XXIII
If you had concerns about the last chapter please read the AN!
Vers groaned in pain at her aching muscles as she picked herself up from the velvet-like carpet. Rising pillars of smoke from the piece of metal that she had used to shield and somewhat cushion her fall surrounded the area.
The distinct smell of plastic was in the air as cases of…things melted from the heat of her sudden re-entry and subsequent crash into the…Terran entertainment shop? She took in her surroundings, clutching her pained abdomen as she did so.
Dated entertainment footage stocked tan aluminum shelving and she checked her tactical pad on her forearm, She laughed lightly at her luck. "Of course I end up in the most stunted planet on this side of the Milky Way." She muttered as she limped her way towards an exit.
She had to get back into contact with the Empire, Starforce and, specifically her team.
Vers blinked and clutched at her head as a sudden spike of pain assaulted her mind. A wave of images and experiences cascading through her mind, all of them a blur to her as she attempted to refocus.
It wasn't a rare occurrence for her when she was particularly stressed out and when her powers came out to play, but it was becoming increasingly common as she went on more on more missions against the Skrulls.
This time proving no different as she found herself stranded on C-53 after being captured and then breaking free from the Skrull ship. She internally growled in annoyance at having gotten herself caught in the first place. They had walked into an obvious ambush and, under the assumption that they would be able to deal with it, had sprung it.
She hadn't even had a chance to fight back until she regained consciousness on the Skrull starship and those weren't built to keep experimentally-enhanced Kree restrained. The moment she was able, she escaped but not before the Skrull General Talos had extracted information from her mind.
It felt like they were after those visions that often pervaded her mind instead of the classified codes that were embedded into the subconsciousness of Kree warriors. It was often how they were able to infiltrate Kree operations but were only able to do so on few occasions given that they had to capture them alive to do so.
And Kree would rather put a blaster or energy blade to their chest than be captured by the Skrull.
It was often why the Skrull faced Kree and Xandarians on the open field rather than enact subterfuge. They only infiltrated empires that didn't have the capability to detect nor fight them on even terms.
The Skrull were weird like that.
"Vers to Starforce Command, do you read me?" She pressed a finger to her ear. All she received was garbled static. "I repeat, Vers, to Starforce Command. Do you read me?" Getting the same response, she bit out an expletive in a Kree.
The Kree commando thumbed her tactical pad to reset her communications but it chose that time to let out a low whine at the sudden extra commands it was being forced to process before it sparked on her arm. Letting out a low hiss, sparking slightly on her arm, the already dim display flickered out as if it were a snuffed out flame.
Vers let out another expletive.
She limped her way out of the building taking in the scene about her, broken glass crunching underneath her boots. The glass paneling of the storefront having shattered from the shock of her crashlanding.
It looked to be early morning, with a muted blue sky and a smattering of pale clouds in the air about it to where she knew to be the west while a wave of dark grey and looming storm clouds hung over in the east, lightning darting from cloud to cloud while a wash of blurred water seemed to descend from them. Her tactical pad having told her the cardinal directions before its unfortunate and whimpering end.
She continued to scan the area for any Terrans that could be around, an official of sorts to help her on her way. Even if she had to limit her contact with them, she wouldn't get anywhere if
All she saw was the singular occupant in one of their archaic modes of transportation. At the very least, he looked to be in charge of this small district if the badge emblazoned on the side of his vehicle was any indication as well as the scrawled letters of 'Security' on its side.
Still covered in dust and soot, she made her way over to him. Her limp still there but not as prominent as before with her enhanced healing beginning to do its thing in repairing her body back to tip-top shape.
The terran was staring at her in disbelief and a slightly gobsmacked expression. She was slightly aware that seeing someone fall from the sky and then crash into a building at terminal velocity and walk away with just a slight limp that was fading was something that was not seen everyday.
Probably even less so on this planet considering its rather backwater nature. She internally shrugged. She doubted that their frail bodies would even be able to take the pressure of re-entry without proper equipment, was her parting thought on the matter.
She knocked lightly on the window that had slight raindrops of his vehicle, a dabbing of water on her knuckles as she did so.
The man continued to look gobsmacked at her for a moment before she repeated the action. He only inched the window open slightly. Enough so they could speak without their voices being muffled but not so much as to completely lower the barrier between her and him.
A smart move, but if she wanted to, the glass wouldn't do anything to protect him from her. It wasn't like she was trying to be imposing either. In fact, she flashed a smile to just reassure the frightened Terran.
"Are you in charge of security for this district?" She asked, a rhetorical question given his attire and the words on his vehicle but it would do best to keep him comfortable. She could at least trust this man not to be a Skrull as Vers doubted that between the time that she had crash-landed and the rupturing of their own vessel that they had the time to begin taking on the form of these inhabitants.
He nodded, if a bit dumbly. His jaw hanging loosely as he continued to gawk at her. She internally preened at it. While not as elite nor renowned as the Xandarian Nova Corps, the Kree Starforce was still a group of hardened commandos and rightly so.
Even if the terran before her didn't know who either the organizations were it was still a nice feeling to be still held in some regard even if the terran was ignorant as to what she actually was.
He'd probably have a stroke if he knew for sure he was talking to an alien, at least to this planet. Everywhere else she was just another Kree.
"Do you know where I can get some communications equipment?" She spoke slowly and methodically. The man nodded dumbly again and then pointed with a sausage-like finger over to another shop that had a large, bolded and luminescent red lettering. Radio Shack.
She nodded her thanks and quickly made her way over to it.
Knowing that the security guard was still watching her, Vers brought her elbow up and with one swift motion, shattered the glass door before she pulled its metal frame free and breaking it off its hinges and tossing the useless and cheap material aside.
It took her a little bit to pilfer what she needed from the shop. Given the rather archaic nature of technology on this planet, it was difficult trying to find what materials would actually work and interface with Kree technology. But with a little jimmying and tinkering on her part, she was able to find what she needed to power her own equipment to call for help.
After all, if she was here and with her subsequent sabotaging of their vessel, the Skrull were most likely here with her. She wasn't about to leave Terra in the hands of the Skrull, not if she could help it. And with Talos being the mastermind behind this whole thing as well as his uncomfortable fascination and interest in her, it was not a foregone conclusion that they were tracking her at this very moment.
If they could do it on Torfan, that rubble and war-torn of a world, then it was possible here as well.
She would need to be fast, while the infiltration was still in its infancy and investigate whoever this Lawson was and why Talos wanted the terran so badly that he would risk himself to ensure that she was captured. A small headache began to form at the name but she quickly shrugged and blinked it away.
If what he said was true and she held a piece of technology that could change the face of the war as they knew it, then Starforce and by extension the Kree Empire needed to get to Lawson first.
Vers quickly commandeered a booth that seemed to be some sort of communications hub and began to, both literally and figuratively tear into it.
It took her a good two hours to configure the device into the state she needed it in. The morning was well underway and she could hear terran traffic in the distance as well as the distant cawing of birds, the loud and obnoxious avian that they were. It didn't really concern her but she was still on edge and constantly looking over her shoulder for anyone that may be watching her.
Well, except for that initial security officer. Unless the Skrull wanted to be a simple and incredibly unassuming terran that didn't seem to have anything going for him, then he posed nearly no threat.
She was dealing with Talos and his gang though so she couldn't entirely discount one of them taking up the face of a fool. With him and his goons, Vers couldn't discount any possibility.
Her communicator beeped and powered up after a moment and she clapped her gloved hands in excitement. She knew she was good but oh boy, the feeling of getting Kree tech to work with what amounted to scrap was something else.
Vers was definitely going to lord this over Minn-Erva when she saw her again.
