CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: Thirty Minutes
Five minutes ago. The battlefield of Camp Half-blood.
"I'll be back, I promise." Percy held Annabeth's hand. Blood stained one side of her face, and blood was splotched all over his shirt. Debris was stuck in her curly blonde hair, loose from its ponytail. Percy's hair, as usual, was directionless, but now with the distinct smell of smoke. As dirty and messy as both of them looked, Percy and Annabeth still stood with the strength of gods.
But they were better than any god Piper had ever seen.
"You'll be back or else," Annabeth said, with a small smile.
"You know, honestly? You against all these bad agent guys? Not a fair fight at all," Percy pointed out. "I feel sorry for them."
Annabeth laughed. She pulled him by his collar and kissed him, before pushing him to the direction of the small away team.
Piper watched Annabeth run back to the battlefield, Chiron galloping next to her, and the remaining leadership of the demigods.
They had decided that nothing in camp needed to be saved, except each other. They didn't need to protect the cabins anymore. They didn't need to protect the forge. All they needed to protect was each other.
The younger demigods were already being escorted into the relative safety of the woods, many of them disappearing using the Labyrinth. But all the older ones stayed, fighting to let the other ones escape and live. And still, a smaller group, lead by Annabeth and Chiron, were trying to destroy the invaders.
"Are you ready to do what's necessary?" Piper caught Issa asking Mags.
Mags flashed her a look. "Yes."
Issa scoffed. "I don't think you are."
Mags' expression darkened. She looked away from Issa, and caught Piper's eye. There was something there Piper couldn't quite read. Not quite a sign of betrayal but still - there was regret and shame.
Now. The battlefield between the warehouses.
Percy had told her to wait first before rushing in. Piper gasped as she was pulled back by her jacket, avoiding the flurry of bullets aimed at their group. Percy lifted up a wall of water, closing his fist so the water solidified into ice.
"That's new," Piper gawked.
Percy looked back with a sideways grin. "I've been watching a lot of tv."
More bullets cascaded upon the ice wall, some of them breaking through, missing the team and hitting the brick wall behind them. Percy lifted water from the sewers again, creating a wall of ice down to the van, and everyone rushed to hide behind it.
Issa took a little longer. She had a shield with her, plus her sword, and a few throwing daggers. She threw one of them at an agent, and from the loud groan, Piper knew she'd hit her mark. Then the Amazon joined them behind the van.
"Let's take them now -" Taki grunted, gripping a bronze sword in his hands. He had on armour too. Just the chest-plate, though; it was all he could grab in their mad dash to escape the battlefield of Camp Halfblood.
Piper leaned against the van, trying to catch her breath. She had only katoptris, and not much else.
Everything that had happened in the past two hours hit her.
Mags telling them everything. The Kingshield agents arriving. The bomb that hit the cabins. Percy and Annabeth arriving just in time. Percy using the water from the lake to douse the flames. Just in time to watch another bomb fall, just missing the Big House, but hitting its mark on a group of campers.
Smoke, blood, flames, shouts.
The agents here were still shooting at them, but Percy and Nico were making quick work of getting the shooters off their feet. All Percy could do from this angle was hope the torpedoes of water he sent was hitting their aim, and Nico had to save his energy.
Piper, Percy and Taki screamed as the bullets flew from under the van, the shooters now aiming for their feet. They jumped at the ricochets, and Percy lost his concentration.
They were not used to guns.
"Stand back -" Issa commanded. The others followed.
The Amazon lifted the edge of the van and yelled as she pulled it up until it was turned over on its side. The doors at the back of the van banged open. But now no bullets could hit them at all.
Piper stared in awe as Issa spat on the floor, massaging her arms.
"Look, I don't wanna be that guy, but -" Nico ducked his head as more bullets hit them. "Are you guys gonna be okay here? I need to get back to camp."
Percy nodded, then added: "Be back here in thirty minutes."
Nico frowned. "Why thirty?"
"We'll smoke these guys by then," Percy smirked.
