Hey, lovely readers!
Percy: I'm gonna do the disclaimer!
Me: Sure. Go ahead.
Leo: Read-Them-On doesn't own the PJO/HoO series! She owns the plot of this story and a golden Labrador Retriever!
Hazel: Baguette's really cute!
Me: . . . Oookay. Now, some things to get out of the way:
1. WARNING: Some major swearing in here.
2. Continual italicized text is the (hopefully recognizably) thought process of the protagonist.
3. It's a submission of mine in the Camp Half-Blood forum (check it out; link in bio!) for a dialogue prompt ("Just once, I'd like a week where I didn't run into a near-death scenario. Is that too much to ask?").
4. Word count without A/N: 3943
And the most important thing: Enjoy!
Boom!
The inhumane noises of the screaming coming from the nearby chamber weren't enough to dampen his mood. He was enjoying himself immensely.
"Ah, babes!" Jason Grace pulled Reyna and Hazel towards him, bringing them down on his lap. "How would you two like some fun, huh?"
Reyna's lips twitched upwards considerably. She winked at her 'boss' in a way she thought was subtle.
"Of course." Hazel moved her face to him as proximate as she could have without actually kissing him. "I heard that the room on the third floor's empty and cozy as fu—"
The dark-skinned, hazel-eyed girl was interrupted by her half-brother, who burst into the room, panting like crazy. He took a look at Hazel's predicament and scowled, not liking his sister's actions in the slightest.
"Boss, they have entered in the vicinity," Nico reported darkly. "One male and a female. The whereabouts of their vehicle are still unknown."
"Greet them, boys." Jason smirked. "Oh, and bring the boy here alive. I've got a few questions for him."
Nico spun around and had just twisted the doorknob when Jason stopped him. The glimpse of Hazel being groped by the blond man was sufficient to make him furious; he should never have brought her here.
"And Nico–" Jason's voice was deep and mirthless. "–free that dumbass from his terrible life. I've had enough of him."
Nico di Angelo nodded.
He stormed out of the room as fast as his legs could take him.
The atmosphere was eerily silent. So much so that it was out of the blue for a place that accommodated terrorists. None of them had been aware of that until it was too late.
"I can do this all day," Percy said as he hoisted himself up on the wall. "Red, are you ready?"
"Of course, you can, Sea." Percy could practically feel Rachel's frustration as she typed away hack codes on her laptop. "Yeah, in a moment."
There was another irritated sigh through the earpiece.
"Can you two stop talking and do your job?!" Annabeth grumbled.
"Come on, Books," Percy chuckled. "Have some fun. It's not every day we get to work together."
"Yes, we do, Sea," Annabeth's voice wasn't as hostile as before.
"I'm breaking you slowly as ever, An—" Percy grinned.
"Sea! No real-name business here!"
"Whoops."
"Flirt later, guys," Rachel clucked her tongue and there was an audible grumble from Annabeth. "Sea, Books, your time starts . . . now!"
Percy got to work. He lowered himself down and saw that Annabeth had done the same at the other side of the fence.
With a quick nod in her direction, Percy headed towards the large warehouse as stealthily as he could manage, which was a pretty whole lot of stealth.
Their mission was to download the data of the biggest gang in the States – Soul Lust Coven, better known as the SLC – to find out about their secret agendas and eventually thwart their plans. When SLC's recent activity was recorded, they had already bombed a school bus in Ruston, Louisiana. That had been the final straw for the government, and the CIA had ultimately gotten the golden permission to take action which had made Percy overjoyed; he absolutely despised the thought of small children, happily taking the bus to home, getting murdered because some douche was trying to harm the government. And after a week of hypothesizing and searching the file cabinets and internet servers, they had found SLC's main base in an old abandoned mansion. They had been baffled that such an obvious location had remained hidden from their hundreds of sources.
On reaching the door of the warehouse, Percy tried to open it in the old fashioned way: he pulled out a bobby pin from his pocket and within a minute, the door was unlocked.
Well, he thought, that was easier than I expected it to be.
