Chapter five.

For a terrible moment I thought we had lost the spider, but then Tyson heard a pining sound. We walked sown some more corridors and eventually found the little thingo banging it's head in a metal door. We opened the door and saw something I thought I'd never see in my life.

There were hydraulic lifts all over the place with pretty nice cars (my paradise, if you want my opinion), a chariot made of pure flames and smaller projects on worktables. There were tools hanging on the walls.

The spider scuttled under a Corolla '98 where the inferior part of a man in gray grubby pants and shoes bigger than Tyson's hung out.

"Well, well," Said a deep and a bit aggressive voice. "What have we here?"

Hephaestus pushed out on a back trolley and sat up. I guess he had cleaned up on Olympus or used some godly magic to look nicer. I think that, in his own workshop, he didn't mind how nice or hideous he looked.

He wore a white (though not so white because of oil and grease) jumpsuit with Hephaestus written in the chest pocket. One of his legs was made of metal, as I had seen back on Olympus. His face was deformed, his head was misshapen and bulging and his right shoulder was taller than the left one so that he seemed to be leaning on something even if he was standing up. He wore a black eye patch over the left eye (A/N: I know he doesn't in the books, but I thought that with the eye patch he would look more kinda deformed. You know, with a missed eye and all.). He wore a permanent scowl and his black beard smoked and hissed. Every once in a while a small wildfire would erupt in his whiskers (The beard's whiskers, not whisker marks like mine) then die out. His hands were the size of a catcher's mitts, but he handled the spider with amazing skill. He disassembled it in two seconds, then put it back together.

"There," he muttered to himself. "Much better."

The spider did a happy flip in his hand, shot a metallic web at the ceiling and went swinging away.

Hephaestus then glowered up at us.

"I didn't make you, did I?"

Now, that was an awkward of a question. I mean, can't he notice the difference between a human and an automaton with three thousand years of experience? And he says that he's the god of forges. Yeah, right.

"Uh," Annabeth said. "No, sir."

"Good." He said and started to study us. "Half-Bloods." He grunted.

"Could be automatons, but of course not."

I sweat dropped at that.

"Yeah, thanks for thinking I'm a piece of metal." I mocked. Annabeth slapped the back of my head. Hephaestus glared coldly at me.

"We've met, sir." Percy said.

"Have we?" Hephaestus said. I had a strange feeling he didn't care one way or another. He seemed to be more interested in how Percy's jaw worked or why did he have white eyes or why did I have whisker marks in my cheeks. "If I didn't smash you to a pulp the first time we met, then I think I have no need to do it now."

He looked over at Grover and frowned. "Satyr." Then he looked over at Tyson and his eyes twinkled. "Well, a Cyclops. Good, good. What are you doing traveling with this lot?"

I personally thought he could refer at us as something more than lot. But I'm not asking for something like three times saviors of Olympus or something like that, even though we were.

"Uh…" Tyson said.

"Yes, well said." Hephaestus agreed. I wanna learn this 'uh' language. "So, there'd better be a good reason you're disturbing me. The suspension on this corolla is no small matter, you know?"

"Well," I said. "First, why to fix a Corolla when you don't use it? And second, we're looking for Daedalus."

"Daedalus?" Hephaestus roared. "You want that old scoundrel? You dare to seek him out?"

His beard burst into flames and his black eyes glowed. He was releasing waves of killing intent.

"Uhm, yes, sir, please." Annabeth said.

"Humph, you're wasting your time."

"Listen here, you old ugly thingo." I said in a moment of pure fury. "You going to help us or what?"

Hephaestus took several steps back and fell to the floor. He then put one hand in front of his face and closed his eyes.

"Gahhh. Stop it!" He screamed. Annabeth grabbed my shoulder to help me relax. I slowly got back to myself, then sighed.

"The fuck did I do?" I muttered to myself.

"Calm down, Vice. Calm down." Annabeth said, still clutching and squeezing. Gods, this girl really helped me relax.

Hephaestus stood up as if he didn't know what had just happened and walked towards a worktable as if that moment when he threw himself to the ground never happened. I think that, if I caused that in Hephaestus, it was for a reason I don't know about. I mean, I was releasing very little killing intent, and that shouldn't have that effect on a human, put less a major god.

Hephaestus picked up a lump of springs and metal plates. In a few seconds he was holding a bronze and silver falcon. It spread it's metal wings and started to fly around the room. Tyson laughed and clapped his hands. The bird landed on his shoulder an nipped his ear.

Hephaestus regarded him. His scold didn't change, but he had a softer expression on his face.

"I sense you've got something to tell me, Cyclops."

