Chapter 133

A Low-key comeback


"Am I the only one who feels uncomfortable with Loki on the ship?" I asked my teammates while looking at the big monitors on the wall that showed our new prisoner.

Loki was staring into the camera, We were victorious, yet the six of us sat around the table like we lost.

Banner was looking at his feet, trying to avoid eye contact. Tony was playing with his Iron Man glove he was still wearing. Clearly not wanting to socialize.

Natasha sat slumped in her seat, her mind probably drifting of to something else.

The awkwardness was almost visible in the air.

Now I looked again I realized that the people who sat around the table had almost nothing in common. I had heard a little about them but what I heard was not particularly good. Bruce was a failed science experiment. Tony was a vigilante who was still trying to make up for his time as a weapon inventor, Steve was a soldier from the past who only came out of his bubble to save the world (again), Natasha was an assassin and Thor was a god from Asgard.

I suddenly felt like I was not the odd one out.

"He's fun." Bruce said sarcastically, trying to break the ice.

"He's playing," Steve said. "He's going to drag this out. Trying to play the game his way."

Steve turned to the god standing in the corner. "Thor, what's Loki's game?"

Thor flinched, I had the idea he did not want to talk about Loki's game. Nonetheless he did. "He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth. In return, I suspect, for the Tesseract."

"Space?" I said. "That's a new one."

"He's building a portal right?" Bruce asked. "Like the one that brought him here. That's why he kidnapped Doctor Selvig."

"Doctor Selvig?" I asked, "Who's that?"

"He's an astrophysicist." Banner said.

"He's a friend." Thor corrected him.

"Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours." Natasha said.

"The arrow dude?" I asked. Natasha frowned, "What?"

"That dude with the bow!" I said, "I saw him. He shot me."

"You seem oddly fine," Natasha noticed.

"Super Healing." I shrugged.

Steve had a small smile on his face. "Anyway. Let's focus on Loki's plan."

"Leading an Army?" Tony said casually. "I don't see Reindeer games leading an army from his cell."

"I think we should not focus on Loki," Banner said. "He's like a parasite, the more attention we give him the more influence he has."

"Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he's my brother." Thor said.

"He killed 80 people in two days." Natasha frowned.

"He's adopted."

I chuckled, which resulted in a glare from Tony and Thor.

"Iridium," Banner said. "What does he needs Iridium for?"

I frowned. "What's Iridium?"

"Iridium is the stuff Loki stole." Tony said. "It's found in meteorites. Loki was stealing it, and he succeeded."

"O." I plainly muttered.

"Look kid," Tony said with annoyance in his voice. "Iridium is a stabilizing component. The portal Loki used to enter our world, it collapsed on itself. But if he gets Iridium…"

"The portal won't close this time." Banner finished his sentence.

"So he can build his portal right now?" I asked. "If he was not in his cell I mean."

"Almost," Tony said. "The rest of the materials are not hard to get, the only thing he now needs is a high power source. Something to kick start the cube."

"Wow," I said, "How'd you know."

"Some of us actually have brains instead of superpowers." Tony said with a smug smile.

"Stop it," Steve said, "focus on Loki instead of bickering with a 14 year old."

Tony opened his mouth to say something but Natasha glared at him, Which was a bit scary.

Thor coughed uncomfortably, "Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?"

"He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Banner explained, sounding a bit more confident than before.

"Unless, Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Tony added.

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet."

"At last" Tony opened his arms wide, "Someone who speaks English."

"Nerds." I coughed.

Both scientist glared at me but I shot them my most innocent smile. "Sorry. Sore throat."

Steve frowned but nonetheless focused on the mission. "Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon."

Hydra, why does everyone cares about the Hydra Fury hides in his basement?
"Whatever it is," Natasha said. "It turned two of our men into brainless zombies."

"What are zombies?" Thor asked confused.

"Zombies," Steve said looking proud, "I got the reference."

I grinned, "Great man!"

"Seriously." Tony said. "Why did Fury call us here? I mean, the entire Loki situation could've been avoided if he was careful with the Tesseract."

