(Disclaimer: all of this belongs to Rick Riordan, except for Terra. I made her up.

Note: Here's Will!!! I can't believe I forgot to do Will's picture!!! How could I forget my main character's best friend?!?!?! If it weren't for him she' probably be dead now!!! *Mentally slaps face*)

Oh gross. Festus just had to land on a line of Porta-Potties, didn't he? Yeah, we found him in the parking lot, surrounded by potty sludge. The smell was horrendous. Fortunately, they hadn't been used in a long time, and the fireball from the crash incinerated most of the contents.

But imagine the smell of burning potty sludge............ yeah. It's almost worse than having it explode and not incinerate most of the contents.

We had passed some pretty gross chemicals and Leo and I had to pick our way through. I tried my best not to breathe through my nose, but it was pretty hard since I was a nose-breather.

When we came over to Festus, his hide was burning hot, even though he was covered with snow. Leo didn't seem affected by it, but I could feel some of my energy leaving me. I tried to follow Leo as he climbed over Festus' body, but it was super hard.

I saw an irritated look on Leo's face, something about the dragon seemed to be bothering him.

"What's wrong? Is he okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, that's what's bothering me. He looks perfectly fine. Could you clear away the snow? Just to make sure I'm not missing anything." He asked.

"Sure."

I pushed my hands out to the side and the snow parted, one side following my right hand, the other following my left hand. In just three seconds Festus was free of snow, but I felt like there was more. In a circumstance when Festus' hide wasn't burning at a freaking 395 degrees (or so it felt), I would have put my hand on him and tried to detect any ice. But being the daughter of the snow goddess, fire and heat were my enemies.

"Not my fault," he muttered. "Festus you're making me look bad."

I walked over to Leo, who had just opened the control panel on the back of Festus' head. All the wiring was frozen.

"What the heck?" he said.

I remembered in my dream with Gaea/Terra (man, it's so weird to say my own name and mean someone else) how I had gotten her to go away by freezing her......... What if she made me freeze the inside of Festus because I had said no? Dang it. Way to go Jones. You just had to freeze her in the dream didn't you? You could have just said no! No need to make her any more mad, right?! Now you have an all powerful goddess as your enemy, Piper's ankle is broken, Festus may not be repairable, Nico may be in trouble, we could have been so much closer to completing our quest, and all be cause you had to freeze something?!?!

You could tell on Leo's face that he was thinking. Then he looked up at me.

"Did you do this?" he asked looking a little hurt.

I felt so bad.

"I......I don't know. I might have, but........I wouldn't." I finally said sitting down and looking at the frozen wires and control disc.

He just starred at me, but I didn't stare back. I didn't want to meet his eyes, I knew he loved Festus. I wanted to tell Leo all about the dream, but what would he think of me? Some freak who froze his best friend and could be a possible spy for Gaea/Terra?

Well, he had been getting visits from Gaea too, so maybe he would understand.

"I...I need to tell you something." I managed to say.

His expression darkened and he nodded.

I finally met his eyes and a pang of guilt washed over me. "I got a visit from the Dirt Woman in my dream."

His expression changed to surprise. I looked away so it would be easier to get out.

"I can't believe I couldn't remember her name before, but it's Gaea. She's the goddess of the Earth........... But this time, she said her name was Terra. It was weird. She said that when I was born, Khione had sensed how much power I had and offered me as some sort of servant to her to help her rise. She said that the time to prove my worth was coming. She gave me the choice of serving her and help her rise to defeat the gods and have the Titans rise. I refused and froze her. She got mad and threatened to kill me and all my friends. She said 'You will fall demigod, you will fall.' Then, I woke up and we were falling."

I was so glad to get that all out. I looked back up at Leo, shock still written across his face.

"I think when I said 'no' then she got mad and I froze her, she made me freeze Festus to get back at me for not following her. I'm sorry Leo, but I think this is all my fault." I said bringing my knees up to my chest and wrapping my arms around my legs.

