CHAPTER 2: DON'T BE CAREFUL

CAMP HALF BLOOD

"Seymour?" Annabeth gasped, "That big leopard head thing is called Seymour?" She leaned her head against Percy's chest. "Isn't that the evil guy from that Final Fantasy game?"

"What's Final Fantasy?" Percy raised an eyebrow.

"It's in the gaming world. You're a boy, I thought you heard of it."

"What makes you think that just cause I'm a boy, I should know all the games out there."

"I'm just saying."

Percy and Annabeth were sitting on grass that overlooked the beach. It was considered, "Their Spot" because it was the first place they kissed.

It was a beautiful sight when dawn came. The sun would set, giving out a radiant set of colors to the clouds, causing the water to shine and glitter against the light. Pink clouds would swirl into the horizon and a great calm would settle in the pit of his stomach.

It was the first calm that Percy felt and saw after the war. This was a special spot to him personally. It would always be a beacon of light to tell him why he would always fight. And then there was Annabeth..

"What are you thinking of?" Annabeth asked Percy, as he stared off into the distance.

He shook his head, a smile forming on his face. "Everything." He answered.

They were like that for a few minutes, a calm settling between them. He never knew that he could be that happy after everything that eventually happened.

The war was two weeks ago. A week after it ended, and the Camp and gods were starting to build things up, another battle happened in New York. It caught the Olympians off guard, they didn't even have time to register what was going on. When mortals actually stopped them, Percy would have given them a clap. They fought their own war, without the help of the gods. It was a surprise, and a burden. Two wars in the same month that was not a good omen.

"So what are you going to do?" Annabeth asked.

She must have been referring to the conversation he and Chiron had in the Big House. It was serious, in a way that Chiron had to send Percy to do the job. Either that or it was because he was the closest who lived there.

"Well I'm not going to just pop in and save the day." He explained, "Not really in the mood for a public reaction again."

"Did Chiron teach you how to play with the mist?"

He nodded, "I've been learning from Thalia after the war. Chiron explained it better. The mist is sort of a last minute process, saying if I do get caught on camera. I mean, the guys a billionaire! He has to have some hidden camera around." An idea popped into his head, "Can I borrow your hat?"

She looked confused by the statement. "No one can just borrow my hat, Jackson." She said, her voice serious. "But for you, anything." She returned to her warming smile, which caused Percy to relax and know that he wasn't getting punched

"You're so lucky though," Annabeth sighed, "You're meeting the greatest inventor ever! It's a surprise he's not a child of Athena."

"Chiron told me he has godly blood though."

She shifted in his arms, while raising an eyebrow. "Really?"

"I didn't get it earlier. Chiron said he knew his grandfather and his mother. Tony Stark's grandfather was the son of Hephaestus and was blessed with the ability to build almost anything. His mother was a child of Athena, which is why he thought of Iron Man I guess."

"That's amazing!" She gasped, "But can he get through the boarders of Camp?"
Percy shook his head, "It seemed the guy never knew his family history. He may have godly blood, but he's no demigod, still mortal."

"Oh that's too bad. I would have liked to meet him."

Percy smiled, "I'll try getting a souvenir."

A MORGUE

Dr. Banner didn't like the morgue. He didn't like how it felt cold, or how dim the lights were or how it reeked of the dead and cleaning supplies.

He walked behind one of the morticians, as he wore a white jacket which practically symbolized a doctor who dealt with dead people. On his right, there were a dozen of metal square doors, each holding some sort of dead body, his left there were the same metal square doors. All the light was reflected by each of the silver doors, causing the room to have an eerie feeling.

It felt like a cube to him, being stuck in one. He felt his heart starting to jump faster, in either fear or anger, he wasn't sure, but the anger didn't make sense so he guessed it was fear.

"We really don't know what to say about these marks." The mortician said, "These men were here for a long time, no one really claimed them. The bodies have the same marks on their necks."

