AN: Heya!
I just realized that there might be stuff in this chapter that might
confuse some of you. Cyanne and Hercules
kinda were an item.
Well, sort of…it's complicated. Whenever they saw each other, you knew that
they liked each other, but it was never really official b/c none of them went
out of each other's way to go see the other in any "unofficial capacity". I know it's
confusing. If you still don't get it, email me (gabby-kora@juno.com)
and I'll do my best to clear it up for you.
Chapter 10
Right as
Ares' fingers snapped, Mush sneezed.
When he opened his eyes, he did a double take. Everyone was still standing in the same positions
as before, but they were in an entirely definitely location. Wherever they were, they definitely weren't in Manhattan. They were standing in a wide
open space carpeted by spring green grass. Not far off, trees dusted the plain,
thickening as you went farther in to create a forest. Huge, white, puffy clouds
marshmallowed a sky of the bluest of blues. A magnificent sun, seemingly so much bigger
than the one in New York, hung in
the sky as well.
Amazed for
the third time that day, Mush gazed around at his friends. They were all wearing the same basic
expression as his. Utter awe. Once everyone fully regained their senses,
they turned to Hercules and Iolaus. The
latter was glaring at Ares while the former didn't
look any happier. Tight-lipped, he
stated, "Ares, what do you think you're doing?"
Ares laughed his trademark laugh.
"Only what
dear old Dad ordered me to do. Bringing you and your annoying friend back. Only he didn't say
anything about not letting the rest of your little friends tag along. He also didn't mention where." Hercules' face scrunched in confusion,
"Where? Wha—"
"Oh, your
friends are going to have fun here," interrupted Ares. "Things certainly are different. For one thing, the girls are much
tougher. I couldn't
stand the women in that place you where before.
Too soft.
Didn't look like any of them could wield a sword." Ares flashed a white-toothed smile, "enjoy
the field trip, kiddies," he said, addressing the newsies. The next second, he vanished, leaving an echo
behind: "welcome home, little brother."
Slowly, the
newsies' heads swerved to Hercules and Iolaus.
Without hesitation, Hercules plunged into a lengthy explanation of the
events that had brought he and Iolaus to New
York. Iolaus contributed to the account (aka inserted random comments)
whenever possible (aka every 5 seconds).
Hercules concluded with an apology:
"And we're so, so sorry for not being honest with you. We just didn't think
that anyone would believe us if we told them who we really were. And if someone did
believe us, we weren't sure how they'd react.
We thought it would be best to keep our identities secret. Though the only
thing that we really lied to you about were our real names and where we were
from. Our true identities,
our personalities, the fact that you are our friends, none of that was, is, a
lie."
Not wavering a moment, Mouse came forward to shake in the warrior's
fashion (grasping each other's forearms instead of hands) with Hercules. "I understand, and forgive you." All the newsies followed Mouse's action. Scamp was the last to shake with Hercules and
Iolaus. She glanced around,
"Hey…where's
Spot? For that matter, where's
Jack?" Everyone looked around, but there
was not any sign of either newsie leader.
Suddenly, something clicked in Hercules' head.
"Oh no," he
moaned before taking off in the direction of the nearby woods.
"What just
happened?" inquired Blink. Iolaus stared
after Hercules' retreating figure grimly.
"Well, if I
know big guy, and I do, he just figured out the riddle that Ares left us. And if he's going where I think he's going, things aren't good." Everyone took one glance in the direction
that Hercules had left in, then rushed off after him.
***
Jack didn't get it. One
moment, he had been standing in an abandoned alley in Manhattan. Now he was standing in the middle of a dense
forest. The only living thing (besides
all the plants and birds, who must be present due to the birdsong) in sight was
Spot, who was standing beside him. "Got any
idea wheah we are or what jus' happened, Jacky-boy?" Still absorbed in trying to get his bearings,
Jack shook his head. "That's what I was
afraid of," remarked Spot.
All of a
sudden, wild cries filled the air as unrecognizable figures zoomed about in the
trees above. "Uh, Spot," Jack said in a shaky voice, "I think we oughta run
now." He tried to pull Spot away, but
the Brooklyn leader stood firm. He grabbed his extra slingshot (Spot always
carried an extra) and aimed at one of the "things" in the treetops.
"Spot
Conlon don't run from nuttin'."
"But what about the rally?