Tony looked at us expectantly.

"Come on," he said. "You guys don't you think it's a bit suspicious that Fury called all of us, now?"

"You think Fury is hiding something?" Steve asked.

"He is a spy." Thor said. "Spies always hide things."

"Right!" Tony said, "Goldilocks is right. What was Fury doing with the Tesseract in the first place?"

"Clean energy," I said, remembering the details in the file.

"Barton has been posting that speech from Loki all over the internet." Natasha said. "It's to poke fun at Fury. A warm light for all of mankind."
Tony snorted. "Since when is SHIELD working on clean energy?"

"Isn't that your division?" Banner asked. "The Stark Tower's yours right?"

Tony nodded proudly.

"The Stark Tower?" Steve asked. "You mean that ugly building in New…"

Then he saw Tony glaring at him and kept his mouth shut.

"Ugly building?" Tony snorted, "It's the most advanced high tech building in the world! Powered by the Stark Reactor. A self- sustaining energy source I build."

"That's a good one." Thor said, trying to hook in on the conversation.

"But why didn't SHIELD ask you to help with the Tesseract?"

Tony frowned, "I should look into that."

Banner shook his head, "I'm just here for the research."

He stood up and looked at all of us. "I'm going to my lab. Try to research the scepter. You guys just do the superhero stuff."

"Come on green guy," Tony said. "Don't you think it's exciting to find out SHIELD's dirty secrets?"

Bruce shook his head. "Stress is not good for me."

Tony stood up, "Come on Bruce. Live a little."

"Live a little?" I asked. "You know that your kind of risking the lives of everyone on the ship, right?"

Tony rolled his eyes and walked away with Bruce. Bruce was clearly not happy with the billionaire playboy assisting him.

Natasha suddenly got up. "I'm not going to sit here and do nothing."

"What are you going to do?" Thor asked.

"Interrogate Loki."

Thor looked like he wanted to protest but a glare from Natasha made him reconsider his words. "He's not talking."

"He will talk to me," Natasha said. Without waiting for Thor Natasha walked past him and left the room.

"I'm going to investigate Fury's plans as well." Steve said.

"You know how to hack?" I wondered.

"Nope," Steve said. "I'm going to do it my way."

With a determined look on his face he left the room. Wonder what he was going to accomplish.

"Well," Thor said. "This is awkward."

I coughed, now Thor and I were the only one left in the room.

I nodded. "So...you like Netflix?"


I pushed the labdoor open and entered the lab.

Tony and Banner both looked tired. Tony was munching away a bag with blue berries; staring at a holographic screen while Banner was studying Loki's scepter while sipping away at his coffee.

"Hi," I said.

Both scientist looked up, startled. "Oh, hey kid." Tony said, "Want some blueberries?"

"No thanks," I said, ignoring the fact that Tony called me a kid again.

"Is something wrong?" Tony asked.

He waved his hands across the holographic screen in front of him, windows closed and popped up.

"No," I said. "I was just wondering if I could borrow your phone."

Tony raised an eyebrow, "you want to borrow my phone?"

My face turned red, "Yeah. I'm trying to figure out Loki's plan but I kinda need internet access. I think I can figure out Loki's plan if I read just enough information."

"Is this one of your other Mutant powers?" Tony asked.

I shrugged. "I'm like a sponge when it comes to absorbing information. The point is, I don't have a phone."

It was true, I could maybe figure out Loki's plan with a little help from my mind palace. The point was, I had absolutely no knowledge about this world.

It was similar to my own but there were a few distinct differences. I needed to know what those were. I can't solve an equation without all the variables.

Tony frowned. "You don't have a phone? Everyone has a phone nowadays."

"Not me," I said.

"'Why not?" Tony asked, clearly not letting it go.

I decided to give him a little bit of information. "When I use things like computers and phones they tend to cause troubles."

"Troubles?" Tony asked, sarcastically.

"Well," I said. "Let's say that I have a lot of enemies who can track me if I use something electric. But since we're in the sky I think it's safe,"

And because there were not monsters in this world. Well except for the Hydra SHIELD apparently hassomewhere.

