Pandemonium

Apollo flashed to Washington DC.

He just stood there for some time, trying to get a feel of the city and check for any abnormalities.

The city was full of abnormalities.

Being the capital, it had gained a weird amount of significance among the various pantheons. They had all exerted their influence here. So much so that almost all of the gods avoided the area like a plague because of the very high chances that they'll get sued for breaking treaties.

It was the best city for a hideout.

And it was very evident from where Apollo was standing, because he could sense thousands of protected pocket areas scattered all over the city.

He'll have to check each one.

And for Percy, and Will, and Meg, and Nico and Rachel and Piper and Leo, he would do it.

It would be an extremely tedious task though.

He'll have to consider asking for help.

He was sure some of them could be convinced. Especially his and Percy's siblings.

-

Between interrogating Andrews, scouting out Washington DC and other possible destinations, and dealing with annoying siblings, along with doing his usual duties and handling his domains, Apollo was growing tired.

He decided to put off the scouting until he had help. If he too ended up getting caught, all of his efforts would be for nothing. If he wanted to save Percy and impress him, he had to make sure he didn't botch up his rescue mission.

He was so busy with his musings that he had momentarily forgotten that he was also at Avengers Tower, monitoring their investigation and search operation.

He was rudely made aware of the fact that the Avengers had decided to have pizza, when Tony shoved a pizza box into his chest. Had he been in ancient Greece, he'd have gotten smited for that.

Did they ever eat anything but pizza?

He vocalized his question, and was met with awkward silence. All the Avengers except Thor seemed to look at each other and urge someone to speak up.

Weird reaction, Apollo noted.

Steve cleared his throat, "None of us here really know how to cook. So most of the time we actually had real food was when Percy used to cook for us."

Oh.

Apollo hadn't expected to have his eyes well up with tears.

Nope. Nope. All this time Percy was taken from him and so many things had reminded him of Percy. But ofcourse it was Percy's cooking that was going to make him cry.

He remembered all those times that Percy had cooked for him. Just for him.

They used to hang out together. So much. Especially when Percy had only just ascended and needed guidance. His siblings weren't very good at helping him with matters above water, so the mantel had fallen to Apollo and he gotten closer to Percy than ever before.

"You're spending so much of your time helping me, the least I can do is make something for you." Percy had told him, hands covered in flour, kneading dough in the kitchen in Apollo's palace. He had made sure that the sun always hit Percy in just the right angles. He looked heavenly.

"You know you can just magic some food into existence right?" Apollo had walked closer to him, poking at the dough Percy was working on, making little dents on it.

The hands paused. Percy looked him in the eyes, they were moist with unshed tears. "My mother loves to cook for the people she loves. I seem to have inherited that trait."

Percy tried to smile and hide the sadness behind the gesture, but Apollo saw his pain, lifted up his chin with a finger and made Percy's tear filled eyes meet his own.

"Well, then I hope I'll have the privilege of eating the food you make for all eternity." Apollo whispered.

They were standing so close together, Apollo could feel Percy's breath on his face. But then he was interrupted by a phone call.

By Ares. He thought he'd never hate his half brother more. Look how that turned out, he thought.

He liked to think that they would've kissed and gotten together back then, if not for the phone call.

Wretched Ares. To Tartarus with him.

Clint clearing his throat brought Apollo back from his memories.

From the way the other Avengers seemed to try to regain composure, he realised that he hadn't been the only one stuck in a memory.

He smiled to himself as he thought of Percy's ability to make the best kinds of friends.

"So, is it true? You two are married?" Clint asked.

Apollo's mood soured immediately. Way to ruin a good moment.

"Against our wishes, yes."

"Uh, no offence." Tony began, and Apollo prepared himself to be severely offended. "It looks very much like the two of you like each other, and we are very confused regarding the whole situation. Not to mention, you're supposedly gods. Care to explain a little?"

"What about no?" Apollo retorted. He wasn't going to explain shit to them. Not anymore. He was tired and had tons of work to do. Why was he still at Avengers Tower again?

Ah yes. For Percy.

Would Percy want him to explain to his friends about why they are married? Maybe.

Apollo was confused.

Bruce, the quietest one of the lot, moved forward a little. "About the two of you being gods, I don't know what I feel. I'm a man of science. All these things you speak of seem impossible to me. But marriage is common ground. It's important to both us and to gods, I presume. Percy is one of my best friends. I want to see him happy, and your marriage seems to play a key role in it. So, I really hope you wouldn't mind explaining, sir."

