chapter eight
beware of junk mountain

WHEN LENNON FIRST SLID INTO THE LIMO SEAT, her first thought was gods this limo is big. She was dealing with gods and magic so maybe they could make small things look big on the inside. Like the Tardis.

   "It's big in here," Oh. oh. She'd said that out loud.

   "Big? Hm, I suppose it is," Lennon finally looked to the woman sitting across from her. She was gorgeous. Like super gorgeous.

   She wore a pale red satin dress and she had dark hair that rolled past her shoulders in waves. She had tan skin and piercing sea green eyes. Oddly, she looked kind of familiar.

   "You're really pretty," she spoke aloud again.

    The goddess gave her dazzling smile and chuckled. "Aw that's so sweet of you, thank you. Now, do you know who I am?"

    "Um..." She thought about it. "You're Aphrodite?"

    "Correct," she smiled. "Do you know why you're here?"

    "You wanted to speak to me?"

    "Yes darling, but do you know why?"

    Lennon shook her head. The familiar beauty of the woman was off-putting enough.

    "Maybe this'll help," the color of her dress rippled, and instead of red, it was a sea green that matched her eyes.

    "Uh, your dress matches your eye color? It's a really nice color,"

    She hummed. "Denial, really? Fine, I'll let it slide. I guess you did spend the last few years avoiding him. I do love a good dramatic romance,"

    "Wha— Dramatic romance? What do you mean?" Lennon was really starting to get confused.

    "Never mind that darling. Here," she conjured up a mirror that floated in front of Lennon. "How does that look?"

    Lennon's hair had been pulled back into a braid, yellow flowers were woven into it. She touched her to see if it was real, it was. See, magic. Lennon loved magic. "It's really pretty. Wow, I wish I could braid like this,"

   "Oh, tsk tsk, don't worry, all it takes is practice. I've taught many of my daughters to braid, it's easy really. You should ask them to do that,"

    "Um, okay. I will,"

    Aphrodite nodded and the mirror disappeared. "So, have you put together why I look so familiar?"

    "Familiar? Well, you do have the same color eyes as Percy,"

    "Ah! There it is. So you understand why you're here?"

    Lennon shook her head. "I don't get why that would be connected,"

    Aphrodite sighed. "Hints don't work huh? You see, no one knows exactly what I look like except for me. I look different to everyone based on what they're attracted to. So do you get it now?"

    "You're saying... that I find Percy attractive?" Aphrodite nodded her head encouragingly. "Well, yeah he's cute but that doesn't mean I like him or anything. We're just now becoming friends,"

    The goddess sighed wistfully. "I suppose I shouldn't interfere too much, I do love a good slow burn!" She grinned excitedly.

    "Slow burn— Wait, what would that have to do with—"

    "Percy Jackson can come in now," she snapped her fingers.

    The limo door opened and Ares pushed Percy in. He blinked at Aphrodite in a daze, his eyes wide.

    "Um, uh gah," He glanced over at Lennon and blinked. "Uh, your hair... it's different,"

    Aphrodite smiled. "Aren't you sweet?" She looked at Lennon. "Oh, Lennon darling, you can leave. I'm sure I'll see you again,"

    "Um, okay,"

    "And try to talk to Xia again. Hopefully, you two will put things together and find her,"

    Percy was still in a daze but it seemed he had enough of his mind to blink and say, "Find who?"

   "C'mon kid," With that, Ares grabbed Lennon's shoulder and pulled her out of the car.

    By the time Percy came out of the limo, Lennon's confusion had faded. Actually, that wasn't true. She was still confused about what she meant when she talked about Xia, she didn't even know how Aphrodite knew about her. And really, she was even more confused when she saw the blush on Percy's face.

    "So, what did she want with you two?" Bianca asked Percy. Lennon had already told them about her conversation with Aphrodite, well not everything. They didn't need to know all the details of her cryptic words.

    "Oh, uh, not sure," Percy said, avoiding Lennon's eyes. "She said to be careful in her husband's junkyard. She said not to pick anything up."

   Zoë narrowed her eyes, looking at both of them. "The goddess of love would not make a special trip to tell thee that. Be careful. Aphrodite has led many heroes astray."

   "For once I agree with Zoë," Thalia said. "You can't trust Aphrodite."

   "I don't know," Lennon shrugged. "It seemed like she was trying to help me. Y'know give hints, as cryptic as they were,"

   Zoë furrowed her brows in thought and Grover was looking at Percy oddly.

