IM BAAAAACK! Miss me? ;) Not that i really went anywhere interesting... just had an extremely hectic fall and winter. Actually it was those new subscribers and reviewers that inspired me to get back to writing, so thanks if that was you. On another note, I'm reeeaaaally excited to see the Lightning Thief movie! 9 days! Hopefully they stay true to the book... I mean, WHY can't they give Alexandra Daddario some blonde hair dye? Her face is perfect and everything, but the brown hair is sorta getting on my nerves. Anyhow, enough randomess, enjoy chapter 11!
If you didn't know what there was a crowd of demons lurking somewhere in Central Park you would have said it was an average summer morning. There was the smell of freshly cut grass and morning coffee, the squeak of stroller wheels, and the ruffling of newspapers. There were birds singing and squirrels chasing each other up and down trees. Of course, there were still some areas that looked like they'd been trampled (only we knew it wasn't that far from the truth) but even there, teams of volunteers were planting flowers and patching up lawns.
Cam, Annabeth and I strolled together like we were a couple normal kids. Minnie skipped way ahead, obliviously, swinging her Beach Babe Bailey by the tiny plastic arm.
"Ooh, a puppy!" she squealed and veered off track to pet a cute little dog. "What's her name?" she asked the cute jogger girl who held its leash.
"Mitzi," the girl replied in a weirdly monotone voice and smiled as she held out her other hand. "And I'm Lisa. Nice to meet you Minnie."
Minnie hesitated. "Uh, I never told you my name."
Lisa's smile faltered. "Um, really?"
"Yeah, how did you know?"
"I-" Lisa was struggling. Then the confused look was replaced by a smile, but this time it wasn't one I particularly liked. It occurred to me that the way she spoke was like the way I had at my fourth grade school where they thought that a successful form of punishment was forcing the delinquents to participate in the school play. Lisa was reciting lines. I looked to Annabeth and could tell that she was thinking the same thing. Her pace quickened.
"I know all about you Minnie Coulter," Lisa hissed, yes, hissed. Because in half a second nice, pretty Lisa was gone and nasty I-want-to-bite-your-head-off empousai Lisa was leering over my little sister.
Now I was cursing myself (and judging by the little voices in my head Annabeth was cursing me too) for letting Minnie wander so far ahead. I hoped Cam's winged shoes could carry him fast enough to stop my sister from being lunchmeat. Even better, my conscience added, Minnie will leap at this chance to prove herself and save her own life.
"N-no!" Minnie squeaked. She backed away and brandished her Beach Babe Bailey. "You'd better b-back off!"
"Awwh," Lisa/empousai sneered."Isn't that just adorable. The witty bitty girlie is gonna fight me with her teensy weensy baby doll. What's it gonna do, pout at me?"
But that witty bitty girl had more guts than had been anticipated. There was a squeal of 'FUN IN THE SUN!' and the monster dissolved into dust. Minnie stood with her knife in hand, staring at the spot where the empousai had been when Annabeth, Cam and I reached her.
"W-o-w," Minnie's cheeks were flushed. "I forgot how good that felt!"
I laughed. Nothing like a good spat with a monster to blow off some steam.
"But what's not good is that they know we're here," Cam said. "We've lost the element of surprise."
"You're all great fighters, though," I said. "I'm sure this whole mission will be a breeze."
Annabeth gave me a weird look (which was understandable since I sounded like an overly-proud father) but decided it was no biggie and shrugged. "Yeah, we've definitely faced worse."
We set off down the trail again. Instead of skipping ahead, Minnie gripped my hand and kept her knife at the ready. The next few joggers were seriously weirded out by the looks we gave them but it turned out that most of them were empousai as well. They didn't last long. With the help of a few friendly, but tired dryads we finally headed in the right direction. We were nearing the Diana Ross Playground when I stopped the others.
"Sssh! We're close."
"Where?" Annabeth whispered.
I pointed to where the playground was up ahead. If you looked through the Mist you could see the outlines of really big stuff behind the trees. "There they are."
Picture the wildest party you've ever been at. Now times it by ten and replace the people with bloodthirsty monsters. You'll probably have a nice image of the crowd of monsters. For a demigod it was like an All-You-Can-Kill Buffet of hellhounds, empousai, harpies and giants. And above this mess was a lone dracaena that was trying to control the mad house.
