CH. 1
Beckett
I yawned and looked up from my desk at the NYPD precinct where I worked. I glanced at the clock. 5:30: about an hour left before Castle and I could leave. I watched as he made his way over to me. Richard Castle, a rockstar in the literary world; a famous, world renowned author. This goof was my husband. Rick's green eyes glittered with cheekiness as he made his way over to me, his dark brown hair swept to one side. He pulled a chair up beside me and plucked a messed-up Rubik's cube off of my desk and began to fiddle with it. He glanced up at the thick sheaf of papers under my pen and asked in dismay,"When's the deadline for those papers?" looking ticked when I replied,"Tomorrow night." He seemed outraged on my behalf, then obviously thought better of it, and returned to the cube.
Esposito and Ryan slipped out of the interrogation room, chuckling softly, and headed for the break room. Ryan seemed completely at ease, but Espo's void-black eyes held a hint of unease and a gleam of...fear? I was confused. Espo's one of the toughest, bravest people I've met, and I have met a LOT of people. He's much better with weapons than the rest of us, and excels at working in the dark and shadows. Yet his body was tense, and his hands were tapping in anticipation as he disappeared into the break room.
I couldn't help but wonder if something was wrong. Maybe, but that wasn't any of my business, said the practical voice in my head. So? He's your friend, said the sensitive side of me. I mentally told the voices to shut up, and continued my work. Rick cursed under his breath, probably out of frustration, his colorful language directed straight at the Rubik's cube. "Kate do you be-" Poor Rick was interrupted by the dinging of the elevator. I glanced over, expecting one of the precinct detectives to step out. Instead, I got a group of teenage kids.
Esposito
OK, I admit it. I was nervous. Maybe I was showing it more than I meant to, but that was a total accident. I can usually hide it, but I was (Fine, Beckett I admit it) afraid. OK, I'm just rambling here. I'll tell you what happened when the kids got there.
I was talking with Ryan, we were just goofing around. That's when the elevator opened and out walked Nico di Angelo. I was totally confused. Shouldn't he be at Camp Half-Blood? Suddenly, relief washed over me. He had survived the war with Gaea. I had been dealing with a handful of the worst US criminals that Gaea had brainwashed. Meanwhile, Nico was shadow-traveling his life off, literally, and had probably just about turned into a ghost. Lucky him.
I slipped out of the break room, Ryan trailing right behind me. Nico approached me, his group following and examining. I had already met all of them, and they considered me a friend. "Nico! Gods, I was so worried. You won, right?" Nico, nodded, and I sighed in relief. Beckett was shocked, and hostile; I could tell by the look on her face that she was ready to take them to interrogation. "Espo, who are these...kids?" Oh, boy. She was reaching for her gun. I shot out my arm, stopping her from getting to her firearm. "Whoa, whoa. It's OK. He's a friend." At the word friend Nico's face scrunched up in offense, and he protested,"Friend? Come on, Javi. I'm your brother, for Hades' sake!" Annabeth stepped up next to him, her stormy gray eyes crackling with annoyance. She tapped on his shoulder and hissed,"Why do you have to keep everything so secret? Why didn't you tell us he's your brother?" Beckett, Castle, and Ryan all looked the same way, except the annoyance was replaced with confusion. But included in Castle's look was excitement, mischief, and surprise.
"Hades' sake? And how does this kid know you?" "Uh, we all know Javi." Clarisse had stepped forward and was looking just like Beckett: Hostile and angry, but not at me. WE were close friends. I scanned the group and noticed someone was missing. "Hey, where's Leo?" As soon as I got the words out, I could tell I'd hit a sore spot. Percy was the one who answered,"He's recovering from the...incident."I nodded, knowing what he meant. I started to answer,"How long is-" when Beckett interrupted me,"Espo, who are these people?" I turned, and her gun was pointed right between my eyes.
Castle
"Whoa, whoa!" I snatched the gun away from Beckett and tossed it under her desk. "Beckett, what are you doing?!" She was breathing heavily, and there was a wild look in her eyes. "Just standard procedure," she said dazedly. Esposito's dark features were simmering with anger, but not shock, like he had expected this to happen. One of the teenagers, a girl with choppy, chocolate brown hair and kaleidoscope eyes stepped forward. Behind her, a guy with ice colored peepers and golden hair looked on with anxiety. Ms. Kaleidoscope-Eyes started speaking in a gentle, soothing voice: "I'm Piper. All you want is to listen to me sing, and gently coax you into relaxation." I had an overwhelming desire to do exactly as she said. Her sweet voice wrapped around me, and I yawned as her song began. "Sleep, my child, and peace be with thee, all through the night."
