For we once so loved the world by HowlingDarkness95

Chapter 3

The aftermath was, to Tony at least, extremely anticlimactic. After all that excitement of running through the exploding base and up a mountain-oops, glacier- and closing a portal to prevent another alien invasion, sitting in a plane-one that wasn't even his- on the way back to New York was just so boring. Tony sighed again. And got whacked over the head as a result of it. "Ow!" he whined, "What'd you do that for?" Bruce glared at him, "You've been sighing non-stop for the past ten minutes Tony. It's getting annoying." Tony just pouted at him. Sitting across him, Percy opened an eye to glare at him, entire body wracked with tension as distant sounds of thunder rumbled in the sky.

Tony leered at him, "Scared of a little storm?" parroting his taunt towards one god of mischief several years back. Percy opened both eyes and turned his infamous death glare on Tony, making the man flinch slightly. Tony sighed, again, when Percy went back to sleep. He took out his Starkpad and fiddled with it, adding and removing certain designs to the device that had shut down the portal. He couldn't wait to get back to his lab, there was no doubt that he had been practically useless in Alaska without his suit, and he didn't want that to happen again.

Of all the avengers, he was the only one who was vulnerable outside of his armor. Steve had his super soldier serum, Clint and Natasha were assassins, their bodies were their weapons. Thor was nearly indestructible and Bruce had the Hulk, who was indestructible. That left him, Iron Man, with a suit that far surpassed any other technology on Earth. He could fly faster than Mach 2 in the suit, but without it? He couldn't kill like Clint and Natasha, and he didn't have the strength to deliver a critical hit like Steve could and he couldn't spontaneously change into some rage monster that no weapon could hurt. It all came down to the suit, and if he hadn't developed that bracelet that allowed JARVIS to connect the suit to him, Loki would have killed him long ago. That left only one option, he had to start training. Physically. he had done boxing in the past, but that was just a sport. he could be counted as fit, but he was nowhere near being able to fight bare handed. His pride stung at the admission that he was weak, but he furiously stomped the feeling down.

But trained by who? Tony wondered, definitely not the assassins, he shuddered at the thought, Natasha would kill him, Clint would be cackling away like some evil witch from Disney. Steve was too....overpowered. So was Thor. Bruce didn't even fight hand to hand. He face-palmed mentally. That only left one person. And that person was sitting right opposite him and probably couldn't even stand him. Tony sighed again, earning yet another whack from Bruce.

Percy was halfway out of the quinjet as soon as it touched the ground, feeling more at ease with the ground underneath his feet. He stalked straight towards the director's office, blatantly ignoring Stark's shout of "Hey! You just gonna leave us here?"

He ignored the call from Bruce telling him to go to the infirmary, though his shoulder twitched at that, and instead walked briskly through the halls of the SHIELD base. They had rebuilt this base from the one Loki had destroyed when he'd arrived from Zeus knows where. He knocked twice on Fury's door, waiting for his grunt of acknowledgement before entering the room. As the door slid shot behind him, he straightened and focused on the dark skinned man before him. It wasn't easy to intimidate Percy Jackson, especially since he had faced down monsters, Titans, Gods, Primordials and hell itself. Yet, there was something about Nick Fury that made him feel less impulsive and rebellious. Fury stared at him, "Agent Jackson," he greeted cordially. "Sir." Percy said, inclining his head.

Fury gestured for him to continue. "As per your orders sir, the Alaskan base was destroyed. Agent Johnson informed me that there were thirty-four casualties. Of the thirty-four, three were scientists Riley Beckett, Edward Lu and Michael Debson, all of who were involved in the research of the power source, which, incidentally, is known as the power gem."