A/N: Here's that one-shot I promised. It's from Percy's POV, but oddly enough, not in first person. It stands alone, so if you haven't read my other stories, you'll still understand it well enough, I believe. I hope you guys enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson or the Avengers. But maybe with some persuasion…

Claustrophobia

Percy wasn't feeling so hot when he woke up.

Well, technically, he was plenty hot and was literally sweating enough to create a small ocean, it seemed. But besides that, he kept breathing in dust and other mysterious Somethings. He couldn't really feel his legs or his left arm, and his head was throbbing out a steady rhythm. And that wasn't even the worst part.

No, the worst part was when he opened his eyes and a cement wall was two inches from his face. And five inches from the side of his face on the left. And six inches from his face on the right side.

Don't panic, Percy told himself sternly. His breaths quickened, and he fought down his mounting terror. Think, he said. What happened?

It all came rushing back, soon enough. Percy remembered what had gotten him buried under a building, heavy armor (which lost the battle against heavy concrete) and all.

It was a routine battle against your typical psycho who thought he could take over the entire world with a few dreamt-about impossible plans that were always screwed up by people like the Avengers and like Percy himself, nowadays, because said people didn't want the world to go to Hades in a hand basket. The only problem with these psychos was that they created just enough manic activity to create trouble. Like, say, collapsing a building on unsuspecting demigods. Or in this case, mildly suspecting demigods.

Percy couldn't even remember the stupid guy's name that he'd obviously thought up in his parent's basement or something (this guy was a total loser, Percy thought, and that was saying something since Percy didn't just go around calling people losers; you had to earn the title) that had collapsed a building on him. This actually worried Percy a little bit because wasn't that a sign of having a concussion? He couldn't really remember that either.

The way Percy remembered things was that it all started when they were called out during the day—during their bonding time, this guy was going to pay—to go stop him from completely ruining New York. Percy wasn't exactly sure why all the bad guys started in New York to start their master plan to take over the world, but he really wished it would be in, like, Russia or something. Russians could totally defeat the bad guys just as soundly as the Avengers could. Or so Percy thought.

Anyway, so they flew over quickly to intercept this guy (Was his name Blue Beard or something? Percy remembered it sounding like a pirate name…) before he could get his hands on something important like the city's main power or a major building. It was supposed to be a pretty simple stop and subdue kind of thing, but as usual, things spiraled out of control quickly. SHIELD hadn't given them all of information in the situation; Percy guessed they hadn't gotten all the information themselves. This wasn't the sort of thing you could predict.

Mid-chase, Captain Psychotic, Percy's fond nickname for the vaguely pirate-looking guy, suddenly turned around and laughed. It wasn't a chuckle or a good-natured laugh either. No, Percy thought this laugh sounded like the kind of laugh that came from a person who was about to snap with an edge of hysteria. Confused, Percy and the Avengers collected in a close semi-circle around the madman, still poised to pounce on the guy at any time.

"You have no idea!" the man gasped, still laughing hysterically, his cape flapping around him manically. "You have no idea what's going to happen, do you?"

"What are you talking about?" Tony asked. "Finally snapped, have you?"

The man sighed and wiped a tear from his eye, still smiling. Percy had bad feeling about what was going on here. Had this guy somehow managed to wreak more havoc somewhere they didn't know about? "Perhaps your little owners haven't told you. In a building near here, there are ten poor little children sitting all by their lonesome singing campfire songs around a bomb armed with enough explosives to take out the entire building. I doubt you'll be able to get there in time." The man began laughing again as Percy felt like he was going to be sick. "Wait until your petty admirers see that their heroes can't save everyone. They'll really love you then!" he crowed.

"When will it go off?" Steve demanded. "Tell me now."

"Oh, I suppose you'll know when it goes off," the man said delightedly. Then he leaned in to smile at them dangerously and evilly, it seemed to Percy. "I want to see you search and search and fail. I want to hear your cries of outrage and despair as the bomb blows two buildings down from where you were searching and know how close you were. I want you to fail," he spat.

Steve motioned at Thor, who nodded grimly before punching the man square in the face, effectively knocking him out. Steve turned to all of them, his face panicked. "Okay, split up. Each of us gets a building, and you call immediately for backup as soon as you find the kids. Move quickly, people, we don't know when the bomb will go off. We have to save those kids." They all gave their affirmative, spreading out along the street to begin searching.

