AN: Back again! Here's the next one.

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or avengers.

Percy sighed as he dragged a nearly unconscious Nico into the tower. They'd taken the alley entrance so as not to attract too much attention. They headed straight for the elevator.

"Good evening, sirs," Jarvis's voice rang through the elevator once the doors closed. Percy jumped and Nico groaned. The older boy shook his head in embarrassment.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to that," he grumbled. "Good evening Jarvis."

"I shall alert Tony that you are back. Should I call a hospital for Nico?"

"No," Percy nearly shouted. He cleared his throat, realizing his awkward mistake. "No need Jarvis. He just needs some food and some sleep. He does this if he overexerts himself. Also, don't worry about telling Tony we're back. We'll just head to our room and get food in the morning."

"Very well, I shall inform Tony you're headed to your room."

"Naw, don't worry about telling him anything, we'll take care of it in the morning," Percy argued.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I'm required to update Mr. Stark on everything that happens," Jarvis explained. The son of Poseidon groaned but nodded in understanding.

"Thanks, I guess," he mumbled as the doors opened. He looped his cousin's arm around his shoulders and helped, practically dragged, him back to their room. Once there, he set the smaller boy on his bed. He reached over and pulled a canteen out of the bed stand. He opened the lid and leaned his cousin's head back, gently trickling some past his slightly parted lips.

Percy slipped the lid back into place. Shaking the canteen, he sighed.

"That stuff is amazing," Nico muttered from his spot on his bed, curling up into the blankets. His cousin shrugged.

"Yeah, well," he started, "Don't get too used to it. You know how bad this stuff is for you in larger quantities. Drat, I need to get some more from camp... What've you got?"

"Some ambrosia in my jacket. I used up all my nectar after my last fight," the younger boy admitted, still curling up in his covers.

"I forgot my ambrosia at my mom's when we went on the run. I forgot to pack it," Percy said sheepishly. Nico grunted, rolling over in his bed.

"G'night," his cousin chuckled, walking over to his own bed. 'Well,' he thought, 'At least Tony won't video tape us in our own room.' A younger voice mumbled the same words on the other side of the room, making Percy chuckle again. He curled up in his bed and was asleep within minutes.

Tony watched the video over and over again.

"I forgot my ambrosia at my mom's when we went on the run. I forgot to pack it," Percy said to the other. Tony instantly hit rewind, going back to the beginning of the chapter. Once again, the 'camp' had appeared in conversation. Part of him was worried. 'How is the stuff bad for them in large quantities? What's so bad about it?' he wondered. 'Looks like I need to test it.'

His mind took him back to his conversation with Natasha earlier that night. Had he been wrong to defend them? What if they really were terrorists or something? Had he just said that to anger Fury? 'No, I didn't do that just to get to him,' the more reasonable part of him said. 'For good or bad, those kids, no matter how short a time they've been here, have grown on me. After all the research I've done on them, I feel like I know them...' He couldn't help but chuckle. Maybe those kids had grown on him. There was nothing wrong with that right? After all, they're good kids.

Percy groaned tiredly. The night had felt too short. For a moment, he couldn't remember what had woken him. He'd gone to sleep and then... He shot, fear pulsing through his veins like blood. Terror reduced his body to trembling.

"Just help me," a voice echoed in his head.

"No!" he screamed, his eyes jolting opened. His face gleamed with sweat.

"I await you. Come back to the fountain tonight." Percy's whole body trembled as he remembered the dreams. So real they hurt. Rather seeing it on tv, like he had in real life, that man had dragged to see the real thing.

Percy saw the lights. He heard the sirens as they chased the speeding car. He felt the rain as it splattered down in an unending curtain. He could see the blue Prius make the turn to avoid the swerving car. He saw the speeding car slip as the driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed into the Prius. He heard the crunch! as the cars smashed into each other. He saw the looks of terror and worry that flashed across the faces of the passengers of the Prius. Those brown eyes that widened with terror. The face that would haunt him forever. The one last look his parents had worn before they were crushed.

A hand settled on his shoulder, shaking him back and forth.

"Percy?" Pepper's worried face appeared in front of him. He jolted back with a yell of surprise, tumbling off his bed on the opposite side of her. He felt the stream of tears die off because of his shock. He hastily wiped them away. He could hear her trying to contain a chuckle.

"What's up?" he asked, standing up and grabbing a shirt to slip on. He noticed the way her eyes lingered on the scratches and cuts that marred his skin.

"Tony and I need to talk to you," she said nervously.

Percy frowned, sitting back down on his bed. "Is something wrong?" he wondered.

"We just need to get a few things straight, that's all." She wouldn't look him in the face. The son of Poseidon glanced over at Nico, who was still asleep. Seemingly, he was unaware of what was happening on the other side of the room.

Slowly, Percy stood and followed his foster mom from his room. She led him down the hall, and into the elevator. He shuffled once the doors closed, pulling his pen out of his pocket and turning it over and over in his hands nervously. It wasn't often he got into trouble with adults... Strike that, he was always in trouble with adults. But he didn't want to be in trouble with these adults. He wanted to live out his life until he turned eighteen semi-peacefully. Then he could do what he wanted to.

When the elevator opened, Pepper motioned for Percy to head into the room. Glancing at her worriedly, he stepped out of the elevator and walked into the room. It was the large living room area he had spent a large amount of time in a couple days ago. Tony stood next to one of the chairs.

Percy gulped, glancing around the room. "Am I in trouble?" he asked.

"I don't know," Tony answered. "Should you be?"

"Not that I can think of," he replied, trying to moisten his dry mouth.

