Hey guys! Sorry for the delay, had a really busy week and barely had any time to work on this chapter. Should have a longer one next week, hopefully. Enjoy!
Everyone was gathered at the beach, the fresh air good at relaxing the nerves that had been built up over the last few days. Everyone was casually chatting away when a voice was heard shouting out to them.
"Guys! Guess what!" Nico, Piper, Clarisse, Travis and Conor all turned round to see Will barrelling towards them. He had a look on his face that wasn't the usual solemn look he had when he had to give bad news, a look they had been seeing a lot lately. No, this expression looked more... pleased? It wasn't exactly happy, that would be a stretch, but it wasn't sad or frustrated either, so it was definitely refreshing.
"What's up, Will?" asked Piper, who was standing a few feet from Nico. They had been ordered to keep a bit of a distance apart due to how contagious this plague was, and couldn't be together for too long, meaning their hang outs were brief and scarce.
Will stopped a few steps away from him, leaning over his knees, catching his breath. "I've found, a way, to test, for, the, plague," he said between breaths. Nico's eyes widened and he jumped off the rock he was sitting on.
"What? Really? How?" he asked all at once. All the others looked to be thinking the same thing. This was the first real advancement they'd made since all this started and would hopefully be the bridge to even more.
Will sucked in one last breath before straightening up to his normal height. "Camp Jupiter gave us some of their equipment as a start to the cross-camp peace renovations. I hadn't used them before, but man are they awesome! They're modern but not that techy, so we can still use them without monster attacks, and they're so advanced! I have no clue how they're so far ahead of us-" Will started rambling.
"Will. Will!" Nico said loudly. Will had a look of embarrassment, making his cheeks go red. Nico would absolutely deny it if anyone said he found it kind of cute.
"Right, sorry," said Will, scratching the back of his head. "Well, I figured with all the symptoms and with how quickly this thing spreads, the virus must mutate quickly, giving it a unique form. Because of this, a sample cell would be easily recognised, as there would be nothing else like it," he explained.
"With this equipment, I was able to extract samples of saliva, blood, basically anything that might carry traces of the illness from hosts of the plague and begin running analysis and tests, using... a microscope? Is that what the mortals call it?" he asked.
They all shrugged. None of them knew much about science or the mortal world. Put the two together and you might as well be asking a tree.
"Anyway," Will continued, shaking his head. "I tested the more easily obtained bodily fluids, don't you dare say anything," he said warningly, looking sternly at Travis and Conor who looked like they were about to make some joke, but thought better of it.
"And nothing," said Will. "Nothing?" Nico asked. "Nothing. Gaia made sure this disease was not easily tracked or noticed."
"But you said you found something, right?" asked Clarisse, folding her arms. "Yes, but it was hard. Really hard. Half our blood is that of the Gods; helpful in the mortal world to stay hidden, it usually just comes up as an anomaly and they brush it off. But because of this, that means we also can't analyse it either, and it's the part that's being targeted."
"So how did you do it?" asked Piper, frowning. A grin grew on his face. Oh boy.
"I'm glad you asked," he began. "With my new equipment-" Clarisse groaned. "Not this again." Will glared at her, but continued. "With my new equipment, it was able to analyse the Gods blood. I still couldn't really see the make-up of it, but I could see cells that weren't meant to be there," he said, a proud expression on his face. Okay, the dork did good.
Nico smiled. "Nice one, Solace," he said, hesitating before playfully punching him in the shoulder. He saw Piper cringe and face palm from the corner of his eyes but ignored her.
Will smiled. "Thanks, Nic's." Nico blushed slightly, suddenly finding the sand really fascinating.
"So? Can we all get tested now?" asked Clarisse. Will turned his attention over to her. Thank the Gods.
"Yep, if you would all follow me, we can go right now," he replied, turning to walk back up to the main camp area. They all followed suit.
A thought suddenly occurred to Nico. "Hey, Will," he called, jogging up to him. "Have you had any contact with Percy?"
Will sighed. "No. It's like the Gods. No message will go through. And I have a bad feeling..." he said, trailing off towards the end.
"There is a chance he doesn't have it," Nico tried, although he knew it was with fake hope. Even though he didn't have feeling for Percy anymore, he still cared for him; he was still his cousin.
"Yeah maybe. I just wish there was a way to contact him. To get him to check so we know for sure. He has no idea what's going on here, no one outside of camp does," said Will, thinking hard.
"At least he's not with anyone else, so if he did have it, at least it won't spread," Nico suggested. "Yeah, that's true," Will conceded. He huffed a laugh. "That would be way worse."
