Welcome to the next installment of We Need Heroes! Now, to address the comments! I'll make a habit of answering comments at the beginning of every chapter.
LordGiacomoS: Seems like an interesting story concept, hope author updates regularly.
Me: I'll certainly try to! I can't get a set updating schedule going but I'm super excited for the direction I'm planning to take this story in!
Yesse2362: A good Job so far!
It was a bit unexpected that you had still the percabeth as you're planning to break them up.
Im kinda used to just Percy Annabeth friendship because I'm not a fan of them...
Hope you'll update, seemed pretty interesting
Bye
Yesse
TheCat413: Pretty nice, I dont know if I reviewed before with this account or with my other one(yesse2362) but just so you know that's the same insane person.
A good chapter, kinda a filler and I hope you'll make a couple action scenes some time.
Also we Need a realistic breakup for percabeth.
Ask me if you want some ideas or advice or whatever
Til then, see ya
Me: Yes! I know mosy Percy/OC fics have them already broken up but I wanted to try something new and it may add some more realistic drama and angst to the story. I'm not a big fan of the pairing either, but I don't want to turn this into a pure bash fic, ya know? I mean, I love bash fics, but I'm tryna keep a vibe going. I still plan to incorporate some humor here and there, though. And I do have a plan for why they break up which I hope won't be too OOC. Just gotta figure out when... (evil laughs into the Void)
Also, it threw me off when you reviewed with two accounts, but I'm vibing with it. Hope you don't mind a 2n1 response!
Alexvsjsn: Ohhh im a fan so far! Interesting start and premise. Can't wait to read more
Me: Thanks! I'm glad you like it!
- Carina Centric -
"That was a bad idea." Jackson glared at Carina while sitting on her bed. Looking at him from the reflection on her vanity mirror, it was almost humorous how out of place he looked. His dark eyes looking sternly at her while he sat on her turquoise bedspread with multicolored paper lanterns hanging over her bed from the ceiling and pink and purple stenciled butterflies on her walls. With his dark clothes and his expression, he looked like an angered shadow in a Fairy field.
However, she bit back her grin and sighed. "I know, but I felt so bad for hurting the guy. I just wanted to apologize and not make an enemy out of him and his angry girlfriend."
"You apologize by saying 'sorry' and maybe bribing him with some candy. Maybe buying off his medical bills. Not inviting him and his friends to the fucking Tower!"
That's right, her 'brilliant' idea to make it up to Percy was to invite him over to the Tower. Plus his friends. She knew she shouldn't just randomly extend that courtesy to people she barely knew, but what would be the harm so long as they didn't go anywhere they aren't supposed to?
"It's not like there haven't been people in the Tower before." She defended herself, looking away from him. "Remember those videos of Tony's parties? SHIELD agents are in and out of here all the time now, too. Also, I asked Cap if I could have friends over and he was okay with it."
"I still think it's a bad idea. I don't trust them."
"You don't like to trust anyone, Spider." A familiar voice said from the doorway, causing both teens to look up. There stood a girl close to their age with beautiful Japanese features and her long white hair tied up in a bun with loose strands framing her face. She had a coy grin on her face as she looked at Jackson. "Remember how long it took for you to trust me?"
"Trusting you? Debatable." He raised an eyebrow at her, but still relaxed somewhat. "Weren't you supposed to be training?"
"Aww, don't be so grumpy. I think it's fun to see some new faces." She said and settled on the bed beside Jackson, brushing up close enough to not leave much space between them. "Besides, I think it's great she's trying to make new friends, even if she already almost killed one of them."
"Don't encourage this, Yuna." Jackson huffed. "We don't know them and they could be bad news. Inviting them to the Tower was a mistake."
"What's the harm? They're just teenagers."
"So are we."
"Exactly! So we should let Carina do normal teenage things with teenage friends that aren't government property."
"You two sound like parents debating on if I should be allowed to go to prom." Carina let out a short laugh and put her brush down, then revolving her chair to look at her teammates. "It's all gonna be fine. I hope. Look, after I apologized to Percy for nearly breaking his arm-"
"-and back." Yuna interrupted, earning an eye roll.
"-and back, he apologized for basically ignoring me and wanted to try the 'friends' thing again. And what better way to make friends than making plans to hang out on the weekend?"
Jackson shook his head and stopped arguing. He clearly didn't like it still, but Carina knew that he hated wasting time arguing with them. "How long before they get here?"
Carina looked at her watch and smiled. "Soon!" She said and stood up, feeling some excited energy course through her, with a twinge of nervousness. She never brought friends home before, but she's also not used to the idea of having school friends, so the whole thing is new. And having a semi-overprotective best friend isn't helping. "Please be nice, Jackson? I know you don't like a lot of people, but they don't seem too bad."
He scowled and made no verbal promises, but Carina was almost confident that he wouldn't start any issues. Hopefully.
After a couple more minutes of idle conversation, it was interrupted by the sound of the intercom sounding throughout the room. "Miss Muñoz, your guests have arrived." F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s feminine robotic voice said. "Shall I direct them to your room?"
