Bruce was a son of Athena. That's all there was to it. Unless, he supposed, you didn't know about that mess. Lucky you.
Beside the point – he hasn't seen any of his siblings since, well, the Hulk happened. Last he heard was a message about a seven years old sister who lost a surrogate sibling coming into camp. But that was ten long years ago.
To be honest, Bruce is afraid. He remembers how hectic camp could be – he doesn't want to hurt anyone.
So when some kid shows up at the towers claiming to be a son of Poseidon sent by the very surrogate sibling-less sister he never met, Bruce has a minor freak-out. And can you blame him? The kid says it wasn't just Annabeth – apparently, that was her name – but also Clarisse – who he knew for a few years, the kid was only five for the god's sake – and someone Bruce remembers well.
Darwin Webster. Bruce is freaking out at this point, because really – Darwin was a full two years older than Bruce and how in the name of Athena is he still alive? Bruce is already one of the oldest demigods alive, being in his late forties. Darwin has won the world record award for oldest demigod to ever live – the guy is entering his early fifties.
Okay, so Bruce knows that there have probably been demigods to live to be older, but can you blame him? Hitting your twenties is one of the major accomplishments in a demigods' life.
Once again, Bruce curses the ADHD that he swears he conquered years ago. Unfortunately, it's that same ADHD that allowed the miscalculation that led to the Hulk.
But anyways. There's this teenaged Loki-look alike standing there talking to him like he breaks into high security penthouse/office buildings for a living. And yes, Stark towers – recently renamed Avengers towers – has offices on the lower levels. The place had to be good for something.
And the kid's just like, 'dude, your siblings are going to kill you. And yes, the know about your little problem.' And Bruce doesn't really know what to do.
And just because his life sucks, Tony frickin' Stark enters the scene. Like, godsdamnit! He was supposed to be out for the rest of the day. So now Bruce has to convince Tony to get rid of the repulsors aimed at the kid.
Like, it's getting creepy – how similar this kid looks to Loki.
Just stop.
And then Bruce is stuck explaining the gods to Tony, the kid being useless until Tony askes about any other gods he doesn't know about. Bruce is about to answer but the kids gets there first, explaining the Romans and Egyptians and his girlfriend's cousin. The girlfriend also happens to be Bruce's sister, so now Bruce has this really distant not-really-relative that's somehow related to Thor. Or maybe Bruce is still confused because damn it all to Hades, his brain overloaded when Carter entered the equation. And that was six paragraphs ago.
And it's well into the night when the pale kid jumps out of the shadows with Darwin and another Athena kid – because she's obviously an Athena kid while Bruce is the opposite – that he assumes in Annabeth. At some point, Tony makes a sneaky exit. Then Bruce is holding his cheek while the pale kid – 'my name is Nico, not kid' – looks just ever so slightly amused.
And because life just loves being a jackass, Bruce gets to talk to Clarisse – who has turned into a very strong, very angry and very terrifying twenty-year-old. And to top it all off? They're all demigods.
So, I did the math, and looked up some stuff. According to the website, Bruce was born in 1969 and it was 2006 when he became the Hulk. He would've been 37 when that happened. I placed the timing in 2016, so he is 47/48 right now. Percy and Annabeth are 18 - I changed the timings around a little. Clarisse was five when she arrived at camp because circumstances. She was ten when he left for the last time.
I played around with my writing styles a little - hope you like it!
I have not read The Carter Kane (sp?) series nor The Magnus Chase books. I know a little bit from my friend who gave me... she told me how it all fit together, basically. I do not know much at all about either soo...
~~~Lizzy