"I had a feeling that I shouldn't go on this quest, but I didn't listen. I'm just a drag on this mission. I'm useless. Jason said I was only here because I was related to Boreas and you saw how much I helped with that. Now I froze Festus and probably broke him and we could be on our way to Chicago right now and finish this quest-"

"Hey," Leo cut me off. "It'll be alright. Most problems look worse than they are. Nothing is unfixable." He said smiling. "My mom told me that when I was young."

"She must have been very wise." I said starting to smile.

"It's also very nice to know I'm not the only one getting calls from the goddess of dirt." He said looking at the ground and no longer smiling.

I smiled even more. It was quite reassuring to have someone around you who knows what you're going through.

I remembered Festus. "So what should we do? I can get rid of the ice easily, but I can tell there's some internal damage by the fact that Festus is supposed to be hot."

He snapped back to why we were here. "Oh...yeah. Um, yes, please work your magic."

I placed my hand on Festus' hide, which is now at a somewhat tolerable temperature, and sensed ice running all along every single wire and circuit.

"It doesn't look to good in there, but I can get all the ice out, but we're gonna have to find out how to get him warm again. Any ideas?" I asked.

He just gave me that wild smile of his. "I'll find a way."

I just shook my head smiling. I breathed in slowly and focused on the ice in Festus. I learned that I couldn't make snow disappear unless it was snow that I had conjured. If it was snow from nature, then all I could do was move it. This was the ultimate test to see if I was the cause of us crashing. I willed the snow to disappear and when I looked back at the wires in Festus' head, only part of it was unfrozen.

That was weird. If I was able to make some of it disappear, then I had partially helped, but there seemed to be another influence in Festus' freezing.

It must have been written across my face that I was confused because Leo asked if I was okay.

"Huh? Oh. Yeah, I'm fine it's just that.. snow that I conjure can disappear if I want it to, but snow by natural storms I can only move. I was able to defrost Festus a little, but as you can tell, there's still some snow. There was another influence in taking down Festus." I pointed out.

"Well.......that's nice."

"Yep, we'll have to be extra careful." I said. "You might want to move out of the way this time."

He stepped back and I willed the snow to come out of Festus. The ice came out through the opening in Festus' head. I put the ice with the rest of the snow I had cleared off of Festus.

"There, all the ice is gone. What now?"

Leo moved back towards the control panel and started messing with it. I walked up closer and watched him detach the control disc.

"Gimme a nylon bristle detail brush, some nitrile gloves, and maybe a can of that aerosol cleaning solvent." He said digging around in his belt.

He pulled the stuff out and smiled widely. I had to admit that belt was pretty awesome.

"Cool." I said.

"I know right?" He said and started cleaning up the control disc.

He brushed some snow off of his shoulders and we both noticed that Festus was covered in snow again. I didn't even notice that it was snowing.

"Hey could you make sure the snow doesn't get on Festus? You know, since he's not supposed to be cold." Leo asked.

"Sure." I said and cleared off the snow.

I started to think on how I could keep the snow from falling on Festus. Ah! I got it.

I stepped off of Festus and stamped my foot on the ground. I made ice go up in four pillars and made a roof rest on them. I made sure that it covered Festus' while body. I noticed how dark it was underneath, so I made the roof thinner so light could pass through and Leo could see what he was doing.

"There." I said and climbed back on Festus to watch Leo.

He was cleaning the control disc. It looked a lot better from when he had taken it out. There were some flecks of snow or ice here and there and some oil and grease spots or stains, but Leo seemed to get it off.

I noticed how into it Leo looked. He just starred at the disc, not really moving his head, but his fingers were flying faster than jets. He started to mess a little bit with the disc, fixing it, I suppose. His eyes seemed to stare off into space and just stare. I wonder what it was like being a child of Hephaestus. It was probably much better than being a child of Khione. Hephaestus probably wouldn't offer you as a servant to the goddess of the Earth. As far as I know, he'd be a better choice.

