed at her mascara. "Always some monster. But my dear Percy, that is why the others are on this quest. I'm more interested in you."

My heart pounded. I didn't want to answer, but her eyes drew an answer right out of my mouth. "Annabeth is in trouble."

Aphrodite beamed. "Exactly!"

"I have to save her," I said. "I've been having these dreams."

"Ah, you even dreamed about her! That's so cute!"

"No! I mean... that's not what I meant."

She made a tsk-tsk sound. "Percy, I'm on your side. I'm the reason you're here after all."

I stared at her. "What?"

"The poisoned T-shirt the Stoll brothers gave Phoebe," she said. "Did you think that was an accident? Sending Blackjack to find you? Helping you sneak out of camp?"

"Mr. D letting me go?" I asked.

"Oh no, Mr. D did that himself. I think he really hopes you be one of the casualties because what happened to Ariadne and your brother Theseus." Aphrodite said. "But I am responsible for the other things, Because really, how boring these Hunters are! A quest for some monster, blah blah blah. Saving Artemis. Let her stay lost, I say."

"But Thalia and Grover could have still save Annabeth," I added.

"True, but then it wouldn't be a quest of true love-"

"Wait a second, I never said-"

"Oh, my dear. You don't need to say it. You do know Annabeth was close to joining the Hunters, don't you?"

I blushed. "I wasn't... I thought she hadn't decided to join yet," I said

"She was about to throw her life away! And you, my dear, you can save her from that. It's so romantic!"

"Uh..."

"Oh, put that mirror down," Aphrodite ordered. "I look fine."

I hadn't realized I was still holding it, but as soon as I put it down, I noticed my arms were sore.

"Now listen, Percy," Aphrodite said. "The Hunters are your enemies. Forget them and Artemis and the monster. That's not important. You just concentrate on finding and saving Annabeth."

"Do you know where she is?"

Aphrodite waved her hand irritably. "No, no. I leave the details to you. But it's been ages since we've had a good tragic love story."

"Whoa, first of all, I never said anything about love. And second, what's up with tragic?"

"Love conquers all," Aphrodite promised. "Look at Helen and Paris. Did they let anything come between them?"

"Didn't they start the Trojan War and get thousands of people killed?"

"Pfft. That's not the point. Follow your heart."

"But... I don't know where it's going. My heart, I mean."

She smiled sympathetically. She really was beautiful. And not just because she had a pretty face or anything. She believed in love so much, it was impossible not to feel giddy when she talked about it.

"Not knowing is half the fun," Aphrodite said. "Exquisitely painful, isn't it? Not being sure who you love and who loves you? Oh, you kids! It's so cute I'm going to cry."

"No, no," I said. "Don't do that."

"And don't worry," she said. "I'm not going to let this be easy and boring for you. No, I have some wonderful surprises in store. Anguish. Indecision. Oh, you just wait."

"That's really okay," I told her. "Don't go to any trouble."

"You're so cute. I wish all my daughters could break the heart of a boy as nice as you." Aphrodite's eyes were tearing up. "Now, you'd better go. And do be careful in my husband's territory, Percy. Don't take anything. He is awfully fussy about his trinkets and traps and I don't think even your shapeshifting would be much use to any protection he has in there."

"What?" I asked. "You mean Hephestus?"

But the car door opened and Ares grabbed my shoulder, pulling me out of the car and back into the desert night.

My audience with the goddess of love was over.

"You're lucky, punk." Ares pushed me away from the limo. "Be grateful."

"For what?"

"That we're being so nice. If it was up to me-"

"So why haven't you killed me?" I shot back. It was a stupid thing to say to the god of war, but being around him always made me feel angry and reckless.

Ares nodded, like I'd finally said something intelligent.

"I'd love to kill you, seriously," he said. "But see, I got a situation. Word on Olympus is that you might start the biggest war in history. I can't risk messing that up. Besides, Aphrodite thinks you're some kinda soup opera star or something. I kill you, that makes me look bad with her. But don't worry. I haven't forgotten my promise. Someday soon, kid-real soon-you're going to raise your sword to fight, and you're going to remember the wrath of Ares."

I balled my fists. "Why wait? I beat you once. How's that ankle healing up?"

