Nico exited the room with a look of accomplishment. Fury wasn't with him. Will had been waiting outside the door so already had his arm slung Nico's shoulders.

"So?" Steve asked, looking for an outcome. Nico smirked.

'We're doing this and we've got backup from SHEILD, but we've got to set it up by ourselves. Percy, we're going to need help," Nico said. Wait, what's that supposed to mean?

"What do you mean by that?" I asked. Nico rolled his eyes and turned dramatically to Will.

"He's saying that we could use help from our, family," Will cautiously added.

"Why are you talking like that? Don't you just mean Cam-"

"Percy!" Will hissed, interrupting me. He leaned forward, whispering right next to my ear. "Have you met Stark? There are most likely cameras and audio recorders capturing everything we're doing. Shut up," he warned. Oh, that was a good point. Dam, I wish Annabeth was here.

"Ok, fine. But I don't want to put more people in danger than we have to. Most of the people there are kids," I said. Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter were full of kids. The gods were claiming more kids than they ever had, especially now that the Greek and Roman sides can easily communicate. I didn't want to put those kids in danger. Every time we got into another war or we lost another camper, I felt guilty. A lot of kids died in the war with Gaia, and we still haven't found many of the bodies. I had wanted to go to the underworld and apologize to each of the personally, but Annabeth and Nico didn't let me. I didn't want to drag them into this too.

"I think there's a particular group we can get to help us," Nico hinted. Yeah, I had no idea what he was talking about. I stared blankly at him and Will face-palmed. Steve looked even more confused than I did. Who was a particular group we could go to for help? I assumed he was talking about demigods, but who? Was he talking about one of the camps?

"The Seven, you absolute idiot!" Nico hissed. Ohhhh, that makes more sense. Why didn't he just say that in the first place? I'd rather have the Seven helping with this than the kids at Camp, but I promised myself I wouldn't let any of them get hurt. They've got families, people to care for. I promised myself that I wasn't going to let that be taken away.

"Right. Wait, what about the kids?" I asked. You see, there were a lot of kids in the second generation of the Seven. You didn't think I was the only one with kids, did you? Hazel and Frank (Leo calls them Frazel) have got little toddler twins who are three years old and have already nearly killed me twice, Piper and Jason have got nine-year-old Felicity and four-year-old Reyna, and Leo and Calypso (she took a long time to get used to) have got a twelve-year-old named Caleo. Yes. Leo actually named his child Caleo. Calypso didn't think anything of the name and Piper finally told her what a ship name was five years later. I swear, he came closer to death on that day than he ever did with Gaia. Besides the Seven, almost all of my friends are starting families. Grover's daughter went through school and was starting college next year, while also juggling her duties as a protector (like her dad!) She brings claimed and unclaimed kids camp and is raising awareness and rights for fawns at the Roman camp.

"Percy, we literally have two camps full of willing babysitters. I think we've got that covered. Also, it's nearly 3:30," Nico said. Oh, schist! I've got to pick up Nixon!

(time skip)

When I got to the school, Nixon wasn't waiting outside for me like he usually was. This shouldn't have concerned me, but I've been on edge since the whole Avengers fiasco began. I didn't want to call him because that would just put him in danger. Instead, I parked the car and made my way to the school. I'm already late, and Nixon is usually early so I decided to go inside and make sure he hadn't lost track of time in the library again. The school was full of teenagers, none of which looked happy. I knew where the library was because I've had to fetch Nixon many times. In the library, I was surprised to see Nixon's usual table completely empty.

"I still don't understand how you read so much with your dyslexia, isn't it hard?"

There were only two people in the library, one of which had just spoken. The boy had bushy orange hair that he'd apparently tried to comb to the side. He had freckles splattered across his face like specks of paint and he was smiling like a son of Apollo. He had a pair of thin rectangular black glasses perched on the end of his nose but the stack of books in his arms prevented him from pushing them up the bridge of his nose. Beside him, Nixon was laughing and skimming over the back cover of a book he'd pulled off the shelf before stacking it on top of the pile in the red-heads arms. The stranger noticed me first and he froze, mid-chuckle.

"Mr. Jackson!" He greeted quickly and nervously. So this must be Alec. I smiled and approached them. Alec stuck his hand out, obviously not thinking the action through and dropping the stack of books. He jumped and bent to pick the books up. "I'm sorry!" He yelped. I like this guy.

"No problem, here let me help you with that," I said, crouching to help. Nixon was blushing bright red, like Annabeth did when she got flustered.

"Dad! What are you doing here?" He asked. I pointed at the clock on the wall.

"School got out almost half an hour ago," I answered. Nixon's face contorted in confusion and alarm and he checked the clock himself.

"Styx! I'm sorry! I got carried away and,"

"Don't worry about it, I was late anyway," I interrupted him. "And who's this?" I asked, turning back to the flustered boy besides my son.

"Oh! I'm Alec, sir, Alec Spencer," he stuttered.

I grinned and shook his hand. "Please, call me Percy. It's great to meet you," I said. I tried not to seem like a creepy dad. "So, Nixon, you ready to head home or want me to wait in the car?" I asked. Nixon glanced at the other boy, who nodded.

"Uh, I'll meet you outside in a minute," he hinted. His glare told me to leave, so that's what I did. I smiled at Alec, then turned on my heel and left the library. Then looked through the window to watch them. Hey, don't judge!

Alec said something that made Nixon laugh, then helped him put the large stack of books neatly in his bag. Alec walked him to the library door, where they stopped, said something, and embraced. I wish I could hear what they were saying. Alec handed him his backpack and hugged him one last time before Nixon left. I watched Alec's wistful smile for a moment, then heard the library door open and bolted for the car.

"Were you watching us?" Nixon asked when he got to the car. Oops.

"...no,"

He rolled his eyes. "That's believable," he said. I'll admit, I've never been very good at sneaking. Obviously.

(Hola people! Thanks for reading and commenting! Comment what you'd like to see next and I'll try to include it in future chapters. Any questions will be answered in the next chapter. I hope you all had a great day!)