THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR FOLLOWS, FAVORITES, AND REVIEWS! Here is an update. Sorry it's taken so long—these are longer chapters. I'll do a chapter for Apples soon.
This is sort of like a sequel to Arrest, since nobody asked why the people spoke English.
I DO NOT OWN.
Arrest II
Katie Gardner's POV
Katie had kept an eagle eye on Percy for the past week.
He had seemed… jittery to her, always doing scans around the house, jumping at the sound of a police siren, rushing to pack up the house. Her family, meaning her and her father, were moving to a farm on the outskirts of New York soon, today actually, but it had been momentarily delayed when one of Percy's illegal schemes had gotten them all arrested. Ever since their return he had been on the lookout for something. Katie didn't know what, but she would figure out; almost nothing set Percy off—ever—so something was up.
She lugged a box into the back of her family's bright blue pick-up truck, Percy doing the same. She groaned and flopped into the trunk, her arm covering her face. "This sucks," she moaned, flipping over to see Percy, once again, scanning the area. She couldn't take it anymore; she had to ask. Not just anything could ruin Percy's cool demeanor. "So, what're you lookin' for?"
He started at the sound of her voice, but quickly shrugged it off. "What do you mean?"
She titled her head to the side. Percy was… hard to interpret. She had known him for years, since they were seven, and yet, it was still challenging at figuring out what was going through his head. Sometimes Katie wondered if that was because of what he went through—all that pain had to have some sort of effect on him, like making him unable to show any emotion. What she had figured, however, not even his mother knew: Percy had trust issues; he didn't like getting close to people, because that would lead to a world of hurt—they would leave or be put in danger, which would lead to them getting hurt, and other people hurting caused him to hurt. Percy would never show it, though, because he didn't show pain—he just didn't, couldn't.
Katie said, "You're nervous. Almost nothing makes you nervous."
Percy scrunched up his nose—something he did when he would realize once again that she knew him inside and out, better than most everyone, even if he didn't thoroughly approve—and looked away, still searching. "I'm just…waiting. I just want to get it over with, yet I know how much you don't like it. I don't mind, but you do."
She knew this trick—he was loop-holing. Maybe. She could never tell.
Katie went with her gut instinct, because that helpful nagging feeling in the back of her head wasn't making an appearance. "Liar."
Percy raised his left eyebrow at her, with that all-so-serious look plastered on his face. "No, I'm not lying. I don't mind, whereas you do."
There was that nagging feeling again. Katie looked Percy dead in the eyes, where two different shades of green met, one sea green one grass green. She smacked her lips. "You're talking about something else, something different, not my moving."
Percy tilted his head to the side and closed his eyes, listening, an effect from being completely blind for over three years. "Remember just a week ago, Katie? You didn't like getting arrested. You believed your dad, about me being to blame." His face was an emotionless mask, but she knew his little antics. He was silently snapping his fingers, something he did when he didn't want her to know something, but knew it was for the better. Either that or he was giving her hints on something she should already know, have already figured out or guessed or questioned.
One day she'd be on his level, not on his level of knowing, but of figuring out; she didn't have his ability.
Or maybe one day he will give a straight answer, instead of have me figure things out for myself, she thought. She gave a quiet snort at her thought. Yeah, right, like that would happen.
Katie nodded slowly, thinking about their arrest. "Think about the people," Percy hinted. She thought back to the men: their black suits, their serious expression, short tempers. "Okay," Percy went on. "Now think about how quickly they came to your house." It had been lightning speed fast, unnatural that they had traveled from their base to her home in less than a minute. Nothing came to her. Nothing at all. Yes, it was all unnatural that they could make it to her house immediately after her dad had unplugged the cord to their ancient computer that Percy had used to hack into some sort of cite in Russian—wait a second.
That nagging feeling told her that was it. Just think about it, it seemed to say. Think about it.
Russian. The men, they spoke English, not Russian. If they spoke Russian, her father would not have been able to communicate with them the way he did. They didn't even have a slight accent, like Percy did if you knew to look for it or caught him frustrated or angry. The cite though, it was all in Russian.