He stopped and opened one of the metal doors. He reached in and pulled out a long table with a body wrapped inside a bag.

Wearing gloves, Dr. Banner lifted the paper off the man's face. He's seen dead bodies before, not skeletons with skin attached to it. The body itself was skinny, and thin. The eye sockets seemed to want to pop out, the lips were sticking out far too much the nose was just a simple point. The entire body was drained.

The mortician reached to the mans side and pointed at the two holes by his neck. "They all have these marks, nothing else. Unless you count the amounts of lipstick around his head and… er other parts, these seemed to be the only sign of contact."

"Have you tried analyzing the DNA of the lipstick?" He asked, looking at the two perfectly formed holes on the man's neck.

"Yes, we have. The problem is, the DNA matches to an animal."

"I'm going to assume it matches a bat." He joked.

The man looked serious, "Well actually, yes. I believe that he was bitten by some sort of animal or—"

"Vampire."

"I wouldn't go to such great extremes to go that far." He laughed nervously, "But I can find no other reason. We studied the holes at his neck and found some sort of saliva. It was very… sticky, and it held something like a bats DNA."

"This is crazy." Banner mumbled under his breath. He pulled the paper above the man's head again, disgusted by the look of it. He really wanted to throw up, right then and there. "Are you sure there were no other signs of physical contact?"

"Well—"

"Besides that."

He sighed, "We found something, and it stuck on one of the victim's pants. It was some sort of scale."

"Where is this, scale?"

The man shook his head, "We already studied for any significance, but the scale belongs to nothing."

"If you don't mind, I'd like to see it anyway." Bruce explained, "Maybe I could find something out."

The Mortician nodded Banner watched as he covered the body once again and slid it inside the dark little space. He led him away from the morgue and out the door. Bruce felt a source of relief as he no longer felt the presence of being watched or the cold chill that ran up his spine continuously.

They were led into the main room, where the man looked in a single drawer and gave Bruce a plastic bag containing a two-inch scale. The color was strange as it reflected off the white light above them. It had a strange brown color mixed with a touch of green to make it lighter. It was smooth but rough on one side as it seemed to be ripped off something.

Banner nodded his thanks as he took it out of the bag, motioning to see if he can use one of the instruments in the lab.

The mortician nodded, and then left for his other duties.

Banner put the little scale under a microscope, and studied the little thing closer. It did show some significance. It was harder than most scales, nearly like a rock would. It may have been stronger but it was very light. It belonged to no animal he heard of, or saw. He decided to take it back to Stark Tower and analyze it at a closer range, and where he would have more instruments to use.

He went out and thanked the mortician, who was working on another body produced from the FBI probably, thanked him and walked away with a disgusted face.

STARK TOWER

"When is this lady coming anyway?" Natasha asked, looking out into the distance from the various windows decorating a side of the wall.

"At precisely 4 P.M. ma'am." JARVIS answered in his British tone.

"Ah I see." She crossed her arms across her chest.

All the boys seemed to be doing something but her. Clint went to do analyzing the woman by past records with Rodgers. Banner was sent off to investigate the body, and Starks was doing whatever he did to get ready for a woman.

"How is Pepper doing on this little stunt?" She asked.

"Ms. Potts is not taking it as lightly as Mr. Starks seems." JARVIS answered, "She is being questioned by the media as we speak."

"Yes, but does she agree to what we are doing?"

"Yes, ma'am. Ms. Potts is stronger than most other women who have been with Mr. Stark before."

Before Natasha could have asked another question, JARVIS then said, "Doctor Banner has arrived and is urgent to see you. Mr. Stark will be joining you as well."

She sighed as she heard the elevator ding open and she watched as the two men came walking in, talking with quick hand gestures and facial expressions.

Bruce was holding to what seemed to be a plastic bag with a thin piece of stone, Stark holding a book of something called Myths.

