Percy Gets a Surprise

*Disclaimer, All rights belong to Marvel Comics and Rick Riordan

*Story is by the fantastic lildrummerboi I'm just reposting with minor edits

It had been a cold and unproductive six weeks, the cold and windy rains of November had quickly turned to frozen wintery gales of December and New York had been hit by its now annual, snowstorm. The streets were a white and brown sludgy mixture of snow and mud that bogged cars down on the streets the plows had been unable to reach, and the sidewalks a slippery wet mess of slush and ice. It was certainly not the picturesque winter wonderland that is often proclaimed by news outlets and tourist boards.

Percy drew his thick coat closer around him as another gust of wind tore through the streets with a biting ferocity. His heavy black, double-breasted peacoat did wonders for keeping him protected from the vindictive gales, he only wished that he had thought to bring a scarf along. It was well into the evening now and the wind seemed to only increase in intensity as the temperature dropped, and the scarf would have protected his exposed face, the small stubble that now graced his cheeks, a result from not having the willingness to shave for a few weeks, did nothing to protect his wind-chapped cheeks and lips.

He had been in a rush out the door, as always, he had been running late to dinner with his family and had not thought to check to see what the weather would be like. The sun had been shinning all day and there hadn't been a cloud in the sky, so he hadn't paid it much mind and thought to enjoy a walk in the nice winter evening. He was beginning to think he really was an idiot. How long had he lived in the city? He should have known better than this.

He turned left, into an alleyway that cut through as a shortcut to the street his apartment was on, he allowed himself a moment to relish the brevity from the lack of wind attacking his face. Absently he raised his hand and wiped away the liquid that had begun to accumulate in the stubble on his cheeks, he would need to shave when he got home, he thought absently, though he had been home for nearly two months now, he had not shaved or thoroughly groomed himself since his time in California and it was beginning to even grate his nerves. He also reasoned to himself that he would likely be put back into rotation after the holidays and would need to make himself presentable regardless.

He stepped over a small puddle and as he did so, couldn't help but catch the small screen playing in the television in the apartment over to his left. It was a re-run of the news conference some months ago where Stark had ousted himself as Iron Man. Percy shook his head absently; the media frenzy that erupted as a result of the debacle still hadn't quite simmered down. Nick Fury, the director in charge of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, or SHIELD for short, had been none too pleased that Percy had "allowed" Stark to reveal what was then considered to be a state secret on live TV.

Coulson, however, had been quick to jump to Percy's defense, assuring Fury that Percy had done everything correctly and that there was just "no way of accurately anticipating or understanding the logic or mindset of Tony Stark." Percy had bought Coulson his favorite Chardonnay as a thank you. That had been one crisis averted, but it was nothing compared to what he faced when he got home, for an entire year he had, had limited contact with his family, and then suddenly his mother had been notified that he was recovering from injuries sustained in the line of duty at a California hospital.

Needless to say, his mother had, had words with Percy. Though, she was considerably mollified when he assured her that he was being given considerable time off for leave, because he had been taken away so abruptly the first time, and because he had been legitimately injured.

His fight with the guards and with Stane had exhausted Percy more than he had anticipated. He was pretty out of shape when it came to using his powers and so he set about establishing a workout routine the minute he got home, while he was technically on vacation, he also wanted to make sure that he was never put in a similar position of helplessness again.

He had just made it through the alley, a new gust of wind nearly knocking him over as he stepped out of the safety of the alley, and turned left, he was only a block from his apartment. Had he been more focused on his surrounding, had he been paying attention, he would have stopped then and there. There was a quiet over the street, over the howling wind was nothing, utter silence. There weren't even lights on in the buildings looming over the streets.

But Percy had been so focused on getting home that he didn't notice the oddities, and was therefore, completely unprepared for the sudden weight that slammed into the back of legs, sending him sprawling into the street. The suddenness of the attack, in harmony with the cold and the biting wind, had his head spinning and his blurred his vision. He attempted to right himself into a kneeling position but was stopped by something biting into his ankle, pulling him away from the street and into Central Park.

Percy yelped kicking out and striking the hellhound in the snout, sending it sprawling, yelping and snarling as it sailed through the air. He stood up, his ankle bleeding profusely onto the snow and ice. The hellhound turned and took off in a dead sprint towards the parks center. Percy saw red, and gave chase. He still wasn't thinking clearly, he didn't consider for a moment the oddness of having a lone hellhound attacking him in the middle of New York, when he hadn't been attacked in years.

