Agent Leo Fitz slammed his head into his hands before resting them on the table. He turned grudgingly so that he had a clear view of the red blinking PROGRAM FAILURE! notice splayed across the several monitors surrounding one of his many work stations. His unshaven face, a common sight these days, scratched the part of his arm exposed by his plaid shirt. "Jemma, where are you..." he whispered. It wasn't fair. After everything they had been through, it was just their luck that one of them would be kidnapped, or teleported, or whatever had happened. Couldn't they just get lucky once? Was that really too much to ask for?
Simmons had always- mostly- been there for him; she was the one that brought him out of his shell at the Academy, the one that had challenged him to become the great engineer he was- or, at least, used to be. His talents had mostly returned to him after the accident. Tears sprung to his eyes as he remembered the day he told Jemma she wasn't just a best friend to him: she was the only one he saw himself with, she was his counterpart, his life. They had just scheduled their first date when she was stolen from him.
"Stop it," he told himself, sitting up abruptly. He didn't have time to feel sorry for himself; Jemma needed him, and he wasn't doing any good crying about it. Fitz hastily wiped a tear from his now dull green eyes and quickly began typing a new code for the scanner he was attempting to create, to hopefully find just where Jemma could be. He knew she had had her cellphone on her... she knew to turn on the beacon if something ever happened. Why he hadn't found it yet simply had to be minor malfunction. He'd find her. He had to.
Fitz had been so focused on his work that he failed to notice Daisy's entrance. "Agh!" he yelled, whipping around when she placed a hand on his shoulder. His outburst startled her equally, causing her to drop the manilla folder she had been holding; pictures and articles went flying. She shot him an annoyed glance before kneeling down to clean up the mess.
"Sorry," he said defeated in his signature Scottish accent. He peeled himself away from the multiple monitors to help her pick up the papers. His head pounded from the hours staring at the glaring screens, but his curiosity about the files distracted him enough to forget about the pain.
"What's this?" he asked her, momentarily forgetting his other mission. He glanced over the white sheet, which appeared to be a profile on a young boy- a young delinquent boy by the looks of it. This kid had a worse record than Daisy did when they picked her up those many days ago as Skye- and that was saying something.
Daisy stood. As he did the same, she brushed off her dark brown leather jacket before responding. "He's a person of interest- I think Coulson's bored. The intel is old and he wants us to do some digging."
Fitz's interest had peaked, but he still hadn't forgotten what was on the top of his priorities. He turned his head to glance back at his workspace before facing Daisy once more. He opened his mouth to decline the invitation when she cut him off. "It's an order. Come on, let's start with facial recognition. Maybe we can find a more recent school photo, driver's license, or something. The kid has to be around seventeen by now, unless he's into cryogenics or something."
Fitz rubbed his face slowly, knowing an argument against Daisy would surely result in his loss. Reluctantly he agreed and plopped back into his chair before pulling up a new tab on a monitor, closing the GPS tracker. Daisy pulled a chair up next to him. She reached over and pulled his laptop towards her, following his example. Before they began, Daisy made sure to relay everything that Coulson had told her to Fitz about the situation and details on Perseus Jackson.
Several minutes later, the two had found much more than they bargained for, and the information was still coming. The conversation of the next few hours consisted of more and more unanswered questions. By the time they were done, a stack of warm pictures and articles sat next to the printer.
Fitz and Daisy had found the kid everywhere from California to Rome- the actual one. Interestingly enough, each time he appeared to only be accompanied by other teenagers: no adults. While it wasn't that unusual for teens to take vacations with friends, it was a bit unnerving to constantly see evidence of them fighting and constantly killing men and women; in some cases, rather large dogs and snakes. In more than half the photos, Perseus Jackson was seen accompanied by a tall, athletic girl that they had pinned as Annabeth Chase: a girl with a similarly suspicious track record. Daisy had been particularly interested in the fact that the kidnapping case from those many years back included the both of them.
"We should probably get this to Coulson," Daisy finally sighed after they had sat in a shocked silence for a few moments.
And that's where they found themselves now.
"Well... wow," Coulson compiled all of their thoughts into a single sigh as he looked over his agents findings. Fitz scratched his temple. "Apparently Perseus has a knack for blowing stuff up."
