AN: ...Yeah. Yeah, I'm back to this now. How's all three of you still following this doin? Good? Still members of Uncle Rick's bandwagon? Yeah? Read the latest release? I did. Day it came out. Loved it!
So...Yeah, no yeah...I'm back.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Percy Jackson and the Olympians. If I did, I wouldn't be on this site sadly.
Paladin
The world officially ended when the body of a young man was found on the outskirts of the Jersey Shore. The official report was that the young man died while intoxicated, messing with some illegal fireworks on his boat. The theory settled the nerves of the department, but part of it sounded...outlandish. Bizarre.
Hell, even though it wasn't exactly the most 'P.C.' way to say it, it sounded flat-out retarded.
"He had the same residue on his fingers that could be found in fireworks. And it's summer, you know how some of these teenagers get."
The voice of reason belonged to one of two men seated in a white 2006 Dodge Charger, parked in an alleyway a few blocks from 1PP. He looked a little like a goateed Sam Rockwell, lanky and thin, only his nose was much wider than the actor's and his curly brown hair was pulled back into an unkempt dreadlock ponytail. He wore a brown suit with a red tie, his jacket folded behind his head and his badge on display from where it clipped to his belt and the butt of his issued handgun gleamed from the shoulder holsters it sat in. He stirred the straw of his Starbucks' Soy Latte and looked at the one seated behind the wheel.
"Didn't you ever cut loose and go wild when you were a kid?"
Electric blue eyes closed as a flash of memories flew through his head. Preparing for some sort of duty on a farm, wearing no more than a tunic. The eyes blinked open again and narrowed as the owner looked at the mirror.
A man in his mid twenties looked back, the hand scratching a blond beard that covered his not fully rounded, yet not entirely squared jaw dropping to grab the simple black coffee that was set in the cup holder. His hair had been cut short and still spiked about naturally, like a bolt of lightning or something had hit him when he was a child. He wore a grey Henley shirt with the top two buttons undone, his broad shoulders filling out nicely and his forearms on display for the passerby since the sleeves were rolled up. A belt held up dark Levi's and the latest Nikes covered his feet. His gun was on his hip and his badge hung from his neck by a simple chain.
The driver almost smirked; he and his partner were dressed like they stepped off of the set of a modern day 'buddy cop' movie. Instead he moved his coffee to his other hand, resting out the open window and looked at his partner.
"A kid that young is wasted on a freaking boat? With illegal grade fireworks? Near the end of the summer? Alone? C'mon, Billy Goat, you and I both know that's a load of horse-shit."
Billy Goat, the nickname for his partner, was short for William G. Overtree, a detective in the New York Police Department just as the driver was. Both had entered into the police academy together just over six years ago, and both became detectives after their predecessors had botched a missing kid's case, misleading the media and accidentally labeling the poor kid as a freaking terrorist, of all things. With the spots open for grab, Billy Goat and the driver worked their ass off for a year, closing unsolved cases and freshly opened ones with both diligence and determination.
"Maybe, but just let it be for now, okay, Naruto-kun?"
"I will shoot you. Don't call me that." Naruto, or as he was legally named, Nathan Sparks, warned Billy with a frown. That damned nickname had been following him since he'd been caught reading that manga in the locker room. It didn't help that he'd had those stupid whisker marks on his face for as long as he could remember. The others at the station called him such, which was all right for the most part. At least he wasn't Wide Lode or Patty Rat. Those damn suffixes though, they got annoying as hell after a while.
"The chief's covering for someone again, I can feel it-"
He was cut off as a bright red car sped by. Naruto and Billy shared a look before they tossed their respective drinks out the windows of the car. Billy drew his seatbelt over his chest and clipped it into place while Naruto turned on the siren he'd had installed to his car. A shift of the gears and a press of the petal later and they were back on the job.
"Ten bucks says they're joyriders." Naruto offered with narrowed eyes as he followed the lawbreakers and tried to anticipate their turns. They were currently heading towards Fifth Street.
"Make it twenty. I say it's another old lady that just doesn't know how to turn her license in." Billy shot back as he grabbed the radio. "This is Badge Number L-4-N-N, we're in pursuit of a red ...what the hell is that?"
"A Chevy," Naruto said, focused. His eyes narrowed and sweat began to build on his brow as his adrenaline skyrocketed. Of all the times for his ADHD to kick in, his meds were supposed to repress it, dammit. He popped the top off of a small pill bottle he pulled from his pocket and dumped a single pill into his mouth. The letters on the Camaro's rear license plate began to rearrange and Naruto blinked his eyes furiously.
The hell is E-N-Y-0-R-4-G-3 supposed to mean? He wondered once his vision returned to normal just after they passed the Empire State Building. He really had to reschedule an appointment with Dr. Paine (who admittedly had a terrible name considering how generous and kind he was during appointments). It was evident that he needed a larger dose of Adderall.
"Man, they're really booking it." Billy muttered. "Where do you think they're heading?"
"Not a clue," Naruto said as he took a sharp right and nearly crashed into someone in the intersection. "Jesus! Doesn't anyone use their ears anymore!?"
"Nope!" Billy bleated, which made Naruto do a double take. He scrutinized his partner with a confused look on his face. Was it him or was Billy's hair parting oddly in two places? He was pulled from his thoughts when his partner noticed the staring and grabbed the 'Oh-Shit' handle. "Stop staring at me and drive!"
"Right, sorry, meds wore off. Getting distracted." He apologized. Naruto blinked his eyes furiously as he returned his attention to the red car. He narrowed his eyes when he saw a hand on the driver side window stick out. An arm and then another arm, which then planted either hand on the side of the driver's door, immediately followed it.
A woman's torso popped out, clad in a blood red spaghetti strap top that hardly held her bust at bay. Naruto narrowed his eyes as the woman, her hair oily black and her eyes covered by wraparound sunglasses, turned to grin wildly at him. She pressed a hand to her lips and blew the pursuing officers an obnoxious kiss.