Apollo was doomed.

If you ask that way, who can ever say no to you!? Apollo thought. And that sir in the end, that was the nail on the coffin.

Apollo had met a lot of mortals who refused to believe the gods existed. They refused to believe the amount of power that they could hold over man, but Bruce Banner had just proved to him that even though he found it hard to believe in the gods, he understood that Apollo and Percy and the rest of them stood in a higher position of authority and deserved that respect.

"Drop the sir, Dr. Banner." Apollo started. "If you find it hard to believe in our existence right now, I'm afraid it is going to change very soon. There's no need to address me by anything but my name. You're a friend of Percy's, and any friend of Percy's is my friend too. And friends don't call each other sir, do they?"

"Friends also try to save their mutual friends' marriages." Natasha pitched in.

Apollo sighed, and began his explanation.

It took a surprisingly long time to explain. But in the end, Apollo thought he did a pretty good job of it.

"So, let me get this straight." Tony said. "You two were friends, until you were forced into a marriage and then hated each other for years. Not complicated at all."

"Why are y'all so lovey dovey now though?" Barton seemed genuinely confused. Apollo was confused too.

"We aren't lovey dovey."

"Are too."

"Are not."

"It's clear as day."

"We've always been this way. Even before the marriage."

"Now it makes sense!"

"What makes sense!?"

"You two always liked each other."

"We did not."

"Uhhh...." Thor began, looking extremely awkward. "I hadn't known that your marriage was a political agreement, Prince Apollo. Most of us, even the Egyptians, had thought that you and Prince Perseus were already courting back when we had thrown the inter pantheon derby's celebratory ball."

"Courting!?"

"That was years ago!" Apollo exclaimed, knowing full well what Thor meant to say, but not wanting to vocalize it. Said celebration had been a week after the dough kneading conversation. "We were only friends back then."

"But you two danced so much." Thor said, looking confused. "Even Loki said 'Perseus and Phoebus need to either learn a little subtlety or get a room.' Those were his exact words."

Some of the Avengers were giggling. Tony and Clint were laughing.

"Phoebus!?" Clint asked, looking absolutely delighted.

This was really getting out of hand. Loki was allowed to call him that, only because he was an old friend and pranking partner. Apollo had not expected to find himself regretting that decision like this.

He needed a change of topic. Desperately.

"Wait a minute." Tony said suddenly. Hopefully he's gonna change the topic, Apollo thought. " Your father and Percy's father are brothers. Like full blooded, same parents kind of brothers."

The worst type of topic change ever.

Apollo could see a headache coming. He was the unluckiest person on the planet.

"You two are first cousins. How does that work!?"

"My father is married to his full blooded, same parents kind of sister, so in retrospect, be thankful that atleast Percy and I have different parents."

That shut them up.

It's really taking them a long time to digest all this godly stuff, Apollo thought.

"Um, excuse me?" Steve said into the awkward gap. "Apollo, I'm not from this time, and I'm sure you know that. But I just wanted you to know that one of the first things that I genuinely liked from this time were your songs."

Aww, Apollo thought. Whoever thought Captain America could be so cute!? Maybe that's one of the reasons he's so quiet around Apollo. Or is he always quiet?

"Now though, I'm a little curious. Were those songs about Percy?"

That little shit. He doesn't seem so cute anymore.

The Avengers were all looking at him with such eagerness, he was half tempted to say no. But they were Percy's friends, and he genuinely liked Percy very much and maybe they might be able to help set them up? Or was he being too hopeful?

"Yes." He acquiesced. "Percy was the inspiration for quite a number of them."

Cue a thousand annoying questions about said songs. He was getting very annoyed.

"Pardon me if I'm wrong," Natasha asked him. Her tone said that Apollo wasn't going to like this question. "I think I remember you saying that Percy was the youngest god at around 31 years old!? But I'm pretty sure you've been around since the time of ancient Greece, if your stories are to be believed. That's quite the age-difference isn't it?"

He did not like her question.

Question answer session was over, he decided, and dropped a bomb on them.

"I just heard that Percy and the others are being held somewhere in Washington DC."

"You're deflecting, and leading us on a wild goose chase." Natasha declared.

Why is this so hard!? Apollo thought.

"I spoke to Andrew Loris's spirit in the underworld. The information is correct."

"You haven't moved an inch from this place."

I'm a god!?

"And do you know he was telling the truth."

I'm the god of truth!? Did they not listen to anything he said!?

"How do you even speak to a spirit!?"

