All rights to Rick Riordan

Chapter 71

Scrapheap Challenge

(Thalia)

'Thalia! My tent! now!' A voice shouted angrily causing the group of me, Tania and Morganna to freeze in our hiding place.

Normally such an outburst would be a sign of a job well done on our part. The only problem was it was female which meant one of two things Percy had complained or the prank had gone very wrong.

'Your on your own with that one.' Tania whispered before both my fellow hunters scrabbled off out of the bush we were hiding behind. Leaving me to stand up and see what the problem was. Even a quick glance was enough to confirm my worst suspicions however that was more than enough time for the two silver orbs to lock onto me.

'Tent now.' Artemis silently mouthed before turning and stomping off towards her tent.

As I reluctantly followed her I couldn't help but be reminded of what the problem was. Where her auburn hair was usually tied up in a ponytail, it was now a horrible neon green color.

As we passed through the camp itself I caught sight of the other hunters who were not aware of the prank who looked from the goddess to me before cringing. Though Reyna seemed to have a told you so face, for the last few days she had been warning me that it was going to backfire at some point.

However I was forced to turn my attention to the goddess as she reached her tent and held the door open.

'In.' She commanded angrily causing me to cringe as I walked past her inside before she shut the door and summoned a single chair before sitting on it facing me scowling while I was forced to remain standing. The thing was the way her hair was now she looked like some Japanese anime character causing me to smile slightly which turned out to not be a good thing.

'I am so glad you find this hilarious Thalia but you seem to be the only laughing.' She growled causing me to immediate remove all traces of emotion from my face.

'Now explain why in hades there was a bucket of whatever the hell this is rigged in a tree near Percy's tent.' She demanded grabbing a lock of hair and holding it in front of her face before sneering at it and flicking it back over her ear.

'It was supposed to fall on Percy when he got back.' I muttered shuffling my foot on the floor nervously.

'And why would you do that?'

'Because it would be funny…' I admitted.

'Well I repeat the statement no one is laughing now, are they?'

'No Milady.'

'Since our little chat you are beginning to take more and more liberties with your actions. Especially in regards to Percy. Yes I may allow you to do the occasional little stunt here and there but you are starting to push your luck. What you must remember is that he is here out of his own free will, he is not forced to put up with your antics. If he wanted he could leave today and never come back but he is so painfully forgiving that he takes it on the chin and waits for the next problem you and the others can throw at him.' She ranted at me causing me to feel a little guilty.

'But…' I began only to be cut off as the goddess carried on.

'Take the last twenty four hours for example in that time you have broken his ankle by digging that hole twice as deep as I said you could. Electrocuted him though admittedly with my permission and then attempted to do this as well without permission. At this rate if you continue he will be gone by the Solstice not through his own choice but because I will ask him to. As much as I was initially against this relationship I do like him, not to mention the fact he is the father to my child. As such I do want to protect him from problems, which at present, his largest one is you. You see as much as he tries to hide it I can tell this constant abuse is wearing him down from the fact he rarely smiles around here anymore to the fact he is reluctant to come back every morning. If anything the only reason he is still here at all is out of a sense of obligation to me and some could see that as becoming unhealthy on his part. Were it not for the fact he hates getting hurt people could think he was masochist.'

'I guess I am sorry.' I said reluctantly apologizing.

'But you are not are you? You had this chat before back at Camp Half-Blood where you took advantage of his easy going ways and caused him to hurt you in kind. Yet you have learned nothing since were it not for the fact you had already resigned as lieutenant I would already be considering from demoting you.' She warned causing me to freeze as I considered her words before I noticed the Circlet resting on top of a table behind the goddess.

'You were supposed to be working on getting to know your fellow hunters better and instead you seem to be turning them all against Percy as well. Sure some like Tania have not exactly ever liked him but from what I have seen Morganna had no issue with him but now you are using her magic to pull off most of these stunts. I am supposed to be getting them to be friendly with him before I tell them the truth and at this rate that isn't going to happen because I will send him away and you all can deal with someone else and there are plenty of worse candidates I can enlist in his place. I can always catch up with him at night as annoying as it would be for the both of us. Do you understand the issue here?' She asked glaring at me sadly.

