For we once so loved the world by HowlingDarkness95
Chapter 3
The aftermath was, to Tony at least, extremely anticlimactic. After all that excitement of running through the exploding base and up a mountain-oops, glacier- and closing a portal to prevent another alien invasion, sitting in a plane-one that wasn't even his- on the way back to New York was just so boring. Tony sighed again. And got whacked over the head as a result of it. "Ow!" he whined, "What'd you do that for?" Bruce glared at him, "You've been sighing non-stop for the past ten minutes Tony. It's getting annoying." Tony just pouted at him. Sitting across him, Percy opened an eye to glare at him, entire body wracked with tension as distant sounds of thunder rumbled in the sky.
Tony leered at him, "Scared of a little storm?" parroting his taunt towards one god of mischief several years back. Percy opened both eyes and turned his infamous death glare on Tony, making the man flinch slightly. Tony sighed, again, when Percy went back to sleep. He took out his Starkpad and fiddled with it, adding and removing certain designs to the device that had shut down the portal. He couldn't wait to get back to his lab, there was no doubt that he had been practically useless in Alaska without his suit, and he didn't want that to happen again.
Of all the avengers, he was the only one who was vulnerable outside of his armor. Steve had his super soldier serum, Clint and Natasha were assassins, their bodies were their weapons. Thor was nearly indestructible and Bruce had the Hulk, who was indestructible. That left him, Iron Man, with a suit that far surpassed any other technology on Earth. He could fly faster than Mach 2 in the suit, but without it? He couldn't kill like Clint and Natasha, and he didn't have the strength to deliver a critical hit like Steve could and he couldn't spontaneously change into some rage monster that no weapon could hurt. It all came down to the suit, and if he hadn't developed that bracelet that allowed JARVIS to connect the suit to him, Loki would have killed him long ago. That left only one option, he had to start training. Physically. he had done boxing in the past, but that was just a sport. he could be counted as fit, but he was nowhere near being able to fight bare handed. His pride stung at the admission that he was weak, but he furiously stomped the feeling down.
But trained by who? Tony wondered, definitely not the assassins, he shuddered at the thought, Natasha would kill him, Clint would be cackling away like some evil witch from Disney. Steve was too....overpowered. So was Thor. Bruce didn't even fight hand to hand. He face-palmed mentally. That only left one person. And that person was sitting right opposite him and probably couldn't even stand him. Tony sighed again, earning yet another whack from Bruce.
Percy was halfway out of the quinjet as soon as it touched the ground, feeling more at ease with the ground underneath his feet. He stalked straight towards the director's office, blatantly ignoring Stark's shout of "Hey! You just gonna leave us here?"
He ignored the call from Bruce telling him to go to the infirmary, though his shoulder twitched at that, and instead walked briskly through the halls of the SHIELD base. They had rebuilt this base from the one Loki had destroyed when he'd arrived from Zeus knows where. He knocked twice on Fury's door, waiting for his grunt of acknowledgement before entering the room. As the door slid shot behind him, he straightened and focused on the dark skinned man before him. It wasn't easy to intimidate Percy Jackson, especially since he had faced down monsters, Titans, Gods, Primordials and hell itself. Yet, there was something about Nick Fury that made him feel less impulsive and rebellious. Fury stared at him, "Agent Jackson," he greeted cordially. "Sir." Percy said, inclining his head.
Fury gestured for him to continue. "As per your orders sir, the Alaskan base was destroyed. Agent Johnson informed me that there were thirty-four casualties. Of the thirty-four, three were scientists Riley Beckett, Edward Lu and Michael Debson, all of who were involved in the research of the power source, which, incidentally, is known as the power gem."
Fury tilted his head, "Power gem?"
Percy grimaced, "Yeah, the chitauri told me to hand it over to them, they called it 'the power gem'. I'm assuming that it was the gem's power that drew them there. Which, is kinda déjà vu."
Fury narrowed his eyes, "You mean like how the Tesseract attracted Loki and his band of aliens."
"Yes sir."
Fury nodded, turning away to glance at the screens on his desk. "Get the power gem to the lab then, we'll see if they have any luck. And get that shoulder of yours looked at, you're almost as bad as Barton when he's injured."
Percy recognized a dismissal when he saw one, but one thing made him hesitate. Fury saw his hesitation and asked, "Jackson?"
