Hello all. I'm back, and so gratified to see that so many people liked my story. Since the meeting between Percy and Fury is technically the prologue of my story, this is the first official chapter. Hope you enjoy. Little explanation, though. I'm going to be retelling the Avengers movie through a written format. The whole movie. Every scene. There'll be new scenes with just Percy or other characters. I might even throw in a few new scenes of the Avengers that are totally mine and not related to the MCU as well. Haven't decided just yet. So this chapter is the opening scene of the film shown mostly through Nick Fury's eyes with a little of Hill and Coulson as well. It does not have Percy in it. If you were looking for Percy interacting with the Avengers, then sorry but you'll have to wait a little longer. You might be wondering why I'm doing this. Well, there are two reasons. One, is that I wanted to get into the mindset of the Avengers characters, kind of show what they're thinking and feeling, cause it's really fun for me. The other reason is that since there are totally new characters in this storyline, that means there will be new scenes as well. So, for me, writing the characters in already established scenes gives me a better sense of who they are so that I can write them into these new scenes as well. At least, that's the goal. We'll see how it works out. So, again, this chapter contains the opening scene from the Avengers. No Percy. If you're only interested in Riordan's characters, then just skip to the end of this chapter. There, you'll find, a new scene that will have a huge impact on my story. But I do hope you all try the Fury scene out cause I really enjoyed writing it.
CHAPTER 1: NOW THAT'S A SUPERVILLAIN ENTRANCE
The Tesseract has awakened. It is on a little world, a human world. They would wield its power, but our ally knows its workings as they never will. He is ready to lead and our force, our Chitauri, will follow. The world will be his. The universe, yours. And the humans, what can they do, but burn?
Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility, Mojave Desert, Nevada
The helicopter flew over the Mojave Desert at max speed, its destination dead ahead. A facility ringed with barbed wire and satellites. The copter's occupants watched carefully, as if expecting the facility to go up in flames at any second. They prayed that the news that had woken them up and flown them out here was false, but they feared it was correct.
As the copter came in for a landing, an agent on the public address system could be heard. "All personnel, the evacuation has been confirmed. Proceed to your designated vehicles for off-campus evacuation. This is not a drill. Emergency personnel, proceed to your designated vehicles for off-campus evacuation." Lines of trucks and jeeps sat in the streets with people clambering inside them, carrying as much as they could take, agents guiding them as they busily evacuated the entire facility.
The copter came in for a landing in front of Agent Phil Coulson who stood there waiting for it, his expression unreadable behind his dark shades. Before the rotors had stopped spinning, the sliding doors opened and Agent Maria Hill stepped out followed shortly by Director Nick Fury, who looked around in concern at the evacuation.
He turned to the agent waiting for him. "How bad is it?" he asked.
"That's the problem, sir," Coulson replied, taking off his sunglasses. "We don't know."
Fury nodded and started walking inside the radiation section of the facility, his two agents following close behind.
"Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago," Coulson explained as they went, passing many agents and scientists quickly packing up as much equipment as they could and exiting the building.
"NASA didn't authorize Selvig to go to test phase," Fury said.
"He wasn't testing it. He wasn't even in the room," Coulson replied. "Spontaneous event." Fury's expression got more and more worried with each word he said.
"It just turned itself on?" Hill questioned, but the way she phrased it made it seem like she already knew the answer. They all did.
"Where are the energy levels now?" Fury asked.
"Climbing. When Selvig couldn't shut it down, we ordered evac," Coulson reported.
"How long to get everyone out?"
"Campus should be clear in the next half-hour."
Fury looked over at him. That wasn't enough time. "Do better," he commanded. Coulson nodded and walked off.
Fury and Hill passed through a door into a long stairwell, making their way down to the Radiation Facility Floor. "Sir, evacuation may be futile," Hill warned.
"We should tell them to go back to sleep?" Fury asked sarcastically, stepping off the stairwell.
"If we can't control the Tesseract's energy, there may not be a minimum safe distance," she reminded him.
Fury knew. The power the Tesseract wielded was beyond anything he had seen before, that anyone had seen before. S.H.I.E.L.D. had had custody over it for almost seventy years and they still knew practically nothing about it. Fury knew a little more than most, had seen what its powers could do when harnessed correctly. It was why he was so adamant about utilizing its powers. The World Security Council agreed with him, but unfortunately not in the way he wanted. Which reminded him.
"I need you to make sure the Phase 2 prototypes are shipped out," he ordered.
"Sir, is that really a priority right now?" Hill asked dubiously.