"And going off grid for extended periods of time." Coulson added to Fitz's statement. "And I find that extremely concerning. We should've gotten on this case a long time ago."
Daisy huffed sarcastically and waved her hand dismissively in front of her face. "Psh. It's not that big of a deal- he's just going through his rebellious stage. Typical teenage boy."
The director glanced up from his desk with a small smile before getting back to work. He looked through the information once again, though more thoroughly this time. His eyes narrowed at the one of many photos featuring the teen. This particular image showed a nasty cut from the tip of his elbow to his thumb; blood spilled from the wound, and a look of determination was frozen on his face as he looked at an unknown target. His eyes- a vibrant, almost terrifying shade of green- were ablaze with fury. Next to him was a young woman, pushing on Jackson's chest as if to restrict him from causing more trouble. Her temple had been injured as well, spilling red onto her curly blonde hair. Another image showed the same pair in Salt Lake City, according to the date/location tag at the bottom. The boy's shirt was covered in sticky tar, while his curly haired accomplice had a blotch in her hair (or so he could tell from the pixelated security camera). He couldn't decide why the two would steal tar from a roofing store, but either way, the crime was disturbing.
He pushed the photo across his desk and pointed at the girl. "Who's this?"
"Her name is Annabeth Chase; she's the same age, and her history is pretty similar with his. Although, instead of summers, the girl was off grid for around five years. But, she tends to stay out of trouble unless she's with him. From what we found." Daisy replied, picking mindlessly at a loose string at the hem of her tank.
"Oh, and I checked. Jackson doesn't have a cell phone under his or his mom's name, but the girl- Chase does. I found the number; if we could get a call to go through, we'd have her location, at least."
A sharp pain shot through Fitz's head as he remembered how he needed to find Simmons' tracker. While he felt guilt for not focusing on that mission, he felt as though his subconscious already knew it was a race he would never win.
"Fitz," a stern Coulson brought him out of his daydreams. Daisy stared at him, concerned. "Can you get the number? "
Fitz shook his head to clear the cobwebs before nodding. "Yes, yes, yeah."
Coulson gave his agent another once over before proceeding to dig through the pile once again. His eyes lit up when he found the residential notes. "Are these up to date?" he asked no one in particular as he looked at the satellite imaging of a small house on Long Island, in a town called Melville.
"Yes, sir! His family: him, mom, and new stepdad moved out of their apartment in New York a few months ago after her got kicked out of yet another school- I think this one was Anderson High- for vandalizing the cafeteria. At this rate, he's going to be rejected by every college ever."
Coulson frowned at Daisy's response. "At this rate, he's going to end up in the Sandbox."
(A/N For those of you who haven't seen S.H.I.E.L.D., the Sandbox is basically a high security prison.)
At this, Fitz bit his lip. In his mind, this kid couldn't be all bad. They were just getting one point of view on the whole thing; while, certainly, he wasn't saying that they should let the Jackson kid off the hook, there had to be a bigger story behind the whole thing. Especially something this crazy.
Of course, he had given Ward leeway when he first uncovered himself as a traitor... and everyone knew how that turned out.
(And again, if you DON'T know how that turned out, Wikipedia is your best friend haha.).
Back to focusing on the actual mission. Come on, Fitz. Focus, he scolded himself. He stared at Coulson's bent head, wondering if the Director was serious about putting a kid in a place as intense as the Sandbox.
Suddenly, the director leaned back in his chair. An unreadable expression sat upon his face. "Skye-"
"Daisy."
"Shit, yes. Daisy, Fitz: go get the rest of the team and meet me in the conference room. I think May and Bobbi are in the training room; Hunter's hanging out with Mack in the garage."
Daisy stood up, and Fitz followed suit. "Yes, sir!" she said overzealously before leading Fitz out of Coulson's office.
"You have ten minutes!" He called after her.
"Yes, sir!"
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Oh, boy. I hope you guys are ready for some Percy Jackson.
Thank you for reading and giving this story a shot- I started writing this in 2015 and since then both my writing and storytelling has improved, so I promise it only gets better from here. There's a lot of progress yet to be made but I'm having fun, so thanks for joining me on this crazy adventure with our favorites!
Love you all, JustAnotherGirlmcg