Disclaimer: I own neither Percy Jackson nor the Avengers or any other Marvel property.
Marvel's Percy Jackson
Volume Two - Heroes and Villains and Everything in Between
Chapter Five - A Trip to SHIELD Academy
"There is nothing more unsettling, being a part of something so horrible, completely unaware. The cadet could have died," Simmons said, referring to how her and Fitz's technology had been used in an attempted murder at the SHIELD Academy. Some kids had been going for a midnight swim and the pool started to freeze, almost killing the one guy who didn't make it out in time. Percy snorted behind the magazine he was trying to read.
She was very wrong on that front, there were so many things more unsettling than that. But, then again, Simmons had lived a fairly sheltered life, being ridiculously smart and then having whatever she wanted handed to her at the Academy whenever she wanted to work on a new project.
"We drew up those concepts years ago," Fitz said, "We didn't know they'd be applied in that way."
"Is that the machine they found in the frozen pool?" Skye asked. "Correction: the instantly frozen, indoor pool."
"Seems like it was planted in the filter days before," Ward stated. "Like someone was waiting for those specific cadets."
"Well, as far as they can tell the device uses a crystalline nucleation process she designed," Fitz said, gesturing to Simmons.
"And a delivery mechanism he invented," Simmons said. "That's why we're being asked to consult on the investigation." She sounded so pathetically sad that Percy just had to interject.
"Edison used Tesla's AC to kill animals and prisoners," he said, calmly, without looking up from the magazine. "I'm sure he got over it when people realized all the good stuff it could do. You'll get over that too when you've managed to catch the ones responsible for this."
"No one asked you," Ward said, sounding like a bratty child trapped in a man's body, which Percy was becoming increasingly sure that he actually was. "She's allowed to feel however she wants."
"Of course she is," Percy conceded. "It's just usually considered nice for people to try and console sad people. You'll learn the proper social etiquette once you grow up." Skye burst out laughing.
"Oh, wow, Ward," she said. "He definitely won this one. You need to step up your game."
"Whatever. How long are you going to be reading that, anyway, Perseus?" he asked. "You've been reading that for twenty minutes and are only on the second page."
"It's not nice to make fun of learning disabilities, agent Ward," Percy said, looking up from the magazine for the first time in the conversation. "I've got dyslexia, you know." He turned back to the magazine. No one said anything for a few moments.
"Wait," Skye started. "You've actually got dyslexia?"
"Why do you sound so disbelieving?" Percy asked, just staring at the letters at that point, hopelessly lost. "Nearly 15-20% of the population have language based reading disabilities. Of those, dyslexia is the most common. 20% is one in five and there's exactly five of us here. Old Wardy doesn't have it, Skye doesn't have it, Simmons doesn't have it, and Fitz doesn't have it. That leaves just me, and boy, do I have it."
"But you're a superhero," Skye stated.
"No, I'm a mercenary" Percy responded dryly. "I get paid for doing stuff. Although, Fury still hasn't managed to pay me for Manhattan. I mean, I went into a freaking wormhole or whatever and almost died. You'd think the stupid World Council would pull the sticks out of their asses and realize that, but no such luck."
"No, I mean, you Avengers guys are supposed to be, like, perfect, or whatever." Percy looked at her, unimpressed by her reasoning skills.
"Stark has a huge problem with both his ego and his drinking, Banner has the worst anger issues of anyone I have ever met, Cap doesn't know how to live in this day and age, Thor doesn't know how to live in this world, Barton is an idiot whose only talent is shooting a bow and arrow, Natasha has one of the longest lists of secrets and mistakes in the world, and I have both dyslexia and ADHD. None of us are perfect."
He contemplated telling them about his PTSD but decided that he didn't know them well enough and went back to struggling through the article. It would have helped if it weren't such a boring article but the only person who read magazines on the plane was Phil and he was a weird person.
"Dyslexia and ADHD?" Simmons asked. "You are a very interesting person, Perseus. I really must get a chance to study you."