   "So," Percy said. "How do we get out of here?" When Ares left, he had somehow dropped them straight in the junkyard.

   "That way," Zoë said. "That is west."

    "How can you tell?" Percy asked to which she rolled her eyes.

    "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," He said. "The bear thing."

   Zoë looked offended. "Show some respect. It was a fine bear. A worthy opponent."

   "You act like it was real."

   "Guys," Grover chimed in. "Look!"

    They'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 things, like cars that gleamed gold and silver, refrigerators, washing machines, and computer monitors.

    "Whoa," Bianca said. "That stuff... some of it looks like real gold."

    Lennon's blood had run cold, something didn't feel right. Not to mention it looked too much like the sandy wasteland from her dreams.

    "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 sliced in half.

    "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!"

    "Yeah we don't know what any of this does," Lennon looked out at the junkyard cautiously.

    "Look!" Bianca said. She raced down the hill, tripping over bronze coils and golden plates. She picked up a bow that glowed silver in the 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!"

    Zoë's face was grim. "Leave it, Bianca."

    "But—"

    "It is here for a reason. Anything thrown away in this junkyard must stay in this yard. It is defective. Or cursed."

    Bianca reluctantly set the hair clip down.

    "I don't like this place," Thalia said. She gripped the shaft of her spear.

   Lennon shook her head. "I don't either,"

   "You think we're going to get attacked by killer refrigerators?" Percy asked.

   Lennon shrugged. "We might, who knows?"

    His face twisted in confusion. "Why would someone make killer refrigerators?"

    Thalia gave him a hard look. "Zoë 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 Zoë," He muttered.

   Lennon shrugged and murmured to him, "At least they're getting along,"

   They picked their way through the hills and valleys of junk but it seemed to go on forever. Every hill looked the same and it was hard to tell if they were even making progress. It was hard to ignore all the cool-looking gadgets and contraptions as they trekked through the junkyard.

    Percy had found the coolest electric guitar, shaped like her father's lyre. Seeing it made her miss her guitar at camp. Then that thought made her miss camp itself; she missed her brothers and their arguments over music.

    Finally, they could see the edge of the junkyard about a mile ahead. The only problem was that there was something between them and the edge.

   "What is that?" Bianca gasped.

   Ahead was a hill 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."

    While Zoё and Thalia exchanged nervous looks, Lennon looked out at the giant mass cautiously. The scene in front of her was becoming to look too much like her dream. "This is not good," she murmured to herself.

   "Yeah, let's go around," Thalia said. "Far around."

   "But the road is right over there," Percy protested. "Quicker to climb over."

   "We don't what it is though," Lennon said.

    There was pinging noise and Lennon's hand flew to her wrist, where her hair tie was. Thalia and Zoё must've had the same idea because they lifted their weapons, ready to fight. But, it had only been Grover, who had thrown a scrap of metal at the toes, making a deep echo.

   "Why did you do that?" Zoё demanded.

    Grover cringed. "I don't know. I, uh, don't like fake feet?"

   "Come on." Thalia looked at Percy. "Around."

   After several minutes of walking, they finally stepped onto the highway, an abandoned but well-lit stretch of black asphalt. Lennon let out a breath of relief, they'd made it out alive.

   "We made it out," Zoё said. "Thank the gods."

   Then there was a loud sound, like dozens of trash compactors crushing metal. The scrap mountain was standing up, but it wasn't a scrap mountain. It was a giant bronze giant in Greek armor. It looked down at them with a deformed face, its joints creaked with rust. And on its chest, written in thick dust, were the words WASH ME.

   "Talos!" Zoё gasped.

   "I couldn't be," Lennon muttered mostly to herself. She remembered this story.

    "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 giant moved one hand to his sword belt and drew his weapon. It was a terrible sound and the blade was probably a hundred feet long.

    "I don't think he likes being called defective," Lennon spoke with a shaky voice.

   "Someone took something," Zoё said. "Who took something?" She stared accusingly at Percy.

    He shook his head. "I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a thief."

    Instinctively Lennon checked her pockets, even though she knew for sure that she hadn't even touched anything.

   "Run!" Grover yelped.

    They quickly split up. 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. Zoё's arrows whistled toward the creature's face but shattered harmlessly against the metal. Grover brayed and went climbing up a mountain of metal.

    Lennon threw her hands up and momentarily blinded the giant. Then she saw him coming closer to her and she dashed out of his way. She crouched behind what looked like a broken go-kart as the giant's foot came down right where she was. She tried to send another beam of light at him but instead light shimmered in her hands.

