Thoughts Can Hurt || Percy & Avengers Crossover

life sucks but at least we have pizza

Natasha think for a moment. "Did they do an MRI?"

"No."

"I would have them do one of those. Probably with contrast dye, so they can see more."

Bruce ponders this for a moment. "Okay, I'll mention it to his doctors."

Steve looks up from his seat, confused. "I thought you were his doctor?"

"Oh, no. The only thing I have remotely similar to doctoring is a doctorate in health physics, which deals primarily in the biological effects of radiation and the like. I was trained as a field medic so I, as Bruce and not the Hulk, could help out on missions, but other than that..." he trails off sheepishly. "The actual doctors just keep me around and listen to my advice because I know a lot of things about biochemistry and biomedical engineering. Usually I'd be down in the lab, but because Percy's case is so peculiar and they think it has something to do with some sort of radiation he got from Hydra..."

"Oh. Yeah, that makes sense."

Tony grumpily takes a bite of his pizza. "They should let me back there."

Bruce sighs and stands up. He grabs a other piece of pizza out of the box. "I'm going to go talk to the doctors about getting him a contrast MRI. I'll be back in an hour or three, depending on how long it takes to get him back. If he can go back. There might be other people scheduled already."

He gets up and leaves the room.

Tony scowls. "I don't like this."

"Who does?" Natasha asks neutrally. She takes another bite of pizza.

Clint shoots up from his chair. Everyone turns to look at him. He'd been quiet during the conversation, so they were curious about his input.

Clint's eyes are wide. "Holy crap." He says slowly.

Natasha's expression grows serious. She knows that tone. "What is it?"

"He has the same symptoms now that he has after a panic attack or flashback."

Tony blinks. "What?"

"What if whatever's been going on is being triggered by his panic attacks? Because now seems an awful lot like what happens after his attacks. What if he got poisoned, or attacked with magic, or... whatever and it only shows up in certain circumstances?"

Natasha's eyes flicker towards the door. "Like the mission we got sent on where multiple people were dying randomly, from what looked like natural causes, but it ended up being a terrorist using a poison that only activated if your heart rate was above a certain amount?"

"Yeah. And didn't he just leave a war zone a month or so ago?" He turns to Natasha. "And didn't you say something about someone-"

"Someone targeting him?" Natasha cuts in, "Yeah." Her face turns grim.

"So it's been progressing all this time, and none of us have noticed it?" Tony looks incredulous.

"No, we have noticed it. We've just been blaming it on mental health rather than physical."

Toby slumps down in his chair. "Are we even sure this is what's going on, though? It's logical, sort of, but we have so little information to go off of! We can't access his files, so we don't know what happened when he was in the war! If it is true, how are we going to cure it?"

Clint pats Tony's shoulder. "I know you're worried, Tones. But currently, other than a magical cause-"

"It could still be magical. They have inhumans." Natasha points out.