The constant and minimal beeping of his watch indicated every minute and Percy deducted that Annabeth had probably started downloading the data on the pen drive.
Even though working for the same goal, both of them had separate parts of the mission to fulfill. While she downloaded the files, he had to ensure that all their illegal weaponry was destroyed in a willing task of bombing the storage.
"Red, any heat signatures nearby?" Percy asked in a whisper.
"Negative," Rachel replied. "Don't sweat over it, Percy. I will inform you if somethi—"
She hadn't finished her sentence when suddenly, she started stuttering.
"I-I can't unders— Shit!" Rachel yelled. "Sea! Books! Get out of there as soon as you can! You've been surrounded! I repeat: you have been surrounded by about thirty men! Get to the car fast, guys!"
Percy's eyes widened.
He assessed the situation. He was already way inside the perimeters, so he had two alternatives left: he could have either tried to run back to the entrance (and probably get himself killed) or he could have tried to fight off the goons on his own until the coast was clear (which could also get him killed). Percy decided to go with the second option.
He quickly adopted a battle stance, holding the gun to his chest, and ran to get cover behind the crates he was sure held AK-47s and grenades.
Percy dared not to breathe; it was too quiet. He didn't make any unnecessary movements. Nonetheless, the firing started, first from the entrance and then even from the overhead passages, and he fired back, using his agility to get to another side of the hall. Being on the lower ground, he had a serious disadvantage.
He crouched low in an attempt to shield himself from the continuous assault. He stuck an explosive to one of the crates and ran behind another, but in the process, a bullet made way to his arm.
"Damn it." He tried to shut the pain out, reminding himself over and over again that this wasn't the only time he had had to tolerate such twinge.
"Should have brought Nathan and Joe along with us!" Percy cursed over the muted screams of Annabeth's victims; she had always been better at shooting than him. "A little support would have been nice."
"Do not use real names, Sea!" Annabeth chided, fending off the attackers.
He looked around the crate he was leaning against and fired two rapidly sequenced shots at the gangsters.
"What do we do now?!" Rachel said through gritted teeth.
"The mission has been compromised! Again: the mission has been compromised!" Annabeth's voice over the gunshots was faint. "We have no other option but to abort and initiate plan B! I repeat: abort and initiate plan B!"
"Initiating plan B," Percy sighed; he didn't like plan B at all. "See you guys later!"
All of a sudden, there was a loud screech from behind him. Percy turned around too late and only managed to see a pale, ghostly figure.
The last thing he heard before losing consciousness was a frantic, "Stall, Sea! Don't die!"
When the black blindfold was lifted, Percy was dazzled by the light, even if the room was dingy and not that well-lit.
Ugh. Where am I?
The sight he was witnessing answered his question.
Right in front of him sat Jason Grace, leader and founder of SLC. He was surrounded by a (large) number of his gangsters. Two girls clad in similar combat gear – jean-shorts, a loose but not too loose t-shirt, piercings of different kinds, leather boots and jackets, and a red cap with the syndicate's logo printed on it – stood a couple of steps away from his sofa-chair, pointing their guns towards Percy.
Now that his vision wasn't blurry, he could see that every single gun in the room was directed towards him.
And as far as he could figure out, he was immobile: his hands and feet were tied and he had duct tape on his mouth.
At least they're generous enough to give me a chair, Percy thought, rolling his eyes.
He analyzed the circumstances: if he wanted to, he could have easily taken down half of the grunts present, including the two punk damsels. But plan B didn't agree with that prospect.
The next moment, someone from behind him ripped the tape off, and he grunted involuntarily.
"You're not the person I was hoping to tumble into today," Percy remarked with all the snobbery he possessed.
When his comment didn't extract any sort of reaction, he decided to spice it up a notch.
"Once – just once – I'd like a freaking week when I didn't run into a near-death scenario," Percy faked a groan, looking up at the dimly lit ceiling. "Is that too much to ask, Lord Jesus?"
"SHUT UP!" Jason yelled, finally losing his cool demeanor. "You only speak if I tell you to."
