At the time of this writing, all of the Saga of The Traveler stories show Endymion being the mentor. He continues that trend in this chapter but for the first time you get to see a small part of what he is really capable of in combat.
Enjoy.
"Any clue why we are being called? Anyone?" Several of the Avengers groaned at Tony's words. It was about the sixth time the man had asked that question. Every time he got the same answer, various versions of the word 'no'.
Pepper herself was still trying to figure out why she was asked along as well. It was thankfully a day off for her so she was not missing much. Still, this did not make much sense.
It all began with a call from Fury for the Avengers to assemble. However there was no actual mission this time and the SHIELD director gave very specific instructions.
Odd though they were.
The first was that they were to dress in the simplest clothes they had, such as what they would wear to spar. Most of them wore simple t-shirts and sweatpants, Natasha and Tony were the exceptions though. The assassin swapped out the shirt for a sports bra while Tony was allowed to wear whatever he wanted.
The second was to bring their normal mission gear but they were not allowed to wear it. Tony was told to bring two Iron Man suits, one with no weaponry, the other like normal.
Fury only told them this was for a unique training exercise but he would not elaborate further.
Now they were all on board a quinjet, flying to some SHIELD base up north, exactly where Pepper had no idea. The director of SHIELD was going to meet them there for whatever this was he had planned.
The even strangest part was onboard the plane with them.
That quiet guy that was staying at the tower per Fury's request was also with them. He sat off to the side, quiet and still. Tony had warned her that he was not actually dead or asleep, only looked like it.
Pepper could not help but smile when she heard about Tony's scare from the other day.
Endymion, that was his name. He kept to himself around the tower mostly. Occasionally he would talk to one of the Avengers if they were in the tower. He knew quite a bit, even gave Tony some tips to improve his suit if it could be believed. Sometimes he spoke philosophy with Steve and Bruce.
The only thing Pepper knew about him was that he was responsible for saving both Natasha and Steve when their mission went awry. That instantly made Pepper friendlier to the man.
Besides, he may be quiet and keeping to himself, but he seemed like an alright person. His behavior actually reminded her a lot of Steve. That old fashioned way of acting and speaking, except Endymion acted even more so than Steve. Pepper could have sworn the guy spoke like he was straight out of the middle ages.
After the quinjet finally landed, the occupants all filed off one at a time. Fury was already waiting for them at the helipad. The SHIELD director led their group to a large open field. If Pepper had to guess, it looked a bit like a training ground of sorts.
Naturally, it was Tony who spoke up first. "So Nick... what's going on?"
If Fury was upset about Tony using his first name he did not show it. "That is actually not up to me, Miss Potts, there is a spot over there you may sit." Fury pointed to a nearby set of bleachers.
Unsure what else to do, the woman moved to take a seat.
"Endymion, the floor is yours." After speaking the words, Fury moved to stand beside the bleachers alongside Pepper.
The man in question stepped forward. "Alright, now before any of you ask, this exercise is my idea. We're borrowing a SHIELD training ground for the day."
Pepper observed in disbelief. Who was this man to be able to have this much pull with Fury?
"Okay... so what's going on then?" Tony looked just as confused as the rest of them.
"Simple, we are going to have a combat exercise." Endymion spoke as he walked over to the bleachers as well. "Now, first rule is for this part no weapons or devices are allowed. Only natural abilities and skills. Some of you will be put at a disadvantage, this is part of why Mr. Stark was allowed to bring his suit. Thor for example has his natural abilities as an Asgardian, Mr. Rogers is similar. Doctor Banner has his other side, while Agents Barton and Romanoff have their own skill sets."
For the first time since Pepper had met the man, Endymion removed his coat. After he draped the garment onto the metal seats of the bleachers, Pepper got her first real look at what was under it.
Tony had been right. That was some kind of tactical armor over most of his body.
"Now, you all get your innate abilities, but so do I."
Even crazier was his back, he wore a harness of some kind covered in weapons. It actually appeared to have once been a shoulder holster but was heavily modified. There was also a lot more than a simple pistol on it. His entire back was covered in various weapons. The first he removed was a pair of slightly curved and jeweled daggers, the next was a pair of revolver pistols that looked like something out of a steampunk movie, the final item was a small silver rod. Pepper assumed the rod must have been a weapon of some kind as well.
Endymion slowly and neatly set all of the items down on top of his coat. Once he was done, he removed the harness as well.
"Today I will teach you two lessons." Endymion spoke as he began to unclasp the upper portion of his armor. "The first I will tell you outright, the second I leave for you to figure out."
Once it was loosened, Endymion pulled the armor from his body and sat it alongside his other equipment. Leaving his entire chest, back, and arms visible.
Pepper stared in wonder at what was revealed, she was not the only one either.
