Look who's back after my new two week deadline! *No one cares out your author's notes* *sigh* Well, if any of you are curious enough to read whatever I write up here, I'll give you Marvel fans some amazing news.

SPIDER-MAN HAS JOINED THE MCU AND WILL BE FEATURED BY 2017!

I don't know any of the details, but it is true, so hallelujah! (Did I spell that right?) This is chapter was fun to write so hopefully I kept it as umm logical as possible, yeah... and if any of you are like me, you must have been looking forward to reading this. (Did anybody see Big Hero 6? I watched it a couple days ago and oh my god it was absolutely amazing and I'm going to shut up now so you people can read.)

If anyone wants an answer to a review, lemme know in that review! I can PM with longer responses if that's more preferable. Don't forget about the poll on my profile!


Chapter 7: Thank you Google

November 19th, 2012
12:34pm
Earth

Darcy Lewis was currently astounded.

"Hold on," she said through a mouthful of her cheeseburger, "are you telling me," she hastily swallowed her food as she looked her best friend straight in the eye.

"You met Percy?"

Darcy couldn't believe it. She honestly couldn't. Was Jane actually talking about the raven-haired, green-eyed, scar-ridden, sword-wielding S.H.I.E.L.D. agent whom she herself had just so managed to spend the night – uh, morning – with?

Jane seemed slightly more composed, the only indication as to otherwise be it in the fierce way her hand gripped her cup of coffee.

"Yes, but that's not the point," she began with a slight tone of impatience, even urgency, "the point is – there's something odd about him," Jane emphasized for what seemed to Darcy like the twentieth time. Since they both sat down for lunch, they had their stories of the previous hours to tell. Even now, after half an hour, Darcy were still trying to wrap her mind around the sequence of events.

Darcy also knew Jane was exhausted with her own disbelief by now, furthermore by the numerous questions she was expatiating. Despite that she found she couldn't care less, not when she was this curious as to how this stranger kept popping up in their lives, regardless whether he was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent or not. Not counting that she didn't exactly mind the supposed S.H.I.E.L.D. agent's presence, even if she wasn't about to reveal that to Jane yet.

Jane raised an eyebrow at the opposing female's rather carefree attitude, "I know that look!" Jane exclaimed frantically, "the guys uses a sword, Darcy! A sword! And you're giving him googly eyes!"

Darcy, instead of replying, took another humongous bite out of her cheeseburger and chewed slowly to give herself time to come up with a denial. "You did look at him right?" she said as she raised a skeptical eyebrow in doubt, "But I guess when you've had a fling with the God of Thunder–" Jane scoffed in a very uncivilized manner, interrupting Darcy mid-sentence. Pretending not to hear the intrusion, she continued, "–nothing compares. Not to mention you said Percy actually saved your life!"

Jane looked ready to retort until those final three words were stated, causing her to stammer in an attempt to regain her pride.

"You – you know Thor wasn't a fling! He's busy, other planets, Asgardian stuff," Jane elaborated in a rather butchered attempt to change her best friend's opinion, "I also never said I thought your new crush–" at this particular moment in time Darcy choked on a French fry, "–was a bad person," Jane spoke strongly, new-found confidence giving her the fuel she needed as she continued, "but that doesn't mean I believe he's a SHIELD agent. I work with them. I know how they act. But your mystery guy, he was nothing like them. I was grilling him out there – hell I even asked him if he was Asgardian–" Darcy whom had been intently listening while drinking her coke in order to dislodge the French fry, spit the beverage out in hilarity at that particular statement.

Swiping a napkin to dry her face and the table, Darcy contain help but let out a laugh, forgetting the unspoken tension between them, "You did what?"

Jane jumped at the outburst, clearly not expecting it, and proceeded to quickly defend herself, "He used a sword to do something to a mythological beast – I mean Thor uses a hammer and the Asgardians are warriors so I just assumed–" her ramble was cut-off by Darcy's snort of disbelief.

"Oh yeah sure, because an Asgardian would be walking around New York, not creating a spectacle and not talking ye 'old English."

Jane sat there, shaking her head at the absurdity of the statement to spout from her former intern's mouth. Darcy smirked triumphantly as Jane let the argument sink in. However, she wasn't going to back off yet, "I realized that almost immediately after I asked the question, but wouldn't he have admitted to being a SHIELD agent if he actually was one? Especially since I work with SHIELD? I mean there's the possibility he didn't know me – shouldn't he have shown even a civilian a badge or something? It didn't even occur to me that he could be a SHIELD agent, he wasn't even wearing a suit," Darcy raised an eyebrow at this particular point, "aside from the fact he told me to talk to you to get answers." Jane stopped her ramble with a deep breath, preparing to state her last point.

"Did he tell you he was a SHIELD agent? Did he show you a badge? And why don't explain to me again how you ended up spending the night at a sword-wielding stranger's apartment?"

