Percy unconsciously clenched his fists as another bolt of bright blue lightning flashed across the darkened skyline. He sucked in a deep breath, and counted down from ten until he reached zero, releasing his breath when he did so. He then spent a moment reminding himself that he was fine here, that he was out of the jurisdiction of certain individuals and that certain parties wouldn't dare try something.
After his moment of rationality, he stepped back from the viewport and strode in to the cockpit as Natasha finished up a call from Fury,
"Said anything?" Fury's disembodied voice asked over the commlink,
"Not a word." Replied Natasha solemnly.
"Just get him here. We're low on time." Fury's voice was clipped, a hard edge to it. He stressed and worried, things must have been worse than they had originally realized if the director's emotions were so easily recognized, even over comms. Percy and Natasha shared a look, clearly she was thinking the same as he, but neither said anything. As she turned he attention back to the control panel in front of her Percy strode back into the crew hold in the rear, and approached Stark and Steve as they were sharing a hushed discussion. He didn't miss the unparalleled attention being paid to him by Loki though, he mentally filed it in the back of his mind under "crap he was not in the mood to deal with right now."
"I don't like it." Steve was saying,
"What? Rock of Ages giving up so easily?" snarked Stark, though Percy could tell he was as keyed up and wary of the situation as the rest of them were.
"I don't remember it being ever that, easy. This guy packs a wallop."
Stark gave Steve a meaningful look up and down, like someone at auction appraising a rather old and antiquated pickup truck.
"Still, you are pretty spry, for an older fellow. What's your thing? Pilates?"
"What?" asked Steve, both completely confused and more than a little thrown off balance by the sudden shift in conversation from Loki to himself. Percy repressed a laugh,
"It's like calisthenics. You might have missed a couple things, you know, doing time as a Capsicle." Percy decided this was as good a time to step in as any, as Steve was looking ready wallop Stark. They had enough to worry about without in-fighting amongst whatever this little squad was becoming.
"Alright boys," he said, putting a hand on both of their shoulders and smiling, "lets put 'em away for the moment. There will be plenty of time for a measuring contest as soon as we get Chuckles the Reindeer Reject back to the carrier."
"I didn't realize Fury signed you up for the cub scout troop too kid" Stark said, raising an eyebrow,
"And Fury didn't tell us that he was calling you in" replied Steve defensively.
Percy almost groaned as Stark turned his attention back to Steve and shot, "There's a lot of things Fury doesn't tell you."
However, before Steve could respond, another flash of lightning, this one accompanied by a boom of thunder so loud and powerful that the entire jet shook. It shook violently enough for Percy to stumble slightly and he had to throw an arm out to stabilize himself on the rear bulkhead.
From the cockpit the three could hear Natasha's annoyed voice ask, "Where is this coming from."
Percy felt his stomach start to sink as the hair on the back of his neck began to stand up, and the all too familiar tingle began to sweep through him. Something was coming. His fear's only grew when he turned his attention to their prisoner, who was staring out the window a mix of abject horror and desperation painted onto his expression.
"What's the matter" Steve mocked, and had the situation been different Percy would have been downright proud of the man, "Scared of a little lightning?"
Loki didn't respond for a moment, his gaze still fixed on the raging storm outside, but when he did speak, he addressed Percy directly, ignoring the others and focusing his attention solely on the Percy. "I'm not overly fond of what follows."
"Oh crap baskets…." Percy muttered as the suspicions and fears that had been crawling through him were given new, terrifying life. And from the look on Loki's face, the man knew that Percy had figured it out, and looked, almost smug. There was something, dancing in the man's eyes, it there only for a moment, but it had been there. The look of a predator, one who was about to make its move.
