You know, if someone had told me when I was 17 that an Hephaestus kid who loved Star Gate would one day inadvertently cause the destruction of the Greek and Roman pantheons, I would have laughed at them, knowing what I do now, let's just say I wouldn't laugh. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that the death of my Pantheon came to an end in the most unexpected way imaginable. How you're wondering, well I'll tell you.
You see, after the war with Gaia and her Giant children it was decided that we would create a new camp, one that combined both Greek and Roman aspects of the Pantheon. Well I say camp, but really, we wanted a large city, where we and our decedents could live and go to school for all foreseeable generations. The problem came when we couldn't find an area large enough to build. Then one space loving Hephaestus camper said, why don't we take to the stars. Find our own planet and terraform, and maybe set up an interplanetary portal so we could come and go as we pleased. I know, it sounds ridicules, but don't underestimate us demigods, we tend to break expectations on a daily basis.
Regardless, the process took time, 5 years in fact, but with the combined intelligence of all the Hephaestus, Athena, and Hecate campers we managed it. We created a portal that would lead us to a new planet, one where we could live free of the monsters that haunted us in this one. A world without Primordial's, and Titans, a place where we could live free.
It sounds great right, well that's not how it happened. It turned out that there was more life than what purely existed on Earth, beings that even the Olympians were unaware of. That ignorance caused the death of every god, demigod, monster, and titan. Well, everyone except me, Percy Jackson the last child of Olympus, sole heir of the Greek and Roman Pantheon.
Now, I know what you may be thinking. How do you kill an entire pantheon? How are you still alive? Who or what killed everyone? The answer to all three questions is that, I do not know. Wait that's not true. I know why I'm still alive… sort of, well I have a guess really. You see, when all this was happening I was actually on a quest, from Apollo of all people, or would it be of all gods? Eh, who cares. As I was saying, Apollo sent me on a quest to Alaska. Apparently, he dropped sacks full of golden Drachma up there, and since he as a god was powerless there, he asked me to retrieve them for him. I agreed in exchange for half of them, because even a demigod needs to eat and this would not only let me eat it would let me live extravagantly, or I hoped.
Now, don't go judging me, and call me greedy or something. As a demigod, it's hard enough to stay alive, let alone get a good job and make a decent living. You try to keep your grades up and get into a good college when you're constantly hunted by monsters. Regardless, this is how those few demigods made it into adulthood survived in the mortal world.
Anyhow, I'm getting off track. As I was saying before, I was in Alaska when the first scouting trips were made, and when I got back with a literal boat load of gold, everyone was simply gone. To clarify by everyone I mean, all the non-mortal beings, as in the gods, demigods, nature spirits, and monsters. Even the underworld was barren. All that was left was empty structures of a now dead pantheon.
That was three years ago. The aftermath was… I don't know. How would you describe the complete cessation of a large part of your identity? It's weird, to be perfectly honest I was getting tired living the life of a demigod. I wanted to live a normal life, or as close to one as I could. Now, that there all gone I find myself missing the challenges that were presented to me by that side of my life. What I missed most of all were the bonds I forged with all of the people I met because of my heritage. I lost a lot of people, that day, and as a demigod losing people was part of the deal, didn't mean that it didn't hurt though, because it did and still does. That being said, you learn how to move on relatively quickly, and learn to take solace in the people that are still alive. For me, that was my mother, the only person that I had left.
The period following the end of Olympus was a unique time. I scavenged through all the stuff that was left behind, and visited the mortal families of all the demigods that I could using information that was left behind in the wake of the Great Vanishing as I called it at the time. That took me little more than a year, but without any monsters chasing me and with the money left behind I individually went to every address in the both of the camps directories, and informed all the mortal parents about the fate that had befallen their children.
After I had visited all of the mortal families I could I was again at a loss as to what to do. So, I went traveling. I went wherever I felt like. After I couldn't think of anywhere else to go to, I went back to America and sold a large amount of the Gold Drachma for dollars. I think it would suffice to say that after that transaction I became really wealthy, like wealthy, as in 12 figure rich. Yeah. I claimed that I went deep sea diving in the Ionian Sea, and found several ships full of it. The mortals were suspicious, but the gold was real and a small application of the mist ensured that the transaction went smoothly.
