Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.

The Ever Twisting Wind: Threshold Breakthrough

Chapter Twenty Nine: Antarctic Mayhem

Beta: ShadowofAxios

Andi smirked as she teleported into the Big House in Camp Half-Blood in open defiance of Father's little no contact decree. How did she manage such you might ask, well… She was there to finally formally attend a session of the Council of Cloven Elders. As Pan's successor, the satyrs had been literally begging her to attend and 'assume her rightful place as their leader' ever since her apotheosis. Till now Andi had not been interested. It just sounded like too much work. Now however, she had no choice, not when it was one of the few reasons she could come up with to justify dropping by Camp.

After all, if Father asked, she could just spin it as her having no choice this time as she needed to hire some satyrs to help Katie around her palace which was not untrue.

It was either that or start turning Wendy's pet cats into catgirls like she kept requesting. The idea sent a shiver down her spine because she knows where that road would lead. She'd seen the weird things Hermes was into… Heck, if Hera hadn't banned him from it, he'd probably already have made himself a whole harem of moe catgirls.

Before she had to go to the meeting though she was gonna meet with her boyfriend.

"Yo Chiron," Andi said in greeting to the Trainer of Heroes as he trotted over to her. "Mind calling Will up here? I want to talk to him."

"I can imagine," the centaur said as he eyed the two babies that Wendy standing next to her was carrying. "I'll call him right away."

"Thanks Chiron." Andi called after the immortal as he turned away to do as she had requested.

"Hey Will." Andi waved, excited jitters running through her body. She wasn't sure how Will was going take things, but the goddess had to at least let him know what had happened.

"Are those babies?" Will asked, his eyes wide in shock as he pointed at the two babies being helpfully held by Wendy.

"Divine babies." Andi corrected firmly. "My daughters in fact."

Will stood there still shocked for a moment before he shook himself like a fish and recovered some of his poise.

"So you came to introduce them?" Will asked as he walked into the room to join them.

"Yup," Andi said with a happy nod, pleased that he was taking things in stride.

Picking up one of her daughters, she showed her off to her boyfriend.

"This is Pikralída (πικραλίδα /Dandelion). My daughter with Antheia."

He looked her little darling over, taking note of the electric blue eyes she had inherited from her, the tuft of white and puffy hair with streaks of yellow like highlights, and her light green skin.

"Is she some type of Dryad?" Will asked curiously as he looked at the young divine babe.

"More a goddess than a dryad. She just takes their form. For example, unlike normal dryads she doesn't personify a single plant but instead personifies all the dandelions. Plus when she sneezes she makes dandelions appear out of nowhere, it's super cute."

"I guess that makes sense. Both her mothers are goddesses of nature after all."

"Yep!" Andi said with a grin as she cooed at her daughter and snuggled her against her right arm.

"Here you go Andi," Wendy said as she handed her other daughter over and Andi cuddled her against her left arm.

"And this cutie is my daughter by Pannychis, Xenýchtis (ξενύχτης/Night Owl)." Andi said proudly.

In contrast to her very much awake sister, Xenýchtis was fast asleep. Not surprising since the girl was like her name suggested a total night owl and seeing as it was daytime, she was out like a log.

She was a young harpy with her mother's curly black hair, but had Andi's electric blue eyes. Her feathers were dark, with tinges of dark blue and black. There were speckles of white on them, that resembled stars on a cloudless night.

"So what about her?" Will asked, looking at the snoozing harpy curiously. "Is she a goddess too?"

"Yeah, Xenýchtis is the goddess of nocturnal birds." Andi said as she shot her sleeping daughter a loving smile. "Lady Athena gave her blessing, so her sacred animals are owls too. Even Uncle Hades was nice enough to share, so that includes Screech Owls also."

"That was nice of them." Will said as he tentatively ran a hand through the little harpy goddess' hair, causing the girl to flap her arm at him to ward him away and press herself deeper into her mother's arms to get comfy again.

"She doesn't like to be disturbed when she's asleep." Andi said with a chuckle that Pikralída also shared. "I learned that with a wing to the face earlier."

"They're adorable." Will commented with a genuine grin. "So, um, dare I ask how were they conceived?"

"I tried to get them to become goddesses of adorableness too, but I was told no." Andi tried to deflect the question, but at the sharp look that Will shot her, she let out a sigh and started to explain.

"So, yeah, I got really, really hammered. Like I'm talking three hundred drinks in one night hammered! And had a kinda sorta one-night stand with Antheia and Pannychis when we were out in Vegas to celebrate our victory in the Titanomachy."

She expected some kind of outrage, some snide remark at how she was truly Zeus' daughter, but Will didn't look all that upset.

"Why aren't you freaking out?" She demanded of him. Andi had freaked out when she realized she had cheated on her boyfriend and fathered children.

Somehow. Gods were just weird.

Will shot her a confused look at her question before he sighed and began to explain.

"Should I be? I mean you're a goddess and that means something. Dad came down shortly after your apotheosis to explain that."

"Lord Apollo huh?"

Will nodded as he continued.

"A lot of it was how to not piss you off and accidentally be smited, but there was also a bit about how I should expect the occasional infidelity from you."

"What?! No, that's, I-! You would have a right to, that's to say, um-! I should be sorry, or at least, uh-" Andi sputtered, her cheeks flushed as she tried to figure out what to even say here!

Despite all that though, she didn't really feel guilty. Not really. Maybe it came with the territory of being a goddess, but she felt it beneath her to think she had actually wronged Will, a mortal, in any way. If anything, it was that line of thinking that made her uncomfortable. It was alien to her yet so very natural.

When she had first realized that, she asked Ida about it. Her mentor had simply pointed out that such a sense of superiority was a common trait inherited among gods. Especially children of Zeus.

