Wreckage ⋆ Riordanverse² (s.u.)

ii. tension

ii. tension

*    *    *

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY'RE GONE?"

"I mean they're gone!" Annabeth says. She starts to drag Thea away by her elbow. "Dr. Thorn took them, I think, and we need to find Thalia and Grover."

"Wait, where's Percy?"

"I don't know, I think he went after the—"

Eddie hurries alongside them, her eyebrows pinched together. "What did Dr. Thorn do? Who did he take?"

"Come with us," Thea says. "We'll explain everything later."

She glares at her. "No, you guys—I don't think any of you even go to this school. I'm not going anywhere with you."

Thea motions for Annabeth to go on ahead while she stands with Eddie. "Okay, I'm gonna be honest with you, 'cause you'll probably understand. Dr. Thorn isn't who he says he is, and he wants to hurt you and the Di Angelos. We have to stop him and get you somewhere safe."

"This has to do with all the questions Grover keeps asking, doesn't it?"

"Uh—"

"I knew something was up! Dr. Thorn is so weird, and I knew something was wrong with him. I'm pretty sure the guy has a tail."

They hurry through the crowd before the words finally register in Thea's head. "Wait, the guy has a tail, and you didn't, like, run?"

"Run where? I can't go back home."

"Good point."

Thea bursts out the back door and takes the metal rod out of her boot with a few hops on one foot. She clicks the button and it elongates. She grabs Eddie by the arm and pulls her forward a bit forcefully. "Nope, keep running, don't got time for that!"

"A sword?! Who are you people?"

"Explain later, duck!"

She yanks Eddie down just in time to avoid barbs from Dr. Thorn's tail sent at a high speed. Eddie screams, but Thea ignores her. Dr. Thorn no longer appears human, his body is a giant lion with a spiked tail, only a human head left.

"Manticore," she whispers.

"Like the myth?"

Thalia charges forward and Thea follows, a one-track mind to protect her friend, and she quickly realizes her mistake when she finds herself fighting off several barbs at once. Spotlights from a helicopter that appears blinded them, and Thea stands back-to-back with Thalia, trying to fight off the attacks she can barely see. She casts a quick spell, a simple one that causes one of the helicopter blades to freeze entirely over. It dips down, but the ice cracks quickly.

"Freeze him!" Thalia yells.

"It doesn't work like that, magic is a complicated biological science and—ah!"

Percy slices a thorn out of the air right before it hits Thea between the eyes. He raises the shield over the three of them, but it won't be enough.

Dr. Thorn laughs. "Now do you see how hopeless it is? Yield, little heroes."

They're trapped between a monster and a fully armed helicopter. Thea wants to take her chances with the helicopter.

And then she hears the hunting horn.

"No," Dr. Thorn says. "It cannot be—"

An arrow lodges into his shoulder with cutthroat precision and he wails in agony. "Curse you!"