NPU: Battle of the Labyrinth

Chapter 7

XXXX

The good news: the left tunnel was straight with no side exits, twists, or turns. The bad news; it was a dead end. After sprinting a hundred yards, the group ran into an enormous boulder that completely blocked their path. Behind them, the sounds of dragging footsteps and heavy breathing echoed down the corridor. Something—definitely not human—was on their tail.

"This is not how I imagined I'd die." Naruto deadpanned. "Stuck underground and about to be killed by something creepy."

"You are not helping!" Grover cried.

"Sorry."

"Tyson," Percy said as he patted down the boulder. "Can you-"

"Yes!" The claimed Cyclops son of Poseidon slammed his shoulder against the rock so hard the whole tunnel shook. Dust trickled from the stone ceiling.

"Hurry!" Grover said. "Don't bring the roof down, but hurry!" The boulder finally gave way with a horrible grinding noise. Tyson pushed it into a small room and they dashed through behind it.

"Close the entrance!" Annabeth said.

They all got on the other side of the boulder and pushed. Whatever was chasing them wailed in frustration as they heaved the rock back into placed and sealed the corridor.

"We trapped it," Percy said.

"Or trapped ourselves," Grover said.

"Oh I am sure we'll be fine now." Naruto said with a smirk. "Just no one drop the soap." The group annoyed by the blond demi blond of the Underworld turned to see they were indeed in a small room. A twenty-four square foot room with bars on the opposite side. Somehow, they had landed themselves in jail!

XXX

"What in Hades?" Annabeth tugged on the bars. They didn't budge. Through the bars one could see rows of cells in a ring around a dark courtyard—at least three stories of metal doors and metal catwalks.

"Right, I'll get us out." Naruto said as he looked around in his ninja pack for the right equipment.

Annabeth was curious as to what Naruto would use to them out with, so she walked over to observation. "How will you get us out? Got a fancy jutsu for us?"

"Nope! Just this!" Naruto replied with a smile as he took out something wrapped in leather.

"A lock pick kit?" Annabeth asked before her eyes narrowed. "So it was you that let the Stroll brothers in that shed!"

"Yeah, they asked nicely." Naruto replied cheekily, referring to one of their past pranks. "Alright let's…hey were did Percy and Tyson go?"

"Percy heard some strange language above us and Tyson seemed to recognize it because he quickly bent the bars open to go check." Silena said just as Grover walked out.

"I guess that works too." Naruto replied, a little bummed about not being able to use his lock pick kit, making both Annabeth and Silena giggle.

"Come on guys! Tyson and Percy are getting pretty far ahead of us!" Grover warned as they picked up their pace.

After she looked around as they ran, Annabeth widened her eyes, "I know this place!" she announced. "This is Alcatraz!"

"You mean that island is near San Francisco?" Percy asked as the group got closer.

She nodded. "My school took a field trip here. It's like a museum."

"Odd how we are on the other side of the country." Silena replied, finding it hard to believe.

"Freeze," Grover warned.

But Tyson kept going. Grover grabbed his arm and pulled him back with all his strength. "Stop, Tyson!" he whispered. "Can't you see it?"

Naruto looked and he paled a bit. "That…is not good." It was one of the most horrible monsters around, making him think that if Orochimaru meet it, he would become fast friends with it.

It was sort of like a centaur, with a woman's body from the waist up. But instead of a horse's lower body, it had the body of a dragon—at least twenty feet long, black and scaly with enormous claws and a barbed tail. Her legs looked like they were tangled in vines, but they were really sprouting snakes, hundreds of vipers darting around, constantly looking for something to bite. The woman's hair was also made of snakes, like Medusa's. Weirdest of all, around her waist, where the woman part met the dragon part, her skin bubbled and morphed, occasionally producing the heads of animals—a vicious wolf, a bear, a lion, as if she were wearing a belt of ever-changing creatures. They got the feeling they were looking at something half formed, a monster so old it was from the beginning of time, before shapes had been fully defined.

"It's her," Tyson whimpered.

"Get down!" Grover said.

They crouched in the shadows, but the monster wasn't paying them any attention. It seemed to be talking to someone inside a cell on the second floor. That's where the sobbing was coming from. The dragon woman said something in her weird rumbling language.

"What's she saying?" Percy muttered. "What's that language?"

"The tongue of the old times." Tyson shivered. "What Mother Earth spoke to Titans and…her other children. Before the gods."