She quickly began hooking her communicator and tactical pad up with her newly, if a bit crude power source and input the security and communication codes to Yon-Rogg's communicator.
"Vers? Vers?" The voice of her commanding officer came through and she raised her hand as black nanotubules scaled within her palm and onto the tips of her fingers. A hologram projected though to call it a coherent image was giving it too much credit as it was much too jittery to be anything worth a connection. "Verify. CTC-39."
Though at the very least, the audio matrices were working perfect. This…Gameboy had some decent speakers for a terran machine. "GRXV-1600." She instantly responded on command.
She blinked.
Verification codes always had an odd feeling whenever she recanted them. It felt like something was being pulled from the depths of her consciousness and felt all too similar to when she was having those odd dreams and visions. "And I'm fine. Thank you for asking." She snarked though she couldn't help the smile that played on her features nor the playfulness in her tone. "Is everyone okay?"
Yon-Rogg's flickering form scowled. "Everyone is fine. It was just as we suspected, a Skrull ambush. Never mind that, did you find Sohl-Larr?"
Her ever-dutiful commander was always straight to the point. "No. Talos simmed him. Got to his codes before command could flux them." He further scowled but didn't say anything. Such was the life of a Starforce operator.
Vers figured it was good to alert them that they had attempted to do the same with her. "The skrulls tried to do the same with me."
He didn't appear to care much for it though and instead leaned into the communicator. "Vers, where are you?"
She looked around. There was still no one but that security guard from before. "Planet C-53. Talos is looking for a terran named Lawson." Saying the it out loud and having to remember the name caused her to visibly cringe. A vision of her sitting at a desk in a briefing room alongside others listening to an older woman with blonde hair speak and lecture before she was pulled from her thoughts by Yon Rogg's voice.
"Who?" She didn't answer right away, lost in her thoughts as she was. "Vers, respond. Who?"
She shook the feeling away, the slight shiver creeping up her neck as she did so. "A Doctor Lawson. She's…she's who I see. In my dreams, Yon-Rogg."
"And what makes a Terran so important?" He questioned. Vers was as intrigued and perplexed as he was. The best the Terrans could come with in the past century was how to kill and slaughter each other in droves. Even the Accusers, as apathetic, bloodthirsty and devout as they are, were slightly impressed with the capability and ingenuity that they possessed to advance so far.
In just a hundred years they went from single shot, muzzle loaded kinetic weaponry and riding on horseback into battle to being able to wipe out cities in the blink of an eye and landing on their moon. Everyone else had taken centuries to make those leaps in technology and the Kree, Xandar and the Skrull Empires have been around for tens of thousands of years.
Even if the Terrans were a backwater bunch that were technically primitive compared to the rest of civilized universe around them, they were quietly feared just on the fact of how adaptable and how far they could go in a short amount of time.
While Vers had never really read into as much as maybe Att-Lass or Minn-Erva had, it was supposed that their short lifespans often had something to do with it. The desire and need to do something within such a short timeframe was what pushed them to such heights.
But her mind was not on that train of thought for long after that as it began rolling with images of the blonde older woman. She visibly shook her head of the thought as she responded.
"She's a scientist. They think she's built some sort of weapon…" She paused slightly. "They think it'll be able to win the war." A more lengthy pause and the hologram of her commander flickered slightly. "I have to get to her before they do."
The previously, unnaturally quiet Yon-Rogg immediately spoke up. "No. You've been caught once already and caught off-guard." He turned to his side, most likely speaking to the pilot, it was either Att-Lass or Korath. There was a muted response. Even the Gameboy's retrofitted speaker couldn't discern what was said much to her dismay. "Vers, hold your position until we can get there. Keep your comms online so we can contact you. Do not engage Talos."
Vers did not like that answer at all. A weapon that could end the war and her commanding officer wanted her to lay low when she could get a head start on the investigation and intervene before the Skrulls could further infiltrate Terra?
Yeah, that was not happening. Luckily she didn't have to respond and outright lie to him as she was about to and instead the meagre power source for the communicator began developing some rising smoke and beeping before she had to peel it away from her ear. At the very least, her tactical pad was now fully functional again.
She heard some sirens. Probably more Terran security coming to see what all the chaos she had caused was about, maybe she would be able to warn them of the imminent Skrull threat. She gathered her things and began initiating the tracking beacon in her suit.
Vers may not sit around and let the Skrulls infiltrate this planet uncontested and get their hands on a weapon that could not only allow the Skrulls to come out on top of the Kree but also the universe as a whole. She wouldn't do so without knowing she would be reinforced.
Avoiding Skrull dominance was probably the only thing that the feuding Xandarians and Kree could agree on.
Someone knocked on the side panel of the little cubicle she was in and she turned around after placing the spare power cell she charged into her utility belt. "Excuse me, miss." A dark skinned man with closely cropped coiled hair in a black suit and tie approached her. His voice had a sort of accented pitch to it when he spoke. As if he often had to shout. Whether that was developed over time or just how he spoke was unknown to her.
In all though, he looked very officious and exactly the kind of person she needed to talk to in order to begin her search for Doctor Lawson.
But it was also the exact type of person that a Skrull would want to shift into in order to not only get close to her but also to begin the rise through whoever this Terran's government was.
The Kree commando's thoughts ran wild with theories and examinations of the surroundings. There was a pair of uniformed officers with gold shield badges over where their hearts would be and another lighter skinned man stood offset to them but still close by. She scanned further.
Another unassuming terran was watching the event unfold with narrowed eyes from across the street.
She quickly took in the sight of him, not discounting the possibility that he may be a Skrull waiting to seize an opportunity. Something tugged at her mind as a serene and melodious whisper washed over, and she forced herself to look away from the odd sensation that hit her.
She was pulled from her observation when he continued. "You know anything about a lady blowing a hole in that Blockbuster over there that also happened to lift some merchandise from the Radio Shack?"
Vers decided to play dumb and cocked her head quizzically with a raised brow. "Witness says she was dressed for laser tag." The man looked her up and down and she did the same. Laser tag? The last time she saw someone get shot with a laser weapon, it did not seem like the game he was insinuating it to be.
She looked back to where that odd and suspicious terran was again.
Only to see no one there.
She blinked a couple times.
Her mind and thoughts contradicting each other.
There was someone there a moment ago.
No, there wasn't.
She attempted to remember what the man looked like, only to come up short with a blurred and distant image.
Vers internally frowned.
And then mentally shook herself from those thoughts, confused as to why she had looked in that direction in the first place. Her glance drew in the gaze of the Agent in front of her who followed her gaze but like her, he seemed to not have seen anything either.
Continuing to feign ignorance even though she knew that the terran wouldn't buy it at all, she made a show of looking confused and then went further by looking around herself again. "Yeah, I think she went that way." She gestured in that general direction where she was looking. It seemed as good as an excuse as any to why she was distracted, even if it was on fragile foundations at best anyway.
He stopped her before she could even move. "I would like to ask you a couple questions, if you don't mind." His easy-going façade completely dropping as he pulled a small leather thing from the interior of his suit and presented it to her. "Agent Fury of SHIELD." He pulled it away just as fast. "I'm going to have to ask for some identification."
Now was as good as time as any to inform the locals of the Skrull threat they were about to face.
And not just any Skrull either. The scheming Talos was not one to be trifled with.
She had held the hands of more Kree soldiers than she could count that had passed onto the Collective as a result of his operations than probably any other honorbound Skrull general.
"Vers. Starforce. We don't carry our identification on little cards." She lightly snarked but would have showed him her actual identification in the form of her codes but for one they were in Kree script and he wouldn't be able to understand them and secondly it was an unspoken universal law that they limit and didn't expose advanced technology to civilizations that were considered primitive.
