Percabeth at Stark Tower

24. Robots

Annabeth's POV (yes again, as Perssasy would say, deal with it)

"So what base designs do you have?" I ask once we've both calmed down and are in the elevator.

"What do you mean?" Tony asks.

"Well if you have a basic design already we can simply tweak that instead of inventing something new, which would cut off most of the work."

"Oh yeah, I've got a ton. We'll just need to choose the right one, and I'll have to give you limited editing abilities so this goes faster. But don't even think about pulling a prank or else I will pull it back so fast you'll think you could teleport like your mom."

"Relax, I'm an Athena kid, not a Hermes kid."

"Maybe, but the smart type are often mischievous as well, and I don't want to risk anything." he has a point.

"Well this is important and serious, so I will treat it as such."

"When are your projects not serious and important?"

I smile. "I wasn't paying attention at the time, but the Hephaestus cabin got really fed up with the mosquitoes and made a tiny centaur robot with really tiny arrows to go around killing them. It took awhile to get it right because of the curse, but now it's mostly useful."

"Mostly?" he asks.

"Well it's shooting arrows, so if you move very quickly there's a chance you'll get between it and it's target. Also a few times they've reprogrammed it for capture the flag. Maybe I shouldn't have given them the idea to have it shoot at a specific color, but it was useful. But then the next game they were on the other side. Also one time Drew was being really annoying, so they got it to shoot her hair for like an hour. It was pretty funny, until she stepped on it."

"Drew?"

Right, he's lucky enough to not know her. "She's the stereotype of a woman. Obsessed with her hair and makeup, doesn't care about anything else, and spends all her time creating couples and breaking them up. Has no interest in anything physical or mentally challenging and very interested in having power to get others to do things for her."

"She sounds like hell."

"No, that's far worse." I say darkly.

"I'm so sorry," Tony says, sounding sincere for once, "I forgot you went there."

"It's fine. I won't say I've recovered, but I've mostly moved past it. And I've got Percy with me all the time, so it's easier for us than Nico. we've gotten him to talk a bit, but not much." I shrug it off, now is not the time for drowning in past nightmares. "So, what sort of robot were you thinking about?"

Tony lights up at the idea of talking robots to someone who can actually understand him, and starts talking a mile a minute. And I have to say I've missed this. I love Percy, but when I go off like this his eyes glaze over. My siblings will talk about it with me, and I've missed that feeling. "So we should have pinchers." he finishes off with.

"Why not both?" I suggest and he grins at me. I grin back, just as wicked and the doors swing open with a pleasant ding. "Race you!" I shout as I take off running.

"No...fair," he pants when he catches up to me. "You're younger and more athletic."

"I never said it was fair."

He pouts before getting a gleam in his eyes. "What if I decide to not let you in?"

"Have fun making the robots alone." I say, matching his newest smirk.

"Uhg! Fine. welcome to my personal paradise, touch nothing. Oh, and don't make any smoke, Dum-E is a little over enthusiastic with a fire extinguisher." that could be useful at camp, although...