Yes its been a long ass time since I updated this. No, I won't apologize. No I can't make the excuse that I was writing other things during this time. I was mostly focused on RL stuff since January and have only posted one other chapter since then, which is part of the unplanned, poorly constructed 90% crackfic 'Consequences of Being Dick Grayson' so... yeah... sorry for those of you who are loyal fans of mine and doubly sorry for those of you who were hoping I'd update one of my other incomplete stories, of which there are many.

Still, I hope you all enjoy this chapter even if it doesn't have a lot of impact on canon events. That comes next time when Percy and Thor get into a fistfight.

Read, Enjoy, REVIEW!

One immensely harrowing flight later, where Percy spent the nearly ten hour trip splitting his time doing everything he possibly could to not think about, pray to, or generally call the attention of his Uncle any more than merely being in his domain did and trying his damndest to listen in on what Natasha was telling Bruce about what exactly was happening and what he was to do… he was having more luck keeping his mind off his Uncle then he did listening to the conversation going on next to him though, mostly because of his nerves but also because his main way of dealing with said nerves was staring at the blackops guys who had been ready to shoot his former shipmate and seeing how long they could keep eye contact before their own nerves broke and they looked away. It wasn't that he wanted to act against his uncle by keeping the fact that the Tesseract and the Eye inside it were more or less up for grabs per say, but in the interests of little things like protecting the world and avoiding a fucking god war it would be best if the Sky God was kept in the dark for the time being.

It got to the point that he was so distracted that the only thing he actually registered was that the thought dead Captain America was apparently alive and would be wherever they were going. Pretty awesome in itself, but Percy had met older, more impactful, deader beings in the past so he wasn't going to be falling over himself or anything.

He might ask him for an autograph though. For Paul.

When they finally, finally, landed Percy was off the jet before the exit ramp had fully opened, his staff and bag in hand, more than a little eager to be off the flying machine and onto the… what the actual fuck where his senses registering? Was this… was he standing on a flying mega boat? Did it even still count as a boat? Or was it just a hydro-plane… craft… thing? Was he going to get in trouble if this monstrosity took off? Or was it like pegasuses and was still considered acceptable for Percy to be riding even when more than ten feet in the air?

These weren't rhetorical questions, he really wanted to know.

"You doing alright Percy?" Bruce asked from behind the demigod, almost making Percy jump.

"Huh? What? Oh, uh, yeah I'm fine… you?" Bruce sure as Hades didn't look like he was doing alright. The doctor was twitchy as hell and was looking around at the dozens of aircraft and soldiers like he was a mouse surrounded by cats and snap traps.

"Um… no, no not really."

"Doctor Banner!" Someone called, catching the attention of both Percy's mentor and the hero himself.

"Apollo's ballsack, that's Captain America." Percy deadpanned.

If Bruce had heard Percy's atypical stating of the obvious he didn't bother responding to it, something Percy was more than happy to accept because, well, it had been embarrassing. "Hi," The physicist greeted nervously, shaking the super soldier's hand, "they, uh, they told me that you'd be coming."

"Word around here is you can find the Cube," the Captain noted in a friendly if distinctly professional way.

The doctor looked over the blonde's shoulder at some of the still busy deckhands, "Is that the… only word on me?" He asked.

"Only one I care about."

Percy couldn't help but smirk at that, "That's good." He broke in, drawing the blond's attention to him, "Getting into a fight with you would make getting permission to leave a giant pain in the ass." He joked, not so subtly staking his claim as Bruce's guardian during their time on the monstrosity that was apparently SHIELD's prime base of operation.

Given the wide eyed look on Bruce's face Percy had the distinct impression that the good doctor didn't appreciate him lightly threatening the war vetren. Why did no one ever appreciate him threatening people for them? Everyone except… except Annabeth… she found it flattering, if concerning.

The Captain's own eyes narrowed as he studied Percy's face, "You remind me of someone," he mused, "You from Brooklyn or Manhattan?"

"Manhattan yeah, but I haven't been there in over a year." Percy shook his head, "You probably met someone related to me back in the forties." Apparently his dad had six demigod children during that particular time period, four of which were old enough to participate in the war as troops. Two of Percy's brothers were naval officers, his sister was a field medic, and the last brother had the honor of being a beacher on D-Day, even managing to survive to the end of the war… the only one of the four who took part to do so. It wouldn't surprise Percy at all if the famous blond had met at least one of his siblings before he went into the ice.

The Captain seemed to accept that with a small, sad smile and a nod. It was only then that it actually hit Percy what things must be like for him. When Percy thought about people who had lived and fought in wars two generations or more ago he thought in terms of the Hunters of Artemis or Cyclopses or Centaurs or even the gods themselves. This man though, he wasn't any of those, had apparently never come in contact with any god or goddess or half-blood or even monster, not even Ares, Athena, or Aphrodite despite his profession and looks. To have had the world change so much, seemingly overnight, with all your friends and allies dead or having trouble standing on their own… it may not have left the same scars on the man's mind and spirit as Tartarus had left on Percy's, but they were still kindred spirits in several regards.

