Pandemonium

A year before the world descended into chaos, Tony saw Dr. Jackson for the first time.

He attended an alumni event at MIT, gave a short speech, everybody clapped. Drinks were served, conversations held, everything was as expected. Except, he'd expected to be flirted with, but very few women had paid him any attention all evening. For a second, Tony had worried that he was visibly growing old. He was only in his mid thirties. It had been a scary second. But soon he managed to glean the reason from an elderly faculty member.

"Mr. Stark, I'm hoping the event is to your taste." The older man had said to him in a kind and respectful manner. Tony thought to himself that Steve would definitely sound like that if he managed to grow old.

"Yes, definitely. Mr.-"

"Dr. Salisbury."

"Dr. Salisbury. The event's nice, though I'd expected to find myself more appealing to the ladies." He said with the arrogant charm he reserved for the public.

"Ah, sorry, I managed to convince one of my department's professors to attend today's event."

Tony raised an eyebrow inquisitively. Not understanding how it could've related to what he had asked. Maybe the older man was having issues with hearing?

He seemed to sense Tony's confusion and pointed at a young man in his twenties, with brown skin and green eyes. He was well built, like a swimmer, and had unruly black hair. He was undoubtedly very handsome. His sculpted features rivalled Thor's and that was saying something.

And this fact had indeed not gone unnoticed by the many women in the room who were throwing covert glances at him from time to time. The guy didn't even seem to notice. Tony wasn't jealous. Jealously was for the weak.

"Isn't he a little young?"

"Yes he is. In fact I'm almost sure Dr. Jackson was the youngest to ever be hired to teach at MIT. He was barely 22 when he joined."

Tony was severely impressed.

"That good, eh? Which department?"

"Marine biology."

"Too bad. Not very interested in the subject, or I'd have liked to have a chat."

-

Tony had forgotten all about Dr. Jackson up until a month later when he saw him entering his tower, or the Avengers tower as they have taken to calling it.

He figured the man had some work at the tower, and dismissed him from his mind. He had to finish the new project he was working on if he wished to catch some sleep this week.

On deciding to get some lunch, Tony walked to Bruce's lab when he saw Dr. Jackson again. This time in a white coat and protective headgear, mixing chemicals in a test tube with Bruce by his side.

He watched as the two men spoke in excited whispers and poured something into a large beaker full of some yellow liquid. As soon as the whole thing was poured in, Bruce and Jackson ran away from the work table and watched and watched and watched. Their expressions turning more disappointed by the second until suddenly the beaker burst in a puff of blue smoke revealing a tiny fish shaped silhouette that disappeared in a flash.

He chose that moment to make his presence known.

"Neat experiment. What were you aiming to achieve there?"

"A cerulean water based projection of a Siamese fighting fish." Said Dr. Jackson, with dry humour colouring his tone. His voice was deep but not too much. It carried well despite the considerable distance between them and the lack of volume on Jackson's part.

Tony's musings were cut short by Bruce's giggling. Giggling. The guy who turns into the Hulk. Giggling. This Jackson guy might as well be a God, what with his ability to make the impossible happen.

Soon, Jackson and Tony too were laughing along with him. As it died down, Dr. Jackson walked up to him and held out his hand.

"Percy Jackson. Professor of Marine Biology at MIT. I'm here on Dr. Banner's invitation. I hope you don't mind, Mr. Stark."

"Not at all, Dr. Jackson. Anyone who can make Bruce laugh is a welcome presence. Call me Tony."

Jackson's smile was sharp and bright. Tony's half sure he's done toothpaste advertisements.

The ring of a phone interrupted their conversation and Jackson stepped out to pick the call.

"I hope you don't mind Tony. I read Dr. Jackson's latest paper and had some ideas I wanted to discuss with him. Pepper said it was ok to invite him. Sorry I didn't ask you."

"Bruce," he said, exasperated. "What part of Avengers Tower makes you think that you need to ask my permission to do anything here?"

Bruce smiled sheepishly and looked to be about to apologise again when Jackson came in and announced that something had come up and he had to leave.

-

Soon after the fish silhouette experiment, Dr. Jackson becomes a frequent visitor at Avengers Tower.

All the Avengers knew him, except Thor. He hadn't visited in a long time, but almost everyone approved of his company. He seemed like a genuinely good person and got along with Clint and Bruce pretty well. Natasha didn't warm up to him too fast, as is her motto. She kept insisting that he was hiding something but didn't seem to want to do anything about it as he didn't seem interested in spying on them or even being too inquisitive. So she decided to live and let live, for now. Tony suspects she might have a slight crush on Percy.

Steve and Percy have an easy camaraderie. Tony has no idea what they talk about, but they talk for hours. He once heard them discussing ideas to make pancake cookies. He figured they'd be a disaster in the kitchen together, but he was proved wrong.

Percy, it turns out, is an excellent chef. Honestly, that man is everything a woman would desire. He even taught Steve how to cook better. Tony, who loved Steve's cooking, loved it even more now.

"Where'd you learn to cook like that?" Tony had asked Percy one day, between mouthfuls of blue pancakes. The man had a thing for the colour blue.

"My mom. I've helped her in the kitchen since I was a kid. In fact, if I wasn't teaching, I'd have opened a bakery."

Tony can totally picture that. The nice baker in the street whom everyone buys from. He also just knows that Percy would be excellent with children, and a favourite with all the women. Attracting crowds constantly, with that toothpaste advertisement smile of his. He smiled at the thought. It was great to have a normal friend, he thought.

-

A few months later, Percy and Bruce's research ends. They were surprisingly efficient while working together, and had finished the project in record time. A groundbreaking invention in the field of hydro electric power. It would make energy so efficient that it's rumoured to keep the inevitable energy crisis at bay for a good many centuries to come. Their names were being considered for Nobel Prizes.

