I am posting this for the time stamp. I repeat, this story's existence is for the time stamp. I have no intention to continue this any time soon unless it has a crazy good reception. If you want to read things I DO plan on updating check out either the unedited word vomit crack fic 'Consequences of being Dick Grayson'- seriously I feel kind of proud of that one despite knowing it needs some editing, please go read and COMMENT on it- or the more serious but currently a bit aimless 'A Heroes Duty' or the bloody, dark, and possibly fucked up 'The Boys' Phantom'. There are other stories I MIGHT update such as 'Obsession in Wonderland' 'A Future Hope' 'Popper to Prince' and 'Spells, Swords, and Heroes' but those three are the ones most likely to get another chapter sometime soon. There will also be a oneshot posted tomorrow so I can have a timestamp for January 1st 2021. It will be smutty. Anyway please enjoy!
A lot can change over the course of a few years. Relationships can end, passions can be discovered, lives lost, and paths changed. For the currently only mortal son of Poseidon, Perseus Orion Jackson, all of these things were true. After having escaped Tartarus and Gaia had been put back to sleep, his love, his soul mate, Annabeth Chase, Daughter of Athena, had died from the physical and spiritual injuries caused by their shared time in the Pit and the last stand against the deranged Greek version of Mother Earth. That had hit him hard, really hard, and because of the spiritual damage aspect of her death it wasn't possible to bring her back to life even with the endorsement of Hades and Thanatos. Que eight months of depression and PTSD induced nightmares and insomnia before Nico D'Angelo had shown up at his mom's apartment and gave him a lecture about getting off his ass and going to live his life.
When the picture of emo depression tells you you are being too emo and depressed you know you have a problem.
Given that it was Nico who gave him the advise Percy decided that he might as well take a whole page out of the Son of Hades' book and go traveling for a while. So he had found an old shipwreck out in the bay of a 1800s Clipper, used his innate knowledge of boats and the sea along with some demigod magic and a day spent with his cyclops half brother Tyson to fix it up and modernize some of its components, sold off a bunch of monster trophies he had picked up over the years to various Campers and Legionnaires, along with Apollo, Hephestis, and Hermes, said his goodbyes to his mother, and had set off to aimlessly explore the world in the newly dubbed Pegasus.
At least that had been the plan when he left New York, but after less than a month of siling and two very profitable monster pirate attacks- truly their mental prowess was beyond humanity, for what human would have thought to attack the most powerful demigod son of the sea god ever born while in the middle of the ocean- Percy had been traveling a few miles into a Brazilian river he didn't know the name of when he had the dubious fortune of coming across a bunch of armed less than pleasant looking men getting ready to rob and possibly kill some guy in his thirties lugging around a large bag of food, water, and medical supplies.
Now most people would pretend not to see said interaction and would do all they can to speed on by, or if they had a good gun they might try and shoot the robbers, but Percy was neither typical nor did he have a gun. What he did have though was a six foot long, inch thick tungsten carbide rod that the monster pirates apparently saw as valuable enough to keep in their trophy room. A lot of screaming, broken bones, and pleas for mercy later and Percy was offering the strange wandering man- who introduced himself as Bruce Banner, a doctor without borders- a ride. Bruce had asked him where he was heading and when Percy told him he planned on checking out Africa, the Medetreranian, and then Southern Asia Bruce had accepted the offer.
That had been a bit over a year ago and for one reason or another, be it Bruce or Percy wanting company, Percy finding an interest in being a doctor, or just Bruce finding having a boat as a moving home and base of operations compatible with his lifestyle the two were still traveling together. Which while nice did make it very hard for Percy to take care of the numerous monsters always coming after him, meeting with the gods of whatever land they were traveling through to assure them that he was NOT there on his father's orders, and of course train with his powers. Not impossible, but it could be a major pain and he was pretty sure Bruce thought he was some kind of international spy or something at that point.
Currently the two were in Calcutta helping with some kind of minor outbreak of a disease that Percy couldn't remember the name of. Bruce had just finished helping an elderly man who had been affected and Percy was giving out clean water to the younger members of the household when a little girl, eleven years old at most, came rushing up the half rotted stairs babbling about needing a doctor.
Bruce, being the good man and doctor beholden to his creed and vows that he was, quickly agreed to help the little girl and followed her without question when she began to run towards wherever she had presumably come from, Percy right on their heels… well he was on their heels, but then some guy in one of the squats stopped him and started shoving a basket of… something in his face, yelling something in Hindi that the demigod was fairly sure was supposed to be a sales pitch.
