-• •- - •- ••• •••• •-

 Natasha had always been a patient person. It was necessary for a spy —she was always waiting for the right moment to strike. 

However, even her carefully curated patience could only take so much. 

After twenty minutes of listening to Thor lecture his younger brother while the Hulk growled menacingly from the corner and shield agents carefully avoided the latter’s wrath while trying to extract Loki from the first, Natasha had snapped and calmly but firmly sent her ‘teammates’ with instructions to help the others with search and rescue. 

It was almost sad, but Loki proved to be much more bearable company by himself. 

Well, to be fair, he had been gagged and was mostly just staring into space blankly at the moment.

Still .

She filled out paperwork and debriefed with the other agents —he rest of the Avengers would have to do the same later and she would rather not be there when that happened, thanks— and allowed one of the medics to fuss over the scratch on her forehead. 

“A group of teenagers, you say?” The agent asked incredulously. He was one of many agents present with whom Natasha had never spoken but had seen several times over the years. She’d never learned his name and it felt insensitive to ask now.

“Yes,” she confirmed. “I’ve only met three of them but apparently there are more who have been helping direct civilians and treat the wounded.”

“What about the three you met?” The agent prompted. He seemed like one of the better agents —antisocial and rough around the edges, but not cruel like some of the others.

“The names they gave us were Riptide, Skepsi and Pyre. Riptide was…” She began, then faltered, searching her memories. She couldn’t recall much else about him, or the rest of them for that matter, which was strange because her whole life, she’d been trained to analyze new people. 

How tall had he been, again? His hair had been dark, but was it black or brown? He had been a teenager, but she couldn’t quite pinpoint a specific age. When she thought of his face it was blurred and indistinct. 

She shook her head. Maybe she remembered the others better. Skepsi had had light hair. 

It was bright blonde, like it had been bleached from the sun… or had it been dirty blonde? 

She huffed in frustration. Even Pyre, who she had spent the most time with, was garbled in his memories. She knew for a fact that she’d noticed specifics about him —an accent maybe?— but they were lost to her now. 

“I can’t seem to remember almost anything about them.” She growled, rubbing her eyes in an uncharacteristic display of frustration.

“Is that so?” The agent said slowly, surprise evident in his raised eyebrows. The Black Widow was known, among other things, for her eerily accurate first impressions and near-flawless memory. “But they were capable fighters and knew what to do in a crisis?”

“They clearly had battle training, and field experience of some sort.” She confirmed. That was one of the few things she knew for sure. 

These kids were highly skilled and very dangerous. To their enemies at least.

“I’ll run it by Fury, but It sounds like we’ll need to meet these teenagers for ourselves.” The agent said, and he left the room with one hand on his earpiece. When he returned, his eyes were gleaming with a viscous kind of glee that made Natasha re-evaluate her original assessment of him. “Inform the rest of the Avengers to bring them in by any means necessary. They could prove very useful to us.”

“Understood.” She reached for her earpiece. She’d talk to Clint first. He was the most likely to follow through once he heard what must be done.

“Clint.”

There was a grunt of affirmation. 

“Are you with the teenagers now?” She asked quietly. With the powers she’d seen from them so far, there was no telling if one of them had enhanced hearing.

“Yeah I am.” Came the response.

“Leave the room so you can’t be overheard but make sure you don’t lose any of them.” 

She waited until he gave the all clear before continuing.

“You need to bring them in. Gather them all in one place and convince them if you can. If you can’t… well. Fury wants to talk with them. Do what you need to.” Natasha instructed.

“You see, I’m not all that good at convincing people to do things.” Clint said softly. “That’s more your area of expertise, and with the abilities that I’ve seen so far I don’t think that I’d be able to overpower them on my own. I’m out of arrows.” 

“What kind of abilities?” Natasha asked.

“Well one of them —Fai, I hear one of them call him— shapeshifts, I definitely saw Siren quazi-brainwash someone to put them to sleep, Raphael can heal people, Azrael disappeared right in front of me and there’s a new one who can make doubles of himself the way Loki does. His aren’t illusions, though, and they all do different things and they’re tangible. It’s like he clones himself. That one can heal, too, and he’s older than the others.” Clint paused for a long moment, “I don’t think I got his name.”

Natasha paused to think about that for a moment. Fai and Azrael could easily escape Clint, and Siren might be able to make him let them go. That last one sounded like trouble too —the ability to always have the advantage in numbers was nothing to scoff at. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. Our best bet is to convince them. Take notes about them if you can, one of them seems to have the power to cloud memory.” Natasha sighed. “Just… keep them from leaving.”

•••• •- --•• • •-••

By the time Apollo chimed in through Will’s com to inform them that paramedics were arriving imminently, Hazel had probably made about a hundred trips to and from different hospitals, through the streets of New York to collect more mortals and to the MOMA to get them sorted and decide which ones to send. 

She followed Leo’s directions as he relayed them from Festus —who apparently could track them through the earpieces— to Piper, Percy, and Annabeth and dropped them off at the entrance of the MOMA. 

Then she went to go get Frank, who was apparently taking too long and wouldn’t get there on time. 

Seeing as she was tired and she hadn’t been the one running around all day, she could understand why flying, prowling and galloping for hours on end while toting mortals back and forth would make someone a bit slower than usual. Even Arion was flagging slightly, though it was doubtful anyone other than her would have noticed.

