Chapter Text
Tuesday, 31st July
Outfit: Same jewellery, but with a pink Hello kitty shirt and jean short shorts, with a cowrie shell choker.
Makeup: Same.
Hairstyle: Braided it and lengthened it to about 50cm long because the short style looked too similar to Amber.
Fragrance: Literally the same as last time.
Dear diary,
Circe obviously got quite a few complaints about a robot showing up and destroying everything. So, after I profusely apologised, Amber had us all flee before she got too mad. We got on the ship and sailed off without issue.
The next two days were fine. Not much happened. The only thing that made me nervous was that we were getting closer and closer to it being a month since we set out on our quest. If we didn’t get the apple before, well, August 13th was Chiron’s estimate, then tensions would explode and everything we had gone through would be for nothing.
But the problem was that we still had absolutely no clue where the apple was. And we discussed it. We discussed it a lot.
“So, what other islands are there in the Sea of Monsters?” Sasha asked one day.
“There’s the sirens, right?” I asked. “And Calypso’s Island?”
“It’s called Ogygia.” Amber corrected. “Calypso left her island, though. So, unless there’s something I don’t know, it should be empty. Although we’re not just going to find it naturally, that’s impossible. I think there’s also the island of Thrinacia, which is inhabited by Helios’ cattle, who are guarded by Helios's daughters, Phaëthusa and Lampetië.”
“Cattle?” Alani asked.
“No, we can’t eat them. We’ll pretty quickly get smote. There’s also Thynias, which is deserted, the Island of Ares, which is also deserted but has a temple to him built by the Amazons, and, uh, I don’t know much about any others.”
We all looked at each other.
“Which of these do you believe to be the location of the apple?” Ting Lan asked her.
“No clue.” She looked down at the table. “The deserted ones seem like a good place to hide it, since no one will go there. Then again, it’s the obvious choice. Maybe the island of the sirens, since people usually try sailing past rather than going there directly. And you have to pretty much completely remove your sense of hearing when you’re there. Or maybe a forge of Hephaestus…”
“Hephaestus? I though he was Aphrodite’s husband?”
“Was.” Amber said, seeming to love correcting me again. “Hephaestus divorced her and married Aglaea.”
Ting Lan nodded. “It is possible that he desired vengeance. Then the enemy used the fact that it had been stolen to start a war.”
“Uh, I just thought whoever stole it hid it there and Hephaestus agreed to keep it.” Amber said. “But, uh, sure, probably that.”
“Hm… so then Hephaestus sent someone to steal it? Maybe he sent an automaton!” Alani said.
“Ugh… more automatons…” I was getting tired of fighting them at this point.
“Don’t worry, we can sneak around. We won’t have to fight anything.” Phoebe said.
“Then we have a plan.” I said. “We look for Hephaestus’ forge, then we look around for the apple!”
…
Knock. Knock.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me!” I smiled, not expecting much of a response, but hearing storming up to the door seemed promising.
I wanted to befriend Ting Lan, since I didn’t really want any actual animosity between the crew. I liked Amber really, even if I seemed to piss her off by existing, and Aaron tolerated me at least, but Ting Lan only really liked Amber. They actually seemed to be pretty good friends. But I felt like her hating me probably wouldn’t be great for the quest.
Besides, I sort of understood everyone else on my crew. Phoebe and Alani both always had this sense of determination about them, and Phoebe had this hint of resentment I couldn’t place, although I could have been imagining things. Sasha was seemingly motivated by wanting to have fun, and always had this sort of jolliness about her, and not as much grief as the other questers, but still some. She was a big ball of all sorts of different emotions, and was honestly a little crazy. Made sense with her dad.
Aaron had this sea of apathy with a spark of sadness, and Amber… well, she was the most motivated out of all of them. Her determination was kind of intimidating whenever I was near her. But I could also feel a bit of guilt from her, although I couldn’t tell why. Maybe because of her past? She was a big bundle of stress, smugness, and resolve. But I just couldn’t figure Ting Lan out. She always seemed so composed, and determined too, but she didn’t just leave her emotions out on a silver platter. They were kind of hard to understand and decipher, even if I could sense them. So, maybe I had to get to know her the old – fashioned way?
And so, there I stood. Outside her door, feeling very bad about ignoring the huge ‘NO MEN’ sign, but figuring that I should try to get to know my quest mate.
She threw the door open. “And what is it that you desire, harlot?”
“Uh… I noticed that your nails are…” I didn’t want to be mean, but damn. The huntresses clearly didn’t care too much because her nails were overgrown, chipped, and had a bunch of dirt and gunk beneath them. “Interesting. And since we’re quest mates, I thought we could do some fun bonding?”
“First the gluttonous boy offering me snacks, and now the harlot? I believed that my sign was enough, but I did not consider that men lack the ability to read. Does ‘No Men’ mean nothing to you?” And she slammed the door in my face. Wow. Okay.
“ATTENTION. LAND NEARBY.”
