So a really long time ago I made headcanons on Tumblr about the Seven + Nico + Rachel being grifters and stealing from the abusively rich a la Leverage style and I've only gotten around to posting this now. I really want to make this a multichaptered thing but I suck at updating those so nevermind. Hope you like the thing!
Disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Heroes of Olympus
The Beginning
A Grifter!AU fic
Jason stared at the pub as Leo parked at the curb.
Admittedly, the pub wasn't anything special. It sat on the first floor of what looked to be a six-story apartment complex. Through the window, Jason could see a few people having a late lunch: completely, almost-painfully ordinary people.
Hard to believe that they were meeting one of the most notorious grifters in recent history in there.
In the driver's seat beside him, Leo was grinning widely as he turned off the car engine. He seemed even more hyperactive than usual today, managing to look like a nine-year-old on a strict diet of pop rocks and Coke instead of a twenty-something-year-old who was a step away from injecting caffeine directly into his bloodstream. His dark curls were even crazier than they normally were, and his ADD seemed to be in overdrive, dark eyes darting all over the front of the pub and fingers drumming incessantly on the steering wheel. Jason would have been seriously worried that the Latino had tried to take coffee through an IV drip again, if it hadn't been for the fact that Leo had been like this since they got the e-mail three days ago.
Normally, a hacker of Leo's caliber wouldn't even think about opening random e-mails. (Come on, man; gullible chums opening e-mails and clicking on links was how he made his first million.) This e-mail was far from random, though. It had been sent to Leo's first-ever e-mail account – the one he no longer used but still checked from time to time for sentimental purposes, the one with the extremely embarrasing username that Piper had made fun of him for when she found out about it – and it had all three of their full names as the subject. Not opening it was out of the question.
Of course, once they did open it, Leo had almost fainted and Piper had almost choked on the cereal she'd been eating. Clearly, none of them had expected it to be an invitation to pull a con with the Architect.
There wasn't a respectable grifter alive who hadn't heard of the Architect. Although the name had only popped up in recent years, he was slowly becoming a legend, notorious for pulling cons that should have been otherwise impossible. Needless to say, getting called to work a con with the Architect was a big deal. Jason hadn't even needed to look at his two friends to know that they were taking this job.
The only problem was that the e-mail had only given them a date and time, no place. When Leo tried to trace it, they'd discovered it had been bounced from server to server all over the world. For a moment, they had honestly thought they were headed for Azerbaijan, until Leo noticed an anomaly in the datastream. A few more cusses and clattering of keystrokes later, he had found a set of instructions and an address to a pub in Manhattan.
Now, sitting in Leo's roadster directly outside the pub, a few moments away from meeting the Architect, Jason felt a strange combination of anticipation, curiosity, apprehension, and outright nausea.
Piper poked her head through the space between the two front seats and asked, "So, you guys ready?"
"No," He admitted.
"Hell yeah I am!" Leo replied at the same time he did.
Piper directed her attention completely towards Jason. Her hair fell down in messy, choppy waves over her shoulder, completely different from the carefully teased style it would be in whenever she was pulling a con. Her eyes looked more blue than green out in the Manhattan afternoon, but there was still that mischievous glint in them that never failed to drive him crazy. She grinned brightly, and Jason had to remind himself of how to breathe. "Two against one, Grace." she said. "Let's go."
Figured. The two of them had been ganging up on him ever since he joined them a few months back.
They all got out of Leo's roadster and entered the pub.
The inside of the pub was as ordinary as Jason thought it would be. A number of booths lined the left and front walls. The back wall had a few doors, probably leading to the kitchen and bathrooms. Slightly-muted music played through the speakers, providing enough background noise that the atmosphere wasn't awkward. The bar taking up the right side of the pub was empty save for the bartender, a nice-looking man in his fifties.
"A Latino, a white guy, and a Native American walk into a bar..." Leo muttered under his breath, snickering. Jason saw Piper roll her eyes as she elbowed their friend in his ribs. Following the instructions in the e-mail, she strode up to the bartender. She flashed him a smile, and a part of Jason – the part that was still vehemently denying that he was in any way jealous because why would he be jealous, anyway – pitied the man currently being blasted with Piper's full-on charm.
"Three beers, please." She said, looking around the pub in pretend-fascination, "and, wow, can I just say how much I love how this place was designed? Would you happen to know who the architect was?"
The bartender's eyes quickly surveyed the three of them as he smiled, probably recognizing the passphrase that the Architect had given to the three of them. Nodding to a door at the far wall, he muttered, "Right through there. I'll bring your drinks 'round back."
Piper looked slightly put-off with how the man was clearly not affected by her looks, but managed to grin and say her thanks.
