Percy Jackson Avenger and S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent

2018 (1)

That year started off with me, Luke, and Beckendorf, the Hephaestus cabin counsellor, going on a suicide mission. Whoopie. We'd managed to locate the Princess Andromeda, a cruise ship(???) on which the Titan army was apparently staying (how was this my life now?). Can I just say, who decided that a cruise ship as a good idea for your army's stronghold? It just didn't make sense, especially when they knew that we had me on our side. I am literally most at home in water, so, what the fuck, Kronos? They also probably knew that I'd been practising, and my powers had turned out to be far more powerful than anyone had even considered, and far more unpredictable and therefore almost impossible to control (something to do with the repression of them during my childhood and teen years, apparently).

Nobody in their right minds would even contemplate messing with the young man with the rep for being mysterious and deadly (thanks in part to my epic resting bitch face).

Anyway, rant over. We reached the Princess Andromeda and boarded quietly, without being discovered. Once on board, we split up. Beckendorf went to rig the engine rooms to explode, Luke to the controls, and I headed for the top deck, silently eliminating anything that crossed my path thanks to my new favorite tool, a Celestial Bronze (yeah, because magic metals also exist, who'd have guessed) sword that sprung from an innocuous pen. Bonus: it had an awesome name (Riptide). Double bonus: I couldn't lose it. Like literally.

I got there without a hitch, hiding in the shadows of a pillar-thing while just watching the enemy that I was supposed to hate with all my heart just sort of mill about rather aimlessly.

It was only when a bloodied Beckendorf was roughly shoved forwards, clearly into my line of sight, when the bubbling unease I'd had with this entire mission showed itself to be perfectly reasonable.

An awfully familiar voice rang out from behind him, and I didn't need to see the owner to know that we'd been betrayed by Luke, who'd always been rather jaded and bitter, I mused. "Percy! I know you're up here! You've failed. They caught your friend heading towards the engine rooms, and you didn't set any charges. I suggest you show yourself before we cut off this one's head."

A small part of me sighed in a long-suffering manner as I stepped slowly from my hiding place, every step deliberate and calculated. It was the same walk I'd used when stepping out of the shadows into the wan light of the warehouse where we'd recruited Nat. Ah, parallels. "Luke," I greeted, letting some of my customary steel creep into my tone, "I see you decided to throw in your lot with this ragtag bunch. Can't say I blame you, but I must admit that I'd hoped you choose some villains with some more class than to just claw up the carpet. I imagine it was quite plush on here once."

I don't know what it is with evil folk and hating your smart and/or snarky comments, but Luke's features contorted into a half-snarl at my words. His eyes flashed with a flat, golden hue and his voice graveled slightly as he replied. "Get off my ship now, and maybe you can live."

Beckendorf very slowly moved one of his hands down to his wrist and pointed at the watch there. I recalled that it was the remote detonator for the charges. I moved my finger in a circle to try and ask what the delay on it was. He closed index finger and thumb into a circle: zero.

One of the more intelligent monsters upended Beckendorf's bag. Cans clattered out.

Luke looked absolutely livid, and drew a sword at least a 3 feet in length and strangely made, with one half bronze and the other mortal steel. The two metals rested against each other as if unwillingly: mortal and godly.

He made to stab Beckendorf with it, so I intelligently stepped in, Riptide swinging up to meet his blow with a clatter and a shower of sparks. Luke stepped away from Beckendorf with a twisted grin.