Chapter 17
Tony POV
Holy Shit. This kid is damn powerful. I'm waiting outside Percy's room in the med bay. Bruce is patching him up while I try to burn holes in the ground by pacing around. Everyone else was removed from the med bay with my empty suit guarding the entrance, only the Avengers were allowed to enter.
I try to calm my breathing down. In. Out. In. Out. When I suddenly feel a hand grab mine. My hand is placed against something warm. I can hear someone speak but it's too far away, I feel like I'm underwater. Drowning,
No. I wrestle with the memories, pushing them back. Slowly, oh so slowly, I can see the blurry outline of a figure, coaxing me back to reality.
"You're doing great Tony, just breathe, listen to my voice, and tell me 3 things you can hear." The voice grounds me, I pant, "Your voice, my voice and-and a beep-beeping noise."
"Good, now tell me 3 things you can touch." The voice continues, soft yet demanding.
"The-the carpet, my pants and the w-w-wall." I stutter out. Dimly I can feel a hand rubbing my back, gradually with the voice still soothing me my breathing evens out and my mind and body starts calming down.
As my vision returns I realize the person in front of me is Nat. I blink in shock she just gives me a wry smile in return.
"Um…thanks Nat, never thought I'd say that." I joke out but my voice comes out all hoarse and raspy. Nat exchanges a worried glance with Steve who's standing some ways off looking at me with…is that concern?
I give them both a reassuring smile, "It's okay m'fine now. The attack's the worst part, rest it's okay. I can handle myself now."
They both look worried but at my insistence give grudging nods. At that moment Bruce comes out looking exhausted but pleased.
I open my mouth to ask but Steve beats me to it, "How's Percy?"
Bruce gives a small smile saying, "He's perfectly alright and is sleeping now. We discovered that water heals him. Like some water accidentally landed on one of his cuts and the cut immediately stopped bleeding and healed, no trace of it ever being there. So we tried the same on his wound. Worked like a charm. Instant healing although there'll be a scar." He winces a bit at the end, considering how many scars Percy has it's a miracles there's room for more.
He then turns to us, "So let's check you up."
I stop him with a shake of my head, "Percy was the only one fighting. He just…I don't even have words. I'll let you watch the footage. C'mon let's head up. Oh, and take the kid."
Steve goes into Percy's room and brings him out carrying him bridal style. I snort and snap a quick picture for blackmail purposes later. Cap gives me the Eyebrows of Disappointment(TM).
"C'mon Cap don't give me those Eyebrows of Disappointment(TM) . It's purely for blackmail purposes."
At the same time the lift arrives and we step in. The doors close behind us with a soft hiss. We stay quiet.
"Holy Shit. Percy is…Heck I don't even know what to say. He's ridiculously powerful. Did you see how easily he conjured up that hurricane? Thor was right, I would not want to be on his bad side."
Bruce was still staring at the screen astounded, and I did not blame him. In fact had I not seen it with my very own eyes it would've been hard to believe too.
"I for one totally agree with Brucie-bear on this. And now I don't know about you guys but I'm super hungry, so what do you say to pizzas?"
An hour later we were all lying on the couches when Percy came out. He looked better and well rested than I've ever seen him.
"Hey guys. Got anything to eat?" Right one cue his stomach growled. He blushed and looked down embarrassed. I snickered lightly and threw him a box of pizza, he looked up catching it just in time.
He just nodded in thanks too embarrassed to say anything and started eating, no the correct word here would be inhaling. He demolished the pizza in 5 minutes flat without taking a breath. Once he'd finished he looked up and saw us gaping at him.
He simply rolled his eyes saying, "C'mon this isn't even the weirdest thing you've seen yet."
Looking at each other we had to agree.
"Fair point kid." Steve muttered, then continued, "Anyways-" he was then cut off when suddenly an image appeared in mid-air causing everyone except Percy to jump.
He just calmly looked at it and waved, "Hey Thals. Why'd you call?" Thalia? I concentrated on the image more, that's when I saw that Thalia was indeed there and talking, like a video call, behind her there were a lot of girls running around.
Then I heard her speak in a worried voice, "Hey Kelp Head, has anything unusual being going on in the city?"
