LUNACY; percy jackson

05.7

[act five; chapter seven     -     the williamsburg bridge]

Fortunately, Blackjack was on duty.

Percy did his best taxicab whistle, and within a few minutes two dark shapes circled out of the sky. They looked like hawks at first, but as they descended, he and Andromeda could make out the long galloping legs of pegasi.

Andromeda didn't know, or bother to try and understand whatever conversation Blackjack and Porkpie were having with Percy, but she found it amusing nonetheless.

After a strange conversation between the demigod and the pegasus, they were on their way towards the fight.

On the way to the bridge, a knot formed in the pit of Percy's stomach. The Minotaur was one of the first monsters he'd ever defeated. Four years ago he'd nearly killed his mother on Half-Blood Hill. He still had nightmares about that.

He'd been hoping he would stay dead for a few centuries, but he should've known his luck wouldn't hold.

They saw the battle before they were close enough to make out individual fighters. 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.

They came in for a low pass, and Andromeda saw the Apollo 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 armour, and the unlucky snake woman would disintegrate, but most of the Apollo arrows glanced harmlessly off their shield wall. About a hundred more monsters marched behind them.