First Person: Emily
Eidolons might be able to possess machines. That's what I had in the back of my mind. During my training with Zy, she had taught me to always assume the worst when it came to an enemy, meaning, I had to assume that the eidolons could possess anything, not just living people, but objects as well. For all I knew, they could possess a stuffed animal or a pencil. Whether that was true or not, I needed to assume the worst if I wanted to survive, but with Leo's thoughts and emotions overriding my own, my basic training and natural instincts had been shoved to the back of my mind where I couldn't reach them, and so I totally forgot about assuming the worst, and assuming that the eidolons could possess machines.
When I'd seen the manikins, I just knew there was something I should be worried about, and it was because the manikins would be perfect to ambush us with. Frank even guessed that they were going to jump out and attack us. Because Leo wasn't worried, I wasn't worried, and therefore, this happened. Had I not been imitating Leo, I might have kept my eye on all of the electronics in the room and been prepared to defend the others from the sneak attack that had taken Hazel and Frank by surprise and left us two people down - a female and a male, no less (just what Gaea needs for some odd reason) - and with no time to think of any plans.
Leo couldn't blast these guys with fire. Whether or not he did any damage by melting them or something, these were machines, and they'd still be able to move despite any damage Leo did, especially with an eidolon behind it. Leo had been practicing with his fire power, but though these machines were old, I had a feeling that they weren't going to melt easily. Besides, Hazel and Frank were too close. We didn't want to risk accidentally burning them, or accidentally hitting the pieces of firewood that controlled Frank's life.
To our right, the suit of armor with a lion's head helmet creaked its wiry neck and regarded Hazel and Frank, who were still lying unconscious.
"A male and a female demigod," Lion Head said. "These will do, if the others die." Its hollow face mask turned back towards us, Leo in particular. "We do not need you, Leo Valdez."
"Oh, hey!" Leo exclaimed, trying for a winning smile. "You always need Leo Valdez!" He spread his hands, hoping he looked confident and useful, not desperate and terrified. I felt him wondering if it was too late to write TEAM LEO on his shirt. Sadly, the suits of armor were not as easily swayed as the Narcissus fan club had been. The one with the wolf-headed helmet snarled.
"I have been in your mind, Leo. I helped you start the war." Leo's smile crumbled, and he took a step back.
"That was you? You made me fire the ballista?!" Leo demanded. "You call that helping?!"
"I know how you think," Said Wolf Head. "I know your limits. You are small and weak. You need friends to protect you. Without them, you unable to withstand me. I vowed not to possess you again, but I can still kill you."
"Yeah, well I know Leo too!" I said. "I know that he's plenty strong enough to handle himself. He's smart and intelligent, he has a strong will, he knows how to keep a situation bright even in the darkest times, and he sure as heck won't be killed by the likes of you!" The armored dudes stepped forward, their swords drawn. I felt Leo's fear suddenly making way for a whole lot of anger. This eidolon in the wolf helmet had shamed him, controlled him, and made him attack New Rome. It had endangered his friends and botched their quest. He glanced at the dormant spheres on the worktables, he considered his tool belt, and he thought about the loft behind us - the area that looked like a sound booth. Presto: Operation Junk Pile was born.
"First: you don't know me," He told Wolf Head. "And second: Bye." We lunged for the stairs and bounded for the top. The suits of armor were scary, but they were not fast. As suspected, the loft had doors on either side - folding metal gates. The operators would've wanted protection in case their creations went haywire…like now. I pushed Leo past and then shut the gates, forcing Leo to summon fire to his hands and fuse the locks before he had a moment to realize what he was doing.
"I'll buy you some time!"
"But Emily-!"
"I'm invincible, Leo! Just do what you have to and I'll keep them busy so they don't get their own chance to plot something!" Before he could protest further, I turned and drew my dagger before charging at the nearest closing manikin, the Lion Head. A battle of wills would only drain me unnecessarily, and though it would buy Leo time, it might not be enough, and I wouldn't be much use if something went wrong. So, though I wasn't as good a fighter as most of the crew of the Argo II, I swung my dagger and rammed my shoulder into Lion Head's chest, sending him stumbling back.
"This is foolish," Lion Head said. "You only delay your capture and his death."
