CHAPTER SEVEN: AN AGENCY'S TEMPTING OFFER

PREVIOUSLY:

Percy drove out of the mansion on his motorcycle, he had spent most of the day with his step dad playing video games, cooking, having an eating competition with him and even pushing the old man around the swimming pool at top speed much to the amusement of the older man and the dismay of the staff.

The time was now fourteen minutes past six which meant it was time to go home, using the darkness to his advantage he drove home at full speed much to the dismay of other road users.

Percy arrived at the piss stain of an apartment complex which he called home and alighted from the motorcycle, he walked into the complex and made his way to his very own apartment.

Just before he could open the door he sensed some liquid signatures in his home, judging by their heartbeats (which he could sense due to the fact that blood is 70% water) they were not hostile….at least not yet.

'Well, looks like I've got one hell of a night ahead of me' he thought just as he opened his door and walked in.

NOW:

Percy walked into the apartment to see the lights shut off, he didn't bother turning them on and instead plopped on the couch and deftly grabbed the remote control as it bounced up.

He turned on his T.V fully aware of the three individuals watching him from various angles, after three minutes of silence Percy finally grew tired of the hide and (not) seek game and spoke up, "You know, it's kinda illegal to sneak into someone's living space without permission" he said conversationally.

The lights were suddenly switched on giving him a proper look at the intruders, the first person was a dark skinned burly man with an eye patch on his left eye wearing a black trench coat, he instantly knew who the man was, Nick Fury the director of S.H.I.E.L.D (he found it disturbing that the man's last name was the first monster he killed at twelve years of age).

The next was a woman in a skin tight black leather cat suit with short reddish orange hair and a gun holstered on her right thigh, he quickly read her mind and found her name to be Maria Hill (Agent Maria Hill?) and she was Fury's second in command.

The final person was the same archer he had fought some days ago who was staring at him with an agape mouth, "Well this is disturbing" Percy said after a few seconds of tense silence, "So what did I do to warrant the visit of three S.H.I.E.L.D agents in my humble abode?" he asked.

The one eyed man opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by the archer, "Percy?" he asked in shock causing the mercenary to turn to him with a wry smile on his face, "Sup Michael" he stated in a casual tone.

Hawkeye sputtered as he struggled to form coherent words before finally speaking, "But you can't be the Blood Merchant, please tell me he isn't the one?" he said while asking Fury the last part.

Fury wanted to speak but was cut off again by Percy this time, "What makes you think that I'm the Blood Merchant?" he asked the S.H.I.E.L.D director with a raised eyebrow.\

"I have my sources" the director said cryptically while glaring at both young men for interrupting him. Percy smiled cheekily as he realized that he and Michael had unwittingly (and unknowingly) interrupted the one eyed man.

Seeing the silence as his cue, the director began to speak "You are a hard man to find Mr. Jackson" he said as he took a seat, Percy rolled his eyes "Not really, I mean you just have to ask around Brooklyn and you'd find me" he said dryly.

Fury nodded before pulling out a file from a folder, "Perseus Jackson…" he read causing Percy to tilt his head as he stared at the man, the S.H.I.E.L.D director continued, "Blew up a school bus,…" Hawkeye snickered at that, "…blew up the top of the St Louis Arch and was a wanted person for some time before he was vindicated after being revealed to be a escaping from a thug whom he engaged in a gunfight at the at the bay, all in 2005" Fury paused at this before continuing.

"Stowed away on a cruise ship at the Miami bay that it's last recorded location was in 'Bermuda Triangle' area in 2006. In 2007 was sighted with a bunch of other unidentified teenagers at westover military school were they assaulted and killed the vice principal before destroying a military helicopter in the same area before disappearing only to pop up on the radar a week later in the Smithsonian museum where they killed a Lion." Fury read once more causing both demigods in the room to roll their eyes at the 'assaulted and killed' part and laugh at the 'Lion' comment.

"Was spotted the same female and crippled male from the 2005 incident as well as an unidentified autistic male via security footage in Alcatraz as they escaped from another unidentified female wielding two guns in 2008, this incident being after he blew up the gymnasium in the school he was newly enrolled in by the name of Goode High School" making Percy scrunch his face up in disgust at the remembrance of Kampe and cringe as he remembered the look on Paul's face.