She sped over to him, slowing to a stop as she spotted a vulture gliding overhead. 

“Hey! Fai,” She called, cupping one hand over her mouth. Frank turned to circle down towards her, landing on her outstretched arm. His grip was loose, carefully gripping only her plated armor so his long claws didn’t scratch her skin. “You might want to change into something that can hold on a bit better.” She commented, running her hands along the feathers of Frank’s back, straightening them out carefully. The skin rippled underneath her fingers, shrinking and shifting back into the snake from earlier. 

Evidently Frank wasn’t feeling very creative.

The snake slithered up her arm and around her shoulders lethargically and she stroked his skales sympathetically before holding on tight to Arion as he galloped back to the MOMA. 

When they reached the crowd outside the MOMA’s clear glass doors, she slid from Arion’s back. Frank’s breathing was slow and steady against her collarbone, so she moved carefully as she crouched to pick up nuggets of gold and fed them to Arion. 

He knickered softly at her and she stroked his nose, then he tossed his head and whinnied before disappearing in a trail of smoke and distant hoofbeats. 

Percy winced. “That horse really has a mouth on him. He should know better,” Percy playfully covered Nico’s ears with his hands “I mean, there are children present.”

“I’m older than all of the rest of you put together.” Nico huffed, ducking away from his hands and shoving him away. He leaned into Will, who had reappeared at some point, wrapping his arms around him from behind and leaning against him. 

Will looked… strange. He was clearly exhausted, but he seemed almost… steadier than before? More settled. 

Whatever had happened, it must have turned out alright. 

Hazel turned her attention back to Nico.

“Actually, I’m older than you.” Hazel teased, giggling as he glared at her petulantly from over Will’s shoulder.

“Yeah, but that just means you’re too old fashioned and pure to hear that kind of language.” Leo chimed in with a fiendish grin. “I mean, Haze blushes when someone says ‘crap’. If she heard anything worse she might actually faint.” 

She slapped the back of his head lightly and gave him a few choice words in Latin that made Percy choke on his own spit and then burst into a fit of what might have been coughing or laughter. 

At this point it was difficult to say. 

“Alright, enough teasing.” Apollo said, smiling good-naturedly. 

It was strange how much his voice had changed since his time as a mortal. From what she’d heard, it had once been loud and tinny. Then as a mortal it had been melodious, yet still distinctly human. Now it was softer, lower and smoother, and yet somehow more piercing. It cut through the surrounding noise with its strange vibrating melody and easily quieted those around it. 

“I’ll have to leave once the paramedics arrive, but I can send the rest of you off before they get here.” Apollo continued, glancing up at the sky nervously. “We have eight or nine minutes, so you need to decide where to go soon.”

“Wait, you’re just leaving?” Hawkeye asked, arms crossed as he leaned against the side of the building. Hazel turned her head to study him. He’d been so quiet that she’d nearly forgotten he was there. Captain America —and hadn’t that been a surprise— was standing beside him. 

“Our work here is done.” Annabeth shrugged. “There’s no point in staying once the mor-” she caught herself quickly, “medics get here. We’d just be in the way.” 

“You could come with us.” Hawkeye offered carefully. “There are some people who would love to talk with you back at the Helicarrier.”

They all glanced at each other. Annabeth shrugged. “I don’t know why you’re all looking at me. This isn’t a dictatorship, we can make our decision as a group.”

“Wait,” Hazel held up her hand. “I need to wake up Fai, he should have a say in this.” She nudged his head with one knuckle and murmured to him softly. 

He opened his mouth in a yawn that unhinged his jaw and she saw Apollo pale out of the corner of her eye, looking distinctly uncomfortable. Frank transformed into a parakeet for a split second (which seemed like a random choice but who was she to judge?) and took off from her shoulders, landing softly on his feet as a human. He held a hand over his mouth as he yawned again. 

Captain America’s jaw dropped. “That—” he cut off, opening and closing his mouth soundlessly. 

Hawkeye raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re telling me this is the first time you’ve noticed the shapeshifter?” He asked judgmentally. “ Cap , you need to be more observant.”

“What’d I miss?” Frank asked, running a hand through his hair to neaten it. 

“Paramedics are coming, we need to decide where we’re going before then so that Lester can get us there, and Hawkeye asked us to come with him to his ‘helicarrier’” She glanced at Annabeth. “Am I the only one who has no clue what a helicarrier is?”

“I’m assuming it’s like a really big helicopter,” She said, tilting her head in thought. “Some kind of flying base or airstrip.”

“That,” Hawkeye said, sounding impressed. “Is correct.”

Frank hummed, eyeing Hawkeye suspiciously. “If we went to this ‘helipad’, would we be able to leave whenever we wanted?”

“You would be free to leave once we took your statements and spoke with you.” He said, nodding.

“Would we be followed or tracked after we left?” Hazel asked, watching his face carefully.

“No,” Hawkeye said. “You would have a way to contact us, and hopefully the opposite would be true as well.”

He seemed genuine to her, but Will narrowed his eyes and held up a hand. “That’s a lie.” he said confidently, “They would track us.”

Hawkeye’s eyes widened in surprise, but he shrugged it off easily and chuckled. “I guess nothing gets past you guys. You’re right.” He paused, unfolding his arms and hanging his thumbs from his pockets. 