"Can't you ask someone elses?" Tony said. "I'm kind of in the middle of something."

"You're actually the only one I know on this ship with a working phone. Natasha and Steve both don't use on. Or atleast, a normal one. Thor does not have a smartphone and the same for the Banner. I could ask any of the SHIELD employers but I don't want them to track me."

"Oh," Tony said, "In that case."

He fished up his phone, it looked like a blueish glass plate instead of a phone. But I guess it was his own design.

"Good luck kid." Tony said, "And don't mess with the settings."

With that he pushed me out of his lab and I was back in the corridor.

"Well," I said. "That went better than expected."

'You could've asked me.' Chaos said suddenly.

'You have a phone?'

'No.' Chaos said.

'Do you know how to use a phone?' I Asked.

'No.'

"See," I said out loud. "Now let's find a place I can use my mind palace properly."


"I am Loki," Loki said. "From Asgard."

My eyes widened and for a second I was silent, then I said: "I am Percy Jackson. From Manhattan."

I frowned, and swiped my hand through the video in front of me.

I walked around the past version of Loki, trying to see what my mind palace was trying to tell me.

While I was revisiting my old memory; real time me was googling everything the media had to say about: Hulk, Iron Man and Captain America.

Past me tackled Loki to the ground and the God dropped to the ground.

The scepter fell out of his hands and rolled a few inches away.

"Stop!" I said and the memory froze.

"What's it I need to see?" I asked my mind Palace politely.

The memory in front of me began to zoom in on Loki's face, first I thought it was zooming in on Loki but when it kept zooming in I was lost again.

It stopped zooming in on Loki when the only thing left were Loki's eyes.

His green eyes.

"Green?" I said out loud, I thought his eyes were blue.

"Mind Palace," I said, "Show me other memories of Loki. Focus on the eye color."

The image in front of me shattered to pieces and I was standing in a black void again.

Then several images popped up, all floating around me.

I saw Loki standing in front of the crowd, Loki lying on the ground after Tony, Steve and I had beaten him. Loki standing on top of the cliff when Thor had abducted him and Loki shooting an energy blast at the helicopter I had been in.

In two of the images Loki had green eyes. In the other two images Loki had blue eyes.

'Why?' I wondered.

I knew that gods could change their appearance but this one was to subtle.

"Mind Palace," I said, "Try to figure out why Loki's eye color changed."

The images in front of me began to play, like a regular video.

The first video showed Loki standing in front of the crowd with the scepter in his hand. Then the video skipped to the part we had beaten him.

My eyes widened, "The Scepter!" I said out loud.

I glanced at all the images and it suddenly snapped. The scepter changes Loki's eyes color.

When he had been firing at us he had blue eyes. And he was holding the scepter.

When he was standing in front of the crowd, in Germany, he had blue eyes and a scepter in his hand.

When we had beaten him his eyes were green, and the scepter was no longer in his hands.

I gasped. "Mind Palace," I said. "Does the Scepter affects Loki's eye color?"

The images in front of me shattered.

A white word floated in front of me, YES

I grinned, "Thanks Mind Palace."

I frowned, "Al though, I should give you a name at some point."

Maybe I could make my mind palace work like Jarvis, as an AI that could summon up information at will.

Maybe….I had to look into this a bit more.

I swiped my hand through the word YES and sighed.

"Okay, next question. Why is the Scepter changing Loki's eye color?"

When nothing popped up I sighed. This was going to be a long session.

"Okay, search everything I know about the Scepter and try to find a link with colors."

More things popped up, News articles (Duel of Harlem), SHIELD files about Thor and Loki and a live footage of Loki grinning in his cell (this guy was up to something)

I sighed, this was going to be a long brainstorm session.


With the rising sun visible behind the windows I ran through the Helicarrier, trying to get to Tony's lab as fast as I could. Not that I had an idea where I was actually going, seriously. The Helicarrier layout made no sense.