'Yes Milady.' I told her emotionlessly.

'Good because you are hereby on probation. Any more problems and I will be forced to remove you from the hunt. As much as I wouldn't want to choose I would place him over you. Now go and I want you to apologize to him when he gets back.' She commanded leaving me in stunned silence as my body subconsciously moved outside on its own.

'How did it go?' A voice whispered from my left causing me to turn towards my two partners in crime from the last prank.

'I'm on probation.' I said simply leaving the pair in slack-jawed as I walked towards my tent and collapsed on my bed.

The thing was I couldn't even blame someone else really. She was right I had been warned before and yet I had started doing it again. Besides knowing what I know now how could I have expected for her to choose me over him? I should have been happy for them not causing them even more problems.

The funny thing was when we had spoken before I had told her I wouldn't let her hurt him.

Dear gods I am such a hypocrite.

(Percy)

As I stepped out of the shadows of the outside of my tent, I noticed something odd a few meters away and empty metal bucket and I decided to investigate as it seemed out of place after all it was not there last time I looked.

However as I approached it I noticed something else out of place the ground around it was a different shade of green to the surrounding grass patched with the exception of a approximately human sized gap in the middle. Now it didn't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together and work out what had happened here. With a degree of trepidation I followed my senses towards where the goddess was located which was unsurprisingly her tent before knocking on the door post.

'If it is you Perseus come in.' A voice called from inside before I opened the door and turned to shut it again not yet seeing the goddess.

'What if it wasn't me-Holy shit what the hell happened?' I exclaimed upon seeing the sitting goddess and the radiant mass of green hair she had on her head. Sure I had a good guess what I was gonna find but it still seemed so bizarre to see it for real.

'Thalia's secret little plan backfired that's what and I got hit with what should have happened to you.' She explained with a scowl.

'Well can't you just change your appearance back?'

'No because it is based on one of Hecate's stupid curses, you have to wait until it wears off.'

'How long is that gonna take?'

'Well if Hecate had done it about a decade or so, but even so Morganna is arguably her most powerful daughter at full power which she isn't thankfully. So I guess a few weeks at least.' She explained with a sigh her eyes looking upwards and spotting her fringe hanging down before cringing again.

'Thank gods for that, it would have ruined all the baby photos.' I joked trying to distract her from her predicament.

'At this rate you're not going to be in them either.'

'I was only saying it though you might want to cover your head when we go to the chariot. Would not want the mortals thinking they had seen sign of Aliens on it after all.'

'Get it out of your system all ready.'

'I guess you're the Kelp Head now.'

'My dad had a girlfriend with hair that color.'

'Do you think you can be goddess of Recycling now?'

'Actually I can't think of any more off the top of my head, can I carry this on at a later date.'

'Too late times up or I will make sure Hecate herself dyes your hair a delightful shade of pink.'

'Damn I just remembered a Green goddess joke. Which I am not going to say.' I added as her eyes focused warningly.

'So what did you do to Thalia?'

'I…Put her on probation.' She muttered.

'Because she dyed your hair! Isn't that a little extreme?'

'Not just because of that but because of the way she has been treating you, idiot. Whether she likes it or not you are here to stay and I will not have her or any of the others have you live in constant misery. You are just too stubborn to admit that it annoys you most of the time. Sure it can be funny on occasion to see you make an ass of yourself but after a while you are not the only one suffering. Besides she was becoming a bad influence on the others.' She explained leaving me shocked.

'It is not that bad...'

'Yes Percy it is, see you are doing it again downplaying it as not a problem. If it was anyone else in your place take example Heracles or Valdez or any of my brothers for that matter I wouldn't care but you are not them. You are nothing like them. You are actually nice to be around and I enjoy having you here. I want them to see that side of you too not the twisted friendship you seem to have with Thalia most of the time where she abuses it constantly.'

'Besides, who knows? In a few months I may no longer even still have the hunt. But at least I will still have you…right?' She asked sadly looking downwards at the floor, so I got down on my knee in front of her and lifted her face up by the chin so we were face to face.

'Always.' I whispered to her before closing the gap between us.