He followed it deeper and deeper into the park until they reached the middle, as they were running Percy had reached under his coat and pulled out his Glock from the holster above his belt, in the waistband of his pants. He stopped as he burst through the tree line. However, after entering the small clearing there was no sign of the hellhound anywhere.

He didn't relax his stance; instead he extended his will out into the clearing beyond, willing himself to feel the through the frozen water on the ground. He felt the presence of at least seven pairs of feet, hidden amongst the trees in front of him. Lifting the gun slightly he pointed in the direction of some darkened branches just to his left and fired three shots, in quick succession, strafing left to right.

"Come out slowly with your hands above your head, or my next shots will not miss" Percy's voice had a distinct edge to it that left no room for argument, and slowly but surely Jason Grace, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, Grover Underwood, Thalia Grace, Nico Di Angelo, and Annabeth Chase walked out of their respective hiding places amongst the tree's their hands held high above their heads, at Nico's feet walked the hellhound that attacked Percy.

Percy's jaw clenched, and he swallowed the anger that was threatening to erupt, he needed answers, and he wouldn't allow himself to explode, not yet at least.

"Now that your overt display of machismo is over, you mind pointing that thing somewhere else Kelp Head" snarked Thalia, who still didn't look a day over seventeen. Percy made a show of not moving, making it look like he was thinking the decision over, he needed them to be aware that he was in control here, not them.

"You drop yours; I'll drop mine" he said again, making his voice sound as gravely as possible.

"C'mon Perce, this isn't necessary man, is it?" Grover bleated out, some things never change, Percy thought with some amusement.

"Sorry G-man but I'm afraid it is, I have a hard time trusting people who send a damn hellhound at me instead of calling like a normal person." His gun hadn't waivered from the area between where Leo and Grover were standing.

Jason and Annabeth shared a look before Jason said, with a certain degree of annoyance prevalent, "Do as he says guys" Thalia looked like she wanted to protest but a look and brief silent conversation from Annabeth changed her mind. Only once there was a distinct pile of weapons lying in the snow, did Percy lower the gun, and tuck it safely back in its holster in his waistband.

A silence fell over the clearing, and Percy noticed that even the wind had stopped blowing; everything was eerily still. Leo was, of course, the one to break the silence.

"So Percy, buddy, how's it going?" Percy couldn't help the look of incredulity that slipped onto his face, even the others turned to look at Leo with an air of utter exasperation "Ok, dumb question, fair enough" he muttered.

Percy turned his attention back to the group at large, focusing on Nico, "How'd they talk you into it?" It wasn't hard for Percy to understand exactly how they had located him, for one, he wasn't exactly hiding he also just wasn't throwing himself out there. For another, Nico was able to find just about anyone, anywhere, being able to travel anywhere you wanted with little effort made locating someone much easier.

Nico shrugged, boredom seeping onto his face, "You know how Annabeth and Piper can get, I didn't want to have to deal with it." He said noncommittally. An unabashed snort escaped Percy; that made sense, Annabeth and Piper could be downright torturous when they wanted to be; Nico made a smart move.

Annabeth cleared her throat, directing everyone's attention towards her, she stepped forward slightly, with an air of certain, uncertainty. "Percy" she began slowly, "I-We… we need your help" Of course they did, that's what he was to this part of his life, a tool. He narrowed his eyes and looked between Grover and Nico respectively, judging by the hardening of their faces, they really were in it, and the problem was, if things were bad enough for the entire group to be brought out of retirement, then he would likely be involved sooner or later anyways.

Turning back to Annabeth, he sighed and turned around and began walking out of the park, "c'mon" he called over his shoulder as he walked, "I'm not talking about the newest threat to humanity in the cold and without a beer."

BREAK

Meanwhile….

Boston

"Rostam, I swear to all that is holy, contract or no contract, if you don't put out that goddamn cigarette I'm gonna come over there, and I'm not going to be held responsible for what happens." 6 pairs of eyes all shifted to the heavily armed man in the corner, his cigarette polluting the already grime and sweat stained air of the tiny van.

Erik Rostam stared, looking at some of his compatriots for a moment and, when he saw that they weren't going to be offering any assistance, quickly dropped and stamped out his cigarette. "Sorry man… didn't mean any offense, I'll just uh… yeah…" Rostam got only a grunt in response, Rostam averted his eyes; Derik Vandervort was every bit as intimidating as Rostam Parthia had been led to believe.