Percy shook his head but then said, "Wait, today a huge army of monsters attacked on Central Park, there were a lot of hell hounds. We managed to kill them but how did they come and in such huge numbers. Oh, and there was also the Minotaur. Honestly, I've lost count of how many times I've killed him. He just won't stay dead."
All of us looked confused at that statement, Percy just waved his hand casually saying, "I'll explain later. Anyways Pinecone Face, what's with the Hunter's, you seem worried."
Thalia replied through a sigh, "Lady Artemis was called to Olympus, she left me in charge but the monster attacks are increasing every day plus the number of monsters too, Gods Percy I don't know what's happening. I'm getting a really bad feeling that something huge is coming. I just hope I'm wrong and that we get at least some peace."
Percy's look turns grave and he suddenly looks like he aged 10 years in a moment, his voice is dead serious as he says, "I have an idea about who is behind this and if I'm right, oh dear Gods I honestly hope I'm wrong, because if I'm right in thinking who our enemy is, we're doomed. If I'm right then there's no way this isn't ending in another war." Percy's face grows increasingly pale as he says this. "Shit. I hope Camp's okay, I'm going there. Ugh, why can't I get a fucking break! Thalia meet me at Camp."
"Yeah Percy, see you there." She slashes her hand through the mist and it disappears. Meanwhile Percy is pacing around the floor muttering to himself. Cap clears his throat and Percy turns around realizing there are others here.
"Oh sorry. I'd gotten a little lost in my head." He says sheepishly before his serious expression returns, "Okay so I need to check if my suspicions are correct first, then I'll tell you guys everything. I'll be back."
And without letting us get a word in he disappears. What? How did he just do that? I'll have to ask him later. Right now the shock of the day is proving too much and I feel that I'm going to crash soon. I turn to the others saying,
"Well this is just too much weirdness in a day. I'm going to crash. Night people, we'll discuss this in the morning." I leave the room before anyone can argue but I have a feeling they're just as weirded out as I am.
Clint POV
"Tasha you up?" I quietly ask. A groan and a muffled fuck off is my only reply.
"Come on Tasha. I need to ask you something..."
"It can wait till morning Clint. Go bother someone else." Natasha replies and turns over covering herself with the blanket. I pout slightly but leave, there's no way to talk to Natasha when she gets like this, so I make my way down searching for someone else. To my surprise I see Percy sitting on the kitchen table looking at something.
I look closer and it seems to be a album. I don't want to startle him so I clear my throat slightly. He doesn't even look up as he says, "Hey Clint. What're you doing up?"
I narrow my eyes at him but walk closer, "That's a question I should be asking you mister. Why are you up?"
Percy smirked slightly and shrugged, "I asked you first, but if you must know I just couldn't sleep. Too much on my mind."
I sat down gently beside him, "Well me too kid. But whatcha looking at?"
Percy smiled, I let out a relieved breath, I was on the right track, "That's Annabeth, and we were 12 I think at the time. The first day I arrived at the Camp, this girl called Clarisse decided to give me a swirly, we didn't know who my godly parent was then so she dunked my head in the toilet bowl and bam, the water flew over me showering her and her friends all the pipes in the bathroom burst open, basically just drenching everything. She stank of toilet water for days after that. We were enemies at first but we're sort of good friends now."
Clint chuckles, "I would have loved to see that happen, you know before I joined SHIELD I used to work in a circus, I ran away from home and joined them. It wasn't the best but it was still fun. One time, we accidentally let the zebra out, he ran away and we had to spend a whole day chasing him, well the others did me and a friend of mine went to a local fair and had an amazing time trying everything out. That was the place where I met Phil Coulson, the man who took me in SHIELD."
They spend some more time exchanging stories, Clint has to grudgingly admit that Percy's adventures sound better. They finally leave the hall at about 1 am when an extremely sleep deprived Tony Stark comes in, spots Percy, then looks at the time and yells at them both, "You should both be in bed right now. Go the fuck to sleep."
Neither of them says anything to how hypocritical Tony is being, but I giggle and inwardly marvel at the dad energy Tony is giving right now. Now that I think about it the man has been giving it for a day or two when it comes to Percy. Another thing to tease him about. I bid Percy good night before heading to my room where I fall asleep in my cozy nest.