XXX
They marched through the eerie halls of the starship. The Kree soldiers had them restrained and muzzled with black and grey steel contraptions across the lower half of their faces that seemed like high tech gas masks with metal manacles around their wrists.
It did the intended job though and even though Fury was able to speak, there was no sound coming from him. He made it a point to nudge Maria every now and then though, just to ensure that she kept close to him.
The Kree soldiers talked amongst themselves, though they weren't speaking English and instead their own language Fury didn't understand a lick of what they were saying.
Still, they were forced forward where they arrived at a familiar hallway where Carol had sent Percy in the wrong direction.
The power to the starship was still waning, though the lights that lined the edges of the bottom and top of the walls were brighter than when they had first passed them. They still flickered half-heartedly every now and again.
And then as if a switch had been flicked, they all turned off, red emergency lighting overhead flickering on in response. The lights began flickering on again.
The group halted in its tracks. The Kree soldiers ceasing their conversations as the one in the lead held his arm up for them to stop. The apparent Kree squadron leader held a hand to the side of his helmet and asked something considering the tone of his voice.
They waited for a moment before being ushered onwards again. Two of the Kree soldiers peeling from the group and heading down the hallway towards the bridge.
That was when Fury felt it. An unnatural chill ran through the hall of the starship and billowed slightly the clothes he was wearing. The lights dimmed and flickered again, an ominous pressure settling upon them as the group slowed to a halt before they could reach the intersection.
A wave of thin frost and ice began inching and creeping across the floor towards them as the chill settled around. It coated the metal deck and the walls around them and covered the sputtering lights and further dimmed the corridor.
The two that went on ahead had raised their rifles as they turned the corner.
A shout, a pulse of greenish light suddenly illuminating the hallway and the sound the SHIELD agent would equate to automatic laser fire was heard. The sound of bodies falling to the floor was heard with weighty thuds.
The hallway darkened just for a moment as the sound settled into an ominous quiet.
Before a dim and dark poisonous green glow illuminated the corner, careful and heavy footfalls echoing in the corridor as someone stalked forward.
Fury felt a welling of fear within him begin to surface as he shifted in his place and took an unconscious step backward.
He was not alone in that regard as Rambeau had followed his actions, eyes alight in fear. Many of them, Skrull and Kree alike did the same, taking unconscious steps backward as the light grew and continued to slowly and methodically approach. The armed Kree raising their rifles down the hall.
Even as far as they were, Fury was able to spot the distinct sight of pooling blue blood running around the corner of the corridor, illuminated as it was by the approaching teal-ish green glow.
The Kree squadron leader instead took a cautious step forward his own rifle readied. The echoing footfalls continued and the light grew brighter.
And then the source rounded the corner.
That welling of fear gripped his heart and Fury took another unconscious step backward and a darkened, looming pressure fell over them all.
A dark golden form rounded the corner and where it trailed the light sputtered and sparked erratically as the surrounding ice started growing cracks along them.
A baleful green glow emanated from the hilt in his left hand and trailing upwards like a ribbons of seaweed, two pillars of bright green energy wrapped and twirled around the silver blade.
Arcs of pale blue lightning lanced and danced off the blade of the spear he carried in his other hand. It silver blade marred in blue blood but being seemingly being cleaned by the lightning that sparked off of it.
The only other light was from his eyes.
But they were not the sea green he had expected nor were they simply tinged and trailed in a dark blue.
Instead they were orbs of hellish navy black and where it connected with the green light of the sword in his hand, it melded and molded into a poisonous concoction of energy and swirling color that illuminated the area around him in that unnatural teal-ish green color. It was when he noticed the blood coating the blade.
The blue blood doing the same with the green pillars of energy that wrapped around it. Steam rose from where it was, as if it was boiling. And as it dripped onto the metal deck of the starship, it hissed and bubbled where it landed, melting the unnatural frost where it pooled.
He felt…small.
Insignificant.
Every fibre of his being begged him to cower and hide and it was his unconscious fear paralyzing and rooting him to the spot where he stood.
Rambeau was much the same, her eyes wide in fear and she looked like she was about to bolt away at the slightest hint.
This was not Percy. This was not the man that had laughed and joked and smiled at the dinner table when he displayed the galloping and leaping horses of water.
There was something wrong.
Or maybe it was him. And it all had been a front for what was lurking beneath the surface. A frightening and encompassing being that brought with him fear and death.
The Kree soldiers had stood back, their rifles readied but none daring to make the first move as the warrior stood at the opposite end of the hall, just standing there, watching and studying with malevolent eyes of azure fire.
"Put down your weapons!" The one in the lead barked with hesitance clear in his voice.
Fury heard that same serene and melodious whisper from before.
And Percy moved.
The golden warrior threw his spear with what seemed to be all the force he could muster.
The foremost Kree soldiers unleashed a torrent of green laser bolts.
Fury shoved and practically tackled Rambeau to the side and against the bulkhead of the starship to avoid them getting hit in the crossfire.
A pillar of water materialized beneath the feet of the Kree squadron leader and subsequently launched him into the ceiling whose sudden shout of surprise was cut short, a sickening crunch was heard as metal, flesh and bone was crushed between solid water and the reinforced bulkhead.
