The Blue Food Project

by liketolaugh

Foggy meets Sally in a grocery store, sees the three bottles of food coloring in her cart, and listens to her talk about how much her son loves it for about ten minutes before he decides he's in love. About four months later, Natasha drops by the Jacksons' apartment to take her first look at the child that heralds the realization of the Great Prophecy. She thinks he looks small.

6. Chapter 6

Percy was pretty sure they hadn't been back home for twenty-four hours when Falcon and the Black Widow showed up to pull him away again.

"That won't be necessary, Sally, we won't be staying long," Natasha said politely, when Sally went to get cookies and Kool-Aid from the kitchen. "But thank you for the thought."

"Are you kidding me?" Sam said, jabbing Natasha playfully in the side. "I want a cookie."

So they ended up around the coffee table, passing at least a few minutes before Percy had to go. He stuck by his mom and fidgeted with Riptide, eying their guests warily. "Are you part of the Greek world too?" he asked Sam.

"Not at all," he said dryly, halfway through his third cookie. "But it's not any weirder than the superhero stuff."

Percy smiled briefly. "You're part of the superhero stuff."

"God, I know," Sam sighed. "Appreciated, Mrs. Jackson, this is great – so, what's it like to be the son of a god these days?"

"Mostly it sucks," Percy informed him, drumming his feet uncomfortably against the ground. "I can't read, I keep getting kicked out of schools, sometimes my teachers try to eat me, and the world is ending."

Sam stifled a snort and looked at Natasha. Natasha shrugged.

"That tracks," she said.

"I can breathe underwater though," Percy added. "That's pretty cool."

"I bet it is," Sam chuckled. "I saw your trick with the storm last month too. Glad to be back home?"

Percy ducked his head and nodded at the ground, cheeks burning. "Sorry. I guess I shouldn't have done that."

"Hey, it didn't hurt anybody," Sam said gently. "It just looked badass."

Percy shot Sam a shy smile, and looked over when Sally touched his arm, raising an eyebrow in fond question. "I was kind of... throwing the rain around when I went to look for Fisk. I wasn't doing it on purpose! I was just mad."

Sally laughed quietly, pressing a quick kiss to his hair. "Percy, if that was as angry as you ever got, I would be a very, very proud mother."

Percy gave her a sheepish grin, and then looked up at the two Avengers. "Um, am I supposed to be telling you what's been happening at camp? 'Cause I still think Chiron would be better for that."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Natasha said lightly, getting to her feet and flicking her fingers in a beckoning motion. "You are the only one that's been on three quests in the last two years, aren't you?"

"I guess," Percy mumbled, and pushed himself up. He glanced at his mom instinctively, and she looked at the Avengers.

"When do you expect to have him back here?" she asked, in the same firm no-nonsense tone she used on Percy's friends. Sam and Natasha looked at each other.

"By seven?" Natasha suggested.

"By seven," Sam agreed. Sally smiled at both of them.

"Thank you. Stay safe and be good, Percy."

"Mom!" Percy complained, and still let her give him a kiss on the forehead before they were out the door. Neither adult commented on it, thank the gods; Percy thought he might've caught fire with embarrassment if they had. Maybe tracked down Nico just so the ground would swallow him.

"Did we just promise his mom we'd have Percy back before dinner?" Sam asked Natasha, when they were a few flights down the steps.

"Yes, I think so," Natasha said, looking more amused than bothered. "Percy, are you ready to meet everyone?"

"I guess," Percy mumbled, fidgeting in discomfort. Natasha wasn't fooled.

"It's a lot, I know," she said, more soothing than Percy would have expected from the Black Widow. "Especially since you aren't exactly being given much of a choice. But no one blames you for anything that's coming."

That unwound tension Percy didn't know he was carrying. "No one?"

"I don't even completely understand it yet," Sam offered, and Percy managed a smile.

"Me either," Percy admitted. "They haven't even told me the full prophecy. Chiron insists it's not time."

"Harsh," Sam said sympathetically.

They reached the bottom level, and Natasha grabbed the driver's seat while Percy ducked into the back. To his surprise, Sam joined him.

"I heard about the Fisk fiasco," Sam told him, tone so casual it had to be deliberate. Percy squirmed. "Did you and your mom manage to settle back in alright? It can be hard to get your sense of safety back once it's been shaken." Percy blinked at him in surprise, and Sam explained, "I work with war vets. I know a thing or two about feeling unsafe."

