Hydra? Like the Monster?

Peter was a bit scared. Although not for the reasons one might think. Sure, Percy might accidentally connect the dots that Peter was Spider-man, but funnily enough, that was the least of his worries. 

The thing is, Percy is cool. The other boy was attractive and from what Peter could see, he was strong too. The scars littering his body and face made him look totally badass, despite them raising quite a bit of concern.

Basically, he didn't want to look like a total fool in front of Percy.

This was a problem considering he knew that Mr. Stark was going to do everything in his power to embarrass Peter. He might even get the other Avengers in on it too, which would be a total nightmare.

Another thing is Percy's criminal record. While he didn't know exactly what the black-haired boy had gotten himself into over the years, he knew for sure that he was the one who blew up the St. Louis Arch. Peter remembered watching the news with Aunt May when it happened. The nationwide manhunt for three twelve-year-olds was all anybody would talk about for weeks. Seriously, why did nobody stop to think, 'Huh, maybe these kids aren't terrorists on a mission to wreak havoc, and instead were kidnapped and were fighting for their lives.'? 

Mr. Stark would be incredibly suspicious of Percy. Man, they'd all be.

All in all, bringing the guy to the tower was a downright terrible idea.

But, he'd get to show Percy around.

There were a lot of cool gadgets (that weren't spider-related) he wanted to show off. Plus, the building was gorgeous. Peter was by no means an architecture nut, but even his breath was taken away when he got a tour for the first time. The new marble designs engraved into the floor in the lobby were beautiful; the patterns being so intricate that every time Peter looked at it, he saw something new.

That is why when Peter led Percy into the backseat of the limo, sure he felt scared but he also felt excited. 

Happy didn't ask any questions about why Peter was bringing someone with him, he assumed that Mr. Stark already told him why. Earlier, he called asking for a ride to the tower. All he mentioned was that it was for a project and that he and his friend needed somewhere to work. The limo was insisted on, despite Peter's desperate protests.

As the two got settled on opposite sides so they were facing each other, an awkward silence settled between them. "I feel like you failed to mention that we were being picked up in a limo," Percy said, clearly out of his element. "Like, it's cool and all, but that felt like a semi-important detail."

Percy looked entirely uncomfortable, which was fair. He looked like he had no idea what to do with his feet, and probably didn't want to track dirt onto the floor of the vehicle. Not that any dirt would matter, the limo was routinely cleaned every couple of days. Even when it hasn't been used in a while.

"Yeah, I'm sorry man. I told you, I did try to say it was unnecessary." Peter replied sheepishly.

"Right." 

Percy was currently staring at the ornate cupholders, he was probably wondering why the hell they were fancy-looking too.

___

There was no reason for there to be fancy cupholders. Everything in the vehicle was a bit strange, there were buttons on nearly every surface that Percy was way too scared to touch. He couldn't even tell which one did what, the symbols on them foreign to him. All he knew was that the second button to the left of his seat tinted the windows. Peter had pressed that one the second they got into the limo, not that it helped. Everyone and their mothers had already seen them get in.

The amount of technology was concerning. Despite Leo experimenting with different devices and perfumes that hid demigod scents, none of them completely blocked monsters from smelling them. The bracelet he was currently wearing was one of those devices. It was made especially for him, there was a trident charm and the beads were alternating different colors of blue. To anyone else, it'd just look like a regular bracelet that you could make with a craft kit. In reality, the trident charm was constantly releasing pheromones that were supposed to signal to monsters that there was danger nearby and to vacate immediately. It helped immensely at school, but Percy didn't know how much it would help him at the tower. Sure, the tower was known as the 'HQ' of the Avengers, but it was also where Stark Industries operated. He'd heard Leo babbling on about the amazing prosthetics and personal devices they were working on making.

Sounds cool, but not something he wants to deal with at the moment. Trying to graduate is already a massive obstacle.

Suddenly, the vehicle stopped.

The driver, whom Peter introduced as 'Happy' (seriously, what is up with these names?), opened the door and let them out. 

They were where Percy assumed was the back of the building, probably didn't want to run into a lot of people. Avengers Tower was massive. That probably sounds obvious, but up close it is kind of intimidating. 

Snapping out of his trance, Percy followed Peter and Happy to the entrance. 

"Alright, we're going to need to get you a guest pass," Peter explained as he used his badge to open the door. "The guest pass allows you to go with me wherever."

They walked in and Peter nodded at Happy, signaling to him that he could leave them alone. As the older man walked away, Percy looked around, taking in the current room they were in.

This specific lobby was probably only meant for those who worked in the building, people were lingering around with different colored badges, presumably signing in.

Percy squinted his eyes at one woman in particular who was carrying a yellow badge. "What do the different colors on the badges mean?" He noticed that almost everyone had blue, some had green, and maybe two had yellow. Peter's was red.

Peter looked over to Percy as he talked. "Different clearance levels. Interns have blue, employees have green, and supervisors have yellow." He said, pointing at various people as he talked.

