Pandemonium

Matt Murdock had been taking some time to relax before the night's excursion when he heard sounds of distress from a few blocks away.

Donning his suit, he stands on his rooftop and listens carefully.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

A woman's voice.

A scream.

He begins sprinting to the source of the voices.

He kept tuning into the conversation to navigate to a rundown warehouse.

"Don't try to lie to us. We know everything about your son."

"Him and his friends don't have too long to hide. The King will make sure of it."

For a second, Matt wondered if the Kingpin had risen again. But then he heard the voice of the woman again, and this time he recognised her.

"For the hundredth time. I'm not aware of anything you're asking me." Sally Jackson was saying, her voice strong and unyielding.

Matt sensed a had curling to aim a punch, but he had managed to close the distance by then.

There were ten men armed with stun batons and guns. Basic tactical gear from what he could sense. He had taken stock of the whole situation, and the men seemed young and untrained, with almost no prior experience in combat. They fell like dominoes with his well aimed kicks and punches.

One of them put a gun to Sally's head to try to stop him, but Sally tipped the chair she was tied to and Matt took that second to take the man down.

The fight only lasted minutes. He untied Sally and helped her up.

"Are you hurt, Sally?" He asked. He couldn't sense any injury on her. But he's sure he had heard screams from here.

"They didn't hurt me. They were ordered not to probably, by whoever sent them." Sally had stood up straight, with surprising confidence and composure. "I managed to bite and kick a couple of them though."

Matt wasn't surprised. Nobody in their right minds messed with Sally Jackson.

"Thank you, Matthew."

Matt spluttered.

"I had my doubts in the beginning. You looked familiar, and not just from the news. Then you said my name, and I recognised your voice. I took a gamble. I'm hoping I'm right."

She knew very well that she was right. He could hear her smile, and he couldn't fight a matching one off his face.

They walked out of the building. Sally's phone was taken, so they decided to search for a public telephone booth. Sally insisted that she could get home, but Matt wasn't going to leave her alone in Hell's Kitchen. They reached a concensus soon enough. They would walk in hidden alleyways until the nearest phone booth, then Sally would make a call home and stay some time with Matt until they come to get her. Matt wouldn't have it any other way.

They were now standing in a back alley which was almost devoid of people. Matt knew they couldn't stay in that place too long.

Matt cursed his luck as he suddenly sensed a pair of footsteps running in their direction. It wouldn't have been cause for much alarm, but they seemed to have appeared out of thin air, and things had been strange enough for one evening.

-

Percy was having a terrible two days.

The previous day, a rather scandalous incident had occurred at college when a couple of students were caught selling pictures of his around the campus. It had been extremely embarrassing for him, especially when the students told on fellow professors who had bought pictures from them. The pictures weren't even good. Just stills of him from in between lectures and standing in the hallways.

Dr. Salisbury had offered to take his classes for the next day or two, seeing that he was deeply disturbed by the events. Percy had thanked him and told him that he'd be back the next day, but that he'd like to go home early that day. But as soon as he was about to leave, he caught sight of a familiar red car in the parking lot.

Apollo was 'hopefully' here for a concert he didn't know of and would 'hopefully' leave him to do what he wants.

Or Apollo had probably just sensed his anguish.

Or he had been sent as an emissary to summon him for something or the other that his extended family need him to do.

He wasn't in the mood.

He turned to walk away, but Apollo got out of the car.

Hopefully, Percy would be able to get away in time.

But Apollo called out to him, loud and clear, his voice ringing in the open space. Quite a few people turned to look at him.

The fucker hadn't even tried to disguise his appearance. The onlookers were taking out their phones to click pictures. Fucking pictures. Percy hated them today.

He turned to look at Apollo. The other man looked nervous, somehow, and maybe that was what prompted Percy to not embarrass him and decided to walk up close to him and whisper shout.

"Leave me alone."

"Percy please listen to me. Just this once."

"Leave. Me. Alone."

"Sally's missing."

This shocked him still.

"Do not even try to use her for whatever purpose you want me. She's not an excuse for you lot to use her as bait for me whenever I don't do whatever you want me to do."

"Percy please. It's true. I swear."

"You swear on what? Your life?"

"My children. I swear on my children. I'm not lying, Percy." His tone had turned pleading. "She's been missing for nearly an hour now. Paul sent me to get you as fast as possible. I'm so sorry Percy. I know you're having a bad day and I'm the last person you want to see right now. But please trust me this once. Please."

Percy let out a sigh, his shoulders sagging, all the fight draining out of him. He walked to the passenger's side and got into the car.

