Chapter Four
Percy Third Person POV
Chaos, I need your help.
The answer came immediately. Hmm? Oh hey Percy! What's up?
Would you mind seeing if I could go? The protege of Chaos replied, a hint of frustration in his tone. Also, you said that a pantheon was coming. Which one?
Chaos's voice sounded amused as he answered. Why don't you just ask the pretty little Russian next to you?
Her? Percy asked, glancing at Agent Romanoff, who stared daggers right back at him. He quickly looked down. I don't think she likes me much.
You should ask her out.
Shut up.
Obviously, Chaos wasn't going to help much. Percy severed the mental connection with his foster father and walked over to the Russian agent, who stared at him for a second before looking away.
"Miss..."
"Romanoff," The SHIELD agent said, her face impassive. "Agent Romanoff."
"Right," Percy said, blinking in surprise, not expecting her to tell him anything, much less her name. "If you don't mind me asking, where is the Captain going?"
She stared at him for a second, her face unreadable, before looking away. "To detain a suspect."
The son of Chaos nodded. "And that suspect is..."
"Classified."
Percy groaned. He was starting to get tired of the woman's attitude, or rather, her lack of it. He walked over to Fury, who was watching the Helicarrier's status on the monitors.
"Hey Director?"
"...?"
"Where's Cap going?"
Fury turned to stare at the boy. He had half a mind to detain him, but Banner standing there with them stayed his hand. Still, maybe he could get Natasha to quietly tranquilize the kid…
As he was thinking, his phone buzzed, a file coming up, labeled PERSON OF INTEREST. The Director knew who it was about. It was the person in front of him, after all. The file was outlined in blue, signaling that while there was suspicious activity on the file, no criminal activity was known or recorded of the subject.
Turning around, ignoring the boy's small sound of protest, he opened up the file, scanning through the contents. One major thing that jumped out at him was the massive lack of information from ages 12 to 18, although the kid had a very interesting life in elementary school.
So he hasn't committed any major crimes... yet. Fury thought, looking at an image of a school bus with a massive cannonball embedded in the middle.
But should he tell him anything? Normally he wouldn't ever tell anything at all to a teenager, but the kid was already on the Helicarrier.
It's also possible that Banner will tell him everything, which will only cause complications. Fury mused, his eye looking straight forward as he weighed the pros and cons at an inhuman speed.
I could just tell Banner that I've already told Jackson what he needs to know, and he would just assume that he knows it all already, the Director thought as he turned back to the boy.
Third Person Nico POV
The son of Hades unlocked his apartment door, sighing as he entered through the threshold of his residence in Italy. Yesterday was just as pointless as ever. It was the same routine at the beginning of every summer: Zeus gets paranoid about Nico, he complains to Hades, Hades forces Nico to go to camp, and Nico leaves within the next day.
The son of Hades threw his sword to the side as he plopped down onto the couch, cracking open a soda can and downing half of it in one gulp. Opening the Happy Meal in front of him, he began eating with the ravenous hunger of an eternal teen, a quality that very few actually had.
As he was finishing up his burger, the air in front of him contorted and shimmered slightly, before an Iris message appeared, flashes of silver and sounds of battle coming through.
"Nico!" A black-haired hunter yelled as she fired an arrow out of sight, a faint thud telling the son of Hades that it had hit it's mark.
Nico gulped down another bite of his sandwich before sitting up slightly. "What's up Thals?"
"We're under attack!" She cried, leaping back as a sword was swung at her. Twisting, she slashed at the dracaena with her knife, before decapitating it with a swift and graceful slice. "They've separated us. Breckenridge Park!"
"Artemis still gone?" Nico asked.
Thalia flipped backwards, nocking an arrow as she went. "Yes! Now hurry up!"
The son of Hades sighed unhappily, but got up. "On it."
Without letting go of his Happy Meal, the son of Hades slashed through the Iris message before running straight at the wall to his left and melting into the shadows.
All that was left was a faint smell of ketchup and grease.
Percy Third Person POV
"He's going after a suspect who stole from SHIELD's private laboratories," Fury stated calmly, having decided upon how much to say, which was just enough to get the kid off his back. "This suspect is not a mortal, and has superhuman capabilities, which we don't know the full extent of. His name is Loki."
"Loki? Sounds pretty low-key." Percy stated, before pausing. "Sorry. Not my best joke. But isn't he some mythological bad guy?"
"Norse." Fury said with an indifferent air, observing Percy. "But that's common knowledge, isn't it?"
Percy shrugged. He wasn't about to give away anything to this Fury guy. Call it an instinct, but he knew that just one bit of information was all that the director of SHIELD needed to trap him, and he wouldn't willingly hand over that chance. "I'm not a common person."
"Obviously," The Director said with the barest hint of dryness in his voice. "But no, you are not going. I know what you're thinking." Percy visibly deflated at this, before perking up again.
"What if I tell you what you want to know about me? I know you're curious, even though it's nothing too special." He asked hopefully. Not that he would ever tell Fury anything worthwhile. Maybe explain some of the more public events in his life, that Fury no doubt knew about. But all he would tell Fury would be some sort of sob story of him as a juvenile delinquent on his way to redemption.
"I have no guarantee that you'll tell the truth." The Director said casually, although his attention was piqued.
Percy remained silent. So did Fury, at least until two minutes later. "Well? How can I trust you?"
