Chapter 11

It had been six months since the Battle of New York. Six months since Percy and Calypso had moved into their apartment in Stark Tower and life had been great since then. The couple had been busy, but they wouldn't have had it any other way.

Their first big project working for Stark Industries was the redesign of the newly coined Avengers Tower. They'd started from the top working on a residential floor that currently housed Bruce, Calypso and Percy. Each of the residents were granted their own spacious room with a beautiful view of the New York skyline, however the couple shared a single room happily.

After Percy had explained the value of their temporary home, Calypso felt they were taking advantage of Tony and had offered to work for less because he was offering them such a low cost of living, however the man had mollified her by promising he intended to get his money's worth out of the duo, which he did.

Between Calypso's magical skills and the demigod abilities that a son of Poseidon could offer they'd quickly revolutionized the operation of the reconstruction. They'd worked for countless hours with all sorts of different departments from construction, to plumbing, to electrical work. Tony was now singing praises for how much money he'd saved in remodeling, and had even given them a starting bonus for all their help. The couple had tried to insist they were merely doing their jobs but the man wouldn't hear of it. He insisted the bonus was hardly even a fraction of a percent of what had been saved in construction thanks to their unique abilities.

Needless to say, the two were happy to have a weekend off. Even with the amount of money they were accumulating, they knew if they really wanted to get out and see the world they would have to continue working. It was also the desire of the couple to buy their own home outside of the city limits just as Percy's mother had, to perhaps one day raise a family out there. Tony had managed to generate Calypso a fake ID to help her get around the city and navigate the mortal world, yet even with such papers she'd have no credit history and anything they wanted they would have to pay for in cash.

Speaking of Percy's mother, the couple had dinner with Sally two or three times a week when they could manage it. Usually, they would catch a train to visit her, though on occasion the woman would visit them at Stark Tower and they'd grab dinner in the city. This would be problematic at times when they were recognized, however for the most part it had been nice.

Occasional monster sightings throughout the city kept Percy and Calypso on their toes as well. After the first month of monster activity remaining at a consistent all-time low in the city, the demigod force was pulled back to Olympus, leaving the son of Poseidon and the daughter of Atlas to handle any remaining monsters on their own. This was hardly a problem with their skill set; rarely did a monster raise anything more than a passing threat.

It had been approaching six months when Percy had been called to Tony's house in Malibu for an appointment. The young man wasn't sure why he was being summoned, nonetheless he answered the call as any good employee would. It helped that he'd agreed to fly Calypso out to California as well: the two were going to enjoy a little weekend getaway with their hard-earned money after the meeting.

He only saw Tony a few times a week around Stark tower. Half the time he was in the Iron Man suit and on the run the moment they exchanged greetings. Once in a while, Percy would be abducted mid-shift to have lunch with Tony, where he would show off his newest Iron Man suit, which was pretty cool in the young man's opinion. Last he had heard Tony had been working on Mark XX which was already leaps and bounds ahead of the Mark VII that he had used in the Battle of New York.

Happy had picked Percy up at the airport from a private hangar that housed Tony's personal jet and when the two pulled into the drive of the massive oceanside home, he became a little anxious. He couldn't imagine why Tony had gone through the lengths he had to get him here, Percy could only hope it wasn't world-ending news. Calypso had been picked up by one of Pepper's assistants where she would be taken to Stark Industries' LA office to catch up with the infamous Pepper Potts. The two females had struck up an interesting friendship when Calypso helped Pepper with a personal gardening project at their house in upstate New York and got along famously, so the son of Poseidon wasn't worried about his better half. After six months in the 21st century, the girl really was adapting to modern times faster than what could've been reasonably expected. Of course, there were still tons of things she didn't quite understand but as far as getting around day to day she could be completely independent, something Percy was quite proud of.

"You really shouldn't sweat it Perce, I don't think Tony would've called you out here in style if he was giving bad news. Maybe he just has an Avengers assignment. He did invite Calypso as well after all," the driver said, opening the door for a nervous son of Poseidon.

