Should I Know You?
I'll admit, I was confused. I wanted to know why the officer looked so shocked when he told me I had an uncle, so I asked. His response only confused me more.
"Your uncle is Tony Stark. Apparently Maria and Howard Stark had two children, Tony and your mother Sally, but gave Sally up for adoption at birth. Her adoptive parents never told her she was adopted, and she had been to young to remember anyone other than her adoptive parents." The explanation only served to confuse me further.
"So... Howard Stark and Maria Stark are my grandparents." The officer nodded. "Yes," he replied. "And Tony Stark is my uncle." Again, the officer nodded. "I know this is hard to wrap your head around, but Mr. Stark and—"
I interrupted him. "Judging from how shocked you were, they are or were well known, but I have no clue who anyone you just mentioned is, other than mom of course, so mind filling me in?" The officer then decided to try to imitate a fish. He did a very good job. "Oh, and what's your name? I can't keep calling you 'the officer' in my head." The officer gaped some more, then closed his mouth and shook his head. "Officer John. My name is Officer John." At that moment, another officer came in and said "Officer John? Mr. Stark and Ms. Potts are here to pick up Percy Jackson?"
"Yes, of course Officer Molly. Come with me, Percy." The man I now knew as Officer John responded. I sat there in silence until I realized he was talking to me, and I stood, quickly following Officer Molly out the door. The room I entered was medium sized with glass doors on one wall and a half-circle shaped desk underneath the symbol of the NYC police department on the other wall. On either side of the desk were two long hallways undoubtedly leading to cells and interrogation rooms. Against the other two walls were rows of identical chairs and two doors that probably lead to rooms identical to the one I had just left. The room was empty of people other than the secretary, two officers, me, and man and woman talking to the secretary. The man had short black hair and a goatee. He was wearing causal clothes, but it was clear he was rich. He had a gold watch on his wrist and he held himself with the confidence only a rich person really could. The woman wore similarly casual clothes. Her long strawberry blond hair reached down to the middle of her back. When they turned to look at me, I could see that the man had brown eyes that held pain, a kind of pain that could only come from loss, and the woman had soft blue eyes that were filled with content happiness and a bit of sadness. For all the pain in the man's eyes, he didn't let it show in his voice or actions.
"Hi! You're Percy? My nephew?" The man questioned. After a moment, I realized he was talking to me, and that this was my uncle. Tiny Stank, or whatever Officer John had said. "Yes, Mr. Stark. This is Percy. His full name is Perseus, but prefers to be called Percy. If you could just sign here..." Officer Molly trails off as she hands Mr. Stark, as she called him, some papers on a clipboard. "Please, call me Tony. Mr. Stark was my father." Handing the clipboard back after signing whatever was on it, Tony turns to me.
"Now!" He says with a smile, clapping his hands together. "I assume you already know who we are, so let's go." As he turns to leave, I speak up. "Uhhhh... I don't, actually. Know who you are that is." I say, rubbing the back of my neck in embarrassment when Tony turned to look at me.
"I forgot," Officer John spoke suddenly. " He didn't recognize your name when I told him you were his uncle. I was going to tell him, then you arrived and I didn't. Sorry."
Tony waved him off. "Nothing to be sorry for, Officer. But seriously kid,"
"Not a kid." I interrupted.
Tony continued as if I hadn't spoken. "How haven't you heard of me? Have you at least heard of the avengers?" I thought for a moment, then shook my head. "Not ringing any bells. Sorry." Tony looked at me with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. "Have you been living under a rock this past year?" Something like that. I thought, shaking my head. "No, but I do go to a camp every summer. We aren't allowed to have any electronics at all, and I just got back so..." I didn't have to finish my sentence. Tony shook his head as the woman smiled at him, then turned her attention to me, still smiling. "Well," she said. "I'm Pepper Potts and this is my fiancée Tony Stark."
"Nice to meet you." I held out my had and she shook it. "I'm Percy Jackson." The woman— no, Pepper, smiled again. "We can tell you more about ourselves at the tower, ok?"
"Tower?" I asked, wary. "We live in Stark Tower so that's where you'll be living too." Pepper responded kindly. Oh yeah. That big llama-like tower Cabin 6 won't ever shut up about. "Llama-like? My tower is not llama-like!" Oh I said that out loud? "Yeah you did! My tower dose not look like a llama!"
