Hey guys! I hope you all enjoy this chapter in which Percy takes charge and also, who wouldn't want Leo's genius backing them up?
It didn't take them long to get back down from Olympus. Percy, Annabeth and Thalia led the first group group down into the city- where Percy quietly spoke to Argus quietly, telling him to return to camp. He agreed before turning to Annabeth and drawing a circle in the air with his finger.
"Yes," Annabeth agreed. "I think it's time."
"Time for what?" Percy tilted her head curiously as Argus moved to the back of the van and rummaged around inside for a moment before he brought out a bronze shield and passed it to Annabeth. It looked pretty much standard issue—the same kind of round shield that was always used in capture the flag. But when Annabeth set it on the ground, the reflection on the polished metal changed from sky and buildings to the Statue of Liberty—which wasn't anywhere close to them.
"Oh wow." Percy blinked, "Okay is that like-a video shield?"
"It was one of Daedalus's ideas." Annabeth admitted, "Leo saw the design on the laptop when he was looking through it and he and Beckendorf spent ages pouring over them together."
"He's really proud of it." Silena spoke up, "It-" she faltered, "I guess he won't make anything like that again-"
"He will." Percy clapped her hand on Silena's shoulder, "You know he will- Leo'll make him a new arm that's just as good as his old one, you'll see."
"I know- he was just-" Silena shook her head, "I know it seems silly with everything that's on the line but I know it's hurt him a lot- he's always been so proud of his skills with building things and in the forges and now he can't do any of that."
"It's just for now." Annabeth's voice was reassuring, "He'll be able to do everything again soon- Leo will make sure of that." She shook herself slightly, "But we should focus. The shield bends sunlight or moonlight from anywhere in the world to create a reflection. You can literally see any target under the sun or moon, as long as natural light is touching it. Look."
Everyone crowded around as Annabeth concentrated. The image zoomed and spun at first in a way that made Percy feel almost dizzy. They were in the Central Park Zoo, then zooming down East 60th, past Bloomingdale's, then turning on Third Avenue. "Whoa," Connor Stoll said. "Back up. Zoom in right there."
"What?" Annabeth said nervously. "You see invaders?"
"No, right there—Dylan's Candy Bar." Connor grinned at his brother. "Dude, it's open. And everyone is asleep. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Connor!" Katie Gardner scolded. She sounded like her mother, Demeter. "This is serious. You are not going to loot a candy store in the middle of a war!"
"Sorry," Connor muttered, but he didn't sound very ashamed.
Annabeth passed her hand in front of the shield, and another scene popped up: FDR Drive, looking across the river at Lighthouse Park.
"This will let us see what's going on across the city," she said. "Thank you, Argus. Hopefully we'll see you back at camp . . . someday."
Argus grunted. He gave Percy a look that clearly meant Good luck; you'll need it, then climbed into his van. He and the two harpy drivers swerved away, weaving around clusters of idle cars that littered the road.
Percy took a deep breath, reaching for her empathy link with Grover and sending him a signal as best as she could- hopefully he'd feel it and come to join them. If not... well she'd deal with that later.
Then she looked around, spotting Pollux crouched next to a sleeping policeman. "I don't get it. Why didn't we fall asleep too? Why just the mortals?"
"This is a huge spell," Silena said slowly. "The bigger the spell, the easier it is to resist. If you want to sleep millions of mortals, you've got to cast a very thin layer of magic. Sleeping demigods is much harder."
"How do you know all that?" Percy's voice was curious, "I didn't know you were into magic-"
"Lou Ellen." Silena admitted, "She's pretty nice, I was curious about magic and she's learning so I asked her."
"Ah, makes sense." Percy had noticed the other girls absence- but she had made a promise, Lou Ellen didn't have to fight if she didn't want to.
And she couldn't blame her really- there were at least a dozen Hecate kids on Kronos' side, not including Alabaster- she was bound to want to avoid fighting them if she possibly could.
Percy's attention was pulled away when Annabeth spoke up again.
"Percy," She was still looking at the shield. "You'd better see this."
