A STORM IS BREWING | PERCY JACKSON

Chapter Twenty

Peter sat on the edge of a building. He was facing towards the harbor and could see the ferry in the distance, helicopters still flying around it. It would probably take another couple hours for the boat to be evacuated. He felt empty inside, the hollow pit in his stomach growing as he watched other people clean up the mess that he had made. It wasn't long until he heard the tell-tale pulse of the Iron-Man suit from behind him. He didn't even bother to turn around when Stark started to reprimand him.

"I tell you to stay away from this. Instead, you hacked a multimillion-dollar suit so you could sneak around behind my back doing the one thing I told you not to do." Stark's tone was disappointed, which was somehow worse than him being mad at Peter.

"Is everyone okay?"

"No thanks to you."

Stark's words stung and Peter could feel himself getting angry. He turned and stalked up to the suit. "No thanks to me? Those weapons were out there, and I tried to tell you about it. But you didn't listen. None of this would've happened if you had just listened to me."

Peter scoffed as a thought hit him. He looked up and down at the shell of a suit. "You don't care, you're not even here right now."

He startled as the suit hissed and started to open. Tony Stark stepped down and walked towards him. With each step that he took, Peter took another step back.

The billionaire's tone turned impatient. "I did listen, kid. Who do you think called the FBI, huh? Do you know that I was the only one who believed in you? Everyone else said I was crazy to recruit a fifteen-year-old kid. What if somebody had died tonight? Different story, right? Because that's on you. And if you died, I feel like that's on me. I don't need that on my conscience."

Peter huffed. His throat felt thick like he was about to cry. Or vomit. Or both. "I just wanted to be like you," he found himself saying. He never realized how true those words were until that moment. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he had been trying to emulate the older hero. He had already failed at being a hero once. He hadn't wanted to mess up again. Not that it helped. It seemed like no matter what he did, he would always be a screw-up.

"And I wanted you to be better."There was a pause. "Okay, it's not working out. I'm gonna need the suit back."

Peter's head snapped to look at Stark. "For how long?"

"Forever," Stark said grimly.

Peter shook his head frantically. He couldn't take away the suit. "No, please. You don't understand. Please. This is all I have. I'm nothing without this suit."

"If you're nothing without this suit," Stark stated harshly, "then you shouldn't have it. Okay? God, I sound like my dad."

A sense of defeat rolled over Peter. He had tried so hard to be a hero again. To live up to his promise. Now, he was nothing. He sighed defeatedly and his shoulders slumped. "I don't have any other clothes."

"We can sort something out."

***

Percy trudged through the halls of the apartment complex. He was wearing an embarrassingly oversized 'I Love NY' shirt that you normally only saw on tourists. He reached up and picked up the key from above the doorframe. He didn't want any attention right now. He unlocked the door and dragged himself inside, trying to slip past his cousins and Hestia unnoticed. He should have known that slipping past a former Lieutenant of Artemis and a goddess would have been impossible.

Hestia called him into the living room which he entered reluctantly. His eyes were drawn to the television that had the news story about the ferry plastered all over it and winced. His cousins took one look at him before demanding what had happened after Stark had shown up.