Mrs. O'Leary and Salome were the only ones happy about the sleeping city.
They found them pigging out at an overturned hot dog stand while the owner was curled up on the sidewalk, sucking his thumb.
Argus was waiting for them with his hundred eyes wide open. His face made it clear he was freaking out.
Same dude same.
"You'd better get back to camp," Percy told him. "Guard it as best you can."
He pointed at her brother and raised his eyebrow quizzically.
"I'm staying," Percy said.
Argus nodded, like this answer satisfied him. He looked at Annabeth and drew a circle in the air with his finger.
"Yes," Annabeth agreed. "I think it's time."
"For what?" Lea asked.
Argus rummaged around in the back of his van. He brought out a bronze shield and passed it to Annabeth. It looked pretty much standard issue—the same kind of round shield they 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.
Lea was a bit impressed.
"Whoa," Percy said. "A video shield."
"One of Daedalus's ideas," Annabeth said. "I had Beckendorf make this before—" She glanced at Silena. "Um, anyway, 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."
They crowded around as Annabeth concentrated though Lea turned away since she got motion sickness from how fast it was moving.
"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. Lea rolled her eyes, but she'd deny the amusement that she felt. "Dude, it's open. And everyone is asleep. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Connor!" Katie Gardner scolded. "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 and the two harpy drivers climb into their vans and swerved away, weaving around clusters of idle cars that littered the road.
Percy whistled for Mrs. O'Leary, and she came bounding over.
"Hey, girl," Percy said. "You remember Grover? The satyr we met in the park?"
"WOOF!"
"I need you to find him," Percy said. "Make sure he's still awake. We're going to need his help. You got that? Find Grover!"
Mrs. O'Leary gave him a sloppy wet kiss, which was hilarious. Then she raced off north.
Lea whistled for Salome, climbing onto her back when she came bounding over.
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 Beauregard said. "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."
Lea and Lou Ellen beamed. Those mageia lessons that Alabaster kept forcing on them whenever the opportunity arose was definitely coming along well.
Percy stared at her. "When did you learn so much about magic?"
Silena blushed. "I don't spend all my time on my wardrobe."
"Percy," Annabeth called. 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 m the night wind.
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. At first Lea thought they were dolphins. Then she saw their doglike faces and the swords strapped to their waists; she hissed. Those damned sea demons! The ones that threw lava at Percy. Oh, she was going to make a new kind of oil if they got anywhere near her brother.
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.
"What's happening with the mortals outside Manhattan?" Percy said. "Is the whole state asleep?"
Lea shook her head. "I doubt it. This is a strong spell." She inwardly sighed in relief. If her parents went to the safe house, then they'd be out of the Little Dominican Republic, out of Manhattan, and out of the spell. Out of danger.
Lou Ellen nodded her head. "Hypnos is on the side of the gods so that leaves the oneiri and even though Morpheus is the leader of them, Hypnos outranks him. By himself, Morpheus wouldn't be able to put everyone asleep without infringing completely on Hypnos' domain."
Annabeth frowned as she nodded. "Yeah 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 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 said. "He's slowing time."
"Hecate might be helping," Katie Gardner said. "Look how the cars are all veering away from the Manhattan exits, like they're getting a subconscious message to turn back."
Lea scowled, "And if not her, then Pasiphaë and Aeëtes. Kírkē was battling them."
Annabeth growled in frustration. "So that's how 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."
Lea nodded. It was sickening this oppressive mageia weighing on her.
"Like flies in amber," Jake Mason murmured.
Annabeth nodded. "We shouldn't expect any help coming in."
Lea looked around. The others looked stunned and scared. Lea understood. The shield had shown at least three hundred enemies on the way and while Lea knew that was a snack before dinner for Drew when she was in a mood, she had no doubt that the other side had a few more surprises. There was forty of them and they were alone.
There was forty of them and they were children fighting the adults' war but... Children ceased to be children when you put a sword in their hands. When you taught them to fight a war, then you armed them and put them on the front lines, they were not children anymore.
They were soldiers.
"All right," Percy said. "We're going to hold Manhattan."
Silena tugged at her armor. "Um, Percy, Manhattan is huge."
"We are going to hold it," Percy said. "We have to."
