2 Years Later

"We think he's gotten his hands on some Enchanted Adamantium," Triton was telling Percy over the holographic communication device. "I was wondering if you could go over there and investigate."

A now 21-year-old Percy Jackson frowned. "What was his name again?"

"Ulysses Klaue," Triton said.

"I think I've heard of him," Percy said. "Black market specialist? Slippery guy. Very hard to find."

"Well, my sources, which are proving reliable, are telling me he's stationed currently in South Africa," Triton said.

Percy nodded as rubbed his chin. "Alright, that sounds promising. I'll go take a look."

"Exactly, just take a look for now," Triton agreed. "If he has it, then we'll go ahead and make a formal requisition for the metal."

"He'll probably make it difficult," Percy warned.

"No doubt, he'll demand a handsome paycheck for the adamantium," Triton said. "But … it wasn't his to sell to begin with."

"Alright then, I'll go ahead and head over."

Triton nodded. "Thank you, Percy."

Percy dipped his head in response and was about to swipe the connection when Triton stopped him. "And one more thing. He has a band of mercenaries with him. Do be careful."

"Oh, is this why you want me to go?"

Triton nodded. "Yeah. I can't send any of my men without risking conflict. But you act independently. So, it benefits everyone involved that only you go to investigate. Only if Klaue actually has the metal, then will I send my men to requisition it."

"Understood."

Percy swiped the hologram, cutting off the connection and hanging up.

Percy thought about the events that followed the invasion of New York as he packed up: the dethroning of Attuma, the run-in with SHIELD, the vigilante activity that he'd been up to. And thinking about SHIELD, after what his run-in with Nick Fury, things went pretty downhill for them from there.

Turns out HYDRA, that old Nazi group Captain America fought in World War 2, had been hiding in the shadows of SHIELD the whole time, a conspiracy that went into modern times and was exposed after the Black Widow just went and leaked everything on the Internet.

Like when an artist has an unreleased song leaked or a celebrity has a sex tape leaked, except this was a million times worse.

Percy discovered out some … unpleasant findings about SHIELD that led up to the death of his mom.

Even if he did blame them, which he didn't, SHIELD fell. There was nothing he could do there anymore. If anyone was to blame, Percy was blaming the outsiders that decided they wanted to invade New York.

And Loki.

The Norse god of mischief himself had been the one to bring the army of aliens down on them, so Percy could definitely blame Loki for the death of his mom. And if he ever saw the bastard in person, he was going to be testing how much of a "god" he actually was.

With that out of his mind, Percy focused on continuing his good rep of being that ocean-friendly Sub-Mariner, helping out marine life in any way he could.

On the attacking front, it had been relatively quiet until Triton just now hit him up. To this day, they never lost touch as King Triton more than considered Percy as an ally, even going as far as to ask Percy for favors that he needed complete. This time being the investigation of Ulysses Klaue, with word being that he'd gotten his hands on Enchanted Adamantium.

Guess it was time to see if it was true.

…

"If you want the precious metals, you'll have to buy it off of me."

Percy lingered for a second, trying to detect what accent Ulysses Klaue spoke in. Australian? Irish? South African, perhaps?

It was … distinct. Very hard to tell. Whatever it was, there was a rough edge to it.

But … just as expected, Ulysses Klaue decided he wasn't going to make things easy. Percy had found him in an abandoned ship in a salvage yard, which was bustling with activity as he came in. No one paid him any attention, but he noticed the workers that were hard at work dismantling what looked like jeeps and stacking and loading up missiles to the sides.

Perhaps, more items for Klaue to sell on the black market.

"So you do have it?" Percy questioned.

Klaue grinned. "Of course. Anything that I find, I sell. Adamantium is just one of them."

"See, the problem with that is that those metals weren't yours to take," Percy argued.

"It's how I work, kid," he replied. "It's how I make money, it's business. Nothing personal. And frankly, I don't get why you just want the adamantium. I got all kinds of other metals you might be interested in." He picked up a slab of metal off his desk. "See this? This is vibranium. Strongest metal in Earth. You know, there's only one country this comes out of."

"I'm not interested in … vibranium," Percy said.

"Suit yourself," he said. "But if you want the metal, you'll have to buy the metal."