Fury turned and faced her, bringing them to a stop. "Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on," he told her, his voice brooking no argument. He walked towards the entrance to the main chamber. "Clear out the tech below. Every piece of Phase 2 on a truck and gone."
"Yes, sir," she replied in a monotone voice, walking past him. "With me," she said to two agents standing by who instantly started following her.
Fury watched her for a second. Part of him agreed with her. Part of him wanted to leave the Phase 2 tech behind, let it be buried or destroyed if the Tesseract's energy went critical. But that decision wasn't up to him. So, for now, he had to evacuate it as well.
He turned back to the main chamber and walked inside, a row of computer monitors, databanks, and other technical lab equipment awaiting him with a large, circular machine at the forefront of it all sitting in the middle of a ramp. And in the center of the machine, right where the bullseye would be, was the Tesseract, its cube form giving off an almost sinisterly aura as its bluish energy swirled manically inside. On the other side of the room, facing the Tesseract, was a raised platform surrounded by several panels. Scientists and technicians moved about, staring at the monitors and studying the equipment. Several agents stood by, on guard.
"Talk to me, Doctor," Fury said.
Doctor Erik Selvig, renowned astrophysicist and leader of the project ever since his encounter with alien beings the previous year, looked up from his position near the Tesseract. "Director," he greeted and started walking towards him.
"Is there anything we know for certain?" Fury asked him.
"The Tesseract is misbehaving," Selvig reported. As he spoke, a scientist approached the Tesseract with a scope but flinched back as the energy surrounding the cube pushed the scope away forcefully as soon as it got close.
"Is that supposed to be funny?"
"No, it's not funny at all," Selvig agreed, his face grim. "The Tesseract is not only active, she's…behaving," he said, struggling to find the right word.
"I assume you pulled the plug."
"She's an energy source," Selvig replied wryly. "We turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level…"
"We prepared for this, Doctor," Fury interrupted. "Harnessing energy from space."
"But we don't have the harness," Selvig told him, walking in front of a monitor. "My calculations are far from complete. And she's throwing off interference, radiation."
Fury blinked and narrowed his eye, turning to stare at the Tesseract more critically.
"Nothing harmful, low levels of gamma radiation," Selvig said, typing into the computer.
Fury turned back. "That can be harmful," he replied, thinking of Bruce Banner and his exposure to gamma radiation. And he might be considered as one of the lucky ones.
"Where's Agent Barton?" he asked, switching gears back to the matter at hand.
Selvig looked up. "The Hawk?" he scoffed. "Up in his nest, as usual." He pointed above and behind him to the back of the chamber where a catwalk sat a hundred meters in the air. The figure of a man could just be made out squatting there if Fury squinted his eye.
Fury picked up his radio. "Agent Barton, report," he ordered. He watched as the figure stood and rappelled down from the catwalk, landing softly on the floor, before walking over to him. "I gave you this detail so you could keep a close eye on things," he reminded as the man approached, dressed in black tactical gear. His familiar bow and quiver were missing from his shoulders.
"Well, I see better from a distance," Barton replied, the two began walking closer to the Tesseract.
"Have you seen anything that might set this thing off?" Fury asked, pointing at it. Barton had a keener eye than any other agent. Nothing escaped his gaze. It was why Fury had assigned him to guard the Tesseract in the first place.
"Doctor, it's spiking again," a scientist said to Selvig as they walked past, filling Fury with more concern, the image of the Tesseract blinking and beeping rapidly on her screen.
"No one's come or gone," Barton said as they walked onto the ramp. "And Selvig's clean. No contacts, no IMs," he added, looking over at the doctor briefly before turning back to the glowing cube. "If there was any tampering, sir, it wasn't at this end."
Fury looked at him sharply. "At this end?" he asked, confused.
"Yeah, the cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right?" Barton explained. "Doors open from both sides."
Before Fury could question Barton further on this theory, he felt a small tremor shake the room and heard Selvig mutter, "not yet," over by his station.
Then the Tesseract pulsed, glowing blue energy bursting from it, causing another tremor to shake the room. The energy pulsed again, stronger this time, crackling as it increased in power. Far above, Agents Coulson and Hill, in different parts of the facility, turned and stared in fear as the building continued to rumble and shake.