Before Percy could even begin to process this new revelation, however, the jet shook again and heavy THUNK resonated from the ceiling at the same time as a blinding flash of light slammed into the jet. The resulting crash staggered the occupants once more, and before any of them could react, the ramp at the back of the jet burst open and a hulking brute of a man, long ragged blonde hair and rich, striking armor and a red cap, a large war hammer clasped in his right hand, strode into the jet. He grabbed Loki by the throat and hoisted him out the chair effortlessly, pausing only just long enough to send an irritated albeit intrigued look Percy's way, before spinning the war hammer from it's strap and flying out the hole he had just created.
As Stark and Steve stood staring, mouths slightly agape, attempting to process what they had just witnessed, Percy was already moving. Strapping his camelback on to his breastplate and barking orders to Natasha,
"Nat, bring us around now!"
"Another Asgardian or one of yours" she shouted back, but was already banking the jet to bring them around on a pass that would bring them right over where Thor had snatched Loki.
"Asgardian" He shouted back as he finished fastening the last of the buckles on his suit.
"Think this guy's a friendly?" Cap asked, or rather he shouted on account of the roar of the wind that now filled the jet.
"Doesn't matter" said Stark his headpiece sliding into place as he stalked toward the ramp, "If he frees Loki or kills him then the Tesseract is lost."
"Stark, we need a plan of attack!" shouted Cap
Stark, now standing at the mouth of the ramp, looked over his shoulder, "I have a plan. Attack." And with that, his propulsions on the bottom of his boots shot to life, and he rocketed away from the jet.
However, what neither man had noticed, was that Percy had already jumped clear of the jet, and was already plummeting to the earth below. He was still mid free-fall as he watched Stark slam into Thor, effectively engaging him. Focusing his attention back toward the rapidly approaching ground he focused his will on the area immediately around him, forming a small protective layer of water around him. Just as he slammed into the ground he exploded the protective layer and allowed it to absorb the impact of the fall. The result was a large, wet crater in the middle of the forest.
Standing up, he watched as Thor and Stark slammed into the ground a meters beyond the small clearing Percy had landed. He took off at a run, jumping and ducking to avoid fallen branches and sticks. He runs into the small clearing to see Thor standing over Stark, arm and hammer raised.
Percy acted quickly, forming a large spear-like object in his hand, he hurled it with all his might right at the would-be god. The water-spear smashed into the side of Thor, sending him sprawling.
"That's enough of that I think." He said, speaking loudly and clearly. Striding out so both of them could get a clear look at him. "Let's all just take a step back and think calmly and rational-" he was cut off as something immensely hard and heavy crashed into his sternum. He soared through the air crashing through a pair of large thick pines before a third abruptly stopped him. He felt something crack at the initial impact, and two more something's, as he crashed through the trees. Wincing as he tried to gather his bearings he realized that he had likely cracked several of his ribs.
He felt the weight disappear off of his chest and watched as the hammer flew away, into the waiting hand of Thor, who now looked murderous.
"You!" he thundered at Percy, the sky crackling and raging, "Who and what are you!" he frowned, looking an intriguing combination of both extremely furious and curious. "You are familiar to me and yet I know that I have never met you before. So little man, I ask again, who and what are you!"
Percy stood up, determined not to let himself appear shaky in spite of the tremendous pain, he could already feel himself healing anyway, and he didn't address Thor immediately. He felt something running down the corner of his mouth and wiped at it, pulling his hand away he found a smear of blood. He sighed, and spat another large gob out onto the ground before finally looking Thor in the eye.
"Name's Percy Jackson" he said, "And you're really going to regret that" At the reveal of Percy's name Thor froze, seemingly stunned. This hesitation cost him as Percy pounced, and was on him unleashing a flurry of powerful punches and kicks. Only a handful of them managed to connect; even stunned and surprised Thor was clearly an experienced and formidable close quarters fighter, unsurprising given that his weapon of choice was a war hammer.
Ducking under a viscous hammer swing he channeled his will into his right hand, creating a water-like glove with pointed protrusions on each knuckle. It was as if a boxing glove had mated with a pair of brass knuckles, and this was the result of their union. He slammed his new into the gods chest, doubling him over, his eyes widened in surprise at the sheer ferocity and strength behind the blow. Percy didn't let up however, and with his left hand he constructed a hardened spear of water, shaped similarly to a baton, and brought it down with a tremendous crash on the gods neck.
