A/N: Ooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhh. This update was way overdue, and for that I am tremendously sorry. On the bright side, it's a little longer than the others. Yay! Anyways, I like just got off school, so my schedule is way more open than it was previously. Hopefully, I'll be able to update more often. Unfortunately, I have a short summer this year. I'm going into my freshman year of high school. Yay.
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Favorites: Bookmaster3470, EyelessEmpire13, ActualTurtle3, The Son of Greece, Mysterious Man8, and Mambo360jumb0. As always, I love you. The support you guys give me is so helpful when I'm writing. there are...hmm, seventy-four of you now. YAY!
Guest: You reviewed twice so... (1) I'M SO SORRY! I meant to respond to your review in the last chapter, but I didn't. So so so so sorry! Anyways, of course I don't mind constructive criticism. If I wanted to hear nothing but nice things, I'd only show this to family and friends, and even then I'd probably get a few negative comments. I get what you mean about the whole mistrust factor, but keep in mind that "Jay" hasn't betrayed Team Flash yet. They are a little more trusting right now. I tried to put in more of Percy's thoughts... I'll let you be the judge on how I did. (2) I can see where you're coming from. Sorry if you don't really like the way this story is coming out. I'm not exactly an experienced writer... In truth I have like, zero experience.
Lauriver4ever: Oh, trust me, there will be confrontation. There will be.
Bass Beast: Glad you like it! And hey! Here I am. Hi!
A couple hours later, Team Flash (why do I keep calling them that?) was still searching for any sign of Johnson and Chase. Well, Earth-1 Chase. You know what? I'll just call her Annabel. Joe, Barry, and Iris had all gone back to their day jobs, leaving no one from Team Flash (seriously, I need to stop) but Harry, Cisco, and Caitlin. I was still trying to figure out what the deal was with "Harry." He seemed like someone who does not like being quiet and keeping their opinions to himself, but that was exactly what he did. It was almost like he was trying to make himself seem...I don't know. It was weird.
Annabeth, not to be confused with Annabel was sitting at one of the numerous computers and reading up on our doppelgangers. Under the supervision of the ever-suspicious Caitlin, of course.
At one point, I think Annabeth got to their school histories or something because she went a little crazy. "What?" she demanded of no one. "This can't be right."
Caitlin walked over and peered over her shoulder. "What's up? Did you find something that could help us track them?"
Annabeth gave her a look like she was one of the Gray Sisters or something. "No; I wasn't looking for anything like that. I could if you want me to. It's just...my doppelganger's GPA is a two point five."
"Is that better than yours, or something?" Cisco muttered from his chair.
My eyes widened. Oh, boy. Leo 2.0 was dead. I learned a long time ago that you do not insult Annabeth's intelligence. I suppose I should've mentioned to Team Flash before that Annabeth was super-smart so that we could avoid this kind of situation, but I didn't think a dumb Annabeth was possible. But looking back on it, I should have said something. Annabeth's a lot more sensitive about insults to her intelligence than most people. I think it's because she has that stereotypical dumb blonde look.
"Excuse me?" Annabeth growled with mock politeness. I'm not really sure how growling and being polite go together, but Annabeth made it work somehow. Anywho, her tone was enough to make even Harry look up from tinkering with...woah! What kinda gun was that?
Cisco froze, seeming to realize that he had made a grave mistake. But it was too late. "Um...I meant...uh… I don't what I meant anymore. You're obviously very smart." Annabeth started to look more appeased, but then the idiot decided to keep talking. "That's why you decided it would be a good idea to attack Central City's hero…"
Annabeth narrowed her eyes and started to reply, but just then Barry and Joe walked in. I glanced at the time and saw that it was later than I had thought. Well, you know what they say. Time flies when you're having fun. Except, in this case that was totally irrelevant, because we weren't having fun at all. And the time hadn't flown.
"Find anything new?" Barry asked as he strolled in like he owned the place. Oh, wait. He did. What? I do research. Sometimes. Okay, Annabeth does research and I try to listen to her.
"No," Annabeth answered for the rest of Team Flash (okay, seriously, I'll stop now). "They might have, if they let me help. But no," she drawled. "They're still mad because I stuck a knife in your shoulder. And honestly, if I'm the first friend that's attacked you, then it's a good thing I did. 'Cause you were in for a rude awakening."
Barry seemed to be deliberating for a moment before finally replying, "Well, you're not the first friend to attack me. The other guy did it with arrows, but I knew him before that. When the first thing someone does is attack you, it's hard to trust them."
"Point taken," Annabeth admitted. "But I did say I was sorry."
The confrontation over (sort of. Kind of. Not really. Forget I said anything), everyone turned back to what they were doing. Barry walked up to Cisco and Caitlin. "Do we have a way to track him yet?" They both shook their heads ruefully, but Annabeth spoke up.
"Well, this says that Johnson can control water because the water infused with his DNA and polarized it. Couldn't you track him through that?"
"Yeah!" I exclaimed. "Yeah, that'd work because…" Oh, shoot. I just dug my own grave, hopped right in, and stretched out on my back with my hands over my chest. The only thing missing was someone to shovel the dirt in. Just kidding. That person wasn't missing because Annabeth was right there. Oops.
"Because why, Percy?"
"Uh...because...you suggested it!" She turned away from me still wearing an exasperated expression, but I saw that she smiled when she thought I wasn't looking.
"It could work, but if I search for the same polarization that water has, we'll get a ping from every random puddle of water in the city," Cisco pointed out.
