In Which Annabeth is not Amused
“Is that all you need? What about your school things? Do you need any of those??” Aunt May asks, fretting over Peter as he packs his bag.
It’s been 2 weeks since Athena had approached Peter and quite frankly, informing his Aunt May about the whole situation was a tad bit harder than he anticipated. Although, unlike the situation with Mr. Stark and his family who had little to no indication that the Greek gods and thus all of their mythology existed, it was easier to let Aunt May know the real reason as to why he was suddenly going away for the summer.
Right now, they’re both in his bedroom, in the small apartment that Peter’s grown to call home and his safe sanctuary from the monsters that were often after him. Though that never stopped Aunt May from worrying constantly about his safety.
“It’s the summer, May, I don’t think I need any of that,” Peter sighs, watching as Aunt May fiddles with her sleeves, standing at the doorway of his bedroom. He can’t blame Aunt May for worrying. This is the first time he’s going to Camp Half-Blood, as he was long overdue for a stay. Aunt May’s apartment and Peter’s home was admittedly the safest place for him at the time.
“Are you sure you can’t just stay? It was fine the other few times,” she frowns, crossing her arms to stop herself from fiddling with her sleeves, “Why so suddenly now?”
“Beats me,” Peter says, shrugging, “Mom just said it was better for me to go now than later.”
“I’ll be fine, May. Camp is probably the safest place in New York for half-bloods,” he adds on, seeing how Aunt May’s expression doesn’t ease away from worrying. Granted, he’s never been to the place, but with the way Athena was talking about it, it’s got to be his best option, no?
Aunt May sighs, her shoulders falling from their tense position, but her look of worry doesn’t go away, “I know, and I trust your mother, it’s just… We’ve been doing this differently for a long time. It’s just weird for me that you’re suddenly going to camp now.”
Peter gives a non-committable shrug, unsure of what to make to that statement, “I know, but this might be the best. Who knows, maybe I’ll make some normal friends for once.”
Aunt May raises an eyebrow. Peter gives a sheepish grin.
“Semi-normal friend,” he corrects himself. Aunt May sighs again, uncrossing her arms as she smiles softly.
“Whatever you say, Peter,” she chuckles and leaves the bedroom, letting Peter finish packing up.
“So, what exactly is your mom making you do again?” Percy can’t help but question his girlfriend as he drives through the streets of Manhattan. It’s not the first time that he’s been here before, but it’s certainly the first that he’s done it without being chased or mauled by some sort of monster.
Besides him, Annabeth huffs, her arms crossed and clearly looking as if she wanted to be anywhere but here right now.
“Apparently she wants me to play babysitter and pick up one of my half-siblings,” she says, barely suppressing the urge to roll her eyes in annoyance, “On such short notice as well. She could’ve picked a better time than now to bother me with her problems.”
“Annie, you were about to pull your 3rd all-nighter…”
“Exams are next week, Percy, and I’ll be damned if I get a lower score than 95.”
“You’re the daughter of Athena, I don’t see how you can fail a test,” Percy could only frown, shaking his head as he decides to keep his eye on the road, “Do you at least know what your half-sibling looks like? Or are we going to have to go on a chicken run to find this kid?”
“She didn’t give me much information, only told me that his name was Peter Parker and he lived in Manhattan with his aunt,” Annabeth responds, shrugging her shoulders slightly, although she looked peeved at the lack of information her mother had given her.
“Any physical description?”
“She said we’ll know it’s him when we see it.”
“Wow, super helpful.”
“Tell me about it.”
Percy ends up driving around for a bit, turning when Annabeth instructed him to and just keeping an eye out for anything that looked off. If Athena was right (And as the goddess of wisdom, she usually was), then something out of the ordinary should give Annabeth and Percy an indication of where her supposed half-brother should be.
