Loyalty, Family, and Deadliness: [Fury's Stresses 4] Fury's eradicated HYDRA, been warned off of recruiting Percy Jackson by everyone from Thor to the seventh floor janitor, and celebrated a lost demigod's life with more demigods and a few Egyptian magicians. He understands the (Greek) demigods and the magicians—but what's Thor got to do with this?
"Jackson."
"Yes, Director Fury?"
"From my understanding, you aren't a sovereign."
The demigod actually looked up. "Hades, no. Who's calling me Prince now?"
Fury shifted his stance. Obviously, this happened fairly often for Jackson to hit the nail on the head. "Thor."
The black-haired teen snorted. "Of course. Oh, Thor. It's nothing major, Director. I am the son of the god of the sea. I am called Prince of the Sea because of my parentage. Jason and Thalia are Prince and Princess of the Sky. Nico…well, Nico is weird. He's called Ghost King. I think Hades doesn't like Melinoe, and fires her whenever possible."
"Jackson, I am not a demigod," Fury barked. "I don't know who the hell Melinoe is, or how this relates to being called Ghost King is weirder than the rest of the shit you demigods practically dive into."
"I swear, it's not on purpose," Jackson defended. "I don't go and look for trouble. It literally comes and finds me!" He paused. "Melinoe is the goddess of ghosts. She imitates who you regret the most. The term 'ghosts of the past'? That was based off of her. The title Ghost King is weird for demigods because this means that their godly parent basically gave them a piece of their kingdom for as long as they're alive. Nico's powers could range from summoning riches and hellfire to summoning spirits and raising skeletons to wage war. Titles, in the demigod world, mean something. The title Ghost King? Well…he had pretty good control over the deathly aspects of his powers. Now those powers are essentially multiplied threefold, at least."
"Okay. And while we're on the topic of princes and kings, how did you meet Thor?"
He suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Um…I don't really know how to explain it."
Fury sat down in a chair. "I got all night. Although, I brought paperwork if you bore me."
The demigod slowly sat back, playing with a cup full of ice. "I really seriously doubt it. This one was a weird one, even for me."
Fury sat forward. "Continue."
He tapped his index finger once on the table. "I suppose it started about two months ago. I was still eighteen. The Giant War and Reboot!Civil War had ended less than a year before and things were still chaotic. Annabeth and I had regular morning calls. She missed one, and I looked into it. Turns out that she was missing, period."
His middle finger hit the table, as if making a second point. "The last time someone important went missing, it was because of the gods. I immediately stormed Olympus to find out what idiot had taken her. For once, the Olympians were innocent."
His eyes turned haunted, and his ring finger tapped the table once. "I found her four days later, dying in Camp Half-Blood's woods. She had been gutted. It was a horrible, painful way to die. All I could remember was her eyes. She died, I caused an earthquake. It killed five people."
Pinky finger hit the table almost savagely. "I was dragged to Olympus, almost comatose with grief. The thing about fame—it's a fickle thing. I was a hero for a month, and then I was a villain for a grief-stricken mother. I was tried by a kangaroo court and stripped of my powers, and almost literally drop-kicked from Olympus. In terms of distance that you might be able to imagine: imagine five Empire State Buildings, stacked on top of each other. Then get kicked off of them."
"You're dead."
"I almost died when I tried to create a hurricane to slow myself down," Jackson said grimly. "I passed out while still in the air—I can't even remember where, I could have been a story from the ground, I could have been three hundred stories from the ground. Hitting the ground actually woke me up, though."
"You are really supposed to be dead."
"I know," Jackson agreed. "I woke to this brunette leaning over me and saying—"
"Dude, that was a hardcore thump. How the hell are you still alive? How is he still alive? I sucked at Physics, but I'm pretty sure that defies the laws of physics. Like, all of them. Including the ones that you're rewriting, Jane. Hey, do you need a hospital? Because you're kind of covered in blood."
Percy groaned and rolled over. "Could you shut up?"
"Ignore her, I do," said the blonde. "I only have two questions for you: one, are you related to Thor? And two, do you need medical assistance?"
Percy blinked and heaved a breath. "No, and probably. Oh, gods— Help me sit up."
