Pandemonium

The Avengers had begun searching for the people on the list that Percy had given Tony.

"What I don't understand," Tony began, "is how these people could just go missing for two days and nobody thinks it's suspicious? I mean look at that! Piper McLean, Rachel Dare, Leo Valdez! They're fuckin celebrities. Somebody would've noticed."

"Not if it's normal behaviour for them to just disappear for a couple of days." Natasha said. "Percy told us about those camps of theirs. If it's as secret as he claims, then surely these members wouldn't want anyone to know where they'd be if you don't find them for a couple of days."

That made sense, but what would they do in situations such as these? Tony thought they were supposed to be super smart people because Leo Valdez was one of the most promising inventors and business tycoons in the world and for a team that included him he expected them to atleast put some mechanism in place to identify the possibility of such a situation and remedy it.

"Pardon me, my friends, but Perseus told you about the camps?"

How did Thor know about the camps? And why 'Perseus'!? Even the Avengers hadn't known that was his birth name. This just made it obvious that he knew more than he was letting on.

"How do YOU know about the camps?" Natasha decided to voice the question

"Uh...." Thor looked like he had dug his own grave. He had.

"Yes Thor, go on. Tell us how you know about the camps." Tony pitched in for good measure.

"I refuse to answer any more questions."

"You can't just do that." Clint proclaimed.

Thor didn't speak a word.

"Can he?"

Tony just sighed.

They spent hours looking through footage and running searches on various government databases that they hacked. They found a lot of random footage from the past but nothing after two days ago.

They had only just decided to have dinner when Friday notified them of a breaking news that apparently featured Piper McLean.

They huddled together in front of a screen and watched a news broadcast as Piper McLean appeared on video, only visible from above the shoulder. She looked as beautiful as always, Tony noted. No visible signs of kidnapping.

"I, Piper McLean, am a member of an ancient secret society of intellectuals. I am admitting to this because I believe that we have stayed hidden for long enough. We are a group of individuals who long for the betterment of the world. Some might call us a satanic cult, but we will make you understand our ways.

Let me start by admitting to some incidents that our enemies might accuse us for causing. We accept responsibility for the explosion at St. Louis Arch nearly two decades. We were responsible for the eruption of Mount St. Helens three years from then. We were also responsible for the destruction of the Pantheon in Athens two years from then. More of us will be speaking up in the coming days. Thank you for your time."

Her expressions were robotic. Nothing emotional but enough to pass off as normal. Tony though, thought that she was definitely not talking of her own volition. Piper McLean was a celebrity he had observed for a long time, one of the few who he genuinely respected and she was bold and strong and faced everything head-on. So if she was going to make any such announcement, she would've called a press meet or just walked into a news centre and rattled the words off.

She was definitely being forced to say all of this and the team seemed to agree.

The question that remained though was whether any of it was true?

"Don't believe this. These are lies of the highest degree." Thor turned to say to them, looking deeply disturbed by the video.

Another interesting reaction.

"How do you know that, Thor?" Tony asked.

"Um... Well.... Magnus and I are friends. He told me about some of the things from Annabeth's side. I was sworn to secrecy. I can't talk about it anymore." He looked extremely uncomfortable as he said it, and Tony almost felt sorry for him. Almost. Because clearly the guy was lying again. He's terrible at lying. But they couldn't call him out on it either, because "you're a liar!" Sounds both childish and also like something you don't tell your friends. And Thor was a friend.

The others seem to have come to a similar conclusion, because sad and desperate "what can we do!?" looks were plastered on all his teammates faces. Even Natasha looked slightly resigned.

"So...what now?" Was Clint's question.

Everyone looked at each other.

"We try to trace the video ofcourse." Was Bruce's reply.

Tony blinked.

Ofcourse.

And he was supposed to be the tech genius.

"Yes. Ofcourse! I was just about to say that." He said, and got to work.

-

Percy watched, dumbstruck, as Piper's video kept replaying on the screen. He didn't care what the news channels claimed. He didn't care for the clamour of the fans and conspiracy theorists as they gave their opinions on the matter.

He had abandoned their search and replaced it with a date. A freaking date. He was turning into one of them after all. He would've never let himself get distracted if he was still a demigod. And maybe then, he would've found them sooner, even without all the resources he now has.