The Terran population was one of those civilizations.
It also helped that no one, not even the supposed enlightened and uplifting Xandarians, wanted to be the ones responsible for introducing another competing power to the universe.
The Skrulls were enough as it is.
"Vers? Starforce?" His tone had a mocking lilt to it as he interrupted before she could speak any further, though that imposing and stoic countenance he had remained. "How long you plan to be in town…Vers?" He added her name as if it was just an off-hand thing.
Perfect. "I'll be out of here as soon as I track down the Skrulls that are infiltrating your planet as we speak."
He let out a brief chuckle but he did not look all that amused. "Skrulls?"
"Shapeshifters. They can transform into any life-form down to the DNA even replicating recent thoughts and memories." She explained as she looked between the four individuals that were before her to see if any of them would react in any noticeable way to maybe get the drop on one if there was a Skrull among them.
Unfortunately for her, there didn't seem to be any violent reactions as the two uniformed officers with gold badges were suppressing chuckles from her words. The suited man didn't react at all and instead raising his left brow.
They probably thought she was crazy. And honestly she should've thought better with how she phrased the declaration. Her team had always said that she often spoke before thinking and it seemed that this was one of those times. Even the Skrulls wouldn't invade a backwater planet like this.
It offered no strategic value in the wider galactic conflict for anyone. Other than its relatively isolated position in the Milky Way there was nothing that she knew of that Terra had going for it that would make anyone want to stop here.
Until now that is. This Doctor Lawson was on Talos' radar. And Talos was on Starforce's radar and if Starforce was hunting something, Accusers were not far behind and she knew for a fact that being apart of Yon-Rogg's team meant that she would be working alongside the zealot that was Ronan.
And if there was any individual within the Accuser Corps that she didn't want on to be on the wrong side of, it was Ronan.
Regardless, if they were just going to brush her off and not actually do anything about her warning, no matter how outlandish it may seem from their perspective, she wasn't going to bother with them any longer. It wasn't like they could even imprison her.
If the Skrull military didn't have the capability to hold her, what hope did the Terrans have?
She began to move on but was quickly brushed back by Fury. "Now hold on. How do we know you're not one of these shapeshifters?" Again, despite his rather amused demeaner, his words seemed to carry a weight behind them as even though he seemed to only be humoring her, he was still skeptical.
Still, she would take what she could get. At least, this guy seemed to want to investigate every possible threat even if she was included in that category.
"Finally!" She exasperated placing her hands on her hips. "We're getting somewhere!" She glanced around as Fury gestured with his hand. The two uniformed officers began to approach her and she was about to ask what was going on, even if It was readily apparent that they were going to attempt to shackle her when she caught sight of a terran she hadn't seen before, crouched on a roof with a Skrull rifle in his hands aiming straight at them.
Acting purely on instinct, she pushed Fury to the side as a bolt of purple energy shot forth at them. One of the uniformed officers was hit in the shoulder, the thin cloth he wore providing nothing in the way of protection for him and he instantly fell backwards onto the ground, screaming in pain.
She peeked out and thrust a fist out towards the rooftop where the sniper was and launched a blast of photon energy right back with deadly accuracy at the Skrull. The photonic blast shattering the small concrete wall and carving a deep crater into the lip of the building. She didn't stop moving, knowing that the Skrull wouldn't have stayed still and would have attempted to reposition himself and charged forwards.
If she could capture this one, she could interrogate him and if he wasn't all that forthcoming with information, depriving Talos of an operator was always a plus in her book.
Percy felt himself falling. It was an odd and unsettling feeling being blacked out but somehow conscious of the vertigo sensation at the same time. All he could feel around him in his laidback position was overwhelming darkness as he continued to fall.
An endless abyss of nothingness that shadowed and clawed away from him but also seemingly engulfing him at the same time.
It was as if he was dreaming, falling even but with no ground in sight nor having felt it, he wouldn't suddenly jolt awake.
Then he did or rather his mind did. Exhaustion permeated his entire being and he was sore all over. As tired and drained as he was, attempting to shift his weight or any part of his body around was something akin to trying to take upon the burden of the Sky again. Something that was just not feasible if he wasn't going to force himself to bear it.
The Son of Poseidon equated the feeling to when he divested himself of the Aether back in the Throne Hall of Asgard and the draining feeling he had when it left his possession.
So Percy simply remained motionless. Plummeting into a continuing abyss.
He didn't know how long he was falling. A feeling that he equated to when he and Annabeth had descended into the Pit. But it wasn't the feeling of air that was about him as he went downwards. No, Percy felt like he was sinking.
As if he had been dropped in a pit of thick molasses, sinking slowly but steadily but never reaching a velocity that could be considered as something that was hazardous to his continued existence.
His previous rage against the mortal that had called upon him, diminishing with each passing moment until it was just a sparking ember of annoyance as the anger was instead directed to Morgana.
Whatever that green holographic spell was, had done a number on him, trapped in his mind as he was. He hoped that was an effect of whatever spell she casted upon him at least and that this wasn't something more.
The demigoddess had in fact fired it rather prematurely in response to his bolt of lightning. While he was no less knowledgeable in magic than most demigods, near every demigod knew that spells were dangerous already. A fragmented one even moreso. Percy just hoped there was an escape to this abyssal hell that he now found himself in.
He could rest easy with the fact that she had not left that encounter unscathed. He had seen his summoned bolt of lightning connect with Morgana and having to defend against three others, no matter how strong she was, that amount of energy would have taken quite the toll on her own fortitude especially since she was casting spells the entire time.
He felt himself slow even further and then his mind lurched and his body seemed to recoil and thrash at something before it was pulled even further into the abyss.
He blacked out for a second time.
Percy blinked his eyes open. A clearness but slightly murky depths of the oceanic floor greeted him as he laid splayed upon the sandy seabed. Curious fish darted about and a leopard shark was stalking a perimeter around him, taking upon itself as a sentry for him. Crustaceans were nipping slightly at the edges of the clothes he wore underneath his golden armor.
Tempest was there as well, resting on the bottom of the seabed just outside of his grasp. He took a noticeable moment to will it into a mist and into his sheath that lay in his satchel for the time being. Hopefully, that particular piece of equipment was still with him. He also did the same for his armor. In his exhausted state he wanted to divest himself of all unneeded weight.
The waters about him swirled with life but it felt…alien. As if he belonged but…didn't. He felt a slight shiver run up his spine and through his neck at the unsettling sensation.
This whole day has been nothing but uncomfortable. Percy mentally retorted to himself as he attempt to suppress the uneasiness.
He ordered them away with a simple mental command. The smaller fish and crabs not having the mental intellect or fortitude to respond with their own voices but they obeyed regardless. The shark greeted him and then bade him farewell before moving off further and deeper into the Pacific.
His body still sore and exhaustion pervaded throughout his entire form, so he didn't move. Instead, willing the waters around him to do the action for him.
His body may have felt like it had waded through the waters of the Styx or even taken upon the burden of the Sky as before but his mind was still a raging ocean.
And for a moment, he knew that there was a storm raging overhead because of his hyperactive and untamed mind. He quickly took control of it, softening it to a near calmness but still alert.
Not at all stifled by whatever Morgana's spell had done to him, he extended his senses outwards. Not fully just in case the sorceress was still up and about and looking for him but enough that he wouldn't be caught off guard if something were to attack him.
If fighting him on the coast or a beach was a stupidly bad idea, then doing so under the waves of the oceans was a death sentence for whatever was not inherently a being of the sea. At least for Morgana, she could transfigure or protect against his watery constructs if they were out and about.