“SHIELD, the government agency that brought the Avengers together, is very dedicated to knowing more about people with abilities like yours. That’s how they were able to get a team together to respond to this attack. If you had a way to contact us, you could request help if you ever needed it —and vice-versa. You could even get a job as an agent and use your abilities to protect Earth.” He turned to Will. “Am I lying now?”

“No,” Will said smoothly. “That was the truth.”

Annabeth sent him a quizzical look, and he answered quickly in Ancient Greek. Hazel caught the words “gift” and “Apollo”, but the rest was Greek to her. Literally . 

Annabeth seemed to accept the explanation though, so his verdict on Hawkeye must have been sound. Mercifully, Nico turned to them and translated his words into Latin. “ He says that it’s a gift from Apollo, the god of truth.” He nodded to where Apollo was standing, fiddling with his hands and looking nervously into the sky as the distant sound of sirens grew louder.

Well that was a useful skill to have.

Sometimes Hazel forgot how many things Apollo was the god of. The guy must have been busy for the last several thousand years.

“We can’t go with you, but we wouldn’t be opposed to further contact.” Annabeth said, looking around for confirmation. Hazel nodded her agreement.

An ambulance turned the corner and approached them and she quickly shielded them from view with the mist. Apollo looked up as clouds began to gather in the once-clear sky. 

Apparently Jupiter was not in a lenient mood.

“So do you have a card or something?” Apollo asked. “Because we really do need to get going.” 

Hawkeye dug through his pockets and pulled out two cards and a pen. He scribbled something on the back of the cards. “You’re in luck.” He grinned, handing them to Apollo. “One of those is SHIELD’s official line. The one on the back is my personal number.”

Oh gods did he just wink ? 

She had to force down a smile as she looked at Apollo, who was blushing so furiously gold that he was literally glowing . 

“Right.” Apollo coughed. He tucked one of the cards into his jeans and handed the other to Annabeth. 

Then he turned to Percy and began conversing with him in Ancient Greek. 

Percy nodded and answered in kind. 

Gods that’s annoying. She had no clue what either of them were saying.

The paramedics rushed into the MOMA, walking right past them without seeing them. 

The clouds darkened menacingly. Apollo turned to her and Frank and hurriedly spoke in Latin. “ I’m sending you to the Jackson apartment. You can catch up a bit and get food there without getting swarmed by the other campers. Do you want to go somewhere else, or is that alright?”

“ That’s fine, ” Hazel answered, and saw Frank nodding in agreement out of the corner of her eye. 

Lightning flashed, striking Apollo. The thunder followed immediately afterwards, near-deafening in its volume and drowning out any other sound. She started forward with a cry, but had barely taken a step before they dissolved into sunlight and their surroundings disappeared in a blur of movement. When they re-formed, they were in a homey apartment with two very surprised mortals and a young toddler.

Hazel was the first to recover. She dismissed the mist that she’d attached to each of them and waved awkwardly. “Hello. You must be Percy’s mom?”

-•-• •-•• •• -• -

Clint was generally good at rolling with the punches. He’d lived a pretty weird life, starting with being raised and ending up as an agent of a super-secret agency that fights aliens. 

So today hadn’t been as… difficult for him as it had been on Cap and the others. At least not now that he had his head on straight. He was doing great.

An unfairly attractive man who could clone himself and heal decade-old injuries? 

Cool.

An enormous bronze dragon that somehow folds down into a suitcase? 

Sure.

A horse that eats gold and runs at the speed of sound? 

Sounds useful.

Paramedics that walk past an entire group of people without even noticing? 

Why not?

Teenagers talking in a language he —an international spy who had traveled the world for literal years— didn’t even recognize ? 

Okay, that one hurt, but still. Totally acceptable.

Then Lester —and Clint was quite sure that was not his real name, but Cap called him that and he responded so whatever— got struck by lightning when the sky had been perfectly clear minutes before and Thor was still flying back from a hospital in New Jersey. 

Then all of the teenagers disappeared in a flash of light.

Then Clint blinked the spots out of his eyes, expecting to see a charred and broken body on the ground in front of him.

Then Lester straightened with a wince, his skin luminous and distinctly not-charred, his entire body flickering in and out of view like a mirage on a cloudy day. He cleared his throat and met Clint’s eyes before glancing away, smoothing the wrinkles of his shirt with his hands as his form finally solidified. 

Uh. What?

Right. Well I was not expecting that.

“What the hell was that?” He asked. The man was still steaming from being struck by lightning , but he looked completely calm. Completely calm, that is, until Clint stepped forward.

“Stay back ” Lester yelped, flinching away with his arms outstretched. He stopped abruptly.

There was a moment of silence where even Lester seemed surprised, and then he changed. His shoulders dropped from where they had scrunched up next to his ears. His back straightened and his stance widened slightly. His face smoothed out into an expression of apologetic confidence. 

The change was unnatural, jarring —at least it was to him. He’d spent years studying body language. Years with Natasha —an expert in hiding her emotions. 

Years that made the difference obvious. 

“Are you okay?” Clint asked cautiously, creeping forwards slowly with his hands up, palms forward —the universal sign for ‘i’m not a threat’.

Lester stepped back smoothly. “Sorry. He might—” He stopped abruptly, his eyes widening for a split-second, before his expression smoothed over again. 

He started over again.“That might happen again, and I don’t want you to get struck.”