I started to imagine what it would have been like to be a child of different gods. If I was a child of Poseidon, psshh, I'd be frickin' amazing. If I had gotten to choose who my godly parent was I would choose Poseidon in a heartbeat. It would be so cool to control water, be able to breath underwater. And talk to horses and fish! That'd be cool.

Hey.... I just realized something. If Percy can control water, can't he control, like, 78% of a human? I'll have to ask Percy if he can, and if he doesn't know, we can gladly try that out on Drew! Mwwuahahahaha!!

Whoa. Scary thought: What if I had been a child of Aphrodite?

*Cringe* I would have hated that. I know that means I would be Piper's sister, which would be awesome, but I'd be Drew's sister too. That would be a disaster. We'd be fighting 24/7. It wouldn't have done Camp any good. Oooo. I wonder if I would have charm speak if I had been her daughter. It's probably the only useful thing about Aphrodite. I know it sounds harsh, but, come on. Think about it. Is there anything else about Aphrodite that could help you in combat besides charmspeak? Serious makeovers wouldn't take down your opponent. They'd probably kill you before you could get the foundation on.

I bet I could have been a pretty good daughter of Athena. I am pretty smart. I had gotten straight A's while I was in school. Since I'm a year-rounder at Camp, I can't go to school. I hate spiders, so I guess I'd fit in. Nothing in this would should have eight legs! Seriously! Or that many eyes! the fact that they're everywhere and they can be poisonous or/and hairy and those huge fangs. Oh gosh, I swear those things are the creepiest things on the planet, but if Percy was here he'd probably get all sassy about how he and Annabeth have faced worse and how spiders are nothing to worry about.

Yeah, if Percy was here. I hope he's okay, where ever he is. Where could that kid possibly be? Seriously! You can't loose that kid. How many water-controlling, sea-green-eyed, pen-turning-into-a-celestial-bronze-sword-owning kids do you see????? And his strong sense of sass. You can't miss him! How could this happen?! If I ever find the person who kidnapped Percy I will judo-flip them so hard their grandchildren will have broken backs! But that is only if I let him or her live!

Whoa. I think I just let my Ares show. Whoa, what if I was a daughter if Ares? Oh gosh, I'd be a freaking amazing warrior. I'd be slashing through the enemies with lots of swag and awesomeness and be able to take down any opponent that comes my way. I'd know how to use every weapon and how to use it correctly and if it would be useful against my opponent. Like I said earlier, I'd be freaking amazing.

I just realized how weird my train of thoughts are. Well, weird person = weird thoughts, so there you go.

You know what would be super cool? If I had one of those-

"You're wrong, Leo." She said.

I jumped up and Leo started fumbling to catch his brush, but ended up dropping it into Festus' head. He stood up and started looking around.

It was her. Terra/Gaea was back, and I didn't like it. What was Leo wrong about? He hadn't been talking......... Or had he? I am really slow on noticing things, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't talking out loud. Had she been reading his thoughts? That seems like a good explanation, but could she? Well, she did talk to me in my dream and was able to make me partially knock out Festus, so I guess she could be reading his thoughts. Wait, was she reading mine? That girl needs to learn how to back off of people's business.

Snow, the nasty potty sludge, even the asphalt was forming this ten-foot-wide area of eyes, a nose, and a mouth. It made the face of a sleeping woman. A face I sadly recognized from my dream.

Just like in my dream, her mouth didn't move when she spoke. It seemed to vibrate through the ground, straight into your feet and resonating up your skeleton. It hadn't been exactly like this in my dream, but it was a dream.

"They need you desperately," she said. "In some ways, you are the most important of the seven-like the control disc in the dragon's brain. Without you the power of the others mean nothing. They will never reach me, never stop me. And I will fully wake."

"Oh really? I'd like to see you try! Once we find Percy and get the seven together, there will be nothing we can't do." I said sassily.

