Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize from National Treasure is mine. Unfortunately... I wish is was... Too bad I don't have a genie...
Summary: Riley and Mia's relationship is thriving, but when a man comes forward with a stunning piece of evidence, they, along with Ben and his family, are thrown head-first into another exciting treasure hunt, one they have to find to prove their family's innocence. But Riley knows Mia is hiding something and he can't seem to figure out what it is. Ben doesn't know either and no matter how hard Riley tries, nothing seems to make sense. And where did this Mitch guy come from? Why is he here? And why does he keep showing up? Adventure, excitement, and romance, all jam packed itno one exciting story.
A/N: So here it is! The sequal, like I promised. Should be good. Review if you want to but you don't have to. Thanks to those who are sticking with me through this! Have fun!
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Sup, my peeps! It's Riley Poole again! Surely you remember me! If you don't... That hurts. Not really, but I should be pretty memorable. So do you remember when I told you that I helped Ben and Mia find the City of Gold? Yeah, probably not. Well, I just did. This is that story. Although we really didn't know we were looking for the City of Gold for a while...
I actually contributed to this discovery with my own miraculous knowledge. Surprised? I thought so. But it's kind of cool to be useful. I can't, however, tell the story without a little prelude. What kind of a story teller would that make me? Not a very good one, that's for sure.
So, here's the riveting story of how Ben, Mia, and I came across the treasure of the City of Gold, with the help of Abigail and Ben's parents, but we meet them a little later. First, let me introduce you to our first main characters: me and Mia.
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Amelia Gates wandered out of her bathroom, hair wet but fully clothed, and smiled lightly when she saw someone lying in her bed, snoring obnoxiously as if out of a cartoon. But it wasn't just any someone. This was Riley Poole, her boyfriend of eight months/best friend of eight years. The red LED letters on the clock read, 8:50. Breakfast would be in about a half hour. She'd need to wake him up.
A sly smile crept onto her features as she climbed into the bed. "Riley..." she whispered. "Time to wake up..."
"Five more minutes," he moaned turning away from her.
"Okay," she said. "But we're gonna be late for breakfast."
"Holy shit! That's today?" he asked jumping out of bed and scrambling to the bathroom, all the while trying to strip down.
"Yes, it's today," she grinned. The water from the shower turned on and she could hear the curtain being pulled across the metal bar. Another article of clothing was tossed out of the bathroom and he leaped into the shower,
"Why didn't you wake me up earlier?" he asked over the water.
Mia strode to the entrance of the bathroom, so he could hear her and said, "You just looked so cute, I didn't want to wake you."
"Yeah right," he said sarcastically. "I'll ask again. Why didn't you wake me up earlier?" he wondered.
"Alright, I wanted to watch you squirm," she replied. "I think you're very hot under pressure."
His wet head with shampoo lightly coating it poked out from behind the curtain and he asked, "Really?" Her eyebrows quirked and she gave him a smile. "Okay then," he shrugged taking his head back into the shower.
"And I should warn you," she said as the water turned off.
"Warn me about what?" he asked as the towel disappeared from the rack just beside the shower.
"You have to be good," she replied.
"Why's that?" he wondered.
"Because my mother is going to be there," she said. "And I'm sure she doesn't want to see some dude tonguing her daughter the first time she meets him."
The curtain opened revealing a slightly dripping Riley with a towel wrapped around his waist. "Good point," he answered, climbing out from the bathtub.
"That was a quick shower," she said.
"You have to know that Ben is all about timeliness," he said.
"Ben? Our Ben?" she asked. "Riley did you hit your head in there?"
"No," he answered, "But he is getting better at it."
"True..." she said as she watched him dress quickly. When he was finished, she said. "You did that in under five minutes."
"I've learned," he said smiling.
"Come on," she said taking his hand. "The breakfast place is across town." He nodded as the walked out of their apartment and to his fiery red Ferrari.
--
"What time are you getting up in the morning?" Riley asked his girlfriend.
"I don't know," she replied, brushing her brown bangs from her eyes. "Probably around eight. Ben and I have something to do over at the historical society, remember?"
"Right! I remember that from breakfast," he said turning away from his computer. "Can you wake me up too? I have a book signing tomorrow."
"Sure, hon," she answered. "Do you want me to wake you up when I leave or when I get up to get ready?"
He thought for a second then said, "When you get up to get ready. That way I can have breakfast while you're taking forever in the bathroom."
Scowling lightly, she grabbed a pillow and threw it at him. "Ow!" he said as the fluffy object came into contact with his head. "Why are you so mean to me?" he asked rubbing his skull.
"Why are you so mean to me?" she retorted folding her arms.
