2016

Lagos, Nigeria

Wanda Maximoff sat at a table by her lonesome, pouring sugar into her coffee before stirring the cup with a small spoon. She wore a hat to blend in with the crowd as she looked around the cafe and drank a sip of her coffee.

Steve Rogers's voice came on the radio. "Alright, what do you see?"

Wanda turned to look at the nearby police officers in blue uniforms. "Standard beat cops. Small station. Quiet street. It's a good target."

Steve watched from the window of a nearby apartment complex. "There's an ATM in the south corner, which means …"

"Cameras," Wanda finished.

"Both cross streets are one way," Steve added.

"So, compromised escape routes," Wanda said.

"Means our guy doesn't care about being seen, he isn't afraid to make a mess on the way out. You see that Range Rover halfway up the block?"

"Yeah, the red one? It's cute," Wanda commented.

Natasha Romanoff glanced at Wanda, who sat a few tables away. "It's also bulletproof, which means private security, which means more guns, which means more headaches for somebody. Probably us."

"You guys know I can move things with my mind, right?" Wanda replied.

"Looking over your shoulder needs to become second nature," Natasha retorted.

Sam Wilson joined the conversation from atop the roof of a building, watching over the whole city. "Anybody ever tell you you're a little paranoid?"

"Not to my face. Why? Did you hear something?" Natasha answered.

"Eyes on target, folks. This is the best lead we've had on Rumlow in six months. I don't want to lose him," Steve reminded.

"If he sees us coming, that won't be a problem. He kind of hates us," Sam replied.

Some civilians shouted at a garbage truck as it tried to force its way through the streets of Lagos.

"Sam, see that garbage truck? Tag it," Steve ordered.

A little drone popped out from Sam's jetpack, manned by Sam himself, launched itself and flew towards the garbage truck to scan it.

"Give me X-ray," Sam commanded.

The X-ray revealed the garbage truck was carrying weight at maximum level, a total of 13,825 kilograms. The driver himself was marked a threat.

"That truck's loaded for max weight. And the driver's armed," Sam informed.

"It's a battering ram," Natasha added.

"Well … we do have our guy at the entrance for that," Sam said.

"Percy?" Steve said.

At the Institute for Infectious Disease, wearing a camouflage uniform, was none other than Percy Jackson revealed himself, standing guard at the entrance, brushing off his uniform and adjusting his hat.

"You know … if you want to blend in, you have to actually make the effort," Percy commented. "Play dress-up. Wearing a hat and shades won't cut it."

"Percy, focus," Steve chastised. "Do you see a garbage truck heading towards you?"

Percy stepped outside his little booth to take a look down the road. Sure enough, a garbage truck heading towards him started to pick up speed.

"Yeah, I see it," Percy said, stepping back inside his booth and grabbing his trident, propped neatly in a corner of the booth.

"Can you do something about it?" Steve asked.

"Absolutely, Cap," Percy said, squinting one eye to aim with perfect precision and holding his trident to aim at the truck.

Percy threw the trident and just as the driver decided to jump out of the truck, the trident struck one of the wheels and sent the truck veering off in another direction and crashing into one of the shops. Percy reached out and the trident flew back into his hand.

"Garbage truck taken care of," Percy called in with a smirk.

That was until he spotted an armored truck coming from way behind and the man popped out to aim it directly at Percy.

Percy's eyes popped wide open. "OH SHIT!"

Percy dove to his left as the grenade missed him by very little and struck the booth, destroying it. As Percy stood up to his feet, two box trucks drove right through the entrance. The armored truck took a left as if heading for around the back.

"They're in!" Percy warned.

"What happened?" Steve asked.

"Guys had an armored truck, almost shot me with a grenade launcher," Percy said, running back into the institute.

Two guys rushed at Percy as he used his own trident as leverage to kick out the first one before plopping back on his feet and smacking the other one with the three-point end. "Yeah, we got a whole bunch of mercenaries, all armed to the teeth," he said, surveying the armed mercenaries.

Steve came launching in, smashing into the truck and blocking bullets with his shield, he then kicked a truck which sent another one catapulting. He threw his shield at another one before jumping at another one and kicked him, sending him flying as well. Percy came running towards him just in time.

"Show-off," he muttered.

"That makes seven hostiles now," Steve said.

Percy turned to see another mercenary fall from the roof and fall onto a truck. Sam peeked his head out from above. "I make five."

Another one shot at Wanda as she blocked the bullets with a force field and Percy was of help this time, coming from behind and knocking him out with a heavy swing, which brought a smile to Wanda's face and Percy smirked back at her. "That makes four," Percy announced.

"Rumlow's on the third floor," Sam notified.

"Percy, sweep for any more mercenaries," Steve commanded.

"Aye aye, Captain."

"Wanda, just like we practiced," Steve said, turning to the redhead.

"What about the gas?"

"Get it out."

