Dark-Hair, Sea Eyes

18

"Look Perseus, I can't get involved with Chaos," Carter started.

The food that Carter offered him when they first saw each other sat in front of the peeved assassin remained untouched as Percy watched his classmate finish up a job.

"Damn it, Perce, you have extra ammo?" Carter sighed when his gun clicked at the base of a woman's temple. Percy leaned over the woman who looked at him pleadingly as Percy handed the older boy a gun. "Thank. You," Carter said, cocking the gun and firing it between his words. A single loud gunshot, and then a thud. That was the last person and seeing as he had seven targets, it took him longer than Percy thought it would. "As I was saying," Carter started again, sliding his gun back over to Percy. "Chaos has a bit of a reputation around here. Hell, so does Order but Chaos is scary. The last person who angered him had their sun swallowed by a giant snake and then their family disemboweled by a wolf," Carter said, sitting down next to Percy.

Percy raised his eyebrow. "What, you think Sadie is going to let an overgrown dog disembowel her?"

"I'd love to see it try but no. I was talking about the sun. The sun is important. Percy, why can't you just cancel the job? Or even better, say you fought me and lost," Carter suggested, calling the person who ran this place from the back room and ordering his own food. The woman hurriedly served him and then disappeared again. Leave it to Carter to rent a diner to kill 7 people and have a guest at the same time. Then again, this planet didn't have any laws, not against Carter at least.

It must be fun to be feared.

"You know that won't click for me. I'm registered. The only way I lose is if I'm dead," Percy said, finally shoveling a fork full of food into his mouth. He didn't know what it was, he didn't even like how it tasted, but he hadn't eaten since Ramonia. That was years ago on some planets. "You were what, twelve when you were registered? You killed the last species of who?"

"Something named a Gorum. It was an accident and he was old. He could've broken a hip sneezing," Percy defended himself. The registry was run by the literal beings of the universe. For his 'crimes' he had to register so he could be deployed if there were ever a universe-sized threat. "All you did was kill an old guy. Chaos and Order have massacred entire solar systems. Do you think they're registered? I'd say they're a threat to this universe. Do you see any murderers running after them in the name of whatever deity that runs the registry?"

Kane did have a point. Percy hadn't actually had to deal with the registry since he was registered. The system still worked which was the reason he was still on that network. "My point exactly," Carter responded to Percy's silence, halfway done with his food. "Wait, Percy, how old are you?"

"Sixteen."

"So I've gone from being three years younger than you to three years older than you. Good to know," Carter said, reaching over and stealing food from Percy's plate. Percy shoved his plate towards the magician, forfeiting the rest of his food. Percy was already tired of the taste.

"Even so, Order has the Graces after Percy. Chaos has Percy after you. Don't you want to see what they know?" Sadie had walked into the room to add her input into the conversation. There was, as always, a striking difference between the two siblings. Sadie always seemed so clean. She could walk through a bloodbath in all white and still come out spotless. Her brother was messy, to say the least when he completed jobs. Sadie never touched her targets and her style was mostly her luring them into traps by provoking them one way or another and would probably vomit if she got covered in someone's insides where her brother— or any of her classmates really— would only be mildly inconvenienced.

"No, because we would never find out what they know. Chaos would send me after Thalia and Co. and we'd be going in circles around the universe until I kill Jason, Thalia kills me, and then Percy shakes his head in disappointment as she stands over my dead body."

"Bold of you to assume he'd be disappointed," Sadie asserted, walking back out of the room.

"Shut up!"

"What if I do something for you?" Percy asked. "I'll even owe you," Percy added.

The 'owe' word definitely interested Carter. To have someone in the class owe you meant that whatever they're doing, wherever they are, they had to drop everything and complete their favor. And, of course, it's something to hold over their heads. Almost everyone in the class owed Nico, making everyone respect and with some, fear him. Percy didn't mess with favors too often, Nico owing him for a few jobs when he first started but even now Nico was running his planet for Percy to pay him back.

"You'll owe me and do a job for me?" Carter inquired, and Percy wondered if maybe he should just knock the boy out and temporarily kidnap him to finish his job. He wasn't used to asking his targets for permission.

"Yes... but I can't do the job right now."

"And you swear that you'll do it after you bring me to Chaos?"

"On Chiron's honor," Percy said, seeing the finality in Carter's eyes. "Deal. When do we leave?" Carter asked, turning away. "When Abyss has had her rest. She can't take three people somewhere right now so I'll give her about three more hours before I let her go hunting and we can move on."

"We can take Freak," Carter suggested.

Percy shook his head, "Abyss is territorial. She'd attack Freak."

"That's all good. Freak wouldn't hurt her too bad," Carter said, causing Percy to roll his eyes. Abyss would absolutely devour Carter's pet, but Percy wasn't going to argue with him. "Anyway, where'd you get the girl? Did you buy her?" Carter asked, referring to the witch-princess that was in the other room with Sadie and Abyss. Unlike Annabeth, the magician tried to keep judgment out of his voice. Carter always did.

"No. She's the daughter of one of my targets. The Graces had her for a while until they dropped her off at the Chases' planet. Planet Gana or something," Percy said, picking up a goblet that was in front of him and bringing it up right under his nose. Not poisonous, so Percy let his guard down enough to drink the sweet beverage. "Gana, I know the planet. I hated it there," Carter murmured. Carter had brown eyes, so Percy wondered why the planet had caused him any problems. He asked about it and his classmate shivered, "They tried to make me marry the Queen at the time. I had to fly off the planet just to escape her."

Percy wondered if Princess Aurelia was related to the unnamed Queen.

"You hear that Storm was killed by Order? I'd heard that he was unstoppable."

"It was propaganda, Kane. He was selling a product," Percy rolled his eyes. "How can the Graces work for her when she killed their brother?" Carter wondered out loud.

Percy knew he didn't expect an answer, not from him at least, and pushed his goblet away before getting up. "I'm going to go check on the girls," Percy murmured, walking towards the backroom.

"What about the boy?"

Percy froze and turned towards his classmate. "What?"

Carter looked at him in confusion. "What?"

"Nevermind," Percy answered, turning back around.

But what about the boy, Jackson?

And that's the end if this part. Thanks for reading and I hoped you enjoyed this part, bye!