Percy couldn't help but notice the scar on the corner of his mouth.
Perfect, he thought.
"Aww! Look at that cute tiny scar on his lip!" Percy mocked in a sing-song voice. "Did itsy-bitsy Jason twy to eat a staplew when he was two?"
The anger in the man's posture was so evident that Percy's mind automatically thought, Why hasn't he killed me yet?
"Now, I'm going to ask you a series of questions and you are going to answer them," Jason said and stood up, cracking his knuckles menacingly. "Unless you want every bone in your fucking body fractured. It doesn't end there. The doctor will fix you up and then I will personally break every bone again and again and again."
"I'll see you try, bastard." Percy yanked the ropes agitatedly, trying to hurl himself at the blond.
Jason swung his fist and Percy received a blow to the jaw.
"What did I say about you not speaking until I tell you to?" He grabbed Percy's throat ruthlessly, choking him. "I'm the boss here, not you. What is your name?"
"Like . . . I'll fucking tell . . . you," Percy gasped out.
Another punch followed, this time to his stomach and Percy blenched.
"I asked your name!"
"And I said I won't tell you." Percy glared at him. "You know, you do seem like the son of a bitch."
"I will ask this one last time." Jason glared back as intensely. "What. Is. Your. Name?"
Percy didn't reply. He averted his gaze and looked at his watch instead.
"Any second now," Percy whispered under his breath, spitting the blood, trying to get rid of the metallic taste in his mouth.
Come on, guys, he frowned, what's taking you so long?!
As if on cue, there was a loud boom.
The bomb had detonated.
"They're here." Percy's face held an unceremonious smirk.
Jason grunted and flicked his wrist towards the door. About twenty of the thugs present in the room ran down the stairs in search of the intruders.
"Twenty? And to think that the biggest mafia leader would have more than twenty guards. Or did I kill the best fifty?" Sarcasm had always been one of Percy's greatest talents. "You don't look that well off."
"My twenty men are enough to detain a thousand of yours."
"Come on, Jason," Percy sneered, trying to put as much contempt in his words as possible. "When will you stop making assumptions? I never said they're men."
Jason narrowed his eyes but didn't say anything.
"Gem, dear," he said, his expression reflecting malice. "Why don't you and Romana take care of the, ah, guests we didn't know we were expecting? And please try not to kill them. I want that to happen here so that 'tied-hands' could have the pleasure to watch them die before he dies."
The two girls disappeared out of the door.
"Don't need to talk in code names, oh mighty Jason," Percy disclosed, laughing. "I know all about your little conquests with Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano and Hazel Levesque. I must admit, your choice is finer than I imagined."
Percy was pleased to find the adversary's eyes blazing with rage.
Now all he had to do was to make him go away as well.
"You're scared, aren't you?" Percy forged a smile. "Sending girls to fight off girls. I must've overestimated your power. You don't look like you could harm a woman."
He didn't think that it would work. He was never that apt with words unless they were meant to piss someone off (then he was the ultimate). Coercing was Heart's specialty, after all.
He almost heaved a relieved sigh when Jason took that as a challenge and left with his MK-18 (but not before kicking his shin), a number of his men following him.
Just a minute after he was left alone with ten or so guards, Annabeth crashed through the window, breaking the glass panes with a kick.
Books! Percy thought gleefully at the sight of the blonde.
The guards desperately tried to hold their ranks together but they were no match for Annabeth. She dodged and lunged and aimed her revolver at the thugs, and one by one, they dropped on the floor, either dead, unconscious or severely maimed.
Percy couldn't help admiring her more and more as she fought. Annabeth looked like a goddess even if she was decked in a gear similar to his and her hair were in a tight bun. Her posture exhibited that she was made for this profession. Her strikes were on point, as were her kicks and the bullets.
The guards never stood a chance against her.
"I thought you'd never come," he faked a sigh. "I guess the CIA's not going wrong like I thought it was."
Annabeth scoffed and began to untie him.
Her face was close to his; too close for that matter. Percy had to fight down the blush that was threatening to appear on his ears and cheek. His damn nose couldn't help but take a whiff of her awesome scent and he knew she had noticed that.
