Shattered

Junk

Ares smiled, enjoying the attention. "Oh, I doubt she wants to meet the rest of you. Particularly not them." He jutted his chin toward Zoe and Bianca. "Why don't you all go get some tacos while you wait? It'll only take Percy a few minutes."

"We will not leave him alone with thee, Lord Ares," Zoe said.

"Then stay, Huntress. Aphrodite would like to speak with thee too."

The mocking tone in his voice was more than obvious.

"Besides," Thalia managed, "the taco place is closed."

Ares snapped his fingers again.

The lights inside the taqueria suddenly blazed to life. The boards flew off the door and the CLOSED sign flipped to OPEN.

"You were saying, Sparky?"

"Go on," Percy told his friends. "We'll handle this."

Nodding reluctantly, the three girls made their way into the newly reopened taco shop.

"Why do you think Ares needed Zoe and Percy?"

The question came from Thalia.

"It probably wasn't Ares that requested the audience," Annabeth began. "It could have been Aphrodite."

Thalia nodded in agreement, "I hope she isn't up to something."

"What would the goddess of love need, with one of Lady Artemis' Hunters? Especially, Zoe. She's the lieutenant."

That was Bianca, voicing her concerns.

Thalia shrugged, walking forward to the counter to place an order.

"Might as well eat something while we wait..."

Annabeth followed, looking at the menu.

Bianca chose not to. For some reason, she had a feeling that something was about to go wrong.

Try as she might, she couldn't shake that feeling away.

Suddenly she felt her vision blur and the world did a three-sixty, spinning in a cloud of red dust.

She fell to the ground.

When she stood up again, she was no longer in the taco shop. The whole town of Gila Claw was gone. She and her friends were standing in the middle of the junkyard, mountains of scrap metal stretched out in every direction.

Turning to Percy and Zoe, Bianca asked, "What did Ares want from you?"

Percy blinked his eyes to get rid of the grogginess, "Oh. Ares wasn't the one who was interested in us. It was Aphrodite."

Zoe spoke up, "She said to be careful in her husband's junkyard. Said not to pick anything up."

"Anything else? I don't think she would make a special trip just to tell you two that, Thalia said.

"Well Aphrodite mentioned she wanted to fix Zoe's English"

Bianca stared at Percy like he had grown a second head.

"It is true," Zoe began, "Although I do not see the practical use in changing my speaking patterns, I do suppose it could be an advantage."

"Are you sure she did anything?" Thalia rolled her eyes, "That sounded pretty old English to me."

Zoe rolled her eyes back at the daughter of Zeus. "How about go f-word yourself?"

Thalia diverted her eyes towards Percy, "Did she just say 'f-word? '"