"Ah, Romanov!" Tony said. "It's nice to know you're doing something for a change."

"It's nice to know your actually doing something for a change, Stark." She replied curtly.

"Well I live here, so I have an excuse."

"Please tell me you're not wearing that for a quick conversation of school funds." She looked disgusted.

Stark wore formal wear. Black shoes, black coat, white shirt un-tucked and only a half buttoned shirt with a black shirt he wore underneath it.

"I'd rather die in a monkey suit than nothing at all." His voice dramatic.

"I thought you'd rather fight than die?" Banner asked, going up to the Minnie bar and sitting on a stool.

"No. I'd rather die fighting in my Iron Man suit when I'm saving the world from inter-galactical bad guys. If I'm myself, meaning no Iron Man, I die in monkey suits."

"That makes sense." Banner said sarcastically.

"It does, doesn't it?" He looked at the book in hand. "Well I got to say something to all of you guys, but saying the others aren't here, I'll tell you anyway."

He sat down on the couch, opening the book. Curious to what was going on, Natasha sat beside him, bending over to get a better look at the page he was on. It was on myths of all cultures, and Tony had opened it to the European Vampires page.

She raised an eyebrow at him as he held up a large grin to her. Banner placed the little plastic bag on the table, beside the book before squatting next to them.

"Blood sucker." Tony said, "This book explains about everything."

"We've dealt with aliens and demigods," Banner shook his head, "And you go as far as vampires?"

"Hey be glad we only dealt with the Nordic gods, and not the others. I'm not excited with fighting a guy in a toga."

"Thor was suppose to wear a kilt in the stories." Natasha put in.

"Yeah and Zeus is also in a monkey suit." Tony answered back. "If Thor wore a cape then there is a possibility that the others are wearing Toga's."

Bruce pushed the scale closer to the book, "Can we get back on target here?"

"Right." Tony pulled the book closer to himself and started to read out loud, "'Vampires come from the European times. Something about Dracula and other stuff. They burn when they come in the morning, they are allergic to garlic and other spiritual relics and that's it."

"The scale." Banner tapped on it lightly. "Does it have anything about a scale."

"Let's see." Tony started to flip through the pages, glancing back and forth between the book and the small scale. He stopped, "Well in Greek myths there is something called an Empousa. Some sort of woman who tries to eat the flesh and drink the blood of man only. She has one donkey leg, if that helps."

"Fur, not scales. No, not helping."

"I've got nothing on that thing then." He slammed the book. "That poor bastard probably held it as a token or something."

"A token of what though?" Natasha asked.

"I don't know." He said, "Maybe he thought it was pretty."

"Sir," JARVIS interrupted.

"Yes?" Stark rubbed his head roughly.

"Ms. Wajak will arrive in forty minutes time. Would you like me to prepare?"

"Yes, thank you, JARVIS." He turned to Natasha, "Well, might as well go with the flow."

He took a few steps toward the elevator, before he turned and said, "Don't be here when I come back. Do your hiding thing and tell the Cap and Clint the same thing."

Natasha blinked. Well he was useless right now. She thought. He gave no information that made any significance, other than to annoy her. She stood up from her seat and walked back to the windows in her old position.

She held her own air of secrecy. She tried keeping most things to herself, after everything she went through as a child. She nearly chuckled at the thought. Would she ever tell who she was to Captain America? To say that she too had been in his time, and that she did not age as normal people would probably pronounce crazy to its extreme. He didn't even recognize her when they first met so she believed that there was no point.

But there would always be a chance.

STARK TOWER, 6 PM

He filled a drink for himself. Tony Stark felt nervous, though he would never admit it to anyone, neither to himself. He was literally having dinner with a vampire! What else can go wrong? Scratch that. He was Tony Stark, a man who made numerous enemies just by breathing. He could wait for one of them to pop up and say "I'm the king of the world! All of you will bow to me!" and then kick his ass before having dinner with Pepper.

