Pegasus and the New Olympians (6 page)

‘Me?’ the CRU agent challenged. ‘What the hell are you doing back here? And what is that thing you’ve brought with you?’ He pointed a shaking finger at Alexis.

‘Thing?’ Alexis repeated as her soft growls grew considerably louder. ‘Did you just call me a thing?’

It was Agent T all right. He still possessed the same arrogance and defiance that all CRU agents had. If he wasn’t careful with the Sphinx, that arrogance would get him killed. Emily stepped forward to stop the disaster before it started. ‘This is Alexis,’ she introduced quickly. ‘She is the Sphinx of Olympus.’

Agent T groaned. ‘More damn Olympians? Not again.’

A second man charged into the room. ‘What’s going on in here?’

Emily turned and saw Earl standing in the doorway. Like Agent T, he had changed since the last time she saw him. His light hair was dyed black and his beard was gone. They were obviously trying to disguise themselves to hide from the CRU. But there was no mistaking the sparkle in his eyes. There were no traces of the severe burns he’d received at the destruction of the Red Apple rest stop.

‘Earl! I’m so glad to see you!’

Earl’s eyes flew open at the sight of Pegasus and the others crammed into his small lounge. ‘Emily!’ He ran over and scooped her up in his arms. ‘I’ve been so darn worried about you!’ His eyes went to everyone in the room. ‘About all of you.’

‘We’re doing good,’ Joel answered. ‘But we really need your help.’

‘Help?’ Earl said as he crossed to Pegasus and patted the stallion’s neck. ‘Hiya, big fella.’ He turned back to Joel. ‘What’s wrong?’

Emily looked from Earl to Agent T. ‘Actually, I’m glad you are here too because we think the CRU are involved with something horrific.’

Agent T stepped away from the Sphinx and approached Emily. ‘Whatever it is, I don’t want to know about it. I haven’t been with the agency since you started that mess up in Tuxedo, New York. The CRU have been searching for us ever since. Earl and I are in hiding. We’ve changed our names countless times and had to take awful jobs just to survive. Look at this dump. I’ve got multiple degrees and was a high-ranking CRU agent. What am I doing now? Because of you, I’m a janitor.’

Emily bristled. ‘Don’t go blaming us. We didn’t start that mess in Tuxedo – you did, when you took my father!’

Agent T stood defiantly erect. Despite his messy long hair, tattered robe and bare feet, he was still an imposing sight. ‘We wouldn’t have taken your father if you hadn’t caused all that trouble in New York. Do you have any idea how much chaos those Nirads caused us? We had to buy off most of the city officials and threaten the newspapers.’

‘That wasn’t our fault either!’ Emily cried.

Pegasus nickered softly. Paelen came forward and put his hand on her shoulder. ‘Emily, calm down. That is in the past. Pegasus says we must focus on our mission.’

Emily looked back at the stallion and nodded. She took a deep, steadying breath. ‘You’re right.’

‘So why are you here?’ Earl asked. ‘What have the CRU done now?’

Joel answered. ‘We think they may have created a clone from Pegasus. It’s that racehorse who won the Triple Crown?’

‘Tornado Warning?’ Earl asked. ‘You think that there horse was created by the CRU?’

Emily nodded. ‘He’s too much like Pegasus.’

‘But cloning ain’t possible,’ Earl insisted. ‘I know he’s broken records and all, but it can’t be. Besides, Tornado is grey.’

Agent T stood beside Earl. ‘A horse can be dyed,’ he said. ‘Look at what these kids did to Pegasus last year. And I’m afraid to say, cloning is very possible. The CRU scientists have been doing it on a small scale for years. If they had enough genetic material from Pegasus it would be the obvious thing to do.’

Earl’s eyes flashed open and he snapped his fingers. ‘Hey, do you think them others could be—’

Agent T shook his head and flashed Earl a quick warning. ‘Later …’

Emily studied Agent T’s face and Earl’s reaction. Something was going on between them. Just as she was about to ask, Chrysaor came forward and knocked Agent T backwards as he made several loud and angry squeals.

‘Don’t you squeal at me, pig!’ Agent T fumed as he recovered. ‘I’m not the one doing it. I told you, I left the CRU.’

‘Chrysaor, please,’ Joel said. ‘Losing your temper isn’t helping.’ He concentrated on Agent T. ‘Why would they do it?’

Agent T gave the winged boar a final threatening look before saying. ‘Olympians are much stronger than humans …’ He paused and looked at Pegasus, Chrysaor and Alexis. ‘And it seems most of you can fly. Think about it. What could the CRU achieve if they had an army of laboratory-created Olympians?’

