Somewhere in the Indian Ocean

2013

A ship sailed, passing through the East Indies, heading east towards the Pacific. In big white letters on the side, it spelled out the name of the ship: Blue Moon. Guards patrolled the ship's deck, armed with automatic rifles, walking across port and starboard.

Inside the ship's bridge, more guards patrolled but sitting on the captain's seat was the leader of this mercenary group.

His name was Tony Masters.

Downstairs inside the hull, he had the ambassador of Madripoor captured and kidnapped, bound with ropes. The mercenaries were holding him hostage, demanding a compensation for his freedom. Along with the ambassador of Madripoor was some of his staff, who'd also been captured as well. But the mercenaries were demanding money for the main man himself.

Regardless, Tony Masters was sailing to a paycheck, with someone willing to pay him handsomely as soon as he handed over the ambassador, in case he didn't get anything out of the United Nations or Madripoor.

Outside on the deck, mercenaries continued to patrol, but in the midst of a very dark night, they didn't realize a stowaway has decided to come on board, climbing on and sneaking his way onto the deck.

The first guard whistled a tune from an old cartoon show and as he turned around, suddenly, his automatic rifle flew out of his hands as it smacked away by … something. The mercenary didn't have too much time to think about it as he was suddenly kicked off the ship. He screamed before going splat against the water.

As the figure moved within the shadows, he set his sights on his next two targets, two more mercenaries who stood by the railbars conversating. The figure wasted no time in pushing them both overboard.

A fourth finally spotted the intruder and raised his rifle to fire but the figure threw his own handheld weapon, what appeared to be a trident, impaling the mercenary as he fell on his back. The figure walked up to the corpse casually and pulled out his trident as he revealed himself to the final two mercenaries.

He was tall, lean with a muscular figure. He had green eyes like the ocean, unkempt jet-black hair with stern expression etched on his face. He wore only battle pants, shirtless and shoeless as he casually strode up to challenge the final mercernaries that were guarding the outside deck, not counting the ones the inside of the bridge.

The mercenaries raised their rifles but as quick as the bat of the eye, the intruder spun his trident like a wheel and knocked their rifles out of their hands. The mercenaries were forced into hand-to-hand combat as they attacked the man together.

The man held his own, the trident giving him the advantage of some range as he used it to block their punches and kicks. He was so fluid with the trident, almost as like they were moving as one. One tried to punch, blocked. The other tired to kick, blocked with the other end of the weapon. They both lunged at the same time and the trident blocked them both at the same time.

The man dodged out of the next attack, which gave him an opening. He spun his trident and swung it at the first attacker, practically cracking his jaw as he went down. The man spun and aimed for the other attacker's legs, forcing him to his knees before he struck the attacker across the face, knocking him out.

The man stared at the bodies all around him momentarily before making his way inside the bridge.

If the mercenaries didn't know there was intruder before, they certainly did now as they all came out hiding to attack him. They weren't afraid to fire their weapons now, but the man was too quick for them, staying out of sight as bullets ricocheted off the wall. The man waited and waited, holding out for the right opportunity. That right opportunity being when he peeked behind cover and saw them the menagerie of mercs lined up in a single file line, rifles aimed high as they advanced on him.

The man smirked before readying his trident and threw like a spear, as it pushed onto them one by one. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. The man in front was the only one impaled but the heavy force of his throw was enough to put all seven of them into submission.

There was no doubting now, the man was either a mutant or enhanced. He showed speed, strength and agility far more superior than that of the average human being.

More mercenaries ran his way, whatever was left of them but the man found it almost too easy to dispose of them. One more suffered a blow to the head. A second took an impalement. A third was tossed into the roof like a rag doll. A fourth had a metallic door slammed into him.

When he reached the final man standing before the big boss himself, he knew for a fact that he would prove a bit of a challenge. He was an absolute brute, five inches taller than him, and he was already tall, with double the body mass. The brute looked at him like an angry bull as he smacked his fist into the palm on his hand, cracking his knuckles.

The man simply smirked. "Ooh, we got a big one," he spoke for the first time, his voice rich and deep like the depths of the ocean. "I'm up for a challenge."

"I'm gonna crush you like a soda can," the brute threatened. "And then I'm gonna toss you into the ocean to feed the sharks."

The man never looked more earnest than now. "Did you just threaten to pollute the ocean? Oh yeah, you're going down."

Percy attacked with his trident, but the brute saw the attack coming and grabbed it, to the surprise of the man, before flinging the weapon behind him. "No toys, we fight this like men."

The man shrugged. "As you wish."

The man was quick and agile, which is what he had to use against a brute like his challenger. The man dodged the brute's heavy swings, hitting with a counter to the stomach here and there. What this did was tire the brute out, and he would lose more breath with every blow to the stomach.