"Ballsy bitch," Naruto said with a frown. He didn't hear any witty jab or snide comment aimed at the woman and chanced another glance to his partner. What he saw made him extremely worried.
Billy was shaking in his seat. His eyes were as wide as dinner plates and bleats, bleats like a goat's bleats, came out of his mouth like childish whimpering. His skin had paled and the hair on his abnormally hairy arms seemed thicker.
"Billy! Snap out of i-!"
Naruto was cut off when a semi-truck ran headfirst into the his side of the car. Glass shattered and the two officers became ragdolls as the Dodge rolled. Naruto felt his arms, face, chest and legs get cut. His head smacked twice against the wheel and four times against Billy's. The airbags failed to go off and to make everything worse, the roll came to a stop with them upside down.
Naruto could only groan as his vision went dark. He heard frantic shouts and screams, but among that he could've sworn he heard a whisper.
"It figures that you're the first casualty. Won't dear ol' Grampa be proud of me?"
Naruto opened his eyes and found himself on a beach. He was sore, and his body was littered with cuts. A dull throb came from his left side, and blood leaked out onto the sands. The taste of saltwater in the air was muted by the metallic tang that layered his tongue and teeth. He felt something heavy on his head, arms, legs and torso, and there was something made of wood in his right hand.
"Commander! Commander!"
Weakly, he turned his head to look out towards the sound. Wreckage of wood, dwindling fires, and corpses littered the beach. Blue eyes washed over faces of the fallen and recognition flickered in the back of his mind. He knew them, but at the same time, had no idea who they were. A figure limped out from behind a large wooden obstruction, his right hand clutched tightly over the left arm that hung as dead as Naruto felt.
The lone soldier must've spotted him, because he hurried towards Naruto, stumbling and slipping in the sand. By the time he reached Naruto's side, his body was caked in sand, blood, and splinters. Dark orbs overlooked the damage and pulled the cloth from his arm to the wound on Naruto's side. Two thoughts immediately went through Naruto's head.
The first: That can't be sterile. Great, I'm going to die from infection.
And the second: Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-OW! Pressure hurts!
"Commander, thank-thank the gods. Your quick thinking saved my life." The grateful and medically hindered soldier said to him. Naruto wanted to tell the man that he had absolutely no idea what was going on and wanted to know where his partner was.
Instead, he said, "Boy, your name?"
"Ajax, son of Telamon," the young man said. He looked to the side and hope appeared in his eyes. "Rest easy, Commander! The others come! I will fetch them and you will be healed. Then we shall fight for Greece and gain glory in battle as the last of The Maelstrom's men!"
Naruto watched him rise and call over for assistance, words muting and sound becoming dull. The world flickered and shiny orbs danced around the beach. Part of Naruto wanted to call attention to them, to warn the soldiers that approached of their presence, but another wanted to continue staring, awestruck at their greenish glow. The colors of life drained and time seemed to slow slightly.
"Hear me," a deep, powerful voice rattled Naruto's already aching skull. "My pain is yours, and your pain is mine. This war is not one for men to fight, Commander. You are just tools."
"Who-Who speaks?" Naruto's voice was no stronger than a whisper. An ancient chuckle echoed around him and shivers went through Naruto's body either from fear or blood loss. The orbs danced closer and Naruto felt his weak heartbeat attempt to race.
"I've names that are as well known as my sons'...but names matter not. Life matters, Commander. You've a wife and son awaiting you in Ithaca. Don't you wish to see them once more? To hold your woman in your arms? To please her in bed again, and again, and again?"
Thoughts of times long passed flashed through Naruto's head. He wondered if any of them were his memories or just those of this 'dream', if this even was a dream. The name Dia floated in his head, accompanied by the musical laughter of a woman that was associated with the image of a beauty with long, dark hair. The name slipped off of Naruto's tongue, out of his mouth, and he could hear the voice's smile turn into a smirk.
"Yes, but if you die, she'll be taken by another. Loved by a lesser man. Touched in a way only you should touch her!"
A faceless figure appeared beside Dia and she turned her attention to him. Naruto wanted to call her away, to face the man in combat and put him in the dirt, but a soothing, calming feeling of warmth washed over him. Images of this beloved Dia looking at another man with a smile that fully reached her eyes, one that was happy, one that was in love, one that was loved in return. A farm appeared in his mind, lands vast and far grander than what they had. A boy with his fair complexion worked the fields alongside this mysterious man, and then relaxed in the evening. Peace overcame the household.
The voice snarled.
"No...No! Lies! They are lies! Do not listen to them! Live, you damned fool! Live and return to your beloved! Your son! Show any who try to steal them away your might! Make them fear your power!"
"Saon...Dia..." The words left his lips and Naruto felt a smile spread across his face. His eyes unwillingly but peacefully drifted shut, all whilst the ancient voice let out a furious roar that echoed in his head. The last thought he had prior to his return to slumber was sweet and heartfelt, from Naruto's outside opinion.
As long as they are happy, then I am content.
Consciousness slowly reached out and pulled Naruto from his forced slumber.
At first, he didn't want to move, much like on those days off where he could just sleep in and turn off any concern for the city he might've had, difficult as it was. Then, the buzzing in his ear became too much and Naruto cracked his right eye open to find the source. The chain his badge hung from dangled in his sight. His arms, covered with cuts and glass, fell up (or was it down?) to touch the roof of the car. The sky had grown unnaturally dark outside. The buzzing continued as something reached out and grabbed his right shoulder. A pained groan escaped Naruto's lips and his cracked eye closed.
That was one hell of a dream, he thought. The blond felt his injured arm shaken and cracked his eye open again. The buzzing sound slowly cleared up into a familiar voice.
"-han...Nathan...Naruto! Wake up!" Billy's concern was heartwarming, really, but he needed to stop shaking his arm.
