"Aphrodite?" Uta asked, surprised. "Why did she want to talk to you?"
"About love, that's kind of her whole gimmick," I shrugged helplessly. "Said some crap about how she sees a lot of fun possibilities for me, so she's going to make my love life interesting."
When in doubt- use the source material. Couldn't exactly tell them about the fact Aphrodite knew I was the son of a Mayan/Aztec God.
"Oh, that's never good," Thalia groaned, palming her face. "She loves to fuck around with people's love lives..."
"I'll try to be careful," I promised. "But if the Goddess of love is pulling the strings, not much I can do... But she did also give me some good advice."
"And that is?" Zoe probed.
"This junkyard belongs to her husband," I explained. "Basically, this is where scraps and failed protects and other items go... However, she made it clear- we shouldn't take anything from it. She wasn't clear on why, she just said that we wouldn't like the consequences."
"In that case, we'll go west from here," Thalia declared. "I don't know about all of you, but I'm too awake to sleep, and we're already in the junkyard now..."
Zoe took the lead, and we began to follow, though Penny looked confused. "How do you know this is west?"
Zoe just sighed and pointed up at the sky. "Ursa Major is in the north. Therefore, this is west."
"Oh," Penny nodded. "The bear thing."
The huntress gave her an offended look. "Show some respect. It was a fine bear. A worthy opponent."
"Wasn't she one of your sisters that Zeus tricked into doing the nasty by pretending to be Artemis?" I asked her. "Callisto, wasn't it?"
She looked back at me sharply... She clearly didn't appreciate the reminder...
I did notice, however, Bianca looked slightly horrified at that revelation.
We reached the crest of a junk mountain... It was compiled of all sorts of things- broken heads of bronze horses, legs from statues, smashed chariots, many weapons such as shields and swords, and even more modern things like cards that shone with gold and silver, refrigerators, and computer monitors.
"That... Some of that looks like real gold."
"It probably is," I shrugged. "The gods don't really know what the word 'Modesty' means... Well, except Hestia."
"Don't touch anything," Thalia warned. "This is the Junkyard of the gods; we can't risk taking anything with us. Who knows what might happen?"
"But... Look at all of this stuff," Bianca gasped. "That bow looks incredible!" She grabbed a sword that changed into a hairpin. "And this... This is just like Penny's sword!"
"Leave it, Bianca," Zoe told her with a grim face, glancing from that sword to Penny's pocket.
Thalia shook her head and gripped her spear tighter. "Let's pick up the pace... I don't like it here."
"Do you think we'll be attacked by a killer refrigerator or something?" Penny joked.
"No, but the air is teeming with divine aura from the objects," I told Penny. "And that's what makes it dangerous."
Penny tilted her head. "Divine aura?"
"Anything touched by the gods- especially things like in this junkyard- are infused with a small amount of divine power, which lets off an aura. A presence, if you will. A little won't make a difference... But all of this gathered in a single place, the aura gathers and... Let's just say it can cause some things that shouldn't be alive to suddenly be moving."
The child of the seas gulped and suddenly became a lot more wary about our surroundings.
Still, we did take the opportunity to play with some things- such as an electric guitar in the shape of Apollo's lyre. We made sure to throw them all back onto the junk pile, however.
Though, while everyone was busy, I saw something catch my eye... Something Bianca also noticed.
A Mythomagic figurine/statue. The only one I knew was missing from Nicole's collection.
Hades.
Bianca bit her lip, conflicted... And then, while everyone was distracted, she quietly and quickly lifted it up and slipped it into her pocket.
I didn't stop her... Better she take something harmless like the figurine than something dangerous like a potentially cursed object in the Junkyard.
In the land without rain, stare down a bronze giant.
Talos Prototype.
One often meet their fate on the path to avoid it... If I made Bianca put it down, then someone else would just take something- or Talos would awaken anyway.
Some things were meant to happen. Talos awakening was one of them.
We soon came to the biggest junk hill yet... Beneath the junk, it was possible to see something beneath. thick metal columns wedged together, taking on the appearance of toes.
We all swallowed.
"Let's go around," Thalia suggested. "Far around."
"The road is over there though," Penny pointed out. "It's faster to climb over."
"Faster doesn't mean safer," Uta pointed out. "I agree... The atmosphere of this place is really eerie. Let's play it safe, it's a few more minutes at best."
Nobody argued, the junkyard's aura was really starting to affect everyone and all of us wanted to get out.
After several minutes of walking, we stepped out onto the highway. It was an abandoned but well-lit strip of black asphalt.
"We made it out," Zoe murmured. "Thank the Gods."
I just sighed heavily. "You just had to say that."
Zoe looked at me in confusion, before a sound echoed through the area. Like metal being violently crushed.
Behind us, the scrap mountain was slowly rising up. A bronze giant in Greek battle armour. The giant was impossibly tall, almost like looking at a skyscraper with arms and legs- and a deformed face. Its left side was partially melted, and its joins all groaned and creaked with rust.
"Talos!" Zoe gasped in shock.
"More like a prototype," I told Zoe, a beat of sweat rolling down the side of my face.
"Who's Talos?" Uta asked nervously.
"One of Hephaestus's creations," Thalia swallowed.