"No thanks. Bring them up to the party deck, please?" Carina answered to the air.
"As you wish." The disembodied voice replied before falling silent, likely to do its assigned task.
Yuna immediately hopped up from the bed, an excited smile on her face. "They're finally here! I wonder what they are like?" She looked as though she was about to run out ahead of them when Jackson grabbed the back of her shirt like a scolding trainer would a naughty puppy.
"Calm down, would you? And refrain from tracing them? You always freak people out when you do that." Jackson warned, only to be met with an innocent smile. "I dunno what you're talking about." She replied and Carina rolled her eyes and walked out, but she knew that they would catch up eventually.
Pretty soon, Carina and the others walked into the designated area and saw the guests lounging around, looking in mostly awe and curiosity at the place. Annabeth was gazing out of the large windows, seeming to enjoy the view and talking excitedly to Percy, Leo seemed to have found the remote for the television and was flicking through the channels faster than most would, Piper and Jason were talking on the leather couch, and Rachel was looking at one of the statues that Pepper had put up as a decoration. "Hi guys." Carina spoke up, immediately getting the attention of her guests.
"Hi Carina." Rachel waved at her, earning a smile. "This is a very nice place. Very… modern."
She lets out a bit of a sheepish laugh and nods. Stark's decorative style is hardly what one would call 'homey'. Full of sharp corners, high tech stuff, and expensive furniture to make it very obvious that a billionaire lives there. Made more for show than comfort. "Most of it is Tony's input. We do personalize our own rooms, though." A cleared throat reminded her of the teammate they haven't met yet. "And this is Yuna. You guys already met Jackson." She gestured to her white haired friend. "Yuna, these are Percy, Annabeth, Rachel, Leo, Piper, and Jason. I told you about them.
"Hi." Percy grinned and Carina couldn't help but to return the gesture, even though she knew he was only really being polite. He's so cute.
"You were right, all of them are pretty hot. Especially Percy and Jason." Yuna whispered in her ear, earning a semi discreet elbow jab to the waist, which she only smiled at. "It's nice to meet you guys." She briefly bowed in greeting. "Carina told me about you all. I hope she didn't bruise you too bad." She snickered, looking over at Percy.
Percy had let out a short laugh and shook his head. "Nah, I've had worse."
"You must have been through a lot to walk away from being thrown by a Super Soldier like her." Yuna blurted out, earning a more obvious and rough jab from Carina, making her wince.
Carina felt more or less justified, though. No reason to tell everyone about her just yet, but judging from their astonishment, she had to tell. Some of it anyway. "I'm not a complete Super Soldier. The completed serum was proven to be more harmful to the bodies of those that aren't adults, so my dosage was 'diluted', so to speak. I'm more enhanced than Super." She briefly explained. She may as well, since everyone knew she was special anyhow, and sitting in the middle of Avengers Tower with her friends at her side, doesn't exactly make her look like she's normal.
"That's actually really cool!" Leo said, looking almost excited enough to burst into flames. "So, what can you guys do?" He asked, his mischievous gaze drifted from Jackson to Yuna.
Carina looked at the pair from her peripheral vision and Jackson's face was twisted in a scowl and Yuna looked almost like a playful cat in a room full of mice. Finally, he sighed, running his hand through his dark hair. A telling habit of his annoyance. "I am… was… a spy. Kind of like Black Widow."
Carina almost scoffed before she briefly turned to Yuna for her turn. 'Spy' was such a gentle term for assassin. Not that she could talk, since she was one, too.
"I'm Tracer." Yuna said brightly, as though she was about to do jazz hands as well.
"A… tracer?" Percy asked, his brows furrowed in confusion. In fact, Carina could see them all look confused, but there were some generally wary gazes towards Jackson, since most know what kind of 'spy' Black Widow is and don't know if it applied to him as well.
Yuna gained a playful look on her face as her sharp brown eyes raked conspicuously over Percy's form. It earned a stern glare from Annabeth and some looks of discomfort from the others before all the looks shifted to astonishment as Yuna became a full carbon copy of Percy. Like, almost a clone. "Yes, a Tracer." Percy's perfectly copied voice came from 'Yuna's' lips. "That's my alias and my power. I can trace people, basically copying or mimicking people's appearances and voices. I can even trace habits and gestures to emulate them. In a way, I'm the perfect mirror." The grin on that face was terrifyingly similar to Percy's crooked one.
Carina was used to it and it still freaked her out a little bit.
"Did you have to demonstrate? You know that's pretty freaky to people." Jackson scolded Yuna. "I told you not to do that."
"You don't tell me what to do." Her voice returned to normal and her appearance reverted back to her normal state, looking rather pleased with herself. "A demonstration is best for my powers, anyway. Not all of us are cool super spies."
"So, you're basically a shapeshifter? Can you copy abilities and stuff like that?" Rachel asked her, looking pretty intrigued by Yuna's power. And, oddly, the others looked almost too interested for Carina's liking. Or, at least, rather wary of her answer.
