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Percy laughed as one of his subordinates, Mike slipped on the sea spray and landed hard on his but in the middle of the deck. Mike was their newest crew member, just barely a full fledged seaman, and so naturally every little mistake he made was met with never ending teasing and hazing from every other crew member on their little Recuse and Response Boat. But there was nothing cruel about it, just some light hearted joshing for a light heart day. As proven when the Chief Petty Officer stepped forward to help the young man up, with an amused smile and a kind word before ordering everyone back to the stations.
Following the order with a smile Percy turned back to checking the rescue lines, and watching the view. He didn’t think he’d ever get tired of this. The glistening green waves of the bay. The sea salt breeze in his face. The music of a lively harbor. And the grandeur of the New York City skyline as seen from the sea. It was beautiful, and peaceful, and all Percy could have ever hoped for. Especially on days like today, when the weather was fair and there were no missions planned. They simply patrolled the harbor, laughing in the sun, and appreciating the view, until it was time to head in.
It was the perfect job for him! He got to spend all day on the water, where no monsters would dare touch him. He got to help people, and no one cared that he had barely finished high school. He was stationed in New York, which meant he was easily accessible for any of his friends that might need help. And, aside from the odd night shift, he got to go home to Annabeth every evening and wake up with her every morning.
Yep, life was pretty good for First Petty Officer Percy Jackson. And since he had finally extracted a promise from the gods to leave him alone! The Hero of Olympus was happy to say that he was blissfully retired from questing, and ready to live the rest of his life in peace. So naturally everything just had to go horribly wrong, because of course the fates hated him. And it happened as he was talking to his Chief as they looked over the harbor.
“Have you ever thought of rescue diving Jackson?” the Chief said simply. “It’s hard and dangerous for sure. But it’s better pay and more benefits. Plus you get to travel around, see the world. Seems like something you might enjoy. I mean, you’re like a shark in the water.”
Percy shrugged. He’d considered it of course, but that’s not what he wanted right now and he said as much. “All I want, Chief, is a steady paycheck and to go home to my girl at the end of the day. I’ve seen as much of the world as I care to, right now I just want some peace.”
The Chief barked a laugh, “Peace? Boy, you're Twenty years old! You can’t even drink yet! You’re too young to be thinking of ‘peace!’ Besides, this job isn’t exactly low stress, so maybe you should consider reexamining your priorities.”
Percy chuckled and shook his head. “I’m happy right where I am,” he said simply as he leaned against the ship's railing, the gentle sea spray brushing his face like a gift from his father. “If that changes, we can talk. But I’ve got a wedding to plan, and a fiancé keep happy. And right now, that means staying in the city for as long as possible without getting into any more trouble.”
The Chief chuckled and nodded, turning back to the bridge. “Fair enough, just remember, that at the rate you're being promoted you're likely to find yourself pigeon holed into a desk job before long. Unless you're trying to make Admiral before you're fifty?”
Percy smiled slyly and said, “Actually I was thinking forty, but who cares, I’m not in a rush.”
They both laughed, and would have continued their good natured discussion of Percy’s future, if at that moment, the world hadn’t changed forever. One minute the sky was as clear as it could be, and then a noise like thunder echoed over the city and across the bay. Every eye was drawn to the skyline, and the swirling patch of space that hung ominously above Stark Tower.
“Holy shit,” the Chief muttered in awe, and Percy spun to look at him. He and every other member of the crew were staring up at the portal in awe and terror. And Percy cursed in Greek. The mist wasn’t hiding this. Every single mortal that Percy could see was staring up at the sky in wonder, obviously seeing the portal (because what else could it be) for exactly what it was.
“So,” he thought bitterly, “ Either the gods have messed up big time, or this isn’t them.” But Percy wasn’t putting his money on this being anything, but a major godly screw up. That was until the giant space mosasaurus flew out of the portal with a reverberating cry, and began to descend on the city. From where their boat was idling, Percy could barely see the thousands of specks flying around the giant space, dinno shark like flies, and then he cursed again. He had just lost his bet with himself, because while Percy Jackson was not always the brightest tool in the shed, he knew his world. And this monster and its swarming army, was not of his world.
“Sir,” Percy said firmly, jolting his Chief out of his reverie. “We need to move, I believe we are being invaded.”
