Aquaman? Whoops, Wrong Universe: A Percy Jackson Marvel Crossover

Chapter 15: Tony

Steve was really getting on Tony's nerves. First he endangered the team, especially  Percy, with the whole Bucky scenario, and then he basically demanded to do something for their mission when everyone knew full-well that he was way too emotionally invested to be of any help. Great, just great.

Tony paced around his room, furiously typing on his holographic keyboard that held footage from hundreds of security cameras around the city. Some of them were his—some of them were not. A little hacking and cyberterrorism never hurt anyone. He was waiting, hoping, praying  that something would come up—even a glimpse of a bright orange shirt or a metal arm. 

Nothing.

With every moment, Tony got more and more stressed. For one, he was trying to fix his suit. The malfunction from the attack was still acting up, and he couldn't figure out how to fix it. He wondered why it worked perfectly around Thor, but went all haywire around the demigod. Percy had said that Thor wasn't exactly a god, whatever that meant.

In addition to that, in the end, Tony had been responsible for the kid. Fury may have given the order, but Tony was the one who got Peter roped into it, which ended up snowballing into... whatever this was. Jackson had been living under his roof. Under his protection. And what had happened? He got kidnapped by an undead soldier from World War II. 

Not that Tony liked the kid. Obviously not. 

Was he sarcastic? Sure.

Entertaining? Maybe.

Annoying? 100% yes.

Despite his complaining and groaning, Tony had come to enjoy his company, even a little, in the past few days. He was smart and witty. He was good at coming up with improvised plans, from what Tony could tell. He had watched some of the video footage from the training room, and he had seen how well he handled weapons. He knew where to strike, what his opponent would do next, how to stop them. It was impressive, Tony had to admit. A small, budding respect had started to form in Tony's mind, even if he didn't let it show. The apology from earlier was enough of a blow to his ego.

And after Percy revealed everything about him, with all the puzzle pieces finally fitting together, Tony had no choice but to admire him. If what he was saying was true (it probably was; Tony didn't really have any reason to doubt it with how well everything made sense), then how could Tony not? A hero like the myths of old, as a teenager. There was Achilles. There was Odysseus. And right up there on the hall of fame was their very own Percy Jackson. 

Even if he didn't  like Percy, anyone getting kidnapped wasn't something Tony (nor the rest of the Avengers) would ever stand for. Right under their own noses, too. All of them had been knocked around far too easily to the man that Steve was so convinced was his friend, even if the old man had told the team to go a little easy on the soldier.

Spoiler alert: Tony hadn't listened. He didn't really care who he was. All he knew was that he was attacking the Avengers in their own home. His home. The tower he paid for. He wasn't about to let a random guy waltz in and destroy everything.

Unfortunately for Tony, his best hadn't done much against the man. His suit hadn't been properly functioning. The few lasers that did manage to get fired hit more of the walls than the actual man, due to small confines. 

Tony may have also been in denial. He didn't want to believe that the man who attacked them was the man that his father had always talked about—the great hero, Bucky Barnes. The one who sacrificed his life. Someone to look up to. 

Tony knew, deep in his heart, that Steve was probably right. The face had looked suspiciously similar to the one he had seen in picture frames as a child, to the huge poster of him in the Captain America museum. (Which, according to Tony, was a total rip-off. Why wasn't there an Iron Man museum?)