Apollo climbed in after him.

-

The whole situation was concerning in the least. Percy could sense that his mother was safe, unharmed, but he couldn't trace her. She seemed to have vanished off the face of the Earth.

Apollo couldn't sense her either. They decided to treat it as an anomaly as a result of the Asgardians popping in. They had affected a lot of the Greek enchantments. They were nowhere near as powerful as the Greeks but their presence had affected the Mist when they revealed themselves to the mortals. This resulted in a chain of reactions within the Mist that started affecting other divine magic that had been put in place. It had greatly affected the diplomatic ties with Asgard, and Percy himself had to run interference multiple times. But they were patching up differences and rectifying the problems that had arised. Occasionally, they did end up running into new problems though and Percy hated the Fates for making his life more complicated than necessary.

The drive to his parents place had been long. They couldn't afford to speed up and flash to the place because apparently Tony had spotted them.

This brought up another issue.

What'd he tell the Avengers when they ask why he was arguing with a pop star who apparently came to pick him up? They went with the explanation closest to the truth.

Percy knew that they'd look up his files and history on public record. He had been lucky so far when they just accepted that he was a normal guy with a love for marine life. But they were a curious lot and the smallest of incidents could lead them to unwanted territory.

Percy and Apollo spoke very little during the commute. Only twice to be precise. Once when Apollo explained that Tony had witnessed the incident, and the second time when Percy had told him what explanation he was going to give them.

Apollo had been trying to make amends for over a year now, and Percy knew he wasn't being fair to him. They were both victims after all. But Percy couldn't help but be angry every time he sees any of the gods.

And he couldn't waste precious time thinking of that stuff.

-

His mother's apartment was exactly like it always was. It just had a couple of police officers in the living room and a distraught Paul and crying Estelle.

Percy and Apollo had realised that they needed to do this the old fashioned way. The police would be of some help, especially if it was mortals that had kidnapped her. It wasn't unlikely. His mother had gained a lot of enemies in her field for her views on multiple topics including single parenting and queer rights. And with two celebrities involved, the police were more than pressurised to put their best men on the case.

The policemen in the house had been surprised to find Apollo coming to the house of the missing writer.

"I'm a family friend." He had said to their surprised looks.

They looked pained at not being able to get his autograph because of the dire circumstances they were in.

Percy ignored them all.

His mother was safe for now. He had sensed absolutely no distress from her. But he knew he shouldn't count on it continuing. So he got to work immediately.

He retraced her steps. Looked into all her enemies and friends and acquaintances. All the people she had met recently. All of his enemies.

He split his consciousness all over the place. Searching every nook and corner. Every crevice he could find. Every person he found suspicious.

Paul scouted around with the police. Apollo looked from his sun chariot.

Percy, Apollo and Paul took turns looking after Estelle. Percy pointedly ignored Apollo's presence. But it was getting harder and harder as he started bumping into Apollo's conscious more often in his search.

Things came to a head when Apollo stopped him somewhere in Brooklyn.

"Percy, Stop." He had said.

"Go away, Apollo."

"You're spreading yourself too thin. You haven't eaten anything in days. You've been searching for over 24 hours."

"I don't care, Apollo. My mom's in danger."

"She wouldn't want you to kill yourself searching for her."

Wrong thing to say, Percy thought. He had been trying to reign in his frustration for a long time now. That statement of Apollo's broke the restraints in a nanosecond.

"Well." He began. His voice eerily calm. "Surely you can't have forgotten that I can't do that anymore. Your presence in my life is proof enough of that."

He had expected Apollo to look hurt by the comment or even angry. But he just looked sad and let out a sigh. He handed Percy his phone and said to him,

"Visit them. It might be a good enough distraction and an opportunity to utilise Stark's resources. They can check where the police can't."

Percy's anger dissipated as soon as it came, followed by indignation as he realised that Apollo had angered him on purpose to steer him back home.

He stood, mouth gaping, with his phone in hand as Apollo handed him a large cup of coffee spiked with nectar.

Percy had to ignore his stubborn streak and see the reasoning behind Apollo's actions. He couldn't deny it made sense.

So he set up a meeting with the team and sat down to play with Estelle as he drank his coffee.

He pretended to not hear Paul as he thanked Apollo for making Percy see reason.

-

Percy chose to walk to the Tower and continue his search en route. It'd also buy him enough time to fill any loopholes in the cover story Apollo and he had come up with.

He was only metres away from the Tower when he felt it. His mother's presence. In Hell's Kitchen.