Demigods: At Midtown (A Percy Jackson and Marvel crossover)

16

A large parcel sat on the table in the middle of the living area. Wanda, staying at the back of the group like she'd been taught - as she'd been trained - couldn't see the label, but she didn't have to, because Clint read it out loud.

"It's addressed to 'Tony, Bruce, Steve, Scott-'"

"Yes! I'M NOT LAST!!!!"

"-Wanda, Natasha, Clint, Wise child and Sea Spawn-spawn."

Wanda saw Percy roll his eyes at the last bit, so she assumed that the last two names meant him and Annabeth.

"Who's it from?" Tony asked, barging forwards to get a better look. "It only has our first names? Who are the last two?"

"There's no return address. It just says, 'from your cool uncle and the other lame-os'."

"What?"

"No idea. Should we open it?"

"It might be dangerous. How did it even get in here? FRIDAY?"

"Searching for footage." There was a pause. "Event located."

One of the walls shimmered into a screen, showing the dark living area, table empty. Then there was a flash of light, and suddenly a man was standing in the room, holding the parcel. He set it down on the table, looked around and gave an appreciative whistle, then winked at the camera and disappeared with another flash.

"Rewind."

The image did as instructed.

"Pause!"

The image froze on the man as he straightened up from setting down the parcel. He was a fit-looking middle-aged white man wearing a mailman's outfit, with curly black hair sticking out from beneath a pith helmet sporting - were those... wings? - and a cellphone stuffed into his back pocket. Looking more closely, Wanda noticed that the man seemed to almost glow in the dark room.

"Who is that?" she breathed, without meaning to. Bruce, who was closest to her, shook his head slightly in confusion.

"Percy? Annabeth?" Steve asked the two teens, who were doing that thing where they looked at each other and spoke without words. Wanda resisted the temptation to go inside their heads and find out what was going on. "Do you know that man?"

Annabeth bit her lip. "It's hard to tell, because he always looks different and Percy's met him more times than I have, but I think that might have been Hermes."

"Isn't Hermes a delivery service?"

"Yes, which was named after the Greek god of messengers."

"Wait, so you're saying that there was a god in my compound last night?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"So does that mean that the parcel's safe to open?" Clint asked eagerly. Percy eyed the table suspiciously.

"Does anyone have a mirror?"

"What? Why?"

"Let's just say I have... an interesting experience with parcels from Olympus."

Wanda dug in her pocket, and pulled out the compact mirror Natasha had given her after she taught her how to use them to look around corners in an enemy base. Before she could offer it, however, Clint held out his phone.

"You can take a picture with this."

"Um... thanks. Do you mind doing it instead?"

Annabeth pulled out her magic dagger and slit the box open with deadly accuracy.

"Don't look inside," Percy warned Clint as he stepped forwards and angled the phone over the open box. He snapped a picture then retreated and showed it to Percy.

Percy's frowned in confusion. "What?"

.0*.o*:O*.

Inside the box were several smaller boxes. Annabeth heard Clint groan.

"Do we have to look inside all of those too?"

Annabeth surveyed the boxes. There were all too small for Medusa's head, so she shook her head. "No." Peering closer, she saw that each box was addressed with a nickname. "There's a parcel for everyone, but I don't know the names...?"

Percy leant over and squinted at the closest parcel. "Uh, Dribbian?"

"What?" Clint pushed forward again to read the label. "Oh, Birdbrain! Sam's not here, so that would be ME!" He grabbed it and proceeded to read out the rest of the names. "Tin can, Tiny guy, Angry man, Magic hands, Grandpa Frisbee - ha! - and... Natasha."

Each member of the team came up to collect their parcel. The red-headed spy called Natasha wasn't there for some reason, so her parcel stayed in the box.

"Um, there's also an envelope but it's in a different language."

Annabeth took the envelope from the archer, leaving him to eagerly open his parcel. The front was addressed to Percy and Annabeth in Ancient Greek calligraphy. Ignoring the avengers attempting to open the surprisingly resilient tape sealing their identical packages, Annabeth pulled Percy over to the couch and quietly read out the letter.

"Dear Perry and Anniebell,

You have no idea what you've done."

"Well, that's always a good start," Percy commented dryly. Annabeth rolled her eyes and kept reading.

"You have disrupted a centuries-old plan put in place by the Olympian council to protect the mortal world from forces that we can only guess at, in accordance to the Ancient Prophecy from the very first Oracle. Your actions have ruined everything, and you may well have doomed the entire universe."

"That seems to be what I do best," grinned Percy. Annabeth smacked him lightly.

"Stop interrupting!"

"Okay. Pinkie promise."

Annabeth took a deep breath and let it out as a long-suffering sigh before continuing

"By telling the group who call themselves 'The Avengers' of their true origins, you have broken a complex enchantment and subsequently put your new friends in terrible danger. In order to remedy this, we will need time to prepare a ritual to recreate the enchantment. Whilst this is in action, the Avengers must be kept safe, and as the ones who endangered them in the first place, it is your responsibility to do so. I have taken the liberty of commissioning some gifts for your new friends, which I will have Hermes deliver along with this message.

"Unfortunately, I will be seeing you sooner than I would like."

"It's signed by Mr D," Annabeth said, voice shaking slightly. "Protect them? How? From what? He could at least give us a hint!"

Before Percy could respond, there was a call from the other side of the room, where Clint had finally managed to tear his package open.

"Annabeth? Percy? Guys! What, exactly, is this?"

He held up the bright orange t-shirt, and Percy's jaw dropped.