"I mean, it kind of dose," Pepper said, taking Tony's arm and starting to lead him to the door, motioning for me to follow. "Pepper! Who's side are you on?" Tony pouted. "Who ever is right. And this time, it's Percy." Pepper responded as she slipped into the drivers seat of a red and gold car that I couldn't identify. "He's not right though! It's not a llama!" Tony whined as he pouted in the backseat next to me. "Anyway, who's Cabin 6?" His focus quickly shifted to me. "And why have you been tapping that pen since we met?" Had I? I looked down and realized Tony was right. I was tapping Riptide against my leg.
"Sorry, didn't notice. I have ADHD," I said slipping Riptide back into my pocket and beginning to fidget with my hands, decidedly ignoring his first question. "Oh. That's why you didn't notice you were been talking out loud before." Tony realized. I nodded, watching the landscape go by out the window in comfortable silence until we reached our destination. Pepper pulled the car into one of the few empty parking spots in the parking garage and we all piled out. Once everyone was out, Pepper locked the car then put the keys on a hook on the wall in front of it. Tony then lead me to an elevator. I stiffened, and Tony looked at me curiously.
"Are there any stairs I could take? I kinda have a really really bad fear of elevators." The truth was, I hadn't quite gotten over the Doors of Death yet and still couldn't get in an elevator without a flashback, but I'd have to say I was just scared for now. "Uh, yeah. Right over there. But are you sure? We're going to the 87th floor." Tony said, pointing to a door a few feet away.
"Thanks. I'll meet you up there." I jogged over to it and punished it open, ignoring the twin looks of concern from Pepper and Tony as I started to run up the stairs. Then the door swung shut with a bang, and I was alone on the metal stairway. I counted the floors as I ran, stopping once I reached the 87th floor.
I was just starting to be out of breath as I pushed open the door and entered the 87th floor, then froze as a dagger was thrown less than inch from my head. I surveyed the room. It was rather large, with one wall made entirely of floor to ceiling windows and a half wall in the middle, separating the living area from the kitchen.
In the living area, there was a large flat screen TV mounted on the wall and connected to multiple game consoles. Arranged around it in a half circle was one sofa and two comfy looking chairs, all facing the TV.
The kitchen part of the room looked like a normal kitchen, except for the island counter surrounded by chairs and stools in the middle.
In front of the sofa were two girls who had obviously just stood when I entered. One had short red hair and green eyes. She had a skin tight black suit that reminded me of Catwomen from the comics I read when I was younger and held two daggers identical the the one now lodged in the wall behind me.
The other girl had long brown hair and green eyes. She was wearing completely red normal clothes, and looked to be one of the only two who were. She stood with her hands raised in a defensive position, but had no weapon other than wispy red substance swirling around her hands. Her eyes were also tinted red.
Next to the one with red whatever it was around her hands was a boy with really pale hair who was also starring at me. He was wearing a lights blue almost gray full body running suit.
Standing up from the seat closest to the half wall was a tall blonde man with blue eyes I recognized as Steve, a son of Aphrodite who had recently come to camp with the son of Nike named Nick Fury. Steve held his shield defensively for a moment before recognized me and relaxed, sitting down.
Standing next to Steve was a man with a loaded bow pointed at me. He also had blonde hair and blue eyes, but he had the stature of an archer, not a close combat fighter like Steve. The man with the bow was the only other one in the room with normal clothes other than me, and they were a purple t-shirt with long black pants.
Sitting in the other chair was a man with a lab coat on and short pepper spray hair and an open book in his lab looking at me suspiciously.
Finally, floating behind the couch was a red humanoid robot thing with a glowing stone stuck in it's head and a cape on it's back. I observed all of this in a second before slightly shifting my stance to be defensive in case they attacked.
"Who are you?" The one who had thrown the dagger growled. "And how did you get in here?"
"I walked." I retorted sassily. "And who are you?" Everyone in the room (besides Steve, he had gone back to his drawing. He was used to me by now,) looked at a me in shock, but the red headed knife-thrower and the blonde bow-wielder hid it well. After a short pause, the red robot spoke. "You do not know know of them?" It gestured to everyone but the red magician, (I decided the red stuff around her hands was magic,) boy with really pale hair, and himself. "I understand not knowing the rest of us of course, we are new. But them?" It sounded decidedly confused. And looked confused, too.
I was also very confused. "Sorry?" I asked. "I mean, I know Steve, but only cause he came to camp this summer. Should I know you?"