The Chief Petty Officer snapped to attention, nodded once to Percy in thanks and then immediately began barking orders. There was a battle in the city and thousands of civilian boats in the harbor and bay, and they would need to be escorted to safety or rescued from the debris. Their peaceful day had just become a lot more stressful, but they were the Coast Guard. This was their job, and they would do it.
Percy sent a quick prayer to Poseidon and Hestia, two of the few gods who actually liked him, that they would keep his family safe. He then sent a prayer to Athena, Nike, and (after grimacing) Ares to give humanity a chance at victory. He hesitated for only a second as he saw the bright red speck that he assumed was Iron Man, fly up to challenge the leviathan. But he shook his head and focused on his crew.
It looked like most of this battle would take place in the air, where he was less than useless. And unless the Fates themselves showed up and demanded that he take part, he was going to stay where he was most useful, and help as many people as he could. It grated against every protective and battle instinct he had. He wanted to run to his family, to Annabeth. He needed to know they were ok, and safe. He wanted to find the idiot responsible for this and punch them in the teeth. They had ruined a perfectly good day! And all of his training was demanding that he jump into the water, and take charge of the battle.
But he did none of those things. He had a job to do and he would do it. He had to trust Annabeth to protect his family. He had to trust Iron Man and whatever forces he had in stock, to deal with the aliens. He had to trust, and if he saw a chance to kick some alien butt along the way? Well, none of his crew would blame him.
Annabeth stuffed as many people into the boiler room beneath their apartment building as she could. She met Sally Jackson’s eyes as her husband Paul hugged little Estelle tightly to his chest. A soft determination came over Sally’s face and she nodded to Annabeth, silently telling her to go. The greatest mother the world had ever known, turned to the frightened, noisy, crowd and began to take command. Annabeth didn’t wait for Sally to get things under control. Instead she ran up the stairs, taking three at a time before returning to her and Percy’s apartment, and slamming open the door. She didn’t even hesitate as she ran for where her Drakon Bone Sword was on display in their living room before throwing on the spare breastplate, grieves, and helmet they kept in the closet.
She only briefly paused to consider taking her Yankees cap before caving, and stuffing it into her back pocket. She then threw herself down the fire escape, and rolled out into the chaos that was now midtown Manhattan. However, the panicked masses parted for her easily. They understood the significance of a person running the wrong way, and dared not to hinder a person going toward the danger. The only road block she might have faced were the panicked policemen struggling to put up a barrier in a desperate attempt to contain the chaos. But they were all too focused on the literal aliens, falling from the sky to notice the young college woman with a deadly weapon running past them and into the battle.
The aliens, however, had no such blindness. The beasts saw Annabeth easily, and charged her. The daughter of Athena gritted her teeth, and lifted her sword. She silently cursed herself, for running blindly into a fight without a plan and prepared to fight for her life. She didn’t even know if these creatures would be affected by Drakon bone! Or if they had special powers, or weaknesses. What if they were like hydras and could regenerate? It was such a Percy thing to do, that her scowl turned into a grin, and she bared her teeth like a wolf about to rip out their throats. She began to dance with her sword, something she had been training to do since she was seven.
Her grin turned manic, as the alien monsters attacked brainlessly and fell easily. The sword she had claimed from the depths of Tartarus cut through them like butter, and their armor was like match wood beneath her strikes. She quickly evaluated them as she fought, and realized a few things immediately. First of all, these “soldiers” only had the most basic level of combat, and relied completely on their superior weapons and numbers. Second, they were clearly some type of hive mind, since their insensible growls and screams had no semblance of language, but they were far too coordinated to not be communicating. And third, there were too many of them.
They fell before Annabeth like wheat before the scythe, but like the waves of the ocean, there was always another one to take its place. So while these creatures were nothing compared to the monsters she was used to fighting on a daily basis, she knew that eventually they would wear down her stamina and kill her without a second thought. And that was perhaps the most concerning fact. These creatures showed no fear. She cut them down without thought or hesitation by the dozens, without taking a single scratch, but none of them even hesitated to challenge her again, and again, and again. Even monsters had more sense than that, which only confirmed her brainless hive mind theory.