"Look I don't-" Percy tried to step around the man but was cut off every time he moved. Over the seller's head Percy saw Bruce's form disappear around a corner, "Damn it." Percy swore, "Look I really don't-" The man cut him off again, still screaming about whatever he was trying to sell. "Oh for the love of- Move!" He ordered, slipping into his Wolf Stare and what Travis once called his 'I can and have made gods my bitch don't fucking test me' voice. The street vender guy finally seemed to get the message and scrambled out of his way, his face now pale. "Thank you." Unfortunately it seemed he had taken a bit too long to get past that particular obstacle seeing as by the time he reached the corner he saw Bruce turn the doctor was nowhere to be found.
"Oh for the love of," Percy gave a loud groan of annoyance. Bruce was the one carrying all their cash! What was her supposed to do now? Wait on the ship that currently had no wifi signal because Bruce broke the booster, no food because Percy ate what they had left in stock last night when he couldn't sleep, and had a grand total of four books in Ancient Greek all of which Percy had already read? Yeah, screw that.
Taking a deep breath Percy began to gather his powers, focusing on the divine energy that he had inherited from his father upon his birth. Apollo had told him that he was the most powerful half-blood that Posiden had ever had, and rivaled Triton as his most powerful period. Seeing as Triton was considered on the same level as Hermes who in turn was in contention for being the second strongest god of his generation after Apollo himself that was saying a lot. Granted he couldn't really use all that power since he was still mortal, but he could still do a hell of a lot more than he reasonably should. Such as spreading his awareness through the water molecules around him to try and find where Bruce might have gone. It wasn't the best method for finding an individual of course, but for finding someone with a weird blood condition like Bruce it worked out pretty well. Seriously the water in that man's blood was fucked up to hell, he was honestly surprised that Bruce wasn't dead or a mass of cancerous tumors from the constant low levels of radiation he was giving off. Percy shook his head, freaking ADHD.
Like a bloodhound who had just gotten the scent of its prey the native New Yorker… began to casually jog in the direction of his friend and sort of mentor in the medical arts. What? Now that that vender had made him loose visual of the older man it wasn't like he had a reason for keeping close.
At least that's what he thought until he saw the house that his friend had been led to and saw that it was surrounded by two freaking dozen black ops guys with machine guns pointed at it. 'Oh gods damn it, I spoke… thought… whatever I came to that conclusion way too soon.' Percy silently swore, ducking behind a small bush before any of the armed men could see him. Now granted he was pretty sure that the advancement of his powers and strength had long since made him bullet proof, but he really didn't want to put Bruce and whoever else might be in the house in the middle of a fire fight.
'Lets see,' Percy began to quickly take inventory incase things went south, 'no weapons other than Riptide on me and that doesn't work on mortals, my staff, k bar, celestial bronze spear, and shield are all on the boat. A hurricane isn't fit for this situation and neither is a monsoon, earthquake, or using magic to send out airborn quakes… actually that last one will be a good fallback if I decide to go lethal.' He listed off, 'Then there are my water powers. I could make some hydro bullets and knock them out that way, or I could reduce the blood flow to their brains and make them pass out, but I can only do that to maybe six or seven people at a time and only if they are all in sight and relatively close together… can't risk it, don't want them to panic.' Damn it he really wasn't built for stealth operations. He was the son of the Earthshaker, Strombringer, King of the Seas, bipolar icon of the ages! Hell his full name translated to 'Destroyer'! He was a warrior not a freaking ninja!
'Okay so I only have four options.' He decided, 'Go in guns blazing possibly letting out the secret of the divine world and pretty much forcing me to kill these guys, I could try and use the Mist to sneak past them, grab Bruce, and sneak back out which means I'd have to explain shit to him and possibly make him freak out and expose shit himself, I could use the Mist and go just go assassin on these guys' asses knocking them out one by one and hoping that there are no more than eight people looking at me at once so my Mist control actually holds, or…' "Hey Bruce!" He yelled, catching the attention of all the armed men and getting a good half of them to turn around and train their guns on him instead of the house. "There are like, two dozen guys out here in full combat gear locked and loaded and looking ready to open fire. Everything okay in there or do I need to play hero?"
To say the air got tense at his not so subtle promise of violence was an understatement. For what felt like a full minute everything was quiet, no one dared to move as each side prepared for the worst case scenario. Then the veil was broken. "Come in Percy." Bruce called out from the house, "We're trying to do this without making a mess okay?"