However as we proceeded to make out more and more intensely I would occasionally catch sight of the abominable sight above her eyeline. Which I noticed also had green eyebrow that a dangerous thought crossed my mind. So when we were forced apart by a shared requirement of needing to breathe I decided to voice my query.

You see we were both now situated on the floor me on my back with the goddess straddling me. Slowly I began to run a finger down her body starting at her lips down her chin, her neck, past her breasts and down her stomach causing the goddess to shudder despite the fact we were both fully clothed still.

'So Artemis do the curtains match the drapes now or what?' I joked playfully watching as the look of delight on her face changed to one of confusion to understanding before finally stopping on around the nuclear holocaust setting.

Yet as I lay there and watched the hand rapidly approaching my face all I did was smile. Perhaps I was a bit of a masochist after all. Because as far as I could see the joke had been worth it just to see the range of expression she could go through. Sure she may have forbidden us from going too far until the kids were born. So if I couldn't play with her body I could sure as hades play with her emotions at least.

The next few days were spent surprisingly peaceful as with Diana's suggestion I spent the majority of the morning and early afternoon with the hunters bonding with them under the pretext of training before I would spent the rest of the day with the goddess as she explained the finer points of what immortality entailed.

You see we had swiftly learnt that the Roman goddess was unaffected by her counterparts ill fortune in regards to her appearance and so the pair had semi-permanently swapped with Diana being the dominant personality. I would say under the pretext of making everyone happy but it was more a case where she refused to leave her tent for fear someone (Apollo) would see her.

If anything it was like being back in the early days of when I arrived at the hunt before this whole relationship thing complicated it all. Well with two added benefits I no longer had to do Archery practice and I gained a Personal Assistant. Thalia.

As part of her punishment Thalia had to do any request I asked her to do for a week. Which so far had included filling the hole outside my tent… by hand, Combing Nemea's fur…While she was in Adult form and being the permanent volunteer to any and all sword practice demonstrations. Only the last of which was actually my idea because apart from Reyna she was the best with a blade and it would be good to demonstrate on someone who knew their way around the weapon. The rest were all Diana/Artemis's ideas because I was being too soft. Of course the actual punishment I negotiated down for example she was supposed to originally bath Nemea as well but I had to question the hunter's safety in doing that. After all, the last thing to forcibly expose Nemea to water had its head ripped off by the Lioness.

Though of course I couldn't stop her fellow hunters helping her to do her punishments, out of what I sensed was guilty camaraderie.

So while I was watching the hunters take turns practicing the simple disarming technique, I had learnt from Luke years ago with wooden swords for the most part, except those that had the real deal. (Thalia, Reyna, Phoebe, Tania). I had gently been rubbing my jaw which still occasionally caused me pain from when Artemis's megaton slap had dislocated it. I was surprised to suddenly see the ugly face of Hephaestus appear in front of me, to make matters worse the smith had his face far too close to the message on his side making it far worse.

'Aye lad there you are, about time I got through to one of you, been trying to contact Artemis for days.' He said gruffly.

'Oh yeah she has not been taking calls directly, you should have contacted Diana.' I explained.

'That's not my problem maybe she should set up a forwarding address with Iris then. Tell her, her new bow is ready already and I need you to come so I can put the finishing touches on the blade.' He explained before a massive sound of creaking could be heard on his end before it sounded like the whole workshop was being ransacked which judging by the sudden look of panic on the smiths face may have been closer to the truth than it seemed.

'Thanks I will tell her, sounds like you have your own problems. See you soon.'

'Valdez what did I tell you about tinkering with Talos's CPU.' He shouted across to his son who must have been 'off screen' before a large bronze hand sailed over the gods head and cut off the call.

'Gonna give it a while before we go there just in case.' I remarked to myself as I turned my attention back to my 'Students.'

(Diana)

'How'd it go?' I asked upon seeing the Titan approaching.

'The usual no one died, some are interested while the rest think it is a waste of time.' He explained with a shrug.

'It is not up to them to decide if it is a waste or not.' I told him as he sat on a nearby fallen tree.

'So what you been up to all morning and please don't tell me sleeping.' He said exasperatedly.

