When I called Nico to come bail me out, I most certainly mean make me a candidate for the avengers initiative. No, I meant come bail get me out of here, you small Italian moron!

The room went silent in shock until Leo came to his senses. "All right!" He cheerfully quipped. I glared at him. Leo shrugged innocently, so I turned my attention back to my cousin, Will, and Steve. Steve was staring at Nico, Will had one hand on Nico's shoulder and one at the sheath on his belt and Nico was staring at me expectantly.

"Right! Steve, you, um, you want to explain?" I said, quickly passing the blame. Steve snapped to attention and tore his gaze away from the son of Hades.

"Oh, yes, right. Percy here is a friend of mine who I thought would be a great asset to us. I uh, well, I set up this meet so you could see partially what he's capable of," he stuttered. Tony narrowed his eyes.

"Which is, what exactly?"

I glared at Steve, warning him not to say anything about my powers.

"He's a very powerful fighter and has great endurance. He can find his way out of nearly any situation, which is how he was able to pull you from the shark tank," Steve answered. Ok, so I'll give him that one. Despite how he'd first reacted, Steve was pretty good at coming up with lies on the spot. Tony and Bruce both looked at me, so I nodded in confirmation.

"Does SHIELD know about this?" Bruce asked. I shook my head and looked to Steve.

"Well, SHIELD doesn't really know that I exist. We came up with this plan to see how you guys would react. My friend Nico here is an old friend of Tony's who helped me clear this up. Steve didn't know exactly who I was, only that I was the candidate. Nico is here to tell him."

"When you say, old friends..." Tony trailed off. The three of us exchanged glances, then Nico replied.

"After he unfroze. I was an intern at the SHIELD hospital where he was, unthawed," Nico said. Bruce was about to say something but the sound of alarms cut him off.

"Sir, there seems to be an attack two blocks to your East."

I had no idea what the voice was, But the avengers didn't seem fazed by the noise.

"What kind of attack?" Tony asked. Leo nudged me,

"I think you spent too much time on the phone," He whispered. I nodded in agreement.

"Unknown, sir. But it seems to be yelling for a sea spawn."

Leo, Nico, Will, and I exchanged a knowing look. The three of them looked at me, waiting for orders. I felt guilt beat through my chest as they did. I was their leader, so I was responsible for keeping them safe. I was no different from any other demigod, so why was I their leader?

"Thank you, JARVIS." Tony got out of his chair and was about to call out orders, but I beat him to it.

"Nico, take Will go to the streets and find out what we're up against, then work on finding the weakness. Will, you're on citizen duty. Get everybody to safety and tend to any injuries, then get ready to help Nico and the others. Leo, come with me. If this is too big I want you to be ready to call for backup," I tossed him a drachma. "And be ready to back me up." I stood up and the demigods all ran to complete their orders. Ignoring the avengers, we sprinted past them. I saw Will and Nico disappear into a nearby shadow before the Avengers could see and nodded to myself. I could hear footsteps hot on my heels and Leo by my side.

"Leo," I got his attention as we ran down the stairs, "no fire unless it's an emergency. I don't want to tip off the A-Team back there."

The avengers were hurriedly getting suited up. It was a waste of time in my opinion. We'd have the enemy neutralized and they'd be in their tower trying to discover if their outfit made them look fat or not. We sprinted through the lobby and onto the street. I could hear distant yelling and we made our way quickly towards it. Will was ushering a large crowd down the street and into a nearby parking garage while Nico stood in the street. His hand at his side and ready to reach for his Stygian Iron sword. I slowed once we reached them.

"I WILL FIND YOU SEA SCUM!" My old enemy, the minotaur, sounded a lot like Athena did when I first asked for her blessing to marry Annabeth. If old underwear-breath wasn't enough, behind him stood a group of 3 taloned donkey cheerleaders. The empousa growled when they saw me, Kelli being the loudest. I paled. I wasn't scared of Kelli, but last time I'd seen her was in Tartarus and I didn't want to remember that place. Behind her was a small basilisk and a chimera. Fun.

"Leo,"

"Got it, call for backup." He reached for the coin in his pocket. I shook my head,

"No, we need you to help fight."

Leo put the gold back and nodded sarcastically. He pulled a hammer from his tool belt and ran to fight but I stopped him.

"Nico! Focus on the Empousa. Leo, the Chimera might spit some fire so I want you on him." I turned to Will, who had a pleading look in his eyes. I knew he wanted to help Nico but there were more monsters than there were of us; I also knew what he was feeling, "Will, focus on the basilisk."

He nodded in and took out his bow. Leo flipped his hammer in his hands, tossed me a grin, then ran into action screaming about how McShizzle was in da house. I quickly made sure nobody was hurt, then faced my enemy.

"Hey, unicorn!" I yelled at the minotaur. He turned to me, his head tilting to the side where his single horn was still sprouting from his head. He roared in anger before charging me. He hadn't learned much from our last encounter, but I had. I ducked and rolled to the side. Pulling Riptide from my pocket and flicking off the cap, I sprang up and turned around. Old meat face raised his hand and tried to swat me to oblivion like a fly. The hand was unexpected and I barely jumped in time to miss it. I jumped and clung to his thumb, then raced up his arm while he was still thinking he'd hit me. I reached the top of his head and he reared. He shook his head like a dog as he tried to get me off, but I dug my sword into his neck and held on tight. He paused for a moment to try and whack me off, so I climbed higher. I gripped his horn, which really pissed him off. Apparently, he wanted to have a lopsided head forever because as soon as I grabbed the horn he flipped out. He bent his head so I was barely dangling there, then started running. I glanced at the building he was currently seconds from ramming his head into. If I didn't do something quick, I was going to be smashed into a Percy pancake. I held tight to his horn, jabbed my sword into the flesh beneath it, then pulled. Less than a second before we were going to hit the wall, the minotaur suddenly burst into a puff of golden dust. I fell to the ground, landing in a crouched position with the horn in my hand. To my left, Leo was struggling with the chimera. Beside him, I could see Will duck from the basilisk venom. I needed to do something, quick, before two of my friends were either eaten alive or burned alive by basilisk acid. I made sure not to get the monster's attention as I sprinted forward. I leaped into the air and threw my sword just as the basilisk went in for the kill. I didn't wait to see what happened because I still needed to take care of the chimera. While I was still in the air, I grabbed ahold of the the dragon head. It spits fire, and I quickly jerked my body to the left, forcing its head to move. The fire from the dragon's mouth hit the lion. As they both roared in anger, I turned to check on Will. He stepped back as the basilisk fell to his feet with my sword protruding from its eye. It exploded into dust. Will immediately ran to Nico's aid. I held onto the now very angry chimera and waited for the Riptide to return. It only took a moment before I felt a familiar weight in my pocket. I took riptide and it quickly sprang into a sword. While Leo was busy distracting the lion, I lopped off the dragon's head, slit the goat's throat, and dug my blade into the top of the lion's head. Leo grinned at me as it turned to dust. I smiled back before turning my attention to Will and Nico. Kelli was currently trying to woo Nico, who only stared at her in disgust. See! I had a reason to put Nico on cheerleader duty! Kelli couldn't put a gay man under her spell. From behind, Will took his bow and shot the empousa he was fighting. He turned to help Nico, but the son of Hades had already decapitated Kelli. They high fived and ran over to us.

I subconsciously scanned them for injuries. Nobody was seriously hurt, but Will handed us each a small piece of Ambrosia anyway. Somebody coughed to get our attention. I turned to see the avengers, finally suited up, all standing behind us with crossed arms and open mouths.

"What the hell was that?"