The Tesseract continued to pulse out energy, almost like it had a heartbeat. The amount of energy released was small at first, but got steadily bigger with each pulse. Everyone stared at it, frozen to the spot, with fascination and fear, wondering if this was the end. Then the energy began to take shape in front of them, twisting and swirling in a vortex around the Tesseract, spinning faster and faster and crackling with pure power. Then it all funneled through the machine and burst out the other side in a straight beam, hitting the raised platform on the other side of the chamber with a smacking sound. The energy billowed out from there into a large circular shape with mist emanating and writhing from the edges. Fury watched in horror as it grew bigger and bigger, threating to swallow them all. The rim kept its blue glow but the center of the circle got darker, turning almost black except for small pinpricks of light, almost like…stars.
A doorway to the other end of space, he realized. It was a portal.
Then it collapsed, blue light flashing and energy flowing everywhere, washing over all of them, forcing them to step back. It then moved up the walls and coalesced at the top of the dome, thrashing and shifting around.
When Fury looked back up, he saw a figure crouched down on the platform. For one single second, he thought it might be her. That she had come back after all these years, had used her connection to the Tesseract to force it to open a portal and transport her back to Earth.
But no. This wasn't her. Even before he looked, he knew. She didn't need the Tesseract to travel and she wouldn't do it like this. No, this was someone else with blue energy crackling on their shoulders and steam rising all around them. Four agents in the room moved forward, automatic rifles raised and pointing directly at the figure, stepping carefully and quickly.
The figure rose up slowly and Fury saw a man with a pointed face, long black hair spilling down his shoulders, dressed in green and golden robes, and holding a spear with a glowing blue stone on the end. He smiled malevolently as he looked up, his eyes taking them all in. Whoever he was, Fury was sure of one thing. They were all in deep shit now.
"Sir," Fury called out, drawing the strange man's attention, "please put down the spear." He had to at least try to negotiate, even though he knew it was fruitless.
The man regarded him for a second and then stared down at the spear in his hand thoughtfully, almost like he had forgotten he was holding it. He raised it up, eyeing it carefully, and then looked back at Fury. And then he pointed it right at him and a beam of blue energy shot out of it.
Barton swiftly tackled Fury out of the way and the beam shot over them, blasting several machines apart instead. Fury and Barton rolled on the ground, both grunting. They looked up to see the man jump through the air. The agents opened fire, but the bullets seemed to bounce right off his skin. He stabbed one agent through the chest and knocked another one down. The two on the other side of the chamber continued to fire until the man threw his hand out and two knives suddenly appeared in their throats, dropping them. The man fired his spear again, the beam hitting the scientist beside Selvig and blasting her to the floor. The agent he had knocked down got up again and moved to fire his gun but the man cut him down with his spear.
Barton and two other agents began firing their revolvers, Barton's striking the man in the face and taking him by surprise. But it didn't seem to affect him at all. Instead, it just made him angrier. He fired the spear again, the blast catching one of the agents as Barton managed to dive away in time. The man then turned back to the agent he had cut down who was getting back up again and kicked him into the wall, an audible crack echoing across the chamber.
The man then turned, breathing hard, looking for any other signs of opposition but there were none. The whole fight had lasted only a few seconds. Several fires burned and machines sparked, the bodies of the fallen scientists and agents lying ominously on the floor.
People began to get back to their feet, Barton faster than the others. He turned swiftly as he heard the man approach, moving to attack with his gun but the man trapped his arm, twisting it painfully, forcing a groan from his lips.
"You have heart," the man noted, looking at Barton with narrowed eyes.
Fury, who had somehow rolled next to the Tesseract, looked up as the man then pressed his spear into Barton's chest. Ethereal blue energy wafted from the glowing jewel in the spear and seemed to enter Barton, moving from his chest up his neck and into his eyes, turning them all black and then a shockingly bright blue, the same color as the jewel. Barton stared at the man and relaxed his position, placing his gun back in its holster calmly.
Fury watched all this, horrified. Barton wasn't a double agent, he knew that. Yet now he seemed to be under the command of this stranger. Almost like it was mind control. He felt his blood freeze at the thought.
The man then walked away, moving to the other agents in the room still standing. Fury saw his small window and took it. There was no way he could win this fight so he had to escape. One of the briefcases specially designed for carrying the Tesseract had fortunately landed next to him. He looked at the cube and saw it was no glower glowing quite as bright or crackling with the energy like before, though smoke was wafting from it. Taking a gamble, he grabbed it and was relieved when he didn't spontaneously die at its touch. It was hard to hold though, both freezing cold and burning hot at the same time. He quickly pushed it into the briefcase, looking up to see the man pressing his spear into another agent, his eyes turning black and then blue just like Barton's had. Fury closed the case with a soft click and quietly stood up and turned to leave.
