Percy Jackson: CHB Again?

Chapter 29: THE BATTLE OF MANHATTAN

((Updating today because it's my birthday and I just got 1k reads. Your timing rocks, guys. Thanks, ily))

Written by: Awesomeelsa and Rick Riordan

We trudged around the streets of New York. There was nobody awake.

"Why only them and not us?" Grover, who'd disappeared into the crowd for so long I'd forgotten he was there, asked. "Why are only the mortals sleeping?"

"This is a huge spell," Selina said. "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 that?" Percy asked.

"I do more than just my makeup." She blushed, a faint smile passed over her features. It was the first time she'd smiled since I came back to camp without Beckendorf...

Demigods around me started muttering and shuffling uncomfortably. Annabeth and Percy broke off - heading towards the vans. They weren't leaving. They were telling the drivers to leave.

I turned to face the demigods. They looked scared. We were all in our armour; our weapons at our side. I had a sword identical to Percy's. I wasn't sure where it came from, but it had appeared in my pocket. I took it as a blessing from Poseidon.

I was about to give a motivational speech and tell everyone that although we may not be a large groups, we had skill and we could handle ourselves in battle. I wouldn't say anything about winning or losing, because I couldn't make any promises.

Unfortunately, Annabeth called "Tera, everyone! Get over here!"

Percy and her were hunched over a shield that had a reflection like a tv screen; showing places and things like the Statue of Liberty. It must've been something else from Daedalus.

I watched.

The bronze image showed Long Island Sound near La Guardia. A fleet of a dozen speedboats raced through the water toward Manhattan. Each boat was packed with demigods in full Greek armour. At the back of the lead boat, a purple banner emblazoned with a black scythe flapped in the night wind. I'd never seen that design, but it wasn't hard to figure out: the battle flag for Kronos.

"Scan the perimeter of the island." I told her. "Quick."

Annabeth shifted the scene south to the harbour. A Staten Island ferry was plowing through the waves near Ellis Island. The deck was crowded with dracaenae and a whole pack of hell hounds. Swimming in from to the ship was a pod of telkhines.

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.

I wanted to know what was happening outside of Manhattan. Was the whole state asleep? The whole world? I didn't think so, but it was strange. From Annabeth's shield, it looked like time within a fifty-mile radius around Manhattan had slowed down. Kronos was using his magic.

Cars veered away from Manhattan exits, as if they were getting a subconscious message to turn back. Hecate might be doing that.

"I don't know how," 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 that something is wrong. Any mortals coming towards Manhattan will slow down so much they won't know what's happening."

"So we shouldn't expect help from the outside." Percy supplied. Annabeth nodded grimly.

I turned to face my friends. They looked stunned and scared, and I couldn't blame them. The shield had shown us at least three hundred enemies on the way. There were sixty of us. And we were alone.