Oyasuminasai! Or Ohayoo! Or Konnichiwa! And if you were wondering, yes, I am taking Japanese as my language. So if I ever find a way to incorporate Japanese into this, I KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!! Sorry, sore subject.
Anywho! I'm sorry for taking too long to update. I was lazy and didn't feel like it. It's as simple as that. I also found some REALLY good fanfics to read recently, and they are super long and have sequels so yeah you know how that is, right?
Now on with the story! Stay safe and happy reading!
- your author
Ω ♆ Ω
"Well, this makes our job a whole lot easier," Percy said.
Percy looked around and saw all of the avengers besides "Thor." Magnus had told them what the real Thor looked like, and from what they saw on the news, this version of the guy was not the real one. Annabeth had theorized that they were aliens who had taken to calling themselves gods when Percy had asked about it. Whether they were real or not, Percy still immediately disliked gods in any form.
"What are you doing here, Mr. Jackson?" Director Fury asked, leaning onto the table.
"Yeah! What are you doing in my tower?" Tony asked, finally tuning into the conversation.
Percy smirked, and Annabeth knew what he was about to say would be offensive to somebody, but he spoke before she could stop him, "We're here to do your job."
Tony scowled, "Listen here, kid. We deal with serious threats, and we don't have time to help you. Plus, we're the Avengers, and you're kids."
Annabeth narrowed her eyes, a small blow to her pride being felt, "Unless you want to die, you need our help. We deal with this stuff on a daily basis."
Okay, so they don't really deal with it on a DAILY basis, but close enough. Besides, the guy's ego needed to be knocked down a peg. Annabeth was even thinking about showcasing their skills to prove their worth.
"I think we got it handled, kids," Steve said, holding out a placating hand.
Piper thought it was the perfect time for her to butt-in, "Oh really? So you know where the green fire comes from? And how to put it out?"
At their silence, Piper gave a smug nod, "Thought so."
Fury saw this getting out of hand, so he brought it back on-topic, "Mr. Jackson! I asked you a question. Does your answer mean you are offering your help in this case? And does that mean this is a part of your world?"
Annabeth and Percy seemed to be having a silent debate with each other, and it seemed that Annabeth was winning. And when Percy answered Fury, it was obviously not what he wanted to say.
"We are here to help however we can. This is equally a part of our world and yours," he said, voice monotone like he was reading from a script.
Annabeth seemed satisfied with his answer, but she also wanted to add her own part, "We would also prefer that we keep our involvement as inconspicuous as possible. The gods know you guys have trouble with that."
"Hey! I take offense! And did you say 'gods'?!" Tony exclaimed.
Everyone ignored him, and only paid attention to what Steve said: "Are we really going to be bringing kids into this, Fury? I don't like this."
Fury sighed, and answered on his way out for the second time, "Yes, we're doing this. Get acquainted with each other, no fights, same expectations. And I don't care if you like it or not, Rogers, we're doing this. Jackson! Can I speak with you outside?"
Percy nodded and followed him out the door.
"What do you know that we don't? Are you telling them what you are? Are the other kids in there like you?" Fury rounded on him as soon as the door was closed, speaking in a whisper.
Fury didn't know what could be considered an insult to these new gods. He was treading in unknown territory here.
"We don't know much more than you, probably. And no, we're keeping what we are a secret. We're all the same, though," he answered, choosing his words very carefully.
Percy suspected that Tony Stark had eyes and ears everywhere, and would no-doubt try to figure out their secret on the first night. His job was to make sure that didn't happen.
"Be careful, Jackson. These people don't like secrets," Fury warned, walking away without another word.
Percy tried not to take the man's words too seriously. Doing that would just distract him from the quest. They needed to deal with these bombings quickly, and then go their seperate ways from the Avengers. Telling them their secret was NOT a part of the plan.
With a deep, preparing breath, Percy reentered the meeting room. Inside, he found both groups glaring at each other in silence. It was clear that nobody trusted each other, and that needed to change. If they were going to fight together, they needed to have some semblance of trust. Without that, they weren't going to last that long.
