Hazel Levesque Meets the Avengers

Chapter 14

Azra

Something was going on.

I could feel power, and a lot of it. As Nico, Hazel and I ran through the corridors, trying to get out of this place, I could feel power behind the walls. Every current was different. One was smooth and slow, like a smooth lake. Another made me jitter with energy, like lightning. Another was so powerful I nearly blacked out.

Nico and Hazel were emitting energy. Nico's was deathly. Hazel's seemed to sparkle. The esegy was probably other demigods, or at least legacies. The powerful one might be a 'god'. 

Before I could tell the other my suspicions, I tripped over something and went crashing to the floor. Nico and Hazel stopped and turned to look at me. I smiled apolitically and turned to see what had tripped me over. 

There was a foot sticking out of the wall. I got up and went over. 

Inside the cell, there was a boy with messy, raven-black hair and sea green eyes. He was looking at me strangely. "You're Percy Jackson." I gasped.

"Yup. That's me." He replied sullenly. 

"I'm such a big fan."

Nico and Hazel caught up and gasped. Hazel moved the bars and Percy wriggled out. He then looked at me.

"What are you?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" I replied, confused.

"I don't think that you're a demigod." He speculated.

"He has a point." Hazel piped. "You're not giving out the same vibe as anyone else."

"Do you have anything different about you?" Nico asked.

"Well," I started. "I can sense things. Like auras, or powers. Percy's one is like a wave. Hazel's one is like a shimmering jewel. Nico's one feel's like death. I also felt a really powerful one a couple of metres back."

"Anything else?" Percy demanded.

I thought for a bit. "I can also speak this weird language." I turned to Nico. "You know when I was fighting those weird snake-ladies who wanted to kill me? I was speaking this weird hissy-sounding thing with them. They said it was the 'ancient language' or something."

Percy frowned. "Annabeth told me about it. Only primordials or really bad monsters can speak it."

"She isn't a primordial." Nico stated. "Otherwise she wouldn't have hesitated to kill those monsters earlier today. And if she was a monster, she would have killed us ages ago. She wouldn't have called me when she found Hazel, and she had a lot of opportunities to kill us when we were running, with our backs facing her."

"And," I added, "is I was a primordial or a monster, why would the monsters have to kill me?" 

Percy nodded. "I'm still keeping an eye on you."

"Fine." I replied.

We sprinted a few more corridors down."Wait." I wheezed. "What about the others I felt? Aren't we gonna rescue them?" 

The others hesitated. "We can't." Hazel explained. "The alarms are going off. The people who set it off are going to come in a bit."

"But they're still in there. We can't just leave them!" I contradicted.

"Well, we don't have a choice, do we?" Percy argued.

"Yes we do! We didn't have to rescue you. But we did. Why can't we do the same for the others?" 

"There was only one of me. Zeus knows how many people there are left in here."

"Fine." I snapped. "You guys can go run away. I'll go rescue the others." I stormed off back the way we came, but I didn't get very far before Percy grabbed my arm. I glared at him.

"You're staying here." He snarled. He pulled me along, away from the other demigods, towards somewhere that might end up being further away from the exit as humanly possible. 

Anger flared through me. Anger at Percy's reluctance to help the others. Anger at Nico and Hazel's inability to do anything. These people weren't the ones described in the books I had read. I felt my body go cold. 

Percy suddenly yelped in pain and let go of my arm. I scampered as far away as I could. "How did you do that?" He growled at me, his voice dangerously quiet.

"Do what?" I replied.

"What did she do?" Hazel softly asked.

"My hand felt like someone stabbed it with an imperial gold sword covered in drakon-poison where I was touching her and memories of Tartarus filled in my head. Memories I didn't even have. Memories that were probably her's"

I stood there, shocked. "W-what?" I stammered. "I haven't ever been to Tartarus."

"Want me to arrange a visit, monster?" Percy snarled. He drew Riptide, and I backed away. Percy motioned to Nico and Hazel, and they reluctantly drew their own blades. I turned and fled, knowing well that I wouldn't get very far before Percy would catch up with me. I threw myself at the first corner I could find.

I very suddenly wished I hadn't.

Standing a few meters down, weapons pointed at me, were the Avengers.

"We're not going to hurt you." Iron man called.

"Then why do you have your weapons pointed at me?" I said while walking slowly backwards.

"She's good." Hawkeye muttered.

I heard heavy footsteps behind me, and I knew I was screwed.

I turned just as Percy swung Riptide at me. I ducked and scampered backwards until I hit a wall. 

"You sure about that, Clint?" Cap said.

"Yeah, we should probably step in before they kill each other." Clint added, in a bored tone, like he was watching an animal documentary. 

He fired an arrow at Percy, who cut it out of the air.

He then turned on me, sword raised.

Well, I thought. I lived a happy 13 years.

Just before Riptide hit me, everything went crazy. Clint shot an arrow at Percy, who collapsed as soon as it hit him. Nico and Hazel went to help him, but they were shot down. Nico's sword scraped my torso, but instead of bleeding, or dissolving or dying in general, I exploded.

Not literally, but that's what it looked like.

Black darkness exploded out of the wound and seemed to fold me in half. Fire licked the walls and ceiling.My skin turned black, and my veins were silver. Water sprayed from the ceiling, but immediately vaporised as it hit me.

I realised that I was floating. I was lying on the top of a mushroom cloud, like the type that occur after a nuclear explosion. The cloud was tiny. It stood were I had just been when I had exploded.

Pain racked my body, setting my nerves on fire. The cloud dropped me, and I hit the floor, hard.

Everyone was unconscious, apart from me. The hallway that we were in was surrounded by a translucent black bubble. Everything beyond it was perfectly fine.

I came to a conclusion in my head. The explosion came from inside me. Which, according to my theory, meant that I could rein the fire and destruction back in.

I closed my eyes and imagined the bubble being pulled into my body, into my wound, where it started. I felt myself going cold, colder than ever before. I knew that my plan was working. I opened my eyes.

The hallway was fixed. Everyone was stirring.

I looked at my wound. It was dripping black liquid, like blood mixed with a lot of soot. 

Someone turned me over, onto my back. Everyone's faces filled my cloud of vision.

I could feel myself fading, and I tried to tell them. I had no energy left in me.

My eyelids drooped. The world faded.