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

2018 (4)

There's no rest for the wicked, so I didn't even get the grace of five seconds to catch my breath before we were pelting it down the street in pursuit of a very real and very large flying pig. To begin with, we kept pace quite well, but between glancing up at it and the obstacles that we had to contend with in the form of miles of traffic jams (as well as the fact that flying is simply faster than running), it got away from us. I cursed loudly, then ducked into the nearest tallish building and began running up the stairs.

About fifty flights later, my legs turned completely to jelly and just sort of disappeared from beneath me. I landed very heavily on both of my knees and took that as a signal from my body to take a bit of a breather. Two minutes later, I pried myself from the floor of the dingy corridor and began running again.

After two more short (and unintentional) breaks, I made it to the roof of the building, and scanned the skies for any sign of Bacon Boy, who was dive-bombing a park a couple of blocks away.

Even as I watched, the pig was struck from below by an enormous explosion, and vanished.

I hadn't realized that the Hephaestus cabin had been developing RPGs in their spare time, but hey, dead pig's a dead pig, however it was killed.

I groaned and began traipsing very slowly down the stairs, phoning the guys who were waiting on the street below (yes, I stole someone's phone. No, I don't feel bad about it). They kept me updated, but everything seemed to be pretty slow now that the pig had been obliterated (I relayed the story to them).

The mood changed very suddenly, ramping up from zero to one hundred in the space of a few seconds. While we had been simply battling a few loose ends and stragglers, now there was a drakon (whatever that was) wreaking havoc, and, having been fighting non-stop for almost a whole day, I was considering falling into the river and lying there for a few hours for a nap without being bothered.

But I knew that the already-fading ragtag group would fall apart at the seams if the only one of them who was supposedly invulnerable (and what a joke that was) couldn't continue. I would simply have to keep fighting until the war was won or I keeled over; whichever came first.

So I sheathed my sword, tightened the straps of my rifle case, and tried to not let my bone-deep exhaustion show as I vaulted the banister and parkoured (badly - I was out of practice) down the stairs to the lobby, shoving the doors open and running towards the skirmish, the loudest sound being the thundering of my combat boots and the breath sawing in my chest (anybody else who was coming to help would just have to try to keep up: I wasn't waiting).

I skidded around the corner and almost froze in horror, seeing the enormous snake-like beast coiled in the street, leaving devastation in its wake. It plunged towards an unfortunate demigod who was caught in the crossfire, and I forced myself to keep watching, even though I was too far away and knew what was going to happen, and that every life lost for us was a far more devastating blow than for them.

So I was shocked to say the least when a black-clad figure shot skywards from almost beneath the drakon's jaws, and the move was so bold, so characteristically foolish, but with the circus' dramatic flair, that I almost let myself believe that the pale-haired kid on the end of the string was my partner in crime himself.

But it couldn't be, because this was a different world, a different life, and I couldn't go back to S.H.I.E.L.D. now even if I had wanted to.

I just needed to convince myself that it was true, or I would spend the rest of my life seeing openings and people that weren't there at all.

Anyway. The rest of my life was looking increasingly short, because, without even thinking about it, I had picked up a lump of shattered tarmac and hurled it with all my might at the ugly thing's great scaled head, and yelled like some sort of lunatic at it. My makeshift projectile bounced harmlessly off a huge crest just below its eye, but I had certainly now got its attention.