He was a tall man, well over six feet and built like an ox, mean as one too apparently. He had perfect completion rate though, never failed to deliver on a job and right now that was all that Rostam really cared about. This was going to be the biggest hit yet, over twenty-five cases worth of product, it was enough for them to finally end this the absurd sneaking and skulking that they had been subjecting themselves to.

Unfortunately, though, because this was their fourth hit, the protection detail for this was supposed to be triple what the previous three had been, at least, if their source was to be believed.

Vandervort checked his watch before signaling to his team, as one, they all reached down and grabbed a black, featureless, plastic mask, before placing it over their heads. Rostam, finally catching the hint, did the same. The man closest to the door, Rostam forgot his name, gripped the handle and slid the door open before clambering out, followed by his five other team members, Rostam, and finally Vandervort.

This was an operation months in the making, they had spent hours of meticulous planning and spent even more surveying the delivery and transfer processes. As such they had everything, they needed to know about what they were walking into, and had planned accordingly.

The truck carrying the product would be stopping at a small gas station just under the overpass where they were parked. The gas station was a front for their ongoing operations in the area, as it was the nearest hub to the production center where the product was, and it would be here that the twenty-five cases would sorted and quickly distributed to five separate trucks, afterwards they would drive each in five separate directions until they met up with an additional five trucks where the product would once again be redistributed, before they took off to their final destinations.

The truck coming from the production plant had a guard of at least four men in the vehicle itself, it also composed of an advance and rear guard of two decoy vehicles, armed with four guards each, these twelve guards would be supplemented by eight men in the station, as well the two men per five outgoing trucks, for a total of thirty guards at the station. Thirty very well armed guards, supplied with the best weapons available and the training to use them effectively.

Rostam looked over the edge of the concrete barrier overlooking the gas station, to anyone else the gas station would have been the epitome of normalcy, a sporadic collection of seemingly random vehicles and parties of strangers each content with the events of their and importance's of their own lives. Filing up their gas tanks for a weekend away, possibly going home for Christmas.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Rostam looked up and checked his watch; he glanced over and shared a look with Vandervort, before pulling a small flashlight out of his pocket and flashing it, in quick succession, six then one then six again. It was the agreed upon code to begin the operation and he soon received his reply in the same manner of quick flashes of light.

Nodding to himself he signaled to the rest of the team to get into position. They anchored themselves into their jump harnesses and waited. They waited for more than five minutes, and Rostam was starting to get worried, it should not have taken them this long to get the-

His thoughts were cut off abruptly as the sound of squealing rubber cut through the air, shattering the illusion of peace that had settled over the overpass. The station below erupted into a flurry of motion as the guards frantically scurried to get their weapons and assemble into their assigned defensive positions. But it was too late, the sedan, which had been laid down with several additional canisters of nitroglycerin.

The car slammed into one of the fuel pumps just as one of the guards managed to pull free his rifle from the confines of his vehicle. The pump exploded and fire shot into through the station as the guards yelled and tried to orient themselves in the sudden chaos.

There was no worry in the mind of Rostam for the safety of the product, the transport vehicles were so thickly plated with fire retardant armor and bullet proof plating that not even a direct hit from anti-vehicular weaponry would damage the contents inside

Amidst the chaos and yelling, Vandervort gave the signal and the team repelled quickly down to the road below, the guards were so worried with the fire and dragging those who had been in the immediate blast zone away that they didn't notice the newcomers until it was far too late for them to do anything.

As soon as Rostam's boots hit the ground, he brought his gun to bear, a SMG, fitted with an extended stock and suppressor. The suppressor seemed rather superfluous given the nature of the plan, authorities were going to be on their way and at the station in under seven minutes, but these were just firefighters, there was no need to get police involved if they could help it.

While the suppressor didn't cancel the sound of the shot being fired like in the movies or television, it did muffle the noise well enough, that it certainly didn't sound like a gun being fired. Even if this only garnered them a few additional seconds of brevity, a few seconds could spell the success or failure of the job.

Rostam chose to ignore the two guards pulling free the body of a now horribly burned and disfigured man from the blast-zone and turned his sights on the two armed guards running out of the station, by the time they noticed Rostam's presence, he had already let loose a pair of shots from his SMG. The bullets ripped easily through the cotton shirt the man on the left was wearing and as the woman he'd come out of the station with comprehended what had happened to her colleague, Rostam shot her down with another burst.

He didn't even wait to confirm that the bullets had hit home, instead turning where he stood and dropping the two men who had been dragging their friend clear, they looked up, hearing the cries of surprise and death from their comrades, just in time to see the barrel of Rostam's gun pointing at them.

