Chapter 3: The Four Pegasimen
Footsteps echoed off the walls of the alleyway as the two teens scrambled to keep ahead of the screeching and tearing sounds behind them. One of them stumbled over a small pile of trash, and the other quickly bent down, nearly tossing the first back onto her feet.
"Keep moving! We gotta get outta here!" the second said, his feet pounding the pavement. "Unless you think you can do whatever the heck you did back there again!"
The girl, though out of breath and obviously panicked, shrugged. She spun around as the pack of griffins rounded the corner, and lifted her hands. Her eyes were closed in concentration, but nothing was heard or seen that changed.
"It's not working." She grunted through her teeth, as her ribs began to ache from running so much. The second teen cursed under his breath and began digging through his pockets for anything that could be of use, his hands working faster than his thoughts. The nearest griffin swooped down, giving an enraged squawk as it extended its talons.
"Get down!" the second teen said, launching a small compacted ball of bits of metal at the bird. Midway through its flight, the ball suddenly began spinning, and sharper pieces of metal swung out, slicing a nice gash into the griffin's neck. It screeched in pain and pulled up, circling back around with its pack.
"Sweet! Can you do that again!" the girl said, hunkering down behind a trash can.
"No, outta parts!" the guy said, hiding behind a recycling bin.
The griffins weren't fooled.
They screeched, and dove in tight formation at the two teens, who screamed and covered their eyes as though to block it out.
There was a sudden flash of light, and three more teens suddenly dropped into the fray.
"WHAT THE—!" the girl said, noticing the shining weapons in the three teens' hands.
Percy went after the first griffin, Riptide cutting through its left wing like paper, before Percy jumped to the next griffin. The griffin plummeted down, landing squarely on Annabeth's dagger, disintegrating to fine golden monster dust. Thalia batted a third griffin away, her shield spiraling into view as the final two griffins swooped down for the kill. They could not handle the sight of Medusa's gruesome visage, however, and veered off, only to be met by Percy mid-air. Both griffins fell to the ground, and Annabeth made short work of them.
The original two teens looked up at the three standing over them, sheathing weapons.
"W-Who the heck are all of you?!" the girl said, being the first to break the silence.
"Ah, right." Percy said, offering a hand to help the guy up. Annabeth did the same for the girl. "We are your guys' protectors. We're here to escort you to somewhere you'll be safe."
At his touch, the guy withdrew his hand from Percy.
"Y-You DEFINITELY do not feel normal. What are you?! Are you another monster or something!?"
"Erm, no. I'll explain it to you once we're safe." Percy said.
"Oh, we don't have to wait that long, Percy. Let's tell them now." Thalia said, her shield retracting into her bracelet again. "I'm Thalia, that's Percy, that's Annabeth. Like he said, we're your protectors until you can get yourselves to Camp."
The girl stood, brushing herself off. "Camp?"
"Thalia, we gotta break it a little slower than that." Annabeth said, turning back to the two teens. "Okay, have either of you heard of any Greek Mythology?"
The two teens slowly nodded, recalling tidbits they'd heard of in school.
"That stuff is real." Annabeth said. The guy nearly stumbled back, but the girl seemed to be taking it much more calmly than him.
"What?" she asked, very calmly. "The heck did you just say?"
Annabeth waved her hand in the air as if trying to grab the right words. "The Olympian gods, the Underworld, Hercules, all real. We three used to be like you two. Demigods. Half-bloods. Whichever you want to call it."
"Half-Bloods? As in half-human, half—" the girl asks, as though she's not quite sure she's ready to hear the answer.
"—god." Percy finished.
The girl and the guy look at each other for a moment, and then laugh. And laugh. And laugh.
"Sure, and next thing I know I'll be seeing unicorns!" the guy wheezed.
Percy turned around and whistled. A few moments later, loud flapping was heard as three pegasi landed behind them, one of them jet-black.
"Hey boss! Who're these guys?" Blackjack asked, nickering at the other two teens.
"Unclaimed demigods. We're gonna bring them to camp." Percy thought to Blackjack. "Think you're up to carrying one or two people?"
"Born ready, boss." Blackjack said, prancing over to Percy. The two teens were watching with wide eyes, suddenly finding everything not as funny as it was a moment ago.
"What. The. Actual. Heck." The guy breathed, as the other two pegasi walked over, stopping to the sides of Annabeth and Thalia.
"Are those pegasi?" the girl whispered, reaching out her hand as though she wanted nothing else than to touch the pegasi.
"Uh, wings on a horse are pretty obvious, lady." Guido huffed.
"Climb on, we'll explain on the way." Annabeth said, hopping up onto her pegasus. The two teens quickly climbed on. One behind Annabeth, one behind Percy.
"Uh, I'm Rose. That's Jordan." The girl said, gently patting the pegasi under her. "Pleased to meet you all."
"Nice to meet you too." Percy answered. "Let's go!"
The pegasi took off into the air, and soon they were zooming right along, towards the general direction of Long Island.
"Okay, like we said, Greek Mythology is real. We've covered basic elements so far; pegasi are real, monsters are real…"
"Thank goodness, I thought I had just been imagining those friggin griffins that attacked us!" Jordan sighed, holding on tight to Percy as they zoomed along.
"You guys said that you…used to be like us? Demigods? What does that really mean?" Rose asked as she spread her arms like she was born to fly.
"We are the children of the gods of Greece. As side effects, we get to have some of their abilities. I noticed a few times that you two were able to sort of tap into these abilities."
"You mean that that thing I did earlier… I really did that?!" Rose said, smiling broadly.
"What the heck, that was real?" Jordan says, sweating though the air was cool at their altitude.
"Yeah. You two really have powers now. Just like we did, we're accompanying you to Camp Half-Blood, the safest place in the world for our kind. Monsters can't get in there, and we'll be—"
There was more angry screeching, and the three veterans looked back. Flying towards them and quickly gaining were more angry griffins. Percy only sighed.
"What on earth did you two do to get them so angry?" Percy asked.
"We don't know!" Rose said, suddenly not enjoying her flight as much as she had been. "All we know is that we were walking home from school, and suddenly we just saw these huge sheets of metal on top of a nearby abandoned building! We climbed to the top, and saw this huge pile of—"
"Let me guess. Gold?" Thalia scowled, turning around on her Pegasus and drawing her weapons. Percy uncapped Riptide and Annabeth unsheathed her dagger. The griffins were closing in.
"Yeah, how did you—WHAT TH—"Jordan began, as the three veterans jumped off their pegasi.
But they weren't falling.
Percy zoomed forward, and suddenly the griffins did not look so eager to attack. In fact, they looked downright frightened of him and the others. Several of them tried veering away, but were quickly surrounded.
Jordan and Rose, who were still on pegasi, pulled on the reins and managed to get the pegasi to hover midair as they watched. These three "protectors" acted as though hunting these griffins were just a walk in the park. They watched as Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia all took only moments to deliver a fatal blow to each griffin, before hovering back over to the pegasi and remounting.
"And we forgot to mention…" Thalia said, leaning back in her saddle as they resumed their journey, "we're gods."
The rest of the trip was spent in stunned silence.