PERCY

The tunnel to Gizmones's lair wasn't meant for normal sized people.

Percy and his friends crawled down the cramped tunnel down to where the little dwarf 'works his magic'. Whatever that meant, it probably meant more rapid-fire weapons. Giz stepped down just fine, but the others were giants; scraping against the dirt ceiling and bumping into the tiny low-energy light bulbs—Rainbow was too reckless and ended up being tangled in exposed power cables.

The time finally came—and it was a very happy time. Percy came out of the tunnel and crawled out onto a muddy welcome mat. The others fallowed behind him; Spike broke free and shook off the dry dirt that littered his fur. Rainbow fell out last, with a few cords around her torso and shoulders. When Gizmones the dwarf turned around, he fumed.

"Why you little—! Don't do that!" he kicked the floor angrily. Rainbow climbed to her legs and untangled the cords that covered her body.

"It was cramped up there, okay?!" she complained. "Why don't you make a bigger front door, huh?"

"I don't normally have human visitors in my humble-abode! Be more careful! It's not easy routing up your own power source!" he grumbled. He waddled forward grumbling to himself. Giz didn't seem so friendly once he spent more than thirty-seconds with them. He probably doesn't hangout with people much.

Percy brushed off some dry dirt off his arm and looked around. His eyes expanded with bewilderment—this place was MASSIVE. Percy understood why the tunnel-crawl down was so long; Gizmones's place was what looked like an abandoned mine that was as big and expansive as a military hanger. All across the stone floor was a maze of metal parts the piled up on each other, creating little pathways to the different areas of the old mine. He wasn't whether it was left like this, or if Giz made it this big himself.

Percy looked up, and saw all kinds of things hanging from the ceiling—things he couldn't really make out. Big heaps of metal parts were welded and screwed together and were dangling from the stone ceiling—the stone ceiling itself didn't look very solid, and might crumble under anymore weight. They looked like metal sculptures; works of art perhaps.

Giz took a big hearty sigh as he looked on at his underground workshop.

"Aint' my place awesome?" he ruffled his overhauls. "This is the result of years of time, patients, artistic vision, and loads of takeout. What do you all think?" he asked. Twilight strolled up, and smiled faintly.

"Wow. It's all very...expensive? This must have cost a lot—I'm impressed."

Giz smiled. "You bet your little boots you are," he stroked his brown, curly beard, "I need a lot of space to make my creations. Of course, I can only sell my creations in a private market; it's not as busy as I'd like it, but it serves me well enough to get what I need."

Nico walked up, sniffing the cool air. "There's a lot of things in here," Nico said, eyeing the flat-nosed truck sticking out of a metal junk pile. "How do you pay for all of this?"

Giz turned his way and gave Nico a cocky grin.

"Pay? Who said anything about pay? No my boy, all this here you see is all free!" he hollered, and his cry echoed throughout the former mine. "I take junk no one wants and make it into something great. Like robots! I love robots. Don't you love robots too?" He questioned the group's opinion. Rainbow shuttered uncomfortably.

"No. Not recently."

"Yeah you do." Giz ignored. The dwarf's eyes suddenly lit up with excitement. "And speaking of robots!" Giz added, "I want to show you all something! Come!" he pranced off gleefully. Everyone looked at each other with confusion. They trotted forward anyway, taking in this unusual atmosphere.

While they fallowed Giz, they took in this environment's aroma—and it had one alright: crude oil and air freshener. Percy scanned around the room filled with junk—and it all looked like junk. Rusty cars were laying around half-broken or half dismantled. Dishwashers, water heaters, giant industrial engines, and so many other things. All were swept up and stuffed into little piled walls that formed little pathways around the room.

Percy looked up at the ceiling; those things hanging up there must have been the things he worked on with all of these 'free parts' of his. Giz was either the greatest master thief of garbage ever, or a very clever dumpster diver. Or probably both.

But one thing was certain about this place was how frigged it was inside. As they walked farther into the huge room, the temperature was dropping dramatically. So cold, Percy was starting to see his own breath. Rainbow picked up on this too. She was rubbing her arms looking around anxiously.

"What's the deal with the AC, man?" Rainbow asked, on the verge of shivering.

Giz looked like he woke up from spacing off. "What? Oh, right. My cat doesn't like how hot it can get down here. I installed my own four-turbine cooling system down here. Now my cat feels comfortable."

That answer didn't quell Rainbow's annoyance with the temperature.

Giz took them into another room—it was a little smaller. Motion-censured iron doors slid open as they all entered, and then closed behind them. The room Percy walked into was a lot smaller, but it was still pretty big. The room was about half the size of a gymnasium, with dwarf-sized iron steps that led up to an installed grated platform—it looked wide enough and it was full of equipment, that maybe that's where he worked on his projects.

The room looked a little more "homey" to say the least. Stringed lights that looked like Christmas lights were sloppily stapled along the walls. Posters of Rock-n-Roll bands were all over the walls and a few lava lamps were on chipped dressers—and some didn't even have goo in them at all.

His floor was littered with stuff junk, clothes, and dozens of pizza boxes. Giz didn't look like the organized type, or even the most hygienic either. Seeing all of this stuff all over the floor really seem to distress Twilight. She was taking deep breaths to keep her mind off the mess.

Giz took off his hard hat and placed it on a very messy bed. His red hair fluffed out crazily when he took off his helmet. The dwarf jumped onto the bed and sighed as he decompressed.

"You kids like my joint? Classy right?"

"Yes... Classy." Twilight shuttered, trying to avoid the sight of the mess behind her. Giz nodded in agreement, but then he looked confused.

"Wait, why did I bring you in here again?"

Percy stepped forward, already getting the idea that he forgets a lot. "You said you wanted to show us something?"

"Hmm? Oh yes! I forget what I am doing sometimes!" he jumped up and ran for the tiny metal steps. "Since these stairs are to small for your enormous bodies, I'll go up and bring the lift down. It's also what I use to lift more found robots up there to be worked on, you know?" he mentioned. Giz pranced quickly up the little steps to the built in second floor.

Rainbow shivered while rubbing her arms. "What is this place?" She asked in a low toned voice. "And why is it so cold in here?"

Nico looked around suspiciously. "Gizmones said he keeps it cold in here for his cat." his ears twitched. "I don't know of any kind of cat that would need a cold environment like this."

"You think he's a little crazy?" Spike asked. "What the heck is he doing with all of this stuff?"

"He must have moved in whenever this mine was abandoned," Percy guessed. "But I'm still stoked as to how he was able to grow such a huge inventory."

"Or whatever he is doing with machine guns." Nico added.

"That is also a massive suspicion." Percy took note.

Rainbow looked like she came to something. "Wait, what if this is that janitor that went crazy?" She suggested. Everyone turned—more confused than agreed on.

"I'm sorry, what?" Percy tilted his head.

"It's an urban legend here" Rainbow explained, "but a janitor from a nearby town apparently went crazy; making little companions out of spare parts from who knows where. He would watch movies with them in utility closets. He disappeared, leaving behind a note saying something about 'mads' always watching everything he does."