But even her magic would have little effect on him here. If she thought he was fast on the ground, she wouldn't even be able to see him move underneath the water. But him moving as if he were a little more than a spectre would be the least of her worries if she sought him here.
He mentally recanted those thoughts. Now was not the time to be wallowing on what could have been. For now, he needed to regain his strength and his bearings.
There was no telling what that spell did to him and for that reason alone, Percy would have to take it slow.
He hated magic users. Logic and reason demanded that he be slow when he faced them, despite his instincts telling him to be swift in their elimination.
Disregarding Morgana for the moment, with extended senses, he was able to tell where he was exactly. Just off the coast of Malibu. No, not Malibu. Los Angeles. About a quarter mile from the closest beach. He closed his eyes, content to let his vision and mind rest as much as possible.
His body and energy began to rejuvenate as he stayed further underwater. He didn't know for how long he did so, but even underneath the waves, the water was doing little to help regain his strength.
That was until he felt a slight current pick him up and guide him upwards and towards the shore. Though it was not enough for him to move around, feeling sharp pains whenever he did so. However, he wasn't wholly divested of movement as he began to twist and test his joints in his hands and feet.
So the current carried him towards the shoreline and he began to slowly receive feeling in his arms and legs again instead of that prickling, needling and numbing sensation that currently held the rest of his body in a vice. It hurt badly when he attempted to twist and bend his body. The water seemingly attempting to heal him but failing to do so.
As much as he wanted to remain beneath the waves and despite the risk it may pose to his own well-being, he knew he needed to be up and about as soon as possible. Remaining here was just giving Morgana more time to recover from his own attack.
Percy could now feel the waves crashing upon the shore as the tide began to recede from the beach. As close as he was to it, and with his senses dialed as they were, he could hear and feel voices and shouting. Not of alarm but of excitement. Mortal beachgoers enjoying the afternoon or morning with their friends and family most likely. He couldn't discern exactly what they were saying, their words bubbling, vibrating and muted as they were given that he was still underwater.
Sunlight pierced the surface of the water, casting a slight glare on his face and burning through his eyelids. A couple of nearby fish swam on by and provided what shade they could. Not that it mattered all that much when he was nearing the shoreline as he did and them darting further out to avoid the mortals.
He heard more shouting. This time some of alarm and the splashing of footsteps rush towards him. Still exhausted and near utterly spent of energy despite however long he had spent underwater, he wasn't able to resist as a couple people pulled him from beneath the waves.
Sunlight arced across his face and he felt his face scrunch in distaste at the light that threated to burn through his eyelids. He could hear them now however, "Someone go get a lifeguard!"
He coughed and opened his eyes. People were standing around him, casting wavering and flicking shadows over him that made him blink a couple times as he adjusted to the pervading sunlight. "Guys! He's alive!"
Of course I'm alive. His heritage notwithstanding, he opened his eyes and was breathing. If he was dead, he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to do that. Stupid mortals. Always having to state the obvious.
He groaned and felt bile rising up. Despite his exhausted and drained state, he forced himself to lean on his side, shoving a mortal woman as he did so and letting loose a wave of clear liquid. Not quite water but more like a viscous substance. He looked around, the crowd having thinned slightly at his nauseating action and he looked further up the beach to try and determine how extensive his Mist Manipulation would have to be in order to scoot on by as another beach goer that was just enjoying the sun.
He focused, feeling his mind spinning at the action of divulging whatever it was that had gotten into his system. A group of…green people? He attempted to refocus his vision and blinked. His mind still reeling at the odd sensation that had engulfed him.
Wading out of the surf and onto the beach was definitively a group of green people in black and purple clothing looking at them and him.
And right before his eyes as he blinked further more, thinking that it was just a figment of his exhausted mind, he saw them shift into regular looking mortals.
One had even taken upon his appearance and its black and purple suit it wore shifted into the black clothing that Percy currently wore before the group then moved on, further into the beach and into the city of Los Angeles properly in an apparent hurry.
Shapeshifters. He immediately thought. Empousai but not quite. Not with their green skin and odd clothing. If they were monsters, he had to move. He couldn't stay here. And if one had taken his form, he had to kill it before it caused any irreparable damage.
He made to push himself up. His mind and vision swimming in lightheadedness as he attempted to do so. He pushed the feeling aside. Exhausted as he was, he still had to do something.
"Hang in there, guy." Someone said and attempted to keep him down by placing a hand on his metal spaulder. He was still wearing his armor, luckily. Unluckily for the mortal, Percy was acting on instinct but with purpose.
Nothing was going to stop him from killing whatever it was that donned his face. That biting rage that had engulfed his mind redirecting for a second time from Morgana to the monster, seemingly becoming something that needed payment. As alien as the feeling was, it was the only thing keeping him awake and coherent at the moment.
If Tony or Morgana weren't going to die now, then those monster was going to do so in their place as the rage begged for satisfaction.
The moment the mortal surfer had attempted to set a hand on him, Percy lashed out and bent the hand backwards at the wrist forcing the man down to his knees in a pained shout, his other hand attempting to break the iron grip that Percy had rent upon him.
It was too little too late however as the demigod Son of Poseidon had quite easily broken the man's wrist the moment he bent it backwards in a single fluid motion. He let go and pushed himself upward from his position ignoring the angry shouts for him to stop.
That alien feeling washed over him again, this time it was stronger than it was when he was beneath the waves of the ocean. He felt like he didn't belong. As if he needed to leave this instant. He ignored it however and refocused his mind.
As disorientated as he was and with his mind attempting to calm itself, he needed to focus on one thing. But he couldn't … his thoughts were wild and encompassing.
That tempestuous rage from before attempting to turn back to Morgana and Tony regardless of the fact that it could very well mean his death with his current state.
His instinctual thoughts and protesting body shouting over the din that was that oceanic and abyssal feeling, begging for him to simply rest and stay put, meddling mortals and monsters be damned.
Yet, he stamped them down as he felt a certain tugging and noticed the waves beside him growing slightly in their strength and size and dark clouds forming and looming in the otherwise clear horizon.
Monster threat first.
Gather bearings second.
Rest third.
Morgana last.
He didn't need the mortal police after him for something he didn't actually do this time. Plus, if the wrong eyes looked this way, he would have to deal with SHIELD and their little band of misfits.
Not that he couldn't deal with them.
It was more of the fact that if they found him, then Morgana would not be far behind them if she didn't reach him first.
And right now, he was in no state to face her. Monsters on the other hand, would easily be handled even in his his disoriented and drained state.
With his direction and purpose in place for the time being, the demigod continued down the beach following to where he had seen the group of shapeshifters go. Clandestine was the name of the game here. The monsters may be able to smell the ocean on him, but with that particular realm so close by, he may be able to sneak up on them.
It took him a moment to decide on his course of action. He was never good at sneaking around. His element was being in the thick of the heaviest fighting. The only thing that helped him was the Yankee's cap that he kept in his small satchel but he didn't want to use that unless absolutely necessary.
This didn't seem like it was an emergency.
Percy continued after the beings.
Thinking of his satchel had him recollect that he still had his ambrosia and nectar on him that he, upon realizing that he still had those items, quickly fished out a sizeable piece of the godly food and took a quick drink from the flask.
He couldn't recognize any taste they may have had, only looking for and finding the immediate boost of energy and healing. His previous slightly swimming and wavering vision, returning to him fully as he blinked it away. Everything became much clearer.
At least he knew it was Los Angeles, given his nautical sense but other than that he didn't recognize the city much but he supposed that was a given. The last time he was here was when he was twelve on a quest to prevent a war that would've quite literally torn the world apart.