I turned around a corner and bumped into a red haired spy.

Sadly, said spy had better reflexes than I had (even with Chaos' help). Before I realized I had bumped into someone she had grabbed my wrist and thrown me over her shoulder.

"Ouch!" I cried out as I hit the ground.

"Percy?" Natasha asked confused, then she realised what she had done. "Oh, God. I'm sorry."

She offered her hand and helped me up.

"Thanks," I said after the pain had faded away.

"I'm so sorry." Natasha apologized. "I was-"

"No problem," I said. "But first, we need to get to Tony and Banner. I figured out Loki's plan. He's trying to turn Bruce into the Hulk."

Natasha's eyes widened, "Wait, you know that too?"

I stopped. "What do you mean with too? I just figured it out."

Natasha chuckled, "Same for me. I was just done interrogating Loki. He's trying to manipulate-"

"Banner, using the Scepter." I finished her sentence.

"What has Loki's Scepter to do with it?" Natasha asked. "I only figured out he's trying to manipulate Banner."

I showed her the news articles on Stark's phone, directly after that I showed her some security cam footage of Loki using his Scepter to brainwash Hawkeye.

"The Scepter has the power to brainwash people .Who knows what it could do with Bruce."

She narrowed her eyes, "How did you hack into SHIELD's data?"

"Just did it," I said, "This is not even my phone. I borrowed Stark's."

"You borrowed Stark´s phone and he was already hacked into the SHIELD database?"

I groaned, "Seriously? We still have a walking timebomb on this ship remember?"

Natasha nodded and she tapped her earpiece, "Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab, I'm on my way. Send Thor as well. Percy and I will be there very soon."

She turned to me and took Tony's phone without asking me, "Also, this is not yours."

I blinked, "Hey you can't do that, it's Stark's."

"I'll give it back to him, once I disconnected it from SHIELD's database." Natasha said with a tone that told me she challenged me to defy her.

I groaned but there was not much I could do.

(Third POV)

Fury entered the lab.

He frowned when he saw Tony and Bruce were not working on the scepter. Instead he saw Tony opening up different files on his screen.

"What are you doing Mr. Stark." Fury asked angrily.

Tony was not impressed. "Uh...kind of been wondering the same thing about you."

"You're supposed to be locating the Tesseract." Fury said on a demanding tone.

"We are." Tony said with a smirk. "The model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile."

"And you'll get your cube back, no muss, no fuss." Fury said and he turned around, intending to leave he room but Tony stopped him.

"Oh," he said with a cheerful tone. "What do we have here?"

Fury turned around, the monitor showed a collection of files.

"Phase two?" Tony asked. "What is Phase 2?"

Suddenly the Lab door slid open and Steve marched in.

He looked pissed, the reason for this was in his hand. The soldier stopped in front of Fury and put down the assault rifle he had found.

"Hydra weaponry." Steve spoke out loud. "SHIELD uses the Tesseract to make weapons."

Tony and Bruce were looking at him, stumped.

Steve shrugged. "Computer took me to long."

Nick Fury was now not so certain anymore. He was looking nervous, which was understandable considering the people who were in the room with him.

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're…"

Tony slid open the PHASE2 file. "I'm sorry, Nick. But Jarvis, could you show us PHASE2 please?"

The holographic monitor in front of Fury changed and showed the blue prints of high tech weapons.

Tony had a smug smile on his face while Bruce looked concerned.

Steve on the other hand was still pissed.

"It turns out, the world has not changed that much after all."

"Please Steve," Tony said with a denigrating tone, "Fury was lying something. Let him finish."

If Fury believed in god with capital G, he would ask him if it could get any worse.

It did.

Three more people entered the lab, an exhausted looking Percy, an angry Natasha and an annoyed thundergod.

"Banner! You nee-"

Natasha put her hand on Percy's mouth, silencing him.

Although she did not say it out loud, the message was clear: Lets see how this plays out.

"Did you know about this?" Banner asked Natasha.

Natasha frowned, she followed Nick Fury's gaze to the weapon blueprints.