Confused glares only displayed on everyone's faces. Rainbow must have realized that her story wasn't that helpful. She shuffled and rubbed her arm in embarrassment. "Well, that's what I've heard." she faltered.

Twilight came center. "Crazy, out of touch or not, Giz has been friendly enough to let us into his home. We have to find out why this area is indicated on the map. And I'm positive there is a reasonable reason why..."

Her speech was frozen by what was approaching them. The air in the room grew even colder. A low growl that sounded like a motor boat engine was coming from the large mining tunnel behind them. Percy slowly turned around while the others fallowed his move. Coming slowly out of the tunnel was a giant leopard creature that was as big as a rhino. Its crimson eyes zeroed in on Percy and his friends, aggressively exposing its teeth that looked like polished ice-stakes. And its blue fur was tipped with white faded ends.

The giant cat was slowly creeping out of the tunnel, with frost accumulating on the walls as the beast came closer. Snarling its giant teeth, it was slowly getting in a pouncing position. No one dared to move; because one move might set this thing off. Percy was slowly reaching his hand into his pouch to bring out Riptide, but the cat saw that as a threat.

Like a jacked-up frog, the beast leaped and tackled Percy. Sliding across the dusty rock floor, the cat dragged Percy around like a ragdoll. The others came to aid him, but the giant cat swatted Percy aside before they could get to him.

Percy tumbled away, groaning painfully once he stopped. He tried to stand back up, but he then noticed the cat about to pounce him again. Percy scrambled to get out Riptide. The cat was about to pounce at him again when Giz scampered down his little steps in a hurry.

"No! Iceberg! Don't eat my guests!"

The giant cat obeyed Giz's command completely. The others moved out of the way, and the cat turned to the dwarf's direction, and sat on its quarters obediently.

Giz gestured with his arms in approval. "Good Iceberg, good kitty." he praised. Iceberg looked at him with a reassuring stare. "See these guys? They're friends. We like friends."

Iceberg looked to Percy and tilted his head, like a curious kitten. He made his way to Percy, his paws stomping like an elephant.

Percy was about to run away, but Iceberg picked him up by the scruff—it still hurt like crazy though. Iceberg set Percy down next to the others, rubbing his neck.

"Good boy," Giz smiled. "You look like you want to stretch your legs, right?" Iceberg didn't reply, he only blinked slowly. "Yeah, you'd like to stretch your legs. Now how about you go to the old breaker room? All you're favorite toys are there."

Giz veered over to the control panel that was on the wall next to him. He flipped a switch and another iron door opened a distance away—with vapors poring in like it was a refrigerator. Iceberg's spiky tail shot up, and he jogged over and into the opening.

The door closed, and everyone immediately turned to Giz.

Giz looked to them with confusion. "What?" He wondered.

"Any particular reason why you have a giant cat in your house?" Rainbow's eye twitched.

"Who, Iceberg? I found him!" he claimed. "While vacationing up north, I found a little Iskatt cub all alone in the tundra. Poor little thing, Iskatts are rare to come by these days, I was lucky enough to find him a home. All I had to do was crank down the temperature a few double digits and he is as happy as can be." he crossed his arms and looked pleased with himself.

Everyone kind of took in this fact and tried to overlook it, but Percy sure wasn't. That thing could have eaten him. Percy wondered what could have possibly convinced Giz to adopt a beast like that. If he wasn't careful Iceberg just might eat him someday. Giz probably hasn't come across the reality that having exotic animals isn't the wisest choices to make—they don't just eat up all your resources, they could eat you too.

Trying to ignore the fact that Giz has a giant snow leopard walking freely around his indoor junkyard, they all fallowed Giz onto the lowered lift. Seeing as his stairs were too small to even walk up, the lift was a better option. Giz explained that he uses this lift to haul robots he found to his workshop that was up on this second level. Whatever he meant by 'finding robots' was out of Percy's way of thought. But whatever Giz said he had up there really excited him.

"I'm telling you, I caught a whopper the other day!" he exclaimed giddily, as the lift slowly elevated them up.

Rainbow leaned on the railing. "You're losing me on how you 'caught' it exactly." she said. "And who is making all of these robots you say you keep catching?"

"Eh, other craftsmen and forgers across the country. And sometimes car mechanics—believe me, I can tell." he explained. "You see, I made a little transmitter that sends a frequency out that no automaton can resist fallowing. Once they fallow it into that little signal into the quarry, they spring the trap. BLAM! My sentries scramble their circuitry to the point where they shutdown. I'm telling you, you were pretty lucky you survived that trap, because it would not be fun mopping up all your remains."

An uncomfortable silence hung. Percy did briefly wonder if that happened. After all the journeys he's been through, that would be a very brutal way to die.

Rainbow smirked, and playfully punched Twilight in her shoulder.

"All thanks to you, right?"

Twilight managed a little smile. "I suppose so. If I really did use magic to save us, then there must be a way to tap into it again. I wonder how I can though."

Giz raised a grimy eyebrow. "A magic user, eh? That's tricky stuff. Well I tell you, that stuff can come in handy sometimes—filling up the bullet holes in the robots I reel in." He said. "And speaking of robots I reel in...check out this baby I got!"

The platform had reached its limit, and right in front of them was something horrifyingly familiar. In the center of a concrete platform that was in the middle of the grated floor was a disabled colchis bull. Its bronze plating was turned into Swiss cheese by bullet gashes. Its ruby eyes were dark and turned off, and one of its stocky silver horns was blown off from the sentry's berague.

As much as Percy was astonished with this discovery, Rainbow was even more terrified.

"Scatter!" she screamed. She rolled behind a computer console for cover. Everyone was startled by Rainbow's action.

Giz covered his ears. "Leaping-leavers, Missy! What's your deal?!" he snapped.

"Get out of the way!" Rainbow ordered, with absolute fear in her eyes. "It's gonna ram you!"

"It's turned off!" Giz said. "It's not going to ram anyone."

Rainbow cautiously peeked around the side and looked at the bull. She calmed a little, but she was way wherry of it. Rainbow turned to Giz with a sharp scowl.

"What are you doing with that thing?"

"I found it!" Giz said. "It wandered into my trap the other day. I've been tinkering with it. It's off, so please, don't scream again." Giz grumbled.

Rainbow got up, and looked even more flustered than before. Percy knew that Nico had the same thought he did, What is this thing doing here?

Percy walked over and investigated the bronze bovine. Tracing his claws around the hard shoulders of this mechanical monster, he felt a sense of familiarity he could relate to in this world. Despite this thing being a menace if used in the wrong hands, Percy almost felt like a little piece of home was in front of him.

Twilight looked all around it in amazement, and even went looking inside the bull's mouth, seeing its mechanical interior.

"Look at this thing, Spike," she poked around its chomper. "Have you ever seen anything like it?"