"Sorry to break this up," Natasha cut in, "but you boys might want to step inside now. Its about to get a bit difficult to breath out here." She told them with a fake serious but clearly mirthful tone.

A shudder went through the ship at her words, all the deck hands suddenly stopping their various tasks and heading for the doors leading into the ship's hulls. Percy felt a new… he supposed he could call it an 'element' begin to take hold of the ship, one that he didn't recognize but reminded him of the feeling he got when he summoned storm winds and hurricanes. If he had to guess, this was the element of flight, meaning the ship was about to take off. He ignored the Captain's question about if the ship was a submarine and Bruce's strange comment about him being in a pressurized metal container and instead leaned over to ask Natasha something he felt was of the utmost importance. "This thing is a boat capable of flight right? As in, its primary purpose is to be a boat, not an aircraft?"

The beautiful redhead blinked in confusion at the question, which was admittingly a fair reaction given that she didn't know about the dangers of Percy being on an aircraft. He was sure she might have guessed he was uncomfortable, maybe even afraid, of planes given how he reacted to the one that brought them to the carrier they were now on, but that still wouldn't explain why he was asking what he was. "Officially speaking, yes." She told him slowly, her formerly joking gaze turning analyzing, "The Helicarrier is described as an aircraft carrier capable of its own lift and aerial movement without assistance from other craft."

Percy nodded at that and felt a good deal of his tension melt away, "Awesome. Let's get inside then."

The three newcomers followed the redhead through the halls of the ship, the various crewmen and agents they passed always giving them a wide berth though whether that was because of respect or fear Percy couldn't tell. What he could tell was that one of the bridge crew was a Greek demi-god son of Hephestus and another was a Roman legacy of Minerva. The jawline on the demi-god and the distinct storm gray eyes on the legacy were hard to miss even if the legacy didn't have the right facial structure or hair color to be a demi-goddess herself.

He was more than a bit relieved that neither seemed to recognize him but after giving them another look he shouldn't be surprised that they didn't. Given the age of the demi-god he might have never been claimed, already in his twenties when Percy made his wish for all the gods to formally recognize all their children and thus probably too old for such a thing to be anything but a danger for him. As for the legacy, it was possible she had been raised outside of New Rome and was thus seen more or less as a non-entity for the Olympians and the monsters of Tartarus. Still, he wondered if there were any other members of his family on board?

'This is probably it.' Percy reasoned to himself, 'Even two being here is pretty insane, there are only like… fifteen-hundred demi-gods and second generations from the Greek and Roman gods alive, and most of those live in New Rome or are still at Camp.'

"Feeling a little shell shocked?" Natasha broke Percy out of his thoughts, the agent suddenly standing at his side to join him in watching the bridge crew check that all the systems are working properly and that they 'vanish' properly or whatever.

"It'll take more than this to put me on that back foot." Percy smirked at the woman. It wasn't even a boast, after all the shit he had seen and done, including 'sailing' on the Argo II, this wasn't that big a deal for him. It was impressive, sure, but he wasn't going to fawn over it.

"That sounds like a challenge."

Percy spread his arms slightly, "By all means, give it to me," he chuckled, walking backwards away from the redhead to stand near Bruce as the obvious captain of the ship- he even had a long coat and an eyepatch!- walked up to the doctor.

"Doctor, thank you for coming," the ship captain reached out to shake Bruce's hand, ignoring Percy for the moment.

Bruce hesitated slightly but still accepted the ship captain's hand to shake, "Thanks for asking nicely," he said back dryly. "So uh, how long are we," he waved his hand between himself and Percy, "staying?"

It was only then that the one eyed ship captain looked at Percy directly, his gaze hard in a clear attempt to showcase his authority. To his credit Percy would admit that the other man pulled the look off well, better than even Clarise and Reyna… but he didn't quite measure up to Chiron and Percy was never one to actually care about authority figures in the first place. So the only reaction the man got from Percy was a tightened grip on his tungsten carbide staff and a matching stance and stare to showcase Percy's own badassery without having to… actually do anything badass.

The two enjoyed their Clint Eastwood staredown of awesomeness for a good three seconds before the ship captain gave an amused huffing grunt, "Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're both free to go. Fully in the wind," he assured the two, his gaze still locked on Percy. "We'll still try to keep other groups off your tail though, that won't change."

That actually caused Percy to frown and relax his intimidating stance a bit as confusion and curiosity took hold, "About that," he shifted his eyes over toward Bruce, "no one's told me why the Hades people are hunting Bruce here? Like, I get he's a radiation expert or whatever, but he can't be the only one capable of making a big bomb right?" Making nukes or similarly destructive and deadly devices was the only thing Percy could think of that would make shady groups want to hunt down physicists. Actually, didn't his former shipmate mention he was also a biology doctor of some kind? Oh shit did Bruce know how to make Xenomorphes or something?!

The ship captain's lone eye widened at the question before he also turned to face the doctor, "He doesn't know?" He jerked his head in Percy's direction.

