Heads up, kind of weird, sometimes extremely WTH?-ish. You have been warned!
Stark made a beeline for the elevator, but Percy grabbed the billionaire and put him in front of the stairs. "Take the stairs. I'll be explaining everything on the way down," Percy said, and then flagged the others down.
Steve filed in first, then Banner, Stark, Natasha, Clint, and then finally Percy.
"The last time there was a war in Manhattan, Morpheus put all the mortals to sleep, which made it a lot easier for both sides: Kronos to advance, and demigods to defend, since neither side had to worry about the mortals calling nine-one-one for zombies and under-the-bed monsters battling to the death on 5th Avenue," Percy grinned at the Avengers' disbelieving faces. "And we didn't have to worry about herding the panicked mortals to a safer place."
"I remember that! The one when the statue of Susan B. Anthony was strangling Fredrick Douglass?" Stark exclaimed.
Percy laughed and almost tripped on a step. "That's the one. Unbeknownst to you mortals, there was a reason that the city looked like a warzone: it had been a warzone. And unlike your war, which happened in only a span of hours, the Titan War happened over five days, mostly at night."
"Speaking of which, why didn't you guys come help?" Banner inquired.
"For several reasons. One was that since there are no electronics allowed at camp because the signal is about as good as a flare to monsters and basically saying," here Percy's voice took on a falsetto, "here I am! Please come rearrange my dental work!"
Stark snorted with laughter.
"So because of that reason, you guys didn't even know there was a war until it was over," Steve said, understanding.
"Well, mostly over. Annabeth recieved a panicked voice message from my mom, telling us about the war. But since she wasn't in the immediate fire and nowhere near this tower, she didn't know about it until her living room exploded. Then we got our collective butts up and helped evacuate and stab the occasional alien. You guys seemed to have it mostly under control, so we just kind of laid low so as not to attract unwanted attention from the government. Police are so annoying sometimes. But I have to admit, Steve, you sure scared those NYPD guys 'til they almost wet themselves!" Percy chuckled.
"When was this?" Clint asked, interested.
"Towards the beginning of the war, after the floating mechanical eel came out of the portal, after I left you and Natasha." Steve said. "If you came later, how did you know about that?"
Percy imitated a deep, baritone voice: "-and he sliced off the arm of the alien and took a breather. And that was when I knew that I'd better listen to this guy, or he'd slice off my arm as well!"
The Avengers went into hysterics. Even Natasha had to stop on a step to avoid falling down the seemingly endless stairs.
Steve choked out, "Did he really say that?!"
"That was the abbreviated version," Percy said, straight-faced.
"I wish you guys could've seen the guy's face," someone from the shadows said.
"Hey, Nico," said Percy, who seemed like the only person not wary to hear a disembodied voice from a shadow.
A tall, pale, skinny boy appeared on a shadowy step. "I informed the camp, however disgruntled they might be at being woken up at four in the morning."
Percy snorted. "The post-TW's?"
"Yeah. I also informed them that they might want to get used to it," Nico smirked, which suggested that he hadn't informed them of that in a very nice way.
"What's on your mind?" Percy said anxiously.
Nico's jaw clenched. "The Underworld is in chaos. The Aphosdel Fields are being able to wander all the way to Hades' palace. The Fields of Punishment's borders are growing blurred with Aphosdel's, and so are Elysium's borders."
Understanding dawned on Percy. "The Underworld is in a civil war, Punishment against Elysium, and Aphosdel ghosts taking sides." Then came the worst thought. "What of Tartarus?"
Nico's jaw cleched harder. "He's siding with Erebus, of course, helping with the monsters. You remember how hard the hellhound was to kill. You remember how hard the gorgons were to kill when Gaea was awakening. It'll be both of those, combined, with Tartarus helping. Because now that the spirit of Tartarus is awakening again, he can pick and choose which monsters deserve to come into his depths. So he can reject the monster, send it back into the mortal world."
"So we can battle the hard-to-kill monsters. We can kill them. But they'll come back rapidly for more, and eventually kill us." Percy summed up.
"In a depressing nutshell," Nico agreed.
Percy took a deep breath and let in out in two words: "We're screwed."
"Ok, so wait, before we go all pessimestic, why is the god of darkness taking over on the brightest day of the year?" Stark asked.
"Cockiness," Nico and Percy said together. Percy elaborated. "All these bad guys are so sure of themselves that they'll win and get away with it, when in reality, the sureness makes them misjudge on what to do and how to do it, because they think that they're oh-so-powerful, and their oh-so-powerfullness will let them take over easily. Then we come along, and give them a severe reality check."
Natasha chuckled at Percy's phrasing.
"I will have to cry liar if you say that I'm lying," Percy said with a straight face.
"So you'll have to say that she's a liar for calling you a liar?" Stark checked. Percy nodded. "Gotcha."
"People! Oh my gods you are more ADHD than I am!" Nico said, exasperated.
"Percy started it!" Stark said. Percy went over and banged his head against the wall.
Nico closed his eyes. "Percy, you can stop banging your head on a metal wall. You're hurting my head, and my sister is supposed to be the one with the affinity for metals."
Percy stopped.
"This is getting us nowhere-" Steve started.
"Except downwards," Percy muttered as he tripped, going down a step.
"Percy, this is a circular banister," Nico said.
Percy face-palmed. "I'm so stupid."
Percy swung one leg over the banister like it was a horse, Nico right behind him, and zoomed downward. Percy's voice sounded faintly, "C'mon, slowpokes! You wanna get to the street or what?!"
A collective sigh was had by the Avengers.
"And they say we're ADHD?"