“It might happen again? What do you mean , it might happen again? Wait—” He felt his eyes narrow as he thought through what Lester had said. “Who’s ‘ he ’? Is he the one who made that lightning?” He stepped forward as Lester flashed out of view again. “Why do you keep disappearing like that?” 

Lester took a casual step back. “I do apologize,” he said with a charming smile. “It seems that I’m being summoned. We’ll have to continue this conversation at a later date.” 

He began to glow, dissolving into light, but Clint stepped forward and held onto his arm. “You can’t just leave without explaining anything.”

Lester froze, half-dissolved limbs re-forming, and grasped his wrist with gentle fingers. He pulled Clint’s hand away from his arm and pushed it back towards him before taking yet another step back. “We’ll talk again, I swear it on the river Styx. I’ll try to explai—” his words were cut off by another burst of lightning that struck him dead on and made electricity lance across his form. 

Remarkably, he stayed silent, curling slightly into himself with teeth gritted into an almost-smile and his face still frozen in that pleasant expression. When he straightened again, his face was smooth and unbothered, even though tendrils of electricity were still jumping from limb to limb. “Well gentlemen, I’ll be going now.” he nodded to them and dissolved into golden light. 

Almost instantly, the gray storm clouds lightened and parted, leaving a clear blue sky with bright sunlight that threw harsh shadows against the pavement as paramedics began rushing to and fro with stretchers on wheels and shock blankets. 

“What just happened?” Cap breathed, staring at the empty space around them that had been filled with people mere moments before. 

One of the paramedics —a middle-aged blonde woman— gave them each an assessing look before wrapping the both of them in shock blankets and sitting them down with a cup of lukewarm water, looking completely unimpressed with their protests. 

She left them with a stern look and orders not to move until they’d finished their water. Feeling a bit like a child, Clint sat obediently on the piece of rubble she’d cleared off for them and sipped at his water, going over the events of the day in his head.

It was certainly a lot more than just weird .

He took a drink from his cup, but no water passed his lips. He looked down at it, confused. 

It was empty. 

Huh, guess I’m allowed to move now.

He glanced over at Cap, who had barely finished half of his cup. 

He didn’t move. 

“Clint?” Natasha’s voice made his head snap up and he blinked at her. She looked almost as exhausted as he felt.  “Where are all the kids?”

“They turned into sunlight and disappeared.” He said blankly. “They have my number though, and one of them promised to call me.”

Natasha sighed, rubbing at her forehead. “Well I guess there’s nothing you really could have done about that.” 

He snorted. “Tell me about it.” 

She sat down beside him and leaned into his side, sending a vaguely concerned look at Cap, who had failed to react to her appearance at all. Clint shrugged. 

She sighed, leaning against his side. He relaxed at the contact.

Natasha groaned suddenly, sitting up straight. Clint threw her an affronted look.

“Fury’ll be pissed.” she scowled.

Oh god. 

Fury .

••-• •-• •- -• -•-

Frank had always been somewhat uncomfortable in other people’s houses. He never knew what to do with himself and he was constantly reminded that he was in someone else’s space. 

It was a fairly common experience, he thought. Tons of people probably had trouble in other people’s houses. 

It was totally normal for him to panic and turn into a poodle.

At least that was what he was telling himself. 

The fortunate thing about this situation was that his entire body was covered in curly white hair, and thus nobody could see the violently red flush that was heating his face and neck.

Poodles can’t blush. 

Poodles are dignified and confident animals. 

Thus I am dignified, confident and not blushing.  

Yeah okay that wasn’t working. 

He morphed back into his human form, his hand covering his face in a tragically unsuccessful attempt to ward off the embarrassment. 

All of his friends were chuckling or snorting into their collars —mercifully stifling their amusement for his sake. Hazel patted his arm sympathetically and let him hide his face in her hair, which was poofing outwards in a curly cloud now that she’d taken her helmet off. 

There was a delighted sounding gurgle that carried over the softer laughs, and after a moment he felt tiny hands tugging at the cuffs of his jeans. 

He looked down in surprise and found a baby with dark black hair and green eyes holding onto his leg and staring at him as if he were the most fascinating thing in the world. 

Oh. That must be Percy’s sister, Estelle.

She’s so tiny. 

What if I step on her? He thought, nervousness bubbling up in him like a shaken bottle of coke and mentos.

He tried to step back and free his leg, but Estelle held on tight with a surprisingly strong grip. Well, he thought dryly, she is Percy Jackson’s little sister.

“Frank?” Hazel asked from beside him, sounding some strange mix of concerned and amused. “You good there?”

“Uhhuh.” He answered, not taking his eyes off the kid. If he looked away she might crawl somewhere else and he could end up crushing her by accident.

“That’s a child.” He said intelligently.

“Yes it is.” Hazel agreed. 

“What do I do with it?” He asked, finally tearing his eyes from the kid to look at his girlfriend. She looked between him and the baby and shrugged.

Well that was distinctly unhelpful.

He heard Percy snort and turn to his mother, speeding through what seemed to be a thorough explanation of the day’s events.

Frank just stood there, frozen.

Thankfully, Leo took pity on him and reached down, picking Estelle up with a practiced ease and an exasperated but fond look in Frank’s direction. 

She was not terribly pleased by this, reaching towards Frank with her grubby little baby hands and a pout, but Leo just bounced her in his arms and began babbling at her in Spanish. 