Andi wasn't happy to hear that. She thought she had more agency than that, but as she was increasingly coming to understand gods were more bound by things like their domains, the Ancient Laws and divine inheritances then she could ever imagine. In a way, mortals were the lucky ones when it came to free will.

Unaware of her complaints, Will just kept talking.

"Yeah it shocked me too but then Father explained it. Gods are a lot different from mortals and one big difference is that you all essentially live many mortal lives at once, since you all are one with your domains. If even humans have trouble being faithful to a partner in their one life, what more do gods?"

"That sounds like an excuse. We should at least try. I wanted to at least try!"

"I would appreciate it if you did," Will said with a shrug. "But considering besides exceptions like Hera and eternal virgins like Hestia it seems no god manages it, I'm not holding out hope. Instead, I've learned to live with it. If being cuckolded is what it takes to be with you, then so be it. It's a price I'll gladly pay to be with a goddess like you."

"Thanks Will," Andi said, deeply touched. Warmth blossomed in her chest and she just wanted to kiss him for it. It was so sweet and caring. "Thank you for being so understanding."

She was so moved that she was completely unaware of how Eros was skulking in the shadows, slowly lowering his bow before disappearing.

The god of love had just disappeared when there was a knock on the room's closed door.

"Lady Andi," the voice of a satyr cried out from the other side. "The Council of Cloven Elders have gathered and are awaiting your arrival."

Andi groaned in irritation.

"I'll be right there." She said despite her frustration before turning to address Will. "Alright, Will, I'm leaving the girls with you while I go talk with my goatie minions. That's okay with you?"

"Sure," her boyfriend said as he held out his arms and carefully took the two baby goddesses from Andi, earning himself a peck on the lips.

"Be good for uh, Uncle? We'll go with Uncle Will." Andi said as she cooed at her daughters and earned a pair of lazy nods from both girls. "You two are just perfect peaches!"

She didn't want to leave. She didn't want to be apart from her babies. But sadly there were goddess things to do!

"Come on Andi," Wendy urged. "If we don't go now, you'll never leave."

"Let me just look at them for five more seconds!"

"Andi~!" Wendy said sternly.

"Go Andi." Will said with an amused grin. "You have work to do."

Pouting Andi nodded and with great reluctance left to do her job. She hated having to do so though. But duty called. It always did...

"Man those goats sure know how to suck up." Andi muttered to herself, as she rubbed her eyes in annoyance.

"Well, at least, you got what we needed." Wendy said with a shrug as she walked over now that the Council was dispersing.

That was true. Exploiting the satyrs' desire to curry favour with her as Pan's successor, Andi had managed to get a promise from Silenus, Maron and Grover that they would recruit a dozen satyrs for her by the end of the week to work at her palace. All in exchange for a promise on her part to attend the Council of Cloven Elders at least once every month, much to her annoyance but this was her job now.

How pointless.

Seriously, why did the Council of Cloven Elders even exist? She was the goddess of the Wild. Why did she even need a Council to what? Advise her? Wasn't she the supreme authority of the Wild? Didn't she already have a council of lieutenants plus Ida to advise her?

Thankfully, she had enough sense to not mention any of that. She didn't want to rock the boat. Not yet. Maybe when she was more secure, she could change things. But for now she'd just have to keep things as is. There was no point in giving potential enemies any room to make her life difficult.

Though her poker face was not as good as she had hoped at least not based on the knowing look that Mr. D was shooting her from where he was chatting with Chiron.

You shouldn't let the Council get to you. The older god whispered telepathically into her mind. It's a community thing, like a student council. Basically it makes them feel important. So entertain them, it'll make your minions more pliable.

I see. Andi told the god with a nod, even if she privately disagreed with why she should entertain the satyrs. She wasn't thinking about making them pliable, if they needed this affirmation she was more than willing to give it. Her subordinates deserved that much.

It can be both, can't it? Wendy chimed in with a mental chuckle, having clearly guessed at the content of Andi's telepathic conversation with Mr. D from the direction of her thoughts. Having the Council around will make it easier to pass along things you want to have them know and let them update you on stuff.

Wendy, don't be so cynical. Andi chided her partner, earning her an awkward chuckle in return.

"Okay, let's go pick up Pikralída and Xenýchtis and head home." Andi said with a tired sigh. "Let's not stretch Father's leniency."

"Righ-"

"Lady Andromeda! Lady Wendy!" An unfamiliar Aura said suddenly as she blew into the clearing where the Council of Cloven Elders had been held and took human form in a kneeling position before them. "We've just found a major Technodjinn base."

"Alright, looks like we're suiting up." Andi said with an eager grin.

"Yes ma'am!" Wendy shouted enthusiastically as she transformed into their Storm Mail and wrapped herself around Andi.

"You, Elaine right?" Andi asked the Aura uncertainly, pulling her name from the aether with her godly power.

"Yes my lady," the Aura said, practically swooning at Andi knowing her name. "What is your will?"

"I've got a mission to go on, so I want you to go fetch Katie and Ida from my palace and have them pick up my daughters."

"At on-"

"Wait!" Wendy shouted uncharacteristically from within her Storm Mail form. "Tell us where the base is before you go."

Andi blushed, she'd totally forgotten about that! Something Mr. D noticed if his guffawing at the other side of the clearing was any indication.

"Of course, my lady. The base is located in-"

"Antarctica! Really!?" Andi grumbled to herself with annoyance as she finished wrangling a group of nine Campers in three teams of three and prepared to teleport them all to the location of the Technodjinn base. In Antartica.

Officially they would be 'tagging along' as Andi went to carry out her mission against the Technodjinn. It was a tenuous excuse at best, but she suspected that would be more than enough in the event that her Father even noticed she was flouting his ridiculous edict. Considering he was preoccupied by that icy bitch Khione though, she doubted he would.

