chapter one; the daughter of mars.

     Did Kat have a plan? No. Unless you count 'attack and don't die' as a plan, Katarina had nothing. Yet, her plan was very much ruined by a familiar fifty-ton bronze dragon crash landing into Monocle Motors.

Katarina approached the dragon, a celestial bronze dagger held in her hand. It laid on top of a dozen blue plastic Porta-Potties that had been set up in the factory yard and abandoned along with the half finished trucks on the assembly lines and the huge machines.

The fireball that had caught Kat's eye after a crash and bang shook the entire factory had incinerated most of the toilets' contents but what remained filled the air with the most vile smell that Katarina had ever encountered. She scrunched her nose, wishing she had something to cover her airways. Of all the places the dragon, that definitely came from Camp Half-Blood and could possibly be her way out of the factory, had to land, it chose the portable toilets.

Katarina kept her footsteps quiet on the metal catwalk which was rather difficult. She wasn't alone, besides the curly haired boy who was climbing over the dragon's inanimate body, the one-eyed Ma Gasket was lurking with her sons waiting to make Kat her next meal.

She kept her distance, studying the boy. The dragon was steaming in the cool air and the snow that fell upon it melted. Katarina wondered how he hadn't been burnt by the metal. And more importantly, she wondered who he was.

He was from Camp Half-Blood, the orange shirt under his army fatigue jacket that matched Kat's pointed out the obvious but Katarina didn't recognise him and she knew everyone at Camp Half-Blood. She'd have remembered him.

He slid off the dragon, scratched his head and stared at the metal beast. Kat's eyes didn't stray. He must be a child of Hephaestus, Katarina came to that conclusion quickly, the boy reminded her of her friend who'd helped build the dragon some summers ago with his father's blessing.

"Festus, you're making me look bad," Kat's lip curled up, definitely a child of Hephaestus.

Kat looked up at the darkening sky. Her godly father's dislike for his brother was stirring in Katarina's veins for the boy. If she wasn't so afraid, she'd curse Ares.

Hephaestus' son pried open the control panel on the dragon's head. He stared at the wiring and his shoulders sunk. "Oh, Festus, what the heck?".

Katarina wanted to inch closer, curious to know what was wrong with the dragon but she kept her distance. He brushed snow off his shoulders and spoke into the air, "Gimme a nylon-bristle detail brush, some nitrile gloves and maybe a can of that aerosol cleaning solvent".

He pulled the supplies from his tool belt that seemed far too small to hold them. Kat imagined that he was smiling. If she had a magic bag like Mary Poppins she too would be thrilled.

The snow continued to fall, the snowstorm had come out of nowhere, urging Kat to retreat back inside the factory. Katarina leaned against the railing and watched the boy as he began fixing the dragon. He removed the control disk and cleaned the blackened Greek letters and pictures that were engraved round the edge.

The longer he worked the cooler the dragon became in the Detroit weather. The snow settled on the dragon and the boy stopped to melt it away with fire. Kat's hand gripped her dagger, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. The flames danced around his fingers and his palm glowed with the warmth of the orange fire he'd summoned. He continued on, completely unaware of the awed girl behind him.

Charles Beckendorf had once mentioned to Kat and her brother Nick, that hundreds of years ago a son of Hephaestus was cursed with pyrokinesis and lost control in his bakery, ultimately starting the Great Fire of London in 1666.

"Enough, Valdez," The boy scolded himself, he had let his mind wander, "Nobody's going to play any violins for you just because you're not important. Fix the stupid dragon".

Maybe it was how Katarina related to his words or maybe it was the snow that fell upon them, freezing her brain. Whatever it was, Kat felt sorry for the faceless boy. She knew Charles would appreciate him fixing the dragon.

There was no doubt that he was a son of Hephaestus. His hands moved swiftly even when he seemed to be lost in thought, it was like he was on autopilot. Kat wanted to see his face, all of Hephaestus' children had a gleam in their eyes when fixated on something.

He stilled then, the brush fumbled in his hand and dropped into the dragon's head. Kat, for a moment, thought she'd loosen her grip on her dagger and it had fallen onto the hard asphalt below the catwalk because the boy turned around suddenly and his eyes that were filled with nothing but fear darted back and forth until they settled on the ground at the bottom of metal stairs.