"Oh," Percy said. "Um. I think it bothered Mom more than me, she's getting permission to change the lock on the door and she's thinking about getting an alarm for it." He shrugged. "I'm mostly just glad we're not staying with Foggy anymore. He shouts when he's confused."

"That can be hard to deal with," Sam said, more kindly than Percy might've expected. "Did you tell him that scares you?"

"He figured it out," Percy mumbled, glancing out the window to avoid looking at Sam. "Sorry. I should be over that."

"I never said that," Sam said mildly. "It's been, what, a year and a half? That's nothing."

Percy stared at the car next to them. "In another year and a half I'll be sixteen."

"Yeah?" Sam said, gently encouraging in a way that indicated he didn't know the significance of the date. Percy pushed his forehead against the window.

"The Great Prophecy will trigger when he turns sixteen," Natasha explained from the front seat. Sam cursed under his breath.

"That's fucked up."

"Sorry," Percy said to the window. Maybe another kid his age would've been excited to be on their way to meet the Avengers, but Percy couldn't bring himself to feel anything but miserable. The Avengers handled end-of-the-world stuff, and Percy? Percy was end-of-the-world stuff.

And Percy had to do it, because if it wasn't Percy, it would be Nico. And Nico was just a kid.

"Sixteen's pretty young to be worrying about anything but homework, is all I'm saying," Sam said.

"Ugh," Percy muttered. "I'd rather take the monsters."

Sam let out a snort, and the conversation turned to school and homework and Percy's new 504 plan, which despite his words made Percy's mood lighten a little by the time they reached the Avengers compound, some way outside the city.

Natasha led the way inside, and Percy looked around curiously. For the most part, the place looked new and clean; it even smelled a little like construction dust. There was a large gym visible through its glass walls, and a kitchen to the left when they entered the room where all of the Avengers were apparently waiting. They were also playing Mario Kart.

"Man of the hour!" Tony called out, leaning back to make eye contact with Percy, and then, to the others, "Loser has to make way for the kid."

"Okay, but it's gonna be you," Clint tossed back without looking away from the screen. Tony looked back and cursed. Percy walked over, and Steve, not playing, glanced up to give him a small smile.

"Sit down," Steve said. Percy settled on a free spot on the floor, slightly more than arm's length from anyone, and Natasha and Sam joined the others on some of the couches. "You go by Percy, don't you?" Percy nodded, and Steve continued, "How's Chiron doing? Clint tells me Camp Half-Blood is in America full-time now."

"Still kicking," Percy said with a small smile, scooching a more comfortable distance away. "Still bad with kids."

Clint shook his head. Now that Percy was looking for it, he could see how Clint looked like his brothers. "You'd think that after three thousand years, a man would pick up some social skills, like how not to make teenage boys cry."

"Right?" Percy said emphatically. "But no, he's all like, maybe you are simply destined to be a failure, or it's better for you to be alone, or whatever. I love Chiron to death, obviously, and he's way better than Mr. D, but man. He knows how to jab you right in your sore spots."

"Mr. D?" Steve asked. In unison, Tony and Clint snorted.

"You tell him, you tell him," Clint chortled.

"Dionysus got grounded for messing with the wrong nymph," Percy said, amused. "Zeus is forcing him to spend a century helping train kids in Camp Half-Blood. But mostly he sits around and grows strawberries."

Steve sighed, looking disappointed but not surprised. "I always treasure the days when I can forget how childish the gods are."

"As you should," Tony said. "They're few and far between."

"Shouldn't he be growing grapes?" Sam wondered.

"He's not allowed to," Percy explained. Sam sighed. "I know. It's so dumb." Thunder rumbled. "Mr. D isn't going to stop sleeping with nymphs because you wouldn't let him grow grapes!"

"He has a point," Clint said. Thunder rumbled again, louder this time.

The end-of-race music made Percy glance over curiously. Clint had finished a hair ahead of Tony, Rhodey third, but it was Wanda who finished in a distant fourth, and without waiting to be asked, she muttered something and waved her hand, passing the controller to Percy.

