Heroes

Chapter 5: Games

Natasha


My eyes snapped open. They flickered around, scanning the scene in front of me. I was still at The Lake in Central Park as far as I could tell. The sunlight bounced off the leaves of the surrounding foliage, which were still the jade green color of summer. A small grassy field extended in front of me. My wrists were restrained behind me around an oak tree. The tree was a bit thicker than my torso, so I wasn't in pain, but I had no way to reach any weapons. The tree's canopy extended above me and blocked out the afternoon sun, but I could tell it was roughly 4:00.

My teammates were in the same position as me, though none of them had regained consciousness. We had been tied to trees in a rough half-circle. All of us were positioned to face a single point, which was currently occupied by our assailant.
Perseus was sitting cross-legged in the grass and was staring intently at something in his hands. He was about 20 feet away from me, so I couldn't tell what it was.

"Unngh" I heard a moan from my left.
I turned my head and saw that Thor was regaining consciousness. He shifted and groaned some more before slowly opening his eyes. He looked around, alarmed, but calmed down when he made eye contact with me.
On the other side of him I saw the Captain, still out cold. On my right was Tony and then Hawkeye, who were both slouched against their trees.
Over the next five minutes everyone woke up except for Tony. I had been knocked out before him, and I was slightly worried about his potential injuries. My eyes flicked to Hawkeye and we exchanged a nod. We were mostly unharmed, but we had nothing to our advantage at this point. We had to think of a plan to get out, preferably before an interrogation via teenager.

I knew 734 ways to get out of hand restraints but for some reason none of them worked on tightly knotted twine. Hawkeye was having similar troubles with his, and even Captain's super strength couldn't break the knots. Whenever we struggled, the twine would just dig further into our skin.

"YES!" A yell rang out making me jump.

"What's happening?!" asked a groggy and startled Ironman. Percy had apparently removed Tony's mask and gloves from his suit. Without Jarvis or his blasters, Tony was virtually useless. Except, maybe, as a human shield.

"Oh, hey! You're up. Um...sorry about that," Percy trailed off looking embarrassed, having finally noticed us watching him. I heard him click whatever was in his hands. He tossed it into the grass and I could have sworn it was a blue Gameboy.

"Our team knows we're here and they can be here in a second," Tony stated, smirking a bit.

"That's cool. I can disappear in an instant so I'm really not worried," replied Percy casually.
"So, let's cut to the chase," For some reason this made him chuckle. "Why are you trying to kill me?"

Captain responded sincerely, "We really only want to detain you."

"Ok, fine. But why?" asked Percy, sounding exasperated.

I took over, "You are either a threat to the government...or an asset."
Formalities are overrated.

His brow creased and I watched his face go through an undisciplined stream of emotions. He finally settled on being curious.

"What kind of asset?"
"We want you to join our team."

He snorted, "You mean the one that just tried to beat me up?"

"That's the one," answered Tony, nodding as if that was completely reasonable.

"What does your team do? When you're not accosting park-goers, of course."

I rolled my eyes. Another smart aleck. Great. He did have a point though.

"We save the world from supernatural and extraordinary threats. We work for an agency and we're their elite team of superheroes," said Tony with pride.
"An agency...." Percy said as if trying the word out. "Why should I join you?"

"If you qualify, this is a very important and difficult job. You will be saving millions of lives. If that kind of thing interests you," Tony stated, trying to sound bored. He gave Percy a look that said 'why wouldn't you join?'

Percy quirked his eyebrow, "You know you're tied to a tree right? I think I qualify."

"He's got a point," Tony conceded looking around at us.

"Saving lives again, huh?"
I felt that we weren't supposed to hear Percy say that.
He muttered something else to himself, and then turned a lopsided smile on us.
"I'll do it. Where do I go?"
"We'll take you, it's at Stark Tower." replied Clint.
"It's the really tall one with the 'A' on top, right? How 'bout I meet you there instead?"

His eyes carried a mischievous glint that scared me a bit. He winked and was gone in a flash of light. When I could see again, my hands were free of their bonds, and I jackknifed to my feet.
The rest of my team also leaped up, and we exchanged bewildered glances. I was glad to see that no one's injuries were in need of immediate care. It was nice to know that Percy hadn't tried to inflict pain or injury, even when we were completely at his mercy. I caught my breath as a salty sea breeze swept over us. It seemed to swirl into my brain and warn me of something. I almost thought I was hallucinating, but Hawkeye noticed it too and caught my glance. This just keeps getting weirder.

"So, another magic user," mused Thor.

"Is he one of yours?" asked Hawkeye.

"If you mean of Asgard, then no. He is not of my realm," said Thor slowly. He wouldn't meet our eyes.

"Thor, what do you know about him?" asked Captain.

"I have my suspicions about him, but its probably nothing."

We left the subject alone. Thor was secretive, but he would tell us if it was important.

"Well, wanna see if he's actually at the tower?" asked Hawkeye, breaking the slightly awkward silence.

"Let's go."

*******

When we arrived outside the tower Percy was nowhere in sight. We sighed, wondering how we would explain this to Fury. Not only did we get our butts kicked, but Percy was gone. I cringed, imagining the confrontation.

As we entered the lobby of the newly named Avengers Tower we were greeted by a strange and not unwelcome sight. Percy was sitting in the lobby with a pen in his hand, which he was twirling incessantly. He had a worried look in his eyes which scared me.
Anything that worried him, terrified me.
"Hey, we thought you ditched," said Tony, a bit too loud for the lobby.
Percy jumped out of his chair, clutching his pen with two hands. He looked about ready to uncap it. His eyes were wider than normal and I recognized the battle reflexes that came from experience in fights. There were many reasons that he would have these instincts, but none of them indicated a good childhood. Welcome to the club, kid.

"Oh, um no. I'm here."
"Are you sure? You seem really distracted," Tony pointed out. The rest of us stayed silent, unsure of how to treat the person who just crushed us. Tony had no such qualms.

"I'm fine," Percy said, his voice hardening. "So, uhh, take me to your leader?"

"Follow us."
We stepped into a (luckily) large elevator and Captain punched the button for the Avengers conference room.








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Merry Christmas!!!! And other holidays which I will lump together insensitively mostly because I can't spell them!!

1000 reads!!!!! Oh my gosh you guys are sooooooo awesome! Thank you for all of the amazing comments!!!! You guys are honestly the BEST! Your comments are soooooo nice, I had no idea you liked it so much!!!! Thanks for all of the comments and votes <3

I'm really trying to go more in-depth with my descriptions, so my writing may change a bit. If anything seems bad or out-of-place, feel free to comment on it.

Your Percabeth levels have been all over the place, so the only thing I can promise is that it will actually exist. When this story happened in my head, Percabeth was like a 13/10 but I won't subject you to that level of crazy :)

Please comment and vote! Happy Reading!! <3