"He's right," Annabeth said. "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," Michael Yew pointed out.
Lea and Percy shared looks. Remember the rivers. Athena had advised and it made a lot of sense now.
"I'll take care of the boats," Percy said.
Michael frowned. "How?"
"Just leave it to me," I said. "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. Michael, take Apollo's cabin to the Williamsburg Bridge. 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, take half of Hermes cabin and cover the Manhattan Bridge. Travis, you take the other half and cover the Brooklyn Bridge. And no stopping for looting or pillaging!"
"Awwww!" the whole Hermes cabin complained.
"Silena, take the Aphrodite crew to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel."
"Oh my gods," Renae said. "Fifth Avenue is so on our way! We could accessorize, and monsters, like, totally hate the smell of Givenchy."
"No delays," Percy said. "Well . . . the perfume thing, if you think it'll work."
Six Aphrodite girls kissed him on the cheek in excitement before ducking away when Eliza growled.
"All right, enough! The Holland Tunnel. Jake, take the Hephaestus cabin there. Use Greek fire, set traps. Whatever you've got."
He grinned. "Gladly. We've got a score to settle. For Beckendorf!"
The whole cabin roared in approval.
"The 59th Street Bridge," Percy said. "Clarisse—"
He faltered. Clarisse wasn't here. The whole Ares cabin was sitting back at camp. Truthfully, a good plan also. Who knows if Kronos sent people there to destroy the camp while they were busy with Olympos? Get rid of all loose ends.
"We'll take that," Annabeth stepped in, saving me from an embarrassing silence. She turned to her siblings. "Malcolm, take the Athena 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. "Then we'll join you, or we'll go wherever we're needed."
Eliza smirked at them, "No detours, you two."
There were some giggles.
Lea snickered before squaring her shoulders back. "I can move freely also, but I think I'll stay here in case any mageia is directed at you all. Con, Trav, think you can spare Lou and a few of her siblings?"
"Of course, mother."
"Don't call me that."
"All right," Percy cut in. "Keep in touch with cell phones."
"We don't have cell phones," Silena protested.
He reached down, picked up some snoring lady's BlackBerry, and tossed it to Silena. "You do now. You all know Annabeth's number, right? If you need us, pick up a random phone and call us. Use it once, drop it, then borrow another one if you have to. That should make it harder for the monsters to zero in on you."
Everyone grinned as though they liked this idea.
Travis cleared his throat. "Uh, if we find a really nice phone—"
"No, you can't keep it," Percy said.
"Aw, man."
"Hold it, Percy," Jake Mason said. "You forgot the Lincoln Tunnel."
He was right. A Sherman tank and a hundred monsters were marching through that tunnel right now, and they'd positioned their forces everywhere else.
Then a girl's voice called from across the street: "How about you leave that to us?"
A band of thirty adolescent girls crossed Fifth Avenue. They wore white shirts, silvery camouflage pants, and combat boots. They all had swords at their sides, quivers on their backs, and bows at the ready. A pack of white timber wolves milled around their feet, and many of the girls had hunting falcons on their arms.
The girl in the lead had spiky black hair and a black leather jacket. She wore a silver circlet on her head like a princess's tiara, which didn't match her skull earrings or her Death to Barbie T-shirt showing a little Barbie doll with an arrow through its head.
"Thalia!" Annabeth cried.
The daughter of Zeus grinned. "The Hunters of Artemis, reporting for duty."
There were hugs and greetings all around . . . or at least Thalia was friendly. The other Hunters didn't like being around campers, especially boys, but they didn't shoot anyone, which for them was a pretty warm welcome.
"Where have you been the last year?" Percy asked Thalia. "You've got like twice as many Hunters now!"
She laughed. "Long, long story. I bet my adventures were more dangerous than yours, Jackson."
"Complete lie," Percy said.
"We'll see," she promised. "After this is over, you, Annabeth, and me: cheeseburgers and fries at that hotel on West 57th."
"Le Parker Meridien," Percy said. "You're on. And Thalia, thanks."
She shrugged. "Those monsters won't know what hit them. Hunters, move out!" She slapped her silver bracelet, and the shield Aegis spiraled into full form. The golden head of Medusa molded in the center was so horrible, the campers all backed away. The Hunters took off down the avenue, followed by their wolves and falcons
Lincoln Tunnel would be safe for now.