Annabeth smiled at him patiently, like she smiles at me when I'm being stupid. "You wouldn't search for the same polarization as water; the polarization of Johnson's DNA would have to be a little higher to overcome the water's polarization. Then, put in parameters to search for a body with about as much mass as Percy here."
"That could work," Cisco admitted. Then he sat down in front of his computer and let his fingers fly. Moments later, he was done and the computer was doing its work. I thought that was pretty impressive, considering I have trouble just turning a computer on. Don't give me that look. You would too if you couldn't use one without some bloodthirsty monster locating you and tearing you to shreds.
We kind of stood there for a moment and Annabeth and I had a silent conversation. I said something like, They're gonna ask us to help them catch our doppelgangers, aren't they?
Annabeth furrowed her brow. Not sure. They don't trust me much yet, but I think they will soon. I thought they had a way to help us get home. Why aren't they working on that while they wait for a location?
They're too distracted, I responded. I don't think they've had this problem before.
Hopefully they get to work soon. Otherwise I might have to give them another...reminder of our presence.
I snorted. 'Cause that helped so much last time.
I think we should go meet this friend that attacked him… It'd be interesting to see how tough he is. Barry did say he was attacked with arrows. Maybe his friend can use a sword, too. She gave me one of those grins that always made me nervous. Logically, I knew she wasn't going to attack me - well, actually, I didn't know that - but someone was about to face her knife. I certainly hope he can fight with a knife. But I'll probably back off. I've been a little too aggressive on this earth.
I chuckled. Ya think?
Joe's eyes flicked back and forth between us. "Why do I feel like I just missed an entire conversation?"
"You did," I assured him. Although, looking back on it, that wasn't really a good thing to say. Annabeth and I were trying to get these people to trust us, and I basically just told them we could have secret conversations that they couldn't follow and we could plot anything behind their backs. Oops.
The temporary stunned silence that followed my thoughtless (as per usual) statement was broken by someone's phone ringing. "Oh, that's me," Barry realized. He pulled his phone out his pocket and glanced at the screen. Then he glanced back up, wearing the same deer-in-the-headlights look the Stoll brothers had whenever we caught them in the middle of pulling a prank. Which really didn't happen very often… "It's Ol-Arrow," Barry corrected himself at the last minute. Judging by the look he gave Annabeth and I, I'd guess Barry wasn't the only one with a secret identity.
"Better see what he wants," Caitlin shrugged.
Barry pressed 'accept' and put to the phone to his ear, running a hand through his already messed up hair. Why did that guy even bother to do anything with it in the morning? He just messed it up later. Pointless. "Hey," he said into the cell. "What's up?" He listened for a second, and so did I. I'm pretty sure Annabeth was too. We're just naturally curious that way.
I couldn't catch much of the conversation, but I did hear a few scattered words. "Barry...bad guys...my city...them out."
Hopefully Barry heard the whole other half of the conversation and not just a few words like I had. If he only heard as much as I did, he was probably mostly deaf. But, apparently Barry was not deaf because he responded, "Do you know their names?"
"Johnson...Chase...why...here?"
Barry rolled his eyes and muttered, "Of course it would be them. We're trying to track them, but weren't getting anything in Central. They're working with Zoom; he must have run them over to you guys."
I sniggered. Zoom. Sure, from what I could gather Zoom was a really bad guy, but still. His name was Zoom. It made me think of those ZuZu pets. You push the button on their backs and they say something like "Zoom zoom!" and then they take off. Even Death Face was better than Zoom; it was more imposing, right? I mean, when you hear "Kronos," do you think warm and fuzzy? No. Because it sounds evil. But Zoom? Come on, guys.
Anyways, the next few words were the only complete thought I had managed to overhear. "Get over here. Now."
Barry hung up and opened his mouth, about to explain the situation to his team. They weren't inclined to eavesdrop as Annabeth and I were because they could expect an explanation. We couldn't. I mean, if we hadn't listened in we wouldn't have known if it was a social call or if they had called the police or the military or something to come and lock us up. Crazier things have happened.
Well, like I said, Barry was about to explain, but Annabeth interrupted him. "Let me guess. Your friend in another city, whoever he is, is having trouble with Johnson and Annabel and wants you and your team to come out there and help him take care of them." She noticed that they were all staring at her like she was a telepathic gorilla or something and smiled. "I'm just magic that way."
I rolled my eyes. "What she means is that she heard a few scattered words of your conversation and used her considerable intellect to fill in the blanks."
Annabeth nodded.
"Whatever the case," Barry put in, "she's right. Arrow wants our help. Joe, you, Iris, and Wally should stay here. Can you cover for me for a day or two with Singh?"
Joe gave Barry an affirmative shake of the head before grabbing his jacket and heading out. "I'll let Iris and Wally know. You guys'll be heading out right now?"
"Pretty much," Caitlin confirmed. "We just need to grab some clothes."
Barry turned to Annabeth and eye, who were watching the exchange like a tennis match. Seriously, how do these people not have whiplash 24/7? "You two'll come with us. Hopefully we can work on getting you home from Star City. Also, I'm not sure I want you two running amok in my city. No offense."
"People always say that when they say something offensive," I observed.
"He has a point," Annabeth admitted. "Left alone, we'd find some way to get ourselves in trouble, even without the gods. He'd come back a couple days later and find his city on fire and us attacking something in the middle of the street."
Barry glanced around the room. For some reason, he looked a little disturbed by Annabeth's prediction. Go figure. "Alright then. Let's get packing."
