Chapter 6

Third Person POV

Once they were back inside the Helicarrier, Percy took Thor aside and quickly told him that he was no longer a Greek and that he had turned his back on that pantheon, thus calming Thor down. Percy and Loki then resumed their staring contest, neither side backing down or willing to break eye contact. Loki refused to back down due to his pride, and Percy refused to look away because... well, because it was fun.

Due to this invisible battle of wills between the two, both failed to notice the conversation between the other members of the quinjet.

"So, you're Thor, the Norse God of thunder." Tony said spryly. Getting knocked out seemed to have barely dented his confidence.

"Yes." Thor said deeply.

"And that dude's your brother."

"Yes Metal Man, he is."

"He and the kid seem to get along." Tony observed, watching as Percy stuck his tongue out at Loki, who merely smirked.

"Indeed. Loki always liked the Greeks. He said that they knew how to have fun."

"Wait, hold up. Greeks?" Tony asked. "Like Zeus, Poseidon, Aphrodite, those mythological myths that remain myths till today?"

"The very same, although they are more than just myths, Metal Man. Although that's not important."

Meanwhile, another important conversation was happening at the front of the ship.

"How young do they start nowadays?" Steve asked the Black Widow, his face serious. "I mean, the kid back there can't be older than twenty."

"He's not an agent cap." Natasha said as she flicked a few controls on the dashboard. "He's only here temporarily."

"So, special hands or a mercenary to help you guys capture Loki?"

Natasha frowned. "No. Why would you say that?"

"The way he went hand-to-hand with Thor? He's clearly enhanced. And he can move water without touching it, almost like magic, if magic existed." Steve said, looking back at the son of Chaos warily. "And you can feel it. It's like I felt when around Schmidt. You can actually feel the power in the air around them." He failed to notice Natasha's frown growing deeper.

Natasha's fists clenched slightly. She knew that he was different, but an enhanced... Did Fury know?

Percy Third Person POV

Percy whistled lightly as he spun a pen between his fingertips, watching Fury threaten Loki, who didn't do anything to stop him, merely goading him on. Once Fury left, there was silence until...

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce asked.

"Loki's gonna drag this out," Steve said. "So Thor, what's his play?"

"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth. In return, I suppose, for the Tesseract." Thor looked troubled, staring at his half brother on the screen as he wondered how Loki had received such power.

Steve raised an eyebrow. "An army?" He asked incredulously. "From outer space?"

"Weirder things have happened," Percy murmured, watching Riptide pulse faintly. Banner, however, looked troubled.

"So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for."

"Selvig?"

"He's an astrophysicist." Percy supplied helpfully.

"He's a friend."

"Loki's put him under some sort of spell," Natasha said, leaning back into her chair. "Along with one of ours."

The son of Chaos blinked. There was somebody else important enough for her to address. Obviously somebody close to her, but not just a simple colleague, otherwise she wouldn't bother bringing the agent up. He was starting to understand that the Black Widow allowed very few people to come close to her, but when they did, she cared deeply for them. Would her fatal flaw be loyalty? Gah, not important. Wait, I just analyzed somebody. That's freaking awesome.

Percy tuned back into the conversation just as Tony turned away from the monitors in the middle of the room. "...hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick start the cube."

"Since when did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" A random agent asked, frowning.

"Last night."

Random agent's frown grew deeper.

"I mean, the packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory, am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Does he need a specific type of power source?" Percy chimed in, receiving a few weird looks, but otherwise nothing else. Bruce answered for him.

"He needs to heat the cube to over 120 million Kelvin to break through-"

"The Coulomb barrier," Bruce said. But that's only-"

"Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect." Tony interrupted.

"Well, if he could do that then he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion on any reactor on the planet." Bruce finished.

What just happened?

Tony looked at the doctor with newfound respect before walking over to him.

"Finally, somebody who speaks English. You're my new science buddy." He said, shaking hands with Bruce and fist-bumping Percy. "This is the intern, right? Kid, your name is..."

"Jackson, Percy Jackson."

"Ever need a grant or a loan, just ask." Tony said, before turning to the doctor. "Dr. Banner, your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you just lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

Percy blinked. Okay then.

Dr. Banner merely looked down awkwardly. "Uh, thanks... I guess. But Percy and I are only here to assist with locating the cube."

"Sure, sure." Tony said flippantly. "But seriously, you two make an oddly unusual pair. According to the files in fact, you've run away from society and all, but Percy... you're not even in SHIELD's files." Shit.

"Which is why we'd like to question him on some happenings." Fury said, walking in and gesturing. Four agents immediately tackled Percy, two holding him down as he struggled while the other two shoved his hands behind his back and slapped handcuffs over them.

"What the hell?" Percy exclaimed as he wriggled, trying to break free, but not putting too much effort into it. They were on the same side after all, Fury just had to get off his high horse and see the bigger picture.

