Hi! I'm back and I'm sorry for such a long break! I've had a lot of group projects, and in group projects I always do all the work, so I've been a little bit tired and busy. Anyway, guys Piper and Jason! Yee!
"Let me go!" a girl with choppy brown hair shrieked as she struggled against the restraints of two men; the bigger one doing most of the subduing, while the more scrawny one whispered urgently into his ear-piece. Forming words was getting more difficult as each second passed, so growls and snarls replaced her sentences.
"Piper," the larger one with black hair grunted as she kicked and clawed when one of her limbs was freed. "I need you to try and behave! I know you can't help it, but if you keep it up Hera'll—"
The sound of doors whisking open barely registered in the back of Piper's mind. Fury clouded higher judgment and the rationality she usually retained on experimentation days. Hera's cold and calculated expression filled her narrowed vision, a long needle clenched between her slender fingers. Piper gnashed her teeth at her, shocking whatever normal part of her was left. "Charles, how long has it been since the injection?"
"46 minutes and twenty seven seconds," he finally managed to slap ankle-cuffs on her legs, eliminating the kicking problem. "What the hell did you give her?"
Hera studied Piper's feral expression and her wild eyes. While they normal subtly shifted between brown, green and blue, her beautiful kaleidoscope eyes were flashing to different colors every second. "We were testing to see if emotions affected her persuasion. We were also considering re-naming it 'charmspeak'. Catchy, isn't it? At any rate, we chose to give her a serum that would spike her oxytocin levels." She lifted Piper's chin so that they were eye to eye, quickly pulling back when Piper went to bite her. "Obviously we gave her too high of a dosage. I was going to give her this and lower the hormone," she glanced at the needle in her hand and set it on a table in the room. "But let's see how Jason deals with this. Send her back to her room."
Charles shook his head and efficiently tied Piper's wrists together with ropes. He tossed her over his shoulder and muttered, "Sorry, kid," as he carted her off to her and Jason's room. Once at the door, he slid the keys to Piper's ankle cuffs underneath the door to Jason. "Be careful, bro. They gave her something and she's a little crazy now."
Charles swung open the door and set Piper down. As if sensing he was about to leave, she lunged at him one last time as he closed the door. Her tan face met with the door, sending a jolt of pain through her body.
"Pipes?" an incredibly familiar and soothing voice asked cautiously.
She struggled to turn around and identify this newer threat. Something about his blonde hair and angry blue eyes made her heart ache, but her body still screamed enemy. He slowly approached her with a silver key in his hands. He leaned towards her ankles, not breaking eye-contact the entire time. She hissed and inched until her back was pressed against the door.
"Piper, I'm not going to hurt you. Jason, remember? You can trust me." He gently grasped her ankles and unlocked the cuffs, sliding them off of her legs. She barred her teeth, but didn't seem like she was about to attack, so he inched slightly closer. He carefully reached his hand forward and placed it on her cheek, "Pipes, you're stronger than whatever they gave you."
Something ate at the back of her mind; something that kept her from attacking Jason as he began to untie the ropes chaffing against her wrists. With every movement, Piper felt herself regaining some kind of sensibility. Instead of roaring, she choked out, "Ja…son?"
His face filled with relief as he wrapped his arms around her. She shuddered and he knelt his forehead against hers. "You're alright, Pipes. It's all good."
Every second in his arms seemed to slowly cause lucid thoughts to invade the unstable ones. She forced out a shaky laugh. "It's never good."
"Well, you aren't trying to kill anybody anymore," Jason grinned at her, pulling them both to their feet. Once they were both seated on Jason's sky blue bed, Piper finally felt completely normal. Well, as normal as one could feel when people fell under the charm of your voice.
"I'm so tired," Piper leaned her head against Jason's firm shoulder, tears pricking at her eyes. "I don't want to feel like that again."
"I would tell you to fall asleep and forget about it, but we have mandatory group time tonight." His eyes lit up slightly at the thought of seeing the others.