Percy shifted uncomfortably, "Sir, I really have no idea how to explain this other than it wasn't really my fault at all, well no, actually it was my fault, but I didn't mean to let things end up like this! Thing sat the base just happened so quickly and I didn't even have time to stop to think about what I was doing because the first priority was to evacuate the base and to shut down the portal to prevent more aliens from coming in-"
"Agent Jackson!" Fury interrupted, "You're rambling. Get to the point."
Percy rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Uh well sir, you see, the uh, gem, is sorta stuck to me..."
Fury stared at him incredulously. "Excuse me?"
Percy sighed, "I didn't have a choice, I didn't know how to transport the thing so I just uh, talked to it. It became a sort of wristband and I put it on-"
"Excuse me," Fury interrupted, "Let me confirm this. You placed an unknown alien artifact which has been proven to be at least partially sentient and is prone to attacking people who get too close and just magically transformed at your command to a transportable form on your bare arm?"
Percy shifted, "Well," he said, "when you put it like that, it does sound stupid."
Fury just glared at him.
Percy raised his hands in defense, "Not my fault, we were kind of being attacked. And that's the problem now, I can't remove the thing."
"Can't remove it." Fury stated, voice a complete deadpan.
"Yeah... I tried, on the plane, but it won't come off. Its well, stuck."
Fury just stared disbelievingly at him for a few moments, mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like 'How do I always get involved in these kind of stuff', then sighed loudly and pinched his nose. "Fine, that's going to be a problem. But if you worked with the two brightest minds this planet has to offer, we should be able to get it off you."
Percy's eyes widened, "Woah wait wait wait. You're sending me to Stark and Banner?" Percy was cursing internally, Banner he didn't mind, the guy was actually quite nice, after you got over the fact that if you made him angry he would beat you into a pulp. Stark on the other hand, the man was annoying and arrogant. He reminded him of Heracles, without the brute strength and with the genius intellect. And thinking of Heracles led to him thinking of Zoe...
"I'm not sending you to Stark and Banner; I'm sending you to the Avengers tower."
"Sir" Percy protested, "You didn't even want them to know that this artifact existed, and now you want to introduce it to the entire team?"
"There's been a change of plans Agent Jackson, the artifact was meant to be a solo research project, but it's attracted the chitauri. If you hadn't gotten there in time, that thing would already be in their hands and I don't want a repeat of New York." Fury said, nodding towards the blood red bracelet encircling his wrist. "I didn't want to involve the team, but they're the best option. Stark and Banner would be able to study it and as much as I hate to admit it, Stark's a genius, he'd be able to find a way to remove it. And study it. If the chitauri try to invade again, the team's the best option we've got of defeating them again. Got it?"
Percy scowled, understanding the rationale behind the director's orders but not liking it all the same. He nodded.
"You won't be joining the Avengers, you're not part of the team. If and when they are needed, I don't expect you to join them in battle."
Percy snorted, "I'd rather keep out of the camera's range sir."
He knew better than to fight with the avengers, even though it pained him to not be able to defend his home city. The Avengers were already in the spotlight. There were numerous press conferences, advertisements, fan made websites and most of their skirmishes went on the news. If he battled alongside the avengers, he'd be caught on camera. And that was the last thing he wanted. Director Fury nodded, "Go find Stark and Banner, they should be in the infirmary, which you should be in. I will inform Romanov that they are to wait for you"
Percy nodded, still scowling at the prospect of being in the Avengers tower. It wasn't that they were bad people or anything, just... They were heroes, they saved people, and he didn't deserve to be among them. He sighed. Given Thor's inclination to address people by their title, he could only hope-and pray to whichever god or goddess out there who was listening- that he didn't call him the 'Hero of Olympus'. Percy groaned inwardly, how did he always end up in such situations?
After Percy had scampered off to who knew where, Tony and Bruce made their way slowly to the infirmary. They didn't really have any injuries. Just some bruises here and there and some minor scrapes from climbing up a glacier with bare hands. Nevertheless, they still walked towards the infirmary. Well, Bruce walked; Tony kept trying to escape back to his tower.
"But Bruce!" Tony whined, "I'm not even all that injured!"
"Tony," Bruce sighed, and "We've been climbing up a glacier. A glacier. Pure ice. It's customary to check for any signs of hypothermia."
"Well then why couldn't we do that in Alaska? Or on the jet?"
"Tony," Bruce said, getting exasperated with his friend's excuses, "the Alaskan base was destroyed, and the jet doesn't have the right equipment."