Katarina didn't move her body but she turned her head. Snow and waste from the toilets mixed with the asphalt as if it was liquid and shifted until Kat could see the face of a sleeping woman. A giant woman, at that. It had eyes, a nose and a mouth, all formed from the ground itself.

It seemed to speak to the Valdez boy without moving its mouth. His hands trembled and he spoke back. His voice was quiet but Kat heard it over the snowstorm that was yet to let up.

"You," He balled his hands and his shoulders shuddered, "You killed my mom".

Kat felt as if she was invading his privacy. He didn't know she was there but it was too late for her to leave now. The mouth of the sleeping woman twitched up into a smile and a knot in Katarina's stomach tightened, she wanted to slash the face with her dagger.

The dagger in her hand became longer and thinner until Katarina was holding a spear similar to the one her older sister paraded around Camp Half-Blood before Percy Jackson snapped it in two. She lifted the spear above and behind her head, knocking some of the snow off her hair. It was as light as a feather and soared through the air like a vulture in search of its prey. The point of the spear impaled the giant's eye, startling the boy. They both watched, annoyance furrowed Katarina's brows, the spear sinking into the liquid earth.

The face dissolved as if it had never been there, stealing Kat's favourite dagger. She ran down the metal staircase and kicked the snow. The boy shook away his confusion and fear and ran his fingers through his hair. A smile, that made Kat's heart skip a beat and want to punch him at the same time appeared on his face.

She stared at him, studying him with her warm brown eyes. She wondered what the sleeping woman had said to him, whatever it was Kat knew it hadn't been comforting in the slightest but he brushed it off the moment his gaze met Katarina's.

"You're welcome," Kat unclipped a pin from the lapel of her leather jacket. The pin shifted into a celestial bronze dagger. It was almost identical to the one she'd lost to the ground but it was a few centimetres longer and the handle was wrapped in uncracked brown leather.

Kat tucked the dagger into the sheath that was braced to her thigh over her cargo pants. The boy watched her with a similar look of awe that had shone in Kat's eyes as she watched him fix the dragon. He went to introduce himself, preparing for instant rejection before he'd even had the chance to flirt but somewhere in the factory there was a loud crash that echoed in the snowstorm.

"Ma Gasket," Kat muttered, she tore her dagger from the sheath again. The boy was certain he saw fire dancing in her eyes.

"Ma who?".

     Introductions were neglected. The boy reached into his tool belt and pulled out a double-faced head hammer before following Kat, without question, up the staircase and along the metal catwalk to the factory.

If she'd wanted to kill him, he knew she could but she hadn't, at least not yet.

When they got to the door of the factory, the boy froze. Kat pushed the door open, thankfully it didn't creek and she peered inside. She wasn't nervous, that was one thing she could thank Ares for, when it came to battle all Kat felt was confidence. Sometimes too much confidence for her own good.

The factory was dark, moonlight shone through a hole in the roof at the far end of the factory and lightbulbs flickered. The boy was beside her, his shoulder brushing hers as he discreetly tried to calm his breathing. Kat glanced at him, he noticed.

"You're not alone, are you?" Kat spoke in a whisper, her eyes darted back to inside the factory. She didn't want to be snuck up on.

He shook his head, "My friends are here," His voice was as quiet as Katarina's.

"Leo, help!" A girl's voice carried through the factory floor.

The boy, Kat assumed he was Leo, froze. Katarina's shoulders tensed and she stepped through the doorway. A warm hand wrapped around her wrist, halting her next step.

Kat looked between Leo's hand on her wrist and his face. Her harsh stare made him let go but she didn't move.

"That's Piper," Kat raised her brows, "She broke her ankle when we crashed," Leo closed the space between him and Kat, crossing the threshold of the door. His voice was barely above a whisper and his eyes never left Kat's as he spoke, "I'm no doctor but she wouldn't have been able to walk from up there," Leo pointed.

Kat leaned towards him, his body heat began warming her chilled bones. She followed his finger and saw the edge of another catwalk inside the factory that was much higher than the one they had crossed outside.