Percy caught it, immediately discomfited as he picked up on her genuine bad mood. "Uh, thanks." She gave him a curt nod, and he scooted forward a little while Tony navigated back to the menu. His reluctance to sit close to anyone put him at a sharp angle from the television, but nothing that would make racing hard. "Am I supposed to be talking about camp now?"

"No rush," Clint said casually. "I went to visit a couple of days ago and picked up a few interesting stories. I heard your first monster was the Minotaur."

"That sucked, and I'm lucky that it was just the Minotaur chasing me to camp," Percy muttered, picking Koopa Cape when Tony gestured for him to choose a racetrack. "But yeah. I still have the horn. Uh, I didn't have a celestial bronze weapon yet so I snapped off its horn and used that."

"May I inquire as to the significance of celestial bronze?" Vision asked, the first time he had spoken since Percy's arrival. Percy flinched in surprise, making his character jerk off course.

"It's the metal demigods make their weapons out of," Percy said after a moment, when no one else moved to. "Or like, the Hephaestus kids make them and share them with everyone else. It hurts gods, demigods, and monsters, but not mortals."

"Does it truly hurt your gods?" Vision asked, sounding oddly interested. Percy grinned a little.

"It sure does."

"No way," Clint said, but he was grinning when he tilted his head to look at Percy. "The campers didn't tell me that story. Spill."

Percy flushed, but he couldn't help but be pleased about this one. "Uh, so my first quest was the one to get the lightning bolt back, right? And Luke was the one that took it on Kronos' orders, but Ares was working with him, trying to, you know, make war and stuff. And he didn't want me screwing it up, so he tried to kill me and I stabbed him in the ankle." He hesitated, and then tacked on more quietly, "I didn't completely get it at the time, but he mentioned- he mentioned dreams. I think Kronos was manipulating him too, somehow."

"He stopped trying to kill you because you stabbed him in the ankle?" Natasha asked doubtfully.

"Uh," Percy said intelligently. "No, there was a..." He hesitated. "It's hard to explain. But there was like... a shadow, that passed over the area, and it felt old and evil. I think it was Kronos."

"How do you know?" Vision asked.

"Demigods are... let's say, a little more in tune with the supernatural," Rhodey contributed, making Percy start again and look over. "That's anything from prophetic dreams to unnatural intuition or things like Percy just said, perceiving things that wouldn't otherwise be apparent."

"Word from camp is that Percy's prophetic dreams are particularly intense too," Clint tacked on, glancing at Percy. Percy shrugged and nodded.

"Nearly every night, if I'm on a quest," he admitted. He passed the finish line for the final time, coming in second. "And a couple times a year outside of them."

"That's more than I get, and I'm a son of Apollo," Clint said.

"And I get jack shit for prophetic dreams," Tony said, picking Delfino Plaza for the next round. "Good fucking luck with those, kid."

"Thanks," Percy said dryly. "It lets me spy on our enemies, at least."

"Does it really?" Sam asked, fascinated. Percy smiled a little.

"Yeah," he said. "They usually notice me after a while though, so it's not as useful as it sounds." He frowned. "They always know it's me, too. I dunno how that works."

"They know you're dreaming about them?" Sam questioned.

Percy nodded. "They're like, 'the son of Poseidon brought himself here, how annoying' and then they scare the shit out of me so I wake up."

"Jesus Christ," Sam said.

"Demigod shit is pure madness, man," Rhodey said to him, shaking his head. "Give me a boot camp any day, I don't want to climb their lava-spitting climbing wall."

"Yes, you do," Tony disagreed.

"Maybe just once," Rhodey admitted.

"That reminds me," Clint said suddenly, knocking Percy off the course. Percy cursed under his breath. "I was saving the coolest news for when Percy got here."

"Oh, really?" Tony asked.

"Yeah," Clint said. "Apparently someone took Luke's title for 'best swordsman in three hundred years.'" He nodded at Percy.

Tony put his controller in his lap. "No fucking way."

Percy felt his cheeks flush hot and pleased. "I guess I had to be decent at something."

"That's more than decent, Percy," Steve said kindly. "You should be proud."

Percy thought it was entirely possible that he'd never been prouder than he felt right at this moment; he felt like he was going to burst. "Yeah," he managed after a minute, embarrassed by his lame response. But Steve just chuckled.

"So that was your first quest, what was your second?" Clint asked, skipping back a little. Percy knocked him off the course without thinking and contemplated for a moment.