She needed a plan, but for it to work she needed to know who their allies were, where Percy was, and what government organizations were mobilizing to help clean up this mess. That morning, Percy said that he would be patrolling the bay until five, and she assumed that his crew would need him to help rescue civilians and get them off the island. So she decided to cut her way to the Empire State Building, and see what godly intervention she could scrounge up. And they couldn’t say no. They owed her.
Annabeth pulled up short as a great roar echoed through the streets causing some of the windows to shiver. That was not the sound of the alien’s living ships, so it was either a magic beast, or a third party. Annabeth picked up her pace, until she saw the great green form of the Hulk jumping from building to building and smashing every alien he could get his hands on. “ Well,” she thought grimly, “ That explains the roar. ”
Annabeth skidded to a halt and cursed right as she got to the overpass in front of Grand Central Station. A squad of fifty aliens, ten of which were on those strange speeders, had seen her and begun to charge. Needing the high ground, Annabeth scrambled up the bridge support faster than she’d ever climbed the wall at camp. Of course the fact that the bridge wasn’t shaking, or spewing lava definitely helped her speed. She vaulted the barrier, and fell into a battle stance as the aliens tried to follow her.
The good news, the squad of fifty was slowed and dispersed by the climb, and she dispatched the speeders, as easily as evil harpies. The bad news was that she was now on an exposed plan, and she could already see two more squads in the distance moving in to flank her. Annabeth scowled, and looked to where she could just barely see the Empire State building peeking out from behind the towers surrounding her. Then her mouth dropped open in shock, because there standing on the spire, was a figure in armor. It was barely distinguishable, but whoever it was, was clearly directing lightning at the portal, stemming the flow of the invaders and giving the forces on the ground a chance to regroup, and organize.
“Zeus?” She whispered in awe. Was the overstuffed drama queen actually helping? And was he actually being smart about it?!
“Thor actually. Watch your back!” A voice called behind her and Annabeth spun to see a woman with fiery red hair, and dressed in black leather, shoot an alien trying to sneak up on her. Annabeth cursed herself (she was doing a lot of that today it would seem) and put her back to the mortal warrior and cleared a space for them between two overturned cars, that they could use as cover.
This gave them a brief respite, where the two women turned to look at each other with an accepting suspicion. They didn’t know each other. They didn’t trust each other. They clearly had a lot of questions for the other. But at that moment, they were on the same disadvantaged side, and therefore needed each other. So Annabeth lowered her sword and held out her hand, “Annabeth Chase.”
“Natasha Romanof,” the woman said without emotion, but still taking Annabeth’s hand. She then gave Annabeth’s armor and weapon a quick once over and then silently groaned, “Don’t tell me the Greek gods are real too.”
“What do you mean?” Annabeth said slowly, careful not to confirm nor deny anything the woman said.
“Well,” Natasha said with a barely perceivable smirk, as she pointed to the figure summoning the lightning, “That is Thor, a Norse god straight out of mythology. So I assume all of the other ancient myths are based on some facts.”
Annabeth allowed her smirk to be easily readable, she had a feeling she was going to like this mortal. But all she said was, “A logical deduction, but hardly proof.”
“You’re trained, with abnormal strength and reflexes based on how easily you cut through the Chitauri. Also that,” Natasha pointed at Annabeth's sword, “Is hardly a common weapon, and you're dressed in ancient armor. In other words, you’re enhanced, with a connection to the ancient world, and assumed Thor was Zeus. So, yes or no, are the Greek gods real, and what is your connection to them?”
Annabeth grinned from ear to ear. She really liked this mortal. She had to be one of her mother’s favorites. Plus she could see through the mist. “Yes,” Annabeth said coolly, “They're real, and they live in the Empire State Building.”
There was only a brief widening of Natasha’s eyes at this revelation and a glance at the famous monument, but otherwise she remained stoic and sharp as Annabeth continued saying, “I am the daughter of Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom and battle strategy. No, I’m not a god, my dad is a human mortal. Yes, technically Athena is a sworn virgin. No, I don’t want to explain how I was born. No, I don’t know if they're going to help us. Yes, I do have a plan to end this. Are you willing to listen to me?”
Natasha stood silently for a moment, before she spun to kill a chitauri trying to sneak up on them. She then gave Annabeth another searching look. She seemed satisfied with what she saw, because she nodded, raising her weapons to face down the coming aliens. “Let’s hear it.”