Everyone had seen the marks on his neck. The ones that looked like symbols in some language no one knew. Tony told he that they seemed to be in a pattern and if he was right then they went on further. The man had no clue how right he was. The scars continued on over his entire body. Except for a single spot on his chest and a matching one on his back. The two spots were a different kind of scar, these not in any shape whatsoever.
"First lesson," Endymion stepped back out to stand out in the open. "Up until this point you have never encountered an enemy you could not defeat. No matter the effort, no matter the time, you were always victorious."
By now, everyone had sat their duffle bags beside the bleachers and were standing before Endymion in just their workout clothes.
"Today you face me."
More than a few of the Avengers looked unimpressed. Endymion was after all just one guy. How much damage could he do against all of the Avengers?
Steve looked uneasy, he was the only one present who had actually watched Endymion fight. He may know something the others did not.
"You want all of us... to fight you?" Clint sounded like he was caught between disbelief and thinking this was a joke.
"Yeah... I have to admit this is a little foolish." Natasha followed up.
"Ditto." Tony spoke next.
Endymion gave a small smile. "Well then what is there for you to be afraid of?"
Thor shrugged and stepped forward to stand directly in front of Endymion. "I have heard tales of your prowess in battle."
"Thor, hold on, do not underestimate him." Steve pleaded the prince.
Thor just waved away his concerns. "It would be my honor to face such a..."
Thor never got to complete his sentence.
The initial roundhouse kick caught all of them off guard. As did the follow up uppercut to the Asgardian's stomach. The third hit came from al elbow drop to Thor's back, the final hit that knocked him down. A soft clap of thunder followed up each strike. The end result was that the Asgardian prince was lying face first in the dirt in a daze.
Everyone save Fury and Steve, the former looked as stoic as ever while the latter looked only partially surprised, looked on in total shock. A human just took down one of the greatest warriors of Asgard.
Had she not seen it with her own eyes, Pepper would not have believed it.
Endymion turned to face the rest of the Avengers. "You must never hesitate, show me no mercy for you shall receive none. To stand a chance to defeat me, you must come at me with the intent to kill."
Pepper wondered which of the Avengers would be insane enough to make a second attempt.
Turned out it was Clint.
Instead of talking, he charged. The scarred man dropped into a hand to hand combat stance and deflected Clint's first attack out wide. Moving faster than anyone Pepper had ever seen, Endymion latched onto the archer's arm and twisted hard. Clint let out a quiet gasp as Endymion pulled his arm forward to throw the SHIELD agent off balance. Before Clint could recover, Endymion dropped low and swung a foot out to take Clint's legs out from under him. Clint jumped over the attack but that was exactly what Endymion had been expecting, his hand shot foreword and caught on to Clint's shirt and slammed him hard into the ground back first.
Thor's attempt lasted three seconds.
Clint's only lasted five.
Steve winced visibly. "I tried to warn them."
Even the fearless Natasha took a step or two back away from Endymion. The man in question had not even broke a sweat and stood exactly as he had done before Thor attacked.
Pepper was starting to wonder if this guy was actually human or not.
"If it makes you feel any better, you do not have to defeat me to complete this exercise. Merely land a single strike." Endymion said the words like it would be so easy to accomplish.
Steve and Natasha shared a look along with Tony, whom by now had donned his Iron Man suit.
Thor and Clint had arisen back to their feet and were standing off to the side. Despite the brutality of their respective takedowns, the pair looked no worse for the wear.
Next Tony attempted, in Tony fashion of course, to attack. Even without any of his weapons, the Iron Man suit was quite formidable and had a lot of strength. Tony made several attempted punches but Endymion moved so fast that each was a complete miss. Their fight only lasted about the three seconds it took for Endymion's hand to touch the side of the suit. All of a sudden Tony froze in place as if the suit had been short-circuited.
Tony then fell to the ground when Endymion lightly tapped his chest with his foot.
Endymion planted a boot on the chestplate of Tony's suit. "As I said, my own innate abilities are also fair game." He then turned to Steve, Natasha, and Bruce. "Next?"
Natasha made the next move. Her approach was much like Clint's but she had more speed, mobility, and flexibility on her side. Despite this, she only lasted six seconds. She was very fast, but Endymion was far faster. He caught her wrist and twisted, then flipped her over his shoulder to the ground.
While his back was to Steve, the super soldier attacked. Pepper figured that Steve assumed Endymion would be distracted by Natasha.
He was completely wrong.
Without even looking, Endymion kicked his foot out behind him and caught Steve directly in the stomach. The momentum of his run added to the force of the impact. Steve's breath was blown out of his lungs on impact, another quiet clap of thunder followed the strike.
Before Steve had a chance to recover, Endymion whirled around with an elbow out and struck Steve across the jaw. Endymion then easily dodged the clumsy punch that swung his direction. While still crouched, Endymion whirled around to stand behind Steve. He followed up with a kick to the back of Steve's leg to force him down to one knee. The final blow came when Endymion planted his open hand on Steve's back. The super soldier's body seized up much like Tony's suit had. Steve let out a sharp cry of pain as he fell foreword.