Andi was honestly surprised Hera hadn't punted her ass yet. Then again, she figured that Father was protecting his latest mistress from his wife's wrath. Though Hera was strangely distracted lately. With what exactly was something that Andi didn't have the faintest clue about but she was willing to bet it was some harebrained plan to combat the rise of the Earth Mother.

But back to the matter at hand… Why oh why did the Technodjinn base have to be Antarctica?

Of course they would hole themselves up in the middle of nowhere. Why not? Andi grumbled in her mind.

Andi, Wendy said with a telepathic sigh. The Campers are waiting.

"Right. Sorry guys," Andi said with an apologetic smile. "Got distracted. Antarctica you know!"

"Don't mention it. I think we're totally with you there." Percy said with a tired sigh. "You have the most over the top enemies, Lady Andi, you know that?"

"Percy, don't be so rude!" Annabeth said, jabbing her boyfriend in his side with her elbow.

"No, I honestly agree." Andi herself sighed but shook her head. "Let's get this underway, my noble heroes."

Percy and Annabeth were part of those recruited of course. They were two of the most powerful half-bloods after all. To finish off their little team, Andi had gotten Will's brother Austin Lake to serve as their healer. As the couple began to banter, said son of Apollo was shaking his head in exasperation at his teammates.

"I pity you Austin," Chris Rodriguez said with a chuckle even as his team's healer and Austin's sister, Kayla Knowles, teasingly patted her brother on the shoulder. "Dealing with those two is gonna be hell."

"Oi! Lovebirds! Stop it!" Clarisse, Chris' girlfriend and team leader, said with a roll of her eyes. "Or did you forget that we're about to go into battle?"

"Right." "Sorry."

The couple in question said apologetically.

This earned them laughs from everyone, including the last team consisting of Will, Malcolm and Miranda. Seeing Will leading a team filled Andi with a surge of pride.

"Alright, so if we're all ready to go. Let's-"

"Actually." Percy said, raising his hand. "I have a question."

"Go ahead, Percy." Andi said, trying not to laugh at Percy acting like he was in a classroom.

"Thanks Lady Andi. I was, uh, just wondering why we need such a large group?"

"The base itself is huge, Percy. I need the manpower. Sure I have my subjects, but this is what heroes are amazing at. Disrupting the bad guys."

"Percy!" Chiron said with a facepalm as he trotted over. "Are you questioning a goddess?"

"Yeah," the son of Poseidon said with a shrug. "But I asked for permission first."

Chiron looked ready to reprimand him nonetheless but before he could, Andi cut in.

"It's alright. I don't want yes men. I would rather have people point out my shortcomings and mistakes whenever they spot them."

"I see," Chiron said with a proud smile and nod. "Very humble and wise of you, my lady. I approve."

"Thank you, Chiron." Andi said with a nod of her own. "But it's time for us to go. We've spent enough time chit-chatting."

Everyone nodded their agreement and, calling on her power, she teleported them away from Camp Half-Blood towards their destination.

They materialized from Andi's teleportation inside a stark white corridor with an almost clinical feel to it. It was nearly deserted save for two small odd, spider-like robots shaped like artillery shells, with four panels around the sides that could be extended outward from the main body like legs. The top end of the small robots concealed four blades that one of the pair was using like helicopter blades to hover in the air with its legs held flush with its body. While it hovered in the air, the other clung to the wall like the real-life arachnid it vaguely resembled. Together, they were using a weak laser the hovering robot shot from its single eye and tools built into its counterpart's legs to perform some kind of maintenance on what looked like a control panel along the wall.

Both robots paused however the moment that Andi and the Campers appeared and stood that way for a long awkward moment before suddenly letting out recordings of fearful screams as they flew away in what could only be described as a panic.

"Uh, are we the scary ones?" Percy asked, blinking in confusion.

"To monsters I guess we are." Annabeth suggested with a frown.

"Incoming!" Andi shouted seconds before in bursts of green binary, dozens of more clearly military minded robots teleported in.

Leading these were one of Chell's familiar Tachikoma. The spider tank drone with its oversized abdomen was equipped with a pair of rotary laser cannons for arms, but that wasn't what caught Andi's attention. While she hadn't seen one of the pesky things in a while, she expected it to be armed with some kind of exotic heavy weapon. No, what had caught her attention was what had come with it. It seemed Chell had expanded her arsenal of servitor robots.

The most powerful of the lesser robots were humanoid machines with a squarish head, rounded shoulders, each of which held four disk shaped drones which floated ahead of them and generated some kind of energy shield, and were equipped with a boxy cannon attached by wires to round backpacks that powered the energy beams that they would undoubtedly soon be spitting at the demigods

In addition to these heavy units, were more numerous robots armed with assault rifles. They shared the same squarish head but they were simpler looking than their heavier counterparts and lacked the shield generating drones.

They were supported in close combat by a spindly, humanoid robot lacking any armor whatsoever armed with a deadly laser knife that held themselves like some kind of evil ninja, and moved like them too, as they tried to close with the demigods to stab them. These robot ninjas were complemented by packs of very fast and agile Smilodon shaped robots with razor sharp claws and fangs in addition to a set of guns mounted on their back

Of course, being a goddess, Andi processed all this in a second and before the robots began raising their weapons, she shouted her command to the Campers she'd recruited.

"Campers! Take out these tin cans!" Andi ordered as she stepped aside to allow the demigods to step forward to engage the enemy.

She makes it sound so easy. The son of Poseidon thought as he took cover behind hastily grown woody barricades that Miranda had conjured from a handful of seeds she'd tossed ahead of them the moment the robots had appeared.

"Blast apart those icky plants!" The spider tank bot shouted at its droid minions angrily, as the robots shot deadly energy beams and bullets at them.

"Plants aren't icky!" Miranda shouted back defiantly as she tossed more seeds at the enemy, causing a field of sunflowers to grow out of them which unleashed a barrage of bullet seeds that tore apart the lesser assault rifle armed robots. Unfortunately, the seeds just bounced off the shields of the heavier robots.