"You are foolish, young girl, for not joining me, but your pain and suffering will come in it's own due time. I will be there, highly enjoying your misery and watching you swim in torture, agony, and horror." She said fiercely.

I thought of what she had said in my dream. "Your precious friends shall die. Nico di Angelo will be a special case."

I felt the same panic run down my body. I stepped back a little to make secure my balance.

Oh, gods. What have I done to Nico?

"You." Leo said, anger highly detectable in his voice. "You killed my mom."

What? I thought he said the machine shop collapsed-oh. He hadn't want to say right off the bat that he had seen the earth goddess and that she was the reason his mom really died. I hated her even more.

Her face shifted into a sleepy smile, like she was seeing something pleasant. I wanted to punch her so bad, but what could I do against the goddess of dirt?

"Ah, but Leo. I am your mother too-the First Mother. Do not oppose me as your friend has. Walk away now. Let my son Porphyrion rise and become king, and I will ease your burdens. You will tread lightly on the earth."

I was worried that Leo would turn sides. I didn't need one of my friends becoming bad. I guess it would have been like Luke and Annabeth's story.

Leo lifted up a Porta-Potty seat and hurled it at Terra/Gaea's face.

"Leave me alone!" He yelled.

The seat sank into the ground, and the face disappeared. I waited for it to reappear, but it didn't. I wish it was all our imaginations, but there was no way it could have been.

There was a crash, maybe like two dump truck slamming together. Metal crumpled and groaned, and the noise echoed across the yard. It was coming from the factory. I had an instant feeling that Jason and Piper were definitely in trouble.

"Not likely," Leo growled. "Gimme the biggest hammer you got."

He reached into his tool belt and pulled out a really big hammer. It's head was double-faced and the size of a rather large baked potato.

I made my ice bow, and my sword at my side for up close attacks. We jumped off of Festus and ran toward the warehouse. We stopped at the door, listening for any noises that would tell us what we're up against.

I could hear Leo breathing heavily. He was probably really freaked out from the encounter with Terra or Gaea, whatever form she was in at that time. I could see his hands shaking.

I put my hand on his shoulder, "You okay?"

He looked at me and just nodded. He took a deep breath and seemed to calm down a little, but his hands were still a little shaky. He peered inside, and so did I.

Nothing looked that different from when we left. the gray morning light filtered through the hole we made in the roof from our "fun" crash landing. A few lightbulbs flickered, but most of the factory was lost in the shadows like before. I could make out the catwalks above, the dim shapes of heavy machinery along the assembly line, but no movement was detectable. There was no sign of Piper or Jason.

I wanted to call out for Piper and Jason, but there was something that told me not to. There was a feeling in the air, no, a smell in the air. Something smelled wrong here, like burning motor oil and sour breath. A monster was in here, I just knew it. I went into battle mode, all of my senses alert and my reflexes ready to act.

Somewhere on the factory floor, Piper cried out: "Leo, help!"

"Terra! Help us!" Jason called.

I didn't say anything, and Leo didn't either. Somehow, Piper had gotten to floor level with her broken ankle. That wasn't right. According to Will, Piper shouldn't be able to go downstairs for another hour, even with the help of ambrosia.

I slipped inside and ducked behind a cargo container. Leo followed me perfectly quiet. We made our way towards the center of the room, hiding behind boxes and hollow truck chassis. We finally reached the assembly line and crouched behind a crane with a robotic arm.

Piper called out again: "Leo?"

The voice sounded less certain, but we were very close.

We peeked slightly around the machinery. A massive truck engine was suspended by a chain right above the assembly line. Below it, a truck chassis layed on a conveyor belt and clustered around it were three dark shapes the size of forklifts. Nearby, there were two other shapes dangling from the ceiling. One was twisting around like it was alive, and the other stayed perfectly still.

One of the forklift shapes rose, and I realized what the heck we were up against. "Told you it was nothing," the Cyclopes rumbled.