Tony just rolled his eyes. "I'm telling the world; I'm being dragged, forcefully, to the infirmary when I'm not even injured."
"Stop being such a drama queen Stark." A new voice injected.
"Oh wow," Tony drawled, "if it isn't Miss Katniss Everdeens herself."
Clint scowled and punched Tony in the arm, "Shut up tin man."
"Oh hey, hey. Don't insult the suit okay? Or I'll kick your ass."
Clint grinned, "With what? Those floppy arms of yours?"
Tony scowled. "Remind me again, who customizes your arrow heads?"
Clint widened his eyes, "You wouldn't!"
Tony leered at him, "Oh hell yes I would Legolas."
"Boys, enough fighting." Natasha said, coming up behind the guys, giving Bruce a small smile as she drew closer. "Wow, its like, the team's almost assembled. We only need Cap and Point break and we can get some shawarma!"
"Shut up Tony." Everyone said at once.
Tony placed his hand over his heart, "Oh, I'm hurt, I'm really really hurt guys." Natasha glared at him. "And uh girl." He added hastily.
"Get to the infirmary you two" Natasha said, "We'll wait for you at the launch pad." dragging Clint by the arm.
Bruce and Tony stepped into the infirmary, where they were subjected to various tests (read: tortures) and questions. Tony was getting tired of the entire interrogation: "do you feel any lingering cold?", "are there any parts of your body that feels numb?" And the best one, "do you feel okay?"
He replied monotonously, "No. No. And no."
At the doctor's alarmed look, he rolled his eyes and said, "You're smothering me, I am so not okay with that. Its claustrophobic"
He hopped out of the bed a second later ignoring the doctor's cry of "I'm not done yet!".Honestly, he appreciated a sexy nurse any day of the week but this was becoming too much. He sauntered over to where even Bruce was looking annoyed at their incessant badgering and brushing off any nurses' offers to help, claiming that "I'm a doctor as well, I do actually know my own body". Bruce noticed him and gave him a strained smile, which he returned fully.
He opened his mouth to speak when the sound of the door sliding open caught his attention. His grin widened as he saw one ruffled (and thoroughly annoyed) Percy Jackson standing in the doorway. The SHIELD doctors swarmed over him, delighted to have a new victim to torture, sorry, treat, and he laughed at the almost constipated look on the kid's face.
Percy scowled even more, he hated doctors with a passion, they reminded him of his inability to heal fast, unlike how he was able to do so in the past (which was just a lie, nothing but a lie). Nevertheless, he remained still as the doctors treated him. He refused the anesthetic, gesturing for the doctor to stitch his shoulder up quickly. The doctor hesitated, but when he turned his glare on, he quickly nodded and got the equipment ready. He scowled even more when he saw Stark wave cheekily at him as he and Banner walked out the infirmary. He sighed; holding still to prevent the doctor from stitching wrongly; hopefully, Fury had already informed Romanov that he was joining them on their flight back to the tower. he didn't really fancy taking a jet all by himself.
Tony grinned as he and Bruce walked towards the quinjet, spying Clint and Natasha waiting for them inside one of the jets. "Ohhhkay! Time for take off!" He said, clapping his hands together.
Natasha smirked, "Not so soon Stark, we have a guest."
Tony raised an eyebrow, "Oh really. Pray tell, who invited someone else to my party?"
Clint rolled his eyes, "It's not just your tower-" "Ah but I built it!" "-anymore stark. It's the called the Avengers tower. So technically, it's all of our parties."
"So, who is it?" Bruce asked tentatively.
Natasha opened her mouth to reply, "Agent Jackson."
"What?" Tony exclaimed, "Why?"
Natasha shrugged carelessly, "Fury didn't tell me."
"Oh great!" Tony huffed, throwing his hands up in the air, "Fury didn't tell Romanov. Fantastic, now we can all just sit around and wait for one of his secrets to pop up or blow up in our faces."
"Please Stark," another voice cut in, "Don't be such a drama queen. I am hardly one of Fury's secrets."
They all turned to see Percy climb up the quinjet, Tony's smile widening.
"Well then, if it isn't iceman himself!"
Percy scowled, "I'm here on Director Fury's orders. I'm supposed to join you in the Avengers tower, something research related." He glanced in the direction of the pilots, "but classified."
The four seated avengers glanced at each other and nodded. Percy sat down and prepared himself for a long ride.
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