CHAPTER TWENTY: Hocus Pocus
Alex.
"Shit!" Alex heard Riley swore.
The entire food court seemed to stand still - stunned at why this random girl was suddenly bolting like her life depended on it. She crashed past a man holding a tray of fast-food, the drink and food splattering all over him. And it was in the middle of his 'WHAT THE HELL!' shout that the Kingshield agents finally took action.
The agents all wore sunglasses and baseball caps. Probably a personal gag from Riley since he always pointed out how the characters in Marvel movies always looked way too obvious. But it served its purpose. Their faces remained covered from security footage.
Alex couldn't care less.
"Moving from East Food Court -" she heard someone yell into a radio.
She held her arms out like an arrowhead, yelling 'MOVE! MOVE!' at a group of people who'd wanted to see what was going on. Where was security? she thought, just as she dashed past an elderly man in mall cop uniform, looking dumbfounded with his radio in his hand. Everybody shrieked as they made way for her, her feet pounded on the tiles of the food court as she ran.
A leap over the steps (the food court was a little sunken in the ground).
A narrow miss as she spun around to avoid crashing into a woman on her phone. Maybe the woman had yelled for her to stop, to warn her that she was in the way - but Alex couldn't hear anything. Everything was a loud whoosh against her ears. It usually helped her to concentrate on running, but now it just made her feel more alien. Criminal.
How far behind were the agents?
From the shouts going on behind her, she could tell they were catching up - if not keeping a steady distance behind her. More people were getting curious, some of them just standing in shock, or crowding together to get a good look. Alex kept yelling for them to make way, but it also gave away her position.
How big was this stupid mall?
"ALEX -" shouted Riley, his voice either magnified by some bullhorn or Alex's own hearing zeroing in on the voice that had been her friend, that had betrayed her. Riley's voice was usually the one she sought out to help her calm down. But now...
"Alex, I know you can hear me! You can run but you can't hide! Think about your parents! Think about -"
...her blood boiled.
"Shut up, SHUT UP -" she barked at nothing in particular, her anger now propelling her forward. Her feet pounded on the floor. She found a corridor that led to sliding doors. The white glow of sunshine through the windows. The mall parking lot.
Should she get her bag? Should she find the satyr? Should she -?
"We're gonna get you, Alex - you know who's following you, right?" Riley's distant voice in her head felt like the echoes of a surround-sound speaker. Stuck in the back of her head. She swatted at her ear as she ran.
The distance between her and the automatic doors was closing fast. Alex gasped, unable to stop herself as she bounded forward with no choice but to -
CRASH through the glass. The motion sensors never saw her coming.
She held her balance well enough that she continued running down the parking lot. Patted away glass caught in her sleeves. But she'd emerged on the other side of the parking lot, she couldn't see the truck from here. The truck? Wait, why did she need the truck? No, she didn't need the truck - she couldn't drive out of here, she was a shitty driver -
Alex ducked behind a car, hiding herself for the time being. She stopped, catching her breath. Running didn't usually make her feel like she wanted to die, like her lungs were in her throat, but now...
"You know there's no point, Alex."
Riley sounded way too calm. She could imagine him just sitting at some bench, knowing 100% that she was listening to him, that she would have no choice but to. He knew her so well. He'd been studying her all this time. She thought he was just trying to help her, with all those training sessions, with the counting of her speed, with the maintaining of her diet -
Alex punched the car with the side of her fist, enraged.
"You can't escape this, Alex."
She needed to find her parents. But she didn't even know what city she was in. What the hell kind of place did Riley take her to?
She took out her phone, scrambling with the screen to get to the maps - but it was taking too long to load. Alex tapped the screen aggressively like that would help. It broke in her hands.
"Shit," she whispered. "Shit, shit, shit -"
Looking underneath the car, she saw shoes walking slowly to her location, walking in formation. No matter what Adidas shoe you wore, no normal person walked like that.
Riley's voice came back again. "Good trick with the 'not fighting', though. I respect that. You're running, so you're technically not -"
"Screw you, Riley," she scowled to herself. She thought about making taking hold of one of these cars and throwing it at the agents but - that would probably count as 'fighting back'.
There was nothing to it. Alex took a deep breath and sighed, gathering her energy to her centre, focusing on just one goal.
Okay.
Four agents heading her direction. Click of the safety on a gun. Crunch of gravel means they stopped. Riley's voice shut up in her head.
It didn't matter which direction she went, she'd just head for the streets, to find a place to lay low for at least ten minutes so she could find where she was and then find the direction to her parents. She'd run all the way across the continent if she had to.
Alex geared up. She couldn't stay here. She couldn't stop.
Okay, okay.
One. Two -
Alex made a break for it. Her eyes locked onto the cluster of buildings across the busy intersection.
Hotfooting across the parking lot. The agents weren't slowing down (why the hell weren't they slowing down?!) but they were burdened by something else. Kingshield thrived under secrecy. They couldn't do all their operations if someone had proof that they existed. They had the guns, but they wouldn't dare openfire in public.