There was unsurprisingly a lot that you could do with that much money, and I did do a lot, and am doing a lot. I donated a lot to a lot of charities, created some very well-funded orphanages, built a lot of schools, which was ironic because I never got around to getting a high school diploma myself.
That's pretty much how I occupied my time, well that and exploring the now ghost-cities of Olympus, and Atlantis. They were quite large, larger than I thought they would be all things considered. But it sort of did make sense, these were the homes of families literally a few thousand years old, and I never really thought about it, but nearly all the immortal families lived on Olympus, and immortals tended to have immortal children. I noticed that most of what I found on Olympus wasn't actually included in its mythology, which made sense considering that the gods were only visibly present for a brief point in mankind's history, and they never actually stagnated as they were always moving along with western civilization. Atlantis mostly the same, except it was a lot easier for me to navigate it. After spending a week there, I knew the city like the back of my hand.
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure I own Olympus and Atlantis, two of the most legendary places on earth, and all the stuff inside them. Which is pretty insane considering what the gods left behind when they died. Weapons, armors, shoes (that flew), art, technology (most of which I had no clue what it did), treasure, essentially an entire civilization worth of stuff now belonged to me, which was absolutely insane, and tragic.
The funniest thing is, that I thought that with the end of the Greek world I was free to live a life that was somewhat normal. Which in hindsight is still completely rational because there is no way in the world I could have guessed what was about to happen.
I was in Germany when it began. What happened, well… So I was walking around in Stuttgart, enjoying the sights, admiring the architecture, like she would have done. Something I did quite often, as a tribute to her. I even resolved to build something one day to honor her memory, but for now all I did was look at different structures and read up on how they were built. As I was saying, I was walking around and I came upon the most peculiar site.
There was a dude in green leather wearing a helmet with horns on it, and standing in front of him was a man wearing an American flag.
"Ah, if it isn't for the man out of time!" Said the dude with the horned helmet.
"You know, the last time I was in Germany and a man thought that it would be a good idea to stand above everyone else, we ended up disagreeing." Replied the Flag.
"Yeah, Hitler was a real piece of work, but I knew his little brother he was pretty chill, he bailed me out of trouble more times than I can count, his sisters were pretty chill too, although I only knew one in passing." I said, joining in on the conversation.
"Who are you?" Asked a red headed woman, who I note was the most normally dressed out of the three. Which wasn't saying much though considering she was wearing all leather.
"Oh, I'm Percy Jackson. You may have heard of me." I replied.
"The billionaire?" She said, surprise showing on her face.
"The one and only." I said as I focused on the horned dude. "So… I didn't know there was a costume party going on here. It's weird that nobody invited me. Seeing your costumes however, I doubt I would have come anyway."
"Enough of this. Kneel. This is that last time I will ask!" Shouted horns, visibly getting irritated.
"Na, don't want to get dirt on this suit you know, I spent quite a bit on this." I said, while a wiped some imaginary dust off of my shoulder. He didn't take that too well, as he immediately shot out some beam from his scepter. Calmly sidestepping I said "Tch, no manners these days. This isn't how we start fight on earth horns."
"Pray tell, how do you start one? I'm rather curios."
"Easy, by boasting of course." I replied, not missing a beat.
"In that case, allow me to introduce myself. Tony Stark, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, and Iron man, not necessarily in that order." Said a new arrival in a metal suit.
"See, this guy knows how to start a fight." I said, nodding at Tony. "I'm Perseus Jackson, Son of Poseidon. Bane of the Titans Kronos, Hyperion, and Iapetus, Slayer of the Giants, Polybotes and Otis, Prince well … King of Atlantis, Hero of Olympus two times. A lot of other things as well but, those are all of things I can remember on top of my head, if you want I can write you a list later. Now who are you? " I asked horns.
"I am Loki of Asgard." He said.
"As in the god of mischief?" I asked.
"So you've heard of me?" He said, looking smug.