Thor spluttered in surprise and pain, before lashing out and grasping onto the front of Percy's armor, and hefted Percy over his head. Before Percy could react he found himself being slammed viscously to the earth. His eyes were swimming but he could just make out the form of Thor standing over him, arm and hammer raised. But before he could lower it, a familiar shield slammed into his lower jaw staggering him. Percy looked over, still on his back, and saw that the Captain had finally joined the fray. He was in the middle of reattaching his shield to his arm as he spoke.
"That's enough." He said, not quite shouting, "Now, I don't know what you plan on doing here"
"I've come to put an end to Loki's schemes!" Thor interrupted aggressively.
"Then prove it! Put the hammer down!" Stark and Percy shared a look,
"Um yeah, no! Bad call! He loves his hammer!" but it was too late, Thor's face had already contorted into a vicious snarl,
"You want me to put the hammer down?!"
The Captain seemed to have a very good idea of what was about to happen because he lifted his shield and covered himself as Thor smashed down on the metal disk, his hammer sparking with electricity. The gong-like ring that erupted from the clash, along with the subsequent shockwave, sent all parties sprawling in a number of directions. After a moment, when their ears had stopped ringing and they could get something of a grip on the situation, the Captain said, his voice panting,
"Are we done here?"
BREAK
They didn't have to wait long for a pick up, but the wait was mostly silent. That didn't stop Steve from noticing the way in which both the supposed gods were looking at Percy. He was able to maintain his curiosity long enough for them to get situated back on the Jet, and their prisoner situated before he asked, he was absently thankful that stark had decided to fly on ahead and meet them at the carrier, he didn't want to have to deal with that particular brand of crazy at the moment. He sat down directly across from Percy, and folded his arms over his chest and looked between the three. Pointing between Percy and Thor he said,
"There's a lot of animosity there for two people who have never met, care to explain." And then, something even stranger happened, Percy and Thor shared a look of knowing understanding, and seemed to hold a silent conversation with one another. Neither one breaking eye contact. After a full minute of utter silence Percy finally sighed and leaned back against the bulkhead, running a hand through his hair and suddenly looking far older and more tired than a man his age had any right to.
"Fine" he said finally, "But if I catch any heat for this I'm blaming you" he said to Thor, who actually smiled. A large, full mouthed smile showing off his many large white teeth
"I would expect nothing less Perseus." He said with a laugh. Loki remained looking pensive but was clearly interested in the conversation. Percy turned back to Steve, leaning forward so his hands were on his kneepads and his hands were interlocked.
"Remember, back on the carrier, I said I needed to talk to you about something, but were interrupted by slick here?"
Steve nodded
"Well it has to do with why Thor and I, for lack of a better term, know of each other." He paused and seemed to be thinking through his next choice of words very carefully, "You see, the Norse Pantheon isn't exactly the only group of deity like beings out there." He sat back, arms still folded, "We know for a fact the Egyptians are still around, the Romans are…kind of….but that's complicated, hell we've even had reason to believe that some of the old Persian gods are out there somewhere, still kicking." Both Thor and Loki looked surprised by this sudden revelation but neither made to comment. "Finally there are the Greeks, that's where I come in."
Steve had a sudden sinking suspicion in the pit of his stomach that he very much hoped was wrong,
"You're not about to tell me you're a god are you?" he asked, incredulous. He had hoped for a laugh, or a joke, or something to put him that he was wrong, but Percy merely smiled, a very sad, very tired smile.
"Well, that would only be half right. My mom's mortal, you know, a normal human, but my dad is a god. Given my proficiency with water, I'm sure you can figure out which one." Percy paused and gave Steve a moment to try and collect himself and think on what was just revealed.