"Please don't."
The words were soft, but they echoed through Fury's eardrums like a siren. He stopped and inwardly sighed. His small window had just closed.
"I still need that," the man informed him.
"This doesn't have to get any messier," Fury said over his shoulder.
"Of course it does," the man replied. "I've come too far for anything else."
Fury turned to face him. If he was going to die, he was going to do it facing his enemy, not in the back.
The man looked at him with cold eyes. "I am Loki, of Asgard," he said calmly, "and I am burdened with glorious purpose."
"Loki," Selvig suddenly repeated in recognition, standing from his position next to his fallen companion. "Brother of Thor."
Loki looked over sharply at him, his face almost seething at Thor's name.
"We have no quarrel with your people," Fury tried to appease him, holding his hand up. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s greatest fear for the last year had just come true. An Asgardian, a living god, was on Earth and attacking them. Given the power of Thor they had witnessed in New Mexico…they knew any fight against these beings would be a losing one. Unless they had some contigency plan.
As Fury stood there, he could hear the excess energy from the Tesseract gathering in the dome above them, rumbling like a thunderstorm. If he could buy some time…
"An ant," Loki said, suddenly turning back to him, "has no quarrel with a boot."
Fury lowered his hand. "You planning to step on us?"
Loki smiled and walked forward, stopping in front of Selvig. "I come with glad tidings," he said, turning back to Fury, "of a world made free."
"Free from what?" Fury asked, eye narrowed.
"Freedom," Loki replied simply. Fury felt his blood begin to boil at Loki's words and had to fight not to clench his fists. "Freedom is life's great lie," Loki continued. 'Once you accept that, in your heart," he stopped and suddenly turned to Selvig, pressed his spear into the man's chest. Selvig gasped as the energy flowed into him, turning him just like the others. "…you will know peace," Loki finished.
"Yeah, you say 'peace,'" Fury said with derision, "I kind of think you mean the other thing." As he spoke, he heard the crackling energy above them getting louder and stronger. But he wasn't the only one who noticed.
"Sir, Director Fury is stalling," Barton said, walking towards Loki, looking up at the writhing energy. "This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us." He looked back down at Fury who saw no warmth or recognition in the man's gaze, just cold logic and blind loyalty. "He means to bury us."
"Like the pharaohs of old," Fury replied with a barely contained smirk.
"He's right, the portal is collapsing in on itself," Selvig reported, looking at one of the monitors. "We've got maybe two minutes before this goes critical."
Loki turned to Barton. "Well, then," he said calmly and an unseen order passed between them. Barton pulled out his gun and fired before Fury could react, the bullet striking him in the chest. He fell backwards, dropping the briefcase, and collapsed to the floor with a loud grunt before lying still.
Loki and his entourage walked towards the exit calmly, Barton grabbing the briefcase from beside Fury's body and handing it to Selvig.
They made their way up the facility, the building almost completely evacuated at that point, to the garage. Barton opened the sliding door and walked through. "Need these vehicles," he said, pointing at a pair of trucks to the agent standing by.
Agent Hill nodded, recognizing Barton. She frowned as Loki sat in the back of the truck, taking in his strange garb and glowing spear. "Who's that?"
"They didn't tell me," Barton replied, moving towards the driver's seat.
Hill blinked again at Loki's strange figure but then started to move away.
Her radio suddenly crackled to life. "Hill?" said Nick Fury's garbled voice.
Loki swiftly turned from his crouched position.
Back in the radiation chamber, Fury sat up. "Do you copy?" As he said it, he yanked the bullet out from his vest.
Hill walked calmly across the garage, her radio in hand so she could clearly hear Fury's next words. "Barton has turned."
She looked down and then over at Barton's retreating form before leaping aside just as Barton twisted around, shooting at her. She rolled behind the wall, the bullets glancing off, and pulled out her own gun.
Barton got into the truck and slammed the door shut, pressing down on the pedal and driving away so fast the wheels made a screeching sound, a second car following close behind. Hill stood up and started shooting back, trying to hit one of the drivers or the strange man with the spear but couldn't get a good shot before both vehicles drove out of the garage and into the tunnels.
Back in the chamber, Fury scrambled out the door, small pieces of metal flying off the ground and up into the rapidly increasing storm of energy above him. "They have the Tesseract!" he said to Hill. "Shut them down!" He then ran towards the stairwell as fast as he could. He didn't know how long he had before the whole place came down, but judging from the size of the energy storm he had left behind, not long.