"You understand it?" Naruto asked. "Can you translate?"

Tyson closed his eyes and began to speak in a horrible, raspy woman's voice. "You will work for the master or suffer."

Annabeth shuddered. "I hate it when he does that."

Like all Cyclopes, Tyson had superhuman hearing and an uncanny ability to mimic voices. It was almost like he entered a trance when he spoke in other voices.

Naruto smiled and put a comforting hand on her shoulder to keep her calm. After all, this situation reminded her of her first adventure, so Annabeth appreciated the gesture.

"I will not serve," Tyson said in a deep, wounded voice.

He switched to the monster's voice: "Then I shall enjoy your pain, Briares." Tyson faltered when he said that name. That made Percy raise an eyebrow at that, never seeing Tyson break character while mimicking before. Then he continued in the monster's voice. "If you thought your first imprisonment was unbearable, you have yet to feel true torment. Think on this until I return."

The dragon lady tromped toward the stairwell, vipers hissing around her legs like grass skirts. She spread wings thatthey hadn't noticed before—huge bad wings she kept folded against her dragon back. She leaped off the catwalk and soared across the courtyard. They crouched lower in the shadows. A hot sulfurous wind blasted them as the monster flew over. Then she disappeared around the corner.

"H-h-horrible," Grover said. "I've never smelled any monster that strong."

"Cyclopes' worst nightmare," Tyson murmured. "Kampê."

"Who?" Percy asked.

Tyson swallowed. "Every Cyclops knows about her. Stories about her scare us when we're babies. She was our jailer in the bad years."

Annabeth nodded. "I remember now. When the Titans ruled, they imprisoned Gaea and Ouranos's earlier children—the Cyclopes and the Hekatonkheires."

"The Heka-what?" Percy asked.

"The Hundred-Handed Ones," she said. "They called them that because…well, they had a hundred hands. They were elder brothers of the Cyclopes."

"Man, that sounds useful." Naruto replied.

"And very powerful," Tyson said. "Wonderful! As tall as the sky. So strong they could break mountains!"

"Cool," Silena said. "Unless you're a mountain."

"Kampê was the jailer," he said. "She worked for Kronos. She kept our brothers locked up in Tartarus, tortured them always, until Zeus came. He killed Kampê and freed Cyclopes and Hundred-Handed Ones to help fight against the Titans in the big war."

"Great, and now she is back in this war…" Naruto said with an annoyed expression.

"Bad," Tyson summed up.

"So who's in that cell?" Silena asked. "You said a name—"

"Briares!" Tyson perked up. "He is a Hundred-Handed One. They are as tall as the sky and—"

"Yeah," Silena said. "They break mountains."

Annabeth sighed knowing they weren't going to get much info out of Tyson, so she said, "Let's check it out before she gets back."

XXX

As they approached the cell, the weeping got louder. When they first saw the creature inside, the demi gods weren't sure what they were looking at. He was human-size and his skin was very pale, the color of milk. He wore a loincloth like a big diaper. His feet seemed too big for his body, with cracked dirty toenails, eight toes on each foot. But the top half of his body was the weird part. He made Janus look downright normal. His chest sprouted more arms than anyone could count, in rows, all around his body. The arms looked like normal arms, but there were so many of them, all tangled together, that his chest looked kind of like a forkful of spaghetti somebody had twirled together. Several of his hands were covering his face as he sobbed.

"Either the sky isn't as tall as it used to be," Percy muttered, "or he's short."

"Heh, you would know since you held up the 'sky.'" Naruto replied with snicker, making Silena hit him on the shoulder.

Tyson didn't pay any attention. He fell to his knees. "Briares!" he called.

The sobbing stopped.

"Great Hundred-Handed One!" Tyson said. "Help us!"

Briars looked up. His face was long and sad, with a crooked nose and bad teeth. He had deep brown eyes, but they were not like human eyes. They were completely brown.

"Run while you can, Cyclops," Briares said miserably. "I cannot even help myself."

"You are a Hundred-Handed One!" Tyson insisted. "You can do anything!"

Briars wiped his nose with five or six hands. Several others were fidgeting with little pieces of metal and wood from a broken bed, the way Tyson always played with spare parts. It was amazing to watch. The hands seemed to have a mind of their own. They built a toy boat out of wood, then disassembled it just as fast. Other hands were scratching at the cement floor for no apparent reason. Others were playing rock, paper, scissors. A few others were making ducky and doggie shadow puppets against the wall.