Spike climbed all over the bull and sniffed around its plating. "It's like the biggest wined up toy I ever seen."

"And it's vicious," Rainbow warned, staying well away from it.

"How did it get here?" Percy said aloud, mostly asking Nico.

"Maybe the same way we did?" Nico rubbed his chin.

Percy knew this bull wasn't native to this world. What in the world—and this world—was this thing doing here. This thing was unfortunate enough to be tangled in these unforgiving outworldly politics. But Giz seemed to like it just fine.

Giz strolled over proudly and patted the bull's bronze hide. "Isn't this thing just awesome?" he slid his palm across it. "In all my years of engineering and scavenging, I've never seen such a thing before in my life. It's so compelling and intricate, not to mention beautifully shaped and crafted." Giz said, as he stuck his head through the open mouth of the bull. "Now, I want to know who made this thing. Whoever assembled this thing must be the master of robotics. Astonishing."

'Hephaestus.' The god's name floated across Percy's mind. A creation of Hephaestus was in this realm. A complete mystery on how as well.

Rainbow was still keeping her distance from the bull. Her arms were crossed and her gaze was very angry. Rainbow said she encountered a supposed colchis bull that terrorized her school, and burnt her arm. A colchis bull was right in front of him now; more proof than ever that Rainbow was telling the truth.

Percy didn't blame her for feeling a little uneasy, these things were dangerous.

Rainbow suddenly eyed something in the corner. Her face lit up with surprise. "Was that thing on its back?" She pointed. Percy turned to see what she was looking at. In the corner was a bent up cage. Percy wasn't so sure why she was so drawn to it.

Giz gave Rainbow a curious look. "Yeah, it was. How did you know that?"

Rainbow slowly looked down, and gave a longing look at the bull. "This was the bull that took Sunset away." she said. Her missing friend. Twilight and Spike were fully engaged.

"Sunset Shimmer?" Twilight winced. "Are you sure?"

"Positively." Rainbow answered. She then turned to Giz. "Please. Please tell me no one was in that cage when you caught this thing?" She asked shakily.

"Nope." Giz shook his head. "Not a living creature."

"Thank goodness." Rainbow sat down and gave a relieved sigh. But then she shot her head up in realization. "Wait a minute. That means it might have dropped her off somewhere. It might know where Sunset is!" She cried with joy.

"This thing took a friend of yours?" Giz wondered. He then looked to the bull, and his wrinkled face gave the indication that he had an idea.

"You know, I could poke around inside and see if this thing has an optical camera somewhere. Seeing how high-tech and advanced this beaut is, it would be dumb if it didn't."

"Video?" Twilight asked. "What's video? Do you mean a moving picture?"

Giz looked at Twilight, and tapped his fingers on the bull. "Old fashioned aren't you?" he pointed out. "But yeah, sure. I'll see what I can do."

Giz kept wires in his underwear drawer.

Scrambling up and down from floors to get cables, he stuck them in the back of the bull's head—that's where he said the capture footage was being stored. Percy figured Giz knew more about machines than he ever would, so he didn't bother to call him out on anything. In only a matter of minutes, the colchis bull was hooked up to Giz's computer console like a freak experiment in a sci-fi movie. Giz was already plunging in the last adjustments.

"Wow, this beast is very intricate," Giz wiped his head. "I've never seen a design like this before. Nothing here is simplistic in the slightest way. Whoever made this thing must be a freaking god among engineers!"

Percy resisted the urge to say the god's name.

Rainbow leaned on a railing, tapping her arm anxiously. "Is it almost done yet?" She asked.

"In a minute, Missy," Giz glared, as he plugged a sparking cable in a port in the bull's head. Rainbow held in her frustration. Twilight put her hand on Rainbow's shoulder, and that seemed to calm her down.

Giz had finished hooking up the mechanical bovine. He rolled back and forth on a beat up rolly-chair that was clearly too big for him, tightening up the points on the console and the bull. He then turned on his huge monitor—everyone crowded around the dwarf's screen.

Apparently in this world, desktops exist. His screen looked identical, but the wallpaper had bolded alien texts. Rainbow seemed to understand it, and tilted her head.

"Dwarf Pride?" she wondered.

Giz sneered. "I don't judge your personal life." he grumbled. After Giz said he obtained the footage. It turns out that a colchis bull's hardware was compatible with an alien desktop. Learn something new everyday.

The video footage appeared, and everyone watched with full focus. It was all in a thermal vision; Percy watched as figures with their heat-signatures showing were running around in so many directions. The audio to this was static in sound, but it was clear enough that it made out screams.

Percy recognized the characters on the heads-up display, they were ancient Greek letters, and they said very apprehensive things like, Sweeping for suspect. Hold for perimeter check. Commence aerial scan.

The footage continued, until only one thermal figure was visible. Red outlines and crosshairs were zeroing on it as it was running away. The footage then showed the figure cornered against a wall, trying desperately to find its escape. As the red crosshair circled the figure, the screen displayed very unnerving texts: Target: Located. Commencing subject retrieval. Objective: Complete.

The footage cut to another segment. The warm signature was knelt down in front of a dark blue signature, and a figure with no signature at all. The footage cut out before anything else could happen.

The video was cut, and the Dwarf Pride wallpaper returned. Speak was absent while all that sat in with everyone. Giz leaned back in his chair and rubbed his head in confusion.

"Well that was weird," he said. "I couldn't comprehend a thing."

"I can." Rainbow chided. "That was Sunset Shimmer. It took her away."

"And who were those guys in front of her at the end?"

"The ones who sent that bull to terrorize the school." Nico theorized.

Giz spun around in his chair and looked at the bull. "You mean this thing did that the other day?" Giz looked surprised. "I saw on the news that a crazy driver drove through it."

"That's what they saw. I didn't." Rainbow balled her fist.

"We have to find her." Twilight proposed. "She might be in real trouble."

Nico turned to her. "We only have so much time here," he reminded coldly. "We have less than two days to get to Akritai and find that stupid staff."

"Akritai?" Giz spun around again. "So you aren't just a bunch of holagens with a priceless item?"

"Of course not," Twilight frowned, looking offended. "We're on a mission to find Akritai."

"Who sent ya?"

"It's not important now," Twilight shook her head. "But we have to find it before time runs out."

"Now hold on a moment," Giz interrupted, "you all came here to see what was here, didn't you?"

"Yeah," Spike said, "the map said something was here. Well, as far as tiny dots go."

"Well, you got me a little curious too." Giz said. "Cause' I don't think I have anything particularly 'valuable' in context in my yard. If the map you have there has my little workshop as a mark on it, then there must be something of great importance here."

"Do you know what's in the map?" Rainbow wondered suspiciously.

"Know? Missy, that thing is a legend. It is probably one of the most ubiquitous creations in the world. Forged with more than one magic, and filled with the intelligence of hundreds of Akritain scholars. Speaking from someone who knows nothing about that sorcery mumbo-jumbo, I know that thing is very important" he explained, almost daydreaming. He stood up on his chair so he was as tall as everyone. "Mind if you open it up? I wanna see what's hiding in my mine from my eyes."