"Delaying death is one of my favorite hobbies," Leo responded. The Wolf Head made it to the gates while I was pushing back the Lion Head, and though he hacked at the bars with his sword, the gates held. I could sense Leo getting to work on something, and I knew that I just needed to buy him a few minutes while also keeping the eidolons from trying anything. Hazel and Frank were still out here, unconscious, and though a male and a female were needed for Gaea's thingy-ma-bobber or whatever, the eidolons could still use them to their advantage and kill them to draw Leo out. There were other members of the Argo II, after all, and tons of other demigods, for that matter.
"Leo Valdez!" The spirit howled. "Open this gate or I will kill you!"
"A fair and generous offer!" Leo called. "Just let me finish this. A last request, all right?" He must've confused the spirits, because Wolf Head momentarily stopped hacking at the bars.
I hurried over to Hazel and Frank, but the sphere that was possessed by the third eidolon of the trio sent out wires just like it had used on the pair of demigods before. When the wires made contact, I felt a jolt of electricity, twice as powerful as what had knocked out Hazel and Frank, as both of the wires were directed at me, while they had only taken one shock each. The electricity hit me like a train, but I managed to stay conscious, if with a major headache, and twist my body. I tried to grab the wires, but they retreated back into the sphere and out of reach.
My limbs felt like jelly, as though I'd just run for miles without stop, but I managed to shake myself of the access electricity and got to my friends. I didn't have a lot of time to help or examine them for injuries, as Lion Head came back for me. I shoved the two of them under a table - the most safety they were going to have in this situation - before turning and grabbing the sword that was aimed for me. I wondered if my eyes had the same protection that my skin did, because the sword was nearly plunged into my skull through my right eye had I not reacted in time. I really didn't want to have a test at the moment, and so I twisted the sword under my arm and tried to rip it from the manikin's grasp. Unfortunately, it had the unyielding grip of a robot, and where I might've dislocated, or just plain removed, the arm of the machine had it not been possessed by an eidolon holding it together…well, yeah.
I acted quickly, knowing that I couldn't hesitate if I was surprised by something, and elbowed the Lion Head in…well, where his face would be, anyway. I wasn't the most skilled fighter of the bunch, but I was still strong and knew how to use my dagger thanks to a little practice with Zy and Audrey respectively. So when I put as much force as I could into elbowing the machine, despite it not being able to feel any pain, is still recoiled back, as I let it's sword go so that I had both my hands. I moved to punch the machine while it was still off balance, and managed to knock it back further, yet still not off its feet.
If only I had Zy electricity powers, or Audrey's water for that matter. Both would be effective against machines. Heck, even Veon's Kako would come in handy. But I promised to buy Leo time, and I had Hazel and Frank to protect. They were all relying on me, and I could do this. I tapped into the emotions of the third eidolon, the one in the sphere, and then forced it to use its electric wires at Lion Head, succeeding as the wires shot past from behind me right at said manikin. Though the eidolon was able to cut off its attack after only a moment and the Lion Head wasn't majorly damaged, it did stagger both of them.
"What are you doing?!" Lion Head demanded.
"It was not me!" I moved to punch the Lion Head again, but I was still fatigued from the electric shock, using my will over the eidolon just now, and hitting this thing so many times. Even if my skin couldn't be pierced, I had a feeling I wasn't going to get out of this without a few bruises.
Meanwhile, Wolf Head started pounding on the gates again.
"Who is it?!" Leo called.
"Valdez!"
"Valdez who?!" Leo was working frantically, knowing that three against one while protecting an unconscious Frank and Hazel wasn't going to be easy for me, and Wolf Head was going to come to his senses and realize breaking open the gate was useless any moment now. I could sense his stress from here, how worry causing him to slip up in connecting some gears and having to start again. The Taser ball of the third eidolon was still dangerously close to Hazel and Frank, meaning that at any moment it could give them both a powerful shock. The first shocks were specifically on stun, meant to knock them out, even when both of the wires had been trained on me, but I had no doubt that it was capable of killing them if it wanted to.
"Hey, Taser!" I called to the third eidolon, drawing his emotions so that I got his anger on me. Before he was even thinking about it, his wires shot out in my direction, but they missed and ended up aiming just slightly to my left as the wires shot out as far as they possibly could. Just what I needed. I grabbed the electric wires, bracing myself against the electricity before pulling as hard as I could with all my weight. Since the wires had been extended to their maximum length, there was no give for the Taser orb, and so it got ripped from its position and flung right into the Lion Head's chest. That sent them both back a good distance, yet I still had to consider if the eidolons could just jump from their current machines to another even once I wrecked them.
Leo had finally made his final calibrations and wound the starter coil of the sphere he had, and the gears began to turn. When he closed the top of the sphere and studied its concentric circles - similar to the ones on the workshop door, I realized that neither Leo nor I, using some of Leo's smarts, would be able to figure out the seemingly random access code for the sphere. Pi was a lucky guess for the door, and no way would the code be the same. Considering the spheres themselves were so much more important than access to this room, figuring out the access code on our own was going to be nearly impossible, especially considering we had little time, and these were made by freaking Archimedes.
"Enough! Open these doors or we shall kill your friends!" Wolf Head declared. The Taser ball that contained the third eidolon suddenly went slack, shutting down and losing its power that the eidolon had given it. I felt the eidolon's consciousness transfer through the air, and followed it to another sphere, one that activated same as the previous one, but it was on the table above where I'd shoved Hazel and Frank. The Taser ball 2.0 lashed out with its tendrils and sent another shock through Hazel and Frank. Their unconscious bodies flinched, and I knew that just a certain amount of electricity could stop their hearts. Even if we got lucky and it hadn't killed them this time, there was still the chance that it could do it at any time it wanted.
The Lion Head came up behind me while I was looking to Frank and Hazel and hooked its arms under my shoulders, pulling with its ruthless mechanical strength. I wasn't sure if my invincibility would prevent it from dislocating my shoulder, but it certainly felt like both of my arms were pulled at a terrible angle, and the metal of the machine was jabbing into my skin with an immense amount of pressure. Though it didn't pierce my skin, I could still feel the pain from it gripping me hard enough to crush my bones, and a scream slipped out. I tried to focus on the eidolon and make it release me, but I was already depleted, and it was hard to feel any emotions over my own pain, let alone control anything.
"Open this gate now or they die!" Wolf Head repeated. I could feel Leo's distress even through my pain. By just putting his hand on the sphere, he knew for sure that the sequence had been generated randomly. It was something only Archimedes could possibly know. Supposedly, Archimedes's last words had been, "Don't disturb my circles." No one knew what that meant, but Leo could apply it to this sphere. The lock was much too complicated. Maybe if Leo had a few years, he could decipher the markings and figure out the right combination, but he didn't even have a few seconds. He was out of time, out of luck, and all of us were going to die. Well, maybe not me, which might be even worse, since I'd have to live with the fact that I slipped up and ended up failing the three of them. Not to mention I'd be used for whatever Gaea wants me and the rest of Zy's team for.
"A problem you cannot solve," He remembered. Nemesis had told him to expect this moment. So Leo thrust his hand into his tool belt and brought out the fortune cookie. The goddess had warned him about the price paid for her assistance - losing an eye, for example - but in this situation, he'd rather lose an eye than his friends.
"I need the access code for this sphere," He said, before breaking open the cookie.
"If friends do not matter to you, perhaps you need more incentive," Wolf Head said. "Perhaps I should destroy these scrolls instead - priceless works by Archimedes!" As the manikin walked over to some of the scrolls, I took advantage of my free legs and restrained upper body to pull myself up and kick him in the groin. Only problem? *Cough, cough,* unfeeling robot made of metal *Cough, cough.* I had never kicked a guy in the groin before - mostly because I could feel the waves of pain that came off of them whenever someone such as Clarisse got angry at someone such as the Stoll brothers, and because I was a very nice person - and there was a part of me glad that the person I kicked didn't feel it. At the very least, it got his attention for a moment while Leo put in the access code for the sphere. Lion Head tightened his grip on me further, and had I not been invincible, I'm pretty sure he would've severed my arms off by this point.
Then, I felt as Leo clicked the last ring into place, the room humming with energy from the sphere Leo had activated that had been hooked up to all the cords around the room. Magical and electrical pulses coursed via the Celestial bronze cables, and surged through the entire room. Leo wasn't an instrument kinda guy, but he was getting into the same kind of zone that happened when someone like Zy played her infinite guitar or lyre - you knew each key or note so well that you didn't really think about what your hands were doing. You just concentrated on the kind of sound you wanted to create. With Zy's instruments, all you had to do was know what the music sounded like and then play the instrument with no experience and it would come out just as you imagine, playing numerous instruments at once, sometimes. This was basically the Leo version of that power.
