A/N: I got this idea from FeralG3, along with the show that's coming out, I thought why not? As you saw from the synopses, it's going to be a Percy Jackson getting a symbiote story (the one from Marvel, just to clarify. I'm not tagging it as a crossover since Marvel lore has nothing to do with this story). There is a lot more nuance to it, so if you like the story and the premise, please let me know, it works wonders on my motivation.
Invasion of the Outer 1: Prologue
A massive cloud of cosmic dust, thousands of light years across, approached the Milky Way Galaxy, moving at speeds far beyond comprehension. Its sheer motion was bending the spacetime around itself, leaving behind cracks in the void in its wake.
"Approaching Sector MWANDS01," A cold flat voice sounded out through the cosmic cloud, speaking a completely foreign language. It aroused a terrifying entity within the dust cloud that had an indistinct silhouette. Its mere casual movements caused the dust cloud to become destabilized, slowing down its speed of movement.
"Tell me when we enter the Milky Way," The entity spoke in the same language.
"Why do you stick to their naming conventions, brother?" A higher-pitched, undoubtedly feminine voice spoke, asking the entity that was still visible. Her voice resounded through the cloud, but her visage was nowhere to be seen, hidden within a separate dimension as she communicated with the entity via unique means.
"I will respect those who deserve respect," The entity spoke, "With all our greatness in taking this Universe for ourselves, we have still avoided the territory of those so-called gods. There was a reason for that."
"I understand, but do we really need to go so far for them?" She asked again, "I am positive that they would never be able to resist our descent."
"Rein in your arrogance, sister," The man spoke, "You remember our first encounter with them, do you not?"
"That's because we didn't understand their powerset at that time," The voice had an undoubted tone of indignation, "Our loss was only because we weren't sufficiently prepared and were unable to use our full power since we were still adapting to this universe's rules."
"Nevertheless, I lost countless millennia against that time authority user," He said, "Even if I have to face him now, I will be forced to expend a significant chunk of my authority to barely take care of him. If they have any more surprises for us, then we will be doomed, and our hope along with us."
The other voice went silent for a while as they continued traveling through the void of space, their cloud quickly assimilating into the Milky Way galaxy.
"I understand," She spoke, "There's too much at stake for us to take the risk of a direct confrontation. But using the Klyntar for such an infiltration …"
"It's the best way to take care of them from the inside," The entity spoke, "The symbiotic nature of Knull's creation will allow us to influence their fate's focal point, destabilizing everything that they've accumulated over their existence."
The other voice wasn't heard for a while until the entity spoke once again, "Do you know sister …" He trailed off in thought, "Every millennium or so these … Earthen gods go through a shift. Through the use of a Fate's Focus, they divert any calamity that they would be facing onto that Fate's Focus, prolonging their immortal existence."
"That is how they've existed for countless years without being forced to move out of their little bubble," The feminine voice said in realization, "They just dump Fate's machinations onto another being and …" She trailed off, "Ingenious really."
"Yes, ingenious," The entity spoke with a grave tone, "But that trick will be their undoing."
"That is why you abruptly changed our plans, quickly shifting us away from VIRGOVOIDS07" She understood, "You detected the approach of a Fate's Focus …"
"Yes," The entity said, "That's what will unravel the web of all Earthen Gods. Be it the Olympians, Egyptians, Romans, all of them …"
…
In the meantime.
"Hey Grover," A Ttwelve-year-old Percy Jackson asked his best friend, "You remember Mrs. Dodds, right?"
"I don't know what to say, man," The brown-haired, brown-eyed boy beside him spoke without matching his eyes, "We came on this trip with Mrs. Kerr and Mr. Brunner," He looked away with an almost guilty seeming look on his face.
"You have got to be kidding me …" Percy sighed as he stared blankly into the air before glancing at the pen in his hand. He had the instinct to uncap it once again, just to see if the sword from before was actually real or not.
Just as his thumb hovered over the cap of the pen, about to push it off, everything froze.
Be it the bus that was on its way to Yancy Academy, or the students who had all been chattering all around, even the air all around them, everything froze. This was mirrored not only around the bus but through the entirety of the planet and its connected dimensions. Everything was completely frozen in time.
That was when a cosmic horror of an entity appeared above the sky of the Earth, having already covered the entire planet with the cloud of cosmic dust, the cosmic entity was looking down at the planet with a cold, calculating gaze. Just the face of this entity had entirely eclipsed the planet, shrouding it in darkness. If they hadn't been frozen in time, most of the people would have instantly died from a heart attack due to the sheer terror that the cosmic entity radiated.