After five minutes, Percy got desperate after not finding anything. He tried to think—what would allow him to search the buildings quicker but still as thoroughly? He wracked his brains for a moment and finally came up with an idea. Percy raised his hands and called a dozen or two gallons of water from the nearest fire hydrant and opened up all the water troves in the five surrounding buildings around him. He shoved water through the glass, breaking it, and probed around with the water, searching for the kids with his mind, the water acting in place of his eyes. He started up the same routine in the next four buildings over that he had also opened up the water in and searched all five at the same time. After another five minutes, he knew nobody was in any of the buildings and moved on to the next five, starting over.

Percy concentrated hard and pushed his water to run faster. What if Captain Psychotic was right? What if Percy and the others didn't find the kids in time? Percy didn't think he would be able to forgive himself, ever. He wouldn't stand for ten families being ripped apart because of one guy who had a personal vendetta against the Avengers.

He couldn't let that happen. He wouldn't let that happen.

After another two minutes of searching, he finally found them. He wanted to make sure he had really found them before calling the Avengers in case he was wrong about it being the children and he ended up taking away from time looking for the kids. He sprinted into the building quickly and went to the third floor of the ten-storey building. This is where he had felt they were. He burst through empty office after empty office, looking frantically for the kids. Just as he was about to give up, he heard whispers in the only room he hadn't searched. He opened the door and immediately came face to face with ten children. Percy guessed they must have been anywhere from four to seven years old. Percy shook his head in anger when he saw they were all zip-tied together to keep them from moving. There was no bomb in sight.

"Hey, guys," Percy said, trying to sound friendly and calm. "Hey, I'm going to get you guys free, but I don't want you to freak out when I take out a sword, okay?" Percy made to move closer but stopped when a few of the kids flinched backwards. Percy considered taking off his helmet, but he couldn't let anyone know who he was. That would completely defeat the purpose of wearing the secret disguise. But his resolve strengthened when he saw most of the kids had tear streaks on their faces and decided, Screw it.

He took off his helmet, tossing it to the side, and smiled. "Better?" One tiny girl nodded, and Percy figured that was the only confirmation he was going to get and decided to go for it. Besides, the time was running out. He snapped his fingers and pressed a hand to his ear. "Guys, I found the kids. Ten-storey building that's red and has an old termite company sign next to it. Come quickly." He got the answering on my way from all of them before pulling out Riptide and uncapping it. He saw the kids' eyes go wide and couldn't help but grin. "It's a special pen," he explained, before slicing neatly through three zip-ties. He quickly finished the rest of them before getting all of the kids to get up.

He knelt down to their level. "Okay, I have a very important question." They looked at him curiously. "The man who put you here. Did he say anything about a bomb?"

A boy of about five nodded. Percy sighed in relief. "I need to know where he put it. What's your name, buddy?"

"Henry," he said softly. "He said he was gonna put it on the first floor." Henry sniffled. "And then he said he was gonna hide another one for a surprise."

Percy cursed under his breath. This was so not good. "Okay, here's what we're going to do, guys. We're going walk down the stairs outside and then you're going to meet the Avengers! And then you're going to hang out with them for a little while until we can get you back to your mommy and daddy, okay?" He smiled at them reassuringly before herding them towards the stairs. Percy wasn't sure why the Avengers were taking so long when he heard a loud boom. He flinched, thinking it was the one in the building before he realized the building didn't shake or crumble in on itself. It had been a different building. He pressed his hand to his ear as his group slowly made their way down the stairs. "Guys? Update? Where are you?" He stooped down to pick up a particularly young-looking girl that was lagging and obviously exhausted. He bounced her on his hip once before finally getting a reply.

"Percy, ever since you commed us, smoke has been pouring in the street," Steve's tinny voice sounded over Percy's earpiece. "We can't see a thing it's so thick. And apparently there was another bomb somewhere else and we had to send Clint and Natasha to check for civilians. But we're trying to get there as fast as we can." Percy wanted to bang his head against the nearest wall. This mission was definitely going to Hades in a hand basket.

"Okay," Percy managed to say evenly. He continued making his way down the stairs. By now, smoke was starting to snake its way into the building, causing them all to cough slightly. Percy felt for more water and sent it out in the building, trying to multitask and find both bombs while rescuing kids. He heard another bomb go off in the distance and pushed the kids faster until they finally reached the first floor. Percy hopped off the landing and froze.

There, sitting innocently in the middle of the floor slightly before the door, was one of the bombs. And it had four seconds left on its clock.

Percy thought quickly, dismissing ironic thoughts of found it without my powers. He gathered up water behind all the kids.

Three.

He shoved them out the building with the water, making sure they were protected in a bubble of water from the bomb and flying shrapnel that was bound to hit them outside the building.

Two.

He wrapped the bomb in a bubble of water and turned his back, covering his head.

One.

