Hey... what's this? A quarantine update?
This one is a little stronger in language, I apologize. There's a lot of frustration and confusion and I felt like it was appropriate in the context. Just wanted to give you a heads up!
As always, I really appreciate any thoughts or comments or just having you read! You all are what keeps me going. Thank you.
See you at the end!
>o<o>o<o>
Leo had three thoughts.
One. Tony Stark was a lot shorter than he had thought.
Two. He'd had at least three Sprites at the shawarma place, but he didn't know how to ask Iron Man to use his bathroom.
Three. Percy and Annabeth might be dying while he's engaged in a staring contest with a thirteen-year-old.
The kid in question confused him. He had no idea who he was. From what he had garnered, they were on the personal floor of the billionaire himself. The boy's wet brunet curls suggested he had recently showered, and he was donned in M.I.T. sweatpants that were clearly too big for him. It seemed that the teen was right at home.
He resisted the urge to glance back at Stark to compare their brown eyes and jawlines.
Said man held the bridge of his nose between two rigid fingertips, his brow furrowed and mouth down turned into a frown. Leo could almost hear the gears in his head turning, trying desperately to wrap around the story they had given him. He tried to focus on that and not the rapid bouncing of his leg.
"What you're saying," he sighed, looking up tiredly. "If I'm hearing this correctly, is that you five-" he gestured to the group, "all know each other because of your strawberry summer camp. Adorable, by the way. Very cute. And two of your favorite counselors got kidnapped from a McDonald's from an organization that hasn't been operational for years. Led by a man that's been dead since 2012."
Malcolm and Mary Kate shared a look. "Yes, sir," they confirmed, ignoring the technicality of Annabeth being a counselor. They figured they shouldn't push their luck.
Tony stood with a huff, straightening his shirt with a quick tug. "Peter, do you believe them?"
Leo quietly congratulated himself on his win when the boy's eyes tore away from his, meeting his mentor's without hesitation. He looked distressed. "I don't- I mean, I feel like I shouldn't, but-"
"Spit it out, kid."
He took a shaky breath, glancing back at the demigods crowded on the couch, worry lines set deep into his forehead. "Yes?"
The billionaire sniffed, grabbing his left arm. "Well, that's settled then. We believe you."
The demigods turned to him, mouths dropping in shock. Harriet made a choked noise, which Leo could only assume was in relief. "Don't get excited," he stopped them with a raised brow, "I only believe you because you were hell at lying earlier and it would be suicide to try and infiltrate my building with that bullshit as your backstory. I believe you, but I don't believe I'm getting the whole truth. I'm hoping that will all make this seem somewhat less of weird acid trip. So spill."
Malcolm opened his mouth, but the man cut him off.
"Also, you're going to have to explain your summer camp story a little more, because from what I can tell it doesn't exist. And it's very, very rare that I'm wrong."
The demigods looked at each, a resolute agreement coming to each of them. It was either tell the superhero-genius what they were and potentially get help to save their friends, or refuse and go to jail for trespassing for two to five years.
Leo grinned and spread his arms. "You ever heard of Greek mythology?"
...................................................................................
Tony Stark blinked once.
"I need a drink," he announced, standing abruptly when they finished explaining. "And a Tylenol. A psychologist, maybe-"
Peter was just as taken aback. His eyes trailed his mentor's path as he made his way to get a glass a water, pulling them away to meet Leo's eyes once again. "So all of your parents are gods?" he questioned cautiously while the man was preoccupied.
Malcolm nodded, having been appointed the leader in the situation. Leo was glad he was there to explain what none of them wanted to. He briefly wondered if Athena's kids always ended up in charge.
"Mary Kate and I are half-siblings. Daughter and son of Athena."
"The goddess of wisdom?"
"And battle strategy," Mary Kate grumbled from Malcolm's side. "Civilization, justice, mathematics, so on."
Said demigod continued. "Harriet is a daughter of Hecate, Leo's a son of Hephaestus. Nico's dad is Hades."
Tony strutted back into the room, settling in next to the gray couch Peter was perched upon. The latter wrinkled his nose. "Isn't Hades the god of death?"