He started small, focusing on one reasonably intact gold sphere down in the main room. The gold sphere shuddered, growing a tripod of legs and then clattering over to the Taser ball. A tiny circular saw popped out of the gold sphere's head, and it began cutting into the Taser ball's brain. He tried activating another orb, but this one burst into a small mushroom cloud of bronze dust and smoke.
"Oops," He muttered. "Sorry Archimedes."
"What are you doing?!" Wolf Head demanded. "Stop your foolishness and surrender!"
"Oh yes, I surrender!" Leo called. "I'm totally surrendering!" He tried to take control of a third orb, but that one broke too. He felt bad about ruining all these ancient inventions, but this was life or death. Frank had accused him of caring more for machines than people, I sensed, but if it came down to saving old spheres or his friends, there was no choice. The fourth try went better. A ruby-encrusted orb popped its top and helicopter blades unfolded. Glad Buford the table wasn't here - he would've fallen in love. The ruby orb spun into the air and sail straight for the cubby holes. Thin golden arms extended from its middle and snapped up the precious scroll cases.
"Enough!" Wolf Head yelled. "I will destroy the-" He turned in time to see the ruby sphere take off with the scrolls. It zipped across the room and hovered in the far corner. "What?! Kill the prisoners!"
I tried to build my power and concentrate on something else besides the pain. My job was to protect this team, and I'd never forgive myself if I let Hazel and Frank get killed while I was still here to say something about it. I gathered my energy as best I could, feeling energy build up in my chest. I might get one shot. Before I knew it, I was glowing brightly like I had before, as though I was on fire, just without the flames. It looked to be just a light, but the Lion Head manikin began to steam, it's metal melting as my skin's temperature rose. With one last tug, I pulled my arms free and stumbled forward, my upper body numb with pain but recovering quickly as the heat spread throughout my body.
I aimed my hands forward without even thinking about it and then suddenly fire began shooting forward from my palms, engulfing everything in front of me, including Hazel, Frank and eidolon 3. My inferno seemed to know what it was doing, however, and instead of harming Hazel and Frank, it actually seemed to protect them, the fire moving to wrap them in an aura of red and orange. I felt as the fire actually started healing them, stabilizing the amount of electricity that had been sent through them and causing them to stir. The fire engulfed the Taser ball in an aura as well, but instead of protecting it, it seemed to seep into the cracks and seams, causing it to start short circuiting along with burning the thing normally. Leo's gold sphere was also unaffected, and it continued to sit on top of the burning Taser ball's sawed-open head, picking through its gears and wires like it was scooping out a pumpkin.
"Bah!" Wolf Head gestured to Lion Head. "Come! We will destroy the demigods ourselves!"
"I don't think so," Leo said, turning towards the Lion Head. His hands worked the control sphere, and I felt a shock travel through the floor before Lion Head shuddered and lowered his sword. Leo grinned. "You're in Leo World now." Lion Head turned and marched up the stairs to face his comrade.
"What are you doing?" Wolf Head demanded. "We have to -"
BLONG!
Lion Head slammed his shield into Wolf Head's chest. He smashed the pommel of his sword into his comrade's helmet, so Wolf Head became Flat, Deformed, Not Very Happy Wolf Head.
"Stop that!" Wolf Head demanded.
"I cannot!" Lion Head wailed. Leo was getting the hang of it now. He commanded both suits of armor to drop their swords and shields and slap each other repeatedly.
"Valdez!" Wolf Head's warbling voice called. "You will die for this!"
"Yeah?!" Leo called out. "Who's possessing who now, Casper?!" The machine men tumbled down the stairs, and Leo forced them to jitterbug like 1920s flappers. I ran over to Taser ball and removed Leo's gold sphere before throwing the third eidolon towards the other two. Then, I lunged at the three of them, feeling my power surge and my entire body tingle. The next thing I knew, I was fire, raging and consuming as I flew into their circuits and destroyed them from the inside out. Their joints began smoking, the other spheres around the room began to pop. Too much energy was surging through the ancient system, and that was even without my contribution, since I controlled my flame and kept it inside of the three eidolons' mechanical bodies.
