Chapter Nine: Retreating Out of the City
I wouldn't get a chance to think about my dream since I was rudely shaken awake. "Mermaid, we got to go. Something's about to happen." Trent was on the bed next to me.
"What are you talking about?" I looked at the clock, it was three thirty.
"Look!" He rolled off the bed and pulled back the curtain. The sky was filled with an over whelming bright light.
The lights flickered on and off over my head. I didn't pay much attention to it. I figured it had something to do with what was happening outside. Instead I turned my attention on my brother. I told him to go wake Skylar, while I went in search of Lyra.
Her room was next to mine. The lights flickered more intensely as I moved into the bedroom.
Lyra was sitting on the floor with a knife in her hand. She was sticking it into one of the plugs on the wall. A zap of electricity went through the knife and into her.
I was on the verge of screaming for help when I heard her sigh with pleasure. "Ly...Lyra? What are you doing? You know that's dangerous."
Her checks were flushed with embarrassment as she turned towards me. "You weren't supposed to see that..."
"What's not to see, you're only trying to electrocute yourself to death." I crossed my arms in front of my chest.
"You have it all wrong." She sighed and stood. "Notice anything different about me?"
I scanned her over and frowned. Something was different, but... oh dear. "Your cuts and bruises are gone!"
"Water heals you, electricity heals me." She tucked the knife into her belt.
"And Skylar too?" I asked.
Lyra nodded.
Hey, whatever floats their boats. "Cool!"
"You're not going to freak out on me and tell me I'm some kind of demonic monster or anything?" She sounded a bit vulnerable.
"Nope, you're cool." I gave her my best smile. It wasn't every day that I met people who didn't treat me like a freak, so why would I ever want to treat another person like one. "We're leaving in a couple of minutes. Something big is happening in the east. Mom wants us to find our way west as soon as possible."
Within minutes we found ourselves in the elevator heading down to the ground floor. As the doors opened, the sound of a mixed song smacked into us.
"K-R-O-N-O-S" Pause, "KRONOS!" Pause, "KRONOS!"
I poked my head around the corner from the elevator to find about twenty five cheerleaders practicing a routine. They wore red and black uniforms with Scythes and the ancient Greek symbols for Kronos on their shells.
They were dancing, stunting, and tumbling in the lobby. I wondered how they were able to do all of that and never run into each other. Unfortunately, there was no way around them. They were blocking the entry way. We couldn't get around them without getting caught, unless they were completely distracted by their routine.
"This way." Zillah whispered as she grabbed my arm to pulled me away. We rushed down the opposite hallway towards the banquet halls.
"That was really creepy." I whispered.
"Did you get a good look at their legs? One was metal the other looked like it belonged to a donkey!" My brother exclaimed a little too loudly for my liking.
"You're too young to be looking at any girl's legs." My mother frowned as she gave my brother a stern look.
"Yeah... but..." Sponge sighed, " whatever." He said glumly.
Zillah and Lyra exchanged giggles and whispered, "he's a real ladies' man," to each other. I couldn't picture my baby brother being into girls at his age. Last year he complained for a month when he had a girl as a science partner. But now... ugh! I didn't want him growing up so fast.
Once inside a banquet hall we rushed to the back of the dining area and into the kitchen. We paused for about two minutes to grab whatever food we could find and stuffed it into our left over lunch and dinner bags.
"We have to go now!" Zillah rushed from the door that exited into the banquet hall. "They've picked up our sent!"
We left the hotel by the fire exit and then ran towards Columbus Circle. Luckily, the blue giants were nowhere in sight.
We ran for what felt like ages. Any time we thought we saw a group of monsters we hid in doorways or ducked down into subways. When those options weren't available we hid behind cars or pretended we were sleeping.
The demon dogs were a bit harder to fool. They picked up our sent and tended to track us. Each time we came across one Zillah used her special magic to make them 'go home'.
Half way up 38th street we saw commotion in the distance. Four Greek soldiers in with pink and black armor were fighting one of the blue giants.
It swatted one of the warriors into the side of a BMW leaving a huge dent. The warrior crumpled over like a rag doll.
"Retreat!" The largest of the four yelled, his voice echoed off the buildings. He swung a sword that glistened in the rising sunlight.
"What about you?" A female voice cried out as she deflected a blow.
A stream of ice shot out of the giant's mouth. She did a dive roll in order to escape being turned into a popsicle.