"Stop shaking me, Billy." Naruto weakly croaked. He blinked a few times and winced as he tried to move his hands. They were numb and heavy at first, but a few gentle finger flexes brought the feeling back. And the pain in his shoulders intensified. Naruto clenched his eyes shut and grimaced. "I think my shoulder's dislocated."
"Which one?" Billy asked.
"Both of them."
"They look fine to me."
Naruto turned and mustered up enough nerve to lock a glare onto his partner. The man was unbuckled and out of the upturned car, though an arm was hugging his left side and he was still on his knees. His hair had fallen out of its ponytail and Naruto noticed two locks that pointed up like horns.
Wait...
"Billy...Have you always had horns or are those just a hallucination from my concussion?"
Billy hesitated. That alone answered Naruto's question, which was intentionally a joke, but it raised more. That was alarming.
"Yeah, hallucination. I'll radio for a medic and-" The radio Billy had just picked up sparked and broke into pieces in his hand. "...Or, you know, just...Hang tight...I'll get you out of there in a jiffy!"
Naruto just knew he had gained a violent twitch in his right eye. He just knew. Seriously, no one could be that bad with puns. No one.
Deciding to ignore the puns, Naruto waited for his partner to help him out of the predicament he was in. It didn't take long, although the fall from the mild suspension above ground to meet the roof of the car his hands touched hurt. And that was putting it mildly.
Pulled from the car, Billy propped Naruto up against the overturned vehicle, the blond officer's eyes shut as his blood slowly returned to its prior place throughout his body. It wasn't a pleasant experience, and Naruto didn't recommend it to anyone looking for an adrenaline rush. Hell, this adventure alone nearly made him swear off riding the Millennium Force or any other sort of roller coaster ever again.
When his senses became a bit clearer, Naruto looked at Billy, hallucinated horns and all.
"Do me a favor, Billy?"
"Yeah?"
Naruto closed his eyes and his lips curled into a sneer.
"Write down that bitch's license plate."
Billy's chuckle was akin to a booming belly laugh.
"So...How long were we out...do you think?" Naruto asked through labored breaths as he and Billy hobbled through Manhattan's streets. With their radio useless and little more than what they had on them, they figured that some passerby or the rare noteworthy samaritan of New York City would come by and give them assistance.
The chances of that, however, dropped with each step they took.
"Long enough for us to enter the Twilight Zone."
"...Okay, seriously, how old are you?" Naruto asked.
"Fifty-nine." Billy's quick response made both start and come to a stop. Their eyes met, and Naruto felt his hand move for the piece that hung under Billy's armpit. "Er, Twenty-nine. Sorry, Freudian slip."
"Billy...We've been through a lot over the past six years. I can tell when you're trying to hide something." Naruto narrowed his eyes and undid the strap that kept the weapon in place under his partner's shoulders. "So tell me, before I let the best of my instincts take over...why do you have horns?"
"...Hallucination from your concussion?"
"Yeah, maybe fifteen minutes ago I would've bought that, but...they've been pretty prominent for a while now. Not changing in shape or size." Naruto moved so fast, his already protesting body protested even louder as he pulled Billy's own gun on him, and shoved the horned man into the nearest parked car. The handgun pressed into Billy's chest and Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Answers. Now."
"L-Look, Naruto, I'm just trying to-"
"Buddy, I was just flipped in my own goddamn car. I have the worst migraine. I'm fairly certain multiple bones are broken and I have internal bleeding. Frankly, it's a miracle that I haven't shot you yet. I'm gonna start counting to ten."
"Naruto, just listen man-" Billy grabbed the gun at Naruto's hip and pressed it into one of the open cuts in his side. Naruto hissed, but didn't relent in the slightest. "Let me go. I'm going to count to ten. I'll explain everything once you see a doctor."
"Considering you're jabbing a gun into my wound, I'm gonna pass on that offer." Naruto pulled the hammer back with his thumb. "Five."
"Wh-You said ten!" Billy faltered.
"Situation changed." Naruto grumbled. "Four."
"Whoa, hold on man, let's not do anything we'll regret!"
"Three."
"Nathan, I've been your partner for six years!" Billy pleaded. Tears, or what looked like them, pricked at the corner of his eyes. The barrel digging into Naruto's cut trembled. "Don't make me do this."
"Have you? I don't know. I've been unconscious for the past few hours. Who's to say that you're the same guy I was in the car with?" Naruto grinned weakly, praying his bluff would pay off. He needed answers and he needed them now, something in his gut churned the wrong way, and it wasn't helping the current situation. "Maybe you're a green man from Mars. For all I know you're a devil come up from below to drag me down to Hell. Never been much of a religious man, but I wouldn't be surprised. Maybe this is limbo, or maybe it's all a hallucination. End of the line, I got nothing to lose by shooting you. Except maybe my job, but you covered most of the slack on that anyway. Now where was I? Oh right. Two."
"Gods...dammit, Naruto." Billy closed his eyes. The gun lowered from Naruto's side and dropped from Billy's hand. "Okay...Di immortals, let's talk. Just...Just put the gun away."
"..." Naruto's thumb moved the hammer back up.
"Hey! There's another satyr!"
The two officers looked to the one that shouted, a kid, no older than fifteen. He, along with a few others stood down at the end of the street. They were all dressed in what looked like the armor worn in that movie King of Sparta. Swords and shields in their hands, one had a bow, and another had a large axe.
"Thank the gods, hey! You kids got a cell phone?! My partner needs an ambulance!" Billy called as he pushed himself out of Naruto's grip. He stumbled forward and waved at them. "He's also clear-sighted! Accident jarred whatever blocks were put on him."
"Kill the satyr, take the cop to Castellan."
"...Wait, what?"