Regardless, he was looking for the shifters. Specifically, the one that had shifted into him. It wasn't that hard to as he looked down the near desolate roadways. Given that it felt like it was morning, there didn't seem to be that much activity out and about at the moment.
He looked down the roadways and spotted himself, or rather the sliver of pale hair that stood at the top of his head, jogging at a light pace away from the beach alongside the man that looked like the one he had broke the wrist of.
They conveniently shifted forms again, taking on the form of a pair of runners that they had just passed. Awfully brazen of them to do so right out in the open but then again the Mist was probably clouding them as well.
He became confused. Why was he overreacting? The Mist would cloud the monsters, wouldn't it? Why didn't he just go home?
That would draw Morgana there. His mind instantly was perfectly willing to do a lot of things but endangering Estelle or Sally was something he wouldn't compromise on.
So long as he stayed away from there, Morgana wouldn't target them, lest she bring unwanted attention to herself. The sorceress was many things but stupid was not one of them.
If she attacked them, that would draw Reyna into the conflict against her.
And if Reyna involved herself, then the Hunt was obligated to follow.
Artemis would likely be the same. She had developed a personal grudge against those that went directly against Olympus, and had developed an overprotectiveness of her Hunt since the war.
Suffice to say, if Morgana drew in the Hunt, she would make an enemy of Olympus, where at the moment it was just him and so long as it was just him, she had a chance to win.
And the Immortals of Olympus wouldn't lend a finger to help unless he asked for it or they began causing widespread damage to the mortal realm, especially since it was a conflict between a Roman and a Greek.
Even the Council and his father knew that to risk a split was not something Olympus could afford to do again and one would definitely occur if Morgana and Percy began to bring the conflict to the Immortal Realm. The two clashing, as powerful and influential as they were, was probably already drawing some attention because of that very risk.
He was safe in the knowledge that Morgana at the very least knew that. She had been among the more outspoken Romans that desired for peace and she, like him, wouldn't render the hundreds, if not thousands, of demigod lives that had paid the price for that peace to be made.
He focused on the Veil Magic and the task at hand, before his mind and thoughts turned more erratic than they were already.
His mind straining slightly at the exertion of focusing the magic whilst bringing his hand up to snap his fingers. A thick cloud of the Veil appeared into existence and onto himself.
Percy wouldn't risk the passive control he had over his…presence to hunt them down. As it was, it was prone to flaring when he got particularly annoyed. Which he was on the verge of being, given the rather alien and unnatural feeling that seemed to encase him further with every step he took.
And he was sure that even in its passive state, monsters would be able to sense him approach. Not that he knew for sure as he hadn't tested it and he wasn't about to test it out right now.
Until he closed the distance with them, he would, hopefully, be just as unassuming as any other mortal.
He continued down the street, keeping a distance to the two but casually as if he was just walking along and minding his own business. They shifted forms occasionally but weren't that hard to track as they stopped more than a couple times to look down at their arms or to sniff the air.
He thought he had been caught when they did it the first time but when they began doing it more Percy was sure that they were just doing that because they were looking for a specific person.
Most likely, an unaware demigod.
And given he was on the West Coast, it was likely that it was a Roman. Why the Augur hadn't sent a patrol to pick them up, was beyond the Son of Poseidon. Shelving the thought for later, Percy continued to follow the pair of shapeshifters.
They were clearly hunting.
Percy determined that he would wait for as long as possible to engage them. Admittedly, he was buying time to regain as much as his strength as much as possible. There was the added bonus that they would most likely be meeting up again with their other friends.
He figured at that point he wouldn't have to hunt them all down piecemeal. Or if he really needed to, Percy could call upon the Legion to root them out.
They soon found themselves in some sort of shopping plaza, that had a couple police cars and a bunch of old school Chevy's all parked in the lot of it. He guessed that they busting some sort of car meet. Why they would bother with those old cars was beyond the Son of Poseidon. They didn't even look like something that collectors would want.
But who was he to judge?
Was that a Blockbuster?
Didn't they go out of business? He shook his mind of the thought as he swept his gaze across the area.
He had lost one of the shifters as they had split off from one another. He instead followed the one that had initially shifted into him but was now some mortal with a flannel red button up and a pair of jeans who was scaling the perimeter of the plaza and looking inwards.
Percy elected to stay on the other side of the street, content to simply watch from a distance. The demigod wasn't too keen on getting law enforcement involved until he was absolutely sure that whatever they were hunting was unable to protect themselves.
The shifter had taken the form of a guy in a suit and joined a small group of mortal police and another guy in a suit from the side. They looked to be approaching a blonde woman in a green and black…rubber and leather suit of some kind who was fiddling with a telephone box.
Huh.
I thought those also went the way of the Dodo. Was Percy's thought. He wasn't all that familiar with the West Coast given that it was technically Roman territory and even though he visited a couple of the Titanomachy that had made there home here, he never stayed to explore.
That alien and perverse feeling began to well up within him again. As if he needed to leave.
He stayed back and squashed the instinct down as he stared at the confrontation between the woman and the suit, the shifter standing slightly behind him but not making any intentional movement that could be construed as violent.
Why is shifter exposing himself like that? They were being awfully brazen in their shifting and melding. Percy had never seen Empousai do that right out in the open. Even his first pseudo-encounter with them when he was thirteen had them shift in relative peace and away from potential prying eyes.
Here though, the shifters seemed to not care in the slightest to who might have seen them.
He watched closely though.
Perhaps a little too closely as the mortal woman that they were speaking to scanned the area briefly before her eyes landed on him.
A serene and melodious whisper pricked at the edge of his mind. He squashed the sensation away immediately and it was replaced by that ugly, malformed and alien feeling of….unbelonging.
He focused a little more on the Veil Magic that surrounded his person. Mostly to keep his mind from straying and to further cloud himself from the unwanted sight of the mortals.
Percy kept his gaze locked onto the shapeshifter while also scanning the area for more of its friends. Why the shifter was interested in involving itself with the mortals was beyond the demigod. They couldn't have caught on the he was tracking them. He had made sure that he was unknown to them and besides, they didn't seem to realize that he had been following them since Percy had seen them at the beach.
The group continued converse.
And then, as if a pin dropped, a lance of purple energy arced towards them.
Percy's senses, dialed as they were and his mind intently focused on them despite his uncomfortableness, took in the scene easily. The purple bolt impacted the shoulder of the police officer, causing it to jerk back from the force and for him to collapse in a scream of pain. The woman had shoved the man in the suit against the wall before sending her own bolt of energy against the source and then running in pursuit of gunman.
The shifter had stayed in place, not moving a single muscle in response to the sudden attack.
Percy's mind concluded a couple things in that moment of time where everything seemed to freeze for another second.
The first and foremost being that these were definitively not monsters. Whatever that purple bolt was, the shifter in the suit recognized it and knew that it wouldn't hit him. Monsters were much more personal in their attacks. That and they didn't have access to energy weapons, Percy doubted they could use them even if they did. But he could be mistaken, it wasn't unknown for a particularly powerful monster to have some magical capability or artefact in their possession.
But regardless, the shifters attacked mortals. That was something that they didn't do often if at all because that would just draw the attention of both the Romans and the Greeks.
The second was that the woman was not entirely…human either. He hadn't seen a weapon drawn instead seeing a fist thrown and a beam of light shoot from it, reducing a section of roofing to little more than rubble.
Mortals had a tendency to not do that.
The third and final thing was that this…was no longer his problem. Percy could move on and properly prepare against Morgana. Hopefully, she thought him dead and he could get the drop on her, like she did with him. And if he surprised her, however unlikely that is, the sorceress would be little more than a corpse in that moment.
