CHAPTER EIGHT: SEMBLANCE OF A DATE
PREVIUOSLY:
Percy shut the television off after he finished his last can of Pepsi, he smiled as he remembered the mission he had just accepted to do in a month and a half's time. He had spent so much time focusing on getting paid that he had forgotten the joy he got from killing people either swiftly or slowly.
Yep, Tartarus had messed him up.
He considered going to bed and agreed that it was the best course of action he could take now, as he arrived in his bedroom he suddenly remembered the number of the red head he had collected some time back.
'Might as well call her, I need company and doing nothing for a month and a half will get boring' he thought as he dialed the number.
NOW:
Percy grumbled in distaste as he tried in vain to wipe off the caked blood on his gloved hands, he glared at the dried up life fluid on his hands, "I should really try to tone down the carnage next time" he grumbled.
He was currently in the storage section in AIM's research facility in the Mojave desert, the facility was surprisingly quiet, or unsurprisingly if the dismembered body parts were anything to go by.
Blood was smeared on the walls and the floor with some of them resembling hand prints and others resembling drag marks, the stench of blood and death permeated the air creating the perfect setting (a massive setting mind you) for a Texas chainsaw massacre.
No doubt a true testament to his absurdly high level of insanity.
Percy finally gave up on removing the blood on his person and instead opted for continuing his search for the Tesseract.
He walked over to the security door of the storage sector, he looked at the security keypad with a scrutinizing gaze before deciding that it was pointless to attempt to hack the door as it required high level clearance meaning that it was more protected than the other security doors.
He slowly unsheathed his Katanna blades from the sheath in his back, with two quick strokes from his sword in an X formation he had cleaved the Titanium doors open.
Alarms blared loudly making the mercenary wince at the volume, "That's just unnecessary" he muttered to himself as he shook of the pain from the alarm's shrill cries.
His eyes darted around the cube like room, his eyes spotted so many interesting pieces of tech but sad to say he had no use of them, that is until he spotted a glowing diamond shaped gem floating in what appeared to be liquid stasis.
Without hesitation he broke the glass container open letting the suspension animation spill out as he picked the glowing crimson red jewel up, an instinct in him told him that he would need it for the future.
He had not doubted his instincts before and he had no intentions of doing so now.
"Jackpot" he said as he spotted the Teeseract as it floated in a force field, he walked over to it and attempted to grab the cube only for his hand to bounce off the barrier.
Percy narrowed his eyes at the barrier between him and his goal, he attempted to grab it again but this time around not only did his hand bounce off, but the force field gave him a powerful electric shock making his right arm go numb.
A slew of Latin curses escaped his mouth as he shook his hand to get rid of the numbness, he glared at the force field for some time before sighing, "Great, just great, now I'm fighting with an inanimate object, I know I'm crazy but this is just ridiculous" he said to no one.
Suddenly he face palmed so hard that had he been 'normal' so to speak, he would've broken his nose, "I really need to stop being a fish head" he muttered before pulling out one of his hand guns and fired a shot at the force field's control switch.
The force field powered down making the Tesseract drop to the ground, Percy quickly grabbed the blue coloured cube before it could eat through the metal floor.
His black loves were instantly burned off on contact with the Tesseract but his bare palm was safe from such a fate, though it was quickly turning red hot as if it were heated metal.
Percy frowned, "I should have really brought something to contain this thing" he grumbled at his own forgetfulness (or stupidity considering the situation).
"Well I guess it's straight to the hellicarrier then" he said out loud before frowning once more, "I just hope I don't end up in China like Nico" he mumbled as he evaporated into sea mist.
Sadly he had experienced the same thing as his cousin before.
Don't ask.
LINEBREAK
Nick Fury stood on a platform with Maria Hill on his left and the Hawkeye on his right aboard the hellicarrier as he addressed a group of fifty four new S.H.I.E.L.D agents, they were the only ones out of the four hundred and sixty five students in their class in the S.H.I.E.L.D academy to graduate hence making them official S.H.I.E.L.D operatives.
He had spent the last one hour addressing them on the risks and qualities expected of them as well as every other thing both written and unwritten involved being a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. Needless to say the rookies were praying for a miracles of any sort to put an end to a lecture they had been hearing ever since the academy.