“First,” Annabeth said once more, putting her back to the woman. “Give me the rundown. Who are we fighting? Who are our allies? Do we have support?”
“These buggers,” Natasha yelled over the noise of her guns. “Are the Chitauri. They’re being led by Loki, the Norse god of mischief. He wants to rule the world. On our side we have Captain America, Thor, Hulk, and Iron Man, you know them?”
Annabeth choked as she sliced off a chitauri’s arm. “Captain America is alive!” She then stabbed the alien in the heart. Natasha nodded to her in confirmation, but her eyes brightened in approval at Annabeth’s viciousness. “Ok,” Annabeth said, shaking her head. It wasn’t the weirdest thing that had happened in her life. “I know the rest, who else?”
“Clint Barton—”
“I know him.”
This time Natasha froze as an alien corpse collapsed in front of her. “How?” Her voice was cold and demanding.
Annabeth noted the woman’s change, and only hesitated to consider Clint’s situation before asking, “Are you in communication?”
Natasha handed Annabeth an earpiece, and showed her how to turn it on. Immediately, unseen strangers were shouting in her ear. But Annabeth ignored them all in favor of the one she hadn’t heard since she was ten years old, begging him not to leave her. “Clint?” she said softly.
Immediately the voices stopped. A voice full of a soldier’s command was the first to speak, “Who are you? How are you on this channel?”
“Clint Barton, Mr. Brunner sends his regards,” Annabeth said, ignoring the questions.
“Holy Hades,” Clint whispered, “Annie? Is that you?”
“Yeah,” Annabeth said slowly, “I’m here with Natasha Romanof. We’re holding the overpass by Grand Central Station. She knows my truth, and she accepts it.”
“Oh,” Clint said, “Um ok…well…this…isn’t ideal. Do we have to do this now?”
“I have a plan to end this, and I need your team to trust me.”
“I’m sorry,” a voice filled with disbelief and condensation filled the earpiece. “Will someone please explain who this child is? And what Legolas is keeping from us? I thought we were past this, people!”
“Can it Tony,” Clint growled over the comms, and Annabeth heard an explosion in the background. “The only person I trust more than Annabeth is Nat. She has been through more wars than Cap, and she was a leader in all of them. If she has a plan, we shut up and do what she says. And don’t even pretend that you don’t have at least thirty skeletons in the closet that we don’t know about. Annie, I’ll tell Nat everything after this. Just tell us what to do. Also, please tell me your boyfriend’s here! We could use him.”
Annabeth blushed at the complements, but shook the embarrassment away before saying, “He’s with the Coast Guard. Unless one of you goes to get him, he’s going to focus on getting civilians away from the battle. But we don’t need him for this to work. Thor, how conniving is Loki?”
“He is one of the most cunning minds in all of Asgard,” a deep, accented, and formal voice declared. “But please, a moment, Sir. Barton has referred to you as Annabeth. You are not the famous Annabeth Chase by chance?”
Annabeth couldn’t help the swell of pride at being recognized by a deity from a completely different pantheon, and said. “The one and only.”
“I suggest that everyone listens to the Warrior Chase,” Thor declared immediately, “Her skill, and wisdom are legendary across the nine realms and further. And if it is true that the Perseus Jackson is nearby—”
“Wait!” Iron Man interrupted again, “Why is she Warrior Chase, while we’re all sirs and ladies? Who is she? And how old are you? You sound young. That’s not just me right? She sounds young?”
“Focus Tony,” Cap said again. And as he spoke, he joined her and Natasha on the overpass. He narrowed his eyes at her, and at first Annabeth was afraid that he would agree with Tony about insisting on her age. But she didn’t give him time to.
“Listen,” she said and she used the chitauri she was fighting as a shield against the blast of the others, before kicking him into his companions, knocking them down before she decapitated all three of them in one fell swoop. “The chitauri are a hive mind.”
“How do you know that?” Tony demanded.
“Not now Tony,” Natasha, Clint, and Thor all shouted at once.
“We need to separate them from their source,” Annabeth continued without missing a beat. “Loki’s smart, so he’ll keep the source as far from the main battle and his enemies as possible.”
“So, on the other side of the portal,” Clint groaned.
“We’ll never get to that,” Natasha agreed as she took a chitauri’s staff and began to use it against him.
“But Loki’s on this side of the portal, correct?”