The map showed something else here that they didn't notice before.

After Giz was so eager to see the map in action, something new appeared. Once the map did its blue vapor light show, it zoomed in on their location. The little dot that marked this area revealed another finding. Very close by looked was something that looked like a large chamber. Giz pointed out that a tunnel in this old mine crossed paths with it.

Discovering this, Giz got excited. He said he never knew such a thing was close by. In only a few minutes, he strapped on a tool belt and a hardhat with a flashlight on. Giz led everyone over to a closed off tunnel entrance. The tunnel was decorated with plenty of welcoming signs that Percy assumed that they all said very welcoming things like, Step right up and win a car! Cookies inside! Come on in and book a room at Moldy Mines Inn! But seeing how many boards were blocked up on the entrance Percy got the feeling that their was no free prize inside.

After Giz broke through, everyone fallowed him through the dusty, dark mine. The air was damp, and the floor and walls were moist. Giz was leading the way with his helmet light as they went farther down. The air was increasingly getting cooler the farther down into the ground they went.

Giz was sniffing the damp air. "Nope, I don't smell any methane," he announced. "so no need for a canary bird."

"But lets not give our hopes up," Twilight warned. "We should still remain cautious."

Percy had Riptide out to give a little more light. Keeping his sword to the mine walls, he saw several insects crawling around. He also thought he saw Nico picking up a few and... Was he eating them?

As they continued down the path, Giz began telling stories about the map, and the place of Akritai.

"Do I know what Akritai is?" he referred to a question they asked him earlier, "It's a legend. One of the most glorious times to live in according to myth. By the way, is there any reason why you kids have this valuable map to begin with?"

"We're trying to find a relic," Twilight said, "a magic staff. We need it."

Giz shook his head. "Now I know is a myth, Missy." Giz denied. "Even if it was real, I don't think it still exists anymore. Not after what supposedly happened there." he said ominously. Rainbow's interest was high when he said that.

She looked over Twilight's shoulder. "What happened there?" Rainbow asked, sounding a little worried.

"Well, you ever heard the story of Prince Vlépon?" Giz stroked his curly beard.

"No. Who's he?" Rainbow wondered.

Giz began rubbing his ruff hands. "Well, I'll tell as much as I know." Giz said. "Legend says, Vlépon was the last ruler of Akritai. He was a bright young lad too—and he was certainly the most innovative." Giz told. "It's said that he and a few others made a staff with the combined power of native and rival magic.

That staff had incredible power. Power that could smother the strongest wizard or witch at their game. Such a powerful item wasn't unprotected though. It was kept under close watch by Vlépon, and he used the staff's power to expand his empire. While he was in charge, Akritai was said to be in its golden age. But, he was said to be Akritai's first of the best, and sadly the last." he concluded grimly.

Rainbow looked worried now. "W-What happened?"

Giz shrugged. "No one knows," he said, "A big storm was said to have swept the city away. Now I don't know if that is word, or if that's just poetry fluff. But either way, it's just a bedtime story now. I guess the moral is 'great things come and go'. No one has ever seen the staff since, or even think it existed at all. All of humanity has forgotten about it, and their belief in magic went away with Akritai's legacy. That's all I know."

Rainbow looked incredibly disheartened. She moved away, rubbing her arm with distress in her eyes. Percy was wondering why Rainbow seemed so moved by Giz's story.

Twilight looked more fascinated than upset. "Incredible. He crafted it. Is the staff still there?"

"I have no idea, Missy," Giz admitted, "I don't even know if it's even real. It's just a story."

"Every story has an origin," Nico stated. "Something has to be there."

"I can't say that I've been there," Giz said, "but since you do have that map, then I guess that makes you a legit bunch." he said.

A short while later, Giz led them to the end of the tunnel. Rainbow didn't need to bring out the map to see where to go next, because the breach in the wall explained everything. A pile of rocks lied at the base of the hole, leading to a finished stone hallway. This was an immediate indication that something really was here.

Giz got even more excited. "Wow! A finished hall!" he skipped. "If I only knew this was here! Maybe warning signs are really just a tool to hide treasure!" he strolled inside. Percy got the idea now that there must be a reason why this mine was abandoned, because this stone hallway showed signs that it was discovered before.

Walking through the cold stone walkway, Percy felt the feeling of eyes watching him. Though the ceiling was only a foot above his head, he still felt like he was the center of something's attention. It wasn't an easy feeling to ignore either.

Farther down the tunnel, some light was coming to view. Eventually they all came to the light, and the tunnel ended. What was at the end was a massive chamber—overgrown vegetation and neglect displayed itself all along the walls and floor. Beams of sunlight came down from the midday sun through a small opening from the ceiling a few stories above.

The walls were carved with figures, in positions like they were giving offerings. Roots and other plants were growing around them.

The whole room was about as big as a small plaza. Percy emerged from the stone hall and stepped down the cobblestone steps. His claws touched the dirty tile floor. Percy looked around the room; the single ray of light from the ceiling was slightly obstructed by a column that had fallen over. There were also two big statues of warriors holding giant axes that were fifteen-feet-tall on both sides of the room, silently standing direct. Giz's flashlight was shining on the walls, revealing chiseled markings and inscriptions.

He whistled in astonishment. "How did all of this hide under my old nose?" he awed at the scenery.

Rainbow snorted. "At least we know why those signs were up. No one looks like they've been in here in years."

Percy sniffed the air and grimaced. "Surely, because it smells awful in here."

"Ah, but that is the smell of discovery, lad." Giz whiffed the air. "Is it not breathtaking?" He spun around the tiled floor. That took Percy's attention towards the floor. He just noticed that the floor was a giant mosaic. All the illustrations were covered in moss and dirt, but were still able to make out. Lines of colorful people were all in lined order with papyrus scrolls and tablets, all heading towards a point.

Percy traced the lines of people that were heading towards a corner in the room. The others started picking up on his observation. The lines ended at a large pit at the end of the room—all the pillars and laid out stones around it were all covered in foliage. The pit was at the bottom of the tiny skylight as its rays were beaming down on it. Giz flashed his light over to it, and spotted grimy slabs with writing.

"More expedition?" he rubbed his chin, "all for it!" he waddled over.

"What is this place?" Twilight looked around in amazement. "Does anyone know this is here?"

"Who knows, but I'm happy I know about it now." Giz said.

Nico looked around; his ears were moving around like he was trying to pick up radio signals. "Is it possible that there is a reason why all those warning signs were blocking that tunnel?" he asked suspiciously.

"What do you all have to worry about?" Giz pouted in annoyance. "No one's here but us, right?" he scurried to the pit. Percy did wonder about what Nico said. Did someone discover this place already? If so, why were their so many warning signs about that tunnel? The breach in that tunnel looked like it fell apart—like some diggers discovered it by accident.