"Uh. I wasn't technically supposed to go. But Luke poisoned Thalia's tree-" Someone inhaled sharply. "I know, right?"

"Thalia's tree?" Steve questioned, brow furrowing.

"Thalia was a daughter of Zeus," Clint explained grimly. "She came to camp almost seven years ago with Annabeth Chase and Luke Castellan, only she didn't make it. Of course she didn't make it, it practically takes a whole team to get a Big Three kid to camp unless they get there young. Her father turned her into a pine tree while she was making her stand on Half-Blood Hill, and that created the barrier that makes it so safe now."

Steve swore under his breath. "How old was she? I think Peggy said she was at camp by seven, so I can only imagine-"

"She was twelve," Clint said. "Grover had only just found her. Between that and the oath, poor girl didn't stand a chance."

"She'd kill you if she heard you talking about her like that," Percy said before he could think better of it. "'Cause of what Zeus did, she didn't die. That summer we brought back the Golden Fleece, and it didn't just cure the poison, it brought Thalia back. She's a Huntress now." He scowled at the television. "I'd give Luke credit for it if I thought for a second he'd meant that to happen."

"Right, sorry, I was interrupting," Steve said apologetically, like anyone would care if he talked over Percy. "Remind me to help arrange for you and Thalia to meet Peggy soon though- so, Luke poisoned Thalia's tree, and then?"

"Uh, a bunch of stuff," Percy said, missing a turn as he thought about it. "But I guess- Grover was stuck in the same place as the Golden Fleece, because he was looking for Pan and I guess the Fleece smells the same. So Clarisse actually got the quest to look for the fleece, and Annabeth, Tyson, and I left anyway, to help Grover. Um- that was when we found Luke's evil cruise ship full of monsters, but I think that was the last important thing that happened then, cause you know, after that we brought back the fleece and freed Thalia from the tree."

"Sounds like you're skipping a lot of pretty important points," Rhodey pointed out. Percy shrugged.

"Not really," he said. "It was just quest stuff. Nothing else had to do with Kronos, least not that I remember."

"By 'just quest stuff,' he means he and his friends almost died several times, but because of monsters instead of titans," Rhodey said to Sam, with clear disapproval on his face. Sam seemed to have the same opinion. Percy winced, looking away sharply.

Percy was allowed to pick the next course again, so on they went to Maple Treeway.

"Oh, I hate this one," Clint muttered, and Percy smiled for a moment.

"And last month's?" Natasha prompted. Percy's smile fell.

"Oh," he said, and stopped paying attention long enough for his character to fall off the course. He shook himself and tried halfheartedly to focus again. "Um. So Grover found two half-bloods, Nico and Bianca, and asked me, Thalia, and Annabeth to help get them. And Annabeth got kidnapped while we were doing that, I guess, and got taken to Mount Othrys. Luke had volunteered to take the sky from Atlas, and Annabeth took it from him, and Artemis took it from her."

He reached up to tug on the streak of grey in his own hair without thinking.

"The weight of the sky can only be forced onto a titan," Tony explained to Sam in an undertone. "Anyone else has to take it willingly."

"So we got a quest to go rescue Artemis," Percy said. "Um, I wasn't invited on that one either, but they had Annabeth, so." He shrugged, embarrassed again. "Anyway, Artemis had been tracking Bessie- uh, the Ophiotaurus, and I guess Atlas wanted him too, 'cause sacrificing him grants wishes, like to destroy Olympus apparently. I kind of found Bessie by accident, when he got caught in a stupid fishing net, which made him easy to get once we knew we were looking for him, and Grover got him to Olympus. Um... That still left rescuing Artemis and Annabeth, so we went to Mount Othrys, and we couldn't really fight Atlas so I took the sky so Artemis could do it, and Artemis forced Atlas back under it. And then we went back to Olympus and the gods voted on whether or not me and Bessie should die and decided not."

"I beg your pardon, I must have misheard," Vision cut in, sounding genuinely concerned. "They... voted on whether to kill you?"

"Uh," Percy said. "Yeah. 'Cause I wasn't supposed to be born and all, and like, if I die, I'm definitely not gonna turn sixteen."

"And all the stuff we said before about Big Three kids still applies," Tony said grimly. "I bet they had this conversation multiple times, right, kid?"

