THE LIGHTENING THEIF
Wet, sweaty blond hair clung onto her bare skin; barely hiding the reddish-blue bruises that formed, now replacing the older green ones. The girl ignored the impact she had just received, and pulled herself up with the aid of the iron pole she had just been thrown into. She took a moment to gather her breath, but her assailant was faster than she had hoped. A strong leg crashed into her stomach making her to gasp out for breath. With all the strength left in her slender yet toned frame, she gripped the leg firmly flipping over the larger male causing him to fall onto the ground flat on his back revealing his short-cropped sandy blonde hair, blue eyes and a deep pale scar than ran from the bottom of his eye down to his chin.
The male groaned at the impact and the girl doubled over clutching her stomach. After taking a few ragged breaths she opened her stormy gray eyes, full of determination and fierceness. Without wasting another second she lunged at the boy, but he moved rolled on his feet and blocked her punch. She made an aggressive attempt to bring him down by throwing many rapid punches, only to have him smoothly evade each one.
Frustration built up inside her. She jumped back and barely escaped her opponent's round back kick. Her body by now was sore, covered with cuts and didn't move with its usual agility, her face was covered in a mixture of dirt, sweat and smears of blood, her hair had fallen out of the rubber band and messy, tangled strands fell onto her face giving her a disheveled appearance. The male was not doing much better. His body was tired, covered in bruises and unwilling, his right eye was swollen and his lip was covered with dried blood. They both however didn't have the luxury to give into their bodies. Mind over matter was what they had known their whole lives, it didn't matter what their bodies wanted the only thing that mattered was pushing till finally the body died. A fight had always been a mental battle, and Annabeth's frustration might have just cost her this one.
She pulled out her knife and flung it letting her primal instincts take over. This wasn't like her, she usually always had a strategy, but she had never done well when she had been outsmarted. You see Annabeth was a prideful girl, a deadly pride resided beneath her Californian looks.
The guy caught her hand midair and successfully knocked the weapon out of it. He spun her around tightly gripping her waist getting ready to slam her down. Annabeth jabbed her elbow into the guy, using his momentary shock to spin around and kick him, using the momentum from the spin to give her power. He staggered back a couple of steps and Annabeth just fell to the floor.
He looked up and smiled at her. " I think we should call it a night Annabeth" he said in a friendly manner walking upto her and stretching his hand out. Annabeth slapped his hand away and pulled herself up, an expression of distaste apparent on her face.
"Aren't we a sore loser!" the guy commented, earning a glare from Annabeth.
"I didn't lose Luke, this is unfinished business and next time I'll finish the job." She stated. Luke laughed, he knew how much Annabeth hated being shown up, and got a kick out of pushing her buttons. She just grunted and started and started walking off.
"Come on Anne just admit it, I'm better. How many times do I have to kick your ass before you realize your beauty with brains is no match for my charm with brawn." Luke said jocularly. Annabeth was glad her back was facing Luke cause otherwise he would have seen her cheeks turn a deep shade of red. She felt flattered and slightly embarrassed by the whole beauty with brains thing. She'd never say it out loud but she looked upto Luke. He was sort of her unattainable role model, though she would die before admitting to that or her crush on him.
Not having a comeback due to her childish feelings Annabeth just continued walking away. "Anne don't walk away I called you both beautiful and smart!" he said running to catch upto her with a grin on his face. Annabeth really wished Luke would stop saying it. It sounded nice in his deep voice but it confused her and made her feel immature, the two things she hated being the most.
"I'm not walking away, maybe your just too slow to keep up" Annabeth said picking up her pace a bit. She smiled as the distance between her and Luke widened. She liked being ahead. Luke ran up from behind and grabbed her. Annabeth thrashed around in his grasp and squealed, as she was very ticklish. Luke's body was quite banged up and he and Annabeth both fell onto the floor.
"Where'd all the strength go now?" Annabeth joked raising an eyebrow. They both scrambled up and laughed looking at the others pathetic condition. Luke's phone rang, he pulled it out and grimaced when he saw the id.
"I gotta bolt Anne, its my partner" He said "See you tomorrow" He yelled before running and staggering off out of the training room.
Annabeth sighed; she still didn't have a partner and hence couldn't go on a real mission. She had trained forever but she had never put her skills to test in a real life situation. She was dying to escape this building and all the other ones that looked exactly like it. She wanted to step outside into the real world of agents.
Annabeth walked into the building labeled Athena. Athena was Annabeth's parent. Not in the biological sense though. Annabeth had a peculiar job, if it could be called that. Annabeth worked for an organization called Olympus. The organization scouted kids with potential and recruited the one's who survived the journey till Olympus. Once a child had been successfully acquired a parent claimed them. The parents house then became the child's affiliation for the rest of their employment. What these children did was something Annabeth herself didn't know how to define. They weren't corporate spies, or ninja's, or assassins. They just went on missions and helped maintain inter organizational peace.
Annabeth stared into the bathroom mirror, studying all her bruises. She looked like she had just escaped an assault. However these bruises and wounds didn't bother her, in fact they were an everyday occurrence. She had constantly trained hard, and pushed herself hoping their handler Chiron would acknowledge her as strong enough to go out solo.
As Annabeth immersed herself into the bathtub she remembered her last assignment meeting with the strategist Miss Delphi.
"With all due respect Miss Delphi I think I'm strong enough to go out into the field" Annabeth said frustrated after hours of pointless argument in the issue and with Miss Delphi constantly telling her that she couldn't do it alone. Miss Delphi looked bored, they had had this conversation many times before. Miss Delphi just sat there playing with the ends of her wild auburn hair.