Katie hesitated before she spoke, as she always did in situations like this. But, looking at Percy's raised eyebrow and all-too-serious face, she asked a question that she knew he had the answer to, no matter if it was rhetorical. Percy always had an answer; it just depended on what his answer was and if he actually said it. "You're waiting for the people whose cite you hacked into, the people who speak Russian, aren't you?"
Percy looked grim, but, Katie knew, it wasn't for his sake; it was for hers. Percy didn't care if he got arrested. It wouldn't be his first, nor anywhere near his last.
"Yeah." He licked his dry lips. "I am."
"When—when do you think they'll come?" She sounded nervous, even to herself, but what was really going through her mind was, If I get arrested Percy, you're going to lose your head, and I'll use it to play volleyball.
Percy's eyes widened and he moved to push her, but Katie, being as stubborn as she was (courtesy of Percy), didn't move an inch. "What was that for, Percy?" she shouted angrily.
Suddenly there was a needle in her arm, and her vision began to blur and fade at the edges.
Her only thought then: Oh.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0oLINE BREAK
Okay, Katie will admit it—she was wrong.
Of course, considering she hung out with Percy Jackson, a freaking genius who wouldn't admit to his own awesomeness (not that she thought he was awesome or anything), she should be used to it. And people said to ask a girl. Yeah, like someone would ask her when Percy was around. Katie couldn't help but wonder about her. She quickly pushed the thought away, because somehow Percy would know that she was thinking about her.
She checked her surroundings instead. Man, Percy was getting to her. Next thing you know she'll be visiting the police on a daily basis for something, or learning how to speak Arabic or some other foreign language that nobody spoke in the U.S.. Katie went through a mental check list, one Percy had drilled into her brain, like Russian and the Morse code.
She was in the back of some kind of truck, bound and gagged. A sack with some kind of fume in it was beside her, so she guessed it had once been over her head, keeping her sleeping. Diagonally to her right was a tranquilizer with darts strewn around it; it seemed to be missing more than two darts though. Go Percy! Next to the tranquilizer was Percy, bound and gagged as well; his eyes were closed, and he seemed to be mentally singing a song—ninety-nine bottles of coke on the wall, no doubt.
Katie looked to her left and—HOLY SNICKER DOODLES WHO WAS THAT STRANGE MAN?! He was hovering over her, eyes slits, mouth frowning, cheeks red in anger. Oh, and he was holding a gun to her head!
She yelped and on instinct kicked out. Both were unsatisfactory. Her yelp was muffled by the gag and her kick sent her sliding to the ground on her stomach, because they were bound together. She flipped over onto her back and, using her arms and legs, scooted herself back up against the wall. Now, propped up, she could give the man who gave her a fright a proper glare.
He flinched slightly at her glare, something she'd learned from her best bud. "Stay," he ordered, waving his gun.
Katie couldn't make out much of him in the dim light, but from the accent, she guessed he spoke Russian. It reminded her of the time she accidently broke Percy's laptop when they were nine, and he had gradually went from fuming in the modern American to Russian; the in-between part had made her laugh, because she couldn't understand a word he was yelling.
To answer the man's order, Katie had waved her head side to side, as if to say, "Yeah, and I'm on Jupiter, because you sure seem stupider."
He glared before moving to the front of the truck, leaving only her and a brain-singing Percy. Of course, this is where Percy suddenly decides that he should take out his gag and off his bounds because, yeah, he had already done that.
Sometimes it was worth it, having a criminal mastermind as a best friend. It made things more exiting, and when things turned for the worse… well, he's done it all before, people! There won't be a worse for long!
Katie scooted over to him on her butt, waving her tied together hands in his face. "Shhh… Calm down, Katie," Percy scolded. "I'm goin'. I'm goin'. It's not like they're gonna be off for good anyway. You have to keep them on for… pretending." He smirked at his last word, which Katie could understand; he used the word "pretend" for goodness sake! This is Percy freaking Jackson—he probably cussed out a police officer for his birthday as a gift to himself some time before!