"So this is the child whose fate is going to be manipulated to take on the calamities of the Olympian Gods?" The feminine voice thundered out, making the entire planet shake.
The cosmic entity didn't respond to the voice of its sister as its gaze zeroed in on the tan-skinned kid. A black blur shot out from out of nowhere and collided with the child, merging into him and instantly creating a symbiotic bond with him that couldn't be detected by anyone. The entity didn't dally, the cloud of cosmic dust receding from the Earth as he started chanting in an ancient language, forming a barrier surrounding Earth that started absorbing their cosmic cloud.
As he continued chanting, the cosmic cloud completely assimilated with the shield before the entity spoke in its previous language, "Delay them for as long as you can, the longer that they take to interfere with the boy's fate, the worse it will be for them. Their prophecies will be destroyed and their fates weakened. That is when the boy's journey will start. With them completely unaware that they have already lost everything."
"Understood," The voice of the cloud spoke, "The higher gods have all been sealed and the construct known as the Mist has been enhanced to the extent that those with memories of those entities will all continue to live normally, ignorant to the truth of the world. Those unable to adapt will be sealed amongst the gods."
"How long?" The entity asked.
"Six to eight years," The cloud replied, "At which point, my energy will be insufficient and the wheel of fate will start moving once again. Any longer and the Gods will detect our interference."
"Six years are more than sufficient for them to lose the protection of their fates," The entity spoke with a cold gaze, though the hint of fatigue was easily discernable. What had been done was no easy feat.
"Goodbye, cloudy," The feminine voice spoke again still sounding out of nowhere, "I'm going to miss you."
"It has been a pleasure serving as your aide all this time, Miss," The cloud spoke courteously as the entity turned around.
The female's farewells to the cloud continued until the entity completely disappeared hundreds of light years away.
'May your fates bring about the downfall that you so deserve.'
…
Meanwhile, time resumed on Earth.
Percy put his special pen away without testing the sword, "Are you sure you don't remember Mrs. Dodds?" He asked Grover again.
The guy just shrugged his shoulders while shaking his head, "Don't know what you want me to say, buddy," He shook his head, "It's always been Mrs. Kerr."
"If you say so," Percy shook his head. Unlike before, where Grover's words had felt suspicious, they seemed downright the truth to Percy, to the extent that he himself started doubting himself, 'Maybe it was a dream or something …'
Eventually, they returned to Yancy where Percy was given a 'stern talking to' from the principal about his behavior on the trip regarding the incident with Nancy Bobofit.
As the days passed, however, Percy noticed something weird going on around him. Which was a stretch considering how weird everything around him always had been. It was so weird, in fact, that it came right back around to normalcy.
He didn't understand how, but his ADHD seemed to have been cured overnight, his focus skyrocketing whenever he put his mind to something. The greatest bane of his school life, his inability to peacefully read due to the letters always jumbling around also seemed to have disappeared. A month after the Mrs. Dodds incident, Percy had become a downright model student in school.
"I'm very proud of how well you're doing Percy," Mr. Brunner, Percy's Latin teacher, told him, "You've really pulled everything together."
"Surprising how once the handicaps that one has disappear, everything seems to fall into place," He said.
"Handicaps never disappear, Percy," The man said, "You just learn to live with them and adapt to them so that they are unable to hold you back anymore."
Percy's lips curled up into a smile, "I appreciate your support, Mr. Brunner," He said before walking out of the classroom to his next class.
Just as Percy was feeling that everything was falling into place and things were getting back on track, that night, a dream seemed to flip everything over his head once again.
He appeared in a completely white space, with nothing in sight for miles around him, "Hello?" He called out. All that answered was the echo of his own voice.
"That's definitely not creepy…" He mumbled to himself as his hand instinctively made its way to his pocket and he grasped the pen that he'd completely forgotten about until now. Having an instinctive idea of what to do, he uncapped the pen, turning it into a sword once again.
"I definitely vaporized my pre-algebra teacher," Percy spoke to himself while looking at the sword.
It was then that a mass of white rose up from the ground in front of him and morphed into his figure, if it had a face, Percy would've thought that he was looking into a mirror, but the faceless guy seemed nothing but eerie to him. As he examined the being that was seeming out of white clay and molded into his figure, an identical pen appeared in its hand before turning into the same sword that was in his hand.
"This is very wild for a dream," Percy spoke his thoughts as he winced at the thought of what was probably about to happen. And his fear was indeed true, it only took a moment for the being to raise its sword and stab it in his direction. Instinctively, Percy dodged its attack and swiped his word to collide with its sword, throwing it to the side. The figure flipped and slashed at Percy once again as Percy crossed his sword with it, but was pushed back, firmly establishing the figure's superior physical attributes.