"Percy!" Bruce yelled as he ran to the handcuffed boy, only to be held back by Fury, who whispered in his ear. "He's not who you think he is, doctor." He then turned to the teenager.

"Perseus Jackson, what are you?"

Huh?

Third Person POV

"Ummm..."

Behind Fury he could see the Avengers, all looking startled, Steve and Thor slowly rising, but not moving yet, Steve looking at Fury confusedly. Tony had his mouth open, about to talk, but he decided to wait, watching what would happen.

"What the hell are you on about?" Percy asked, craning his head sideways to look at Fury. The only response he saw was a picture, shoved in his face.

"Do you know what this is?"

"Looks like a bunch of DNA strands, duh." Percy said, rolling his eyes. "Let me guess, they're mine?"

Fury's face didn't change. "Look at the big picture."

Percy stared at the strand of DNA that was his. He had seen diagrams from Bruce, who had taught him basic biology on an escapade in the desert when they were both bored with nothing to do. This diagram was basically the same, two DNA strands to a chromosome, and every human had 23 pairs of chromosomes. Looking at the large amounts of DNA strands though, there was something that was not right...

"Did your printer break or something?" I asked, gesturing with my head to the paper. Half of the paper was empty.

"Nothing broke, Mr. Jackson." Fury said with his stone face. "That's exactly what came out of the printer, multiple times in fact." Percy took a few seconds to understand before his jaw dropped in understanding. "I don't..."

Hist voice trailed off. He had no way to explain this.

"Yes. You, Mr. Jackson, have only half the normal amount of chromosomes of a normal human. You only have 12 pairs of chromosomes, with incomplete DNA. You shouldn't even be alive. The mere fact that you're standing in front of us as a complete physical being is an impossibility."

"You also have hydrokinesis, which I bet Dr. Banner wasn't aware of as well. You are an unregistered, Enhanced teenager, who, according to science and natural law, shouldn't exist." Fury walked over till he was in front of Percy, his boots right in front of the teenager's face.

"So I'll ask you again. What are you?"

The heroes who were about to rise to his aid were suddenly silent. Even Thor knew that a bombshell had just been dropped.

Percy's mind went blank. He had prepared for many eventualities, but this wasn't it. How on Earth was he supposed to justify not having DNA? When Poseidon had disowned him... he had taken away half of his genes? Or hell, maybe he never had them to begin with. Gods didn't have DNA.

But I'm not a demigod anymore. Percy thought anxiously. What about Chaos? His only option would be to bluff, and hope it worked. He was about to open his mouth, when he saw Bruce's confused and slightly betrayed look, and quickly made up his mind.

In all the chaos, nobody noticed the Black Widow quietly leave the room.

Third Person POV

"Let me talk with Bruce first." Percy said, narrowing his eyes.

"You're not in a position to make demands." Fury said.

"Or else what?" Percy asked defiantly. "You'll kill me? Please do, it's not like I have any family who will miss me. I'll only talk if you let me speak to Bruce first." Percy said, raising his head enough to make eye contact with Fury. "Trust me, Fury. Per our agreement, I'll explain... everything."

Bruce gently pushed Percy into a conference room where he took a seat, trying to calm his racing heart. Percy stood right by the door, watching him closely. "You alright?"

Bruce gritted his teeth, trying to erase the green tinge in his veins, as it slowly faded from his skin. "When they held you down..." He growled, clenching his fists.

"I know. Fury didn't think it through completely." Percy said. "But I'm fine now. You can get through this. I know you can."

Bruce chuckled deeply as the green started to fade. "You know? I don't even know you. I'm trying not to get mad, but... what- who are you working for?"

Percy sighed. Thank Chaos he had prepared for this sort of conversation beforehand. "Bruce, nobody is controlling me. I'm not some wannabe agent who's trying to exploit your power. I'm just a kid who happens to have gone through some pretty crazy stuff, and in the process, I got stuck with a few superpowers… just like you. I can assure you that my only intention is to help people however I can. If you want though, you can ask me to leave. I... I won't hold it against you."

There was silence for a few moments until Banner sighed, unclenching his fists and relaxing. He rose, holding out his slightly shaking hand to Percy. "I may not know everything about you Percy, but if there's one thing I do know, it's that you're a good kid whose heart is in the right place. I trust you."

Percy clasped his hand, looking into the elder man's eyes. "I'll be keeping an extra close eye on you, since I doubt you can take another shock. But I promise you, once we're back on solid ground, then I'll explain everything to you and why I prefer that it's kept secret." He said.

With a nod, Bruce stepped out, walking down the corridor and back into the main room, followed by Percy. The conference table was empty, with everybody gone except for Fury, who stared coldly at Percy before addressing Dr. Banner.

"As much as I would like to continue talking to your intern, Dr. Banner, I'm afraid that Loki comes first." Fury said, his face cold. "Agent Romanoff has just finished interrogating him." Fury turned, heading into a corridor. Percy moved to follow him, when he felt a chill run down his spine.

Then the wall beside him exploded.