"Frank, Hazel! Take cover!" Leo called. I willed my fire to reform and then transform back into my body before I dived for Frank and Hazel. Frank twisted to shield Hazel with his body, while I shielded both of them, along with sending some of my protecting fire to put a barrier around Leo's ruby sphere and the scrolls it had. With one last twist of the sphere, Leo sent a massive jolt through the system. The armored warriors blew up; rods, pistons, and bronze shards flew everywhere; on all the tables, sphere popped like hot soda cans. Leo's gold sphere froze, and his flying ruby orb dropped to the floor with the scroll cases, still protected by my glowing aura.
The room was suddenly quiet except for a few random sparks and sizzles, along with the crackling of the auras of fire I'd made. The air smelled like burning car engines. I emerged from under the table and looked around to see the damage, along with the three destroyed eidolons.
"Ha, ha! You did it, Leo!" Leo came running down the stairs, finding that Hazel and Frank were still safe under the table. He had never been so happy to see these two hugging.
"You're alive!" He exclaimed in relief.
"Uh, what exactly happened?" Hazel asked.
"Archimedes came through!" Leo exclaimed happily. "Just enough power left in those old machines for one final show. Once I had the access code, it was easy." Leo patted the control sphere, which was steaming in a bad way. Leo didn't know if it could be fixed, but at the moment, he was too relieved to care.
"The eidolons," Frank said. "Are they gone?" Leo grinned.
"My last command overloaded their kill switches - basically locked down all their circuits and melted their cores, thanks in part to Emily and her magic."
"In English?" Frank requested.
"We trapped the eidolons inside the wiring, then melted them," I explained. "They won't be bothering anyone again." The two of us helped our friends to their feet.
"You saved us," Frank said to Leo.
"Don't sound so surprised," Leo muttered. "Besides, Emily did a lot of the work. What did you do, anyway? Have you always been able to do that fire thing?"
"What fire thing?" Frank asked, a hint of unease in his voice.
"She can blast fire out of her hands, and put non-harmful fire around people, like she did with you guys to protect you, and she can transform into fire."
"My fire also healed any of your injuries and helped with the excess electricity that had been running through your system. In short, the fire can both burn and destroy as I command it to, but it can also heal and protect. I promise, Frank, it won't hurt you or your firewood unless I deliberately command it to. And no, I've never had this happened before. It's still a bit confusing. And though I healed my arms from being held by Lion Head, I'm still pretty tired, you know? I kinda want a nap…like, right now." To prove my point, I yawned, coming down from my power high and suddenly feeling like I hadn't slept in days.
"Too bad all this stuff got wrecked," Leo said. "But at least I salvaged the scrolls. If I can get them back to Camp Half-Blood, maybe I can learn how to recreate Archimedes's inventions."
"I have confidence in you, Leo," I said, popping an energizing snack that Zy had given me into my mouth. It definitely made me feel more awake and energized. "If anyone can be as great an inventor as Archimedes, it's you." Hazel rubbed the side of her head.
"But I don't understand. Where is Nico? That tunnel was supposed to lead us to Nico."
"I don't sense his emotions, or anyone else in general, down here," I reported. Leo seemed to have forgotten that Nico was the whole reason we came down here in the first place. Nico obviously wasn't here, this place was a dead end, so why had Hazel assumed that Nico was here?
"Oh," Leo suddenly said, having wave of dread wash over him. "Hazel, how exactly were you tracking Nico? I mean, could you just sense him nearby because he was your brother?" She frowned.
"Not…not totally. Veon's the one with the actual soul-bond to Nico. Sometimes I can tell when he's close, but, like I said, Rome is so confusing, so much interference because of all the tunnels and caves-"
"You tracked him with your metal-finding senses," Leo guessed. "His sword?" She blinked.
"How did you know?"
"You'd better come here." He led us up to the control room and pointed to a black sword - Nico's Stygian iron sword.
"Oh. Oh, no…" Hazel would've collapsed if Frank hadn't caught her. "But that's not possible! Percy, Audrey, Veon…all of them saw Nico's sword with him in the bronze jar…!"
"Either his dream was wrong, or the giants moved the sword here as a decoy," Leo said.