"Uh, you probably shouldn't move if it hurts," the blonde said skeptically.
"And you're all for doing the healthy thing, Miss Ninety-pounds-soaking-wet?" Percy snarled. "Now help me up, gods damn—"
Percy cut himself off before he swore out loud—well, too much.
"Are you sure you aren't related to Thor?" the blonde pressed while hauling him into a sitting position.
"Yes!" Percy snapped. "Related to a god, yes, related to a Norse god, no. Shut up and give me a moment to clear my head."
"What god are you related to?"
Percy grabbed her by her shirt and hauled her away from him. "Listen, lady, I just had my girlfriend die in my arms, tried by her family, stripped of my powers, and given a week to pack up and say goodbye to my home. I'm traumatized, bloody, and about three words from someone else's mouth to being straight up murderous. Do you really want to push my buttons?!"
The brunette let go of him. "I'm saying no. And so are you, boss lady."
"Lewis," Fury snorted. "That girl is an acid trip of pop culture."
"I was about three steps away from being delirious, and she wasn't helping," Jackson agreed. "Not to mention the shock and the blood loss."
Fury grimaced. "So you met Thor through Foster?"
"In a sense," Jackson said. "Jane and Darcy got me home. Will—Dr. Solace, to you—and Nico helped me through it. It had been a couple of weeks before that whole shebang that I had the dream and called you."
"Why was it necessary to call from a burn phone, and not let anyone know who you were?" Fury asked curiously.
"Several reasons," Jackson said. He tapped the table in an erratic rhythm. "First, I had no idea how far HYDRA had infiltrated SHIELD, and whether or not they had bugged your phone. I wasn't really concerned about myself or my friends—we generally have a lot more training than most SHIELD operatives. So letting them know that an outside party had eyes on the situation was an acceptable risk that Will convinced me to take. But, HYDRA isn't exactly subtle when it moves against people. I didn't want my entire building block blown up just because I happened to tip you off. That would have been irritating to deal with. Also, reason number two, phones and demigods? We don't go well together. Demigods using wireless signals is kind of like sending up a flare to all the monsters, saying 'I'm here! Come and eat me!'"
Fury eyed the still-teen. Massive amounts of explosives dismissed nonchalantly.
"Reason number three involved the fact that you weren't aware of the Greek pantheon," Jackson said frankly. "And honestly, you had enough on your plate with HYDRA without the added headache of…us. I give myself headaches sometimes, so I'd hate to be on your side of the table."
"Thanks," Fury said dryly.
Jackson ignored the sarcasm. "Reason number four was a little petty, but there's not a one of us that like being called the children of the gods. We as a society are very much like SHIELD: a large group of people who quietly deals with the disasters, alters the media to suit our needs, and very secretive. If at all possible, we like to be left alone."
"So Thor's an anomaly," Fury said.
"Thor's an honest-to-Zeus alien," Jackson retorted. "Of course he's an anomaly."
Fury looked at him.
"No," Jackson said. "Your looks don't work on me. Admittedly impressive, but on a scale from Bessie to a P.O.'d Hades, you still rank below Kronos."
Fury didn't know who Bessie was, but he knew who Hades and Kronos were. "Golly, and I thought I could have outranked a Titan, at least," he said, his voice dryer than the Mojave Desert.
Jackson quirked a smile. "Yes, Thor is an anomaly. A friendly anomaly, so we're fine with him. And yeah, we've had a few unfriendly anomalies. Just ask Carter about the alligator."
"Somehow, I doubt that I will."
Jackson snorted. "What, you don't like sewage and Nerf guns? It's a riveting tale."
"Ignoring your sarcasm for the moment—to clarify, you have no powers at the moment?"
"Oh, no, I do," Jackson said. "Let me finish my story."
Fury had the insane urge to rip out his nonexistent hair.
"To be fair, there wasn't much more to the story until about two weeks ago," Jackson said. "I was sent into a coma because I overdid it with my limited powers in downtown Manhattan. Because the Fates have a sense of humor, Jane and Darcy picked me up and dragged me to their house. There must have been a miscommunication between the Fates and Thantos, though, because I distinctly remember kissing Annabeth senseless."
