Riptide | Percy Jackson

Chapter One

Apollo wanted to smash his head against a table. Repeatedly. Many times. Until he finally got to go one day without hearing 'Oh Riptide tricked that new intern' or 'Riptide did it again, what a lad' or even 'do you think Riptide is hot? Cause I think they're just a group of 50 old people that commit murder for fun on sundays'.

In short, he was going insane.

Just you know, your casual life crisis. He would say mid-life crisis or quarter-life crisis but he knows that the Riptide case has shaved years off his life so he will probably be dead by the time he turns 26.

So that means he has around 3 months to live... He can deal with that. He won't have to hear the name Riptide in 3 months. And if he never heard the name Riptide again then would be far too soon.

"Hey Apollo," a voice broke him out of his thoughts. "What did that desk ever do to you?"

Apollo lifted his head to face Hermes, his coworker and best friend, "Huh?"

A mug  was pushed into his hands. "You're burning holes through that desk, any reason?"

"Apparently our local celebrity made a reappearance last night," he mumbled into the drink before taking a long swig. It had far too much sugar in it to be consumed by anyone that planned on living till their 50s. Luckily Apollo was set to die within 3 months, his own personal non specific death-cast, so he didn't have to worry about his long term health. "No one is shutting up about it."

"Oof. I heard about it, no entry, no struggle and no weapon use. Feel sorry for whoever gets assigned that one," Hermes said while hopping onto the desk beside Apollo. "It's definitely him though, same amount of clues - none and another note that is literally signed. Its like he either wants to be caught or is a cocky cunt."

Apollo looked up at him, ignoring how his friends' leg was pressed against his shoulder - he was far too used to his antics to be bothered by something as simple as that. "20 says it goes to Artemis."

"I raise it to 30 that you get it."

"Trying to steal my money and damn me to no sleep? Thats low even for you."

Hermes shrugged and sipped his unholy potion of pure diabetes, "The big man hates you and this is an awful case."

Apollo blinked at him, "Thats fair."

"Whats fair?" Apollo's twin sister, Artemis slid onto the desk at his other side.

"I'm robbing your brother," Hermes replied.

Artemis snatched his coffee, "Split it with me."

"Go on a date with me first."

"Choke and die."

Apollo blinked again. Tuning the duo out as they started to argue again, moatly about random things but some work stuff sprinkled in. He ran over the conversation slowly in his head, allowing his sleep-deprived brain to process the words at the slowest possible pace. It ran through his head slightly faster the second time around, only clicking properly when Riptide became the topic of conversation.

"Wait," he started slowly. "Do you think someone could get fully assigned to the Riptide case."

Artemis leveled him with a glare, "Don't even joke about that shit."

"It would be a team at the least," Hermes said, subtly looking around to see if any of the higher ups were around. "I heard Clouds saying to someone that they were going to make a task force just for Riptide, or at least get someone working on it full time."

Artemis whistled through her teeth, "Thats a death sentence."

"If anyone asks I was just a collective hallucination," Apollo tried to joke, ignoring the sinking feeling in his gut. Hermes was right eariler, the boss hates him for no reason at all. Well maybe one reason, or a few. Its not Apollo's fault that he's naturally amazing and Zeus couldn't even manage to be a good husband to a woman with standards that dine with the fish on weekdays (translation: very low standards). "Pass it all to Hermes instead."

"Artemis keep your brother in check."

"Keep who in check?" Artemis took a slow sip from what was previously Apollo's coffee. Somehow now choking on the poison in the cup. "I'm an only child."

"I hate both of you."

Apollo went to retort but fell silent when the slam of a door echoed through the office. The office fell silent. All of them making a new god and silently praying for salavtion.

Unfortunately these new gods feared evil and evil just walked through the door with a glare. This evil is known as Chairman Zeus, aka the Big man, aka ol' Zu-zu (never call him that to his face if you like seeing the sun because you won't see it again, RIP Jason), aka Clouds, aka the local cheater, aka the horrible husband, aka that one character that everyone wants to die but never does, aka the boss of the entire company, Detectives of Olympus.

Don't ask about the name, everyone hates it apart from Zuesy-boy who chose it but unfortunately everyone knows that he has probably killed many many people and no-one wants to be the next by suggesting he get a better personality, or that he learn to make better choices, or that he use less deodorant because they literally cannot breath and Janet had to quit a month ago because he sent her into an asthma attack, or that... Well you get the idea.

Zeus stormed into the room, effectively killing any and all hopes the workers ever had. He took his place beside a huge pin board and slapped a piece of paper to it.

A whap echoed throughout the office.

The paper stuck to the board, probably terrified it would get slapped again.

That blank piece of paper only held one word.

Riptide.

Apollo glared at it, imagining that flames would catch it and burn away all of his problems.

"Riptide has struck again," Zeus boomed, ever the drama queen. "It is time that this case offically gets someone who is going to dedicate all of their time, will and energy to bringing him down."

Apollo shifted in his seat, crossing his legs and fingers at the same time. A pitiful attempt at last minute luck.

He wasn't the only one, Hermes' other leg knocked against his back as his friend did the same.

The office collectively sucked in a breath.

Zeus continued on, "This assassin has been running rogue for too long, so the entire Riptide case will be assigned to the blonde brat."

The office burst into whispers, "Whose the blonde brat?", "Half of us are blonde", "All of us are brats to him", "Pardon the f-".

"Silence!" Zeus roared, maybe he noticed that he didn't actually say a name. He squinted down at his hand, tilting it around as if to make out something written on it. "The case goes to Apollo, dismissed." With that he twirled and stormed back into his office.

All eyes fell on Apollo, then they moved beside him when Artemis and Hermes shared a fistbump.

Apollo however didn't notice the eyes on him, he was too busy watching his life flash before his eyes.

He was broken out of his stupor when Hermes poked him in the shoulder, interrupting his memory when Artemis socked a wanna-be-bully in the face.

He looked up at Hermes waiting to see what the other wanted.

"You owe me 30."

Apollo blinked at him, "Aw fuck."