“He just hoped on a speeder,” Clint said, the hatred in his voice as plain as clear as his hatred for the gods. “My arrow just blew him up, but I don’t think it did much.”
Annabeth nodded, more pieces of the puzzle fitting into place, as she bisected another alien. “Ok, whatever is keeping that portal open needs to be shut down as quickly as possible. The natural distance could cut off the connection, but if not then it will be easier to contain and beat the army. Then we need to capture Loki, and either kill or contain him.”
“I would rather you didn’t kill my brother.”
“Natasha, Clint,” Annabeth said ignoring the god, as was her want, “One of you needs to get to the gate's power source.” She could hear Iron Man begin to protest but she cut him off saying, “Mr. Stark, you, Captain Rogers, and whoever doesn’t go to that monstrosity of a building—”
“Hey!”
“Needs to continue supporting the police and National Guard in defending the city. Thor, you or Hulk need to deal with Loki. I don’t care if you do or don’t kill him. Just make sure he is no longer commanding his forces. I’m going to go see if I can’t call in some extra firepower to speed things along.”
“It’s a good plan, Tony,” Rogers said as he watched Annabeth leap off an exploding car, grab a speeder by the handle, and twist it is that it and its passengers went careening into the side of a building, before dropping down onto an alien twice her size, and plunging her sword into its chest.
“I just saw Loki, I’ll try to drive him back to the Tower, before heading to the tesseract. Steve, give me a boost.” Natasha said, before using the Captain’s shield as a springboard to take control of a speeder going overhead. Ok, Annabeth really liked this mortal.
“I would follow you to Loki,” Thor said with a grunt, “But I am currently facing three leviathans over the harbor.”
“HULK SMASH!” A voice bellowed over the comms, and that answered Annabeth’s question on whether or not the creature could understand human speech. She smiled, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Captain America flinch at the deadly glee in her eyes.
“Oh, this is going to be fun,” she said.
When the leviathan crashed into the harbor and sent a giant wave crashing over, Percy’s boat, Percy willed the water to not harm the civilians, but allowed the current to sweep him away and into the sea. He felt slightly guilty leaving his crew to think he was drowning in battle, but that was offset by the looks of astonishment that they would surely have when he showed up perfectly fine at the base camp in Brooklyn that the first responders were setting up. Besides he had been with the Chief since he was an Apprentice, he knew that Percy was a “strong swimmer” and would be fine.
He had stayed with his crew for as long as he could, and they had almost completely cleared the water of all of the civilian and commercial craft. Now it was a matter of getting the civilians from one shore to the other. A process that he could expedite by talking to the River Lords to convince them to help the boats. With that done, he began searching for overboard civilians and silently shifting the currents to be in their favor. And if anyone began to drown, then he got a little more hands on with their rescue. By bringing them to an abandoned dock, not too far from the base camp, and pulling the water out of their lungs.
The fish helped as much as they could, but they were terrified of the unfamiliar monsters sinking beneath the waves. However, with the help they were able to give, and the blessing of the sea constantly rejuvenating him and giving him strength, more people were saved than lost. After delivering a boy who didn’t know how to swim to the Brooklyn shore, Percy paused and looked over at the battle. The portal was still open, and the aliens were still coming in droves. However, the National Guard, and Army had just arrived. Skiffs full of marines and seals, were pulling into the bay as fast as their fastest boats could go.
But Percy had an eye for war. He had led armies in two great wars before the age of eighteen. And he could tell that it was going poorly. Even with the reinforcements, the island was about to be overrun. Percy closed his eyes and prayed to every god and pantheon he knew for the people he loved and their safety. Yes, even to Hera and Zeus. He didn’t care. He just needed them safe.
A great roar echoed over the water, as two leviathans turned from between the towers and began to fly over the river straight towards the base camp. People began to scream, and Percy cursed. Enough was enough. He jumped into the river, and torpedoed to the bottom and summoned the Spirit of the East River.
“Help me!” he demanded. And where once the Spirit might have grumbled and complained, now he only bowed to the son of Poseidon, who had walked through Hell, and prepared his currents to whisk the mortals to safety, even as Percy began to summon his strength. And although the land was screaming with the chaos of the battle. Under the waves all was silent, as the River god, and the demigod prepared their power.