"Thank the gods," Annabeth said. "But if we don't blockade the rivers from those boats, guarding the bridges and tunnels will be pointless."
"You're right," Percy said.
"You're the greatest heroes of this millennium," Percy told them as he looked them over. Lea smiled just a bit. Her brother was a natural born leader. "It doesn't matter how many monsters come at you. Fight bravely, and we will win." He raised Riptide and shouted, "FOR OLYMPUS!"
They shouted in response, and our forty voices echoed off the buildings of Midtown. For a moment it sounded brave, but it died quickly in the silence of ten million sleeping New Yorkers.
Lea and the few pharmakís set up a perimeter around the Empire State Building. They used the closet windows available to mirror what was going on with each group of soldiers.
Lea kept her eyes on Annabeth and Percy and Drew while she twisted the bracelet around her wrist.
Where was Alabaster? Was he... was he dead?
Was Medea and Magnus okay?
Salome paced around wearily, low growls escaping her throat.
Lea watched, tossing a ball of mageia in her hand; a meditation sphere that she found was able to help her relax and keep her mind clear so she could focus properly. Annabeth and Percy were running around Madison Square Park and stopping before some statue. The dude was sitting in a chair with his legs crossed. He wore an old-fashioned suit—Abraham Lincoln style—with a bow tie and long coattails and stuff. A bunch of bronze books were piled under his chair. He held a writing quill in one hand and a big metal sheet of parchment in the other.
Lou Ellen came to her side as they watched Annabeth climb on a park bench and examined the base of the statue.
Both of them tensed and gaped when she did something and the statue stood up, its quill and paper ready. The statue tilted its head, looking at them with blank metal eyes. Annabeth said something then statue dude jumped off his pedestal. He hit the ground so hard his shoes cracked the sidewalk. Then he went clanking off toward the east.
Lou Ellen and Lea were silent for a moment as Percy and Annabeth ran back to their stolen bike. Lea smiled with all teeth. "I think I have spell for that. Keep watch."
"You got it."
Lea rushed into the building, making her way quickly over to the doorman who slid her a card before she rushed over to the elevator. She wished the elevator would speed up just a bit, but she also didn't want to tamper with it. Never know what kind of defenses that the aliens had in place.
Once she made it onto the archway, she gave herself one second to admire the city and a desperate wish that she knew how to draw because it was something that was way tooo beautiful before she ran down the archway, the blue lights kept flying overhead and distantly, she could feel Kírkē's mageia deeper within the land, but she had no time to think about that. She stopped under the archway, eyes flitting to the various statues of the aliens, major and minor lining it.
Shout out to Harry Potter and his damn stones.
Her ring blazed in the same color as her eyes as she pointed it at the various statues around her. "Piertotum Locomotor!"
Her arm recoil from the strength of it, the ring cracking as the mageia burst out, rushing to follow her intentions as it sank into the marble and plaster of each statue. The only ones that didn't move were the three daughters of Kronos, but that was fine. Someone needed to stay behind and defend the akropolis in case Hecate or the others slipped through.
And she will forever deny the eep that she gave as all along the archway, the statues moved down from their pedestals, and from the echoing crashes sounding around her, she was under the belief that some others had awakened also. Great. She hadn't meant to do that. There were a couple of animals too, a statue of a pegasus and a giant hare, a replica of what could have been the Trojan Horse, eagles and phoenixes, and a giant dog.
"HEY!" she yelled even though some of them brandished swords and spiked balls on chains and the statue that was supposed to be her father had a trident with really pointy ends. She ducked down when all of them turned to stare at her. She coughed awkwardly looking between them all before her gaze landed on the statue of Hermes watching her curiously. She took a deep breath. "Olympos is under attack," she said. "Enemies old and new are making their way here. And these monsters were brought into the world for a single purpose, to destroy the realm of the gods."
Lea cast her gaze over each of the statues. "You all are the representations of our Fathers and our Mothers, our Brothers and our Sisters, and our Siblings that are Both and Neither. Olympos isn't known for being a happy family, but it is a family none the less. Are you not the greatest of the living great! Don't let them destroy Olympos!" She pointed her hand down to the city below them. "Defend Manhattan! Keep the monsters away from the Gates of Olympos!"