Percy clenched his jaw. "Alright, say if I did buy the adamantium, how much would you charge?"

"One slab of the adamantium?" Klaue pondered. "I charge you … two hundred million for it."

Percy stared at him in outrage. "You're kidding me, right?"

Klaue just shrugged. "That's my price. It's a very valuable metal, much more than gold, I'll tell you that.

Percy shook his head. "I'm afraid can't do that. Like I said, that metal wasn't yours to take."

"And exactly what would you do about it?" Klaue challenged, stepping in front of Percy.

Percy wanted to throttle the guy, but he sensed that's exactly what Klaue wanted. If he did something now, he'd be doing it unprovoked. And that would make himself look very bad, like someone with temper issues.

Percy nodded. "Okay. I"ll have to … come back later, with the money."

"Good," Klaue replied with a smirk.

"I'll see myself out now," Percy said.

"Hey, kid," he called. "Like I said, it's business. Nothing personal."

Percy scoffed but turned to leave Klaue's office. Just as he was about to exit the door, the lights inside the ship started to flicker and the hairs on his neck stood straight up as he sensed danger. He turned to look at Klaue, who seemed just as confused as he did. Outside the office, the workers clamored at the commotion as the lights completely went dark.

"You sense that, don't you?" Klaue asked.

"Yeah," Percy replied.

Klaue started to reach for his gun and he started to walk in Percy's direction when he suddenly felt a … force slam him right through the door and sent him sprawling. Klaue was quick to fire his gun.

The next time Percy blinked, a man stood behind Klaue as the bullet he just fired bounced around next to the other bullets standing on his desk.

As Percy stood to his feet, a woman came to stand behind him menacingly. Now with the two unwelcome strangers in the room, Percy was able to get a good look at them.

The man was as tall as Percy, bearded, with silver-dyed hair locks falling from his head. He wore a sweatshirt that was all kinds of shades of blue. The woman standing behind Percy was quite shorter than everyone in the room, with red hair and dark eyes, looking at Percy with pretty menacing expression.

Like a truck, it hit Percy that the man had been the one who pushed him to the floor. He was so fast though, like a blur. No way Percy could have seen him coming. How was he that fast?

Unless …

"Yeah. The enhanced. Strucker's prize pupils," Klaue commented.

Enhanced? "Who's Strucker?" Percy questioned.

"A fella who's not very … pleasant," Klaue said. "Used to work for HYDRA."

Percy nodded, remembering hearing about HYDRA when Black Widow leaked everything to the Internet.

Klaue sat down. "You want a candy? Hm?"

The two newcomers didn't move from their spots. "Oh, sorry to hear about Strucker. But then, he knew what kind of world he was helping create. Human life, not a growth market."

The two intruders exchanged glances.

"You … you didn't know? Is this your first time intimidating someone? I'm afraid that I'm not that afraid."

"Everybody's afraid of something," the woman replied, her voice accent thick of Eastern European.

"Including you?" Percy questioned.

The woman regarded him. Percy tilted his head at her. "You got a way of knowing what people are afraid of? That's kind of personal, don't you think?"

"Well, I'll just say it," Klaue remarked. "I hate cuttlefish. Saw a documentary about them, terrifying little creatures."

Percy snorted. "Cuttlefish."

"What?"

"I promise you there's more terrifying shit in the ocean than ... cuttlefish," Percy said.

"Regardless, if you're going to fiddle with my brain, and make me see a giant cuttlefish, then I know you don't do business, and I know you're not in charge, and I only deal with the man in charge," Klaue told the woman.

Percy's eyes widened as he spotted a massive metallic robot hover outside Klaue's window. Percy moved to attack but silver-haired dude was quicker.

Literally.

He was like a blur, and he pushed Percy with his shoulder like a tackle dummy and sent him sprawling. He tried to get up but red-haired girl was standing right behind him, and immediately subdued him against the ground. Percy squinted his eyes as he saw nothing but red mist cloud his vision, and he felt a wave of pain overwhelm his brain before he blinked again.

And suddenly … he wasn't in the ship anymore.

He was back in Atlantis, at least from what Percy could tell. He recognized all the familiar designs of the castle from his time there. He recognized the ocean-blue pillars, the seashell-ridden walls and the two basketball-sized glowing pink pearls that stood proudly by each side of the throne chair. He recognized the windows that overlooked the bustling streets of Atlantis and the doors that led to the balcony that overlooked the entire city.