"More or less," Percy admitted, curling up a little as if to hide inside himself.

"Finally!" Clint burst out, making Percy jump. Clint tossed his controller aside. "I've been waiting for this round to be over forever. Tony, you've got swords in the gym, haven't you?"

"Mostly steel, but yeah," Tony agreed. "The celestial bronze is all in my lab."

"That's fine," Clint dismissed. "It's a shame that none of us are swordsmen." Percy cocked his head in confusion, and Clint grinned at him. "Want to go a few rounds? I mean, none of us are sword specialists, but Tony and I have enough experience to make up for it."

"Always," Percy blurted out before he could think better of it. His cheeks turned hot, but no one seemed to mind, and after a moment he smiled tentatively. "Like, right now?"

"Hell yeah," Clint said.

So Percy ended up on one side of a sleek arena, bouncing on his heels while he waited for Clint, Tony, and Natasha to finish debating which of them was the least terrible swordsman – apparently Natasha had learned to spar with Clint, and was in the running mainly because Clint and Tony just never used swords. Gods, this was going to be boring, wasn't it?

He ran that thought through his head again and flushed, glad no one was watching him. He was about to spar with an Avenger. That was cool no matter what.

Finally, Clint grabbed a steel sword out of the mini-armory and hopped up across from Percy, flashing him a broad grin as he dropped into a well-practiced stance. "Ready?"

Percy grinned back. "Definitely."

"Begin!" Steve called out, and Percy moved first, slashing boldly at Clint just to watch him block it, and their swords clanged together.

Within the first few minutes, Percy could tell that Clint had been taught well; his movements were clean and efficient. But he projected them pretty hard, and he was struggling to find an opening in Percy's guard. The sword he'd picked was longer than Percy's too, and he was having trouble taking advantage of that. He knew how to use a sword, but he was right – he was no swordsman.

A minute later, Percy knocked Clint's sword from his hand, shoved his foot against Clint's, and body-checked him off the platform. Clint went flying and hit the padded floor with a grunt.

"Whoa there!" Steve interrupted, making Percy jump – he'd almost forgotten where he was for a moment there, and Steve looked upset. "What was that for?"

Percy stepped back, alarmed.

On the ground, Clint let out a wheezing laugh and pushed himself upright, rubbing his shoulder. "Camp rules, Cap, relax. Any half-serious match needs a good finisher." To Percy, he added, "That was brilliant. Chiron wasn't exaggerating."

Percy smiled tentatively, pleased to hear that Chiron thought so highly of him. "Sorry. I guess I forgot we weren't at camp."

"We're both demigods, no reason we shouldn't spar like it," Clint dismissed easily. "I'd love to spar using a weapon I'm better with, but unfortunately arrows vs sword is a pretty boring matchup. Any takers?"

It took Percy a moment to realize why Clint had directed that to the rest of the room, and then he flushed again, glancing uncertainly at the others. But none of them looked bored or offended, just thoughtful.

"Give me a minute to get my shield, and I'll give it a go," Steve said at last, and gave Percy a small smile. "If you're comfortable with it."

Percy blinked, startled by the prospect. "Uh, sure. Go for it."

Steve disappeared toward the supply room, and Percy took the chance to glance around at the others. Most of them – Tony, Clint, Natasha, Sam, and Rhodey – were watching with obvious interest. Vision and Wanda were talking some distance away, and Percy thought he could see a trace of lovesick fondness on Vision's face before the android looked back over, and Percy looked away quickly.

"I'm surprised you were so easily thrown off your feet," Natasha said to Clint, eyes glimmering with amusement. "You realize that kid's half your size, right?"

"Oh, shut up," Clint griped, though he didn't look too bothered. "I was focusing on trying to use the sword. Gods, I'm going to have to go back for lessons – I didn't think I was that bad."

"You were okay," Percy said without thinking, playing with the edge of his sword. He flushed when everyone looked at him. "Um, you have all the movements down, and you're good with them. But you weren't keeping out of reach even though your sword is longer, and you were focusing so hard on what you were doing that I could always tell."

"Does Chiron have you giving lessons already?" Clint asked, clearly impressed. "I thought you'd only been at camp for two summers." He nodded at Percy's bead necklace.