But she weaved through the cars just in case. Back on the road, she held out her hand to stop a car from running her over. It skidded to a halt, BEEPING at her angrily.
Alex pumped her arms as she headed for the intersection. The agents on her heels. She didn't look back, didn't need to. The lights turned green for two roads, and a long stream of cars passed each other, cutting through in the middle of the intersection.
At the edge of the curb, she leapt up.
The force of her leap had her easily crossing over the river of cars, landing on the other side.
Alex screamed a little as she waved her arms to balance herself as she landed. She crashed onto the ground, right in front of the road of cars waiting at the red light. Alex waved and gave an awkward smile at the shocked driver at the front.
Stepping onto the sidewalk, she finally looked back. The agents were waiting. The cars still rolling between them. Red lights changed to green. Riley was there, looking the picture of calm with the agents around him, barely huffing and puffing after the chase Alex gave them.
Alex, herself, felt only a little winded. Her heart was mainly racing from fear.
But why weren't these mortal agents tired?
She frowned, then darted down the block.
"Shit, shit, shit, fuck, shit -" Alex murmured to herself, busy clacking away at a keyboard and clicking at a mouse to finally find out where the hell she was.
The person whose Internet cafe computer she'd hijacked just watched her, afraid of what she'd do if he disturbed her. She'd come in and pretended to know him, before gripping his shoulder tightly and asking him if he valued the bloodflow in his arms. He did.
The young man sipped somberly at his iced coffee while he waited.
Click, click.
Woodsdale? Bel Air South? How'd they get to California?!
She zoomed out.
Ah, it was Bel Air, Maryland.
Okay, so they were close to Baltimore.
Clack, clack, clack. Nearest airport was the BWI Marshall Airport.
Could she run to Baltimore?
Police sirens rushing up the road made her jump. She closed the windows of the internet browser immediately and stood up. Gunshots made everyone in the cafe react.
Scott told them to never fire guns in public. Riley, also, never used guns, even if he had one just in case. Mags was usually the trigger-happy one.
Could someone change that much?
She looked at the time on the corner of the screen. Two minutes had gone by. Two minutes since she'd lost the agents. Two minutes since she'd dashed down that block and disappeared into so many alleys and random turns that even she couldn't figure out where she was.
Maybe she had more time. Maybe she could send a message to the Camp somehow. Her mind raced for a solution. If someone was watching the Internet for more things about Camp Halfblood…
"Do you have social media?" she snapped at the man. The man blinked. "Twitter? Tumblr? Reddit?" Alex shook his shoulder to get him to focus.
He stammered a 'y-yes' and pulled up a Twitter account.
"Listen, I'm really sorry..." she murmured, tapping out a tweet and then sending it off. "Don't delete that. Please. Something bad will happen if you do," she added, hoping he understood
The man just stared, then nodded fiercely.
More police cars rushed up the road. The brat-brat-brat of a small machine gun.
There was never just one Kingshield team out here.
Alex narrowed her eyes.
The internet cafe had only a small window-front, with tinted blue glass, but she could see anyone walking by. And just then, two figures, side-stepping carefully, appeared on either end of the window.
Alex made off to the back of the cafe, vaulting over the cash register bench and heading into the backroom.
It was a race to survive.
The chase took them to the edge of the city. Before that, she'd run through more parking lots, vaulted over a chain-link fence, jumped on park picnic tables, hid up a tree, and then finally they ended up in a warehouse district of sorts. The other Kingshield team had revealed themselves near the park, a large black van that followed the chase but didn't participate yet. They were probably Plan B.
Alex stopped by a dumpster, her legs giving way underneath her, and she crashed to the floor with a gasp. She still had no idea where she was going; she only knew what she was running to.
She closed her eyes, waiting for a voice to tell her what to do. The man in the farmer's clothes, the woman by the sea, hell, even Achilles...but no voice appeared. And she was alone.
With that thought, Alex almost cried.
In the distance, she heard the echo of gunfire. They were more liberal with it now that there weren't too many people around. She just hoped someone had alerted the police. They'd lost them somewhere along the way - but maybe they would return. Then suddenly -
A bullet ricocheted of the floor next to her feet.
Alex scrambled to hide herself against the wall.
She took in her surroundings. There was a fire-escape leading into one of the bare warehouses, the glass of the windows broken, graffiti all over the walls. A bullet went off again, ricocheting off the dumpster this time. The shooter was toying with her.
Taking her chances with the relative safety of the warehouse, she jumped up, climbing up the ladder and entering the building.
And by the window, was the gunman - or, rather, gunwoman.
The woman was short, about Alex's height. She had curly red hair tied up in a bun that barely kept all the curls in - and splattered across her face were orange freckles. She would have looked pretty to Alex if she didn't have such a gruesome, ugly look on her face, like a hunter who'd finally caught her prey. And, of course, the sidearms in her hands.