One by one the statues jumped off the mountain though others took up defensive positions around it, swing the weapons around and she was a bit startled to see that they were actually divined weapons. The statues of Artemis and Apóllōn were shooting arrows into the air and the wind gods stopped to blink when a few hit there marks and it started raining ichor. She had the absent thought if she should have put some kind of protection onto those ones that were dropping down from the mountain, but she hadn't had more time to think about it as she rushed back down the elevator.
When she got back to ground zero, Lou Ellen was waiting for her, brandishing a sword. "The Demeter cabin is in need for some assistance. I'm heading over there with Pollox. We got a few that moved over to cover the Hephaestus cabin as the monsters are breaking off from the tunnels and crawling up the streets."
Lea nodded. "I got us a bit of help."
"Yeah, I figured that when I saw a statue of Lord Ares land knee first into the face of a cyclops."
Lea snickered before she whistled for Salome, swinging around to jump on top of her back before she bounded off. "Hey, girl, let's go to Herald Square, okay? Right around the corner." Salome took her down 5th street instead of 6th then back up 34th where the Bellringers statue was located.
She waved her hand once more, "Piertotum Locomotor!" Then she winced when the hammers abruptly hit the bell in the eerily silence of the city and the statue of Minerva turned its gaze down onto her. Oh, Medea had a lot of explaining to do if she lived through this. Hermes too! "Olympos is under attack. Defend Manhattan."
"I don't take orders from mortals," Minerva said.
That was creepy. And why did nobody say that the things could speak?
"Lady, I will put you in a snow globe," Lea sneered. "The actual gods are off fighting Typhon and Kronos is leading an invasion to the gates of Olympos. Only forty mortals are defending it so get off your pedestal and defend it."
She bounded away on Salome before the statue could say anything else. No way was Lea going to argue with inanimate object and she was not going to tell anyone that she did. Salome carried her all the way up 6th street until they could bound down 42nd, but Lea made her turn down 5th and go through 43rd. "Piertotum Locomotor!" The kneeling fireman statue was no longer kneeling. "Defend Manhattan." She focused all her willpower into before continuing on.
She wasn't blind as to why Salome decided to back down 42nd and why. She knew that Queens-Midtown Tunnel was in that direction and the kitten was very fond of Drew. But as they got closer, Lea remembered The Knotted Gun sculpture over by the United Nations building and well... what if it wasn't knotted?
Lea led Salome in that direction. A wave of her hand had the oversized Colt Python .357 Magnum revolver with its muzzle tied in a knot coming loose in a horrible screech of metal. She wondered if it was loaded with bullets before deciding that it probably wasn't so a quick spell fixed that.
They continued onwards towards the Bridge and she had just a second throw her hands out as monsters fell within leading to a huge wave. She felt a bit like Katara as she moved her hands around to settle the water while also piercing the monsters, but unlike Katara and Percy, she was still no good with her water powers and was just using her mageia.
"Thanks, Lee," Drew called out, making her way across the bridge and picking up arrows. Lea gave her a nod, waving her hand once more to take the weapons that had came from the enemy and pass them on to all the various kids of love and beauty. She made to slip off of Salome when Eliza gave a shout of pain.
Her eyes filled with tears before burning with anger. "One of them... one of my soulmates... hurt."
Percy.
Lea sat more comfortably on top of Salome, calling forth her mageia to reach out towards the teleporter on Riptide. Before she could leave though, Eliza rushed towards her and threw herself at the tiger and demigoddess, disappearing in a flash of green to appear on Williamsburg Bridge.
When they appeared, it was directly in the middle of the battle. Thankfully, it was before Percy or Annabeth had gotten hurt as she could see the two of them coming down for a low pass on the back of two pegasi.
It was well after midnight now, but the bridge blazed with light. Cars were burning. Arcs of fire streamed in both directions as flaming arrows and spears sailed through the air.
Eliza jumped into the midst of the battle, a sword in her hand as she charged. It made a bit of sense. She could see a bunch of Cabin Seven campers retreating.
