Stepped through the fiery portal and left sweet home New York behind. The portal fizzled out of existence and I found myself inside a toilet stall. The constant humm of machinery and pale luminescent light were enough evidence that I was inside the Helicarrier again.
Good, at least it was still afloat. Wish I had a map because all those damn hallways and rooms look damn similar.
I found a few people along my way back. A lot of them were working on repairing damaged engines while other agents were busy with, well, I wasn't sure with what but they were probably doing their best.
Some gave me curious looks as I passed by them but the cape and outfit I wore made it clear I belonged to this flying circus.
I asked one of the agents on my way about what actually happened while I was fighting the green guy.
Apparently the spear exploding and sending everything in chaos wasn't just a coincidence. While we were having our group session the ship got infiltrated by enemy forces led by the guy with a bow.
The ship's defenses had been shut down somehow and large parts of the mainframe had been fried.
I asked the woman if she knew where the other avengers were. She half mumbled something about Nick Fury before pointing me in the right direction.
Because things spiraled out of control, and left me puking out my stomach I summoned a sandwich -courtesy of Hestia- and started wolfing down on it.
I got lost again but found the right room. Just as I was finishing the last piece of my delicious sandwich I walked into a room full of superheroes who were looking like someone had died.
"Sorry I'm late." I said as I sat down on one of the empty seats.
I didn't recognize the room but that might be because the Helicarrier was designed like a maze. This room looked like maybe a conference room, it had a big table but that was the only thing worth mentioning.
I decided to call it the war room.
Natasha and Steve looked up when they heard my voice but Tony barely seemed to notice me, or if he did he didn't care to show. Another guy sat at the far end of- Hey, it was that bow dude! The one taken by Loki.
I was ready to reach for my sword but he just looked so out of it, I knew he wasn't capable of doing much of anything; let alone attacking anyone.
"You're still alive!" Steve said with a little bit of awe in his voice.
"Percy," A small smile appeared on the spy's face. "I almost thought we lost you."
"Nah I am still kicking," I smiled back, "wait! Where is Thor?"
"We don't know," Steve said solemnly. "Last I heard Shield is still looking for him but he might as well have disappeared from the face of the earth. In his case it may be literally."
"Enough about Thor," Natasha interrupted. "What happened to you? Where's Dr. Banner?Is he alright?"
That last part made me feel slightly guilty about poor Bruce. I kinda forgot about him because of all the stuff with the wizard lady. From what I heard he should be able to survive the fall. He's probably wandering around, confused, no money and in an unknown country with just a set of pants. Dam, now I was feeling guilty.
"I don't really know what happened to Bruce. When the spear exploded I tried to stop the green guy but," I shrugged. "He just wouldn't stay down. I did manage to get him off the ship but fell off myself as well.
Steve raised his eyebrows but Natasha didn't even look surprised.
"So,, while I was falling I managed to reach out to Yggdrasil; which isn't a tree but instead an interdimensional highway of energy and space, so using that I ended up in New York but a wizard trapped me in some mirror dimension." I took a deep breath.
"She started turning the world upside down. However I managed to turn the tables on her by using the Hudson river. However, she turned out to be a clone but it was some kind of test which I passed and as a reward she opened a portal to the toilets."
I sucked in air, thinking I did a pretty good recap.
'You forgot the part where the magician was mean to me.'
I expectantly waited for a response.
"Look kid, if you don't want to share it, that's fine." Tony spoke. "Just think up a better lie next time."
"Leave it," Steve gave Tony an irritated look. "We all had a rough day."
I shrugged. It wasn't that important I guess.
"So, what's the deal with," I gave the new guy a look. Natasha caught it and explained it to me.
"Percy, this is Clint Barton, he works for Shield like me, but Loki…"
Nobody wanted to finish the sentence and I knew why. But Loki was enough of an explanation these days.
"Hi!" I gave him a wave. "We haven't introduced ourselves properly, my name is Percy Jackson. Glad to see you are back to normal."
He gave me an appreciative nod. "I heard alot about you."
"Same...So, do you really use a bow during combat? Isn't that a bit-"
"Old fashioned?" Clint finished.
'Lame?' Chaos suggested.