Nico gave him a look like he didn't believe him, but he left anyway, disappearing in the shadow at their feet.
"And how exactly do you plan on 'smoking' them, Jackson?" Issa asked.
Percy opened his mouth and closed it. "I was - uh - thinking we could brainstorm that."
Issa rolled her eyes, swearing to herself (something about amateurs) but Piper was used to this. Even with all the bad guys on the other side, the mass of guns they seemed to have, and the fact that all of them wanted to see them very much dead - she was glad she was with Percy.
She just hated that this was what he and Annabeth had to come home to.
"Not exactly your ideal weekend back, huh?" she asked, crawling over to crouch next to him.
"Honestly, I wanna make a joke but - I'm really hating this right now," he sighed, tired but determined.
Percy waved his arm, sending another wave of water towards the agents. Screams sounded as bodies were swept away. But that red-haired madwoman was still screaming.
"COME OUT, COME OUT, JACKSON - FIGHT LIKE A GODDAMN MAN -"
Percy's jaw clenched.
"Who is this crazy person?" Piper asked.
"Nancy Bobofit. She used to throw peanut-butter sandwiches at me. And Grover. Guess she's upgraded to something a little more deadly," he frowned.
Mags sidled up next to them, a deep crease over her brow. "What are we talking about?"
"The one screaming at Percy," Piper answered.
"Nancy Bobofit? Oh, my God," Mags' eyes widened, "you know her?"
"Oh, you do too?" Percy asked cheerily, as if Nancy Bobofit wasn't trying to kill them all right now. "Small world!"
Percy concentrated, closing his eyes. He held out his arms to the manholes, as if feeling for something there. The next wave of water he sent was thinner. "Guys, not to rain on everyone's parade but - there's only so much water I can get, we're gonna lose our supply pretty darn quick. Does anyone have any secret long-range powers they can use?"
"We can throw Taki," Issa suggested.
Taki turned to her, affronted.
"I'm kidding," Issa assured, though no one was very convinced.
"We can try talking," Piper offered.
Another round of bullets.
Percy winced at the sounds, cringing. "I don't think they're gonna hear you."
"Mags," Piper turned to her. "You know guns."
Mags made a face. "Unfortunately."
"When do they usually run out?"
Mags made a different face. An 'are you kidding me' face. "I can't know that from here. I can guess, but - they're using semi-automatics, and I can't see their supply or anything. They could have thousands of rounds, we could be stuck here forever. We're lucky they haven't used anything worse. They have a van on that side, and if it's the supply va -"
Mags stopped. Everyone's eyes widened, waiting for her to continue.
She didn't answer. Still crouching, Mags crawled to the back of the van, with its doors swung open. When she came back, she had a more positive look on her face. "We have the supply van."
Then the bullets stopped. Everyone froze.
Piper saw Percy lower his arms, his hand coming to his jean pocket. He took out a pen, uncapped it, and there was Riptide. Percy mumbled something to himself, but it wasn't loud enough for Piper to understand.
All those jokes from before, she knew it was like second-nature to Percy. As long as she'd known him, she knew he wasn't the type to always show when he was concerned, to always show when he was really deathly terrified. He'd encouraged everyone that it was okay to be afraid, but he wasn't one to easily show it himself.
She could tell from the way he was holding the sword, that seeing Nancy Bobofit again wasn't just some funny reunion. Not when she was connected to the people that had already killed so many campers. And were still attacking camp now.
Annabeth had stayed behind to fight, but who knows what else Kingshield had in store?
He wanted to get back as soon as possible, and Piper couldn't blame him.
Percy sneaked a peek over the van, and a single bullet flew through, whizzing past his hair.
He ducked again, his face pale, but also furious.
"We can talk about this, you know," a familiar voice shouted. "I can stop Nancy, I can stop this - but you guys have to promise to stop too. We can TALK."
"Riley's the one with the curly hair? Big eyebrows? Guy who just said all that bullcrap?" Percy asked, through gritted teeth.
"Yes," said Piper and Mags at the same time.
