Disclaimer: I don't own either PJO or TES
Annabeth let out an audible sigh as she sat outside the Big House waiting for Percy to return. It would appear that he was a son of Poseidon and that Zeus believed he had stolen something of his. Annabeth found it kind of silly to accuse someone that had not even been aware of their godly heritage of not only stealing from a god who lives on Olympus, a place Percy had never even been before, and that the reason he was being blamed was because of who his dad was. Granted most of her cabin mates did not like that he was a son of Poseidon due to their parents rivalry, but with how….blunt her father was in expressing how he feels about the gods and their spates she was not going to turn away a friend she had had since 5 due to his father. Though the way it was revealed was rather theatrical in comparison to her and Katies clamings. They were in the middle of a game of capture the flag (a much more violent version of what she was used to but still the same game) when it happened.
Katie had been on the opposing side which meant that it fell to Annabeth and Luke to engage her sister since the other campers would simply get destroyed. Annabeth kept Katie distracted with spells and counterspells while Luke fought up close. Unfortunately the game took place in a forest, which not only helped Katie due to her mother, but added the option for Katie to use woodland magics to summon Spriggans, Bears, Giant Insects, and many other nasty critters. As such Annabeth and Luke had difficulties holding off the Nord demigod and her army of nature. Though they did get a lucky break when Annabeth got in a successful ice blast which allowed Luke to gain an advantage in the hammer v sword fight. In the end though Percy was able to stall the attackers at their flag long enough for Connor and Travis Stoll to steal the enemy flag and make it across the border. Percy was then mauled by a Hellhound that had somehow gotten into camp and was mortally wounded. Katie destroyed the monster with a lightning bolt from her hammer which drew many stares. Though the event that happened next did distract from what Katie did.
Annabeth would not lie, she was frightened for her friend and was worried he was going to die. But as he was bleeding out on the ground he ended up rolling into the stream and was immediately healed by the water. After that a light show appeared above his head which revealed Poseidon's symbol, the trident. So after that awkwardness for a few days Chiron had called Percy into the Big House which left Annabeth in her current state.
"Soooo worried about your boyfriend?" Katie said from right behind her older sister, startling her immensely. After recovering and glaring at the younger girl Annabeth responded in a very adult manner.
"He is not my boyfriend! And don't make me tell dad that you were bullying me while he was away!" Katie just deadpanned at her sister as she recalled when she first learned the invisibility spell and promptly used it to scare the crap out of her older sister. She would move things around in the middle of the night, hide certain things, and one time she even dropped a bunch of fake spiders on her. But then Annabeth ratted her out cause she can't take a joke and she was put in time out for like, 7 whole minutes. It was very traumatizing for young Katie.
"You really can't take a scare can you?"
"Hey if you had to constantly deal with spiders creeping up on you every single night, a ghost would not be a fun addition. Even more so when the ghost knows your fears and lives in the same house as you." Annabeth defend herself.
"...You have a hat that makes you invisible, sunglasses that reveal the locations of dead and living creatures, shoes that give you super speed, and bracelets that give you super strength yet still you are easily frightened by a small spider? Wow Annie, wow." Katie lightly made fun of her sister who pushed her arm in retaliation and huffed to the side.
"Uhh, am I interrupting something?" Percy asked as he just came out of the Big House. As disturbing as the Oracle was the sight of the two sisters he called friends did make him feel better. Well Annabeth anyways, Katie still scared him, even more so after she sent some kids to the infirmary during the capture the flag game. Annabeth looked at him with an annoyed glance towards her sister.
"No, just Katie being a bully." The Nord girl in question stuck her tongue out as a rebuttal and felt it orchestrated her point.
"Sounds like normal then. A pleasant surprise given what's been happening. Anyways, were you waiting for me?" Percy asked the blonde as Katie frowned cutely at the tag team attack. And she was the bully? Meanies. Annabeth looked away to hide that she had been waiting for him.
"Well yea, you did get accused of stealing the most powerful weapon in the universe, or well at least I think it is." Annabeth had looked concerned at the end of her statement as well had Katie.
"What does that mean?" Percy asked confused.
"Just that I wouldn't put it past my dad to have some weird Daedric or Aedric artifact that was capable of world destruction. In fact it would be keeping with his theme." Annabeth explained.
"Remember when he showed us the Wabbajack? Gave me nightmares." Katie mumbled with a shudder. The couch turned into a pissed of Daedroth and then Njal had to put it down. Though by that point neither Katie or Annabeth wanted to have anything to do with the artifact.
"...Welp my nightmares for this week have been chosen, thank you Katie." Annabeth said after having a 'Nam flashback to the event. Percy had since made peace with the idea that the more he knew about Mr. Stormcrown the worse his mental health would be, as such he was trying to ask as few questions about him as possible. Shame too cause he like the giant viking man, he prevented Gabe from being a total dick all the time.