Katarina cursed under her breath. The girl's cries continued and Kat scratched her forehead. How had she forgotten? Cyclopes could mimic voices. The first time Kat had seen one do it... Well, let's just say, Tyson was lucky that he was a friend.

"Stay close," Katarina didn't wait for Leo to protest or suggest something else. She walked further into the factory, her senses on high alert.

They stuck to the shadows. Every step Kat took, Leo took. She seemed to know what she was doing which filled him with an ounce of confidence. She ducked behind a cargo container and grabbed him by the front of his Camp Half-Blood shirt, pulling him down beside her.

Kat watched for a moment, looking for any sign of Ma Gasket and her one-eyed sons. Then with a wave of her hand, she stood slowly and went further into the factory with Leo on her tail, his hand gripping the hammer tightly.

She crouched behind a crane with a robotic arm, the assembly line was ahead of them. Leo crouched next to her and peeked around the machinery.

A massive truck engine dangled above the assembly line, suspended in the air by a chain from a crane. The truck chassis sat on the conveyor belt below, left incomplete when the factory was abandoned.

Katarina's grip tightened on her dagger. Ma Gasket sat beside the conveyor belt with her sons. One of her son's stood, Kat hadn't stuck around too long to learn their names, 'Dumb' and 'Dumber' was what Kat had called them to their mother earlier that day. There had been a 'Dumbest' but she hadn't lasted too long after meeting Kat.

Further along the assembly line, still in reach of the Cyclopes, hung two smaller things. At first glance Kat mistook them for engines in their early stages of construction, Leo thought the same. However, when one of the suspended things wiggled, Katarina realised that the engines were actually Leo's friends.

"Told you it was nothing," Ma Gasket's standing son, Dumb said. His voice sent a shiver down Leo's spine. He'd never heard something so feral and inhuman.

Dumber shifted, making himself more comfortable, "Leo, help me! Help!" The cyclops mimicked Piper's voice. It was unsettling. "Bah, there's nobody out there," Dumber spoke in his own voice, he sounded almost identical to his brother. "No demigod could be that quiet, eh?".

His brother chuckled and the ground rumbled. "Probably ran away, like that daughter of Ares," He chuckled again. Leo glanced at Kat, scanning his eyes over her face as if he couldn't believe she was a child of the war god. He did believe it, he just assumed she'd be a daughter of Aphrodite. She was possibly the prettiest girl he'd ever seen. "Or the girl was lying about a third demigod," The Cyclops pondered, "Let's get cooking".

A bright orange light sizzled to life with a snap, temporarily blinding the two demigods behind the crane. Leo ducked behind the machinery and Kat rubbed her eyes.

Katarina peeked around the machinery once the spots had cleared from her eyes. She could feel the warmth of the fire spreading across the factory and with Leo standing behind her, peering over her shoulder and his body heat radiating off him, there was no chance of Kat getting hypothermia.

The fire, which was surviving off kerosene doused tyres and wood, burned on the conveyor belt in the bed of an unfinished pickup truck. Above the flames there was a huge metal pole that acted as a spit. Ma Gasket had set that up long before Kat had arrived at Monocle Motors.

"Is that-'' Leo's voice made goosebumps raise on the back of Katarina's neck. He was too close. If there weren't three Cyclopes in front of them about to eat his friends, Kat would have elbowed him in his stomach.

"Your friends? Yes," Kat answered. "And Ma Gasket," Venom laced Kat's voice. She hated the Cyclops.

Leo's friends dangled upside down above the assembly line. The chain that was tied around their ankles wrapped around their bodies, cocooning them up to their necks. Piper was wiggling around, failing to free herself and her mouth was gagged to stop her from warning Leo of the danger inside the factory. Leo's other friend, a blonde boy, was unconscious. His eyes were rolled back in his head and there was an apple size red welt swollen over his left brow.

Under the lit flames, Leo realised what they were up against. The Cyclopes were ten feet tall and hairy. Their muscular bodies glowed red in the firelight and they wore clothes that looked far from comfortable; a chainmail loincloth and a fuzzy toga made of fibreglass insulation.