"The Underworld!?"

Looks like the question answer session wasn't over yet.

"You know what, while you were here lazing about and torturing me with questions, I've assembled a team to help us search the capital and find everyone. Why don't you ask me those questions once I've introduced you to the team?"

-

Nico couldn't tell how much time had passed since Polybotes did his weird vomiting ritual.

He just hoped Percy was okay.

They weren't hurting any of them for now. It was all just threatening and making them record videos.

So far so good. Right?

The problem with the power and speech restrictions was that they couldn't protest. They couldn't talk startegy, they couldn't just use their powers and improvise and the constant surveillance meant that they were sitting ducks until someone came to rescue them.

Nico just hoped that Percy could sense they were in danger. He's their only hope.

But ofcourse that hope was shattered within minutes.

Sometime later, the doors had been thrown open with a bang.

Chrysaor had waltzed in and announced in a flurry of excitement, "If you were under the impression that my father's wretched bastard would come to your rescue, you're doomed."

He had paused for dramatic effect and declared.

"We have Perseus. Remember demigods, and whatever you two are." He had waved dismissively at the blonde and the green haired one.

"Honestly, he looks so harmless when he's out cold. Almost pitiful." If his face was visible over that disgusting golden headgear, it would've been twisted in mock sympathy.

"Good luck seeing him in one piece again."

And he had walked out.

None of them had looked at each other again for sometime.

Nico didn't know how to take the news.

If it was even true.

Something told him it was, though. They were Demigods, they had been taught to trust their instincts.

How Percy had gotten captured, they didn't know.

But the situation was bad. Very bad. Percy was a god and he had gotten captured.

The situation was more dire than they had thought.

Or maybe Percy had gotten himself captured on purpose?

Nico dearly hoped so.

-

Wade had been wandering around the United States for two days now.

He asked his numerous contacts, got shot multiple times, got stabbed about three times and got pierced by railings twice. And yet, he had no idea what he was searching for. He knew Percy was in some soup. But he didn't know what soup. Chicken soup, he hoped.

No distractions Wade, he chided himself.

He'd taken a boat from New York the other day. Nothing good ever happened in that city.

Now, he was walking through what he was sure was a very important city.

He might've seen pictures of it somewhere.

He could see some important buildings too. He didn't know which buildings they were though. He didn't care. He was probably going to live long enough to see them all of them be demolished and aliens building futuristic shit in their place.

He didn't know how far Matt was from here. He knows Murdock always stays in Hell's Kitchen, but he didn't know how far from Hell's Kitchen he was, so he didn't know where Matt was.

He wondered about what Matt had told him, and recalled all the videos Matt had shown him. Poor guy, he thought. Not being able to see Percy Jackson. Matt must be the unluckiest man on the planet.

Percy Jackson was still the prettiest man to ever live, according to Wade. He doubted anyone would disagree. Second came Apollo, and boy did he get the shock of his life when he learnt that the two of them were married!

He wondered if they'd be willing to have a threesome.

Dream couple indeed! Wade was frothing at the mouth just imagining the two of them together.

He paused when he felt something soft under his foot.

He looked down and was met with the sight of a rabid dog pouncing on him.

Wade ran for his life, praying to God that nobody would manage to get a video of Deadpool being chased around by a rabid dog. He would never be able to live it down.

Or maybe he could outlive it.

The only perk of immortality.

He hated his life.

Wade ran and ran and ran and ran. He turned to look back at a point. Is that a lion or a dog!?

Nevermind, he thought, and continued to run for his life.

He saw a towering white structure in the distance.

It looked cool.

The top was shiny.

Super cool, he thought, and started to run in it's direction.

As he approached the building? It didn't look like a building. It was a Tower. Without windows! He could be Rapunzel! But without hair, or tits, or clear skin.

He just hoped a Flynn Rider would come to his rescue.

He kept running to the white Tower and saw two guards at the door.

A few metres before he reached the entrance, a blonde dude walked out of the door. He looked like a bloody super model. He was wearing a purple shirt with golden buttons and black pants. He was clearly rich as fuck.

He noticed Wade.

What a first impression, Wade thought.

He extended a hand, and Wade's world came to a standstill. Or maybe it was just him that came to a standstill, because everyone else was moving just fine, and the dog had disappeared.

The blonde dude (he had blue eyes, Wade noted), turned to the guards and told them, "Tie him up with the others in the dining room. We can have him for dinner tonight."

Oh boy, Wade thought, now he was in the soup too.