"You're a nice girl, Jemma, but you'll have to at least take me to dinner first." Percy winked at her. Simmons turned bright red and tried to stutter herself out of the situation.
"No, that's not, I mean, I didn't, it's purely scientific. That's not to say I wouldn't want to, I mean, you're a good-looking man and all, but that's not what I meant to say, uh." She stopped speaking, looking horribly lost in a labyrinth of her own making. Percy laughed.
"Don't worry, Simmons," he said. "I know what you meant. I was just messing with you."
"Oh," she said, looking relieved. "That's good." She hurried into a hushed conversation about science or whatever with Fitz and Percy smiled behind his magazine as he turned the page, glad that he'd gotten her to forget about studying him for the time being and glad that he'd finally finished the article. His smile fell right off when he read the title.
"Who the Hades wants to read about rare pens?" he asked no one in particular. "Why would there even be a thing called rare pens? Pens are just pens."
"I'm going to pretend I didn't just hear that, Percy," Phil said as he walked through the door. He gestured to the magazine. "Nice to see you're reading something other than mission reports. Reading is a skill you need to keep practicing."
"Thanks Mr. Coulson," Percy said sarcastically. "Oh, and by the way, what did I get on my math test?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm older than you and trying to tell you what to do and that makes me your teacher," Phil said, not at all amused. "*something about Percy's fear of teachers and Percy remembers mrs dodds*
"Anyway, what's the plan for when we get to the academy?" Percy asked. Phil looked almost apologetic when he answered.
"May and I aren't going," he said. "We're dropping you off at the academy and going our own way."
"What?" Percy asked, disbelieving. "You're ditching me? Just after I found out you're not dead?"
"It's important," Phil assured him. "Otherwise we wouldn't be going."
"It better be," Percy muttered, turning back to the weird, old people magazine and turning the page aggressively. The pen article was stupid anyway. He saw, out of the corner at his eye, as Phil walked away, into his office, and the rest of the team looked at each other. They obviously didn't know what was going on either.
"This is the first time he's come out of his office since we took off," Skye said. "Do you think he's alright?"
"We saw him at a low," Ward said. "It's hard for everybody. Coulson's as tough as they come, he'll be good, just give him some time. And while he takes that time, it's on us to figure out what's going on at the academy."
"Well, would you look at that," Percy said, looking up and smirking at Ward. "First time since we met that you're not talking out of the wrong orifice." Ward opened his mouth to answer but decided not to and just walked away. Within a few seconds the rest of the team had all gone to do something else.
A while later the plane landed on SHIELD Academy grounds and the team plus Percy walked out onto the grass. Phil stood on the ramp as he and May got ready for their own mission.
"Good luck, team," he said. "I'll see you soon."
"Just so you know, Phil," Percy started. "If I ever died and came back to life, I'd tell you." Then the demigod mercenary turned around and walked towards the academy. The team quickly caught up to him.
"So this is the SHIELD Academy, huh," Skye said.
"This was the S.S.R facility before SHIELD was even founded," Simmons said, looking to Skye. "S.S.R stands for -"
"Strategic Scientific Reserve, yeah I know," Skye interrupted. "Is this where you got all your PhDs?"
"Oh, no," Simmons looked amused at the thought. "You need at least one to get through the door."
"Science and technology what you imagined, agent Ward?" Fitz asked.
"Yup," Ward said. "No uniforms, no rope course, no defined muscularity on anyone . . ."
"No marching in place, no IQs in the double digits," Fitz said. Percy laughed, Ward didn't stand a chance in the insult game against a guy with as high an IQ as Fitz had. A dark-skinned woman in a dark blue dress walked up to the group.
"There they are," she said in a British accent. "So good to see you." She shook Simmons's hand.
"You look as lovely as ever," Simmons said. The woman shook Fitz's hand next.
"I concur," he said.
"Thank you," the woman said with a smile. She walked to Ward and shook his hand. "Agent Ward, pleasure to have you, sir."
"Agent Weaver," he greeted. "There's a list of suspects?"