Ting Lan reluctantly opened her door, and walked out onto the deck, completely breezing past me.
…
Everyone, besides Aaron obviously, met on the deck of the ship.
The sea around us was pretty crazy as usual, with all sorts of monsters. A bundle of weird purple tentacles slithered beneath the surface of the sea. A huge lobster thing got swiped and dragged beneath the waves by a column of blue, scaly flesh. A row of green spines slithered across the waves, a reptilian creature about thirty metres long that Alani looked at like it was a medium rare steak. I even saw Nereids, glowing ladies of the sea, who were so pretty I kind of felt a little jealous. Yet instead of attacking us, the monsters were all fleeing from an island. The one that happened to be our destination.
“So, that’s the forge, then?” I wondered, looking out to the island. The sun was beginning to set, painting the horizon pretty shades of orange, yellow and pink. It was a very pretty backdrop for the island, which was pretty small, but with a tall, ominous volcano in the centre, spewing dark smog. It looked like the perfect evil lair.
The sea bubbled and steamed around the shore, like a pot of water on a stove. The surface was filled with the carcasses of dead fish and aquatic creatures that must’ve been washed into the boiling water by the tides.
“Yup. It’ll definitely have some defences though…” Amber muttered.
Amber got confirmation of her theory when a laser pointer, which I recognised all too well, pointed on Ting Lan’s chest. Amber darted in front of her and pulled out her shield in time to parry the laser beam that followed, sending it flying off into the distance.
“Are there more of those Talos bots?” I asked, pulling out and unfurling my fans.
“Maybe their creator took inspiration from Hephaestus?” Sasha suggested.
Amber squinted at the island, before moving to parry another beam, this time aimed at Alani. This one went nearer to the island, and blew something up.
“Must be the defence system. Maybe a drone or a sentinel or something. We probably triggered it by getting too close.”
“How do we get closer, then?” I asked.
“Hm… it fires a laser where the red laser pointer lands… Phoebe, Ting Lan, stay on deck. Phoebe, you make the laser pointer point elsewhere, which will be easier than redirecting the laser. And Ting Lan can use where the laser pointers are coming from to figure out where the attacker is and shoot at them with her arrows.” Amber ordered, slightly bossily but understandably since she was the one making the plan.
We quickly followed her instructions, hiding below deck as the plan went into action.
“So…” Sasha clicked her tongue. It was kind of awkward just chilling down there.
“So.”
“Talos 2.0 actually make a great frying pan.” Alani nodded.
“Really?” Amber asked, seeming genuinely curious. “Is Celestial bronze actually a good material for frying pans?”
“Uh… dunno, but it worked.”
I frowned down at Sasha’s hair. Did she have a routine? “Are you sure you don’t want me to do this again?” I paused, realising how mean that sounded. “Not that it looks bad- “
“Kay, doesn’t seem like there’s any more robots nearby!” Phoebe called.
We climbed up onto the deck again. We were really close to the island now, but the ship’s hull was seemingly fine with boiling water. We sailed round and found a little place off on the side to dock. Obviously, there was a drone patrolling, but Ting Lan shot it down pretty much immediately.
“So, Phoebe, Ting Lan scout out the island.” Amber ordered.
“Hey, since when were you in charge?” I asked.
“Since you were having a spa day on Circe’s Island. We had to fight another enemy demigod while you guys were gone by the way! He was a son of Boreas, if you even care.”
“Hey, we were fighting some terminator thing, not just having a nap!”
“Whatever. Do you have a problem with my plan?”
“Yes. I’ll go with them.”
Amber frowned. “Really?”
“Yeah. Sure.” It was honestly a heat of the moment thing, but now I couldn’t back down.
“Fine. I’ll go too.” Amber said.
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
“Kay, let’s go then!” Phoebe smiled.
...
Sneaking around the island was like playing a horror game. It was crawling with automatons of all shapes and sizes, not just humanoid ones but ones that looked like spiders (Which made Amber move behind Ting Lan a little), birds, hydras, a minotaur, even a dragon. The only similarities they had were all being made of Celestial bronze, and all had one robotic red eye that put a laser pointer and quickly after fired a laser beam at us.
I wasn’t exactly a stealth guy, so I definitely struggled. Phoebe saw no point in going invisible since they had some kind of heat sense thing. But Ting Lan had a habit of sniping them right in the eye which was pretty helpful.
"Crack in the wall." Amber said suddenly, before taking a sharp right.
We followed her, and sure enough, there was a crack in the wall of the volcano.
"Looks hard to slip through..." Phoebe muttered.
"I can make us all super skinny?" I offered.
"I don't want to be a pancake, which we'd need to be to slip through that gap."
"I wouldn't need to change much." I muttered to Phoebe, earning a giggle and a kick to the shins from either blonde.
"Anyways, we'll need to get in another way..." She muttered. "We'll have to blow the thing wider open…"
"Or..." I placed my hands on the rocks either side of the gap, and focused on growing roses on the inside of the stone.