He had to concede the point and it was certainly possible, perhaps he was just briefing them on a possible threat. Tony had done so a few weeks ago about some astronomical anomaly that was coming up in the next six months or so, most of it went over Percy's head but Calypso seemed to understand more. One of her Uncles was the Titan of Constellations, after all, so her understanding of the deep magic of the Universe was much greater than his own, so perhaps it was something of that nature.

He walked beside Happy up to the house, surprised as the front door opened at their arrival. Percy looked questioningly to the head of Stark's security team and he shrugged, "Jarvis is much more immersive here. He practically runs the whole house. You get used to it."

Leading the younger man into the home, they were instantly greeted by a robotic voice: "Good evening Mr. Jackson, Mr. Hogan. Welcome to the Stark Malibu home. Mr. Stark is currently working downstairs, and invites you to join him."

Happy waved to the air and Percy followed the man towards a staircase behind a glass waterfall that descended from the ceiling. The house was truly beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful he had ever seen. It looked like it belonged on Olympus. Annabeth would've loved it.

The thought pained Percy, but as always he powered through the discomfort that came to his chest when he thought of his best friend and continued on downstairs. The sound of Christmas music filled his ears before anything else and when they came to a large glass wall they could see Tony intravenously supplying himself with an unknown substance. Happy grumbled and Percy visibly twitched as he watched something shoot into the man's body. He heard Jarvis call out: "Sir, your guests have arrived. I suggest calling it a day and getting some rest. I will remind you that it is approaching 72 hours since you last slept."

Tony barely glanced towards Happy and Percy when he clapped his hands to open the automatic doors, allowing them entry into the office that had R&D written all over it. The first things Percy noticed were a dozen Iron Man suits lining the walls, to which he whistled softly in appreciation at the man's work: "You've been busy Tony."

Ignoring the younger man, Tony held up his hands. "Focus up ladies. Good evening and welcome to the birthing suite. I am pleased to announce the imminent arrival of your bouncing, bad-ass baby brother. Start tight then go wide. Stamp date and time. Mark 42 autonomous prehensile propulsion suit test. Stand by to initialize the sequence."

The man then turned with a crazed smile on his face towards the two arrivals. "Percy, thanks for coming. I wanted at least one person from our little team to be here for this."

Tony came forward to pat the boy on the shoulder happily, while Percy observed the man properly for the first time in weeks. His hair was not as styled as it usually was, though that could be chalked up to a day in the lab. What couldn't be dismissed however were the intense, heavy dark circles underneath his eyelids. The tell-tale signs of sleep deprivation were evident. "Thanks for inviting me down, Tony. Caly was really looking forward to a fun little weekend getaway. We haven't had a chance for one since the Battle."

"Really? Well, that's unacceptable. Ever been to Paris? You should go to Paris. Happy, thank you for coming, you can go" Tony said in a spitfire manner.

Happy looked put off by Tony's greeting and farewell, simply shrugging to Percy, "Alright whatever, see you around Percy. Give me a shout if you need anything."

Percy thanked the man for the ride and turned back towards Tony who was looking at him expectantly and asked, "Paris?"

Percy rubbed the back of his neck in slight embarrassment at the question, "Well it's definitely on the list of places I would love to take her. Maybe for our honeymoon or something?"

"Oh yeah, is a wedding around the corner?" he asked curiously, but before Percy could answer Tony announced, "Jarvis, please make sure my favorite employee Mr, Jackson is given a trip to Paris for his wedding present. Let him take one of the jets, and put him up somewhere nice."

Percy wanted to protest the extravagant gift but before he could a serious look passed Tony's face, "Alright now Percy for the reason why I asked you to be here. I am about to test a new suit that'll change the way the Iron Man suits are made. With this tech, I'll be able to design equipment that can be propullsed back to your hand. Ever lose your sword in battle, boom I can install magnetic microchips into your arm that could call it back to you in a second. I could do this with nearly anything we can make light enough to hook up to a magnet."