The bronze image showed Long Island Sound near La Guardia. A fleet of a dozen speedboats raced through the dark water toward Manhattan. Each boat was packed with demigods in full Greek armor. At the back of the lead boat, a purple banner emblazoned with a black scythe flapped in the night wind. Percy had never seen that design before, but it wasn't hard to figure out: the battle flag of Kronos.
"Scan the perimeter of the island," Percy said. "Quick."
Annabeth shifted the scene south to the harbor. A Staten Island Ferry was plowing through the waves near Ellis Island. The deck was crowded with dracaenae and a whole pack of hellhounds. Swimming in front of the ship was a pod of marine mammals, after a moment Percy realized they were telkhines—sea demons.
The scene shifted again: the Jersey shore, right at the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel. A hundred assorted monsters were marching past the lanes of stopped traffic: giants with clubs, rogue Cyclopes, a few fire-spitting dragons, and just to rub it in, a World War II-era Sherman tank, pushing cars out of its way as it rumbled into the tunnel.
Percy swallowed hard- suddenly her throat felt dry, too dry. "What's happening outside of Manhattan? Is everyone asleep?"
Annabeth frowned. "I don't think so, but it's strange. As far as I can tell from these pictures, Manhattan is totally asleep. Then there's like a fifty-mile radius around the island where time is running really, really slow. The closer you get to Manhattan, the slower it is."
She showed Percy another scene—a New Jersey highway. It was Saturday evening, so the traffic wasn't as bad as it might've been on a weekday. The drivers looked awake, but the cars were moving at about one mile per hour. Birds flew overhead in slow motion.
"Kronos." Percy swallowed hard, "Kronos is slowing time." and the mortals were probably completely unaware of what was happening to them. Gods that was a horrifying thought.
"Hecate might be helping." Katie suggested almost nervously- "I mean, look how the cars are all veering away from the Manhattan exits, like they're getting a subconscious message to turn back."
"Well her son is currently Kronos' host." Percy's voice was bitter, "We've known from the very start that she was going to end up on Kronos' side. Annabeth-"
"I don't know." Annabeth sounded really frustrated. She hated not knowing. "But somehow they've surrounded Manhattan in layers of magic. The outside world might not even realize something is wrong. Any mortals coming toward Manhattan will slow down so much they won't know what's happening."
"Which means we're blocked off from the rest of the world." Percy said slowly.
Annabeth nodded. "We shouldn't expect any help coming in, other than the others- if they can make it past the magic."
Percy swallowed hard- they hadn't even considered the possibility that the others would be blocked out of the city until now. "Okay." she breathed out slowly, looking around at the others- they looked terrified- of course they did they were hugely outnumbered.
She took a deep breath, "We hold the city-"
"Uh, no offence Percy-" Connor started but Percy held up a hand.
"We hold the city. It's the only way. We cannot and will not allow Kronos to gain access to Olympus through the ground entrance."
"She's right." Annabeth's voice was slightly shaky "The gods of the wind should keep Kronos's forces away from Olympus by air, so he'll try a ground assault. We have to cut off the entrances to the island."
"They have boats Percy." Silena's voice was worried- "How do we stop-"
"I'm the fucking daughter of Poseidon." Percy stated firmly, "I will figure out a way to handle the boats okay?" she remembered Athena's advice. Remember the rivers- "I
think I have a plan- a sort of plan. We'll see. But I'll deal with it."
"Right." Thalia nodded, "Okay then Kelp Head. What do you want us to do?"
"We need to guard the bridges and tunnels. Let's assume they'll try a midtown or downtown assault, at least on their first try. That would be the most direct way to the Empire State Building." Percy pressed her lips together, "Sherman, take your cabin to the Williamsburg bridge, and I want the Apollo cabin members who are better with archery than healing to go with them- the best healers- Will you're in charge of them, I want you to stick towards the centre so that you can go to anywhere who needs it most-" that earned a nod from Will. "Katie, Demeter's cabin takes the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel. Grow thorn bushes and poison ivy in the tunnel. Do whatever you have to do, but keep them out of there! Conner, Travis you take Hermes cabin and cover the Manhattan Bridge. Summer, Sebastian you take your Cabins to cover the Brooklyn Bridge. Silena, you take your siblings to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel."