He pulled out the gag and she breathed in a deep, luscious breath of cool air. "This," she stared, "is so much more different than last time, namely because my dad isn't here."
Percy shrugged. "It might be more fun this way." He had this evil glint in his eyes that made Katie want to call an insane asylum on him.
"How?" She was wary of him; she had only been "arrested" one time before, while Percy on the other hand... eh… probably countless times in his short nearing eleven years of life.
He tugged the rope bounding her arms together off. "Well, these guys are gonna be more… ummm… violent, possibly, and—"
"Oh, yeah," she cut in, "that'd be very fun. Umm, tell me, what planet are you from, 'cause you sure ain't from here. Those guys are massive! We'd, meaning you, be pounded to bits, then have said bits be put in their breakfast cereal. Uh, no thank you, Sir Crazy. I like all my body parts connected to my body and not put in breakfast cereal!"
He pushed the bounds on her wrist back on, though very lightly so she could escape. "No breakfast cereal. But what I was trying to say is that maybe we could have a little fun, messing with them and stuff." He pointed to his head. "Hello, criminal mastermind here. There's got to be some fun in all this, whether it's translating what they say into stupid things that don't make sense, heavy sarcasm, beating the pulp outta them, or shooting tranquilizer darts all over the place so they jump for cover."
He untied the bounds around her legs, and then loosely placed them back on. He looked her in the eyes, and Katie remembered the first time she ever saw those sea-green orbs. He smirked his signature smirk. "Trust me, it'll be fun, and we'll still escape. Maybe even with a brand new tranquilizer."
She nodded, whispering, "But how? You never tell me how."
Percy patted her back. "Leave all of that to me. Just play along and enjoy the ride."
Her brain twisted and folded in on itself when she realized that she was enjoying it already—the secretiveness, the danger, the possibilities, the action; she breathed for difference, and Percy, as she always knew he would, was giving it to her.
Percy gently shoved the gag back into her mouth and motioned for her to go back the other side. Katie obliged not so happily, until the guy came back. He waved his gun around, finger on the trigger. "Stay," he ordered.
Uh, told us that before.
Percy then, very stupidly, stood up, pulling out his gag. He laughed. "Katie, this dude doesn't speak English." He gave out a single loud laugh. "Duck-face go potty on monkey tree."
The man looked disgruntled. "No, stay." He swung his gun at Percy, then at the wall. "Stay."
She giggled; Percy was right—this was way fun. "No baby in carriage in Italy. Me go to get frappe." The man growled. "Hey! Hey! What's your name, bozo?"
Percy took it up himself to ask the question. "Эй, придурок, как тебя зовут?" (Hey, bozo, what's your name?)
The man looked surprised and mildly impressed the Percy knew Russian. He said, "Антон."
"Anton," she translated.
The man, Anton, raised his eyebrows at Katie; she pointed at Percy. "His fault."
Percy walked up to the man and patted him on the back. He whispered something in his ear, but I heard. "Что бы вы ни делали, не говори никому, что мы говорим русским. Это будет наш маленький секрет." (Whatever you do, don't tell anybody that we speak Russian. It'll be our little secret.)
More like dirty little secret. Percy was planning something; she knew because he asked what the man's name was instead of continuing on the fun. But the question was: What was he planning?
Percy whispered some more things, and man's face grew more and more… gleeful? Excited? Surprised? Worried? I had no idea.
The man waved his gun again. "Stay."
Percy held up his hands, and then he slid back into his bounds after placing his gag back into place. He nodded and rolled his eyes, a movement she knew as the Percy Whatever; it was his way of saying, "Yeah, yeah, I get it. Whatever," without actually saying anything. Right after Percy was in place, a new man appeared.
"Why, hello, children." He tapped his fingers together like evil villains did in movies. "I am the… boss of this… little chat, and I'd like to know if either of you know who hacked into our system. That information is highly classified." He turned to his minion, Anton. "Убедитесь, что они остаются здесь. Если они двигаются, не стесняйтесь, чтобы стрелять." (Make sure they stay here. If they move, don't hesitate to shoot.)