It's strange, Naruto decided in hindsight, to see someone you were bluffing to kill die at another's hand. Billy had an arrow in his stomach before Naruto could fully register what the teenager said. Hell, Naruto was sure that it happened before Billy himself realized it. Billy took another two arrows before he fell. He hit the ground with labored breaths and an anguished, pained, angry yell rippled through the air.
"Billy!" Naruto was surprised when he recognized the yell as his own. He snapped out of the shock and lifted his partner's gun. The hammer was pulled back, a finger around the trigger tightened and the archer's head snapped back. The other kids seemed shocked, surprised even. Like they couldn't fathom that someone would shoot a gun at them.
Idiots.
It was sad how fast they dropped. Naruto's chest was heavy, his breathing hard, and tears fell like waterfalls from his eyes. He'd been rough a time or two while on the beat, took a few S.W.A.T. classes before and performed a few raids on drug houses. Never, though, never had he had to fire his sidearm on someone a decade or so younger than him. Never had he had shot to kill so ferociously, so relentlessly, mercilessly...or accurately.
At the moment, he didn't care about the five or so young bodies that lay dead in the center of the street. Running on whatever it was that had him moving as fast as he did, Naruto dropped to his knees next to Billy. The man was gone, eyes glazed over, stuck forever in an endless stare locked on the stormy sky.
"You dumb ol' Goat..." Naruto whispered, putting a hand on the corpse's chest. He squeezed his eyes shut and cried for his partner. "I wasn't going to kill you man...I wasn't...I swear...I swear to Christ...God dammit, Billy."
Then, as if things couldn't get any weirder, Naruto felt the body become lighter, smaller. A strong, pleasant scent filled the air. The body beneath his hand became intangible, Naruto nearly fell face first into the street. It became a bright golden dust before it swirled around, over the spot where Billy's head lay, and sunk into the ground.
A daffodil sprouted through the cement.
"...God...What the fuck...? What the actual fuck!?" Naruto threw the gun in his other hand away, sending it clacking across the sidewalk. He grabbed at his head and fell forward, curled into a fetal position caused by fear, confusion, exhaustion, anger, and any other emotion that could be thought of, had been thought of or will be discovered. A yell filled with these emotions, incoherent though it was, escaped his throat.
Naruto reared back, his hands dragging down his face to form fists at his sides, and screamed with all his might at the cloudy, dreary sky.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?"
Although unexpected, the response wasn't surprising. Naruto was too caught up in his emotions to be caught off guard now. Too high on his adrenaline's adrenaline rush to be surprised by what lumbered its' way around the corner. With a giant mace in its hand and a massive round grey eye in the center of its forehead, a creature from the storybooks stomped into view.
"Meat!" The cyclops licked its lips and readied its World of Warcraft worthy toy above its head. "Need t' tenderize!"
"...You've...Got to be shitting me." Naruto stared at the creature, almost frozen with disbelief. He was about ready to welcome the blow when he remembered his dream. Dia. The wonderful woman who'd somehow wormed her way into his dream-self's heart. She was waiting, somewhere, he could feel it. She was out there. Dia had answers.
"Hold still!" The mace was brought down with enough force to shatter the blacktop entirely, revealing the dirt that lay beneath it. Naruto moved in the split second before it came down. He dove for his discarded gun, not Billy's gun on the sidewalk, no, that was empty. His gun, the one that was dropped before Billy's murderers revealed themselves, was scooped into his hand with ease.
"Fuck you, lard ass." Naruto growled from his position on the ground. He unloaded the entire magazine into the one-eyed monster's face. Nine bullets. One target. Simple enough math.
Or so he thought.
Then again, in a rational world, his math would be excessively accurate. In a rational world, he and his partner would've already been taken to a hospital, given a few days leave, and meet up for beers and movies as bachelors were wont to do. In a rational world, his partner-no, his best friend wouldn't have been killed by a bunch of teens, which would then send Naruto into a flying rage that resulted in their deaths.
Naruto forgot one simple thing: Ever since he woke up after his car wreck, rationality took its coat from the hanger, picked up its bag, and walked out the fucking front door without so much as a "Good-bye."
All nine of Naruto's bullets, all of which were large enough to seriously cause facial damage to the point dental records would be rendered nearly useless for identification, passed right through the monster's face like he was made of water.
...Are you fucking shitting me? Naruto stared in disbelief while the cyclops blinked and then sneezed, as if it'd just been tickled with a feather. Then Naruto fought for air as a meaty hand seized him by the throat and lifted him off of the ground.
"Bad meat!" The cyclops glared at him and shook him a bit. "You no still! Meat no move!"
Not going to be a problem in a few seconds... Naruto thought as he feebly struggled for air. His legs were weak and kicked, hoping to land a blow and maybe – Let's not lie, it was just a reactive gesture. Blue eyes began to roll upward as oxygen became harder and harder to obtain. Hope slowly climbed its way out the window. Acceptance began to turn the handle on the door in order to come in, but Stubbornness was doing its' best to hold the door shut.
Not yet. Two words that held so much meaning for Nathan "Naruto" Sparks. He never gave in during boot camp. He never stopped working on a case that'd already been closed if it rubbed him the wrong way. He didn't stop his pursuit unless some otherworldly force made him stop.
Aegis.
...Where the hell did that come from?
Aegis.
What is that? What even is that? His subconscious worked overtime while his consciousness focused on the whole 'AIR! NEED AIR!' scenario.
A-E-G-I-S.
Greek.
Myth.
Shield-No. Weapon.
What is that!? Naruto's subconscious roared furiously. His consciousness took a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a second to lend its help. The two halves of the same mind came up with a conclusion instantly. It was the key. His salvation. How? Why? What'd he have to do? Wish real hard? Pray to Jesus? Accept the unrelenting and murderous Chthulu as his one true dark lord and savior?
...Fuck, man, I don't know I just live here.
Oh, once Naruto got out of this he was going to kick his own smart ass.
