When in Goode
Percy Jackson screwed up big during the Battle of Manhattan. Now, he has a science fiction pirate and the Avengers, including their newest recruit, Spiderman, on his tail. / "I'm a normal kid!" "Is that why we're standing fifty feet below the surface of the ocean?"
A/N: Hold on there, my lovely readers, I'm still around! Again, updating was very difficult. I swear, every single day this week, I have been working from the moment I get home to the moment I go to bed on homework. And to think that it only gets harder as life progresses… Very frustrating. Hope you liked the last chapter. Percy and Peter in this one! HOORAY, immature seventeen year old boy awesomeness!
"Shattered on impact. Don't make me laugh." Fury keeps his gaze evenly trained on the mound of paperwork stacked upon his desk. Off to the right side, a mound of boring grey folders paper clipped together seems to mock the frustrated, tired, overworked Director.
Tony stares past Fury at a large world map thumbtacked to an even larger bulletin board, one that takes up nearly the entire expanse of the back wall of Fury's office. Color-coded pins are pushed in at various locations, some in the US, others all the way over in Japan and South Africa. Another map, vastly smaller than the one depicting the Earth, covers the bottom left corner of Antarctica. On it is a large, crude tree, with nine circles decorating the branches and trunk. A golden pin is pushed into one of the circles.
"That's right. Nearly needed an arc reactor for my arm, to keep the glass out of my blood vessels. I was lucky that nothing was embedded too deep. Can you imagine how stupid it would look if I went walking around with a glowing circle of light stuck to my wrist. Humiliating! The press would have a field day, and I'd be the idiot walking around with an energy source in my arm."
Fury really wants to kick the billionaire out of his office, have a good six hours of sleep, and then throw the man in the Hulk's cell and drop it down into the ocean.
"Stark –" Fury interrupts. "I could not care less about how hard it would be to operate the suit with an arc reactor stuck to your wrist. I want to know why and how that syringe shattered upon making contact with human – more specifically, this human's – bare skin. If you cannot find out answers for me, then I will not hesitate to bring in Doctor Banner or someone else who can."
"Right, right, don't get your eye patch in a twist. I'll find your information." Tony stands to leave. "But the answer may not be exactly plausible… This kind of thing, well… It only ever happens in myths."
You'd think Fury would care more than he actually does. Which is to say, he shoos Stark out of the office without a second thought.
-O-
"Be careful." Bruce warns Peter carefully. He stares at the thick hydraulic door with some worry. "I don't think he's intentionally dangerous, but you never know."
Peter shrugs off the words of caution. "Anybody who causes pain to Tony is okay in my book." Bruce shoots the young superhero a glare. "Not that I mean that literally." He says in compromise, loudly, so the scientist knows he's bluffing.
"Tony can still take away your computer." Bruce says dutifully.
"Yeah, but then I'm free to roam the city, stopping crime." He responds cheekily. Tony Stark has a thing against Peter going out and beating up muggers and car jackers in nothing but spandex and a cheesy mask. Say what you want about the billionaire, but he does care… Sometimes. Yeah, about his reputation, because Spandex is practically a crime in itself if you have access to billions of dollars via Tony Stark's oversized, bigger-than-his-ego, jam-packed, hinges practically bursting open, numerous bank accounts. Peter makes a pbbbttt noise with his lips and waves a hand flippantly. "I'll be fine. He's – what, he's like the same age as me."
Bruce sets his jaw and swipes his ID. The door hisses open.
It's fairly dark inside the room – ahem, cell – but there's a 100 watt lightbulb swinging down on a stainless steel chain, and there's the one-way mirror on the wall that allows Tony and Bruce to seen in, but keeps this new guy and Peter from seeing out.
Steve outright telling the team that they had a new member was kind of a mistake. Clint's jaw had dropped very dramatically, but everyone could tell he was kind of shocked, which in itself was a miracle because the Hawk isn't swayed by any little old thing. Natasha's demeanor had remained completely the same, but she was obviously at least somewhat startled as well. And Peter… Well, the words new teammate provoked two images, and neither was exactly pleasant: the first was that Tony finally got Pepper pregnant, and the eccentric billionaire was insisting the child would join the team. And then he was imagining a middle-aged man in a stained wife beater and checkered boxers, a towel around his neck and holding a cup of coffee in one hand. And maybe he would have a huge beer gut or something.
His superpower would probably be the ability to consume as much alcohol as he wanted and would never be able to get drunk. Or something like that.
Yech. Talk about bad things.
Thor wasn't present when the news was given, and obviously neither was Jane, Eric, and Pepper had been seething in the hall last Peter remembered, so those were the grand reactions: shock, curiosity, and disgust.
And then Steve had gone on to explain that the recruit's name was Percy Jackson, which stirred up some strange questions. The most popular of them was, isn't that the name of the kid who was involved in that nationwide manhunt five years ago? And wasn't he twelve when that happened? SHIELD agents have to know their accused criminals. So the thought to be terrorist who blew a hole in the St. Louis Arch was probably near the top of that list.
Well, then the reactions had changed. Clint's was disbelief, Natasha was pretty much indifferent about all of it, and Peter was thrilled to have a person his age, someone he could relate to, around. And he wouldn't have to worry about Spiderman getting in the way of their awesome friendship, because this kid would have superpowers too.
Throw that middle-aged dude out the window in Tony's penthouse lounge, Peter was all for having a seventeen year old kid on the Avengers.
And now he's standing in front of the kid, who's got a painfully blank face on, like he's trying to think too hard and there should be steam pouring out of his ears.