Katie gulped silently. This guy was insane! Anton pulled out another gun and aimed one at each of their heads. Oh yeah, Percy, she thought bitterly. Make friends with the enemy, like that will happen. He took a step forward so he was directly in between both of them; Katie could no longer see Percy, but it wasn't like Percy could have seen her before. He was still legally blind, and the dim lighting stole any chances he had of seeing.
The man came up to the side of Anton, on Katie's side, and clasped Anton's shoulder. "Well done." He turned to her and crouched down. "Now, we know you know something, so why don't you tell us?" He pulled out her gag with a sharp tug.
Katie was about to ask why the man why he was even in America, because he was from Russia, when she realized that if she asked, he would ask how she knew the language was Russian. She went with the dumb, simple, safe questions. "What do you mean? Who are you?" She made her eyes go wide in fright, but the man just laughed.
"Okay, Katie Gardner," he chuckled. "I know much, much more about you than you think. One of the things I know is that you are very intelligent, straight A's, already learning several languages, including body language; advanced math and science; and all there is to know about computers, even though you are dyslexic. Now, tell me what you know." His eyes narrowed to dangerous slits.
Katie gladly returned the glare and didn't budge. "Learning," she emphasized. "I'm learning, which, for your information, doesn't mean know. She see tried to see around him, to check on Percy, though it wasn't worth the effort, because the second she started moving the bounds began to slip, and she knew it wasn't time yet. Not yet. "Why me? Why not him?" she asked.
"You mean you're friend, Perseus Jackson? Oh, no, we only grabbed him because he was with you. The only reason he's on the charts is because he was about to be put in an asylum for being 'more than depressed,' and his school records for being expelled from every year of school for fights and such. His grades show no implication that he would even be able to turn on a computer, much less use it to hack into our highly advanced system."
Okay, to say Katie was surprised would be the biggest understatement of the year, of the century. Percy Jackson was the very person who was teaching her all of the languages; Percy Jackson was the one that encouraged her to start learning advanced math and science early, because it was involved in technology; Percy Jackson was the one who knew all about computers, from how to take one apart to making one from a common toaster. It was all Percy. Freaking. Jackson. Not her! She didn't know his grades, but she knew he did not care about school and usually wrote down his own learning during class and just scribbled down answers on paper, only choosing a few so he wouldn't be held back.
And on the charts? What was that supposed to mean? If it meant having information stashed in some computer the government had, then Percy should live where the computer was, because he did way more than just "almost be sent to an asylum and get expelled from every school he ever stepped in." Didn't information like that include hospital visits? Hello people! Percy just had eye surgery—several times!
How did Percy stay so down-graded? So hidden?
That was something Katie had to ask later, because as of right now, a strange man who refused to tell his name had kidnapped her. Kidnapped. That word sent a whirlpool of emotions down to her stomach. She had been kidnapped by a crazy kidnapper from a foreign country. Panic swelled within her body and she found herself ready to beat this guy to an inch of his life—that is, before Percy got him.
A tranquilizer dart had bloomed in the side of the man's neck, and he promptly passed out, a gun flying from underneath his shirt. Percy knelt down beside her. "Grab the gun," he advised. "It might save your life."
Katie's eyes widened and she quickly picked up the gun, before attaining the full reality that she was holding a gun. Percy passed her some bullets and other stuff she didn't know. He raised an eyebrow at her, holding the gun at arm's length, and gave a knowing smirk. Then she realized he couldn't see her and knew ahead of time what her reaction would be. It wasn't her fault she preferred to stay out of trouble!
"Put it in a pocket," Percy told her, showing her his own handy-dandy gun. "Closer to the body, so it doesn't get lost."
She had managed to hide away her brand new weapon of destruction when men came tumbled through to the back of the truck. One man pointed at Percy before he was promptly knocked out by a fired dart. "Any more volunteers?" Percy asked, holding up the tranquilizer. The man raised their own guns in reply. Percy sighed, "Thought so." Then he began shooting like a maniac in all directions. Katie didn't know how, but somehow Percy could aim with the thing blind, only using one dart per man unless hit man decided not to pass out.