After a second Steve asked, incredulous, "You know how utterly ridiculous all of this sounds right?" Percy nodded and leaned back closing his eyes,
"If it helps, the Judeo-Christian god is probably real too, in my experience there's truth to every religion in some aspect so if you're having a crisis of faith or… whatever…you know…don't."
Steve shook his head, as if trying to shake off the information like a spider stuck in his hair.
"That still doesn't, really, explain the animosity between the two of you" he said, pointing between Thor and Percy, to which they both nodded. Thor spoke before Percy had the chance to.
"It is less about personal hatred than it is about ancient quarrels and prejudices. The Pantheons are meant to mingle with one another, there is simply too much power in one place." Percy looked like he had a comment to make about that, but clearly thought better of whatever he was thinking and stayed silent. "When two peoples of our…standing for lack of a better word clash" Thor continued, "There is almost always a fight to be had. I actually hold young Perseus here in very regard." He said with a large smile, one Percy was glad to return.
"The feeling is mutual Your Grace."
Loki made a sound that was a mix of a snort of derision and a laugh of contempt but made no additional comment. Percy looked like he'd been struck by an impulsive idea, one that Steve had seen on Bucky's face all too many times to fail to recognize, stood up and stuck his hand out to the blonde god.
"Chalk it up to adrenaline and poor communication Your Grace?" he asked, his goofy grin back on his face, looking infinitely more alive than he had only a few minutes ago. The revelation that Thor had bade him no personal ill will and was merely trying to do what he had thought was right clearly struck a chord with the man.
Thor's grin threatened to split his face in two as he practically leapt from his seat to clasp forearms with Percy, a gleam in his eye,
"Only if you stop referring to me with useless honorifics Perseus." If at all possible, Percy's grin only grew.
"Please Thor, call me Percy."
BREAK
The mood on board the Helicarrier was bleak as the monitor above the small conference table went black. Percy, Steve, Natasha, Bruce, and Thor had just finished listening in to the conversation between Fury and Loki. Thor was standing off on his own by one of the viewports, seemingly lost in thought.
"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Banner asked, sarcastically. Steve ignored him,
"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve's question seemed to shake Thor out of whatever trance he had been in. As he turned back to the room at large he looked tired, haggard.
"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract." Steve looked incredulous,
"An army? From outer space?" Banner responded, more to himself than anyone else,
"So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." That seemed to wake Thor up as he turned to Banner questioningly,
"Selvig?"
"He's an astrophysicist." Replied Banner,
"He's a friend." Percy started at the almost possessiveness in Thor's voice, it seemed that the man, for Percy refused to call whatever he was a god, was fiercely loyal and protective of his friends. He hid a small smile, he could respect that.
"Loki has him under some kind of spell" said Natasha for the first time, sharing a look with Percy "along with one of ours." Steve then turned and addressed Percy,
"You've been real quiet ever since we got here. What's on your mind. Percy didn't say anything for a moment, staring out the nearest viewport into the dark black sky and wondered, not for the first time, what Carol was up to. He then shook it off and spoke,
"I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's powerful, and he put up almost no fight. He wants to be here and I don't know why. He's not leading an army from here." Banner brushed off the concern,
"I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you could smell crazy on him." Thor rounded on him, anger radiating off him,
"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother"
"He killed eighty people in two days." Natasha deadpanned. Thor had the sense to look sheepish as he turned away, and offered weakly,
"He's adopted." Banner carried on valiantly,
"Iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?"
"It's a stabilizing agent." Came Stark's voice as he walked on to the deck with Coulson. He said something to Coulson, finishing up a conversation they'd clearly been having before walking into the room. Coulson rolled his eyes at whatever Stark said and walked away. Stark swaggered on,
"Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD." He walked past Thor, smacking him on the arm as he did so, "No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing." He stopped in front of the control panel where Fury directed the Helicarrier, "Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants."
He turned and began playing around with knobs at the panel, "Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails."