Just as the director of S.H.I.E.L.D was about to wrap up the lecture (more like auditory torture), the air suddenly became noticeably colder making every one in the room shiver at the drop in temperature.
Suddenly a swirl of water (sea water to be precise if the smell was anything to go by) appeared behind Nick Fury making the one eyed eagle (as he was called) jump away in shock as every one else in the room trained their weapon on the swirling mass of water.
As quickly as it came, the water receded leaving behind a hunched over figure dressed in an all black combat tactical suit with a cowl covering from below his eyes down leaving his sea green eyes and jet black hair open for all to see.
"Fucking Triad punks" the figure muttered before exhaling and getting up, he stretched backwards making his bones pop loudly before letting out a sigh of satisfaction obviously oblivious to the number of eyes and weapons trained on him.
"How did he…" agent Maria Hill began before she sighed in resignation, she was an operative in an organization that dealt with all kinds of shit on a daily basis, and this was no different.
"Sup Fury?" the figure quipped making the director's good eye twitch in irritation, "Blood Merchant" the director acknowledged curtly making the new S.H.I.E.L.D recruits gasp loudly as they realized that one of the world's most dangerous mercenary was board the hellicarrier.
The Blood Merchant finally realized that he had an audience making him tilt his head to the side to see the 'fresh meat'.
Percy sniffed, "Poor bastards" he muttered sorrowfully loud enough for everyone to hear making the rookies look at each other in confusion at his statement, just as fast as his sorrow appeared it vanished as his face adopted a cheerful expression (or at least it looked like it, I mean he was wearing a cowl), "On the bright side you guys get to shoot guns of all kinds, isn't that exciting?" he asked cheerily making everyone in the room bar Fury take a few steps back as they remembered from the files that they had on this guy that he was insane.
Percy frowned at the action but said nothing as he turned to Fury, "I got the goods" he said making the one eyed Eagle raise an eyebrow in questioning, "Where is the containment?" he asked dryly making Percy furrow his brows in confusion.
"Containment?" he asked in confusion making the director pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration, "You need a containment for the Tesseract don't you? Well where is it?" he demanded.
Percy look of confusion remained for a few more seconds before the metaphorical light bulb went off in his head, "Oh you mean for the Tesseract, oh yeah I kinda forgot to get one, so yeah…" he trailed off making Hawkeye shake his head out how a dangerous mercenary could be so inattentive to the slightest of details.
"So why are you here without the Tesseract then?" the director asked impatiently, Percy sniffed, "What makes you think I am here without the Tesseract?" he asked innocently.
It was the one eyed eagle's turn to look confused, "So how are you…?" he was interrupted by the mentally deranged mercenary presenting him with the blue glowing energy source known as the Tesseract.
Everyone's jaw (Fury's included) dropped once more as they stared in awe at the fact that the crazy killer (AN: He he) was holding one of the most powerful sources of energy in the universe without being burnt to fine black ash.
After a few minutes of their gaping Percy began to get irritated, "Shouldn't you guys be taking this damn thing from me?" he snapped effectively snapping them out of their fear induced stupor as everyone scrambled to get a containment vessel for the cube of energy.
"How did you do that?" Nick Fury questioned with a suspicious look in his eyes as the cube was placed in a containment vessel provided by one of the rookie agents while he stared at the Blood Merchant.
Percy sniffed, snorted and then scoffed at Fury answering with a non verbal response of 'as if I'd ever tell you', that action promptly shut the director of S.H.I.E.L.D up.
Seeing Fury tongue tied, Maria decided to take charge, "Everyone dismissed!" she ordered in a voice just a few leagues short of being as intimidating as Fury's.
The order had the desired effect as the rookies dispersed in a manner akin to cockroaches in the presence of light.
Clint Barton (Percy would never call him that) cleared his throat making Percy look at him with intense sea green eyes making the archer gulp nervously but continue nonetheless, "Er, what exactly did you do to get this back?" he asked dreading the answer he would receive.
Percy stared owlishly at the archer making said archer begin to fidget as a sure sign of his discomfort before grinning under his cowl, "Well I re decorated the interior of the place, I mean red IS the colour of the season right?" Percy asked with a cheery smile plastered on his face making the archer go a little green at the thought of the walls of the AIM facility being painted with the blood of its employees.