'Maybe a little. I got a call from my mother and I told her the news.' I explained causing him to arch an eyebrow.

'I thought we were going to tell them at Christmas?'

'You know my mother she has ways of extracting secrets out of everyone.' I explained dejectedly.

'Tell me about it… how did she take it?' He asked briefly giving me a flashback of the excited Titaness.

'Like a seven year given a puppy. Lots of bouncing, cute faces you get the rest. Then she explained how I was keeping up the family tradition with twins even if it was not exactly the normal way it works but close enough. I am just glad I wasn't there in person.'

'By the sound of it you and me both, though I think my mother would kill me if I told her essentially over the phone. Speaking of calls Hephaestus contacted me he wants to see me and your bow is ready.'

'Well hurry up then we have places to be.' I said excitedly before practically leaping the distance between us and dragging him to his feet. Before looking at him expectantly.

'Fine I guess it is my turn, Shadow or light.' He asked nervously.

'Light.' I told him firmly causing him to gulp.

'Don't blame me if we end up in China.' He muttered as we were engulfed in light.

'Hey it was close enough. How was I to know you were going to land on the door keeper's lap.' Percy argued as I pushed him out the Elevator and onto Olympus.

'Because I told you to practice flashing about whenever you got the chance. You were supposed to take us to Olympus not near Olympus.'

'Close enough besides the look on his face made it worthwhile, for me anyway.' He said with a chuckle causing me to turn red with embarrassment as I thought back to the brief second I had indeed been located on the doorman's lap before quickly rectifying the problem. By throwing him away from me.

'Gods you can be insufferable, now come on already.' I complained before grabbing his coat sleeve and yanking him after me. For the first time in a while there was a sign of my conditions improving and I was delaying it further because he wanted to make more jokes.

(Percy)

'Hephaestus I am pretty I asked for a LONGBOW this is a SHORTBOW.' Diana complained as she examined the weapon that the smith had just handed to her. Sure enough the three foot long silver bow was a lot shorter than either my old bow or even Artemis's which had been a few inches shorter than that.

'Aye you did and if you stopped complaining for two seconds and let me explain I will tell you why.' Hephaestus told her firmly crossing his arms. The goddess it seems got the hint and looked at him expectantly.

'I thought it would be more convenient for you if the bow could actually change form depending on preference and power requirement. That is its smallest and least powerful form, more useful for use in a confined space or against soft targets so to speak. It also has a Longbow form exactly to your specification all you have to do is twist the hand grip ninety degrees clockwise.' He explained causing Diana to inspect the handgrip which I was pretty certain was the same as her old bow before turning it as instructed.

I watched as the limbs indeed became longer until the weapon was now almost five feet in length and sure enough I could almost feel the power the bow was radiating. Evidently Diana was happy with this form as the scowl rapidly disappeared from her face to become a smile as she ran her hand down the carvings on the outside of each limb.

'Is that better for you? Good because now I want you to turn it one hundred and eighty.' Hephaestus proclaimed causing us both to look at him like he was mad.

I watched in surprise as Diana once again complied and the weapon rapidly dwarfed both of our six foot statures by at least another foot causing Diana to need to rest the bottom limb on the floor.

'What in father's name is the point of this, I cannot exactly go hunting with this?' She exclaimed barely able to lift it a few inches before resting it down again.

'Nor do I expect you to be able, well unless you wanted to go hunting dragons. No this form is purely about firepower over mobility. A weapon that would have be sure to give our great-grandmother a headache or two.'

'This is less of a bow and more of portable Ballista.' She replied before moving her left hand to begin to draw the bowstring only for the god to rapidly grab her hand away causing her to look at him with narrowed eyes until he let go.

'You are not testing that in here.' He said gruffly.

'Why not.'

'Because I have no idea of the full power that thing is capable of and I am not having you blow a hole in my forge.'

'Then give me something to test it on.' She demanded.

'Leo what did you do with prototype two fourteen.' Hephaestus shouted to the figure who was currently working in the corner out of sight.

'I sent it to the scrapyard why, the thing is insane. The processors couldn't handle the load.' Leo shouted back.