"So this was a trap," Frank summed up. "We were lured here."
"But why?!" Hazel cried. "Where's my brother?!"
"Hazel?" I asked. "Hazel, stay calm, okay? Veon's out there looking for Nico too, remember? Even if we didn't find him, Veon has to be close by now, right? And he'll report the moment he finds any hint as to where Nico's being kept. We should head back to the ship and wait for him to report in, all right?" A hissing sound suddenly filled the control booth. At first, it sounded like the eidolons were back, but then I realized the bronze mirror on the table was steaming.
"Ah, my poor demigods," Gaea said, her voice echoing through the room. It seemed to be coming not just from the mirror, but from the stone walls as well. Of course. We go through all the trouble of building the Argo II so that we can sail by sea and air, and we'd ended up in the earth anyway. As usual, she spoke without moving her mouth, which could only have been creepier if she'd had a ventriloquism puppet. "You had your choice. I offered salvation to all of you. You could have turned back. Now it is too late. You've come to the ancient lands where I am strongest - where I will wake."
"No way," I declared. Leo pulled a hammer from his tool belt and whacked the mirror. Being metal, it just quivered like a tea tray, but it felt good to smash Gaea in the nose.
"In case you haven't noticed, Dirt Face, your little ambush failed. Your three eidolons got melted in bronze, and we're fine." I knew that boasting was the wrong thing to do in Gaea's presence as she laughed softly.
"Oh, my sweet Leo. You four have been separated from your friends. That was the whole point." The workshop door slammed shut. "You are trapped in my embrace. Meanwhile, Annabeth Chase faces her death alone, terrified and crippled, at the hands of her mother's greatest enemy." The image in the mirror changed. We saw Annabeth sprawled on the floor of a dark cavern, holding up her bronze knife as if warding off some monster. Her face was gaunt, her leg wrapped in some sort of splint. Though we couldn't see what she was looking at, it was obviously something horrible. As much as I wanted to believe it was a lie, there was something within me that knew it was real, and that it was happening right now.
"And even now, I have three of the five required for…a special surprise." The scene shifted to the bronze jar where Nico was being held, but instead of it just being him, Zy and Veon were in the jar alongside him, coughing hard as they struggled to breathe. Zy struggled to move over and grab Veon's hand before the image zoomed to outside the jar where Kaze was standing alongside the twins Ephialtes and Otis, but he didn't seem to be held prisoner in any way. He glared at the bronze jar as the twins argued about something behind him, looking like he was angry at it. Did he know his sister was in there? Had he betrayed…? No, that couldn't be…he'd never do that to his sister. I hadn't known him long, but I'd seen the love and devotion he felt towards Zy. He would do anything to protect her. He wouldn't ever hurt her in a million years.
"Now I have you, Emily Hezesto, the fourth of the five I require. Even Audrey Mavepo is now within my grasp. The others, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, and my dear friend Percy Jackson - they will perish within minutes, and Audrey shall be brought to me along with you, Emily." The scene changed again. Percy was holding Riptide, leading Audrey, Jason and Piper down a spiral staircase into the darkness. "Their powers will betray them. They will die in their own elements. I almost hoped they would survive. They would have made a better sacrifice. But alas, Hazel and Frank will have to do. My minions will collect you shortly and bring you to the ancient place. Your blood will awaken me at last. Until then, I will allow you to watch your friends perish. Please…enjoy this last glimpse of your failed quest." Leo snapped, his hand glowing white hot. Hazel and Frank scrambled back as he pressed his palm against the mirror and melted it into a puddle of bronze goo. The voice of Gaea was silent, and I put my hand on Leo's shoulder to calm his tide of rage.
"Sorry," He said, taking a shaky breath as he stabilized. "She was getting annoying."
"What do we do?" Frank asked. "We have to get out and help the others." Leo scanned the workshop, now littered with smoking pieces of broken spheres, and I activated my powers to connect with him, borrowing his smarts once more. There was a way out of here, and I felt his determination just as strong as his anger against Gaea had been a moment before. We weren't going to sit around helplessly watching the Demigods Death Channel.
"I've got an idea," Leo said. "But it's going to take all of us. Emily? You thinking my thoughts again?"
"Yep," I said nodding. We started telling them the plan.