As the figure slashed its sword at Percy once again, he was forced to duck under the slash as he stabbed his sword toward it, but it just jumped before stabbing his sword at Percy once again, sho barely rolled to the side, dodging it. "Can you please stop?" He asked, feeling that things were getting dire.
The figure didn't listen to him, continuing to attack him relentlessly as Percy miserably dodged the attacks, taking small losses repeatedly as he tried to unsuccessfully reason with the white figure. Soon enough, the figure got a solid slash in, directly cutting Percy's side causing a huge amount of his blood to start pouring out. His vision started darkening as he forced himself to stay awake and defend against the being, fearing for his life.
As he desperately pushed himself, his vision darkening due to the blood loss, he ended up lightly nicking the figure's shoulder, "Yes!" His celebration came too early, as he found the figure's sword inches away from his face before it slashed at his neck without letting him resist in the slightest.
"Oh, fu—" Before he realized it, his head was rolling on the ground.
"Huh?!" Percy opened his eyes with panic and surprise looking around and finding himself in the same white space where he'd just died to his doppelganger. That was when he saw the same scene from before, a blob of white rising up from the floor in front of him and taking its shape.
"Not again …" He said warily as he 'unsheathed' his sword.
By the time Percy woke up from the dream, he was drenched in sweat and felt like he was hungry enough to devour five people's worth of food in one sitting and then some. He couldn't recall what exactly happened in his dream, but considering his current state, Percy didn't think it was anything good. Shaking his head, he pulled himself out of bed before giving Grover a kick, not happy that he'd been awoken in such a weird way while his roommate was sleeping as if nothing happened.
"Wake up," Percy said, "I'm going to go take a shower."
"Hmm …" Grover didn't seem to have felt his kick and kept sleeping soundly, lightly waving his hand at Percy while still asleep.
…
As the rare sense of normalcy reined over Percy's life, he started getting a nagging feeling in the back of his head that he was supposed to be doing something. Something important. But every week, he would have that same dream where he woke up completely drenched in sweat and insanely hungry. He never recalled what happened in that dream, but it always left him feeling a twisted sense of peace.
That feeling that he should've been doing something would disappear for a while after the dream, allowing him to be at peace for the next week. Only at the end of the weeks would that feeling return, and the dream would return with it, bringing him right back to peace.
Sadly though, even as Percy's grades increased since he was able to pay so much more attention in class, his social life was still down in the dumps. He remembered the principal's warning and always held himself back with it came to Nancy Bobofit and her little squad of lackeys when they annoyed him or Grover. Until one day, he didn't.
Nancy had dropped a bowl of her stew on Percy and Grover's table, spilling most of it on Grover's clothes. Percy had instinctively pushed himself away from the table so he ended up being safe from most of it, but it was still a triggering situation. Especially seeing his best friend with a wry yet helpless expression on his face as if he was about to accept the situation as commonplace and move on, Percy snapped.
He got up from his seat and jabbed his finger at Nancy's sternum, pushing her a step back, "What's your problem, huh?"
"What?" Nancy had an infuriating smile on her face, "I apologized, it was an accident." The smirk on her face and the snickers of her friends clearly told a different story.
"You …" Percy was about to blow his top off when Grover grabbed his shoulder, stopping him.
"Hey," He said, "It's fine, I'll just go get changed."
Somehow, Percy felt some kind of coldness spreading through his body, calming his anger down to a manageable level. It wasn't that his anger had been reduced, but he had cooled down and knew what he needed to do and what his priorities were.
"I'll make you regret this." Percy gave a cold look at Nancy and walked back to his dorm with Grover. She undoubtedly quipped something along the lines of 'try me' but Percy didn't bother paying attention to her, already having decided to take care of it in a more thought-out manner.
"You okay, man?" Percy asked Grover through the door.
"Yeah, of course," Grover said, "You don't need to worry. I didn't get burned or anything, so that's a plus."
Percy shook his head at how mellow of a person Grover was.
"I'm glad that you held back. Your grades and everything are going steady and everything is looking up for you," Grover said, "You're still on probation for the whole trip thing, so it's best to not get into trouble, don't you think?"
"I know," Percy said, "You don't need to worry about that stuff. I know what needs to be done."
"Your words do not fill me with a lot of confidence." Grover said, "Just saying."
"Sure they do," Percy chuckled.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully as it was soon past midnight, with most of the students within the dorms asleep.