The spear cutting into the pillar of water, bisecting it as if it were merely air, sailing like an arrow past everyone.
Except the one that was holding the reinforced canister that contained the Tesseract. The weapon burrowed deep into the center of the chest and launched him backwards with a heavy crash. The canister with him and landing innocently away from the cold fingers of the now dead Kree that was entrusted with it.
The body against the ceiling did not fall however, as while the rest of the water fell, its top encased and pinned the crushed soldier in a sheet of hardened ice.
Still, the Kree soldiers fired their rifles.
The bolts of energy did little to phase Percy. What lasers that weren't simply absorbed or batted away by the silver blade he wielded, he took head-on, impacting against his armor rending it black with scorch marks.
Percy advanced however, his blade sending green bolts to the side as he charged headlong into the array of laser fire, heedless that while he did block some of the bolts, many more hit him.
He simply did not care.
Though while the soldiers were focused in front of them, they were entirely unaware of the threat forming around them.
The remnants of the pillar of water had to go somewhere after all.
Fury could barely see the tendrils and snakes of water in the flashing light of green bolts. They were slithering and roiling around and about the walls and ceiling of the corridor. It was a scene from a horror movie. Flashes and glimpses of the chaos were all that were had by Fury.
But through it all, Percy remained a source of light…
And death.
Percy continued to charge forward and the moment that the enhanced made contact with the foremost soldiers did the tendrils of water strike from their alcoves of metal.
In what should've been a decided and advantageous engagement on the side of the Kree given they were firing down a corridor with little room to maneuver and at a distance from Percy, had instead turned to a one-sided massacre.
Screams of surprise and terror pervaded throughout the starship hall. Whips of water struck out and lashed around neck and limb. Though Fury's gaze was locked on Percy's form as he shielded Rambeau with his body. The laser fire had all but ceased the moment the tendrils of water attacked.
The first Kree to engage him was little more than a second's pause as Percy simply bulldozed his way through him, sending him flying into the wall where a serpent made of water struck like a viper and latched onto the Kree soldier's face with its maw.
A garbled and gurgled scream and the serpent jerked its watery visage and the Kree's head snapped and crunched and the body fell limply to the floor, blood pooling from two deep holes from where the fangs had entered. The watery form of the serpent collapsed into a wave of water as it continued forward.
Percy was not idle however, the moment he sent the Kree soldier sprawling into the maw of the formed serpent, did he bring his sword to bear once again. This time though instead of blocking a fusillade of laser bolts, he brought it up in one swift and assured motion and cut across the armored chest of the Kree soldier.
The metal provided no protection as a deep gouge was cut through it and the Kree, blood and fragments of metal spraying upwards. The Kree soldier fell to his knees but Percy was not done as he brought the sword down in single fluid motion and dug the blade into the exposed neck.
The Kree fell forward lifeless and Percy was already on the next soldier that had been pinned by a whip of water while another had lashed around his rifle.
He was at Percy's complete mercy.
Who had none.
A single, smooth motion and the blade had cut through the soft neck as if a wet tissue was pulled apart and Percy stalked further forward. The tendrils releasing the soldier as he instinctually attempted to stem the tide with his gloved hands. He was dead before he hit the ground.
The enhanced man lashed forward, completely disregarding that he passed by Fury and Maria to engage the two Kree that had stood behind them. He used the flat of his sword to bat away a raised rifle.
The action cause the Kree who was holding the weapon tightly to stagger as a tendril lashed onto his foot. Percy moved the strike into an opposite Kree soldier, cutting deeply into the gut of the alien.
Percy moved onto the first holding his sword with two hands, causing a fountain of blue blood to erupt from the stomach of the Kree soldier.
The initial horizontal strike flowing upwards into the neck of the staggered Kree who fell unceremoniously backwards. The fatal strike flowed backwards into the wounded Kree soldier also slicing across his neck, the force of blow causing the Kree to crash lifelessly against the wall.
Percy advanced.
Bringing the sword into a precision strike, the tip of the blade gleaming with blue blood against the green ribbons of singing light, against the armored chestplate. The blade sprouted out of the alien's back the blade blanketed in navy blood and raining it against the ground.
Percy twisted the sword as the Kree fell backwards at the force taking the blade with it as Percy relinquished his grip on it.
The man unsheathed a large knife, something Fury equated to a bayonet given its size, and in a single fluid motion had raised his arm, that shield from before springing into sudden existence, and blocked a hail of erratic laser fire from a Kree soldier that had somehow managed to escaped a tendril and bring his rifle to bear before that shield disappeared almost as soon as it appeared.
Percy, now with a free hand, grabbed the heated muzzle of the rifle, pulled it towards him and sunk the knife into the collar of the alien and pushed its dead form backward.
The alien with the sword still embedded in its chest fell beside him the moment the dagger had entered the collar, the hilt upward and grasped by the enhanced as if it was all natural and calculated.
The last ones being entirely ignored by the enhanced human as the whips of water coiled around the bodies and then tensed, causing further screams and sickening crunches of both metal and flesh to resound and echo throughout the hallway.