Percy couldn't help but feel mildly offended, "That's not how that works genius" he snarked but Stark ignored him in favor of pointing an accusatory finger at an agent in the corner.
"That man is playing GALAGA! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did." Said agent shrinked a little in his seat but wasn't swayed. Stark covered one eye and continued analyzing the controls, "How does Fury do this?" who asked Hill who looked as thoroughly unamused as Percy had ever seen her.
"He turns" she said dryly
"Well, that sounds exhausting." Stark muttered, "The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube." He punctuated the end of his statement with a snap of his fingers.
"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" glared Hill, visibly ruffled by Starks presence on her bridge.
"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?"
"Congrats Stark, you did the one thing asked of you. You want a cookie?" asked Percy. Natasha smirked and Hill's lips quivered a little. Stark rounded him,
"And what exatly are you doing here kindergarten cop? Don't you have a kitten to save from a tree or an old lady to walk across the street."
"Nah" said Percy, pointing across the table at Steve, "That's more his thing." Steve looked mildly miffed at the joke but Percy smiled good-naturally at him, "I'm more of a babysit man-children can't control their own toys kind of guy." Stark smirked but his rebuttal was cut off by Steve who seemed determined to stay on task,
"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?"
"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier" was Banner's reply,
"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Said Stark, turning with renewed interest and mischievous glint in his eye,
"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet." Said Banner thoughtfully, Stark clapped his hands together, delighted.
"Finally, someone who speaks English." Steve raised an eyebrow and said to Percy,
"Is that what just happened" he asked, looking thoroughly overwhelmed. Percy just laughed quietly and said,
"Don't worry, I didn't understand any of it either."
"It's cause your heads too thick for anything remotely intelligent to crack through it" said Stark as he approached Banner, hand outstretched and said, while ignoring Percy's indignant outcry,
"It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. You're work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster." Banner looked like he had absolutely no response to that and simply shook the mans hand with slightly perturbed,
"Thanks…" in response.
"Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him." Announced Fury as he strode into the room.
"Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon." Said Steve, looking relieved to finally have something to contribute again.
Fury eyed him briefly and shrugged it off,
" I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys."
"Monkeys?" questioned Thor, bewilderment written on his face, "I don't understand"
"I do" Shouted Steve a little to enthusiastically, and then, he straightened back up and said a little more quietly, looking thoroughly pleased with himself, "I understood that reference" Stark rolled his eyes and Percy let out a sharp bark of laughter,
Stark ignored him and asked Banner,
"Shall we play, Doctor"
Banner gestured out the room and nodded,
"Let's play some"
As they left Percy shared a look with Natasha and grinned broadly,
"I think I'm starting to like this gig."
Before he could say anything else however, his eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed face first onto the table as his vision was obscured by a bright white light, one he was all too familiar with.
Steve jumped as Percy suddenly collapsed, face first onto the table with a resounding thud. He hopped to his feet and pushed Percy into an upright position, he was beginning to feel for a pulse when he felt a hand on his arm. Looking he over, he Natasha was staring at, amused. Looking around, he noticed that he was the only one seemingly concerned about Percy's sudden collapse.
"I'm under the impression that this isn't something to worry about then?" he asked hesitantly. Natasha smirked and sat back down in her chair. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Hill walk swiftly out of the room. He scanned the room again, Fury wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to his downed agent, instead, his focus was on a monitor at the helm. Even Thor looked oddly at ease with the situation. He took the cue and gently sat back in his seat and addressed Natasha,
"You want to explain what's going on here?" he asked, pointedly. Surprisingly, it was Thor who answered,
"I believe", he started, his voice a low rumble, "That Perseus is speaking with his…family…about my brother and myself. No doubt our arrival in Midgard would be a cause of concern for them."
Over at the helm, Fury snorted. They ignored him.
Natasha nodded approvingly, "Big guy's right, he does this from time to time when he's reporting on us." She frowned "He's normally not out of it for this long though. They must e arguing."
Steve, was struck by something she said,
"Did you say he's reporting on us? On SHIELD?"