The giant slowly moved his hand to his sword belt and drew his sword- a blade that must have been a hundred feet long. It was rusty, dull, but given its size and the fact it was being wielded by such a giant? It hardly mattered to our current situation.
"Who took something!?" Zoe demanded. "Who was the fool!?"
She cast an accusing glare at me.
"Stop discriminating against me just because I have a penis!" I snapped at her. "I didn't take shit!"
"Less arguing, more running!" Uta called out.
We split up. Thalia called out Aegis and bolted down the highway. Talos swung his sword, taking out the power lines and causing violent sparks to block Thalia's path.
Zoe fired some arrows at Talos's face- as did Uta- but they just bounced off. A wave of aura unleashed from Uta as she tried to use Conqueror's Haki- but the giant only had enough AI within it to attack. It wasn't truly alive; it wouldn't bow to a Conqueror.
Penny and Bianca ended up behind a broken chariot, while I opened up my Menu and grabbed my Duel Disk, putting it on.
I slid my deck into place, my eyes hard. "It's my turn!" I exclaimed, drawing five cards from my deck.
"What are you doing!?" Zoe yelled incredulously.
"I summon Blue Storm Cadet, Erikk in attack mode!" I slammed the card down on the Duel Disk. A light cut through the darkness of the night, and Erikk emerged, weapons at the ready.
"What...!?" Zoe stared in shock.
"Buy him time!" Uta barked out, quickly realising what my plan was.
Zoe didn't question it for once. Instead, she barked out an order to Bianca. They began to fire arrows to Talos, doing their best to keep its attention on themselves.
"Erikk's effect! I discard Light Signals Penguin in order to add Blue Storm Rider, Diamantes to my hand," I pulled a card free from my deck. "Then, I activate the Spell - Blue Storm Assembly! I Special Summon 2 Blue Storm monsters from my hand with their effects negated, and their Levels reduced by two! I Special Summon Diamantes and Blue Storm Siren, Dorothea from my hand!"
Two more beings appeared before me. One was a handsome man, dressed in a fine white navy uniform wielding a pair of massive, green blades. Alongside him was a mermaid girl hovering in the air, wearing a uniform on the top half of her body, while her tail flowed out beneath her. In her hand, she wielded a sparkling trident.
Diamantes Level 5 --- 3.
Dorothea Level 4 --- 2.
"I'm tuning my Level 3 Erikk with my Level 3 Diamantes and my Level 2 Dorothea!" I exclaimed.
Erikk let out a cry as he turned into three blue rings of light that enveloped Dorothea and Diamantes. Their bodies faded away, revealing a total of five glimmering stars in their place. The rings shot up into the sky, carrying the stars within.
3 + 3 + 2 = 8!
"Wash away all vice in the flow of a furious flood! Its name is justice!" I slammed a card down onto my Duel Disk. "Synchro Summon! Rise from the Deep! Blue Storm Dragon, Maelstrom!"
A beam of aqua light shot through the rings, illuminating the entire junkyard and drawing Talos's attention. From within the light, Maelstrom manifested. The sea dragon let out a vicious roar... It was manifested in its full size- unlike how it usually appeared during duels. It was just as big as Talos, staring it down with a furious look in its eyes.
Everyone else stared in pure shock at the titanic dragon loaded with artillery missiles that was glaring at Talos.
"W- What...?" Penny stared in shock. "What the fuck is that thing!?"
"Maelstrom!" I pointed at Talos. "Attack Talos with all of your might! Show your pride as the Admiral of the Blue Storm Armada, and crush all in your path! Aqueous Artillery!"
The dragon admiral roared as missiles unleashed from its cannons- bombarding into Talos Prototype endlessly.
The bronze giant let out a grinding, horrific sound that sounded almost like a cry as it tried to fight back... But against the endless bombardment of missiles, there was nothing the discarded creature could do except take the brutal attacks.
Its body was torn apart by the violent explosions until one missile hits its neck. Its head was blown off, hurling and spinning high in the sky, before it crashed down to earth. Its impact kicked up sand and dust, obscuring it from view and causing the ground to shake from the impact. Its body toppled over, slamming down into another metal pile and becoming motionless with another miniature earthquake shaking us where we stood.
I took a deep heavy breath, wiping my forehead... Everyone was staring at me in shock- even Uta and Thalia had no idea of just how truly powerful my spirits could be. There was a reason I had gone out of my way to Synchro Summon Maelstrom instead of just summoning him normally- it was to access his full power. If I had summoned him directly, his strength would have been cut to potentially half. I wasn't willing to take the risk of half not being enough.
Maelstrom tilted his head back and roared with victory, basking in his triumph in battle- even if it had been easy for him.
I removed Maelstrom's card from my Duel Disk and lifted it up into the air. "Maelstrom! You have fought well! Now, return!"
Maelstrom merely nodded and his body shimmered before he turned into motes of light that rushed back towards his card, merging into it. The card let off a faint glimmer before it returned to normal.
I pulled my deck out of the duel disk, making a show of putting both in my bag where I safely stored them in my inventory.
"You..." Bianca finally spoke up, looking at my bag and then to me. "What... Was that?"
"Later," I told them. "For now... Let's get out of here. I don't want to stick around in case another of Talos's little brothers are lingering around the junkyard."