Percy was just wondering how they were gonna get close under the enemy's unrelenting fire when Malcolm tossed a pair of grenades into the melee that released an obscuring cloud of smoke.

"Close with the monsters!" Annabeth's brother shouted. "The smoke is special, it should mess with their sensors!"

"Got it!" Clarisse shouted, as she charged forward. "Take them out at close quarters!"

Percy was about to jump up to follow her and the others as they charged but Annabeth grabbed his shoulder.

"No," his girlfriend said cautiously. "We'll be with the second wave."

"Huh? Wh-"

He got the answer when suddenly one of those spindly robots leaped out of the smoke like a bloody ninja and tried to stab Clarisse in the back.

Annabeth seemed to have expected it though, or at least that the enemy would try something like this, as she reacted immediately and she shot out of the cover she shared with Percy to cut it in half.

The robots weren't done being sneaky bastards though and one of the robot cats leapt out of the obscuring cloud at Annabeth. Percy wasn't about to let that happen and without missing a beat, he leapt to the daughter of Athena's aid and used Riptide to chop its head off.

"This is just nuts." Percy dryly commented as he disemboweled, if that word even fit considering the type of opponent he was fighting, another of the ninja robots.

"It does explain why Andi wanted so many of us." Annabeth countered as she stabbed her dagger through the head of a robotic feline that had been trying to sneak up on her. "But enough talking Seaweed Brian! We have bots to smash!"

"Yeah, yeah. Gotcha." Percy said with a smile as he lost himself in the fight.

After minutes of swerving through the battlefield, evading energy beams and bullets whilst fending off assassin bots, both humanoid and feline, the fighting finally reached its climax as signified by a petulant cry from the spider tank bot.

"No! My Virgos! You took out the last of my Virgos! Mummy made those for me! How dare you, you bullies!"

"Someone sounds mad." Percy muttered.

"Like we care, you tin can!" Clarisse said, leveling her spear at the last standing enemy robot. "Time to join them as scrap."

"Like I would let yo-"

Before the robot could finish its sentence, it was surrounded by a cloud of green binary before it was suddenly teleported away.

"Huh. Guess Chell didn't want one of her precious babies to get killed." Andi commented as she made herself known once more with a frown.

"You don't look happy about that, Andi. Why?" Will asked the goddess.

"Threatening a goddess' baby is liable to piss them off that's why." Andi told him. "After this, she's not likely to go easy on us."

"So this just got ten times worse?" Percy asked with a resigned look.

Andi nodded.

"And you'll need to split up," the goddess of the wild added. "Like I said back at Camp, this base is big. Very big. If we want to wreck it, we'll need to split up."

"Argh! This just keeps getting better and better." Percy said sarcastically and with an annoyed shake of his head.

After letting Will and his team escort her as they explored the base, fighting small groups of the same robots as before and smashing anything of value they found, for a while Andi and the Campers eventually made it to a platform overlooking a massive open pit mine carved beneath the glacier above.

"What the hell-"

Malcolm's statement was cut off when suddenly in a cloud of binary, a massive humanoid machine appeared in the mid air of the cavernous mine.

"Like the Epic Form I got from becoming a goddess, Potter?" The mechanical voice belonging to Chell boomed from the machine. "I modeled it after the Sazabi but added a pair of wings attached to its shoulders shaped like the Qubeley's wing binders for more thrusters and to store my funnels. I also added some of the Virgo II's Planet Defensors and its Mega Beam Cannon for added defense and offensive power respectively. Terrifying, isn't it?"

Even as Chell talked, Andi gestured to her escorts to go.

Will hesitated but Andi just gestured more insistently and finally with a frown he nodded before leading his team away.

"I honestly don't know what you're talking about," Andi admitted. "But thanks for grandstanding long enough to let my friends get away."

"Why else do you think I even tried to explain things to a philistine like you?" Chell retorted with a snort. "I wanted them gone as much as you did. We wouldn't be able to fight to our all if mortals were here."

"That's surprisingly generous of you," Andi noted as she shifted to her Divine Form. "I guess becoming a goddess ironically made you more human huh?"

"Perhaps," Chell noted absently. "But enough chatter. Let's fight!"

With much reluctance, Will led his team away from where his girlfriend was about to face another goddess at her command and made his way deeper into the seemingly endless bowels of the Technodjinn's Antarctic base.

"I get it dude, but you need to stay focused." Malcolm chided him after pulling him out of the way of a stray energy beam shot from one of the beam cannon equipped robots that had suddenly teleported in front of them.

"Sorry," Will said even as he watched Miranda take down the robot by using some explosive seeds. How she managed that he didn't know but it was effective nonetheless and that was all that counted.

"Don't be sorry," Miranda said as she shot him an annoyed look. "Just get your head back in the game."

"It is," Will said after taking a deep breath. "Let's go and find something useful to smash."

Fifteen minutes later, they found themselves in a room that the Technodjinn would find useful indeed.

"This must be where they are building the robots they keep throwing at us." Will noted as he sent an arrow downrange at an assault rifle armed robot while standing on a catwalk overlooking a factory floor where it and the other machines that staffed this base was seemingly being produced.

"Should I set up some seeds? I've been running low on them." Miranda nervously informed them as the forest of vines she'd grown tore apart a pride of the robot cats.

"I think the Greek fire is more than enough." Malcolm replied as he tossed another set of grenades down onto the factory below, adding to a slowly growing sea of green flames that was consuming it. "Save your seeds for the monsters."

"You think it's been stoked enough?" Will said as he chanced a glance away from the advancing line of robots marching towards the thankfully reinforced bank of computers they were using as cover from every direction to survey the spreading green fire. "'Cos they keep coming. We're gonna have to retreat soon."

Malcolm looked at his handiwork assessingly, even as Will put an arrow into the sensor of another robot.