"Oh, I'm sorry honey," he replied getting off of his computer and walking over to the couch. "I have ideas on how to make it up to you," he said sitting next to her.
"Really? You do?" she asked. "And what might those be?" she wondered.
"You're the treasure hunter," he said. "I'm just to dorky comic relief. You figure it out," he added.
"Shower me with praise, make me dinner, and... buy me something," she said listing a few things.
"All right then," he said with a smile. "Let's get started." Mia laughed.
--
I have to say, I sure am glad I wasn't at the history thing. I would have felt really stupid when they were competing with facts and such. Not to mention, Mia would have taken my head off.
I am however, an accomplished writer (I'd like to think so) and I decided that you needed to know all about it since it pertains to things that happen later in the story. I do have to set it up, like I said before and this is a crucial set up point.
Granted I was having issues of my own but I'll get to that in a minute. For now... Let's meet the bad guy of our story: Mitch Wilkinson. Every story needs a bad guy right?
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"So," Benjamin Gates said, pushing his glasses farther up on the bridge of his nose, "recapping: the Knights of the Golden Circle were an southern extremist's group operating in the north to subvert Union Forces. Had Thomas not burned the legendary Booth Diary page the killers may have gotten their hands on a vast treasure."
"If they had aquired it," Mia continued, "the Union may well have lost the Civil War. Thank you." She smiled at her father and brother as the audience clapped.
"I want to thank Patrick, Ben and Mia Gates for coming down here today," the man known as Dr. Nichols said. "What a great addition Thomas Gates is to our civil heroes exhibit."
"Thank you," Patrick said. "If only my grandfather could have been here to see something like this." The audience clapped more until someone shouted over the applause.
"What do you think happened to the Booth diary pages that were burned?" the mysterious man asked from the crowd. Everyone in the audience turned to the bald man who had spoken out.
"We may never know," Ben replied.
"Perhaps," he said ambiguously. "Perhaps not. You see I have one of those great-great-grandaddies like yourselves way up in the family tree. His name was Silas Wilkinson," he informed them.
"And?" Mia asked, not bother to hide her annoyance at the man. This was met with an sharp elbow to the ribs from her brother.
"Well," he said continuing his speech as if Mia hadn't spoken. "He tells a story about the night Lincoln was shot. And the way he tells it, the KGC didn't seek out Thomas Gates regarding the treasure map that night. It was Thomas who called the meeting. It was Thomas who called the meeting to plan the assassination of Lincoln."
The crowd murmered amongst themselves and Mia's eyes widened. She didn't say anything because her brother and father had said it all for her. "How absurd," he said over the audience's muttering.
"That's a lie!" Patrick added.
"Ladies and gentleman," he said coming closer to the railing and sticking his hand in the pocket of his coat. "I present to you one of the missing diary pages of the infamous John Wilkes Booth with the name Thomas Gates written on a list with the names of all the other conspirators." He pulled out a wrinkled half-page in a plastic bag and held it out for the crowd to see. The murmurs got louder as Dr. Nichols tried to calm the crowd.
He told the Gates family they would look at the page as soon as everyone else was out of the auditorium. People left in boatloads, still muttering and looking up at the stage and the man behind the railing.
He came down onto the stage as soon as the auditorium was empty and handed the page to Dr. Nichols. He slipped on gloves and gingerly removed the half-page from the plastic casing.
Mia was apprehensively pacing behind her brother and he said, "Mia, please stop. Just, cool it," he said.
"Cool it?" she whispered fiercely. "You want me to cool it? After what he just said?"
"Well, don't get worked up yet. It could be a fake," Ben said.
"Or it could get worse," she murmured, worried.
Ben rolled his eyes and looked back to Dr. Nichols. "Latin," the man said reading the page.
"Booth was a student of Latin," the man, whom Mia learned was named Mitch, explained. "He shouted-"
"-sic Sempar tyrannis after her shot Lincoln," Ben finished.
"Thus always to tyrants," Patrick translated.
"We know," Mia said. "We're history buffs too, in case you haven't noticed," she added bitterly.
Ben looked up at the image on the overhead screen thoughtfully and mumbled aloud, "Thomas Gates, artifax."
"Designer or mastermind," Mitch said.
"Would you stop doing that?" Mia said angrily. "We're not stupid."
"I never said you were," he retorted.
"You sure are acting like it," she spat.
"Mia," Ben said and she stopped talking, but with a reluctant, angry look on her face and her arms folded tightly in front of her.
"He must have planned the assassination," Mitch continued. Mia opened her mouth to retort something unpleasant in his direction, but Ben shot her a glare and she closed it again.
"But it could mean mastermind of anything," Ben said, trying to conceal the fear in his voice that his great-great-grandfather really plotted to kill a president. "It's burnt out right there," he said pointed to the place where the old page and writing disappeared into nothing.
