A/N: Wow, such a good response, I love you guys so much but… um, the person that threatened to kill me if I didn't update er… I appreciate your enthusiasm, but if you think about it, if you killed me, you would never get a new update…so its kinda counter productive right? Now that's over with, on with the story
It had taken three full days, but finally, all of the avengers were now seated rather peacefully in the meeting room of the newly rebuilt Stark tower, though there was a slight problem… They were all bored.
"I can't believe he called us all here, in my home and is still keeping us waiting!"
Tony fumed for what was probably the 20th time in the last five minutes, not that anyone minded so much anymore, they had all got used to the billionaire's rather childish behaviour already, and, anyway, they were all thinking along the same lines. For the first time since the war, they had all been gathered in one place which could only mean one thing, something bad was coming, and that did not sit well with any of them.
In the far corner, the one furthest away from the entrance, the two assassins were sat stoically in chairs backed to the wall, their faces to the closed door looking completely composed apart from the fact that their eyes kept scanning the room anxiously as though searching for answers. Across from them, Steve kept fidgeting with a pen that had been left in front of him and Bruce was tapping away at a thin piece of equipment that he had pulled from his coat pocket. Surprisingly, the only one who did not seem anxious for the director of SHIELD to arrive was the god of thunder himself who was sat apart from the others, a rather gloomy aura around him that none of the others had been able to dispel, not even Tony with his ongoing plethora of jokes.
Suddenly, the solid oak door was thrown open making the inhabitants of the room jump and turn to the source of the noise, eyes instantly focusing on the imposing image of their boss as he stormed into the room looking to all the world like he was in a seriously bad mood.
"Okay, looks like I don't have to hunt any of you down for skipping the briefing, now I have something important to tell you so you better listen, you understand?"
He directed the last part to the man at the other end of the table who had just begun pouring himself a glass of some amber liquid that looked suspiciously like scotch from a flask at his hip. Fury sighed, he really could not stand Stark for longer than a few minutes, but he was, at least, trying to be a part of the team so the spy would try to give him a chance… for now.
"Right, well, it had been brought to SHIELD's attention that there is another threat coming which will result in another war…"
He broke off here as his words would have been drowned out by the noise of protest coming from the others. Silently, he stood there and let the complaints wash over him.
"So soon, we've only had about 2 weeks to recover from the last one!"
"I finally got the tower fixed yesterday, no way am I letting it get messed up again!"
"Now is not a good time to fight, there are other matters more concerning…"
Okay, Fury did not know what to make of the Asguardian's comment so he just let it slide, no doubt he would only receive a cryptic answer if he pressed the matter any further so he just allowed the others to continue, allowing them to vent out their frustration before he continued, however, things obviously weren't going to go that way.
"We only just fought one war, and now you expect us to fight again?"
Steve seemed indignant when he asked this question, after all, the super soldier had never been one fond of violence, rather ironic if you think about it, but the expression soon turned to one of shock when a quiet voice answered from the doorway making all of the team spin round to stare at the 3 teens who had just entered the room.
"You know, that is exactly the same thing we said."
The speaker seemed to be the youngest boy who seemed to be only around 14 and was hiding in the shadows of the other two though his eyes seemed to dare anyone to challenge him.
"Fury… why did you bring some kids into my tower?"
Now it was the new group's turn to glare at the billionaire for his last comment, they obviously disliked the idea of being called children, though, for the first time in a while, Thor seemed to have come out of his depression as he looked the teens over smiling broadly as he did so. Seeing that the older boy was about to respond, Fury quickly cut in to avoid an argument. Although he too was unhappy that their allies in this fight were young, he had learnt long ago never to judge people on how they looked.
"As I was saying, we are under the threat of another war, though, unfortunately, our sources seem sure that this is going to be harder to beat than the likes of Loki so, now, I introduce you to your new Allies. Now I'm going to let the brief you on the matter at hand because I was left under the impression that they new more about it than we did."
With this, the director pulled out a chair and lent back gesturing for the children to speak wondering slightly why Steve had not protested the use of children in war, but one glance at the Captain and he saw that he was staring at the smaller group in wonder, though he decided to pay no mind to it. With a sigh, the girl tossed her golden curls behind her shoulder and stepped up to the table,, looking like she was about to speak but she was cut off by the booming voice of Thor that made everyone else in the room.
"Ah, my little cousins, may I take it from your presence here that the fight went well with you? News of the war has yet to reach to halls of Asguard though I could not help but worry…"
Ignoring the odd looks they were getting from the others, the teens looked at each other before the older boy stepped forwards, smiling slightly though it clearly did not reach his sea green eyes.
"Yeah, we won, it took us 3 weeks of full on fighting, but we got there. It only finished yesterday though and we lost so many fighters…"
His voice trailed away at the end leaving the others all the more confused, the 3 teens did not look like they had just come from the battle field, though it was true that their eyes were hard and more than slightly dead looking, their skin was flawless without so much as a bruise to be seen, though that did not seem to bother the Asguardian as his smile only faltered slightly before he responded to the disturbing statement.