"Great. Hate him already. Douchebag of the year."
Piper heard Taki hide a snigger behind his hand, but Mags' reaction was a little harder to read. She just pressed her lips into a thin line, revealing nothing.
"Did you see anything?" Issa asked.
Percy inhaled and exhaled. "They got, like, three people shooting. One of them's Nancy. Riley's not shooting. It doesn't look like they have a lot of people doing anything right now. The van's open, it looks like something's in there, but I didn't see what."
"All right, this is bullshit, time to up the ante," came Nancy's voice.
Then they heard a scream. Alex's scream.
Piper moved to rush forward, but Percy held her down, a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, Jackson!" came Nancy's voice again. There was the sound of something dropping to the floor. Alex screaming again. Electricity echoing, fizzing in the air. The rough sound of something being dragged across concrete, then gravel. None of them could see what was happening, but the sounds painted a picture.
"Here's what you came to save! I saw you got some goat-guy with you - that's not your peewee friend, isn't it? What was his name again? Drover? Too bad I don't have a soda can for him to chew on - that's what his kind eats, right? Garbage and shit. You are what you eat!"
"She does this," Mags said, putting a hand on Percy's knee, as if to keep him stable. "She yells like this to everyone she wants to fight."
Percy didn't brush her hand off, though he did glare at it. But Piper knew it wasn't Mags getting on Percy's nerves. He let out a sharp sigh. "…I know."
Issa lifted her shield to just below her eyes eyes, looking up past the van, but no one shot at her. Not while the villains were monologuing.
"We don't wanna keep doing this, guys," said Riley, "and we know you don't either. So why don't we just talk about this? Let's try and understand each other."
Piper huffed. Sometimes, clichés saved lives.
"I see them," murmured Issa. "The Bobo woman is dragging Alexandra through the gravel. They have her tied in a net. They're - electrifying her."
Another scream pierced the air.
"Will you stop that!" Riley shouted, angry. "Give it to me!"
Piper gripped her dagger in her hand until her knuckles turned white. Blood pounded in her ears. She should've brought her sword. They should've brought more people. They should've found Alex sooner.
"Do you have a plan?" she asked, breaking the silence on their side. "Do you have a plan, Issa?" she added, looking to the Amazon.
"None that are sustainable," Issa answered, her expression grave. She still had eyes over the van, watching what Piper and the rest of them couldn't see. "They're recovering. All the people Jackson swept to the side are coming back. But it seems they have to share their artillery. The Nancy woman holds two guns. Two others have the rifles."
"We can take 'em," Taki said. "We can rush them right now. Percy can use the last of the water, we'll come at them from the side -"
"No, we'd get shot on sight. We have no bows and arrows, we have nothing to cover us."
"We have a full van of guns!" Taki exclaimed.
Issa's eyes flashed. "And do you know how to use them?"
Taki fell silent at that, but the anger in his face was brewing. Issa looked to each of them, asking the same question. Percy and Piper shook their heads. Mags said nothing.
"I confess, we haven't trained with guns," Issa frowned. "Queen Antigone, after the Second World War, banned their use among the Amazons. We have no use for such barbaric weapons."
Too bad, Piper almost wanted to say. If only for the fact that they were pretty much cornered now. Otherwise, guns would never have crossed her mind.
"Who's holding the remote?" Mags suddenly asked.
"What?" Percy asked, furrowing his eyebrows.
"There's a remote for the net they're holding Alex with," Mags explained, strained. "Who's holding it?"
"I saw Riley holding a small box in his hand," Issa said quickly. "It looked like a phone."
On cue, Riley started speaking again, shouting across the space between them. "It's been a while, guys. Look. We got you surrounded. You can't waterbend your way out of this, and - and we have Alex." He almost sounded ashamed of himself. Piper's blood boiled.
"And Mags. Mags, babe, listen-"
Everyone turned to look at Mags, who sighed sharply. Piper really didn't like the way Riley said 'babe' like that, and she could tell Mags wasn't having any of it either.