He turned, and saw the beautiful woman standing in front of the wall of windows, overlooking New York City. She held a brandy in her hands as she sipped it gratefully.

It was strange seeing an average teacher, with a teachers' pay wearing such fancy clothes. Simple, but very formal.

She wore a light knee high skirt with a matching top and shoes. Her blond hair was pulled back to reveal what seemed to be diamond earrings. She was very young, probably mid twenties if Tony had to guess.

When she turned and smiled, a warning bell rang through his head. He was glad with all the hidden security cameras hidden in different corners of the room, and that Natasha or Clint or even Steve were close by if he needed help. He even had his own little recorder built into his tie so that the others can hear the conversation. He even wore the two bracelets that can put him in his suit, for large just in case purposes.

He took a sip of the brandy, and felt the burn as it went down his throat. It made him calmer as he felt the familiar liquid.

"So, Ms. Wajak," He said, "You look as comfortable as ever."

"I am." She smiled. She went down the steps to sit down on the large couch, and crossed her legs. "I use to know someone with great wealth like this. Makes me feel at home."

"Really now?" Tony took a few hesitant steps toward the couch and sat a few feet away from her. He placed one arm on the head of the couch. "So you use to be rich too?"

She shook her head, her smile still on her face. "No, not really. There was this very handsome man that I knew. I had a lot of high hopes for him and I being together. But it never worked."

"Care to share more?" He drained his glass and reached across a table for the second battle.

"I don't like sharing my personal life. People tend to spread things too much."

"I don't spread."

"I know you don't." She winked.

For a moment Tony was mesmerized by her eyes, but then he looked away. The public may be asking why a teacher, but then again, why Pepper Potts? He quickly looked away, and from the corner of his eye he saw a frown forming, as if she were… impatient.

"So, the children—" He started to say.

"The children are adorable." She interrupted, "I have fifteen of them in a classroom. Each one of them are very bright, but I find them…. uninteresting."

"Then why work as a teacher, if you find them so, uninteresting?"

"Everyone starts small, and small is better when you're trying to get big things."

Tony gulped down his drink, "Well you started out as a teacher and now the media wants to know your favorite color. That big enough?"

"Almost, what I want is a little bigger."

"And that is?"

"Something very interesting."

She looked at him, her eyes starting to warm. Tony couldn't help but look back at her eyes. They were green, very, very green. He thought they were blue earlier, it was strange, and maybe he was drinking too much that colors were changing.

"So, Mr. Stark." She started to lean in, very close. Alarm bells rang in his ears as he leaned away. She was close enough that he smelled her perfume; a vanilla scent filled his nostrils. It was… calming. "Why is it that you called me here? I doubt it was for the children."

Her hand rested on his flat abdomen and he gulped down bile.

She was so… beautiful. He was entranced, her hair seemed to glow, and her eyes were full of lust. He couldn't move anymore. Why was that? Think of Pepper, he thought to himself, but every time he thought of it, Corinth's face appeared in front of him.

Who the hell thought of "true love conquers all" crap, he thought. Why the hell was he acting this way? Everything seemed wrong, really wrong.

"I'll tell you a secret." She whispered in his ear. Her nails dug in his chest. "It will only be painless if you let go."

Her lips found his in a kiss. Tony's lips were shut tightly together, and his eyes wide open. She tried looking for an opening, but he kept it tightly locked together. Her hot breath against his cheek, her hands roaming up his chest.

Tony tried moving, but he was surprised he could not move any other part of his body. Pepper would be furious with him! She would probably annoy him about this for the rest of his life he just moved! It somehow took all his will power to bring his hands up to her shoulders and push her away.

She looked really, really annoyed. She licked her parched lips and leaned in again, this time he tried again, but his arms failed.

Why was he so weak today? Something was definitely wrong with this woman. He tried to activate the bracelets. This woman was very bad right now.