Natasha nodded, "It's part of our arrangement, we take care of problems on their end of things and we have to keep them appraised of situations that directly affect them and their little world."
"Sounds like a pretty one-sided deal" Said Steve, "What do we get out of this?"
"Besides Percy?" smirked Natasha, Steve rolled his eyes but nodded all the same, "We get to continue to exist and they stay the hell out of our way. For a long time we had to rely on people like Percy to take care of these more…unique problems. But Percy made some kind of deal with the gods that gives us jurisdiction and keeps his family and friends potentially out of the line of fire."
"There's a lot of what you just said there, that doesn't make any sense." Steve pointed out.
Natasha shrugged, "You're right, but that's Percy's story to tell, not mine, if he wants you to know, you'll know. He doesn't like hiding things from his friends." As se said this, Hill walked back on to the bridge, a tall glass of water in her hand. Handing it Natasha, she said,
"He still not out of it? That's not a good sign." Natasha frowned and nodded,
"You keep saying that" Steve said, "What do you mean, its only been a minute or so." Thor answered again,
"Time moves differently in the realm of the gods, I am unsure how different Olympus is from Asgard but I can assume time moves faster there than it does here."
All of this was beginning to be too much for the man out of time. And he threw his hands up in exasperation and defeat. "I give up, this is just a little too-" He was cut off as a roar of thunder sounded and Percy's limp body was hurled out of his chair and across the room, colliding harshly with the rear bulkhead, sparks of electricity jolted off of his body sporadically as he twitched for a moment before groaning. Before Steve could process it all, Natasha and Hill were already lifting him up and placing him in the nearest chair. Deciding to be useful, he grabbed the glass of water and gently placed it in Percy's hand.
Percy looked up, his eyes clouded and tired and nodded his thanks before throwing his head back and downing the glass in a few short gulps. Steve assumed that the water must have acted like a healing agent for the man, which made some sense he supposed given his other powers. That and being healed by drinking water was by far the least obstructive observation he had made that night.
Fury, who had pulled himself away from the monitor at the sound of the thunder strode over,
"How bad?" he asked simply,
"Oh they're pissed."
"Will they do anything"
"Not if they want another war they won't. It took me a while but I managed to convince them that trying to forcefully remove the Asgardians from Earth would go about as well as if the Asgardians tried the same or us." He sighed, and ran his hand through his hair, "They also wanted to Loki brought to Olympus but I managed to talk them out of it. I had to call in almost every favor I had, but I got us time to deal with the situation." He turned and addressed Thor now; "They want you off planet, as soon as possible. They don't like having you back here, they don't like being reminded that they're not the only special snowflakes around here."
Thor chuckled, rumbled really, and grinned broadly, "I believe we will be good friends Perseus." He said, then, suddenly serious, "I assume you also told them that I would not be leaving this realm until the threat to Midgard has been resolved?"
Percy nodded, "Of course, it took some convincing but like I said, I called in some favors and not all of them have their heads in the sand. I convinced the people that mattered and that was good enough to buy us some time to resolve the problem before they got involved personally."
Fury was suddenly livid, "I was under the impression that they could not mettle in 'mortal' affairs?" he said acidly. Percy nodded, but then looked pointedly at Thor,
"That normally true, but Blitzen and Thunder Thighs here fall under the category of things they can and most certainly will get themselves involved in. Apparently there was a damn near revolt after the grudge match in New Mexico, but Thor here left quickly enough that they decided to wait and see what happened. Now that he's back and with his brother, they want to take action. We've got three days to take care of this other worldly problem before they decide to do something themselves."
Percy slumped in his chair, "I really freaking hate politics."
AN: Yo, sorry for the long wait on this one, but I certainly hope that ya'll enjoyed it, I had a lot of fun putting this one together. Not much to say other than that, but thanks for all the love and support ya'll have been giving me, it means a lot! Anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter and let me know what you think!
-LilDB