…...
Percy and Jason were thrown into another prison cell. Well, okay they weren't exactly thrown in, it was more of a shove, and the room wasn't actually a prison cell, just a regular room, but Percy felt he had the right to be a little dramatic. Percy grimaced. Zeus was rubbing off on him.
Agents positioned themselves at the door. Okay so making a run for it is out. He and Jason peered round the room. It was rather large, with another huge floor to ceiling window. Honestly, don't they have any normal windows in this place?
He noticed Jason eyeing it up, but before they could even think about attempting to fly out, the door burst open.
Eye-Patch walked in, not looking all that pleased, which was the regular for him but still, that guy was going to have some serious wrinkles.
He stormed up to them, stopping only an inch from Percy's face.
"What the hell happened out there? What did you two do" he said in a raised voice. At this point, he saw the Avengers entering the room as well, watching the scene unfold.
Percy gave a nervous laugh. "Hehe, would you believe me if I told you that we just happened to be flying by, had a lucky guess on how to kill it, and it just so happened to work?" he asked innocently. He knew that would probably tick him off, but he was not expecting the fist that grabbed him by the shirt, lifting him off the ground and pushing him against a wall.
"I am done playing games with you, Jackson. You know something about this, and you are going to tell me. Right. Now," he growled, staring right into his soul. It would have scared Percy if he hadn't faced literal primordial's before, which was why all he did was raise a surprised eyebrow at him. The Avengers seemed to think it was pretty serious, though.
"Fury, hey," said Steve warningly, walking up to them. "Stay out of this, Rodgers," Eye-Patch (Fury?) replied, not looking at him. Clint joined them and placed a hand on the arm holding up Percy. "Sir, put the kid down," Clint said slowly. Fury hesitated, before slowly lowering him to the floor.
Percy dusted himself off, not at all fazed by the interaction, which seemed to just annoy Fury further. Good.
"Almost as soon as we arrived, that monster just, disintegrated! How do you explain that?" Fury growled out. Percy put on his best 'just an innocent kid' expression. "It did? How did that happen?"
"We know you know something," Fury spoke slowly, glaring at him. "So, you are going to tell us. What. Was. That. Thing?" he spat out each word.
Percy looked over at Jason. He whispered in Greek, "Should we tell them?" out of the corner of his mouth. He saw the others frowning but ignored them. "Maybe," replied Jason. "They already know we know something. If we at least tell them something without that much hassle, they may at least not think we're against them."
Percy nodded, before facing back to the group. "Hydra," he said bluntly. They all looked at him with wide eyes, glancing at each other before narrowing their eyes at them. So much for them thinking we're not against them.
"What did you just say?" asked Steve. "Hydra. That's what that thing," he explained, looking at Fury, "was called. You wanted to know, so there you go."
They all stared at him, tensing up slightly. "You knew it," stated Clint. Percy frowned. "I'm sorry?"
"When we were fighting, you talked to it. Like you had seen it before," he said slowly. The others had come in now, walking up to them, gaze looked on the two.
Percy laughed nervously. "I think you were hearing things, man. All I was saying was how 'it was going down'," he said, trying to sound casual.
They squinted their eyes at him, clearly not believing a word he was saying, which was fair enough, it was a pretty lame excuse.
The agents by the door had begun to make their way over as well, guns at the ready. The boys stepped back a bit.
"Wow," said Jason. "Hey, we don't want any trouble."
"Neither do we," said Natasha. "That's debateable," Tony said, moving closer to them. Steve put a hand out in front of him to halt his advance.
"You guys have fought things like it before haven't you, like when we were at your school, and those cats appeared," said Steve, eyes on Percy. "You both are highly skilled. You know what you are doing, and are perfectly calm in a life-or-death situation. Not many people are like that, and definitely not any kids," he finished.
Percy and Jason were beginning to panic. The Avengers could tell something was up, yet still spoke so calmly to them, like they were trying to help them or something. The Avengers must have been able to tell how they were feeling, so Natasha stepped up to them, leaned forward and placed a hand on each of their shoulders.
"You have been mixed up in something for a long time haven't you," she said softly. "From the way you fight, the way you react, I have a feeling you have been fighting for a long time,," she said looking at Jason. "And I have a feeling you have been as well, Percy. And you both know something about Hydra, more than you'd probably like. So, this is your chance to help us help you," she finished, with a kind but serious expression.
That last point lost Percy. Help us help you? What's that supposed to mean? This sounded all too similar to what he had been asked in his interrogation when he was first taken. And he still had no clue what she was talking about.