That was when Percy's eyes opened with a cold glint as he slid the blanket to the side and got out of bed. Unlike his usual pajamas, there was a weird slithery suit over his body that fit him snugly up to his neck.
The sounds of his steps were completely muffled as he made his way to the door of his room. Even as he opened the door to his room, not a single sound escaped into the surroundings as if there was some kind of interference in the air itself against the sound that suppressed it completely.
Percy was currently working on his instincts, almost on autopilot as he stepped toward the female dorms with a destination in mind. Somehow, he evaded all the guards who were on night duty as best as he could but still they acted as if Percy didn't exist, making him think that he was invisible to them.
Soon enough, he reached his destination and opened the door while suppressing the sounds around himself, unable to understand what exactly happened that suppressed the sounds so thoroughly. Entering the room, he closed the door behind him and looked at the two beds at the opposite ends of the room. One of them belonged to Nancy while the other belonged to her roommate. Just as Percy thought of something, he instinctively raised his hand up and saw the black suit that covered his body 'coming out' of his palm and turning into some kind of sphere. That sphere was then split into two and floated toward Nancy's roommate, covering both of her ears such that any sounds in the room wouldn't disturb her.
Percy grabbed a desk chair and dragged it to the side of Nancy's bed before pulling away her blanket. She was wearing a comfortable set of pajamas that had some stains on them, presumably from some food that she dropped on them. Raising his palm once again, Percy was impressed as he found the material forming a set of handcuffs that then floated to her hands and cuffed them behind her back, pulling her into an uncomfortable position.
Just as she started stirring awake, Percy decided that a bit more panic in the initial stage would do her good. He pointed his palm at her face and more of the black material started escaping his palm, encasing Nancy's head. It formed a hood that encased her entire head within it, hiding her curly red hair and face under the black hood.
At the same time, Percy also sent a set of handcuffs to her legs to bind them in place. He didn't want her running around with that hood.
"Yo, freckles," Percy slapped Nancy's face, not thinking that it would hurt much since there was a hood over her face. He was wrong.
By the muffled scream that was released through the hood, the girl had felt the sting of the slap clearly and then some.
Percy didn't care that much, "Wakey wakey," He shook her head as the girl tried to speak, but the hood was tightly stuck, not even allowing her to move her jaw to speak anything. She started struggling as a sense of panic started setting in her. She'd recognized Percy's voice and could feel her arms and legs having been restrained.
As her struggles started getting violent, Percy shushed her and put a hand on her abdomen, pressing down on her and reducing her struggles. He didn't know where the strength came from that allowed him to suppress her movements with a single hand that he pressed on her abdomen, but he wasn't focusing on that right now.
"It's time we set up some boundaries, okay, Nancy?" Percy said with a dark voice as he grabbed a strap on top of the hood that was on her head and pulled her. Feeling the pressure, a muffled groan came through the hood, and the girl's struggles renewed. Another slap took care of that, however.
"Don't struggle, it will only make things worse," Percy said before pulling the girl out of the bed by her head. Just as her legs touched the ground, they buckled, Percy didn't know the reason for her weakness, but didn't care. He moved her head slightly as she fell down to her knees, making her kneel in front of him.
"Yes, that's your rightful place," Percy said, "On your knees in front of me," His words roused another attempt of resistance in her, but it took nothing more than a slap to make it die down as she released muffled whimpers through the hood, feeling the sting of the pain.
Percy decided to take a seat on her bed, using the strap on her head to move her once again such that she was turned toward him while still on her knees. It probably caused her knees to chafe a little due to the cheap rough carpet floor, but Percy was in no mind to pay attention to that, relishing in the sense of control he currently had over his school bully.
"Now then," Percy pulled her head a little such that she was forced to lean her head on his knee, "Those boundaries that you desperately need to understand."
Percy snapped his fingers and Nancy felt the cuffs that were tightly wrapped around her ankles loosening and falling off, freeing her legs. Realizing the opportunity, she instantly tried to stand up, but Percy pushed her head down, forcing her to stay on her knees, "Stay like that, the cuffs came off because I was feeling merciful, don't think I can't make it worse."
Nancy seemed to have taken his threat to heart as she whimpered and calmed down, seemingly accepting the situation.
"Now, first of all," Percy started speaking, "You and those lackeys of yours will stop bothering me during lunch, it's very annoying to have to deal with you people."
Percy could've sworn that he felt her growl through the hood as she tried to free her hands, but the cuffs were tightly affixed to her wrists.
"And second," He spoke, "From now on, I'm going to come by around here once every week, just to, you know, make sure that you are following my orders. You will know when it will happen and I want you kneeling beside the bed when I come by. Just like you are kneeling right now, understood?"
