Half-Bloods and the Government (What could go wrong?) Pjo/Avengers

Chapter Ten

Btw, this is canon divergent, as in it's set after BOO but the oracle still works and will continue to work until I decide where the heck in time this story fits. It's also canon divergent from the avengers timeline and is set after homecoming but before infinity war.

Percy

Previously

Lost in thought, he almost missed Percy walking away. It seemed like he wouldn't be going back in the school, which made sense considering the fact that he had at least three visible gashes/bruises that wouldn't slip by their teacher.

Peter listened to his footsteps as they receded around the corner of the school.

__________*o*__________

Percy jogged away from school grounds, onto the sidewalk, and towards an apartment building and plaza close to the school. Crossing the street, he ducked into the alley in between the plaza and a retaining wall.

He leaned over, hands on his knees, head down, resting. It wasn't like he had just battled an army or anything, but that fight had gone on much longer than he had wanted it to, and he was sick and tired of the daily barrage of monsters out for his blood.

Back at camp, the monster attacks were taking their toll as well. Everyone had been relieved when the Doors of Death were closed and later on when Gaea was defeated and the onslaught had ceased. They had assumed that it was over and that more demigods would be arriving at camp now that it was safer to travel. That's how it was, the first months after the battle with the earth goddess. Satyrs were more successful in locating children, and also more proficient at bringing them to camp smoothly.

That is, until two months ago when the Satyrs started reporting more monster activity again. Percy and the others didn't know why this was happening, but needless to say, they weren't faring as well as they wanted to. They hadn't had any deaths yet, all of the campers had arrived at camp alive, but grievous injuries were far too common.

Breath caught, Percy spotted a gas station/car servicing place across that street and had half a mind to go over there and use the water pump to Iris message Annabeth. His mind flashed back to their first quest together, just him, Annabeth, and Grover, using the gas station to IM camp, and Luke. Everything had been simpler back then, even if it had seemed insane at the time.

The wave of nostalgia hit him unexpectedly, like a fist to the stomach. Sure, they had faced insane odds before, but they had faced them together. The three of them, and then the others, the whole camp striving together for their goal: Stop Kronos, protect each other. It wasn't like that now. The seven were split up, divided though they tried not to be. The last thing they needed after the war and Leo's death was to be distant, but it couldn't be helped. Reyna and Frank were consumed with Preator duties, Hazel sticking close to them with her role as a centurion, Jason working steadfastly on securing proper temples and recognition of the many minor gods, Piper helping him and attempting to spend more time with her Dad. Nico and Will had tried to stay close to camp, but with Nico healing from Tartarus and Will from the trauma of being a medic during the last year, they had drawn away from much of the goings-on, although they were starting to get back into it again. Grover was so preoccupied as a lord of the wild that he and Percy had a hard time hanging out, and Percy missed him desperately. At least rachel was at camp now, but even their oracle was constantly in and out. It all hurt, but Percy didn't know what to do. He would die for these people, his family, in an instant, but he didn't know how to keep them all together now that the event that had drawn them all in was over and done.