Warning please read: Hi guys. Its me. Sorry I didn't update last month. I had to put my dog, a silky terrier, down. His name was Taz and he was fifteen. I have known him for ten years and I was my first Christmas without him. I have based Alfred off of him. May he always greet people with leaves, pinecones, and kisses when they arrive at Elysium, like he always did with us. RIP Taz 2001- 2016.
In remembrance of him, I wrote 1,200 words past what I usually write.
The team met up in front of the doors of Tony's lab. At the moment that they had gathered, Tony and Bruce stepped out, both with safety goggles on. Bruce had a purple dress shirt and grey slacks, a white lab coat covering that. Tony wore a dark grey muscle shirt, the arc reactor shining through, along with jeans, his own lab coat tied around his waist.
Tony had gloves on, holding a wrench and a lit welding torch while Bruce simply held a beaker. Tony then spoke. "We're here to science shit up motherfuckers!"
Steve balked then glared at Tony. "Are you serious?"
Tony smirked then began speaking slowly, as if Cap was two. "We... are here... to SCIENCE... shit up... motherfucker." There was a beat of silence. "Now who's ready?" With that, Tony lead everyone inside for his and Vision's hobby.
Everyone spread out before Tony told them what not to touch, lest they get hurt.
Pietro being Pietro touched something and got mildly zapped. What made it all the funnier was that Dum-E rolled over and thoroughly hosed him with the fire extinguisher. The machine then rolled over to a laughing Tony, who patted it in reward, causing Dum-E to emit a happy whirring sound.
After Wanda used her magic to take off the white smothering foam of her brother, Tony and Vision took the floor.
"You will break off into groups if you want to and decide what you want to make. Tony and I will walk around to provide help." Vision calmly added.
Wanda and Pietro broke off together, not quite sure what to do. Sam and Rhodey paired off, deciding to work on modifying Sam's RedWing. Steve and Bucky paired off, also not knowing what to do seeing as they were senior citizens. Clint and Nat broke off together, the bird working on arrows and the spider working on her bites.
Bruce paired with Thor, in order to minimize the possible damage. That left Percy all alone, which she didn't mind at all. Vision politely walked over and asked what she wanted to do, Tony busily working with those who did not know what to do at all. Percy smiled at the man gently.
"I want to work on my watch a bit. Hydra disabled a lot of the features on it, plus my little brother made it for me. He did send me directions on what do do and how to do it so that I won't accidentally blow it up- something that I am prone to do. I just need these tools. Hopefully we can get them all." Percy said gently, voice level and calm.
Vision smiled slightly he went about collecting what Percy needed. Percy nodded a thanks before hugging Vision. People turned towards the dup, watching as Vision stiffened before relaxing, gently returning the hug. "Thank you for carrying me out of that Hell hole. Without you," at this Percy pulled away. "All of you, I would still be in that place. Where I could see everything and felt myself dying but I couldn't do anything. So thank you all so much. And my family thanks you too."
With quiet dismissals, all of them saying it was their pleasure, Tony turned the music on. The man of iron the went around and gave out white lab coats to everyone, which all fit perfectly, most likely from JARVIS sneakily taking their measurements.
Percy sat on a stool, one leg hanging down and the other resting on the bar connecting the four legs. She took off her watch slowly, a bit nervous.
The Celestial Bronze watch hid her soul-mark. It wasn't that she was ashamed, it was quite the opposite. She loved it too much. The last time it was left to easily be seen, she AND her SOULMATE were taken advantage of.
Percy didn't get too angry over being taken advantage of. She was just ashamed that she didn't catch it whenever it happened. But what the daughter of the sea god couldn't stand for was her soulmate's feelings being toyed with because of her total and utter stupidity. Self loathing washed over her.
In light of what that girl, yes girl, she was a monstrous person not a personified monster, did to her, she hid her mark. She hid her mark in order to protect what was hers because her soulmate didn't deserve going through what no doubt must have made them feel negatively.
The poisonous green of self loathing coated her nerves as she pulled adjusted the stand alone magnifying glass over her watch. Percy almost gasped as it felt like she was bodily hit by a wall of love coming from her soulmate. Smiling slightly, she let herself be wrapped in the safe blanket of her soulmates love. She sent back her own wave, the green of self loathing fading away under her soulmates love.