Nico rolled his eyes, looking up from where he was focused on twirling a ring on his finger. "Thanatos is the god of death. My dad's just in charge of the Underworld."
Tony huffed. "Pleasant."
"Common misconception, though," Leo offered helpfully.
"Okay. So you guys are part god. Do you have powers? Like Thor?"
"Better yet," Peter's mentor broke in, "How exactly does this correlate to your friends getting kidnapped? How do we know they weren't legally taken into custody for blowing holes in monuments? Yeah. I looked up your buddy Percy Jackson- he's got a nasty track record, though I'd have to say, I am interested in the canon scenario."
The superhero didn't add that he nearly understood the trouble the teenager had gotten into. If the group in front of him was indeed being upfront with him, he was shocked this Percy character hadn't seen more arrests already. He thought of Peter, who'd been suspended for dealing with the Vulture on a field trip, amongst other absences and missed assignments. He thought of himself, and the hell that the Accords had put him and his friends through. The superhero/powered life didn't come easy. If he was honest with himself, he felt a twinge of sympathy for these kids who were living out careers of soldiers instead of having a childhood. At least he'd had the opportunity to screw around in his youth in ignorance of the world, much to the annoyance of his parents and Rhodey.
Everyone turned to Malcolm. He sighed resolutely, leaning forward and spreading his hands. "So there's all the gods and goddesses, and most of them have kids- um. But the Big Three- Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades- they're the most powerful. So their kid's are more powerful, and attract more monsters, and Percy is just unlucky enough that he attracts trouble just by being himself. And he's got these powers, like Peter asked about, he can... well, um, Poseidon's god of the oceans and earthquakes and all that, right? So he can control water. And with all the monster attacks and him using his powers out in the mortal world... well, we have a theory that with the new inhuman hunt going on, he and Annabeth got mixed up into it. Like, taken in as suspected Inhumans."
The man scratched his goatee. "Okay. Okay, and the rest of you?"
"I'm sorry, sir, what are you asking?"
He nodded towards Peter. "Powers. Do you all have them?"
"Um, Mary Kate's really good with a computer. Hacking, and all that. Harriet can- she has magic. Leo, fire. Nico can teleport." The blond considered adding that their yellow-shirted friend could also summon skeleton armies out of the ground, but figured it might be a little much for their company to handle.
Son of the goddess of wisdom, and all that. Rationality was his power.
The superhero nodded before downing the rest of his drink. "Alright, well. While I pretend that's normal. I'm going to make some calls."
Harriet's head snapped up. "Call who?"
"Calm down, Harry Potter. Not the cops. Just someone who can help you, hopefully. Kapeesch?"
The room nodded in unison, no one daring to challenge the man. "Good. Peter, you're in charge. Everyone play nice. Try not to burn the place down while I'm gone."
With those words, he disappeared.
The room stood still, save for the low hum of electronics and lighting above them. Leo waited for a few beats of awkward silence before brazenly raising his hand. "Yo, Pete. Is there a bathroom I could use?"
Malcolm dropped his face into his hands with a groan.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
The team sat in silence in the conference room.
Coulson felt defeated. May had alerted them as quickly as she could, but by the time they reached the scene, there was nothing left to recover. They had raced through police tape and officers to find nothing more than the wrecked remains of the utility van and a sickening pool of blood splattered across the crushed metal and asphalt.
They were all gone. Mack and Skye. The two kids.
God, the kids. He'd dragged them into this mess and now they were going to end up dead because of it. Granted, there was no way he could have known that their records had been at the hands of their Greek god lineage, but it was his responsibility to make sure they got back safe and he had failed.
Lost, to Hydra. To Ward.
His stomach turned at the thought of what the man would do with the prisoners. He knew Hydra was infamous for human experimentation- the demigods would be perfect subjects, if not excellent brainwashed soldiers. Ward was probably kicking himself with glee, in having a kid with hydrokinesis. He'd break them more than their brutal lives already had until they were nothing, until they were lifeless shells.
And Skye. Or Daisy- it was Daisy now. Coulson's stomach turned in remembrance of Ward's obsession with the young agent. He probably wouldn't even try to utilize her as a weapon. His skin crawled as he figured he'd taken her as some sort of sick trophy.