"Okay, so just answer me a few questions," the man decided. "What's camp?"

Percy froze, his eyes widening. He cleared his throat, hoping his voice would work better if he did. "It's a camp..." he tried weakly.

Tony raised an eyebrow. "I gathered. What kinda camp?"

"A beach camp."

"Hm... Who teaches the camp?"

"No one."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Someone has to teach it."

"No, it's just... a group name. It's one of the names my friends and I call ourselves when we go to the beach."

"Is it?"

"Uh, yeah."

"What's Nectar?"

Percy's eyes widened and he coughed. "What?" he asked, his voice rasping.

"You heard me, what's Nectar?"

The son of Poseidon pounded his chest, trying to clear his throat. "Oh, yeah, that."

"Yeah, that."

"It's a drink. Kinda like home made cool-aid."

"How d'ya make it?"

"I dunno. My... cousin makes it for us."

"What's your cousin's name?"

"Thalia."

Pepper stepped forward. "What happened in the alley last night?"

Percy jerked forward, his eyes widening as he coughed, pounding his chest. After a minute he stood up straight. "What?" he asked.

She looked him straight in the eye. "What happened outside that Pizza Hut?" she demanded.

The look of a confused, scared animal crossed Percy's eyes, before it vanished. Even though it was only a flash, Tony knew he saw it. There was something that scared him, something he didn't want them to figure out. But what he didn't know was whether Percy was scared of them, or for them.

"I- I don't know what you're talking about," he said, shaking his head. "I was at the table the whole night, except for using the restrooms."

Pepper shook her head at him. "No, you weren't. I saw you in the alley, with the bat, and the man. What. Happened?"

Tony glanced back and forth between his wife and his foster son. "What's going on here?" he asked finally.

"I- I don't know-" Percy began.

"What HAPPENED?" she demanded.

"Nothing!"

"WILL SOMEONE EXPLAIN WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!" Tony shouted over Pepper's and Percy's raised voices.

"I don't know!" the boy shouted back, panting.

Pepper looked straight at Percy. "Last night, while sitting in Pizza Hut with his friends, I saw Percy stand, saying he needed to use the facilities and leave. He walked past an exit to the building before disappearing into the bathroom-"

"See?! In the restroom!" Percy insisted.

"Then," she continued, "I noticed his friends looking out the window. So I glanced out and saw Percy standing face to face with a tall, muscular man. I couldn't make out anything about the man, but they seemed to get into an argument. Percy pointed off down the alley angrily and the man punched at him. He responded by sweeping his feet from under him. They wrestled for a little while, before the man threw a garbage bin at him. After a little more fighting, Percy grabbed a baseball bat from somewhere in the alley and swung it hard enough that the man's head came off!"

"No, I didn't!" Percy insisted. "I didn't kill any man!"

Tony looked back and forth between the teenage boy and the woman before him. His brain was running a million miles a second. He knew he should trust Pepper, believe that the boy killed a man, and turn him over to the police, but part of him, his childish side, thought about the faces Natasha and Fury would give him when they heard about it. He could hear the "I told you so"s already. Another part of him, a more grown up- almost teen like- side of him thought of what Pepper had said.

After a few seconds, he asked, "The man threw the first punch, right?"

Pepper nodded.

"And made no attempt afterward to end the fight by means of a peaceful solution?"

She shook her head.

"Did Percy try to stop the fight by any other means than violence?"

Pepper sighed. "He tried to move away from him at the beginning of the fight," she admitted.

Tony shrugged. "Then write it off as self-defense. The man attacked him, wouldn't leave him alone, and, finally, Percy did the only thing he could do to make the man stop. He hit him with a baseball bat, intending to knock him out and get away, but swung too hard and killed him," he reasoned.

Percy looked back and forth nervously. "Do we even need a cover story? I mean, I don't think any one will know anyway..."

Both adults instantly whirled around and looked at him. "You admit it!" they both shouted.

"What? No! I didn't do anything to admit about! I never left the Pizza Hut! I'm just saying that because I didn't do anything, nothing will appear on the news, no missing people, no murder mysteries, nothing. Cause I didn't kill a man in an alley," Percy argued.

"Sir," Jarvis's voice broke into the conversation. "Director Nick Fury is riding up the elevator. I was unable to stop him, sir."

Tony put his head in his hands. "Great," he grumbled, before turning to Percy. "Take the stairs, go back to your room, and wait there. We aren't finished with this conversation."

The boy nodded numbly, before turning and walking towards one of the other doors, the stairs. He froze when a man's voice called out, "Stop right there Perseus Jackson. We need to talk." The word 'talk' was spat like a curse. He swallowed, before turning around to see who had spoken. Natasha stood beside a tall, black man with an eye-patch. 'It's Ethan all over again!' Percy couldn't help but groan inside. The man glared at him with his good eye.

"Where's the other one, di Angelo?" he snapped.

"Sleeping," Percy replied instantly, without thinking. He cursed mentally.

The man looked at Natasha. "Bring him up here to me," he told her.

Percy glared as the woman turned away to do as she was bid. "Just who the Hades do you think you are?! You can't just go disturb him without first explaining yourself!" he snapped, walking forward. Tony grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back behind himself.

"Stay out of this, kid," he told the boy, placing himself between the upset kid and the angry, business-like Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

AN: MUST READ!

Sorry that it probably left you with a lot of q's, but oh well. I won't be able to update for a while, since I'm leaving for stuff for 2-3 weeks w/o electronics. I promise that by a month from tonight, I will update again, if not sooner. But I won't be able to update for a while. I'm not abandoning this, I will update again!

-RADyo