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ELEVEN

Peppermint Tea

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The Avengers Facility was, to put it simply, quite large.

Alyssa, who was used to the small, cozy Apollo cabin, was floored. The long hallways, modern sitting rooms, large windows, and endless doors were amazing. Alyssa's normally hard-to-read expression must have been pretty good, because Tony glanced back at her a few times, and when he did he always smirked.

After a few minutes, they entered a room with someone in it.

It was a living room, as far as Alyssa could tell. There was a decorative fireplace against the wall, floor-to-ceiling windows on one side, a small bar by the door, and a few couches and chairs by the fireplace. There was also a pretty blonde woman sitting on a white couch, looking at an iPad.

"Hey, Pep. Look who's here!" Tony smiled and walked over to the woman.

The blonde looked up. Her eyes locked onto Alyssa, and she surveyed her curiously but warmly.

"It's nice to meet you!" She smiled. She set the iPad down on the couch.

Alyssa immediately trusted the woman (Pep?) but was also getting the feeling that she pitied and underestimated Alyssa. Alyssa didn't need pity, and didn't like people underestimating her.

"You too," Alyssa said.

The woman turned to Tony. She looked anxious. "So. Am I going to get the details? Did she want to go? What were Fury's plans for her? Will we have S.H.I.E.L.D. breathing down our necks demanding her back?"

Tony faltered. "Um... Kind of, not good, and maybe?"

She sighed. "Better than I expected. Let's find Alyssa a room and figure out what we're going to do."

Alyssa was still a little wary of being with strangers in a large house with probably loads of security, but she was warming up to Tony, and already trusted the blonde woman. She was probably better off than in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s hands. But, there was of course a chance that this would still end badly. When a demigod was involved, there was always a chance it would end badly. She wasn't going to let her guard down. Though, a room sounded nice.

Tony crossed his arms. "First, I think we need to gather up everyone who's here and fill them in. We'll probably need her for that."

Alyssa started drumming on her thigh with her fingers. She didn't like the idea of even more mortals knowing about the mythical world. "Do they have to know?"

"Yes," Tony said firmly. "Besides, it's probably smart to let them know that S.H.I.E.L.D. might try to take you back."

Alyssa sighed. "If S.H.I.E.L.D. does try to take me back, you need to let them. I'm not going to let anyone get hurt because of this. And I'll be fine, really. If I truly need help, I can always ask the gods."

"Hmm. We'll see. Anyway, I'll get everyone." Tony walked out, a smile flitting across his face. He left through the door she and Tony had come through.

The woman looked at Alyssa. "You need anything? A snack? Cup of tea?"

"A cup of tea would be great," Alyssa grinned. Tea was one of her favorites. Will Solace had got the entire Apollo cabin hooked on herbal tea a year or so ago, and ever since she had tea often.

"Sure. I'm Pepper, by the way," Pepper smiled warmly. She went over to the bar and started making some tea.

Alyssa went over to the bar and sat down on one of the stools. She didn't know when Tony would be back with 'everyone else', but she wanted to take full advantage of however long she had. It would be nice to just chill for a bit.

Pepper poured steaming water into two mugs and handed one to Alyssa. Then she came around the bar and sat on the stool next to Alyssa.

They both held their mugs cupped in their hands. Alyssa watched as the tea bag slowly turned the water a soft yellowish-green. It smelled like peppermint. When it was cooled enough, she took a sip. It was indeed peppermint. The calming taste and smell reminded her of happy times at camp.

She fingered her beaded necklace. She wished she was at camp right now. It wasn't the best of homes, but at least it was always home.

After a minute or so of peaceful silence, Pepper said, "I'm sorry that Tony got you into this. He's trying to help, in his own way."

Alyssa smiled at her. "I know. I'm okay here. I just don't want to cause trouble for you guys."

Not only would S.H.I.E.L.D. try to get her back, but Alyssa knew that it was only a matter of time until a monster attacked.

"If anything happens, it's Tony's fault," Pepper insisted.

Alyssa knew that when a monster attacked, it would definitely be her fault. But she smiled weakly and said, "Agreed."

After a few more minutes, Tony and a few other people entered the room.