"Jackson, if you're lying to me—"
"Director," Jackson said sharply, cutting him off. "Why on Earth would I lie to you about being dead? No doubt you've seen weirder crap from your superhero team."
Fury considered the Avengers for a moment. "Genius engineer, guy on seventy years of ice, actual alien god, giant green rage monster, one with ridiculous accuracy that is one of yours anyway, and a spitfire ex-Russian assassin that may or may not kill us all in our sleep. I've encountered another genius engineer, a creepy kid who spent seventy years in a casino, an Egyptian god, a Cyclops, and seven other kids with ridiculous accuracy."
Jackson obviously had to think about it. "I don't think we have an assassin. Well, besides Clint. Certainly not a Russian assassin."
"Back to the story," Fury said.
"Right," Jackson sighed. "Well, I got jerked out of the Underworld by a bucketful of water. Jane had apparently put my tattoo," he exposed his right forearm, where there were two black stripes, the letters SPQR, and a trident across the length of it, "and our previous encounter together and came up with a fairly accurate answer. Of course, by the time that I woke, they'd dumped a dozen buckets of water over me, two weeks had almost passed, and Thor was there to supervise and make sure I didn't accidentally kill Jane and Darcy upon awakening."
"And did you try to kill them?" Fury asked.
"Which time?" Jackson asked, snorting. "The time after they jerked my very dead soul out of the Underworld, broke every binding on my powers, and leveled their living room? The time after they jerked my half-dead soul out of the Underworld immediately after I witnessed my wife's very dead soul being kidnapped out of the Underworld? Or the time after Thor kicked my podex and was given a gentler waking than water to the face?"
Fury wasn't even sure where to start with the majority of the problems, so he started with, "'Podex'?"
"Butt," Jackson said, a wry smile on his face. "In Latin. The actual butt with all the connotations with it. No 'gluteus maximus'es from us. Calling someone else a butt is a different word, though."
Fury sighed almost inaudibly. "Okay, leaving the butt conversation behind. The timeline should be almost up to today, correct?"
"Two days ago," Jackson agreed. "Waking up and passing out again three different times in the space of six hours is irritating, don't ever do it."
"Noted," Fury said dryly.
"Anyway," Jackson said. "It was traumatic for everyone around, and probably the neighbors, too. Thor kept me contained when it was necessary, Darcy didn't tazer me, and I didn't kill anyone. All was good. After I got some food, promised to pay for their new couch, and managed to find my baggie of drachmas to call everyone I knew, I went over to Central Park. There's an opening to the Underworld there, in case you didn't know."
"No, Jackson," Fury said, his voice even drier than before. "I didn't know that."
"Would you like some water?" Jackson asked, looking concerned.
"No, I'd like you to finish the story," Fury said.
Jackson shrugged. "Okay. Annabeth's kidnapper turned out to be Amora, who apparently has the hots for Thor and suddenly found out that Thor and I knew each other. Nico, Thor, and Annabeth kicked quite a bit of sorceress around Central Park until they got bored and shipped her off back to Asgard for breaking the treaty between the Death gods in a mutual pact of non-interference. Hades later told me to not let Annabeth set foot within major Greek Death hubs, otherwise she would drop dead where she stood. The end. Annabeth is in the hospital right now, I'm paying bills and being disturbingly normal and adult, and Nico gets the fun part in ordering pizza and scaring the mortals with his creepy doll appearance."
"There was an incident in Central Park?" Fury said in disbelief. "In full view of everyone, and no one has noticed?"
Jackson laughed. "Remember that Mist that I told you about?"
"Of course," Fury sighed. "Why is Annabeth in the hospital? Don't you have something to help her yourselves?"
"We do," Jackson said. "And normally we would patch her up and let her friends and family take care of whatever mental problems that she probably doesn't have, but the Apollo cabin doesn't take care of pregnant women, normally, let alone pregnant women who were dead for a month and a half. There was also the fact that she was legally dead and therefore had to be unregistered as dead."
Fury had to sit and think for a moment. This…kid? Demigod? Was nineteen with a wife and a kid on the way.
"You never expected to make it this far," Fury said quietly, in an uncharacteristic and almost nonexistent show of compassion.