"Based on the level of intelligence it would take to put a device together like the one we found we've narrowed it down to the top ten percent of our cadets," agent Weaver said. She opened her mouth to say something else but then she noticed Percy, standing a little bit behind the group and seemed to lose the ability to form words for a second.
"I'm Perseus," Percy said, stepping forward, between Skye and Simmons, with his hand extended, hoping to break the woman out of her stupor. She pulled herself together and shook his hand.
"I wasn't aware that we'd be having an Avenger on our premises," she said. "It's an honor, sir." Percy smiled.
"I invited myself," he told her. "Don't make a big deal out of it, we just want to get this done."
"Of course, sir," she agreed. "I'm worried there's a bad seed in our group." Ward leaned towards Skye and proceeded to try and explain to her what the term 'bad seed' meant, leaving Percy to clamp a hand over his mouth so he wouldn't laugh in the poor man's face. Gods knew he had enough problems already.
"Bad seed isn't a SHIELD term, Ward," Skye said. "It's just a term." Ward stayed completely still for a couple of seconds until he turned back to agent Weaver.
"I know you've already questioned the victim but I have a few questions I'd like to ask him myself," he said. Weaver nodded.
"I'll arrange for you to talk to Seth Dormer when he's out of class. Now if you'll excuse me I'd like to get agents Fitz and Simmons settled into the lecture hall." Agent Weaver turned and walked away and Fitz and Simmons followed her. As soon as they were noticed by the other students they were crowded, everyone wanting to talk to them.
"Look at them," Skye said. "The popular kids." Percy smiled.
"Looks like they're the celebrities here," he stated. "I won't have anything to worry about then." He started walking and was immediately stopped by a nerdy-looking guy (though compared to the other people around he was completely normal).
"Are you Perseus?" he asked. "You know, from the Avengers?" Percy laughed.
"No, I'm not," he said. "But I get that all the time, maybe we're related or something." The kid just smiled politely and left, leaving Percy to walk away, free from unwanted attention. He just walked around for a few minutes, not really knowing where to go, and wound up at the main building. There he saw Skye and Ward leaving, after having been looking at the wall of valor. Percy walked up to it and read all the names.
"Bucky Barnes, the guy Captain America can't stop talking about when he starts reminiscing about the war. After a couple of times hanging out with Steve I probably know the guy better than his own mother." he muttered. He read on chuckled sadly when he found a familiar name. "Phil Coulson. I wonder if they'd take it off if they found out."
"Sir?" agent Weaver called. Percy turned to look at her. "Your friends' lecture is about to begin if you'd like to attend." Percy took one last look at the wall of valor and took off after agent Weaver. They entered a large lecture hall filled with people and agent Weaver stepped up to the podium while Percy leaned against the wall. Immediately everyone went quiet.
"Today, we're proud to welcome back two of SHIELD Academy's finest," she started. "Our youngest graduates to date. You know their names. Please join me in welcoming agent Leopold Fitz and agent Jemma Simmons." The cadets all started clapping and FitzSimmons stepped up to take agent Weaver's place.
"Thank you, agent Weaver. It's nice to be back," Simmons said. "Unfortunately it has to be under these circumstances."
"If you don't know the history of SHIELD by now, there's no excuse," Fitz said. "Unless you fell asleep in Professor Vaughn's class, that's a perfectly acceptable excuse." The crowd started laughing. Simmons started speaking about science or something and then Fitz talked about SHIELD and HYDRA and then the two of them kept speaking in turns until one student interrupted them.
"Oh, god!" he exclaimed, standing up from his seat. "Oh, god, what is this? What's happening to me? Help me, help me! Get it off!" He kept shouting as ice crawled up his body. Fitz and Simmons started running towards him and Percy did too, at a much calmer pace. The kid's entire body was completely frozen.
"Find exposed skin," Simmons shouted. Her command was followed by a bunch of sciency stuff as she started rummaging through her bag, looking for something.