"It's been a while," murmured Piper, a smile playing on her lips. "I miss Annabeth."
"Well, good luck talking to her," Jason laughed thinking of the Seaweed Brain and Wise Girl. "She and Percy are always together."
"I'm fine talking to both of them!" Piper said defensively. "Percy's funny!"
"Percy's a dumb ass."
"Sh," Piper shushed him, holding back a smile. "He doesn't know that yet," a yawn tore itself from her full lips and her eyelashes began to softly flutter close. "Wake me up when it's time, okay? And I'm – I'm really sorry about today."
"Not your fault, Pipes," Jason ruffled her hair, though having a sneaking suspicion that she was already asleep. Jason pinched his temple; he needed to talk to Percy, allotting the desired solo time between Annabeth and Piper. Things were getting worse. Piper hadn't seen her reflection since her injection in the morning, but her eyes still had not settled down, and there was a dark red spot on her shoulder; almost as if the blood vessels had burst underneath her usually clearskin.
"We're getting out soon," Jason muttered, pushing his blonde hair out of his weary face.
"This is asinine," Annabeth voiced Piper's thoughts as Percy and Jason grinned challengingly at each other. They were poised at both ends of the rec room, apples balanced on top of each other's heads. Percy clenched and unclenched his fingers as he prepped to knock the apple off of Jason's head.
The room designed for the abnormal children was perfect. The velvet-carpeted room was separated into two halves; one completely barren except for a plush couch for the subjects to test their powers, the other filled with arbitrary items used to amuse and slightly normalize the subjects. Walls painted a variety of pastels made the room a perfect place to raise and maintain such powerful children.
"I agree," Nico stared at the pair, drumming his fingers against the pool table. He turned back towards the girls – as they had decided to try their best to ignore the boy's antics – and picked up his pool stick. "Who's turn is it?"
"Still Annabeth's. I swear she could formulate a plan to eat cereal in the morning," Piper teased as Annabeth glared at her, focusing her pool stick against the blue striped ball.
"You don't spend a lot of mornings with her do you," Percy casted an amused glance towards the others as he lifted his fingers to complete the task. "She does."
He flicked his fingers in the direction of Jason, a bullet of water whipping out. It sailed towards the intended target at a dangerously low spot, successfully knocking the apple off and scaring the crap out of Jason. "You almost hit me!"
"But alas, I did not," Percy re-balanced the fruit on his head. "My fine gentleman, you may begin."
Jason didn't even blink at Percy's suggestion before blasting a bolt of lightning his way. Percy yelped and ducked, the attack knocking the apple off his head and splattering the wall. Percy shot up, outraged. "You were going to hit me! If I hadn't ducked you might've killed me!"
"But alas, I did not," Jason sighed, his voice filled with false melancholy.
"Are they both still alive?" Piper absent mindedly asked as she hit her solid yellow ball, narrowly missing the cue ball.
"Nico," Hazel and Annabeth droned, not caring enough to tear their eyes away from this close game.
Nico heard their obnoxiously loud fighting and sighed, "Yes."
"Wow," Hazel laughed, sticking her hand in her pocket to search for something. She brought out a ten-dollar bill and placed it in Annabeth's smugly awaiting hand. "I should know not to bet against you, but I actually thought one of them would be seriously maimed this time."
"Nico, my money is on the ping-pong table," Piper jerked her head towards the table, taking another try at hitting her mark. She didn't mean to charmspeak her way into another chance; honest. "I bet him that Jason would burn off the top of Percy's head," she commented as Nico placed the money in his black jeans with a large amount of satisfaction.
"They don't seem to be paying attention," Jason breathed as Percy continued to loudly argue with himself. "Give us a brief excuse."
"Jason," Percy suddenly shouted, "Let me read you a story!" he grabbed Jason's arm and shoved him on the couch, grabbing a book.
