anti hero - percy jackson ²

xvii. twins

"we've got to save nico."

Percy took the lead as they crawled down the drainage pipe. Cassandra followed closely behind, her hand on her bracelet, ready to tap it at any given moment.

After thirty feet it opened into a wider tunnel. To their left, somewhere in the distance she could hear rumbling and creaking, like a large machine needed oiling. She had no desire to go that way, which naturally meant that they went that way.

They walked for several hundred feet before reaching a turn in the tunnel. Percy held up his hand, telling them to wait, and peeked around the corner.

"What is it?" Piper whispered.

Percy didn't respond, and just gestured for them to take a look.

The corridor opened into a vast room with twenty-foot ceilings and rows of support columns. The creaking and rumbling came from huge gears and pulley systems that raised and lowered sections of the floor. Water flowed through open trenches, powering waterwheels that turned some of the machines. Other machines were connected to huge hamster wheels with hellhounds inside. Suspended from the ceiling were cages filled with live animals—a lion, several zebras, a whole pack of hyenas, and even an eight-headed hydra. Ancient-looking bronze and leather conveyor belts trundled along with stacks of weapons and armor.

About twenty feet inside the doorway, a life-size wooden cutout of a gladiator popped up from the floor. It clicked and whirred along a conveyor belt, got hooked on a rope, and ascended through a slot in the roof.

"What the heck?" Jason murmured.

"Look" Percy said, his arm extended in front of him.

He was pointing at a raised dais with two empty oversized praetor chains about a hundred yards away. Standing between them was a bronze jar big enough to hold a person.

Piper frowned. "That's too easy."

"Of course" Percy said.

"But we have no choice" Jason said. "We've got to save Nico."

"Yeah" Percy agreed, and motioned for them to follow him.

The four of them started across the room, picking their way around conveyor belts and moving platforms. The hellhounds paid them no attention, too busy running and panting, and the rest of the animals just gave them bored looks.

They jumped over a water trench and ducked under a row of caged wolves. They had made it about halfway to the bronze jar when the ceiling opened over them. A platform lowered. Standing on it like an actor, with one hand raised and his head high, was the purple-haired giant Ephialtes.

He matched Percy's description of him, and stood at at least twelve feet tall. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, where the design was made up of dying heroes, horrible tortures, and lions eating slaves in the Colosseum. His hair was braided with gold and silver coins, and had a ten-foot spear strapped to his back. He wore bright white jeans on his feet? They looked more like curved snakeheads, who flicked their tongues and writhed as if they didn't appreciate holding the weight of a giant.

Ephialtes smiled at the group of demigods. "At last!" He bellowed. "So very happy! Honestly, I didn't think you'd made it past the nymphs, but it's so much better that you did. Much more entertaining. You're just in time for the main event!"

Jason moved so he was standing on Cassandra's right. Piper got the idea and positioned herself on Percy's left. Despite Ephialtes being smaller than a lot of monsters she had faced, something about him still made her skin crawl. The giant's eyes danced with a crazy light that definitely couldn't mean anything good.