"Did you miss the stories about previous funerals?" Jackson asked, laughing quietly. "My first was a fourteen. I blew up a volcano, was blasted out the top, and crash-landed on a mythical island with one of the only friendly sorceresses in all of history. I came back just in time to crash my own funeral, as they were burning my shroud."
"How many people did you freak out?" Fury asked, a wry grin tugging on his lips.
"Oh, just about…everyone," Jackson said, grinning a little. "They got used to it after the third time. They learned to wait. Admittedly, the longest that they waited for me to not be dead was eight months, and even my Mom didn't actually see me alive until almost a full year afterwards."
"Now that's a story that I'll have to hear when I have more time," Fury said, standing.
Jackson's smile was self-deprecating. "Forgive me if I don't walk you to the door. I can't walk without assistance for the moment."
Fury did a double take. He'd not seen Jackson stand yet during this visit, granted, but the demigod didn't appear to be extremely tired or even severely injured.
"Being stripped of my powers, dying, coming back to life, and blowing through my bindings is a lot harder than it seems," Jackson said quietly.
Fury smirked. "You should swap stories with Coulson about funerals."
"I'll send you a note when the next inter-pantheon meeting shows up," Jackson said. "SHIELD has enough ties to the mythology world that it would be stupid to not invite you guys."
The front door creaked when it swung open, halfway through Jackson's statement. "And despite some of the things that he does, he's not actually stupid," di Angelo said cheerfully, holding a stack of pizzas with one hand.
He was followed by Solace, who had several smaller boxes that Fury would bet were some kind of breadsticks. Gardner held a clear bowl of salad with both hands and a bottle of dressing under one arm. Another kid Fury didn't know held an open case of Sprite cans, and appeared to be munching on one of the cans.
"Don't get up, Percy!" the kid Fury didn't know said cheerfully. "We're just invading your apartment. Don't mind us."
An older woman bumped the door open again as it began to swing shut. She held a large bowl of cookie dough under one arm and a baking sheet in one hand, cooking spray in the other. "Percy, there's a man saying that he knows you and would like to see you."
"Do you know him?" Jackson asked. "Never mind, stupid question. Go ahead and let him in."
La Rue came in next, propping the door open with a foot, two liters of root beer under each arm and a bag of Doritos hanging from one hand. Rogers, surprisingly enough, came in next.
"You two know each other?" Fury said, slightly surprised.
"Sorta," Jackson and Rogers said simultaneously.
"Steve normally works more with me than Percy," di Angelo said. "We met two years ago, when Percy was on his…forced vacation via Hera."
La Rue's lips curled into a silent snarl as she set the root beer and chips on the counter.
"He scared the crap out of me when he casually decapitated a dracaena with that shield of his," di Angelo said dryly.
"I knew a couple demigods in the war," Rogers said, looking at Fury. "I already knew about demigods from Earth. All of the Howling Commandos knew how to kill a monster, even without Celestial Bronze or Imperial Gold."
Di Angelo shook his head again. "We were okay once I got over the fact that this perfectly normal mortal knew about demigods and was able to take monsters apart with nothing but a shield that wasn't even demigod make."
"Oh yes, don't tell them about how you confirmed that I was mortal," Rogers said sarcastically.
Di Angelo suddenly turned sheepish. Jackson burst out laughing. "Nico! You didn't?!"
"I did," he admitted.
"You stabbed me in the neck, is what you did!" Rogers said, laughing.
Fury had to leave before he got infected with the demigod madness that had already infected Rogers.
"Jackson—let me know if SHIELD needs to clean up the mess. Good job on not dying."
I am out of here.
So, I meant to post this last Friday. I completely forgot about it until Wednesday, then I said, "oh well, I'll just post it next Friday" (aka, yesterday). As you can see, that didn't work. Also, I just rewrote the last...about half of it, so about a thousand five hundred words. This does have another part to it, featuring Steve and Percy weirding out Fury. That one's going to be really short, but I had a ton of fun writing it. I'm probably going to add a mini quest to that chapter and have some headbutting going on, because everything isn't always going to be sunshine and daisies.
I'll post that next Friday (I'll even set an alert about it...) and then I'll post Loyalty, Family, and Liveliness.
Toodles!
Ruby