"No." Yuna shook her head and went to sit on the couch, Carina following close behind while Jackson went off to the kitchen area. "Ability wise, the most I can do is copy fighting styles on sight. Even as they do them. Unfortunately, I don't exactly have the same level of power they do. I can copy the looks of Hulk all I want, but if I'm attacked in his form, I won't have his strength or durability to back me up." They looked a bit relieved, probably because they wouldn't have to worry about two rampaging hulks running amok in the middle of the city. S.H.I.E.L.D. still gets flack about all the other times Bruce has lost his cool in populated areas.
"Think we can have a tour?" Jason changed the subject rather easily. "I've always seen this place in passing and wondered what it looks like on the inside and we didn't see much on the way up."
"Yeah! Can we see Iron Man's lab? Where are all the Avengers, anyway." Leo asked, and something told Carina that letting Leo anywhere near Tony's precious inventions and suits would be unyielding chaos.
"We can't take you to the lab." Carina said with a tone of finality, not gonna risk arguing over it. "Some of the Avengers are around." She doesn't know their exact locations in the building, but she can guarantee that at least one or two of them are already watching them. However, a brief tour shouldn't hurt. "Sure, we can do a tour. Any other places off limits, Jackson?"
"Besides the labs?" He returned, half way through with eating a peach. "The private quarters of the others, probably. The training rooms. Maybe the garage. Anywhere with a door code."
Carina frowned a bit in consideration. That's most places in the Tower. She could almost curse the fact that she lived in a headquarters where privacy and secrets were common. Not to mention how she blanked out on everything else the place has to offer. "F.R.I.D.A.Y., can you show us a layout of the Tower, please?"
The lights dimmed slightly and a holographic imagery of the tower appeared on one of the tables, a red blinking dot showing their position at the top of the Tower. She was always better with visuals.
"What's a Friday? Like, the day? And what is that." She heard Percy ask in a voice barely above a whisper and Yuna responded to him. "F.R.I.D.A.Y. is Tony's AI and personal assistant. You ask from her and then you receive. Most of the time. That is a holographic layout of the Tower."
"We're here." Carina pointed at the dot and her eyes scanned the rest of the Tower's model. "We can go to the dining hall? Or the recreational area?"
"What's in the recreational area?" Annabeth asked and Carina grinned at her. Personally, she did like that area of the Tower.
"Lots of stuff! There's a library, gaming room, swimming pool, napping room, and some other stuff. It's right below the party deck we're on and I guess Tony designed it that way on purpose. You know, for convenience when he has all his parties."
"We can go there." Piper said and curiously waved her hand through the hologram, her hand phased right through it with ease. She swiped through it a few more times like it was oddly fun before she retracted her hand. Carina can recall doing the same thing. Several times.
"This will be so much fun! All of us hanging out like real teenagers." Yuna almost squealed and turned to Jackson, fluttering her lashes flirtatiously at him. "DDR, Jax baby?"
"For starters, we are still 'real' teenagers. Another thing, what kind of nickname is Jax?" Jackson raised an eyebrow at her, only to get a dismissive wave in response.
"I like it and it sounds cooler than just 'Jackson'." She grabbed his hand and started to drag him out towards the elevator, not that he fought back against it. "Let's play DDR!"
"DDR?" Carina heard Percy ask and she gave him a grin.
"Dance Dance Revolution. They keep going back and forth on the High Score board." She explained and led them to another elevator at a much slower pace. "It's kind of their game."
"That sounds like fun." Rachel said and walked a bit closer to Carina. "Are they together? I actually thought you were with Jackson when we first met but I'm not sure."
"Them? I don't even know." She laughed a bit. Those two have had a weird on again off again flirting thing since they met but Carina doesn't even know if either of them made any legitimate moves on each other. "Me and Jackson are strictly friends, though. If anything, he's more like a brother."
"Oh, I get it."
After catching the elevator, they rode down to the recreational area in relative and slightly awkward silence before they reached the floor. Carina could already hear the base of ACDC playing through the speakers. The doors opened to the arcade area where there were games lined up along the walls from classic arcade games to more modern games and a VR system. She spotted Yuna and Jackson already on Dance Dance Revolution, dancing and playfully trying to shove each other off the pad. The lighting made some of the colors glow a bit brighter like neon. In a way, it was like a semi normal arcade that Tony had made when it became clear he had to house teenagers and needed to entertain them. AKA, occasionally distract them.
Carina looked back at the awe on the others' faces and couldn't help but to feel slightly smug about it. Just slightly. "We have free reign in this area, so go wild, I guess."
The group scattered in their own excitement, some sticking to the arcade area and others wandering out elsewhere, but Carina didn't pay attention. She simply went to her favorite basketball arcade game and shot some hoops there in relative quiet, her jacket discarded and slung over a nearby bar.
However, if she didn't notice the faint buzzing alarm on her phone of danger coming.
Hi! I'm not good at ending chapters so I hope this is okay! Not much excitement here, but we did get introduced to another team member and I'm trying to put together one or two more, and I plan to have more action next chapter!
Also, I don't know much about the actual internal layout of the Tower, so I'm making some stuff up in that part.
Please comment!
