(A/N) Sorry guys for not updating in a while; my brother has a severe case of Lyme disease and everything has been thrown into chaos.
Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HOO
"We've been driving for hours." Will complained.
"Shut up I'm trying to concentrate on the road." Jason snapped in reply. Nico was tired of driving with them, but who knew that getting to Claryville could be so physically and psychologically exhausting? Three hours and forty-two minutes ago, Chiron had issued the quest to hunt down and kill Perseus. Nico and Jason had automatically volunteered since, aside from Thalia and Hazel, who was too busy working at Camp Jupiter with Frank to be called into action, they were the only children of the Big Three gods at the ready. Therefore, they had a better chance of slaying the demon, but all Nico really wanted to do was survive the encounter. Will had simply volunteered because Nico had done so, no matter how much his boyfriend objected; though Will was incredibly skilled and powerful, Nico didn't want to put him in danger. Call it a safety precaution, but no matter what the son of Hades said or did, Will refused to back down.
Nico had still been rendered unable to figure out a way to actually kill the demon and make it stay dead; all of the methods he had currently stashed in his mind allowed opening for Perseus to claw his way back out of Hell, and that would simply make him angrier than before. The only person that was known to be able to completely and utterly destroy demons was Artemis, and guess where she was? Imprisoned by the only demon she hadn't managed to kill. So basically the only person who knew how to kill demons was in the grasp of a demon. Just peachy.
It didn't help that the three boys were constantly at each other's throats, or that Camp Half-Blood's strawberry van thing seemed to run out of gas every five minutes; it was costing them a fortune. Nico had suggested shadow travel, but Will had downright refused due to what had happened during the Giant War, even though that was well into the past. Nico thought of just doing it anyway, but that would make his boyfriend incredibly upset, and an incredibly upset boyfriend meant no kisses, and no kisses meant an incredibly upset Nico. Perseus had better be in the area, or the son of Hades would slit his own throat with his Stygian iron sword.
"I have to pee." Will cried, something he had been complaining about for the past twenty minutes.
"I am not pulling over!" Jason hissed, flooring the gas in his aggravation. May the gods forbid they zoomed by a radar trap, or they would surely be ticketed, and their mortal money was already running thin.
"But my bladder is about to explode!" the son of Apollo wailed, crossing his legs and grabbing his crotch area as if it could stop nature's calling.
"Pee in your water bottle!" Jason snapped, sparks crackling on his fingertips. He sure was aggravated, though Will didn't seem to be getting the message, probably because he was in the back seat and Nico had called shotgun.
"It's already full!"
"Slow down, Jase! I want to get there, but I want to get there alive!" Nico shouted. Arguments broke out and insults soared through the air, and Nico was pretty sure that this was by far the worst car ride he had ever experienced in his entire life. It didn't help that Jason had by far the nastiest road rage Nico had ever seen. When they finally rolled into Claryville, all three demigods were completely and utterly drained, and all they got out of their struggles was a cheap, run-down motel called the Emerald Ribbon Inn. The lady at the counter, who had about five teeth at most, had given them an odd look when they only asked for two queen beds and no futon, since Nico planned to sleep in Will's bed, though on one condition:
"No sex. I don't want to be hearing happy noises while I sleep." Jason said as he unlocked the door to their room. It was better than Nico had thought it would be, however it smelled of feet and the floor was very, very dirty. The wallpaper, which was supposed to be "emerald green", was actually a very disgusting puke color. On top of that, it was cracked and peeling, and the moth-bitten comforters on the beds didn't look very comfy. Nico didn't dare check what the bathroom looked like, and was beginning to regret his decision to stay here.
"I think I puked a little in my mouth." Will gagged. "And I fear that if my buttocks dare touch that toilet seat I will contract at least six different STDs."
"This better be worth the trouble, Nico." Jason snorted and tossed his backpack onto one of the beds, claiming it as his own.
"We won't be staying in here for a long time; it's not like we'll be hanging out or anything. We need to get straight to work." Nico replied earnestly. "Pee now, because there'll be no pit stops on this quest." Jason unsheathed his Imperial gold sword and examined it, making sure the blade wasn't dull, and Will tested his bowstring and sharpened the arrowheads, as well as double-checked that he had his backup Celestial bronze knife for close-rage fighting. Nico, of course, had done this all beforehand and was becoming quite annoyed that they weren't prepared. Then again, Jason and Will were more laissez-faire than Nico, who most of the time was very strict about his tactics.
"All right, ladies, let's go hunt us some demons."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where are we going to start?" Will asked incredulously. Nico took three business cards from the stash on the end table and snapped his fingers. They automatically morphed into FBI badges, and the three demigods' worn down shirts, jeans, and sneakers became tuxedos and formal boots. Will's bow and quiver became a briefcase and his backup knife turned into a gun and holster, as did Nico and Jason's swords. Nico tossed them the "badges" and grinned.
"Learned how to manipulate the Mist from Hazel. I can't do the big stuff, but this was easy." Nico explained to the shell-shocked demigods that were gaping at him. Nico tossed a badge to Will.
"Agent Brendon Lawrence?" the son of Apollo asked incredulously. Nico shrugged.
"The Mist made the names, but at least there's a picture of you. Of course, you never took the picture, since you aren't a real FBI agent." he replied. He turned to Jason, tossing the son of Zeus his badge. "And you're Agent John Green."
"Isn't he an author?"
"There are a lot of people named John Green. It's the most generic name I've ever heard, and I hear that Bacchus likes to call you that." Jason rolled his eyes at this.