This was, apparently, entertaining enough for her full attention and she turned those bright eyes away from him at last. 

Frank tried not to show his relief, but by the teasing nudge he got from Piper it seemed that he was unsuccessful. He turned to Percy’s Mom —Suzie? Ms. Jackson? Wait, no. Mrs. Blowfish? 

Something like that.

“You must be Frank, then.” She said, smiling fondly at him. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“You have?” He asked, glancing at Percy. He was busy trying to pry his sister from Leo, who was protesting vehemently that he was being stolen from. He looked back at Percy’s Mom. 

“Of course. It seems that you’ve made quite the impression on Estelle. I think she likes you.” She said with a calm smile. 

“Well, um. Thanks.” Frank shifted awkwardly before putting out a hand for her to shake. That was a thing that people did with adults, right? “It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Blowfish.”

She chuckled and bypassed his outstretched hand, pulling him into a hug instead.

It was warm and gentle and kind of made him want to cry but we’re not gonna talk about that.  

She pulled away, her hands lingering by her shoulders. “Just Sally is fine, dear. And it’s an honor to meet you, Praeter Zhang. Thank you for taking care of my son —in New Rome and here.” She said, sincerity dripping from her voice in the same way sarcasm often dripped from her son’s.

Yeah okay, Frank saw the family resemblance. 

The wholehearted intensity of that gaze was definitely a trait that Sally had passed on to her children. Though where Percy’s stare was intimidating and Estelle’s curious, Sally’s was… motherly ? There wasn’t really a better word for it. It was just… caring and worried and genuine and loving and yeah okay definitely about to cry now .

And then, as if sensing that he was getting overwhelmed, she was gone with a final smile. She went about greeting the others and stopping Percy from pouncing on Leo with a stern look. Frank wiped his eyes inconspicuously with the back of his hand. 

“So, she’s adopted you too then?” Nico said wryly from behind him. Frank looked over at him, confused. “She did the same thing to me like four years ago and I’ve been expected to show up for family gatherings ever since.” 

It seemed like he was trying to sound annoyed, but there was something soft and fond in his eyes that Frank had scarcely seen aside from his interactions with Will.

“It’s true.” Will confirmed, slinging his lanky arms over both their shoulders. “She insisted on meeting me to make sure I was worthy of her tiny skeleton child.” 

“That is so not what happened.” Nico rolled his eyes but settled more firmly against Will’s side. 

He turned to Frank again. “Congratulations, you’re now an honorary Jackson. Visits are required at least bi-annually. Expect to be wrangled into family photos.”

“Um, thanks?” Frank said uncertainly. 

Nico huffed. “Don’t worry, she’s not trying to replace anyone. She just… cares.” he shrugged, sounding surprised himself. “They both do.”

There was a subtle flash of light and Frank turned to see Leo, smoking slightly from the ears with his signature grin nowhere to be found. He was blinking hard and staring at Sally as she bounced Estelle on her hip and greeted Hazel. 

“It seems my services are required elsewhere.” Nico smiled exasperatedly and patted Frank’s arm as he walked past.

“Alright everyone:” Paul addressed in a carrying voice. “Armor and weapons can go by the door. There are two bathrooms if anyone wants to shower off, and I’m sure we could find clothes that would fit all of you well enough so you can change. Towels are in the cupboard in the hall and you can put any salvageable clothing in the washer in the room to the left.” 

Percy and Leo —the two who had been practically drenched in alien blood and guts— went first with little argument. 

Frank began the painstaking process of unstrapping and peeling off his armor one piece at a time and packing it away in its collapsible bag. He took off his Praetor’s sport coat —which promptly reverted to its original form— and went out to the fire escape to wash it off, Hazel following behind him. 

They didn’t speak much, just enjoying the moment of silence together as they worked blood out of their capes. The material was designed to be easily cleaned, and much of the gunk came off with some water and a quick scrubbing.

They hung the capes over the railing to dry, securing them with their own clasps to ensure they couldn’t be blown away. 

Then they just stood, leaning against each other as they looked out over the city. The sun was approaching the horizon and the sky bled into red and orange, which seemed to fit the city’s general atmosphere fairly well. 

The Jacksons lived far enough away from Stark tower that their whole neighborhood was still intact, but other neighborhoods and homes hadn’t been so lucky. There was smoke rising from a street in the distance —a car on fire maybe?— and sirens echoed down the roads. 

Frank hadn’t been to New York often, but he’d never seen it so… empty. Everyone seemed to be either at home or in a hospital. It was eerie and haunting in a way that post-battles had never really been for him before. 

In New Rome, the city was often re-built by the time the day was over. People were so used to disaster that life continued on without a hitch. Camp Half-Blood was similar. They cared for their dead and treated their wounded with a practiced ease. There were moments of grief, of course. Moments of stillness and silence in honor of the lost. 

Those moments had never looked quite like this. 

They were fleeting, always being brushed past with a new cabin to be built or a wound to be bound. 

Everyone was busy after a battle.

Here it just seemed like the whole city was dead.

“Hey, guys.” Piper’s voice called them from their thoughts. “Nico’s going to grab some McDonalds if you have anything special you want, otherwise I think he’s just getting Happy Meals for everyone.”

“That sounds fine to me.” Hazel answered. She glanced at Frank who shrugged and nodded. He didn’t feel much like talking right now. 