Suddenly the truck swerved a sharp right and all the knocked out bodies began rolling over to Katie. She hopped over each one like she was playing a game of steamroller, except with a dozen people instead of one, and landed on top of Percy. They groaned, standing up. Percy darted for the back door and shoved it open. This was when it finally hit Katie that they were in a moving vehicle, and Percy was planning on jumping out of it. While it was moving.
There was absolutely positively no way Katie was going to do that. It was suicidal! Of course, life with Percy was suicidal—but that wasn't the point!
She. Was. Not. Jumping. Out. No thank you. Nu-uh. No way. Nope. Just plain no.
She watched as Percy, now aided with sight from the day time sun for his weak eyes, scanned the rushing by rode and waving silver doors. "There has to be a way," he muttered to himself. "There is always a way. Always."
So he did know it was suicidal. At least he knew that.
There was a noise behind them and both turned to see the man who was questioning Katie slam a dart into Anton's leg. Anton's eyes rolled up into his head and he fell to the ground with a thud. More men and some women came from the front of the truck. One woman helped out the question man stand from the floor, and when he was upright he pushed her away with a growl and aimed a gun at Katie. "умереть," he said. Then a bullet came flying at Katie.
She seriously didn't know what had happened. It all happened too fast—unnaturally fast, but at the same time everything seemed to slow down drastically. As she actually watched the bullet, because she could see it, frozen in place, Percy had grabbed her elbow and whipped out his trusty silver chain, one end wrapped around his hand.
Something he did when he attacked.
The other end of the chain sliced through the air and wrapped around the question man's right leg. Percy yanked the chain back and there was the sickening, echoing snap of a breaking bone. When the man began falling, his finger pulled the trigger again, and another bullet shot out, except this time it veered at the bottom part of the left door.
This sent Katie's brain to take over, allowing her instincts to work on their own accord. Adrenaline pumped through her body. She knew what to do. She could do it. She could do anything.
Katie saw that Percy had noticed her change of behavior, and he motioned for her to move. She launched herself at the handle of the left door. Percy quickly followed her example and leapt to the door, flicking a dagger stabbed though a crackly piece of yellow-brown piece of paper at the interior of the truck. The last thing she saw of the inside of the truck was the dagger piercing the door of the metal truck, the paper fluttering at the speed it had traveled at.
Then first bullet that the question man had shot whizzed by her head and both her and Percy swung back so they could no longer see anything inside the truck. Katie watched as the second bullet shot forward; it struck the bottom hinge of the left door at the same time Percy had swung his chain at the top hinge.
Both hinges snapped, and then they were falling.
The bottom of the door hit the pavement, and then they flipped once… twice… thrice… Katie stopped counting after that. Everything was in auto-drive, her body doing everything, her mind basically blank. She was only vaguely aware that she was moving all over door, trying to make sure she ended up on the top side, trying to make sure she didn't die by being flattened to death by a door.
That would have definitely made the news—TWO KIDS—KILLED BY A DOOR.
They stopped flipping and were thankfully not going to be the subject of the news. But it wasn't over. The door screeched down the road, literally sending sparks in its wake.
Then it slowed down, before it came to a complete stop.
Faster than the normal human eye could see, Percy shoved Katie off the door and raised it, catching the first bullet. He let out a deep breath, dropped the door with a clang, and flopped down onto it.
She crawled over onto the door as well, and looked at the disappearing truck. Even from the distance she was at, she could see the question man's face, in pain and awed. He pointed, and mouthed the word impossible.
"Impossible" seemed the best way to describe the thing the two had done, at least for anybody else.
Percy flipped over onto his back, and Katie said to him, "Less than a second." Her voice gave away all her amazement.
He nodded, a knowing smirk on his face. "Not used to it yet, Gardner?"
That was an easy answer. "No."
"Why?"
There was another easy answer to that, too. "Because, Percy, you attacked the man into hitting the bottom hinge of the door, ripped off the other hinge, and we somehow traveled fifty yards… all in less than a second."
Percy sat up and pointed in the distance. "Well, you better keep that amazement and adrenaline with ya, 'cause we gotta dash."