Maybe... His subconscious began as Naruto's vision just started to blacken at the edge. Maybe I have to say it. Like, like the Green Lantern oath. Fuck, Billy just turned into a flower! Anything's possible!
"A-...A..." Naruto gasped out, his hands clawing furiously at the Cyclops' hand around his throat.
Oh, right. Choking. That's a thing right now. Hey! Hey dipshit! Can you hear me?
No. Dying.
Yeah, yeah. Do that on your own time! Right now, you need to get your balls out of your purse, summon your inner Manhattanite, and pretend this fucker just cut you off in the express lane without his blinker on, threw trash onto the highway and did it all while he was yammering away on his cell phone!
Goddamn...Naruto would later realize in hindsight that his subconscious, well...it was sort of badass. But he'd never admit it.
You just did.
...Smartass.
We gonna die bickering or what?!
Naruto closed his eyes, mustered up as much energy as he could into saying the word. With a deep breath, the one that could potentially be his last, Naruto let his head roll back, and once more he shouted at the sky.
"AEGIS!"
...Well, as far as last words go, it's better than screaming 'Poop Train' or cussing at the top of your lungs. Nothing happened, and Naruto felt that maybe dying without shouting like an idiot at the sky would've probably been the better path to take.
Then, faintly, he heard it.
A sharp whistle, something rapidly cutting through the sky, swirling as it flew. Whatever it was collided with a loud clang into the back of the Cyclops' head. The surprise attack from behind made the one-eyed monster release Naruto. The NYPD officer dropped to the ground and greedily sucked in air.
An object landed beside Naruto with a clatter. A large round shield with possibly the most hideous thing plastered on it. Decorated with gold rings that drew attention to the thing – Medulva? Megatron? Whatever, Naruto wasn't good at history – the shield was otherwise a unique shade of bronze.
"Ow! Head hurt!"
Oh right. The LARP-worthy Lardass was still walking around.
Time to rectify that.
Naruto wobbly rose to his feet, grabbing the edge of the shield as he did, and swayed from one side to the next. His blurry vision was just clear enough to make out the Cyclops' attention still on him. And, go figure, the mace had been lifted one more time.
"Yeah...No." Naruto used what remained of his strength to throw the shield like a
disc. What he would've liked to have seen was the sudden decapitation of the cyclops' head.
To be fair, Naruto would rather liked to have woken up from this fucked up nightmare, but he'll take what he can get.
In actuality, what Naruto got was a choppy toss that flew two feet in front of the cyclops' head, and bounced off the brick wall of the building beyond. The shield bounced back at the building behind him, shattering a window as it did.
Evidently...Captain America, he was not.
"Oh, come on." Naruto groaned as the Cyclops lifted its mace one more time. There was a faint clang, then another, and another, and then a crash. Naruto and the cyclops looked up to the window that the shield had bounded into to see it fly back out. It soared down from the window, still flying strong. Frankly, Naruto didn't think he threw it that hard. It bounced off of a light post and struck the corner of a building before it flew back towards them. It hit the rim of a car and rebounded right at the Cyclops.
That is when the monster's head was severed from its torso. The shield bounced one more time off of a building before it landed awkwardly at Naruto's feet, ugly thing facing the street while the grip faced Naruto. The officer of the law looked between the shield, the decapitated and disintegrating monster, and back before he nodded.
"Okay. It's official." Naruto picked the shield up and settled it on his left arm. "It's either a massive dream...or it's the end of the world. Really hoping on the former, but banking on the latter."
That said, Naruto left the side street in hopes of getting back to his department, and maybe getting some answers.
Someone had to know what the fuck was going on.
During his walk, Naruto began to wonder just where everyone was. It was like the city, for the first time since the Twin Towers fell, had taken the rest of the night off. Really, not one dog barked in the distance, there were absolutely no car horns blaring, hell there weren't any cars on the streets at all! How did they manage that!? That's eight million people (give or take a good thousand) who apparently unanimously decided: "Nah, not feeling NYC today. Let's go to Brazil or Canada or something."
There were usually thefts of grand scales, looting, or even low-key murders going on nonstop in the Big Apple. What, did Superman show up while he was unconscious and sweep up the streets?
Seriously though, if there was some sort of alien ship landing and he missed it, Naruto was going to be severely pissed, and he was already in a bad mood.
These were the thoughts that ran rampant through Naruto's mind when he came across the oddest group of girl scouts he'd ever seen. Silver cloaks covered the girls that were no younger than ten and no older than fifteen. There were possibly fourteen, maybe less, in total, and they all had bows and arrows that were the same silver as their cloaks.
For the record, they did have clothes on under their cloaks, but Naruto just did not care enough about them when he saw the bows, quivers and arrows they aimed his way. He felt that the threat of being done in like Billy G. Overtree, may the beloved Goat of the ninth precinct forever pollinate in peace, was far more important than taking in the attires of a bunch of kids.
One of the girls, fifteen, give or take, with eyes a similar shade as his own, freckles across her face and spiky punk hair that resembled his blond mop when he let it grow out, stepped forward. Around her head was a tiara.
...If this is one of those LARP things or whatever Tammy keeps trying to invite me to, I'm going on a mass murdering spree. Naruto decided. Hey, it was either the end of the world or a dream, you are not allowed to judge. Oh, wait. He had a shield on his arm. Did that mean he was already LARP-ing or whatever? ...Well, he did technically kill those kids...
"Where did you get that?" The tiara-wearing Girl Scout asked, a finger pointed at the shield on his arm.
...Demanding little bitch, inn't she? Naruto thought. Well, it wasn't the first annoyance he had to deal with today. He lifted the shield towards her, and she averted her eyes to the rim, as if she couldn't handle staring at the ugly thing that marred its center. Not that Naruto could blame her, but really, it wasn't that bad. He faintly recalled seeing something much worse somewhere along the line.
"It came to me after I called for it." Naruto said simply. "Shouted 'Aegis' and-Whoa!"