"That is indeed glorious news, though the loss is saddening. Do not grieve over much for your fallen comrades however my friends, they died a hero's death!"
Surprisingly this did in fact seem to cheer them up as their smiles turned a little more genuine but, before they could say anything else, a bored looking Tony broke into the conversation, seemingly oblivious to the tense atmosphere.
"Okay, can you guys either explain what you're prattling on about so that everyone can join in or just get on with the briefing? The rest of us have lives to get on with after this!"
The girl turned her piercing gaze over to the Iron man seeming to inspect him for a moment before shaking her head slightly and turning to Fury once again.
"I take it that my mom told you the basics when she met up with you?"
The spy nodded slightly before gesturing to the rest of the table, signifying that he wanted her to explain it to the assembled heroes making the girl sigh again and the boys roll their eyes in unison.
"Here we go again!"
The younger one muttered making his friends laugh slightly before the girl turned back to the avenger, her silver eyes flickering from one to another, seemingly assessing them before she spoke.
"Okay, this might be a little hard for some of you to accept but please bear with it for a moment. Now, do you guys know of the Greek gods of Olympus?"
Tony looked at her sceptically as all of the others nodded not seeing where this was going. When no one started laughing, proclaiming this a joke, he groaned and sunk further into his seat drawing everyone's attention back to him.
"Don't tell me you guys are the Greek gods, I've had it up to here with all those myths turning out true!"
There was a flash of lightning outside the windows seemingly to respond to his comment but the kids just laughed before answering.
"Close, but no cigar."
The younger boy answered grinning evily as everyone else just shrugged off the use of the old expression as the children being related to Thor, after all, he had called them 'cousin' earlier. Picking back up where she left off after slapping the boy on the top of his head, the girl continued.
"No, as Nico so helpfully put in, we're not the gods, we're demigods, children of Greece." She took a deep breath here before continuing, "But the threat this time… well, that's a different matter."
It looked as though the assassins had recovered from the shock of that statement faster than the others because it was Natasha that interrupted the blond this time.
"How come we never knew about you if you live here? Why didn't you help us in the war against Loki? Why come out of hiding now?"
At this, the older boy's eyes flashed dangerously and he stepped forwards. When he spoke his words were cold and sharp, like daggers being thrown at the black widow, making her flinch backwards slightly on instinct.
"We stay hidden to protect you mortals from the dangers of our world, we did not help you fight in the battle here because we were fighting for much higher stakes in the homeland against a far more powerful enemy and believe me, we would have given anything to have battled here instead of where we were at the time. We ask for your help now because the threat has become far greater than we can handle and we are trying to limit the number of casualties. Now, before you ask any more stupid questions, I suggest that you allow Annabeth to finish speaking!"
He seemed to growl the last part, his had gripping on to the girl's, Annabeth's, had almost unconsciously as she sent him a warning look. Taking a deep breath he stepped back though he appeared to be shaking slightly and the girl picked up from where she had left off, hastily apologising for his actions.
"Sorry about that, its just… we only just got out of one war were most of our friends were killed, and now we are told that we have to fight another one." She seemed about to cry when she said that, but she soon pulled herself back together. "Anyway, this time round is kind of a result of our last war, but before you blame us for this, hear us out. Before the gods, before even the titans, there were an ancient race named the primordials who were the literal incarnations of the elements. Over in Greece we were fighting a war against one of the most powerful, the goddess of the earth and the mother of the titans who was wanting to rise up again and destroy all life on the planet…"
She trailed off at this looking as though she was about to cry again and the boy from before, Nico, stepped up to take her place, looking far too serious for one of his age.
"We managed to lull her back to sleep eventually, though it nearly killed us, and we though the problem was over, but it seems that the others are awakening. Something that would not be a problem in and of itself, but… well, some of them aren't exactly pleasant and one of the most powerful ones happens to want to destroy everything at the moment."
With this, a stunned silence filled the room as the Avengers looked from one to the other, trying to work out if this was a hoax or not. In the corner by the window, Thor seemed to have lost his grin and was looking rather nervous which made all the others accept that this was probably the truth. Resigning to having to fight yet another deity, Bruce sighed and leaned forwards in his seat so that he could clearly see the teens.
"You say one of the most powerful… who is it that we are going to be fighting?"
The smaller group shared a look and a whispered conversation in some ancient language that seemed to make Steve snap out of what ever trance he had been in before as he looked the children over with a guarded expression. Eventually, the boy who had stared down the assassin before held his hand up and the others stopped speaking immediately, it was becoming clearer who the leader was in this little team.
Seeming to calm himself down a little and running his hand through his raven hair, the boy stepped forwards again looking as though he wished to be in any other place right about now.
"The one that we have to face, unfortunately, is the father of the seas, The Primordial god of the oceans, Pontus and before you ask, don't worry about finding him cause we know for a fact that he is trying to kill me."
A/N: There you have it, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and the little bit at the end. Poor Perce, already had to go through Tartarus and now yet another person wants to kill him anyway, thanks for reading!