As they walked to the back of the pub, Jason wondered exactly what – and, more importantly, who – they were going to face on the other side of the door.
To be honest, he wasn't sure exactly what his expectations of the Architect were. Even back when he was still working for Interpol, he'd heard the title murmured amongst his coworkers, listened to stories of how the Architect had gotten away with embezzling two million from a corrupt politician, again. Taking up the grifter life hadn't made the Architect less mysterious, either; even within the underground network of thieves, nobody knew who he was or what he looked like, which only seemed to spur on everyone's curiosity. Well, he supposed today was the day they'd be in on the secret.
The three of them reached the door the bartender had pointed them towards. Piper, Jason, and Leo exchanged looks before Leo shrugged and opened the door.
The room was larger than Jason assumed it would be, about as big as an average living room. It was mostly devoid of furniture save for a dining table in the middle with eight chairs around it. There were two people inside, a man and a woman. The man had his back turned to them and was leaning against the table, while the woman sat at the head of the table. When Jason and the others stepped in, the two had shifted to look up at them.
"Hey. Grace, McLean, and Valdez, right?" The man asked, turning around to face them. Jason's old Interpol training kicked in and he proceeded to scrutinize the man. He was tall, maybe an inch or two shorter than Jason's 6 ft. 2 stature, and although his stance was pretty relaxed right now, he had the build of a brawler, the kind of person who most likely had a few scars underneath his blue shirt and jeans. He had tan skin, messy ink black hair, and eyes in a shade of green that reminded Jason of the ocean at the beach he used to go to as a kid.
The thing that stood out the most to Jason, though, was that the man looked to be around their age.
Jason was taken aback. He'd never even considered the possibility that the Architect could be someone as young as them.
"Yeah, that's us." He replied, nodding. "You're the Architect?"
To their suprise, the man laughed. "Me? No way, man. You've got it all wrong." He said, his amused eyes sliding over to the woman next to him. The trio's eyes incredulously followed.
"Then—"
The woman stood up and walked towards them. She was a few inches shorter and slightly tanner than the man she was with, with curly blonde hair up in a ponytail. Her lithe, athletic form was casually clothed in an unbuttoned flannel shirt over a tank top, some jean shorts, and a pair of tennis shoes. Everything about her seemed so... well, unimpressive, honestly. Jason couldn't fathom how this woman could be the same person who brought entire corporations to their knees.
But then, he met her grey eyes: sharp and calculating, like the glint of a blade before it swung home. The way she looked at him – like she'd figured out exactly how he ticked just from that one glance – unnerved him a lot. This was someone he didn't want to be on opposing sides with.
The woman stopped in front of the three of them and extended her hand towards Jason. "I'm Annabeth Chase. I see you found the e-mail's easter egg easily enough."
As Jason hurriedly got over his shock to shake her outstretched hand, Leo decided to let his motormouth take over.
"Holy shit, you're a chick." He said. Jason was about to smack him, but Piper had literally beaten him to the punch.
"Leo!" She scolded, looking alarmedly at Annabeth. "Sorry about him. He doesn't mean it like that. Don't you, Leo." She said the last part in a low, threatening tone as she pinched the skin of Leo's forearm.
Annabeth smiled slightly as she shook their hands as well. "It's alright. That means I did a good job of hiding my identity."
The man Annabeth was with snorted. "Please, Annabeth, Bruce Wayne and the entire Bat Clan combined could learn a lesson on secret identities from you."
Then, he turned to Jason, Piper, and Leo, and with a grin, introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Percy Jackson."
While Percy traded handshakes with the three of them, Annabeth said, "We're still waiting on three more people. We'll start when they get here."
A cellphone beeped, and Percy fished around in his jeans for his phone.
"It's Nico," he said, reading the message, "Looks like they'll be here in a few minutes."
A knock came from the door, and in came the bartender with five bottles of beer. Annabeth came forward, smiling at him.
"Thank you, Chiron. You've met Jason, Piper, and Leo, right?" She said as she helped him pass out the bottles.
"Not by name, no." He said, smiling at them.
"Chiron runs the pub." Annabeth explained after the three of them had introduced themselves. "He knows about our... ah, endeavors, so he let us use this room."
Once they each had a bottle and Chiron had gone back to the bar, they sat around the table and made small talk while they waited for the last three people Annabeth had invited. Jason, Piper, and Leo learned that Percy and Annabeth were only a year older than the three of them and that they've been partners for years, much like Piper and Leo before Jason had joined them. Annabeth eventually asked Leo about his hacking, which led to a discussion that Jason couldn't hope to keep up with, so he, Piper, and Percy traded stories instead.