"Yours is red," Percy replied, gesturing to the boy's badge with raised eyebrows.

Peter turned almost the same shade of red as the badge and Percy was worried for a second that he was about to drop dead. "Ah- yeah. I have maximum level clearance. Comes with the internship. Y'know?" No, Percy did not know.

Percy shifted his weight to his other leg. "Does that mean you can go anywhere in the building?" An image was starting to form in his head.

"Yeah. Anywhere." Peter was realising what Percy was getting at.

"Dude. Be completely honest with me. Do you know the Avengers? Do you work with the Avengers?" 

Peter's silence was enough of an answer.

Percy sighed. "You suck at mentioning important details man." Admittedly he was a tad bit excited at the thought of meeting an Avenger. Not that he idolized them or anything, but they were famous. Like, worldwide famous. 

And Peter worked with them.

"What do you even do for them?" He began. "How did you even meet them?" People were starting to look at them as they stood in the entryway, so Peter began to lead him to the front desk.

"It's a- complicated matter?" Peter said, almost like he didn't quite know the answer to those questions himself. "Why don't we uh- get you your pass and talk later while we're working on the project."

In all honesty, he didn't want to drop it. However, he could tell that the other boy didn't want to talk about it out in the open, so Percy decided to comply.

They approached the desk where an older woman was typing away on a computer that looked like it was worth more than double his rent. She was a blonde, although her roots were dark brown. Her makeup consisted of a lot of browns and reds, most likely because of the fall season. The cardigan she was wearing matched her makeup perfectly. The expression on her face wasn't pleasant, she was most likely bored out of her mind.

"Oh, hello Peter," The woman said, hardly looking up from her typing. "What can I do for you?"

"Hi Sidney," Peter's face looked a tad pink as he addressed her. "Can you print out a guest pass for my friend?" The shorter boy fidgeted with the lanyard attached to his badge, looking very nervous. Percy understood, he got the same way when he saw Annabeth.

"Of course, can I have a name?" Her eyes stayed on the screen however, she did open a new tab.

"Perseus Jackson." She immediately stopped typing and snapped her head toward him. "Do you uh- need help spelling that?" Percy asked.

Sidney's eyes narrowed, and recognition flashed through her eyes. "No, I'll be fine." She started typing, getting his pass set up.

Percy was a bit frightened. Never before in his life had so many people recognized him in one day. He had no clue what was happening at this point, it's not like he goes shouting to the rooftops about his alleged crimes. Alleged crimes. He was proven innocent, so technically there was no reason for people to assume he was some sort of terrorist. Everything happened years ago, there was no way people were still talking about it. Percy doesn't spend much time on social media as he isn't too keen on getting eaten, so maybe people were talking about him.

"Peter, can I talk to you for a second?" Sidney's eyes were still on Percy, something sharp and dangerous behind her gaze. Did she really think he was going to hurt someone? 

"Yeah- yeah sure." Peter turned to Percy expectantly, so the taller boy walked away and sat down at a nearby bench.

The two were speaking in hushed whispers, Sidney frantically gesturing towards Percy. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, this was insanely awkward. 

Eventually, the woman sighed and handed something to Peter as he profusely thanked her and walked over to the bench.

"Here's your badge." He said, throwing it at him.

Percy put the lanyard on, the actual badge being grey with his full name printed on it in large bold writing. Underneath his name was a barcode.

"Thanks, dude," He paused for a second. "Was she talking about me?" Percy knew she was, but wanted to see if Peter would fess up on why.

Peter shrugged and scratched his neck. "Sort of? I guess she saw a video on you? Set off some alarms in her head."

Percy stilled. "A video- what?" That wasn't good.

"Yeah ah- Watcher? Mystery Files? Ever heard of Shane and Ryan? Used to be Buzzfeed Unsolved." Peter shuffled. "They came out with a video on you like- a month ago. It was pretty good." He then quickly added on. "But I'm sure their theories on you weren't correct-"

What the fuck.

"I'm sure." He deadpanned. "I'll watch it with my girlfriend when I get home." That was something he needed to see. They probably didn't get close to the truth but it'd still be funny to see what mortals thought of the whole kidnapping thing.

Relieved, Peter sighed. "Alright, well let's go on up to-" He paused. "The private suite." Oh.

"By that do you mean-" 

He cut him off. "Yeah."

Percy didn't know why Peter was bringing him to a highly confidential area. They had just met that day and there was no way he was being trusted this quickly. Maybe it was the paranoia in him from being betrayed too many times, but he was starting to feel like this whole thing was off.

Sure, Peter was nice. 

But so was Luke at first.

He knows it's horrible to compare the two, he's just being dramatic. 

The voice in the back of Percy's head was saying otherwise.

Snapped out of his stupor by an elevator ding, he stood up. Peter quickly walked into the elevator that was to the right of the bench and held the door for Percy.