After their swift and relatively painless end, Rostam turned and watched as the remains of the resistance was wiped out. As they had repelled from the freeway the second team had come around and flanked the station from the rear, choking the guards; the fighting hadn't lasted more than a minute.

The team unleashed a fury of gunfire on the remaining occupants, catching them off guard and in a crossfire as the second team came around the corner, blasting away the remaining soldiers. In a matter of less than a minute all thirty guards were dead, either from the blast or the sudden gunfire.

They didn't have much time and quickly set to work unloading the products from the armored vehicles, the twenty-five cases were rapidly grabbed and split amongst the two teams, before both groups turned away and hurried back to their ropes and clambered back up to the freeway and into their escape vehicles.

It had been quick, clean, and flawlessly executed. They would now drive some ten miles west, where they would ditch the van before cleaning and burning it and swapping for two additional transports. They would then turn around and head south until they were in Connecticut where they would regroup with the other team members.

Rostam pulled his mask off, as soon as he was back in the stale, foul-smelling van, and collapsed into his seat, his breathing heavy. He would have time to recollect his thoughts before they got to Connecticut, which would be enough to prepare him mentally for the last phase of the job.

Meanwhile…

New York

The group of eight had settled themselves nicely in Percy's apartment; Jason, Piper and Leo all took to the couch while Nico and Annabeth took the adjoining chairs, while Thalia was rummaging through Percy's fridge looking for something to drink.

"Gods, Kelp Head why do you have so much beer? Should we be worried about something?" Said Thalia as she pulled out a box of beer.

"I got it for free the guy next-door was moving." said Percy from his spot, leaning against the countertop, facing out into the living room, and a freshly opened can of beer in his hand, "And even I'm not dumb enough to pass up free beer."

"Sure." Thalia muttered to herself, as she pulled out a couple cans, before walking into the living room and plopping herself down on the arm of the chair Annabeth was sitting in.

"So…" Percy began after taking a large pull from his beer, "what is the world-ending crisis this time?"

"This isn't a joking matter Percy, people are dead" said Annabeth hotly, as Jason's glare returned full force.

"I'm actually only half joking here" came Percy's indignant reply.

"You wouldn't be here if you didn't feel like you were completely out of options, so I'll ask again: who's trying to take over what, and why the hell do you need me for it?" Percy said, growing more and more irritated by the minute.

Piper chose this moment to finally speak up, "Well… that's just the thing Percy… we're not exactly sure what's going on and it's why we're" she gestured around the room and vaguely pointed skyward, message clear, "kinda freaked."

She proceeded to pull out a series of manila folders from her purse and Percy, taking the unspoken cue, reached over and plucked them out of her hands. He set his beer down and opened the first, which turned out to be the Camp Half-Blood file on some kid named Jackson Kirby, he had been a son of Apollo before he died about three months ago at the age of twenty, the file said he'd died of a drug overdose, which raised an eyebrow. A result of the godly blood in their systems, typical mortal alcohols and narcotics didn't have the same effects on the body of demigods than on average mortals. Whoever this Kirby kid had been, he must have been involved in the drug trade somehow, no way he got his hands on enough of whatever it had been to kill him without being involved in either the shipping or making of it.

But that raised another question, the file just said "overdose" it didn't specify what substance or substances he had been ingesting, he remembered to file that away for later and opened the second folder.

Sana Amant, daughter of Aphrodite, she had been just twenty as well, although her death was no "accident" as Kirby's seemingly had been, although she too had drugs in her system at the time of her death, again the drugs in question were not specified, but she had been shot, twice in the chest, and her body dumped in the Hudson before it was fished out later that same day. Percy narrowed his eyes, maybe they had a point here, and there was just something about this drug angle that was nagging at him, something wasn't right here.

With that in mind he opened the final folder and was certainly not expecting what he found. Gloria Ashfeld, born August 12, 1433, a hunter. Executed, one shot directly through the center of the forehead. Percy let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding; it was one thing to kill a hunter, but it was another thing entirely to kill one as old and experienced as she was.

Percy was finally beginning to understand the fear, the uncertainty that was plaguing the demigods in the room, there was a pattern here, and he too believed that these weren't by happenstance, but he had a question.

"Ok so this is bad and all." He started, "But I really don't see how any of this is my problem" That had been the very wrong thing to say, Thalia's whole demeanor shifted as she launched at him across the room, but Percy wasn't one of the most decorated agents around without cause. As she closed in, thunder literally rolling in her eyes, Percy ducked under her knife, and grasped onto her elbow and straightening it and twisting her arm causing her to drop the knife.