"Hey, guys! Why don't we start with introductions! I'm Percy," he said, clapping his hands together.
It was clear that nobody was buying his cheery mood, but at least Hazel was willing to try.
She said, "I'm Hazel."
"I'm Piper, and that idiot over there is Leo. We've forbidden him from speaking, so he's not able to introduce himself," she stuck her thumb in Leo's direction, who was literally bouncing on the balls of his feet.
It was a miracle that he hadn't caught on fire yet, honestly. Usually, at least his nose will start smoking when he gets too excited.
"Jason," Jason introduced.
"Hi. I'm Frank," Frank said, nervously twiddling his thumbs.
Annabeth's glare intensified when she said, "Annabeth. Not Annie, or Beth. Annabeth."
Percy smiled, slinging an arm over his girlfriend's shoulders in hopes of calming her down. She was way too high strung in the moment when they all needed to be relaxed and open.
The demigods looked at the Avengers, waiting for their introductions. Some of them didn't really need it, but it was nice to be formal.
"I'm Captain Steve Rogers. It's a pleasure to meet you all," Steve nodded his head in greeting and pointed to each Avengers respectively, "This is Dr. Bruce Banner, Clint, Natasha, and I'm sure you know Tony Stark."
"Of course they do, Capsicle. Why wouldn't they?" Tony gloated.
Annabeth rolled her eyes, but Leo couldn't hold his tongue any longer, "Oh my gods! There are so many things I need to ask you about! Why did you keep the name Iron Man when the suit is obviously made of a nickel-titanium alloy? Why don't you protect the arc reactor more? With the amount of power that thing holds, you'd think you would take bet–"
"Leo! Shut up!" Piper yelled, charmspeak weaving through her words.
His mouth immediately shut and was physically withheld from opening again. Piper seemed satisfied with her work when Leo attempted to speak again, but his lips weren't moving.
"Gods, I love charmspeak," Frank murmured under his breath.
"I know, right? But sometimes it can get a little annoying. Like when she doesn't realize she's using it, and then you do exactly what she wants, no matter what? I mean, that's a little..." Percy trailed off, realizing he had let his ADHD get out of hand, "Sorry."
Annabeth fondly smiled up at him.
"Can we get back on track, please? How are you kids going to be able to help us?" Clint asked, speaking up for the first time.
"Can we address what this Leo guy just said?!" Tony exclaimed.
"We have...special abilities that make us fit to deal with these kinds of things. Usually, we'd deal with this on our own, but...this is the first time it's been done like this. Our people don't usually work with your type of people," Annabeth ignored Tony, hating to admit that they were different from the mortals.
"What kind of abilities?" Natasha asked, scepticism lacing her words.
The demigods shared looks with each other, all evidently asking Percy and Annabeth what they should do. Their decision was to show them.
"They're hard to explain, but we can show you. It might be easier to be somewhere with more room, though," Percy answered, looking around at the small space they were all standing in.
"We can do this in the living room. I need a drink, anyways," Tony said, exiting without waiting for a consensus.
The rest of the group followed him, albeit a little reluctantly in some cases. Percy made sure to pull Annabeth to the back so they could talk. He was worried about his control. His powers did not like to be used in small areas. The ocean did not like to be restrained to precise movements. That's what he was worried about, and he told Annabeth that.
"I'm not sure about this, Wise Girl. I still haven't really had enough practice since 'that place,'" he whispered.
Annabeth pecked him on the cheek, "You'll be fine. I trust you, but you need to trust yourself. I know you have control over your powers. Just look at what happened at the Brooklyn Bridge!"
He was still tense, but her words did have some effect. He was at least willing to try now, even if he refused to do anything big. He would only do something basic enough to prove he was capable, but nothing dangerous. Percy wasn't Leo; he wasn't in this to show off.
"Now let's catch up. You know we can't leave Leo alone for long," she cracked a grin, trying to defuse even more of his tension.