"Yeah, it's good." He said with a nod. "Let's get out of here."

"Finally." Miranda said with a sigh of relief as she tossed a handful of seeds in the air which grew into a jungle of dangerous supernatural plants that covered the three demigods as they made their escape from the tightening noose they were almost caught within.

"Should we go after a power core?" Percy suggested as he, Annabeth and Austin took a break from their trek through the tin can gods' base, killing the odd robot guard thrown their way and wrecking anything that looked remotely important. "I remember Bianca doing that the one time and it being super effective."

"And I'm betting the Technodjinn learned from that." Annabeth shot back as she studied something on a computer terminal she'd hacked into. "And if this map I'm reading is right, they have. They've spread out their power plants this time and built failsafes too. There's like three dozen different cores in this base. We'd need to take out at least half of them to even make a dent in their power supply."

"So not an option, right?" Austin asked with a frown. "I don't think we have the manpower for that."

"We don't." Percy agreed. "So anything else we can hit, Wise Girl?"

"We could hit the factory for the robots that keep attacking us but Will's team is closer to that. And Clarisse's went in the direction of the 'secret' whatever it is that is at the centre of the base."

"So?" Percy asked with a roll of his eyes, mostly amused at his girlfriend playing coy with what she'd found.

"There's a server farm down that way," Annabeth said pointing in a seemingly random direction, at least to Percy. "We can go mess it up."

"That sounds good." Percy said with a smirk. "I will so enjoy smashing the place."

"Not what I had in mind, Seaweed Brain. We should steal the data! I mean, imagine what we could learn from it!"

"One problem there Annabeth," Austin chimed in hesitantly.

"What?" Annabeth asked the son of Apollo sharply with her stormy grey eyes.

To his credit, the musician didn't flinch or back down which was saying something since Annabeth was scary when she got like this. Percy should know, he had been subjected to her displeasure more times than he liked.

"Well, can you make sense of it in a timely manner? Or failing that, have something to download all of it so we can decipher it later?"

Annabeth cursed under her breath, an annoyed look on her face.

"So wreck it?" Percy asked, teasingly.

Annabeth shot him an annoyed look but nodded. "Yeah, we'll go wreck it."

Percy smiled triumphantly and with an exaggerated bow declared, "Lead the way, Wise Girl. We have a server farm to go wreck."

Annabeth growled in annoyance but nevertheless stood and began leading the way.

Arriving at the server farm, Percy had been expecting they'd need to fight some kinda super powerful guardian and he was right. Kinda.

Bent over a console just inside the door was a woman that matched the description of the Technodjinn goddess Alice. She was strangely not hostile though and as they walked in, she even waved distractedly in welcome.

"Uh, hello?" Percy said, looking bewildered that there weren't much in terms of defenses here. Besides the goddess of course.

She looked up, but her fingers continued to glide across the keyboard. "Oh, hello there. Don't need to be so worried, I took care of the security. No point to them after all. Not when I'm here."

"So we need to beat you?" Austin asked warily as he gripped his bow nervously.

Percy didn't blame him. Fighting a god was never fun. He spoke from experience. Too much experience if you asked him.

"Nope, I'm not going to fight you."

"Uh, no offense, my lady, but why not?" Annabeth asked as diplomatically as her confusion allowed. "Aren't you one of the Technodjinn?"

"Yes, but I'm Andi's friend. So I'm not gonna fight her Questers, I think that's what you guys should be called. Not if Mother doesn't force me and she's too busy right now watching Chell fight Andi to care about me at the moment."

Percy and Annabeth looked at each other questioningly for a moment, before she shrugged. Guess they weren't going to look the gift horse in the mouth.

"Um, stupid question but what are you downloading?" Austin asked curiously.

"Oh, just some blackmail on my siblings. Since you lot are wrecking the place, they'll never know I took it." The Technodjinn said with a wink. "Oh! I'm done. I'll be going now. Wreck away, kids."

With that she teleported away, leaving behind three very confused demigods.

Percy recovered first and promptly introduced Riptide to the nearest server.

"Get started guys," he ordered. "The sooner we're done here, the sooner we can go help Andi."

"Against another goddess?" Annabeth asked with a raised eyebrow.

"A distraction in a fight can go a long way." Percy said with a shrug. "Besides, I've fought gods before."

"You're nuts." Austin muttered as he started to wreck the place.

Percy still didn't get why people said that about him.

While the other teams were having a relatively easy time of it, Clarisse and her team found themselves trying to force their way into a massive chamber dominated by a single massive machine that looked like some kind of giant cannon that was shooting a beam of energy into the earth itself. Unfortunately, it was being guarded by a whole squad of those spider tank bots like the one earlier, including that rotary laser equipped robot. All of which were determined to keep them out.

"That's a railgun." Clarisse said with longing as a shot slammed into the wall just inches away from Chris' head as he ducked to safety behind the chamber's reinforced door that they were using as cover.

A powerful energy beam came next and Clarisse's Telumkinesis told her it was the product of an upscaled version of the beam cannon like the ones those pesky shielded lesser robots had. This was soon followed by a lightning bolt from a tesla cannon and a beam from a freeze ray.

"We can't brute force through that." Kayla said, sounding hysterical.

"I know. We'll need to be indirect." Clarisse agreed before she turned to her boyfriend. "Chris, steal me one of those weapons."

"Sure, which one?" Chris said with complete confidence.

"You pick." Clarisse said with a shrug. "Any one works."

"Are you guys nuts!? Chris can't go out th-"

The Apollo Cabin girl didn't get to finish her sentence when she cut herself off when Chris disappeared.

"Where did he go?" The archer said with her eyes wide in shock.

"Gone to steal me one of the robots' fancy guns with his thief skills."

"They let him go invisible? That's just insane."

"Welcome to the big leagues, kid." Clarisse told the relatively new girl.

The young blonde just nodded stiffly.