Ignoring his I question I continued. "If you're a god, then why are you wasting time trying to get mortals to kneel? Like maybe if you came a couple thousand years ago they might have, but the mortals don't worship the gods like they used to, and why am I explaining all of this to you, you should know this already. Eh, you know what? I don't even care anymore, you pissed me of, so…" I pulled out a pen from my pocket, and as it elongated to take the form of my sword I said. "Your gonna have to go back to whatever hole you crawled out of."
"I agree with the kid, you are pissing me off. However, you're not going back to the hole you came from, you're going to come with us, return the Tesseract, and then pay for all the people you killed. "
"Whoa, you killed mortals? Dude that is not cool. I thought you said you were a god, you're not allowed to kill them, remember the ancient laws?"
"I know not what you speak of ant! I've had enough of this." Shouted Loki, immediately after he pulled out a knife, and threw it at the dude in the American flag, and blasted Tony with his scepter.
Instinctively, I took command of the water from a nearby fountain and blasted him towards me. Side stepping a stab from his scepter, I whacked his helmet with the butt of my sword. He wasn't even phased. Yeah, this was not going to be easy, but then again, what was easy.
I fought defensively for a good bit, analyzing his fighting style and what not, and I have to say, I was impressed. His blows were vicious, precise, and he really packed a lot of force. All that being said after being in as many fights as I have, you don't roll over at every skilled opponent, no sir, you learn to fight to win.
Ducking under a swipe, I decided it was time to go on the offensive. So when he tried to stab instead of parrying, I grabbed the scepter with my free hand and kicked him in the chest forcing him to release his weapon. Throwing both my sword and his scepter behind me I engaged him in hand to hand combat. He looked rather flustered, probably wasn't expecting to face someone like me in battle when he came here. After all, I doubt there were many mortals capable of fighting at the level me and him were.
Glancing around, I noticed that the others were prepared to engage. I bet the only reason they hadn't was because they couldn't interfere without risking me, no matter, it was time to end this fight.
Riptide had reappeared in my pocket, so with practiced ease I quickly pulled it out of my pocket and uncapped it. If he looked shocked at my trick he didn't show it. With the sword in my hand, I quickly maneuvered myself so that I was behind him. Immediately I stomped on his calf so the he was kneeling in front of. Holding riptide over his neck I asked "how do you like kneeling bitch?"
Unfortunately he didn't have a chance to respond. The others seeing a clear shot immediately let loose. So, Loki fell face first into the pavement after being blasted by Ironman, tazed by the women in leather, and hit with a metal shield.
He was so going to feel that when he woke up tomorrow.
"So, what's up guys?" I asked.
"Your coming with us." Said the red head, before she started walking towards a plane.
"Eh, why not. I could use some excitement."
Xxxx
"So, what type of plane is this?" I asked trying to break the ice.
"It's called a quinjet." Replied the red head, who's name turned out to be Natasha.
"Fascinating." I replied, trying to sound interested. Overhead thunder and lightning started up. Instantly I got nervous. Ever since Zeus had died, the sky didn't seem as threatening, and as such I was fairly comfortable. That lightning however wasn't natural. You can sort of tell because the sky is clear.
"What you afraid of a little thunder." It took me a moment to realize that Tony was talking to Loki.
"Tch, I'm just not overly fond of what follows." Loki explained.
Just then the hatch opened, and a dude with a hammer walked in grabbed Loki and flew out.
"Did that really just happen?" I exclaimed. Looking around, I noticed the guys putting on their respective head gear.
"Stark wait. We need a plan of attack." Steve said, trying to stop Tony from leaving.
"I have a plan. Attack!" Replied Tony, before he flew out of the plane. I'm not going to lie, that was pretty sick.
"Well you heard the man, let's go." Then I jumped out of the plane. Which was a poor decision now that I think about it. In the past Blackjack would have caught me, now I was most probably falling to my doom. As luck would have it however, I noticed a small stream. That would do.
Using my powers to manipulate the stream into catching me, I gently lowered myself to the ground. Looking around, I ran towards the noises that were presumably coming from Tony's and Thor's battle.