With all things considered, Percy still couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching him. As he walked across the room, he could almost feel the eyes of the figures on the wall watching him. He wasn't supposed to be in here, and Nico might have felt that too.

Giz climbed down into the pit, where as everyone else was tall enough to step down. In the middle of the pit was a stone platform with a small seal on it. The two slabs bordering the platform were covered in shrubbery and leaves, but Giz went over and brushed some off—revealing inscriptions carved into them.

Giz squinted his eyes as he scanned over the writing.

Twilight looked over him. "Can you understand what it says?" she wondered.

"It's a little hard to tell with this old spotting language." Giz admitted.

"What kind of language?" Nico wondered.

"Not sure," Giz admitted, "I failed historical language arts."

Unexpectedly, Rainbow came forward. Putting her index finger on the slab, she fallowed the etchings, mouthing words silently to herself. When she was done with whatever she was just doing, she sounded out words.

"'Dulkion...guides...t-the...wealthiest...with...love...?'"she finished.

Everyone only met her with baffled gazes. Giz only looked annoyed with her.

"Don't need to be a showoff about it." he grumbled.

Dulkion. Percy heard Zehrl and Alssahra both mention that name. Whoever Dulkion was, he/she must have meant something to the locals.

Twilight stared at her friend. "Rainbow? You can read that?"

Rainbow blinked a few times, like she just woke up from a trance. "I... I guess so?" she rubbed the back of her head, looking puzzled herself.

"What in the world does that mean?" Spike asked. Just then, pink light began peeking through the cracks. A low hum was vibrating on the floor, drawing everyone's eyes towards the source.

Twilight started walking forward—her eyes were fixated on the seal.

Rainbow looked worried. "Twi?" she reached her hand out, "what are you doing?"

"Don't you feel it?" Twilight looked back, "It's telling us something."

"What's telling us something?" Rainbow hesitated. Twilight then knelt down and lifted the stone seal up. The ray of pink light shined even brighter—it lit up almost the whole room. Twilight stood back, as a single stand was rising out of the hole. On top of the stand was a single pink crystal that was as big as a football.

The stand stopped rising, and the aura the crystal emitted was even stronger. Percy didn't fully understand what he was looking at; compared to everything in this desolated room, this stood out horribly—in a very ominous way.

Giz gave a huge grin. "Wow!" he took off his hardhat. "That looks expensive. How many karats do you think that is, Missy?" he addressed to Twilight, but she wasn't paying attention, her eyes were still transfixed onto the crystal.

She slowly reached out and touched it. She smiled at it's touch. "I can feel it," she announced, "I can feel its magic."

Percy suddenly felt wind rushing against his hair. The air current was moving towards Twilight and the crystal. Twilight removed the crystal from its pedestal, and the howling of the wind grew louder and stronger.

Rainbow looked afraid. "Twilight, put that down now." she warned fiercely. Twilight was confused by her tension. "Why? I can feel its magic. I know what this can do!" she exclaimed in excitement, completely oblivious to all the energy flickering around her. "This crystal, it can—"

"NO!" Rainbow shouted. A flash of white light burned Percy's eyes as he covered them, fallowed by a loud boom. When he opened them, Twilight was gone. All that was left was a trail of vapors that went straight through the open skylight.

Percy's jaw quivered from the static that was left over from whatever just happened. Giz grunted in terror.

"Mother of me! She blew up!" He slammed his hands on his head.

"Twilight!" Spike cried out in distress. He scampered onto the platform and nervously sniffed around for his friend. Percy was still in shock of what just happened his arms were trembling. Did he seriously watch his friend explode?

The worst part about it was the fact there was not a trace of her. What did that crystal do? Nico looked just as robbed of the tongue as he was. Spike was frantically running around trying to find a trace of her.

"Where-where did she go?" he cracked.

Rainbow looked like she was panicking. "No. No. Why did she do that?" she gripped a shaky hand. "I told her to stop, but she did it anyway. I should have done something. I should have..."

She began sitting down with her hands around her head, rambling about impossible actions she could have done.

Spike sat down whimpering like a puppy over what happened.

"Is... Is she really gone?"

Giz brought his hat to his chest and lowered his head. "I wish I could say no, little guy," Giz tried not to crack, "but I cant. I'm sorry."

"No, she's not gone!" Spike winced. The air around felt like it was trembling also. Percy felt something; a presence—an unfriendly presence. Whipping around, everyone started to grasp the feeling too. Wind started to conjure. Rainbow stood up, looking back towards the entrance way they came from.

Percy's attention was drawn to the two giant warrior statues that stood on both ends of the room. They began shaking. Dust and other debris were falling off of the marble giants. Then, their soulless eyes illuminated bright pink lights. Their heads sharply turned their way.

Showing a clear instigation, Percy brought out Riptide and uncapped it, as well as his shield. Nico drew his Stygian iron sword.

The statues began lifting their armored legs in front of themselves very robotic like. They stomped heavy footsteps on the mossy floor. They stopped after a few steps, and faced the intruders. Holding up their rusty battle-axes, they both chattered with watery voices with no mouth movement from their cold, solid faces.

After speaking their undefinable language, they raised their large weapons. Getting the idea, everyone scrambled—including little Spike. Percy rolled right back on his feet. The stone warrior next to him plucked his ax out of the ground and swung it Percy's head. Percy dodged in time, but he felt several strands of hair being cut off from the rusty blade.

Percy readied his weapon and tried to advance on the warrior's blade. He slashed, but he found the ax to be too heavy to simply break with one strike. Percy saw the warriors foot swooping up to kick him. He brought he shield up. His shield protected him, but the warrior's foot propelled him across the room, sending him tumbling.

Percy landed next to Rainbow. She helped him up, with ambition in her eyes. "Hey, you okay?" she asked.

Percy quickly got up. "Mildly," he answered. Nico was flying around the warriors, doing his best to pick them off. But the warriors were more robust than they appeared. They swung their axes in the air, trying to knock him out, nearly hitting him every time.

Percy and Rainbow swarmed around the stone warriors. "They're not going away until we're fried." Rainbow bit her lip.

"Can you understand them?" Percy asked.

"A little," Rainbow said, "they're something about removing 'the cog'."

"What cog?"

"Exactly," Rainbow said, "I think it might have something to do with that crystal Twilight took."

"How do you know?" Percy asked, bashing a calve of one of the warriors.

Rainbow looked hesitant. "I'm not sure, man, but I know she wasn't supposed to take that."

They both dodged a swing of an ax. Percy rolled his head around to ready himself. "I'm really not so sure whether I should be devastated or mad, but I'm not seeing myself doing a lot of these things if we don't get rid of these jumbo lawn gnomes."

Giz suddenly appeared from behind a rock. "Look out, kid!" he shouted at Percy. Percy looked behind himself and saw a stone hand coming right at him. Grabbing his torso, the giant warrior picked him up and hurled him across the room—flying past Nico, who was busy with his own warrior.