Gentle hands on his shoulders started kneading his muscles. Apollo spoke softly into his ear. "Don't blame yourself, Percy. You're trying your best. Remember, they know you'll be a formidable enemy. That's why they poisoned you, kidnapped Sally. They knew you'd be on the lookout for your friends, so they made you incapable of doing it. None of this is your fault."

He paused a little, continuing the massage for a couple more minutes. Percy found himself relaxing against his wish. He shouldn't be able to relax. Not when his friends were in mortal danger.

"Besides," Apollo began again, apparently sensing Percy's descent in emotions. "Now we finally have a lead. Let's go pay a visit to those heroes of yours and trace the video."

-

Apollo and Percy drove into the parking lot half an hour after the video was released to the press. It helped that they found out about it a little late and didn't have to wait long to reach the Tower.

The team was busy working on their own, trying to trace the source of the video.

Their reception was varied. While everyone seemed to have expected their arrival, Tony and Natasha seemed to have expected something to happen between Percy and Thor. Did they expect a friendly greeting or something, with fistbumps and waves and butt slaps?

Natasha opened her mouth to speak, but Bruce beat her to it, having walked up to Percy and looked him over as if for injuries. "Are you okay now? You look better."

Percy flushed, reminding Apollo of the date they had had. Apollo blushed too.

"Health-wise, I'm definitely doing more than okay. Otherwise though, I'm devastated." He truly did look so, his shoulders drooping a little more than usual and his eyes losing some of their shine.

"You were unwell!?" Thor exclaimed, seemingly only just getting his bearings.

"A little poisoning, that's all." Percy told him.

"YOU were poisoned!?" Oh shit, he was getting excited. If he could mentally talk to Asgardians he'd definitely be screaming at Thor to shut it. "That's impossible!"

"Unlike what you seem to believe, Odinson. I'm not invincible." Percy's tone had chilled. Oh no, this is getting worse, Percy's using his last name, Apollo thought.

When Percy is tired, he's very irritable around Asgardians. It's got to do with how much they manage to interfere with his domains. Thor and his brother and that wretched tesseract trespassing on Percy's territory, in his city, making Percy have to hurry up assembling his team of heroes without their knowledge. Then they bring aliens into his territory and trash his city, as if what they had done wasn't enough already.

The fact that Loki was still alive was a miracle at this point.

"But poison-"

"Speak another word, and you'll regret ever setting foot on earth." Percy's eyes glowed a little as he channeled his power. The stress of the past two days was definitely getting to him. His wolf glare was piercing as he showed Thor his place. It helped that the Greeks were on top of the Godly food chain.

"I apologise if I overstepped, Prin-" Percy had walked up to him and punched him in the face.

"SHUT UP!" Percy bellowed. His voice resonated like crashing waves on rocks.

A full fledged storm had overtaken the city.

The entire room had descended into silence. Not a soul seemed to breathe.

"Source located." Friday declared.

Nobody questioned what happened. They knew to prioritise the kidnapped people over curiosity and arguments.

The location was apparently in Boston, Massachusetts.

The weather cleared.

They took the Starkjet. On landing, they walked to another abandoned warehouse in full gear. Nobody questioned Percy and Apollo's presence. The entire team, consciously or subconsciously gave the three gods a wide berth.

Nobody spoke the entire time.

The warehouse was exactly as it looked like. Abandoned.

But Apollo and Percy sensed Kronos's time capsule enveloping the entire thing. If Thor felt anything, he gave no indication of it. The rest of the team subconsciously tensed a little as they entered the time capsule.

The building was covered in cobwebs. It was clear they were the first ones to enter the place in forever.

Apollo had already started to lose hope. But he felt Percy getting more tense by every passing second.

He sneaked a look at his husband.

Percy looked like a deadly predator. A predator ready to pounce on it's prey.

He looked beautiful.

Even surrounded by cobwebs and accumulated dust, he glowed. His aura brought light around everything around him. His eyes shone with malice and defiance and hidden intelligence as he took in his surroundings. He was definitely seeing more than he was letting on.

Apollo couldn't believe his luck.

Surely Percy was the best ever person to be stuck with for eternity.

He didn't know what he did to deserve Percy.

But then, Percy's eyes had widened. His heart had begun racing and tears seemed ready to spill down his eyes.

Apollo looked at what had caught Percy's attention.

In front of him was a wall illuminated by the light falling from a hole in the ceiling.

Nailed into the wall was a man. Or, most of a man. His arms and legs stretched out to the maximum. In the place of his head was a computer screen. On the screen was a couple of numbers and letters

18 August.