'Perfect. I have just the thing for you but first of all I need to talk with him to finish the sword.' He told her before looking at me beckoning me to come over to another workbench where a still white hot ingot could be found.

'You wanted this to match your other sword right?'

'Yeah so I could duel wield them both properly. Anaklusmos and Maelstrom are awkward because of the different weights and lengths.' I explained as I took the pen out of my pants pocket before uncapping it and passing it into the smith's hand.

'Aye this is a fine blade, then I never expected anything less from Miss Nightshade. Though at least this time she gave it to a worthy owner.' He said before laying it down alongside the molten metal before both seemed to glow and the metal began to flow slowly into the same approximate shape as the bronze sword beside it. As soon as it had done so Hephaestus stepped away before brushing his hands as if to say his work was done.

'Now what?' I asked in confusion.

'Now you have to pick it up and claim it.' He said simply as if it was obvious but I was seeing a major problem here.

'I may be Lord of Light and can control fire to some extent but even I am not insane enough to just grab hold of a white hot lump of metal. I cant control heat.' I said looking at him as if he was insane.

'That is not heat you fool but raw energy the same that is contained in all of our weapons including those you are currently carrying. It requires but a touch to bond with its wielder. And only the potential wielder can touch it when it is in this state, so unless you want me to have it which I have no problem with, you will want to touch it.' He said shaking his head as if it was obvious.

What was the worst that could happen?

Oh that's right it will melt the skin of my hand. I thought to myself as I slowly lowered a fingertip towards the pommel end of the prospective blade. Slowly I reached a few millimeters from it before quickly tapping it once before jerking my whole arm back and looking at finger and sure enough it seemed to be smoking.

I was suddenly caught off guard when Hephaestus wolf whistled causing me to look back at the workbench.

What I found on it was quite possibly the most beautiful blade I had ever seen. Riptide may have been practical and dependable. Maelstrom was functional and unstoppable but was otherwise not a very impressive sight. The two metals bonded two each savagely.

But this was different from the both of them. Sure it had the same general profile as Riptide in length and blade thickness but the similarities ended there. It was obviously Silver in comparison to Bronze but the hilt in comparison to the simple leather bindings on the older blade was inlayed with mother of pearl and Lapis Lazuli which seemed to catch the light and give the whole blade a blue tint. Which in the flickering firelight of the forge resembled the gentle ripples of a calm wave in fresh water.

'So lad what do you think of it?'

'It's amazing.' I murmured as I slowly reached back and lifted the blade. Sure enough it felt like I was holding the other sword. A natural extension of my own body.

'Good because I don't do refunds, not that I could seeing as I have no more of the metal left.' Hephaestus chuckled before picking up Riptide and tossing it to me forcing me to catch it left handed. As I held the pair they were truly perfectly matched and if I was to close my eyes I would not know which was which well except the new one radiated power.

'Thank you for this.' I told him before capping Riptide and realizing I had no idea how to store the new sword at the moment.

'If you are wondering where you are gonna store it use this.' Hephaestus told me as if reading my mind before reaching behind the same workbench and pulling out a simple silver scabbard before merely dropping it down the tip of the blade and much to my surprise it fit it perfectly.

'That should do you for now, but remember it is only standard silver. It will not affect monsters or annoying muscle bound godlings at all.' He added with a wink and I gathered that he knew about last week's little incident. I simply smiled back as I fastened the sheath to my left hip via my belt.

'Can we go now I want to test this out already!' Diana complained.

'You are worse than a little girl who just got a new pony.' I told her mockingly even if I too wanted to do the same.

In response the goddess's features grew younger and smaller until she was back in her 12 year old form before giving us the puppy dog eyes. She would have looked ridiculously cute were it not for the enormous bow she was struggling to hold up still.

'That's enough of that Little Sister, if you are so desperate meet me at my scrap yard at Gila Claw, Arizona.' He explained with laugh before disappearing into flames. Though I could tell the flames were just an effect to hide that he was flashing away.

'Awww now I just want to pinch your cheek you are so cute.' I remarked mockingly causing the goddess to frown before growing again.

'Just try it and I will not need to find a target.' She warned before pulling the bow string slightly and the partially formed arrow was enough to cause me pale slightly. The shaft looked easily as thick as my fist.