What soap do you use? Percy nearly said that out loud. His thoughts tended to get muddled into a mess when he was around her. Percy shook his head and said to himself: Stop thinking that, idiot brain.
"We need to get out. Red and Heart are single-handedly trying to hold off the goons." She straightened and Percy almost wished that she hadn't. "It's a miracle that Eye even let us come to save you this time."
'Eye' was, of course, their boss, who happened to be the head of their department at the Central Intelligence Agency.
"Eye has a soft spot for us." Percy wiggled his eyebrows.
He got up and stretched his arms above his head.
"Let's first show these motherfuckers what we're made of?"
Annabeth's eyes had a slight glint to them.
"I don't think the CIA would approve," she said. "But Eye, Red, and Heart would. And we can always make some excuse."
"Ah, nothing feels like kicking ass with my three all-time favorite agents." Percy nodded. "Let's do this."
"AAANND CUT!" Xavier Glenn hollered in his smooth Australian accent into the mic, while the clapperboard went down with a distinct snap. "Bravo! Ace! We're done for the day!"
Percy fist-bumped his co-star.
As soon as the director said that, the actors' personal assistants came running towards them.
"Percy! Your mother called," Nate Garner – his assistant – said over the commotion. "Please call her back in an hour. And I have set up your interview with the press this Saturday. Anything else you need?"
"I'm fine, Nate," Percy replied, shrugging off his jacket. An assistant costume designer came up to him and took it away. "Just cancel anything I have scheduled for today. I'm going out with the others. And I do need a bottle of water, thanks."
Nate nodded and bolted away, speaking urgently into her headset.
Percy started to make his way towards his trailer when he saw Frank Zhang, the mimicry artist.
"Well done, Frank."
Frank got up from his chair from behind the mic set. He was the narrator, or Percy's conscience, speaking the character's thoughts in his exact voice and man, was he good at it.
"You too, Percy. That was some good action."
"Yes, it was," said a voice from behind them both. "My teaching's goin' right, I suppose."
They turned around to find Thalia, the stunt coordinator. She was the true punk in their group, with the lip and nose piercings and all of that, unlike the false ones Hazel and Reyna wore for their roles as . . . well, as Hazel and Reyna.
Yeah, Cameron (the screenwriter) had insisted upon using the real names of the whole cast in the film. He had said that it brought 'authenticity' to the movie and apparently, Xavier didn't have any problem with that either.
The trio made their way towards the chairs where they were joined by the rest of their friends.
Annabeth was playing the role of 'Books', Piper of 'Heart' and Rachel of 'Red'. Jason was the mafia leader and antagonist with Hazel and Reyna as his gun molls, while Nico was his right hand. Their group wasn't limited to the actors, though; Leo, who was the stage manager and Will, the gaffer or the head lightning man, were included in their small crew as well.
All of them except for Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, Nico and Will (who had gone to the same summer camp when they were kids) had known each other for only a couple of months, but it felt like they had been friends all life. Piper and Jason already had a romance going on between them. Percy reckoned it was because most of them were of the same age group.
After chatting up a bit, they all retired to their respective trailers (or rooms in Leo, Thalia and Will's cases) for the afternoon before they'd leave to have dinner.
Percy had just closed his eyes when someone knocked on the door.
"Come in," he said, forcing himself to sit upright.
It was Annabeth.
"Hey, Seaweed Brain," she said, letting herself in and closing the door quietly.
"Hey, Wise Girl."
No one other than their parents knew about their undisclosed relationship. Both Percy and Annabeth, still young at an age of twenty-four like most of their friends, had wanted to keep their personal lives to themselves for some time.
She made herself comfortable in his bed like she had done countless of times, snuggling up to him and they fell into a peaceful silence until Percy, being the absolute Seaweed Brain he was, shattered it within a second.
"Do you think we're ready to tell them about . . . this?"
"I think we are. I don't think I can hide it anymore. My emotions threaten to spill over when I'm with you, Percy." Annabeth smiled, tugging at her semi-long hair, currently in a wave rather than their natural curly state.