But after a while with no indication of… well, anything really, Percy was beginning to doubt the guy’s existence. And it was beginning to near the afternoon, Percy promised his mom he’d be back by dinner, if not an hour later at best. Augh, he told Estelle he’d be back in time for a Disney movie marathon with her. They were going to watch ‘The Little Mermaid’, for God’s sake!
After a bit of silence, Percy sighs, turning to face his girlfriend, “Annie, I don’t see the guy anywhere, maybe we should come back and-”
“Wait, shush,” a hand is held up in front of his face, the ravenette vaguely offended by such a manner. For a moment, of course. That was before he heard the whistling. And before he saw the car hurtling towards him at a frantic speed.
“SHIT!” Percy all but yells, jerking the stick as he slams onto the accelerator. The car veers backwards, narrowly avoiding the one that was coming down towards them as it smashes into the road in front. Pedestrians begin running and honestly, if Percy wasn’t so used to such bullshit, he would have as well.
“Annie?” he calls out as Annabeth clambers out of the car, hurrying to undo his own seatbelt (With some difficulty, but for the sake of his dignity, he’ll argue that seat belts are hard to undo especially when under pressure). By the time he’s managed to get himself out of the car, Annabeth is sprinting down the road towards the ruckus that was quite likely the cause of it all.
“Great idea, Annabeth, run into the danger head on, great plan,” he mumbles under his breath, partially exasperating before he too breaks into a sprint. Unfortunately, Percy can’t really talk about ‘great ideas which actually aren’t great, just plain stupid’ because he’s had his fair share. Or possibly more. Maybe more if he’s being honest.
By the time he’s managed to push past screaming civilians who frantically make their exit in a hurry and catch up to Annabeth, she’s crouched low, hidden behind a flipped car as she peers at what’s causing the trouble.
“It’s a dracaena,” she says, not tearing her eyes away as Percy practically slams into a spot next to her, “That’s odd, never thought they’d spawn in Manhattan of all places.”
“Better here than Long Island,” Percy remarks, catching his breath, “Makes it this place’s problem, not ours.”
Annabeth shoots him a look. Percy gives a grin in response. She groans and rolls her eyes.
“Well it’s our problem now at the moment, so we’ll have to kill it,” she says, pursing her lips as she eyes the monster with calculating eyes. Gods, Percy loves it when his Annabeth goes into calculating mode. Piper would agree with him.
Annabeth looks as if she was in the middle of figuring out a plan when someone flies in - a someone dressed in a red and blue spandex suit with black webbing design that almost looked similar to a (Annabeth shuddered upon realizing it) spiderweb.
“Whoa, hey! Someone’s in a bad mood, huh?” The person says, landing onto a lamp post nearby as the dracaena shrieks at him, “Hey, I feel ya. Mondays are a pain to me as well. What’s got you so upset? Wanna go out and get a cup of coffee with me? Talk it out, maybe?”
“Is he…” Annabeth mutters, narrowing her eyes at the guy as he engages in a one-sided conversation with the raging dracaena, “Talking to the dracaena? Normally??”
“Annie, I don’t know what you’re thinking right now, but if that guy isn’t the half-brother we were looking for, then we’re clearly in the wrong place,” Percy speaks up from beside her, also peering over the car’s edge as the guy in the spandex suit begins to start beating the dracaena up, occasionally talking to her like it was a normal thing to do.
Annabeth could only huff, “There’s no way that’s my half-brother, Seaweed Brain. He’s clearly in theme with a spider, children of Athena are terrified of spiders!”
“Who knows, maybe he’s lacking the genetic arachnophobia?”
“It’s not genetic!”
“I’d argue on that topic, Annie.”
Annabeth groans, clearly fed up with her boyfriend’s antics but not in the mood or willing to argue with him, “Whatever! Let’s just get this over with quickly and head back home as soon as we- DUCK!”
Percy wastes no time in yanking Annabeth down with him, both of them laying flat against the ground and rolling away just as the car that was originally on its side clatters to the ground, a STOP sign now sticking out of the hood. Percy winces upon seeing the damage.