Tyson's smile faded and he nodded. "We've met a hundred-handed one."

Hephaestus nodded, looking unsurprised. "Briares, right?"

"Yes. He-he was scared. He would not help us!"

"And that bothered you."

"Yes!" Tyson's voice wavered. "Briares should be strong! Greater than any Cyclops! But he simply ran away!"

Hephaestus grunted. "There was a time I admired the hundred-handed ones. Back in the days of the first war. But people, monsters, even gods change. Look at my loving mother, Hera. You met'er, right? She'll smile to your face and talk about how important family is, right? Didn't stop her from pitching me off Mount Olympus when she saw my ugly face."

I wanted to say 'ugly? This looks more like horrible!', but I controlled myself.

"But I thought Zeus did that to you." Percy said.

Hephaestus cleared his throat and spat into a bronze spittoon. He snapped his fingers and the falcon flew back to the worktable.

"Mother likes telling that version of the story." He grumbled. "Makes her look more likable, doesn't it? Blaming it all on my dad." I noticed the anger in his voice. I imagined how it would be to hate your own mother. I didn't remember much about her after the car accident. "She likes families, but only one kind of families. Perfect families. I don't quite fit the image, right?"

He pulled a feather from the falcon's back and all the automaton fell apart.

"Believe me, young Cyclops. You can't trust the others, only the works of your own hands."

Righttttttt!

Inside my mind.

A tall and thin woman with blonde hair wearing a black dress stood on the stage before the microphone holding a golden plate with a smiley on it on her right hand.

She cleared her throat. "And the award of major optimism goes to…" She opened a little envelope on the wooden table in which the microphone stood. "Hephaestus!"

Cheers and claps from the audience were heard at least two miles away. Hephaestus, wearing a black tuxedo, slowly made his way to the stage, his metallic leg clicking as it moved. He got next to the woman, who proudly passed him the smiley plate. He took the woman's place and started his long speech.

Hephaestus cleared his throat. "Humph. Idiots."

End of daydream.

Awkward. Very, very awkward.

Unfortunately, as I was daydreaming, I skipped some part of the conversation. I think that now the guys were getting to the point.

"You know where he is, then." Annabeth said.

"It isn't wise to go looking, girl."

"My mother says looking is the nature of wisdom."

"Then," I said. "we are so wise we almost got killed hundreds of times for looking."

Annabeth ignored my comment.

"Who's your mother, then?" Asked Hephaestus.

"Athena."

I rolled my eyes.

"Make sure never to call her dumb or anything like that," I said. "I know from experience what she does, and believe me: Your brain will explode with so much useless information."

"It's not useless!" Annabeth defended, turning towards me."

I rolled my eyes. "Of course it is. What does the last number of pi help in anything? What does counting to the infinite help in anything? You almost killed me that time!"

Hephaestus cleared his throat. I think that only now we noticed him there. Mine and Annabeth's cheeks went red of embarrassment.

"Okay," Hephaestus said, obviously annoyed because of our little argument. "I can tell you what you want to know. But there is a price. I need a favour done."

Man, this is getting like one of those RPGs you play on internet. 'I'll give you this, but you have to do that and bring that back to me'. Annoying.

"Name it."

Hephaestus laughed-a booming sound like a huge bellow stoking a fire.

"You heroes," He said. "always making harsh promises. How refreshing!"

He pressed a button on his workbench, and the metal shutters opened along the wall. It was either a huge window or a big screen TV. We had an overview of a mountain ringed in forests. It must've been a volcano, because smoke rose from it's crest.

"One of my forges," Hephaestus said. "I have many, but that used to be my favourite."

"That's Mount St. Helens," Grover said. "Great forests around there."

"You've been there?" Percy asked.

"Looking for… you know. Pan."

"Wait," Annabeth said. "You said it used to be your favorite. What happened?"

Hephaestus scratched his beard. "Well, that's where the monster Typhon is trapped. Used to be under Mount Etna, but when we moved to America, his force got pinned under Mount St. Helens. Great source of fire, but a bit dangerous. There's always this chance he'll escape. Lots of eruptions these days, smoldering all the time. He's restless with the Titan rebellion.

"What do you want us to do?" Percy asked. "Fight him?"

Hephaestus snorted. "That would be suicide. The gods themselves ran away from Typhon when he was free. That thing was invulnerable. Father's old spark can't do much against it. Pray you never have to see him, much less fight him. But lately I have sensed intruders in my mountain. Someone or something is using my forges. I want you to investigate. When I go there… they sense me coming and disappear. When I send automatons, they don't come back. But you, they might not sense you. You're not gods.