Upon entering the clearing where Tony and Thor were duking it out, I took notice of all the destruction they were causing. If only Grover were here now, he would totally freak.
"So not cool guys. Thor, I understand that you don't live here but that's not an excuse to destroy a forest, and Tony, I thought you were doing the whole clean energy thing." I said, but seeing as they weren't exactly listening I brought out Riptide. Let's hope actions do speak louder than words.
Now all I needed to do was get their attention, well more Thor's attention than Tony's, so I picked up a decent sized rock and chucked it at Thor, then proceeded by shouting "Hey Goldilocks!"
That caught his attention pretty well seeing as he chucked his hammer at me. Deciding to show off a bit, I side stepped, and grabbed the hammer's handle as it passed me. Immediately I could feel electricity coursing through me, absentmindedly I noticed that I was floating a few feet off the ground.
"Say, blondie, who taught you how to fight. Clearly they didn't teach you not to hand your weapon to your opponent." I taunted as I casually threw the weapon, letting it flip once in air before catching it again.
"You, how…" Stammered Thor. He held his hand out and I felt a slight tug on the handle, I almost let it go in surprise, almost.
Holding up the hammer, I inspected it slowly. Then almost instinctually I called to the sky and I felt a massive tug in my gut. Thunder boomed, and lightning split the sky before striking the hammer.
"So, I'm not too sure about what's going on here but I think we're done." Said the recently arrived Captain America. "Percy."
"Huh, oh what's up Cap?" I replied, still sort of distracted.
"Your eyes are kind of glowing white, and I also think you should return his hammer, he seems to be in shock."
"Huh, yeah sure." I replied before I walked over to Thor and held out his hammer pommel first. "Just promise not to hit Ironman with it anymore, I'm pretty sure he already has a few screws loose, and I doubt giving him shock therapy will help." I said jokingly.
Xxxx
"You know, I don't think anyone here bothered to introduce themselves. So how bout we do that?" I said as we got back on to the quinjet.
"Aye, I am Thor Odinson, prince of Asgard. It's a pleasure to meet such a fine warrior, after all there are not many who are worthy of holding Mjolnir, let alone using it." Said Thor, in a booming voice.
"Perseus Jackson son of Poseidon, and uhh… its nice to meet you too."
"I must confess, I did not know that Lord Poseidon was in fact a lady." Replied Thor looking sort of sheepish.
"Huh, no… what…, uhh no he's definitely a dude." I stammered completely at a loss.
"I am confused. How can two men conceive a child?" Replied Thor, his face taking on a confused expression. "Midgard's technology has indeed grown in strange ways."
I looked at him blankly, then looked around to the others a wide-eyed expression on my face. They were definitely enjoying this.
"Forget it, I'll explain Earth's naming conventions to you later." I said to him, clearing my head of thoughts of Poseidina. "Hey, how come you seem to know about Greek deities, but Loki didn't?"
"My father informed me about them before he sent me here. I think he foresaw our meeting." Replied Thor.
"What did he tell you? Do you know what happened to them?" I asked rapidly, a hint of desperation showing through in my voice.
"He may. He seemed unusually uncertain when he mentioned them. Why, is not all well within your family?"
"That's the thing, three years ago everyone vanished. All the gods, demigods, nature spirits, and even the monsters, gone. All that remains of my pantheon are the empty kingdoms and homes. Even the underworld was bared of the souls of the dead." I replied solemnly.
"My deepest condolences, whoever it was must truly be heartless. To go so far as to disturb the peace of the dead, it is a monstrous deed."
With that all future conversations seemed to die.
Xxxxx
"Perseus Jackson. In a fifth grade fieldtrip, you hit the wrong lever at sea world, the class took an unexpected swim. In sixth grade, you fired a war cannon at a school bus. The summer after seventh grade, you allegedly totalled your step-fathers car, caused an explosion at the Hoover Dam, and led the authorities in a merry chase across the continent. Turned out you had been kidnapped. You were relatively quiet for two years, but then are seen venturing in to Mount Helan, half an hour later the volcano erupts, you are presumed dead. Two weeks later you return to life. A year later, you go missing for over eight months, then are spotted in San Francisco. Mysteriously you and a group of six other teenagers are spotted in traveling across Italy, shortly after. How you got there, still remains a mystery." Said a bald man with an eyepatch when I stepped on an Argo II rip off.
