Damn it.
He hated it when he jinxed himself.
A few hours after he and Annabeth had said goodbye to Mom and Stella, they were walking back to their apartment. The sun had long since begun to set, and the harsh wind had picked up to the point that it ripped off Annabeth's hat, sending them down the sidewalk to catch it.
After a speedy chase—he blamed Zeus—he caught the culprit. A moderate sized gray toboggan, and he slipped it over her head with a slight smirk.
"My hero." Annabeth breathed, leaning up to plant a kiss on his lips.
"We need to start hitting the gym if a run is going to wind us." He mused.
"Mm. Maybe after Christmas."
"Definitely after Christmas," he agreed.
"Your mom sure loves to spoil us."
"Of course." He smiled. "After all, who thought we'd survive into our 20s?"
She laughed quietly. "Nobody."
"Let's head back home. It's getting late."
"And love songs don't sing themselves."
He scoffed, and she smirked smugly. "Someday we'll stand up to Gleeson and sing something with action."
"Maybe someday." She said wistfully. "For now, we need to listen to him. He pays the bills."
"The wondrous life of a singer, I suppose."
She had slipped her hand through his, and they looked around. They had stopped in the middle of Times Square. Annabeth's confused expression mirrored his own. How had we traveled across town so fast?
"Let's take a cab." He suggested. "It's getting too cold to continue to walk."
Annabeth nodded her agreement. "My fingers are starting to go numb through my gloves."
He slipped two fingers into his mouth, and with his best New York whistle, the loud sound pierced through my lips. Annabeth visibly jumped, but quickly settled back down. Within a few minutes, a cab parked in front of us on the road.
Annabeth and I hopped into the cab. The driver turned to look at us with a hungry expression. "Where to?"
"Brooklyn." I replied in a calm voice.
The driver licked his lips. "Gonna cost ya. Traffic's heavy."
"We'll include a $20 tip upon arrival." Annabeth replied smoothly to the driver.
The driver turned around, starting up the engine. He flicked off the 'available' light with a small clack, and began to drive.
He leaned back into the seat, trying to get comfy. Annabeth had pulled out a book about architecture—gods knew where she had been hiding that—and had begun to read. He noticed off handedly that it was written in Greek. He yawned, leaning onto her shoulder. The height difference between us made the position uncomfortable for me, but he was too proud to move.
"Tired?" She asked softly.
"Yeah." He yawned, pouting his lip out, his impression of a baby seal down tight.
She stifled a laugh. "You're too much sometimes."
"Yeah. But you love me." A sly smile had crept its way onto his lips.
"Dunno why." She said, kissing the tip of his nose lightly.
"Mm." He nuzzled closer to her neck, breathing in her sweet perfume. Gods. He thought to himself. She's wearing that perfume that drives me wild.
Before he knew it, he had been sleeping soundly on her shoulder. He hadn't been sleeping long enough for a nightmare-or perhaps he was just lucky not to receive one—but Annabeth was shaking my shoulder.
"Wazz goin on?" He mumbled, rubbing his eyes.
"We're here." Annabeth said.
He yawned loudly, reaching into his pocket for his wallet. He fumbled around with the bills until Annabeth pulled the correct change from the wallet for him. She handed it to the driver, and together they got out of the cab. He stretched, his bones loudly popping.
"You're too tall for cabs." Annabeth noticed. "Wonder when that happened."
"Dunno, but we haven't ridden in one for what, three years I think?"
"Something like that. Ever since we hired a new driver we don't have to worry about it."
They started up the path to their house. The house itself was brown in color. There wasn't any difference from this house and every other house on the street, except the fact that it had a bright red door, while the rest of the house's doors were brown.
He slipped his hand into his pocket to grab the keys. The streetlight in front of the house had gone out, and it made guessing which key was for the door exceptionally hard. The keys tumbled out of his hand, and he bit back a curse. Just as he had leaned down to grab the keys, something whistled past where his head had been a second ago.
Instantly on alert, he looked at the light pole next to him. Embedded into it was a tranquilizer dart. He turned to Annabeth to shout a warning, but he noticed that she had a dart sticking out of her back, right between the shoulder blades. He caught her before she hit the ground.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
He ran towards the front door of their house, carrying Annabeth bridal style. He kicked down the door as he ran, not caring that the door had been blown off its hinges. It could be fixed when I wasn't running for their lives.