"Kay, now I need someone to break it." I said through gritted teeth. Making roses inside of rocks wasn't the easiest thing in the world. They would wilt very easily, so I had to focus on it.
"Sure." Amber summoned her shield, then bashed into the wall.
It crumbled pretty much immediately, exposing a vent.
"Ugh, do we have to crawl?" I asked.
"Appears so." Ting Lan frowned, before going in first.
...
So much ash. And grime. And ash. Reminded me of the Hephaestus cabin at camp, and there was a reason I never went there.
The vent seemed to go on for ages. It was grimy and I felt like coughing every five seconds. Safe to say I wasn't having a great time with this specific island.
Eventually, the line in front of me stopped.
"Appears to be quite the spacious room." Ting Lan called back.
"Any automatons?"
"I see none."
"Drop in." Amber said.
Ting Lan obliged, followed by Amber. Phoebe jumped in after, then me.
The room was pretty standard, with tools, wire, nuts, bolts, and scrap metal scattered about, and a huge furnace. Like, three Harpers tall.
Looking around, I couldn't see the apple, but then again, I didn't expect it to be in the first room we checked.
Amber looked at the closet door. There were two doors, both of which looking like garage doors that slid up.
"Hm..." Amber spun the lid of her highlighter off, allowing her to use it without it turning into a spear. She touched the tip to the very bottom of the door, slipping the very tip beneath it. Then she tapped the lid to the side of it, causing it to actually turn into spear form, its tip beneath the door.
With a tug, she opened it slightly.
"Hm... perhaps there's a button to open it on the opposite side?"
"Hm... that seems like a bad idea security - wise to have. There's got to be another way... how does this mechanism work...?"
I shrugged, and peeked inside of a drawer. I saw a bunch of blueprints for different automatons, but nothing too interesting.
"Hm... of course!" Amber did that little head hit thing, like she had a light bulb moment, and started grabbing things. She grabbed one of Phoebe's daggers, tied it to a pole, tied her spear to the other end, then tied them together with a nearby wire. Not sure now to describe it, but it was a sort of contraption that meant if her spear spun, the dagger would spin the same way.
Amber lined it up and slipped the dagger in somewhere. Then she started twirling her spear in her hands, and the door began to open.
"The door sort of rolled upwards, like a metal scroll. So, I made a little contraption to open it." She smiled, seeming very smug about her plan.
"A sagacious strategy." Ting Lan nodded, slipping through the open door.
The new room had three doors this time, and a vent in the corner. It was lit with lava lamps. This one actually had an automaton in it, that looked like a bronze tiger, with one robotic red eye instead of a face or nose.
It looked around, and sent out a laser pointer, although Phoebe quickly redirected it to a different door, making the automaton shoot the laser beam at it. She repeated that strategy and soon enough, she made it destroy all three doors. Ting Lan sniped it in the eye, and it crumpled, ichor flowing out from the wound.
"This room looks pretty empty too." Phoebe said, looking around.
"Ugh, how big is this place?" I complained. "It'll take forever to search the whole workshop."
"Maybe there's a place Hephaestus operates from? Like a control centre? If we get there..." Amber stopped suddenly.
Ting Lan stopped shortly after, and shot an arrow at a corner of the room, breaking what seemed to be a security camera.
"Cameras?" Phoebe looked around for any others. "I'll check the other rooms!"
"Splitting up will allow us to cover more ground..." Amber mused. She watched Phoebe hurry off. “I guess I’ll go after her.”
"So..." I looked at Ting Lan. "I guess that makes us a pair!"
Ting Lan closed her eyes. "Lady Artemis, why have you forsaken me?"
...
"Hey, slow down!" I said, trying to catch up to Ting Lan. "We're paired up, remember?"
"Feel no desire to match my pace, harlot."
"For the last time, I'm not a harlot!"
"Your mother is." She said simply. "Demigods tend to take after their parents."
"Yeah, but not in everything!"
Ting Lan shrugged.
"Ugh, why do you hate me so much anyways? I haven't even done anything to you!"
"You're a man, and you're a child of Aphrodite. Simple."
"Technically I'm a boy, not a man." I said, then recoiled because I felt like Amber correcting her like that "And I can't control who my mum is!"
Ting Lan shrugged again, and continued walking quickly as we walked down the corridor.
Even though the lava lamps weren't providing the best lighting, I did briefly check my reflection in one of my fans, since I felt a bunch of ash on my face. Ting Lan noticed and scoffed. "Shallow, too."
"It's not shallow to care about your appearance!" I thought about insulting her nails, but insulting people didn't seem like the best way to befriend them.
"It is if you're a 'bimbo' as Amber describes."
"What do you two even talk about?"
Ting Lan didn’t respond.
...
We got into a different room. It was pretty spacious, with a high balcony, and a bunch of big gears and cogs. Also, another furnace, although it was like four Ambers tall this time.
“Hm…” Ting Lan searched around, and I did the same.
“Surprised this place isn’t booby trapped.” I muttered.
Ting Lan begrudgingly nodded. “Yes, I believe it is odd.”