He wasn't sure what he'd want with Mack. The man was an incredible asset, but was strong-willed. The director wouldn't be surprised if Hydra just executed him to prove a point.
God, how had everything gone so wrong so fast?
"We have to be missing something," Hunter's voice echoed in the dark room, earning him the attention from the rest of the group. "They were in a bloody caravan, and we can't get one license plate?"
Fitz picked at his nails, nervously bouncing a leg. "No. No, we can't- the, the uh, the-"
Someone should have helped him with the word. But all were in denial that Mack wasn't there to jump in with answer, patting him on the shoulder with an encouraging remark for the engineer he lovingly referred to as 'Turbo.'
"The cameras," Fitz huffed out in frustration. "The cameras. They were all down today, in that area and surrounding. For construction."
Bobbi scoffed, kicking the leg of the table. It screeched loudly across the concrete ground. "Bullshit, if I've ever heard it. Fucking Hydra. You know, maybe we'd have some luck in anything if we had the resources they did. How did they know where we were? That wasn't a one off. They had four vehicles there."
Coulson sighed. He had to act like he wasn't worried, for their sake. That was the pain of being the leader. You couldn't show weakness. You couldn't admit when you'd rather close your eyes and dream all of the problems away, or throw it all into the air and pray someone else would come along and catch everything before it hit the ground and shattered. You just stitched yourself up and stormed into battle with your head held high.
Even if you were terrified.
"We're going to find them. We have analysts searching all known Hydra bases in the area, and I have an investigative team searching for the leak that let them know our route in the first place. Until we do, I'm sure they can hold their own. Those kids were strong. From what they told us, they can handle a monster or two. Mack is smart. And if it's Ward, he won't hurt Daisy. He's an evil son of a bitch, but he'd rather play mind games than the alternative."
Lincoln stood suddenly from where he sat away from the group. The metal chair clattered to the ground, but he didn't acknowledge the stares that landed upon him. His entire body was tensed in anger, and Coulson didn't miss the sparks that flew between his fingertips. "Lincoln-"
"Excuse me," he muttered, keeping his eyes low as he hustled out of the space. Anger radiated off of him, masking the boiling worry and grief within his gut.
Coulson knew he was being optimistic. Ridiculously so. Ward was evil, along with the organization he worked for- and evil wasn't predictable. They did everything in the worst possible way. There was no ethical code. Smarts and experience were useless in captivity. He knew Lincoln knew this. He knew how much he cared for Daisy, and understood his frustration.
Still, he was glad no one else called him out on it. The team merely pursed their lips and continued to stare at the ground.
Bobbi stood. "I need to go do something," she said with fire in her eyes. "I can't just sit here, knowing they're- I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'm going."
Coulson let her leave. Hunter shot him an apologetic look before running out after her.
The director prepared himself to dismiss the rest- which at that point was just Fitz and May- when his phone buzzed in his back pocket. He pulled it out with knit eyebrows. It wasn't often it rang; few people had his number and fewer actually used it.
The number was unknown.
It could be that somebody wanted something from him within S.H.I.E.L.D. Another found Inhuman, maybe. Or it could be a ransom call. In his wildest dreams, the four had escaped and were calling him from a rest stop somewhere in New York. His fingers twitched above the screen.
"Is that your phone?" May asked, turning her eye to the man.
He met her gaze before accepting the call, bringing the device to his ear. His heart fluttered against his rib cage.
"Agent Coulson."
Coulson swallowed. "Director. Director Coulson. Who is this?"
The other line crackled. The man was unsure if it was from movement on the other line or the poor connection in the safe house. "That's right. Congrats on the promotion. Because Fury's dead. Or is he? Apparently people don't stay dead anymore. What, do you have my dad on ice with you? No one's been keeping me in the loop with these things, Phil."
The Director's eyes widened. He held up a hand to stop May from following before pivoting towards his office. "Who is this?" he demanded, though he couldn't have been more sure who had called him. He'd know that voice, that snark from anywhere. Even after so many years.
"It's Stark. Tony. If dying affected your memory, feel free to remember when you threatened to taze me and watch Supernanny. Then I made a new element under house arrest."