“Damn, that looked like a nice car,” he comments with a frown.
“Not the time, Percy!” Annabeth yells at him as she yanks him out of the way for another sign to come hurtling their way.
The pair ran around the block, dodging flying items and avoiding pedestrians who were still somehow trying to frantically get away. When they come back around full circle, they come back in time to be facing the dracaena from behind and the spider guy in front of the dracaena. Said-spider guy widens his eyes - white lenses on the red and blue spandex suit - at the sight of Annabeth and Percy, clearly startled by their presence.
“Hey, this isn’t a safe place to be in! Uhh, can you leave, please?!” he frantically calls out, dodging a car that the dracaena threw at him as mechanical spider legs sprout out from behind him.
“At least he’s polite when it comes to evacuating,” Percy comments. Annabeth decides to ignore it for her better judgement.
“We’re not leaving, we’re here to help!” she yells out to the spider guy, who still seems shocked at their presence, but doesn’t seem to comment. Instead he simply nods and dives out of the way as the dracaena lunges for him.
The guy, shooting out a string of webs onto the side of a building, swings over to Percy and Annabeth, landing with a tuckroll before springing to his feet. He sounds out of breath when he speaks as the lenses on his mask seem to follow the movements of his expression.
“Hey,” he says casually, stopping to catch his breath for a minute, “Uh, you say you’re here to help? Are you from Camp Half-Blood?”
Percy nudges Annabeth, the blonde half-heartedly slapping away the ravenette’s elbow in annoyance. Both of them nod in sync.
“Great, cool-io. Kinda nice to have other people helping me, it’s been a pain trying to do this by myself, but hey. Beggars can’t be choosers,” he continues and Percy can hear the exhausted smile in the kid’s (The guy in the spandex suit couldn’t be older than Percy, he just couldn’t) voice.
“That’s nice to hear, but let’s deal with introductions later, okay?” Annabeth says in response, eyeing the dracaena as it picks up a flaming piece of a car. (How does one casually pick up a piece of a flaming car of all things??)
The spider kid nods and all three of them turn their attention back towards the monster. It snarls as Percy, Annabeth and Spider-Kid get into fighting positions. One movement and all three of them launch towards the dracaena.
The battle ends way quicker than Percy anticipates, but that’s probably because it’s a 3v1 battle and honestly, luck had to fall on your side if you were hoping to win against 3 demigods. When the battle is over and a good block is decimated into rubble and debris, Percy and Annabeth manage to drag Spider-Kid into an alleyway, secluded and hidden away from everything and everyone. By now, the sun was beginning to go lower and the sky was getting darker.
“Hey, you good?” Percy asks as the kid winces, gently being sat on the ground. A nasty cut is embedded on the side of his body. It looks like a bitch and must hurt like one with the way the kid was wincing.
Nonetheless, he nods, “Yeah… yeah, I’m fine. Just a scratch.”
“A really big one, if you ask me,” Annabeth remarks, but crouches down to get eye-level with the kid before jutting out her hand, “You’re Peter Parker right? I’m Annabeth Chase, your half-sister.”
The teen chuckles, a wheezy and breathless sound that sounded rather terrible. He reaches up for his mask, pulling it off of his head and reveals the kid under the mask.
A mop of brown hair, dark brown eyes and a somewhat round face - it’s the first time Percy’s met or even seen a child of Athena who didn’t have the iconic blond hair and steely grey eyes. And judging by Annabeth’s reaction, it’s her first time too.
“Yeah, nice to meet ya, Annabeth,” Peter responds, taking her hand as he shakes it. He lets go quickly though to wince as he sharply inhales, pressing on the wound. Percy winces in sympathy for the poor guy.
“We should get you somewhere safe,” he insists, slipping off his jacket to tie it around Peter’s abdomen, “I didn’t bring any ambrosia or nectar… Annie?”
Annabeth shakes her head, “I didn’t think we’d run into any monsters. Just a quick in and out mission, a pick-up, really.”