Pepper stared in utter disbelief. This one man had managed to take down five Avengers so easily it was terrifying.
"Doctor Banner, we are going to need some backup for this one." Steve slowly stood up on shaky legs as he looked over his shoulder at the man still standing off to the side.
"I'm not sure that's such a good idea..." Bruce was always nervous about letting the Hulk out.
Pepper really could not blame him.
"This exercise applies to all of you, so he is a necessity." Endymion called over to Bruce.
The doctor sighed as he removed his shirt. He had packed an extra set of clothes but old habits die hard.
Within moments his skin bulged and turned green as the Hulk was set loose.
Since New York, Bruce had been working hard on his control of his other side. That still did not stop Pepper from being a little nervous about being so close to him. Neither did it stop the small shiver that ran up her spine.
The Hulk let out a mighty roar as it charged Endymion. While everyone else dove out of the way to make sure they were not remotely close, Endymion simply stood in place.
The man was even smiling!
Just as the Hulk was about to crash into him, Endymion disappeared and reappeared behind him. It took a moment for the Hulk to realize his quarry was no longer in front of him. When he did, he turned and charged again. A second time, Endymion pulled the disappearing act. This continued multiple times, each time the hulk attempted a charge, Endymion would appear behind him.
Was he teleporting or something? Considering Endymion could electrocute, if that was what he did to Tony and Steve, with a touch then Pepper did not think him teleporting that crazy a thought.
On the seventh attempt, Endymion switched tactics. When the Hulk turned to no doubt try again, his opponent struck. The first blow was a heavy punch to the Hulk's face, just like before a clap of thunder followed. Even crazier, the Hulk was actually staggered by the force of the blow.
By the time Pepper managed to blink, many more punches had followed the first. The strikes were so fast that the claps of thunder almost sounded like a machinegun firing.
The final blow was a nasty uppercut right to the Hulk's chin. This time the hit was followed by thunder and a flash of what Pepper swore was lighting.
The flurry of punches was so intense that the Hulk never had a chance to retaliate, and now the last hit knocked him on his back.
Pepper was far past simple disbelief now, her jaw was almost hitting the floor. Endymion just managed to take out not three, not five, but all six Avengers, one after another. He still looked like he had only just began. These were supposed to be Earth's mightiest heroes and this guy just made them all look like small children.
"Now have we learned that mystery lesson yet?" Endymion spoke as he moved back over to the bleachers.
No one answered, they were all just as shocked as Pepper. Even the Hulk, who was always ready for a fight, was acting weary of Endymion. The Hulk might be a giant green rage monster, but he was not that stupid. On instinctual or animalistic level, he knew a tougher opponent when he saw one.
Endymion said not a word at first as he reattached the upper portion of his armor then donned his weapon harness.
"Second half of our exercise, equip your armor and weapons. You shall face me with your full arsenal." Endymion reached for his weapons one at a time and sheathed them on his back. The rod however, instead he held in his hand.
The moment he stopped speaking, everyone was in a flurry to get their weapons together. Perhaps with their normal equipment they might stand a chance.
"Miss Potts, if you would do me a favor?" The voice startled Pepper from her thoughts.
She looked up to see Endymion and his bewitching silver eyes focused on her. "Yes?"
"If you would be so kind as to remove this ring for me?" Endymion held a hand out to her on his right hand. "It is specially designed that I cannot remove it myself."
Pepper eyes the piece of metal jewelry warily. It was just a simple silver band on his index finger. Pepper had never noticed it before. What kind of ring was irremovable?
With a shrug, Pepper pulled the piece of silver from his hand. He took the ring and placed it into a pocket on his armor.
"Thank you," was all he said as he turned to face the now fully equipped Avengers.
With a flick of his wrist, the rod expanded to a staff almost as tall as him. With a twirl of the weapon, he draped it across his shoulders. "Shall we begin?"
The answer he received was an arrow shot from Clint's blow. To the shock of everyone present, Endymion dodged the missile and caught it. Before the Avengers could react, he hurled the arrow back at them.
Steve had managed to raise his shield to block the explosion that followed from reaching Natasha. The Hulk, Thor, and Tony just took it, while Clint dove for cover behind the Hulk.
Endymion was already moving when they recovered. He appeared behind Thor and landed a heavy strike with his staff to the back of his head, followed by a blow to Steve's stomach, then another to his back, sending both human and Asgardian to the dirt.
Natasha was the next target. Endymion hooked his staff beneath her leg and flipped her to the ground.
Just as Tony lifted a repulsor to attempt an interception, Endymion swatted the arm aside to make the attack hit Clint instead.