A few minutes later, the door opened again, and three people walked in.
The first to come in was a young man, probably around twenty at most, with pasty skin and dark shaggy hair falling over his equally dark eyes. His skinny frame swathed in all black made him look taller than he really was. There was something about the way he moved that slightly unnerved Jason. The kid didn't make any noise, not even when he walked across the hardwood floor. He was too quiet, to the point where Jason thought he'd be able to sneak up on his own shadow if he tried hard enough.
The next man was huge, at least 6"4, with hulking muscles straining against the fabric of his T-shirt. His features were distinctly Oriental – probably Chinese, judging from the upturned corners of his dark eyes. He actually reminded Jason a bit of some of the undercover agents he knew; he had the same air of blending in, which was a feat in itself, considering how he was at least two heads taller than either of his companions. Jason should've probably honed in on him immediately because of his height alone, but he somehow made himself look like it was perfectly normal for him to tower over the two beside him.
The last of the trio was an African-American woman with tight, coffee-colored curls and amber eyes. Standing in between the pale skinny guy and the huge Chinese man, she looked absolutely tiny, but Jason knew not to underestimate her. He didn't know either of the boys, but he definitely recognized her. He'd had a run-in with Hazel Levesque about two years ago, when they were still on opposite sides of the law; just when he and his former partner had thought they were closing in on her, they'd discovered that Hazel had been leading them on a wild goose chase all along and had given them the slip about three states back. She was just seventeen back then; who knew what other tricks she'd picked up since.
Hazel went up to Percy to give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
"It's been a while." She said, smiling up at him. Then, she looked at all the other occupants of the room, spotted Jason, and raised her eyebrows. "Jason Grace, wow. I'd heard all the rumors, but I didn't think they were true. Was Interpol not exciting enough for you?"
Jason smiled dryly. "Something like that." He replied, spotting Piper's triumphant grin and Leo's snickering form out of the corner of his eye.
Once all the introductions were made and Chiron brought in drinks for the three newcomers, they all sat down around the dining table.
"So, Perce, what's all this about?" The large Chinese man who'd introduced himself as Frank Zhang asked.
Percy looked at Annabeth as if to say: 'you brought them here, you should explain.'
"We have a job." She said.
Nico – the pale, skinny kid – raised an eyebrow. "A job? Must be big if you've got this many players."
"I've never done anything on this scale," Annabeth admitted. "It's going to take all of our skills combined for this to work."
Immediately, Jason's eyes darted to the people he'd just met. Aside from their names, he knew next to nothing about these people, and now he was supposed to work with them?
"You can't seriously expect that to turn out well, can you?" Leo said, eyes trailed cautiously on Frank, who gave him a suspicious glance back.
It wasn't that uncommon for grifters to work together; but usually, it was with people they'd built a substantial rapport with (and if there was something that surprised Jason more than anything in the past few months, it was how far rapport went to a bunch of liars and thieves). Having a group of strangers working a con wasn't entirely unheard off, sure, but it would take an orchestrator who could not just maximize each grifter's skills, but also find a way for them to mesh perfectly together. Otherwise, the con would just blow up in everyone's faces. Jason had relied on this fact multiple times before as an Interpol agent, and it had led to many of his arrests.
Now that he was on the other end of the situation, though, he wasn't as thrilled for that outcome to happen. Annabeth may be the Architect, and, yeah, those huge jobs she'd pulled had probably needed more manpower than just her and Percy; but even she said that this was bigger than anything she'd ever done. There was no way Jason would risk losing Piper or Leo, not when he just got them.
"He... Leo, right? Leo has a point." Hazel said, turning to Percy. "I know you and Annabeth have been partners for years, and I know Nico has worked with you guys a couple of times before, too; but Frank and I have only teamed up with you once, Percy. And now we're supposed to work with all of you?"
Annabeth and Percy exchanged a long look, silently communicating with each other. So, Jason had assumed wrong: Annabeth wasn't the sole orchestrator of this meeting; the two of them had collaborated on this lineup. He wasn't sure if that made things better or worse.
"True, some of you, we've never worked personally with or even met before." Annabeth began, "In fact, the only people in this room I've met before today are Percy and Nico; but we chose you all because we believe that you're the best in the business. When it comes down to the wire, I know I can count on you to get the job done."
"And we need to get this job done." Percy picked up where Annabeth left off. "This isn't like anything any of us have ever pulled before. It's not just our asses on the line for this; if we can't pull this off, a lot of people are going to suffer."