A flurry of silver metal, watery constructs and of complete uncare, Percy had utterly annihilated the Kree soldiers.
And he continued onwards, sheathing the dagger as he did so and ignoring the cowering Skrulls, Fury and Maria as they picked themselves up from their hidden alcoves. Talos and the other two Skrull engineers that had accompanied them to the ship began working to divest themselves, Fury and Maria of their restraints and muzzles.
Fury took in the scene around him fully again, blinking as he did so as his eyes adjusted fully to the teal-ish glow of Percy. Kree soldiers lying dead along the deck of the starship or lifelessly encased and pinned in sheets of ice against the bulkheads. Blue blood pooled and dripped beneath them all.
What watery tendrils remained circled and prowled around Percy, seemingly ready to do whatever he required at a moment's notice.
Still, he stood as a statue, his back towards them, his sword held at the ready and at his side still glowing and roiling with those seaweed-like ribbons of energy that wrapped around the metal of the blade.
Fury heard and felt that serene and melodious whisper tinge his mind once again but he brushed it aside as he approached the man and looked past him to see what he was looking at.
Resting a little ways away from them, down the hallway, laid the reinforced container that held the Tesseract. Between them and it, was Goose.
Who sat innocently there, unmuzzled and staring at them with wide but judging eyes. Goose's tail flicked and wavered too and fro behind him, seemingly waiting for them to do something.
While Fury had a mountain of questions for Percy, the SHIELD agent would be better served waiting until this was all over and done with.
But first they needed to get the Tesseract.
So when Fury stepped forward, he was more than a little alarmed when Percy placed an ironclad hand on his shoulder, preventing him from simply picking up the canister.
Goose's tail swished again, and its wide eyes narrowed into angry slits.
It all happened in an instant.
Fury was shoved roughly to the side, an eruption of pain tracing across and into his left eye as Percy swung his sword at the grotesque and serrated tentacles that exploded from the mouth of Goose.
Fury heard shouting as he clasped a hand around his injured and flaring eye and then he could think no more.
Percy was livid.
Carol had sent him in the wrong direction and he had only realized it when a group of Kree soldiers attempted to arrest and capture him.
He should've sensed something was off but as engrossed as he was and in a rather lucid and narrowed state, he simply took Carol at her word.
Time was of the essence after all. The sooner, he got the Tesseract, the better for all involved.
The demigod didn't think that Carol would actually lie to him.
How the hell was he supposed to know where it was? And how the hell was he supposed to be able to tell if she was telling the truth or not?
Percy would deal with that later.
He couldn't allow anyone to have the Stone.
He needed to get to it.
The encounter went rather poorly for the Kree soldiers who attempted to get in his way of obtaining his objective. They didn't last as long as they thought they would. While he could feel the bolts of energy impact him, they weren't the advanced and Aether-infused Svartalfar weapons that he had faced on Asgard, thus his armor wasn't penetrated.
He was just lucky that they didn't think to attack his rather exposed and unarmored legs. He would need to fix that rather glaring weakness in his body protection.
And so, Percy trailed back the way he came. That serene and melodious whisper edging his mind all the while and inciting and luring him further.
He moved with purpose and stumbled upon a smaller group of Kree and easily cut them down, not stopping in his stride even as they still fell from his masterful strikes.
And he found the large squadron, similar in size to the ones that had attempted to apprehend him initially, that held prisoner Fury and Maria and who he guessed to be civilian Skrull.
But while a hint of his mind was concerned for them, his eyes were on the real prize.
The Tesseract was being held by one of the Kree. The being's ignorance at what he held in his hand incensed him to no end.
In a moment's deduction and a simple whispering prod, Percy attacked.
Percy would have been faster and more brutal against the one that held the canister had there been no civilians present. As it was the demigod only spared them a second's consideration to ensure that at the very least, he didn't kill them accidentally.
He unconsciously pushed aside the feeling of burning that was tugging at his navel.
But he stopped short of reclaiming the Tesseract and placing it fully and wholly within his care. There was just one small…hitch in his stride that gave him pause and caused him to stop fully.
The…thing… Goose, Percy recalled after a moment, sat innocently in between him and his prize.
He did not like what was about to happen.
The moment Goose revealed its true monstrous nature, Percy was already acting.
His own tendrils of water forcing the civilians and back against the metal walls. Though in Fury's case had shoved him aside, intercepting a slimy and hooked tentacle with Thyella from gripping and lashing at the mortal.
Fury shouted in pain as he fell over clutching his face.
But Percy had to move and didn't shield Fury further nor did he check if he was alright.
The Tesseract was what mattered.
It was all that mattered.
Already, the barbed, hooked and serrated spines had cut into his flesh. While many had simply glanced off his armor, the erratic nature of the tentacles and arms of the monster allowed it to score a series of lucky and random slashes across his unarmored sections, numbing wherever they tore at his flesh.
As attuned as he was with his own body and liquid in general, the bastard monster was venomous and his body was already naturally working to expel the toxins from his body as he moved to close the distance and kill it.