'Come on let's g…' I began only to be distracted as Leo suddenly appeared out of his cover.

'Percy wait take this!' He shouted before practically forcing a long heavy cloth wrapped parcel into my hand.

'What is it bro.' I asked before I noticed a bit of the wrapping had come off at one end revealing a simple bronze pommel. Causing my curiosity to overcome manners and I hurriedly removed the rest revealing a long bronze blade.

'Leo I just got a new sword what do I need another one for? I asked confused by the gift.

'It's a practice blade, I never sharpened it. But other than that I should match your other sword. Maybe this way you can actually use your preferred weapon in the next capture the flag game. You know so you don't have to go around possessing others to win.' He explained before suddenly realizing his mistake as the goddess shot him a look that could have blasted the Argo to pieces.

'Not that the hunters need any help or anything like that.' He added hastily causing the goddess to look away satisfied.

'Good save but thanks bro, it is awkward trying to train with a sword that dangerous. But I need to go before the boss here has enough of our male bonding session.' I said before the goddess suddenly grabbed my hand.

'I don't know whether to idolize you or pity you. Watch out for Talos.' He explained as I was teleported away.

The first thing I did upon arriving was immediately remove my coat. Sure I didn't believe we were going to be here long but there was no way I was spending time in a Arizona desert while wearing the thing November or not.

Looking around I once again found myself in the familiar scrap yard which if anything had apparently grown in size. However it also served to remind me of who we lost here. Of who we both lost here, I lost a friend and Artemis lost a hunter who wanted to save her.

'About time you got here. I see the lad gave you his pet project. Pestered me all week to make the specs were the same.' He said upon noticing the blunt blade I had embedded in the ground while I removed my coat.

'Well where is this target you promised?' Diana called out only for the smith to smile evilly before hooking his thumb over a shoulder at a mountain of scrap.

'You have got to be kidding me.' I muttered as I began to recognize features within it or more accurately began to identify where in the mountain each feature was.

'Prototype two fourteen activate!' He shouted before hurriedly moving out of the way behind us.

'Diana start off using the weaker modes please I want to see how they perform.' He explained on the way past while both of us heard him neither of us turned to look because we were enraptured with the metal Leviathan in front of us.

Compared to the last one I fought this one was like its big bodybuilding brother as it slowly rose from its hands and knees to its feet before straightening out. Besides the Automaton even a giant would have looked small the only being I had ever seen larger than it was Gaia and she was the damned planet. The thing was easily over a hundred feet high and half that broad.

'Hephaestus father told you to stop building Talos's right? Because they all went insane.' Diana asked nervously

'Yeah but I didn't build it the boy did.' He added happily as the construct suddenly drew forth a large corroded axe.

'He gives me a blunt sword and sends me to fight his problem, I am so gonna kill him next time.' I shouted before the automaton caught sight of the pair of us and began to take earth shattering steps forward. Diana meanwhile hurriedly shrunk the bow back down before drawing three arrows at once.

'Keep it busy while I take it out.' She explained before the axe suddenly fell towards us forcing us to separate or be smashed into the ground.

'Keep it busy? Well this is gonna be fun.' I told myself as I leapt into the air. Drawing the my new sword from it sheath before uncapping Riptide while also expanding my shield for good measure. Sure it would limit mobility a little but against an enemy this large I didn't think that would matter. Besides I was pretty sure a single hit otherwise would spell disaster at least this way I stood a chance of resisting it.

(Diana)

For the first time in a long time I was truly happy.

I thought as I nimbly ran up a pile of wreckage to get some high ground and secondly put some distance between me and the metal abomination. Which seemed to be focused on the comparatively tiny flying figure hovering around its face desperately hacking away while trying to avoid being swatted by the large metal fists.

Sure that wasn't to say I wasn't happy being with Percy but this was what I lived for hunting and I had something to prove as I took aim at the Colossus. I wanted to prove that I was more than capable of taking care of myself once again for the last few weeks I had suffered embarrassment after embarrassment and now I was going to take out all that pent up anger on this thing.