He glanced at Jason, who had a similar confused look on his face. He turned back to the red-head. "I really don't know what to tell you. I think there might be a bit of miscommunication here, but we have no idea, what you are talking about."
Natasha's expression of encouragement dropped to one of... was that sadness?
Fury's, however, shifted to one of rage. "Take these two to their rooms," he ordered to the agents, who rushed over and grabbed their arms. Percy winced at the movement that sent pain through his shoulder where the Hydra had burned him. No one seemed to notice however. Pulling their hands behind their backs, they cuffed them. Percy groaned. "Not this again."
"You don't answer our questions, you get cuffed," said Fury plainly. "You're a real buzz kill, you know that?" Percy replied, though he got no reaction from the man, who simply stared at him with what seemed to be a permanent glare.
As they were pushed from the room, Fury turned to the Avengers.
"We need to talk."
…...
"I can't believe Hydra took in two kids," Clint said frowning, looking at the ground, arms folded.
"I thought they were long gone," said Tony. "Apparently not. And from the looks of these kids, Hydra has been working long and hard, somehow managing to train them, give them powers, and stay completely under the radar," said Fury, an amazed expression coating his face.
"Well, not completely under the radar, there were all those reports on Percy. Didn't they say he blew up a school bus, dropped his class in a giant fish tank, and got expelled from 6 schools in 6 years?" questioned Clint.
"Plus, the whole mystery behind his first step-father. How he disappeared," added Tony, then paused. "You don't think he... killed him, do you?"
They all looked at each other. "He didn't seem to have any concern when we asked him about his disappearance, but to think a kid could kill his own step-father," Clint said, thinking deeply.
"They are a lot of children who have killed. Plus, he didn't seem overly keen on his step-father, so I wouldn't put it past him," commented Natasha.
"And what about Jason? We don't know anything about him," added Bruce. "Tried running a facial recognition on him when he first arrived, and got nothing. It's like the kid doesn't even exist," Tony said, looking perplexed.
"Hydra does that to you," said Natasha. "They force you into being a part of them, erase your life, and control you against your will. I think that's what has happened with these two. But maybe they've escaped, and these monsters that keep attacking are sent by Hydra to eliminate them before they can give them up."
"But they seem so loyal to them. Any time we ask them about where they come from, they shut us out before we have even really said anything," said Natasha.
"I have a theory as to why that is," Steve said quietly. They all turned to him expectantly. "Whenever I was talking to Jason and Percy this morning, they mentioned again something about being apart of this 'summer camp', where they were trained and taught to fight, ever since they were young kids. Although, when I asked Jason why he wanted to start so young, he said how he didn't, but that he had to."
Tony frowned. "Then why would he not be more willing to give them up? Even if he is scared, he's being forced into this, meaning he doesn't want to be there."
Steve looked at them all before saying, "He mentioned something about how his father runs it."
Their eyes all widened. "His dad is Von Strucker?" exclaimed Tony.
"I can't believe it either, but it's possible," sighed Steve. "But how on Earth could Jason be his son? He's like, 16!" stated Clint.
"We don't know anything about Jason, and we can't find any records on him," commented Natasha.
"Hydra has a lot of scientists at their disposal. If they wanted to create some super-powered child soldiers using specific genes, they could," said Fury.
"There is no record of Percy's father, either. Him and Jason don't look very similar, so maybe Percy's father is another head of the organisation," suggested Bruce. "Which is why they must be too scared," he sighed. "If it is Hydra, they must have really messed with them. They run into danger without a second thought, like it means nothing. Like they're used to it."
They all stood in silence for a moment. It was broken by Fury.
"We don't know for sure this is Hydra. Using child soldiers isn't their M.O. Meaning they may have teamed up with someone, or this is a completely different organisation. Either way, you have had the chance to get the information out of these boys peacefully. It has worked to an extent, but whatever organisation that they work for, or that controls them, is sending enforcements after them. Either to get them back, or to kill them. We can't wait much longer. Either the organisation will get to them, or they will try to escape themselves, and with the power they possess, I don't think it will be pretty. If you can't get what we need from them, I will have to use more demanding methods."
Fury then headed to the exit, but not before Steve grabbed his arm.
"We can't just torture these kids," he said, exasperated. "If we can't stop whoever is behind all of this, there will be a lot more kids who will be hurt, maybe already being hurt, not just these two," said Fury, face devoid of emotion.
He pulled his arm free and continued out the door, leaving the conflicted Avengers behind.