Peter walked into Delmar's and greeted the man behind the counter. He enjoyed his visits to the small deli. With his salt and pepper hair that very vaguely reminded Percy of Paul, in addition to his friendly personality and adorable cat, Mr. Delmar was the type of guy that you could talk to without feeling judged. His deli was a staple in Queens and everybody loved him.
Peter came to the bodega so often, that the guys in the back started making his sandwich when they saw him come in. Peter often thought that if he wasn't Spiderman he would try to get an after school job there. He did however, have to voice his desire for two additional sandwiches.
"How's your aunt?" Mr. Delmar questioned, striking up a conversation as Peter stood there waiting. He made a comment to the men in the back of the store that most likely had something to do with her appearance.
Peter looked down uncomfortably. For some reason, most of the men he knew (Stark) thought Hestia was attractive. He couldn't just say that she was actually a Greek goddess who took a vow of eternal maidenhood and preferred the form of a twelve year old. Everyone would think he was crazier than he actually is. He decided to deflect instead of answering the question.
"How's your daughter?" Peter asked with a smirk and a joking glint in his eyes.
Mr. Delmar put on a serious face but his mouth was upturned just a tick. "Twenty dollars."
Peter gestured incredulously to the large menu hanging on the wall. "It's fifteen."
Mr. Delmar raised an eyebrow at him. "For that comment, twenty dollars."
Peter laughed a little as he fished fifteen dollars from out of his pocket and handed it to the man.
"So, how's school?"
"Oh, you know, it's boring. Got better things to do," Peter responded.
"Stay in school kid," Mr. Delmar reprimanded jokingly. "Otherwise you're going to end up like me."
Peter looked around as he grabbed the bag of sandwiches from the shop owner and put them in his backpack. "That'd be great. Best sandwiches in Queens."
Peter ran out of the store and across the street before heading down an empty alleyway. Once he was a few feet in he started stripping down and throwing all of his clothes into his backpack. He pulled out his Spiderman suit and quickly put it on as he walked. As he reached a dead end he tapped on the spider emblem which caused the suit to stick to him instead of being baggy. Peter grinned to himself from under the mask as he felt it mold to his form. It was another cool feature that he loved about being Spiderman. Holstering his backpack, Peter jumped onto the top of the building before starting to web across Queens.
Peter loved this part of the day where he could fly across New York in relative peace. It gave him time to think and clear his head. He only had to stop a few times to catch a bicycle thief and a car thief. The latter was slightly embarrassing because it turned out the guy was just trying to get into his own car. There was lot of yelling from the people in the surrounding buildings so he left as quickly as possible. Having arrived at his destination, Peter landed in the alley next to the building where he quickly changed back into his civvies.
This next part was more difficult. Peter closed his eyes and took a breath to steady himself. Slowly, he called up the memories from his previous life. His head filled with flashes of memories from throughout his life. He saw himself, Annabeth, and Grover in the smelly truck with the circus animals on his first quest. He saw Tyson, running towards him for a bone crushing hug. He saw his memories of seeing both Thalia and Nico for the first time. With that came the images of Bianca and Zoe and their subsequent deaths that left such a large impact on his life. He saw the Labyrinth, Calypso, and Daedalus dying. He saw the Battle of New York and all the deaths that accompanied it. He felt the pain of the River Styx as its curse caused his skin to become impenetrable. He saw Luke sacrificing himself and proving that he was a hero. He saw himself denying godhood and kissing Annabeth in the lake.
At this point the memories were flying across his vision, lasting only a few seconds each. He saw the Wolf House and Lupa. He saw Camp Jupiter and New Rome and the legion. He saw Frank and Hazel and their journey to Alaska. He saw his trek through Tartarus and Bob and Damasen sacrificing themselves to close the Doors of Death. He saw the final battle with Gaea as Leo saved the camp. He saw Annabeth dying and the emptiness in his soul that followed. He saw his mother when he finally came home and her sadness as he left once again to start over with his cousins. He saw his baby sister Estelle from his monthly visits. He saw everything that made him Percy Jackson and channelled that until there was a warm feeling in his chest that slowly spread until his whole body was tingling. It took two minutes until the feeling subsided and another three minutes until he had calmed down enough after seeing his life flash before his eyes.
When he opened his eyes they were no longer a rich brown color but a blazing sea green that almost seemed to glow with power. He was five inches taller with broader shoulders and a swimmer's figure. His hair, which was once a chocolate brown color and neatly styled, was now black and windswept. Percy rolled his shoulders as he reoriented himself. Changing between his two personas was a taxing ordeal but a worthwhile one. It was especially helpful whenever he was visiting his allies and friends, which admittedly was not often.