Then Percy screamed, and thrust his hands up and above his head. Mimicked by the spirit, the East River surged up and a wall of water formed between the two banks. The water grabbed the leviathans by their jaws and pulled them down and into the bay. The great waves formed by the creatures crashing into the rivers and being crushed by the angry guardians of the city, would have, should have, flooded the banks, destroyed the rescue boats, and drowned every individual in the water. But it didn’t. Every nymph and spirit of the waves and the sea, heard the call of their Prince, and their Lord, and surged to protect the innocents in their waters. When the river returned to normal, the piers of Brooklyn were as silent as the depths as the people stared in wonder at the absolute display of power that protected them. Still it didn’t take long for the Captains of the boats to rally and continue their rescue operations.
Percy smiled as he watched the beasts and all of the creatures within them sink into the harbor, before swimming to the center of the bay. The Spirits of the Hudson and the East joined him, and prepared to repeat the feat should any more monsters attempt to leave the island.
Thor choked on air as the river calmed as if nothing had ever stirred them. Had…had a mortal demigod, just done that? He knew that the young hero had power but that…that was the feat of a god!
“Ahem, Warrior Chase,” Thor coughed into his primitive com device.
“Yes, Thor,” the Daughter of Athena said casually.
“I believe, your beloved has joined the battle…he just drowned two leviathans with the help of the river.”
The sounds of astonishment echoing through the comms was enough to soothe Thor’s own ego, before flying off, but the Warrior Chase only chuckled softly and said, “That’s my Seaweed Brain. How are we doing on Loki and the portal?”
“Puny god,” Hulk’s gruff voice grumbled, drawing a laugh and chuckle from the rest of the team.
“Guys,” the Black Widow called, “I’m at the tesseract. I can close it.”
“Do it!” The Captain shouted.
“Hold up guys,” Tony called, “I got a nuclear warhead coming our way. And I know just where to put it.”
The Warrior Chase cursed so colorfully in Ancient Greek it made Thor blush, before she demanded in a tone that brokered no argument, “What idiot fires a nuke at their own city?!”
…
Annabeth watched the SHIELD Agents swarming Stark Tower and carting off every piece of alien tech and biology that they could get their hands on. Many times, the gruff looking men with guns and the shifty little men in lab coats tried to approach her, but she just gave them the Wolf Stare that Percy had taught her, and even the largest of them did a one-eighty to avoid her gaze.
“Hey.” Annabeth turned to see Barton watching her with a mix of pain and sympathy. She fixed him with the stare, but when he did no more than grimace, she sighed and turned away. Taking that as the vague acceptance that it was, Barton leaned against the wall beside her and watched the rest of the “Avengers" and Agents begin to transport Loki out of the Tower. “I’m sorry,” Barton finally whispered, “If I had known that the prophecy was coming—”
“How did you learn about them?” Annabeth interrupted, refusing to soften her voice. She was furious with him. Had been for years, and he was not getting out of this. Barton just sighed and said,
“Will showed up a few weeks after the Second Giant War,” he said softly. “He needed a place to grieve, and he didn’t think he could do that properly at camp, because—”
“Because at camp,” Annabeth finished finally softening with her own grief, “He is a leader, a healer, and needs to be strong for the others, so that they could heal.”
Barton nodded solemnly. “Gods,” he muttered, “I never wanted to see any of my siblings like that. Crumbling under the weight of two wars. That shouldn’t have happened, to any of you, you're just kids.”
“I haven’t been a kid since I was seven years old,” Annabeth said simply, without condemnation or bitterness, just a simple statement of fact that no one could deny.
Barton nodded gravely and said again, “I’m sorry. I never should have left. I just…I was just so angry with the gods, with Chiron. He did his best, but…it wasn’t enough. They weren’t enough. Their empty platitudes and false promises. I couldn’t take it any more. I had to leave before I snapped.”
Annabeth nodded, “I know. And…I understand…I didn’t then, but…I do now. And I’m sorry to, I should have searched you out a long time ago.”
Barton didn’t hesitate to wrap his arms around the young woman. They didn’t cry, or sob, or laugh. They just silently held each other in grim understanding of their world and their place in it. The play things of gods, of parents, who barely knew how to care much less love the mortals they had sired. Finally, Barton pulled away and said with a soft smile, “Hey, we’re all going to get shawarma. Care to join us? And Percy of course! I find I’m suddenly really nostalgic for camp, and I would love to hear how everyone is doing.”