They would hide behind cars and snipe at the approaching army, setting off explosive arrows and dropping caltrops in the road, building fiery barricades wherever they could, dragging sleeping drivers out of their cars to get them out of harm's way. But the enemy kept advancing. An entire phalanx of dracaenae marched in the lead, their shields locked together, spear tips bristling over the top. An occasional arrow would connect with their snaky trunks, or a neck, or a chink in their armor, and the unlucky snake woman would disintegrate, but most of the cabin's arrows glanced harmlessly off their shield wall. About a hundred more monsters marched behind them.
Hellhounds leaped ahead of the line from time to time. Most were destroyed with arrows, but one got hold of a camper and dragged him away, but before they could get too far, Lea's mageia was already covering him and sending the two away from each other.
She jumped down into the battle, throwing explosion spells right into the midst of the army. There was huge chunk missing of the camper and Lea was nowhere near strong enough to fix that. She just held their hand as they passed on, whispering small words of comfort. She took the beads from their necklace and quickly braided it into the strands of her hair. Lea might not have known their name, but their death would not be in vain.
Holy horse feed! Lea heard in her head and her eyes shot upwards to see Annabeth and Percy dodging a white limousine. Lea scowled, pointing Lævateinn at it. The vehicle glowed as green as her eyes before she reverse the trajectory so that it hit whatever had the audacity to try to knock her brother out of the sky.
She teleported closer to him, incredibly thankful that the first one didn't bring them into the air.
"Ew," she grimaced when she caught sight of the Minotaur. From the waist down, he wore standard Greek battle gear—a kiltlike apron of leather and metal flaps, bronze greaves covering his legs, and tightly wrapped leather sandals. His top was all bull—hair and hide and muscle leading to a head so large he should've toppled over just from the weight of his horns. A double-bladed axe was strapped to his back, but he was too impatient to use it. But still—talk about a face only a mother could love.
Michael Yew ran up to them. He was definitely the shortest commando Lea'd ever seen. He had a bandaged cut on his arm. His ferrety face was smeared with soot and his quiver was almost empty, but he was smiling like he was having a great time.
"Glad you could join us," he said as Lea ran a hand over the cut. She conjured a few more of her arrows of mageia. "Where are the other reinforcements?"
"For now, we're it," Percy said, looking over Lea.
"Then we're dead," he said.
"You still have your flying chariot?" Annabeth asked.
"Nah," Michael said. "Left it at camp. I told Clarisse she could have it. Whatever, you know? Not worth fighting about anymore. But she said it was too late. We'd insulted her honor for the last time or some stupid thing."
"Least you tried," Percy said.
Michael shrugged. "Yeah, well, I called her some names when she said she still wouldn't fight. I doubt that helped. Here come the uglies!" He drew an arrow and launched it toward the enemy. The arrow made a screaming sound as it flew. When it landed, it unleashed a blast like a power chord on an electric guitar magnified through the world's largest speakers. The nearest cars exploded. Monsters dropped their weapons and clasped their ears in pain. Some ran. Others disintegrated on the spot.
"That was my last sonic arrow," Michael said.
"A gift from your dad?" Percy asked. "God of music?"
Michael grinned wickedly. "Loud music can be bad for you. Unfortunately, it doesn't always kill."
Sure enough, most monsters were regrouping, shaking off their confusion.
"We have to fall back," Michael said. "I've got Kayla and Austin setting traps farther down the bridge."
"No," Percy said. "Bring your campers forward to this position and wait for my signal. We're going to drive the enemy back to Brooklyn."
Michael laughed. "How do you plan to do that?"
Percy drew his sword as Eliza appeared at their sides. She had a bit of monster dust in her puffballs that looked like glitter against the dark strands.
"Percy," Annabeth said, "let us come with you."
"Too dangerous," Percy said. "Besides, I need you to help Michael coordinate the defensive line. I'll distract the monsters. You group up here. Move the sleeping mortals out of the way. Then you can start picking off monsters while I keep them focused on me. If anybody can do all that, you can."
Michael snorted. "Thanks a lot."
Percy kept his eyes on Annabeth.
She nodded reluctantly. "All right. Get moving."
"Don't I get a kiss for luck? It's kind of a tradition, right?"