Percy walked up to the kid and laid his hand on his shoulder. Immediately the ice started melting. Percy stepped back and waved his hand, making the water evaporate. The ice started coming back and Percy had to keep it at bay. He looked around for something that might be doing this and found the ice machine under the seat in front of him. He pulled out a gun and shot it. Immediately the machine stopped trying to freeze the cadet and Percy could stop using his powers.
"You okay?" he asked the kid, who nodded. Percy looked around and saw that every single person was staring at him. "Damn," he muttered.
"I knew it!" someone shouted. It was the nerdy kid from before. He was pointing at Percy. "I knew you were Perseus the Avenger!"
"Congratulations," Percy said. "You've won absolutely nothing." Then he turned and walked away.
"Wait!" the frozen kid called after him. Percy looked back over his shoulder. "Thank you," he said.
"Don't mention it," Percy told him. "That's your one freebie. Next time you get frozen you'll have to pay me to get out." He walked up the stairs to back of the hall, his mere presence carving a path through the assembled crowd. On the way he met Ward.
"What happened?" the agent asked.
"There was an ice machine that froze some kid," Percy said, gesturing to the shaking cadet. Just then the crowd broke out of its stupor and everyone started clapping. "No, don't do that. Stop doing that," he said, to no avail. Percy sighed and walked to the top where he leaned against the wall. The students started leaving the hall and most of them gave Percy respectful nods or came to shake his hand.
When the students were all gone Fitz and Simmons started scanning the environment, looking for clues. Agent Weaver came over and spoke to them for a bit. The kid who got attacked was named Donnie Gill. He was super smart and had trouble socializing. He was studying at the pool when it froze, likely the intended target all along. He was going to be the youngest graduate since FitzSimmons and would be assigned to the Sandbox. Percy turned and walked outside. He looked over the campus and noticed a few cadets walking down some stairs, heading underground. He followed.
Percy walked down the stairs and was, to say the least, surprised by what he saw. It was an old boiler room that had been modified a lot. There was loud electronic music being played, people playing pool, and there was even a bar. Percy walked down into the room and stepped up to the bar. The bartender was quick to notice him and come over.
"What can I get you?" he asked.
"Let's start off with some information," Percy said. He pulled out his Avengers ID and showed it to the guy, whose mouth dropped wide open. "What are you studying?" he asked.
"Uh, computer science, sir," the bartender told him.
"Well, I'll put in a good word for you with whomever you want if you'll tell me what I want to know."
"Y-yes, sir. What do you want to know?"
"The Sandbox. Anyone lobbying for a position there?" The bartender leaned closer to Percy.
"Behind you, the girl." Percy turned and saw a dark haired girl playing pool. "Callie Hannigan. She's been trying hard to get assigned to the Sandbox, but word's gotten around that she's lost the top spot."
"Callie Hannigan," Percy muttered. "She was at the pool, wasn't she? And she didn't want to go in. Now that seems like a winner to me."
"I'm sorry, sir?" the bartender said.
"What's your name?" Percy asked.
"Uh, Michael Young, sir," the bartender told him.
"Thank you for your help, Michael. I'll tell agent Weaver how helpful you were." Percy left and walked up to Callie Hannigan where she was playing by herself. He picked up a cue stick and asked if she were up for a game. She was. They set up the game and started playing. Percy noticed Ward, Skye and Simmons entering. They didn't seem to notice him.
"So," she started. "Who are you?" Percy debated telling her who he really was but decided not to.
"Agent Grant Ward," he said. "Level seven. Operations." She looked impressed but, slightly suspicious.
"What's a guy from operations doing in the boiler room?" she asked. Percy stepped closer to her.
"Looking for the smartest person here, to get out and join my shadow unit," he said. "Is that you?"
"Could be," she stated. "Shadow unit doing what?"
"I've said too much already," he said, borrowing the classic line from so many movies. "But, that attack in the lecture hall. It was impressive. Whoever built that tech could be moving to level six within the year."
"Even though Donnie and Seth were hurt?"
"They survived."
"Yeah, probably the best thing to happen to them all year."
"What exactly do you mean by that?" Percy asked, accusingly.
"Just that they got to meet agent Fitz," she said quickly. "They've been talking about it for weeks."
