Chapter Twenty - Plan
~Tony Stark~
The three heroes (depending on who you asked, of course) stepped out of the elevator.
"Stark, we got your message. It sounded urgent, what's going on?" Steve crossed the floor, eyes scanning the screens.
From beside me, Peter twitched and I had the vague recollection that he had never actually met any of the others. It must be killing him trying to stay silent, but we had more important things to talk about.
"Some sort of magic shit - Loki might be involved, not sure yet. We've got an expert on the subject but he's decided to take a nap." I gestured towards the couch where Percy lay, still sleeping. He was frowning and scrunching in on himself a little, and I absently wondered what he might be dreaming about.
"An expert, wh-" Cap cut himself off as his eyes fell on the kid. "Percy? So SHIELD's already sent someone."
I made a face. "SHIELD? No, no, the kid is Pep's nephew or something. How do you know him?"
"I met him last week in one of the New York bases, he was doing some sort of combat training." Steve moved around the couch to crouch near the kid's legs. "The instructor used him in some demonstration - broke his foot. I could hear it from across the room."
He carefully pulled up Percy's pant leg to reveal his ankle, but there was nothing there - no cast, no bandage, not even a bruise.
I didn't know what was going on, and I really didn't like not knowing things - but clearly someone was keeping some pretty deep secrets.
"I've never seen him before except around the Tower, I guess he's a recruit? And I heard about that class, met the instructor once or twice before. She's a real piece of work, but we've never had better agents than the ones she trains up," Clint explained, as he and Natasha examined the holo-screens I'd pulled up.
"Is this all him?" Natasha questioned, not taking her eyes off of the reports in front of her.
I nodded and asked Jarvis to expand them so the others could see what I'd found.
"First, he said he and Bird-Brain over here had an encounter with some 'purple wavy magic' but that Barton doesn't remember; then the coffee tin was full of bees being hidden by purple runes; and then Brucey here has an incident in the lab that he can't remember and the kid and I had to take him on. He insisted it was magic and that I should get the team together. Other than that and the fact that he makes some mean pancakes, I know barely anything about this."
Natasha gave me a look. "You didn't know who he was and you ate his food?" She smacked me upside the head, "I have no idea how you're still alive, Stark."
I heard the clicking of heels as Pepper came into the room. "Neither do I, but what specifically are we talking about?" Then her eyes landed on the screens and she turned to me, eyes boring holes through my precious brain. "Tony! Are you searching up Percy's files? What the hell! I thought I told you not to do this kind of shit?!"
She glared, but didn't resist as Natasha gently took her arm and pulled her to the side of the room to explain the situation.
Peter let out this little squeaking noise, before clearing his throat. As all eyes turned to him he spoke up, "Look, I- I don't think Percy's gonna hurt anyone. He's one of the nicest people I know. But also... I've seen some weird things happen around him. If anyone knows about this kind of thing, I have a feeling it's gonna be him."
Cap suddenly stood up, eyes wide like he'd just realised Peter was here. "You're Peter, right? The Spider-kid or something?" He held out his hand.
Peter visibly began to shake as he returned the gesture, "Uh, y-yes sir, Mr. Captain America, sir. Spider-man, nice to meet you, uh, s-sir."
I smiled fondly, then immediately covered it up with a cough. "Right, right, Peter, Avengers; Avengers, Pete. JARVIS, you got anything back from SHIELD just yet?"
"Momentarily, sir. I believe I'm nearly through. I would, however, like to reiterate how much of a breach of trust and privacy this is. I am unsure as to how Percy might take it."
"Yeah, well, he wasn't exactly telling us this shit himself, was he?"
I pulled one of the screens on his criminal record forward to closer examine it. There had to be something here that would shed light on his motivations, his connections, his weaknesses, something...
"Don't you know it's rude to look into a guy's criminal past while he's taking a nap?"
Nearly all of us jumped (in fact, Peter startled so hard he stuck to the ceiling) as we spun to see Percy sitting upright, chin resting on his hand as he observed us.