"Whatever. Who are you?"
"I'm Agent Russel Martin." Nico told him as he picked up another business card. With a snap of his fingers it turned into an FBI business card, but the number actually was the one to the phone in Chiron's office. If any mortals became suspicious and decided they needed proof of Will, Nico, and Jason's authority, Chiron would most surely back them up. It was no doubt illegal, but then again they couldn't really be caught due to their godly powers.
"You still didn't answer my question." Will said, adjusting his fake tie. "Where are we going?"
"To interview the first person we drive by and pray that they knew the Browns."
"Won't it be an invasion of personal information?"
"We're FBI, remember?"
-Ω-
"And you're FBI agents?" Perseus asked, giving the three young men the baby seal eyes he had perfected over the years of his eternal life. "They were my neighbors and I really hope that someone can find them." Perseus was sitting across from three young men, two blond, one black-haired, and he was pretty sure that the black-haired one and the slightly blonder out of the two blonds were gay, judging from the hormone levels that he sensed. They looked intimidating, but also a bit young to be Feds. The interview room at the local police station was plain and simple, though not completely so, however it made the agents the only interesting things in the room, which Perseus supposed was the entire point.
He had been walking down the street, checking which houses had security or alarms, when the three Feds had driven up in a sleek black cruiser, asking for his part of the story in the Browns' disappearance. They claimed they were investigating the case, and Perseus relished in messing with mortal authorities, so he had agreed to an interview with them. However Perseus had thought that Feds only worked in pairs, and wondered why this was a trio, however mortals were endlessly confusing, so he had decided to drop the case.
"Agent Russel Martin, Agent Brendon Lawrence, and Agent John Green at your service" said the black-haired Fed, whom had pointed to himself when he had said "Agent Russel Martin." The most likely gay blonder blond was Agent Lawrence, and the heterosexual blond-but-not-as-blond-as-the-blonder-blond was Agent Green.
"Peter Johnson." Perseus replied. "You look a little young to be FBI agents." At this, they chuckled.
"All in the genes, kid. So we'd like to ask you a few questions, and we need you to tell us the whole story, even if it seems a bit odd." Agent Martin told him. At this, alarms began to go off in Perseus' head. Why would FBI be looking for something odd? Didn't they handle mortal problems? Unless….
Perseus squinted and concentrated for a long moment, and slowly he began to peel away the layers of the Mist. Agents Martin, Green, and Lawrence certainly weren't FBI agents, for FBI agents did not wear blaring orange shirts and tattered jeans, nor did they carry around swords and bows instead of guns. Emblazoned on their T-shirts were the words Camp Half-Blood. Half-bloods. They had come for him; he had thought he had planned his attacks far enough away so that demigods could not become suspicious, but apparently these were the experts. Perseus thought of just taking off, but that would only confirm his identity, and they would scan every face or even tear apart the world brick by brick just to find him. Instead, he kept his cool and smiled, but he did not show teeth due to the fact that demigods could see through the Mist, and therefore his fangs would stand out like blaring sirens.
"Well it started when Houston Brown began acting a bit strange." Cue increased heart rate from the agents. Little did the "agents" know that it was simply a name Perseus had pulled from the top of his head; a name that the demon had seen listed in the newspaper's obituary. Perseus resisted the urge to lick his lips, for he had never tasted demigod blood before. Whispers said that, though they were much more difficult to catch and slaughter due to their godly heritage, their flesh was tastier than that of a mortal's and their blood exploded in your mouth and tasted better than mortal blood by tenfold. He could hear the blood coursing through the agents' veins, and could see the anticipation in their eyes.
"Please continue." "Agent" Lawrence told him, pulling out a small notepad. The demigods had really studied up; to any mortal or monster, since most were rather foolish, they would've seemed to blend in with all the other Feds. Perseus chuckled internally; he was going to have so much fun with this, though the demigods' arrival meant that he had to emigrate with Artemis, though that was a whole other problem that needed to be solved.
"Houston arrived in town about a week before the Browns disappeared, and people claim that he arrived with a young girl, about twelve or thirteen, but nobody ever saw her so she must've just been visiting. Anyway he never really went out much. He simply was there. Nobody even knew where he lived, much less how he acted or what he did for a living. He wasn't registered for any jobs in the area, nor did he ever visit the local shops or restaurants. I only saw the guy once, but he was creepy." Perseus laced faux anxiety through his words, putting on a show because the demigods were so utterly oblivious to his true identity. "He was in his mid-forties or something, and he was very calculating. I saw him on the sidewalk and then turned to see where he was coming from or going to, but when I looked up he was gone. He must've turned the corner or something, but when I checked he wasn't there. Very strange man, and if you ask me I think he kidnapped the Brown family, or worse, ate them. Like in those horror movies, you know?"
"Thank you, Peter. That will be all." "Agent" Green told him and the three faux Feds rose to their feet and left with their swords and bows and knives, leaving Perseus sitting with his fingers laced together, smiling to himself as his eyes turned into that of a snake's rather than a human's.
"No, thank you." he snickered softly. "Thank you for thanking me for sending you on a wild goose chase."
Quote of the day:
Me: *cries because I have to wait for a book*
Me: *cries because I got the book*
Me: *cries because the book looks beautiful*
Me: *cries because I love the characters so much*
Me: *cries when reading the book*
Me: *cries because my otp is so cute*
Me: *cries because my favorite character dies*
Me: *cries because I finished the book*
Me: *cries because of the ending*
Me: *cries*