Percy Jackson Avenger and S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent

2020 (2)

Two days (and a hell of a lot of hiking) later, and I was lying on my stomach and staring through a scope at a smallish complex that would have been super unassuming if not for the ten-foot razor wire encircling the whole thing.

S.H.I.E.L.D. really knew how to be welcoming, didn't they?

The base was positioned in a hollow in the mountains, whilst we were about halfway up one of the neighboring ridges. We were also hungry, tired and cold (I really knew how to keep team morale up). Probably not the peak condition to be breaking into a base manned by possibly the most paranoid organization this side of the Atlantic.

It'd been a tough few days, to say the least. Not only had it proved necessary to hike miles and miles into rugged mountain terrain (and there weren't exactly footpaths with helpful signposts: 'spy hangout this way!'), but we'd also had a few run-ins with some unpleasant local wildlife (three hellhounds, a bunch of weird slime monsters, and a bear).

Fortunately for the team, I was fairly used to running on empty when it came to tough missions, so while they were lying down and moping, I was scouting possible routes in.

Less fortunately, the routes I was scoping didn't look too promising. We had three options:

1) Try to go in through the front gate and pray that I could somehow get in on old favors and the hope that Coulson had undeclared me as legally dead.

Pros: Straightforward. Cons: At least a 70% likelihood of getting shot.

2) Water supply tunnels.

Pros: We'd get in undetected. Cons: By the looks of things, we'd have to be small enough to squeeze through a six-inch pipe. (Maybe not, then).

3) Try and sneak round the 'back', cut the wire and break in.

Pros: We'd get in (probably) undetected. Cons: There isn't usually a 'back' when it comes to heavily-guarded S.H.I.E.L.D. bases, so maybe a 60% likelihood of getting shot.

It was looking like option 3 to me. I wondered if we could flesh it out, get Hazel looking super pathetic and distract the guards or something. That could work. Possibly.

I tapped Annabeth on the shoulder, waking her up from her brief nap. "I've got a plan, and there's only like a 60% chance of getting shot, so it seems like a winner."

She glared at me. "60% chance for whom?"

Good question. "All of us? Maybe slightly higher for me and maybe Hazel?"

"Excellent." Annabeth leaned down to tie up the laces on her combat boots, before pulling her hair up into a ponytail.

"Really? I'd have thought you might be a bit iffy on the probability of death part?"

She rolled her eyes. "Of course I'd love for you not to put our youngest member at risk, but this is a quest, isn't it? Death is an occupational hazard. And why is Hazel at higher risk?"

I pursed my lips. "We won't get in without a distraction. I was thinking she could play the distressed-and-very-lost-hiker role? Bonus points for being small and pathetic-looking, and unarmed. Definitely unarmed. But S.H.I.E.L.D. guards are humans, you know. They might let her in, give her a hot coffee, and let her go again."

"Are you sure?" Frank butted in, looking concerned. The subject of the conversation was dozing, curled up into a little ball a couple of yards away, so we kept our voices down. "Will she be alright?"

"Has she ever done anything even remotely illegal?" I asked. "S.H.I.E.L.D. has lots of lists, and the guards will have to run a facial recognition scan before they let her in. But if it's minor, they'll be alright with it. The other option is that I play distraction, and give Annabeth the info you guys will need to hack the systems and find whatever they've got on Varus. The pros of that one is that it will probably mobilize the entire base. Cons are that there will almost definitely be gunfire involved."