"I cannot," Briares moaned. "Kampê is back! The Titans will rise and throw us back into Tartarus."

"Put on your brave face!" Tyson said.

Immediately Briares's face morphed into something else. Same brown eyes, but otherwise totally different features. He had an upturned nose, arched eyebrows, and a weird smile, like he was trying to act brave. But then his face turned back to what it had been before.

"No good," he said. "My scared face keeps coming back."

"How did you do that?" Percy asked.

Annabeth elbowed Percy. "Don't be rude. The Hundred-Handed Ones all have fifty different faces."

"Ok, I didn't even know that." Naruto replied.

"It's gotta be taking a yearbook photo." Percy stated.

"Um, I think he would be way too old to go to school." Naruto replied.

Tyson was still entranced. "It will be okay, Briares! We will help you! Can I have your autograph?"

"Really? Autograph?" Naruto deadpanned.

"Oh shut up you." Silena scolded him. "You and Percy are no better at getting off topic."

Briares sniffled. "Do you have one hundred pens?"

"Guys," Grover interrupted. "We have to get out of here. Kampê will be back. She'll sense us sooner or later."

"Break the bars," Annabeth said.

"Yes!" Tyson said, smiling proudly. "Briares can do it. He is very strong. Stronger than Cyclopes, even! Watch!"

Briares whimpered. A dozen of his hands started playing patty-cake, but none of them made any attempt to break the bars.

"If he's so strong," Percy said, "why is he stuck in jail?"

Annabeth ribbed him again. "He's terrified," she whispered. "Kampê had imprisoned him in Tartarus for thousands of years. How would you feel?"

"Spirit broken." Naruto replied sadly as he look at the creature.

The Hundred-Handed One covered his face again.

"Briares?" Tyson asked. "What…what is wrong? Show us your great strength!"

"Tyson," Annabeth said, "I think you'd better break the bars."

Tyson's smile melted slowly.

"I will break the bars," he repeated. He grabbed the cell door and ripped it off its hinges like it was made of wet clay.

"Come on, Briares," Annabeth said. "Let's get you out of here."

She held out her hand. For a second, Briares's face morphed to a hopeful expression. Several of his arms reached out, but twice as many slapped them away.

"I cannot," he said. "She will punish me."

"It's all right," Annabeth promised. "You fought the Titans before, and you won, remember?"

"I remember the war." Briares's face morphed again—furrowed brow and a pouting mouth. His brooding face. "Lightning shook the world. We threw many rocks. The Titans and the monsters almost won. Now they are getting strong again. Kampê said so."

"Don't listen to her," Percy said. "Come on!"

"Briaras." Naruto said, making him look at the blond. "If you stay here, Kampe will still punish you as long as you continue to deny her and she will not be fair about it at all. Come with us and be safe." When he stayed put while shaking in fear, Naruto sighed and decided to go with a different way.

"Listen, you are a hero to someone and that person is right in this room!" Naruto declared, pointing at Tyson. "Are you just going to lay down and take that punishment or are you going to get off your ass and come with us. Don't let the statement, 'Never meet your heroes' crush another soul!"

Briaras looked sadly at Naruto and then to Tyson for a long moment before he sigh and wobbly stood up. "Fine." He whined as he pushed past the others and out of his cell.

"I can't believe that worked." Silena replied, shell shocked.

"Me too." Grover said with a sweat drop.

"I have my ways. I kind of did that with Zabuza." Naruto replied with a shrug.

"So what, is that your Therapy no Jutsu?" Annabeth asked.

"Possibly." Naruto said as he walked backwards and ran into Tyson, who looked scared stiff. Following his line of sight, the blond saw the Kampe, snarling at them. "Well…that is not good."

XXX

"The other way," Percy said.

They bolted down the catwalk. This time Briares was happy to follow them. In fact he sprinted out front, a hundred arms waving in panic.

From behind them, the sound of giant wings flapped as Kampê took to the air. She hissed and growled in her ancient language. "Yeah no, I can't understand you!" Naruto taunted.

"Now is not the time for that!" Annabeth roared.

They scrambled down the stairs, through a corridor, and past a guard's station—out into another block of prison cells.

"Left," Annabeth said. "I remember this from the tour."