Another one shifted and called out in a perfect imitation of Piper's voice: "Terra, help me! Help-" the voice turned into a masculine snarl. "Bah, there's nobody out there. No demigod could be that quiet. Especially two, eh?"

The first Cyclopes chuckled. "They probably ran away, if they know what's good for them. Or the girl was lying about two other demigods. Let's get cooking."

Snap. A bright orange light came from behind me. I turned around and saw Leo holding an emergency flare.

I wrote on the ground with frost "They're Cyclopes." Or at least tried to with my dyslexia.

Annabeth had been trying to help me to overcome my dyslexia like she was trying and almost succeeding. It was kind of working, I could read very well, but I had to close my eyes to write and imagine what letters I was writing.

Leo's eyes got wide, but I knew he understood.

We took another look at what our surroundings were. It helped a little to have the flare, but I hoped the Cyclopes wouldn't notice the bright orange light.

The scene was horrible. Those two things dangling from the ceiling were Piper and Jason. Both of them were upside down, tied by their ankles and cocooned with chains up to their necks. Piper was flailing around, trying to free herself. Her mouth was gagged, but at least she was still alive. Jason didn't look very good. He hung limply, his eyes rolled up in his head and a red welt the size of an apple had swollen over his left eyebrow.

On the conveyor belt, the bed of the unfinished pickup truck was being used as a fire pit. The emergency flare had ignited a mixture of tires and wood, which, from the smell of it, seemed to be soaked in kerosene. Great, one tiny flame next to that and I'll die within seconds. A spit was suspended over the fire, this was a cooking fire, great. Not only did I have the chance to die at the hands of my greatest enemy (fire), but my friends were possibly going to be eaten too. Yea!(Sarcasm was highly used in this paragraph.)

The most terrifying thing here though, were the Cyclopes. The two smaller ones were standing and stoking the flames, as the largest one sat with his back towards us. The ones standing were easily about ten feet tall, hairy muscular bodies and skin that glowed red in the firelight. One wore a chain mail loincloth that looked really uncomfortable, and the other wore a ragged fuzzy toga made of fiberglass insulation, which look as uncomfortable as the loincloth.

Besides the clothes, the Cyclopes could have been twins. They both had a brutish face with a single eye In the center of their forehead.

Whenever I thought of a Cyclopes, I thought of Percy's half-brother, Tyson. He's so kind, gentle, and sensitive. He looks absolutely nothing like these ugly monsters standing in front of us.

I felt like running off and going back to Camp Half-Blood to help Annabeth look for Percy, but I couldn't. Jason and Piper needed me and I intended to help them. I looked back at Leo, who looked just as shaken as I felt. I could see his legs quaking.

After a few seconds passed, Leo took off his backpack and started to quietly unzip it.

The Cyclopes with the loincloth walked over to Piper, who squirmed and it looked like she was trying to head-butt him in the eye. It would have been somewhat funny if it wasn't such a scary situation.

"Can I take her gag off now? I like it when they scream."

The question seemed to be directed at the third Cyclopes that was crouching. He must have been the leader. He grunted and Loincloth ripped the gag off of Piper's mouth.

She didn't scream, but she took a shaky breath to keep herself calm.

I smirked knowing that it was good to have Piper's charmspeak with us.

I heard a settle rustling coming from Leo. I turned to him and put my finger to my lips to tell him to be quieter. He apologized with his face and continued with whatever he was up to to save Jason and Piper.

The Cyclopes in the toga poked at the fire, which was now blazing away and billowing a noxious black smoke towards the ceiling. Loincloth glowered at Piper, waiting for her to do something entertaining. "Scream, girl! I like funny screaming!"

Piper used her charmspeak when she spoke next, in a tone that sounded like she was talking to a naughty puppy. "Oh, Mr. Cyclopes, you don't want to kill us. It would be much better if you let us go."

Loincloth scratched his big, ugly head. He turned to Fiberglass Toga. "She's kind of pretty, Torque. Maybe I should let her go."