He grinned crookedly. "Not bad, punk. But you got nothing on the masters of taunt. I'll start the fight when I'm good and ready. Until then... Get lost."

He snapped his fingers and the world did a three sixty, spinning in a cloud of red dust. I fell to the ground.

When I stood up again, the limousine was gone. The road, the taco restaurant, the whole town of Gila Claw was gone. My friends and I were standing in the middle of the junkyard, mountains of scrap metal stretched out in every direction.

"What did she want with you?" Bianca asked, once I'd told them about Aphrodite.

"Oh, uh, not sure," I lied. "She said to be careful in her husband's junkyard. She said not to pick anything up and that my powers might not be any use against his protection."

Zoë narrowed her eyes. "The goddess of love would not make a special trip to tell thee that. Be careful, Percy. Aphrodite had led many heroes astray."

"For once I agreed with Zoë," Thalia said. "You can't trust Aphrodite."

Grover was looking at me funny. Being empathetic and all, he could usually read my emotions, and I got the feeling he knew exactly what Aphrodite had talked to me about.

"So," I said, anxious to change the subject, "how do we get out of here?"

"That way," Zoë said. "That is west."

'How can you tell?"

In the light of the moon, I was surprised how well I cold see her roll her eyes at me. "Ursa Major is in the north," she said, "which means that must be west."

She pointed west, then at the northern constellation, which was hard to make out because there were so many other stars. Although Annabeth had shown me many constellations, this wasn't one I recognized.

"Oh, yeah," I said. "The bear thing."

Zoë looked offended. "Show some respect. It was a fine bear. A worthy opponent."

I guess I shouldn't be surprise she seem to know the bear. If I learn anything in the couple of years since I learn I was a demigod, it's that anything from the old stories were real. I just wasn't good with knowing anything from the myths myself. I'm more interested in animals.

"Guys," Grover broke in. "Look!"

We'd reach the crest of a junk mountain. Piles of metal objects flinted int the moonlight: broken heads of bronze horses, metal legs from human statues, smashed chariots, tons of shields and swords and other weapons, along with more modern stuff, like cars that gleamed gold and silver, refrigerators, washing machines, and computer monitors.

"Whoa," Bianca said. "That stuff... some of it looks like real gold."

"It is," Thalia said grimly. "Like Percy said, don't touch anything. This is the junkyard of the gods."

"Junk?" Grover picked up a beautiful crown made of gold, silver, and jewels. It was broken on one side, as if it had been split by an ax. "You call this junk."

He bit off a point and began to chew, but I hit him lightly on the back forcing him to spit it out.

"Hey! It was delicious!" Grover whined.

"Hephestus might not take kindly to you eating his junk any more than thieves stealing it," I said. "I rather not find out what kind of protection is around here if my powers might not be any use against it."

"Percy's right," Thalia agreed.

Grover reluctantly dropped the crown.

"Look!" Bianca said. She raced down the hill, tripping over bronze coils and golden plates. SHe picked up a bow that glowed silver in moonlight. "A Hunter's bow!"

She yelped in surprise as the bow began to shrink, and became a hair clip shape like a crescent moon. "It's just like Percy's sword!"

Zoë's face was grim. "Leave it, Bianca."

'But-"

"It is here for a reason. Anything thrown away in this junkyard must stay in this yard. It is defective. Or cursed."

Bianca reluctantly set the hair clip down.

"I don't like this place," Thalia said. She gripped the shaft of her spear. "Come on, let's get across the yard."

Okay, that is odd. That's the second time Thalia and Zoë agreed with each other.

We started picking our way through the hills and valleys of junk. The stuff seemed to go on forever, and if it hadn't been for Ursa Major, we would've gotten lost. All the hills pretty much looked the same.

I'd like to say we left stuff alone, but there was too much cool junk not to check out some of it. I found an electric guitar shaped like Apollo's lyre that was so sweet I had to pick it up. Grover found a broken tree made out of metal. It had been chopped to pieces, but some of the branches still had golden birds in them, and they whirred around when grover picked them up, trying to flap their wings. But Thalia reminded us each time of the warning and we dropped them.

Still, I can't help but wonder why we seem drawn to such stuff if Hephaestus is so protective of his junk and trinkets. I would think the god would make it where no one would want to pick this stuff up or something. Otherwise it would be too easy for anyone to find something of interest and try and steal it.