He then buried his knee in her stomach and she dropped to her knees. He tossed her over to the couch before pulling his gun out and pointed it at Jason, who had jumped to his feet and looked ready to jump Percy if anything more happened, "Get out." He said simply.

Annabeth, who was busy trying to restrain Thalia from jumping back at Percy looked ready to murder, "Percy! What in the Hades is wrong with you! People are dying and you don't even care."

"Of course I care." He retorted "But people like us are doubly susceptible to external threats, hardly my fault that they underestimated the mortals they were dealing with."

"What I don't care for, is being attacked in my own home. Get out."

Jason was snarling now "So instead of running away now you're just avoiding it all together, that's just like you Jackson," Jason stepped forward, ignoring the firearm in Percy's hand and got right in his face, "The hell is your problem Grace?" demanded Percy,

"My problem" said Jason, his voice a low growl, "is that people are dying, your people, and you couldn't seem to give any less of a damn about it!"

Jason's voice was near a shout by this point, "I don't give a damn? I don't? Since when have you? People like us die every damn day, but you never see it, never hear about it, so you don't care. Out of sight out of mind right? But suddenly a couple of us die in their backyard and now it's my problem? Why not direct that anger at someone who actually deserves it?"

"You're starting to sound like Luke" Thalia snapped out at Percy.

That was low, intended to hurt and Thalia knew it, but she was saved from Percy's retort by a knock at the door. They had been exceptionally loud, it wasn't exactly a surprise, sighing he stowed away his pistol and walked to the door. He just hoped that it wasn't Carter again; he had a habit of being a bit of an asshole.

But it wasn't Carter, instead, when Percy opened the door, he was greeted by the tall, blonde, beautiful form of his neighbor Alyssa Palmer, her arms folder under her chest, her tanned skin clashing against the white, night-tee she was wearing, a look of alerted concern across her face.

Percy felt awful now, she had clearly been in bed when she heard the shouting, he knew that she didn't get a lot of time off from work… whatever that was, she was more secretive about her chosen occupation than he was, something the two had bonded over recently.

"Hey Alyssa…" he started rubbing at his face tiredly, "I'm so sorry about all the noise, we'll try to keep it down" Her face contorted into a frown, and watched as her eyes danced between his waist, where he realized that he had only holstered his pistol and had not covered it back up, and the people behind him. The living room looked like it had been hit by a mini hurricane and both Jason and Thalia's expressions were murderous.

She looked back at him, an eyebrow raised, "Everything ok in there? Sounded like things were getting violent"

"Just a… a little misunderstanding" Percy chuckled

"Do most 'little misunderstandings' require you to pull your piece? If that's the case, remind me to never borrow your milk without asking again" she asked, a smile dancing at her lips as she shifted to lean against the door, but Percy could see that question in her eyes Do you need some backup?

Percy had pieced together a while ago that his neighbor was some form of military intelligence, spooks were always relatively easy to spot off duty, they were rigid, paranoid, always looking over their shoulder for someone who was coming after them. Percy recognized the signs because he saw them in himself, picking them up out of Alyssa's behavior hadn't been exactly difficult. It also wasn't a surprise that she had clearly figured as much out about him.

"So you are the milk thief," he said sagging to the other doorframe and crossing his arms, all's good here, don't worry about it

"Not my fault you don't lock your door well enough" My door's unlocked, if things go south Percy smiled bashfully and lowered his head, he laughed quietly before looking her in the eye again,

"But seriously Alyssa, it's all good, just a good, old fashioned, family argument." Percy replied

"Is Sally in there? I haven't seen her in forever" she said as she looked in the room again.

Alyssa and his mother had met shortly after Percy moved into the apartment. He had been in South America and his mother had come over to water his plants when they had met. They became friends far too quickly for Percy to be comfortable with, but that seemed to be his lot in life.

"No they're… ah… from my dad's side of the family." She looked back at him again, questioning once more,

"I thought you didn't know your father?" and of course he had forgotten that his mother had let that one slip, he was getting sloppy.

"I did some digging when I was younger and found his side of the family, I don't talk about it much because, as you can see" he gestured vaguely behind him, at the assembled masses watching the interaction,

"We don't exactly get along all that well." She didn't looked convinced, "Look I'll give you a shout if they stir up any more trouble and you can come beat them up for me" he said with a smile and a laugh.