Torque, the toga dude, growled. "I saw her first, Sump. I'll let her go!"

Sump and Torque started arguing, but the third one rose and shouted, "Fools!"

I was almost gonna burst out laughing. That Cyclopes was a female. She was several feet taller than the other two, and wore a muumuu made out of chain mail. She had her greasy black hair pulled into two pigtails, woven with copper wires and metal washers. Her nose and mouth were thick and smashed together, like she spent most of her time ramming her face into walls, but her one, red eye glittered with evil intelligence.

I almost blew our cover when I imagined her ramming her face into a wall repeatedly with the stupidest look on her face. Leo seemed surprised at the sudden realization that the last Cyclopes was a girl. He had almost dropped his screwdriver.

The woman Cyclopes stalked over to Sump and pushed him back aside, knocking him over the conveyor belt. Torque backed up quickly.

"The girl is Venus spawn," the lady Cyclopes snarled. "She's using charmspeak on you."

"Please, ma'am-" Piper was cut off by the "female".

"Rarr!" She grabbed Piper around her waist. "Don't try your pretty talk on me! I'm Ma Gasket! I've eaten heroes tougher than you for lunch!"

Ma Gasket? Really?

I was afraid that Ma Gasket was going to crush Piper, but she just dropped her and let her dangle from her chain.

She turned to Sump, "Sump, you idiot! I swear your stupider than the 1920's Briggs and Stratton Flyer!"

I didn't get it, but it must have been a pretty bad insult because I could see Leo trying not to laugh and Sump's eye started to get watery.

"I'm sorry, Ma. I'll do better next time," Sump said like a little kid. "Do I eat her last, Ma?"

Leo started creeping over to the next robotic arm, and I followed him.

"Idiot!" Ma Gasket yelled. "I should've thrown you out on the streets when you were babies, like proper Cyclopes children. You might have learned some useful skills. Curse my soft heart that I kept you!"

"Soft heart?" Torque muttered.

I silently laughed.

"What was that, you ingrate?"

"Nothing, Ma. I just said you got a soft heart. We got to work for you, feed you, file your toenails-"

"And you should be grateful!" Ma Gasket bellowed. "Now, stoke the fire, Torque! And Sump, you idiot, my case of salsa is in the other warehouse. Don't tell me you expect me to eat these demigods without salsa!"

"Yes, Ma," Sump said. "I mean no, Ma. I mean-"

"Go get it!" Ma Gasket picked up a nearby truck chassis and slammed it over Sump's head. Sump crumpled to his knees, and I thought for sure he was almost dead, but Sump must have gotten hit by trucks a lot. Sump just pushed the truck chassis off of his head and staggered off to go find the salsa.

Ma Gasket is the (second) worst mother I've ever seen. How could she treat her children like this? I understand that they're monsters and are most likely on the bad side, but still. You'd think that bad guys would be nice to each other if they were working together so they would be able to do whatever it is they need to do. In this case, it was just to survive.

Leo tapped me on the shoulder, shaking me out of my thoughts. We moved from one robotic arm to the next. I wish I could ask him what we were doing, but I couldn't without the Cyclopes hearing us. FYI: Cyclopes have very good hearing.

Annabeth taught me almost everything I know. Somehow, I already knew half of the stuff even though I don't recall ever being taught about Greek mythology before in my life.

I looked up and saw that Piper had noticed us, her face changed from terror to disbelief, and she gasped.

Ma Gasket turned to her. "What's the matter, girl? So fragile I broke you?"

My heart started to pound. I was worried that our cover was blown, but Piper's a smart girl, smarter than any other Aphrodite child I've ever known. She'd figure something out.

"I think it's my ribs, ma'am. If I'm busted up inside, I'll taste terrible." Piper explained.

Good girl.

Ma Gasket bellowed with laughter. "Good one. The last hero we ate-remember him, Torque? Son of Mercury, wasn't he?"