Now would be a good time to have my helmet, he thought bitterly before the bomb exploded and his vision went dark.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Thinking back on it, Percy figured the other bomb had gone off, having been set off by the explosion of the first. Percy didn't think it was the first bomb that had caused most of the damage, since he was pretty sure he had contained the majority of it. To cause this much damage, the second bomb had to have been on the first floor, too. Which was the main reason he was lying trapped underneath a building in armor that was poking and puncturing skin in all the wrong places. Percy dropped his head against the ground again. He hoped the kids were all right. He hoped he had been able to sustain the protective barrier long enough after he was unconscious to keep them safe. He was exhausted, so he could only think optimistically and rationally that he had. He heard a few cranes and wondered idly if they were trying to get him out.

Which brought him back to his current dilemma: he was trapped. Under a building. In a very tiny space.

Percy could already feel himself hyperventilating again. He hated tiny places with a passion, and it had seemed like the claustrophobia had only gotten worse over the years, especially after the St. Louis Arch Incident. Percy shook his head and tried to calm his breathing with a few techniques he had learned from his numerous flashbacks and nightmares. Only it didn't work. Maybe it was because this nightmare was real, and it wasn't going away.

Percy pressed on his earpiece and got static. "I don't suppose anyone can hear me?" he asked desperately before coughing on some dust. "No, of course not," Percy muttered. "Because that would be too easy."

Percy got the sudden urge that he to move right now. He struggled to get an arm or a leg free uselessly until it hurt. He kept wiggling his right arm until he finally yanked it free. It was covered in bloody scratches from where he had frantically pulled it out. The static suddenly got louder in his ear, and he reached up to pull it out in frustration.

"—need you to say...talk or something—" Percy heard over the comm., freezing immediately when he heard it. He pressed at the comm. again. "Tony?" he asked, crossing his fingers with his one free hand.

Another burst of static before, "Percy?"

Percy smiled in relief, focusing on Tony's voice to distract himself from the collapsed concrete that seemed to be closing in on him. "Yes, thank the gods someone's here," Percy said. He was sure his voice a little higher than usual, but he didn't care right now.

Percy heard Tony talking to someone else over the comm. "Yeah, I finally got him. He's coherent enough to talk to me. Okay, I will." The comm. got clearer and clearer as the seconds passed. "Percy, we're currently lifting the building off of you if you didn't know that already. It'll probably take another half hour, even with me helping out and the team doing what they can."

"What about the kids?" Percy asked anxiously. "Are they all okay?"

"Safe and sound," Tony confirmed. "And about to be reunited with their families. Thanks to you. How'd you manage?"

"It's kind of a long story. You probably need to get back to focusing on the cleanup," Percy said reluctantly. He really didn't want to be left alone in the small area, but he didn't want Tony to hurt himself being distracted by Percy either.

"Nonsense," Tony dismissed. "I'm great at multitasking. Besides, I'm the only one you can talk to right now since the others can't connect to your comm. like I figured out how to. So, story time while I lift a few tons on concrete?"

Percy was glad in the long run he still had someone to talk to because it gave his mind something else to think about other than the crushing concrete on him, slowly seeming to suffocate him. Percy told Tony all about how he had saved the kids. He heard the cranes sound louder and louder to him as they pulled more rubble off of him. He finished his story to Tony and, at Tony's request, began telling Tony about the injuries he had gotten or could guess he might have gotten from having a building collapsed on him. After that, Percy told Tony about the time Rachel Elizabeth Dare had thrown a blue comb at Kronos and hit him dead in the eye. Just as Percy finished his latest story, one large piece of concrete was carefully lifted from him, and then another, and then another until he was lying there free. He breathed deeply and clenched his hands into loose fists to hide their shaking. Tony and the others came and stood over him for a moment before kneeling down.

"I didn't know you were claustrophobic," Tony said offhandedly.

Percy huffed a laugh. "That obvious?"

"Just a little. How about we head to medical to get you fixed up and have pizza delivered at the tower?" Tony suggested.

"I want supreme," Clint said immediately.

"That's fine," Percy told Tony. "Can one of you help me up?"

Once he was standing and being carefully supported by Steve and Clint, Percy turned back to Tony. "I'm glad I was talking to you. I would've flipped if I hadn't had something to distract me."

"I know," Tony grinned. "That's why I did it. Claustrophobia sucks. Trust me."

Percy couldn't agree more. But he'd also readily agree that villains sucked more. Especially the crazy ones.

A/N: Yeah, I'm not so sure about the ending, but it wouldn't come out any other way but this way. My Muse is a stubborn thing. As always, let me know what you thought! This was just a simple little one-shot I thought up and decided to put separate from The Art of Team Bonding. I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading.