Heroes of New York

SIX - WANDER

Chapter Six

~Percy Jackson~

I had finished unpacking a few minutes ago, and was considering what to do. Maybe I'd just waste a few hours lying on the suspiciously comfortable bed (not that I'd actually be able to stay still for that long, considering my ADHD, but it was a nice thought, especially considering the bed), or I could wander around a few more floors of the tower.

Now that was a plan. I could do wandering. I was even better at getting in trouble for said wandering, but that little detail was going to be for the time being.

I rolled off of the awesome bed and made my way out of the room, heading toward the stairs. As promised, there was a door directly at the bottom of the stairs. It was painted the same colour as the walls, and almost blended in, except for the handle and the 'EMERGENCY EXIT' sign posted above it. Usually there was a map inside fire exit stairwells, for safety purposes and that. Maybe that would guide my wandering a little.

I opened the door. There was, in fact, a map - each floor was given a name (mostly boring stuff like 'Lobby' and 'General Offices') and some of the visible rooms marked with symbols (which was a real blessing since I wasn't wearing my anti-dyslexia glasses and I didn't want to show up somewhere thinking it was a game room and actually end up in a random financial office). One floor was split in half, marked on one side with a gear - probably a mechanic's workshop - and on the other side with an Erlenmeyer flask - a science lab, likely shared by Stark and Dr. Banner, if Peter and Annabeth's ramblings were to be believed (which they were).

Another floor was taken up entirely with one mark, a dumbbell - assumedly this was the gym. That was as good a place as any to explore, especially because I would probably use it myself at some point.

I took the stairs down two floors and then checked the floor number by the door before opening it. The gym was huge - bigger than I expected it to be.

There was an obstacle course along the outside, with ropes, hurdles - the works. In the middle of the room was a typical gym set-up - workout machines, free weights, treadmills, punching bags, and a couple of mats laid out. There was also a boxing ring, the floor of it worn from use. The walls were entirely made into rock-climbing walls of varying difficulties (and one section of the wall was practically flat, a few obvious handholds spaced out over the wall, but each a significant leap away from one another). I followed the handholds' path up to the ceiling, where there were hooks and pulleys, probably for obstacles like the ropes to hang from. They sort of reminded me of Antaeus' chamber from the Labyrinth. Way up above those were the ventilation shafts and the cables from which the giant industrial lights hung.

I had just started to make my way into the middle of the room when I heard a faint banging noise. It was slow, like someone trying to be quiet without being able to properly hear themselves, and it was coming from the far end of the room.

I readied myself, but stayed calm. I wasn't sure who else was in the tower, so it was possible that someone was in the change room (I could see the doors there, as well as what must have been an observation room, behind a thick glass window). However, this was also the living place of actual superheroes. It could totally be some sort of villain, or monster or worse... fans.

I pulled out Riptide - still in pen form, of course - and cautiously approached the source of the noise. As I got nearer, the sound got louder (as it should when you get closer to a sound), and it became clear that the sound was not, in fact, coming from the changing rooms. It wasn't even coming from the observation room. No, the slow thud, thud, thud was coming from something above me.

I paused, and looked slowly upward. The ceiling vents were shaking slightly. The movement was nearly right on top of me when the metal began to creak loudly. Obviously, whatever was in there (probably a person from the movement pattern, and from the quiet cussing I could now hear) couldn't hear the creaking because they kept moving, not even slowing down. The second the person was directly above me, the vents shook violently, creaked, and gave out.

With only a split second to make a decision, I stuck my arms out and braced myself, catching the guy that tumbled from the ceiling (and only stumbling a little!).

There was a moment of silence where we just stared at each other, eyes wide in shock. I sort of recognised the guy - wasn't he that arrow dude? Hawkguy, or something. The Apollo kids talk about him a lot (mostly about the archery, but sometimes they ramble and start talking about the 'golden halo the sun makes on his gorgeous head' or his 'glorious biceps'. To me, he just sort of reminded me of that guy from The Bourne Legacy.

Finally, the guy seemed to realize what was happening and threw himself out of my outstretched arms and rolled onto the floor.

"Who are you?" He shouted, his fingers twitching a little, like he wanted to make some sort of symbol or gesture. I was pretty sure this guy was deaf, or at least hard-of-hearing.

"Hey, it's okay, my name is Percy, " I said, signing in ASL as I spoke. "Are you deaf?"

My sign language was a little rusty, but he seemed to understand (most of the Hephaestus kids had hearing loss too, from working in the forges, not to mention the amount of demigods either born deaf or ended up with hearing loss due to battles or explosions - even my hearing wasn't up to the demigod standards anymore - because of that, ASL or a variant of it was pretty much a must at camp).

Lost my hearing aids, he signed at me, thought I might have left them in the vents. No luck.

I nodded in understanding, then asked him about when he was sure he had them last.

Took them out to sleep, gone when I woke up, his signing was almost too fast to understand, but I could understand his panic. Didn't notice until after I got up and ate, didn't really think about it.

"Okay, let's see if we can find them in your room then, if you don't mind. All the rooms are in the same place, right?" I made sure to move my lips clearly, as I wasn't too sure on the grammar of ASL, instead putting the words in the order of spoken English.

He nodded his fist at me - 'yes' - and stood up properly, having been sat on the floor the whole time.

I offered my arm out to him, and he rested his hand on my arm - now able to get a better sense of where I was and what I was doing, despite his inability to hear me (or at the very least, hear me well - I had no clue how much hearing the guy had left, really).

We made our way to the elevator, which was on the right wall, near the corner of the room.

"JARVIS, could you take us to the common floor? And - I dunno - is there some sort of scan you can do to see if his hearing aids are anywhere else?"

"Of course, Mr. Jackson. I do believe that I am capable of such a thing, but it will take time," came the voice from above.

"Thanks, man."

Without me even touching it, the elevator ding-ed and opened. We boarded, the doors closing behind us.

Hawkguy must have felt me tense, because he glanced over at me and tightened his grip on my arm as we started to move.

Okay? He asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, thanks. Let's just find your hearing aids."

Hey guys! I'm on time with this chapter after all! Also, Hawkeye is legit one of my all-time favs - and I'm making more like Fraction's comic run than the movies but whatever, I love him.

But seriously, guys - 1.2K reads?! 60 votes?! Y'all are mad! Like I don't even know what I'm doing here and you're all here, giving me tons of support and wonderful little comments like I'm something special.

Thank you all so much! <3 Two weeks 'til we meet again, loves.

(the second update of this chapter only made the addition of the picture in the media and this section of text - sorry if there's any confusion)