Percy really wanted to tell Tony that his sword magically already returned to him, but he didn't want to burst the man's bubble when clearly he was very excited and proud of his newest invention, "Wow Tony that sounds great. Show me how it works."

Tony waved a hand, "Forget about how it works. Just get ready to watch the real magic. Are you ready?"

Grinning, the man nodded to his boss, and Tony just grinned in return, "That's the spirit. Jarvis Initialize sequence."

A few systems came online visibly to Percy and Tony just shrugged his shoulders a few times before saying, "Jarvis drop my needle."

The scene that unfolded was downright comical. A funky Christmas music beat began echoing through the speakers of the room in a nice jazzy tune. Tony began shaking his own shoulders to the groove a bit before asking Percy, "You dance? I feel like this is really a dancing moment."

Percy blushed a bit at the question, never being one for dancing or making a fool of himself on purpose he shook his head, "I don't have a dancing bone in my body."

Tony barely acknowledged his answer as he made a quick karate-like motion towards a nearby table.

"Dashing through the snow. In a one-horse open sleigh. O'er the fields we go. Laughing all the way." Another quick karate motion and nothing happened, "Bells on bobtails ring."

Tony frowned, hitting his arms together swearing under his breath, "Oh, what fun it is to sing. A sleighing song tonight."

This time a piece of armor flew from the table and the hand to the iron man suit suddenly shot onto Tony's skin, and Percy's jaw dropped. How the feat wasn't magic he was unsure, but Tony nodded in acceptance as the music continued in the background, "Jingle bells, jingle bells, Jingle all the way."

As the music continued more and more of the armor shot towards Tony slowly enveloping his body in an immensely impressive manner. Percy couldn't help but wonder the more technical capabilities of the suit in comparison to the Mark 20 he had seen months before. Suddenly Tony clapped his hands, "Alright I think I got this send them all."

Suddenly several pieces zoomed towards the man at once, and while he caught two or three the majority went swirling past his head at an uncontrollable speed. Percy's eyes widened as he was forced to dodge out of the way a rogue piece. Tony shook his head, "Okay maybe slow it down a bit."

After dodging another piece he caught a few more while getting knocked over by some big ones. The final piece, the face mask, knocked the record off its tune, and Tony turned to face the wild piece of armor and gave it a defiant look, "Come on. I ain't scared of you."

The piece shot forward, and Tony propelled himself into the air doing some type of flip and catching the final piece. Percy immediately began applauding the man's success and heard Tony say, "Yeah I'm the best."

Suddenly an extra piece of the suit came flying towards his legs striking the man making him fly through the air and all the pieces came scattering off his body. Percy rushed to make sure the man was okay, while Jarvis said, "As always, sir, a great pleasure watching you work."

Percy fought the laugh that threatened to escape his lips as his employer was taken down a peg by his own AI, "You alright Tony?"

The man grumbled, "I guess 72 hours is a long time between siestas. Drink?"

The man strolled over towards the workbench, clapped his hand as a TV turned on, and he began pulling a bottle of wine out of a nearby fridge. He immediately popped it open, and one of the robots brought two glasses that he began pouring modest pours into. The man quickly brought a glass over to him, and raised it, "The Mark 42 is a work in progress, but it's damn close, what do you think?"

Percy sipped at the drink, taking in the man's attitude from a new perspective. This was all very odd. Tony in himself was an oddball, but this was something else entirely. The man was clearly scatterbrained and couldn't finish a complete thought without exhaustion threatening to overcome him constantly.

"Tony the suit is incredible. A couple more tinkers and it will be perfect, but-"

"Yes thank you! I agree a couple more things, and-"

"Tony." The man looked up sharply to Percy and he continued when they made eye contact, "Are you okay? You look like you're beyond a single session of 72 hours without sleep."

Percy remembered the madness that some of his friends had descended into after the Battle of the Labyrinth and had already heard stories from a few of his friends that he had interacted with about what had happened to some after the wars. PTSD was a real mental illness and what he was witnessing from Tony was a textbook example. He was suddenly worried about the man.