"Was spotted briefly on the beach in the year 2009 close to a parked Prius with a female red head identified as Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the same person with him during the 'bombing' of the Goode high school gymnasium before both individuals went of the grid for some weeks prior to the worldwide 'sleep' incident before re surfacing after said incident"

The director stopped at this part before looking at the green eyed demigod, "Should I continue Mr. Jackson he asked with a confident look on his face, Percy shrugged "Don't let me stop you, keep reading this is getting interesting" he said without the slightest hint of panic or discomfort on his face causing the S.H.I.E.L.D director to frown at the alleged mercenary's lax attitude to his implicating life history before continuing.

"Went missing in 2010 only to appear eight months later in San Francisco being pursued by two unknown females, was sighted in Seattle for some time at the Amazon headquarters before proceeding to travel to Alaska where he and his travelling companion, a Canadian of Asian descent by the name of Frank Zhang and an unidentified black female of at least thirteen years of age destroyed the top of the Hubbard glacier."

Percy cringed slightly at the memory of Alcyoneus and all the undead Legionnaires he had to face while Michael stared at his friend in wonder and slight apprehension at all his escapades, Fury continued, "Travelled to Italy with seven other people identified as Annabeth Chase, Piper Mclean, Leo Valdez, Hazel Levesque who was the mystery girl from Alaska, Nico Di' Angelo, Frank Zhang and Jason Grace where said individuals spent two weeks before sailing to Greece via the Mediterranean sea."

Fury snapped the file shut and looked at Percy, "Don't you find it strange that an earthquake that lasted days originated from the very location in Greece that you and your party were headed?" he asked with a raised brow (from his good eye of course).

Percy smiled faintly as he felt a feeling of nostalgia fall over him as he remembered all the life threatening quests he had gone on throughout his life, the others in the room shifted uncomfortably as they saw the creepy looking smile on his face making them reach for their various weapons.

Suddenly, Percy shot up causing them to aim their weapons at him, the mercenary rolled his eyes at them, "No need to get jumpy, I'm just thirsty" he drawled as he went to get himself a can of Pepsi from the refrigerator making the S.H.I.E.L.D agents look sheepish at their jumpy action.

"Can I get you guys anything?" he asked as he bent over to get the Pepsi only to be replied by them vehemently shaking their heads making him scoff.

"I'm not going to poison you guys ya know." he stated in slight irritation, sure he had poisoned some of his targets during assassination mission but that was different, he drew a firm line between his work and his personal life.

He grabbed a six pack of Pepsi and a bottle of soda before shutting the fridge, he sat down back on the couch and tossed the bottle of soda to Michael who caught it and attempted to refuse the drink but a quick glare from Percy made him uncork the drink and take a swig.

Smiling in satisfaction he popped the Pepsi can open and took a swig of his own before sighing in satisfaction at the fizzing feeling in his throat brought about by the drink.

Nick Fury opened his mouth to ask his previous question once more but was cut short by Percy, "Yes an earthquake did occur in our, er 'camping' location, but I'd rather not explain that, some things are better left untold" he answered in the same cryptic tone used by Fury before.

The director nodded slowly before speaking again, "Now we have that issue aside, we know of your alter ego who goes by the name 'Blood Merchant' and we also know that you are the one responsible for the theft and sale of the Tesseract" he said with narrowed eyes silently daring him to deny the allegation.

Percy sighed, "I'm guessing that Kowalski spilled" he stated rather than ask causing Maria Hill to nod and answer in place of Fury, "Yes, a Petrovich Kowalski was detained recently for having business relations with your alter ego and revealed all he knew about you during his interrogation" she confirmed.

Percy rubbed his fore head in irritation, "Fucking cunt" he swore, "I give him my damn name and he can't keep that shit hole that he calls a mouth shut" he grumbled.

"Now is not the time to discuss how we discovered your identity, rather we are here to discuss the Tesseract" the S.H.I.E.L.D director said tensely.

Percy took another swig from his drink, "Okay first of all, me ahh 'borrowing' the Tesseract was nothing personal it was strictly business" he said sternly.

"Your choice of business has put millions of lives on the line!" Fury growled, Percy gulped down what was left of hid drink and opened another can, "I don't care about that, I only have my interests and those of my father in mind" Percy answered back with a hint of ferocity in his voice.

The two higher ups looked at each other with both of them thinking the same thing, 'we need to try a different approach'. The archer on the other hand looked at his friend in shock, 'what happened to you Percy?" he asked himself only (much to his shock) to get a response, 'I grew up Michael' he heard Percy's voice in his head making him stumble back in surprise.