Annabeth nodded and cleared her throat. “Yeah,” she said, “That sounds great.”
“So, Barton is the son of the sun?” Tony said rubbing his temples in a vain attempt to ward off a headache, “The Sun’s Son if you will?”
Barton rolled his eyes lazily and said, “Yes, Stark I’m the Sun’s Son. Sorry I couldn’t tell you, but you wouldn’t have believed me anyway. Happy?”
“No,” Stark said weakly, and dropped his head into his hands.
A chuckle drew Natasha’s gaze back to the two other demigods and Thor chowing down on their shawarma as if they would never eat again. They were completely unfazed by the fact that they were surrounded by gods and legends, after having faced an army beyond their imaginations. But if half of what Clint, Thor, and these kids had said was true…then this was just another Tuesday for the young adults in front of them. Still, Natasha believed them. The weight of command surrounding the girl. The aura of power circling the boy. The hidden under currents of grief and horrors lurking behind their eyes. These were kids who had seen the worst of the world and had conquered it. And still, every time Natasha looked at them, Annabeth in her dirty armor, and Percy in his tattered Coast guard uniform, she couldn’t help but think, “ They’re too young for this life. ”
Steve seemed to think the same, because he leaned forward and said, “So how old were you during your first war?”
“Fifteen, actually turned sixteen during the final battle!” Percy said around his shawarma, “Unless you're asking about how old we were when we first started training. In which case, I came to camp at twelve, and Annabeth when she was seven.”
“But,” Annabeth said after whipping her mouth, “Percy faced his first monster at…three?”
“Snakes in the crib,” Percy agreed. “Freaked my mom out. Not that I can remember it of course.”
“Spiders in my sleep,” Annabeth shivered, “I was six.”
Barton shook his head in commiseration, “Yeah, I was lucky. Harpy when I was ten. That’s when I went to camp too.”
“Are…are you ok?” Banner asked softly looking between the three of them with utter pain in his eyes.
“Oh you know,” Percy said, finally swallowing his food, “Aside from the anxiety, paranoia, PTSD, and occasional death quest because the gods still won’t leave me alone! We’re just peachy!”
Everyone except Thor and Clint stared at them in horror, but Annabeth just waved their concern aside saying, “Look this is just the life of a half-blood. It sucks. But we deal with it. And believe it or not, it’s actually getting better.”
Percy nodded emphatically, and pointed at Clint with his fork saying, “You really need to come back to camp. So much has changed. No one’s unclaimed any more. There's cabins for the minor gods. Annabeth designed this awesome temple that’s going to represent literally every single known Greek god. It’s absolutely beautiful. They started building it last month, and it’s already looking incredible!”
“Percy!” Annabeth hissed as she tried to hide her blush, but her boyfriend just kept going.
“Oh! And we’ve expanded the border, and we’ve started building housing for adult demigods who want to live in safety. They commute to the city and other mortal towns in Long Island for school and work. It’s not perfect. But it’s the first step in building a place where demigods can actually live their lives in peace from birth to grave.”
The look of pure joy on Barton’s face was so bright it was almost blinding, and Natasha had no problem believing that he was a son of Apollo. “That’s wonderful! What started that?”
“Oh, the Roman demigods have had their own city for generations,” Annabeth said dismissively, “It sounded like a good idea. So we convinced the gods to expand the border and provide the materials for all of the building projects as a reward for defeating Gaia. They call theirs New Rome. So we were thinking of calling our city, New Athens, or New Sparta, or something like that.”
Clint laughed saying, “Let me guess, cabins five and six can’t agree on which one?”
“They won’t stop arguing!” Percy groaned as he drew his hand over his face. “Capture the Flag has become an all out war trying to decide!” Clint burst into laughter, as Natasha turned her questioning gaze to Annabeth.
“The children of Ares and Athena,” Annabeth explained with a slight smile.
“You all do realize there were more Ancient Greek cities than Athens and Sparta right?” Bruce said slowly.
“Wait!” Tony cried, waving his hand wildly, “Go back. Roman demigods?! Just how many pantheons are there?!”
Percy and Annabeth shared a look that sent a pit of dread into Natasha’s stomach, and Tony’s head thumped onto the table in defeat.