CHAPTER 31: A REUNION OF… SORTS

It took Percy a few more minutes to actually gather his thought process and put them back in order. Once he had successfully done this, he finally got off the ground and dusted the dust off his clothes before looking up into the sky.

"Angels huh, guess there's a big 'G' up there as well" he muttered to himself before shrugging and extending his wings in preparation to take flight.

"For some reason, my gut told me that you would be at the centre of this mess" an all too familiar voice stated distastefully.

Percy paused, before grinning in delight, "Jonathan! What brings you to this corner of the Earth?"

The aforementioned half blood (who had gained a few inches in height since the last time the hybrid saw him) gave Percy a dry look from behind the shades he wore (he was probably still upset about Land Ruler skin thing), "I live here" came the dry reply.

Percy wiggled his eyebrows, "With a lucky Mrs?"

"Yes"

The hybrid blinked in surprise, "Aren't you a little too young to get married?" he asked, not all that surprised but in a state of disbelief nonetheless.

The irony…

The son of Khione pushed the shades down a bit, letting Percy see his eyes, "Considering the ridiculously low chances of survival we half bloods have, then my answer is no, I'm not too young to get married" he replied.

Percy nodded, "Reasonable… so whose the lucky Mrs?"

Jonathan pushed his shades back up, "I believe you know her, I believe that she took care of you once, if my memory of what she told me serves me right… a sweet lady by the name of Kinzie" he responded

Percy gave him a deadpan stare, "That's a ridiculous way of telling me your wife's name"

The half blood shrugged, "I was trying to be dramatic"

"You sounded silly"

Jonathan shrugged.

"Well, it was nice meeting you, Joe, I'll see you some other time. For now I got places to be"

With that, the hybrid flapped his wings, and was gone in a pop as air rushed back to fill the air vacuum that he had created by his sudden departure.

Jonathan Lizea sniffed, "… I get this feeling that that guy is going to make my life way more complicated than I need it to be" he muttered to himself, before spinning on his heel and briskly walking away before the police could arrive on the scene.

Besides… Kinzie had promised him a kinky surprise if he were to get home by four PM, and he intended to collect.

After all, who could say no to a kinky Kinzie?

CAMP HALF BLOOD

Ruby Rose was in a bad mood.

Not because of the fact that the boy that she was crushing on for God knows how long had been kicked so hard that he broke the sound barrier before crash landing in God knows where (she trusted 'her' Percy kick the culprits ass back to his/her mama).

No, she was in a bad mood because of that Sadie girl.

Seriously! For a cold hearted killing machine, the girl was awfully clingy (to what wasn't hers!).

… and said killing machine's 'front bumpers' were bigger than hers, so yeah, that too.

… she was blonde too (not exactly a bright shade of blonde, but that was besides the point!)

She could go on, but the bottom line was : She. Did. Not. Like. Like. This. Bitch.

Due to these aforementioned reasons, the Lolita, gothic looking teenager expressed her annoyance in the form of the single most effective facial expression known to her…

A pout.

Her pouting had the effect of causing the surrounding half bloods to either look away because they wanted to keep up their tough guy image but found the pout too cute to keep on looking (these were mostly Ares campers), or, attempt to comfort the girl who looked as if someone had kicked her puppy.

… only to scurry away in terror as Alex Mercer gave them a chilling glare.

Funny enough, the glare was for their (the half bloods) own safety as he knew that Ruby would not hesitate to decapitate whoever was dumb enough to try and 'comfort' her in her current state.

Someone coughed behind the duo causing them to turn around, Alex with a raised brow and Ruby with a scowl.

"Pardon me, but may I know who you are?" a certain Centaur asked with a kind smile, but his tense muscles showed that he would deliver the opposite treatment if they were unfriendly visitors.

Alex rolled his eyes before turning to Ruby, "I know that you're mad and all, but where's Sadie?" he asked as he noticed the absence of what he was starting to think was Percy's favourite Caramel blonde.

Ruby hissed at him in response.

"Nice to see you care" came the emotionless voice of one Sadie Kane as she became visible.

The Centaur shuffled backwards in shock.

"I just don't want Percy smashing my face in because I left his girlfriend behind" Alex remarked flatly.

"Excuse me, but who are…" the Centaur attempted to gain control of the conversation.

