Percy, Jason and Nico meet the Avengers

Chapter 8: Show-offs

Tony took the kids up to the training room. He didn't want to be anywhere near furniture or anything expensive if things went sour. Percy and the blond girl tensed up at the sight of the elevator, but they got up there with no problems.

The teens all walked around for a minute, then got together near the middle of the room. The Avengers had congregated near them, watching.

Suddenly, Percy (who had previously been focused entirely on the blond girl) took a running leap into the pool. This one wasn't very deep, they had an Olympic sized one downstairs, but it still wasn't small. Cap already looked confused, and Tony started worrying once he had been down there for a minute. The blond girl murmured something about seaweed, and walked over to the pool. She looked down into the pool at something Tony couldn't see, smiled, and then jumped out of the way of a big splash.

"Come on, Percy! Don't you want to meet the Avengers?" Percy, whose head had popped up after he tried to splash her, sighed and climbed out. He used very little effort. Maybe he was on the swim team at his camp. Percy enveloped the girl in a hug from behind when they were walking back, and the girl caught one of his arms around her and pulled him the rest of the way back to the group. Tony wondered why she was okay with a soaking wet boy hugging her, but then he realized that somehow, he was completely dry. Strange.

Percy turned to face the team. "Hello again. I brought my friends. They wanted to meet you. We have some explaining to do. But first-" he pauses for a moment. "This is Annabeth, my girlfriend."  He gestured to the blond girl.
He pointed to Jason and the Native American girl next to him. "You know Jason, and that's his girlfriend Piper." He gestured to Nico and the other blond boy. "That's Nico and his boyfriend Will." He next pointed to the large Asian boy and petite black girl next to him, holding hands. "That's Frank and Hazel, Nico's half-sister." He tilted his head toward the Hispanic boy and the girl beside him. "The elf over there is Leo, boyfriend to Calypso." He then gestured to the punk girl and Hispanic girl, who were standing near each other, but he used two separate movements in a way that indicated they weren't a couple. "And this is Thalia, Jason's sister-" the punk girl gave a little salute, "and Reyna." The other girl nodded her head.

Cap stepped forward, finally out of his daze. "How are you not dead?!?"

"Oh, um..." Percy didn't know how to answer.  Jason rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously.  Cap walked up to Jason.

"I thought you were dead.  I thought I couldn't save you.  Do you know how hard that is?"

"Yes."  Jason was calm, but looked ready to fight Cap.

Tony tried to diffuse the tension.  "Guys, chill-"

"No Tony," Cap said, "there's no way these-these children know anything about what it is to lose someone you couldn't save, they have no idea what war is like-"

Percy stepped in.  "Yeah.  We do.  We've been in two of them.  Do you know what these are?"  He pulls a cord from under his shirt, 5 beads on it, and holds up the fourth to us.  It's black, inscribed with what looked like the Empire State Building and a bunch of symbols in a spiral, all around the bead.  Tony craned his neck to look from behind Cap.  "Names.  Of the people who died, just from the first one.  Bianca.  Nico's sister.  I should have saved her.  Beckendorf.  He died to let me get away.  Silena.  Died in front of me.  Luke.  I watched as Annabeth gave him her knife, her friend since she was seven years old, that he had to use to kill himself.  I've been to hell and back, in every sense of the word.  I've killed.  Don't you dare tell me about war, and don't you DARE call us children."  Percy stood about six inches from Cap.  They're about the same height, and it's obvious Cap wasn't used to being yelled at by someone the same height.  Percy glared, and Cap took a step back, intimidated.

Tony looked away from the conflict to the rest of the team, mainly Nat, wanting to see what she made of the situation.  However, her eyes are locked in the pool Percy had riven into earlier.  The water had moved away from the edges and raised in the middle, as if someone was controlling it and was preparing to make it all move at once.  The girl, Annabeth, must have noticed too.  She grabs Percy's arm and points, taking his attention off Cap and trying to get him to calm down a little but, all while glaring at Cap.  The water returned to normal.

"Did you do that?" Clint asked, fear and curiosity in equal measure in his voice. 

Percy smiled, mischief in his eyes.  "Oh, that's not the only thing."  He turned to his friends.  "Let's show them what we can do."  They smiled the same smile, promising chaos. 

The boy, Leo, stepped away from the rest.  He grins.  And he combusts, lighting on fire.  He's engulfed in flames in an instant.

The rest of them have started to use their powers as well.  Percy raises his arm and the water from the pool forms a swirling tower of water. Frank disappeared, a tiger in his place. Hazel made duplicates of herself, which reminded Tony of Loki. Jason's feet stopped touching the ground. Thalia had pulled as bow from nowhere. Electricity crackled around both Grace siblings.  Annabeth and Reyna both had swords, Annabeth's seeming to be made of a white substance that looked like bone. Piper had a dagger, and was standing over Calypso. Percy and Jason both had the swords they had wielded yesterday, while Nico had a black one, and was standing in front of Will. Hazel also had a sword, a long one. Suddenly, a horse appeared by her side, and she stroked it.

They reached maximum coolness.

And the elevator door dinged.