What does he do? What should he say? Peter isn't cut out for conversing and crap like that. He's basically the textbook definition of awkward and geeky. The kid in front of him reminds of him of Flash: all big muscles, good looks and unfocused eyes.
"Hi."
Peter blinks rapidly, looks down at Percy, who stares back up at him with a raised eyebrow and a look of resigned frustration, and opens his mouth, unsure of what will come tumbling out.
"You blew up the St. Louis Arch?" He asks, then rewards himself for that question by doing the largest mental facepalm ever, because the look Percy Jackson is giving him is not pretty. But then the glare subsides, recedes like a wave on the sand, leaving behind a damp expanse of sand, and he grins a little.
"I did."
"That's awesome!"
"Why thank you. Most people thought I was just something of a juvenile delinquent."
Peter scoffs and waves a flippant hand, something Tony taught him to do all too well. "They got it fixed, right?"
"My point exactly!"
And like that, the two have become friends.
It's less than an hour later when the hydraulic door keeping Percy locked away hisses back, like it malfunctioned or something, and the two sneak out to wreak havoc upon an unsuspecting Erik Selvig, Jane Foster and Darcy Lewis.
-O-
Tony sends another holographic set of data whirling away with an angry wave of his hands. Bruce ducks as a Roman myth about Hercules goes flying over his head.
"I don't understand it!" He rages, shoving his face into his hands and pressing them hard against his cheeks. "There's nothing here about a god who appears in the form of a teenager!"
Bruce pushes his glasses down his nose. "How do you know he's a god?" He asks, hesitantly, while Tony fumes over his workspace, slamming down vials and avoiding the acid splashes the impact sends sloshing over the rims at his unprotected skin.
"What else could he be? A mythological monster?"
"No, but…" He sighs. "Why don't you ask Thor? Mythology is kind of his specialty."
Tony brightens instantly, reaching for the telephone in his pocket. It takes him less than a half-minute to bypass the SHIELD systems, and suddenly the phone is dialing the entirety of the SHIELD helicarrier, via the PA systems.
"Would Thor Odinson please report to the labs? I repeat, Thor, separate your face from Jane's and get your butt over here before I set the Hulk on you. Again. Thank you."
Bruce shoots him a look that very clearly says, 'that wasn't necessary.'
And yet there is still a distinctly smug smirk on his face when Thor walks in, ashamedly rubbing at his lips with one armor-covered arm and glancing around as though someone is watching him.
"What can I do to be of service?"
"Well for starters, I'd like a cheeseburger, and maybe some fries too. Oh yeah. And tell us everything you know about Roman gods."
Thor stops rubbing at his face. "What do you wish to know of the Romans? They are beyond Odin's influence. There is not much I am permitted to speak of."
"Gods of water?" Bruce speaks up before Tony has the chance to demand something very rudely, or express just how concerned he is with what Thor may or may not be allowed to say.
The thunder deity thinks for a moment. "There is Neptune, god of the seas. His son Triton is a prince, although a rather arrogant one. His assistant Delphi, a dolphin god. And there are Nereids and Naiads, ocean and river spirits." He puts his arm back at his side. "Does that help you any?"
"Not really, unless any of they happen to be teenagers." Tony says, then adds, "And preferably human too."
Thor shakes his head. "No. Triton would be considered to be in his late twenties, I believe, if counting by Midgardian appearances. But I –" He stops with a confused look. "How is it that you came by this curiosity? Or that you even knew of the Roman gods?"
Bruce wrings his hands, if only to give them something to do. "There's a kid with water powers in SHIELD's custody. His name is Percy Jackson. Have you heard of him?"
He waits for Thor's answer, but the god's face has gone stoically blank. He blinks once, twice, and then the thunderer looks down at Bruce. His gaze wavers over to Tony.
"How dare –" He thundered lowly, dangerously, just enough that Bruce backed up a hair and began practicing his meditation techniques for breathing. One, two, take in, one, two, breathe out, keep calm, don't freak out, lighting isn't dangerous. "The organization of SHIELD –" Tony slowly puts a foot behind himself, and begins to back away as well. "Take Percy Jackson into containment."
Bruce can feel a crackle of static in the air.
And then there is a swish, a fluster of red flurrying across their vision and he is gone, stalking out of the lab with a loud, hollow thud every time one of his boots hits the metal floor.
Tony laughs nervously, and Bruce can hear the puff of breath in it. "Guess he knew of him after all."
The two geniuses share a hesitant glance, then synchronically lunge out the door, yelling after the fuming Norse god of thunder, who has no doubt gone in search of the Director of the entire organization: a tired, pissed off Nicholas Fury.
A/N: Short but sweet, that's what they say right? I loved writing Thor's reaction!
To my beautiful reviewers: Thank you for your sympathizing. School does indeed suck, and I still have so many years (okay, not that many) left until college, and then poof! – haha sucker, you're living on your own and you have to be responsible on your own while still going to school.
Man life sucks.
And on the topic of life sucking, I've recently been terrified by the Puerto Rican subduction zone that has apparently been building up stress for a thousand years, and could go BOOM any minute. It'll swamp the gulf coast… Heck, it'll swamp Dallas. And I live about forty minutes away from Galveston… If only I could graduate and go to OSU or something.
LOL, probably not gonna happen. Cause there was a magnitude 6.4 last week or something, and the epicenter was right near the trench. If I don't update ever again, I'm dead.
Sorry.
Love you guys!
Hope you enjoyed the chapter. I thought it was pretty good… Right?