Hill hopped into a jeep and instantly started driving after the vehicles. As she did, other vehicles appeared in front of hers, also chasing after Barton.
Loki looked up as he saw them coming, some agents beginning to fire at him. He sneered at them and held up his spear. He would teach them what it meant to attack a god. He felt the rush of energy emanating from the spear as the now familiar blue beam of light shot out, striking the attacking car, and blowing up the left side, causing it to turn and crash into the wall before flipping over and coming to a halt in front of the other cars, blocking them. Loki grinned.
Deep below in the facility, the energy was now a swirling sphere, practically throbbing with power. Fury ran faster, feeling it in the air and the ground, the building shaking from the pressure. He ducked as the girders and pipes above him suddenly collapsed, nearly crushing him. He ducked for the exit.
Above him, Coulson stumbled as an even larger tremor struck, the agents he was directing dropping the load of boxes and equipment down the stairs, a few falling down as well with cries of shock and pain. "Okay, go!" he ordered. "No, no, no, leave it," he said as the agents moved to pick up the fallen cases. "Leave it, go!" he repeated. It was too late. The building was minutes, if not seconds, away from collapsing. They had to get out now.
Hill swerved down a shortcut, foot planted firmly to the floor of the jeep, the car racing down the tunnel. She didn't understand how Barton had turned or why. She thought maybe it had something to do with that strange man and his glowing staff, but none of that mattered. All that mattered was that they had the Tesseract. And she had to stop them from getting away with it.
She saw the opening dead ahead and tried to push her foot down even further, though that was impossible. She came roaring out and twisted the wheel just in time to avoid a collision with another car. She sighed in relief when she saw Barton through the window. She had caught up to them. Now she just had to stop them.
She pulled back on the stick and turned the jeep around, now driving backwards and facing Barton directly. He crashed right into her, pushing her back and jolting her. She struggled to match him, keeping the car steady as their front bumpers now pressed together. She lifted her gun and started firing, shattering her window. Barton started firing in return.
Coulson leapt into his seat on the truck and took out his radio. "We're clear upstairs, sir," he reported to Fury. "You need to go."
Fury didn't bother to respond. He was too busy running. He pushed through the door and was relieved to see the helicopter waiting for him. But the very ground beneath his feet was cracking apart. He didn't waste any time and ran like hell, getting in as fast as he could. The pilot clearly understood the situation and was already taking off. Fury glanced back down at the ground, seeing it crack and break apart as if it was ice over a lake instead of solid asphalt. He hoped now that he was in the air, he was safe but this was the Tesseract. Cosmic energy. He just had to hope and pray.
Hill ducked as Barton fired again. He then put away his gun and started twisting the wheel of his truck wildly, forcing Hill to move. Her jeep skidded to the side and he drove off, leaving her behind. She seethed and pushed the stick down again, going right after him.
And deep below in the chamber, the large, seething mass of energy suddenly contorted into a small ball, holding still for a split second, before releasing. The energy almost screaming in joy as it flew out and imploded. The campus instantly collapsed, crumbling into a new sinkhole, buildings folding like a deck of cards, and explosions setting off. Fury watched as the whole area was destroyed within seconds and showed no signs of slowing. He was relieved to discover that he was safe in the air. But he could see vehicles driving madly away from the growing devastation, the distance shortening rapidly.
Coulson had jumped when the first shockwave hit. Now he just watched, his heart beating like a jackhammer, as the horizon seemed to fold in on itself, disappearing into a growing pit. It was like a tidal wave of destruction, and it was quickly reaching him and his agents. And there was nothing they could do but watch. They passed the satellites on the edge of the campus, the wave claiming them as well, bringing the great metal dishes down into the pit. It was coming closer with each passing millisecond. Coulson couldn't look away, seeing death right in front of him, ready to claim him. His mind jumped to her. Audrey. The Cellist. The girl he loved. He wished he could have said that to her, one last time. He pictured her face as the destruction got nearer and nearer.
And then it halted, finally coming to a stop and he breathed out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. They were going to live. He was going to live.
In the tunnels, Hill's face nearly slammed into the wheel when she felt the shockwave. She risked a glance behind her and saw the tunnel collapsing, the rocks tumbling down like a massive rainstorm. She gritted her teeth and crouched down in her seat, dodging a pile of falling boulders, now more focused on staying alive than chasing the truck in front of her.
And then the collapsing tunnel caught up to her and the rain of rock slammed into the jeep, trapping her. She grunted as she came to a sudden stop, her head hitting the window of the car. She wondered briefly if this was it. If this was how she'd die. But no. The crumbling sounds stopped and she looked up, coughing from the dust in the air. She'd made it to the very edge of the safe distance. Just in time.