"Here you go Clarisse," Chris said as he returned a minute later and dropped a tesla cannon into Clarisse's hands.

"Nice." Clarisse said as she familiarised herself with her new weapon. "You're the best."

Chris preened, even more so when Clarisse pecked him on the cheek.

"Uh, is that gonna be enough?" The Kayla girl said as she eyed the tesla cannon incredulously.

"I'll make it work." Clarisse said with a shrug as she stepped back through the doorway into the room that the monsters were defending, her new weapon crackling with electricity.

Deadly beams of energy shot her way, but evading them was easy for the daughter of Ares. The robots had terrible aim anyways. Her aim on the other hand was perfect and a bolt from her cannon arced across the distance and struck the tank bots.

They had stupidly clumped up around the one which Chris had stolen her new toy from and were now paying the price for it as electricity arced between all of them.

"That's right, scream, you bucket of bolts. I want to hear you beg for mommy." Clarisse sneered as they did just that.

Their healer was giving her a look of shock, but Clarisse ignored it easily. The other girl was still too green it seemed.

Something to rectify when we get back to Camp, I guess. To think she'd managed to survive the Battle of Manhattan. I wonder how she did that and still be so much of a newbie?

"They aren't dying? Guess they're built tough. Keep them suppressed then, Clarisse," Chris said as he walked over to a nearby control panel.

"It'll take a while to break into this system and figure out how to sabotage this." He added as he gestured at the huge machine that dominated the room. "Whatever this is."

"Take as long as you need, Chirs. I've got this."

"This is insane. Just insane." The green healer said, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Trust me kid, you get used to it." Clarisse added with a shrug.

Even as the Campers did a number on the Technodjinn base, its mistress and Andi were pulling off the stops as they engaged in battle.

"Oh! Did I forget to mention I also included Deathscythe Hell's Active Cloak?" Chell taunted as she turned invisible.

"Wha-" Andi shouted as she jinked out of the way of an energy beam from an unexpected direction as Chell briefly flickered into view. "This is cheating!"

"All's fair in love and war!" Chell shouted back as she faded back into visibility and unleashed a cone of deadly exotic particles from a cannon built into her waist.

Again Andi had to resort to some fancy flying to avoid it. Worse when she tried to retaliate, before she could even draw a bead on Chell, the Technodjinn had already disappeared. As a result her attacks hit nothing but empty air as her opponent relocated under invisibility. A turn of affairs that repeated over and over again. Neither goddess being able to score a hit on the other.

"Are you always such a pain to fight?" Andi cursed as she dodged yet another beam attack. "Must you keep sniping from invisibility all the damned time?"

"And you aren't? It's like no matter what I tried, you never died!" Chell shot back condescendingly. "You even ascended to be a thorn in my side forever! But why don't I up the ante a little! Funnels!"

Suddenly dozens of funnel shaped drones, each only as big as Andi's own tiny form was, shot out of Chell's suddenly visible form and flew away from it in confusing seemingly random zigzag patterns.

Andi tried to take advantage of Chell dropping her invisibility for a second to land a shot but her arrow just bounced off the energy shield that the disk shaped drones that stuck close to her body generated.

Should have put more power in. Andi cursed.

She tried to line up a more powerful shot but by then Chell had once more disappeared from sight.

"Tch, how annoying." Andi said with a frown, but she let go of the annoyance quickly as the funnel drones began opening fire on her with their beam cannons. "What is this!? A bullet hell game?"

Andi! Take them out. Wendy urged.

I'd love to but would that do any good? She might just have more in waiting.

At least clearing them out will give us more breathing room!

You're right there. Alright let's do i-

"You spend too much time with Alice." Chell said with a groan as she turned visible to unleash another cone of death from the cannon built into her machine body's waist. "That's how she described my funnels' attack patterns too."

"It's not my fault you're so uncreative you have to copy from different media." Andi replied snarkily as she weaved through the storm of beams that was filling the chamber they were fighting in.

"I am not copying anything. This is a homage." Chell shot back cooly as she disappeared from sight once more. "There is a difference."

"To-meh-to, to-mah-to." Andi singsonged back cheekily.

"Oh shut up, you tinker bell reject!"

"Please, I make this look good. Unlike you. It really shows what you are deep down." Andi taunted, trying her best to throw Chell off her game.

"And that is what, huh? Creative? Innovative?"

"No. Just a hack lashing out at the world."

"Why you-" Chell began but suddenly turned visible and turned to look in a random direction. "My Tachikomas! What is that philistine doing to my babies!?"

She was probably planning to do something to whoever was hurting her precious spider tank bots, but that distraction was exactly the opening that Andi was looking for.

Chell must have known it too because her funnels stepped up their game, throwing down an obscene amount of firepower to keep Andi too occupied to exploit it. The goddess of the Wild was having none of it though.

"Girls! Take care of those funnels!" She ordered as she summoned a battalion of Aurae to deal with the pesky drones whilst she herself lined up a shot.

Pouring the power of all three of her domains into it, Andi fired an arrow that literally pulsed with divine power that proceeded to slam into the distracted Chell's energy shield.

It did its job and tanked the hit, but at the cost of its own existence. The power of Andi's arrow proved too much and caused it to collapse, taking the drones that projected it down as well as they exploded from the strain.

The resultant explosions were powerful enough that it rocked Chell's body, breaking her concentration and dispelling whatever nasty surprise she had been cooking up to help her 'babies'.

"You interfering brat!" The Technodjinn hissed angrily as she righted herself in the air and fired off that big ass beam cannon mounted at her waist, forcing Andi to break off her follow up attack to perform some emergency evasions as it swept in her direction.

Chell was apparently so pissed that she didn't even realize that her little sweep of the room had pretty much finished the job for Andi's Aurae and cleared out the last of her funnels.