"Stop!" A woman shouted.
"No thanks!" He yelled. "I'm good!"
First demigod rule they always taught you. Surroundings!
He glared around him in a quick 360. He couldn't see anyone—it was too dark. He decided to just take the less stealthy approach and run like hell.
He continued to run through the house. He almost tripped over an upturned table, but jumped over it as if it were nothing. He kicked open the back door, not missing as the sounds of more darts were coming his way. He panted, starting to lose his breath. He knew Annabeth would be furious that he didn't leave her there, but he would've never forgave himself if he had.
He turned too late and another dart made its mark. It hit his shoulder, and at once the pain almost blinded him. He hissed, but he didn't have an available hand to yank it out of his shoulder. He stumbled, almost dropping Annabeth, but he just adjusted his hold on her, forcing himself not to black out.
"What the hell?" He heard the woman curse angrily. She was almost right behind me, loading another dart into her gun-
He jumped over the fence in the backyard, using the wooden platform to propel himself forward. Water. His mind groggily said. I have to get to the water.
Luckily, the house was only about a mile from the coast. If he could make it into the bay, they'd have a chance. He'd just have to make an air bubble for Annabeth to breathe in. Then they would take refuge in Camp Half-Blood.
He gritted his teeth as he heard the agent behind him climbing the fence. He used her distraction to keep running forward, but his movements were getting sluggish and slow. Focus! He chided himself.
"Gotcha." A male voice said. He had suddenly appeared in front of Percy, and he didn't have enough time to evade his dart. It hit him solely in the chest.
He was out before he even hit the ground.
Tony was horrified. He had a drone flying over the Jackson's house after their meeting at the restaurant. What had resulted was one of the most horrifying things he had ever watched.
Shield agents had sprung a trap on the Jacksons, in their own home, not even giving them a chance to explain anything or defend themselves. They were hunted down like animals and arrested. By the time they had apprehended the two, half of the block was recording the stars being shoved into shield vans. He had no doubt that the news would be spread everywhere by the morning.
He took his glasses off and pinched the bridge of his nose. This was bad. Very bad. He had his suspicions on why shield had taken them, of course, but he didn't want to say anything to Fury. He didn't want to make the situation worse than it already is. He tapped his fingers against the table he was sitting at, trying to come up with a plan.
He was very tempted to call Clint. Clint would know what to do. Part of him knew that this wouldn't do any good, and would only worry the Son of Apollo. No, he had to come up with a plan B. Something. Anything.
"Steve Rogers wants to know if you're available." Jarvis' voice rang out on the intercom.
"Tell him I'm sleeping." He replied, his eyes still on the footage, even as it stopped playing long ago.
"He says that's the biggest lie he's heard today." Jarvis replied.
"Fine," He sighs. "Let him in."
A few seconds later, he heard footsteps. Steve came into the lab, looking a bit lost as he normally does. Steve was still very old fashioned and didn't understand anything in Tony's lab.
"Shield captured Percy and Annabeth." It wasn't a question.
"Yeah." He replied, motioning to the screen. He hit play once again on the footage for Steve to see.
Steve was silent as he watched the footage, until he scoffed. "They were unarmed, not a threat, and they still knocked them out anyway."
"Yep." Tony said.
"Why?"
He bit his lip. He couldn't tell Steve his hunch. He was racking his brain to come up with an explanation when Steve spoke up again.
"They're calling them mutants."
Tony's head snapped to look at Steve fast enough to give him whiplash. "What?"
"That's what the news said." Steve clarified. "What do you think?"
"It's definitely a possibility, but if they were mutants, wouldn't Charles Xavier have snatched them, not shield?" Tony mused.
"Who?" Steve asked, looking confused.
"He's like the leader of the mutants or something, I think." Tony replied, thinking about it. "I don't know much about it, honestly."
Steve hummed as he thought over the information. "Is there anything we can do to help them?"
"We could go down there and demand an explanation from Fury." He replied, already standing up and grabbing a jacket.
"Sounds like a solid plan."
"You in?" He raised an eyebrow at the blonde man.
"There's nowhere else I'd rather go."
"Then suit up, Cap. We have a date with Director Fury."
"Do me a favor, Tony, and never say that again."
Tony laughed, patting Steve on the shoulder. They walked out of the lab together, heading towards Shield HQ.