Percy jogged up the stairs to the ornately decorated double doors and knocked. It took a moment before one of the doors swung open and he walked inside.
"Mr. Jackson," a voice said gruffly from his right, "you're late."
Percy turned to face the speaker. He grinned and reached into his backpack for one of the sandwiches as he replied, "Aw, come on Wong. Cut me some slack, I had to take care of some things on the way here. I got your sandwich for you so you shouldn't be complaining."
As he started walking up the stairs of the sanctum he called out, "And I told you to call me Percy."
Percy could hear Wong grumbling behind him but he didn't look back. With a small grin on his face, he made his way to where he knew Strange was waiting for him. Entering the room, Percy put down his backpack and took a seat.
"Ah, Percy. Come on, we have a lot of work to do." Strange floated up dramatically. Percy sighed and got up to follow the Sorcerer Supreme into a separate room. In it was a large table covered in star charts as well as maps of Earth with a few areas circled and highlighted.
Percy stopped at one end of the table while Strange walked down to the other. Percy opened his mouth to speak but Strange cut him off.
"We'll get to that, but first," he trailed off before holding his hand out expectantly.
Percy subtly rolled his eyes at the man's dramatic flair. The only people worse than Stephen Strange when it came to theatrics was Tony Stark and Zeus himself. Percy often wished that none of them would ever have the misfortune of meeting. Their egos would explode trying to outdo the other. His uncle would most likely smite the two mortals for their attitude after Stark or Strange inevitably insulted one of the Olympians. Percy heard thunder rumble in the distance and smirked to himself. Regardless of Strange's behavior, Percy tossed him his sandwich and watched as the man unwrapped it and started eating.
"So," Percy began, "two months ago, another Great Prophecy was-"
"What are you doing?" Strange cut him off, looking up from his sandwich for the first time.
"Giving a brief recap of everything we've worked on the past two months."
"Why? We've both been here the past two months. It's not like anyone else is here with us." Strange looked at him condescendingly.
Percy gave him an unimpressed stare. "My friend Wade would disagree with you but that's not important. I may not have ADHD anymore but I still have a little trouble focusing. This will help keep me on track and provide a refresher for the both of us."
"You do know that I have an eidetic memory, right?"
"Then you can just eat your sandwich and I'll talk to myself," Percy snarked.
Strange rolled his eyes but focused his attention on his sandwich once again. Percy shook his head to gather his thoughts and started voicing his thoughts again, "As I was saying before, two months ago another Great Prophecy was issued by Rachel. It spoke of a mad Titan who was bent on destroying half the population of the entire universe. It also mentioned a hero with ties to all four pantheons as the champion who would unite them against this enemy. After much discussion, the gods have decided that this was me. The only other candidate was... Annabeth."
Percy took a moment to calm his emotions before continuing, "We know that we have at least two years before this, apocalypse, for lack of a better word, occurs. Um, the prophecy also mentions infinity stones and the return of a long forgotten ally."
"Why don't you just say the entire prophecy at this point?"
Percy gave Strange a small glare that he held for a few seconds before averting his eyes. Percy smirked to himself. He mentally thanked Lupa for teaching him the wolf-glare. It often came in handy when knocking down Strange's ego. He did, however, comply with Strange's demand.
"A demigod with ties to all the gods,
Shall be their champion and face the odds,
The four pantheons united under one foe,
Together their strength will only grow,
In two years time the Mad Titan will rise,
With his search for the stones comes half the universe's demise,
An ally long forgotten shall live again,
And with them heralds the Dark Lord's end."
"Mmh, very ominous," Strange remarked sarcastically after Percy had finished.
Percy had to physically stop himself from rolling his eyes. He was starting to compare to Thalia rolling her eyes at himself and Nico. He was actually sort of impressed with how much Strange could get on his nerves.
"If that's all the requests you have," Percy trailed off, staring at Strange. In response the man gestured obnoxiously with his hand for Percy to continue.
"After the gods heard the prophecy and decided that I was, once again, the subject of it, they informed me of the Infinity Stones. Great stones of power that represent fundamental forces of the universe, all of that. They have no idea who the 'Mad Titan' could be, but they doubt it's a Titan in the traditional sense.