As if that wasn't bad enough for the poor Technodjinn, read the sarcasm, there was suddenly an explosion from the direction she had been looking at just moments ago.

"No! That was the weapon!" The daughter of Hephaestus shouted in her deliberately unnatural synthetic voice. "Do you know what you've done!?"

"Stopped your sinister plot?" Andi replied flippantly.

"You utterly ignorant fool! You don't even understand what you've done! You've very likely doomed us all!" She shouted as she tossed aside her handheld beam cannon and drew a beam saber, intent on cutting the pixie sized goddess into ribbons.

The mechanical goddess swiped and swung her nerdy laser pointer with surprising skill, but Andi nevertheless deftly dodged and weaved around it.

Of course this just put her directly in the firing arc of Chell's head mounted vulcan cannons which unloaded on her. Guided with what could only be described as divine accuracy, the shells, each as big as Andi herself was, slammed into her with what felt like the force of a tectonic collision and easily sent her flying into the wall of the chamber.

That hurt like hell! Wendy groaned, even as Andi began to shake off the pain.

As she did though, she was greeted with the unpleasant sight of Chell's waist mounted beam cannon unleashing its full power directly at her.

She made a desperate attempt to dodge but at such close range and so late, she didn't make it and was consumed in the powerful beam's fury.

The pain that Andi felt as the charged particles tore away at her being was insane. It honestly topped any pain she'd ever felt before. It was like it was burning away at her very being.

She was thus immensely relieved when the beam finally cut out.

She however could have done without Chell slamming her back into the wall immediately after with the physical shield attached to her left arm and proceeding to level her unignited beam saber in her other hand at her.

"I will enjoy seeing you burn." The machine goddess said menacingly.

"Maybe next time then," Andi said, still half delirious from the pain as she spat a few conjured seeds at Chell.

Seeds that promptly grew into immense vines that wrapped around the Technodjinn's machine body and began to at once constrict and rip it apart.

Busy dealing with her new floral parasite, Chell was forced to abandon delivering the killing blow thus allowing Andi to slip out of her grasp to regroup.

We can't be hit by that super beam cannon again. Wendy warned even as Chell resorted to the use of some kind of anti-personnel shrapnel grenades to shred the vines Andi had created, finally freeing herself from their deadly embrace.

"You will pay for polluting my Epic Form with your filthy flora." Chell shot back as her form flickered but ultimately remained visible.

"Guess your little cloak got busted, huh?" Andi smirked as she charged at the much larger goddess, firing shots with her bow as she went.

Chell's vulcans intercepted most of the arrows and the few that slipped through the interception fire were too weak to do more than scorch the other goddess' paint job but they did keep her distracted. Well, mostly anyways, as despite everything Chell still managed to stow away her beam saber and pull off the spare beam cannon mounted on her back to begin firing at Andi.

Andi was prepared for that though and easily evaded her shots. Even the sweeping blast from her opponent's dangerous waist mounted super beam cannon. It was a deadly dance, where even the slightest misstep could spell ruin for Andi.

She knew full well that Chell had her completely beat in the firepower department. One hit from the Technodjinn's weapons would likely do serious damage to her, as her taste of the super beam cannon had shown, but in contrast her own attacks were barely doing any damage.

That said, she wasn't intending to win this with the direct approach.

Thus she weaved her way closer to the much larger goddess, evading the storm of fire her opponent was unleashing.

"You think getting close will help you?" Chell asked tauntingly. "Didn't you see what I did to your vines?"

At this she fired off a salvo of her shrapnel grenades but Andi was ready for them. Copying a page from her superior Hecate's book when she had turned Claymore into a special Mistform, she transformed her body into the same Mist.

As a result, Chell's deadly shrapnel just went right through her suddenly gaseous body. Smirking at her success, Andi used her new state to slip right inside her opponent's body.

"Nice place you got in here. Could use some green though!"

"Get out of me!" Chell shouted as she began to squirm even as Andi shot out from her back, having already dropped her payload.

"Time for some redecorating." Andi said tauntingly as she snapped her fingers and suddenly plants erupted from inside Chell's robotic body, tearing it apart in the process.

As the gigantic robotic body was destroyed, it was consumed in a cloud of green binary that deposited Chell's human form onto one of the observation platforms that ringed the chamber and Andi teleported to her side in her own human form.

"You okay?" She asked the daughter of Hephaestus warily, Skyline held at the ready for if the bitch wanted a round two.

The young woman with unkempt hair messily tied up into a ponytail and dressed in a dirty worn-out orange jumpsuit just groaned.

"I guess I'll take that as you're alive." Andi said with a frown. "Looks like I won."

"Looks like," Percy said as he and his team cautiously made their way into the room. "So that means we're done here?"

"I gue-"

Before Lady Andi could reply to Percy's very impolite question, a massive cloud of green binary suddenly surrounded the defeated Technodjinn and deposited two new arrivals.

One of them was a largely white robot with a humanoid upper body, three insectoid legs and a triangular shaped head. His body had an appearance of being incomplete due to the many cables that dangled loosely along much of his legs.

Next to him stood a female robot with blue eyes and pink hair, a portion of which stood up in a large ahoge. A long white scarf was wrapped around her neck and her legs were a strange mix of humanoid and segmented at the same time.

"GLaDOS!?" Lady Andi cried out in alarm as she jumped away from the feminine looking robot.

"Ah fuck! Percy! Why did you have to invoke Murphy!" Austin cried out in dismay as they realized what they now faced.

"Aksis," the leader of the Technodjinn said, addressing the three legged robot who had already picked up the defeated Chell in a princess carry. "Take your sister to safety. I have a lesson to teach these foolish mortals."

The newly named Technodjinn nodded and dutifully teleported away with his sister in tow.

"Man, coming yourself huh? This sucks." Lady Andi smiled weakly, her body visibly tense.