"Also, I thought I said to wake me up when something important happened?" He looked nonchalantly around the room at the various superheroes. He nodded a greeting at Cap, who hesitantly returned it, and sent an ASL salute to Barton.
Percy then focused on the information on the screens.
"Is that the report from the Alcatraz thing? Aw, I remember that! I should IM Briares later, I haven't seen that guy since- well. Anyway, since this meeting seems to be underway, I guess you guys have questions?" The kid stood up and moved around to our side of the screens, squinting at the words like he was having trouble reading them. Cap was clearly disconcerted by the fact that the kid didn't even have a limp after the break he'd described.
"Uh, yeah, couple of questions here," I sarcastically put my hand up. "What are you hiding from us, who are you really, who do you work for and what do you know about this magic stuff?"
Percy grinned, "Going right for the heavy stuff, huh? Let's try to do this in order, then. I'm hiding lots, but so are all of you, of course. But I haven't lied to you, not about anything important. My name is Perseus Jackson, as I'm sure you know by now, a distant relative of Miss Virginia 'Pepper' Potts. I came here due to an... unfortunate family incident. I work for SHIELD, I'm a consultant - for many things, including combat, mythology and - yes - magic. I also work for a dojo and a strawberry farm, but I don't really think you're interested in that bit.
"The magic stuff is a little more complicated. I've been dealing with that sort of stuff since I was a little kid, it mostly explains all the trouble I've gotten into over the years. Anyway, I just received word that the guy we're looking for is the Greek god of trickery, lies and deception. He's looking to gain power, maybe to overthrow the Olympian council - that's usually what they're going for. I've called in some backup, but until then we're gonna have to make it on our own. We have to try and find out where he's hiding and what he's using as the source for his current power gain. And hopefully we can do all this while keeping the mort- uh, the more normal people out of harm's way."
Natasha looked at him critically. "And how are we supposed to trust you?"
If possible, the teenager's grin only seemed to get wider.
"Same way I built up my trust in you guys - by reading my file."
Right on cue, JARVIS pulled up a new holo-screen that showed the SHIELD database home screen, and a file quickly opened up.
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It was nearly an hour later, with all of us sitting around the living room, exhausted by the discoveries of the day.
"- But you were taking a nap!" Barton continued to argue, starting to sound a little hysterical. "How can you have called in backup while you were taking a nap?!"
"And the healing- you shouldn't even be standing right now, how can you-" Steve's complaints were overcome by -
"- what exactly are you, though? A mutant? An alien? Are you like Thor? Or were you an experiment?" Bruce questioned, leafing through a notebook he'd apparently started theorising in at some point.
Percy didn't respond, just leaned back against the couch and stared up at the ceiling as if it might give him the peace he was looking for.
I scrolled through the file on my phone screen (much better suited to the way I was slouched into an armchair than the proper holo-projectors, as cool as they were).
"Hey, kid, you know SHIELD has a contingency plan written up in case you 'go rogue'? Its mostly redacted so I dunno what it says, but its there."
He glanced over at me, "Really? Huh. Cool. You probably shouldn't show me that."
He went back to staring blankly at the ceiling.
Out of nowhere, Pepper appeared with a tray of mugs and started passing out coffees.
"Alright, everyone. Can't save the world if we're half asleep. And don't forget, Tony, you have a party later tonight. Here you go, and one for you... Now, what's the plan?"
We all groaned as we sat ourselves up, and I thanked Pep for the coffee (sweet sweet fuel for my brain engine).
"Actually," Percy said, taking a long gulp from his mug, "about that party..."
IM BACK!
Hooooooo-leeeeeeeeeeeeee shit y'all it sure has been a long ass time
Apologies for the wait and thank you all so much for your patience and encouragement, especially those of you who told me to take my time and were oh-so-sweet. Thank you :)
I'm hoping the next bit will come out sooner than this one did because goddamn, amiright? But the next ones are planned out so i should be good.
Lemme know what you think!
(Question of the chapter: what is your favourite Riordanverse headcanon or bit of lore? Yes, this includes the Kane Chronicles, Magnus Chase, Trials of Apollo, etc etc)