Percy forced his troublemaker smirk back onto his face before lacing his hand with Annabeth's, and walking in the direction the others had gone. They found them in a large room with a very open-floor plan. Off to the side, they could see Tony fixing himself a drink at the bar. Everyone else was sitting on the unnaturally-long couches, the Avengers on one and the demigods on the other.
Everyone seemed to be waiting for the two to join them to start. That or none of them had the guts to go first. But with Leo there, it was most likely the first option.
"Who wants to go first?" Annabeth asked as she and Percy sat down.
Leo seemed to be pleading with his eyes, and Annabeth, for some reason, decided to pity him and let him go first. With a simple nod of confirmation, Leo shot up from his seat and went to the side, where there was more room.
"Keep it low-key, Leo," Jason warned, knowing full-well nothing his friend did was low-key.
"Of course, Lightning Boy! I get it!" Leo reassured.
He positioned himself in a square stance before lighting his whole body on fire. If it was possible, Leo defied expectations of how not low-key he could get.
"Oh! Somebody put it out!" Bruce exclaimed, rushing over to Leo.
Before anyone could start dousing him in water, Leo turned it off, revealing himself free of burns. Luckily, he had been wearing one of Calypso's fireproof outfits, so his clothes had stayed intact. His skin was covered in a thin layer of soot, and his hair was letting off some smoke, though.
"Tada!" he proudly said.
Tony's interest seemed to be piqued, "That was awesome! How are you still okay? Is it some sort of mutation?"
"Something like that," Annabeth answered for him, fearing that Leo would let something slip on the first day.
She knew there was a high chance that their secret would be revealed at some point, but she wanted to prolong the mystery as long as possible. That meant constantly watching what the others said, especially Leo and Percy.
"Frank! You're up next, bud!" Leo pointed at the chinese teen.
Frank seemed to shrink in on himself slightly before convincing himself to stand confidently and walk over to replace Leo on the scorched floorspace.
"I'm not really sure what to do, so...I'll just do this," he said, before turning into a guinea pig and back quickly.
Percy shuddered, bad memories flooding in. He would never look at celery the same way again...
Tony did not seem impressed, "So...you can change into a rodent? How's that gonna help us?"
Frank straightened up again before staring right at Tony as he turned into a grizzly bear, raising on all fours and letting out a growl. Tony seemed to be in a state between fear and curiosity, but before he could speak again, Frank turned back and walked back to his spot on the couch between Jason and Hazel.
"I stand corrected," Tony muttered before going and taking a seat himself, a brown drink in hand.
"I guess I'll go next. You guys have kinda already seen what I can do, but I guess I'll showcase it again," Piper said, standing up but not moving to where Frank and Leo had.
She looked around the room and its occupants before choosing her targets, "Tony, pour your drink in your lap."
Tony got a dazed look in his eyes before he robotically moved his glass over his lap, tipping it to the side and letting all of the liquid drop onto his legs. When it was all gone, he snapped out of his fatigue and jumped up.
"What the hell happened? Who did this?!" he explained, looking down at his pants.
Natasha actually SMILED, "I like her. We need more girls around here, especially ones who can do that."
Tony turned to glare at Piper, "You did this!"
Piper only smirked smugly in response, "Yep. I did. Now, sit back down."
Tony complied immediately, causing his team to break out in laughter.
"We call it charmspeak. Only Piper can do it," Annabeth informed the Avengers, "Jason? Why don't you go next?"
"Alright. I can't do anything too major, since we're inside, but I think I have an idea," he said, moving to the same open area.
He glanced around before zeroing his gaze on a power outlet in the floor. He reached out a hand in its direction, and slowly, a string of electricity snaked its way out of the outlet. It built in his hands until it was in the shape of a ball, and then he stopped gathering it. He tossed the ball between a couple times before throwing it at Tony's chest, causing his arc reactor to glow brighter.
Jason smiled and went to sit back down again, "That's what I can do."