"Glad you noticed." Percy muttered.

"Go and find out what you can." Hephaestus said. "Report back to me and I will tell you what you need to know about Daedalus."

"All right," Annabeth said. "How do we get there?"

Hephaestus clapped his hands. The spider came swinging down from the rafters. Annabeth took some steps towards me when the spider landed at her feet.

"My creation will show you the way," Hephaestus said. "It's not far through the Labyrinth. And try to stay alive, will you? Humans are much more fragile than Automatons."

"Glad you noticed that too." Percy muttered. I chuckled.

:::::

Now, it's not that I hate nature or something, but I'll tell you what.

Tree roots suck.

The spider scuttled along them with ease, but as we have two legs and the spider has eight, I think it was a bit more difficult for us to walk in a maze full of freaking tree roots. We could barely see the spider in the darkness.

So, I think that, for human terms, we were doing ok with the tree roots until we saw a corridor to the left. Grover stopped, so did we.

"What is it?" Percy asked.

"This way," Grover said. "This is the way."

"What way?" Percy asked. "You mean… to Pan?"

Grover looked at Tyson. "Don't you smell it?"

"Dirt," Tyson said. "And plants."

"Yes! This is the way, I'm sure of it."

"We'll come back," Anna promised. "On the way back to Hephaestus."

"The tunnel will be gone by then," Grover said. "I have to follow it. A door like this won't stay open!"

"But we can't," Annabeth said. "The forges!"

Grover looked at her sadly. "I have to, Annabeth. Don't you understand?"

"We'll split up." Percy said. I looked at him with a questioning look.

"What?" I said.

"I said, we'll split up."

Tyson looked at Grover. "I'll go with goat boy."

Percy looked at him. "Are you sure, Tyson?"

Tyson put his hand on Grover's shoulder. "Yes, I'll go with him and find

this god person. I'm not like Hephaestus. I trust friends."

Grover took a deep breath. "Percy, we'll find each other again. We still have the empathy link. I just… have to."

I stepped forward and hugged Grover.

"Good luck, G-man." I whispered in his ear.

"Thanks, Vice." He said, breaking apart.

"I just hope you're right, Grover." Percy said.

"I know I am."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Modest…"

Percy looked at Tyson, who gulped back a sob and hugged Percy. Then he and Grover disappeared into the tunnel.

I turned towards Percy. "How many?"

"How many what?" He asked.

"Broken ribs." I explained.

"Zero."

"Shame."

"This is bad," Annabeth said. "Splitting up is a really, really bad idea."

I flinched. "We always have bad ideas, right? That Aqualand thing three years ago wasn't any good idea, right?"

Annabeth sighed.

"We'll see'em again." Said Percy, in a poor attempt to sound confident.

"Now c'mon, the spider's getting away!"

:::::

After some minutes the tunnel started to get hot.

The stone walls glowed and my shoes were on fire (not literally, but almost) and the air felt like we were walking through an oven. The tunnel slopped down and we could hear a loud roar. The spider skittered along, with Anna and I right behind.

"Hey, wait up!" Said Percy.

We turned towards him. "Yeah?"

"Not you, Vice. I wanna talk to Annabeth. Something Hephaestus said back there, about your mother…"

"She swore never to marry, like Artemis and Hestia. She's one of the maiden goddesses."

"What?" I asked.

"But then-" but Percy was interrupted before he could say anything.

"How come she has demigod children?"

Me and Percy nodded.

"Guys, you know how Athena was born?" Anna asked.

"She sprung from Zeus's head in full battle armor or something." I said.

"Exactly. The way she has demigod children is exactly the same. When she falls in love with a mortal man, the way she loved Odysseus in the old days, the love is purely intellectual. It's a meeting of minds. She'd tell you that's the purest kind of love."

"You never told me that, you know." I said, glaring at her.

She smirked. "You never told me your father was Zeus."

"What?" Percy asked.

I turned towards him. "Oh, yeah. Hey, cuz, I think."

Percy's reaction: glaring at me with those freaking lavender eyes.

"You didn't tell me." He said.

I sighed. "Long story, now let's just follow the spider, ok?"

The roaring got louder. After another half mile, we emerged in a cavern the size of a Super Bowl stadium. No kidding. The spider stopped and curled into a ball.

I stared at the place in amazement. There was no floor, just lava a hundred feet below. We stood in a rock ridge that circled the cavern. A network of metal bridges spanned across it. In the center, in a platform, there were all sorts of machines, cauldrons, forges, and an anvil the size of a house.

Monsters moved around the platform, but they were too far for me to make out their shapes. Percy activated his Byakugan.