"Look," Tony said, "Turns out, SHIELD was trying to turn the Tesseract into a weapon. Funny huh?"

"What?" Percy cried out.

She slowly nodded. "Yes I did. But that's not important right now. We need to remove you from the environment."

Bruce huffed. "Remove myself from the environment? I was pretty much removed in Calcutta but you brought me here."

"The spear," Percy said. "It's manipulating you."

"Manipulating me?" Banner asked sarcastically. "And why do you think the scepter is doing this instead of Natasha?"

Percy frowned, "What?"

"You brought me here," Banner said glaring at Natasha. "And I'm not leaving because I feel a bit itchy. I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"SHIELD is doing what?" Percy asked flabbergasted, then he turned to Fury. "What are they talking about?"

"Hey," Tony said. "The Kid finally catches up."

Percy shook his head, "Look. We need to calm down. The Scepter is-"

"We're not leaving until Fury tells us why he is building weapons." Tony said determined.

"Because of him." Fury said and pointed at Thor.

Thor looked stunned. "Me?"

Nick Fury nodded. "Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."

"So you make weapons?" Percy said accusingly.

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet." Thor said.

"Percy," Fury said. "You know how powerful Gods can be. Maybe Thor is peaceful. But the universe is filled with beings who can't be matched, they can't be controlled. And lets not even begin about how you got here and what that means."

Percy gritted his teeth, "So you make weapons?"

"You tried to turn the Tesseract into a weapon," Steve said, clenching his fist. "It should've stayed at the bottom of the ocean."

"You're work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war." Thor scolded Fury.

"A higher form?" Tony asked.

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something." Fury said, looking at Thor.

"Look," Percy said. "Can we continue this discussion after I take the Scepter to a safe place?"

"No!" said all the Avengers in unison.

Percy flinched, "But the scepter-"

"I want to know what you were thinking," Steve said pointing at Fury. "I almost died trying to secure the cube. Now you tried to turn it into a weapon."

"Nuclear deterrent." Tony laughed sarcastically. "Cause that always calms everything right down."

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury countered.

Steve stepped closer to Fury. "I'm sure if he still made-"

"Wait! Wait!" Tony raised his hand and stepped closer to Steve. Like he tried to intimidate the supersoldier. "Hold on! How the heck is this now about me? I thought this was about Thor."

"Guys-" Percy muttered.

Thor laughed. "I thought humans were more evolved than this."

"Excuse me," Fury glared at Thor. "Did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?"

"Did you always give your champions such mistrust?" Thor snapped.

"Loki killed 80 people before you had the time to show up." Natasha said.

"I feel fights coming up." Percy muttered to himself.

'Yeah, a civil war.' Chaos agreed.

"SHIELD Monitors potential threats." Natasha said coldly.

"Potential threats?" Percy asked.

"The world is filled with people who can't be controlled." Fury explained, which led to more arguing.

"Captain America is a threat?" Bruce asked Natasha.

"Don't be naive," Natasha said. "We all are."

Steve glared at Natasha while Tony laughed at Cap. "You're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees?"

"I swear to God, Stark," Steve said threateningly, which did not impress Tony at all. "one more crack…"

Tony raised his hands in a mock surrender. "Threatening! I feel threatened!"

"Rogers step back." Fury ordered calmly.

"No," Stark snapped. "I want to see where this is going."

"Nice team." Bruce said sarcastically. "You really did a good job putting us together."

"Calm down," Natasha demanded but the normally calm scientist just laughed.

"Now I need to calm down?" Bruce groaned, "You put this chemical mixture together that causes chaos,"

Percy chuckled randomly.

"We're a timebomb. Just waiting to explode." Bruce finished.

"You should calm down now." Fury said, a bit more demanding than Natasha.

"Oh, come on." Tony said, "Can't he just blow off some steam?"

"You know he can't." Steve said angrily.

"Oh, you are the scientist here?" Tony asked.

"Says the men who's just a big men with a suit of armor," he glared at Tony, "but what are you without it?"