"Weeks? We just got here," Percy said. Then he realized it. "Talking about it to whom?"
"Each other," Callie told him. Percy walked away from Callie and to the team.
"Guys," he said.
"Perseus," Simmons greeted.
"I know who did it," he said. "Donnie and Seth."
"They were the ones who were attacked." Ward stated.
"They've been talking to each other for weeks about meeting Fitz. They had it all planned."
"But Seth said that Donnie didn't have any friends,"
"Obviously he lied, Ward." Percy was getting excited, he'd solved the mystery. "They're working together. Simmons, call Fitz."
"Already on it," she said, with her phone at her ear. She talked frantically with Fitz, telling him of the problem at hand. After a short exchange she hung up and sighed. "He hung up on me. He said something about a power problem."
"Let's go," Ward said. This time, Percy didn't argue with the agent. They were at Donnie Gill's place in no time but he and Seth Dormer were already gone. The only thing they left behind was an unconscious Fitz. When he woke up he told them that the two cadets had created a bigger ice machine and that he'd unwittingly helped them power it.
Coulson and May arrived, having finished their special mission, and the team, minus Ward and Percy, went into the plane. The two men were to coordinate the search for the cadets with agent Weaver. They went building to building but the boys were nowhere to be found.
"Percy, it's Phil," the SHIELD agent said into Percy's comm. "They have a backer."
"The cadets?" Percy asked, putting a hand up to his ear.
"Yes. They're making the machine for someone, someone rich who can buy the materials necessary."
"Who is it?"
"Ian Quinn." Percy cursed. The sociopath businessman who'd tried to get the information about the gods' existence on earth. "You know him?"
"You could say that. Thanks, Phil." Percy, along with agents Ward and Weaver exited a building and noticed a storm rising. Then it started hailing. Hails the size of ping pong balls. Then they grew larger, the size of a small basketball.
"They've turned on the machine," Ward stated.
"How stupid can you get?" Percy wondered. The storm just grew and grew. The winds were getting harsher and harsher, the clouds were almost black. They'd created a super storm.
"We need to get everyone to safety," agent Weaver said.
"The boiler room," Ward suggested. Weaver nodded and the two of them started running away, going to save the cadets. When Percy didn't follow, Ward turned around. "Perseus! What are you doing? Come on!" he shouted.
"I can't!" Percy shouted back. "I have to try and stop it!"
"Are you crazy?!"
"Yes!" Percy turned to the storm and started walking, fighting against the wind. He concentrated and managed to split the wind around himself, creating a tunnel he could walk through. His dad was the stormbringer but he'd never really practiced his own stormbringing so it was far from easy. And it would only get harder. His comm started buzzing.
"Percy, where are you?" Phil asked.
"I'm trying to walk through the storm!" he shouted. "Don't really know where to go exactly! Could probably have planned this better!"
"The eye of the storm is at the north campus parking garage, that's where we believe they are."
"I'm on my way there!" Percy was luckily walking in the right direction so he just kept going. The storm was getting more powerful by the minute. He needed to hurry. After an excruciating minute, Percy fell to his knees in the center of the storm. He allowed himself a sigh before he stood up and ran to the pick up truck with the two cadets furiously trying to shut the device off.
Suddenly a small explosion went off and Seth Dormer was fired off the bed of the truck, landing harshly on the ground. Donnie jumped off, trying to resuscitate him, just as Percy reached them.
"Donnie!" Percy shouted. The cadet looked up and saw him. "Can you turn this thing off?" Donnie looked at the machine, which was lying on its side, blackened, with a small fire blazing on it, and shook his head.
"I can't! It's too late!" he yelled. He turned back to his friend.
"Fuck!" Percy exclaimed. "Hey Phil! The machine's broken, it can't be turned off."
"Can you do something?"
"I can but it's going to suck," Percy told him. "Why am I always the guy who has to save everyone?"
"You're just so good at it, now hurry!"
