Chapter Text
NICO
He was awoken by the sound of alarms echoing through the underground compound. He sat up in the hard bed and swung his legs over the edge, turning to the holo-tablet on his bedside table. He picked it up and read the alert screen. 3 new messages from Will Solace. 1 new security alert. 6 new episodes of Game of Thrones. Whoa. Wait. 6 new episodes? How did I miss that? I need a vacation. I should probably check out that security alert.
He started tapping the alert icons to find out what was happening when the door to his room slid open, and one of his agents walked in. Annabeth Romanoff. His best agent. The best agent. Her red hair was tied up in a ponytail with a French braid along each side, and wearing her CHIELD uniform. Camp Half-Blood Intelligence Enforcement Logistics Division. Earth’s last defense against any forces that dare threaten it. An orange lanyard was pinned over her chest and the black uniform with the CHIELD symbol of the Pegasus on her shoulders. She was wearing her sunglasses on her head, so her grey eyes that were so full of intelligence were able to be seen in the dimly lit room.
“We got an alert boss,” she said and Nico sighed.
“Thanks,” he said sarcastically, “My ears hadn’t noticed.” He stood up, grabbing his jacket from the chair next to his bed, then snapped his fingers. He looked down as he watched the part of the floor under his feet climbed up and made boots around his feet. You could never tell that the shoes were once the floor he stepped on.
“I want a pair,” Annabeth fake whined as they left the rom.”
“I’ll consider it,” he said, closing the door behind him and making his way towards the control room, “Now let’s go.”
“Stoll, what’s going on?” Nico asked as he walked in the space mission like control room with a large supervision screen at the front, where a group of children of Athena were debating (more like arguing) about whatever was going on. Everyone stood at attention position when he stopped in the center, where a large circle was set up for him to stand with holo-tablets around him so he could oversee everything going on with whatever he was currently doing “At ease agents. Return to your stations and resume your work.” Everyone did and went back to arguing or simply just typing commands. He looked to the left side quadrant of the room where Travis usually worked, but he noticed that both twins were in the room, so he had to be specific. Way specific. “Travis!”
“I’m playing Galaga!” he said and Nico saw Annabeth tense up next to him, “Though you guys wouldn’t notice, but you did.”
“Got something to say, Romanoff?”
“Permission to slap him, sir?”
“Hm. Granted.”
He watched Annabeth as she walked through the rows of high tech computers and over to where Travis and Connor were sitting.
“What’s up Anna-Ow! What the Hades was that-Ow!”
“Annabeth. I meant Travis,” Nico said and Annabeth nodded, then turned to the other twin.
“Please don’t-Ow! That’s Travis over there!” he said and Nico chuckled, then cleared his throat.
“Sorry. My mistake,” Nico said. Annabeth walked back over to where she stood before next to Nico, “So, Travis. Let’s do this again. Stoll, what’s going on?”
“We’re getting a disturbance in quadrant B3,” he said, rubbing the back of his head and turning around face Nico.
“But that’s where…” Annabeth started, facing the screen, but Nico walked forward and looked at the scans. This couldn’t be happening. That’s why CHIELD built all this stuff. To keep all the bad guys that were captured in check. Now…
“Connor,” Nico said.
“Yes sir?”
“Get together a squadron to do a check and analysis in the entire quadrant. Find out what happened, who was there, what size shoe he was wearing. Everything and anything. Got this?” he asked Connor and he nodded.
“Yes sir,” he said, standing up from the computer and leaving the room.
“Romanoff,” he turned to Annabeth.
“Sir,” she got at attention again.
“It it’s what I think it is, we’re going to need help. Go get Rogers. We definitely need him on this,” he said, and at the mention of Rogers’ name, her cheeks turned red and her grey eyes turned widened.
“Uh…Rogers?” she asked.
“Uh, did I stutter?” he said, mimicking her hesitation.
“No, sir.” She started backing away, “I read you loud and clear.” She reached the door, “Right away sir.” She left and he was pretty sure that he heard squealing from the hallway. Everyone in the room turned around to face the door, which was wide open.
“The door’s still open,” he said and he saw a flash of red hair zipping past the door and into another hallway, “Oy vey.” He said, turning back to the screen. “Has Connor gotten that team together?”
“Yes sir.”
“Good. Have him get me a report as soon as possible.”
-10 Minutes Later-
“Sir. Connor sent in a report,” Travis said and Nico walked over, “Here it is.”
He looked at the screen and started reading, his expression going from scared to downright horrified as he kept reading the horror like story. Only one type of person could do this. A god. What god would do this?
“Sir,” Connor’s voice echoed from the speaker, “We found an engraving in the dirt.”
“Send a picture.”
“Already on its way,” Connor said, and a message showed up on the screen. Travis opened it and Nico felt like passing out when he registered the image.
“Mamma Mia,” he said, then turned to the people in the room, “Activate CHIELD protocol 8P913. Now!”
PERCY
THWAP! His glove met the punching bag again and he watched as more tears tore along the leather material like spider web cracks on a window. Or better yet, Percy’s cellphone. Damn, those things were fragile. He had it for just two minutes, and he drops it while boxing. Nightmare trying to get a new one that was actually sturdy. The guy selling it was so mean. He asked questions as if he had better stuff to do and snapped every time he had to repeat something to Percy. He nearly punched that asshole through the wall. Annabeth punched him before Percy could though. Oh, Annabeth Romanoff. She was just perfect…perfectly built with secrets, that is. Under those intelligent grey eyes was a dark past that she shared with no one. Not even Fury, and she trusted him! Somewhat.
