The Fox and the Hound (A Poki Story)

XVI - Missing

"Everybody ready?" Annabeth yelled out to the fifty plus demigods waiting to pass through the portal.

The portal was Leo's new pride and joy. The Space Stone sat in the middle of some crazy mechanical rings that pull out the power and sustain a functional wormhole. That's the dumbed down version. Not going to even bother with the smart one.

With this, anybody could travel to another world, any other world. Very useful when transporting more than eight people. All you needed was someone who knew where they were going.

Annabeth had already instructed the demigods to focus their thoughts on the Avengers. She had planned to rendezvous at the mansion when they were done here, and Tony agreed.

"Start it up," she ordered.

Leo flipped a couple switches and turned some dials on the control panel. The stone glowed blue as its power was siphoned into the wiring. As the rings started spinning, a black hole appeared and enlarged in the center of the metal circles.

"It's stabilizing," Leo said to himself. "There we go. It worked!" He pumped his fist into the air, face lit up with pride. "Yes, yes, yes!"

"Leo, your hair's on fire," Magnus said from next to Annabeth.

The son of Hephaestus quickly patted out his hair.

"Alright," Annabeth yelled out to the assembled demigods. "Let's go fight some aliens!"

The kids howled their approval, banging their spears or swords on their shields or pumping their fists in the air.

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Jarvis alerted Tony the second the worm hole appeared. The Avengers made it out to the driveway just in time to see the throng of children walking out of the black, each followed by an animal or creature of some sort. It was the weirdest sight any of them have ever seen, and the Avengers have fought armies of aliens and robots before.

Annabeth walked up to them, clad in Greek style armor and with an owl perched on her shoulder. "We're ready to fight."

"The owl?" Steve asked. They were the only words he could get out of his mouth.

"It's a spirit animal," Loki said, walking up beside the blond girl.

"Brother!" thundered the familiar voice of Thor. The god barreled up to his brother and squeezed him tight. The sight was almost as strange as the demigod army. "Oh, how I have missed you!"

Loki spluttered: "I can't- breathe."

Thor dropped his brother on his feet. "Can't? You have spent too much time with the mortals, little brother. You are using contractions."

"So what if I am? When did you get back from Asgard?"

"A while ago. In other words, who is this little guy," Thor asked, eyeing the little grey fox on Loki's shoulder.

"Spiro, and yes you may pet him."

As Thor obsessed over Spiro's cuteness, Loki switched his attention back to Annabeth and the rest of the Avengers.

"So, where's Percy?" Annabeth was asking.

Most of the Avengers found sudden interest in their shoes.

"No," Loki mumbled. "No, no, no."

"Loki," Steve started.

"What happened?!"

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Yesterday

"Alpha team in position," Cap said through the coms. "Are you ready?"

"Affirmative," Annabeth replied from her side. Percy remembered how much she liked using military dialect. It was so cute.

Steve glanced at the rooftop behind them, where Hawkeye was stationed. "Now," Natasha said through their secure channel.

Up on the roof, Clint drew his bow back and let an arrow fly. The projectile hit the front doors of the Avengers Tower, sticking on the bulletproof glass. The Chitauri guards watched stupidly as a light blinked on the arrow. It beeped twice and exploded, blasting into the front lobby.

"Go, go, go!" Steve ordered.

Their job was to distract as Beta team, aka Annabeth's team, broke into one of the top floors to get to the stone. Percy is amazing at distracting. This was going to be fun.

Percy ran head first into the battle, loving the fit of the new suit Tony had made him. It's blue, black and silver with a Trident on the shoulder. The spandex is reinforced with vibranium, making it bullet proof and shock resistant. It is definitely better than the SHIELD uniforms.

The demigod slashed down the first Chitauri he saw. The thing was dazed from the explosion so was an easy target. He twirled around and sliced down another and another.

Steve fought next to him, a whirlwind of pure strength and power, Nico not too far away. Alex fought with a garrote, unlike anyone Percy had ever seen. She used it to block slashes, cut off limbs and break the aliens' neck. It was very graphic.

Outside, Clint shot down the incoming air forces. Explosions sounded as Chitauri aircraft fell into each other or the side of the building. Thalia and Tony fought on the ground, killing the survivors of the crashes.

"Signal," Steve ordered through the coms.

That's when Clint shot the flare into the air, signaling the Beta team to move out.

And that's when shit hit the fan. Chitauri from the higher floors filed down the stairs into the lobby, just having gotten the alarm of intruders in the building. The hoard was almost too much for Percy, Steve and Nico. Time for the demigods to bring out the big guns. Nico summoned ten skeleton warriors and Percy started up a small hurricane.

It wasn't enough. The Chitauri made quick work of the skeletons, swiftly surrounding the son of Hades, and Steve couldn't hold them back any longer. The only thing keeping the aliens from Percy was the whirlwind of water around him.

Percy couldn't protect the team all at once - he didn't have enough power to do that - so he would have to take the aliens out instead.

He let the hurricane fall, yelling over the roar of battle: "Nico! Get everyone out!" Percy didn't know if his cousin had heard him. The best thing he could do was hope.

Percy started up the tsunami again, focusing on the ground. He didn't use this power a lot, but Poesidon is also the god of earthquakes. The ground underneath them started to rumble. Percy let his hurricane fall for the final time.

Then something connected with the back of his head.

Percy's concentration broke. He fell forward, warm liquid flowing through his hair. The blood dripped into his eyes as his vision started to turn black. The last thing he saw before unconsciousness was a purple face.

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Now

"Why didn't you go back for him?!" Annabeth and Loki yelled in unison.

The guilt shown in Steve's face. "We did, they were already gone."

"Well we need to save him!" Loki raged.

"We will, when we defeat the giant grape that wants to kill half the population of the Earth," Tony said. "We don't have enough manpower to infiltrate that huge ass spaceship."

"Language."

Tony gave Steve the stink eye.

"There are children around," Clint defended the Captain.

They had sent demigods inside a while ago. The only person left under eighteen was Annabeth, everyone else was messing around in the mansion.

"We'll get him later," Tony said. "Right now, we need rest."

In his mind, Loki was already planning the break in.

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A.N. Hehe, I'm mean. Next chapter Friday.

Thanks for reading! Peace.