I shrugged. Clint made a face, as if offended. "Steve here uses a shield, you yourself are a swordwielder. A bow doesn't sound that strange anymore."
"Touché."
After that quick catchup the room went quiet again. The uneasy atmosphere wasn't just plagueing Clint but everyone in the room.
I wondered where Nick Fury and Phil Coulson were. Probably just doing spy stuff.
"So any reason we're all moping around?"
I asked. "I mean, Loki is free again, shouldn't we be getting him back?"
"Phil Coulson is dead." Tony suddenly announced.
"Stark!" Steve scolded.
"What?! Someone had to break it to him. Might as well rip off the band aid."
I waited, expecting this to be some kind of stupid joke. However, reading everyone's defeated expressions and pale faces told me more than I wanted.
I released the breath I was holding and cast my eyes down. I hadn't known that guy for long at all, maybe I spent about 1 hour with him. He wasn't even from my world.
Yet he had been the first person here that had been nice to me.
"What happened to him?" I gripped the edge of the cold metal table while biting my lip.
"Loki escaped his cell."
"The one made to withstand the Hulk?"
"The ship's operating systems were hijacked." Tony sighed. "Loki could literally walk out of his cell and Phil had to be a hero."
"He was at the wrong place at the wrong time." Clint spoke.
"He was stabbed in the back while confronting Loki." Natasha clarified.
"What about Thor? Wasn't he supposed to go after Loki?"
Steve shrugged. "He tried but somehow Loki managed to swap places with him."
"Either way, both brothers are missing." Tony tried to pretend he wasn't bothered but I could see Coulson's fate bothered him.
Aphrodite's emotional sense gave me the feeling that, somehow, everyone in this room had some connection to Phil Coulson, even Natasha's veil of professionalism was starting to break, although the cracks were subtle.
I hoped this world had an Elysium, if so Coulson deserves to be there.
"Okay, so what's the plan?" I asked out loud because no one was talking.
"Plan?" Clint asked.
"Yeah plan, what's next? How are we going to stop Loki now?"
"Stop Loki?" Steve stared at the table.
"Yes! You guys are superheroes. Aren't you working on catching him again?"
"See, you might have missed it kiddo," Tony spread his arms out. "But we are stuck on a ship that can't move an inch without falling out of the air."
"And even if we could, Loki could be anywhere on the globe." Steve added.
"Indeed Captain Obvious," Tony faced me. "Loki beat us when we were at our strongest, and now, two of the 'supposedly' strongest members of our group are missing. We played and lost."
"So, we're gonna do what? Mope around and feel sorry for ourselves."
"Maybe add some alcohol." Tony joked.
"Stark!" Natasha scowled.
"I could use some." Steve joked.
"Great, now Captain America is getting drunk as well." Clint complained.
"Do we have a bar on this ship?" Tony asked. "Or could we raid Fury's personal stock?"
I waited for them to get serious. I expected them to drop this act after a few seconds but as Clint, Tony and Steve started to argue about whether it was appropriate to drink at a time like this, it became increasingly clear they weren't going back to the Loki problem.
'They might need a spark of hope,' Chaos offered.
'But they are the heroes,' I argued. 'Shouldn't they be the spark of hope?'
Chaos smiled. 'How often didn't you tell the Gods what to do? Told them they were in the wrong and nudged them in the right direction?'
'Just when I start to think I could take a backseat and enjoy a small adventure things go wrong, don't they?' I complained.
'I'm not even going to answer that question.' Chaos yawned melodramatically.
'Fine.'
"Listen up!" I interrupted the argument. "You know how we never finished our group therapy?"
Natasha frowned.
"Did I miss something?" Clint asked.
"I thought it went fantastic." Tony snarked.
"Yes, well, one thing. I had a few points of my own and considering you all decided to just sit around I might as well come clean with my feelings."
I pushed the chair back and stood straight.
"You know, Shield apparently lied about a lot of things. I don't know much about Shield but we can add one lie to the pile."
"I think I know what you are talking about," Natasha cautiously got up as well. "And you are absolutely not allowed to disclose that information."
"Come on," Tony leaned forward, that Hermes-prank gleamed back in his eyes. "What can he possibly tell us that Shield doesn't want us to know?"
It sounded like a challenge.