Among all of them - two demigods, a satyr, and an Amazon - Mags looked so mortal, Piper almost felt sorry for her. She knew Mags had been in battles before, and was probably a better fighter than she would ever be, but there was still something so loudly human about the way she looked. Hiding herself more, because she knew she couldn't recover from wounds as fast as they could. Keeping herself between Taki and Issa - and the two of them subconsciously protecting Mags too.
Crouched among them, Piper could sense how mortal she was. Angry, and determined, but mortal.
Like Piper, Mags had no armour. She'd only had enough time to bring a sword. And it was useless when they were trapped like this.
But was Mags regretting sticking by their side?
Piper's heart raced.
"Mags," continued Riley, "I'm not gonna pretend to know what you're thinking. But you gotta know there's no way out of this. Not without losing everythi -"
Issa took the distraction as a moment to throw two more of her daggers at two agents. They fell to the floor in thuds.
Someone started shooting again from the other side.
"Stop!" Riley commanded. "Stop, we can talk about this."
Piper looked at her team - Mags had disappeared somewhere, but Issa was rallying Percy and Taki to help her push the van forward, to at least close the gap between them so it would be easier to engage them in closer combat.
"We've got Alex. We've got the camp cornered. It's over for you."
"Push," hissed Issa, laying her hands flat on the bed of the van and pushing. Percy, Taki, and Piper pushed as much as they could.
Then Piper heard the sound of clicks. "Wait - what is that?" she asked, taking her hands off the van.
It was the kind of sound she'd only heard before in movies. Movies where her dad hid behind a car, reloading a gun, before bravely, coolly, stepping out to meet his enemies. She never thought she'd see it in real life - until Mags did exactly that.
The mortal stepped out from inside the van, crouching so she wouldn't hit her head before standing up to her full height. Her blonde hair, just as messy as Annabeth's, blew slightly in the wind. She held only one gun, but it was big and probably the kind that held dozens of bullets. Waves of them.
Mags held the clunky gun with ease, the same way Percy and Jason would look with their swords. Like they were just an extension of their arms.
Now, she looked different.
And, for the first time that fight, bullets shot forward from their side.
Mags hit each agent with precision. Not a single bullet was wasted, aiming mercilessly for chests, arms, legs. For the first time, too, Piper heard the sound of a body being splattered with bullets - it was sickening.
The other side exploded into chaos, hiding behind whatever they could to avoid being hit.
"Hey, don't just stand there," Mags frowned, glancing at them once before clicking a new magazine in place. "Do something."
Mags had her sights dead set on the agents she could see, marching forward with no fear.
Percy was the first to lunge forward. He headed straight for Nancy Bobofit, who met him head-on with a warcry. What was it with Kingshield people and warcries? From her hip, Nancy took out what looked like a sword-handle, before clicking a button that extended a long, dark blade. The two swords clashed, Nancy laughing madly at Percy's face.
On Piper's right, Issa vaulted over the van. She held her shield in front of her, heading straight for three agents. One of the agents threw a grenade, aimed at the van, but Issa jumped up and blocked the grenade with her shield - sending it right back to the group of agents.
The grenade clattered to the belly of the other van - and the van exploded.
"Okay, okay, okay -" Taki was still next to Piper, breathing quickly, bouncing on his hooves like he was psyching himself up. "Okay, let's go, come on, let's -"
Piper held out her arm to stop him. "No, we have to think about this. Percy, Mags, and Issa have the fighting covered. We need to help Alex."
They moved forward a little, hiding behind the van doors so they were closer but still protected. They saw Alex still wrapped in the net, but now glowing gold as she usually did when she used her abilities. She lay on the floor, twitching, shouting at Riley. But the glow was flickering, like a faulty light-bulb.
Piper didn't get it. Riley was right there. Half of Alex's body was already uncovered, with Riley re-wrapping her in the electric net. It would've been so easy to grab him, or to just punch him. Why wasn't she fighting back?