Thick, yellow and caustic puss seeped from the wounds as he severed a score of tentacles, dripping onto the floor, searing into the metal beneath him as he continued to fight. Though it singed and burned at his clothes where ever it lingered like some sort of molten acid.
His armor thankfully spared.
The tentacles fell with meaty thuds as they writhed and coiled and shriveled in their death.
Still, Percy advanced ducking and maneuvering in and between the tentacles. It would have been easier had this been a fight underwater, where he had dealt with most cephalopods, for a variety of reasons. Disregarding the obvious ones, underwater he had the freedom to maneuver in whatever fashion he saw fit.
Here…he had no such luxury. It was either forward or back and Percy was of no mind to give any ground to a creature that was in between him and his objective.
And so he went forward, cutting and slicing through the wailing, roaring and hissing storm of teeth and tentacles that attempted to grapple him.
But he knew how to fight with tendrils just as this being did and so it was only a moment longer when he had fully closed the distance with this creature.
Its scalloped maw gnashed at him as he drew closer, many of its tentacles severed from its body, but more roiled from within as they began to draw themselves in preparation to strike.
Percy did not allow them.
In a swift diagonal swing of his sword as if he were swinging a golf club, he cut deep into the hide and lower jaw of the creature, its roar of anger and pain was cut short as the demigod adjusted his grip and brought it down where he assumed to be the neck of the creature.
It wailed in further agony as Percy dragged the edge of the blade upwards and then twisted, a meaty and sickening crunch of bone and flesh resounded from the action.
Its cry fell into a rumbling murmur before ceasing entirely.
The remaining limbs and heads that jutted from the maw of the cat falling with lifeless thuds to the floor.
Percy drew in a quick breath as he felt the numbing sensation in the several cuts of his body.
And while his natural purging was good, Percy was of a mind not to risk it and so expelled what toxin remained in his body but while that occurred, he moved for his prize. A serene and melodious song playing in his mind as he did so.
Stepping over the carcass of the creature, and kicking an errant tentacle off the canister, he went for the Tesseract.
He stopped short. The trailing and wisping azure smoke within whipping about and lashing towards him.
The energy reminded him of the Aether.
But he shrugged it off, the Tesseract was now his.
He grabbed the canister. The baleful and tempestuous chords of Thyella colliding and molding against the serene and melodious chorus that pervaded throughout his mind and creating a single harmonious song.
His head twitched and he strained his neck at the unnatural feeling. Even through the canister, he could feel the energy of the Stone calling to him. How the Kree that held it before seemed so unaffected was beyond Percy, though he didn't dwell on it too long.
The alien soldier was now dead and so it didn't matter.
"Percy!"
He was snapped from his reverie at the call of Maria, pulling his gaze over to her.
The demigod had entirely forgotten about them.
He moved as fast as he could to Fury where the elder Rambeau was cradling the head of the unconscious SHIELD agent, the Skrulls crowding around but opening up and creating a tunnel for him to rush through.
Though they could have only backed up only a few feet, many were pushed into the walls as they took large steps backwards, their eyes looking at him wide in fear.
He stepped and kneeled to the side two mortals, setting his sword down and hesitating for the barest of moments before doing the same with the canister that contained the Tesseract.
For the briefest of seconds, Percy could've sworn that the wisping smoke exuding from the Tesseract lashed out to him.
That brief moment reminded him eerily of how the Aether acted.
But he disregarded, at the moment, it didn't matter. He quickly took stock of the situation. Fury's previously injured eye was shut, inflamed and oozing a slight puss. The SHIELD agent was sweating bullets and looked as pale as he could possibly get.
"He's running a fever."
"It's venom. The Flerken got him." Talos spoke from the side, kneeling as well as he inspected the wound.
That was the easy and obvious conclusion.
But Percy had seen what serrated and hooked claws and weapons could do to flesh and knew the difference between the cut of a blade and that of a monster.
The cut on the man's eye was too clean to be from the serrated hooked barb of the creature. It would've torn the eye from its socket and the skin would've been jagged rather than cleanly cut.
That left a single conclusion.
Percy had cut the eye when he had shoved and protected him as the creature initially lashed out.
Only, the sword apparently had some lingering venom coating it and thus had poisoned the eye of the agent.
He would need to clean it but for now, he would try to save Fury.
"Don't touch the sword. There's still poison on it." Percy spoke as he put a hand on Fury's injured eye and willed the venom in the man's eye to him. It was a viscous substance as it was drawn out, like drawing sap from a tree. Percy flicked his hand and the small droplet of venom was tossed aside in an uncaring manner.
He checked the eye again.
It wasn't much but it was still enough to cause the man's pupil to become clouded and pale like a pearl only if that pearl had the mildest of scratches across its sheen surface. He wouldn't fully lose the eye but he would lose its sight.
The wound was still bleeding but the worst effects of it were now gone. There was a rumble in the ship and the lights around them flickered.
"Keep pressure on his eye. We need to get out of here." Percy ordered as he stood scooping the hilt of Thyella and clipping the handle of the canister to his waist where his helmet would usually go in smooth and swift movements. Though he willed some ice to form to adjust for the larger handle. "Wait ten seconds, then follow. I'll clear a path to the jet." The spear appeared in his now free hand in a wave of mist.