She then glared out at the rapidly fleeing truck down the tunnel. There was nothing she could do now but watch.
The main doors opened and the truck drove smoothly out into the night sky and open desert.
And Fury was waiting for it. He ordered the copter to hover in front of the truck, the rotors kicking up the sand around them until it was nearly impossible to see through.
Barton turned off the road into the desert, trying to escape. Loki stood up from the back of the truck, eyeing the copter viciously. He was growing tired of these delays. Time to finish this.
Fury opened the sliding door and pointed his gun right at the driver's seat, opening fire. He saw the driver flinch back, his bullet striking the glass but not penetrating. He continued to fire as the truck got closer until he saw Loki. And his eye widened as the blue beam shot out again, striking the top of the copter and setting it alight with fire.
The copter instantly went wild, spinning rapidly around with zero control, heading straight for the ground. Fury leaned out of the window and jumped, landing heavily on the ground, rolling to a stop. The copter flew above him and crashed several yards away, creating a large trench as it came to a stop, its rotors snapping off as they struck the earth. Fury turned and started firing at the truck, even though he knew it was useless now. He gave up and simply glared at its retreating form, and at Loki on top. He had lost.
"Director?" Coulson's voice came over the radio. "Director Fury, do you copy?"
"The Tesseract is with a hostile force," Fury instantly said, holding the radio close. He turned back to look at the fallen helicopter. "I have men down. Hill?"
"A lot of men still under," Hill said, scrambling out from her position under all the fallen rock, crawling out of the jeep. She took in the fallen tunnel. "Don't know how many survivors." Probably none, she thought but kept that to herself.
"Sound a general call," Fury told her. "I want every living soul not working rescue looking for that briefcase."
"Roger that," Hill replied.
"Coulson, get back to base," Fury ordered. "This is a Level Seven. As of right now, we are at war."
They all took a second to think on that, on what that meant. It wasn't just with a hostile force, but an alien hostile force. One that seemed invincible to their attacks. One that they didn't have the firepower to match with.
"What do we do?" Coulson finally said.
Fury didn't respond, looking out into the horizon. He knew exactly what they had to do. He had foreseen this happening more than two decades ago. Their need to be saved from destruction by extraordinary people.
It was time to activate the Avengers Initiative.
Brooklyn House, New York
Sadie Kane was lying on her bed, nodding her head to Adele's Rumour Has It, and working on her math homework. She always found that mixing great music with doing something you hated really made doing it that much easier. Of course, it took her more than twice as long to complete her homework since she always got lost in the songs, but it was worth it in the end.
She sighed in relief as she finished the last equation. "Finished!" she shouted triumphantly, throwing the sheets of paper across the room. Now she could just enjoy the next few songs in celebration. Then she checked the time and swore. It was 3:30 in the morning. It was a good thing it was a Friday evening or else she'd be too knackered for school. She should probably start getting ready for bed.
Which is of course when she looked up and saw her scrying bowl flashing, meaning someone was trying to contact her. She sighed and stood up, stretching. It was probably Walt checking in on her or something. He and Jaz had taken the rest of the initiates to the Ninth Nome in London for some seminars on the History of Magic earlier that day. Boring! Sadie didn't need any of that, thank you very much. While it would have been nice to visit Gran and Gramps as well as Lizzie and Emma, it would have involved those seminars. Plus, this way she got the whole of Brooklyn House to herself for the weekend. That was heaven in her eyes.
Anyway, seminars were more up her brother Carter's alley. She was surprised when he said he wasn't going. Instead, he and Zia had decided to take a weekend getaway up to Vermont, just the two of them which Sadie thought was terribly cute of them but also made endlessly fun of. Honestly, she was surprised they had made it this long. She had thought Carter's dull personality would have caused the relationship to fizzle out and die long ago. But apparently there was something Zia found endearing about the boy, and so almost three years in and they were still going strong.
Of course, the same could be said about Sadie and Walt, but that was different. They kept their relationship going with Sadie keeping Walt on his toes with her wild and impulsive personality and Walt being incredibly hot. Oh yeah, and them being in love and whatever. He had gotten her the bowl so they could communicate with each other whenever they were apart which really was terribly sweet of him (and a little cheesy).
Which brought her back to the bowl. And the person trying to contact her.
