The Son of the Hulk

Chapter 6

Bruce's POV:

As we all sit down for 'post battle shawarma' as Tony called it I can't help but to wonder how Percy is doing on his little rescue mission. I hope the girls don't shoot him before the end of it. Listening to the teams bickering, it makes me feel proud to have joined them in the fight, to have been the one protecting Percy for once, instead of it being the other way around.

"Hey Bruce, if you don't mind me asking, where'd the kid go?" Steve asks looking over towards me, "I saw him when I arrived on the helicarrier but he disappeared soon after."

"Wait what kid? Bruce has a kid? Why wasn't I told about this?" Tony buts in before I can answer. Sighing, I begin to explain.

"The kid's name is Percy and he's my adopted son. He left because he had an emergency at his camp that he had to take care of."

"You say that in a past tense. Where is he now if he isn't at this camp of his anymore." Of course, Natasha would be the one to pick up on m slip of the tongue.

"Well you see he was at the camp but then he got a call asking him to go rescue his cousin and her friends who got lost in an iceberg he mapped out a few years back. So, I would guess that he is currently in Alaska where the iceberg is located, or almost there."

"Why did she call him instead of the authorities to get her out?" Steve asks like the ever-concerned good citizen he is.

'It's a long story," I start.

"We've got time."

"It all starts a few summers ago, when Percy, his friend, and I were camped out on an iceberg up in Alaska. Percy and his friend, Grover, were exploring a few days after we arrived when they found an opening in the ice. Looking around inside they discovered a whole network of caves and caverns spread throughout the ice. After checking back in with me, they started to explore the..."

"You let a couple of kids explore a potentially dangerous cave by themselves?"

"Yes Steve, but they were fourteen at the time, plenty old enough to take care of themselves. Now don't interrupt. As I was saying, they started to explore the cave system, mapping it out as they went so that they wouldn't get lost within its labyrinthine twists and so that they could keep track of the natural traps built in. You see the way that the light refracted through the ice caused it to be hard to tell how steep a slope was or how deep a drop was when you were in the tunnels. Because of this the paths were much more dangerous than they seemed and could be deadly if you took the wrong turn.

Percy and Grover were careful throughout the process, or at least as careful as two fourteen-year-old boys can be, and by the end of the month they had mapped out the cave system in its entirety. About a week before they finished, though, they came across a huge cavern with a natural pool of fresh, drinkable water and a small opening in the ceiling leading to the outside that would let in fresh air and let out smoke. Because of this we made the cavern into our new camp, as we were protected from the elements better inside the cave.

After we left Percy hid the map on the iceberg and then told his friends where the map and entrance were, so that if any of them needed or wanted a campsite they could use it. Recently, Percy's cousin, Thalia, had decided to use the campsite, along with some of her friends. Regrettably, Thalia and her friends decided that they didn't need to use the map Percy had left to navigate the caves. Predictably they ended up falling into one of the traps and can't find their way out. While the authorities would seem like the most obvious choice, they would probably become just as lost or trapped as Thalia, therefore only making the situation worse. Instead they called Percy to come get them, seeing as he could navigate those tunnels with his eyes closed considering the number of times he has traveled through them. And, so, yeah, that's the story." At that note I look around at the rest of my newfound teammates faces, seeing anything from shock, Steve, to amusement, Tony and Clint, to confusion, Thor, and finally Natasha who was expressionless aside from a slight smirk.

"Brucy boy I didn't even think you were able to talk for that long. It was the longest thing you've ever said to me."

"Hey Tony?"

"Yeah Clint?"

"Shut up"

As we all laugh at the childish bickering between the two Avengers, the topic of Percy is dropped, though it is forgotten by no one. Glancing down at my meal of what Tony called shawarma I think about Percy and his friends and how they are truly unique. Their adventures definitely weren't normal, but they weren't bad adventures either.

Tuning back into the conversation, I smile, forgetting for a moment the horrors that face us. Forgetting crazy gods and goddesses trying to destroy the world. Forgetting that I just fought a god, who will soon be sent back to his home planet, and his army of aliens. Forgetting the fact that there are so many more pantheons out there than I originally thought. Forgetting how often my son was in danger and how I can do nothing about it. Forgetting all my worries and, for that one moment, that one meal, relaxing as though I hadn't a care in the world.

(AN: 962 words)

AN: I have a question for all of you beautiful people. How many pineapples would constitute being an excessive number of pineapples? Just wondering what you think.