He still needed them. Well, he needed Fury and Maria. Maria in specific. She was the only one that could fly them out of there as Percy was not willing to risk divine travel with the Tesseract at least not that large of a distance.
As much as that small whisper in the back of his mind begged him to simply leave them and be done with it, he disregarded the notion completely.
Before they could even speak a word, the demigod had already leapt to his feet and was bounding down the hall, the tendrils of water trailing behind him closely and whipping about the walls like serpents.
He encountered his next group of Kree soldiers in the final corridor. Five of them stood guarding the large, heavy and reinforced doors that sat closed between them and the hanger. Percy didn't stop nor slow his charge even as they raised their rifles and shouted for him to stop.
Percy hefted Maimer and tossed it like a javelin just as he had done previously.
The centermost Kree soldier was impaled just as its former victim had and was thrown backward.
But unlike its previous victim, the Kree had instinctively squeezed the trigger of his rifle. The ensuing torrent of bolts hit a fellow Kree in the back and trailed up his back and upwards into the ceiling as the dead Kree fell from the spear.
The friendly fire, the sudden death of two of his comrades and from his own innate presence proved too much for one Kree to handle as he threw down his weapon and fled for the control panel at his side. A simple mash of a button and the door began to slide open.
Percy could hear and sense beings on the other side, most likely more Kree.
He would not allow them to join the fray and the demigod summoned water into existence. Little as there was in the dry and dead atmosphere of the vessel. It coalesced and materialized into being around the heavy, reinforced doors before freezing, into an equally as thick and heavy sheet of opaque sheet of ice.
A milder and more noticeable pain and tug erupting in his navel and mind at the action.
The door groaned and creaked in protest as it attempted to pull away from the ice holding it still and preventing it from fully opening.
The Kree soldier at the controls shouted for help as he banged and fired with his rifle at the ice, only for more to materialize into existence faster than it burned and melted away.
Percy's attention was only fractionally on that futile endeavor.
The other two only now opening fire but Percy was already closing the distance on them and well past the halfway mark in the corridor and almost upon them.
The bolts of energy still did little to phase him. In their panicked states, they fired upwards and where most of his armor was.
Just like before, what bolts weren't simply batted aside simply splashed harmlessly against the enchanted imperial gold as he deflected the ones that were aimed at his face. The heat of the blasts doing little to faze Percy, if he even noticed it.
Still it was only a moment of laser fire that the demigod had to endure. For the moment they opened fire, the trailing tendrils of water had already snaked up the sides and ceiling of the dimly lit hallway and shot forwards and struck.
Whips of water lashed around the barrels and bodies of their firearms and wretched them from their grasps. The closest Kree soldier was subsequently attacked and killed by a pair of watery constructs of serpents leaping and striking at both his face and neck. His garbled, strangled and drowned screams were cut short only a moment later.
The last Kree soldier, his weapon tossed away against the metal deck of the starship, shot his hands up in the universal sign of surrender. "I surren-" He shouted in terror but was cut off both literally and figuratively.
One powerful diagonal strike against the faceplate of the Kree soldier, cutting a large and thick gash across his face and sending flecks of metal and gore into the air. The Kree's head snapped and jerked from the force of the blow, as he fell lifelessly against the deck.
The last Kree soldier looked fearfully back at him for just a moment as Percy moved forward. His armored gauntlets began pounding hysterically in fear on the frozen and stalled door.
The harmonious hymn playing in his mind all the while, pressing and urging him forward.
Percy plunged Thyella into the back of the fear-stricken Kree soldier, its gleaming blade sprouting from the chest and embedding into the sheet of ice.
That subsequently exploded outward into the hanger at a simple mental command from the demigod. The ice dissolving into water in a split-second and launching forwards at the readied Kree soldiers like so many tentacles.
The Kree soldiers opened fire. The tentacles of water falling into steam from the onslaught of bolts only for them to regain their liquid form immediately afterward and continue forward.
The reinforced door slid open fiercely when the ice exploded, revealing Percy and the dead Kree soldier. The torrent of laser fire directed at him, while absorbed by the tendrils of water, still made it somewhat past the erratic and whipping tendrils. Though they impacted against their dead comrade as Percy leveraged the body as cover and pressed forward the moment he was able to cross the threshold.
The watery tendrils made contact.
Just as before they lashed about and around the Kree soldiers, only this time, given their formation was rather spread in a semi-circle to cover the door, it left Percy little work to do as he simply directed the tendrils with the intent to kill rather than restrain and distract. The open space making it inefficient to kill them himself.
It was over in a matter of moments. The rifles whining to a sputter as their wielders fell with broken bodies. Whatever remnants of water returned to him, but instead of tendrils and snaking eels of water, they had coalesced into orbs of water that circled, flitted and hovered around him.
Percy relinquished his hold on his improvised shield and shoved the dead alien off his weapon and maneuvered to the modified Quadjet, willing Maimer to his free hand in a mist of water.