Percy set the instructions on what to do next to her, smiling softly as her and her soulmate basked in each other's love. Deciphering Tyson's messy handwriting was a problem in itself, but luckily she had practice reading her baby brothers handwriting.
Percy then got to work, carefully adding some Celestial Bronze plating into the leather wristband before sewing it back up. This was to protect the wrist, the plates easily curved around her wrist. Percy also added a garrote wire into it made of Olympian Silver. The final part was to add a tracker just under the watch face that would send out a distress call to SHIELD when a button was pressed. Luckily, the shield still worked, which would no doubt come in handy soon enough.
When Percy occasionally looked up from her delicate work, what she saw humored her. Bucky and Steve were slowly building a small robot, the two senior citizens fumbling a lot. Pietro and Wanda were creating something, no one knowing what it was. Percy doubted that even the twins didn't know what they were doing. Vision and Tony hovered the closest to these four to help, not wanting them to hurt themselves or anyone else.
Bruce was simply explaining Midguardian tech to Thor and how it worked. Thor somehow acquired a toaster to dismantle. Natasha and Clint were working well; if they weren't, they hid it well. Rhodey and Sam were joking around as they played around with RedWing.
When Percy looked up again about half an hour later, she saw Wanda's and Pietro's experiment about to explode. Wanda was just coming back from the bathroom and Pietro was trying to connect some wires. Sensing the oncoming heat, Percy grabbed her watch and rushed over, stool clattering to the ground. She bodily shoved Pietro away and thew the device onto the floor before activating her shield. She dropped her shield onto the machine before she curled up on top. The machine exploded, the blast easily contained within the shield due to its durability.
Tyson would have made this indestructible, knowing Percy's history with explosions and her getting attacked at every moment. So Tyson made it the best that he could possibly make it so that it would always protect his big sister where he couldn't. The shield was so well protected, that the simple leather loops that held the shield to her arm weren't even singed.
Percy got up slowly, body a bit tingly from having to bodily contain the explosion within her shield. Once on her own two feet, her eyes roamed the room. All had questioning looks, all except the Nat and Clint. The woman shrugged a bit before picking up the shield, not at all damaged of course, and collapsing it back to regular watch form, making sure not to reveal her soul mark when she put it back on.
Tony, of course, was the first to break the stunned silence. "What... shield... how?" Was Tony's eloquently put stuttered sentence.
Percy laughed. "My little brother made it for me. My family," at the word family her face darkened for a second "has a history of always getting attacked. I was a very popular choice for these attackers, so my brother made me this shield so that I could protect myself. And as for how it is also a watch, is for tomorrow when I explain exactly who the hell I am."
Tony sighed, relenting. He was going to get the info tomorrow, so what was the use if he knew that he would get nothing until Percy was ready to tell.
After a moment Tony and Vision walked over to Percy with something in Tony's hands. As she took the items, Vision began explaining. "These are new, state of the art hearing aids. Tony made a pair for Clint, so we knew it was only fair for you to get a pair too since you are part of the team now. They work better than normal ones and they are much more comfortable than the ones that you are wearing right now. Plus these can go practically invisible and they can link up to our coms."
Tony then butted in. "We asked 80% Loss of Hearing over there for some input. He said that all of your hearing was totally gone, so me and Vision had to work around that. I also made then bright blue since he said that you loved the color and that you didn't want to hide your disability. Something about being proud that you survived or some other stuff that I drowned out."
Percy smiled, tears gathering in her eyes as she hugged Tony then Vision. She then gave the hearing aids back so that the two could "install" them correctly.
Sam stood up after a Percy had dried her eyes. "Come on guys. We have to go to the shelter. I can't wait to see the fuzzy animals."
Everyone bolted up at that, wanting to pet the animals at the shelter, thanking Clint, Bruce, and Bucky for this blessing of a pastime.
The Avengers all got into two cars, Natasha driving one and Clint driving the other. Percy sat shotgun next to Clint in the car. When Tony started to bicker with Steve, Clint and Percy, in complete and utter sync, turned off their hearing aids. Everyone laughed as they saw this, Clint's purple hearing aids and Percy's blue mocking the bickering duo which caused them to go silent.