"Cool," Clint commented, "What about Hazel?"
"I can do this," Hazel stated simply, breaking a chunk of concrete off the floor before placing it back in place.
She didn't even move from her spot, the only part of her moving was her arm. She made it seem effortless, but if more attention was paid, someone could see that a beat of sweat had formed on her brow. Unnatural minerals, like concrete, were harder to control.
"Impressive," Steve sat forward, "What about you, Annabeth? What can you do?"
Before she could explain that she didn't have any powers, Percy answered for her, "She's a genius. Plus, she can fight, like, really well."
"Very eloquent, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth teased, but her smile was thankful.
He knew she was self-conscious about being the only one in the Seven without a demigod power. But he also knew that she didn't need it. She was the best at everything else already.
"I'll be testing that later," Tony said, clearly telling the truth.
Annabeth sat up straight and looked him right in the eye, "Looking forward to it."
"The only one left is you, Percy. What can you do?" Natasha inquired.
The superspy had noticed that the boy had tried to sink into the background. He was uncomfortable with answering the question, and that meant that it was worth pressing for. She wasn't afraid to do it, either. Natasha didn't like that Fury had kept something from her, and she was determined to find out the full story.
"Um...well, I can control water, basically," he answered, squirming under all of their gazes.
"Can you show us?" Steve asked, tone gentler than Natasha's was.
"I guess. It'll be something really small, though," Percy responded.
He saw that there was a vase full of flowers and water in the corner, and he chose that as his example. He held out a slightly-shaking hand in its direction and called the water to him. The familiar tug in his gut was almost indecipherable when the water trickled out and into the air. It did the same thing as Jason's electricity when it formed a line to his hands before forming into a ball. Percy held it above him, eyes narrowed in concentration, and willed it to become the shape of a small spear. He focused his attention on a spot between Clint's open legs and through the water-spear at that area. It hit its mark and dissolved on impact.
After it was over, Percy let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. That had been far too easy to do, and it worried him. His powers were growing, but he didn't want them to. He had to concentrate on only that small amount of water so that he didn't accidentally burst the pipes running all throughout the walls. When he wasn't using his powers, Percy could contain his reach and not make anything explode, but when he let the water in, it was like a sensory overload. You would be surprised how much water runs through a skyscraper.
"Yeah. That's what I do," Percy shrugged, sitting back down and choosing to ignore the awed stares he was getting from most of the Avengers.
"He's just being modest! He can do so much more awesome stuff! Like when he and Jason created–" Leo began.
"Leo! Stop talking!" Piper yelled, noticing Percy's discomfort.
Leo would have been grumbling if he could open his mouth, but he couldn't.
"Those are some basic abilities we have. We are all trained in combat and in various weaponry. I'm best with a dagger, but I can use just about anything you give me," Annabeth steered the conversation away from Percy.
Her boyfriend sent her a grateful look.
"Can you show us a little something?" Natasha asked.
"Sure," Annabeth answered, pulling a celestial bronze dagger (not the one Luke gave her, of course) from her thigh-strap.
She aimed it at the small space under Tony's arm, and quicker than anyone but a demigod could notice, she threw it with perfect accuracy. It lodged itself in the couch in that small space, not even nicking Tony one bit.
"Hey!" Tony exclaimed, eyes widening.
"You're fine," Clint rolled his eyes.
"So...yeah. That's us. You'll learn more about our fighting styles as we fight together, but that should be enough for now. Well, you should know one more thing: Percy can't use a bow. At all. Don't even let him NEAR one. Got it? Good," Annabeth said.
"I love you, too, Wise Girl," Percy remarked.
"Uh-huh," Annabeth mumbled teasingly, leaning into his side.
Ω ♆ Ω
I hope you like this chapter! I'll try to be better at updating, but we both know that's a lie. This would not be possible without my beta reader, nightskywithrainbows, so show them some love by reading their stuff on Ao3. Remember to comment, vote, follow, and add to your library! Stay safe and happy reading!
- your author