Percy hid back a smile. So he was interested after all. "You guys don't have some truth potion or anything?" He asked amusedly. "Seems like you would."
"I'm not authorized to give minors drugs or the like without express permission on their part." Fury said.
His statement irked Percy. The way that Fury said it, it wasn't like, I need your permission or anything. His statement sounded more like You're not important enough. He narrowed his eyes.
"You have my permission, but you can only do it once, and I need confirmation that the dosage you give me is the normal amount." Percy said, wording his sentence carefully. He didn't want to leave any potential loopholes that could be used against him.
Annabeth would have been proud.
"That's reasonable," Fury said, with just a hint of an amiable tone in his voice now that a deal had been made. "You may go with Mr. Rogers under the guise of being the son of an associate of mine. However, you are forbidden to leave the quinjet, and must stay inside it. In return, you will allow me to administer truth serum to you, and question you until it wears off." He held out his hand to shake.
Percy was a bit surprised, but shook his hand anyway, before jerking it back, jolting slightly, a bead of blood forming on his palm. Fury had a slightly satisfied look in his eyes as he dabbed the blood-tipped needle into a strip of paper, before putting it into a clear plastic baggie and storing it into his pocket.
"You don't mind, do you?"
Third Person Nico POV
Stumbling out of a tree in Breckenridge Park, Nico quickly realized two things: One, he had left his sword at the apartment.
Two, in front of him was the ugly maw of a hellhound with blood on its face.
The son of Hades yelped and threw the first thing he could at the hellhound.
His Big Mac.
The beast grunted as heavily oiled patty slid down its face, and roared at Nico before suddenly exploding into dust all over him, the now yellow burger falling to the ground with a sickening splat.
Nico coughed as he was hauled up by his cousin, who grinned at him. "Hey Death Boy."
"Don't call me that."
"Whatever." Thalia said, as she put one of her hunting knives in his hand. "Make sure that they don't see you. Now get to work."
And get to work he did. Slipping in and out of the shadows with an ethereal grace, the son of Hades used his shadows to the way that he had trained since his cousin had left, drifting in and out, leaving only a flash of silver and golden dust in his wake. Multiple times a monster would explode just before landing a fatal hit on a huntress, who would then look around confused before going back into the fight.
When he saw a huntress- was her name Phoebe?- in trouble, fending off three dracenae at once, he threw his knife, sending it through the skull of one of the monsters, allowing Phoebe to dispatch the other two quickly. Thinking that it was one of her sisters who threw the knife, the huntress didn't hesitate to jump back into the battle, rushing to help one of her sisters who was at the mercy of a giant hellhound.
Flitting in and out of different trees and shadows, Nico frowned, noticing the state of the hunters. He had always seen them in battle, and they were always inhumanly graceful, like liquid metal. Right now though... maybe he was just imagining it, but did they seem more... sluggish? He couldn't give it more thought as he sensed a powerful presence approaching.
As the final monsters were being cleaned up by the hunters, the son of Hades went to check up on Thalia, standing by the edge of the hunter's camp. Seeing that she was unharmed, and was helping her sisters into the infirmary, he shadow-traveled to the Underworld, hoping to avoid the familiar presence. There's something wrong with the Hunt...
A few seconds later, Artemis flashed into the camp, noticing her huntresses wary looks and the aftermath of a battle. She quickly walked into the infirmary, and helped heal the hurt hunters before approaching her lieutenant.
"Everybody is fine, correct?" Upon receiving a short nod, she continued.
"I sensed a powerful presence a few seconds ago." The twelve-year old immortal said, getting straight to the point. "Did you happen to notice it?"
"No," Thalia said, concealing her annoyance. A few months ago, Zeus had given Artemis a private mission, while her hunters would continue hunting stray monster packs. From what Thalia could see, the mission had basically consumed the moon goddess, to the point that she only came to the camp around once a week, to check on the Hunt.
She said that she had full faith in Thalia to lead, and while the daughter of Zeus could most definitely handle being in charge, it just wasn't the same without Artemis. The moon goddess was their rock, the roots of the hunters. Without her, every single one of them felt incomplete. Now, it didn't feel like they were hunting.
It felt like they were trying to survive.
That was why she kept asking for Nico's help. Due to their pride, the hunters would never admit that they needed help, but Thalia had been unsure. When Artemis was leader, she might have denied help, claiming that she could take anything thrown at her. However, now the lives of over 50 girls rested on her shoulders. She was going to proceed with a bit more caution than she had before. Artemis hadn't lost a hunter since the Giant War. Thalia wasn't about to break that streak.
"I see," Artemis said, eyeing her. "Is everyone safe?"
The daughter of Zeus shrugged. "They're alive."
The goddess of the Hunt nodded. "Good." As she walked past Thalia, she put a hand on the daughter of Zeus's shoulder. "You're doing well."
Thalia didn't reply, but just before Artemis flashed out, she asked her the question that had been on the tip of her tongue. "You've never taken this long, milady. It's been months. Who are you searching for?"
Artemis looked at her for a second before speaking carefully. "Zeus told me not to tell anyone," She said slowly, before opening her mouth, then closing it again. The demigod stayed quiet. Eventually, Artemis made up her mind.
"Your cousin, Perseus Jackson."
Uploads are weekly, if I'm uploading it means I have fully written and edited the current movie arc. If you're reading this then this arc is finished up. So don't worry, you won't be left on a cliffhanger unless I suddenly get isekai'd to another world.