Mercury? That's Hermes Roman form. How is there a child of Mercury? Do they mean Hermes, but they just say the gods' Roman names? Well, she did call Piper Venus' spawn, so I guess that proves that they mean Hermes.

"Yes, Ma," Torque said. "Tasty. Little bit stringy."

"He tried a trick like that. Said he was on medication. But he tasted just fine!"

"Tasted like mutton," Torque recalled, rubbing his stomach. "Purple shirt. Talked in Latin. Yes, a bit stringy, but good."

Purple shirt???? Latin????? Purple is the color of the Romans and Latin is their language. How could this.....? This makes no sense. I have a nagging sensation in the back of my head like I know something that would explain this, but I can't seem to remember.

I must have tried a little to hard to remember because I started to get a headache again.

Leo had froze and looked up at me. He mouthed one word and I knew exactly what he meant.

"Jason." Leo mouthed.

Jason had come to Camp in a purple shirt and Jason could speak Latin. Gods had called Jason a son of Juptier, Zeus' Roman aspect. Whatever Jason and that son of Mercury were, I had a feeling there were more a lot more. I felt calmed at this thought for some reason, like some part of me relaxed at the knowledge of this.

"Purple shirt? Latin?" Piper asked. She must have thought of the same thing.

"Good eating," Ma Gasket said fondly. "Point is, girl, we're not as dumb as people think! We're not falling for those stupid tricks and riddles, not us northern Cyclopes."

Leo seemed to have shifted into overdrive. His hands literally flew amongst the wires and metal he was working with, I still didn't know what he was doing, but I know I can trust him to be able to get us all out of here, I just had to help too.

"Oh, I've heard about the northern Cyclopes! I never knew you were so big and clever!"

I could tell that she was lying, but hopefully Ma Gasket wouldn't be able to tell.

"Flattery won't work either," Ma Gasket said, though she sounded somewhat pleased. "It'd true, you'll be breakfast for the best Cyclopes around."

"But aren't Cyclopes good?" Piper asked. "I thought you made weapons for the gods."

No, that's the elder Cyclopes, and the southern ones live on islands and take care of animals like sheep and cattle.

"Bah! I'm very good. Good at eating people. Good at smashing. And good at building things, yes, but not for the gods. Our cousins, the elder Cyclopes, they do this, yes."

What did I tell you?

"Thinking they're so high and mighty 'cause they're a few thousand years older. Then there's our southern cousins, living on islands and tending sheep."

Goooaaal!!! And extra points to Gryffindor for naming another animal that they tended. (All thanks to Annabeth.)

"Morons! But we Hyperborean Cyclopes, the northern clan, we're the best! Founded Monocle Motors in this old factory-the best weapons, armor, chariots, fuel-efficient SUVs! And yet-bah! Forced to shut down. Laid off most of our tribe. The war was too quick. Titans lost. No good! No more need for Cyclopes weapons."

"Oh, no," Piper sympathized. "I'm sure you made some amazing weapons."

Torque grinned instantly. "Squeaky war hammer!"

He picked up a large pole with an accordion-looking metal box on the end. He slammed it against the floor and the cement cracked, but there was also a sound like the world's largest rubber ducky getting stomped.

"Terrifying," Piper said.

I almost snorted.

Torque looked pleased. "Not as good as the exploding ax, but this one can be used mor than once."

"Can I see it?" Piper asked. "If you could just free my hands-"

Good girl.

Torque stepped forward eagerly, but Ma Gasket said, "Stupid! She's tricking you again. Enough talk! Slay the boy first before he dies on his own. I like my meat fresh."

No! No, no, no, no, no.

I turn to Leo and silently asked him if he was almost done. His expression said he was going as fast as a Hephaestus child possibly could.

"Hey, wait," Piper said, trying to get the Cyclopes' attention. "Hey, can I just ask-"

I heard the sound of sparks came from behind me and I jerked my head quick enough to be able to see that Leo had created them. Crap.

Torque turned in our direction and chucked a truck towards us.