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

Chapter 22: Tony

On the trip back to Avengers Tower, the kids in the back chatted anxiously. Tony and Clint had only taken a few of them—the fire boy, the angry blonde one, and the emo. Piper had said she needed to go back to her dad's place, and she couldn't stay. Tony honestly didn't know how the group got along so well—all of their personalities seemed to clash terribly, but they made it work somehow. 

The demigods had told him to make a pit stop before returning to the tower. They wanted them to stop at the Independence River wild forest, which was definitely way out of their route. Annabeth had said they needed to pick up Thalia Grace, another girl who had made a splash in Percy's file. Tony had so many questions for all of them. Things still didn't quite add up, especially in Thalia and Nico's case.

He never had told them who his godly parent was. Interesting.

When Tony asked why they needed her, Annabeth just said, "She should know. Plus, she's a very good tracker."

When they had climbed into the Quinjet—which Tony was now thankful he had brought since they had to go all the way to a random forest—Leo had nearly had a seizure. He had run around, touching everything, commenting about the genius of every tiny part, and nearly dismantled multiple control panels with his tool belt before Tony grabbed his arm. It did make him happy that he had found someone with his affinity for mechanics, but he didn't appreciate him trying to take apart their mode of transportation. There was time for that later.

"Sorry," Leo breathed. "This is so cool. Does this thing run off of gas, or hydraulics, or—"

"Questions later," Tony replied. 

"Yeah, but, like, the physics of this thing is crazy! The wing shape is just perfect, and—" 

Leo kept rambling on and on, and Tony entertained him. Finally, he thought. Someone who knows what they're talking about. At least I'm not completely surrounded by idiots.

He wished Peter was there too. The kid was also great with engineering, although he was better at the science part of it, and less so the actual building process. All Tony needed now was an actual intelligent adult he could talk to. Bruce was great. But again, he was a doctor. Not quite an engineer. 

While Leo tried to make conversation with Chase and di Angelo, he sat cross-legged in his seat. Various tools were strewn about his legs, armrest, chair, and basically any available space within reach. His tool belt spit out anything imaginable. He pulled out a chainsaw at one point before looking at it, shrugging, and tucking it back into a definitely too small pocket. He was working on a small model of the Quinjet, and he was finishing it scarily quickly. Tony swore he had only looked away for two seconds before he turned back around and saw both wings attached. 

It wasn't even just a plastic model, either. It had honest-to-God pieces of metal forged together, with turbines that actually functioned. He used his fire to weld it together, nearly giving Tony a heart attack when he turned back and saw him with his finger alight with flames. He wasn't eager to find out if the floor was fireproof. Tony gave out offhand tips as he worked, and Leo responded with thumbs-ups to most of them. 

Before Tony knew it, the kid had a fully working model. He flipped a switch on the bottom of the jet, and the turbines whirred to life. He let go of it, and it floated in place. He fished out a remote from inside his belt, which Tony had not caught him working on, and pushed appropriate buttons and fiddled with joysticks to direct the jet towards Nico's head. It bumped into him, and Nico swore in a foreign language while rubbing the spot where it had made contact. He swatted it out of the air. Leo grinned and stifled a laugh while di Angelo glared at him with murder in his eyes.