Beckett crumpled to the floor and began snoring, and I started to follow her, when Espo yelled,"Piper, stop! We can't help you if all you do is put us to sleep!" Piper abruptly stopped singing, and Beckett stood up like nothing had happened. So did Ryan, I, Captain Gates, and a dozen other officers who had overheard. Piper glanced behind her, and saw a couple of her comrades who had fallen asleep stand up, looking extremely annoyed. The first, a girl with waist-length cinnamon-colored curls and eyes the color of the sun shot a glare at Piper, and the second, a buff Chinese-Canadian dude with a black buzz cut, just looked confused. "Piper, you have to stop being so general! Direct it at a single person." A girl who looked to be about 17 or 18 started talking in an intense monologue involving a lot of science (from what I could tell). She had long, honey-blonde locks and stone-colored eyes that sparkled as she talked. A guy with sea-green eyes and tousled black hair put out a hand: the international sign for stop. "Annabeth, I don't think Piper understands you. I don't think anyone understands you." Annabeth stopped talking and looked exasperated, like no one ever understood her anyway. I could relate to that. "Percy, I was doing that on purpose." Percy replied,"I know. I'm just stating the obvious."
Espo sighed. "Look, if you're just going to argue, I'm leaving. The sun is setting, it's getting dark, and it's the best time for travel. By the way, where's Festus?" "Hazel brought him," one of them answered. The girl with the cinnamon curls stepped forward, a golden suitcase in tow. "Great," answered Espo. "Now Nico and I need to go talk to Chiron." I had watched in silent fascination, until Espo said Chiron. Now I was confused. "Who names their kid Chiron? He's half horse!" "Not all the time," objected Percy. "He stays in a wheelchair in disguise." What in the world were these kids talking about? Who are they? Hazel sighed. "He's mortal. He doesn't get it." Suddenly, out of the blue, a white diamond popped out of the ground at her feet. I thought it was and illusion, and I reached out to make sure, but Hazel swatted my hand away and said,"Uh, uh, uh! Don't touch it or you could die!" She then picked it up and tossed it toward the ceiling. It disappeared halfway there. All of us except our visitors and Espo just stood and stared.
Espo laughed. "Hey, Tori, look at this!" I glanced at her and realized she was practically rolling on the floor. Annabeth asked,"Parent?" Espo replied,"Yours." Annabeth approached Tori, who had recovered from her laughing fit enough to stand up, though she was still giggling. They walked off together toward the break room like BFF's, but as far as I knew, they had never met each other. Something was definetely off with these kids. Something about them seemed... supernatural. I turned back to everyone else. Espo and Nico started walking toward the wall. Every person in the precinct had their eyes on the pair. The two were approaching a specifically shady wall, where the sunlight seemed to not want to go anywhere near that one wall. What on earth were they doing? Nico grasped Espo's coat sleeve and then the impossible happened. They tuned in to shadows and walked into the wall and disappeared.
No one moved except the group of teenage kids. "Well, now what?" Hazel asked. "We switch it around. We interrogate them," the Chinese-Canadian guy replied. He had Frank stitched onto his Polympus polo shirt pocket. As far as I knew (and I know a lot) there were no polo companies with that name. His words got everyone moving. Suddenly, alarms were blaring, people were shouting, Gates was yelling orders, and police officers were dashing for the elevator. Everyone was putting their energy into looking for Javier Esposito, the NYPD detective that had disappeared into thin air.
Ryan
I was so scared of Javi when I watched him vanish. I could tell he was a part of something bigger, something...incredible and impossible. I had thought I knew my best friend. I had met his mother and sisters, but not his father. Javi's mom said that his dad had left when he was born, and his sisters, all younger but one, had been born to a different father who had died. Javi's big sister had been born to the same father as him, but since she had only been a year old when she left. Despite knowing all this and more, Javi became a complete stranger as soon as he and that kid had disappeared into the wall.
I was one of the officers dashing to the wall they had disappeared into. I wanted to find all the evidence I could to figure out where he had gone. As I scanned the wall, it hit me: everything I needed was right here. The teenagers that Javi seemed to know very well were the key to finding him.
I told all this to Captain Gates and pretty soon, all of the kids were in separate cells looking really bored. They were doing really weird things to entertain themselves, things that should have been impossible: the kid with the sea green eyes-Percy, I think-was absentmindedly twirling his finger around, in the process making a small tornado out of water; Hazel's cell had gems popping out of the ground while she tossed them to the ceiling and they disappeared; and Piper had somehow gotten the golden suitcase from Hazel and was now talking to him, and the suitcase seemed to be making noises back to her.
I heard bits and pieces of conversation as we lined the kids up to interrogate them. It seemed to be about different things: someone named Leo, a place called Camp Half-Blood (I'm pretty sure only I heard that) Capture the Flag, weapons, and a whole bunch of other stuff, the weirdest thing being them talking about the Greek gods. Even to the extent of them being real. I shook my head and headed for the interrogation room. Beckett was already there. I pickedup my clipboard with Javi's files on it, and went to stand next to her. The first teen was brought in: a big, burly girl with long brown hair and brown eyes that glittered. Beckett and I glanced at each other, a silent agreement in our eyes. Come down like a hurricane. Don't let these kids hold back one single piece of information we can use.