"GO! NOW!" He stabbed the monster in the foot. It screamed and blew more ice.
The other two warriors backed off and picked up the fallen one's shoulders. They ran down the block towards 37th Street and disappeared behind the buildings.
I knew we had to help him. We picked up speed as we tried to close the distance between ourselves and the brave warrior.
After several seconds the giant swung a motorcycle at the hero. He flew into a fire hydrant. The water streamed out of control. From what I could tell he was face down in it.
The giant closed in on the hero.
"HEY!" Lyra's voice boomed
The giant turned towards us. With an evil grin he limped his way up the block and roared. Ice shot out of his mouth and froze an SUV several feet to my right.
"Girls, save the soldier, we'll take of the giant!" My mother ordered.
Skylar picked up sewer lid and flung it at him. The monster tried to deflect it, but was too slow. It collided with his stomach sending him flying backwards.
Lyra, Zillah and I ran towards the fallen hero.
"He's dying!" Zillah screamed.
"How can you tell?" Lyra reached him first.
"I just can!"
Lyra turned him over and took off his helmet. "He's our age." She looked back towards us.
Zillah stood next to him, but she didn't look down at him she looked straight ahead. "He says that he can't breathe."
"CPR! We need to perform CPR." I knelt next to him. He had dark hair and square jaw line. Any other time I would have described him as being really hot, but right now that was not on my mind.
"His armor is in the way!" Lyra and I tried to figure out how to get it off of him.
"There isn't any time. His spirit is starting to leave his body." Zillah said sadly.
Lyra turned her electric blue eyes towards me. "Force the water from his lungs."
"What?"
She took my hands and placed them on his chest.
"Will the water from his lungs. Please try." She begged.
I felt a tug in my gut as I tried to concentrate. I closed my eyes and imagined that the water festering in his lungs moved up into his trachea and out of his mouth.
Lyra's fingers were on his pulse. She tried to breath air back into his lungs, then she started chest compressions. Each time she pushed down, the metal responded but pushing into his chest.
"Wait! Please don't go." Zillah spoke to the empty space. She turned towards Lyra. "His heart has stopped, we need a defibrillator."
Lyra breathed into his mouth once again. "A defibrillator..." She clapped her hands together and started to rub them together. She placed them on his chest plate and closed her eyes. Sparks flowed from her hands and scattered across his chest plate.
"Again!" I cried.
She rubbed her hands together again and repeated the process.
"You did it!" Zillah smiled. "His soul has returned to his body."
Coming out of the tunnel a stampede of centaurs made their way towards 37th Street. They looked crazy, like they were heading towards a concert or the circus. Some were wearing colorful wigs, and others were painted like they were going to a football game. I was too tired to be surprised.
One was fixing his paint gun when he looked right at me. He broke away from the herd and trotted towards us. He aimed his gun at the giant, but before he could shoot it dissolved into blue dust.
"Whoa! Guess I'm not needed." He grinned and changed directions.
"Hey!" I called out. "Centaur, please come back, he needs your help."
He turned back towards us.
"He's hurt, we've done what we can to help him, but he's still not waking up."
He moved closer to us. "I'll take him with me." He had a blue tie dyed Party Pony South Dakota chapter shirt on.
Skylar jogged up to us. "Lyra help me put him on his back."
The two of them lifted him up without any difficulty.
The Centaur adjusted his paint gun, and cried "Party Ponies! YAHOO!" He trotted off to join his friends.
"I hope he'll be okay." Lyra whispered. She looked down and tilted her head. The teenager's long sword and a knife glistened in the water.
The sword was beautiful. It was long and slender with a jeweled hilt that glittered in the morning sunlight. On the blade there were letters in ancient Greek. It took several seconds but somehow I knew it said, "Troy."
"Whoa, the Sword of Troy?" Skylar took it from Lyra's hands.
"I didn't think it was real." My mother was the next to examine it. Before she could pass it along it shimmered out of her hands. "Where did it go?"
We looked around but couldn't see it anywhere.
Lyra was still holding the guy's dagger. It wasn't as impressive as the sword, but it was a lot nicer than the daggers we borrowed from the Met. The hilt had a combination of black and pink pearls with a black rubber handle.
"Why don't you hold on to that." I suggested as I picked up his black helmet.
"Thanks, I will." She closed her eyes and moved her lips as if making a promise to herself.
