Thoughts Can Hurt || Percy & Avengers Crossover

the past has a way of stalking you

He carefully reaches out and brushes back Percy's hair.

Percy stirs slightly in his sleep. The man snatches his hand back like he's been burned. He stares at Percy for a while.

"I didn't know it would come back this fast." He whispers miserably.

Percy continues sleeping.

The man sighs. "I'll fix it." He mutters, his voice full of desperation and determination. "I promise."

He places his hand on Percy forehead. He closes his eyes in concentration. "I can't do much. I'm not as powerful as them." He sounds remorseful. "But I can do... this. At least this. I'm sorry."

A harsh purple light flows from his hands. Percy stiffens. His heart beats faster. The heart machine starts beeping louder and faster. The man mutters something under his breath.

Percy starts thrashing around. The purple light flashes. It flows out of Percy's head. It turns a dark, inky black as it exits.

The man sighs in relief. The harsh, former purple light, but now completely black, flows into the man. The man hisses.

He winces, as if in pain. He draws his hand back to his chest.

"That's all I can do."

Percy's heart rate slows down.

"I'm sorry, Yishgei. I really am."

A nurse walks into the room. She walks right past the man. In fact, at some moments, it's like she passes completely through him.

The man sighs.

He vanishes in a black light.

The nurse taps Percy's arm to wake him up.

Percy jerks up. He looks around the room and grabs his head with his left hand.

"Are you okay?" The nurse asks in sign language.

Percy doesn't pay her any attention. He rubs his left temple and stares at a spot on the far wall.

The nurse tentatively taps his leg.

He jumps. He looks at her questioningly.

"Are you okay?" She asks in sign.

"Don't know..." he signs slowly. "Feel weird."

"Weird how?" She signs back.

He taps his ear. "Sticky."

The nurse stands up and grabs an ostoscope. She looks inside his ear. Her face darkens.

"Oh my word." She says slowly, her face full of horror.

She composes herself and sets the ostoscope down. "I'll be right back." She signs to Percy, trying to keep a smile on her face.

Percy tilts his head and the nurse winces.

"Okay." He signs back, confused.

------

It's been over an hour. Percy sighs and leans back into his pillow.

Whatever happened to "be right back"?

A shiver runs down his spine. His nose wrinkles in discomfort.

His arms tingle too. It's annoying. It doesn't hurt, but it's there. His toes tingle a bit too, now that he thinks about it.

He pauses and rolls his eyes. I need to stop thinking about it, he thinks to himself. I'm just being dramatic.

He would stare up at the ceiling and count the tiles, bored as he is, but the light seems to have a thing against him. He sighs. First thing he's going to do when he escapes is punch Apollo in the face.

Hey that rhymed, he thinks delightedly, before pausing and realizing who he's starting to sound like.

The light in his room flickers and he sits up, just now becoming aware of the cracked door. After a moment, a head sticks in. (Attached to a body, thankfully.) He nods in acknowledgment and waves the person in.

The person, a doctor probably, by the looks of the white coat and the nurse trailing behind with a silver table of equipment lined up, signs hello. "My name is Kamari. I..." she pauses, a sheepish look on her face, "little sign." She says instead.

Percy takes this eloquent moment to give a thumbs up.

A man walks into the room, looking a bit panicked. He says something to Kamari, his pink dyed dreads fly this way and that as he talks. Kamari waves her hands about with a reassuring look on her face as she talks.

She looks back at Percy. "Interpreter." She signs, by way of explanation.

"What's up, I'm Lucian." For his sign name, he signs the letter i and music. "Like she said, I'll be your interpreter for the time being! Any questions?"

Percy nods. "What's all... that?" He gestures towards the table with wheels.

Lucian turns to Kamari. "What's all the medical equipment for?" He says and signs at the same time.

"It's for your ears. I'm an audiologist. The nurse earlier, when she was looking in your ears noticed something. Most likely nothing bad, but we're just here to make sure."

Lucian turns back to Percy and watches him sign for a moment. "What's it do?"

"Well, we kind of brought... a lot of things. I'll explain as and if we need them, but first we're just going to do the standard look in your ears. If I do see something, since unless it's an emergency we can't move you for imaging, I'm going to use this," she walks over to the table and picks up a large syringe looking thing, like you'd expect someone to use to measure medicine, "we'll put some warm water in this and use it to try and flush whatever it is out. This is what we'd do if you had a large amount of wax in your ears. It shouldn't hurt at all."

Percy nods. "Okay."

Kamari nods. "Let's get started then. Get down to the root of this."