"So remember all that Shield told you about me?"
Tony nodded.
"Well, that was all a lie."
"Then where'd you come from?" Steve hesitated before continuing. "How did you end up with your powers?"
"Glad you asked," I already could feel the mood in the room changing, just had to make sure for the better. "I am a dimension hopper, yes, I am from another universe."
Natasha let out a defeated sigh. Clint raised his eyebrow but Tony looked like he just got possessed.
"Another universe, you mean like a parallel universe sub atomicly entangled with this one? Or a completely different universe?"
"Wait! Are you buying this?"
"Well duh, the concept of a multiverse has been around for some time. It's a scientific theory,"
"Is this true?" Steve asked. He didn't look at me but instead asked Natasha.
Natasha considered this question for a second before answering, "we can not verify his claim bu-"
"It's true," Clint interrupted, "I saw him appear out of thin air."
"So that's how you got your powers. Because you are from another dimension." Steve swallowed, having trouble saying that sentence.
"Actually that's a long story and considering we got Loki still running free I'll try to keep it short."
The mood in the room grew darker.
"My world is similar to this world. I'm from New York as well, just a slightly different version. Both our worlds are similar except for a major difference,"
"My world doesn't have superheroes. We didn't get a Captain America or an Iron Man. In our world heroes are only stories for children."
"Then...how do you have all your powers?"
Steve asked.
I grimaced. "It's a long tale but the first thing you should know is that I didn't ask for them. I got them because of my father and was basically told to figure it all out on myself."
"That sounds cruel." Tony spoke, he hesitated, as if he wanted to say something else but he swallowed his words.
I shrugged. "I learned pretty quickly that people like me tend not to live very long." I created a small flame in my palm."The reason I have powers is the same reason I am hunted wherever I go."
I closed my fist, sniffing out the flame.
"Despite this I kept moving forward, trying to help people even though nobody would even notice. Now can you imagine how amazed I felt when I came to this world where superheroes are real."
"I thought that for once someone else could be the kind of hero I wished I had growing up."
I shook my head and slumped in my seat. "But now I realize that I was wrong. Instead I got a room of the world's most powerful heroes feeling sorry for themselves because they lost a battle."
I shrugged. "So yeah, that's my problem. I thought you would be heroes."
Silence.
"Well, if I could I would love to take a shot at Loki." Clint said.
"We all do." Steve added. "He has been mocking us the entire time. Coulson was just an insult to injury."
"So, what can we do? Send him angry letters?" Tony grimaced. "Because at this point we might as well do that. Loki has us split and crushed. Interdimensional intervention or not, we are still stuck."
"And we let him hold that over us?" I asked. "Have the god mock us and get away with it?"
"Of course not. It's not that simple. If we knew where he was I would personally punch him in the face."
"It's not over yet," Clint said, "he still needs a reliable power source before he can set up his device."
"But he could get those anywhere on the planet. He could use any power plant in the world. " Tony stopped suddenly. "...That mother fucker."
"What?" I asked, annoyed.
"You got something?" Natasha looked at Tony.
"He has been mocking us at every point," he said, not even looking at us. "So why stop now? We are all still alive. What if he got something bigger planned to spit in our eyes?"
"That would fit his character profile." Natasha mumbled.
"Well, he is a god. He would want a temple or a statue, something the whole world could see." I added.
"Stark Tower!" Tony said.
"What?" I asked.
"Wait, you mean that ugly high building in-" Steve stopped midway through his sentence when Tony glared at him.
"You think Loki would go there?" Natasha asked.
"Ofcourse, the Stark Tower is the highest pedestal Loki could want for." Tony said.
"Hold on, what?" I asked. "What is the Stark Tower?"
"It's my tower, it most likely doesn't exist in your universe but basically it's the symbol for hope and clean energy."
Steve coughed.
"I think I might have seen it." While the magician was twisting New York upside down a particular odd building stood out to me. "You think that's where Loki will perform his final act?"
"It would be perfect for him. It generates enough power to stabilize the Tesseract, it is high where the entire city could see him and it has my name written on it."
"Then why are we sitting around here?" Steve asked out loud.
Tony got up. "Everyone, get ready."
He gave me a cheeky grin.
"Let's show the world that superheroes do exist."