Moments later, a crowd of Skrull civilians carrying a wounded Fury by the shoulders, led by Maria and Talos came into the hanger, having policed a couple of green Kree rifles for their own use. Fury looked to be in a sort of lucid and drowsy state, with his eye covered with an improvised bandage that Percy guessed to be a piece of torn shirt.
Not that they would need the alien weapons, but at least they weren't wholly helpless. Even if they would only get in his way if they attempted to fight alongside him. He hoped if they did get in a fight, they would just stay out of his way.
He couldn't guarantee they wouldn't end up like Fury if they did try to help.
"Carol said she had a score to settle and to go on without her." Maria said as she stepped passed him quickly while shooting him with a wary and worried look.
Percy didn't respond verbally or physically, feeling no need to do so as he stood sentry at the bottom of the ramp. His spear in his hand and sword splayed to the side at the ready.
If the Kree hybrid wanted to stay behind and play the hero, who was he to stop her? The Tesseract was his priority. "How long do you need to get us out of here?" Percy asked the woman as she jogged past him and into the Quadjet.
"A couple minutes at most!" She shouted back. It was an odd thing, Percy noted. Maria was rather lackadaisical about her friend but he mentally shook his thoughts from it. It was probably the shock of the situation and receiving any sort of command or order made her move and act automatically.
Percy nodded. Whatever time she needed then she would get it. Unlike back at the Pegasus Base, Percy had no reason to hold himself back.
The Skrulls, pulling and holding a delirious Fury, clambered into the craft, while Percy stood sentry at the bottom of the ramp, keeping his senses dialed and his gaze focused onto the entryway he just cleared. The orbs of water waiting patiently for his next commands.
There wasn't any need. Aside from the occasional heavy crashing that was heard from further within the starship, there was no other Kree soldiers sent their way. "We're good to go!"
Percy kept his eyes trained on the entryway as he slowly backed into the craft. The jet hydraulics hissing as they pulled the ramp up and locking into place. Percy didn't sit. Mainly because there was no place to do so as all the Skrulls had set themselves in every single one.
The only light provided inside was him. The swirling ribbons of pale green energy that wrapped around Thyella, the occasional sparking of Maimer and the dim blue glow of the Tesseract coating the interior in an odd tealish-blue color.
A moment later and the jet lurched forward and shot out of the hanger. Percy having no need of their services any longer, dismissed the spear, sword and orbs of water, dissolving them into a fine mist and willing them back into their respective homes.
It was quiet. Eerily so as Percy maneuvered to check on Fury's state. He couldn't exactly be having the guy he was going to entrust the Tesseract, while he went and prepared his family for war, dying.
He seemed to be doing okay, if still a little out of it.
The jet rocked from an explosion tossing Percy onto his back and against the floor at the suddenness. Maria bit out an expletive as she jerked the controls while the demigod scrambled to see what the hell that was.
"We got a tail!" She shouted as she worked the controls before her. Percy pulled himself to stand and it was only his training and strength that kept him upright as gravity pressed on him. He gripped the back of the pilot's chair as he looked out into the void.
Green coiled lasers darted beyond them as Maria did her best to evade the onslaught of fire. A trailing blue missile overtook them and exploded, causing the jet to rock.
Percy bit his tongue. The Skrulls and Carol had been forced to remove any armaments that the Quadjet had because of weight issues with the additional plating. Carol wanted them left on and wanted the seats taken out instead while the Skrulls were of an opposite mind. The demigod had thought it a ploy to keep them undefended but then they had protested by ceasing their work.
Percy would have killed them then and there. It wasn't like they were needed after that point but then Carol conceded and they returned to work.
Now he realized why. The refugees. Why they didn't let them know beforehand was beyond Percy, but he supposed they had their reasons.
Back to the matter at hand, however.
"Get to the surface!" Percy barked through gritted teeth and ideas forming in his mind. Maria didn't respond but instead flicked a series of switches and pressed the craft to descend. Not directly a nose-dive but pretty damn close to it. The demigod felt his stomach lurch from the force and a welling of fear begin to erupt within him as he gazed out from the reinforced cockpit windows.
He pushed away from the seat.
The inertia dampeners kicked in and while there was still the pressure of gravity weighing upon him, it became a lot more bearable, enough that he could now stand without support.
Percy maneuvered to the rear, calling upon Maimer once more. The electric spear forming in his hand. This was insurance and among his last resorts. He only had one bolt per charge inside it and calling upon bolts of lightning would be akin to holding a sign and blaring a fog horn to tell the Sky Lord where he was.
While he may have had leave to call upon the eldritch bolts in his time, Percy did not think that he had the leave to do so in this time.
Still he had to try something.
Since divine travel was decidedly not an option with the Tesseract, Percy would have to deal with the threat.
The aircraft swayed and tumbled from both explosions and turbulence. Percy had to hold onto the overhead handrails to keep balance. "Lower the ramp!"
Only moments later, the ramp lowered, the hydraulics hissing and cold white pressurized air discharging.
They were well up in the air and the afternoon sun was shining in full force against the copper and yellowish orange plains of a desert. A rush of air greeted Percy as he blinked to adjust his eyes to the sudden assault of light.