Alex also noticed a bag by the window, filled with glittering and shiny things. Were those iPads? They did pass by an electronics store on the way here, along a fancier strip mall. At the top, lay a shotgun.
The woman's earpiece was also hanging off her neck.
"This is probably when I should say something cool, right? Like: aw, bet you didn't see this coming, Estrada. But that's just weird 'cause we don't know each other. So - wouldn't really achieve the same affect," the woman shrugged.
Alex took a step back. The woman took a step forward, chuckling.
"No, listen, look. Straight off the bat: I'm not here for you. I mean, you're the job. But I know the people you know and...let's just say, I can't wait until they come rescue you. Because...they always come to the rescue. That's the problem with your breed. You actually think you're all heroes," she scowled. "It's funny, though, I'll give you that."
Alex shook her head like it was a twitch. She took a few more steps back.
The woman shot twice at her feet, missing by inches.
"Ah, ah, ah. No point running. Even those Target sneakers have to wear out at some point."
Alex put her hands up, her gaze steely. "You don't know what's going on. I'll tell you, if you -"
"Oh, jeez, come on. We have your parents, you've got special powers but you're still more human than godly, I get it, I get it - I get the concept. You'll find that I don't actually care about all those things, Usain Bolt. My only issue is -" The woman pulled a funny face. "This is it? This is the guy who's supposed to lead us all into a whole new world? Someone call the genie."
Alex spun around and jumped out the window.
What waited for her on the ground floor, was a net. And as soon as her body hit the ropes, a button was pressed, issuing minor electric shocks along the threads. Alex screamed a bloodcurdling scream, her body twisting and turning, sinking into the net as the agents holding the ropes tied her up.
With each shock came a different vision in her mind:
A man screaming just like her, trapped in a cage of fire, screaming: 'MOTHER! MOTHER! YOU WITCH -'
Another man, lying on a bed in a beautiful place, a place like Heaven, nothing but sadness in his eyes as he asked: "Where is Achilles?"
The farmer on top of Halfblood Hill, shaking his head.
A swarm of Kingshield agents rushing the Hill, at the same time, a BOOM resounding from the camp, smoke and fire rising -
And the woman by the sea again, her hair blowing like there was a sea breeze in the middle of Long Island, but she was behind the group of Agents, whispering into their ears, holding out her arms -
The shocks stopped.
Alex gasped, gathering whatever air she could. Her whole body went numb, but her limbs spasmed and twitched. One arm managed to slip between the net, reaching for help from a familiar pair of shoes approaching her.
"We couldn't just capture her?" Riley asked someone she couldn't see.
"If you can't stomach it, King Baby," came the voice of the woman with red hair, "then maybe you should wait in the car. Grab a sippy cup. Farley can give you one -"
"Fuck off, Bobofit."
Another gunshot.
"What the hell -" cried Farley.
"Missed you by that much," warned Bobofit.
"All right, shut up -" Riley snapped his fingers. "Pick her up, get her out of here and then head to the van."
Three people lifted Alex, still wrapped in the net. The feeling was slowly coming back to her body, and she was able to move her fingers and feet now, but there was no way of escaping with the three strong arms holding her and moving her down the alley. They took her out to a clearing between all the warehouses. Two of the warehouses and a chainlink fence protecting train-tracks formed a sort of triangular shape. There was nothing here but graffiti, gravel, broken windows, and manholes.
Two vans were parked by each warehouse. Riley and Bobofit went with the three carriers and Alex, and the rest of the team (Alex couldn't count, but it looked like a large number) headed to the other van.
Her eyes were feeling less heavy by the second, her vision clearing. But her panic was rising now. She felt like a fish, trapped in the net, losing her breath, and now she was going to be packaged and...what? Made to lead an army of insane people?
She made one last attempt to wiggle out of the net. The agents just held her tighter, finally laying her down in the back of the van. Alex reached out her hand to the open air.
And just as the doors were about to close, a large shadow, like a blackhole emerged from the side of the warehouse. The first figure that jumped out was Nico - and another young man - whose first action was to hold out his hands to the manhole covers - water exploding from them and crashing into the Kingshield agents on that side of the building. The water propelled them over the chain-link fence. Then four more figures came out. Issa, Taki, Piper, Mags.
Alex managed a smile.
The first person to react on the remaining Kingshield side was Bobofit.
"JACKSON -" she roared, sending a flurry of bullets from her sidearms, marching towards the new team.
A/N: 👀
This scene was greatly inspired by the 'Hocus Pocus' chase scene from Baby Driver, hence the title! I usually have words from the chapter as the title but the inspiration was too iconic.
MORE ACTION TO COME! And a sort of re-assurance, knowing that a lot of things are happening right now, don't worry - I haven't forgotten about anything. The Amazons, the Prophecy, the visions, the mysterious (or not so mysterious!) figures in the visions. Also the camps are having issues.
Right now all I can say is: 👀
and SundayPopTarts, thank you for so much for the villains comment! I'm so glad you like how they're turning out!
Hope everyone enjoyed! Thank you, as always, for reading!