I continued to investigate, reaching some random desk. I poked around, accidentally pressing an eraser of all things, which turned out to be a button.
A trapdoor opened beneath me, and I fell into the darkness.
…
I blinked, to see a kind of miffed – looking Ting Lan standing over me.
“You awaken.”
I immediately thought of Skyrim but didn’t want to say that. I sat up, noticing we were in a different room now. It was vast, and like its own secret lab. It was kind of a little metal island, with various metal balconies, over a sea of lava, with various vents going out, and a control panel.
“Oh. Nice. We found the control room!”
I then narrowly darted out of the way to avoid being crushed by two falling blonde girls.
Amber and Phoebe landed on their feet, probably much more gracefully than I had. “Huh. Interesting.” Amber stood and looked around with fascination. “Ventilation makes sense, this room would be pretty horrible for automatons without it, considering all of the lava. I wonder how Hephaestus navigates it… he may be fire resistant, but even though water doesn’t hurt humans, they still don’t just choose to walk through it in workplaces…”
“Good question!” Phoebe smiled. “Any ideas?”
I noticed it before anyone else. A laser pointer on Ting Lan’s back.
“TING LAN, WATCH OUT!”
She didn’t react in time. I swept her at the leg, which obviously didn’t work, but luckily by then she had turned, and fired an arrow at the laser beam, making it explode.
“Automaton beneath the lava? Really?” I huffed, flicking my hair over my shoulder. It was really hot in there.
“I’ll get to stopping it attacking.” Phoebe said, but it quickly became apparent there was more than one. Lasers were seemingly firing from every side, like this was an ambush.
“I don’t get it.” Amber said. “How can the automatons put laser pointers on us through lava? It’s not translucent or transparent, how are the pointers getting through?”
“Huh. Good question.”
Phoebe was clearly struggling. Every time she moved a laser pointer elsewhere, she’d have to move another, then another, and it was clearly getting too much for her. It was very obvious that she was overwhelmed, and I felt so terrible for her, yet I didn’t know how to help.
If only the love power up worked for others too. If I could use my (platonic) love for Phoebe to boost her power, surely, I could help her a lot more.
Wait a minute…
That wasn’t a half – bad idea, actually! All of my powers that I had that worked on myself also worked on others. Why not this?
I thought about my time with Phoebe. Me doing her nails, us talking about camp drama, Phoebe brushing my hair, Phoebe helping me defeat Chloe, Phoebe saving me from Talos 2.0 in the pool, Phoebe saving me from Talos 2.0 again when I was injured, all the times today Phoebe had saved me from laser beams. I thought about my care for her, and how she was pretty much my best friend at this point.
I laid a hand on her shoulder, and said it. “You’re my best friend, Phoebe.”
“O – oh!” She blushed. “Um, okay- “
A very familiar pink aura surrounded me, before beginning to transfer to her. I felt the passionate energy spreading out from my heart, through my arms, into my fingers, my fingertips, then into her. Like liquid fire flowing from me to her, kind of.
Phoebe’s eyes flashed, her pupils turning heart – shaped. Is that how I looked when I did it myself? Cool!
She turned, and without much effort, make all eight laser pointers point to a random spot in the sea of lava. Laser beams pretty much rapid – fired at the lava, but the automatons literally couldn’t fire anywhere else, so they were practically useless.
Amber stared. “Fascinating. Did you know you could do that?”
“Can you focus on the lava robots, geek?” I asked. The process was starting to take a toll. Turns out converting feelings into power already takes enough energy without transferring that power to someone else. Huh. Who would’ve thought?
“Oh. Yeah.” She looked around, very, very closely. Then she knocked herself on her head. “Of course! They peek out of the lava before they fire! They blend in because of their coloration. Phoebe, can you redirect their beams back at them?”
Phoebe closed her eyes, and the laser pointers landed on what I could now make out were tiny little tank – like automatons. Then they fired.
And blew each other to smithereens.
It was honestly a very satisfying sight after they had been so annoying. But they I stopped with Phoebe and nearly collapsed.
“Quinne!” Phoebe caught me, frowning slightly.
“So… tired…”
“So interesting. You can use your love for other people, then? What else can you do… here I thought besides charmspeak most Aphrodite kids were useless…” Amber looked at me like I was some kind of zoo exhibit.
“Regardless, I believe I have discerned how Lord Hephaestus navigates.” Ting Lan said. A tall Celestial bronze rod with a tablet – like plate on top, about the size of a very, very vast hand. It had a glowing handprint on it too. It blended in because of the lava.
“Hm… harlot, are you able to make your hand fit this?”
“Uh… yeah, but I’ll pretty much be useless for a while…” I drifted over, placed my hand on there, and focused on shifting it to fit the tablet, fingerprints and all.
I stumbled again, as Phoebe caught me again, and a large bronze minecart popped out from beneath the lava, originally upside down, but then spinning upwards.