He heard something click, and he noticed that the woman no longer had those blue green eyes any more. They were cat slit and dark black. Her teeth started to point. Her tongue clicked against her teeth as she leaned to his neck.

She noticed the red glow coming from the two bracelets around his wrist, and she grasped them tightly. "Not today, Mr. Stark." She hissed, "Just, relax."

He felt something penetrate his neck, and it hurt like hell. He fought it, he wanted everything to stop, he felt…. Pain.

"You have godly blood in your system." She whispered before licking his punctured neck, "Interesting."

He barely heard her words as he started to sink down into oblivion. He no longer fought it but sank down into the deep void—

She suddenly reeled off him, her body flaying across the room. Tony could not move his body as he fell of the couch with a grunt. He felt his own blood running down his neck from the wound.

"Stark!" A deep male voice said. He noticed it was Rodgers, in his everyday clothes but with the captain shield.

"Look out," He wheezed as he saw the crazy woman leap in the air.

But she was no longer that woman any more. He squinted, when he blinked he saw her, but when he looked closer he could swear that her legs were not even legs, but were slithery brown scales like a tail of a serpent. Her hair and eyes even changed to a fiery red color, full of venom and fear. Her nails took a pointed shape, like the claws of a cat.

"Ah, the man out of time I see." She hissed, "I wonder how you taste like." She licked her lips at the thought.

"You're not hurting anyone again, ma'am." He answered curtly.

Stark had to role his eyes, He still acts formal to crazy slithery women? He thought. He winced as he tried getting up.

"Sir, would you like me to activate your suit?" Came JARVIS's voice.

JARVIS, why didn't he ask earlier? Tony may have been weak, but the suit would have at least kept him upright. He quickly nodded as the woman charged Steve, waving her claws back and forth and her tails slithering around his feet.

Tony felt the familiar buildings of the suit around him, he felt as it went down his arms, to his chest, to his legs until the helmet closed over him and darkness was the first thing he noticed. Then the lights blared on as he saw red and things started to come to life.

"Suit is full capacity, sir." JARVIS said.

Tony got up, and though his inner self was burning with pain, the suit kept him standing, and then a wave of dizziness crashed over him. He put his hand to his head, trying to shake the buzzing noise from his ears before stretching out in his suit.

He heard a sort of twang from the room, and then a muffled scream. Corinth had Steve around the throat by her scales; she lifted him up with one of her tails, brining him closer and closer. He noticed that an arrow had suddenly come from nowhere and it hit her but it quickly bounced off like it was nothing. Tony looked around to find Hawkeye, and JARVIS zeroed in to where he was, which was on the platform where he changed his suit most of the time.

If Hawkeye was there, then Natasha couldn't be too far behind.

There, she was running up behind Corinth with what seemed to be a kitchen knife. Before Tony could think about where she got it, Natasha stabbed down on the things back, but then she clutched her arms as it bounced off, and it vibrated across her arm. Corinth reeled to turn around, her other tail flaying as she did, and hit Natasha square on the chest and sent her flying across the room.

Tony couldn't attack with Steve still clutched in her grasp. His shield had fallen from his arms and his legs were kicking widely, searching for ground.

He watched as she looked at him for a second, brining him closer to her face. She spoke something to him, and then she was about to stick her pointy teeth in his neck when Tony instinctively blasted her other tail with his hands.

It gave him the reaction he needed as she flung Steve across the room, where he hit a wall and fell down.

"So vampire with snake skin," He said to her, "Hold on and let me think about which story your in."

He actually put his hand on his chin, but that was only to anger her or confuse her. He was glad she chose confusion, because he put all his power into that single blast that made her fly on the other side of the building. He heard screaming as she was suddenly lit alight, and he watched her burn and screech. Yet that was another problem. She wasn't screaming in pain, she was laughing. It took awhile for Stark to notice that as the flames died down too abruptly and both her tails knocked his down. She climbed on top of him, and placed both of her scaly legs on his arms, and then she squeezed.

