Important note…NUMBER 9 (CLAIRE) IS NO LONGER NUMBER 9. SHE IS NOW NUMBER 8 TO FIT IN THE POWER OF 6 STORY.

The previous chapter writes 6 years later but in fact it is 9 years later… I will change the title. This means the current time is: July 2012 (Leo joined in school after half the semester).

Lots of thanks to the people who reviewed my story and thanks to Eclaire Stones and Alexmen for your encouraging reviews. By the way in response to Alexmen, there will be the characters from I AM NUMBER 4 inside but none of the main characters from Percy Jackson except for Chiron. My favorite character in I AM NUMBER 4 is John and strange as it sounds I like the 'dog' Bernie Kosar (a.k.a Hadley). Just wondering, is it true that I AM NUMBER 4 series is going to be a 6 book series. I can't wait for the upcoming 2nd book of I AM NUMBER 4: The Power Of 6!

Also, this is end of the introductory phase of the story. Next chapter will be post-introductory phase… There will be 5 phases in my story altogether. Also, my one-shot fan fiction posting will be delayed by a little. So, for now just enjoy the longest chapter so far. Enjoy!

Chapter 4: The New Life

His vision was already shimmering… blurred and fading. He wanted to run but he couldn't… he wanted to scream but his mouth wouldn't open. So, he was standing there, preparing for death. But just seconds before the monster hit him, instinct took over… somehow, he raised his hand and shots of blue sparks shot out of his hand. The monster was stunned and thrown backwards. The monster was still quite alive, though. The monster stood up, looking stunned, angry… It staggered its way to Lyo. One could tell she was really angry, outraged. Mrs Avles, the monster, pounced forward with a hiss of annoyance. She snapped her jaw angrily as if he was her greatest insult. She slowly walked towards Lyo. Her face was filled with annoyance.

She angrily screeched, "You willttt sssssuffers!"

She lunged at Lyo with anger. Lyo snapped out from his shock and started charging towards the exit with the Avles monster hot at his heels. Suddenly, the window shattered. Lyo had no time to even turn as he continued dashing away. An extremely bright and blinding block of wave appeared. It was so bright and powerful that the whole room was filled with a mega flash and a whirling sound was produced. It took Lyo a while to regain his vision completely. There, in front of him lay a pile of dust and Mrs Avles was nowhere to be seen. Standing before the pile of dust was the girl, Claire.

(Lyo's POV)

It was a brush with death. I had no freaking idea on what the hell that thing which transformed from Mrs Avles was but I suspect it was better to not know what it was. Then, to my next to greatest (because the greatest is the monster thing) is that the girl who sat at the corner of the classroom saved my life. Somehow, she managed to transform the monster into a pile of dust. Before I could even thank her, there came Leonard looking extremely panicky and anxious.

"How…you…Avles…dust…killed…alive…flash" Leonard whispered… his eyes almost bulging out.

The girl, too, looked shocked at her own feat. She looked as if she was about to faint due to fatigue. Then, out of nowhere came a man. He looked surprised by the state of the things while I continued staying rooted to the ground… speechless and very tired. The man, I observed, was like Leonard on a wheelchair. They whispered for a while, then, Leonard rose from his wheelchair. Now, that was kind of impossible as Leonard has no legs at all but out of nowhere, he sprouted out two hairy legs with hooves…, exactly like a goat. I let out a shriek of horror. I observed from the corner of my eye that the girl who rescued me just now had already fainted… I wanted to go up to help her but found that my energy too was diminishing. My legs finally gave way and I dropped unconscious.

x x x x x x

It was dark where I woke up, there was a candle lit up beside me. A steaming hot cup of drinks lay beside me, feeling thirsty and cold; I took a sip of it. It tasted like hot chocolate although I could not be sure. I was unsure of where I was although I was definitely not at home. In front of me was my mother. She was smiling but had a worried look.

"Mom, I had the weirdest dream ever… It was funny; I dreamt that I went to the excursion. Dreamt of erm… being attacked by a monster and … and Leonard… Leonard being half goat and other scary stuff" I said.

Mom looked at me with a sad face as if she was at my funeral. She pressed her lips tightly together as if she was about to announce my death. She wanted to say something but was lost for words. She reminded me of a goldfish, opening and closing her mouth constantly.

Then, I heard someone knock on the door, to my great surprise it was that girl… the girl who saved my life in that nightmare, that pretty girl who saved me... Now, it was my turn to be lost for words. I could not say anything. That girl makes me not know what to say.

"You must be Leo, right?" she said suddenly.

I nodded.