"As interesting as the talk is, I just got assigned a quest. And well since you two…...ya know, have magic super powers I was wondering if you could join me?" Percy asked the sisters. Both snapped out of their thoughts and looked at the Son of Poseidon. Katie had a wild smile while Annabeth was looking at Percy questioningly.
"Flattered that you would pick us but what exactly is this quest we are going on?"
"Chiron thinks that Hades is the one who stole the Master Bolt so we are going to get it, and my mom back." He responded. He was about to inform them about the prophecy he had been given but then Katie interrupted.
"So we get to go after the death god?! Sounds like fun!" Katie said with a chipper attitude. She would finally be able to go out and hunt monsters and such! Shame her restoration magic was not good enough for the sunlight spells though, exploding undead would be very enjoyable.
"No, not fun at all Katie! In fact it is quite dangerous!" Annabeth yelled at her slightly insane sister. She felt like the only one in her family that did not want to pick a fight with everything that went bump in the night, day, dusk, or whatever hour the creature decided to roam.
"...Right, well I'm going to talk to Grover and leave you two to do…...whatever you need to do." Percy said as he started to walk slowly backwards, away from the now bickering sisters. Seriously what didn't those two argue about? Though then again, he never had siblings so maybe it was not something he could understand. Actually nope, even then the Stormcrown sisters were stranger than most sibling relationships. Sighing as he went to go find his satyr best friend he wondered what Mr. Stormcrown was doing on his mission to rescue his mother.
Njal had found himself in quite the predicament. He was just driving on past a junkyard in Nevada at 3:47 a.m when he had heard something that caused him to literally jump off his bike and rush to make sure he was hearing right.
"Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me, for the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear." A female voice chanted over and over again as Njal approached the main office for the Junkyard, Starfang in hand. This was not something he needed right now, for Talos sake the world did not need this right now. Unlocking the front door with an open spell, he walked into the all dark shop. The only light that illuminated the various auto parts was a candle light coming from the back room.
"Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me, for the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear." The voice kept saying, the sounds of a dagger hitting something filled Njal's ears as he narrowed his eyes. He walked towards the doorway and saw a very clearly abused woman stabbing the effigy corpse that went along with this foul ritual. She had shaggy long blonde hair and was wearing denim pants and a leather jacket, her face was covered in bruises as she had tears streaming down her face.
"Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me, for the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear." Njal walked into the room alerting the woman to his presence.
"...A-Are yo-you, him?" She stuttered a few times in that sentence which brought up memories of Gabe's abuse to Sally, causing Njal to snarl. The woman backed up against the wall and looked up at the Nord's yellow eyes.
"How did you learn of this accursed act?" Njal asked with angry very present in his voice. The woman did not say anything, which only furthered his wrath. Punching the wall to his right and causing the concrete to crumble and explode out Njal yelled.
" Meyus miil! Fahraal us dii aaz funt hi! Answer me!"
"It was given to me on some piece of paper! Frank, the asshole who did this to me, had just finished "putting me in my place" when some guy in a black hoodie handed this to me and said if I did it, Frank would get what's coming to him!" The woman held out her hands and slowly lowered herself to try and calm down the pissed Nord. Njal had opened his mouth but stopped when he heard something outside. Sniffing the air he picked up 9 new scents, 5 of which were not of this world.
"Stay here." He told the woman as he marched outside the building and came across the nine men and women wearing red and black body armor, a skull with a black hand adorned on the right side. There were two Argonians, two Khajiit, and a Dunmer amongst the group. Standin in the middle was a man holding a severed head by the hair.
"Ah! We were just visiting our newest friend yet we have come across and uninvited guest. Guess we'll just have to add you head to tonight's pile." The man spoke in a very cocky tone. Apparently he did not know who Njal was, well that mistake would be his last. Before either party could move though, a red and blue flash of light, accompanied by a police siren rang out as a black Mustang Cruiser with police lights on the back dash pulled up. The headlights cast a shadow of the ten people armed with weapons on the side of one of the junk piles.
The driver side door opened up as a Detective Mike walked up in a very nice black suit, red tie combo. He looked at the two present parties and smiled widely. Next thing the female argonian knew, her brains were scattered across one of the wrecked cars, curiosity of a silenced AMT Hardballer. The rest of the Brotherhood assassins scattered into the junkyard, but one more joined the Dread Father in the void. Njal stared at the Redguard with a look of suspicion, looking for any signs of hostility towards him. Mike began to walk after the assassins and looked over towards Njal.
"Me and you got to have a talk after I send some unworthy traitors to a shallow grave." He then jumped up onto one of the junk piles with inhuman agility and began to scan for the assassins. Njal, deciding that this night had taken an interesting turn, shrugged and began to hunt the assassins with whoever this new arrival was. Rushing through the piles of heap and scrap Njal rapidly gained on one of the human female assassins. Seeing the massive viking rushing at her at 30 mph she did the only logical thing she could think of, shoot him. But as it turns out 9mm rounds do about the same amount of damage as pebbled when your foe has spent decades taking reality warping magic into his very being. A soon as her clip ran dry she was congratulated with a punch to the face, that went through her head. In fact Njal probably just wanted to fist bump the car behind her and her head was in the way.