"Don't give us too much PDA," Nico finally stood up to the table for his turn and managed to knock in three striped balls, taking another step closer to victory for team Nico/Annabeth.
Percy crossed his legs and faced Jason, holding up a copy of Olivia the Pig. "Before we go over any of the logistics, is everything alright down in the Jasper residence?"
"They put something in her this morning," Jason tightened his fingers on the edges of the couch, his gaze wandering over to where Piper laughed and joked with the others. "She looked crazed. I think it's just going to get worse."
Percy glanced up from the third page of the incredibly riveting children's book. "It never really gets better. They tried swapping my and Annabeth's blood to see if it would make our powers fluctuate. Unfortunately the difference in our blood types caused our bodies to reject the blood," Percy shuddered and paled slightly, as if still sick. The scientists managed to keep them alive, but the process had caused them to be bedridden for days.
"Glad to know your week has been okay." Jason ran a hand through his fair locks. "So, how are we going to do this?"
"You're talking to me. About planning." Percy deadpanned. "Yeah, no."
"Fair. So, obviously we need to start with the security cameras." Jason drew an imaginary map to help himself keep his thoughts organized. "Annabeth would probably be able to find the place if she concentrated right before they put up the telekinetic walls. With the location, Nico or I would probably go with Piper so she could convince the staff to shut the camera's connections off."
"With the cameras off," Realization dawned on Percy's face and he almost shut the book, breaking the façade, "Hazel would be able to find us an underground tunnel. If she could lead us to the ocean, I would be able to sustain oxygen down there and we could get out!"
"Shut the hell up!" Jason hissed, his eyes whipping back and forth in search of a sign that somebody had heard Percy's brash confession. "Yes exactly like that."
"Are you two done yet?" Piper called holding a stack of cards in her hands. "We voted on playing B.S. while you two had your cuddle time."
"Who won?" Percy questioned, shakily closing the book. Annabeth bumped Nico's fist.
"Us, of course," Annabeth shared a smirk with Nico as they all settled around in a circle on the carpet. Percy wrapped his arm around Annabeth's waist, dragging her closer as Hazel dealt the cards.
"You okay?" Piper asked curiously, noticing Jason's gleaming eyes and intertwined their fingers.
"We will be." Jason squeezed her hand and focused on calling Percy's bull shit.
"It's kind of amusing," Luke mused while listening in to their two little freaks' conversations. "They actually think they can do it."
"They're thirteen, what do you expect? An illusion of superiority is their everyday activity." Hera studied her cuticles and swiveled around to face their transport coordinator, Hermes. "Don't we have two new ones coming in a year or so?"
"Sounds about right," Hermes stretched, in turn flexing his massive muscles. Nearly all the older employees were around the six-foot and above range, which terrified newbie's to no end.
"I'm excited about these next two." Aphrodite tapped her blood-red nails together and looked at her perfect reflection in the mirror. Unblemished creamy skin, platinum blonde hair that framed her high cheek bones wonderfully; oh yes, she was just flawless per usual. "Hazel is our only little girl who doesn't have a strong man to take care of her. A brother just isn't the same," she sighed mournfully.
"Can we let 'em try and escape?" a giant brute of a man named Ares snarled, a smile playing on his coarse face. "I love watching 'em run."
"Why not?" Hera's brittle smile seemed to cut through the monitors. "Over 2,000 experiments later and you think they would learn."
Guys I finally finished this chapter it took me so freaking long dear jesus. I just wanted to warn you guys I kind of changed up the ages and some other stuff so let's just go over this quickly:
This happened when they were 13. The previous chapter I changed Leo and Frank's ages to 14 (I stated ninth grade), which would mean that this chapter happened BEFORE they came. And the second chapter, technically happened after all of that! (Still wondering on whether or not to change that) ANYWAY THAT IS IT. Thank you for reading after so long I love you guys so much!
The word of the day is:
Eviscerate: Or to remove the guts of/disembowel