Percy had long since figured out that action to be one of nervousness.
"Why are you nervous, then?" He raised an eyebrow at her. "You know they'll support our relationship no matter what, and even if they don't, it's not like we will change our minds. I love you, you know."
"Well, loving you back isn't a sin, I suppose."
She kissed him right on the lips and he reciprocated as eagerly, melting into the day-long yearned affectionate gesture. Soon, Percy's hands were traveling all over her body while hers stayed tangled in his black locks.
"We're not doing that now, Seaweed Brain," she reprimanded, breaking away, her chest rising and falling with her huffs and puffs.
"Neither I nor 'Sea' want to do anything to you, Books."
"Well, your character's inappropriate speculations about mine say so otherwise," Annabeth retorted, the look on her face smug.
Percy laughed.
"Well, I'm sure Sea can't get a grip on himself simply 'cause you're seriously beautiful."
He found the light blush on Annabeth's cheeks utterly endearing.
A sudden thought occurred to Percy and he snickered.
"Can you imagine their reactions?"
"We'll find out tonight."
The first thing they heard after announcing their relationship status was a deafening squeal, courtesy to Piper McLean.
They were presently sitting around a round table in a private dining chamber of a five-star hotel near the set location, waiting for their orders.
"What?!" It was Frank this time, his eyes as wide as saucers.
"When did that happen, man?" Jason whistled and Hazel shook her head in disbelief.
Reyna and Thalia both looked like deer caught in a headlight with their mouths agape. The only ones not bothered in the slightest were Nico, Rachel and Will, who claimed that it was 'obvious enough' to them.
"We've been seeing each other since last four year, guys," Annabeth confessed. "Today's our four-year anniversary."
"I mean, the tabloids have been pairing us up for the past ten years, like, since my fourteenth birthday when I posted a picture of her kissing me on my cheek on Instagram. We didn't confirm anything 'cause had it slipped from someone, the paparazzi would have made us go insane and we wanted to keep things private, you know." Percy scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "But I guess now that we trust y'all, you will keep this from leaking out, right?"
"Huh?" Leo looked up from his smartphone. "You still don't want the media t-to know?"
"Uh . . . Leo? What did you do?" Hazel asked cautiously.
". . . I might have just let the news go rampant . . ."
"LEO!"
". . . On my WhatsApp group!"
All of them exhaled, relieved; no one believed in WhatsApp messages without any proof anyways.
" . . . And on Twitter . . ."
"LEO!"
Annabeth facepalmed.
"Hey, no use in crying over spilled milk, right?" The Latino boy prepared himself for a slap.
Fortunately for him, it never came.
"You know what, Leo?" Percy deadpanned. "I wish your phone goes boom this instant."
"Come on, bro!" Leo wailed. "I thought we were bros!"
"Nope. You're dead to me."
"There the brolationship goes boom!" Nico's comment dissolved the friends in laughter.
When the hysterics subdued, Percy smiled.
He looked at Annabeth; she was engaged in a conversation with Piper, which was oddly centered around the color of their Limousines.
Percy felt a sense of homeyness as he continued to make tiny observations like the trivial connection between Frank and Hazel (two of the sweetest people on the planet, really), or the way Leo looked at Hazel with wistfulness (Percy was sure Frank, Hazel and Leo were parts of a love triangle, even if currently none of the three knew that), and surprisingly some of it behind the 'I hate you so much' front Nico and Will put up.
And moments like these were all that mattered, even though he was totally embarrassed when the waiter brought in his 'Boom Boom Chicken'.
They all erupted in laughter once again (leaving the poor waiter utterly confused).
Yep. He could get used to this.
And done! Liked it? Didn't? Tell me in the reviews!
Percy: Gah! The surprise!
Me: Hehehe, it's all in the plot! Well, dear readers, please REVIEW/FAVORITE/FOLLOW if you appreciated the effort and time I put into this! Also, check out the other stories on my account! Until the next time! Byeeee!