Percy realized he was heading straight for the wall. Acting on pure instinct, he thrusted his arms and legs up and clutched the wall. After a moment, he realized he was hanging onto the wall like a tree frog; his claws dug deep into the old clay brick wall. He was crouching sideways on the wall.

He would have been more amazed if he didn't here his friends struggling to fend off the stone warriors. Percy looked over and saw that Nico had already been knocked out of the air, and was now fending off the warriors on his own.

Percy immediately leaped off the wall and dashed for the statues. But a thought slipped into Percy's mind—a thought he never had before, and he didn't know if it was a good one.

'Rip their heads off.' a little part of his conscious told him. For the moment, he liked the idea. He was strong, he could dispose of them easily.

A little smirked sneaked on his face as he jumped to the floor and ran on all fours. He jumped onto the back of a warrior and started climbing up it with his claws—leaving huge indents in its back.

The warrior noticed this, and started reaching on his back to get him off—flailing its big ax around as it did. Percy began bashing his shield against the warriors head—its rusted iron helmet began shattering with Percy's force.

Percy was almost to the warrior's neck when its brother slapped Percy off its brother's shoulder. Percy nearly did a flip, but mercilessly landed on his two feet.

But he was hardly done with them; aggressively showing off his sharp teeth, he charged, and ran Riptide through one of their legs, piercing right through a calve.

The warrior fell over, collapsing on the floor and dropping its ax. Percy heard Rainbow call out, "How did he do that?!" from across the room. Percy was so focused on his enemy he didn't even check to see if his friends were okay.

With a little snarl escaping his mouth, Percy began marching towards the fallen warrior. Its head turned around, with its blank stone face staring back at him. Percy raised his sword to 'cut its nose off', but it retaliated by firing materialized beams out from its glowing eyes. The blast forced Percy away.

He landed hard against the mural. Percy eyed his sword and picked it up. He looked up and saw the warrior stomping its way towards him—swaying its large ax his way.

Percy readied himself for the confrontation. The warrior lifted its huge ax to swing down, but something struck the side of its neck—a solid blue streak snapped through the air. Breaking off a chunk of its face, the warrior fell to its knees.

Percy was surprised; he looked to where that streak came from, and saw Rainbow on the other end of the room holding a very familiar object. She was holding a misty blue bow in her hands—the exact same bow Chief Zehrl used. Where did she get that?

Percy realized something. He flashed back to a few years ago to the junkyard of Hephaestus; where Bianca di Angelo found a hairpin that morphed into a bow when bent. Rainbow suddenly had a hairpin. That was a hunter's bow—a bow that belongs to a Hunter of Artemis.

Percy was shocked and baffled, what was a hunter's bow doing in this world? Zehrl did mention that the bow he had belonged to a hunter he killed, and took the bow as a trophy. Did he kill a hunter of Artemis? What was a hunter doing in this world?

Rainbow was clearly satisfied with the result of her shot. "Sweet!" she cheered, "almost a bulls eye on my first try!"

Percy took this opportunity to run over to her while the warrior was knocked down. Nico was still busy with his own warrior.

Percy ran over to her and pointed to the bow. "Where did you get that?"

Rainbow exchanged a cocky smirk. "This hairpin sure kicks a lot of butt." she raised her weapon.

"But, that's a hunter's bow." Percy said. "Where in the world did you get that?"

"Who cares? It's saving our hides, isn't it?"

She pulled back the string and a materialized arrow—glowing white and was as sharp as a shredder—appeared between her fingers. She released her arrow, and it punctured Nico's warrior's head. It twirled around and landed it on its bum.

Percy was impressed by the accuracy of her aim—she did everything so naturally. This reminded him of Thalia Grace, who became a Hunter of Artemis herself. He briefly wondered if she was looking for him too.

The giant warriors looked like they were getting agitated; they both got back up and swung their axes back into their hands. It was then Percy noticed Spike on one of the warrior's heads, scrambling around and blinding their eyes. With Spike's smaller size, he was less vulnerable to the warrior's colossal hands.

But it eventually caught him and tossed him off, landing in Rainbow's arms. He sprawled out in exhaustion.

"I really wish I had fire breath right now." he panted with his tongue out tiredly. The stone warriors got back up in line again, holding their axes in front of themselves—they resumed the same position they did when they came alive.

Nico's ears folded back. "I don't think we can kill them," he said grimly.

"But we could smash them." Rainbow let Spike down, then pulled her new bow back as another arrow appeared.

Percy looked around. "Hey, where did Giz go?"

"He said he had a "plan"." Rainbow rolled her eyes. "That means he probably just ran away and left us." she considered.

Percy brought Riptide to his side, then turned to the warriors. "Anyone have a giant sludge hammer?" he asked, backing up defensively with everyone else. Spike growled with aggression as the stone warriors marched towards them like big soldiers.

They raised their axes again. But before they could swing them down, the ground began to rumble. The noise of rock and wood was crashing and bashing from the tunnel entrance that Giz fled too. Then, the entire entrance exploded, and Giz was laughing like a maniac, riding on the back of his giant pet Iskatt, Iceberg.

The giant ice cat exposed its icy teeth and pounced one of the unsuspecting stone warriors. Iceberg broke their ranks and they both toppled over like toy soldiers. Iceberg hinged his jaw around one of their torsos and wrangled them around, throwing it across the room.

Giz was cheering proudly. "That a' boy! Own that sucker!" he yelled at the top of his scraggy lungs.

Percy watched in amazement as the giant cat tore the warrior apart; its arms buckled and snapped off and its lower body was now dust. Iceberg then picked up the statue and tossed it back—what was left of the warrior was now hurling towards Percy and his friends.

Everyone leaped out of the way as the stone carcass smashed to pieces. As the dust settled, Percy saw the warrior's head still intact—its face was still as blank as it always has been. Percy watched as the pink lights in its eyes were dimming down until they dissipated. The mighty warrior has fallen.

Spike pranced over and kicked its head to make sure it was really gone. No reaction.

"As cold as a rock." he concluded.

"As a statue should be." Percy added with a sigh.

Percy could hear stomps coming his way. Giz and Iceberg were coming their way. Even though Iceberg saved everyone from the warrior, he still didn't look anymore friendlier than when they first met. His head towered over them, snarling down at them, but Giz kept him at bay. Spike cowered in front of the giant cat.

Giz smiled down with a smug smirk on his face—looking even more like a miniature viking.

"See? I told you it was a good plan." he said, while Iceberg flicked his ear.

"You didn't even tell us what your plan was." Rainbow remarked, but still smiling.

"Results don't lie, kiddo," he replied. "Now back to business. What were we doing again?"

Rainbow's eyes eroded with grief. She pulled the bow back and it shrank into a hairpin. "Twilight. She's gone." she reminded glumly.

Giz began to frown. He stroked his beard, not looking so proud anymore. "Right. Your friend." he remembered sadly. "With any luck, she isn't dead, just...not here, right now." he tried to encourage, but was bad at it. Rainbow hardly looked any better. She began rubbing her eyes, and Spike began whining in despair.