“Frank is fine with it too, just make sure his burger doesn’t have cheese.” she continued. He intertwined their hands and squeezed hers in thanks. She smiled and leaned further into him. 

Exhaustion began seeping through again. Hazel did that to him sometimes. She felt so… safe that his brain automatically accepted any place in her proximity to be acceptable for sleep. 

It was both a blessing and a curse. His transformations took a lot out of him so it was nice to be able to sneak in the occasional cat nap, but at the same time he often found himself nodding off whenever she was close which was distinctly unhelpful. 

“Showers open.” Will said from the window. Frank jumped from where he had been nodding off against Hazel and shook himself, turning to look at him. Will’s hair was damp and he was sprawled out over the window like a house cat sunning itself. 

That was good. He’d seemed a bit… off earlier. 

“I hate to interrupt a private moment, but you’re the last ones so you don’t need to worry about bothering anybody,” he chuckled, face splitting into an easy smile. “I swear y’all are way too polite for your own good.” 

Frank nodded and reluctantly moved from Hazel’s warmth to enter the apartment again. He grabbed a towel from the cupboard and followed Piper’s pointed nod to the door of the bathroom.

If being in someone else’s house was weird, it was nothing when compared to showering in their bathroom . They had products that smelled different to the ones he was used to and like three separate loofahs that he was terrified to use. 

He took the lesser of two evils and used a washcloth from beneath the sink, feeling guilty about dirtying it. 

Despite the awkwardness, it was relieving to scrub off all the dust, ash and blood —both alien and human. 

Blood always left stains that lasted a few days when it wasn’t cleaned off near-immediately so his skin was still tinted pink and blue, but at least the smell and stickiness was gone. When he was clean, he toweled off his red-and-blue stained skin and pulled on the gray t-shirt and basketball shorts he’d been provided with. 

They were clearly the largest clothes that Paul had to offer, but they still fit him tighter than they had been designed to. The shirt in particular stretched over his broad shoulders in a far more form-fitting manner than was comfortable with. Still, they were soft and clean and they didn’t smell like death, so he viewed them as a huge improvement.

He left the bathroom and put his towel and washcloth in the washing machine. He tossed the clothes —they were beyond any mortal aid at this point.

Frank entered the living room and was quickly ushered into the kitchen where the rest of the demigods —sans Hazel, who must still be in the shower— were gathered, grabbing Happy Meals from the kitchen counter. 

The rest of the crew had decided on alternative placements, despite the perfectly good table with multiple empty seats. Weirdos, he thought fondly.

Leo and Piper were munching on french fries from where they sat on Festus-the-suitcase, which evidently had been laid on the ground for this purpose. 

Percy was sitting on top of the counter with his Happy Meal, Annabeth standing beside him and leaning against his legs as she bit into her hamburger. 

Will and Nico were sitting on the floor with their backs to the cupboards, passing sauce packets between them as they ate their chicken nuggets. 

Frank grabbed his own meal and sat down at the table with Sally and Paul, like a normal person. The food was greasy and salty, but he was so hungry that he didn’t particularly care. After a few minutes, Hazel appeared in the doorway, her hair hanging in wet curls that shone in the artificial light. She joined him at the table, further reinforcing his ‘only sane people at the table’ theory.

There were a few minutes of comfortable quiet, only the crinkling of paper and the sound of munching to fill the silence. 

“So,” Leo said between sips of soda. “Are we gonna talk about the flying blonde guy who can summon lightning and calls himself Thor?”

“No.” Piper scoffed.

“Absolutely not.” Nico said, licking some sauce from his thumb.

“Nope.” Percy chirruped, popping the p and swinging his legs.

“Why? It seems pretty important.” Annabeth said, brows furrowed. “He’s named after a Norse god, but if Magnus is right, he looks and acts nothing like the god Thor.”

“Because if we talk about Thor, we’ll end up talking about Jason, and if we talk about Jason I’m going to ugly cry all over this happy meal and it’ll get all soggy. Nobody wants to see that.” Nico said, smiling sardonically.

Leo laughed, surprised. “You know, Nico, you’re a pretty funny guy when you haven’t just been through the most traumatic experience of your life.”

“I’m flattered.” Nico deadpanned. “You’re pretty funny yourself.”

“Really?” 

“No.”

“Figures.” Leo sighed dramatically into his soda.

Percy got up for seconds and ended up distributing more food to everyone else in the room with a resigned look on his face as they all requested more food. 

Someone reached the end of their soda, the sound of their straw sucking in air filling the room.

“Alright.” Piper said, gesturing at them all with a chicken nugget. “How would you all rate this apocalypse?”

“What scale are we using?” Frank asked. 

“Umm,” She hummed, considering. “Scale of one to ten for how hard it was to stop. One is using the power of friendship to shrink your enemy and put him in a walnut and ten is blowing up the literal earth.”

“Hey, I’ll have you know that Magnus’ quest was very difficult.” Annabeth said, slightly defensive.

“You’re right, he died like six times just preparing .” Percy teased.

Annabeth flicked him in the head and he grinned at her roguishly. 

“I’d give it a two.” Leo said, tilting his head. “Fly a nuke into a portal and all the monsters just stop attacking. Easy fix.”

“Same.” Percy agreed. “Maybe a three, ‘cause you have to find a nuke first.” 

“I’d give it a six.” Nico said softly.

“Really? Why?”

“A lot of mortals died.” Will murmured gravely.