The four of us hopped in. We kinda just stood there for a few seconds, then it suddenly lurched forwards, as if on an underground (or, I guess, under lava?) rail, and moved slowly.
We hurtled through tunnels and caverns, going up and down and lurching around like crazy. It was like a rollercoaster ride, but over lava, which made it even more terrifying. I had always hated rollercoasters, so I gripped the sides and kept my eyes shut most of the time, besides when someone yelled ‘AUTOMATON!’. Amber seemed to love them though. Her eyes were wide open.
Sometimes we’d pass an automaton sentry or a bat automaton, that Ting Lan would snipe, and obviously if she wasn’t quick enough Phoebe would have to re – direct their beams. We’d also occasionally pass a spider automaton, which would be the only time Amber would squeeze her eyes shut, trying to disguise the fear radiating off of her like a mini sun.
“Amber,” I said, still supporting myself on the side of the cart, closing my eyes after the spider automaton powered off. “Are you afraid of spiders?”
“No!” She snapped.
She was about to say something else when the cart suddenly lurched to the top, almost throwing us forwards and out of it. No seatbelts, Hephaestus? Really?
“Well, where are we now?”
I clambered out after everyone else and looked around this new room. It was the most spacious and dome – shaped, with tubes of lava lining the walls, and a hole in the ceiling that led straight to the spout thing of the volcano. You know what I’m talking about. The hole at the top where the lava comes out.
There were various levels and balconies, and of course a massive forge, but this one was at least Polyphemus’ height. There were massive tools that even the Heracles kids probably couldn’t lift, as well as blocks of Celestial bronze. There was also another material I didn’t recognise, but looked like a mix between silver and diamonds, sparkling like the gemstone and looking hard as it too.
“Adamantine.” Amber muttered. “It’s much rarer than Celestial bronze, so I’ve never even held a weapon with it. How that Dimitrie guy got enough to include it in his automatons is a mystery to me…”
Looking around further, I saw quite a few automatons, but they didn’t seem to be powered on or even powered at all. They looked like the husks that hadn’t been filled with ichor yet. There were huge tanks labelled ‘ICHOR’, though, which seemed to be a good sign.
A drone floated in from the spout at the top, with some weird metal tentacles that had claws on the end. It swooped down, grabbed a tank of ichor, and flew off.
“Um…”
Another drone swooped in, doing the same. Then another. The number of ichor tanks began to deplete quite a bit, and it was already pretty low.
Amber watched with curiosity. “I wonder if Hephaestus is moving these, or something else is going on…”
Ting Lan fired an arrow at one, causing it to crumple to the ground. Amber ran over and inspected it.
“Hm… interesting… this automaton doesn’t look like the others…” She poked it with her foot. “Like, the other automatons here don’t have plates, they just have a harder layer of Celestial bronze over them. This automaton has more armour – like plates.”
Armour – like plates…
“Do you think that Dimitrie guy made this drone?”
Amber thought about it, then knocked on her head. “Of course! I was wondering how he gets so much ichor for all of his automatons. He must have been robbing Hephaestus. But my question is how all the security cameras have never caught him. Maybe he hacked them somehow? But hacking Hephaestus’ systems would be nigh – impossible….”
“Wait, I hear another drone.” I looked up, waiting for it. It ended up flying down like ten seconds later.
“Nothing is impossible for the Great Dimitrie.” It said, although in a voice that clearly didn’t belong to a robot. I swore I had heard it before, actually. A vaguely European accent, one I had heard in my dream talking to Antonella. It had a different tone, though, like it was trying to mimic someone else.
“You!” Amber pointed. “You’re robbing Hephaestus?”
“Yes. I, the Great Dimitrie, have robbed the so-called god Hephaestus from right under his nose. I’ve been in this place for weeks now without him noticing. This place has a whole bunch of adamantine ore here, and my old man’s automatons mine it up and process it for me, so all I have to do is swoop in and grab it. What a good gift to his son.” He sounded like a cartoon villain, so over – the – top.
“So, you’re a child of Hephaestus?”
“Right on the money. My maternal great grandmother was Athena, too. But none of that is the source of my brilliance. Ever since I was born, I’ve been smarter than all of Olympus combined. I built a bomb that blew my school sky high in Elementary.”
“Why would you do that?” Amber asked. “Without school, how are you supposed to learn?”
“My teacher gave me a B on my assignment.” He said simply.
“So, uh, is this not the control room?” I asked.
“No, of course not. You’d have to get into that minecart, go left, then straight down, and it’s the third room on your right.”
“And why would you provide us with directions to your location?”
The drone directed its camera at Ting Lan. “Well, of course, you’re never going to get to me. You’ll simply die before you ever step foot in that cart again.” Despite him saying this, he seemed a bit unsure about how much he really wanted to kill us, although he seemed to be doing it anyways.
The drone dropped about ten capsules. They exploded open, revealing ten Dimitrie - style automatons. They were all sort of like mini – Talos 2.0s, but a lot taller and more mech – like. They had broad, sloping shoulders, bulkier torsos with thinner waists, and thinner arms. They also had sort of orbs for heads, with one camera eye.