What he didn't recognize was the quietness.

Atlantis was a massive city, maybe as big as Tokyo, with just as many in population, so for the city to be eerily quiet meant that something was wrong.

Percy ran outside and was greeted by the most horrifying sight that any bit of his imagination could have conjuncted.

Dead bodies were strewn everywhere, buildings that once stood tall were collapsed, and the castle itself had a gaping hole to the side of it when he looked back at it. It seemed to dawn on Percy what had happened.

Atlantis had been under attack.

And from the looks of it, they lost. Not just lost, they'd been completely annihilated. Obliterated. There was nothing short of destruction everywhere with every step that Percy took.

As Percy came to a stop next to a trading shop in Atlantis, and he looked at his reflection in the glass, noticing for the first time that he was wearing royalty clothes. A crown was perched on his black hair and he wore a king's robe, tied around his neck. It dawned on him that he was the king of Atlantis.

And this destruction had happened under his watch.

Percy never had anxiety attacks, but he felt like having one now. All he could do was wonder what had happened here. Had he let this happened? Was he … was he the one who caused this?

He shouldn't have taken the throne. It was not meant for him. But he could do nothing about it now.

Atlantis was gone.

As Percy backed away, he stumbled on a body and turned. He became more shocked to see Triton on the ground, alive, but very much dying as a sword penetrated his abdomen.

"Why, Percy?" Triton asked, his voice ragged. "Why couldn't you … protect us?"

"I …"

"Your … fault," Triton muttered, his last words struggling to come out before he went limp.

"Triton?"

Triton did not move again. Percy struggled to keep his tears out of his eyes as he held his hands to his head.

"Look what you have done," a voice boomed. Percy looked up to see Poseidon, the god of the seas, looking very pissed, unlike the gentle and proud expression he had the first and last time Percy saw him. "You are a disgrace. How did I ever see you as worthy of carrying my trident?"

Poseidon reached out and the trident flew from Percy's hand and went to Poseidon's. "I'm so sorry," Percy begged. "I don't … I didn't mean to."

Poseidon stripped him of royalty, taking his crown and robe. Percy fell to his knees as the god of the seas disappeared into the water.

"You are nothing but a mistake," a new voice and Percy looked up.

This guy was unfamiliar, yet familiar at the same time, because Percy felt he was looking at the adult version of himself. He didn't need an introduction to know he was looking at his father, King Aegaeus himself.

"A mistake that I should have never made," Aegaeus said, words cutting Percy deep.

"I'm disappointed in you."

Now, he was hearing his mom's voice inside his head as many voices started to cram in there, taking up the space inside his head, clamoring about how he was at fault and how much of a disgrace he was.

Despite all the voices practically threatening to split his brain apart, Percy Jackson tried to remain calm and he took deep breaths in and out. In through the nose and out through the mouth, just like his therapist had told him right after his mom's death.

"This isn't real," Percy muttered. "This isn't real … this isn't real … this isn't real … this isn't real …"

Percy kept muttering the words over and over again, speaking it like a chant as he squeezed his eyes shut and tried to block out the voices. It seemed to work, as with every passing second, the voices got quieter and the image of a destroyed Atlantis started to fade away.

When he opened his eyes, he was back in Klaue's office, but he was alone in the room now. He couldn't have been more grateful to be back in such a dump of an office.

What the hell did that girl do to him?

As Percy walked over to the window, he glanced down and saw that another group had arrived to the party, none other than the Avengers. Iron Man, Captain America and Thor stood before the giant robot as they seemed to argue with him. Behind the robot were the intruders from before, silver-haired dude and red-haired chick.

A small part of Percy wanted to throttle the chick, but the rest of him just felt … empathy for her, for she didn't realize that she was being used as a pawn by the robot. She and her partner. They seemed to be angry at … something. Maybe the Avengers, maybe something else, but Percy for some reason felt like he could maybe get through them, try to make them see sense. Because he'd been in their place before.

"If you believe in peace, then let us keep it," Thor was saying to the robot.

"I think you're confusing peace with quiet," the robot retorted.

Percy was tempted to argue that quiet peace was the best kind of peace.