"Annabeth you are certainly strong but you have to wait for someone to come along before you are just allowed to rush into missions." Miss Delphi replied calmly, not at all fazed by Annabeth's fiery temperament. Her beads moving as she shook her head.
"Miss Delphi I'm sixteen this year and all the others have already been sent out" Annabeth almost yelled.
"Well everyone else Annabeth Darling has a partner" Miss Delphi pointed out finally looking up, her eyes gleaming with a certain madness.
"Its not like I haven't tried, I just worked better alone" Annabeth stated matter of factly as everybody knew what had happened between Annabeth and the brave attempters who had tried partnering her.
Miss Delphi sighed "Look Annabeth your skills are certainly A class but think of this as a doubles tennis match, no matter how good you are on your own, you cant win without a partner. And I don't have to tell you how important winning is do I?" She asked rhetorically.
"Just wait a little longer I'm sure someone will show up with the skills to be a perfect match for you" She said dismissing Annabeth, before she could protest.
Annabeth sighed in defeat and headed to the door when the slender female sitting behind the table called out to her "If you want however there is an assignment up for grabs" Miss Delphi pushed a folder towards the end of the table Annabeth was closer to. Annabeth snatched the file, not too happy, but it was better than nothing, it was a distraction.
That assignment had left Annabeth thinking. The assignment had been simple enough, all Annabeth had to do was deliver a letter to an abandoned warehouse without setting off any off the alarms.
The event had occurred once Annabeth had successfully left the letter and evacuated the warehouse. There in the shadows was a masked man heading straight for her. It had taken the man all of two swift movements to knock Annabeth down.
Annabeth had laid on the street ready for the finishing blow, but it never came. The man backed off and slowly walked away, leaving a stunned Annabeth in his trail.
That had made Annabeth realize that she was only alive due to the mercy of somebody else. That incident made her feel weak, and since then she had trained in overdrive mode. But she still felt vulnerable, and a sudden fear of death had crept into her mind. Annabeth also wondered what that man was doing there but she didn't deviate from her orders.
Annabeth crawled into bed, setting her alarm for 5:00. As she lay there she wondered if she would ever find anyone who could partner with her. Annabeth had a slight problem; she could be a team player only if she had total authority.
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Annabeth pulled on her black tank top, as she was all fired up for her early morning training session. She walked into the empty training ring, and directly made her way to the punching bag and began pulverizing it.
"You're a bit to tense" came a male voice Annabeth didn't recognize. "The tensions interfering with your movements"
Annabeth turned around to see a tall handsome boy with jet-black hair and bright sea green eyes. He didn't have an athletic build, and Annabeth chuckled after looking at his lean frame.
"And your going tell me how to fight" she said sarcastically.
"I'm sure I could kick your ass blindfolded, but I don't hit girls." He said walking upto Annabeth.
"Bring it on, and don't worry about the hitting girls part, your not going to be able to touch me" Annabeth said smiling. She walked a few steps back and did a front cartwheel and kicked. She stopped her leg right before it met the boy's stomach. "You should only issue challenges you can win," she said self-satisfied. The boy caught her leg and promptly flipped her over.
"Isn't never underestimate your opponent like the first rule, your not very smart are you wise girl," he taunted.
Annabeth was angry, that boyish grin on the strangers face pissed her off even more. She quickly pulled herself up and threw a couple punches. One hit the boy causing him to spin around, leaving his back open. Annabeth took the opportunity and kicked him, making him fall onto the ground.
"Actually rule number one is always watch your back" She scoffed.
The boy giggled, he got up and lunged at Annabeth. Annabeth dodged, but was off balance. She quickly recovered pushing the boy into the punching bag, he groaned a little and he crouched to the ground. She lunged for the boy, but he rolled under the punching bag and pushed into Annabeth. Annabeth groaned on impact. The boy pulled himself up and smirked.
Annabeth having got up was now on the aggressive and kept on attacking. The two sparred for some time, though now Annabeth was dominating the fight. She spun kicking the boy's legs causing him to fall flat on his back. She sat on him straddling him.
"Your quite forward" he joked. The comment threw Annabeth of a little. Using this moment the guy pushed her off switching the positions.
"But I'm not complaining" he added. Annabeth kicked both legs violently causing the boy to get off her. She quickly got up; she wasn't going to let some scrawny boy embarrass her.
"Your quite the feisty typed" The boy said massaging his chin.
"Maybe if you concentrated on the fight and shut that annoying mouth you'd actually get in a few punches," Annabeth said running for him.
He caught Annabeth's punch mid air and spun her around holding her tightly into his chest. Annabeth jabbed his stomach with her elbow. As he groaned and gasped Annabeth freed herself and breathed heavily.
Annabeth was about to finish him off when the door opened and Chiron walked in. Chiron was their mentor; the decrepit man had great talent as he could handle fiery teenagers very well.
"Ah Annabeth I see you've met our new recruit Percy Jackson" He said. Percy gave her a goofy smile, while she just snarled.
"Annabeth Mr. D wants to meet with you" Chiron said while leaving "and Percy follow me once you gather yourself up"
Annabeth left quickly hoping this was her big chance. "Nice to meet you Wise girl" Percy called.
"Hope I don't see you again Jackson" Annabeth snarled
"I don't think that will happen Annabeth" Percy joked and Annabeth rolled her eyes banging the door behind her.