Tony however shrugged it off, "I am just on the verge of one success after another. Einstein was said to only sleep three hours a year, and look at what he accomplished."

Percy nodded, "This may be true, however Einstein was a demigod, and that was still likely an exaggeration."

Tony stared at the son of the seas and his jaw opened and closed several times before finally nodding his head, "I'm going to forget you said that. Though I suppose it does make sense…"

Hoping to prevent the man from going on a tangent Percy continued, "Don't get me wrong, the Mark 42 is super cool. Though wasn't it only a month ago you were on the Mark 20? I know these suits take some serious time to design and it sounds like you haven't slowed down since we last had some time together for Avengers business."

Tony couldn't stop the frown that crossed his face, "Yeah well, I gotta make sure we're ready for any skeletons in the closet."

That was something Percy could understand. He had been thinking more and more about raising the idea with Calypso on their vacation to get back into training mode. They had been entirely focused on working and getting settled into everyday mortal life in the human world over the last six months, by now it really was time for them to get back to work, just in case the next threat came sooner than they were ready for, "I get, and respect that Tony and I am sure your work is going to pay off whenever we have to hand out the next Avenger sized ass-kicking, but seriously you are out working all of us by leaps and bounds. Take a few days and get some sleep. Come back to this and go straight to Mark 43, with all the kinks of the 42 worked out."

"Well, that's why I invited you. I thought we could go have drinks with Rhodes, and hang out while the girls catch up, and we could all come back together for dinn-"

Before Tony could finish the word the TV in the background went through several colors with a symbol that had ten circles around two crossed swords. Both men frowned as actions of violence flashed across the screen, and a man with a long brown beard, and hair on each side of his bald head came on the screen. The man's eyes were covered with sunglasses and his voice was some type of deep accent that couldn't be placed, "Some people call me a terrorist. I consider myself a teacher. America. Ready for another lesson?"

The man talked about an old story about an Indian tribe in the 1860s in Colorado. The US Military supposedly attacked in the night when all the soldiers were off working and butchered the women and children. The man then claimed to have attacked the Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait, "I...I...I did that."

The man looked immensely pleased with himself on camera, and Percy and Tony's eyes both narrowed in the direction of the arrogant man. He talked about the women and children he himself had murdered. All families of the US and local militaries. The anger Percy felt intensified at the news and he shook his head in disgust. This was outside his jurisdiction though. He could only hope that Tony would take the Mark 42 or 43 out on a test run to teach this thug a lesson, ""President Ellis. You continue to resist my attempts to educate you, sir. And now you've missed me again. You know who I am. You don't know where I am. And you'll never see me coming."

Suddenly the screen flashed across several more scenes of violence, before the media retook control of their cameras.

(A/N) Obviously lots of familiar dialog in this, while Percy also changes the dynamic. Percy remembers what the PTSD some of his friends experienced after the Battle of the Labyrinth, and he is recognizing the signs in Tony as well. We also get our first look at the Mandarin. I will say I am planning to change Trevor Slattery's character, because if this does go past my Endgame plan then that could play a part somewhere in the future of the MCU.

Now for some big news. Cost of Freedom Chapter 12 is going to go live on discord today, January 3rd, 2022, or tomorrow just depending on when I can get it ready. This chapter will be my original work before my betas get their hands on it. So if you are anxious to see the next chapter I welcome you to join me there, but if you would rather see the final product then I will of course be back on January 17th. For now my discord will just remain one chapter ahead, but I am really knocking out these chapters right now so maybe I will give an extra here in the coming weeks.

Also I have a new story out! Fleur De Lis is something I actually started in 2020, it's a HarryXFleur story, and it's mostly already written, so it won't interfere with my current works. If you like Harry Potter please give the story a try.

Well that is all I have for this update, join me on discord, and cheers to a New Years my friends I can't wait to show you everything I have been working on.

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Shoutout to Taye and Bobkey for doing the beta work on this chapter. You guys rock!