Changing Fate (Book 1: The God and The Titan)

2 (Apollo's P.O.V.)

As I was deciding which song to use, when a voice yelled "HEY!" and another voice ordered the hooligans, "Leave him alone,". The hooligans and I looked above us, on the second-story fire escape landing, stood two girls. One was about twelve, then the other was about eighteen. My first thought was Artemis and one of her hunters had come to my aid. My sister often appeared as a twelve-year-old for reasons I'd never fully understood, and she has at least one of her huntress with her. But something told me this was not she.

The younger girl on the fire escape did not exactly inspire fear, unlike the older girl she had a killer glare in her beautiful golden eyes. She looks familiar, I must have seen her before but I can't remember. 'Uh stupid mortal brain,' I thought out of frustration. The younger girl was small and pudgy, with dark hair chopped in a messy pageboy style and black cat-eye glasses with rhinestones glittering in the corners. Despite the cold, she wore no coat. She looked like a kindergartener picked out her outfit, red sneakers, yellow tights, and a green tank dress. Perhaps she was on her way to a costume party dressed as a traffic light.

Still....there was something fierce in her expression. She had the same obstinate scowl my old girlfriend Cyrene used to get whenever she wrestled lions.

The older girl had long wavy dark brown hair up in a ponytail and beautiful golden eyes that shine like the sun, she wore a silver ski jacket that look similar to one my sister's hunters would wear, a black tank top and black ripped jeans, black boots, a black backpack, and around her waist was a oversized black pilot jacket and two swords.

Mikey and Cade didn't seem impressed. "Get lost, ladies," Mikey told the girls.

The younger one stamped her foot, causing the fire escape to shudder. "Our alley, Our rules," her bossy nasal voice made her sound like she was chiding a playmate in a game of make-believe. "Whatever that loser has is ours, including his money!" the older one yelled her angelic voice trying to intimate both Mikey and Cade.

"Why is everyone calling me a loser?" I asked weakly. The comment seemed unfair, even if I was beat-up and covered in trash; but only the older girl paid attention to me. She shot me glare, pretty much telling me to stay back and shut up.

Cade glared at both girls. The red from his hair seemed to be seeping into his face, "You've got to be kidding me. Beat it, you brats!" He picked up a rotten apple and threw it at the older girl.

Without flinching she caught it with her left hand, looking at the other girl stating, "You want to play with food, Meg I'll let you handle these idiots." Then she dropped the apple.

"Okay, Em. This'll be fun," Meg says wiping her nose. I didn't see her kick the apple, but it came flying back with deadly accuracy and hit Cade in the nose. He fell on his rump.

Mikey snarled. He marched towards the fire escape ladder, but a bolt of lightning struck in front of him causing him to back up and slip on a banana peel and fell hard. "OWWW!"

I backed away from the fallen thugs. I wondered if I should make a run for it, but I could barely hobble. I also did not want to be assaulted with old fruit or lightning bolts.

The girls climbed over the railing. Meg dropped to the ground with surprising nimbleness following her friend who I think slowed the speed of her descent to land gracefully. Meg grabbed a sack of garbage from the dumpster.

"Stop!" Cade did a sort of scuttling crab walk to get away from the two. "Let's talk about this!"

Mikey groaned and rolled onto his back. Meg pouted. Her lips were chapped. She had wosy black fuzz at the corners of her mouth.

"We don't like you guys," Meg said. "You should go."

"Yeah!" Cade said. "Sure! Just..."

He reached for the money scattered among the coffee grounds. Meg swung her garbage bag. In mid air the plastic explored, disorging an impossible number of rotten bananas. They knocked Cade flat. Mikey was plastered with so many people like he was being attacked by carnivorous starfish. "Leave our alley," Meg said, "Now." In the dumpster, more trash bags burst like popcorn kernels, showering Cade and Mikey with radishes, potato peelings, and other compost material. Miraculously, none of it got on me. Despite their injuries, the two thugs scrambled to their feet and ran away, screaming. I turned towards my pint-sized savior and the huntress. I was no stranger to dangerous women. My sister would rain down arrows of death. My stepmother, Hera, regularly drove mortals mad so that they would hack each other to pieces. But this garbage-wielding twelve-year-old and the golden eyed eighteen-year-old both made me nervous. They both walked a full circle around me, scrutinizing my appearance as if I were a prize cow. (I can also make that comparison, because I used to collect prize cows.)