The shield on his arm folded in upon itself, becoming smaller and smaller until it became a bronzed Rolex GMT Master II. Somehow, Naruto knew, he just knew it was a watch made for a pilot. And he'd never even been to an airport before, Hell, he avoided the damn things. He preferred to drive across the country to get from one place to another in his fixed up 1975 Volkswagen Bus with Zee – Wait, no, that's not right. He drove a 1939 Ford De Luxe Convertible. Didn't he? He wrecked it after he dropped Janine Taffy off at her home after a night at the shake shop.
"For the love of God..." Naruto groaned as another migraine struck and put both hands to his head. A few moments passed and the headache ebbed away, Naruto looked up to see the confused and wary girl scouts still aiming arrows at him. He grimaced and his hand went to rest on his partner's reloaded sidearm, which he had tucked in the back of his pants, and then dropped it to his side. He really didn't want to kill a bunch of kids for no reason. (The first group didn't fall in that category; they killed his now flower-fied partner. They weren't innocent, PTA protesters be damned.)
"Sorry, girls, I've been having a very rough night." Naruto returned his full attention to the apparent leader. "So, what'd you want to know about A...er, uh, the watch?"
"It's my shield." The girl claimed. "I want it back."
"Fine, whatever." Naruto sighed and put a hand on the watch's latch. What was supposed to be an easy, if not elegant, removal became very, very difficult. Naruto almost wanted to say the damn thing tightened around his wrist, which caused him to wince in pain. "Gah, what the fuck...?"
"C'mon, I can't sit around all night!" The teenager displayed her age groups' traditional impatience very well as she tried to rush the too-tired-of-this-shit-to-the-point-being-irritable-wasn't-worth-it blond man.
"I'm trying to get it off, alright? Just wait a goddamn second!" Naruto snapped with a glare that she returned tenfold. He grimaced and managed to slip two fingers under the strap, pulling at the watch in an effort to snap it off.
"Do you want me to do it?" Tiara-Girl asked a minute later. All effort to remove the watch halted and a thunderous glare was leveled on the impudent, impatient and frankly very irritating girl.
"Listen, brat." Naruto growled as he towered over the teen, becoming unnaturally pleased when a flicker of something resembling fear danced in the younger girl's eyes. "I'm trying to get this off of my arm as best I can. For the record, I've had a really shitty day. My partner, who was also my best friend, and I got in a wreck caused by a brain dead ass wipe that didn't know how to recognize a police siren. Then, after I wake up upside down in my wrecked car, I notice my best friend has two horns sticking out of his head. Then – and this is the kicker so listen up buttercup, because it's important – then, a couple of punks your age playing whatever Dungeons & Dragons bullshit game you're all apparently into come round the corner of the street and kill my best friend with a bunch of arrows just like you and your cheerleaders look like you're about to do to me, so I might've just committed homicide on a grand scale, but, what happened after that bout of violence really, really, really pushed me over the edge."
Naruto took a moment to take a deep breath. The girls, be this a dream or nightmare or end of the world shit storm, would probably call him crazy and run away once he finished his recap. To be honest, it wouldn't break Naruto's heart if they did.
"After I watched my friend's corpse turn into a fucking flower, guess what comes around the corner? A Mother. Fucking. Cyclops." Naruto chuckled and shook his head. "Can you believe that shit!? A fucking cyclops! With a goddamn mace that looks like it came straight out of The Lord of the Rings! So excuse me, your majesty, if I don't fucking care whether or not you and your girlfriends are in a hurry. I'm doing the best I can. Don't like it?" Naruto leaned in and snarled. "Piss. Off."
The girl was taken aback at the utter rage that wafted off of Naruto. Again, when he looked back, Naruto would feel terrible. He never lost his temper so easily like that, but when all of those stressors – combined with a possible total loss of sanity – hit an adult like that, rationality took the bench and lashing out became more possible. Perhaps if they'd met when he hadn't just seen his best friend die, killed his killers in a bout of rage, and was then attacked by something he thought to be a mythical creature, he wouldn't have snapped as he did. Then again, the girl's temper seemed to be just as bad as his.
She did, after all, give him a static-filled punch to the face in retaliation for his threat.
Oddly enough, the shock that went through Naruto's body after her strike felt as though it rejuvenated him. He stumbled back and blinked several times.
"...Holy shit that felt good." The sound of bowstrings going taut made him shake his head and look in the girls' direction again. "Are you-? I'm trying to give you your fucking watch back!"
"Whose side are you on!? Olympus' or the Titans?" The girl demanded. Naruto's eye twitched violently.
"Olympus...Titans...Girl, I'm a fucking police officer of the NYPD. You know what that means?!" Naruto snapped. "I live in the real world! Not Imaginationland!"
"Who were the kids you killed, what did they look like!?" The girl demanded. "Answer or die!"
"Girl, don't make me shoot you and your friends!" Naruto growled as he pulled his concealed weapon out and aimed at her.
"We'll fill you full of arrows before your finger will pull the–!"
"THAT IS ENOUGH!" A massive bolt of lightning fell from the sky, striking the ground between Naruto and the girl scouts. The impact made the two sides, or rather, the lone individual and the group of girls, shield their faces. When the debris' smoke cleared, a terrifyingly powerful man stood between them, wearing what looked like a Greek toga. His hair was the same shade of black as the tiara-wearing teenager's, and his eyes were like two orbs of electricity as he glared at the silver-wearing girls.
"Thalia Grace, you are Artemis' Lieutenant and a Hunter. Whatever gifts and treasures beforehand have been given up, as you've given your life to the Hunt. The shield is not yours." The man announced. The girl, Thalia, looked ready to protest, but held her tongue. The man's attention drifted to the wary Naruto, who had redirected his aim from Thalia to the newcomer's head. The next three words got quite the reaction from Thalia. "It never was."