The brute angrily grunted as he swung towards the man once more, and he swung high, allowing the more leaner man to duck and hit him with a low blow. The brute roared and held his crotch as he went down on his man hit him with jabs to the head, which surprisingly didn't seem to do much before the brute countered by grabbing his arm. The man then head-butted him, which proved to be a terrible idea.

The head-butt left the man disorientated by trying to head-butt what appeared to be a seriously thick skull and the brute finally got a good hit, sending him flying. The man grunted as he got up, just in time to see the brute charging him like an actual bull. He managed to get underneath him as he tried to tackle him and pushed up on him. The brute was the one sent flying this time as his landed right onto the corner of a hallway, folding him like he was paper. The loud crack that rung in the halls suggested a broken spine as the brute roared in pain.

The man grunted as he stood up. "Now … with you out of the way, Tony's all that left."

The man picked up his trident and walked inside the captain's quarters inside the bridge. The big boss himself was waiting for him, and he clapped as Percy walked in.

"Well done," Tony Masters mused. "You finally caught up to me. What do you plan on doing now?"

The man rubbed his chin pensively. "I don't know … I ain't thought of anything yet. All I know is that you're releasing Mr. Donald Pierce, one way or another."

"SHIELD send you?" Tony asked.

"SHIELD?" the man asked with a frown.

"Oh," Tony said. "I see you haven't heard of them. But word of the wise, even if you haven't, they know about you."

"I highly doubt that," the man contradicted.

"Oh, you'd be surprised … Percy Jackson," Tony countered.

The man, who's identity was now revealed, raised his eyebrows.

"See … I used to work for SHIELD myself," Tony said. "But the people over there found me to be quite … difficult. So I became my own man, a mercenary. And this was a job. Hired many good people for it, but …" he gestured towards the piles of bodies, "you've taken care of them for me. For that I thank you. I won't have to be sharing."

Percy pointed between the both of them. "Is that what you think this is?"

Tony shrugged. "Why else?"

Percy shook his head. "I was waiting for you to make the first move. But clearly you're not … so I'll do it myself."

Percy yelled as he attacked Tony, who activated something on his wrist and a shield suddenly sprung out, blocking his attack. Percy slammed his trident downwards, narrowly missing Tony as he rolled away from danger before he took his shield and threw it at Percy. The shield knocked the trident out of his hands and he started to attack Percy at full force.

Percy tried to get himself closer to the trident but was stopped by Tony's attacks, which seemed to put Percy off-balance, as he seemed to realize why Tony's fighting style was familiar.

It was his.

Tony rolled over to the trident and picked it up himself as he started to battle against Percy with his own fighting style. Percy was forced to dodge his thrusts and jabs before he leaped and roundhouse kicked the trident out of Tony's hands.

Percy paused for a moment. "You're fighting like me."

"Surprised?" Tony mocked. "I have photographic memory. It allows me to be able to mimic anybody's fighting movements. And I was watching you while you took out the entire crew. So now … I know how you fight. You're not gonna beat me using your moves."

Percy nodded. "You're right. I'm not gonna beat you with my fighting. But I bet you don't have this."

Percy extended a hand and a massive jet stream of water blasted into Tony, sending him crashing through the window as he landed onto the front deck of the boat. Tony coughed and sputtered water everywhere as Percy hopped through the window and landed on the deck.

A bright light shone from above them suddenly, as Percy turned to look, covering his eyes from the bright light as he spotted an aircraft of some kind hovering above them, as it aimed to land on the deck.

Distracted, Percy failed to notice Tony Masters unlatch a lifeboat. The sound of the lifeboat hitting the water was what made Percy realize Tony's intentions and he rushed towards the handlebars, too late to stop Tony as he made his escape.

"Shit," Percy swore.

Percy turned to see the aircraft that had landed on the ship, noticing the eagle emblem painted on the wings and SHIELD was dotted in big letters.

The backdoor opened and several people ran out, whom appeared to be government agents of sorts.

"What are you guys doing?" Percy demanded. "I lost my target because of you. I almost had him."

A woman with short hair walked up to Percy. "He's as good as gone. You might as well forget about him. And you should leave, too. This is official SHIELD business."

"What the hell is SHIELD and who are you guys?" Percy asked.

"I think the more important question to ask is: who are you?" a new voice asked, belonging to a bald African-American man wearing an eyepatch over his left eye. "Percy Jackson, that is your name, right?"

"You said my name, but you're asking who I am?" Percy noted.

"I mean, the backstory. Your origins. How you got here," the man said. "Because I can see you have some gifts."

The man showed a clip on his tablet and Percy watched himself on video, fighting through the whole army before using his hydrokinetic powers to defeat Tony Masters.

"And you'd be surprised to know that you're not the only with these types of gifts," he said.

Percy shrugged. "I know that."

"So then tell me," the man said. "How did Percy Jackson get to where he is right now?"

Percy bit his lip for a good moment before finally replying. "It's a bit of a long story."