That serene and melodious whisper poking and prodding began to further attack his mind.
The agents moved. The shifter only doing so after a couple shouts. But they were clearly going to try and follow her.
Should he get involved?
The prodding became more intense and he felt a cold grasp clutch at his spine as he turned to leave the mortals to their little escapade. His mind pricked and burned at the odd sensation.
He froze in his place before he took another step. His mind roiling and burning under the feeling.
The car began to speed away.
He hadn't moved a muscle.
His blood began to coil and constrict.
Hestia's words began to weigh heavy in his head. She 'Your duty is to the Mortal Realm.' Scenes of the Chitauri unleashing destruction on New York in his mind. Paul…
Damn it all to hell. Percy's mind growled in annoyance and looked to where the car went.
Then Percy willed himself into a spray of seawater, the cascading mist darting after it.
Nicolas Joseph Fury was having a good morning.
He got up. Had his usual black coffee, two sugars. Nothing new or particularly interesting in the morning papers or morning news other than the sudden microburst that almost turned monsoon off the coast.
Usually his beeper would have gone off by that point but nothing. So that sort of set him on edge for something that might happen. His luck usually wasn't this good.
He walked into the office of SHIELD.
In hindsight, he shouldn't have been as hopeful as he was. Years and years of experience meant that if the morning was quiet, the day was going to be a loud one.
His initial instinct proving correct when he was called in by the Director of their branch to head over to an unusual case from a rent-a-cop.
Fury, after listening to the report, had determined that he would arrest the man for ruining his morning with nonsense.
While he was sort of still skeptical on the whole thing, because for all he knew this could just be a downed satellite. It wasn't common but it still happened.
And given they were an American-based organization, SHIELD would have been notified that the satellite would need to be recovered. If it was another country's then depending on who that country was, it was SHIELD's job to ensure that they reached the module first.
The laser tag woman notwithstanding, as that could have been the rather hyperactive and panic induced mind of the hired security, this would still be a peculiar case given that if it was a satellite, it could have political and militaristic consequences.
Which is why SHIELD was involved.
Then he arrived at the scene.
A hole blown clean through the roof of a Blockbuster, half-melted aluminum shelving and shattered glass paneling greeted him. That was not mentioning the ransacked Radioshack at the corner of the plaza.
Well, his usually monotonous day of doing paperwork and sipping coffee had led to an actual investigation and case.
And not just any investigation. One that he had the lead on and one that could involve an Honest-to-God extraterrestrial threat.
He just hoped it wasn't something like War of the Worlds.
Fury determined that he would cut back on his coffee intake.
If for the sole purpose that if this was an alien invasion scenario, he reckoned that coffee would quickly become a novelty and scarce resource.
He didn't think that his war would ever expand to outside of Earth entirely.
Europe was one thing, the Middle East another. Hell, even Asia had its moments.
But at least they were all on this planet.
He shook head of the thought as he shouted clearly into the radio. "Suspect on northbound train! In pursuit! Requesting backup! Over."
Police and SHIELD chatter garbled over the radio as more units and the assigned tactical teams were being called in.
There was no way that woman was anything less than an Olympic athlete. She shouldn't have been able to catch up to that train and jump onto it unless she was one.
Fury was going to need them. Whatever that weapon was did a number on the police officer. He was lucky that his arm wasn't blown clean off.
And that Vers woman apparently had a piece on her that could reduce concrete to nothing but dust.
Maybe he should be calling in the Army, now that he thought about it.
He swerved in and out of traffic while, Coulson, the new guy was shouting in alarm. Hell of an intro to SHIELD. Fury thought to himself. They narrowly dodged a couple oncoming vehicles.
Fury hoped he wouldn't get stacked with paperwork because of it but considering the threat, he doubted his boss would care all that much.
He dodged another car and Fury was able to see that Vers and whatever she was chasing fight in fisticuffs atop the train before she was kicked off.
She almost fell and was only narrowly able to hang on to the side of it, a long metal panel being torn off at the suddenly applied force.
Said panel proceeded to drop right onto the hood on his car and put a sizeable dent in it. Fury growled in annoyance but continued to drive regardless as the panel bounced and was thrown off by a quick jerk of the wheel, causing a shower of sparks to dance off the chassis of the vehicle.
"They're going into a tunnel!" He…shouted?
Huh. Coulson was a soft-spoken sort of person but eager to prove himself. His voice never rising above a certain level. That was one of the things that had stood out to the recruiters and to Fury when he had first arrived.
Maybe it was mission jitters and the fact that aliens had the potential to actually exist that was getting on his nerves.
They were certainly flaring his own.
"We'll just meet them at the station." Fury barked over the honking and screeching of rubber. He turned the vehicle on a dime, even if the vehicle wasn't designed for such maneuvers. His own ingrained offensive driving and his experience carrying over as he weaved expertly through the morning traffic.
Luckily it wasn't all that crowded and a weekend deal. Meaning the only people that were going to be up and about at this time in this area were going to be tourists and those headed to the beach. It wouldn't be until later until the afternoon rush began.
"Uh? Hello? Mr. Fury?" Fury's mind stilled. Coulson's voice was filtering through the radio. "This is Agent Coulson. I'm still here at the Blockbuster and uh…where did everybody go?"
Fury and …Not Coulson shared a glance.
Not Coulson immediately drew his sidearm.
Fury pressed it forward as the firearm discharged, the round immediately going through his side window. Ears ringing from the echoing gunshot, Fury kept one hand on the steering wheel while the other continued to pin the sidearm of Not Coulson against the central dash, flicking the safety on as he did so before elbowing Not Coulson straight in his face with enough force that it should have staggered any other person and broke their nose.
But Not Coulson didn't look all that fazed from the sudden attack to his face.
And instead looked absolutely furious at Fury for even attempting to resist as he dropped the sidearm and thrust his hands out and grasped his throat in a near-iron clad grip. But with him focusing on not crashing into any civilians, he couldn't focus all his attention on attempting to divest himself from Not Coulson's grip.
A bus entered his sight, on the side of oncoming traffic. Heavy, and wouldn't damage it all that much.
Only Fury would be at risk.
With his mind made up in the scant second that was available to him, he jerked the wheel once again and pulled the passenger side up against the oncoming bus.
Fury relaxed himself as Not Coulson pressed his fingers deeper into his neck, attempting to choke the life out of him.
Not a moment later, the entire vehicle spun and leapt as the bus crashed into the passenger side hitting Not Coulson and causing him to lose his grip on Fury, who subsequently attempted to regain control of his car.
Cars honked and veered off to the side to avoid the out-of-control collision before it came to a stop. Smoke rising from the severely damaged hood and Fury, in his disheveled state, could hear a distinct hiss.
Fury pushed the door open and stumbled out onto the street, falling prone onto the asphalt as he did so but he began to pick himself up. His vision was blurred and he tried to focus it.
He heard a slight howl and a growl he would expect from an actual animal and then he hear the door to the car snap off its hinges and fall to the ground.
Not Coulson was not dead.
Fury scrambled to grab his sidearm from its holster beneath his jacket, only to find it empty.
The Agent of SHIELD heard the steps before he felt something press against his head. Something that was distinctly a firearm.
Fury looked up defiantly at Not Coulson who cocked his head in a smirk, a couple of cuts marred his face and a nasty purple bruise was on his forehead but he looked better than Fury felt.
Fury felt a gust of wind as the sidearm jerked to the side and discharged leaving a ringing in his ear but the bullet missed its mark and instead embedded itself in the road beside him.
Not Coulson looked towards the source as did Fury.