He was ignored.

"I could care less!" Ruby snapped as she waved her rather small fist at the esper wildly.

Said esper rolled her eyes, "What a child" she intoned humourlessly.

Ruby froze, and her expression darkened, "What did you just call me?" she inquired darkly. Sadie narrowed her eyes, "Did I stutter, or does your childishness extend to your physiology as well in that you cannot understand something as simple as a three lettered sentence?" she asked condescendingly.

A bead of sweat rolled down Alex's neck.

"… I don't think you and Crescent Rose have been acquainted with each other" Ruby muttered quietly.

Before she could unfold her Scythe – Sniper, Alex tackled her to the ground, and held her down.

"For the love of God, would you stop agitating her!" he snapped at Sadie, making the blonde esper click her tongue in annoyance but turn away nonetheless.

"Identify yourselves, or I will be forced to use less than peaceful methods to get it from you" the Centaur stated.

The trio blinked.

"Um, Alex?"

"… Yeah?"

"Does that guy have Horse legs?"

"… Yes Ruby, Yes he does"

"… Percy wasn't kidding" Sadie muttered to herself but the other two heard it.

"Excuse me?" Alex inquired curiously.

"Percy told me that the Greek mythological world actually exists but is a well kept secret, I guess he wasn't messing with me as I thought" she replied.

"Pffft! Why would you doubt Percy in the first place?" Ruby questioned mockingly with an eye roll… before her expression darkened, "You mean… that he already tells you his secrets?" she questioned quietly.

Alex clenched his jaw and rubbed his temples, 'Why on God's green Earth did I have to be stuck with the Yandere?!' he moaned internally.

His train of thought came to a screeching halt as he felt something phase through his neck. He looked down and saw what appeared to be a bronze sword, go through it as if it were a mirage and he was pretty damn sure that it was sticking out from the opposite side of his neck.

He traced the sword to its owner, said owner, a fourteen, maybe fifteen year old teen was frozen in place and seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack, if his erratic breathing pattern, pale face and uncontrolled sweating was anything to go by.

"They're mortal!" someone behind the scared teen shouted and the other armed teens (Alex wondered how he didn't notice them 'til now) scurried back in shock.

The Centaur shook himself out of his stupor before pulling out a metal dagger, "I'll ask once more, who are you people?"

Alex fixed the terrified teen with a deadpan stare before promptly bifurcating him vertically.

The two slabs of flesh fell to the ground with wet plops that sent blood splashing on the Centaur, while the other teens let out terrified screams as they saw one of their own die in such a brutal manner.

"Oooh! Can I kill some too? Please! Pretty please!" Ruby begged with an adorable pout but was quickly held down by Sadie.

"Let me go you bi…!"

A pot bellied figure materialized at the Centaurs side and suddenly, the smell of grapes filled the air and the three inhuman individuals paused as they felt an overwhelming presence invade their minds, the presence poked and prodded at their mental barriers... it took them a moment to realize that this feeling… was madness.

Much to their confusion as they didn't know that madness could be felt… and they were psychos, so that's saying something.

The oppressive feeling quickly receded as soon as it had begun when an even more overwhelming presence made itself known.

Percy was back.

AN: It's short! Yes, yes it is. This short chapter took 2 weeks to write. Why? Because life happened (and I am quite grateful for that). That aside, I was looking through the previous chapters of this story, and guess what? ...I cringed… I cringed HARD. I kept asking myself the question 'Who the fuck wrote this crap?' and I kept coming up with the same answer, 'A ten year old caffeine loaded kid'. I considered rewriting the story from scratch but after a full week of contemplating, my answer came in the form of the very title of this fic…

'Project X' was created as my very first attempt to go beyond my comfort zone in story writing and hence I guess it is only natural that it isn't a masterpiece as I thought that it would turn out to be, that being said, I want to use this avenue to renounce every promise I have ever made concerning this story. No, I am not abandoning it (at least not in the foreseeable future), I am simply coming to terms with the fact that you can't steer the steering wheels of the vehicle called life, all you can is sit back and pray that your invisible driver is not broke ass drunk as he drives.

ALTAIR25 OUT!

PS: If sonofcreation is reading this, then the next chapter of 'The Life of an Assassin'… will be ready once I get over my laziness and start work on it.