Just as Leo's warmth radiated off him, so did his fear. He took a quiet step back from Kat and she turned. She'd fight the Cyclopes alone if she had too and she opened her mouth to tell Leo to head back outside to his dragon but stopped when he slipped his backpack off his back, sat it on the floor and slowly unzipped it.

"Do you have a plan?" Kat whispered.

Leo glanced up at her, he nodded. The uncertain look in his eyes made Kat wonder if 'attack and don't die' was the better plan of the two.

"Can I take her gag off now?" Dumb walked over to Piper. She squirmed. "I like it when they scream".

The question was directed at his mother who sat on the ground. Ma Gasket grunted and Dumb ripped the gag off Piper's mouth. She didn't scream, much to the Cyclops' disappointment.

Kat kept watch, glancing between the Cyclopes and Leo. Dumber poked at the fire, black smoke billowed towards the ceiling. Leo pulled a stack of tiny remote-control units from his backpack and a screwdriver from his tool belt.

Leo moved, whispering for Kat to keep an eye on their not so friendly friends. He found the crane's maintenance panel and got to work. Kat turned her attention back to the Cyclopes, Dumber was glaring at Piper. She still wasn't screaming.

"Scream, girl!" Dumber demanded, "I like funny screaming!".

Piper spoke then. She was calm, much calmer than Kat expected, "Oh, Mr Cyclops, you don't want to kill us. It would be much better if you let us go".

Her words seemed to have some sort of effect on the Cyclops. Katarina smiled. Piper had to be a child of Aphrodite, Kat could almost feel Piper's words. Dumb scratched his head, thinking over Piper's words and turned to his brother.

"She's kind of pretty, Torque. Maybe I should let her go," Dumb said.

Dumber, aka Torque, growled, "I saw her first, Sump. I'll let her go!".

The brothers began arguing back and forth. Ma Gasket rose, irritated at her sons. She was much bigger than Sump and Torque. Her matted greasy black hair that was woven with copper wires and metal washers and her awful fashion sense would have made Aphrodite faint. She stalked over to Sump and pushed him aside, he fell over the conveyor belt and Torque backed away from his mother.

"The girl is Venus spawn," Ma Gasket snarled. She glared at Piper, "She's using charmspeak on you". Piper began speaking and Ma Gasket roared. She grabbed Piper around her waist. Katarina didn't blink, the Cyclops could just bite the demigod's head straight off like a candy bar. "Don't try your pretty talk on me, girl!" Ma Gasket's voice doomed around the factory, "I'm Ma Gasket! I've eaten heroes tougher than you for lunch!".

She dropped Piper and the girl swung back and forth. Ma Gasket turned back to her sons to berate them. Katarina looked over at Leo, he had snuck behind another crane. He was out of sight but closer to the Cyclopes. His hands worked swiftly, twisting wires and flicking switches.

"Can we eat her last, Ma?" Piper's charmspeak still seemed to be working.

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

"Soft heart?" Torque muttered.

Ma Gasket's eye glowed with anger, "What was that, you ingrate?" Ma Gasket asked.

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

"And you should be grateful!" Ma Gasket's voice echoed throughout the factory. It made Kat's ears ring. "Now, stoke the fire, Torque!" Ma Gasket ordered, "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. Ma Gasket growled, "I mean no, Ma. I mean-".

Ma Gasket picked up a truck chassis and slammed it over Sump's head. "Go get it!" Ma Gasket shouted. Sump fell to his knees, momentarily stunned by the head hit from his mother.

Kat glanced over at Leo, he looked at her then, feeling her gaze on him. He mouthed that he was almost done and pointed to a third crane as he finished wiring the second.

Sump pushed the chassis off his head and staggered to his feet. His footsteps rumbled the entire factory as he ran to the next warehouse to fetch his mother's salsa. Taking that as his opening, Leo ran to the next crane. The Cyclopes were separated and Ma Gasket was distracted by her idiot sons but Piper, who was still trying to free herself, spotted Leo as he snuck along the shadows.

Piper gasped, her expression a mix of terror and disbelief. Ma Gasket turned to her, "What's the matter, girl? So fragile I broke you?" Ma Gasket asked.

Averting her gaze from Leo, Piper responded quickly. "I think it's my ribs, ma'am. If I'm busted up inside, I'll taste terrible".