It was then Percy noticed floating pink lights floating over Giz and his giant cat. It was the second warrior—Percy had completely forgot about it in all of this excitement. Percy watched as the warrior raised its ax unnaturally quietly.

Before Percy could even warn Giz about what was behind him, he discovered himself. Giz duct as the warrior swung its ax down like a golf club straight into the side of Iceberg's body. Iceberg roared in pain as he collapsed. Giz rolled off of him and looked to him in terror.

"Icy!" he screamed. The warrior stepped over the injured cat, taking its ax out of the cat's body—the blades edges were tipped with dark red blood. Percy uncapped Riptide again—everyone else readied their own defenses around him.

As the warrior approached them, it suddenly stopped abruptly. It then started trembling. Confused, Percy was slowly lowered his weapons as the warrior began struggling with itself. It was now shaking vigorously, down to the point where it dropped its huge ax.

Percy felt that gust off wind brush against him again. Flickers of sparks began snapping around the warrior. A metallic hum was churning in the air. The warrior clenched its chest, then exploded into tiny gravel sized pieces. A bright light flashed and Percy covered his eyes. When he open them, he saw Twilight holding the same pink crystal in her hands.

As the final chunks of statue rolled to a stop, everyone gazed at what caused the scene. Twilight was heaving heavily, looking incredibly tipped off. Her arms and legs were shaking, and she was dripping with a clear gooey substance.

She gave her last shaky breath. "That...was awful." she shook her head, swishing out some slime out of her hair.

"Twilight!" Spike and Rainbow overjoyed. Rainbow ran over and hugged her, despite Twilight's less-than-sanitary state—Spike was a little more cautious of that.

Twilight hugged back with a shaky laugh. "Hi everyone. Sorry about my absence."

"I'm so relieved you're okay," Spike wagged his tail happily, "we thought you blew up!"

"Blew up?" Twilight perplexed. "No. I didn't blow up, I teleported!"

"Teleported?" Rainbow perplexed. "You exploding into light is what teleporting looks like?"

"I suppose so," Twilight guessed, "but this crystal, I know what this can do. This can help us get to Akritai."

Percy, though very happy he didn't lose a friend, was confused with why she looked the way she did.

"Hey, I don't mean to point out while stating the obvious, but did you just get blown out of someone's nose?" he asked.

Twilight's expression turned hard with angst. "I don't want to talk about it." she shook her hands angrily as more goop came off.

A loud pained rumble sounded. Percy looked over and saw Iceberg rolled over while Giz was tending to him. And judging from Giz's tone, he was not doing so good.

Twilight looked to what everyone was looking at and covered her mouth.

"Oh my gosh, what happened?"

"Feel a little lucky you missed it." Rainbow said, running by her.

Everyone came over to Giz—he was tending to Iceberg's wound, sitting in a forming puddle of coolant blood. His wrinkly eyes were turning red and moist.

"Come on, boy, you've been through worse." he encouraged him, but Iceberg only whined in pain. Giz's hopeful smile was fading away.

He rubbed his hands uneasily. "I'm no doctor, but I don't think I can treat this." He turned back to them with moisture in his eyes. "Please tell me someone knows what to do, because I can't help him."

"Do you have any bandages around?" Spike suggested.

"This isn't no cut, pup, this is internal." Giz denounced. "I don't have anything helpful at all."

"But we might." Twilight said. She slid off her bag. (Still covered in that gunk, but what was inside was still preserved.) She pulled out a familiar vile of pink liquid; the aloe extract Alssahra gave them. Twilight crept up to Iceberg's huge wound. Twilight tried not to stare to much at it, because she looked a little queasy. She probably wasn't so used to seeing wounds so bad.

Twilight popped off the cork, and slowly began poring onto the gash. Iceberg groaned and whaled as the potion was being pored onto his open wound. The extract bubbled and hissed on the gash. After a few moments of Iceberg gargling, the extract was begining to settle in, as the huge wound began to heal slowly.

Iceberg's injury was near healed, but he still looked very hurt.

"That's as much as I can do." Twilight said regretfully, capping up the remainder of the potion they had left. "I wish I had a better solution."

Giz's worried eyes eased a little. "Don't sweat it, Missy, that was better than anything I could have done."

Giz stood back up, and went over to Iceberg's head and creased his fur gently. "You hanging, boy?" Giz said in his ear. Iceberg groaned, but he sounded a little more tired than in pain. Whatever the case, Giz looked a little lifted.

"I knew you would, you little slush-ball." he rubbed his fur. He stood back up and turned their way. "Now, two things. One: hey kid! Glad you're not chunks. Two: I better get ol' Icy back up to my workshop. He needs some room to heal up, and I don't think standing around in this death trap of a room will do us anymore favors."

"You're telling me." Rainbow agreed. "We were lucky to even make it. So, how are you going to get your cat back to your shop?" she wondered.

Giz gave a crooked smile. "Funny you should bring that up..."

Giz's method was absurd.

He made Percy and everyone else carry Iceberg up the mine shaft they came from. Everyone was fumed about that idea, but it was understandable. Iceberg could barely move, and Giz was far to little to carry an animal as big as a hippo. Iceberg's hide was so cold Percy was afraid he might get frostbitten. That motivated everyone to move a little faster up the tunnel.

Once they finally made it back and settled Iceberg down in his bed, they all gathered back up at Giz's work level. Staring at the disabled Colchis bull, Giz was struggling to express his gratitude.

"Listen, thanks for saving my cat back there," he addressed to Twilight, "but I don't really know what to pay you all with."

"You don't need to pay us with anything," Twilight assured, "I believe I already found what drew us here." she held up the pink crystal, that seemed to be coursing with milky energetic waves.

Giz raised his eyebrow with curiosity. "And yeah, that little room back there, I have no idea what the heck that was doing there—or why it had a crystal that could blow people up like that."

"It didn't blow me up, it transported me somewhere. This crystal, I can feel it's magic, it has teleporting properties. I managed to tap into controlling its trajectorie back here."

"But where in the world did you end up that made you all like that?" Giz grimaced.

Twilight shuddered. "I'm not in the most generous state to discuss that right now," she kept a painful smile, "but all I can say is that I'm sorry for not being there for all of you when those statues tried to get you all."

"I said you should have put that crystal down," Rainbow reminded, "I think they were guarding whatever you picked up."

"Whatever the case, we should be glad we're not chopped up into stew by those axes," Percy said.

Giz started to look thoughtful. "Which reminds me, those were some pretty big blades back there. I wonder how much they are worth? Sure, they could use some tooling up, but iron is very affordable these days."

Nico looked over to the bull behind Giz. "What are you going to do with that?" he asked.

Giz looked over and rubbed his chin. "Not sure. I could try to reactivate it, but I'm not sure I have the right jolter rods to boot up machines like this. Besides, my main supplier for tools is a florie. Stupid Zehrl; he has such a huge inventory but he cant even keep stock for basic equipment." he grumbled.