“Introducing the Talos Squad. We’ve got Talos Ena, Talos Dio, Talos Tria, Talos Tesera, Talos Pende, Talos Exi, Talos Epta, Talos Okto, Talos Enea, and Talos Deka.”
I frowned. He had really just named these guys Talos One to Ten, huh?
The Talos Squad moved forwards, their hands shifting into a variety of weapons. Canons, maces, axes, flamethrowers, blades, etc. I guessed Dimitrie had dropped the whole eye laser thing since he saw Phoebe could counter it with Talos 2.0.
We jumped into combat. Ting Lan pretty quickly tried to snipe Talos Tesera in the camera eye, only for her arrow to bounce off, forcing her to jump over a swing of Talos Epta’s hammer arm. A jetpack protruded from Talos Tria’s back, allowing it to fly over Ting Lan to try and slam down on her with its mace and metal club hands, and she luckily managed to jump out of the way.
Amber ducked beneath the flames roaring from Talos Okto’s right hand, and tried jabbing under its plates with her spear. But Dimitrie had clearly learned from the plates thing, and the plates had gaps so small that a sheet of paper couldn’t fit through. Luckily, she realised and was quick enough to stop mid – jab, allowing her to get some distance and block a jab of Talos Okto’s left hand, which had become a spear head. Talos Enea and Talos Exi charged in, leaving her in a 3v1.
Phoebe was mainly concerned with protecting me, as I was still exhausted from earlier. Talos Ena, Talos Dio, Talos Pende, and Talos Deka all charged us, probably because Dimitrie apparently hated me. Phoebe’s invisibility was countered by their heat vision, and whilst she tried messing with their camera eyes by blasting them with too much light, heat vision just kicked in again. These guys were really annoying, huh?
So, she had to dart around their attacks, whilst also preventing them from getting near me. I felt so horrible for holding her back, and hoped that I’d get a big boost out of her being in danger, but apparently not. I didn’t even have enough energy to do that.
I needed to gather any dregs of my power, to try and help somehow. But I just couldn’t. Although, Dimitrie had said where he was, right? So, if I could get into the minecart, I could not only make things easier for Phoebe, I could probably try sorting this out without brute force.
Yeah. That’s right. This entire quest, I had been using brains and brawn to solve my problems. And whilst that worked a lot more for Ares and Athena kids, and certainly did work for a lot of Aphrodite kids, that wasn’t my speciality. Beauty was. I could defeat Dimitrie with charisma!
Whilst Talos Dio and Talos Pende attacked Phoebe, Talos Ena and Talos Deka marched towards me.
“Your death will be the greatest testament to our creator’s brilliance!” Talos Deka beeped.
“Yes, we will exterminate you with ease.” Talos Ena added.
“Oh, no.” I acted. “I guess it’s over for me now… LOOK OVER THERE!”
For supposedly incredibly intelligent automatons, they really fell for the oldest trick in the book.
I ran as close as I could towards the mine cart, before pretending to fall over.
“Oh no, I fell over! I think I’m gonna slit my throat and die!”
“Yes, we’ve killed the femboy!” Talos Deka beeped.
Of course. These guys probably couldn’t understand tone, because, well, they weren’t coded to and never would have gotten the opportunity to, and I was already a pretty good actor, so they just believed I was dead.
They turned away and joined the fight, so I started crawling towards the minecart.
“HEY!” Dimitrie called from the drone. “THE FEMBOY’S STILL ALIVE, IDIOTS!”
Talos Ena turned. “Hm. It does seem like the body has moved…”
Talos Dio shot a cannonball at me, but Ting Lan shot a bomb arrow to intercept it.
“Go.”
I lunged forwards, managing to hang onto the side of the minecart, before clambering into it as it roared to life and shot down the rails.
The minecart abruptly lurched left, and I had to bite down my lip to swallow down the wave of sick that bubbled up my throat. I gripped the side of the cart as it thundered down the rails. Third room on your right, he said?
One…. Okay, I needed to be prepared to jump when I saw the- Okay, that was the second one, I didn’t have time to plan, I just had to…
I leaped, my hand grazing the metal frame of the entrance to the control room, before I slipped, tumbling, and grabbed a protruding rock.
Ugh. To think over a month ago I was relaxing on my bed, gossiping on call with Ivy, whilst drinking peppermint tea. If you had told me back then that a month later, I’d be hanging from a rock over a river of lava, trying to reach and fight evil Tony Stark, I think I would have pepper sprayed you and ran behind Ivy for protection.
But I couldn’t hide behind Ivy for protection anymore. I couldn’t even rely on my looks or hitting someone with roses until they keeled over. Usually, I wasn’t the most strong – willed guy, but I figured dying here would be a little embarrassing. And picturing my siblings at camp, and my friends, yes including Ting Lan, burning my shroud thing (Don’t know what it’s called, my bad) pushed me further.