She smirked back at him, her eyes dancing playfully "I'll hold you to that buddy. Night Percy."

"Night Alyssa" As she turned to walk back to her apartment she him one last meaningful look over her shoulder I mean it, he nodded back I know and she disappeared behind the door to her apartment.

Closing the door and rubbing tiredly at his eyes he turned back to face the room at large. "Ok" he began quietly, he really didn't want to disturb anyone else, "Are we all going to be calm? Or are there does anyone else feel like having a tantrum?" Leo looked as though he was ready to make a comment, but a look from Piper effectively killed whatever he was about to say or do. Instead, it was Grover that spoke, his voice wavering slightly.

"Why are you so against helping us Percy, I thought we were your friends, I thought you cared." Percy sighed, feeling several years older all of a sudden. He wished he had just stayed he night at his mothers like she had suggested, avoided all of this nonsense altogether. He moved slowly back into the kitchen, dragging his feet as he went, and stooped into the fridge and grabbed another beer, popped the cap, and downed the drink in only a few gulps. When he was finished he turned back towards the assembled group and addressed them.

"You are my friends Grover, I care about every person in this room and no matter your individual feelings towards me, never doubt that I would sooner die than see any of you hurt. And as my friends, I respect your decisions and life choice, whatever they may be, and I expected that kindness to be returned in favor."

He was pacing now, hands in his pockets and head turned down, staring intently on his feet as he was talking. But here, he stopped, and when he raised his head his eyes were glowing an unnatural green, radiating in power and authority. "However, when I made the simple request, a request that has so far been granted completely by our parents, that I should be allowed to leave your world, for it is most assuredly now your world, not mine, that I would not be disturbed by your troubles and I wont disturb you with mine, that the only time we would meet in an official capacity would be if our two worlds collided. That was our deal. That was what was agreed upon."

"I am trying to live my life, trying to do what I can to make the mortal world a better place, to protect people, because that's all I know, all I've been taught, and so when I say that I understand and sympathize with your problem, it is simply not my problem. I'm sorry, but to me, it sounds like some of your people got tangled up in some things they shouldn't have, got in way too far over their head, and died for it, it's sad but that's what happens when you get involved with drug trafficking."

"That's just it though!" said Piper suddenly; "They weren't on crack, or coke, or heroin, hell they didn't even have traces of weed in their system! All we were able to find were trace amounts of Adderall and Xanax!"

Percy froze. His eyes widened and his breath hitched, actions that were noticed by Annabeth and Jason. "Does that mean something to you Percy?" asked Annabeth cautiously Percy rounded on her, weighing his options,

"Are you positive that's what you found?" he asked

"Completely" she said, "And they didn't have prescriptions for either of those! You know how useless mortal drugs are for demigods, why would they be taking them if there wasn't some sort of connection!" Piper was nearly hysterical as she ranted. Jason, seeing her state, placed a calm hand on her shoulder and pulled her into a one armed hug. Her breathing slowed from the hysterical hyperventilating to a calmer rhythm.

Percy meanwhile was talking to himself under his breath, attempting to rationalize how this could have happened, "… There's just no way, there are only a handful of people who even know about it, and even then they're under such heavy guard that even people like us couldn't have… There's just no way…"

They were all trying to get his attention, talking over one another, Jason was still comforting Piper, and Grover had started bleating, Over the din that had re-erupted the sound of Percy's phone cut through the air like a bullet. It rang twice before Percy answered, the collection of demigods falling silent as they, once again, waited, taking umbrage in once again falling second party to Percy's social life.

"Jackson" he said simply into the phone, "Jackson" came Coulson's voice, but there was something wrong, whereas it normally it was the epitome of calm and composed, there was an edge to it, panic threating to creep into his otherwise dulcet tones. "We need you to come in now, a substation in Boston was just hit, we lost thirty agents and whoever they were made off with twenty-five cases of Supprimere, I shouldn't have to tell you why this is a problem, get to Boston. We'll be waiting." There was a click, and the line went dead.

Percy looked at his phone, then at the expectant, waiting faces of the others in the room. He ran a hand through his ragged hair and released a breath. This was bad, this so beyond bad that he didn't know if there were words to accurately articulate how utterly bad this situation was. But Percy did his best to articulate the situation in the manner that seemed most appropriate.

"We are so thoroughly fucked, you guys"

AN: Minor edits on this one please feel free to comment either here or on the Emerald Library Discord server where you can find both me and LilDB.

AN2: Percy is still carrying a Glock 19 and Rostam was using an mp5