Darcy sat there, mouth agape for a noticeable timespan of silence before finding her voice, "I told you already," she huffed in annoyance, "this morning, just before my shift at the bar ended some thing appeared and he killed it," At Jane's rather skeptical expression Darcy re-specified, "Yes, with the sword. But, he did just drank like a bottle of vodka so I couldn't just let him drive when he potentially saved my life–" She abruptly stopped her sentence as if she had forgotten what she was going to say.

Jane face-palmed in a very un-Jane-like way before sighing, "So you drove him home and stayed there – yes, yes, you told me. Did it occur to you that if he was right-minded enough to – to dispatch a monster that he would be well and able to drive himself home?"

Darcy didn't miss a beat, "It's illegal!"

"And when have you cared so much about the law?" Jane held up her finger at Darcy's retort, preventing what would be a spout about political science, "Besides the fact that you somehow don't think brandishing a sword in a bar to kill a thing is illegal."

Darcy swallowed whatever reply she had thought of and sat there, sipping her seemingly bottomless bottle of coke. After a moment without interruption on Darcy's part, Jane continued with her verbal assault.

"I'm not even going to start discussing your poor life choices, although I guarantee you I will get back to it. For now, we have to get to the bottom of this. I mean this guy just so happens to run into both of us on the same day, supposedly acting like a hero? Doesn't that seem slightly fishy to you?"

Darcy chewed on her straw in thought, "I mean, maybe, he seemed like a nice enough person for the most part – I didn't get any evil vibes from him," her eyes betrayed her uncertainty.

"Look I agree that I don't think he's evil, or at least the evil we're thinking of. If he was he wouldn't have saved us. Even if he is SHIELD agent – which I highly doubt – they aren't all good people either, they kill. Worst case scenario he's another anomaly that even SHIELD may not be aware of, and I can't believe I'm saying this but it's up to us to tell them." Jane looked slightly resentful, as if the idea didn't completely sit with her sense of righteousness.

Darcy honestly didn't think Percy was all that bad, even if she supposed her opinion could be slightly biased since she was a sucker for his impossibly green eyes. Sure, he'd been cold at first, in the unfriendly sense a stranger is towards another stranger in Manhattan, but he'd seemed way too genuine to be a threat. She also knew Jane understood that much, having spent time with him herself. But Jane also never went to his apartment. It was lonely for what seemed like a light-hearted person, didn't see the photograph of smiling children.

Should they expose him to S.H.I.E.L.D. on the chance he wasn't one of them?

Darcy didn't get to dwell on these thoughts long, it seemed her former employer was onto something, "Do you think it's possible he's the reason why those monsters attacked? I mean, I haven't heard of anything like this happening before, like actual mythological monsters attacking people on Earth. And even if there was, don't you think SHIELD would have looked into it?" Speculated Jane, thinking aloud in the way Darcy knew she always did when she thought she solved something.

"Maybe they are, maybe Percy is," Darcy answered Jane's rhetorical question as if it were some sort of epiphany, only to fade off into uncertainty, "If he is a SHIELD agent."

Jane continued as if she hadn't heard Darcy, "Asgard's another story, and this Percy guy seemed too shocked to be compared to Thor to be from there." Jane paused for a few lengthy moments, "That's it! Thor said there are nine realms right? One being Midgard – Earth," Jane clarified at Darcy's confused expression, "and another been Asgard – so what if he's from another realm?"

Darcy's eyes nearly popped out of her skull in disbelief, "You think he's an alien? He's way too normal for that, and that's saying something," she exclaimed, incredulity written all over her features.

"I don't see you with any bright ideas," Jane grumbled in a tone very unlike herself. She seemed stumped of all ideas.

"Yes, but I also saw a picture from his childhood. If he was an alien he's lived on Earth for years. Don't you think someone – SHIELD. – would have noticed?" Darcy countered.

Jane had nothing else to say it seemed, but she was also right – Darcy didn't have a single idea. There was barely any chance that her original thought of Percy being a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent was correct. She glanced outside the window of the booth they were sitting at, enjoying the cluttered view of New Yorkers bustling about their everyday lives, without a care in the world for the threats organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D. protected them from. Honestly, she barely knew anything more than what the common civilian could figure out, but having gotten to know one the Avengers, having been involved in something greater than herself once had been invigorating and terrifying. Percy had reminded her of that and for once in her life, Darcy didn't believe all she had to define herself was her "political science major" title.

Lost in thought, she glanced vaguely at the passerby until a boy, probably around ten, caught her eye. He was smiling in the chilly weather, beaming to his mother as he gestured towards items in a storefront window. Eyeing the window in mild curiosity Darcy almost spilt her remaining coke in recognition.