Once they arrived, everyone quickly hurried inside, luckily no one spotted them. A vet came in a smiled at them, telling them to come into the back. "Come on. The animals love people."
Clint grinned and led the fray. When they stepped into the room with all of the cages, they saw a silky terrier with its hair cut very short, giving him a perky, alert look. His stubby tail wagged as he went to greet the vet. Said vet introduced him. "This is Alfred, the resident den mother. He watches over everyone and if someone gets to rough with either the animals or the vets, well, it isn't pretty. He almost tore their arm off. But normally he is such a sweet boy. He likes bringing us things when we arrive. And he is wise beyond his three years, almost as if he has had another life."
Alfred sniffed about their ankles, his tail moving faster, making his butt wag along with it due to its stubby size.
The vet, whose name is Charolette, let out some animals for the Avengers to pet and coddle. There was a silver colored female cat named Tinsel, a brown male puppy with three legs named Sean, and a yellow lab named Clark who seemed to love Steve. (Comment if you get the clark reference)
Alfred carefully watched over everyone but he didn't deny a few pets and belly rubs. Percy wandered off to a cage which was full of blankets. Charolette noticed and walked over. At the noise a little orange head followed by a small body popped out of the blankets, meowing. "This is Poppy. We have had her for a few days and she just can't keep her temperature up. Whenever she isn't in her blankets she shivers but she seems to like you if she shed her blankets."
The vet opened the cage and Percy gently held the kitten. Ever since being blessed by Hestia, she had a slightly higher temperature than most, almost as if she was running a constant fever. But Poppy seemed to love this new feature on this human as she cuddled up in the new human's hands, purring all the while.
The nurse, at this weird development, rushed off to get a thermometer. Due to the commotion, Alfred walked over and put one paw on Percy's shin, letting the other bend slightly. Percy lowered into a crouch, allowing Alfred to sniff Poppy. Poppy, who couldn't care less, batted at the red gem that dangled off a silver chain on Percy's right wrist. As the dog kept sniffing, his tail wagged more and more, seeming to understand that Poppy was better.
Charolette made an entrance and checked Poppy's temperature. "Oh my god she's stable! You guys save humans now you save even the smallest of beings." Clint, being the cocky little shit he was, said "All in a day's work ma'am."
Clint got hit over the head by Nat for that comment.
The rest of the Avengers played with the other animals, Clark, Sean, and Tinsel all played fetch with a plush bone. It was funny to see Tinsel prance up to Bucky, Clark and Sean following like, well, faithful lap dogs, and deposit the toy delicately onto Bucky's lap.
Percy sat criss cross next to Nat, Alfred asleep in her lap, Poppy in her hands playing with Percy's bracelet.
At one point, Tinsel had somehow gotten to lay across Vision's shoulders while Clark sat in Steve's lap, repeatedly booping the super soldiers nose as the ninety-five year old pet him. Sean kept running around on his three legs, begging for petting or to play fetch.
Two hours passed and the Avengers had to go, each member petting every animal goodbye as the animals were put back in their cages. Alfred followed them to the door, barking once, as if he was saying goodbye.
As they were heading back out, Tony opened his mouth to say something. Percy and Clint smirked before turning off their hearing aids once again. Tony grinned evilly before running at Percy, as if to jump on her. Right before he jumped, Percy bent down to tie her shoelace. Tony went sprawling and Percy stood, high fiving Clint before the duo reactivated their hearing aids.
Tony groaned and got up, luckily not hurt. "Well, I was going to say, before Deaf and Deafer interrupted me," cue the bird from Clint, "that we should probably find something to eat."
Rhodey's and Sam's stomach growled in cacophonous agreement. Percy sighed. "Let me stop at the store. And since nobody associates me with anything remotely famous, then I can get what I need and easily get out. Just drop me off at a store close to the Tower and I can walk the rest of the way. Parking would be awful."
The team agreed, pulling up to a grocery store, Percy quickly hopping out before the van she was in drove off. She walked in, smiling at the greeter, and grabbed a basket. When Percy had already grabbed a few jars of tomato sauce and a few pounds of ground beef, a little boy, about five, came up and tugged on her shirt. He was sobbing hard, little boy shaking from the cries forcing themselves up and out of his throat.