A heavy moment of silence settled over them. 

I thought we were rating it on how easy it was to stop, not the number of casualties. 

Frank decided not to bring that up.

“But none of us did!” Leo said cheerfully in a clear effort to lift the mood. “That automatically makes it better than the last three.”

“True. Though in the next apocalypse it’s definitely my turn to die and leave the rest of you heartbroken. You all better give excellent speeches at my funeral.” Percy said mock-seriously. “I expect written drafts no later than Tuesday. I’ll be reviewing them and making any necessary adjustments.”

“You’ve already had a funeral Seaweed Brain, if anything it’s my turn,” She pushed him and he leaned over obligingly, springing back up when she shot him a playful glare. “And if I have to give another funeral speech for you, I swear on the Styx I will tell everyone in attendance all of your most embarrassing moments.”

“Wait, he already had a funeral?” Hazel asked, evidently excited to add another member to the died-but-not-really club that she’d started with Leo and Frank.

“You’re joking.” Leo said, grinning already.

“No, no. She’s telling the truth, I was there,” Will piped in, raising a hand with a sardonic grin. “It was very touching.”

“I sense a story here.” Piper leaned forward in interest.

“Well it was—” Percy started, but was quieted by Annabeth’s finger on his lips.

“Shush Percy, I’m telling this one.” Annabeth cleared her throat and flipped her hair in Percy’s face as he pouted at her. “It was about two weeks after the eruption of Mount Hellen, which he still claims wasn’t his fault.”

“That’s because it wasn't, ” he protested.

“ Sure it wasn't, hon.” She patted him on the head patronizingly. “Anyways, we figured that if he hadn’t shown up at that point, he was probably dead. So there we were: burning his shroud, giving speeches about how great he was —the whole nine yards. And then he walked out of the lake, casual as anything.” she paused to glare at him. “And when I asked him where he’d been for the last two weeks he just said ‘I got lost’ and refused to explain further.”

“Late to his own funeral,” Leo shook his head. “The audacity of some people.”

“Oh you’re one to talk!” Percy sassed. “You didn’t even show up to your funeral.”

“Yeah, we thought you were dead for months,” Frank added with a shake of his head.

 “Not cool man.”

“Then we get a message from you saying, and I quote: ‘Bad news: I died, Good news: I got better’ which to this day fills me with unspeakable rage.” Nico sipped his soda casually.

“And then you don’t even have the decency to come visit us. You realize this is the first time I’ve seen you since you died?” Percy’s voice morphed slowly from teasing anger to something softer and more vulnerable, a bit of genuine hurt showing through. “I know we were never super close or anything, but…”

“I’m sorry.” Leo said, his voice low. “I just…” 

He cleared his throat slightly and brought out a few parts from his toolbelt to fiddle with. 

“We were lost for almost half a year. The gods weren’t too chuffed that we’d gotten off the island, and we might never have made it back if Harvey hadn’t made that signal booster. Then as soon as we were back we were questing again, taking Apollo to find his oracles. Then, after Jason…” his voice broke and his hands stilled on the contraption.

“I thought that seeing everyone again, all together like this would be too painful. I thought that all I would see was the empty space where he used to be.” He sniffed, and Piper wrapped her arm around his shoulders to pull him into a hug. 

He leaned into Piper. ”But now that I’m here, all I see is mi familia.” he gave a watery smile. “And as much as I miss him, and wish he were here… this is good too.”

“I… I really love you guys.”

There was a chorus of agreement from the rest of the crew. Frank added his own quiet affirmation around the growing tightness in his throat.

Nico coughed wetly. “I appreciate mushy declarations of affection as much as the next guy, but we definitely agreed to not talk about Jason. The well-being of this Happy Meal is at stake you guys.”

Frank laughed with the rest of the crew as the heavy weight in the air lessened. 

-

Soon Sally gathered them all in the living room. It was a rather tight fit —with eight teenagers, two adults and a small child— but it managed to be just this side of cramped and solidly in the realm of cozy. 

That probably had a lot to do with the person he was sitting next to. 

If he’d been squeezed in next to Leo he probably wouldn’t have been so forgiving —they’d gotten a lot closer and his wood had burned up, but Leo’s flames made him uncomfortable for a different reason now. He guessed that burning alive would do that to a person. 

Leo of all people would probably understand that.

Huh, maybe he and Leo should start a new club.

Point being, he was glad that it was Hazel plastered to his side like gum to a sidewalk and not one of the others. 

Her presence was comforting. 

Calming. 

He basked in it for a few precious moments, struggling to stay awake.

Sally came around with a tray of her famous blue cookies, and Frank refused reluctantly —he hadn’t brought his lactase and he was going to be sore enough tomorrow even without the cramps from his lactose intolerance.

When he explained as much Sally held up a finger, setting her tray down and disappearing into the kitchen. When she returned moments later, she was holding a bottle of lactase. 

“Are you lactose intolerant too?” He asked, taking a pill and then helping himself to a cookie.

“Hmm?” Sally seemed confused, then realization transformed her face and she shook her head, smiling —she did that a lot. Smiling, that is. It was nice— “Oh no, I’m not. When I heard you were I grabbed a bottle, just in case you ever needed some. And hey!” She held up a hand, “You did!”

Don’t cry don’t cry don’tcry

“How did you even have enough cookies in the oven for all of us?” Annabeth asked. 