“Didn’t think any monsters were going to show up today either,” Peter comments, grimacing as he tries not to jostle the wound, “It’s usually a lot more mundane here. I usually don’t get a lot of monster activity here.”
“We can tell. Almost had me fool for a second,” Percy says, agreeing with the kid for once. Peter chuckles again.
“We need to head back, quickly. If we can book it on the highways and try to stop at as few red lights as possible, we should make it back before nightfall,” Annabeth speaks up, getting to her feet as she dusts off her jeans, “Are you okay to stand up right now?”
“Yeah, I can try,” Peter nods his head, getting up to his feet but almost staggering. However, when Percy almost surges in to steady him, the mechanical spider legs sprout from a contraption on Peter’s back, holding him aloft easily. Percy whistles in slight awe.
“That’s cool,” he comments, earning a small, shy smile from Peter.
“It’s cool, but it’ll attract attention. That’s the last thing we want right now,” says Annabeth, who eyes the mechanical spider legs in a slight fascination. She makes a mental note of asking Peter what mechanism it used and where on Earth did he acquire such gear.
“Do you think you can put them away for the time being? Percy, help Peter walk and put on your jacket over him. Cover up the suit, okay?” Annabeth instructs and Peter nods at the question. At once the mechanical legs fold back in and Percy swoops in to let Peter lean against him.
“Got you,” he says, shifting most of Peter’s body weight against him. The sudden movement jostles the wound and Peter bites back a groan of pain as he tries to blink away the dots in his eyes. Percy grimaces once more as the colour seems to drain from Peter’s face.
“Annie, I don’t think he’ll be able to last the trip back home, he’s not looking so good,” Percy speaks up, shifting the both of them until Peter was wearing Percy’s jacket and somewhat passed out as he leans against Percy. Annabeth, who notices the problem, frowns, trying to formulate a solution though to no avail.
Then, as if some god was looking down on them (Which god was looking down on them, Percy has no idea), Nico fucking di Angelo decides to make an appearance, stepping out of a nearby shadow with a Happy Meal in hand and a French fry pack in the other. He seemed to be in his head for a little bit, possibly zoning out when he notices the other people in the alleyway and turning his head, he sees that it’s Percy, Annabeth and some weird kid who looked on the very verge of passing out.
“What are you guys doing in Manhattan?” he questions with a frown, eyeing Percy and Annabeth questioningly.
“What are we doing here? What are you doing here, Nico?” Percy counters, clearly confused as to why Nico was here of all places, “And is that McDonalds??”
“McDonalds is better in Manhattan,” Nico answers breezily, moving his hand dismissivley before pointing to Peter, “Who’s he? And is he alright, he looks like shit.”
“As if you could talk.”
“Choke on your words and die, Jackson.”
“You first, di Angelo.”
“Boys,” Annabeth firmly snaps, making Nico and Percy look at her. She sighs, glaring at both of them before addressing Nico.
“We’re here because Peter here is my half-brother. We just had a fight with a dracaena and he’s not doing so well at the moment,” she explains quickly, trying not to sound panicked although she was aware of Peter losing more blood as the seconds passed by.
“Ah, so that’s what the noise was all about,” Nico hums, taking another fry out of the packet with his mouth, “Tho, I gueth you need a way back quickly?”
Percy and Annabeth nod. Nico shrugs.
“Sure, why not. But don’t blame me if you get sick later on,” he continues, gesturing to the pair of them (And Peter) to come closer to him. Once close enough, Nico tucks the packet into his pocket, clearly not bothered to put it back in the Happy Meal box before grabbing Annabeth’s wrist. Getting the message, Annabeth proceeds to hold onto Peter, who was now unconscious by this point.
And all at once, all four of them step into the shadows and are whisked away to be headed back home to Camp Half-Blood.
Nearby, in the crime scene, Iron Man lands and in the alleyway, where the trio and Nico had been, a camera flashes red.