Bruce shifted nervously, "No, he doesn't." He stated bluntly, walking away from the two and toward one of the few men on the bridge wearing a traditional business suit, "Where are you on locating the Tesseract?" he asked, clearly putting the matter of whatever he was hiding from Percy aside for the time being. Most people might have been put out by such a callus move, but given Percy was hiding some pretty big freaking secrets from Bruce as well he didn't feel like he had a place to judge the other man.

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet," the suit wearing man told the doctor, "cellphones, laptops, a couple traffic cams, if its connected to a satellite, its eyes and ears for us."

Percy looked around hurriedly at that, "Wait, the government can actually do that kinda shit?!" He asked shocked. Granted, he knew that tracking people's phones and putting red flags on certain searches were possible and done pretty often, but straight up using everyone's cameras without asking for access or anyone knowing? He was glad he didn't have his own phone and had a Hermes approved internet connection on his ship. That was some crazy shit.

While his question was ignored, Percy did manage to see Natasha crouch down next to one of the many monitors that was being used to monitor the apparent world wide privacy violation, her attention focused on what looked like a personal photo of a dirty blonde man a few years older than she was. A hostage of whoever was being tracked down maybe?

Percy didn't quiet make out the rest of what was discussed by Bruce, the ship captain, and the suit wearing man, something about putting something on rooftops and gamma rays, but he did notice when Natasha stood up from her crouch and caught him looking at her. Percy cleared his throat and looked away, embarrassed at being caught staring. The fact that the ship captain smirked knowingly at Percy just made it worse. He hadn't even been staring at her! He was looking at the personnel picture!

"You'll love this Doc, we've got all the toys." Natasha told Bruce as she walked past him and Percy, prompting them both to follow her.

As soon as Doctor Banner and his assistant were off his bridge Fury turned to his second in commands, "What do we know of Banner's bodyguard?" he asked them. With how hectic things had been since Loki had shown up and Barton had been compromised he hadn't bothered to get briefed on the young man who had been acting as the doctor's chauffeur and assistant for the past year. He hadn't thought it was relevant after hearing he wasn't an operative of any group that SHIELD knew was after the Hulk, he had just assumed he was some ignorant ocean wanderer wasting his parents' money as he went around the world finding himself or some crap like that, though he did approve of the kid following in Banner's footsteps as a pseudo doctor without borders, it was good to have a purpose in his mind, but now… he had seen something in the kid's eyes, in his stance, that he recognized. The kid was a fighter, he had seen combat and he had killed people. He was dangerous and Fury wanted to know just how much.

Hill was the one to answer, "Perseus Orion Jackson, born to Salley Jackson when she was twenty years old with an unknown father. Had a lot of trouble in school through sixth grade due to his dyslexia, ADHD, and pentiant to cause a lot of damage to school and private property." She listed off quickly before Coulson broke in.

"At age twelve he and his mother were kidnapped by a still unidentified man and Percy was blamed due in part to his stepfather at the time Gabe Uglino's testimony. He was branded a terrorist after he was spotted on the Saint Lois arc observation deck just before it got a whole blown out of it but after Hollywood police saw him get into a gunfight with his kidnapper and his mother was found nearby with accounts of being attacked while they were driving to Delphi Strawberry fields near Montauk."

Hill cut back in here, "He still had trouble in a few more schools due to property damage that was deemed not his fault and almost got put back on the terrorist watch list after a cheerleader who would later be found to have connections to violent drug gangs tried to recruit him and framed him for bombing the high school he would end up graduating from but was again found innocent. He disappeared once more when he was seventeen for five months for unspecified reasons that investigators have concluded have connections to his original kidnapping at age twelve and possibly his unknown father."

Back to Coulson, "Shortly before graduating high school his girlfriend died from a previously undiscovered underlying health condition and he went into a depression, barely getting his diploma due to his long absence and his self isolation. After a few more months he took part in a salvage operation and helped reconstruct the clipper class sailboat he would be gifted upon its completion and name and register as the Pegasus which he sailed by himself for a short period before picking up Banner in Brazil and taking him on as a passenger and a teacher in medical skills."

Hill took the honor of finishing the rundown off, "It seems after all his close calls Jackson has taken up the philosophy that in order to be safe he had to be more dangerous than whatever tried to come his way as a small pirate attack on his and Banner's vessel resulted in three pirates dead and two more crippled before they turned the boat and survivors over to port authorities in Italy for a bounty."

That caught Fury's attention. Granted it was far from the most impressive fight he had heard about, but it let him know that Jackson was more than just bravado and unearned confidence. The boy did know how to fight and he was blooded. That could be a complication later on, and the fact that his unknown father might be someone high enough on some group's food chain to justify perhaps two high profile kidnappings, one of which became a national event, said a lot.

"Keep an eye on the boy," he told the two, "and get in contact with his mother if possible, I might want to ask her some questions about her son."

Not terrible I hope? Worthy of a review? Maybe it'll convince some of you newcomers to check out my other works? Did it at least make you chuckle or something at some point? I hope it did.

Until next time!

Wingd Knight out.