"They knew where one infinity stone was: yours, obviously. They sent me so we could work together and find the other stones. So far we know that the mind stone is located in the being called Vision. We've managed to come up with a way to track his location continuously, so we don't need to worry about him. The next one is in the Tesseract, which, as far as we know, is still on Asgard with Thor. The Norse have promised to keep it safe until we need it. The power, reality, and soul stones are still missing... and we have no idea where they are," Percy summarized.
"Thank you, for that depressing end note. Can we get to work now?" Strange snarked.
"I was just about to ask you the same thing. Have you found anything in your books? Sorry, I meant has Wong found anything in the books?" Percy shot back. He sighed internally. As much as liked bantering with Strange he knew it was going to be a long day.
***
Peter was sitting on the fire escape of a building in Queens. The meeting with Strange had lasted longer than he had expected and the sun was already setting. He looked out on his city as it was bathed in golden light and smiled. Seeing his home safe and protected made everything worth it. The pain and death, it was all worth it if it meant seeing other people safe. It made the gaping hole in his chest seem a little less cold. He might have helped re-imprison Atlas under the sky when he was fourteen, but the weight of the world had never left his shoulders. He liked to think Annabeth was proud of him and his accomplishments, fondly calling him a seaweed brain every time he messed up.
Percy allowed himself one more moment of sadness before pulling out his phone and calling Happy. He gave the man a walkthrough of the evening, like he had everyday since getting the man's number. He had to make some stuff up to account for the time he spent at the Sanctum. He ended the call as soon as possible. He needed to try and make it home in time for dinner if not Hestia would kill him.
Peter got up and reloaded his web shooters so he could start the trip back to his apartment. As he was about to swing away, a shout from the street below caught his attention. He saw a group of thugs enter the bank and smirked to himself. He had been itching for a fight. Percy shook the thought from his head. He was starting to sound like Thalia. He knew that he should try and avoid conflict or confrontation. It would be best if he could just slip in, web the people responsible, and then slip out after calling the police.
Peter walked into the bank and closed the door softly behind him. The robbers were to busy to even notice him walk in. Peter couldn't help but goad them a little bit. He was also acutely aware of the ATM lying in pieces on the floor. Whoever these guys were, they had some serious tech. He would have to look into it after he took care of them.
"What's up you guys? Did you forget your PIN numbers or something?" The group turned to look at him. Peter gasped sharply, "Woah, you guys are the Avengers! What are you doing here?"
The two closest to him raised their weapons. Peter quickly fired a web onto the barrel of the gun before it could fire. He swung the weapon and knocked the two down. He fired another web at the ceiling and kicked the third man in the chest.
"Thor! Hulk! So good to finally meet you guys. I thought you'd be more handsome in person," Peter quipped. He was hanging upside down. The one in the Iron mask ran up and started trying to punch him. Peter easily dodged all of them even while he was talking. "Iron Man, what are you doing robbing a bank? You're a billionaire!"
Percy felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise. He quickly flipped out of the way of a beam of blue light. He watched as the light accidentally caught one of the robbers and held him immobile. He quickly webbed the one in the Captain America mask who was holding the weapon. He heard another gun powering up behind him and quickly jumped onto the ceiling. He flung a web at the gun. The man was pinned to the floor, but not before he pulled the trigger and a concentrated beam of purple light fired and went out the windows before hitting the bodega across the street.
Percy watched in horror before snapping out of it and webbing the other two thugs. He would have to come back for the weapons but he had to check on Mr. Delmar first. He ran towards the burning building before ducking inside. The air was thick inside and he had trouble breathing even through the air filter in his mask. He found Mr. Delmar inside, thankfully alive and conscious. He grabbed the cat and guided the older man outside. He could hear sirens wailing in the distance. Percy panicked and quickly handed Mr. Delmar his cat back. He made his way back to the bank. He quickly grabbed the two guns and stored them in the Duat. They were too bulky to carry and he couldn't just leave them there.
Percy looked back on the destroyed storefront sorrowfully. It was another thing that he couldn't save. The police sirens were getting louder and Percy couldn't afford to stay any longer. He webbed onto the roof of the bank and started running. His heart was pounding with fear and adrenaline and Percy wondered if the feeling would ever leave him.
I've finally posted another chapter! I'm sorry it took so long but I just wasn't feeling inspired. I hope you all like this chapter. Please leave comments. I want to hear what you guys think about the section with Dr. Strange and the new Great Prophecy that I came up with. Also, I just wanted to note that The Trials of Apollo will not exist in this universe. Thank you so much for all the views and support!
<3 S