Author's Note: thanks for all the reviews and favorites that this story has been getting, it really motivates me to keep writing. Here's Chapter 5. Also, I'm going to start writing from different POVs, instead of must switching between Percy and Annabeth. So just to clarify, Beckendorf and Silena work for Atlantis (Percy's company) while Luke works for Skyward (Annabeth's company).

A Week Later

Somewhere Just Outside of Manhattan,1:30 AM

"What a crappy neighborhood," observed Silena, peering around at the dilapidated apartment buildings, littered streets, and ancient, broken down cars. It was the kind of place that made most people hide their valuables and try to walk away really quickly.

"What did you expect? A Fifth Avenue penthouse?" teased Beckendorf as they crossed the darkened street. They ran into an alleyway and crept their way up the fire escape of a boarded- up apartment building.

"No, but really, they could totally fix this up if they wanted to," she remarked casually as they climbed. "Like, a fresh coat of paint on the window frames would definitely-" she paused as they reached the third floor window. "What was that?"

Beckendorf stopped, too. The window, like all the others, was boarded up, but they could definitely hear something going on inside. "I'm not sure. It sounds a bit like-" Then suddenly, BANG! They heard a series of gunshots, and they ducked down as the boarded- up window was kicked violently open. A blond guy in his twenties leapt out. He saw them, and didn't look at all surprised to see them. He jumped off the fire escape and hit the ground running.

"Hey! Get back here!" yelled Beckendorf, and he and Silena chased him over the fence at the back of the building, through another alleyway, and into another street. The guy had a huge head start, though, and was a pretty fast runner. He streaked down the cracked sidewalks like a bullet shot from a gun. But as the guy jumped over a trashcan, he came down hard and got his jacket caught on a fence. He tossed it off quickly and kept running.

Silena grabbed the jacket. "He dropped this." Beckendorf stopped and looked at it.

"Well, let's take a look."

"Did you think he looked familiar?" Silena wondered.

"Maybe, but I didn't really get a good look at his face."

"So you didn't see his scar?"

..~0~..

The Next Day

Skyward Agency, 10 AM

"So when I got there, there were these two people already there. They'd already killed my target, so I tried to get out of there ASAP. But I dropped my jacket, and I think they may have found it," explained Luke to the head of the company, who was called Zeus. Zeus wasn't his real name, but the agents had nicknamed him that a long time ago, and it stuck. No one could pronounce his real name, anyway. His office was on the top floor of the building, and gave its occupants a dizzying view of the city below.

Assassins rarely went to the head of the board to discuss missions, but this was a special case. Considering the trouble they'd been having lately, any mission that didn't go right went straight to the head. Zeus frowned and leaned forward in his chair. "And can you in any way identify the two?"

"No," admitted Luke. "But I went and examined the site afterwards, and I found my target already dead. But the weapon used was clearly a bronze and steel bullet."

Zeus's eyes flashed with comprehension at the news. "So they were part of the same group that have been completing unauthorized missions."

"Probably. They definitely weren't from our agency, though."

"That leaves only one option, then."

..~0~..

After Work

Aquarium Parking Lot

Annabeth parked her car by the aquarium and sat there, lost in thought. It seemed that her suspicions had been correct: the other workers from the original company had indeed started their own company. Her mother and the rest of the agency's heads had confirmed that this morning.

"We have always known about the existence of this rival company," Zeus had explained in his address to the agents that afternoon. "But we have kept our knowledge under wraps to prevent any unnecessary rivalries from developing. However, we have reason to believe that they are completing the unauthorized missions that we have been concerned about lately. These missions are an abomination! They are not protectors of civilians, as we are. They are little more than mercenaries! Remain on the alert for any more of their activities."

He had seemed so furious about this, it would've been comical if he wasn't so menacing. Annabeth could totally see where Thalia got it from.

She waited in the car for Percy. She was getting a bit annoyed now, shouldn't he be here? She pulled out her phone and was about to text him when she saw him approaching the car.

"Hey," he said, getting in the car. He seemed rather distracted and kept looking out the window.

"What are you looking for?"

"Nothing."

"Why were you so late?"

He shrugged. "It was a busy day. They called a meeting."

"About what?"

"Nothing really." She felt really annoyed for some reason. It was like he was on Mars, and she was trying to talk to him from Venus. She felt as if she was missing a huge chunk of his life... But then again, she couldn't talk.

..~0~..