"Oh my gods," one of her sisters said. "Fifth Avenue is so on our way! We could accessorize, and monsters, like, totally hate the smell of Givenchy."
"No delays," Percy hesitated. "Well . . . the perfume thing, if you think it'll work." she couldn't help but notice that Drew wasn't there- that kind of stung, she'd hoped her friend would be in the thick of it- she wasn't the type to hang back and do nothing- but... she had been hit pretty hard by the realisation that she'd been used to spy on them.
Hopefully she'd come to help soon, "The Holland Tunnel-" Percy's mind was racing- but she didn't get the chance to finish what she was saying because suddenly she heard-
"Holy shit!" and Percy turned her head to look where Travis was pointing and her eyes went wide with shock and her face lit up.
"Yes!" because flying through the sky towards them was a familiar bronze dragon. "Just what we need-" and her eyes widened in shock because as she watched three figures leapt off the back of the dragon- and Percy almost shrieked when they threw their arms out wide and familiar wings almost seemed to unfurl from their arms- clearly Leo had been working hard on them- because they
were Daedalus's design, and Annabeth laughed.
"He did say he'd been working on a way to make it so there was no time limit to how long they could be used for." as she spoke one of the small figures that was soaring down towards them did a loop in the air, which made the Stolls whoop and clap- and soon enough Jake and Nyssa touched down lightly, both of them grinning, "Leo said he figured it'd be a good idea to have some eyes in the sky that are more nimble than Festus." Nyssa was grinning, "Pretty cool huh?"
"You made it just in time-"
"That's good." Luke touched down a moment later, grinning as me moved and hugged Percy, "Gods it's weird- the whole city-"
"Tell me about it." Percy snorted, "It's surreal." she hugged him back before pulling away and stepping back, Leo looked like he was looking for a place to land Festus from what she could see. And gods but a giant dragon would be useful as fuck, sometimes she really did love her little brother- and she could see the relief in some of the others faces- they knew just how much better their chances had gotten. "Jake, I was just giving out orders, I want you to take your cabin to the Holland tunnel- Nyssa, I want you to be our eyes in the sky okay?"
"My pleasure." Jake smiled grimly, "We have a score to settle anyway- for what they did to Beckendorf." and the members from the cabin roared in approval at that.
"Use Greek fire, set traps, whatever you can do."
"I'll keep watch from above." Nyssa nodded, "And I'll liaise with Leo yeah?"
"Yes." Percy nodded, "That sounds perfect. What's left-"
"59th Street Bridge." Annabeth said smoothly, "Malcolm, you take our Cabin. Activate plan twenty-three along the way, just like I showed you. Hold that position."
"You got it."
"I'll go with Percy," she said, turning to look at her girlfriend. "Then we'll join you, or we'll go wherever we're needed."
There were giggles at that and Millie- one of the Aphrodite girls said "You two just want some time to yourselves-"
"Well they'll be disappointed." Luke grinned, "Thal's and I will be sticking with them."
"You all have phones that Leo made, right?" there were several nods and Percy nodded to herself, "Good. Keep in contact with them- make sure you have them on you at all times-if you need back up call one of us-" and she grinned slightly, Leo had managed to find a clear spot to land and he was sprinting down the street towards them.
"Didn't forget about the great Flameo did you?"
"I want you in the sky." Percy said, "You go where the fighting is thickest. Nyssa will be our go between with you. You and Festus are gonna be invaluable- you're the big guns Leo-"
"I can do that." Leo grinned and nodded, rushing off to Festus again, then Thalia suddenly paled, "Shit- The Lincoln tunnel-"
"Oh fuck." Percy cursed very loudly, her eyes wide. A sherman tank and about a hundred monsters were marching right through that tunnel as they spoke and Percy hadn't positioned any of their forces there- she couldn't take them from other places without leaving them undefended- they didn't have enough people.
"Perhaps thou should leave that up to us." a girls voice called from across the street.