The advantage of a short bow is that they are more mobile and can be fired generally quicker than a larger bow at the expense of range and power. Now range was generally irrelevant for me I could compensate by arching the arrows but as for power I had no idea what this thing was capable of.

'No time like the present' I told myself quietly before firing the first silver shaft which hammered into the Colossus's armored shin denting the metal satisfyingly. The shot had only been an experimental one to determine how much I needed to compensate for distance and wind which seemed to be picking up. Regardless now I had rough idea I began to release shaft after shaft at the large figure. Each one leaving a three foot wide dent in its armor. I shuddered to think what that could do to an unarmored figure, I might actually need to start using normal wooden arrows to go hunting.

Regardless I was curious to move on and continue experimenting as I twisted the handgrip and watched the bow grew longer.

Here is where it gets really fun I thought with a grin.

(Percy)

This thing is relentless I thought to myself as I dodged another fist being thrown in my direction.

Unfortunately the damned thing had seemingly realized that holding its axe it had no chance of hitting me, so instead it had settled on using both hands in an attempt to catch me and was seemingly become better with its attempts.

The other problem was that it seemed completely unaffected by the damage it was receiving. Its face was now a slashed up mess from where my swords had bit into the hard metal surface added to the fact its nose was now at least two feet shorter but wider after I had shield bashed it. Yet the problem was its armor was thicker than my blades were long which meant I was unable to hit anything sensitive inside it. Sure I could have tried Maelstrom but I wanted to do this only with my other weapons without becoming reliant on just the one.

Of course I was also aware of Diana's continuous bombardment that was causing further damage to the Giant lower half with as much success as I was having. However I also noticed when she stopped firing causing me to momentarily turn to find out what the problem was. However that was more than enough time for Talos to make another attempt at grabbing me and I watched fearfully as the left hand moved to rapidly engulf me.

Only to explode into Celestial Bronze scraps right in front of me in a flash of silver light.

I had little time to respond as the construct let out a screeching sound of either pain or rage before using its good hand and picking up a large mass of scrap and throwing it at the goddess who was forced to run down the scrap pile she was standing on to avoid being hit by a flying SUV.

'Hey Tin can!' I shouted before once again elbowing it in the face again with my shield causing its nose to flatten further and more importantly focus on me as the primary threat which I was starting to personally doubt myself. I was more personally hoping that was a maximum power shot because otherwise this was going to be ridiculously easy for the goddess.

(Diana)

The grin that was now plastered to my face was one of exhilaration as I surveyed the ruined stump of the machines hand. I had expected for it to simply stop the blow long enough for Percy to move out the way, maybe sever at finger at most. Not to completely ruin the limb.

Of course it had immediately shifted attention to me and had proceeded to try and throw half the scrap yard at me before once again turning back to the flying menace assailing it.

However the amount of damage I was seemingly capable on the armored figure only made me want to take it apart little by little as I steadied my aim by standing on an upturned chariot and taking aim at its right ankle before releasing the shot which created a small sonic boom before shattering against the thicker limb. Never mind that the first shot was not immediately effective I doubted it would have been able to do it anyway, but regardless I fired again at exactly the same spot.

(Percy)

As the third shot hit the Colossus it began to tilt to the side before futilely trying to steady itself on a nearby pile of scrap only for its sheer weight causing it to crush the loose debris. I was still trying to comprehend how with only three shots she had managed to wreck two of its limbs.

Regardless the struggling figure appeared to be stuck in its current position so I turned away and flew back to Diana.

'Well way to go make me feel redundant.' I told her as I landed at her side.

'I don't know you proved an adequate distraction.' She answered with a smile looking up from the bow she was examining causing me to realize it was only on the middle setting.

'If that was on normal setting what in uncles names is it capable of on full power.' I exclaimed in panic which was further accentuated by the evil grin growing on her face.

'Who knows but I want to find out. Fly me up above it please.' She asked giving me the cute eyes.

'Fine but if we both die because of this it is entirely your fault.' I joked as I stepped behind her and put away my weapons before grabbing her around the waist and lifting us both into the air before setting off for the fallen automaton who had managed to sit back up and was trying unsuccessfully to get back to its feet.

