BANG BANG BANG

The gunshots leave the person's ears ringing, even though they had heard the same noise hundreds of times by now. A man's body slumps forward, landing right in front of the cloaked man. The man crouches down, pulling out a pack of cards and selecting a single card, the spade of ace. He places it over the man's heart, which is now pooling out blood from it.

As the sirens begin to grow louder, the assassin swiftly climbs up the wall and disappears into the night, running over the building tops of Manhattan.

________________

The cloaked man silently swings through the window of an apartment building, and looks around. A cot with a small, sleeping child inside. Nobody else is there. He opens the door and sees a light coming from another room. As he peeks inside said room, he sees a woman, sitting at a desk while taking a sip from her coffee. She sighs, her blue eyes inspecting her laptop screen as she runs her hand through her brown hair. The man creeps up to her, not making a sound. 

As soon as he is right behind her, about to strike, she takes another sip of her coffee before saying in a bored tone, "I know you're there Percy."

Percy groans, taking off his hood and mask. "How did you know?" He whines, sitting down in another chair next to her and spinning around in it. "It's like you always know I'm there. Like a six sense..."

"Well, I'm your mother, so I always need to know where you are," Sally says, closing her laptop, "And I've had many more experience as an assassin then you. Do you get the job done?"

"Yeah, I did. He was sooooo easy to kill, he died in five seconds!" Percy explains with unneeded dramatic hand actions.

"Good. The Black Aces will tell you your next target tomorrow, 'kay?" She stood up, ruffling his hair. "For now, get some sleep. You're going to camp in the morning, so make sure to bring your Aces on-the-go bag."

"Okay..." Percy heads out to his own room, making sure not to wake Paul or Estelle.

________________

"Percy!" Paul greets him as he comes down the stairs. Percy grabs an apple from the counter, and picks up Estelle, twirling her around. "How did the meeting go last night?"

"Hey Paul," Percy says, looking at his stepfather. "It went pretty well, the guy was dead in seconds." Paul and Sally had met at The Black Aces assassin academy, in a writing class. Even assassins should be educated. Paul was a retired assassin, as was Sally. Both the Blofis and Jackson families had been assassins in The Black Ace for hundreds of years. It supported your family for as long as you stayed as an assassin, but it came with a cost. Enemies. Apparently the plane cars that Sally's parents were in was a missile that had been intentionally targeted at them.

"You excited to go to camp?" Paul asked, getting Estelle from Percy and placing her down in a highchair for her to eat her breakfast.

"Yup!" Percy excitedly replied. "I can't wait to see the look on Annabeth's face when she realized that I came back early." He slings his Aces on-the-go bag over his shoulder, saying goodbye to his family and going to catch a taxi.

________________

"Hello? Agent Black Ocean, can you read me? We have another mission for you." A crackled voice fills the taxi as Percy realizes that his earpiece is in fact, not on silent mode. Percy pulls out a small gun from a hidden pocket in his pants, loading it and holding it up to the cabbie's head. 

"Keep driving." He says through gritted teeth. The woman's eyes widen, and she picks up speed. Percy clicks a button on the earpiece. "I can read you, loud and clear. What's the mission?"

"A teenager, seventeen years old, (Percy is eighteen in this) his name is Jason Grace-"Percy chokes on air. "Jason?! No way."

"You cannot give up on this mission. You know what will happen." The emotionless tone sent him shivers, and Percy thinks back to when he was just eight year old. He had just completed the training to become an assassin, and they had brought his class to the dungeons. No student had been allowed there, that is, until now. Percy could remember the screams of agony as ex-assassins and their loved ones were tortured on day's end until they died. He could remember the cold stare of his Sensei, looking at the dungeons. "This is wheat happens if you betray The Black Aces. Be warned children."

Percy couldn't let that happen to his mother...Paul...Estelle...Annabeth...he had to do this mission. "I'll do it." He declares. "Send me the mission info to me. I'll have the job by tomorrow." And with that, he switches off the earpiece. Percy glances at the cab driver. "Not a word, or I will make sure that you are my next victim." The woman frantically nodded, and then pulled over where Percy told her to.

________________

"Percy?" Annabeth does a double take as the son of Poseidon jogs down Half-Blood hill. "Percy!" She sprints over to greet him, tackling him to the ground. Percy laughs, not complaining about nearly getting stabbed by a blade hidden in his clothing.

"Hey Wise Girl, did ya miss me?" Percy asks, smirking. The pair stand up, walking towards the cabins so that Percy could put down his bags. 

Annabeth rolls her eyes. "Of course not. Did you?"

"Not even a little bit."

"Sally can confirm that for me, right?"

"..."

It was Annabeth's time to smirk. "That's what I thought." They arrived at the cabins, and Percy dumps his bags on his bed. He dramatically flops next to them, asking Annabeth to join him. The daughter of Athena just laughs. "Take a shower first, you stink." She left the room to complete her afternoon activities.