"I'm sorry," he said, his voice vacant of any sympathy what-so-ever. "I can only imagine how hard this must be for you."
"I'll just see if this page matches the diary," Mr. Nichols said seeing that Mia was about to retorted again. With great care, he picked up the page and transferred it over to the diary.
"This is an outrage!" Patrick yelled in anger. "You're calling my grandfather a liar!"
"With all due respect, you're calling my great-great-granddaddy a liar," Mitch replied.
"Yes, Sir I am," the elder Gates man said. "This isn't some garbage out of a history book! My grandfather told me this story himself! I could see the truth of it in his eyes!" Mia scoffed to herself. So I can't yell at him, but Dad can? Gee thanks Ben, she thought bitterly.
"I'm sorry, sir," he said, still with no care in his voice. "I truly am."
"Oh, please," she muttered but didn't press knowing her brother would get on her case.
Dr. Nichols wasn't paying any attention but was trying to match the page. Much to the Gates's dismay, the rip lines on the page and in the diary matched perfectly with one another. "We'll do tests to authenticate it but..." he said.
"It can't be..." Patrick muttered. Mitch looked smug and Mia was glaring daggers into his back. If looks could kill, there would be one less man in the world.
--
I told you Mia would have taken my head off... She was pissed. And I mean more than usual. And we met our bad guy. Did you like him? Me either.
But, moving on. I too was having some issues of my own. No one wanted my book. That was embarrassing... Our days combined were just going from bad to worse...
--
"Are you Ben Gates?" a woman asked. Riley was sitting in a Borders surrounded by his own books which he was signing. No one had come up to him and the last girl to ask if he was Ben Gates walked away because he said no.
"Yes," he replied taking off his glasses. "Yes I am."
"Do you own a red Ferrari?" she wondered picking up one of his books.
"Yes I do," he replied.
"Well, it's being towed," she said looking out the window. He looked too, smiled at her, then jumped from his chair, sending it toppling to the floor as he ran outside.
"No, no, no!" he said running after the tow truck. "That's my car!" But seeing as he wasn't going to be able to catch up with the truck stopped and stomped his foot in anger. Yanking out his cell phone, he dialed the number for his accountant.
She told him that the IRS had impounded his vehicle because the money he had invested for him were bounced back. They had also gave him a fine. Hanging up the phone, he sighed. Crap... This was gonna suck.
His phone rang again. The caller ID said Mia, someone familiar to talk to. "Hey," he said. "What's up?" Mia started to babble angrily on the other end and he only caught a few words. Apparently the historical conference didn't go as well as planned. She then took a deep breath and asked about him.
"Well, the Ferrari was impounded by the IRS and I was slapped with a huge fine plus interest!" She said she was sorry and he said, "That's fine. I may take a little while coming home though." He listened again and said, "Okay, I'll see you later. Love you." And he hung up.
After he got the large cardboard cutout of himself and most of his books put from the store, he started down the street, people staring at the oddities he was carrying.
He finally reached his apartment only to find Ben sitting on his door step, glasses on the bridge of his nose, reading a book that was in his lap. "Where's the Ferrari?" he asked, when he look his glasses off.
"IRS impounded it," he said for the second time that day. "My accountant set up a cooperation on an island that didn't exist and assured me that was now rich people do it. Then I got audited and slapped with a huge fine, plus interest!" he said with fake happiness putting the cardboard cut out of himself down on the sidewalk. "You know what taxes are on five million dollars?" he asked. Before Ben could say anything, he answered himself. "Six million dollars."
Ben just nodded and pretended to understand. "But enough about me. What's new with you?" he asked knowing full well he was about to fully learn what happened at the conference.
"Well, my girlfriend kicked me out," he started much to the surprise of Riley, "I'm living with my father, and my family killed President Lincoln."
"All right," he said with a fake grin. "Good to know."
"Where's Mia?" he asked, his face puzzled.
"She told me she was out. Needed to clear her head," Riley said. "I can only imagine it had something to do with the fact you think your family killed Lincoln. She should be home soon. And to what I owed you the pleasure of this fantastic visit from my best friend slash brother of my girlfriend?"
"Oh, you're home!" someone exclaimed as they heard a car door slam. Both men looked over to see Mia climbing onto the sidewalk from her car. She bent down, kissed Riley and hugged Ben. "Wait," she said pulling away from her brother. "What are you doing here?"
Ben turned to Riley and answered his question. "I need your help."
"With what?" he asked. Ben smiled.
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A/N: So here you go! Did you like it? Hate it? Review if you want. Or keep reading... Or stop. It doesn't really matter. Thanks for reading the first bit of my story.