Renegade

Griffin's POV
PREFACE: At the end of this chapter, there is a suggestive theme. Please don't take it the wrong way. Discretion advised.

When I woke up, my ears felt like they were being crushed under some massive weight. I felt like I was being lightly bumped, and then I realized I was lying down on a small bed. I looked around, removing the cheap blanket that I had been covered with, and realized that I was on a plane. The lights were dimmed, and people were sleeping. It was quiet, the only noise being the hum of the engines on the wings.

Immediately, I tried to take stock of my situation. So, I asked a few vital questions. First, where was Emily? Looking over the barrier that separated the seat I was in to the one next to it, I saw a fat man, snoring loudly as he took up all of his seat’s space. Not Emily. But, after I looked towards the seat to my right, I saw her brown hair and legs sticking out from the uncovered part of the seat. She was sleeping soundly.

“Okay,” I said to myself, “first question answered. Now, where are we going, and why are we on a plane?”

I looked at the TV my seat had, and realized I was in First Class.

I love working for a ridiculously rich organization, I thought.

The TV in front of me silently buzzed to life, showing a flight map. We had just left Europe, and were about 500 miles out to sea, cruising at 32,000 feet. I clicked a button on the monitor and found out that the plane was heading towards the place I had been running from. New York.

I cursed silently, but then I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and realized that it was Emily, holding a piece of paper in her hands.

“Griff,” she asked, concerned, “are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I said, confused, “I’m fine. What’s up?”

“You don’t remember?”

“Remember what?” I asked.

“London. Thorn. You went into a full-on crazy rage.”

I tried to remember, and my brain was overloaded with images. I had killed Thorn. Then…then…I had…oh, Gods.

Emily noticed my realization and raised her eyebrows like,

Now you remember, eh?

Then, as I looked at her, I saw a tiny cut over her left eyebrow. I remembered flashing my foot out and…oh, Gods.

“Emily,” I said in shock, “I am so sorry about that. I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s okay,” Emily laughed, “I’m fine, actually.”

I still felt horrible about it, and Emily laughed again, a sweet, heart-warming sound.

“You’re cute when you’re worried,” she said, “your eyebrows get all scrunched together.”

“Shut up, Emily,” I said, but she just smiled. Eventually, I gave in and laughed it off.

Then, Emily handed me the piece of paper, and I saw that it was from Nico. With it, she said,

“He took the package with him, you know. All that work was for nothing.”

“I know,” I responded, and then I looked over the letter.

Dear Griff and Emily,
You’re currently on a plane to NYC. I know, it feels like you’ve been cheated of an actual first job, but Crow wanted to bring you back to HQ to be debriefed. We await you at the corner of his name and the cities you’ve been lately.

--Nico di Angelo

“What does that last sentence mean?” I asked. I pondered the words in my head, trying to find and answer.

As far as I was aware, there was no Crow St. in New York, let alone one that intersected with ‘the cities you’ve been in lately’ Avenue. Then, I started to think about it, and I realized that it was a riddle.

“The cities you’ve been in lately,” I murmured to Emily, “that could mean something.”

“I’ve been looking over a map,” Emily said, “and there is no Paris, Rome, London, Berlin, or Gibraltar street or avenue in New York.”

“Wait!” I realized, “ ‘the cities you’ve been in lately.’ The cities, Emily. All five of them, maybe.”

“That’s it!” Emily said, “Fifth Avenue! All five cities!”

“Perfect,” I said proudly, “Now, what does the first part mean? What about Crow’s name?”

“Well,” Emily explained, “can’t Xavier be spelled many different ways?”

“What did you say?” I asked, very confused.

“Well, yeah, Crow’s real name is Xavier. Xavier can be spelled two different ways, right? With an ‘X’ or with a ‘Z’, right?”

Then, an awful sort of realization came over me. The sort of realization that makes you angry because you feel cheated.

“Wait, you said Crow’s real name was Xavier, right?”

“Yeah, why?” Emily asked.

“My ‘Uncle’s’ name is Xavier, Emily. That can’t be a coincidence,” I said bitterly.

Great. My Uncle had been keeping secrets from me all this time. That’s why it had been so easy to join TFG! My Uncle was a high-ranking officer in the stupid Organization!

“I can’t believe he would hide this from me this whole time!” I said incredulously.

Emily sighed in disbelief, and I echoed her sentiment. But I didn’t have much time to worry about it, because a young flight attendant walked up to me, and told me in a British accent,

“The captain would like to speak to you.”

“What?” I asked in disbelief. Why would the captain want to speak with me?

But the girl just stood there politely, batting her eyes at me, trying to not let Emily see. She probably had a crush on me. I got that a lot at my old school. Apparently, as my mother had explained to me, I was attractive. I realized that the captain probably didn’t want to speak with me, but I had no choice. I couldn’t disobey an order from a flight attendant, could I? I didn’t want to get arrested on my way home.

Glancing to my right, I saw the Emily was blushing hard, glaring daggers at the flight attendant. I mean, the flight attendant was really pretty. Probably more pretty than any other mortal girl I had ever met. She had long black hair and beautiful green eyes, like jewels. As she took my hand and led me down towards the cockpit, she swished her legs in a way that was really attractive. Almost like a beautiful snake. And then, after she had made sure the coast was clear and she had closed the curtain to the cockpit area, she leaned in and kissed me.

Still kissing, even though I didn’t really want to, she opened the bathroom door. I knew what she was trying to do. So, I went along with her and made sure I had what I wanted in my back pocket.

Emily will be fine, I assured myself, as long as I don’t tell her.

Then, the flight attendant, who’s tag read Herpeton, locked the bathroom door behind her and started kissing me even harder. Luckily, I could read a Greek word when I saw one. But that didn’t matter right now.

"How old are you?" I asked, more out of confusion than out of anything else.

"Eighteen," Herpeton answered. Weird name, but at least I knew what it meant.

"Okay," I answered with fake enthusiasm. But the disguise worked. At least she was fooled.

Notes

1) Oh My Gods, Xavier IS Crow!
2) Oh MY GODS, is Griff about to hook up with a flight attendant in an airplane bathroom?

Stay Tuned, people.

Enjoy!
-Grafon