Demigods Assemble (PJO/MCU)

Chapter 28

Tony

Tony almost couldn't believe his eyes, but with everything he'd been through, it wasn't too hard to accept the truth. Steve and Bucky were both a hundred years old, Carol was a human-Kree hybrid, Percy and Annabeth were half-god, even Tony himself had lived with a giant magnet in his chest for years. So Coulson was alive. Yay!

Tony had always suspected there was more to the story, especially since Fury had whisked away Coulson's body so quickly. Plus, Tony wasn't very trustworthy of Fury or S.H.I.E.L.D. in the beginning, and when he and J.A.R.V.I.S. hacked the organization, he might have seen something about a Project T.A.H.I.T.I. He might have seen mentions of Coulson on their servers before S.H.I.E.L.D. fell. He'd never given it much thought, but he'd always had a feeling.

Once everyone was gathered around the conference room—they'd been doing a lot of that lately—Coulson told his story. He explained how he'd been put in charge of a team to which he recruited May, FitzSimmons, and eventually Daisy, who went by Skye the first few years they knew each other. Coulson told them about Grant Ward and everything that went down with HYDRA, before moving on to figuring out the map in his head, meeting Mack, and finding the alien city that turned Daisy into an Inhuman. He went through their dealings with the Inhumans including Elena, the monolith, and Hive, then Ghost Rider and Aida and her LMDs, and then their adventure in the future on a space station run by psychopathic aliens. Tony was having trouble keeping track of everything by the time Coulson finally finished with encountering HYDRA again and taking out General Talbott.

Clint was still staring dumbfounded at Coulson, while Natasha and Steve seemed to have moved past the dying-and-coming-back thing.

"You definitely have been busy," Rhodey remarked when Coulson was done talking.

"I guess we're not the only ones who've been through a lot the last few years," Percy said to Annabeth.

Percy stretched out his hand and one of the water bottles in the middle of the table flew into his palm. Fitz stared open-mouthed at him while Simmons exclaimed, "You're a telekinetic Inhuman?"

Percy paused mid-drink, swallowed, and croaked, "A tele-who-tic what-now?"

"How come we haven't met you before? We've been tracking down all the new Inhumans since the Terrigen crystals fell into the ocean, where have you been?" Daisy asked.

"We're not Inhumans," Annabeth said. "We're the reason you're here. We're Greek demigods, and some immortals that have a grudge against my boyfriend want to kill us and the rest of our kind. They're working with HYDRA."

"Demigods," Mack repeated, staring at them.

"Greek," Elena echoed, also staring.

Percy smiled innocently and Annabeth took a deep breath before launching into the explanation of who they were, what they've done, and why they were now working with the Avengers. Tony enjoyed the looks of confusion on the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s faces. Even Coulson seemed at a loss.

When they finished, Daisy said, "If you don't use technology, you've never heard of Quake? Or Inhumans, or LMDs?"

Percy shrugged. "We didn't even know about HYDRA until a few days ago."

Annabeth folded her arms, looking defensive. "We've been a little busy saving the world."

"And getting into college," Percy added.

At those words, Coulson and his team looked around at the table as if to be sure they had heard Percy correctly. Tony decided to put them out of their misery and said, "They're not joking. They're eighteen. When they're not fighting monsters and going on quests, they're in school. Same with Pete here, but high school, and minus the monsters." Tony clapped a hand on Peter's shoulder. "He usually just goes after petty criminals."

Simmons shrieked, "Are you Spider-Man?"

Peter grinned weakly, probably still absorbing all the new information from Coulson and his team. "That's me."

"So you two are really half-god?" Fitz stammered, his head bobbing back and forth from Percy to Annabeth.

In answer, Percy smirked and set down his water bottle with the cap off. He lifted a hand and the water obeyed his movements, floating out of the bottle. Some of it went into Percy's open mouth while the rest formed a mini circus, with little creatures he called hippocampi jumping through hoops. When he was done, the water returned to the bottle without a drop spilled.

"That's cool," Daisy said.

"Are you really fast?" Annabeth asked Elena.

Tony watched Elena, who didn't answer. Her form seemed to flicker for a split-second, but something was different. Now Percy's water bottle was sitting in front of her, bobbing to a stop, but Tony hadn't even seen her move.

Percy frowned at Elena and summoned his water bottle back. He pointed it at Daisy. "So you can really cause earthquakes?"

She shrugged. "More or less."

A thoughtful look appeared on Percy's face, but he said nothing more. Tony remembered him mentioning something about also possessing earthquake powers. So far, he hadn't seen any yet.

"Now that we all know each other," Fury began, "Why don't we go over the plan for the next three days? A few more of my friends might be coming, and Percy and Annabeth say several of their demigod friends will be here."

Annabeth nodded. "Campers from both California and New York, plus the Hunters of Artemis, and some of Percy's Cyclops half-siblings."

"Cyclops half-siblings . . ." Fitz repeated to himself.

Fury went through the plan they had come up with yesterday and then dismissed everyone to do whatever they wanted for the rest of the day since they'd already worn themselves out training. Fury and Maria left to do who-knows-what and Percy and Annabeth were bombarded by FitzSimmons, Elena, Mack, and Daisy (although Peter was trying to question the two Inhumans), while Coulson and May caught up with Steve and the others. Sensing an opportunity, Tony retreated for a moment to retrieve something from his safe.

When he came back, Coulson seemed to know Tony wanted to talk with him. He left May and Natasha to bond over their love of beating up men and approached Tony.

"Stark. It's good to see you again. Nice compound you've got here." Coulson smiled.

"I just hope these demigods don't destroy it when they get here," Tony joked. "Apparently they're all Percy and Annabeth's age, some even younger."

"It sounds like they know what they're doing. Still, it kind of weirds me out that there's this whole other world we didn't know about." Coulson sighed.

Tony chuckled and agreed, then handed Coulson the little box he held. "What's this?" he asked.

"Just open it," Tony said.

Coulson raised his eyebrows but did so. He gasped when he opened it, seeing his old Captain America trading cards. They were cleaned of blood and signed by Steve Rogers himself. "When did—"

"I had a hunch," Tony said vaguely. "I told Steve it was for your funeral."

"Thank you," Coulson said.

Tony patted him on the back and said softly, "It's nice to see you, Phil."