    The light fizzled away and left a glowing arrow in its place. A surprised gasp left her mouth as the gears in her head started to turn. She took off her hair tie and snapped it. It elongated into a bow and she raised the weapon, notching the arrow. She let the arrow fly just as the giant crushed a broken chariot under his foot. It hit the giant's face with a hollow thud, then it glowed and disappeared. She watched as the area of impact bubbled and melted.

    She tried to summon another arrow but nothing happened. Lennon cursed in ancient greek as she failed to create an arrow. She heard a creaking noise and scrambled away as the giant brought his foot down on the go-kart. She ran up the hill where she found herself with Percy and Bianca.

    "Hey, Talos!" Grover yelled, but the monster raised his sword, looking down at the three of them. Grover played a quick melody on his pipes. Over at the highway, the downed power lines began to dance. 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 looked to Bianca. But she stayed frozen.

    "What's wrong?" Lennon asked worriedly.

    She brought out a small metal figurine from her pocket, a statue of a god. "It... it was for Nico. It was the only statue he didn't have." Bianca had been the person to take something.

    "How can you think of Mythomagic at a time like this?" Percy said.

    Lennon glared at him for his harsh tone. There were tears in Bianca's eyes. "You shouldn't have taken it but you can't change that now," Lennon said.

   Percy nodded. "Throw it down, 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 they couldn't see him anymore.

    "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.

    Though the giant had an emotionless face, Lennon could tell it was pissed off. He raised his foot to stomp

    "Crazy-idea time," Percy said.

    Bianca looked at him nervously. "Anything."

    He told them about the maintenance hatch he'd seen under the giant's foot. "There may be a way to control the thing. Switches or something. I'm going to get inside."

    "There's only one problem with that," Lennon said.

    "You'll have to stand under its foot! You'll be crushed,"

   "Distract it," Percy said. "I'll just have to time it right."

    Lennon looked at him incredulously. "You do realize you're talking about getting crushed, right? It's too risky," She was suddenly reminded of her dream, a hunk of metal falling into the sand.

    "I have to! How else can we stop it?"

    She opened her mouth to respond but Bianca spoke instead. "I'll go,"

   "You can't," She said immediately. The gears in her head turned.

   "You're new at this! You'll die." Percy protested.

    "It's my fault the monster came after us," she said. "It's my responsibility. Here," Bianca picked up the little god statue and pressed it into Percy's hand. "If anything happens, give that to Nico. Tell him... tell him I'm sorry."

    "Bianca, no!"

    "Stop!"

    She didn't listen to them, she charged at the giant's left foot. Thalia had its attention for the moment, she'd found a technique for fighting the giant.

   Bianca got right next to the giant's foot, trying to balance herself on the metal scraps that swayed and shifted with his weight.

   Zoё yelled, "What are you doing?"

   "Get it to raise its foot!" Bianca said.

   Zoё shot an arrow toward the monster's face and it flew straight into one nostril. The giant straightened and shook its head.

   "Hey, Junk Boy!" Percy yelled.

    "Down here!" Lennon yelled next to him. They ran to the giant's big toe, each cutting a gash on opposite sides of the bronze.

    She quickly ran out of the way but Percy had been slower. Its foot came down way too close to him and he was thrown into the air. The monster was about to finish him off, but Grover somehow dug himself out of the junk pile and played his pipes frantically. His music sent another power line pole whacking against Talos's thigh. The monster turned. Grover should've run, but he must've been too exhausted from the effort of so much magic. He took two steps, fell, and didn't get back up.

    "Grover!" Thalia, Percy, and Lennon ran toward him, but they'd be too late.

    The monster raised his sword to smash Grover. Then he froze.

   Talos cocked his head to one side like he was hearing strange new music. He started moving his arms and legs in weird ways, doing the Funky Chicken. Then he made a fist and punched himself in the face.

   "Go, Bianca!" Percy yelled.

    Lennon grinned up at the giant proudly, but she still had an apprehensive feeling in her gut. They weren't done yet and she couldn't help but feel like something horrible was going to happen.

   Zoё looked horrified. "She is inside?"

   The monster staggered around. Thalia and Percy grabbed Grover and ran with him toward the highway.

    Zoё was already ahead of them. "How will Bianca get out?"

    The giant hit itself in the head again and dropped his sword. A shudder ran through his whole body and he staggered toward the power lines.