"Clear a path there," Piper ordered, pointing to the left, at an alley leading to the other side of the warehouses. "I'll get Alex, but we need to make sure we can get somewhere when we do have her."
"But Nico -"
Piper shook her head. "I don't think thirty minutes has gone by yet. We can't count on that, and we need to move now."
The satyr nodded. He ran towards the left, fighting one large agent standing in his way.
Piper loosened her grip on katoptris. She measured her breathing, telling herself to keep calm. She fought better when she was calm. And this was a little bit harder than a regular fight - this was the deadliest game of dodgeball ever.
She had to avoid the firefight between Mags and two of the agents. She had to avoid Percy and Nancy exchanging blows. She'd never seen him fight so fiercely since sparring days with Jason - and maybe once with Clarisse, but Percy was well-known as the best swordsman of their time. Not a lot of people could get him breathless or panicky.
Nancy, she could tell, wasn't a swordsman - but she fought dirty. She had a more ruthless type of training, especially with hand-to-hand combat. It was honestly shocking how such a lumbering person could be move so fast. Percy had to move quicker than Piper had ever seen him. Nancy had a handgun still, and tried to use that, swapping swordhands and aiming the barrel at Percy's chest - before he managed to spin away and twist her arm, dropping the gun to the floor.
As Piper ran past, keeping her head low, she picked up Nancy's fallen handgun. Nancy rushed to grab her, but Percy held her back, pulling her towards him and elbowing her in the face.
A gun felt stupid in her hands, but it seemed more dangerous to just leave it there. She held the gun with her left, and katoptris on her right.
Then something moved past her in a blur.
Issa was chasing two formidable agents to the warehouse. They had their guns pointed at her, but she blocked them easily with her shield. The point here was the chase. Piper had time to watch her force them into the building, hearing a lot of shouts, cracks and BOOMs before she moved across the yard.
Mags kept the other agents occupied. The mortal was definitely in her element. She'd shot at the hands of the Kingshield agents, ridding them of their guns, leaving them with their retractable swords - all of them had them, like Nancy. One of the agents reached out to Piper with their sword, and she deflected it with her dagger. While Piper fought them off, another agent approached her from behind -
Mags had run out of bullets by then, but being as far away as she was, she could only do one thing - she threw the entire gun at the approaching agent's head. They fell back with a yell.
Piper shot Mags a smile as she kicked her enemy to the ground, finally reaching Alex in three more steps.
The gun felt heavier in her hands now. She didn't know what to do with it. But with Riley still hunched over Alex, saying something to her in low tones, she thought she should at least try -
She held out the gun a few feet left of Riley, and took a shot. Immediately, her arm shook with the unexpected kickback of the weapon. Piper strengthened her grip, taking deep breaths.
The bullet ricocheted of the concrete, but it caught his attention. He swivelled around with his hands up.
Riley had the balls to offer a friendly smile. "Hey, long time no -"
Piper lifted the gun to him and he stopped. She lowered it a little bit, fearing she might actually pull the trigger and hit him somewhere important.
"What did you do to her?" she asked.
The smile fell from Riley's face. The expression he had now was more similar to the night on the Argo III.5, back when he was worried about Alex and stressing about her - not when he had imprisoned her and was planning to do Gods' knows what.
He still had his hands lifted, but his fingers rubbed against his thumbs.
"Electric shocks. It's pretty hard to find something to stop her when she has no known weak spot. Another fun tidbit there for Descendants of Achilles 101. Nothing can stop our very own Captain Marvel." He paused, frowning. "Well, almost nothing."
Piper's eyes flickered to Alex, who was looking straight at her, but having a really hard time doing it. The shocks were less now, the golden glow completely gone but Alex was clearly still feeling the after-effects.
"My pare -" Alex whispered, "my parents -"
The daughter of Aphrodite turned back to Riley. "What did you do?" Piper demanded.
"She can't fight back. Otherwise, her parents die. That wasn't my idea," he added quickly. "That was a deal she made with Scott. Swore on the River Styx."