Piper gasped again. Katarina was impressed by her quick thinking, Ma Gasket hadn't even glanced over at the crane. Kat just hoped Leo had time to finish whatever he was doing before Ma Gasket decided to eat without her salsa.

Ma Gasket bellowed and the fire flickered, "Good one," Ma Gasket laughed again, "The last hero we ate – remember him, Torque? Son of Mercury, wasn't he?".

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

Katarina grimaced. Stringy was not how she wanted to be described. Ma Gasket told Piper that the Son of Mercury had tried the same trick on them, he said he was on medication that would make him taste disgusting but Ma Gasket disagreed. He tasted fine, no different to any other demigod.

"Tasted like mutton," Torque recalled, Ma Gasket nodded agreeingly. "Purple shirt. Talked in Latin. Yes, a bit stringy, but good".

Leo's hands froze on the maintenance panel for a split second but he quickly forced himself back to work. He was running out of time. The 'purple shirt' and 'Latin' didn't go over Kat's head either. When she first encountered Ma Gasket earlier that day, the Cyclops had called her 'the daughter of Mars' before Kat corrected her with her father's Greek name.

"Purple shirt? Latin?" Piper asked.

"Good eating," Ma Gasket said, "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," Ma Gasket stated.

Kat looked over at Leo again. If he wasn't done soon, Katarina thought she'd have to follow through with her very thought out plan of 'attack and don't die". He wasn't working on the maintenance panel anymore, he seemed to have finished that part, instead he summoned some wires, a radio adapter and a smaller screwdriver from his toolbelt and began building something.

Piper continued talking, laying on the praise, "Oh, I've heard about the northern Cyclopes! I never knew you were so big and clever!" Piper sounded convincing, Torque seemed to be flattered by her words.

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

Lovely, Kat thought. If Piper is going to be eaten, at least she's going to be eaten by the best Cyclopes around.

"But aren't Cyclopes good?" Piper asked. She was keeping them talking and their attention off her friend, "I thought you made weapons for the gods".

"Bah! I'm very good," Ma Gasket countered, "Good at eating people. Good at smashing. And good at building things, yes," Ma Gasket's son nodded in agreement, "but not for the gods. Our cousins, the elder Cyclopes, they do this, yes. 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. Morons!".

Kat was reminded of Polyphemus, a southern Cyclops she'd encountered in the summer when she followed her sister Clarisse across the Sea of Monsters to retrieve the Golden Fleece. His sheep were the human eating kind.

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

Katarina's blood ran cold as if someone had injected ice into her veins. Her hands were clammy and there was a burning below her rib. She wanted to believe that Ma Gasket was angry about the war that ended with Kronos being sliced into pieces by his son but the tightening knot in her stomach told her otherwise... But that wasn't possible.

Torque's voice brought Katarina back to earth, "Squeaky war hammer!" Katarina wasn't sure what Piper said but Torque grinned as he picked up a large pole with a metal box on the end and slammed it against the floor. The cement cracked and the crane beside Kat rattled.

"Terrifying," Piper said.

Torque's grin grew, "Not as good as the exploding axe, but this one can be used more than once".

Using the gift she'd inherited from her mother, Piper asked, "Can I see it?" Torque nodded, excited to show Piper the weapon he'd made, "If you could just free my hands-".

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

Times up. If Leo wasn't ready, Kat had to act.

Kat tucked her dagger into the sheath on her thigh. Leo looked over at her and shook his head as if he could read her thoughts. All he needed was a couple more minutes, minutes that Kat was willing to give him by distracting the Cyclopes.

"Hey, wait," Piper squirmed, she was still trying to free herself, "Hey, can I just ask-".

The wires sparked in Leo's hands. His eyes went wide, the Cyclopes froze. The factory fell silent for a moment, the crackling of the fire was all Katarina heard and then Torque picked up a truck and hurled it at Leo.

authors note!!
🗡️ here's a little (it's one of the longest chapters i've written in ages) update for valentine's day.
🗡️ i would like to say that act one may be a little confusing at first but once my love thalia comes into the story things will make a lot more sense.
🗡️ anyways, i hope you enjoyed this. there's more to come!