Finally we saw the edge of the junkyard about half a mile ahead of us, the lights of a highway stretching through the desert. But between us and the road...

"What is that?" Bianca gasped.

Ahead of us was a hill much bigger and longer than the others. It was like a metal mesa, the length of a football field and as tall as goalposts. At one end of the mesa was a row of ten thick metal columns, wedged tightly together.

Bianca frowned. "They look like-"

"Toes," Grover said.

Bianca nodded. "Really, really large toes."

Zoë and Thalia exchanged nervous looks.

"Let's go around," Thalia said. "Far around."

Ping.

Thalia hefted her spear and Zoë drew her bow, but then I realized it was only Grover. He had thrown a piece of scrap metal at the toes and hit one, making deep echo, as if the column were hollow.

"Why did you do that?" Zoë demanded.

Grover cringed. "I don't know. I, uh, don't like fake feet?"

"Come on," Thalia said.

I didn't argue going far around. The toes were starting to freak me out, too. I mean, who sculpted ten-foot-tall metal toes and stick them in a junkyard?

After several minutes of walking, we finally stepped onto the highway, an abandoned but well-lit stretch of black asphalt.

"We made it out," Zoë said. "Thank the gods."

But apparently the gods didn't want to be thanked. At that moment, I heard a sound like a thousand trash compactors crushing metal.

I whirred around. Behind us, the scrap mountain was boiling, rising up. The ten toes tilted over, and I realized why they looked like toes. They were toes. The thing that rose up from the metal was a bronze giant in full Greek battle armor. He was impossibly tall-a skyscraper with legs and arms. He gleamed wickedly in the moonlight. He looked down at us, and his face was deformed. The left side was partially melted off. His joints creaked with rust, and across his armored chest, written in thick dust by some giant finger, were the words WASH ME.

"Talos!" Zoë gasped.

"Who-who's Talos?" I stuttered.

"One of Hephestus' creations," Thalia said. "But that can't be the original. It's too small. A prototype, maybe. A defective model."

The metal giant didn't like the word defective.

He moved one hand to his sword belt and drew his weapon. The sound of it coming out of its sheath was horrible, metal screeching against metal. The blade was a hundred feet long, easy. It looked rusty and dull, but I didn't figure that matter. Getting hit with that thing would be like getting hit with a battleship.

"Someone took something," Zoë said. "Who took something?"

She stared accusingly at me.

I shook my head. "I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a thief."

Bianca didn't say anything. I could swear she looked guilty, but I didn't have much time to think about it, because the giant defective Talos took one step toward us, closing half the distance and making the ground shake.

"Run!" Grover yelped.

Easier said than done. This thing could outdistance us with a leisurely stroll.

We split up, the way we'd done with the Nemean Lion. Thalia drew her shield and held it up as she ran down the highway. The giant swung his sword and took out a row of power lines, which exploded with sparks and scattered across Thalia's path.

Zoë's arrows whistled toward the creature's face but shattered harmlessly against the metal. Grover brayed like a baby goat and went climbing up a mountain of metal.

Bianca and I ended up next to each other, hiding behind a broken chariot.

"You took something," I said. "That bow."

"No" she said, but her voice was quivering.

"Give it back!" I said. "Throw it down!"

"I... I didn't take the bow! Besides it's too late!"

"What did you take?"

Before she could answer, I heard a massive creaking noise, and a shadow blotted out the sky.

"Move!" I dropped on all morphed into a longhorn and galloped down the hill, Behind me, as the giant's foot smashed a crater in the ground where we'd been hiding.

"Hey, Talos!" Grover yelled, but the monster raised his sword, looking down at Bianca and me.

Grover played a quick melody on his pipes. Over at the highway, the downed power lines began to dance. One of the pols with power lines still attached flew toward Talos' back leg and wrapped around it's calf. THe lines sparked and sent a jolts of electricity up the giant's backside.

Talos whirled around creaking and sparking. Grover had bought us a few seconds.

"Can't you turn into a dinosaur or something?" Bianca asked as I morphed into human.

"My powers don't work that way. I got to know what an animal actually looks like to turn into it," I explained.

The giant kept coming after Grover. It stabbed its sword into a junk hill, missing Grover by a few feet, but scrap metal made an avalanche over him, then I couldn't see him anymore.