Piper's face fell. She looked back to Alex. You didn't, she wanted to say.
Alex shut her eyes.
"So, you see," Riley said slowly. "This whole thing is for nothing. She can't even fight."
Piper narrowed her eyes. "I wouldn't say it's for nothing." She took one step closer to Riley, the gun still pointed at him but her aim lower, less focused.
"Oh, really? We dropped two bombs on Camp Halfblood. Two. And we've got Batman versus Superman over there -" Riley pointed behind her. She didn't want to look, but she knew he must have meant Percy and Nancy. "Wonder Woman back in action," he pointed again, higher, and he must have meant Issa in the warehouse. "You got a satyr. And then you've got Mags back on her trigger-happy business. Thanks, by the way. She's been gun-sober for almost two years now, but I guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks."
"SHUT UP," Alex shouted. It sounded like it took all her effort to say just two words.
Both of them looked to her. Alex's eyes were wide open now, both of them glowing a fierce gold. The sight kind of scared Piper - it made Alex look more inhuman than when it was just her aura glowing. But with all her energy locked inside, her flashing eyes must have been the only way they could escape -
Riley grabbed for her gun.
But this was something she'd trained for at least. What to do when an enemy grabs for your weapon in close combat?
Piper reached forward, using his momentum to push him back, twisting the weapon in their hands, until it was back in hers - and then she threw it to the side. Keeping her eyes locked on Riley, she twisted his arm and turned him around, pushing his chin down to the ground. She heard the gun clatter down one of the manholes.
Now that she only had katoptris, this felt much more comfortable.
The blade was held against his neck. She saw the remote under his knee and she grabbed that too, throwing it down the same manhole. The shocks along Alex's net stopped completely, the power shutting down.
"I know what you're about, Riley," Piper frowned. "There's a hundred reasons why you're doing this. I could guess all of them. And you can lie all you want but I'll just look at your eyebrows and your hands to see which one hits the mark. It might be because you feel worthless, or maybe it's you trying to prove yourself to someone, to Scott…or maybe it's just about your brother. Trust me…"
Piper lowered her head, her mouth closer to Riley's ear. "…trust me, I get it."
It would have been so easy now. She was right there. Why not use the gift her mother gave her? Why not break her promise like that?
A lifetime of thinking seemed to pass between Piper's eyes - all of the reasons why she shouldn't use charmspeak, and all the reasons she should. All the reasons why it didn't matter anymore, how there were bigger people out here, more important than herself, people who were risking their lives -
But no. This was her life. And as long as she was fighting, she wasn't going to sacrifice anymore of herself than she already had.
Instead, she just dug in the blade to Riley's neck.
"But here's something that's always gonna be true: it doesn't matter if the fight's between gods and mortals, or mortals and monsters - people like you always lose. Because you're the destroyers." Piper lifted katoptris from Riley's neck.
Around her, the other fights were also ending. Taki had come back and was standing behind Mags, who held two new guns in her hands, with all the agents in front of her. The agents were bowing down to the ground, their hands on their heads. Percy had frozen Nancy with the last of the sewer-water. The only unfrozen part of her was her head, and she was still spewing insults and threats at him until Taki took a sweatband around his head and stuffed it into her mouth.
Piper caught the satyr's eye and tilted her head towards Riley. He knew exactly what to do.
While Taki tied Riley up, Alex and Percy went to work on untangling Alex. As soon as she was free, she collapsed into Piper's arms, shaking uncontrollably, sniffing and breathing heavily as if she'd just finished crying for a long time - or as if this was the first clean breath of air she'd had in years.
"My parents -" Alex's breath was shaky. Piper held her arms around her, tight. "Th-they're g-going to kill my p-parents -"
"That's not going to happen," Percy said, putting one hand on Alex's shoulder, looking straight at her. "We're going to save them."
"She can't fight," Piper explained, gulping. "She swore on the River Styx that she wouldn't fight or else they'll kill them."
Percy paled. "What kind of deal is that? Is that - is that based on magic? What do these Kingshield guys even have?"
