Author's Notes: I realize now that I haven't updated this story in a while, and after watching:

1) Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

2) The Hurt Locker

and

3) Skyfall

yesterday, my action movie inspiration is now officially back, along with my full inspiration for this story! Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO


The life of an Analyst, Nico realized, was a lot harder than it had seemed when he'd first heard about it. He probably should have read the "Requirements" section of the job application, if one of those even...existed. For the job of assassin protection.

Life could have been worse, though- yes, they jumped of a building, but they happened to land in a pillow truck, which only happened in old 60s cartoons or terribly written stories, and as far as he knew, he and his older cousin didn't fit into any one of those categories.

Speaking of older cousins, Percy was rummaging around in his bag, looking for something. Or maybe he was confirming something- he kept nodding and saying things like, "Yeah. Yup. Good. Uh-huh."

Nico raised an eyebrow. "What's up?"

Percy jerked his thumb back at the terrain. "This is a miracle, that our truck is still tailing the car. And if there's one fucking thing you learn about miracles, it's that they don't last. The car is most likely going to some deserted farmhouse or something, which is a good place to hold a hostage, and the truck is probably going to some factory, so we'll need our own way to follow the Mechanics. Last time I checked, the best place to hold a hostage isn't close to a factory or any other degree of civilization."

It was a lot to take in for Nico, who'd been riding mainly on an adrenaline high for the past while. "Uh...yeah." A pause. "How do we do that?"

Percy smirked. "You ever played on one of those old-fashioned joystick things?"

Nico nodded. "Yeah. You move it forward to go forward, left to go left, right to go right-"

Percy nodded, slipping his backpack over his shoulders. "Well, I hope you were good at those games. Suit up, there are jet packs built into these bags."

Nico's eyes bulged out of his face. "J-jet packs?"

Percy rolled his eyes as Nico got into his backpack. Around halfway down the left strap, there was a small black button. Percy hit it on both of their bags, and a small control pad retracted out of the top of Nico's bag, from his right shoulder blade strap. There was a joystick, a blue button, and a red button on the pad.

"Quick crash course," Percy said, "red to start. Pull up on the stick to go up, and down to go down. Push it from side to side to steer. Red to stop again. Got it?"

Nico was staring at the control panel like it was Megan Fox in a bikini.

Percy rolled his eyes, taking out two small earpieces from his pocket and jamming one of them into his left ear. "These will help us stay in contact with each other even when we aren't close."

Nico took one from Percy, getting over his jet pack high and jamming the earpiece into his left ear. "Next thing, you'll be telling me we can turn invisible," he joked.

Percy stared at him.

Nico gulped. "Um, we can't, right?"

Percy smirked. "The government hides a lot of stuff from it's citizens." He opened what looked like a regular water bottle, dousing himself with it and pouring the rest over his cousin.

"What the hell, man?"

Percy sighed. "The water is mixed with a special fluid created by the guys at intel. The fluid contains tiny microbes that, when commanded, each turn on their reflective capabilities, shooting light back in every direction like it normally would, yet never allowing light to touch you, rendering you unable to be seen or detected by camera."

"Uh..." said Nico,"English, please?"

Percy rolled his eyes. "Tiny robots in the water make you invisible. Hit the blue button to activate it."

Nico nodded, looking around at everything. "Got it. So...the backpack is full of gadgets like this?"

Percy grinned. "Yup. They'll make it easier to complete our mission."

Nico blinked. "Mission? Aren't we just saving the girls?"

Percy shook his head. "Save the girls, tell them about Analysts, arrest Mechanics. That's our mission. Hell, when you have the job I do,even taking a leak in the middle of the night becomes a mission."

"Taking a leak in the middle of the night?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"But what could possibly-"

"I said, I don't want to talk about it."

Nico looked around uncomfortably, feeling unusually warm and dry even though he was doused by water. "So...we just go?"

Percy was nowhere to be found.

Nico squinted. "Uh...Percy?"

Percy's voice came out of nowhere. "Activate invisibility, you idiot, so we can fly out of here!"

"Oh," said Nico, feeling stupid, "right." And he pushed the blue button.

Immediately, he disappeared. Not from his own view, but from everyone else's.

"That...that's it?" he said to the area Percy was in. "It just...happens?"

"Well, yeah. What were you expecting?"

Nico sighed. "Never mind. So when we're flying, how do we not ram into each other at Mach Twelve?"

"The microbes will sense other microbes adhering to a foreign surface and alert you with vibrations that will tell you to fly away. If you don't respond within the designated time slot, they'll scan the outside information and pick the best evasion route. It's pretty much foolproof."

If Nico could have just stared at Percy uncomprehendingly, he would have. He gave it his best shot, though.

Percy sighed irritably. "The robots will tell you if you're about to die. Now come on, push the button."

Nico stared down at the rest of his body, which, somehow, he could see. "How can I see myself?"

"Do you really want me to explain it to you? Just push the damn button so we can get out of here."

"Uh... the big, red button?"

"Yeah. What other red button do you see?"

"Well, it's just that, in all the action movies...big, red, buttons are never meant to be pressed. They're usually self-destruct, or something like that. So I'd rather not-"

"PUSH THE BUTTON!"

And somehow, Nico could tell that Percy had done it. Of course, his older cousin was still yelling at him in his ear, thanks to the earpiece, but he was gone. It was up to Nico to push the big, red, button.

Going against everything he believed, everything his instincts and Tom Cruise told him, he pushed the big, red, button.


Author's Notes: Hope you liked that! Definitely a lot more to come from this story.

I probably could have continued this chapter to when Nico takes off, but I felt that it stood alone better if I didn't continue it, so I stopped there. Hope you like!

Reviews would be greatly appreciated!

-epicsilverbullet