"Genius, millionaire, playboy, philanthropist." Tony said without hesitation.

"Genius," Steve snorted. "I heard about your genius. All the weapons you build, used against you. I know men like you who are worth ten times as much as you are." Steve said, stepping inside Tony's comfort zone.

Tony seemed to be unfazed by it, though he kept glaring at Steve.

"I've seen the footage, you're no hero. You only fight for yourself."

"Oh," Tony said. "That's a good one. What am I without a suit?"

He turned around, mockingly. "You are the one who was nothing without the super soldier serum."

"It's about the inside," Steve snapped, "Are you someone who lays down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you?"

"I would cut the wire." Tony said with a triumphant grin.

Steve shook his head, "Always a snappy remark. You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"Sorry," Tony said, "Did someone hear the labrat speaking?"

Steve puffed up his chest at Tony. "Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds."

Thor laughed, "Pathetic humans." he laughed.

"Sorry," Percy said. "But didn't I restrain you and Iron Man at the same time?"

Tony rubbed his head and moved away from Cap.

"Amazing team." Bruce said.

" Agent Romanoff," Fury turned to Natasha, "Would you escort back to his…"

"Where? You rented my room." Bruce laughed.

"The cell was just in case…"

"You need to kill me," Bruce said bitterly.

"It's not like-"

"It won't work," Bruce said. Sounding desperate, "I tried it."

Everyone stared at Bruce, he sighed and leaned back against the table with the scepter.

"I got low. I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out!"

"Bruce," Natasha whispered but Bruce cut her off.

"So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good, until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk!" Bruce said, getting angrier.

He sighed, "You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?"

Natasha reached for her gun and stepped away from Bruce.

"Doctor Banner," Fury said, "Please put down the scepter."

Bruce looked down at the Scepter and his eyes widened as he saw he was holding it.

But he was not the only one who was surprised, the tension was almost solid.

Although, no one was actually threatening each other, it was clear everyone was ready to fight the moment it was required at all.

"Oops," Dr. Banner said, not sounding remorseful at all.

He put the Scepter back on the table and gave the others an apologetic shrug. "Sorry, kids. You don't get to see my little party trick after all."

'Why do I have the feeling I don't like his party trick?' Percy wondered.

Suddenly a holographic screen started blinking, showing all kinds of stats and information.

"Finally." Bruce said.

"Located the tesseract?" Thor asked.

"I can get it faster," Tony said while studying the map displayed on the screen.

"Look, all of us…" Steve huffed.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it." Thor scoffed but Tony ignored him and walked towards the door, only to be stopped by Steve.

"You're not going alone-" Steve said, shooting a glare.

"What are you going to do?" Tony smirked, "Stop me?"

"Put on the suit, let's find out." Steve said threateningly.

"Guys-" Percy uttered.

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man." Tony joked, but his eyes said he was not joking.

Suddenly an explosion filled the room.


I assume most of you reading this are new to this story (hi) but for the people who have been following this story since the start, you might wonder what took me so long (or not) To be honest when I was writing this story (almost 2 years ago) I wasn't doing really well mentally and I was forced to take a break. School and social life suffered from my hobbies and it made writing overall less enjoyable.

Now, I believe I am in a much better headspace and I hope that I can continue writing this story which I started 2 years ago. Now, looking at my story I can not believe how poorly it is written, despite this it gained a fair amount of traction and the story still feels really good, albeit a bit clunky at parts.

That's why I am going back to chapter 1 and work my way to this chapter and correct all (read most) of the grammar mistakes, make proper allineas and rewrite a scene or two (for example the scene in which Percy stops both Thor and Stark will be rewritten) Nothing major will change, just a few subtle changes. (writing 6 parallel plot lines tend to make a mess). This might take a month or something, who knows but I can honestly not move on without at least fixing some errors past me made.

I also need to re-read everything Rick Riordan has ever written plus all my previous notes on how the story is going to end but I am low-key excited to do this again.

Happy New Year and lets make 2021 a better year then 2020.

PS, I still like reviews.

-Moonhorse96-