Katie looked where he was pointing and saw two police cars speeding their way. She checked her surroundings and saw that the truck had driven into a DO NOT ENTER zone.
The two ran off faster than lightning.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0oLINE BREAK
That night, Katie had a weird dream.
Somehow, she and Percy had traveled the whole distance the over-the-speed-limit truck had gone all in one day, and had convinced her father that the only reason they were gone so long was because they had taken a break. He had been wary at first, but gave in when they said they would do all they could to help finish the packing, which wasn't much. By the end of the day, she was exhausted however, and had crashed in her "bed"—which was two blankets, one to sleep on one to cover herself with, and a pillow in her room—before the clock even struck nine.
Again, though, her dream was weird.
She saw the question man in a soft padded bed, his right leg wrapped in a deep blue cast. He was holding Percy's yellow-brown paper in one hand, but was focusing on flipping Percy's dagger in the other. The dagger, man… Katie doesn't want to sound weird or anything, but it was… beautiful. Really, that was the only way to describe it—awesome or cool was stupid. Its handle was pure silver and was made of two strands of the precious metal that went parallel around and around, like when somebody wrapped string around their finger, but they never touched except at the ends, where they meet to form the little ball of metal at the end. The handle was hollow, with only little slits made by the parallel strands not even wide enough to stick your finger through to show it.
The blade was a different story. Katie could never tell what metal it was, or if it was made of умеретьmetal, and Percy would never tell. It was not very long, maybe half a foot, but was deadly all the same. The very tip of it had a slight indent on one side, like someone placed their thumb to test if it was sharp enough. Little engravings of swirls designed the whole blade, but these swirls didn't make anyone feel happy and bright; these swirls managed to look dangerous, if that made any sense.
The man placed the dagger on a nightstand by the bed, and turned his attention to the paper. His eyes closed, and he held it up to his face. Opening them slowly, he read the paper again and again. Katie felt herself move, and suddenly she was reading it, too.
Don't worry, Валентин Якушин (Valentin Yakushin).
Your secrets are safe with me, with us.
Simply leave us alone and everything will be fine.
Don't…
Well, I'll come get you, and bring along some of my friends for the fun.
Be safe,
AHE 0.5A
AKA—Alaster
Katie saw the question man, who now was now named, shake in fear. He threw down the paper and shouted, "Это должно быть невозможным. Она должна быть!" (It must be impossible. It must be!)
She shook her head and forced her dream self near the ear of Valentin Yakushin. "Nothing is impossible with us."
She felt herself slowly awaken, and decided to make the heavy mood lighten up a bit, at least for her anyways. "I will place the ducky in the carriage in the palm tree, Sir Washington! Don't worry! I won't let it bite off another finger! Neigh, neigh! Woof, woof! Meow! No, don't let the monster cupcake eat me!"
Yakushin's eyes widned in fear and he grasped Percy's dagger in fear. "Who—who are you?" he asked, but she was already gone, whisked away.
When Katie finally opened her eyes, she sat up and stretched her arms out, thinking about her dream, about Alaster and his "friends," and she knew she was one of them. She turned and heard crinkling sounds behind her. Using the moonlight as a guide, she pulled a taped piece of paper from her pillow and read it.
Thought you might need this.
She didn't need a signature to know who it was from. She slid her hand not holding the note underneath her single pillow and felt the cool touch of the gun Percy had told her to keep—because it might save her life.
Maybe Katie could remember how to hypnotize someone.
(Does anybody else notice my chapters are getting longer?)
I am very evil. See, I left you with so much unanswered stuff, and I didn't answer very much stuff from before, and… never mind…
Anyway, review and I'll update sooner! (You can ask questions, flame (though I highly doubt you'll do this one because it's the fourth chapter), say how much you love it, etc., etc., etc….)
Seriously guys, I have so many favorites and follows; then I have less than ten reviews. It sort of makes me sad.
So, REVIEW, FAVORITE, FOLLOW! (What? I still love favorites and follows.)
Peace and all that other stuff,
~XxxXGreek GeekXxxX