You know, people who don’t share much are worth befriending. Rachel’s voice echoed through his head. He stepped back for a moment and wondered what caused the flashback. All he did was punch the bag. He backed up even more, eyeing the punching bag warily and turning to the bench behind him, where his gym bag was resting. He zipped it open and started ruffling through the contents. Gym towel. New iPhone. Extra clothes. And a shower towel. Hm…a shower would be really good right now.
He grabbed that and the extra clothes, then headed to the shower room, where no one was because he had 24-hour access to the gym, and no one would be here at three in the morning. Stripping his shirt off, he looked in the mirror and wondered how just one potion from Circe was able to turn him from scrawny to downright “amazingly gorgeous” as Rachel had said when he stepped out of Circe’s potion room. He remembered the look on her face that was filled with pride that he went through the process and helped America win the war…until he got captured by Gaea and a whole other world came in. He had to fight her by himself, with no backup because he was the only one who had the strength to do it. He was trapped in the earth for seventy years after that battle.
The sound of the automatic shower activating pulled him back to the present. Not his time, but the time he was in and forced to be in…and stay. You can’t change the past, Rogers, Fury had told him when Percy went to the graveyard to see his war buddies. All dead, and Rachel got married to his best friend. He was glad to see her happy in her wedding photos, but couldn’t help but feel angry at the fact that what Tyson had wit Rachel was what he was supposed to feel with Rachel.
Removing the rest of his clothing, he stepped into the shower and rested against the cold and wet tile wall, feeling the condensation chill against his back. The cold drops of water reminded him of when he was around eight years old and he was swimming in a beach in New York. The water felt alive to him. Calling him towards the horizon to see a whole different world. His mom told him to get out of the water before he could though. Around fifteen years later, when he had gone to Circe for help, he found out who he really was, and why he was the only one who could use the potion. It was meant only for a son of Poseidon, and he was the son of Poseidon. God of the seas and horses and…I think earthquakes too. When he found out, all he could do was stare at Circe, who was looking at his blood.
The blood of a courageous and strong man. One who will never stop fighting for the right thing. Well, he did fight for the right thing. And I nearly died doing it. Thanks, dad.
“Mr. Rogers?” a woman’s voice echoed through the gym and he looked up, his blonde hair whipping from his eyes. It sounded familiar…but he couldn’t place a match to the voice. He shut off the water and grabbed a towel, drying his body off and wrapping it around his waist, “Mr. Rogers, its agent Romanoff. From CHIELD?” Oh. Never mind. He thought that he would have had to fight in nothing but a towel. Embarrassing!
“Yeah?” he asked, walking out and grabbing another towel to dry off his face and walked out of the showers, “What is it?”
At that moment, he realized two things that he had forgotten. Romanoff was a woman, and he had no shirt on and basically no pants. He looked at her and she looked at him, shock in both of their eyes as they registered each other’s appearances and she looked away first.
“I’ll…grab some clothes.”
“Please do,” she said, and he walked back into the shower room, getting dressed and he smelled his body. Why was he doing that? He didn’t care about how he looked to a girl…not anymore. When he enlisted in the army, he was always wondering how his hair looked for Rachel to check him out and maybe start liking him. He walked back out and cleared his throat, watching Annabeth go through some weights, stroking her fingers on the bars that connected one side to the other. An odd thought of her fingers on his arm shivered at the back of his mind, echoing through from the base of his skull to the end of his spine. He quickly shook his head and walked over.
“What’s up?”
“Fury needs you to come in,” she said, and he heard disappointment in her voice. He smiled a little, then she turned to him and he stopped, “It’s a drastic emergency that requires your assistance.”
“He needs me to come in?” he asked.
“Did I stutter?” she asked and he shook his head.
“Did you fail your etiquette training over at CHIELD?” he asked and she rolled her eyes, “What kind of assistance?”
“I’m not allowed to share that information with you. Only Fury can,” she said and he rolled his eyes, “What?”
“Then I’m not going in,” he said and was ready to turn, but Annabeth sighed, “Unless you can convince me to.”
“How about a fight?” she said, and that was not what he meant by her convincing him, “No restrictions.”
He sighed and turned to her, “Alright. I guess so.”
“Bo staffs? Really?” he asked as she walked up into the boxing ring, “I can kick your ass at this all day.”
“Yeah, but you forget,” she said preparing to fight by holding her Bo staff in starting position. Her red hair was tied back and her grey eyes were clearly visible.
“What?” he said.
“I’m Fury’s best agent.”
And before he could say anything, he was on the ground, the end of her Bo staff against his neck. He stared at her in amazement and shock and tried to get words out, but he ended up stuttering.
“W-What the heck happened?” he asked.
“I think I kicked your-,” she started, but he swept her legs with his feet, sending her down and he got on top of her, pinning her down and winning the fight. At that moment, he looked in her eyes, ready to say something cocky about his victory when he realized that we was on top of her…and she wasn’t struggling…and she was looking in his eyes also. It went on like that for about half a minute when her phone went off.
“Sorry,” he grunted and scrambled off her, letting her get her phone from the floor. She answered and started talking to someone.
“Yes sir? Gotcha. I’m about to take him in,” she said and hung up, turning back to Percy, “Now I have to take you in before I get fired.”