He focused, his senses dialed as he spotted an alien aircraft trailing behind them, firing short bursts of green lasers attempting to bring them down. It was like a large but compact silver, green and black boomerang about twice the size of the Quadjet, Percy estimated. It had two stubby barrels where the pulses of green emanated from and flew with a trailing green light as if it were some sort of vehicle from Tron.
Percy adjusted his stance and gripped with one hand against the foremost overhanging handle and set Maimer horizontally.
Then he called forth a wall of water, one to materialize just in front of their alien pursuer and to be as solid and unyielding as steel.
Only for his sinuses to erupt in a daunting and familiar flaring pressure. The forming wall of water collapsing under its weight and cascading to the desert floor. What water that was high enough was simply barreled through by the pursuing craft.
An explosion from a green bolt rocked the Quadjet. Whimpers and wails of fear pervaded throughout the cabin interior from the Skrulls.
An animalistic and primal annoyance welled up within Percy and he growled. He could feel a slight trickle of liquid fall from his eyes and nose, and the taste of iron began to edge the upper part of his lip.
"Keep it steady!" Percy barked over the howling wind. The demigod leveled Maimer once again, he could feel the arcing tendrils of lightning cascade and build across the shaft of the spear and coalesce at the tip of the enchanted weapon.
Percy's aim was never the best. Sure, he had a natural affinity with javelins and spears and practiced and became an adept warrior with them but beyond those, it was often useless to learn anything that involved ranged weaponry. Combine that with the fact that they were rocking around in a jet a couple hundred meters above sea level, and attempting to hit an advanced and maneuverable alien aircraft and it was less than any ideal situation.
He would prefer rock, solid ground over the swaying of any jet no matter how stable the flying was.
So it wasn't a surprise to him, that when he pressed his spear forward and squeezed, the bolt of lightning that shot forth from it had only grazed the center of the craft. It was enough however. The bolt had carved a large metal gouge into the alien craft. Sparks and dark, black smoke emanating from a roaring fire as the alien fighter careened, flipped and was sent crashing into the desert ground.
He let out a breath of relief as he lowered the spear and shook his head slightly and shut his eyes tightly in an attempt to relieve some of the pressure in his mind.
Then the jet rocked again snapping him from his thoughts, a torrent of green bolts cascading like rain onto the craft though most luckily missed. The force was enough to cause him to stumble and almost fall from the quadjet, though he was able to catch himself before he did so, hanging onto the side of the jet.
Percy growled his annoyance and clutched the side of the Quadjet as he saw another fighter align itself behind them.
A familiar golden, fiery streak of light flashed in front of him, soaring past at them and at the alien craft. He could just see the figure of Carol in her newly hued suit, skim the craft and impact it with a short range beam of energy at point blank range. Just enough for it a thick cloud of black smoke to trail from its body and for it to begin to careen downwards towards the desert surface, suffering a similar if less abusive fate than its former comrade.
Percy's attention was no longer on that however, just in the distant and cloudless sky, if he focused just enough, he could see the tiny figures of something heading towards them. He had only seen it because his senses were dialed and their sudden appearance had drawn his gaze.
They grew closer, though there was a spread of them. One trailed just a bit further than all the others.
Carol, encased as she was in energy, took one look at whatever was up there and immediately shot to meet them.
That harmonious yet tempestuous hymn grew louder in his mind.
Would she be enough?
No. He decided immediately. Percy wasn't going to take that risk.
He turned to the nearest Skrull and unclipped the canister that contained the Tesseract from his hip. A female child, he guessed and wore what amounted to in his eyes purple and tattered rags as if it were peeling away like leaves. He didn't have a choice. Precious milliseconds like these decided everything.
He couldn't give it to a trusted Fury, who in his delirious state was not someone capable of handling the Tesseract.
He couldn't give it to Rambeau, who was too busy circling around the desert and piloting the craft. "I'll meet you guys back at your home!" He shouted over the roaring wind that continued to pervade around the cabin interior.
He pushed the canister into the girl's arms, having to forcefully ignore the chaotic and chorus that sang to him and pleaded with him to not part with it. The smoky blue energy within whipping and crashing against the glass like waves of water towards him.
"I'll be back for that." He said, in a lower and dangerous voice. Not waiting for an answer, Percy turned and leapt off the quadjet, shouts of alarm directed at him but grew quiet as he free-fell to the desert surface.
He willed himself into a mist of water and to appear at the ground. It should've been easy, short range misting should've have been of little difficulty and consequence.
He did disappear in a mist of water, only to suddenly hit a wall of golden energy.
The result ended with his momentum carrying him forward, and rebounding him back into his physical form a dozen meters above the surface. He braced himself and landed in a roll and skidding to a stop using the spear to prop himself up, the pain and force of the landing definitely bruising his body. Yet the pain and force from hitting the wall of energy flared in his mind.
Worry about that later.
He focused his gaze into the sky. His acute vision now able to discern the shapes of the objects. They looked large and if he was honest looked like missiles.
Were the Kree nuking the place?
How the hell was he going to stop all those things?