Ya ran then." Spot released a
shooter and hit one of the things in the neck.
It shrieked ear-splittingly as Spot glared at
Jack. He was about to retort when the
things leapt down from the trees to surround Spot and Jack. The two newsies took a second to study the figures as they were sure the figures were examining
them. The "things" seemed to be human,
and their cries had sounded female. They
were dressed in clothing that showed too much skin to be appropriate (both Jack
and Spot turned beet red when they noticed it) and the clothing came in an
assortment of both bright and dark colors.
Their faces were covered with masks that had
evil-looking, twisted, large-beaked birds carved on them.
The
foremost figure pushed her mask off her face and the others took this as a
signal to do the same, revealing that they were indeed women. Though certainly not
any type of women that neither Jack nor Spot had ever seen before. Silencing their thoughts, the foremost woman,
and most likely leader, spoke. "I am
Cyanne, Queen of the Talequah Amazons."
She might as well have been speaking Greek. (an: hehe…)
"Come
again?" sputtered Jack. Cyanne's eyes
flashed at this intruder who dared to interrupt her.
"You are
trespassing on Amazon territory." Jack's
face clouded with a mix of confusion and apology.
"Wese
sorry, really, we are. We didn't
know…we'll leave right now if ya want us ta."
Cyanne's face was stone.
"I might
have let you leave earlier, with a warning to pay more attention to boundary
markers next time you go gallivanting through the woods. But you have attacked," her eyes shot daggers
at Spot, "one of my amazons. Now we must
take you back to camp, and the council will decide what to do with you from
there." Jack winced: Cyanne's icy glare
was as unnerving as Spot's. He whispered into Spot's ear as they were shoved forward and ordered to follow.
"See, I
told ya so. We shoulda run."
***
"Can
we…please take…a rest…now?" Blink panted.
Iolaus nodded and stopped running.
The others did so as well with sighs of relief. Many flopped to the ground. They had been running for what seemed like
hours (it had actually only been 10-15 minutes) and they had lost sight of Hercules
as soon as he'd hit the woods.
"Are ya
sure ya know where Hercules is goin'?" Race asked between gulps of air.
"Yeah,"
Iolaus replied. "There's only one place
in this area besides the Academy, and if Jack and Spot were there, Hercules
wouldn't be in such a hurry."
"Then where
are Jack and Spot?" queried Clover.
"The Amazon Camp."
For some reason that Mouse couldn't understand,
Iolaus sounded a bit excited at the prospect of where they were going.
"An Amazon
camp?" she exclaimed. "They're real?" Iolaus' eyes sparkled,
"Oh yeah."
"What's an
Amazon Camp?" Skittery asked.
"It's the
home of the Amazons. Amazons are tribes
of warrior women, all as strong, if not stronger than men. They can fight, live on their own, and are
the favored mortals of Ares," Mouse explained.
Iolaus sobered,
But Amazons can be real touchy, especially with men. Knowing Spot, he's
probably done something already to offend them.
Tartarus, just trespassing on their turf, even if you don't know that
it's theirs, gets them all upset."
"Then what
are we waiting for?" Becca said. "We
have to go after them!" Their energy
renewed by the almost-certain gravity of the situation, the newsies took off,
Iolaus leading the way.
***
By the time
that they had reached the Amazon camp, Spot was fed up
with being pushed around. He stopped
walking abruptly. "Tha's it, Ise tired
of this. No one orders Spot Conlon
around, and I mean nobody." Jack
frantically tried to shush Spot, but the stubborn Brooklyner would have none of
it. He waved Jack away and pulled out
his cane. "I ain't gonna be held hostage
by no one, especially goils, no mattah how tuff ya think ya are." Cyanne rolled her eyes. This one was so stupid, it was almost comical
(an: we do not
think in any way that Spot's stupid. We
all know that he has more than half a brain, and he
can multiply. But
Cyanne just does not know this yet.)
"Simula!" The beckoned amazon appeared at her leader's
side.
"Yes, my
Queen?"
"Strip
these two of their weapons, and lock them in one of the cells. You know what to do if either of them gives
you any trouble, though I think that the scrawny one is the only one who
will. Then meet me in the Council
Hut." Spot's eyes blazed when Cyanne
called him scrawny.
"Now lissen
heah, goilie…" Simula marched up to Spot, wrenched the cane from his grip, and
knocked him on the back of the head with it.