The girls shared looks, and Eliza bore a small smirk as she waved at Annabeth. The aforementioned girl didn't answer, instead she drew her knife and stared at the army marching toward them.
"Come back alive, Seaweed Brain. Then we'll see."
"You shouldn't worry too much," Michael told the three of them as her brother stepped out from behind the school bus and walked up the bridge in plain sight, straight toward the enemy.
When the Minotaur saw him, his eyes burned with hate. He bellowed—a sound that was somewhere between a yell, a moo, and a really loud belch.
"Percy is strong, brave—"
"Hey, Beef Boy," Percy shouted back. "Didn't I kill you already?"
"—And like all men, foolhardy," Lea scoffed, fingers flexing.
The minotaur pounded his fist into the hood of a Lexus, and it crumpled like aluminum foil. A few dracaenae threw flaming javelins at him, but Percy knocked them aside. A hellhound lunged, and he sidestepped. When it pounced again, he brought Riptide up in a deadly arc. The hellhound disintegrated into dust and fur.
More monsters surged forward—snakes and giants and telkhines—but the Minotaur roared at them, and they backed off.
"One on one?" Percy called. "Just like old times?"
The Minotaur's nostrils quivered. He seriously needed to keep a pack of Aloe Vera Kleenex in his armor pocket, because that nose was wet and red and pretty gross. He unstrapped his axe and swung it around. It was beautiful in a harsh I'm~going~to-gut~you~like~a~fish kind of way. Each of its twin blades was shaped like an omega: Ω—the last letter of the Greek alphabet. Maybe that was because the axe would be the last thing his victims ever saw. The shaft was about the same height as the Minotaur, bronze wrapped in leather. Tied around the base of each blade were lots of bead necklaces.
Percy raised his sword. The monster army cheered for the Minotaur, but the sound died when her brother dodged the first swing and sliced the axe in half, right between the handholds.
"Moo?" the beast grunted.
"HAAA!" Percy spun and kicked him in the snout. He staggered backward, trying to regain his footing, then lowered his head to charge. He never got the chance. Riptide flashed—slicing off one horn, then the other. He tried to grab Perrcy. Her brother rolled away, picking up half of his broken axe. The other monsters backed up in stunned silence, making a circle around them.
"Now," Lea hissed. "Move in now. Hold your fire at his signal."
The Minotaur bellowed in rage. He charged Percy, and he ran for the edge of the bridge, breaking through a line of dracaenae. The Minotaur must've smelled victory. He thought Percy was trying to get away. His minions cheered. Idiots. Who chased a son of the sea god over a bridge over water? At the edge of the bridge, Percy turned and braced the axe against the railing to receive his charge. The Minotaur didn't even slow down.
CRUNCH.
He looked down in surprise at the axe handle sprouting from his breastplate.
"Thanks for playing," Percy told him.
Percy lifted him by his legs and tossed him over the side of the bridge. Even as he fell, he was disintegrating, turning back into dust, his essence returning to Tartarus. Percy turned toward his army. It was now roughly one hundred and ninety-nine to one.
And when Percy charged them, Lea yelled, "NOW!"
They all moved with ease. Lea found herself fighting a good amount of snake women who showed a lot of skill with mageia. Unluckily for them, Lea was a bit of pyromaniac, and she had a lot of explosion and fire spells.
Lea froze in place.
Mageia swirled about her that wasn't her own.
Some hideous mix of a donkey and a robot approached playing a flute. Like Kelli and Tammi from orientation last year.
Lea felt a moment of panic as her own mageia started to pull away from her. It reminded her a lot of that time back at Kirke's resort and it was still not a comfortable feeling. Just imagining someone pulling your hair down at the scalp and dragging you across the floor to bang your head in the nearest doorframe (not that Lea had ever done that to anyone and if someone said that she did, then they were lying). Her mageia was being yanked away right from her core.
"Get the fuck away from my sister-in-law!" came a yell from behind her before a cloud of smoke hit the ground.
Lea coughed abruptly, heaving as she desperately drew in air. She looked up as her tiger sailed over here and flute lady disappeared.