"...What?" Thalia stammered. "B-But, the Green Mansion-! The treasure Hal-!"
"Was meant for the right hero, but he...was preoccupied." The man interjected, his attention back on the girl that looked like she could be his daughter. (In hindsight, yeah, Naruto wanted to smack himself for not making the connection. Really. He'd dealt with enough strained family disputes to recognize a father-daughter conversation.) The man looked away, his attention far to the east. "I must go. This moment was granted to me by ...Poseidon's surprise attack on Typhon. Take him to the Camp's Command Center, Thalia Grace."
"But Lady Artemis-!"
"My authority as King supersedes hers!" The man snapped, daring the girl to say otherwise. "Keep that in mind...Lieutenant of Artemis."
...I feel like I'm missing an insane amount of backstory here... Naruto thought as he warily kept his eyes on the two before the man left just as he appeared, in a giant crack of lightning. A moment passed before Naruto slowly lowered his gun.
"So...Thalia, huh? You're a lieutenant?"
"Just shut up and follow us." Thalia spat as she rounded on her feet and stormed away, leading her gob smacked gaggle of girls towards the Empire State Building.
With nothing better to do, and filled with more questions than answers, Naruto did just that, all while his mind spun.
"Okay...So...Let me see if I've got this right." Naruto rubbed his head from where he sat within the Empire State Building's lobby. "For the past millennia, any advancement in the modern world, can be most likely attributed to the Olympians. They caused the World Wars, like they did Troy, and despite everyone thinking they were myths, they kept on goin', popping kids out left and right with mortals...and monsters are hidden by some Fog thing? Am I right so far?"
"It's called the Mist." The correction came from the camper who'd been assigned to bring him up to speed. An injured girl with grey eyes and blonde hair that had princess curls coming down from the side. She said her name was Annabeth Chase. She was a cute thing for a sixteen-year-old girl. Whoever she decided to date was bound to be one of the luckiest kids alive. Although, she did remind Naruto of someone...
"You come back alive, Captain Roger Stevenson," a grey eyed girl with bright red lipstick said. A smile crossed his face and a calloused hand lifted up to cup her cheek. She leaned into it and planted a gentle kiss on the inside of his palm. He leaned down and pressed his lips against hers.
"Don't you worry about anything. Just save a dance for me, Maggie." He requested as a nearby train whistle blew. "I'll come back without a scratch. I got my dad's lucky watch, remember?"
"Okay...But not a scratch," Maggie said firmly. He laughed and gave her another kiss.
"I promise."
"Swear to god?"
"Maggie," he said softly. He pulled out a small velvet box, fiddled with it in his hand and then got down on his knee. Her eyes filled with tears, the happiest tears he'd ever seen before in his life. "Consider this the promise of a lifetime."
"Are you still awake, or has your consciousness finally given out?" Annabeth asked from where she typed away at a laptop, stirring Naruto from the vision.
"Yeah, yeah, j-just tired." Naruto rested his elbows on his knees and rubbed his hands over his face. "So, for the past fifty years, there's been this ominous Doomsday Prophecy hanging over the world's head that they pretty much disregarded about a decade or so ago, and now their biggest baddy Chronic-"
"Kronos." Annabeth absentmindedly corrected.
"What. Ever." Naruto drawled uncaringly, mustering up the most annoyed glare he could at the half-distracted girl. So what if he got the big baddy's name wrong? Weren't they trying to defeat him? Soldiers practiced dehumanizing on the enemy for a reason. Naruto grimaced as his thoughts went back to the strange brief vision. Was he a soldier? No, he was a cop. Nathan Sparks, born...October Tenth...1921...Right? ...No, no, 1875...He was a centennial...Wasn't he?
"Hey!" Naruto looked up to meet Annabeth's eyes. "How old are you anyway?"
"...I don't even know anymore..." Naruto muttered, his eyes downcast.
"Well, you can't be too old. Thalia's around your age..."
"...Thalia's fifteen." Naruto drawled.
"It's complicated." Annabeth sighed. "There's too much to explain in too little time, but I have a theory. You're a son of Zeus, Thalia's brother, maybe a few months older-"
"Annabeth." Naruto cut in roughly, his eyes narrowed. "I'm just now accepting that Olympians are real. That my friend, who I trusted my life to for the past six years, was a satyr. A goat-man. That there is a illuminati level war going on right now, being fought by high school kids and younger, while the gods fight off one of the strongest entities that has apparently walked this Earth once before. I'm only going to warn you once. Leave my parentage out of it."
"Face the facts, Mr. Sparks, you took Thalia's punch like it was nothing! Her shield, your shield, came when you called it!" Annabeth protested. "Zeus himself intervened before you two started to fight! You're a son of-!"
"I said don't!" Naruto snapped as he rose to his feet and stormed away from the girl. He could only handle so much. It was too much. Monsters and gods, yeah, he could wrap his head around it. He liked science fiction and fantasy shit, not enough to LARP or whatever, but enough to escape the dull drab and the repetitive reality that surrounded him with movies and books.
Being the son of a god, of the King of Gods, of Zeus?
No.
That was the last goddamn (gods be damned, if he really had to piss someone off) straw.
Naruto was not going to hear it. If he was the son of Zeus, why didn't he know about this stuff until today? Why didn't he have to run away from his parents, or grow up looking over his shoulder for monsters? Or worry about taking cruise lines? Or worry about riding subways?
Why did Naruto have such vivid visions of lives that ended so quickly? His eyes squeezed shut as he thought over his constant dreams, things he considered coincidences.
The Nameless Commander of the Maelstrom.
A Roman Gladiator – that one he considered influenced by watching Gladiator one too many times.
Standing before an applauding crowd at the side of who appeared to be William Shakespeare.
Fighting alongside George Washington during the French-Canadian War and taking a bullet for him.
Fighting with the British forces in the trenches against the Germans.
