Son of the Moon

40

-Percy-

After a few minutes of beating from grandma Hera, resulting in many broken bones and lost teeth for Janus, the spell holding himself, Bianca, and Amanda in place wore off. "I have got to have Hephaestus make me one of these." Hera said with a wide grin, swinging around the ichor soaked Kanabo.

When he saw the queen of the gods move to take the traitor away he held up a hand, "Hold up Grandma, I have something I want to do to him."

She raised an eyebrow but stood aside a step as he walked over to the bastard who looked up at him nervously, "Wha ar yu gonn do?" the left head garbled out through the missing teeth, the right head currently knocked out.

"This is for what you were trying to put my brother through you bastard." He snarled, gripping his spear and making good on his promise to prevent anymore demigod children of Janus for a few decades until the bastard healed naturally with godly energy. The pain from castration via spear was enough to make the left head join the right in the realm of unconsciousness. Turning back to his family he saw Hera, Bianca, and Amanda nodding approvingly while Nico looked decidedly green.

"Thanks for your help Grandma." Bianca chirped happily, hugging the goddess of marriage as the queen of Olympus return the gesture before doing the same with himself, Nico, and Amanda.

"You're welcome children." Hera said lovingly as she handed him back his Kanabo, after cleaning it on Janus' robe. "But that wasn't all the help I'm giving. Every century or two the gods are allowed to grant a wish to heroes on a quest and I've come to offer one to you all. That, and some free information and a bit of advice."

"Can we have the advice first Grandma?" he asked, grateful for what she was doing for them.

"Of course dear." She said, kissing his forehead tenderly "My advice is to seek out my son, Hephaestus at his forge. Daedalus was one of the greatest inventors in history and, up until recently, was the mortal that my son respected the most outside of his own children. If anyone could have told you the fate of Daedalus it would be him."

"At least now we have a heading." He said with a nod, the others giving him relieved grins now that they had at least some form of direction to go.

"And as for the information…" Hera trails off slightly, as if unsure how much she would be able to tell him "the Labyrinth is the strongest source of the Mist in existence, that's how it changes. The Mist is so strong that the changes it makes to itself become real. I'm sorry, but that is all I can tell you."

"It's still more than we had before. Thank you Grandma." He told her seriously.

"So is Percy the one who gets the wish?" Nico asked after a moment as Hera nodded.

Taking his time, he sat down on a marble block that looked like it had once been part of a column. He knew that this wish would be important and could even effect the success of the quest. Remembering a line from the prophecy he turned to his grandmother, "I wish for an item that will allow me to contain and bind spirits and undead."

Hera nodded, "A wise choice given the prophecy. I shall have Hecate make something if she doesn't already have an item that fits your request. Stay safe children."

"We will." Bianca promised, his girlfriend leaning into his side as Amanda hugged Nico from behind at the same time "With the four of us together the monsters down here don't stand a chance."

"That's my girl." Hera said with a grin before vanishing in another flash of light.

When the light faded he saw that the two doors were gone and replaced by empty tunnels, "So which way?" Nico asked him as they stated at the two paths open to them.

"I…have no clue." He admitted sheepishly as the others sighed.

"Flip a drachma?" Amanda asked, pulling out a golden Olympian coin "Heads we go right tails we go left?"

"I don't have a better idea so sure." He nodded as the daughter of Hermes flipped the coin into the air before it landed with a clink, tails side up.

"Left it is." He nodded as Amanda scooped up her coin again and they set off.

The good news, the left tunnel was completely straight. There were no twists, no turns, no side exits, and, most importantly, no traps.

The bad news, the left tunnel became a dead end, a pile of stones from a cave in blocking their path.

The worse news, halfway down the tunnel they heard something big coming towards them from the way they came.

Moving quickly, he began grabbing the stones and tossing them back down the corridor, hoping to clear an escape route. Nico quickly joined him as did Amanda and Bianca as the pile of rocks grew steadily smaller and the sound of their pursuer grew steadily louder. Finally, though he saw the Delta symbol of the Labyrinth and forced his hand into the gap to hit it as the door opened, the rest of the rocks falling through the new opening, carrying them along with it, and closing behind them, sealing their pursuer on the other side.

"We…made…it." Nico groaned out in relief, the adrenaline wearing off now that they were out of the Labyrinth.

"Yeah…but where are we?" Amanda asked confused as they looked around what looked like a prison cell.

Taking a moment to focus on his surroundings he frowned at the ocean that surrounded them and what ocean it was. Putting together the clues he stated his deduction, "Alcatraz. We're on Alcatraz."

"How do you know?" the daughter of Hermes asked him confused.

"I can sense that we're in the pacific and where in it." He answered "That combined with the prison bars is a pretty good indicator."

"Well, Alcatraz or not, I don't feel like using that entrance to get back into the Labyrinth." Amanda responded, pulling some lock picks out of her pouch and kneeling in front of the cell door. It took a couple of minutes but she got the door open as they slowly crept through the halls.

"Stay low and stay quite." He whispered, eyes darting left and right "I have a bad feeling about this place." Bianca saw the source of his unease first as she threw a hand out, stopping him as she pulled them all flat against a wall.

"What is that?" Amanda asked horrified as they gazed upon a truly horrifying monster.

From the waist up the demon in front of them took the form of a woman with simple armor being the only thing she wore. From the waist down she had the body of a dragon, at least twenty feet long if not more. Her scales were a shiny ebony, as dark as midnight with claws, spikes, and barbs that gleamed of ivory. Her legs and her hair writhed as he looked closer and saw that her hair was made of writhing black vipers which also covered her legs. Folded against her back were a pair of giant bat wings which he knew would, despite all natural laws, give her flight. Finally, the part of her body where woman met dragon bubbled and rippled, the heads of different animals forming from it only to recede.

"Kampe," He breathed in horror, "The Seventh most Dangerous monster alive."

"Seventh?!" Amanda hissed in terror, "What could be worse than that thing?"

"Briares, last of the hundred handed ones." He began listing off "The three elder cyclopes, a sea serpent named Cetus which dwarfs the empire state building, and Typhon himself. Luckily Briares and the elder Cyclopes are friendly and loyal to Olympus."

"I thought they'd faded though." Bianca said with a frown, "Or at least gone to sleep in some far away pit."

"The elder Cyclopes are missing." He admitted "But Briares has been sighted here and there over the years."

"Including here." Nico said grimly, pointing at cell Kampe speaking into, although the language she used eluded him, and he saw a sobbing figure of a Hundred handed one.

They remained in dead silence as they waited for Kampe to finish speaking before she moved over to the railing, spreading her bat wings and flying off somewhere. "Let's go." He ordered "Briares might be able to help us but even if he can't we should at least get him out of here." The others nodding in agreement they made their way over to the cell which held one of the most powerful beings alive.