Salome was going for their friends with Eliza on her back. Once the tiger had gotten closer to where Lea was in a telekinesis battle with some snake lady, Eliza had smiled pleasantly. "I call this piece, The Siren's Song," the younger girl said and then went on to play the most hauntingly sounding thing on her violin. The snake women seized in place before picking up their weapons and turning on their own army.
Lea raised a brow.
"A bit of an idea from Lee, Drew, and Lou Ellen," the girl explained, continuing to play her instrument. "The violin is a bit magical and works like charmspeak and a beautiful song can heal the heart." She sighed, turning her eyes back onto the army. "And I call this next piece. The Apocalypse Suit." The monsters stopped trying to kill each other and in turn, tried to kill themselves. And now that Lea was paying attention, she could sense a bit of mageia coming from the instrument. If she looked hard enough, she could just about see the sound waves in the air being utilized to target The Cerebellum and the amygdala.
Lea shook her head and immediately stepped away. She wasn't getting near that. She said a quick spell to get her in the air and threw down blasts of mageia whenever a monster go too close to a camper. In the middle of it all though, Percy was fighting like a demon. He sliced through armor like it was made of paper. Snake women exploded. Hellhounds melted to shadow. He slashed and stabbed and whirled
The Seventh cabin campers were shooting arrows, disrupting every attempt by the enemy to rally. Finally, the monsters turned and fled—about twenty left alive out of two hundred.
Percy followed with the Apollo campers at his heels.
"Yes!" yelled Michael Yew. "That's what I'm talking about!"
They drove them back toward the Brooklyn side of the bridge. The sky was growing pale in the east. Lea could see the toll stations ahead.
"Percy!" Annabeth yelled. "You've already routed them. Pull back! We're overextended!"
Lea ignored them in favor of looking at the crowd at the base of the bridge. The retreating monsters were running straight toward their reinforcements. It was a small group, maybe thirty or forty demigods in battle armor, mounted on skeletal horses. One of them held a purple banner with the black scythe design.
The lead horseman trotted forward. He took off his helm, and Lea recognized Luke before she remembered that he didn't have eyes the color of molten gold. That bastard titan piggybacking his body was in full control.
Lea landed harshly on her feet. Eliza's song abruptly cut off. Annabeth and the Seventh cabin campers faltered. The monsters they'd been pursuing reached the Titan's line and were absorbed into the new force. Kronos gazed in their direction. He was a quarter mile away, but Lea swore that she saw him smile.
"Now," Percy said, "we pull back."
The Titan lord's men drew their swords and charged. The hooves of their skeletal horses thundered against the pavement. Our archers shot a volley, bringing down several of the enemy, but they just kept riding.
"Retreat!" Percy told them. "I'll hold them.'"
"No," she shouted as Michael and his archers tried to retreat, "Get back."
Lea stepped in front of her brother as Eliza and Annabeth flanked him. The mageia burst from her hands like a saiyan attack, plunging right through some of the monsters.
In a matter of seconds, they were halved.
The rest of Kronos's cavalry swirled around them, slashing and yelling insults. The Titan himself advanced leisurely, like he had all the time in the world. Being the lord of time, Lea guess he did. No matter. She aimed Lævateinn at the sky, eyes flashing with the force of her power. "By Asteria and Persês: Open sky and do your worst!"
As the last word dripped from her lips, a clap of thunder sounded so loud one would think that Zeus himself was standing by their ear. Before their very eyes, the heavens opened its doors and gave way to ferocious winds and waves that turned into a howling storm.
Rolling clouds came crashing down, and streaks of lightning danced across the bridge twirling about the various monsters and the demigods that Percy was so obviously not trying to kill.
Percy slashed the legs off their horses and made the skeletal mounts disintegrate. After the first few demigods took a spill, the rest figured out they'd better dismount and fight him on foot. Eliza didn't have his reservations though because she got behind one of them a stabbed her violin bow right through their ribcage.
They'd almost made it to the middle of the bridge when something strange happened. Lea felt a chill down her spine—like that old saying about someone walking on your grave. She twisted around just as she heard Annabeth cry out in pain.
"Annabeth!" Percy yelled, turning in time to see her fall, clutching her arm. A demigod with a bloody knife stood over her. Eliza got it too; she growled, swinging the bow of through the air so sharply that it cut through the demigod's armor and all the way down to the meat of his chest. Percy finished it off by slamming them in the face with hilt of his sword so hard he dented the helmet.