This time it was a muffled scoff that Percy heard through the gag, telling him that Nancy wasn't taking him seriously.
"You may think that you have some power here, Nancy," Percy slapped her face once again, just to drive in how helpless she was, "But you don't. I can do anything I want to you right now and no one will know the better. Not your roommate, not the guards, not your precious teachers, no one. I can completely ruin you if I so wish. So it would be in your best interests to follow my orders. Is. That. Understood?"
Nancy's struggles renewed at his words, but she didn't seem to be taking it all as a joke anymore, somewhat understanding the situation.
"Oh and if you think that you can just go tattling to your precious teachers, think again," Percy said, "I came through the window, the cameras won't even have seen me. You will make a fool of yourself and find that certain videos that I have made of you are mysteriously being circulated through the entire school." Percy was lying about the window thing, but he instinctively knew that since he was covered by the suit when he walked through the hallway, not just him, but even the results of his actions would've all been completely invisible to the cameras.
Nancy's struggles grew weak at his words as she whimpered weakly, her head almost falling on his knee as she leaned on him. Hearing that he'd made videos of her was the nail in the coffin that made her give up completely.
"Have you understood the situation, girl?" Percy asked as Nancy gave him a hesitant nod.
"Good," He said, "You may come up on your bed now." Percy stood up, making Nancy lose the support that she was leaning her head on, making her whimper as her head fell on the side of the bed, colliding with the frame. It didn't hurt her, but she felt a sense of indignation rise up.
"Get up," Percy didn't think about her thoughts and grabbed the strap on top of her hood before pulling her up to her feet. Nancy's head went blank as she forgot her thoughts, exerting her weakened legs so that she could stand before following the guidance that Percy was providing her to get back up on the bed.
"Have fun, Nancy, the future has a lot of enjoyment stored for us," Percy said with a light chuckle as he left Nancy on the bed while she was still restrained. Looking at her meaningless struggles as she tried to free her hands, Percy used the weird suit to create a belt that he looped through the head strap of Nancy's hood and wrapped around a post at one corner of her bed before tightening the unit completely. It was going to be impossible for her to free herself until he decided that it was time to free her.
"Hope you enjoy my gift when you wake up," Percy said as he walked out the door with the suit completely covering him as he made his way back to his dorm.
Nancy was left weakly struggling while lying on her bed. With her hands tied behind her back, there was little she could do, unable to even make herself comfortable. As the fatigue started getting to her, her struggles started getting weaker and weaker. In her state, it was impossible for her to understand what her 'restraints' were doing to her, slowly making slight imperceptible changes to her body that would only make a true difference as she developed and grew over the years.
As he slept, he had a familiar dream where he ended up in that white world. Percy didn't know why, but his first instinct was to grab his sword pen and uncap it turning it into an actual sword. Almost expecting something to rise up in front of him, Percy was surprised when he heard a voice directly speaking in his head.
"It is time for your supernatural lessons," The voice spoke, "You will not remember any of this until the deadline passes, but this knowledge will be crucial for the future …" The voice started telling Percy about things that would come straight out of fantasy stories, reminding him of the stories that his mother used to tell him.
It explained to him how a worldwide magical spell called The Mist hid any and all supernatural happenings from humans. It told him that The Mist was the reason that Percy was able to walk around completely undetected by the guards and cameras when he went to Nancy's dorm.
By the time morning arrived Percy felt a headache as he opened his eyes. "This is new. Waking up sweaty and hungry shouldn't be until tomorrow …." He recalled the events of the previous night and attributed the headache to that. He accurately remembered the events with Nancy, even though they felt somewhat hazy as if he wasn't completely conscious.
As for the dream, there was no recollection of it. Just like the dream where he spent days fighting a puppet of himself, the previous night's dream was also something he completely forgot about when morning came. Even though those dreams felt like the most lucid dreams he'd ever had, he never remembered anything about them.
Just to inform you, I'm not going to be writing the kid years. The next chapter is a time skip that directly delves into the plot of the Lightning Thief. Also, I'm not that familiar with the Percy Jackson lore beyond the first five books, so if I end up having some discrepancies with canon, just bear with it.
Let me know if there is something major and I'll see if I can change it, otherwise, I'll just roll with it.
Some constructive criticism would be helpful. Please let me know if I made any mistakes, and I'll fix them. I'm only human, I make mistakes.
If you want to support me, check out my Patréon. I post advanced chapters there and do weekly polls to decide the stories that I will be posting for the week. No pressure though, I'm eventually going to post my content publically regardless.
/addyctive