| PANDEMONIUM | Percy x Apollo

Chapter 14

Percy had ignored the rising sense of unease he had felt for the past half hour.

He had been trying desperately to gain any form of control over the new wave of poison encroaching on his body, but he couldn't.

Percy swallowed his discomfort and watched with Apollo and the Avengers as the screen on the man's head crackled to life. Rachel's face had appeared on the screen.

She looked tired and worn out. Even her hair seemed to have lost a shade or two of colour. But her eyes shone with defiance.

"I, Rachel Dare, am the member of an ancient secret society of intellectuals.

We are an extremely progressive group of individuals who are open minded towards almost all kinds of things that are often considered taboo, examples being homosexuality and incest.

Two of our most prominent members, Dr. Percy Jackson and the Music Icon Apollo, are a married couple. They are both men and are also first cousins. Their marriage was solemnised based on our society's doctrines.

In order to show solidarity and support for our group, follow our Twitter accounts and use the hashtag percyforpresident."

She too sounded robotic and lifeless. But whatever she said seemed to have shocked the life out of the rest of the room.

"You two are married."

"You're first cousins."

"How-"

Ares materialised in front of the decapitated man.

He had a glowing red spear in his hand, with a tip made of imperial gold.

"Brother." He said, smirking at Apollo.

Percy narrowed his eyes at the other god, taking a step toward him, trying his best to ignore the increasing pain inside him. "Why?"

"Oh, Perseus." He said in a sing song voice. "I wondered whether you could sense my disloyalty earlier. I wondered what you would do about it. But it appears that you decided to let it be. A little consideration for the brother-in-law?" He smirked. "Well, I assure you Jackson, you're gonna regret it."

Ares had only taken a step forward with his spear when the Avengers pounced on him as one. Percy was proud of his team. Apollo too had joined the fray.

He watched as Tony hovered on the periphery, carefully assessing the fight to see if he should intervene and to ensure that the building stays intact around them and also to make sure that they won't be caught by surprise.

Percy saw Steve's eyes widening considerably as his shield and his super strength failed to overwhelm his enemy.

Natasha kept going at Ares with her knives. They made no impact, and Ares kept trying to touch her, but it only managed to enrage her further, and she increased the strength and pace of her attacks.

Clint moved back and perched up on the rafters, aiming arrows at Ares which he dodged every time.

Bruce stayed away, trying not to get angry and bring the building down on them.

And Thor kept trying to disarm Ares and also apologized every time because he seemed sure he was breaking some thousand treaties by attacking the other god.

Ares though, didn't seem to even glance at the Avengers. Even as he fought them, his eyes were trained on Percy.

Apollo might've noticed it too, because he advanced on Ares to distract him and provide Percy with an opening to attack him.

Percy summoned Riptide and stabbed at Ares's side, only to double down with pain as he felt his body be overtaken by the poison.

Ares took that opportunity to block and stab at Percy, cutting a deep gash into his side.