Well, if thats how the doctor wanted to do things fine. Giving a small shrug Percy stood up from his place of cover and began to walk leisurely toward the small house, his hands in the pockets of his thin hoodie and his eyes lazily running over the forms of the still tense but no longer trigger itching soldiers. He wanted them to know that he wasn't scared of them, that their numbers meant nothing, that he was the real danger there and that making any kind of aggressive move was the worst idea they could possibly have. If the small fidgeting he saw was any indication he was succeeding in getting that message across.
Entering the 'kill room' that the soldiers outside had set up for his mentor in medicine Percy saw the man in question standing across from a very pretty redhead as he looked down at a phone, swiping through some pictures and what Percy could only assume was information on a patient that was deep in the realms of criminal enterprises given how they were reaching out to a doctor. "Anyone mind telling me what's going on?" He asked the two other inhabitants of the room, "I mean I was lead to believe that pulling a gun on a doctor was a big no-no even in a war zone but there are a lot of guns pointing at us right now." He nodded his head at the lone woman among the three, "And seeing as they are all automatic I somehow doubt that your safety will be a big concern for them if they have to start pulling triggers."
The woman gave him a small smile that all but oozed sex appeal despite the dangerous, downright lethal look in her eyes. "My employers want to conscript Doctor Banner in helping us find something that falls under his purview as the foremost leader of gamma radiation research." She explained, "The guns are just a precaution given the… sensitive nature of this meeting."
Percy turned toward the still browsing Bruce and furrowed his brows in confusion, "Gamma radiation research?" He asked the older man, "I thought your doctorate was a medical degree, not physics one."
Bruce looked up from the phone and gave his assistant a small smile, clearly a bit embarrassed to be called out as he was, "I have three doctorites. Thermonuclear Physics, Biochemistry, and Computer Programming." He told him, "My medical knowledge is mostly a byproduct of the biochem degree."
The demigod gave the apparently triple doctor a small nod, slowly processing the information. "...Alright. Should I go get the Pegasus then? I'm guessing if they want you to find something by tracking its radiation signature or whatever that they have a lab for you." He asked him, choosing to ignore the femme fatale that he had skillfully, if obviously put himself in front of, cutting her off from his teacher.
The older man's look of apology turned to one of nervousness, "I, I can't ask you to do that Percy." He shook his head, "This is way beyond anything you planned to do before you picked me up and quiet frankly it could be dangerous and-"
Percy cut him off with a snort, "I kinda figured it'd be dangerous when I saw the kill squad outside." he snarked, "This isn't up for debate Bruce, I'm coming with you even if its for no other reason than to make sure these assholes don't put a bullet in your head or throw you in a blacksite of some kind when they are done with you." He told the scientist firmly.
He turned around and pointed a finger at the stoic faced woman, "And don't think for a second that I'm just trying to sound cool or am just sprouting off some unearned bravado lady. You're dangerous, anyone with any combat experience or training could tell you that, but I guarantee you that if you and I ever had to fight you'd be on the ground in seconds." He lowered his finger and leaned slightly forward, staring into her unwavering eyes with his Wolf Stare, "And it would take me less than half that time to just kill you."
The two trained killers held their positions for several seconds, both of them giving their mutual versions of intimidating glares. The still unnamed woman blinked first, and looked away from the demigod with a small nod of understanding. "We are on a timelimit," She told the two men, "get whatever stuff you need from your ship ASAP, our plane leaves in an hour, I'll send a call in to have someone take care of your boat while you are gone." She told them, rattling off the information in like a commanding officer to their subordinates.
"I'll make arrangements for my boat while we are packing." Percy countered, "See you soon."
I wrote this in a day, it is based on the other Percy joins the Avengers fics but I wanted to do something that didn't involve him being kicked out of the Olympian graces for dumb reasons so instead he left New York to help deal with depression from Annabeth's death. It has been almost two years since said death so please no one rant about him needing to be more outwardly depressed or that there should be no pairings or whatever. I don't even know if I'm going to give him one anyways so it doesn't matter, and if I do there is a good chance it'll just be a casual thing between him and Natasha or Maria Hill just for an excuse for some smut scenes and some comedy involving mistaken perceptions. That is literally the extent of what I have planned for this story... well that and Percy being known to gods- ie Loki and Thor- as a major threat and badass. I think that'd be funny to see play out.
Anyway that's all I got to say, hope you enjoyed it, please leave a review, and have an AMAZING New Year everyone!