"Alright, alright," she muttered, walking over. "I'm coming. Just wait for the song to end, yeah. Don't want to interrupt Adele. Pretty sure that's one of the seven deadly sins or something. And seriously, who calls someone at 3:30 in the morning? I mea-"
That was all she got before she took out her headphones as Adele's song came to an end and a loud, "SADIE!" erupted from the bowl, shocking her. She rushed over to the bowl and saw her Uncle Amos inside, looking flushed.
"Amos?" she asked. "What is it? What's wrong? And do you have any idea what time it is? You're lucky I wasn't asleep or e-"
"Sadie!" Amos stopped her. "This is important. Where's Carter?"
"Carter? He's up in Vermont somewhere with Zia. Why?"
Amos sighed. "I've been trying to contact you both for the past fifteen minutes. I need your help."
Sadie frowned. "Ok, what's going on."
Amos looked at her and Sadie grew concerned, seeing the lines in his face and the gray hairs lining his scalp. Some days he seemed as strong as an ox, able to hold up the world. Today was not one of those days. The title of First Lector was weighing on him heavily. "About twenty, twenty-five minutes ago, there was an incident in Nevada. The Fifty-Ninth Nome reported it first and then the surrounding Nomes as well. Reports have been flooding in."
"Reports about what? What happened?" Sadie asked, growing more and more concerned. The last time something like this had happened…she shuddered thinking about it. Dallas, Texas. When Apophis struck, destroying the museum the Fifty-First Nome used as headquarters and all the magicians operating there. She still had nightmares about it. The magical shockwaves from that incident had stretched as far as Cuba. If something similar was happening…
"Honestly, we don't know," Amos replied, rubbing his head in frustration. "All we know is that it happened in the Mojave Desert at some government black ops facility. Something that utilized very powerful magic…we think."
Sadie's eyebrows went up. "You think? What do you mean, 'you think?' What else could it be?"
Amos sighed. "We don't know. That's the problem. We just don't know. The magicians in the area report that the magical shockwaves they felt are unlike anything they've ever felt before. Whatever this is, it's different. New. Almost…alien."
Sadie gulped. That didn't sound good. "Alright, well why are you calling me?"
"Sadie, you're one of the most powerful magicians on the planet," Amos said honestly and Sadie smiled at him. She wasn't one to brag, but yeah she was. Her ancestry of not one but two famous bloodlines of the ancient pharaohs as well as her connection to the goddess of magic gave her a real boost in magical potential. She knew more Divine Words than anyone and was unrivaled in spell-casting. "I want you there because you're probably the best person who can help us understand it. Especially with Isi-I mean Aset," he amended.
Sadie almost snorted at the name. When the goddess Isis, the one Sadie occasionally hosted, had heard of the terrorist organization using her name, she had flown into a rage, wanting to destroy them all. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't since she needed a host body to interact with this world and Sadie wasn't going traipsing off to eliminate terrorists. Instead, she had grudgingly changed her name to the original Egyptian way, Aset. Except with Sadie, who had decided to call her Izzie. The goddess didn't mind too much since Sadie was her chosen human and she preferred it to Aset since that sounded too much like Set.
"Of course," Sadie said. "I'll head over right now."
"Thank you," Amos said gratefully. "Please contact me as soon as you can once you've found something. If this is anything like Apophis, the sooner we know the better."
Sadie managed to repress this shudder. Something like Apophis? The thought was too horrible to dwell on. Hopefully it was something minor. She briefly wondered about Percy and Annabeth and if maybe this was their world. But no, she didn't think so. Amos was aware of the Greek world and he would know if this was them. No, this was something else. And the only way to find out was to go there.
"Don't worry Uncle," she said into the scrying bowl. "It's probably nothing."
It took her approximately 30 minutes to eat those words.
"Oh, bollocks," she muttered, taking it all in. The amount of devastation sitting in front of her was…massive. Amos had said it was a government black ops site. Emphasis on was. Whatever it had been, it was now just a sinkhole in the middle of the desert, stretching for several miles. Agents were swarming around it. Sadie and the magicians from the Fifty-Ninth Nome that had accompanied her were hidden by magic, but it wouldn't last too long.
The other magicians were all as shocked as she was, looking at the destruction. "Jesus!" she heard one say.
"What could have done this?" another asked.
They turned to Sadie, as if she would have all the answers. Sadie sighed and called on her power. She then lowered her gaze into the Duat, the spirit world existing beneath theirs. Useful for seeing magic for what it truly was. She didn't know what she was expecting when she looked. Large discoloration. The whole area rife with excess magic. A disturbance in the Force.
But what she saw was even more shocking. "Nothing," she said, almost to herself.