There was a man wearing jeans and a dark green shirt. He had short brown hair and an interested but sort of exasperated expression. There was a woman with long red hair wearing a red jacket and black skirt. And there was a human or a robot with red and grey skin, and a gold jewel in their forehead. They were wearing slacks and a nice shirt.

Alyssa didn't know what to think, especially about the last one, but she assumed these were more Avengers.

She noticed she was tapping her thigh and tried to calm herself. She was worried about telling more mortals about the mythical world, and the more mortals told the worse it was. She hoped these ones were trustworthy.

"We're ready. I'll need your help with explaining everything," Tony said. His eyes were gleaming. Alyssa assumed he was looking forward to telling the other Avengers that the world was way weirder than they had thought.

"Tony, I hope this is good," the man with brown hair said. His tone implied that he disapproved of Tony bringing a kid to the facility.

"It is," Tony assured him.

Alyssa slid off the barstool and came over to the Avengers. The woman with red hair offered her a nervous smile. Pepper came over, and everyone settled themselves on the couches. Alyssa ended up on a chair where she could see everyone.

"So," she began. "You know Greek myths?"

Most people didn't, or only knew some things.

Alyssa sighed. This was going to be a while.

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An hour later, Alyssa had gone over the basics of Greek mythology, talked about how the gods were still around, explained that she was a half-blood and what her life was like, then talked about what would happen if people found out the Greek myths were real.

The Avengers were good listeners, and didn't seem too shaken about the whole the gods are real thing.

Alyssa also figured out that the man with brown hair was Clint, the woman with red hair was Wanda, and the person with the gold jewel in their forehead was Vision.

When Alyssa was done, Tony took over and explained that he had taken Alyssa from S.H.I.E.L.D. and they would probably be mad about that.

Nobody was very surprised, but they were all a bit annoyed.

"Tony, come on," Clint said. "Did you think that through at all?"

"I stand by my decision. Besides, she's here now. Nothing we can do."

Alyssa sighed. "But now won't he just get more half-bloods? Most demigods are at camp right now, we're kind of going through something, but if any leave camp, the orange camp shirt will make them pretty obvious."

Wanda frowned. "What orange camp shirt?"

"Oh, right," Alyssa said. "Camp Half-Blood makes orange T-shirts that say Camp Half-Blood on them. We wear them a lot, especially outside camp so other demigods know that we're a demigod. If S.H.I.E.L.D. finds anyone wearing a Camp Half-Blood shirt, it'll be pretty obvious that they're a demigod."

"Why are the shirts bright orange?" Tony asked. "Like, doesn't that make it super obvious to monsters that you're a demigod?"

"They can smell us from pretty far away. The shirt doesn't make a difference." Alyssa said. "But anyway, I need to call camp and tell them to stay in camp." She frowned. "I think Chiron has a phone, but I don't know the number. And I don't have any drachmas for Iris-messaging."

Vision seemed like he wanted to ask what Iris-messaging was, but she waved him off.

Alyssa sighed. "I should probably ask Apollo."

"Whoa," Clint said. "You want to summon a god?"

"Not really," she said. "Just ask him for a drachma."

"Would he give it to you?" Pepper asked.

"Probably. Money's not an object for the gods. I think they can summon it or something, or they're at least super rich." Alyssa explained.

"Well," Tony said. "Might want to do that in your room. Just in case."

"Sure," Alyssa said.

She stood up and walked with Tony to the door. Everyone else stayed, probably to start discussing what they were going to do about S.H.I.E.L.D..

Tony lead Alyssa through the facility to a door at the end of a hallway, pretty close to the room they had been in. Alyssa smiled at him and walked in.

It was sort of like a hotel room. White bed, bland walls, closet, and a small attached bathroom.

Alyssa figured the best place to try to talk to Apollo was in her sleep. He seemed to like showing up there a lot, and it was pretty easy to call him while she was asleep. So she shut the door, took off her shoes, and crawled into the bed. She didn't care that she wasn't in pajamas.

She fell asleep in minutes.

"Apollo?" She called into the nothingness.

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Hi! Sorry that this was pretty short. Having no plans means not much gets done. But I'm alright with how it turned out. I hope you guys are doing well!