"No!" Thalia yelled. She pointed her spear and a blue arc of lightning shot out hitting the monster in his rusty knee, which buckled. The giant collapsed, but immediately started to rise again. It was hard to tell if it could feel anything. There weren't any emotions in its half melted face, but I got the sense it was about as ticked off as twenty story tall metal warrior could be.

He raised his foot and stomp and I saw his sole was treadded like the bottom of a sneaker. There was a hole in his heel, like a large manhole, and there were red words painted around it, which I decipher only after the foot came down: FOR MAINTENANCE ONLY.

A crazy idea sprang to my head. "Distract it!" I told Bianca.

"What? Why?"

I didn't answer as I dropped to all four and morphed back into a Longhorn and galloped toward the monster's giant foot. Thalia had its attention for the moment. She'd learned that giant was big but slow. If you could stay close to it and not get smashed, you could run around it and stay alive. I on other hand had another idea.

I got right next to the giant's foot.

I morphed back to human form before shapeshifting into a howler's monkey. I took a deep breath and gave the loudest howl I could make hoping it get Talos' attention. It did, and it raised his foot to squash me. I shapeshifted again this time to a cheetah and quickly dash into position praying I was estimating right as Talos slammed his foot down.

I closed my eyes as Talos' foot made impact. I heard a crashing sound but I was still alive. I opened my eyes and found I was in the maintenance tunnel. I quickly turned into a rat and scurried up the tunnel, glad that it came with grips.

I could hear dings and and pangs as whatever the others were doing outside throwing at Talos but I focused on the task at hand.

Finally I reached to what seemed to be a hatch. I morphed into human form and opened it up and found a control center. THere was wires and leavers every where, like Hephestus thought of including manual control just in case before deciding to keep it on autopilot.

I focus and shrunk down as fur sprouted fur until I was a a squirrel. I scurried around and started chewing on every wire I can, tearing them apart. I remember people on tv always complaining about rodents damaging wires and sending electrical systems into a fritz. I hoped that maybe it I keep chewing I find a wire that would shut the giant down.

Sure enough sparks were flying from each wire I chewed to pieces (which hurt alot) but it wasn't until I started working on wires I found around some kind of bronze disc, Talos finally started shutting down. There were dozen of them, but I got through each one until finally Talos went quiet. I morphed back to human form, dazed and shooken up from the repeated electrical shock. I decided to take out the disc as something tells me it was the main brain of Talos. That ended up being a mistake as I could feel Talos leaning and falling and with a huge CRASH!

I don't know how I survived, but I was momentarily knocked out, but when I came to, everything was on it's side.

I got up and exit the Hatch out into the maintenance tunnel. No climbing was needed for this.

...

"YOU'RE ALIVE!" Grover brayed as I exit the tunnel. He tackled me into a hug.

"We thought you were dead when Talos fell," Thalia said.

"Nah. Just knocked out," I said as I told them what I did.

"Clever use of rodent power," Grover admitted.

"Percy, I'm so sorry!" Bianca cried. "I didn't think... it was for Nico. It was the only statue he didn't have."

I noticed she was holding a figurine like the ones from Nico's collection.

"It's okay," I lied. "At least this Talos is decommission."

"For now, but we should leave before..." Thalia said before a shadow swoop around. At first I thought it was a bird, but then a fiery whip came out of nowhere and scattered us.

"What the heck?" I responded. Then I heard something that made my stomach drop: Bianca screaming.

I looked to see a familiar bat-winged hag had snatched Bianca and flew off.

A Fury, I realized. "NO!"

Zoë tried to shoot some arrows at it but two more showed up and blocked it with their fiery whips as the first one took off with Bianca.

Where Bianca once stood, around burned ashes of the fiery whip was a figurine she took had fallen.

One shall be taken in the land without rain, the oracles' words echoed in my head. We all thought it meant certain death, but now I realized it was something that might as well be a lot worse. Bianca di Angelo was kidnapped by furies who served only one god: Hades.

A/N: So I took how I got stopped Talos in the Tales of version of the Titan's Curse, and how Hades kidnapped Bianca in the Legacy series version of the Titan's Curse and there you go. Remember, Percy and his friends don't know Bianca is daughter of Hades yet, so as far as they know, Bianca might as well be good as dead.