Bianca and I ended up next to each other, hiding behind a broken chariot.
"You took something," I said. "That bow."
"No!" she said, but her voice was quivering.
"Give it back!" I said. "Throw it down!"
"I… I didn't take the bow! Besides, it's too late."
"What did. you take?"
Before she could answer, I heard a massive creaking noise, and a shadow blotted out the sky.
"Move!" I tore down the hill, Bianca right behind me, as the giant's foot smashed a crater in the ground where we'd been hiding.
"Hey, Talos!" Grover yelled, but the monster raised his sword, looking down at Bianca and me.
Grover played a quick melody on his pipes. Over at the highway, the downed power lines began to dance. I understood what Grover was going to do a split second before it happened. One of the poles with power lines still attached flew toward Talos's back leg and wrapped around his calf The lines sparked and sent a jolt of electricity up the giant's backside.
Talos whirled around, creaking and sparking. Grover had bought us a few seconds.
"Come on!" I told Bianca. But she stayed frozen. From her pocket, she brought out a small metal figurine, a statue of a god. "It… it was for Nico. It was the only statue he didn't have."
"How can you think of Mythomagic at a time like this?" I said.
There were tears in her eyes.
"Throw it down," I said. "Maybe the giant will leave us alone."
She dropped it reluctantly, but nothing happened.
The giant kept coming after Grover. It stabbed its sword into a junk hill, missing Grover by a few feet, but scrap metal made an avalanche over him, and then I couldn't see him anymore.
"No!" Thalia yelled. She pointed her spear, and a blue arc of lightning shot out, hitting the monster in his rusty knee, which buckled. The giant collapsed, but immediately started to rise again. It was hard to tell if it could feel anything. There weren't any emotions in its half-melted face, but I got the sense that it was about as ticked off as a twenty-story-tall metal warrior could be.
He raised his foot to stomp and I saw that his sole was treaded like the bottom of a sneaker. There was a hole in his heel, like a large manhole, and there were red words painted around it, which I deciphered only after the foot came down: FOR MAINTENANCE ONLY.
"Crazy-idea time," I said.
Bianca looked at me nervously. "Anything."
I told her about the maintenance hatch. "There may be a way to control the thing. Switches or something. I'm going to get inside."
"How? You'll have to stand under its foot! You'll be crushed"
"Distract it," I said. "I'll just have to time it right."
Bianca's jaw tightened. "No. I'll go."
"You can't. You're new at this! You'll die."
"It's my fault the monster came after us," she said. "It's my responsibility. Here." She picked up the little god statue and pressed it into my hand. "If anything happens, give that to Nico. Tell him… tell him I'm sorry."
"Bianca, no!"
But she wasn't waiting for me. She charged at the monster's left foot.
Thalia had its attention for the moment. She'd learned that the giant was big but slow. If you could stay close to it and not get smashed, you could run around it and stay alive. At least, it was working so far.
Bianca got right next to the giant's foot, trying to balance herself on the metal scraps that swayed and shifted with his weight.
Zoe yelled, "What are you doing?"
"Get it to raise its foot!" she said.
Zoe shot an arrow toward the monster's face and it flew straight into one nostril. The giant straightened and shook its head.
"Hey, Junk Boy!" I yelled. "Down here."
I ran up to its big toe and stabbed it with Riptide. The magic blade cut a gash in the bronze.
Unfortunately, my plan worked. Talos looked down at me and raised his foot to squash me like a bug. I didn't see what Bianca was doing. I had to turn and run. The foot came down about two inches behind me and I was knocked into the air. I hit something hard and sat up, dazed. I'd been thrown into an Olympus-Air refrigerator.
The monster was about to finish me off, but Grover somehow dug himself out of the junk pile. He played his pipes frantically, and his music sent another power line pole whacking against Talos's thigh. The monster turned. Grover should've run, but he must've been too exhausted from the effort of so much magic. He took two steps, fell, and didn't get back up.
"Grover!" Thalia and I both ran toward him, but I knew we'd be too late.
The monster raised his sword to smash Grover. Then he froze.
Talos cocked his head to one side, like he was hearing strange new music. He started moving his arms and legs in weird ways, doing the Funky Chicken. Then he made a fist and punched himself in the face.
"Go, Bianca!" I yelled.
Zoe looked horrified. "She is inside?"
The monster staggered around, and I realized we were still in danger. Thalia and I grabbed Grover and ran with him toward the highway. Zoe was already ahead of us. She yelled, "How will Bianca get out?"
The giant hit itself in the head again and dropped his sword. A shudder ran through his whole body and he staggered toward the power lines.
"Look out!" I yelled, but it was too late.
The giant's ankle snared the lines, and blue flickers of electricity shot up his body. I hoped the inside was insulated. I had no idea what was going on in there. The giant careened back into the junkyard, and his right hand fell off, landing in the scrap metal with a horrible CLANG!
His left arm came loose, too. He was falling apart at the joints.
Talos began to run.