Percy Jackson meets the Avengers [VERY SLOW UPDATES]

Chapter 7 (unedited)

Tony's POV

I had been up all night, and was extremely close to giving up and going to bed, when JARVIS alerted me that a small section had been translated. Hopefully the program I had created would learn as it translated - it seemed the language was some sort of Greek dialect, so I had set it to look for words that sounded similar in modern Greek. If the translations made at least some sense, I would know that I had finally cracked it. As I replayed our first interaction with the teens - a recording from Natasha's comms unit - I layered the translated sections over the original file.

"probably weren't alone ... my place ... risk an attack ... coffee blue"

The translation had been worrying till the last section, the mention of blue coffee was more confusing than worrying. Surely they weren't talking about us, we hadn't even moved in on them yet. So who's attack had they been talking about, if not us? Glancing at my watch I saw that there was still about an hour before Natasha and Clint would arrive back. I had enough time to apply JARVIS's translation software to one more section of this language. The next clearest recording we had was of Percy's nightmare. I muted the audio whilst JARVIS attempted to translate it. There was no need for me to listen to his screams again, they had been burned into my memory the first time I had heard them. It wasn't long before my computer let out a quiet beep. Bracing myself to listen to his pain filled screams once more, I hit play.

"Annabeth! Run! ... hold the monsters ..." The sound was cutting in and out, the listening bug only catching his loudest words and screams. The few words that followed were jumbled, barely loud enough to be picked up. "you ... couldn't do ... stop." The bug was suddenly filled with the sound of a woman crying - Sally as she had walked back into the kitchen, effectively rendering the bug useless. I turned off the audio, cutting the two translated sections out of their audio, and placed them onto a USB drive, along with all the full original recordings. Whilst I was desperate to show this to the rest of the team, the mention of monsters was worrying. I wanted to believe that Percy and Annabeth were on our side, but I didn't have the authority to make that decision. Therefore I was sending a copy of my data to the man who did have the right - Director Fury. I didn't want to risk send it electronically; I couldn't risk this strange situation being leaked - especially if there was some sort of innocent explanation for this. So I was doing the next best thing - getting a physical copy dropped off at a SHIELD base, and hoping that Fury would be able to pick it up soon.

"JARVIS," I asked. "If Pepper is still in the Tower, could you ask her to come down to my workshop." It was a long shot, but hopefully Pepper hadn't left for the day yet. "Pepper is on her way down Sir, I caught her just as she was about to leave." Minutes later I heard the clatter of Pepper's heels on the stairs down to my workshop. "Tony I have a meeting in just over twenty minutes, so whatever you need me for it will need to be quick."

I stood up, and started pacing back and forth, trying to word what I was about to say in my head. "Pepper, JARVIS has finally managed to translate part of the conversations between the two kids I told you about earlier - Percy and Annabeth. And they mentioned monsters of some sort." At my mention of monsters, a horrified look appeared on Pepper's face, and I hastily amended what I had been saying. "I have no reason to believe that they wish us harm - in fact they sounded as if they were trying to avoid these monsters - but I need to get this to Fury."

"What do you need me to do?" Pepper asked, the brave look on her face betrayed by her slightly shaking hands. I pressed the USB drive into her trembling hands, letting my own linger on top of hers for a minute. "At some point today would you be able to get this to the SHIELD base nearby? It's just a copy of the recordings we've made, and the bits that JARVIS was able to translate for me. It's not time sensitive, I just don't want to risk it getting leaked online, especially if there is some sort of innocent explanation for all of this. And then once you've dropped it off at a base, I'll get a message to Fury, and he'll be able to pick it up, and do whatever he feels necessary. Is that okay?" I asked, suddenly worried that I was putting too much pressure on Pepper.