He looked at Percy to see him staring at him straight in the eye, 'Did you just talk to me in my mind' he asked (mentally of course), Percy rolled his eyes 'No I just lap danced in your mind' he shot back sarcastically.

They would have continued their mental conversation but Fury and Maria had finished their own discussion and came to an agreement, "So if we were to offer you money, you would retrieve the Tesseract for us?" the director of S.H.I.E.L.D asked tentatively.

Percy opened his mouth to speak but stopped himself and tilted his head to the side with both eyes closed and after a few seconds his eyes snapped open, but instead of the usual calmness in his sea green eyes there was now a glint of insanity behind them.

"No" he said causing the S.H.I.E.L.D operatives to stare at him with bewildered expressions 'what mercenary didn't want money' . Percy continued talking, "I won't do it for money…..I'll do it for free" he said causing their bewildered looks to turn incredulous.

"But…" he continued making the operatives to hold their breaths albeit unnoticeably in anticipation, "…I won't be charged for manslaughter when the job is done" he finished in a soft voice.

All three of them shared a look before turning to the obviously insane mercenary, "What do you mean 'you don't want to be charged for manslaughter'?" Hawkeye asked nervously causing Percy to giggle creepily.

"Don't bother your little head about that little detail Mikey, all I want to know is if it can be done" he said amidst giggling fits.

Fury steeled himself, "Deal " he said coldly causing the archer to look at his boss incredulously, "Perfect" Percy said cheerily, "Just give me a month and a half and that shiny little cube is yours, now shoo I have a show to catch up on" he said and with a simple wave of his hand they were all shot out of the apartment door like shells from an artillery gun.

The three of them managed to disentangle from each other and get up, "Why did you agree on him with that?!" Hawkeye growled at his superior.

The one eyed man fixed him with a pointed glare which caused him to lose the fire of defiance in his eye almost instantly, "It is better for a few corrupt individuals to die than for millions to die because their own recklessness" he said in a clipped and even tone.

"True, but I think that the question we need to ask ourselves is how the both of you know each other" Maria said while giving the archer a pointed look.

Hawkeye grimaced, "He and I used to be friends, we might still be friends considering the fact that he didn't kill me when we fought but that's not the point. We used to go to a summer camp for people like us…" he said but was cut off by Fury, "People like you?" the director asked with a raised brow.

"Kids with ADHD and dyslexia…" he tried to continue but was cut off once more, "You are ADHD and dyslexic? How come we are just finding out about this now?" Maria asked.

"For gods sake shut it woman, you might as well know how many time I take a dump every year, geez" the archer snapped thereby halting any more interruptions.

Seeing the absence of interruptions, he continued "He and I were best friends and back then my name was Michael Yew, that's the reason he keeps calling me Michael. After the 'sleep' incident of 2009 I was presumed dead and since no one could find me nor could I get home, I lived on the streets for some time and eventually joined a pick pocket ring. I soon got into some trouble with said ring and escaped to Colorado where I changed my name to Clint Barton and you guys know the rest." He finished.

The director of S.H.I.E.L.D nodded before spinning on his heel and walked away sharply with the other two operatives tailing him.

WITH PERCY:

Percy shut the television off after he finished his last can of Pepsi, he smiled as he remembered the mission he had just accepted to do in a month and a half's time. He had spent so much time focusing on getting paid that he had forgotten the joy he got from killing people either swiftly or slowly.

Yep, Tartarus had messed him up.

He considered going to bed and agreed that it was the best course of action he could take now, as he arrived in his bedroom he suddenly remembered the number of the red head he had collected some time back.

'Might as well call her, I need company and doing nothing for a month and a half will get boring' he thought as he dialed the number.

AN: Phew, five hundred words minus authors note and replay of course, I am on a temporary roll. I thank you all for your continued support to me and my story(ies) it's been amazing. Now I think about it, I might have actually over reacted over that idiot's review (but one can't really blame me literally impossible for me to take an insult without a violent reaction. I almost chopped off my uncles fingers for calling me a fool, I have anger issues but on the bright side my sister's temper is worse than mine, at least I know when to stop) but I'm over it now (thanks to you guys and your awesome reviews) idiots will always be idiots that's the law of nature, I don't need to convince him/her anything, I have my secondary school certificate (SSCE) results and my graduating certificate and that's all that matters.

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