"You coming?" 

No way in Hades was he going in there. He was still working on healing some trauma he gained from Tartarus and he wasn't at this step yet. Anytime he simply looked at an elevator he got a crawling sensation under his skin, he wasn't too eager to find out what would happen if he went in. Especially not in front of Peter. Percy wasn't about to relive that.

He took a deep breath. "Are there stairs?"

Peter looked at him like he was insane. "Yeah, but the suites on the top floor," He tilted his head. "You'd be knocked out by the time you got there."

"Right." Percy stared at him. "Where are the stairs."

Peter helplessly gestured toward the corner where an ominous door lay waiting.

"Thanks, man." Percy quickly walked over to the door while Peter let the elevator close, the other people occupying it were getting mad at how long they were taking.

Sucking in a breath, he opened the door and walked in. As it shut behind him, the first thing he noticed was how chilly it was in there. Probably didn't want to waste money setting up a heating system in the stairs, no one was insane enough to use them anyway.

Silently asking himself how his life got to this point, he began his climb up the hundreds of stairs.

___

Contrary to popular belief, Tony wasn't an idiot.

When Peter called asking if he could come to the tower with a classmate to work on a project his first thought was, 'Hell no'. Then as the kid kept talking about how excited he was about it, he knew he couldn't say no. It'd be like kicking a puppy. At first, he thought the classmate that Peter was bringing was his nerdy friend or even that moody girl he hung out with. When he was watching the cams and saw who he brought, he was concerned. The boy had a stony expression on his face, the look of a troublemaker. It didn't help that when he rolled up his sleeves, scars were running up and down his arms. Hell- was that a tattoo on his forearm?

This kid was weird, and it doesn't take a genius like himself to see that.

Then the message came from the woman at the desk.

As he watched Peter go into the elevator and the mystery boy go to the stairs, Friday suddenly started to speak.

"Boss, the secretary at the back entrance has sent you a message. She marked it as important material." The monotone voice said.

He spun around in his chair, turning away from the monitor. He had implemented an office on the floor designated for the Avengers so he could keep an eye on things while working.

"Sum it up for me, Fri." He said, tense as ever as he twirled a pen in between his fingers that was on his desk.

"It seems that Peter's new acquaintance might potentially be dangerous." 

Tony snorted. "I gathered." He sighed before turning back toward his computer. "What's his name?"

"Perseus Jackson." She replied.

He paused. "Perseus Jackson- Fri, where have I heard that name before?" Tony swore that it sounded familiar.

In lieu of a response, the monitor to the right of him lit up. He recognized what was on the screen, a SHIELD file.

In the top left, there was a picture of Perseus. He looked like your stereotypical troublemaker with a crooked smile and a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Name: Perseus Achilles Jackson

DOB: 8/18/2006

Hair Color: Black

Eye Color: Green

Birthplace: Manhattan, New York

All normal stuff at first. His mother's name is Sally Jackson, but his father wasn't listed. The man most likely left once he realized she was pregnant; scummy, but not uncommon. Perseus's current stepfather's name was Paul Blofis, they had just gotten married and now had a baby girl.

Then it gets weird. The kid's last stepfather, Gabe Ugliano, disappeared after, get this, Sally and Perseus got kidnapped. The entire situation was rather unfortunate, Tony remembers seeing it on the news. 

Shortly after his disappearance, Sally released her first and only sculpture, 'The Poker Player'. The statue has an uncanny resemblance to Ugliano, you'd almost think she had just turned him into stone or something.

Scrolling through Perseus's file some more, it's apparent why SHIELD had their eyes on him. Blowing up a school bus, having a shootout on the beach with his kidnapper, blowing up the Goddamn Gateway Arch, none of it particularly screamed good samaritan.

Last year, he went missing for eight months. There were sightings of him and six other kids all over the world, and yet there wasn't any paper trail. He had no idea how they were getting around. Tony can bet SHIELD knew. 

Underneath the main contents was a SHIELD emblem in the color red. This mean that parts of Perseus's file were locked. 

He tried inputting the bypass code, something that was given to him and the other Avengers under the ruse of 'no more secrets'. The code didn't work. Tony would attempt to hack his way in, but this was SHIELD. There's no way he was getting in, at least not without alerting Fury.

Why the hell would a seventeen-year-old have a locked SHIELD file? 

The only other file Tony knew he didn't have access to was somebody who was now on the team.

Bucky.

Fury said it was for privacy; didn't want anybody snooping around Bucky's files, especially when the man had gone through what he did with Hydra. Tony could respect that. The director didn't want people to see the things Hydra had done and try to replicate it, even those he semi-trusted.

All identified current and past Hydra members had the emblem on their files.

Perseus also had it.

The same Perseus that was currently on his way up to the suite.

The same Perseus that was about to hang out with Peter.

He'd be damned if he let his boy hang out with Jackson without protection.

"Fri, call the Avengers. Tell them to get here ASAP."