Shock tore through the room like wildfire. Pegasus pounded the tile floor with a golden hoof while Chrysaor squealed in rage. Paelen’s face went ashen and Alexis roared and drew her claws.

‘Quiet!’ Agent T ordered. ‘Do you want the neighbours to hear? They’ll call the police and we’ll all be captured.’

Emily stood in silence, fearing the worst. If Jupiter had heard that one comment, there would be no stopping him. ‘They wouldn’t, would they?’

‘They could and they would,’ Agent T insisted. ‘That is what the CRU do. Use new technology to create weapons to better equip our military.’

Emily shook her head. ‘You don’t understand what this means! If it’s true and the CRU are building an army of cloned Olympians, it will mean the end of everything.’

Earl put his arm around Emily. ‘Calm down, I can’t hardly understand you. What do you mean the end of everythin’?’

‘Your world,’ Paelen finally said. ‘If the CRU have created Olympians, Jupiter will destroy the Earth.’

Before long, everyone was gathered together to eat. Though they had ambrosia, Pegasus and Paelen also ate a whole box of sugary breakfast cereal and introduced Alexis and Chrysaor to the joys of glazed doughnuts.

While they ate, they told Earl and Agent T everything that had happened since they left the cabin in the woods and had gone to the Nirad world to fight the gorgons. Earl whistled in disbelief.

‘Gorgons? Them snakey-haired women from the stories? They are real? They was the cause of all that trouble?’

Emily nodded. ‘They wanted to take over Olympus and tried to get me to use my powers to kill Jupiter. When I wouldn’t, they turned all of us to stone.’

‘For real?’ Earl cried. ‘Just like in the stories?’

Again Emily nodded.

‘What happened?’

‘Emily melted the stone around her,’ Paelen added. ‘Then she melted the gorgons.’

‘You melted the gorgons?’ Earl repeated.

Emily shrugged. ‘I lost my temper and kinda unleashed my powers. The Flame did the rest.’

‘Then she used her powers to turn us back from stone,’ Paelen finished.

Earl whistled. ‘Boy, I sure woulda liked to have seen that!’

Agent T was rubbing his chin. He looked around at the odd assortment of Olympians in the room. ‘Tell me something. The myths, are they all true? Everything?’

Joel leaned forward. ‘Seems to be. They’re not exactly the same, but close. From what I’ve learned, the Olympians used to come here all the time.’

‘Why?’ Earl asked.

‘Because you were interesting,’ Alexis answered. ‘We were studying you.’

‘
You
were studying
us
?’ Agent T asked incredulously.

‘Of course,’ Alexis replied. ‘You were a savage people, always going to war. We found you fascinating. But you were contaminating us with your violent ways, so Jupiter stopped all visits to your world. He had hoped you would learn from your mistakes and embrace peace. From what I have seen and heard, you have not.’

‘Who is he to judge us?’ Agent T shot. ‘Or to decide if we can exist or not.’

Alexis narrowed her eyes. ‘He is Jupiter.’

Earl looked over to Joel. ‘What about you? What happened to your arm?’

Emily sighed. ‘That’s my fault.

Joel shook his head. ‘No it’s not. The gorgons did this to me, not you.’ He turned to Earl. ‘When I was stone, I fell over and my arm smashed. Emily tried to heal me but it wouldn’t work.’ He held up his silver right arm and wiggled his silver fingers. ‘Vulcan made this for me in his forge. I don’t know how it works. There are no electronic parts and if you look, you can’t see any joints for the fingers. But it’s better and much stronger than my real arm. The only thing is I can’t feel with it. But at least it can’t be hurt.’

Agent T leaned closer and studied Joel’s arm and hand with the kind of intensity that disturbed Emily. She’d seen that same expression when he was in the laboratory with the wounded Pegasus on Governors Island. ‘The CRU would love to get hold of that thing,’ he mused softly. ‘Can you take it off ?’

Joel shook his head. ‘Nope. It’s attached to me now.’

‘So if they wanted it, they’d have to surgically remove it from you,’ Agent T muttered.

‘The CRU are not going to see it!’ Emily shot. ‘They’ve caused enough trouble already. If they’ve created clones, Jupiter is going to destroy this world.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Agent T spat. ‘If Jupiter is so pro-peace, he wouldn’t destroy this planet just because the CRU may have created a few clones. He couldn’t.’

‘You don’t know Jupiter,’ Joel said. ‘He is very protective of the Olympians.’

‘And the order of nature,’ Emily added. ‘It’s true that in the past some of the Olympians had children with humans. But that was natural. Clones being created in a lab are different. Diana and Pluto know about this and why we’re here. If it’s true, they won’t stop Jupiter.’