Percy was getting annoyed by Annabeth's questions. He couldn't help it if he couldn't tell her more. He would have liked to, but the fact was that he just couldn't. Plus, what Beckendorf and Silena had found out could lead to potentially dangerous situations, which made telling Annabeth anything an even worse idea. Besides, he had enough reason to believe that she was hiding something from him lately.

Speaking of which, the idea that there was another agency, which had branched off from the same company but which was responsible for unauthorized missions made his head spin.

..~0~..

Later that Evening

The Jackson House

Percy tossed and turned a lot that night, but he just couldn't sleep. When he was a teenager, he always had these strange, unusual nightmares that were mostly about Greek myths coming to life. He hadn't had one in years, but for some reason, they had returned tonight. He'd woken up, heart pounding, half thinking that a chimera's jaws were inches from his throat. Maybe it had something to do with the uncomfortable feeling that he was missing something important, but it could've been anything. Finally, he slid out of bed, carefully so as not to wake Annabeth.

He wandered downstairs in the pair of old sweatpants that he usually slept in. He picked up the TV remote and started flipping through channels, trying to find something to watch. But as anyone who's ever watched late night TV knows, the only shows on at 2 AM are infomercials and ancient reruns.

It was slightly colder than usual, so he went into the hallway closet to find a shirt. It was a walk-in closet and fairly large, so he flipped on the light and went in, feeling his way carefully through the racks of clothes, old shoes, and bookshelves that didn't fit anywhere else. Suddenly, he tripped over something lying on the floor. He tried to grab the bookshelf to steady himself, and ended up knocking over a strange old owl statue that was lying on top. There was an odd sliding noise, and a panel opened up in the wall.

Percy jumped up and peered through it. He couldn't really see much, except that it seemed to be a tunnel going downward. Cautiously, he climbed through, and found himself standing on a platform built into the side of what looked like a very small elevator shaft. There was a ladder coming off the platform, and Percy decided to climb down and see what this was. He'd tell Annabeth about it in the morning. Maybe.

He stepped on the ladder and began climbing down. He couldn't see anything but the light from the open panel above him, which was just enough to illuminate the top rungs of the ladder. He wondered how far deep this went. Part of him felt a little uneasy about this, and he hoped that this wouldn't end up like an episode of the Twilight Zone. Actually, this sounded a lot like one. He could picture it now: "Percy Jackson, a man who believes that his wife has been hiding something, finds a tunnel in his house one night. Little does he know that he's gotten a one- way ticket to... The Twilight Zone!"

Finally, just when he thought the ladder would never end, he felt his foot touch solid ground. Strangely, it was soft, like there was some kind of carpet over it. It was pitch black, and he could barely see the open panel at the top of the ladder. He felt for the wall, and found what felt like a light switch. He flipped it, and light flooded the room. He turned around to see what the room looked like and found himself staring down the barrel of a shotgun.

No one was holding it, of course, since it was mounted on the wall. As he looked around, he noticed many more guns on the wall. Not just average guns, either. There was a huge variety: rifles, pistols, Tasers, tiny ones that could fit in the pocket of someone's jeans, and ones that were as long as his arm. And not just guns, either. There were knives, too. All kinds of them: ones made for throwing, hunting knives, tiny daggers, and Swiss Army knives.

In short, this place was a secret weapons warehouse. Percy himself had one in the toolshed out back. But this definitely wasn't his. And it definitely didn't belong to the previous owners, because the equipment looked far too new. That only left one person. And somehow, when Percy turned and saw her, he wasn't too surprised.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

..~0~..

End Of Chapter

Author's Note: Mwahahaha! I know you'll probably all hate me for this, but I couldn't resist. Feel free to tell me if you love it, hate it, think I'm being lazy by giving you a cliffy, or just lazy writing in general. I try to use writing advice whenever it's given to me, so please don't hold back if you have any. I want this story to be well- written and enjoyable.

Review Replies

foreverandalwaysdark: I'm not sure i understand. Did you like the chapter, or not?

Guest: Great! I'm glad you liked it.

The Avian-Olympian: that's the part i like best. You have no idea how much I'm looking forward to writing that. In this story, it's going to be stretched out over a few chapters, while the other characters have their own little subplot.

bookworm2468: well, here it is! Hopefully I can do another before school starts.

Crazy Otaku Fangirl: Great! Thank you :)

waZZ88: glad you like it, I'm definitely going to continue.

WeirdButCool: yeah, that's pretty much it. The demigods are divided kind of randomly, but it should be easy enough to follow. Glad you're liking it so far.