"For what you fools have done? Nothing less would have been appropriate." GLaDOS declared ominously as the segments on her legs opened up, revealing dozens of lenses. "Die, you fools!"

With that, a storm of beams shot from the lenses at them. Beams that in defiance of physics curved through the air like snakes as they hurtled through the air at what must've been the speed of light to take their lives.

Thankfully, they had a goddess of their own on their side.

"Chell was blubbering about us being fools too. Didn't tell us what she was on about though. Mind enlightening us?" Andi shot back tauntingly as she raised a hand and raised some kind of translucent magical barrier that deflected the storm of beams safely away from them, though worryingly this seemed to cause sweat to pour down her face from the strain. "That is if it's anything more than destroying your little doomsday toy?"

"No, you idiot!" GLaDOS roared. "That weapon would have forced the Earth Mother back to sleep! Now thanks to you, the Second Gigantomachy is upon us. I hope you are happy living with that on your conscience, heroes!"

With that ominous accusation made, the leader of the Technodjinn teleported away but not without leaving a literal black hole behind as her parting gift.

"Sore loser," Lady Andi said with a roll of her eyes even as she had her barrier wrap itself around the singularity.

Whatever she was doing wasn't easy, even for her though and she began to glow with golden light as she poured her divine power into containing the black hole.

"Let's get out of here." Percy said grabbing Annabeth's arm and pulling her to the door. "Andi will need us gone if she wants to tap into the power she'll need to contain that thing."

Not for the first time Annabeth found herself pleasantly surprised at her boyfriend's insightfulness and nodded.

"Thanks guys!" Lady Andi shouted back at them distractedly as they left.

They barely made it out of sight before a powerful golden glow behind them signified Andi had assumed her divine form.

"That's what Lady Andi has to deal with?" Austin said with a shake of his head. "Props to her man. These Technodjinn are crazy! Dropping black holes around like that!? That's insane."

Annabeth could only nod. It really was absurd.

"Yeah, and that's why we've got to help her out whenever we can." Percy said loyally. "Ain't that right, Annabeth?"

"Of course," Annabeth said with conviction.

Ten minutes and one black hole contained later, Lady Andi had regrouped with the Campers inside the room where Clarisse's team had wrecked the weapon the Technodjinn had been planning to use against the Earth Mother. Now empty of its original protectors, they and any surviving robots in the base having apparently been evacuated by GLaDOS when she'd retreated.

"Maybe we shouldn't have wrecked it." Chris said with a frown as Annabeth finished explaining all they had learned from their brief encounter with GLaDOS. "I mean, if it could've stopped her from rising then it was a good thing right?"

There were murmurs of agreement from everyone.

We can't have that. Annabeth thought. Second guessing ourselves isn't going to do us any good.

Thankfully, it seemed she was not the only one who thought so.

"Calm down." Lady Andi told them plainly. "First off, we shouldn't ever trust what GLaDOS says. Second, even if she was telling the truth, no one would let her get away with keeping a Protogenoi blaster for herself. Thirdly, there's no guarantee it would even work."

"Yeah, but this is the Earth Mother we're talking about here!" Kayla cried out in alarm. "How are we ever going to be able to beat something like that!?"

"The same way we beat the Crooked One." Annabeth told the wavering daughter of Apollo sternly. "The old fashioned way. With blood, sweat and tears."

"And lots of our people dying?" Miranda asked tiredly. "'Cos let me tell you, that sucks."

"I think that's putting it lightly, Miranda." Malcolm said with a distant look as if he was remembering all the friends he'd lost in the fight against the Titans.

"We all lost people we cared about, Malcolm." Will told her brother comfortingly, putting an arm over his shoulder. "But we'll lose even more if we don't fight."

"Let's get you guys back to Camp." Lady Andi said confidently. "I have a lot to tell Father when I get back to Olympus. Don't worry too much. I'm sure we'll come up with a plan that'll win us this war."

Despite the goddess' apparent confidence, Annabeth could easily see the tells in her friend's expression that signified just how worried she was. Her eyes were slightly narrowed and her lips were turned down in a partial frown.

That more than anything made her heart feel like ice.

If a goddess was worried about the coming war then we should be terrified.

It was with this uneasy thought in her mind that Annabeth returned with the others to Camp courtesy of a teleport from Lady Andi. A thought that grew ever more powerful in her mind as events continued to play out and they lurched ever closer to all out war with the Earth itself.

Visual Guide to the robots the Technodjinn made use of this chapter:

The worker robots: the Liberators from the Fallout franchise

The beam cannon equipped robots: the OZ-02MD Virgo from the Gundam franchise

The assault rifle armed robots: the OZ-06MS Leo from the Gundam franchise

The ninja robots: the NRX-007 Correl from the Gundam franchise

The cat robots: the Zaber Fang (EZ-016) from the Zoids franchise

The spider tank robots: Tachikomas from the Ghost in the Shell franchise

Chell's Epic Form: a kitbashed Mobile Suit made out of various Mobile Suits from the Gundam franchise

Aksis: Aksis, Archon Prime from the Destiny franchise (Axios Note: I don't always have time to contribute creatively, but when I do, it's always a fun convo with E4E. Aksis as a Destiny reference honestly fit too much not to try to include.)

GLaDOS' form: Nono from Diebuster

Done and done! Thanks to Nameless and Axios as always!

Whoa, man. It felt like it took so long to get here, but the first series of PJO is finally done. Talk about a crazy ride! This is one of our largest chapters to date, back when we first started and 10k words were nearly our standard length, haha.

Nameless: Yeah, a long chapter is always fun but we realistically can't keep it up unfortunately. But once in a while is great.

This is the last chapter of Book 3. It was a long road, but the next book will get into Gaea's budding return and may possibly be the last installment of Andi's story. Thanks for sticking with us for so long guys, and hope you continue to do so!

You know what to do! Smash that review button and tell us what you love! No flames and peace off my peeps!