The suddenly engaged Capt. Roger Stevenson, preparing to head over to the Beaches of Normandy, where he'd never return.
A 50's greaser punk that took one thrill ride too many.
The cross-country hippie that met his end trying to talk down a nut-bag named Manson.
Then there was Nathanial Sparks. Was he even real? Did it matter that Nathanial Sparks had made it through the police academy after his upbringing in the streets of New York?
Naruto – who'd decided that going by a fictional character's name was possibly the most astute part of his identity at the moment – didn't know if he was even a real person.
How could he be a demigod on top of all that?
"MINOTAUR!"
The scream brought Naruto's attention back to the world around him. He peered through the windows of the hallway. A massive force, a mighty battalion of monsters and demigods, approached the frontlines. Naruto narrowed his eyes.
Demigod or not. Naruto thought as he balled his hands into white-knuckled fists. I'm from New York City. I'm a police detective of the NYPD. This is my home, and I'll be damned before I let it fall to some bigoted old man.
If there was one thing Sony got right with the first Spider-Man movie, it was one solitary line, forgettable to all, but integrated itself in Naruto's very soul. As he stormed out of the Empire State Building's front doors, that line repeated in his head and the feeling it brought bloomed like wildfire throughout his body.
He gave a sharp whistle as he pushed his way to the front, drawing the attention of the lead monster, an ugly bastard with the head of a bull atop a Mr. Universe-worthy body. It bellowed at the demigods, making them waver. The line from the movie was just as clear to him now as it was when he first heard it.
Naruto looked over the opposing force. Outnumbered ten to one with many nasty beasts that were easily worth thrice that. Naruto grinned and looked at the kids, all in their teens or younger, that stood with him.
"C'mon, kids…Let me hear you shout it loud n' proud!" He called to the rest of the defense line. "You're the sons and daughters of Olympus!"
A roar of agreement met his cry.
"The Heroes who will defend Manhattan and its people from the Titans!"
Another cheer came at him.
"Then let's show these punks who they're messing with!" Naruto cried out. He faced the enemies once more, not in the slightest bothered with how easily he took command and rallied the troops. The blond detective held his arms out as he stood in front of the line. "Welcome to the Big Apple, boys and girls! Newsflash for you: If you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!"
"ATTACK!" A lone demigod on the opposing side of the street roared, and the enemy force charged forward.
"AEGIS!" Naruto felt and heard his watch expand into the frightening replica of the famous shield of Zeus and Athena, the weight that came with it had vanished. He lifted his shield up and met the charge with his own, his eyes peered over the rim, locked with the snarling and snorting red-eyes of the Minotaur. The monster's horns gleamed and its head lowered.
Naruto kept his shield up and pulled himself in. He felt a pull in his chest, a tightening warmth that accompanied his rallying speech's pride. Naruto focused on it, unaware of his eyes gaining the slightest of sparks. He was going to protect his home. He was going to get his answers. He was not going to fail.
The Minotaur pulled ahead of his attack brigade. It was more bull than man at the moment. It was going to skewer the blond fighter ahead of him with ease. It feared nothing, not even Medusa's image, and wanted only to slaughter the Gods' for the wrongs they did to his family. This fool wanted to be in his way, then so be it. He would fail, just as every other hero eventually had. And then he'd find that boy, the one that mocked him with his own horn!
First things first, though.
The two lead forces collided with a loud boom…
…And the Minotaur flew back.
The massive monster bowled down a good dozen or so demigods, no less than three of the seven Cyclopes, and, for good measure, landed in a deep groove. The charging force stopped and stared at the opposing figure, this one man, who looked as though he'd been through the pits of Tartarus and back.
The Minotaur got back to its feet and bellowed again. It charged once more, blinded with rage and hatred. Running on instincts. It would have its kill, even if its own side had to suffer some losses. And suffer losses they did, for those who did not get out of Pasiphae's Son's way, didn't live long enough to regret it.
"Get out of my city!" Naruto snarled at the beast as he reared his shield-bearing arm back and then let it fly forward. The edge of his shield split the Minotaur's horns and skull, and the force of the strike, well…it wasn't every day that one saw a tornado rip something to shreds from the inside out.
The two colliding sides stopped and the attackers stared, as did their opponents, with mouths agape in awe. The shredded remains of the Minotaur slowly dissolved around the blond, who remained still with his arm outstretched. He stood upright and let his arm fall to his side. Crackling blue eyes turned to the nearest opposing demigod's, their gazes locked, and the young fighter began to tremble to the point that the armor strapped to their body rattled.
"Run." Naruto advised softly, his voice carried over the dead silence that engulfed the battlefield. He wanted no more blood on his hands than he already had. Answers to the endless questions were kept from him all for this pointless battle. His own identity was lost, all but a name and emotions. He was a man without anything to lose and everything to gain. And gods help those who dared to stand in his way.
The forces of Kronos listened to his plea, much to the surprise of the Olympians' forces.
Impressively, so, they ran. No, they fled. The fear spread by this unknown, this man who'd suddenly appeared in Olympus' forces, was enough to turn even the most stubborn of the opposing Demigods around. It was as if they knew what he would do to them. Or perhaps, it was because they didn't know what he would do that made the Demigods run.
Naruto didn't care for their reasons, not really. He was in the thick of it now. He kept his gaze on the retreating forces' backs, the crackle in his eye slowly dimmed away to reveal the hard electric blues. His questions would wait, he was duty-bound, sworn as an officer of the New York Police Department, to uphold the peace and keep the law.
That's exactly what he would do as he went to war.
AN: So yeah. How about that for a comeback? Cheese-y near the end, but...DAMN I love that line from Rami's Spider-Man. Ugh, God, it's up there in my top ten best background character moments.
Maybe I'll write another follow-up to this...I still have the damned Demeter one to work on and the follow up to Born From Fire...and wrap up the beloved Fearless entries.
In the meantime...
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