She was sitting on Percy’s lap in the armchair, looking far more dignified than any teenager sitting in their boyfriend’s lap had any right to be. They were both unnaturally casual about the blatant PDA—the mere thought made Frank blush— but it freed up space and Sally didn’t even bat an eye at it.

Wait, what had they been talking about? 

Cookies?

“I saw the eight of you on the news so I made an extra big batch. I had a feeling you’d drop by.” Sally set her tray down on the table and sat down next to her husband, pulling Estelle into her lap. 

Right, yes. 

Now that he thought of it, it was kind of weird that there had been enough cookies in the oven for all of them.

“Wait, what do you mean, ‘you saw us on the news’?” Annabeth sat forward abruptly, nearly falling out of Percy’s lap. He hooked an arm around her waist to steady her and she patted it thankfully.

“Oh, don’t worry. I only recognized you because of my clear sight.” She waved towards her eyes. “Paul had no idea who you were.”

“That’s true.” Paul supplied. “Your faces and bodies were blurry and kept changing. I couldn’t even tell gender or ethnicity.”

Well that was a relief at least, he nudged Hazel and smiled at her when she looked up “Nice one.” She preened at the praise

“Oh it was nothing,” she dismissed with a wave, clearly pleased. 

“I’d still like to see the coverage.” Annabeth said, but she had settled back against Percy and seemed mostly unconcerned. 

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” Frank cautioned. “I mean eight demigods in one apartment is bad enough, if we start using technology…” he trailed off.

“Actually I might have a solution to that!” Leo squirmed excitedly and pulled an archimedes sphere from his toolbelt, holding it out to them proudly.

Frank sighed and sunk further into the couch. “Are we supposed to know what that is?”

“Well I was thinking about the technology problem and doing some research on it at the Waystation.” Leo said, gesticulating with his hands. “And I heard about this new prototype technology called VPNs. It stands for ‘virtual private network’ and it has a bunch of cool features. One of which being the ability to trick websites into thinking you’re in a different place than you are.” He looked at them expectantly.

They stared at him blankly.

Undaunted, he continued. “That’s what I used for the communicators. You’ll notice that none of us have been attacked by monsters and we’ve had them in for hours. SO I took the design for these and added the system for the scent-maskers from the Argo II, combined that with an archimedes sphere and some of Calypso’s magic and got this!” He held out the sphere again.

Annabeth perked up. “So it would both cover our scent and scramble our location so monsters wouldn’t be able to find us. Leo that’s brilliant!” 

There was a general chorus of understanding at this.

“Woah, that’s amazing Leo!” Piper cheered.

“Heck YEAH it is!” He crowed. “This is just a prototype bu—” he scowled at them as they hastily put as much distance between themselves and the sphere as possible. “It only blew up when I combined it with a complex processing unit. A separate device like this is fine .” He flipped a few switches and a tiny green speck on the orb lit up. 

A slightly-insane looking smile spread across Leo’s face. “That means it’s working. Should we test it out?”

Frank turned to Percy, who had ended up behind the couch. “It’s your house, man.” 

Percy exchanged a look with his mother and Paul.

They both shrugged. 

“It doesn’t seem to be exploding, so we might as well,” he said. “The worst that could happen is some monsters showing up, and seeing as the eight of us are some of the strongest demigods of this generation, I think it’s fine.”

“Sweet.” Leo grinned and tossed Percy the remote. He switched on the television. It was tuned to a news station already, probably from when Sally had been watching earlier. 

A gray-haired woman was talking, recorded footage of the Hulk playing behind her on a green-screen. “—an extraterrestrial attack, the extraordinary heroics of the group known as the Avengers has been to many a cause not only for comfort, but for celebration.”

The camera cut to a dark, curly haired reporter standing in front of the MOMA.

“But the Avengers aren’t the only group of heroes out there.” The reporter said, standing next to an elderly woman that Frank vaguely remembered having pulled out of some rubble. 

Frank read along with the subtitles so he could understand what she was saying over Leo’s cheers of victory. “I have Cristine Aguileres here to talk about another group of heroes that many are calling the ‘Teen Titans’. There are nine known members of this group: Raphael, Azrael, Pyro, Siren, Fae, Riptide, Skeptic, Haze, and Leroy. Ms. Aquilere…”

The screen froze. 

“Please tell me she did not just call us the Teen Titans, ” Percy said, gripping the remote control with a kind of barely-contained rage that made him worry for its safety.

“Wait, like the cartoon?” Will asked, brow furrowed. 

Leo started cackling. “Oh my gods, do you think it's because Frank is like Beast Boy minus the vegetarianism and unfortunate skin tone?”

“Come on guys, that’s not the worst part.” Frank said, pointing to the screen as the others laughed. “She got like half the names wrong!” 

“What do you mean?” Leo squinted at the letters. “They look fine to me.”

Oh right. 

Dyslexia.

“They have you down as Pyro, me as Fae, Annabeth as Skeptic and Apollo as Leroy.”

There was a moment of silence as the other demigods squinted at the screen before evidently accepting his words.

“Wait, Fae as in like, fairies?” Percy said, clearly trying to hold in his laughter. “They’re calling you a fairy ?”

Frank held the bridge of his nose as the rest of the crew got over their shock and began either protesting loudly or laughing at each-other’s expense. 

I hate this f***king family. He thought. 

You know, like a liar.