"My brethren!" she was screaming, "The time is ripe to unite! We must finish the job our noble master began; he will not have been destroyed in vain! While the gods are lazy in their assumed triumph, we shall strike from the shadows! A new age shall begin! Our age!
I wondered how many times the dracaena had been hit on the head during the battle, because it had probably been ten times too many. There was no way in a million years that this miserable group of demons could take Olympus. No chance. Zip. Zero. Apparently I wasn't the only one thinking that.
"Um…" grunted the lone Hyperborean "Um, how?"
"We hit them at their weakest point: the half-bloods!"
My stomach twisted into a knot. Enough demigods got killed every year by the monsters, it made me queasy to think what they could do if they actually organized themselves. Of course, they didn't have a guardian with a 24/7 hour shift back then. And if we had anything to do with it, the monsters wouldn't even make it to tomorrow.
"Be ready," I hissed. "Wait for my command. Take them from behind. Minnie, start with the hellhounds. Annabeth – where's Annabeth?"
Cam blinked and looked around. "She was here a second ago!"
I exhaled slowly. Of course, Annabeth wasn't sticking around to hear orders. Now we had to wait until she decided to show herself before we launched an attack. I scanned the crowd until I spotted an invisible Annabeth sneaking up behind the jungle gym. All hail my immortal powers. She was mere feet from the dracaena, who was still busting her lungs to shout above the roar.
"We are demons! We are terror! We're unstoppable! We're – "
Dead, I thought as she promptly evaporated into dust. I gave a thumbs up in Annabeth's direction and shouted "Go!" to Cam and Minnie, who charged with swords and daggers held high. My hand was halfway to Riptide when I realized that I wouldn't be joining them in this fight.
It took all my self control to just stand there and watch as my friends leaped into battle, slashing through demons left and right. The only thing that kept me sane was the fact that we were totally dominating. Cam kick started his winged shoes and zoomed upwards, nailing the Hyperborean right between the eyes. A hellhound lunged at Annabeth, but she dropped to the ground and stabbed it in the belly.
I thought we were going to win, and then I realized I had forgotten about the prophecy.
Three Half-Bloods of four seek foe to repress
Find them they may but return with one less
It was pretty easy to understand. For the sake of the demigods I hoped it was me who wouldn't be returning to Camp Half-Blood.
Then I saw it.
It was a shimmering gold beam of light and was heading right towards us. The sheer energy it contained made the hairs on my arm stand up. I followed it with my eyes to see where it was headed. Minnie.
My heart dropped to my stomach as I watched the arc of killer energy descend toward the little girl, who was already battling monsters for her life. At that moment, I didn't care that it wasn't my place to interfere. All I knew was that this wasn't how things were meant to be.
No way, I thought. Don't you even think about touching my sister.
Before I realized what I was doing, a wall of blue water shot up from the ground, surrounding Minnie like a funnel. Just in time. The golden light collided with it and exploded in a crackle of lightning, vaporizing the last of the demons, and probably causing one of New York's biggest power outages. I sprinted over to where Minnie sat, trembling on the ground.
"You okay?" I asked, helping her up.
"W-w-what was that?" Minnie stuttered as she reached for her knife.
"I don't know," I lied. "But I'm going to get to the bottom of it, that's for sure."
"Well at least that's over, I – " Minnie's face went white as she stopped abruptly.
Apparently we had missed one. A Lastrygonian giant was swiping his meaty hands at Cam, who was floating on his winged shoes above the monster's head. There was just one problem.
"Percy!"
The shoes jerked Cam to the left, and then the right. They swooped down only inches from the giant, and then flew up past the tallest trees.
It was like a sickening case of déjà-vu.
"Gods" Annabeth cursed coming up from behind me. "Not again! Percy, you have to do something!"
"I can't."
"You didn't seem to have a problem with it before."
"That was different," I said. "Whatever that energy was, it wasn't a part of the quest. That's why I could interfere."
"Percy!" Cam cried. He was rising higher.
"Look I'll help!" Annabeth snapped. Her dagger flew through the air and nestled in the giant's chest. The monster had only a second to look surprised before he exploded into dust.
I couldn't do anything but stand helplessly as my friend drifted further and further up into the sky. A last echo of "Percy!" reached my ears, but I couldn't find the little dark speck that was Cam. We stood staring at the clouds for a few moments, refusing to accept that our friend was gone. Find them they may but return with one less. The prophecy had come true.
For anyone who read Pendragon, my "This wasn't how things were meant to be" quote was totally taken from there, haha =)