If anything, Percy felt even more flustered at that. "Um, no, but he asked me if I would next year. I haven't decided yet. I mean, I really don't have that much practice, and I'm still pretty young. One of the older campers would be better, right?"

"Okay, but your instincts are clearly off the charts, and you knew enough to tell me what I was doing wrong," Clint said. "You should totally do it. You'll be great."

Unfamiliar delight flashed through Percy again. "Okay. I think I will."

Steve emerged from the armory with his shield, and Percy started to feel a little nervous as he joined Percy on the stage. Gods, what had he been thinking? He was gonna look so stupid, trying to go against Captain America in full regalia.

Steve must have read some of that in his face, because he smiled reassuringly. "You're going to do fine, Percy. This old thing can't even cut."

"I can think of a lot of other things it can do, though," Percy muttered, but he shifted into a defensive stance and nodded, and this time Sam called the signal.

Unsurprisingly, Steve was a lot better with his shield than Clint with a sword. He pressed forward, easily keeping Percy's sword off of him, and he wouldn't let Percy past his guard; he kept turning every time Percy tried to find an angle to slip through. He was having a hard time attacking, though, too nice to just slam the hard metal into Percy. Percy would've complained if he weren't focusing so hard.

But if Percy could just...

After almost ten minutes of stalemate, Percy feinted toward Steve's feet, and Steve slammed his shield down to block the blade. Percy grabbed the rim of it and used its new position to vault himself up and over. He twisted in midair, using the shield for leverage, and swung his arm around Steve's neck, trying to drag him into a chokehold.

"Oh my," Vision murmured.

One miscalculation: once Percy had his arm around Steve's neck, his feet no longer touched the ground, and Steve was too strong to just flop over at the unexpected weight. He swayed, but stayed upright, so Percy's feet kicked frantically at the ground, suspended a few inches above it.

Steve grunted, grabbed Percy's wrist, and ripped it away, hard enough to make Percy hiss. With a buck, he threw Percy off, and Percy yelped as he hit the ground hard, Riptide clattering to the ground.

"Yield?" Steve asked, without moving to pin Percy down. Percy sat up and hissed.

"Yeah. Oww..." He'd tried to catch himself on the way down, keep his head from smacking against the ground, but he'd definitely hurt his wrist instead. "Damn it. I didn't think I was going to just dangle."

Steve chuckled, offering Percy a hand up. "Happens to the best of us. I wasn't expecting you to vault over me like that, that's for sure. Are you alright?"

Percy flexed his wrist, winced, and nodded. "Yeah, I think I just pulled it. I'll go for a swim later, it's fine."

"Does water heal you?" Steve asked, surprised. Percy nodded. "That's a rare ability."

Percy smiled a little, embarrassed. "Definitely comes in handy."

"There's a pool around here somewhere," Sam said, frowning at Percy's hand where Percy was cradling it. "I was pretty curious about your water powers anyway, let's go."

Percy felt a sense of surreality as they moved on to the pool room to, apparently, check out Percy's cool ass powers. He wondered anxiously what they were expecting to see – what they wanted to see. He folded his hands behind his back and wavered uncomfortably for a moment, and Tony just gestured toward the pool.

"Don't worry about showing us anything specific," Tony said, apparently reading his mind. "Show off some of the things you're proud of, try out some things. Your powers are still growing anyway, so it's not like this is gonna be the end of it."

"Alright..." Percy said, a little uncertain, and he dropped down over the side into the water, slipping in without hesitation, still fully clothed. He immediately felt better, energy and confidence from the water flooding him the moment he made contact. The pain in his wrist faded in seconds. He popped back up a moment later to hover on one side of the pool, looking up expectantly.

"You're dry," Natasha noted, with the first hint of what seemed to be genuine wonder that Percy had heard from her. Percy smiled a little and nodded.

"If one of you has a lighter or something, I can light a fire underwater," he offered. "And I've taken Annabeth underwater with me in a bubble of air."

"Does controlling air bubbles in the water really count as controlling water?" Clint wondered.

"Apparently," Percy shrugged.

"May I try?" Vision asked politely, already crouching down as if to slip into the water.

"Sure," Percy said, reaching up. "But hold your breath at first. You'll stay dry, but it'll take a minute to get a good air bubble."