"Yuh-huh. What's the Vibranium for?" Iron Man asked.

"I'm glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan," the robot said.

Percy probably would have laughed, if a) the robot hadn't attacked Iron Man and b) if the joke wasn't coming from the mouth of a homicidal machine.

Regardless, Percy leapt into action himself as well, summoning his trident and crashing through the window as robot lackeys attacked Thor and Captain America. He caught his trident and slammed it against the platform as he landed, right in front of silver-haired dude, which created a shockwave that sent him flying into some crates in the corner.

"Pietro!" Red-haired girl called what Percy could only assume was silver-haired dude's name. She tried to attack Percy, but he defended himself well this time, throwing the trident. Red-haired girl managed to stop it mid-air, which in all honesty, impressed Percy.

The broad was no joke.

Keeping her distracted with the trident was enough for Percy to kick her away and catch his trident back in his hand.

"Wanda!" Pietro called, but Thor interfered before he could rush towards Percy.

Meanwhile down below, Percy could see a group of Klaue's mercenaries come sprinting towards them and he sighed before looking at Wanda with a concerned expression. "I'll get back to you in a second."

Percy twirled and leaped over the railing, landing on his two feet while the mercs rushed at him, firing their rifles. Percy acrobatically flipped whilst he twirled his trident, engaging with every one of them as the bullets flew past him. Merc 1 had his rifle sent flying away. Merc 2 was clonked in the head. Merc 3 had his legs swept under. Merc 4 was kicked away and Merc 5 was sent crashing into Merc 1, knocking them both out.

As Percy finished them off, he suddenly found himself standing in front of a storage container that glowed green. He raised his eyebrow at the container in curiosity before he used his strength to pry the doors open, pulling them apart. Inside the container, he found what he'd came looking for.

Enchanted Adamantium.

There was lots of it, too. Several glass tubes were stacked on top of each other containing green metal inside. Percy grinned as he flipped a glass tube in his hand. "Don't mind if I do."

He tucked the tube into the back of his jeans as he looked around at the rest of the Enchanted Adamantium. "We'll have to come back for the rest of you."

As Percy stepped outside, he frowned as he realized how quiet it had gotten inside the ship. No sounds of combat heard anywhere. He cautiously stepped out and looked around for any sign of life until he could hear someone's voice from above him say, "The whole team is down, you got no back up here."

It dawned on Percy that Wanda had done the same vision thing to the Avengers as she did to him. He rushed back outside, where he spotted the Hulk leaping from the Avengers aircraft and far, into the city. Pietro and Wanda casually walked out of the aircraft.

"What did you just do?" Percy demanded.

Pietro and Wanda stood tall.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Stark … ruined our lives," Pietro declared.

"And you get him back by … putting innocent lives in danger?" Percy questioned. "The Hulk is a monster not to be tampered with."

Wanda seemed to be mulling it over.

Percy said. "When the Black Widow leaked SHIELD's secrets on the Internet, I learned that SHIELD decided to tamper with something out of their knowledge. That in turn, called unwanted attention like a beacon and brought aliens from outer space. They invaded New York." Percy's eyes looked distant. "I lost my mom in that invasion."

"And you don't want to do anything about it?" Wanda asked.

"People make mistakes," Percy said. "It's what makes us human. And I'm sure Stark feels sorry about to your …"

"Parents," Pietro finished. "A Stark missile killed them."

Percy nodded. "It's unfortunate and I understand, I would probably be angry, too. But Stark and the Avengers, they're not your enemy. I'm not your enemy, and I definitely don't have beef with you. But that robot … he's the enemy. He's using you. He's using your anger towards Stark to his advantage. You guys are nothing but a means to an end to him. Don't let your anger cloud your judgement. Because if you let that happen, you lose yourselves in your anger. And you two, despite our conflicts, I don't want to see that happen with you, believe it or not."

Pietro and Wanda were made to think, as they found themselves looking guilty and unable to respond to Percy.

"I …" Wanda couldn't even start her sentence.

Percy full attention was on the innocent people of Johannesburg as he spotted a building collapsing in the distance and a cloud of ash started to envelop the city. "There are lives that need saving and I'm gonna go help. You do what you have to do."

Percy started sprinting towards the city, leaving Wanda and Pietro behind to cerebrate.