"I am Claire. And erm…erm… nice to meet you," she said hesitantly," I will be seeing you around soon. Bye."

She left quickly as if embarrassed. The next thing that came in was really very scary. I was so shocked that I swore my heart seriously skipped a beat. I shivered slightly, feeling feverish like how I felt when I saw the monster Mrs Avles in my nightmare. The thing that walked in had a strange combination of an upper part of a man and a lower part of a horse. I wanted to scream but the sight of my mom looking at that thing as if it was normal kind of comforted me. It started forward towards me. He smiled at me and said," Had a good night? Yesterday was indeed a long day isn't it, having to fight a monster?"

"But wasn't… wasn't that a dream…A terrible nightmare?" I asked, my voice already trembling.

"Well, you could always pretend it was a nightmare and everything didn't happen but now you are at risk. You have to know the truth, know yourself and know the real world out there." the thing said, "I am something from the real world … a centaur. The monster you fought yesterday too is something from the real world there are thousand more types of monster you would have to face!"

I buried my face in my hands trying to absorb what the centaur just said.

"It is never easy to understand and absorb the truth but soon you will get used to us. There are people like you… all of them are demigods, you are one to a child of a godly parent. Leonard is your protector. In every school there is one of them looking out for people like you. You see all of your type of people attract monsters. You are one of the unlucky few who are being attacked by such a vicious monster. They do have reasons for doing so… Nonetheless, we would have to train you to defend yourself and that is why I am here. You are in danger and sending you to our camp is only the right thing…"

"So you mean…mean that my …my mother is a goddess." I asked

The centaur burst out laughing with my mother. When he finally recovered from his laughing fit, he told me that the godly parent was my father.

"But who is my godly parent?" I queried, still confused

"Well your mom knows and we all realized an hour ago, while you are still asleep. Your father claimed you and therefore I realized while would the kindly ones come after you. Your father is the all and mighty god of sky and the heaven…" the centaur opened his mouth.

" …Zeus" my mom continued.

I shook my head refusing to believe all that he just said. The centaur described to me the traits of a demigod to convince me. But I didn't want to hear it… It was far too difficult to accept the truth.

x x x x x

It was evening when the entire missing puzzle piece finally was put together. The centaur named Chiron told me stuff which demigod does and other stuff about Greek mythology. It is funny how Greek mythology seem so fake yet so real at the same time. Anyway, I was right about not being at home. I was actually at the Marina Bay Sand hotel which meant I was still in Singapore. Chiron told me this was the safest place in the country as it was blessed by the gods. But ultimately the safest place in the world for the demigods is Camp-Half Blood, nowhere could get safer than that Chiron said. I was at the large table at the balcony with Claire, her guardian Janet, my mother, Chiron and Leonard. Leonard was indeed a half goat, half human. Janet was first to speak, "So, all the fuss of Greek Mythology is true isn't it."

"Indeed," Chiron replied, "it is definitely true. I distinctly remembered that you said that you would explain about yourselves won't you, something about aliens and end of the world."

"I keep to my words… Do not fret." said Janet. "There is only one purpose for coming here," continued Janet, "to escape from our enemy. But after we came here we realized that the enemy was also here trying to do the same as what they did to our planet. We couldn't do anything to chase them away. Our enemies were far too strong… stronger than any one of us. We couldn't even manage surviving ourselves, forget about helping Earthlings. We were protected nonetheless from a charm which only allows us to be killed in order of our number." Janet paused and took a sip of water. So far everything I had heard sounds strange and unreal. I would have been less surprised if anytime cameramen would pop out and tell me that I was in their TV programme.

Janet continued suddenly, "So, I was saying that we could only be killed by order. She," pointing towards Claire, "is Number 8. There were 9 Loriens and one more who came from a separate ship. We came here about 11 and half years ago. Within this time, three died which meant there left 7 of us. One month ago, all of us, Loriens, the 7 of us, came together. Apparently, someone approached number 9 eight years ago, he told of a prophecy about 7 people having to fight against our enemy in the year 2012 otherwise the world will...be destroyed. The person who approached number 8 also said that two worlds will have to work together or all will perish. We accepted that guy in the group and thus have 7 people in our force to fight against our enemy. But then, our enemy caught up with us and killed number 9. We all ran in separate ways and never got together since then."

I curiously asked, "But you said you could only be killed in order…"

"Well, that is no longer true when we get together" Janet said

Slam! There was a tremendously loud sound from the front door as the walls near the door cracked. Slam! More cracks were found.

The next chapter will come after I have 3 more reviews

Important note: Claire is not number 9 she is number 8, I just changed it