Percy Jackson and the Forgotten Heroes

14 - The Avengers assemble

(Ignore any events in WandaVision or Falcon and the Winter Soldier for the sake of this story - I don't have Disney+ so I can't watch them!)

Hawkeye's P.O.V

The Avengers Facility felt empty without Natasha. For us, it had been a base, a training facility, where we worked. For her it has been a home. Every time I turned a corner, I expected to see her walking down the corridor. Every time I entered a room, I imagined she would be in there training, or laughing, or shamelessly flirting with Bruce. Every time the doorbell rang, I thought it would be her. But the corridors remained empty, the rooms were left without her laughter, and she never arrived at the door. She was gone. And she wasn't coming back.

I'd been putting this off for months now - I couldn't face coming back here when she was gone - but I knew that I had to do this to finally try to move on from her death. We had all come over this weekend to clear out the Avengers Facility, and pack away Tony, Natasha, Steve, and Thor's stuff, and then shut down the Avengers Facility - there was no use for it now. The Avengers were no more.

Every item in Natasha's room brought back a new memory. Every time I threw something away it felt as if I was losing her all over again. Every time I put something away in a box it felt as if I was locking away that part of my life. I knew the others were finding this hard too - Bucky and Sam had lost Steve, Wanda had lost Vision, and Pepper and Rhodey had lost Tony - but somehow it wasn't the same. Steve had lived a happy life with Peggy, and Tony had saved the world. Even Bruce didn't know how I felt. Natasha shouldn't have died. Every day, I told myself 'It should have been you', but no matter how many times I said that, it hadn't been me. It had been her.

Pepper had got Happy to look after Morgan for the day to come down here to get Tony's stuff, though he had taken most of it when he'd given up being Iron Man during the Blip. Bucky and Sam were arguing about every single thing, but you could tell they both missed Steve. Rhodey was helping Pepper with Tony's stuff, and Wanda was here, but her mind was elsewhere. She was still mourning Vision, and even I couldn't imagine what she was going through. I had to let Natasha sacrifice herself instead of me, but she had had to kill Vision, then watch Thanos resurrect him and kill him again.

There was a knock on the door and, hoping for a distraction from the somber task at hand, I went to answer it. Standing in the doorway was a panicked 16 year old boy who I would have recognised as Tony's mentee even if he wasn't wearing the bright red Spider-Man costume.

"I need your help." He panted as if he'd run all the way here.

"Come on in kid."

*****

Peter's P.O.V

I finished explaining everything that had happened, leaving out Camp Half-Blood because I'd promised Percy I'd keep it a secret, then pulled out the badge in my pocket and placed it on the table. The Avengers all leaned in to look at it.

Bucky was the first one to realise what it was and he pulled away sharply "Where did you get that?"

"One of the people who kidnapped MJ was wearing it."

He shook his head "Hydra's gone."

"Apparently not." Rhodey mused quietly.

I could feel an argument beginning to heat up, but before it could get started I interrupted.

"It doesn't matter whether they're back or not - what matters is how are we going to find MJ?"

They began muttering among themselves when my phone rang. It was Ned. "Ned, what's wrong?" I automatically assumed the worst, like someone else had been kidnapped. It wouldn't exactly be unusual given the past few weeks' events.

"You remember the thing I found on the ground - that one of the kidnappers must have dropped?"

"Yeah?"

"I just realised - it looked familiar. It's the same pen that Percy had, the one that turned into a sword."

"But - what does that - how?"

"I don't know. But our new friends might not be so friendly after all."

I turned back to the Avengers and contemplated what I'd just learned. Should I tell them or not? I'd promised Percy I'd keep it all a secret, but if he was working for Hydra then I should definitely tell them. He'd seemed like such a nice guy, I was certain that he was trustworthy, but as I'd learnt from Quentin Beck, not everyone is who they appear to be.

"There's a man named Percy Jackson." I said "I think he might be involved too, but I don't know how."

Hawkeye swiped a hand over the holographic screen and pulled up the files for Percy Jackson. Falcon began to read the list out.

"He blew up the Gateway Arch, he blew up the Meriwether College Prep gym, he set fire to the music room at Goode High School, and he went missing for 7 months. He's been kicked out of 7 schools, and there was a manhunt for him when he was 12 on the suspicion of the disappearance of his mother. You think he's involved with Hydra and kidnapping MJ?"

Unable to speak, I just nodded. I was still trying to comprehend what he'd just said. Percy was so nice, there was no way he could have done all of that stuff.

Rhodey took charge "Bucky, Sam, Clint, we'll go find Percy Jackson and confront him. Be on guard. He could be very dangerous. Especially if he's gotten involved in some form of Hydra. Bruce - you and Wanda try to find a way to find MJ and help the kid rescue her."

Bruce Banner, who had been quietly thinking up until now, looked up at me "You said MJ has the powers of Captain Marvel, which come from the Tesseract?"

"Yeah?"

"Maybe we could track her if we can single out the energy signature, like we did when Loki stole the Tesseract."

I nodded.

"We better figure out where this Percy will be to plan an ambush. At the very least, he could have some information on the people who took MJ - and whether or not Hydra's really back." Hawkeye said.

Bucky added "If this is Hydra, then this time we stop them once and for all."

Hawkeye nodded "One last mission. For Natasha."

"And Steve." Falcon joined in.

Wanda mumbled something that sounded vaguely like 'Vision'.

My eye caught Rhodey's and we said at the same time "And for Tony."