'Get me right above its head.' She shouted in the wind causing me to move closer until we were barely twenty feet above it which seemed to set off its proximity alarm as it quickly turned its scarred face up to see us.

'Now would be a good time babes.' I whispered into her ear as I noticed its intact hand start to rise.

I noticed the increase in weight first as the bow grew in mass which further caused me to struggle to hold the goddess as she moved her body to draw the enormous bow from such an awkward position. From my position I could not see most of what was happening because the goddess's body was in the way but even so the sheer size of the projectile caused me to catch a few brief glimpses.

To call it an arrow was an understatement it was almost the size of my spear.

'Hey Talos, this is for Bianca.' She proclaimed before releasing the shaft causing us both to be blown upwards from the recoil so we didn't see the effect it had immediately though we sure as hell heard it. It was like Zeus had thrown one of his bolts right in front of us causing me to flinch as it assailed my ear drums before I hastily tightened my hold on the goddess for fear of dropping her as she shrunk the bow back down.

When she was done we were both able to see what she had accomplished or rather what she had left.

Starting at the Colossus's head and passing through its entire torso before passing into the sand below was a five meter wide hole. With one shot she had essentially turned a formidable engine of destruction into little more than a pile of scrap.

'So I take it you like it then?' I asked sarcastically.

'I think I can find a use for it perhaps.'

'As long as it isn't firing it at me I don't care. Come on I think your brother wants to know what the hell just happened.' I told her before noticing the smith appear in front of the ruined sentry and I lowered us down.

'Diana I said the bow was designed to give Gaia a headache not blow the bitches damned head off.' He exclaimed wide eyed.

'Hey don't blame me you are the one who made it.'

'All I did was combine the power of the two weapons together but that was far more powerful than it should have been, it was as if the power of the bows was squared. The weaker shots I estimate to have rivaled your old bows released mode. Full power I can't even measure though there were twenty seven meters of Bronze battle plate that it went straight threw like they were paper.' He explained and I realized he was still in a state of shock.

'Whatever I am not giving it back. By the way you are not going to tell anyone about this Ok especially not Apollo got it.' She told him firmly causing him to nod in agreement.

'Sure thing though if you have any problems don't hesitate to bring it back. Now I need to go lie down.' He exclaimed with a sigh before disappearing in a swathe of flames.

'Diana I am going to have to say that is pretty overpowered but also pretty damned awesome. Just please don't make me carry you again next time.'

'Are you trying to say I am fat or heavy?' She asked accusingly.

'Hell No. It must be the weight of… your love.' I said panicking.

'Dear Gods you are an idiot sometimes, now come on and grab that lump of metal Valdez gave you so we can go home.' She said with a smile before walking back to where we first arrived at the scrap yard. As we walked I couldn't help but guiltily think he would really need to tidy up after this.

'Oh I know what the call your sword by the way.' She said as we walked.

'Go on.'

'Hurricane, I find it fits you quite well. You're the calm eye in the middle while everything you go near gets engulfed in chaos.' She said laughing.

'Ha Ha very funny though you are right it fits the trend. Though you obviously haven't realized that if he combined our bows together then it shares attributes from both. And you never named yours did you so my bows name would have stuck. Have fun with that.' I said jokingly causing the goddess to freeze as she considered it. Meanwhile I decided that maybe I should get a move on as I began to run.

'Percy I am going to kill you.' The enraged goddess shrieked indignantly before setting of on the hunt.

'Goods times.'

AN. first of all I would like to address those who have complained that Percy is becoming a punching bag so to speak. yes in a lot of ways he is because doesn't like to complain so people carry on doing it ie. Thalia. that was why I had Artemis address the issue while simultaneously becoming a victim of it herself. Don't worry I have no intention of throwing Thalia out I just wanted to teach her some humility.

Second in this Nico is not gay. House of Hades does not exist in this timeline so that abominable chapter does not exist. therefore his love interest is a girl who has been featured in this book.

Third I hope you like the new weapons they both have even if the bow stole all the thunder. I will go into Hurricane in more detail in the future.

Fourth the reveal should be in around two chapters time for all of you impatient enough to keep demanding it.

Anyway the rest you all know by now. so please Read and Review.