   "Look out!" Lennon yelled, but it was too late.

    The giant's ankle snared the lines, and blue flickers of electricity shot up his body. It felt terrible having no idea what was going on inside of there. The giant careened back into the junkyard, and his right hand fell off, landing in the scrap metal with a horrible clang. His left arm came loose, too. He was falling apart at the joints. Talos began to run.

   "Wait!" Zoё yelled.

   They ran after him, but there was no way we could keep up. Pieces of the robot kept falling off, getting in our way. The giant crumbled from the top down: his head, his chest, and finally, his legs collapsed. When they reached the wreckage they searched frantically, yelling Bianca's name. They crawled around in the vast hollow pieces and the legs and the head. They searched until the sun started to rise, but there was no luck.

   Finally, Zoё sat down and wept. Thalia yelled in rage and impaled her sword in the giant's smashed face. Lennon couldn't help but stare down at the wreckage in silence, tears falling from her eyes. She'd foreseen and she couldn't do anything to stop it.

   "We can keep searching," Percy said. "It's light now. We'll find her."

   "No we won't," Lennon wiped her eyes and turned away from the wreckage. "It's done,"

   "What are you talking about?" He demanded.

   Grover looked up at him with big watery eyes. "The prophecy. One shall be lost in the land without rain,"

   "I should've been able to stop it," Lennon muttered. All will fail without the sight.

   They fell into silence. Part of the prophecy had been fulfilled and they had lost one of their own.

    They'd found an old tow truck at the edge of the dump. Thalia was driving and Zoё at in the passenger seat, leaving Grover, Percy, and Lennon in the pickup bed.

   The two boys were talking to each but Lennon tuned them out. She was trying to fall asleep so maybe she could have another dream, hopefully, she could foresee what happens next. She couldn't save Bianca but maybe she could prevent something else from happening.

   "Lennon?" She opened her eyes to see Percy looking at her. "...Are you okay?"

   She took a breath and then nodded her head. "Yeah, I'm okay,"

   He nodded in understanding. He momentarily glanced at Grover, who had his knees pulled to his chest, resting his head atop them. Then he looked back to her, "What did you mean... when you said you should've been able to stop it?"

   Lennon sighed. "I foresaw it. I had a dream of Talos falling in the sand before we went on the quest. I saw it and I couldn't figure out a way to save Bianca,"

   "There's no way you could've known exactly what to do," Percy said, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

  She nodded sadly. "I know but it feels like I should've been able to do something. You'd think this stupid curse would be able to change things,"

   "Curse?"

    Despite everything, she chuckled bitterly. "Curse of partial prophecy. I can see bits and pieces of things but that's it,"

   He nodded. "How is it a curse?"

   "Apparently, every Apollo kid that had partial prophecy, lived a life of tragedy,"

    He frowned, "Oh,"

   "Yup,"

    "We'll figure it out,"

    She furrowed her eyebrows, "We?"

    Percy nodded. "Me and you. And Annabeth, when we get her back. She can help research. We'll find something and figure it out,"

   She smiled at him. She didn't think there was a way to stop the tragedy but the idea that Percy wanted to help figure out a way was enough.

   Eventually, the trunk ran out of gas and they were at the edge of a river canyon. Lennon scanned the horizon but there wasn't much to see.

   "There's a path," Grover said. "We could get to the river."

   She looked to where he was talking about and noticed a tiny ledge winding down. "That?" she asked incredulously.

   "That's a goat path," Percy said.

    "So?" he asked.

    "The rest of us aren't goats."

    "We can make it," Grover said. "I think."

    Lennon shook her head, "I don't know..."

   "I, uh, think we should go farther upstream," Percy said.

   "But—"

   "Come on, a walk won't hurt us."

   "Hoover Dam," Thalia said. "It's huge."

   They'd found canoes to take them upstream but they couldn't go any farther with the dam in the way. They stood at the river's edge, looking up at the curve of concrete that loomed between the cliffs. People were walking along the top of the dam. Their canoes floated back downstream, swirling in the wake of the dam's discharge vents.

   "Seven hundred feet tall," Percy said.

   Lennon looked up at the structure. "Built in the 1930s,"

   "Five million cubic acres of water," Thalia said.

   Grover sighed. "Largest construction project in the United States."

    Zoe stared at them. "How do you know all that?"

    "Annabeth," Percy said. "She liked architecture."