Percy drops his happy facade once Annabeth is out of sight. He sighs, running a hand through his hair. He didn't"t want to kill Jason. But he didn't want his family to be tortured either. What was it going to be?

Jason, one of his best friends? Or his family?

Percy dug out his gun and a pack of cards from his bag. It was time to kill a victim.

________________

The assassin watches the son of Jupiter take a sip of water from his drink bottle as he sits down below him. Percy is crouched up in a tree, not moving. His assassin outfit is on, complete with the mask and hood. Percy slowly pulls out a gun, his hand shaking as he aims it at his victim.

'Pull the trigger,' He tells himself. He wants to. He wants to save his family. But he doesn't want to do it by killing Jason. 'Just pull it!'

"Hey Jase!" Piper comes into view, sitting next to him. "Nice day, no gods are killing us, no life threatening prophecies, no one trying to kill us or immediate death." Percy gulps, shoving his emotions down. 'Looks like I have to kill both of them...'

"I know!" Jason agrees, stretching and lifting his head up, closing his eyes as he stretches his arms. 'Please don't open your eyes, please don't open your eyes.'

He opens his eyes.

'Schist!'

"Holy Hera!" He jumps away from the tree, stumbling over as he tries to stand up while retrieving his sword. Piper follows his eyes, looking where he is. She spots the son of Poseidon, unsheathing her sword and running towards Jason.

Percy jumps down from his hiding place, landing with a light 'thud' on the ground. Piper and Jason are in their stances, ready to attack. The assassin draws out my sword and put his gun away, so that it would be an equal fight. They all stare at each other for what seems for eternity, then Piper asks, "Who are you?" Charmspeak is layered thick all throughout the sentence. Percy struggles to keep silent. "Why are you trying to kill us?" She tries again. He gives no response. "Well if you aren't going to answer us, then you can come with us." She lunges forward, and Percy's sword catches on hers. Jason engages in combat soon after Piper, but Percy can hold his own against the both of them.

'Stab, slash, roll, duck, EK SHARP STICK COMING TOWARDS MY HEAD! MOVE!' Percy thinks as he ducks under Piper's dagger, which would've stabbed him in the head. He grabs her arm, pulling it forwards as he kicks his leg into her stomach. She doubles over, groaning as she drops her weapon to hug her stomach. Percy kicks her weapon out of her reach, the kicks her head, knocking her out. Only Jason remains. He growls, angry that Piper is hurt, and furiously attacks Percy. Percy goes into defense, blocking while trying to find Jason's weakness.

Suddenly Jason stops fighting, and steps back out of the blade's reach. "I know that fighting technique." He says, inspecting the cloaked assassin. "I remember it. I've fought with only one person who mixes Roman and Greek fighting methods, and that was Percy."

Percy's eyes widen, and in his shock, he freezes. Jason takes this as an advantage, lunging forward and yanking off Percy's hood and mask. Except it doesn't work, as the masks were designed so that they could only come off if gently taken off, not yanked, to avoid someone's identity from being discovered. Percy regains his thoughts as Jason stands in front of him, momentarily confused as to why the mask didn't come off, tackling Jason and putting his sword at his throat.

Percy's eyes are full of regret as he raises the dagger. He closes his eyes, and as he is about to plunge the dagger in...

Another sword meets his.

Percy has his eyes open in a blink, and looks at the newcomer. A woman, older than him, dressed in the same clothing. Another Black Ace. He stands up, bowing to her.

"You have completed the mission, Agent Black Ocean. You may leave." She says in a monotone voice.

Percy's face has confusion written all over it. "But...I didn't kill my target...?"

"This was a test to see how loyal you are The Black Aces. You have passed the test. Your friends are free to go." The woman pauses, then adds, "Your mother was a great assassin, she is proud that you passed the test." And with that, she disappears into the woods, becoming nothing more than a shadow.

"Hello? Um, I'm still here?" Jason asks from the floor, inching towards Piper.

Percy glances at him, before deciding to just sprint away. "HEY! COME BACK HERE!" Jason yells from his spot on the floor, but he is too exhausted to run. Percy does a jog around the forest, then sneaks into his cabin. He gets changed before running out to meet Annabeth.

________________

Jason and Piper were found and treated to, and no one suspected that it was Percy. The days went on. Percy became one of the best assassins. He was a world wide killer. No one knew that it was him.

As the years went by, the Half-Bloods grew up. Leo returned with Calypso. Piper and Jason broke up. Jason died. Piper became queer. Annabeth and Percy were still going strong. Nico and Will became a thing.

The years turned into decades.

Annabeth Chase-Jackson died in the embrace of her husband, Percy Jackson-Chase.

The Seven met up in Elysium.

But there was only one problem.

Percy wasn't there.

None of the could hear his screams from the other side of the Underworld as each bullet sunk into his skin, just as he'd done to thousands of others, in the Fields of Punishment.

Hehe...I've always wanted to write this.

I really wanted to get it out this arvo, but I forgot about it, and so now I'm releasing it 10:40 at night. Yay...

Anyway, stay safe and get sleep!

 -Laurel