Vision nodded, accepted his hand, and hopped into the pool. Effortlessly, Percy pulled them both down, and gathered the bubbles from their two dives around Vision's head, making a little helmet of air. Vision held up a hand, flexed his fingers, and then gave Percy a delighted smile. Percy grinned back, and then let them back up.

"I remain quite dry," Vision reported to the others as soon as he was up, swimming toward the edge. He released Percy's hand before Percy could think to stop him, and Percy winced. "Ah!"

"Sorry," Percy said. "I should have warned you."

"No, no, I ought to have thought about the situation logically," Vision disagreed. Percy swam over to him and grabbed his hand again, and Vision made a sound of surprise. "Oh my!"

"Don't you fucking tell me you're dry," Sam said incredulously.

"I am once again quite dry," Vision said, smiling. He pulled himself back out of the pool, and this time Percy kept a hold of his hand until he was clear. "Thank you, Perseus."

"Call me Percy, please," Percy said automatically, and then, embarrassed, clarified, "Only monsters call me Perseus."

"Percy, then," Vision agreed.

"What the hell?" Clint complained. "Monsters hardly ever call me by name."

"Oh, good, I'm special, again," Percy said dryly, and then pulled himself up until only his feet were still in the water, kicked experimentally, and willed the water to swirl around, tighter and tighter. In another minute, there was a large whirlpool taking up most of the pool, the center dipping more than halfway down into the basin and the edges threatening to spill over.

"Think you can make a waterspout?" Rhodey asked, looking interested as he leaned forward.

Percy shrugged and waved one of his hands in a purposeful pulling motion, like he was digging his fingers into the whirlpool to spin it faster, and it did. The tug in his gut grew slightly painful, and the whirlpool spun until the center started to rise back up again. But he didn't manage to get it higher than just above the top of the basin before he was forced to release it, panting like he'd run a marathon.

"Ow," he complained, leaning back on one hand and pressing against his stomach with the other.

"Still pretty impressive," Rhodey said decisively, and Percy managed a grin.

"Impressive," agreed Wanda, her accent unmistakable, though it was the first time Percy had heard her speak today. She strode out from behind the cluster of Avengers and met Percy's eyes, and his stomach clenched nervously. There was no mistaking the inferno of hurt and pent-up frustration that was churning behind those eyes. "Quite a lofty birthright you've found yourself gifted, hm?"

Percy nodded hesitantly, tilting his head up to look at her. "Yeah. I guess there had to be some benefit to being the son of Poseidon."

Wanda smiled at him, the empty sort of smile that meant someone was too blinded by pain to really see you. Percy tensed, fingers digging into the concrete. "Plenty, I should think. Did you know that Steve spent over an hour coaching us on how to be gentle with you before you came?"

Oh, that was humiliating. "Sorry. I'm kind of touchy, I guess."

"I imagine you come by it honestly," Wanda said sweetly. Percy felt a skipped heartbeat in his throat, and swallowed. "So tell me. How many people do you think will die because of your mother's indiscretion?"

Percy didn't remember making the conscious decision to turn it into a fight. The words reverberated in his ears, and he slid one foot forward, turned on his heel, and kicked, and half the water in the room rushed toward Wanda, more flooding out of the pool to fill the room. She withstood the first knee-high wave with only a grimace, and then he yanked, and all the water came rushing back the other way; she had to catch herself with her powers to keep from falling.

She waved, and Percy had to dive out of the way of a potted plant, only to be caught in red light and tossed head over heel, landing roughly on the ground. He grunted.

"Natasha-" Steve hissed, and Natasha pushed him back slightly, giving him a look Percy couldn't see.

Undeterred, Percy rolled to his feet and focused on the floor under Wanda's feet. Tile, soaked. He imagined the water sliding out from under her, the surface becoming slick and dangerous, and then feinted to one side. Sure enough, Wanda shifted her weight to follow, slipped, and had no time to catch herself before she fell, very nearly into the deep pool.

Without thinking, Percy launched himself toward her, shooting across the ground with the same force he'd used to make her fall, and tackled her into the deep pool. He dragged them both under, and on second thought, pulled a bubble of air around her face even as he refused to let go. They both ended up on the bottom, with Percy effortlessly holding Wanda down. She struggled, but it got her nowhere.

Then she lifted her hand, and her outstretched fingers made contact with his temple. The world went dark.