The mechanics on his arms protested as it was squished together, and they started to spark. He had a thought of Thor doing the same thing, but she did it much faster than Thor. In no time, his good blasters were not in use and she smiled.

"Sir, all weapons and artillery are lowering levels—"

"I know that." He didn't mean to yell at him, but frustration waved over himself.

Hawkeye didn't seem like he could do anything. He was shooting arrow after arrow toward Corinth, but all she did was block every single one of them. She then flung out the arrow to turn toward him, and then Hawkeye had to jump out of the way. His arrow was the bomb version. Some were deadly; some were only there to shock. He chose deadly, and it nearly killed him.

His team was down, some were groaning and others tried to get up on their knees. They've faced aliens and public discrimination. They've even faced the gods themselves, but it was this one monster that took them all down. It was probably because it was a surprise, but now his entire floor on Stark Tower was destroyed, again.

Captain America tried getting up from his position, he reached idly for his shield, nothing. Natasha wasn't waking up, but she started to stir.

"Where the hell is Banner?" He thought. And then he thought again, Banner was told to not do anything. He was only told to go to a nice secluded space, and that order was given by Stark himself. He didn't want 1) Someone to tear his place apart, and put it into scraps and 2) He didn't want Banner to get out of control. Banner was a really good friend of his, even though he annoyed the hell out of him. He claimed to say that he could control the 'Other Guy' as he called him. But under different reasons, he still wasn't sure if he could.

Corinth held herself in triumph as she looked around herself pleasingly. She had a strange smile on her face, and her legs swiveled around her like an octopus.

"Never have I thought," She said, "That I would defeat Earth's mightiest hero's!" She laughed, "Now I know I'll have the strength to defeat those stupid children. And judging of how fast I defeated all of you, it would be as easy as killing a cat."

Her laugh was in a hissing tone, deadly and dangerous. It meant that all good things would be coming to an end, and to think that they thought it would be a piece of cake—

The shattering of glass made all the Avengers heads turn. A black sort of thing smashed through the wall of windows, and it tumbled and reeled as it made an awful landing. Luckily, it landed on Corinth, who was in the way when it hit the windows.

Tony squinted through his Iron Man mask, zooming in to see what it was. The sound the black thing made was a sound of a horse whining, and something outstretched from its back, which suspiciously looked like wings. He blinked, and then the winged horse looked like a huge black shadow. What the heck?

"I said the walkway!" Someone yelled.

When the wings stopped flapping, it revealed a person its back. Judging from the voice, Tony guessed the person was a male.

The horse whined in response.

The person on the horse wore sweater with a long hood. Almost like an Assassin Creed style, since it covered most of his face.

In shock, the Avengers watched as the black horse rose on its hind legs, and kicked widely, the young man still clutching onto its mane.

"Whoa, Blackjack." The young man said, "Geez calm down! Careful!"

This was going to be an interesting night.

Author's note: I would really appreciate it if you all had the time to read this. If you don't then I will message you and get on your butt. In any time, I know I may have rushed through this one a bit. In truth, I'm trying to match the same number of pages as Chapter 1. It's not easy, cause I want everything to be equal. Any case, there are a few things that I want to get clear:

Jason Grace from the Hero's of Olympus series is being THOUGHT PROCESSED, in case you didn't catch that last time. This is on a specific time line, since I am doing this during the months after the war with the Titans. So three month time period.

Second, updates will be every Sunday (Or if your from another time zone: Once every week) because the first chapter was originally suppose to be a sample but due to everyones reviews telling me to "update soon", really made me type faster and now I fear I MIGHT stop in the middle. Ugh.

Anywho, review on how well or horrible this was! Like I said, I may have rushed through it and in truth, I'm not overly fond of it. This isn't my favorite chapter, but just say good or bad and I'll try my best.

Next Chapter: No, that's not Tony Stark