‘Ah, yes – Diana,’ Agent T said. ‘Interesting woman. How is she?’

‘Still angry,’ Joel said. ‘Now even more so that this has happened.’

Agent T shook his head. ‘This is insane. A few Olympians can’t possibly come to Earth to destroy the whole planet. You may be powerful, but we have weapons and we will defend ourselves.’

Pegasus was standing beside Emily, munching on his large bowl of cereal. He raised his head and nickered.

‘You cannot defend yourselves against Jupiter,’ Paelen translated. ‘He would not even need to come to your world to destroy it.’

Emily looked at Pegasus and frowned. ‘He wouldn’t?’

Both Pegasus and Chrysaor started to make sounds. Paelen raised his eyebrows. ‘I did not know this.’

‘What?’ Emily asked. ‘Paelen, what did they say? How would Jupiter do it?’

‘He would open the Solar Stream and turn it on Earth.’

‘What?’ Joel cried. ‘The Solar Stream?’

Earl frowned. ‘Ain’t that the special super highway you guys use to come to here?’

Paelen nodded. ‘Jupiter has control of it. All he needs is to combine his powers with his brothers and they can redirect the Solar Stream. When they are gathered together they are called the Big Three. And collectively they have the power to shift its direction. Instead of it opening up
beside
your world as it does now, they would point it
at
your world. The energy of a billion suns would obliterate your planet in an instant.’

Emily sat in stunned silence. How many times had she travelled within the Solar Stream without really thinking about what it was or how it worked? It was just a means of transport. She never imagined it could be turned into a weapon of mass destruction.

‘We’ve travelled through the Solar Stream lots of times,’ she said to Earl and Agent T. ‘You can feel its power when you’re in it.’

‘We’ve got to stop him,’ Earl said.

Agent T shook his head. ‘Wait! You are all jumping the gun. Right now, this is only speculation. There is no proof that the CRU have done anything at all. But even if they have, I am certain we could reason with Jupiter.’

Alexis sat up on her haunches and rested her front paws on the table right beside Agent T. She narrowed her eyes at the ex-CRU agent. ‘Jupiter can not be reasoned with when the sin is too great. If your people have created New Olympians, nothing will stop him. He can and will destroy this world.’

‘They are not my people any more,’ Agent T said as he leaned closer to her and stared defiantly into the Sphinx’s green eyes. ‘I am not responsible for what they are doing now.’

‘Once a CRU agent, always a CRU agent,’ Alexis growled.

Earl looked at everyone around the table. ‘We’ve got to find Tornado Warning and pray to God he’s just a horse and not an Olympian clone.’

‘And if he
is
a clone?’ Agent T posed.

Emily looked Agent T squarely in the eye. ‘Then we must stop the CRU before Jupiter finds out.’

After breakfast, Agent T took Joel, Paelen and Chrysaor into his small office to use the computer to search for Tornado Warning. Emily helped Earl clear the table.

‘I was shocked to see Agent T still with you,’ Emily said to Earl as she washed a breakfast bowl.

‘I ain’t got much choice. I can’t get him to leave me alone,’ Earl said, picking up a cloth to start drying. ‘Lord knows I’ve tried! I don’t know what the heck you kids did to him. Last I saw, he was crazy for Cupid. But I wake up in the cabin and he’s there and you guys are gone. He said Cupid told him he was my brother and that he’s going to protect me for ever. I can’t hardly go to the toilet without him checkin’ to see if it’s safe first.’

‘Cupid shouldn’t have done that,’ Emily said.

Earl sighed. ‘I may complain a lot. But the truth is he ain’t that bad once you get to know him. I ain’t never had a brother, and it’s kinda nice. And he’s saved my life more than once. He knows how them CRU folk work. He’s kept us one step ahead of them. I’d have been a gonner long before now if it weren’t for him.’

Emily dropped her head. ‘I’m really sorry about that. It would have been better if you’d never found us at the Red Apple. You’d have your old life back.’

‘Hey, hey, hey,’ Earl said softly. ‘Don’t you go frettin’ about that. I bless the day y’all came into my life. If I hadn’t met that big fella out there,’ Earl stepped through the door and stroked the stallion’s face, ‘and the rest of you, my life would have been a lot emptier. Even though you left, I still felt part of you. It’s kinda like you’re my family that’s gone on vacation but would come back one day. And look – here you are.

‘And now, I get to meet even more interesting people like this pretty lady here.’ Earl approached Alexis. The Sphinx was sitting on her haunches and came up to just past his waist. ‘That Olympus must be one amazing place if folks like you are there.’