Pegasus and the New Olympians by Kate O'Hearn Read Free Book Online Page B

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.’

6
    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.