The Reluctant Hero

Bada-bing, bada-BOOM!

Admiral looked around him; surveying the destruction, he lifted a hand to his comm.

"Captain, are the hostages safe?" He pulled out some gauze and salve from a slot in his suit as he waited for the super soldier to answer.

"We're on our way out now. Are the hostiles taken care of?" Admiral used his teeth to tare the gauze as he knelt to tie it around some of the worst of the cuts and lacerations.

"Yes, they're dispatched. They had new weapons though, a beam burned straight through my suit." He commented.
"Are you alright, Admiral?" The hero grunted as he smeared salve over the burn on his chest.

"I'll be fine, focus on the hostages."

"Widow, Hawk, Thor, SitRep?"

"We're fine here, Cap." Hawkeye responded, "Three hostiles tried to leave, but we dealt with them easily; they didn't even see us coming." The team could practically hear his grin, so the Captain moved to the last team member.

"Ironman?" No answer. "Ironman!?" Their leader's voice was sharp and commanding. They heard some sparking then a string of curses.

"There's a bomb! The bastards planted a bomb and JARVIS and I can't diffuse it!" Deadly, tense silence as the sparking continued and the genius carried on cursing.

"I'm coming!" Percy answered, cutting through the silence. Crisp and to-the-point.

"What are you planning to do!?" Stark was freaking out. "What do you know about fucking bombs!"

"I've dealt with insane military mechanics for years, Ironman! I know how to deal with bombs and even if I didn't I can still help! I'm almost there!" He addressed the rest of the team. "Evacuate as many people as you can! Now!" He ran, faster than he had in a long time, practically leaping with every stride. "How long have we got, Ironman!?"
"3 minutes 33 seconds!" Came the terse reply. "32 seconds!" He amended. Percy ran faster.

He burst into the room and ran straight to Stark. The iron-clad man was crouching over a black case with an exposed motherboard and a digital clock slowly ticking down, one red, luminescent second at a time. The sound bounced around the room as the two looked down at the device. Percy opened the case as Stark went to check the room for any traps.

"OK," Stark began explaining as he checked the room, "you need to find the second red wire from the right and cut it at the exact same time as the first blue wire on the left, alright?"

Percy stared down at the bomb, dread rising.

"Sure." He nodded, swallowing hard. "Hey Ironman, I need you to go outside and check on the others." Stark turned around to look at him. 3 minutes, the clock read. Percy's body still obscured Tony's view of the bomb.

"Why?" Percy sighed.

"Who has the most combat experience here?" Percy deflected the question, teasing the genius, trying to distract him to get him to comply without questioning. It worked.

"Fine, fine, Mr-I've-lead-wars, I'm going! You sure you can deal with this?" He gestured to the bomb.

"Yes, Ironman, I'm sure. Now go, we've only got 2 minutes 45 seconds left!" So Tony left. It was only when he was completely out the the building that Percy let go of the breathe he'd been holding. He looked back down at the bomb, thinking about his team mate's instructions.

"Styxe." There were no wires.

Percy breathed deeply as he looked down, weighing his options.  He had 2 minutes and counting and no way to diffuse the bomb.

"OK. OK...If you can't diffuse, contain, right?" He thought back to all those evenings on the Argo II that Leo spent talking on and on about his latest projects. Who'd've thought they would come in so useful so soon? 

So all he had to do was contain the blast to stop it from hurting innocents. The only problem was that he had no idea how powerful the bomb was, what type of explosion it would be or whether it was scientific, magical or alien. Well, better safe than sorry.

"Admiral, what are you doing? Is the bomb secure?" Cap was checking in, but Percy ignored the question, carefully starting to create a magical shell of ice around the bomb.

"Have you evacuated? Is everyone safe?" 47 seconds.
"Yes! Admiral, what are you doing? Are you alright? Ironman told us that diffusing the bomb should be simple?! Where are you?!" Percy breathed in deeply as the ice around the bomb thickened, white frost creeping over it, enforcing it. The chill in the air seemed to gain just a little more of a bite as he worked.

"I'm fine, I'm dealing with the bomb now." But Cap had figured out that something was wrong.

"Admiral! What's happening in there?!" 35 seconds.

"I'm dealing with the bomb." 29 seconds. He spoke calmly. He knew that even his ice would likely not contain the entire blast if he left it, he hadn't worked with his Godly powers nearly enough for something this specialised. With this type of enchantment, proximity was key.

"What do you mean Admiral?!"

"I mean that it's being dealt with. No innocents will be hurt by this bomb." 12 seconds. He sat calmly next to the ice encased bomb, trying not to think about whether this would feel like being burned in Tartarus. "I can't diffuse the bomb. There are no wires. So I have to contain the blast, but the enchantment needed won't absorb it all and it requires proximity. I'm staying here, Captain." 7 seconds.

"No! Admiral, you could die! Get out of there now! There has to be another way!" 5 seconds.

"Yeah, Bud! JARVIS and I can do something! It's just a machine! We'll fix this!" His team was pleading. They didn't want to see him hurt again. He felt bad putting them through this, but he knew it was necessary.

"There are only seconds left, no time for another way and with this way, no innocent will get hurt." He stated calmly, trying to make them understand. 3 seconds.

"But you will!"
"They're worth it. And anyway, I lost my innocence a long time ago." 1 second.

He closed his eyes as the world burned and his teammates screamed.

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