"C-can you pl-pl-please help m-me find my m-momma?" The little kid managed to force the words out from in between sobs. Percy nodded and easily picked the boy up and put him on her shoulders.
"Okay bud. My name is Percy. What is your name and what does your momma look like?"
"M-my name is Phillip, and my momma is very pretty. She likes to smile a lot and her brown hair is fun to play with."
To distract the kid slightly, Percy talked about the Avengers, the kid had a shirt on that depicted Thor's hammer, and how silly they were. She detailed how Thor left his hammer in inconvenient places, how Hawkeye would fall asleep in the weirdest of places (such as the top of the fridge and halfway out of the vents), and how Quicksilver was a klutz when he wasn't running.
The kid giggled and laughed quietly at the short stories, still looking for his mom. "How do you know so much about the Avengers?"
Percy put the kid on her hip before putting her finger to her lips and shushed the little boy. "You aren't supposed to tell anyone but I am the Avenger's babysitter. Can you promise that you will not tell anyone besides your mom and dad?"
Phillip nodded before gasping and wiggling out of Percy's grasp. "Momma! Momma look! Percy helped me find you!"
At this Percy waved her fingers slightly. Phillip's mother let out a sob and hugged the woman in front of her, happiness melting away her fears over her missing son. "Thank you. Thank you so much."
Phillip pulled on his mom's hand again and whispered in his mom's ear. "Momma. Percy babysits the Avengers!" The mom looked up at Percy, questioning.
"I saw his shirt so I calmed him down with some Avenger stories. I work at Stark Industries so I see a lot of the Avengers."
"Thank you again for finding my Phillip. It means so much. Come on munchkin, time to check out and go home."
Percy smiled as they left, before getting back to shopping. She picked up lasagna noodles and some seasonings for the meat. Stopping by the cheese section she got quite a few pounds of cheese to put in with the lasagna.
Checking out easily, gaining a few odd looks because of the sheer quantity of each item she bought, Percy headed out for a nice walk to the Tower. Someone exiting the building luckily holding the door for her since her arms were laden with large brown paper bags. As she got into the elevator, she saw a few business people in with her. "Kitchen floor JARVIS. I have to make dinner for the lot of us."
This, again, caused her to gain weird looks, only for them to melt off their faces when JARVIS replied. "Of course ma'am." Everyone knew that JARVIS only talked to Tony or the Avengers.
Once everyone was off, JARVIS dropped Percy off at the right floor, not wanting any employee to know exactly what floor the Avengers resided on. Once in the kitchen, she got to work on making everyone homemade lasagna.
About two and a half hours later, five large lasagnas were out of the oven, soon to be devoured.
People streamed in, awaiting food. The normal people with normal appetites went first, knowing that once the other whom have larger appetites got ahold of the food, everything would be gone. That meant Steve, Pietro, Thor, Bucky, and Bruce would be at the last ones to receive food.
Percy on the other hand, ate small amounts at different intervals throughout the day. When she was struck by Zeus' lighting, it didn't just scar her, it absolutely messed up her bodily functions. One of the effects was that she couldn't eat her normal amount of food in one sitting, otherwise her body would reject it.
That meant that she had to have small meals that got her what she needed to stay healthy. SHIELD had specifically engineered protein bars for her to eat throughout the day, that way Percy could have a "full meal" without having to eat the amount of food that classified as a full meal.
After dinner, everyone settled down for a marathon of Doctor Who, happily gathering under blankets and cuddling up with pillows. Percy was the only one on the floor, which she happily took advantage of. Whenever someone shifted and a pillow fell, Percy quickly claimed it as her own, saying that she was the pillow queen. In the middle of an episode change, the Avengers attacked, stealing back every single pillow that Percy had.
The woman only smirked. "I still have the best pillow." Clint raised an eyebrow. Percy whistled and the pattering of scrambling paws was soon heard as Mrs.O'Leary came running into the room. The puppy flopped down, allowing her human to rest her head on her.
Clint groaned in a 'I give up. She wins' kind of way. Percy laughed, the TARDIS whooshing filling the speakers.