Percy took a deep breath and lifted his arms in the air. He concentrated on the sky, on the storm, and tried to stop it. He was met with heavy resistance but he pushed on. Percy was a lot of things but a quitter was never going to be one of them. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead as he sensed the smallest of changes in the atmosphere. He was doing something.
He pushed and he pushed. He pushed so much that pregnant women everywhere would be proud of him. He grunted as he fell to one knee. He lifted himself up, slowly, painfully. A terrible scream was ripped from his throat as he gave everything he had in one giant shove. Because fuck you, Zeus.
The hail stopped. The wind slowed. The sky cleared. He did it.
Percy fell down on his butt. He stayed there.
The Bus appeared in the sky and descended onto the parking lot. FitzSimmons and Coulson ran out. Donnie stood up and shouted at them to help him. That Seth was hurt. They picked him up and took him into the plane where they tried to save him. After a minute or so, Coulson walked back out, towards Percy. He extended his hand to Percy and helped him stand up.
"Great job, Percy," he said. "Great job." They walked into the Bus and saw Donnie Gill crying next to the body of Seth Dormer.
"He didn't make it?" Percy asked quietly. Phil shook his head. The two of them walked up to the upper level of the plane where Percy sat down heavily in a chair.
"You want anything?" Phil asked.
"Strongest thing you got and a glass of water. would be nice." Phil grabbed a bottle of Scotch and poured Percy a glass. Then he opened a cooler and grabbed a water bottle which he handed to the mercenary. Percy opened the bottle and poured the contents over himself, sighing as the rejuvenating effects of the water set in. Then he picked up the glass and downed it in one sip.
Agent Weaver and agent Ward came aboard the plane. Ward to rejoin his team, and Weaver to pick up Donnie Gill, who was now a criminal. They were going to send him to the Sandbox, like he wanted, not as a researcher, but to keep an eye on him.
The team and Percy sat around a table as the Bus took to the air once more.
"Can you fly me home?" he asked Phil.
"Sure, no problem."
"Thanks, I really need to get some sleep after that." Right then, the evil mastermind Jemma Simmons entered the conversation.
"What you did out there was absolutely brilliant," she said. "Would you mind terribly if I took a blood sample? And possibly a urine sample and a tissue sample?"
"Yes, Jemma, I would," Percy told her. "You will not come close to me with any of your sample-taking equipment. Ever." She looked disappointed for a second but brightened up almost immediately.
"Well, I wouldn't expect you to want any of that right after such an ordeal. I'll just get it later." Percy's phone rang. He picked it up, looked at the screen and answered.
"What do you want, Fury?"
"I heard of your adventures with Coulson's team," the director of SHIELD stated. "And I'm more than curious to know how you were to obtain the information of agent Coulson's . . . situation."
"Well, that's too bad, because I'm not telling."
"Hmm, I figured as much. That's not the only reason I'm calling you."
"Do tell."
"I have a mission for you." Percy sighed. He was not going on another mission until he'd gotten at least ten hours of sleep and a very long shower.
"Fuck off, Fury. Call me tomorrow and we'll see." He hung up on the director of SHIELD. He looked around and saw that everyone was staring at him, wide-eyed. "What?"
A/N: IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT! VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!
Guys, I'm sorry but after this chapter I'm abandoning the story.
Joke!
I won't do that, I promise. But now that I've got your attention I'll get to my real announcement. It's my birthday! Yay! Another year survived, that much closer to dying. Whoop whoop! Anyway, since it's my birthday I decided to gift you with a chapter. Hope you enjoyed it. But now I'm getting to the actual point of this author's note.
Since I'm starting a new year of my life now is the time for changes. So, if there's something you don't like about my story and want to see changed or something you really like and want to see more of, let me know. If there's something in the writing style that annoys you or if characters are too OOC for you, tell me. If there's something wrong with the grammar, definitely tell me; I, personally, hate to read stories with bad grammar so please, if there's something wrong about that, talk to me. English isn't my first language so I'm mostly going off books, video games and TV. They aren't always completely reliable. This is your chance to have your voices heard.
Follow, favorite, review. Thanks.
'Till next time,
-Manimal