A distinct welling of fear and pressure began to permeate in the area and Fury felt his heart constrict and recoil in his chest at the sight as if he needed to run, and run fast. It was only his training and constantly facing fear when out in the field was Fury able to stay still and keep his composure.
A young man with windswept black hair and a small sliver, almost unnoticeable, of silver hair and glowing sea green eyes approached the two in a confident stride, wearing a black fatigues. None too concerned that he was approaching someone that was armed and dangerous.
Fury spared a glance about him. Whatever pressure and fear that was there had made nearly every single civilian in the area simply scatter. Whoever was left had cowered behind whatever cover they could find.
Not Coulson pushed him over and in Fury's state, he wasn't able to offer much resistance, though he did attempt to get up. Not Coulson turned the sidearm towards the young man that was approaching him, and opened fire.
The SHIELD agent expected the man to simply topple over.
Only he didn't, nearly instantaneously, a large round dull bronze shield sprang to life, intercepting the rounds. The face of a woman with snakes for hair emblazoned on the face of it.
The eyes of the woman pulsed a deep green and Fury recoiled at the sight and pulled himself away.
As did Not Coulson, who dropped Fury's sidearm at the sight in shock.
The man closed the distance easily, the shield disappearing almost as soon as its eyes pulsed its light and drew a dagger from behind him.
Fury blinked. The sudden shock from the shield evaporating instantly the moment it disappeared.
Not Coulson attempted to intercept the strike, having recollected himself from whatever those eyes on the shield did to him. Fury watched as Not Coulson readied himself in the scant moment that was allowed to him.
The man instead, moving faster than Fury could keep track of, sped past Not Coulson, slashing deeply into his side and ducking under a hooked swing as the man intertwined the back of his leg with Not Coulson's, grabbing and wrapping an arm around Not Coulson's head and pulling him downwards.
Not Coulson instantly fell backwards.
And didn't move.
Not Coulson's form began shifting and morphing.
Fury blinked attempting to refocus his vision to actually discern what he was seeing.
A green lizard like creature in a purple robe, suit like thing lay with its mouth gaping and eyes lifeless.
The man flipped the alien creature on his side and pulled free that embedded dagger from its back and wiped the purple blood from the silver blade onto the dead alien.
If Fury was a betting man and if these…things were anything like humans, then the man had severed the spinal cord in a single fluid motion.
He knew exactly what he was doing.
The man looked to him, his green eyes blinking slightly as they dimmed from their ethereal glow. Fury blinked to make sure he wasn't imagining things at the moment. The man cocked his head. "Do I know you? You seem familiar."
Fury could only shake his head in disbelief before he reoriented himself.
Mission first. Right now, if these things could shift into quite literally anyone right under their noses, the only person he could possibly trust at the moment was the person that had so effortlessly killed one of them as if it was just another day at the office.
The shock from this man's appearance and his shield having sort of rebooted Fury's senses. They were still in public, SHIELD had to take control but the only one he would trust would be this person, maybe Coulson and this Vers lady who had spoken of attempting to stop this…infiltration.
He needed to find her.
But first, he took control of the situation, shrugging off his suit jacket and throwing it on the body of the dead alien and fishing out his badge to show the man and any other that may be curious until backup arrived. "Agent Fury of SHIELD. I'm going to need you to remain here."
The man took a step back, scrunched his eyes and Fury could see the gears running and churning inside the man's head. He blinked a couple times as he checked a watch on his wrist, flicking it a couple times as if it were broken. "Uh…Agent… Fury? Mind humoring me for a second?" He asked, his eyes somehow conveying a slight worrisome tone but still maintaining that dangerous feel that they had.
Fury saw no reason not to. The man had saved his life and killed an alien like it was something he did on his morning run. Besides, it was not like there were any civilians around to dissuade with whatever having happened, having scared them all off. Even the traffic seemed to have disappeared. "Sure."
"What time is it?"
Fury cocked his undamaged eye. His other one stung when he attempted to do so but he was sure it would be okay. "Just past nine in the morning."
"No, no." He nearly whispered and waved that away. "The date."
Fury shrugged. "August 21st."
"The year?" The man pressed.
Fury squinted and looked at the oncoming tide of emergency vehicles and others that he recognized as government cars. He heard them before he saw them though. "1995. Why?" The man seized up as if he just had a stroke. "Are you alright?"
The man breathed slightly. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just…a long ways from home."
"What's your name?"
The man looked at Fury curiously, as if he were silently judging him or even deciding on whether or not to give him a real one. He seemed to come to a decision though. "Name's Percy. Just Percy."
Fury nodded. He didn't need the 411 on him. Percy was better than just referring to him as guy. "Well…just Percy. I have a situation on my hands and right now I don't think I can trust anyone but you. You in?" With how casually Fury stated it, it almost seemed like another day at work and something that did happen everyday.
Fury wasn't in the business of pressing civilians into government service but Percy seemed to have some sort of training. His own experiences and that of the government's, not withstanding, he would rather avoid flat-out conscription.
Percy sighed as he looked downwards at the dead body. The emergency vehicles were on them and a flood of personnel came up to them, Fury's own boss among them.
"Sure." Percy relented finally and his shoulders sagged slightly. "Just until I figure out my own thing."
Fury nodded. He would take what he could get. It wasn't like he could hide the fact that aliens existed from him anyway. It was either work with him or be thrown in some cell and never see the light of day again at best.
'My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.'
-Charles Kettering
'There are no accident.'
-Master Oogway
So I get that there was concerns for the last chapter for what happened and how it happened. But here's an explanation for it….mostly.
First and foremost, Percy's hate for Tony. Its established in earlier chapters that Immortals in general do not liked to be called upon by beings that are, objectively speaking, lesser than them. Subjectively, Percy wants nothing to do with the Mortal world, with the exception of Sally and Estelle, he quite literally has no attachment to it. The rest of those he considers friends and family are those of the Immortal Realm.
I don't like giving out spoilers but I believe some things do have to be cleared up. I don't write things just because. I'd say a good 75% of conversations and roughly half if not more of the details within the story are some form of worldbuilding and plot development for the future. Quite a few reviews and PMs are questioning whether Percy is on the path to becoming immortal or simply adopting more aspects of his Olympian heritage. So far, to the wider audience at least, this is unknown but will be explored in the future.
So yes, he does believe himself to be above mortals with the exception of Estelle and Sally, who are quite frankly the rest of his world at this time. And remember, Allison was the same as noted by Jane in Chapter XXI.
And perhaps demigods, in general, once they know their heritage begin to also develop a sense of superiority to mortals because, surprise, they are children of literal deities with powers and abilities that can, quite literally, severely influence and impact the world around them.
Percy, right now, doesn't care if Tony was calling for help. Its about him being called upon to solve another's problems. We see this throughout the entirety of this work that he simply does not like to get involved unless he absolutely has to. To Percy, at the moment, a personal life or death situation doesn't necessitate a house call. To him the world better be ending or damn close to it for him to even consider involving himself. He is under no direction nor is he being forced to save Tony's life. He saved him simply for the fact that he would kill Tony himself. (Hint Hint)
Yes, we see him save Jane in chapter XXI but remember, Jane is under his direct protection as his ward. Tony is not. Unlike most other stories where the MC involves themselves because they have a 'Saving People' thing or they are a goody-two-shoes, Percy doesn't have a 'Saving People' thing.
He has a 'Saving his family and friends' thing and right now, there is not a whole lot of people left on that list and he isn't inclined at the moment to add anymore. So long as his family and friends are safe, the world could burn around him and he probably wouldn't bat an eye. This plays into how many people were saying the Percy was too OOC and that I wasn't playing into his personality like Loyalty. Which is false. His loyalty is to his friends and family and that translates into a selfishness in his calculative thinking. I'm not going to explicitly say in the story, "Percy's loyalty to his friends and family kept him from acting."