As Pepper watched the fight, she was still trying to comprehend what she was seeing. What the point of this exercise was supposed to be was lost on her. All she could see was Endymion repeatedly kicking the asses of the entire team.
"Director, I just don't get it. What's the point?" Pepper looked over to her side to see Fury was sitting beside her on the bleachers, watching with that same stoic look on his face as always.
"You don't get it?" Fury began, his eyes never leaving the team. The Avengers were too distracted to hear them talking anyway. "What do you see?" Fury motioned to the fight ahead with a nod of the head.
Pepper again looked to the team's battle. Just in time to see Tony take a nasty hit to the back of his armor. She tried to suppress her wince as the man went down.
"All I see is Tony and the others taking an ass kicking."
"That's part of the lesson."
Pepper stared at Fury in absolute disbelief. She opened her mouth for a retort but he cut her off.
"He is teaching them first how to lose. Then there is only a single way they could get a hit in on him." Fury again motioned to the Avengers. "What do you see them doing wrong?"
Pepper again looked but did not see anything. Except for the Hulk taking a huge bolt of lightning to the face, sending him flying back.
Pepper was no soldier, no strategist, how the hell was she supposed to see something on a battlefie...
The realization hit Pepper harder than a sack of bricks.
Taking a moment, she observed the fight once more. Thor had just tried to get a hammer strike in but that staff deflected the attack, then proceeded to knock Steve's shield down mid-throw immediately after.
That was what they were doing wrong. The Avengers were full of headstrong and hard headed people, solo acts. The kind that had always fought alone and still won. Tony especially had a problem fighting as part of a group.
They had only managed to team up in New York after Phil was killed, and because the fate of the planet depended on them. Now, they did not have that spark, that do or die need to work together.
Endymion was trying to get them to attack him as one. Although powerful, Endymion was only a single person. He only had two hands, two eyes, could only react to so many threats at a time.
Pepper also began to see the importance of such a lesson. They needed to be able to fight together without the death of a friend to spur them on.
They had better figure out quick, Pepper was unsure how much more of this beating they were going to be able to take.
It was a short while later when the Avengers finally figured it out.
Natasha had just been knocked aside again, when Thor charged with a lightning bolt of his own. Endymion swatted the attack aside. While his back was turned, Steve threw his shield once more. The shield was too close when Endymion managed to react. Instead of hitting it with that staff, he threw his body backward to dodge.
Pepper thought that Natasha was flexible. A human spine was not meant to bend that far back.
While Endymion was down, Clint fired another arrow. Endymion jumped and twisted mid-air to avoid the missile. By now, Natasha had gotten back up and lunged at him again with her widows-bite gauntlets. At the same moment Steve was coming at him from another side.
As Pepper watched, she began to see that this was a lot like a game of chess. Endymion was the opposing king and they needed to somehow corner him. A single hit was all they needed, the man was not making it easy though.
At first it was slow going, but the Avengers began making two pronged attacks, then three pronged attacks.
The final attack started with the Hulk. Just as he had done at the start, he tried to charge. It of course failed but that was the intention.
Endymion had pulled his disappearing act again but when he reappeared behind the Hulk, Clint was already waiting. The arrow he fired did not shoot directly at him though, instead it target his feet. Endymion jumped backward to dodge the explosive but when he did, Thor and Steve made their move. Both men threw their hammer and shield respectively. Endymion twisted his body to dodge the two weapons.
The whole time he did not have his eyes on the sky.
Just before Endymion managed to plant his feet back on solid earth, Tony and Natasha made their move. At some point, Tony had grabbed onto the back of Natasha's catsuit collar and lifted her a little ways into the air. While Endymion was dodging the two weapons, Tony dropped her directly on top of him. She landed widows-bite first to his neck.
Pepper knew those gauntlets could take down a fully grown man much larger than Endymion. However except for a sudden twitch from Endymion's body, coupled with the physical force of gravity pulling Natasha down, he did not react much. He simply grabbed onto Natasha and swung her around. This time he did not throw her aside like a ragdoll, he instead sat her back on solid ground.
Endymion started clapping.
"Well done, well done all of you." Endymion smiled at the Avengers. "You figured it out."
Pepper looked over all the Avengers. She certainly hoped it was a worthwhile lesson, they all looked like they were feeling every bit of the beating they took.
Endymion on the other hand did not even have a scratch on him, not even from Natasha's final attack. It was not every day that the Avengers met an opponent they could not defeat.
"I need a vacation..." Tony grumbled quietly.
I'll be honest, I did not like the way this one turned out. For some reason I had trouble with the battle scenes. To those curious, I chose Pepper's view because I did not want to use one of the Avengers and Fury I could not nail down.
Next chapter begins the multipart finale.
I am also considering revealing for the first time more of exactly what Endymion is. Some feedback would be greatly appreciated.