"Jane," she said, eyes wide in sudden realization, "what if he's like one of those good guys, one of those non-SHIELD-certified heroes like Spider-Man? He's obviously not as well-known but there are so many out there…" Darcy trailed off, unsure where she was headed with her statement.

"Mutants," Jane whispered almost inaudibly.

Comprehension dawned on Darcy's face, "Do you think?"

"It's possible. It seems the most likely out of anything we could come up with, really, without asking the guy," Jane stated in a faraway tone, "Although that wouldn't explain the sword. What should we do?"

They both sat in silence, Darcy finishing the rest of her fries, Jane sipping her still half-full lukewarm coffee.

"So what did he tell you?" Darcy suddenly asked as she swallowed a ketchup-clad French fry.

"What do you mean?"

"Like, about him, about what happened when you confronted him. Did he say anything, I don't know, memorable?" Darcy inquired further.

"I don't really think – wait a minute, he told me the creature that almost killed me was a hellhound. That's the main reason why I thought he was Asgardian – I've only ever heard of beasts' like that in folklore…" Jane trailed off, returning her thoughts to her head.

"Earth to Jane? Hello?" Darcy waved her had in front of her friend's face.

Jane blinked a couple times, "Sorry, it's just I'm trying to remember where exactly I remembered hearing about them–"

Darcy cut off the rest of the sentence with one of her own, "We got phones. We live in the modern era. Free wifi? Any of that ring a bell?" Darcy chuckled as she pulled out her own electronic device before Googling the term hellhound. Being Darcy, she picked Wikipedia as the reliable source of information, scrolling to the folklore that contained the beast.

"Okay, it says here that the most common known hellhound is Cerberus – isn't that the three-headed dog? Did the one that attacked you have three heads?" Jane gestured back to the phone in slight impatience, telling Darcy to get to the point.

"Ah, here we go, Cerberus is from Greek Mythology. Did that answer your question?" Asked Darcy smugly, silently giving herself a point for outsmarting Jane, if it could even be considered that.

Jane looked intently into her relatively cold coffee, "If Norse Mythology was somewhat real does that make all mythology somewhat real? Including Greek?" She questioned seemingly to herself.

"For that to work wouldn't there be some sort of paradox? Different gods and all that theory and speculation. If what you're saying is true it would be basically impossible to distinguish truth from actual myths," Darcy stated rather intelligently if she said so herself – which she did.

"Well, Thor is real and so are hellhounds," Jane stated matter-of-factly, "and it seems like it's up to us to figure out the mystery of Per–"

"I just thought of something," stated Darcy in a rush, without letting Jane finish, before furiously typing the keywords greek mythology gods who use swords into the search engine. After waiting a painful millisecond, the results popped up. Darcy gasped in surprise.

Jane looked over onto the phone from across the table, her train of thought completely forgotten as she tilted her head in an attempt to read the results. In a fluid motion Darcy flipped the phone around to show one of the top results.

"Who would have thought?" Jane murmured in astonishment.

"So I'm not the only one thinking it," Darcy sighed in relief, "It can't be a coincidence, no way, not after all of this."

"Would it really be a surprise for a mythological Greek hero to be alive? I mean after everything that's happened," Jane played with her coffee mug anxiously, feeling as though they had finally reached a solid conclusion.

"Perseus," Darcy breathed in admiration, "Wasn't he like one of the only Greek heroes in mythology that didn't die a painful death? I mean it explains the sword and the hellhound and the name – Percy! Is it really that obvious?"

"You know, he gave us all the clues. It's almost as if he wanted us to figure it out. I still feel like we're missing something. In Norse mythology they were called Gods, but they just live really long. Greek Mythology had Gods too, didn't they? What does that mean?" Jane went off on a tangent in an attempt to unravel more of this mystery.

Darcy once again relied on her phone and delved further into the Perseus wiki page she stumbled onto, "Do you think Greek Gods are people who live really long too? I thought there was only like twelve of them or something," Darcy questioned as she skimmed lightly throughout the various areas of the wiki for clues. In the end she just ended up reading the basic summary.

"It says here Perseus is half-god, half-human – the son of Zeus. Isn't that the one that ruled the skies?"

"What could it possibly mean to be half-god if they weren't Gods?" Jane pondered before snapping her attention back into focus, "That reminds me. I can't believe I didn't notice it before. I had asked him who or what he was." Darcy looked confused at Jane's assured expression.

"And what did he say?"

"He said he was a "who", but that the line sometimes blurred! Darcy, everything fits. Of course the line would blur if he were 'half-god' or whatever it means outside of the actual mythology. We figured it out!

"So what are we going to do now?" Jane questioned softly, their success having not solved the problem of what they should do next. "Should we go to S.H.I.E.L.D.? Wait until Thor comes back to ask him – he might know something? I bet if I asked Pepper she would find a way to get Tony to research anything he could find on the guy."

A smile crept onto Darcy' features, "I have a car and his address. I say we confront him about it."