The director of S.H.I.E.L.D excused himself at the exact same moment that Percy's phone rang, he picked up the phone.
"Hello" he said, "You're late" the feminine voice on the other side of the line replied, Percy's eyes bugged out as he realized that he and Natasha were supposed to meet today.
"Whoops, I kinda had to deal with a little stuff at work but no worries I'll meet you there in twenty minutes tops" he answered before cutting the call and vapour travelling away.
Clint blinked before frowning, "Why doesn't Fury just bring Widow into this matter, I mean she's more qualified for this kind of weird psycho killer shit" he grumbled.
"She's on…" Maria began but was cut off by the archer, "Vacation, I know" he answered back glumly before sighing in resignation.
He made to leave but immediately developed cold sweat on his back at Maria's next statement, "You know, the both of you still haven't told us what exactly happened in Budapest" she said with a straight face even though her eyes held traces of amusement.
Rather than answer, the archer high tailed the hell out of there leaving behind a cackling Maria Hill.
WITH PERCY:
Once he arrived in his apartment, he quickly removed his suit and tossed it into his closet after which he made his way to the bathroom in one bound (literally), inside he performed the near impossible task of bathing, brushing his teeth and plucking out his nose hair which was practically nonexistent but then again he wouldn't notice, he was in hurry.
He and Natasha had known each other for a while and no they weren't dating or anything of that nature but one could say that they were good friends despite the short period of time they had known each other.
Now, the fact that they were not dating did not mean that they were not attracted to each other.
How so? You ask, well it was safe to say that they were both territorial when it came to each other, not over protective but territorial.
Territorial in the sense that every man that was caught staring inappropriately at Natasha was warded off by Percy's infamous 'I'll kill you later' stare, they simply couldn't stand the look without the possibility of emptying their bowels in their underwear. Natasha on the other hand was more …extreme to put it lightly.
In regards to the fate of the women who dared to approach her Percy as she called him (in private of course)….well the Intensive Care Unit already had their hands full.
One would wonder if such was the case, why weren't they an item already?
Considering their lines of occupation, well it was safe to say that they couldn't stand the look (of either disgust or fear as they assumed) on the others face if such a secret were to be out, besides the truth couldn't stay hidden forever…oh that and they were both stubborn twerps.
Percy stumbled out of his bedroom in a simple black short sleeved T shirt and black pencil jeans, he already knew Natasha well enough to know that she disliked formality.
He popped a few breath mints in his mouth before walking over to his door where he stopped abruptly…
"Not a date, not a date, not a date…" he muttered multiple times to himself before throwing the door open to see a pair of forest green eyes that held a bit of irritation, anticipation and another emotion he couldn't place a finger on.
Natasha paused from the banana she was eating and sniffed, "You do realize that we are hanging out tonight and not teaching you how to pick up girls?" she asked with a hint of malice at the last part (not that he noticed).
Percy smiled wryly and fought down the 'I don't need a girl when I've got you" that threatened to spill from his mouth and instead settled for a "I don't need breath mints to get a girl, I'm sure I filled out in all the right places" he said while flexing his biceps and wiggling his eyebrows.
Natasha's eyes flashed dangerously but managed to roll her eyes and huffed before walking away with Percy in tow. As they walked, a naughty thought made its way into her head making her smile deviously at how Percy would react to it.
Keeping a straight face, she began to place small 'teasing' licks at the tip of the banana, she cast a side ways glance at Percy whose breath had hitched in his throat at the sight.
She smirked slightly before she wrapped her lips around the tip of the banana and applied suction as she put it in and out of her mouth slowly.
"I..I think we should get some ice cream first" Percy stuttered with his face as red as a tomato and his pants indicating some er 'heavy activity'.
She stopped her ministrations and looked at Percy with innocent green eyes.
"Okay"
Percy sighed in relief before rushing off to the nearby ice cream truck to get some ice cream leaving Natasha behind to smirk in victory as she thought…
'I wonder how his 'ice cream' tastes like'.
AN: You guys won't believe how hot my face feels after writing this last part, but I'll get over it. Don't get your hopes up for a lemon cuz I'm still unsure but there will be ah steamy scenes.
On the bright side, Pertasha is already in motion.
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