Coulson ran a nervous hand through his thinning hair. He didn't need this right now, on top of everything already going on. He couldn't handle the billionaire's inevitable breakdown. He was fond of Tony, but much more so when he was just the babysitter and not the parent. Fury was always much better at keeping him in line. Oh, if Stark told the rest of the Avengers. He doubted he could keep his mouth shut. Oh, god. Two of his best men were gone in the beginning of the apocalypse.
The genius was growing impatient. "Coulson? You with me?"
"Who told you?" he managed to spit out. There was no use in trying to backtrack now. It would insult the man's brilliance- the man who had build an Iron Man suit out of a pile of scraps in the middle of an Afghani desert cave. He'd see right through him, trained spy or not.
"Strangely enough, a group of high schoolers I found in my basement. They also felt the need to inform me that S.H.I.E.L.D. was still up and running, which, frankly, doesn't surprise me. But you kidnapping two kids in the afterlife seemed rather impressive. Figured I owed you a call after all this time."
The director stumbled into his seat, overwhelmed. He was dreaming, surely. How else could this be happening? He leaned his forehead into his hand. "How did you get this number?"
He imagined the man waving his hand dismissively. "Oh, you know. Mega genius and all that. I have my contacts. AIs. A few MIT degrees. Free time. You know, Coulson, I went to your funeral. Lovely ceremony. A real tear jerker-"
"There were high schoolers in your basement, you said."
"Said they knew a Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase. Said they're gone. They want them back. Thought they could hack into my tower to figure out how to find them; instead they found me, but I was feeling somewhat merciful today-"
"Why did they think they were with me?"
Tony laughed flatly. "Apparently Greek gods are real. And with it rainbow mist skype calls; apparently the couple called and told them some story of a dead man named Couslon grabbing them off the streets. Is that what you do in retirement? Kidnapping? Not a good look."
"They were considered threats," Coulson defended, before closing his eyes in pain. "They told us the Greek mythology thing, too. It was all a misunderstanding. But...I- we don't have them anymore."
There was a beat of silence. "Look, I was really hoping to wrap this up so we could talk about your miraculous recovery."
"We tried to take them home today. We made it to the outer city when we were ambushed by Hydra- they took the kids and two of my men."
"So get them back."
"We don't know where they took them. The cameras were cut."
"You abducted two teenagers and then lost them. To an evil homicidal Nazi organization."
Coulson didn't have a decent response, and instead met the statement with silence.
Tony sniffed after a moment. "Tell you what, Coulson. I found you, I can find a couple of demigods, or whatever they call themselves. But I'm not sure how much I can do with the suit. The Accords blew everything to shit, and I can't so much walk to the mailbox with red boots without getting a notice. Blowing up a Hydra base would get Ross so far up my ass his legs would disappear."
"That's never stopped you before."
"Yeah, well, I actually care about more than just myself at the moment. Much more important things to manage than a prison break. I've already marked that one off my bucket list."
"That's fine," Coulson breathed out, not quite believing what he was about to agree too. "We're making this a joint mission, then? Officially?"
"What, do you want me to autograph paperwork for you? It's fine, Coulson, I've got a free weekend."
The director swallowed. "Alright. We'll come to you."
"Lovely, sweetheart. Don't keep me waiting."
The phone clicked dead.
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Oooooooohhhh I don't know about you guys but I. AM. HYPED.
Also... Luke Mitchell? Is like? So hot? I could cry. Tell me I'm wrong.
But real talk. Are you guys doing okay? Ya'll, my brain is melting (if you can't tell by the chaos that is this AN). Tell me your quarantine stories! Or if you want to read one, go check out my new one-shot in my one-shot book (or raspberrypopcicle 's 'Outbreak' I'm hooked!)! Seriously though, I'm here for ya'll. Sending good vibes your way <3 Stay healthy out there. Go outside. Breath nature (unless you have allergies, than idk). Live each day like it's your last. Maybe we could have our own little writing contest, would that be fun?
Quick shoutout to browhal1 + regnagelpp0D + ImHereForYourSoul for just leaving the most fun comments :) made my week!
Love you all and I hope you enjoyed! Percy and Annabeth are next ;) Though I can't say they'll be having the best time...
JustAnotherGirlmcg
P.S. For your consideration: Percy?