Time seemed to freeze for the briefest of moments as his mind went into overdrive to consider all his options.
He couldn't use his water powers. He was fighting for control this entire time and had completely lost it just moments prior when he attempted to easily deal with the first alien craft.
He couldn't use his earth powers. Those were unrefined and if anyone was watching as he feared they might be, he could not be seen using them. Regardless there was no way that he could meet the missiles in time should he use them. They were powerful, but slow.
But what about his powers over lightning? He could intercept them before they even got close to the surface. A bolt of lightning would go unnoticed by the King of Olympus wouldn't it? He would be banking on so many things to go right if he did so. Percy would be hoping that his uncle wouldn't strike him down, if he was even paying attention.
He would be hoping that his uncle would simply dismiss him as an errant demigod of his Roman form or perhaps an overzealous storm or wind spirit.
He would be hoping that his uncle simply wouldn't care.
And why would he? The King of Olympus had other things to worry about then some bolts of lightning going amiss.
The thought to simply leave and retreat was there but was quickly dismissed. His charge by Hestia to protect the Mortal Realm was not one to be taken lightly even if it was not for this world. After all, he had already intervened and to stop now would make the entire effort almost wasted and would see it as him abandoning his duty.
And Percy never abandoned his duty.
And so the demigod son of Poseidon determined his one and only route would be entering the domain of the Sky Lord and hope against hope that the King of Olympus had not cast his gaze to Percy's direction.
Percy decided and so he would proceed. He could not leave the fate of whatever was coming to Carol. While he did not know her well, it sat ill with him and made him internally recoil in discomfort at having to do this.
She would die if he destroyed them and was too close to the ensuing fallout.
But it looked as if she already came to terms with this as she continued to close the distance with the missiles.
A welling of fear, indecision and parallels came to the forefront of his mind at her actions.
It cost him a second and the missiles streamed ever closer and Carol continued her flight towards them.
Percy could guarantee it's outcome alone. The Infinity Stone was at risk. His family was at risk.
They were all that mattered.
A simple, serene and melodious whisper prodded his mind.
And Percy cemented his decision.
He readied himself, took a deep breath, raised Maimer into the air and willed forth a bolt of eldritch energy. His gaze and intent focused on the missiles.
I'm sorry, Carol.
He felt the energy coalesce and respond to him. A puff of dark storm clouds having formed instantly in response to his will. It went and Percy focused its direction into the missiles.
Than his control was torn away in an instant. A sudden flaring of pain impacting his mind, a momentary lapse as his free hand clasped against his helmeted head in an attempt to lessen the heavy pressure.
But Percy could not fail.
He fought for control of the bolt and willed it into the missiles.
Whether Carol was there or not, no longer on his mind. Not when he was fighting to direct the bolt of lightning.
He lost it and Percy opened his eyes to see his failure.
A crippling pressure descended upon him and the demigod fell to a knee in a wince of pain as he struggled to fight back.
The earth beneath him began to shake and shatter. A localized wave of pressure forming a crater from where he fell.
All the color of the world seemed to drain away in an instant, turning the formally green and prickling cactus, bramble and bush and the yellow sands and orange mesas of the desert canyons into a grayscale inky amalgamation.
His ears popped as the pressure increased and a liquid trail fell from his ears.
A heavy and thick smell of ozone permeated, like a mirage of smoke. He could feel the hairs on his neck and arms stand on end at the sensations and smell.
Percy had only experienced this once.
But on a magnitude much larger than this.
In the last day of the Second Gigantomachy, in the final, climatic ending of the Earth Mother, the Giants and their armies, Zeus had unleashed the power of the Master Bolt in all its glory onto Prophoryion.
The portion of the monster army that had stood between the the King of Olympus and the King of the Giants had simply vanished. Evaporated into golden dust as they were engulfed in the ensuing fireball that emanated from the Giant King.
Not even the sudden attack from his uncle on Olympus when he had intervened in New York held even a fraction of the Master Bolt's true power.
And here he was about to be both witness and victim to what had befell countless monster and many of the Gigantes.
Uncaring about the alien missiles now, or whether or not they were dealt with, it was now a matter of his own survival.
The flash of light, the pale, electric, heavenly blue lightning descended.
He was a fool for believing he could take on the King of Olympus.
In Percy's desperation, he willed himself into a mist of water and thought only of that Louisiana bank.
In Percy's desperation, he shattered the divine ward that prevented immortal travel.
And in Percy's desperation, he felt pain. An absolute, searing and flaring pain cascade across his body.
And Percy succumbed to darkness.
'A mountain is composed of tiny grains of earth. The ocean is made up of tiny drops of water. Even so, life is but an endless series of little details, actions, speeches, and thoughts. And the consequences whether good or bad of even the least of them are far-reaching.'
-Swami Sivananda
Not much to say here :D Please do tell me your thoughts though!
On that note, (and as always), you can find me on the Emerald Library Discord! It's a fantastic place to interact with other writers and readers where we just chill and chat about ideas, future works and generally just have a good time! You can also find an update schedule for Of Water and Salt on there!
The link to that is on my profile!