The group burst outside and found ourselves in the prison yard, ringed by security towers and barbed wire. After being inside for so long, the daylight almost blinded them. Tourists were milling around, taking pictures. The wind whipped cold off the bay. In the south, San Francisco gleamed all white and beautiful, but in the north, over Mount Tamalpais, huge storm clouds swirled. The whole sky seemed like a black top spinning from the mountain where Atlas was imprisoned, and where the Titan palace of Mount Othrys was rising anew. It was hard to believe the tourists couldn't see the supernatural storm brewing, but they didn't give any hint that anything was wrong.

"It's even worse," Annabeth said, gazing to the north. "The storms have been bad all year, but that—"

"Keep moving," Briares wailed. "She is behind us!"

They ran to the far end of the yard, as far from the cellblock as possible.

"Kampê's too big to get through the doors," Percy said hopefully.

Then the wall exploded.

"Oh look, she made a bigger one." Naruto deadpanned as the tourists screamed as Kampê appeared from the dust and rubble, her wings spread out as wide as the yard. She was holding two swords—long bronze scimitars that glowed with a weird greenish aura, boiling wisps of vapor that smelled sour and hot even across the yard.

"Poison!" Grover yelped. "Don't let those things touch you or…"

"Or we'll die?" Naruto guessed.

"Well…after you shrivel slowly to dust, yes."

"Let's avoid the swords," Percy decided, a bit panicked.

"Briares, fight!" Tyson urged. "Grow to full size!"

Instead, Briares looked like he was trying to shrink even smaller. He appeared to be wearing his absolutely terrified face.

"You know, I think it was miracle he even got out of that cell." Naruto sighed.

Kampê thundered toward us on her dragon legs, hundreds of snakes slithering around her body.

"So, how do we fight this thing?" Naruto asked as he searched for a way to kill it.

"We don't! Just run!" Annabeth shouted and that was the end of that debate as Naruto didn't want to fight her on it. So they ran through the jail yard and out the gates of the prison, the monster right behind them. Mortals screamed and ran. Emergency sirens began to blare. Just as they hit the wharf, the tour boat seemed to be unloading.

"So, what now, the boat?" Grover asked.

"Too slow," Tyson said. "Back into the maze. Only chance."

"We need a diversion," Annabeth said.

Tyson ripped a metal lamppost out of the ground. "I will distract Kampê. You run ahead."

"I'll help you," Percy said.

"No," Tyson said. "You go. Poison will hurt Cyclopes. A lot of pain. But it won't kill."

"No!" Naruto declared as a pair of gauntlets flashed on his hands, Gaia's Fists as it was called. The gift that Nyx gave him when he met her. Apparently Gaia was on his side. "We are NOT leaving anyone behind! Be ready to run!"

"What are you going to do?!" Silena raged, thinking he was just going to punch it.

"THIS!" He roared as he punched the ground as he hard as he could, mimicking Tsunade. The affect to this was the ground coming up like a loose floor board, knocking the Kampe away via her face in what looked to be a gift shop. "Now we run because she is going to be pissed!"

And run they did because as soon as they got back into the jail, they heard an angry roared and the kampe was back, but dressed as a mobile gift shop with all the t-shirts and other paraphernalia on her form.

They finally found the cell where they'd come in, but the back wall was completely smooth—no sign of a boulder or anything.

"Look for the mark!" Annabeth said.

"There!" Grover touched a tiny scratch, and it became a Greek Δ. The mark of Daedalus glowed blue, and the stone wall grinded open.

As soon as it opened, the Kampe was clearly in sight and she was raging as she ran toward them. Naruto looked to see that Briaras was haiving trouble getting in the entrance and he knew he had to create another distraction. "Get that mess of arm in there!" he roared and ran to the entrance of the jail cell. Before anyone could as what he was doing, he punched the ground again, but this time, the ground just cracked, creating a fissure, that slowed the Kampe down, but not by much.

Looking back to see everyone back in the labyrinth and the entrance closing, he smirked at the Kampe, who was much closer now. He smirked as he punched the wall, making the entrance collapse. As the two lost sight of each other, Naruto just had one thing to say, before he jumped on after his friends.

"You are one ugly motherfucker."

XXXXX

And there you all go. Another long waited chapter. Hopefully people are still reading this. Also, the snow is coming back…we are supposed to get 6 to 8 inches over here. Joy.

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