Hinted at in the very first chapter, Percy thinks to himself on how the Olympians and Immortals on how much they speak and how less they act. Percy is a person of action, not of words. A person of showing and acting, and not telling and speaking. He's going to show us, not tell us, why he does the things he does but every now and then, like in Chapter 21 and 4, he speaks on his thoughts.
Remember, he was quite ready to draw out the war in Asgard, to just keep it on Asgard, at the expense of Asgardian lives because bringing the wider conflict to Earth wouldn't just endanger the people of Earth but his family and friends as well.
At the time, he didn't know that the Malekith only possessed a single vessel and simply assumed the worst and the entire Dark Elf war machine was on Asgard's doorstep. The Chitauri needed the Tesseract to travel and Percy didn't know how fast the Dark Elf ships were. For all he knew, they would show up just as soon as they did. Combine that with the fact that he assumed that Malekith was in command of an entire army and not just a handful of soldiers, then Percy was under no inclination to bring the conflict to Earth.
That rant out of the way! We will move onto the fight! I'll walk us through it.
Firstly, lets get the main factors out of the way The Ancient One/Morgana Le Fay, from what we know at this point and time, is an at least 2,000 year old demigoddess of Trivia, the Roman Goddess of Magic, who has had a full year's worth of preparation to prepare for her confrontation with Percy. She is a powerful sorceress and one that has had her own impact on mortal myth and legend with the Arthurian mythos.
OWaS Percy Jackson is a demigod son of Poseidon, the Greek God of the Seas and Oceans, who showed up thinking he was just going to do some pest control. He is a powerful demigod with powers, that we know of, that are unmatched by any other living demigod bar Reyna and Morgana. He fought and killed Gaea (The exact specifics of this confrontation are so far unknown to us), earning him the title of Apollyon, or Destroyer in the process and becoming quite famous and infamous in the Realm of Immortals because of it.
Now from what we know exactly happened in the fight. Percy prepared himself, having already summoned a storm and placing his back against the ocean where it is safest for him and preparing his customary tendrils of water to aid him in his fight. Then he tries to bring Aegis to bear, only he can't because Morgana had placed wards on the charm bracelet to prevent him from summoning any additional armaments.
From this we can infer that Morgana was casting spells during their entire conversation and doesn't need visual and physical movements to actually cast what can be construed as minor and simple spells to her. So who knows what else she may have been able to cast while they spoke to each other. What we can infer however is that in next stages of the fight, that Percy's water constructs don't aid him after the initial ones are collapsed.
Perhaps, Morgana got rid of them at the onset of the battle because she knew (having prepared for her fight with Percy) that they could prove to be a large obstacle to overcome? In this fight, Percy is always attempting to close the distance between himself and Morgana because he knows that she can't match him physically. But in regards to their respective abilities? Morgana and Percy are evenly matched and could go either way.
So to him there's almost no point in trying to combat Morgana toe to toe in ability when he holds the overwhelming advantage physically. In the next stages of the bout, Percy's water tendrils are transfigured into serpents of fire where he quickly comes to several conclusions. The first and primary one is that him using his powers such as summoning water constructs to aid him and even the rain itself could be used against him. So he stops using them divesting Morgana of an advantage she may have had. In summary, Morgana, throughout the entire fight made it a point to keep her distance to Percy because she can't fight him in swordplay.
Its simply apparent that she can't match him in hand-to-hand so she sticks to her strengths and uses her magic instead just as Percy sticks to his advantages in fighting in close quarters rather than attempting to match her with his own abilities.
So with the summoned rain gone along with his tendrils, he advances on Morgana, not quickly this time but with purpose. He doesn't want to spring any traps she may have had casted given her unnoticeable casting from before. So Morgana, after attempting to slow him down, begins to cast a stronger spell, one that takes some focus and time. Percy knows not to let this happen so he begins summoning bolts of lightning, attacks that strike, as their nature implies like lightning. Morgana attempts to stop the bolts by summoning constructs of concrete and rebar to slow Percy down so she can attempt to cast stronger spells. But Percy is easily able to cut them down and maneuver between them. But remember, he stopped the rain because he didn't want to give Morgana other elements to control against him. Tony is able to send Percy back with a repulsor blast as he did in the Ardennes. Percy figuring that it was worth the risk in having his extended awareness back again and something to preoccupy Tony while he dealt with Morgana, summons back the storm and tendrils of water, but only to deal with Iron Man and not the Sorceress. With Tony occupied with not being dragged down into the surf again, Percy turns his attention to Morgana who during that time had begun casting her own spell, this time with the Eye of Agamotto. She begins to use the Time Stone, an Infinity Stone, to create a time loop so she can win against Percy. Percy on the other hand doesn't let her and instead summons another bolt of lightning to distract her once more. But instead of cancelling the spell, she casts it mid-Incantation, in the hopes that it may be enough to rewind time so she can try again. Percy only sees the bolt of lightning connect with Morgana before the spell hits him and sends him flying off the cliffside.
In regards to blood-bending, Its already been established that Percy has to focus and take a moment to actually do what he wants to be done. This fight does not allow for that moment, especially since he is fighting a magic user who would use that time to cast spells. Its also been established that his control over blood is limited at best and to him it wasn't a guaranteed way to end the fight and thus wasn't even considered or thought of for him to use.
This plays back to him sticking to where his advantages against Morgana are. And he did get damage in! That last bolt did connect with Morgana just as the spell hits him. To sum up, neither really had any effect on the other until the very last moments of the fight where Morgana is bolted and Percy is hit with the under-developed Time Spell from the Infinity Stone. Percy was immune to the effects of her fire serpents and absolutely destroyed her concrete golems. Morgana is able to slow down Percy considerably with her magic bolts and withstand three divine bolts of lightning. Had she not brought the Eye of Agamotto, an Infinity Stone with her, she would have definitely lost the fight as she was only really capable of slowing Percy down throughout that entire encounter. Remember though she had an entire year to prepare for that fight and must have exhausted all her options if she had resorted to bringing to bear the Time Stone like she had or maybe had already used it? (Maybe Percy somehow was able to break an already occurring time loop? Unsettled feeling from earlier in the chapter as if something was going to happen?) (Hint Hint Wink Wink Nudge Nudge)
Anyway!
We know very little about Percy's escapades and quests from before the Giant War. As you can tell, in this story demigods and demigoddesses are considerably more powerful than their canon counterparts. By deduction we can also assume that the Olympians and Immortals themselves have also received a similar power boost in this story.
As I said in the very first chapter AN, this is an Alternate Universe. Events from canon have been changed significantly, much moreso but still keeping the rough plot of what had happened and we will be delving extremely deep into what exactly transpired in the very near future.
You may not see this as a suitable explanation but Percy is not acting like this out of nowhere. This is the best I can do without divulging too much on what I have planned. Like I said in the beginning of this AN, much of what is written has purpose. That's why I put Master Oogway's quote there and why it shall henceforth be in all chapters.
I hope this clears up any confusion. If not, please feel free to PM me!
In regards to the chapter, it was hinted at very vaguely that it would be Captain Marvel Arc. Percy's glance at Jane's book was on Space. Carol was infused with Tesseract energy so…yeah. A reaching conclusion but it'll be explained and rather apparent why the spell sent him here instead of say, Captain America in the future.
If you have any questions at all feel free to leave a comment! You can also find me on Discord, the Emerald Library! I am on there near daily talking about real-time progress of chapters as well as having reference pictures that I work with to derive inspiration from!
You can find the link to that on my profile!