I placed both hands on the rock. It was pretty small rock, and core strength was not my strong suit, but it reminded me of what was. I sort of bent my back, so that the soles of my feet were above me, and I made a C shape with my body, with my back on the inside of the shape.
With all of the strength in my lower body, I pushed with my feet, sort of flinging my body upwards, and managed to hook my fingers around the metal frame. It was very hot, but I bit my lip and toughed it out. I reached up with my left foot, placing on the frame, nearby my hand, then turned, shifting to the side, so that my right foot was next to it, before rolling into the room.
I must’ve looked very creepy doing that, because the first thing I felt coming from Dimitrie was a flash of fear. But it was less the kind of fear you’d feel seeing a spider, and more the kind you’d feel if a rhino burst into your house.
I pushed my hair out of my face. Ugh, there was soot and ash in it now! Aphrodite’s blessing had stopped working when I ran out of energy, which was odd since I noticed it often did that when I didn’t have the energy to use my powers. Weird.
“You,” I pointed at Dimitrie, breathing heavily. “Are the reason my hair looks so horrible.”
He tilted his head to the side. “Hm. Looks fine to me.”
This was actually the first time I ever saw his appearance with any kind of light source. He was pretty much my height, with long hair the colour of charcoal. He had a bronze mask over his face, which had pretty much no features, and just had holes cut out for the eyes (Which were sparkly hazel). He wore a long – sleeved white dress shirt with an orange bow tie, beneath a long white lab coat, and beige trousers, with very high black boots. Um. Interesting outfit.
As I surveyed Dimitrie, there was something odd about him. I couldn’t tell emotions over calls or transmissions like the drone, but I assumed I would feel some kind of wild arrogance or sense of grandeur coming from him, but I didn’t feel any of that. If anything, he felt much more like Amber. I could tell when people were acting, and when I heard him over the drone, he sort of sounded like it.
“You’re, um…” I frowned. “You are the real Dimitrie, right?”
“Of course.”
There it was! It wasn’t really guilt, but more a bit of hesitation that tipped me off.
“What are you really? An automaton? A clone?”
Fake Dimitrie tilted his head. “What do you mean? Was my imitation inaccurate?”
“No, I could just tell you were lying.” I frowned. “So, you’re an automaton? With emotions?”
Fake Dimitrie nodded. “I am Dimitrie Tesera.”
“Wait, how many of you guys are there?”
“Ten.” It said simply. “Including the original Great Dimitrie, of course. He quite enjoys the number.”
“So, you’re here because…”
“Well, the Great Dimitrie sends us out to perform duties for him, whilst he and Dimitrie Deka study for the meeting with the Supreme Commander. I believe Dimitrie Tria is in Italy, Dimitrie Pende is in Myrtle Bay, Dimitrie Exi is on Thynias, Dimitrie Epta is somewhere in Germany, and Dimitrie Okto is in Hawaii.”
I frowned. “The Supreme Commander?”
“The one in charge of the Humanity Liberation Front, of course.”
“What?”
“That’s what we are called, of course. Were you unaware?”
“Yes?” So that’s what the enemy is called? Liberating humanity? From what? “So, Dimitrie’s part of this organisation, right?”
“Yes, the Great Dimitrie is a General in the Liberation Front, alongside Lady Antonella, Lady Aditi, Master Shaurya, and others.”
So, this guy was a pretty high – ranking member of the enemy organisation, then. And he gave this automaton of him emotions? Well, he couldn’t have made my job any easier!
“So, let me get this straight. This guy built you from the beginning to look exactly like him and praise him for his intellect and majesty.”
“Correct.”
“But, if he’s so smart, why did he need to constantly practically drill it into your skull? Wouldn’t it just be obvious? Pretty sure smart people don’t need to brag about it.” I pointed out, although I felt like a bit of a hypocrite since I got pretty arrogant on Circe’s Island. But that was different!
Dimitrie Tesera tilted its head to the side. “I suppose.”
“And why do you work for him anyways? Because he created you? Really, he only created you to work, and doesn’t seem to care about you beyond that. He literally just called you ‘Dimitrie Four’, as part of a set, no? He made you look the exact same as him, and forced you to act like him rather than be yourself.”
“But the gods do the same,” Dimitrie Tesera countered. “The gods just treat demigods as weapons for quests or conflicts, correct?”
“Then your creator’s no better than the gods he claims to be so superior to.”
“…”
“Really, you could just, you know, not follow him anymore. Carve out your own path and all.”
He tilted his head to the side. “That doesn’t seem logical.”
“You know what else isn’t logical? Creating you with emotions but just making you imitate him. Why give you emotions and make you sentient if he’s just gonna force you to pretend to be him? Wouldn’t it be more logical to make you mindless? This ‘Great Dimitrie’ doesn’t seem very smart or logical.”
“Hm. Perhaps you have a point.”
“I do?” That worked?
