The Promise of a Hero

Chapter Seven

Five minutes, that's how long I stand outside my apartment trying and failing to find my key. To make it worse, Peter and Ned spend the entire time watching awkwardly. By the time that I remember Ashley is visiting and therefore able to open the door, I'm about ready to kick the door down. I knock while ignoring the look the two behind me give each other.

"I forgot my key," I grumble in explanation. Ned nods in understanding when Ashely swings the door open. "Hey, I'm back."

She smiles in greeting before turning to Peter and Ned. "Who are they?" she doesn't move to let us in and I know she won't until I can prove there's no threat. Seriously, she may be only eleven, but sometimes she acts more like an over protective mother than a kid.

"People from school."

She perks up, "Friends?"

I wouldn't put it that way. "Sure," I suggest. 

I can't see what Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum are doing, but it must not be anything too suspicious because Ashely finally lets us in.

"Your sister's nice," Peter comments, making me almost choke on air.

I hum in a way that is both agreement and dismissal. Ashely stares at me with wide eyes. Hopefully she's okay with me playing along with Parker's fantasies. I don't feel like coming up with a lie about why she's here right now. If she's really upset I'll make sure to apologize later.

"My room's this way." I gesture toward the back hall while trying to figure out where Jules Albert is hiding.

"Are you sure that your parents are okay with us being here?" Ned glances around like mentioning them are going to summon my parents from the Underworld.

"It's fine. They're both out of town for the weekend," the lie easily rolls off my tongue. "They won't even notice you were here."

Ned accepts this without complaint and follows me back to my room, leaving Ashely to position herself in front of the glowing television screen. After Peter and Ned leave I'm going to have to make sure she does something that isn't as likely to melt her brain.

Once we're all in the room, I close the door behind us so that we won't be disturbed. "So, are you going to explain what's going on or am I going to have to guess?" Peter pretends to be more interested in the dark grey of my walls than answering. "Though be warned, I'm a pretty good guesser."

That gets his attention. "Uh, yeah, what do you want to know?" At least he's given up on trying to deny that he's keeping secrets.

"The glowing red dot? What's that all about?" I decide to start with an easy question. There's no reason to expose Peter's secret identity three minutes into the conversation. 

Peter turns to Ned for help, but he's too busy studying my old mythology collection to take any notice. "It's a tracker," he admits.

"Mr. Stark gave it to him," Ned decides to chime in. A.K.A, Stark gave the tracker to Spiderman.

"As part of my internship," Parker explains, looking absolutely horrified. Ned stops rifling though my stuff for a moment to notice, but only shrugs and mouths a sorry. Do they realize that I'm standing right in front of them and can see everything?

"And the men at the school? Why where they there?" I move on. I need to know if they were looking for me or had another reason to be there and I just have worse luck than I thought.

"No idea," Peter fiddles with his hands, liar.

"You tagged them with a tracker even though you had no idea who they were or why they were there?" Does he really expect me to believe that?

He shrugs innocently. "They looked like bad people." It's such a Percy answer I can't help but roll my eyes.

Getting information out of him is going to be like fighting a hydra, exhausting and more trouble than it's worth. If only he knew I was actually trying to help, in my own way. "So, are you going to tell Stark?" 

Parker stiffens and his eyes widen. "Why would I do that?"

"Maybe because he's told the whole world he's Iron Man or because he know Spider-Man? He might be able to help."

"Oh, yeah, I'll do that tomorrow."

"Woah, is this Hades?" Ned interrupts our conversation, reaching for the figure Bianca died for. 

"Don't touch that!" I scold just in time for his hand to jerk away without touching it. To bad he pulls back too fast and knocks off a different one, the Apollo figurine. I try to catch it, but I'm too far away. I can't move fast enough. But Peter can. One second I watch Apollo falling toward the ground where it'll surely break and the next it's in Peter's out streched hand.

"Sorry," Ned mutters lamely. I try to give him the most scalding glare I can muster and by the way he visibly gulps I'll say it works.

 I take a deep breath to reel in my annoyance. "It's fine," I grind out. "Just please  don't touch anything else." I snatch the figure out of Peter's hand and hold it close. I still remember when I got it. Will was so appalled when he found out that I had every Olympian other than Apollo. The next day I found it sitting outside my cabin wrapped in a bright yellow bow.

"I never pegged you for a guy that plays Mythomagic. When did you start?" Peter asks. 

I can't tell if he's trying to change that topic or if he's truly interested. "When I was nine or ten,  can't remember," I answer truthfully. It's hard to keep track of my age since my time in the Lotus Hotel.

"Cool, I started around the same time." Ned plops down on my bed, staying away from my stuff.

"Wait, you play?" Besides Frank, I haven't met many people who know how to play Mythomagic outside of the occasional tournament I've gone to.

Peter sorta laughs, "Are you kidding, what money he doesn't spend on lego death stars he spend and card and figurines. You should see his collection. It's huge."

 If I'm not mistaken, Ned seems to be blushing at the complements. "It's not that big, besides, you have a great collection yourself. I've never seen a Hades in person before."

Now I want to laugh. if he thinks this is a lot, he should see what I left behind in my cabin at camp, or better yet, all the cards I have stashed in my room in the Underworld. This is nothing. I take my hobby seriously, to the point that Hazel calls it an obsessions most of the time. "Thanks, my sister gave it to me." I leave it at that.

"Well we should definitely verse each other soon."

This is a trap right? It has to be some type of scheme. Why else would someone willingly want to hang out with me? He doesn't sound like he's trying to set me up and it would be nice to play with someone other that my sister's boyfriend. I'm still trying to figure out what the catch is when Peter's tracker watch starts beeping. "Why is it doing that? What does it mean?" Is it going to explode? I wouldn't put it past Stark to make an exploding watch.

"It means they stopped moving." Peter brings up the holographic screen so that we can all see.

"So where are the super secret bad guys now?" Ned asks more excited than worried. 

"Maryland."

A/N: Is this finally a chapter once again finished at midnight? Yes it is. I'm sorry for the wait. I developed a horrible writing and reading slump the last few weeks of my high school career, but now that I'm graduated hopefully that will be over and I will be writing more. Though what really helps is deadlines, so please comment and give me some excuse to get writing. Thank you for reading, commenting, and/or voting. I know this was another filler chapter, but I hope you enjoyed it anyways. There should be more action next time I update. Good Night.