Tony had thrown them a party, both in celebration of their success and as a farewell to Percy. He had taken a considerable amount of time off from teaching for the project, and apparently was at a risk of losing his job if he didn't teach full time again.

They were all sad to see Percy go, but it was inevitable. Tony had even offered to house him in Avengers Tower, but he had vehemently declined.

-

They didn't see Percy at all for a month or two. He wasn't one to use his phone much so even texting was rare. The effect of his absence was visible in the team. Percy had a calming effect on them all. He made them work better together. More loyal and supportive of each other. Nobody knew how he did it. That was just how he was. A man who inspired calmness, unity and loyalty in all the people he knew.

One day, Tony decided to visit MIT and surprise Percy. But what he saw, gave him pause.

Percy seemed to be having a rather heated argument with someone in the parking lot. He and a man with wavy golden blonde hair were standing beside a very fancy looking red car.

Tony could see Percy's face rather clearly from where he was standing a few metres away. Percy didn't seem to have noticed him, instead focusing all of his attention into making a face of utmost loathing at the man standing before him. He was gesticulating wildly and looked extremely pissed off.

That was so uncharacteristic of him, Tony wasn't surprised when he noticed that many others too had paused to look at the showdown. What confused him was that some of them were recording videos of the incident. What they were saying wasn't very clear, or maybe it was a different language, but surely the incident was too trivial to warrant a recorded video.

He thought an intervention might be necessary when suddenly Percy's shoulders slumped and he looked resigned. He then strode over to the car and got into the passenger seat. The other man turned to get into the car and Tony finally got a glimpse of his face.

If Tony was a cartoon character, his jaw would've hit the floor. Because getting into the driver's seat was the Music Icon, the Living Legend, Apollo.

-

After relating the entire incident to the rest of the team, Tony had expected to find it all less weird, but instead the questions in his mind only increased in number.

Him and the team had only just started realising that they didn't know anything about Percy's life at all, except for the odd mentions of his mother, stepfather, sister and some cousins. No names were mentioned either.

Although, if he's familiar with a celebrity like Apollo then that'd explain why he'd never gotten starstruck by meeting anyone on the team. But familiar enough to have fights in public and travel in his car? Surely nobody at MIT knew of it either, and that's why they'd taken videos of it. Because if anyone said something this bizarre about a rather handsome but ordinary professor, nobody would believe them.

The rest of the team didn't go much further in their thoughts than Tony did either. Besides, having emotions and knowing a celebrity weren't crimes per se, and it was none of their business if Percy didn't want to tell them. But the Avengers were a curious lot and so, they decided to invite Percy to the tower the next day and ask the man himself.

-

Percy had agreed to come by at 5 the next evening. It was 7:30 now and there was still no sign of him. This was highly unusual for Percy, who was never more than ten minutes late, but the last day had made them realise that they didn't know Percy as well as they thought they did.

At a quarter to eight when there was still no sign of him, Tony said that he'd had enough and decided to call him, when Friday announced that they had a visitor.

Expecting Percy, Tony asked them to be led into the room where the team was waiting, but the person who walked in was Apollo.

-

"Is Percy here?"

Were the first words Apollo said. Tony looked at him, utterly incredulous at seeing the other man stride into HIS tower and ask him where their supposed mutual acquaintance is. The nerve of him.

"Is Percy HERE!? I'd better ask you that question don't I!? After all, he was last seen with you."

"Wait, he's not here?" Apollo looked scared. Scared. Apollo. A famous singer. In his tower. Looking for Percy. And looking scared at not finding him here. Tony doesn't know what he should be feeling right now.

Then a lot of things happened at once. Apollo turned to leave, Natasha threw a knife, Apollo caught the knife, Apollo threw the knife, Natasha caught the knife, and Apollo left.

The Avengers ran after him, but couldn't find him anywhere.

According to Friday, the surveillance footage from when he left the room was unavailable and he hadn't been spotted leaving through any of the available exits of the tower.

They searched the tower for hours. He was nowhere to be found.

The only explanation: Apollo had vanished into thin air.

-

"I think we can all agree that the last two days have been the weirdest in a long time." Tony told the assembled group the next day.

Steve nodded. Bruce looked sad. Natasha looked neutral, as usual.

"Apollo was here. The Apollo. We didn't even get his autograph." Clint said. "We chased him. You threw a knife at him." He looked at Natasha.

"He caught the knife." Natasha pointed out.

"What if he hadn't? What if you'd killed Apollo?"

"I wouldn't have."

"How can you be so sure?"

"His reflexes were really good. I'd say he was trained." Steve commented.

"Looked like it. Yes." Natasha said. "It might've been for security purposes, he's a celebrity after all, and well known for not hiring bodyguards."

"But you don't believe in coincidences." Tony finishes for her.

Natasha nods. "Can you access Percy's files?"

-

They hadn't run a search on him because they'd rather hear from their friends themselves than get information about them from elsewhere. They were trying to be polite. But apparently, that wasn't always the best course of action. A simple search of Percy's name gave them 10 times more information about him than what they had gleaned from him in nearly a year of knowing him.

Dr. Perseus Jackson.

His full name was Perseus.

"Perseus is a Greek name. Like Apollo." Natasha said pointedly, and it was clearly implied that it wasn't a coincidence.

24 years old.

His mother was the famous author Sally Blofis neé Jackson.

They paused here though, because there were a number of brand new news articles popping up at her mention. Some of them posted merely hours ago. The oldest being only a day old, and they all said the same thing.

"Famous author Sally Blofis reported missing."