A wave of shock and nervousness washed over everyone, and Percy knew they all felt it. It was probably best not to mention the fact that they incinerated a supplier of his.

Giz quickly changed the subject. "Maybe I'll just recycle the hardware for something else. Heck, it has a good processor and and motor—at least I think it's a motor. It's got good parts to boot. Maybe I could start building that giant bug I always wanted to make. I got the scratchy siren to use it with too. I could scare the pants off farmers with it; you know?"

There was a little pause. "I don't think so." Twilight blatantly said.

"No one understands art," Giz grumbled.

Rainbow stroked her hair. "So, what are we waiting for?" she raised a hand. "We better get going soon before we have anymore time to lose."

"Not yet," Twilight denounced, "this crystal may help us get there faster, but it's still recharging. It might take awhile before it has enough power to transport all of us there at once. I managed to use the last bit of its energy to get me back here, so it might take a bit to be at its full power."

"So you'll all be crashing here until then?" Giz asked. "Sure. That's fine with me. But please, do us all a favor and take a shower." Giz demanded.

Twilight looked at herself with disgust. "I suppose I could tidy myself up a little." she flicked a little more mucus off.

"A little?" Rainbow winced. "Twi, you're covered in gunk."

"And I just installed a hydraulic water jet. I use it to wash off my finished projects. You could use that to wash yourself."

"Hydraulic?" Spike peeped, "That sounds like it would hurt."

"If your skin was made of metal, it wouldn't. And to dry yourself, you could step into my forge. Just hang yourself over the smelting furnace." he insisted. Twilight looked terrified.

Iceberg was already getting better.

He was a little slow, but he was at least walking. He stomped around slowly as he was healing from his wound. Twilight was getting cleaned up, but what Giz described what he had in mind sounded very foreboding. Twilight braved up and marched into her 'bath'.

While they waited, Percy was explaining to Rainbow what exactly she had in her possession. Rainbow was more unconvinced than cautious, but she did seem a little more unsure about the hairpin she had in her palm. Without the knowledge of knowing how a hunter's bow made it into this world, it made the weapon all the more suspicious. And it certainly kept Percy curious.

When Twilight was finished, she emerged from a very steamy room. Percy didn't know if she looked any better or not, because she came out with fluffy, staticy hair. And she looked like she just ridden a roller-coaster at the speed of sound.

It was such a sight Rainbow laughed so hard she clenched her stomach. Percy hoped that whatever happened to her in there didn't traumatize her, because she looked like she went through a very eventful experience.

The time finally came; Twilight said the crystal was at full power to take all of them. Giz led them all back up to the surface. With the sun out, Nico flipped out his shades. But before Giz could retreat down his whole, he called them over.

"Hey, before you go," he said, digging through one of his huge pockets, "take this, it'll be useful where you're going."

Giz took out a little device with a trigger on it. Rainbow stepped up and claimed it.

"What's this?" she asked, looking at it.

"It's a little something I made for magical entities." he said. "I might not know how to use magic, but I know how too sap it."

Twilight became curious. "Sap it?"

"Ay. Magic is complicated and can bend the laws of nature, but its principles are no more complicated than electricity. It's kind of like an EMP; it will distablize anyone's—or anything's—magic usage for a little while. Come to think of it, maybe I should have just used that on those warriors than but my little kitty in danger." he rethought.

Rainbow smirked. "Maybe, but then we wouldn't have seen Percy pull off those awesome moves." she patted his back. Percy was a little uncomfortable thinking about those things he was doing down there, or the thoughts he was having.

Giz shrugged, "Whatever the case, you kids weren't what I was asking for today, but I hoped I was helpful in helping determining what was happening to your friend."

"It was very helpful." Twilight faintly smiled. "We have a glimpse of where she is, and hopefully she's okay."

"My best wishes are in you guys finding her too." Giz said hopefully. "When you get to Akritai, be sure you keep that little tazor close, because I hear there is a lot of magical unrest over there. That could come in handy."

"We will." Twilight smiled, then put the thing into her bag.

Giz turned his way to his hatch. "Well, good luck. If you ever come back...please don't." he ordered, with a twinkle of a smile. Twilight giggled from his statement. The dwarf went back into his whole and closed it, and then opened it back up again.

"Oh by the way, my guns are active again. So fallow my advise and stick to the walls please?" he added, then shut his hatch. Everyone looked to each other with concern.

"Yeah, why don't we do what he says. I don't feel like being turned into a salad after what we did." Rainbow prompted.

After they all carefully maneuvered out of the quarry, they strolled out into the gravel road that faded into the tall grass. Percy had been thinking about what Rainbow mentioned about him have "awesome" moves. Percy has never acted so viscous before.

In a way, he was kind of having those thoughts now. His claws were shaking, and his heart started skipping. He almost felt afraid, threatened, but he didn't know by what.

"When is a good time to teleport?" Percy asked, trying to keep his mind distracted. "It's almost approaching afternoon."

"In a moment," Twilight answered, "just give me a sec to collaborate the trajectory."

Twilight held the crystal in her hands and stared at it. "But here's the tricky thing," she brought up, "this wont take us directly to Akritai."

"What do you mean?" Nico asked.

"We cant just go anywhere with this thing, it's linked to another one of these crystals somewhere out there. This can get us near Akritai, but not directly."

"How do you know?" Rainbow raised her eyebrow.

"I can feel its magic, this crystal is stringed with many others. I just have to find another crystal that's the closest to Akritai."

Rainbow wrinkled her nose. "That's dumb." she said bluntly.

"It's a far better option than walking," Percy reminded. "My legs seem more designed for it, but I'm not sure I can carry all of you if you all get tired.

Rainbow crossed her arms, not completely satisfied. "Well, I sure don't want to end up wherever Twilight ended up the first time."

"No." Twilight said fiercely. "I'm not going into those dens again. So many...rabbits..." she trailed off shakily. Whatever Twilight went through must have been interesting.

In the field, they stopped near a bush. With a quick look of the map, Twilight set her sights on one of the few colored dots that were closest to their destination. Twilight began to hold the crystal in front of herself. Closing her eyes, the crystal began to hum. A tiny gust of wind was starting to brew—and Percy knew what was coming next.

Twilight opened her eyes and smiled nervously. "Um, I'd advise that we hold on. Better safe than sorry." she said.

Percy did what she said; he reached out and placed his hand on the crystal, fallowed by Nico. Spike held onto Twilight's neck. And Rainbow, giving a nervous shift, slid her hand around Twilight's own.

The crystal began to glow a little. Sparks started to flicker, and the irises in Twilight's eyes almost looked like they were burning with power.

"Hang on." she prepared. The crystal glowed white-hot; Percy could feel its power beneath his claws, and he began to feel his matter splitting apart.

Out of nowhere, voices cried from the bush. "Surprise!" Percy didn't have enough time to see who made those cries, because his body exploded into tiny little particles, flying into the air at the speed of light.