"They're a mix between a fish and a dog… something like that." He said.

"We'll never be able to sneak up on them."

Annabeth picked up the metal spider and slipped it into her pocket.

"I can." She said, putting on her Yankees cap and going to an unknown place.

I turned towards Percy. "Can you see her?"

He shook his head. "Athena put magic in that hat so that no one can see her. I mean no one. Not even the Byakugan nor the Sharingan can."

I sighed. "Perfect."

He started to study me. "Nice hair, by the way."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't mention it."

Percy started to crept along the outer rim of the lava lake. I sighed and mouthed I'll gain their attention for a while to him. I knew he would see because of his Byakugan. I started to walk in a metal bridge towards the main platform. The beasts still hadn't noticed me. I saw Percy jumping into a mine cart and closing it with a tarp.

I kept walking until I found myself in the main platform. One thing passed through my head.

Percy could've been more specific.

The monsters' faces were dogs with black snouts, brown eyes and pointy ears. Their bodies were sleek and black, like sea mammals, with stubby legs that were half flipper, half foot and humanlike hands with sharp claws.

Perfect, well-trained dogs! Adopt them!

If you're wondering, yes. My life's awkward.

They looked at me, or at least at where I was one second ago, because now I was on top of the oversized anvil, sword in hand. I was covered in sweat by now. I noticed that the anvil was empty.

I smirked. "Oi, you bunch of ugly dogs! Over here!"

They instantly looked to where I was. There were about twenty of them.

"Hey, it's a half-blood!" One of them said-barked.

"Kill him!" Another one shouted.

They started to throw lava from the furnaces with their bare hands, but they didn't seem to mind. Neither did I. I would simply dodge all the lava they sent at me.

One of them started barking. "What do we have here! A fast one?"

I smirked. "Not just fast."

I grabbed shunshined towards the base of the anvil and pushed it with my mega strength (chakra channeled to the fists). The anvil fell to one side and fell of the platform, disappearing into the lava lake. It took out at least six of those dogs in the process, reducing them to fourteen.

I smirked. "Strike one."

I jumped, channeled energy to my sword and released it while dashing with it towards a group of six. They instantly vanished to dust. I landed.

"Strike two." I said, exhausted because of the heat.

I turned towards the last group-a group of seven sea demons-and raised my sword neck-height.

"Even if you do kill us, demigod, you'll not be able to kill us all. There are more Telekhines here." One of them said. I'll take it that those things are Telekhines.

I smirked. "I'll take my chances." I then channeled lightning chakra to the tip of my sword, creating a lightning ball, and then I shot it towards them. As it advanced it got bigger, consuming all of them in the process.

"Strike three, you're out."

I stared at the destruction I had caused. There was a perfect circle where the ball had passed and metal bars hung near the circumference. At that same moment Percy ran through a door towards the destroyed platform.

"Annabeth-Uhm hum!" Percy was cut off when he was dragged by an invisible person I think was Annabeth. I let them talk a bit and then appeared there… Annabeth was kissing Percy.

"The heck you doing?" I asked. They instantly broke apart. Annabeth looked at me, blushing.

"Uh… didn't see you there…"

I went mad. "It doesn't matter if you saw me or not! You were kissing-" But I was cut off by Annabeth's lips in mine. She broke apart after two seconds, but her lips were still brushing mine.

"Will you just shut up already? You're annoying." She then kissed me passionately. "I have to go now, report to Daedalus. If you want you go with me…"

I shook my head. "No, I'll stay here." She nodded.

"Ok. Just… come back, okay?" I could see she was worried when she said that.

"… I will. I promise." I said, trying to sound more confident than I was.

She nodded and put her cap on and then disappeared from sight.

"… Goodbye… Annabeth…" I whispered to myself.

Anything that was passing through my head was cut off by little Telekhines bursting out of the door Percy had gotten out some seconds ago. I turned around and saw fully-grown Telekhines blocking all the exits. I hoped Annabeth had managed to pass through before they blocked'em. Magma landed between me and Percy. We looked at the Telekhines. They were throwing lava with their hands.

A bit of magma landed on my hand. I screamed in pain. Imagine yourself putting your hand into a bonfire. Imagine that pain a hundred times. You'll get what I mean. I wiped off the lava and looked at my hand. There was only a thin layer of muscles left besides the bones. Perfect. Now my hand is reallyreall screwed.

I heard a scream and turned towards where Percy was. He was on the floor, covered with lava and screaming. Suddenly, I saw water being formed out of the nothing and it crashed with the lava, provoking an explosion.

Last thing I remember before blacking out is seeing a pair of blood red eyes with three comas around the pupils.