Jason frowned at that. Now that he thought about it, a lot of the accomplishments listed under the Architect's belt were cons against greedy, corrupt people. So, what, were they Robin Hood's band of merry men now? Stealing from the abusively rich in some sort of righteous crusade? Last he checked, grifters were never the good guys.
But there was a small part of him, the part that made him join the police force all those years ago, that responded to what Percy was saying. Sure, Jason liked the thrill of the con; but this gave him something else. This gave him purpose, a way of helping people who would've been otherwise ignored by the system.
Underneath the table, Piper's hand found his, and Jason knew her other hand was in Leo's. The three of them knew in varying degrees what being ignored felt like.
Annabeth spoke up again. "I'm not saying it's going to be easy from the get-go. Like you said, we've never worked together. There's bound to be a few... disputes," Her eyes darted between Jason and Percy, and then flitted over to Leo, Frank, and— Hazel? What was that about? "But we can get past those."
She nodded towards the door. "Still, it's your choice. If you want, you can walk away right now. The exit is right over there; we won't stop you."
Nobody moved. Jason didn't know what the others' reasons were for staying, but he was sort of glad they all did. He may not know them, but Percy and Annabeth had picked them all for a reason. He was slowly coming to the conclusion that his best chances were with all these people.
Percy let out a sigh of relief, and Annabeth's shoulders relaxed a fraction. "Oh, thank God." He said, "For a second there, I thought one of you was going to leave."
"So, what's the job?" Piper asked.
Annabeth pulled out a folder from her bag and showed them a few pictures of a cruise ship. "I'm sure you've all heard of the Argo II?" She asked, keeping her eyes trailed on Leo. Jason turned to look at his friend, fully prepared to ask him what that was about, only to be surprised by the dark expression on the Latino's face. He'd never seen Leo that angry before.
"Know it? I designed that bad boy." He said in a sour tone.
Across the table, Frank frowned. "I thought you said you were a hacker."
"I double majored in computer science and engineering back in college." Leo replied, "They allowed me to do just one thesis for both as long as I incorporated both fields, so I designed a ship that would run on an artificial intelligence operating software. My scumbag professor decided to steal the plans and sell it. By the time I found out, there was no way i could get the plans back without them knowing it was me and hunting me down."
He pointed to the glossy flyer that was in the folder. "About three months ago, I saw this at the supermarket, so I went digging around, and it's the exact same plans my professor stole from me. Same name, same hull structure, same AI-powered system."
"Except this ship isn't run by an AI." Percy said, setting his beer bottle down.
This time, it was Leo's turn to frown. "What?"
Annabeth stood up from her seat and pointed to the logo of Gaea Inc. at the bottom of the flyer. "The company who owns the ship says it's run by an AI called Festus, but Festus doesn't exist."
"Wait, Festus? Like your car?" Jason asked Leo.
"Yeah. The GPS and security are based off the prototype code I'd written back then." He explained before redirecting his attention to Annabeth. "But the prototype code was part of the plans they stole. Why didn't they use it?"
"They couldn't." She replied, bringing out a picture of a large, African-American guy. "This is Charles Beckendorf, one of the engineers of the Argo II and a friend of ours. He came up to me and Percy the other week and asked for our help. He told us about how they weren't able to complete the prototype AI you made, so they just made the Argo II a regular cruise ship, but wired it to make it look like it ran on an AI."
"But why?" Piper asked. "From what I've heard, the Argo II is a pretty good ship on its own, so why risk the backlash if someone finds out?"
"They needed a cover for all the servers and other tech on board. As the ship sails around the world and tons of people come on board, the tech hacks into phones and laptops. Gaea Inc. is using the Argo II to steal information from the customers and crew and blackmailing them with it. As soon as Beckendorf found out, he wanted out, but Gaea Inc. threatened him and his fiancee. That's when he decided to come to us for help."
Across the table, Hazel gasped, as if just remembering something. She exchanged an alarmed glance with Nico. "Dad got on that ship a few weeks ago."
Frank whipped towards her, before looking at Annabeth. "Are you saying that Gaea Inc. possibly has information on the largest black market dealer on the East Coast?"
"And that's why we're going to steal it back." She declared. "Two months from now, the Argo II is going to dock here. That gives us about a month to learn how to work together, and another month to practice the con. By the time that ship is in Long Island, we'll be ready."
To Leo, she added, "It's time you got back what was yours."
Shock filtered through Jason's expression as he finally understood exactly what their job was going to be. "Wait, you're not saying..."
Annabeth smirked. There was a dangerous glint in her eyes that made him think a storm was coming.
"We're going to steal a cruise ship."
Review and tell me what you think (Also give me suggestions on how to expand the AU. I may not be open to making this a multichaptered thing but I can so totally make a bunch of oneshots)