   Lennon nodded sadly. "She had lots of books on it,"

   "She was nuts about monuments," Thalia added.

   "Spouted facts all the time." Grover sniffled. "So annoying."

   "I wish she were here," Percy said. Lennon and the rest of them nodded. "We should go up there, for her sake. Just to say we've been."

   "You are mad," Zoё decided. "But that's where the road is." She pointed to a huge parking garage next to the top of the dam. "And so, sightseeing it is."

    They'd walked for an hour until they found a path leading up the road. It was crazy seeing the smooth concrete of the dam drop down into the river seven hundred feet below. Thalia walked in the middle of the road and Grover kept sniffing the air nervously.

    "How close are they?" Percy asked him.

    Grover shook his head. "Maybe not close. The wind on the dam, the desert all around us... the scent can probably carry for miles. But it's coming from several directions. I don't like that,"

    Lennon hummed in agreement as she surveyed the land around them, "Me neither,"

    "There's a snack bar in the visitor center," Thalia said.

    "You've been here before?" Lennon asked.

    "Once. To see the guardians." She pointed to the far end of the dam where a little plaza with two giant bronze statues was carved into the side of the cliff. They were large humanoid statues with wings. "They were dedicated to Zeus when the dam was built," Thalia said. "A gift from Athena."

    Tourists were clustered around what seemed to be the feet of the statue.

    "What are they doing?" Percy asked.

    "Rubbing the toes," Thalia responded. "They think it's good luck."

    "Why?"

    She shook her head. "Mortals get crazy ideas. They don't know the statues are sacred to Zeus, but they know there's something special about them."

    "When you were here last, did they talk to you or anything?"

    Lennon noticed Thalia's expression darken. She must have come there before in hope of something.

    "No. They don't do anything. They're just big metal statues,"

    "Let us find the dam snack bar," Zoë said. "We should eat while we can."

    Grover cracked a smile. "The dam snack bar?" Lennon covered her mouth to suppress a laugh.

     Zoë blinked. "Yes. What is funny?"

    "Nothing," Grover said, trying to keep a straight face. "I could use some dam french fries."

    Even Thalia smiled at that. "And I need to use the dam restroom."

    Then Percy started cracking up, and they all joined in, while Zoe just looked at them crazily. "I do not understand."

    "I want to use the dam water fountain," Grover said.

    "And..." Thalia tried to catch her breath. "I want to buy a dam T-shirt."

    "That... was a good one," Lennon laughed once more. She could barely believe that despite everything that happened, she was laughing as if she didn't have a care in the world. She was laughing so hard that her stomach hurt.

    Grover stopped laughing, "Did I just hear a cow?"

    "A dam cow?" Thalia laughed.

    "No," Grover said. "I'm serious."

    Zoë listened. "I hear nothing."

   "Are you sure you heard a cow?" Lennon looked at Grover.

    Thalia looked at Percy. "Percy, are you okay?"

    "Yeah," he answered. "You guys go ahead. I'll be right in."

    "What's wrong?" Grover asked.

    "Nothing. I... I just need a minute. To think."

    They hesitated, but eventually, they slowly turned away. Lennon still didn't like the idea of leaving by himself.

   She glanced at the others, "I'll stay back," she shrugged. "Buddy system," The others nodded and Lennon walked to where they were before. Percy had moved to the north edge of the dam.

   She stood next to him, "Are you okay?"

   He glanced over at her, "Yeah, I'm—"

   "Moo!"

   "What was that?" She looked around confused. Now she really had heard a cow.

    "Her," Percy pointed down at the lake where a cow serpent swam in the water. "Bessie, I saw her in Long Island,"

   "You named her Bessie?"

   He shrugged and looked down at Bessie. "What are you doing here?"

   "Moo!" It seemed kind of urgent.

   "How did you get here?" He asked her.

   "Can you understand her?"

   "Kinda,"

   Bessie swam in a circle and butted her head against the side of the dam. "Moo!"

   "I can't," He said to the cow. "My friends are inside."

   "Mooo!" The cow did a flip and disappeared into the water. Lennon couldn't speak cow but she could tell it was important.

   "Ok, I'm confused..." Lennon trailed off as she got an uneasy feeling. The two of them turned around to see two men walking toward them. They wore gray camouflage outfits that flickered over skeletal bodies. The skeleton soldiers had caught up to them.

AUTHORS NOTE:
hi!! i'm back
rip bianca, you were a real one
anywho, any thoughts? questions? theories? i wanna know what ur thinking!