"It's a shit deal," Riley murmured. Percy held out Riptide to his throat instantly, but Riley just scoffed. "Jesus Christ, give me a break." Percy lowered the blade.
"Get her out of this deal or else," Percy warned.
"What, you're gonna waterbend me, Katara?"
Percy's face twitched, like he was making a conscious decision to not like the reference Riley just made.
"What did she actually say?" Piper interrupted, steering them back. "What were the exact words of the deal?"
Alex stirred in her arms, and she forgot all about Percy and Riley. She held Alex's cheek gently to help her look up, but she just coughed. "No harm will come to my parents as long as I don't fight back. I…we said that at the mall. That's why I ran, I - if I couldn't fight, I was going to run. I was going to run home, they have a bomb, they have - they have agents -" Alex struggled.
"So we get rid of the bomb, we get rid of the agents. That's the harm," Percy concluded, scratching his head. "That's the harm that they're talking about."
He looked to Piper and she arched an eyebrow. Percy shook his head. "Listen, after years of these random swearing by the Styx, you get used to figuring out which ones are the 'for life' ones and which ones are the 'I just wanna get this done with' ones. This sounds like the second one. You just wanted to save your parents from what's happening now," he added, softer, nodding at Alex.
Then he glared at Riley. "And this jerk's not helping with anything. Tell us what we need to know and we'll leave you alone. We'll set you and your agents free."
Riley rolled his eyes. "Not likely."
"We can figure this out ourselves," Piper said, trying to keep her voice calm. "We just need to know where Alex's parents are. And we get there with Nico, we - we find out where the bomb is, we stop the agents -"
"That leaves too many unknowns. We don't know where this bomb is, we don't even know how to defuse a bomb - can we get Leo?" Percy asked.
"Maybe. But I don't want to take him away from what he's doing, maybe we can get Harley?"
"Then we'd have to make too many round-trips, and we don't know who's pulling the strings. They -" Percy gulped. "It might have already happened. Do we count as fighting? Or was it just Alex?"
Piper fell silent. They looked to Riley for answers, but he just shrugged. Piper had never wanted to castrate someone more.
They couldn't just sit here thinking of plans and possibilities. It would take up too much time to rely on people far away from them, so they needed to look at what they had. They had Mags. Piper looked behind her.
Mags and Taki had just finished tying up all the Kingshield agents with rope from the supply van. Piper didn't know if she'd heard anything about the conversation.
But where was Iss -?
The Amazon burst from an upper-floor window, landing easily on the ground, two unconscious agents on her left shoulder. She threw them down without any mercy and then stomped towards Riley - who, justifiably, looked frightened at the sight of the strong woman heading towards him.
"I heard everything," the woman announced, brushing her braids behind her shoulder. "You left this girl no choice but to give up her power. You threatened her family."
Riley tried to scramble backwards to escape but Issa moved past Piper and Percy and grabbed him by his collar, lifting him up to her six-foot height.
"Cooperate," she said, "or I'll throw you into the sun."
A/N: After many moons, here's a new chapter !
BUT YES THAT WAS NANCY ! IS NANCY! Miss Bobofit has returned!
This chapter was a lot of fighting, but I'll be wrapping up 'Phase One' of this story pretty soon. Judging from how long it's taking me to write, this is going to be one hell of a project. But thank you guys for always reading, and for staying and checking back every now and then! I'm so glad, and very grateful for all the people following 'For Only The Buried'.
I hope I've written Percy all right!
Honestly, I'm kind of sad Riley's a 'villain' now. Writing all this, it would've been great to see Riley interact with Percy positively. They're quite similar in some ways. Both of them are protective, known as the 'jokers' of the group, light-hearted and family-oriented. But exactly what family Riley chooses to protect is still up in the air…
God, I still don't know if I do fight scenes well. They just get so confusing in my head, especially with so many characters rip
But after watching Avengers Endgame, I've now got all kinds of inspiration
As always, thank you for reading! I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!