Spot's eyes rolled upwards, and he crumpled to the ground, unconscious. Sighing--this was not a good day--Jack stooped to heft him up, then
followed Simula to where she was taking them.
***
Half an
hour later, Cyanne emerged from the Council Hut to be greeted
by two of her guards, who were escorting a familiar figure. "Hercules!" she cried. "It's alright," she said to her guards, "you
can go. Return to your posts." She turned back to Hercules, "it's been
awhile since I've seen you last." Her
forehead wrinkled, "You've cut your hair.
And you're dressed like…one of them."
Hercules chewed his tongue impatiently,
"Yeah,
'them' is who I've come to talk to you about.
I take it that you've seen two guys dressed in the same type of clothes as
me? Both tall,
one with golden-brown hair and a red bandana around his neck. The other skinny-ish, though don't tell him I said that, with a gold-tipped cane and a
slingshot? They both talk kinda
funny…" Cyanne's face
hardened,
"Yes, I
have seen them. They are currently in
one of my cells."
"Cells?"
repeated Hercules. 'Great. Just
what I was afraid of. This is
going to be a looonnng day.'
"My Queen,"
one of the Amazons who had brought Hercules to Cyanne ran up. "There's a group of people led by Hercules'
curly-haired friend making their way here."
"Those are
my friends," Hercules explained quickly.
"You already know Iolaus. And as for the rest…it's a long story, and let me just say
that Ares is at the bottom of it. Jack
and Spot, the two that you've got locked up, are good friends of mine, and they
really don't mean any harm." Cyanne
addressed the guard after a moment's thought.
"Let the
group come here." The guard bowed and
left. Cyanne focused her attention on
Hercules. "Your friends trespassed on my
territory. The second one shot one of my
amazons with a slingshot, and has been nothing but disrespectful and
impudent. I will keep them in my custody
until we decide what to do with them.
And if either of them try something funny, I
may be forced to execute them."
"Execute
them?" Hercules echoed weakly just as Iolaus showed up with the newsies.
"Execute? You're not talking
about executing my best friend, are you?
I won't let you. It doesn't matter
what they've done, it can't be bad enough for you to execute them. You've had to have misjudged something."
Cyanne gazed at Scamp with a light of respect in her eyes.
"You have
the makings of an Amazon. But you heard what I said.
Amazon Law clearly states…"
"Maybe
Amazon Law is wrong!" Becca came forward.
"That's my brother and cousin in there, and I am not going to let you
hurt them." Cyanne raised her eyebrows
at the Kelly sibling,
"You
definitely have the guts for an Amazon.
You should consider joining us, along with your friend. But I would be careful about what you say
about Amazon Law." Becca shook her head,
"I'd never
even think about becoming an Amazon, especially since you're so quick to
judge. All of us are completely new to
this entire time and place, I would think that that's
obvious enough, and we don't know anything about this place, except Mouse knows
a little. Okay, so Spot's
hot-tempered, but he's like that no matter where he is. Are you sure that you did absolutely nothing
to provoke him? That you were just
walking along and he attacked you or something?
He's not that rude. So he's stubborn,
and I'll admit that he doesn't like being pushed around; he's used to being a
leader and being the one who's doing the pushing. But from what I've
seen so far, you're not much different at all.
And I don't think that you'd like to punish or execute yourself."
Cyanne was
at a loss for words, as Hercules and Iolaus tried to hold back laughter. Looks like Cyanne had met her match (in Scamp
and Becca). After a moment, Scamp
stepped next to Becca,
"I agree
with her." Wearing an amused expression,
Hercules addressed Cyanne,
"They've
got a point, you have to agree." Cyanne
hesitated a few more moments before shouting,
"Release
the prisoners!" A minute later, Spot and
Jack appeared, dragged along by two unhappy-looking amazons. They flung the newsie leaders forward, who
stumbled, but didn't fall. The amazons tossed Spot's cane and slingshot
after them. The newsies surrounded their
friends and pelted them with questions.
"I'm releasing them out of respect for you and your two female friends,"
Cyanne stated to Hercules. He nodded,
"Thanks,"
and turned to go, everyone else already making their way back to the woods.
"Oh and
Hercules," Cyanne called. Hercules
twisted his neck around,
"Yes?"
"I'll think
about what you and your friends said."
Hercules grinned, and left.
