Percy Jackson x Reader-The Battle of the Labyrinth

Chapter 16

Percy's POV
I thought we'd lost the spider until Tyson heard a faint pinging sound. We made a few turns, backtracked a few times, and eventually found the spider banging its tiny head on a metal door.

(Y/N) went to go pick up the spider as we all just stared at the door that would lead us to Hephaestus. The door looked like one of those old-fashioned submarine hatches-oval, with metal rivets around the edges and a wheel for a doorknob. Where the portal should've been was a big brass plaque, green with age, with a Greek Êta inscribed in the middle.

We all looked at each other. (Y/N) gave the spider to Nico before she walked up to the door and placed her hands on the wheel.

"Well, ready to meet Hephaestus?" She asked with a tired smile.

"No," I admitted.

"Yes!" Tyson said gleefully, and helped (Y/N) turned the wheel.

As soon as the door opened, the spider jumped out of Nico's hand and scuttled inside with Tyson right behind it. The rest of us followed, not quite as anxious.

The room was enormous. It looked like a mechanic's garage, with several hydraulic lifts. Tools hung along the walls. Each had its own outline on a Peg-Board, but nothing seemed to be in the right place. The hammer was over the screwdriver place. The staple gun was where the hacksaw was supposed to go.

Under the nearest hydraulic lift, which was holding a '98 Toyota Corolla, a pair of legs stuck out-the lower half of a huge man in grubby gray pants and shoes even bigger than Tyson's. One leg was in a metal brace. 

The spider scuttled straight under the car, and the sounds of banging stopped.

"Well, well," a deep voice boomed from under the Corolla. "What have we here?"

"Hey Hephaestus." (Y/N) called out to him.

The mechanic pushed out on a back trolley and sat up. I'd seen Hephaestus once before, briefly on Olympus, so I thought I was prepared, but his appearance made me gulp.

I guess he'd cleaned up when I saw him on Olympus, or used magic to make his form seem a little less hideous. Here in his own workshop, he apparently didn't care how he looked.

He work a jumpsuit smeared with oil and grime. Hephaestus, was embroidered over the chest pocket. His leg creaked and clicked in its metal brace as he stood, and his left shoulder was lower than his right, so he seemed to be leaning even when he was standing up straight. His head was misshapen and bulging. He wore a permanent scowl. His black beard smoked and hissed. Every once in a while a small wildfire would erupt in his whiskers then die out. His hands were the size of catcher's mitts, but he handled the spider with amazing skill. 

"(Y/N) Solace." Hephaestus looked at her and smiled a little.  

He disassembled the spider in two seconds, then put it back together.

"There," he muttered to himself. "Much better."

The spider did a happy flip in his palm, shot a metallic web at the ceiling, and went swinging away.

Hephaestus glowered up at us. 

"You brought some company." 

(Y/N) smiled up at him.

"They're friends of mine."

Hephaestus looked at us.

"I didn't make you, did I?"

Annabeth looked at (Y/N), who only shrugged.

"Uh," Annabeth said, "no, sir."

"Good," the god grumbled. "Shoddy workmanship."