Mike having watched the Dragonborn smash a woman's head like a melon gave a nod of approval before he leaped and bounded over various junk piles and landed in front of the Dunmer. The elf took a knife to the Detective and began to swing for lethal parts of the body. Mike blocked each slice by striking the arm with the knife and then followed up with a rapid series of punches to the elf's chest and brought him to the ground with a judo flip. Taking the knife Mike sat behind to Mer and inserted the blade through the back of the head and out the mouth. Letting the body collapse Mike's quick reflexes saved him from a firebolt spells thrown from the male Argonian from 50 ft down the path. He dodged another one with a kick flip and when he landed fired two rounds into the lizards knees. As the Argonian tried to raise himself an bullet entered through his eye and out the back of his head. A bright flash of lightning from around the corner caught Mike's attention as the burnt skeletal remains of another assassin fell from atop one of the piles. Njal hopped off of the pile and landed next to Mike, a crater emerging from the man's size.
A ice spike slammed into Njal's shoulder as he looked for the source of the ineffective attack. One of the Khajiit was creating another spell but that plan was halted when a car door thrown at 150 mph bisected him and pinned his remains to the the wall. All that remained was the last Khajit and the leader. Njal sniffed the air as Mike got higher ground and scanned for them. Seeing the tail of the cat Mike took off after casting a modify speed and agility spell. Traversing the environment like the world's greatest parkoures on steroids Mike quickly caught up to the cat and jumped onto it, rolling into a triangle choke hold. Instead of applying pressure though Mike simply stuck his gun's barrel into the Khajit's mouth and pulled the trigger. Seeing Njal running towards one of the far exits Mike chased after him in order to accomplish what he came here to do.
Njal rounded the corner and faced the west exit of the Junkyard. There was the last assassin on his phone making a call for help.
"Wuld" Njal slammed into the man shoulder first with the force of a semi going 70. The man was launched through the gate and bounced and rolled on the desert floor. The man spat up blood as he began to try and stand up to face his attacker. Njal raised up Starfang as he approached the final prey, but the man's head was jerked violently to the right and bent at an unnatural angle by an invisible force. Mike shimmered into existence with the man's head in his hands as he quickly, and rather violently, tore it from the body and threw it on the ground. Fixing his tie Mike made eye contact with Njal while pulling something from his suit pocket.
"I have been told to give you this as an explanation." Mike said as he handed a letter to the Nord and began to walk back to his car. Njal raised and eyebrow as he looked at the wax seal holding it shut. A black hand. Turning towards where Mike was Njal found that he was gone, and no lingering scent was left behind. Frowning Njal slowly opened the letter and read the contents.
Dear Njal Strundu'ul, Harbinger of Companions, Arch Mage of Winterhold, Slayer of Dragons, and Hero of Skyrim.
Allow me first to express my most sincere apologies at the lack of having this conversation in person. I would normally make room for a man of your stature and reputation in my schedule as not doing so would be an insult of the highest regard. However, I find myself caught up in dealing with treacherous rats and scum that dare sully the name of our occupation and the Patron who presides over it. As for who I am, you can call me Ishmael, not my true name but an accurate one. As you are no doubt aware by now the Dark Brotherhood as found and tracked you to this brave new world and seek to have your life, and those close to you life's.
However what you may not be aware of, in fact I would be surprised if you were aware of it, is that the Brotherhood is going through an internal struggle at the moment. I won't bore you with the arbitrary details and the laws that our profession requires and how they were sullied by little more than children playing assassin. The Black Hand is currently performing a purification on this matter and as such the assassins targeting you and yours, are being targeted by us. I have taken it apon myself to oversee the continued existence of your children, whom had set out this morning on a quest to retrieve some stolen goldy relic, the details of their endeavor are hardly important but do know that I have prevented 3 attempts on their lives from those who would wish you harm, without their knowledge obviously. My reason for doing so is that I wish to make a deal with you.
In exchange for me looking out for your kin, you will kill any who wear the symbol of the false Brotherhood and send their souls to the Void. I do so hope that you will take me up on this offer as from what I have witnessed with my own eyes about your children and their fighting styles is that they are not suited for killing those who follow them in shadows . Monsters yes, people no. I shall end this letter by stating that I do wish to meet with you at some point for we are more alike than you would realize, in not only outlooks on death, but heritage, ideals, values, and much, much more. I shall await a response letter at the following address and implore you to take up my offer.
Sincerely, Ishmael
324 Hangman St, New York, New York
Njal read the letter several times before putting it away and walking back to his bike. Starting it up he looked at the time 4:17 a.m. Well that was a fun waist of 30 minutes in his mind.