Something that'll shut me up for good huh? I'm kind of curious to find out what he's talking about. But do you think something can do that, at this point? I mean I've been through a lot, I mean come on...I've died and came back to life, and I also found out I have to fight something that might destroy Olympus. So what can he be talking about?
As I was thinking about this, Percy came out of the limousine, "You're lucky, punk." Ares pushed him away from the limo. "Be grateful."
"For what?" Percy asked.
"That we're being so nice. If it was up to me—"
"So why haven't you killed me? Percy shot back at Ares.
Ares nodded, like Percy 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 soap-opera star or something. I kill you, that makes me look bad with her. Until then… Get lost."
He snapped his fingers and the world did a three-sixty, spinning in a cloud of red dust. Percy fell to the ground.
When he stood up again, the limousine was gone. The road, the taco restaurant, the whole town of Gila Claw was gone. Thalia, Percy and the others 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.
"Oh, uh, not sure," he lied. "She said to be careful in her husband's junkyard. She said not to pick anything up."
Zoe narrowed her eyes. "The goddess of love would not make a special trip to tell thee that. Be careful, Percy. Aphrodite has led many heroes astray."
"For once I agree with Zoe," Thalia said. "You can't trust Aphrodite."
That's three of us...But my vote doesn't matter, because they don't know I'm here...Probably. "So," Percy said, anxious to change the subject, "how do we get out of here?"
"That way," Zoe said. "That is west."
"How can you tell?" He asked.
Zoe rolled her eyes at Percy. "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.
"Oh, yeah," Percy said. "The bear thing."
Zoe looked offended. "Show some respect. It was a fine bear. A worthy opponent."
"You act like it was real." He said.
"Guys," Grover broke in. "Look!"
We'd reached the crest of a junk mountain. Piles of metal objects glinted in 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.
I looked around, a lot of metal here...I could use some of it for a new sword...But I can't make it the same as the one my father gave me...I kind of wish I could.
"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 axe. "You call this junk?"
He bit off a point and began to chew. "It's delicious!"
Thalia swatted the crown out of his hands. "I'm serious!"
"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 shaped like a crescent moon. "It's just like Percy's sword!"
Zoe's face was grim. "Leave it, Bianca."
"But—"
It seems there's something between Zoe and Percy or...Percy's sword. "It is here for a reason. Anything thrown away in this junkyard must stay in this yard. It is defective. Or cursed." Zoe told Bianca.
Bianca reluctantly set the hair clip down.
"I don't like this place," Thalia said. She gripped the shaft of her spear.
"You think we're going to get attacked by killer refrigerators?" Percy asked.
She gave Percy a hard look. "Zoe is right, Percy. Things get thrown away here for a reason. Now come on, let's get across the yard."
"That's the second time you've agreed with Zoe," he muttered, but Thalia ignored him. I guess she's gotten used to Percy and his dumb comments.
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 really wanted to take some of this stuff with me, but I really didn't want to carry metal for who knows how long we'll be walking. 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."
Zoe and Thalia exchanged nervous looks.
"Let's go around," Thalia said. "Far around."
"But the road is right over there," Percy protested. "Quicker to climb over."
Ping.
I got startled and summoned my sword and sniper, Thalia hefted her spear and Zoe 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 a deep echo, as if the column were hollow. Grover...Why man?
"Why did you do that?" Zoe demanded.
Grover cringed. "I don't know. I, uh, don't like fake feet?" Well, that's kind of ironic, don't you think? Since he's using shoes as fake feet when he goes undercover.
"Come on." Thalia looked at Percy. "Around."
No one argued. After several minutes of walking, we finally stepped onto the highway, an abandoned but well-lit stretch of black asphalt.
"We made it out," Zoe 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 whirled 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!" Zoe gasped.
"Who—who's Talos?" Percy stuttered.
"One of Hephaestus's 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 mattered. Getting hit with that thing would be like getting hit with a battleship.
"Someone took something," Zoe said. "Who took something?"
She stared accusingly at Percy.
Percy 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.
Great advice, except that it was hopeless. At a leisurely stroll, this thing could outdistance us easily.
Everyone split up, the way they'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 in sparks and scattered across Thalia's path.
This thing is going to kill someone...A line from the prophecy came to me, 'one shall be lost in the land without rain' I can't let that happen.
Zoe'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.
Percy and Bianca were together, hiding behind a broken chariot. "You took something." Percy said. "That bow."
"No!" she said, but her voice was quivering.
"Give it back!" He said. "Throw it down!"
"I… I didn't take the bow! Besides, it's too late."
"What did you take?" He asked. Before she could answer, I heard a massive creaking noise, and a shadow blotted out the sky.
"Move!" Percy tore down the hill, Bianca right behind him, as the giant's foot smashed a crater in the ground where we'd been hiding.
It's aiming for Bianca...I decided to stay by her side, I'm not going to let it hurt my sister. "Hey, Talos!" Grover yelled, but the monster raised his sword, looking down at Bianca and Percy. I got ready to blast Talos just in case I have to.
Grover played a quick melody on his pipes. Over at the highway, the downed power lines began to dance. I understood what Grover was going to do a split second before it happened. One of the poles with power lines still attached flew toward Talos's back leg and wrapped around his calf The lines sparked and sent a jolt of electricity up the giant's backside.
Talos whirled around, creaking and sparking. Grover had bought them a few seconds. "Come on!" Percy told Bianca. But she stayed frozen. From her pocket, she brought out a small metal figurine, a statue of a god. "It… it was for Nico. It was the only statue he didn't have."
"How can you think of Mythomagic at a time like this?" Percy said.
There were tears in her eyes.
"Throw it down," He told her. "Maybe the giant will leave us alone."
She dropped it reluctantly, but nothing happened.
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, and then I couldn't see him anymore. That can;t be good...He can't be the one that will die here...Right? I mean it started after Bianca first because she was the one who took something form here.
"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 that it was about as ticked off as a twenty-story-tall metal warrior could be.
He raised his foot to stomp and I saw that his sole was treaded 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 couldn't read...I really need to work on learning how to read English.
"Crazy-idea time," Percy said.
Bianca looked at Percy nervously. "Anything."
He told her about the thing on the monsters foot. "There may be a way to control the thing. Switches or something. I'm going to get inside."
"How? You'll have to stand under its foot! You'll be crushed" She said.
"Distract it," Percy said. "I'll just have to time it right."
Bianca's jaw tightened. "No. I'll go."
I know this is going to freak everyone out, but I can't let her go in there, she'll die, and she knows it, there is no way for her to get out if she goes in.
I released my power and said, "You can't go in there. It's a one way trip."
Bianca trip over a metal box, "W-Wyatt!?" She exclaimed, I nodded, "Sorry for startling you, but I can't let you go in there." I told her.
"B-But-But its my fault the monster came after us," she said. "It's my responsibility. Here." She picked up the little god statue and pressed it into my hand. "If anything happens, give that to Nico. Tell him… tell him I'm sorry."
I shook my head, "No..." I gave it back to her. "I'm here now, no one has to die, think about the prophecy, this land...Does it rain here?" I told her softly. I smiled, "Plus, if I let my sister do something I could have done and she died, I could never live with myself."
Bianca looked confused, "Sis...Sister? What are you-
I turned and charged the monster, Thalia saw me and followed me. "I knew that was you back at Washington!" She sounded like she was glad I was here.
"Yeah...But I wasn't here for most of the time though, I had some business to take care of. Anyway, let's take this thing down." I told her.
She nodded in agreement, and charged with me.
I'm more or less happy with this chapter, I might get two more chapters up tomorrow.
Thanks for reading!
Rilurz~