Chapter 15

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At this point I'm just gonna say screw it and post this sorry excuse for a chapter. I have been struggling with it for weeks and yes I do have some excuse for this riduculously late posting, which is being sick and o levels. For those who go by the brittish system, this is an easy explanation. For the rest, Harry's owl year at Hogwarts.
Anyway, this chapter has fought me at every turn and refused to be even slightly reasonable. I had intended for a nice long chapter dealing with the impending shit storm but since that isn't gonna happen you get this crap fest and I deserve the hate you guys will throw at me. I know. It happens. I'm sorry.

They were having dinner when the call that changed Percy's entire view of the world came. At this point, he knew the fates were set to make his life absolutely miserable. This had been such a nice day too, the entire team was here, not on some mission somewhere halfway around the world. He also finally had the balls to just say screw it and kiss Wanda. Clint had actually set up a betting pool about how long it would take - Tony won. They were having pizza and a couple hours later, he could have called it the perfect day. But that was before he received the iris message where the first thing he saw was Chiron's regretful face.
"How many?" He asked in a flat voice.
"Five campers and a satyr. The cabins of the Big Three were burned; the worst damage was done to Zeus' cabin. This was a direct affront to the gods." His old mentor replied.
In the kitchen a water pipe exploded as Percy struggled to stay calm. Winter must have sensed it as he stood and came to his younger brother, resting a calming hand on his shoulder, and returned the water to where it belonged, continuing the conversation with the stunned centaur.
"Its been some time Chiron, still not enough for you to forget us children of Posiedon have never embraced war. Oh and the small fact that we honestly don't give a damn about most of the gods."
"James?" Chiron had gone pale. "There were rumors..."
Winter waved him off. "Yes I'm alive. Its a long story and Uncle Hades likes me. Now, where and when do you want us?"
~line break~
Wanda honestly wasn't sure why she was out of bed at 2:30 in the morning. Ok, she figured it was because Percy was currently furiously pounding a punching bag in the gym, but in her defense, it was generally Pietro who would join him, not her.
She could hear the thwack as Percy's fist connected with the leather of the bag, could sense the anger behind every hit and was surprised. She hadn't known that Percy was even capable of that much anger. But it wasn't like she could blame him for it either, she knew anger, embraced it as an old friend and she knew her brother had too. Pietro had just placed her wellbeing over everything else.
Percy didn't stop venting his frustration on the bag as she walked in, but he did slow down, less anger in his tension filled movements. Wanda could almost see his walls going up as she walked closer.
"You know, you don't have to hide in front of me." She spoke softly, but her voice could easily be heard over the softs thumps of Percy's fists hitting the bag.
"Hiding? What would I be hiding? That I am sick and tired of fighting? Always fighting like the toy soldier I was born to be." He said, his voice rough, a stark contrast to Wanda's. His hits got harder and harder as he punched, punctuating every word with a right hook or an uppercut.
"You know what I like best about the sea?" Wanda asked suddenly. Percy raised an eyebrow as if to ask what? "The fact that it can't be restrained. Forget being as free as a bird, I'd like to see someone hold back the tide." She continued, smiling at her boyfriend.
"That can be arranged." Percy muttered.
Wanda rolled her eyes. "Someone who isn't the son of the sea god. What I mean is, no one can control the sea. Its unpredictable, unstoppable, a force unto itself. Last I checked, that carried over to those born of the sea too." She finished, a smile still playing about her lips. A smile that was echoed on Percy's face.
~line break~
The next morning Steve walked into the kitchen with a troubled look on his face. The others were already assembled there eating breakfast, Percy extremely slowly as if he could put off going to deal with the latest crisis by eating his pancakes slowly.
"Shield databases were hacked last night. Fury doesn't even know how much information was taken. Nuclear launchcodes, the inner details of the Council... the Avengers Initiative."
"That's impossible, I upgraded SHIELD's firewalls myself." Tony spoke, voice full of disbelief.
"Fury suspects that there are still a few rogue agents in SHIELD." Steve cut in, aiming to stop Tony's rant before it began.
"Hey Winter? Please tell me dad said Hyperion teamed up with someone from our side of mythology." Percy said, his apprehension growing.
His brother looked grim as he shook his head. "Unfortunately these bastards like making life interesting in the worst possible way."
Oh shit. What was it Tony had called the Avengers? Earth's last line of defense? Why the hell did the current big bad have to be the titan of freaking foresight? Even if he had managed to take down the demigods, the next line of defense would have been the Avengers who would probably be able to hold their own against Hyperion. SHIELD at the very least should definitely have developed weapons to use against monsters.
Clint was the next to speak, catching drift of Percy's thought. "Hyperion wants to level the playing field in his favour by taking us out first. Take down SHIELD, take down the Avengers, and fighting him becomes a hell of a lot harder."
"And with the added bonus of Percy's fatal flaw, he'd most likely be able to anger him to the point where he would make a decision that would leave him dead or at the mercy of HYDRA/Hyperion." Natasha finished.
"Good thing we still have a few aces left to play then." Pietro began but was cut off by Bucky.
"No. HELL no. Kid, you and your sister are not leaving this tower unless its to go to one of Stark's underground bunkers."
"So you were fine with us fighting against Ultron but not these guys? We even have more training now!" Wanda protested.
Bucky glowered at the two, "Ultron was because we had no other choice. The potential fallout of this particular shit storm? One hell of a whole lot worse."
Pietro interjected at this point. "First off, the Avengers will be a couple members short and Loki and Thor can't exactly fight on the demigod side of things cos they're like, Norse, right? I mean, sounds to me like you need as much firepower as you can get." Kind of ironic considering he was arguing with a son of Posiedon but he did, unfortunately for Bucky, have a very valid point.
Bucky glared at Pietro before relenting. "Fine but only on the Avengers front. I catch you anywhere near the demigod side of things... well, you of all people should remember who I spent the last 70 years working for." It was really quite amusing to see the extent of which Pietro paled at Winter's threat.
~line break~
Percy looked at Thalia's pine tree standing tall and proud in the distance. He didn't want to cross it, not really. He missed his friends, yes, but crossing it into camp boundaries... it was opening himself up again to the world that had caused him so much pain and he wasn't sure if he could do that after everything. Until his brother gave him a slight shove and told him to hurry up, that is.
Shaking himself out of his stupor, he shoved Bucky right back and continued up the hill.
~line break~
To say Fury was angry was the understatement of the year. The one-eyed director of SHIELD was furious. HYDRA was choosing now of all times to make their huge comeback, right in the middle of a war on the greek side of things when a fourth of his agents were called upon to defend their respective camps. This was already annoying considering that the demigods were amongst his best agents. Hey, there was a reason they were recruited and it wasn't because of their dyslexia. Oh and there was the added bonus of not being told that HYDRA had allied themselves with the greek threat. That's always great to know.
~line break~
Reyna had figured that her camp would probably be attacked after what happened at Camp Halfblood. She just hadn't figured that it would happen in the middle of the day when everyone was wide awake and energetic. Wasn't Prometheus supposed to be smart? Unfortunately for Reyna, Prometheus was quite intelligent and knew exactly what he was doing.
A small pack of hellhounds and a few laistrygonians were currently testing Camp Jupiter's borders. Archers took out the hellhounds, while a legion dealt with the giants. Nothing more than a small skirmish really. Unfortunately, it was not the only one for the day.
Sometimes it was a legion of telkhines, sometimes a few empousai. The occational visit from a hyperborean or a manticore. They never attacked in the same place twice except for one time but the romans were too busy fighting off some monster to notice. They may even have had some prior warning to the attack that would happen that night.

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