Wanda used her telekinesis to help Steve launch himself into a second-story window. As Wanda then turned her attention to getting out the gas, Sam and Percy both covered her, with the Falcon covering himself with a wing and shooting from behind it as Percy took a more aggressive approach, rolling and ducking between trucks to get closer to the mercs, and taking them out in hand-to-hand combat.

A merc came from behind and shot him point blank to the back of the head with a pistol. Percy turned to look at him in amusement. "Heh … that tickled."

The merc tried to run but he had already sealed his fate with that attempt at Percy as he got a trident to the back. With the area clear, Wanda was able to get all the gas out and send it sky-high.

"Rumlow has a biological weapon," Steve warned.

"I'm on it," Natasha said.

...

Percy arrived in a motorcycle as he spotted Natasha laying on the ground after being catapulted out of an armored truck.

"You alright?" Percy asked, half in concern, half in amusement.

"Just fine," she grunted as she steadily got up on her feet.

"Looks like our guy got out in an AFV," Percy said. "If you're okay, then we go after him."

Natasha made no remarks and sat behind Percy on the motorcycle, holding onto his waist before they took off after the AFV Rumlow was in.

"Sam, he's in an AFV heading north," Steve said over comms.

As Percy and Natasha arrived to a bustling street marketplace, Sam warned that there were four of them and they were splitting.

"I got the two of them going right," Sam said.

"Alright, we'll split as well then," Percy said to Natasha. "You go for one, I go for the other."

"Yeah," she agreed.

They stopped the motorcycle at a dead end where cars blocked them and just as planned, they split. Percy used his momentum to jump high into the air and land on the other side as Natasha went in another direction. Sam eventually caught up to his two and announced that he had nothing. That left the bioweapon with one of the two guys left.

Percy ran until he found his guy, who immediately started firing his handgun at him. The bullets bounced off Percy, leaving nothing but holes in his uniform. Percy looked at the guy in annoyance and stripped his gun and broke it in half, before sending a roundhouse kick to his face.

He fell right down and Percy immediately searched his pockets until he found what he was looking for, a little glass tube with an orange substance inside it.

"I got it," Percy announced. "I found the bioweapon."

"Nicely done, Percy," Natasha complimented as she made his way towards him, dragging the other guy and placing him next to Percy's guy.

"What now?" Percy asked.

"You hold on to it and we get it to Steve," Natasha replied.

Percy grimaced as he placed the bioweapon in his uniform pocket. "Where is he anyways?"

…

The answer to that was in another area of the marketplace, getting his ass kicked. Sort of. Captain America and Crossbones were battling it out in a good-old fashioned hand-to-hand fight. That was until he tried to stab him with a hidden pop-up blade. Then Captain America really started to get mad and kick Rumlow's ass.

With a strong roundhouse kick, he sent Rumlow flying and crashing into a table, before he marched his way towards him.

Rumlow took off his helmet as Steve gripped his vest. Rumlow looked at him tiredly with his half-burnt face. "I think I look pretty good, all things considered."

"Who's your buyer?" Steve demanded.

"You know, he knew you. You pal, your buddy, your Bucky," Rumlow muttered mockingly.

Steve scowled. "What did you say?"

"He remembered you," Rumlow said. "I was there. He got all weepy about it. 'Til they put his brain back in a blender. He wanted you to know something. He said to me, 'Please tell Rogers. When you gotta go, you gotta go.' And you're coming with me."

He pressed a button on his gauntlet, activating his suicide bomb vest. Steve was stunned, not knowing what to do as Rumlow starts to explode … that was until Wanda intervened, containing the explosion around Rumlow as he starts to grimace in agony. It was obvious Wanda was struggling to control the explosion as she lifted Rumlow into the air until she actually did lose control and it exploded … right next to an office building.

The damage was immeasurable as several floors of the office building lit up and Wanda fell to her knees in shock and devastation, holding her mouth as tears welled up in her eyes.

Percy was walking back towards the rendezvous point until he heard an explosion and he and Natasha turned to see a building completely ignite in fire. Percy immediately handed the bioweapon to Nat.

"Get that back to HQ," he said.

"But-"

Percy didn't let her finish what she had to say because he immediately started running towards the building. He saw Wanda kneeling on the ground and Steve looking up at the building in shock, but he paid no attention to them as he sprinted into the building.

Civilians were coughing all around him as they tried to escape the flaming furnace. "Leave the building," Percy ordered, helping them out as his own eyes watered, but because of his Atlantean physiology, he was a lot more resistant to fire than the average human.

A woman was crying next to what could Percy only assume was a friend of hers. Percy immediately picked her friend up and started to carry her out, saying to the woman, "Come on!", and the woman followed him out.

Percy spent a lot of hours trying to help in any way that he could, but even with some help from Steve, he couldn't do much about the damage. He saw many corpses, people he could not save, people he tried to save but died in his arms. Maybe a hundred killed, many more burned or injured.

Percy could tell this was the Avengers' doing and he figured the least they could do was help clean up the mess they caused. But he didn't know it would be the start of something that had been falling into place for several years.

Things were about to take a turn for the worst for the Avengers.