"Get back!" Percy slashed the air in a wide arc, driving the rest of the demigods away from Annabeth. "No one touches her!"
"Interesting," Kronos said.
He towered above me on his skeletal horse, his scythe in one hand. He studied the scene with narrowed eyes like the way a wolf can smell fear.
"Bravely fought, Percy Jackson," he said. "But it's time to surrender . . . or the girl dies."
"Percy, don't," Annabeth groaned. Her shirt was soaked with blood. Lea scoffed, falling to their side, hands glowing as she called up a healing spell.
"Blackjack!" Percy yelled.
As fast as light, the pegasus swooped down and clamped his teeth on the straps of Annabeth's armor. They soared away over the river before the enemy could even react.
Kronos snarled. "Some day soon, I am going to make pegasus soup. But in the meantime . . ." He dismounted, his scythe glistening in the dawn light. "I'll settle for another dead demigod."
Percy met his first strike with Riptide. The impact shook the entire bridge, but her brother held his ground. Kronos's smile wavered. With a yell, Percy kicked his legs out from under him. His scythe skittered across the pavement. Percy stabbed downward, but he rolled aside and regained his footing. His scythe flew back to his hands.
"So . . ." He studied me, looking mildly annoyed. "You had the courage to visit the Styx. I had to pressure Luke in many ways to convince him. If only you had supplied my host body instead . . . But no matter. I am still more powerful. I am a TITAN."
He struck the bridge with the butt of his scythe, and a wave of pure force blasted me backward. Cars went careening. Demigods—even Luke's own men—were blown off the edge of the bridge. Suspension cords whipped around, and I skidded halfway back to Manhattan.
Lea was holding onto the side of the bridge with one hand and the other was holding onto Eliza's bow as the girl held on to the other end. The wind from her spell was still batting at the bridge, making it even more unsteady than it already was. Lea gritted her teeth, concentrating as much as she could.
Focus. She needed to focus to utilize her mageia correctly.
She imagined it moving through the bow like electricity, sinking into Eliza. Behind her eyelids, her pupils glowed green. "Wing of bat and raven eye, lift Eliza up into the sky."
The girl went airborne right as the bridge began to shake and crumble. Lea cried out in alarm, letting go of the bow to hold onto the bridge. Above her, Eliza was flying, but Lea couldn't concentrate enough to do the same. Chunks the size of houses fell into the East River and it was all she could do to dodge them.
One got lucky and before she could even lift her hands to dodge, she found herself falling into the river, and the world going dark.
WORD COUNT: 7004
COMMENTS FROM THE AUTHOR:
1) These next chapters will be in Lea's pov because Hermês is fighting the giant monster man and I don't know how to write a fight scene for that.
2) Honestly, I didn't know where to place Lea in the battle. I stared way too long at Manhattan maps for a bridge or tunnel for her to go to before i got cross-eyed.
2A) I am from the southern states. I HAVENT EVEN BEEN TO NEW YORK.
3) Google maps called it: statue at herald square but The James Gordon Bennett Monument does in fact have a statue of Minerva! and it would have been an even better tie in to the Roman gods other than him using Pōmōna, goddess of fruitful abundance and plenty in ancient Roman religion.
4) I know I talk a lot of shit about Rick and not properly sourcing the myths, but one thing I can always say is that I love this series also. PJO and HoO will always be dear to me.
5) Reminder that in this verse, the cabins are a bit more diverse. Like the unclaimed still go to Hermês cabin BUT... say for instance Apóllōn's cabin, not all of them are his kids. Some of the kids are Huákinthos. In Hḗphaistos' cabin, some of them are Hḗphaistos and others are Aglaïa. Dionysos' cabin has him and Ariadne. If Amphitrítē had some demigod kids, then they would go to the Poseidón cabin.
5A) I also personally believe that some of the campers stayed back at Camp to defend it alongside Árēs cabin because that would be a good plan. You'd have them fighting at camp and they'd be trying to reach Percy's group like no, its a distraction. the fights here and then you have Percy's group like no, they're here too. Its like Krónos wanted to lose.