Looking at the other three I said, "What's his deal?" All I got was a shoulder shrug from Thor. "So you've been stalking me?" I asked, as I turned back to face him. I could swear I heard someone snicker behind me, ignoring it I continued to stare at him. Suddenly a thought struck me. "Your eye. How did you lose it?" I asked, an image of Ethan Nakamura flashing through my mind.
"That is irrelevant. What I need to know is exactly who you are, and what you're doing on my ship." He said with a glare that was meant to be intimidating. I gave him my wolf eye glare in turn. When I was 17, I could literally scare of gangsters, when I was 20, only the stupidest of beings would challenge me. Even some gods would shy away from that stare. Fury, he didn't look like he noticed. I was impressed.
"Well, I've already told you who I am, I'm not exactly shy with that information. As for what I'm doing here, well that's a heavy question. Mostly, I'm here because of him" I said as I pointed to Thor, "and his brother."
"Why would they interest you?" He asked.
"They're gods. Most do their own thing, and consider mortals beneath them, beyond that they are busy people, they each have to rule over their respective domains. In fact, the only times that gods really interact with mortals is when they're … frisky. The fact that Loki seriously wants to rule mankind is strange. Every pantheon that I've encountered has eventually come to the conclusion that mortals are useless, and leave us alone for the most part. Not only that, but most have laws in place that limit the interactions between mortals and gods that every pantheon on earth is required to follow. There called the ancient laws, and they're enforced by the Fates, the Moirai, Shay, it's different for each Pantheon, but their purpose is the same. To prevent divine beings from causing harm to mortals." I said.
"You said that you were the son of Poseidon. Does that not make you a god?" Asked Fury.
"Demigod. I'm something in-between a god and a mortal." I replied.
"What about Hitler, you said you know his siblings." He said.
"Half siblings, he was a demigod son of Hades. They tend to hold grudges really well. "I replied, hiding a wince.
"Wait, your telling me that your cousin started WW2!" Shouted Captain America.
"Take a chill pill. I don't judge you based on your family. Besides for every bad demigod, there used to be hundred times as many good ones. I don't see you criticizing me for being related to George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Houdini, or Benjamin Franklin." I answered.
"George Wahsington?" Said Tony.
"Winston Churchill?" Said Captain America.
"Son of Zeus, and my older Brother." I replied.
"It can't be a coincidence that the two leaders of WW2 were both Demigods!" Replied Steve.
"It wasn't. The Greek gods were tied to closely to mortals, and their fights tend to spill over to the mortal worlds. It's been that way since the dawn of humanity." I replied solemnly.
"That's… Terrible." Replied Steve.
"It sucks, but it's also not as bad as you're thinking. The gods did fight, but cooler heads tended to prevail. Most wars that the gods fought rarely bled through to the mortal world. For example, we fought two wars in the last decade, one against the Titans and another against the Earth Mother. The one against Titans was even fought in the streets of New York." I said. "But, you already knew that didn't you?"
"Wh.." He started to say, but I didn't let him finish. I pulled out riptide and slashed at him faster than he could even blink. A narrow cut appeared on his forearm and a single drop if blood fell at his feet.
"Nickolas Fury, legacy of Nemesis." I said.
AN: That's it for the first chapter, let me know what you think in the reviews. This story is a little bit different than what I normally write, in that I plan on seeing it through to the end. Also, this story will follow the Avengers timeline, but that doesn't mean that they will always feature in it. Above everything this story is about Percy, and he will have his own adventures, and face his own enemies. At times he will work together with the other characters from the Avengers, but when he does events will turn out differently as they did in the MCU.
I have a vision for this story and I know where I want to make it go, that being said, if you have any Hero's or Villains that you want Percy to come in contact with, let me know.