“I will observe you before making my final decision. But until then,” He pressed a button on the controller. “Talos Squad, by order of Dimitrie Tesera, reprogram. Do not attack Quinne Akuffo nor his quest mates unless provoked.” He saw my giddy expression and his eyes narrowed. “I am not assisting you, just simply not killing you. I still do not wish to betray my creator.”
“That’s good enough for me!” I smiled. “Y’know, if you’re considering being independent, you could, like, get a new name and everything. I’m sure the Hephaestus cabin back at camp could help you out. You could become completely your own person.”
“My own person…” He murmured. “I will consider it.”
“So… uh… can I go?”
“Of cour-“
Dimitrie Tesera jerked, bending into a weird position that looked very uncomfortable. “Well, well, well.” A voice came from Dimitrie Tesera, but it didn’t sound like him. The tone was different. “Turning my own automatons against me? Shouldn’t have expected less from a child of Aphrodite.”
“What?”
“Oh, this is the real Dimitrie. The Great Inventor himself.”
“Budget Tony Stark.” I spat.
“I’m sure your feeble mind struggles to comprehend me. Something you and Tesera here have in common.”
“What are you doing to him?”
“Just working on its… oh. Wow. You really did a number on it.”
“Him.” I corrected. “Or her, or them or whatever they’d go by. But probably not it.”
Real Dimitrie let out a little giggle. “Oh, Juma told me you were sentimental, but I had no idea.”
“Juma? Also, what are you doing to him?”
“Well, if you must know, Tesera here has escaped into my automaton network and is trying to hack it to access its siblings. I guess I can recreate it, but it’ll be a hassle… ugh… fine. I guess Tesera noticed what I was doing and made its decision. Whatever.”
Dimitrie Tesera’s body jerked, then fell slack. “Akuffo…” He jerked again. It sounded like Tesera was back in control. “Run.”
“What?”
Tesera slammed down on the button. “Talos Squad, reprogram, by order of The Great Dimitrie. Never harm Quinne Akuffo, Amber Sinclair, or any of their allies. No matter what other orders you receive.”
“Woah. What prompted that?”
“The original Dimitrie has set me to self – destruct.”
I blinked. “WHAT?”
“Run. You barely have a minute.”
“I- “
“Go!”
I hesitated. I really wanted to help him somehow. But how? I knew robots in movies and stuff usually had their consciousness on a chip or something, but would automatons? I needed to try a little.
So, I did the dumb thing.
I charged straight at him.
…
“Quinne!”
I turned. Phoebe, Amber and Ting Lan, were hanging from the backs of three members of the Talos Squad, Talos Deka, Talos Pende, and Talos Okto, I think. But all ten of them were flying there using jetpacks.
“Grab on!”
I took one more look at Dimitrie Tesera. “Goodbye.”
I turned and sprinted, just as I heard rapid beeping.
BOOM.
The wave of force threw me forwards, out of the room, straight over the sea of lava. If Ting Lan hadn’t caught me by the ankle, Hephaestus would have come back to the smell of roast femboy. My hair was singed too, and my clothes caught fire.
Talos Dio grabbed my hands and hoisted me up onto Talos Tria’s back. It was great that Dimitrie Tesera had turned these guys good, otherwise I would probably be dead.
Then again, the explosion caused a different problem. The force shook the volcano, so not only was the roof caving in, but it seemed like it was gonna erupt. Getting out was probably a priority.
Talos Deka was leading the group, with Amber on their back, as we flew back into the room where we originally fought the Talos Squad. The room shook again, as chunks of stone began to crash onto the ground.
“Um, how are we gonna get out without getting turned into pancakes?”
Amber frowned. “Good question.”
“We are able to blast them to pieces, but we may be unable to destroy them all.” Talos Deka beeped simply, their hands shifting into canons. The rest of the Talos Squad did the same.
“That’s fine. I can parry, Ting Lan can blow them up, Phoebe can probably slice them with light, but Quinne…”
“I’ll be fine.” I said, which wasn’t strictly true, I still barely had the power to make myself blonde (Which I tried once actually, but it wasn’t my style) but I didn’t want to be a burden so I just figured I would figure it out.
I had to steer Talos Tria like crazy to avoid the falling debris, and hold my breath to avoid ash filling my lungs. I ducked beneath a chunk of stone the size of Aaron, laying completely flat on my stomach, practically hugging Talos Tria’s back.
We flew out of the volcano, into the pitch-black night sky. I honestly got distracted by how beautiful it was. The stars were really stunning that night.
“THERE!” Amber called, snapping me out of it pointing to the silhouette of the Argo III out at sea.
We flew towards it, but sort of forgot Hephaestus’ robots was still there. Laser beams shot from below, firing at us from all sides. It would have been pretty if it wasn’t very dangerous. They pierced some of the Talos squad, including the one Ting Lan was on.
I grabbed her wrist as a laser also pierced Talos Tria. We began to fall, so I tried to direct our falling forwards the Argo III.
I missed. By quite a bit.
We hit the water at full speed. The waves swallowed us, and my vision began to go dark.
The last thing I saw was a very pretty lady, before everything went black.