"What?" one of the other magicians asked.
"It's nothing," Sadie repeated, not really believing it. "There's nothing in the Duat. According to it, this place is…normal."
"That's not possible," a magician said. "Look at this place. That's not nothing. Something destroyed it."
"Maybe it was one of the mortals' weapons being misused?"
"Then how would we have felt those shockwaves, huh?"
"Oh, right."
"Quiet!" Sadie shushed them. She needed to think. This didn't make any sense. Something had happened here. Something big and bad. To cause this much damage and cause such a ripple effect, it had to be something magical. And if Sadie couldn't see it, then she just wasn't looking hard enough.
"Izzie," she said softly, "help me."
Instantly, she felt the goddess's presence envelop her. It wasn't exactly comforting, since Izzie was more coldly logical for Sadie's taste, but she was familiar and Sadie welcomed the feeling.
'Let me help you,' she heard Izzie say. 'You have to look a little deeper.'
Suddenly, her vision tunneled and she saw the Duat through a whole new lens. And it was awash with blue and yellow light. The blue was much more prominent, billowing around the whole area like a thundercloud. But there were traces of yellow as well here and there. It looked a little like lighthouses in the middle of an ocean.
But what Sadie really focused on was that she couldn't understand what she was seeing. It was unlike any magic she knew. This was something, as Amos put it, alien. And it scared the hell out of her. "What is it?" she asked.
'Something I have not seen in millennia,' Izzie responded and Sadie couldn't help but notice the quiver of fear in the goddess's voice. 'This is not magic, child, but something else. Power, in its raw form.'
'Power?' Sadie questioned.
She felt Izzie hesitate in her mind. 'Now is not the time, Sadie. Soon, I will inform you of what I know. For now, be on guard. This type of energy is unrivaled in its capacity.'
'Capacity for what?' Sadie asked. 'Good? Evil?'
'Either,' Izzie replied. 'It depends on the user. What I can say is this. The blue energy you see is spatial energy.'
'Spatial?' Sadie struggled for a second, trying to place the word. Carter would get it in a heartbeat, but big, fancy words weren't her thing. Still, she did recognize it. 'You mean like…portals?'
'Yes. Someone opened a door here. But they used so much energy with no stabilization, causing it to collapse in on itself.'
Sadie took in the devastation. A collapsing portal caused this? Damn. She would be extra cautious around her own portals from now on. 'And the yellow?'
'Mental energy,' Izzie said with distaste. 'Energy of the mind.'
Sadie didn't know what that meant, but judging from Izzie's reaction, it couldn't be good. Mental energy. She didn't think Izzie meant mental in the sense that Adele's latest album was mental. The energy of the mind? What did that mean exactly?
'I must go now, child,' Izzie said to her. 'But I will return shortly with more information. If I can,' she added ominously. And then she was gone. When Sadie opened her eyes again, the world was normal, no weird blue and yellow auras covering the desert. It was strange, Izzie wasn't usually as helpful. Clearly, whatever this new energy was, it scared the goddess. And whatever scared her scared Sadie. A little, though. Not a lot.
"You ok?" one of the other magicians asked, looking at her carefully.
"Yeah, yeah," she said. "Yeah, I'm ok." She took a deep breath. "We have to get to the First Nome. Now. The First Lecter needs to be informed."
And there we are. First official chapter done. Hope you liked it. I'll try and post the next chapter (which will have Percy, I promise) in the next couple of days or so. Maybe. Hopefully. We'll see. Until then, happy reading. And hoped you liked the Kane Chronicles addition. If you have no idea what that is, then look it up and start reading cause those are seriously good books. Big thank you to all you readers and stay tuned.
LordGiacomoS – Yes, Magnus Chase does exist in this world as well. I didn't mention him at first since I didn't know if I was going to include the Norse Gods in this story since the Avengers already have Norse Gods, but since I love the Magnus Chase characters, I managed to find a way to make it work that is somewhat plausible. You'll see later on.
DATTEBAYO2003 – Thank you for the suggestions, I will certainly take them under advisement. Except the trident as a weapon. Sorry, but he's just going to use Riptide.
CRUDEN – Unfortunately, the Avengers story is going to be mainly unoriginal in terms of story arcs. It'll pretty much follow the film's story almost exactly. But that's just because I need to get into the rhythm of writing all these characters. After that, the film's storylines are going to deviate more and more as I add in new content. Stay tuned.
Perry – Yeah, true, the Mist obscures what mortals see. But they do see something. And they definitely saw three older women attack two children or something like that.