Riptide

Chapter 3

                                                                                                                                                                                Natasha Romanoff POV
Once the questions were finally over, Steve stepped off the podium.
How on earth can people have some many bloody questions?
He looked ready to collapse, we all did. The last few days hadn't been good. Tony, the spider-kid and some other guy had gone missing in space. Clint had gone A.W.O.L, supposedly after the death of his family. Nick and Maria were dead, the Pager that Nick had on him our only source of hope. And half of the Avengers, dead.
Yeah, things weren't looking so good.
So it was rather surprising when we got called in to do one last mission.
The new acting director of S.H.E.I.L.D was Alphonso Mackenzie or simply, Director Mack. He had worked with S.H.E.I.L.D before, being on the team with Agent May and Agent Johnson. He was good, by the sounds of things. Half of S.H.E.I.L.D had also been dusted, by the way. The mission was simple. Perseus Jackson, a teen from Manhattan was out in the open again. He was responsible for several terrorist attacks a few years ago, from blowing up a bus, a school and the Golden Gate Bridge to getting in a gunfight with his kidnapper, the person who forced him to do these things. Unfortunately, the kidnapper fled when the police arrived, and none of them has been seen since.

Until now. He was sighted yesterday at Central Park attacking and killing several innocent people. And while eyewitness accounts varied, with some saying he was using a sword and some using a... pen? He was still at large and needed to be put down.

So that's why we were at the 'Those Who Vanished' memorial park in San Francisco on a Tuesday morning, five days after the speech, waiting in the pouring rain for the perfect moment to strike. The boy in question was tall, with jet black hair and a hunched posture. He was gripping a pen tightly and bright orange dust lay around him, covering him. Steve approached the kid, his shield slung across his back.
"Hey, son. My name is Capt--"
"Leave me alone and go fuck yourself." The boy gripped his pen even tighter.
"Language, boy. Now could you please listen to me?"
"No."
"Fine, look, we're here bring you in, so if you could just follow us..."
"As I said, no. Leave me alone." The boy turned around and stared Cap down with his sea green eyes. He had a huge scar on his cheek and he looked as broken as we did.
He must have lost someone he loved.
"Look, son, we can either do this the easy way or the hard way."
"Who the ha-hell would choose the easy way?"
He's got a point.
Steve took hold of his shield. I and Rhody ran towards them, with the talking raccoon on Rhody's back. The black haired boy uncapped the pen and held it out like a sword, a frown plastered on his face.
"Look, I don't like hurting people, so you can just leave and pretend this never happened."
Rhody scowled, "Then who were the people you killed a few days ago?" The boy gave Rhody such a glare that it made me even want to flinch.
"They weren't people. You'll understand later."
Cap took a step forward, "Look, son. Put the sword away and no one will get hurt."
Wait, sword?
The raccoon - his name is Rocket, I think - seemed to have the exact same thought as me, "Oi, are you drunk, America? All I see is a pen." Both me and James nodded.
"I don't get drunk, Rocket. Wait, do all of you see a pen?" We all nodded again.

The boy used Cap's distraction to charge at him, bringing his pen down on Steve's shield. Steve blocked it and jumped out the way, only to bring it back up so he could block a volley of bullets from Perseus's gun.
Hold on, I thought he had a pen?
I ran behind Rhody to protect myself from the bullets. He fired at the boy, causing the gun to be thrown out of the green-eyed boy's hand. Running at Perseus, I fired my gun, which was filled with trancs. One of the narcotics hit the boy's neck, causing him to wince. However, he didn't fall down like I expected him to, instead, he just pulled it out and chucked it on the grass. I stopped mid-run and stared at the boy, flabbergasted,
"There was enough in that to knock out a Rhino!"
The boy smirked and raised his gun, and I had to jump behind a pillar to protect myself.

The battle went on like that for a while. Steve, Rhody and the raccoon would distract, then I would shoot a tranc, which Perseus would just pull out and carry on. We needed a new plan, and fast.
"That sword/pen/gun keeps on coming back to him, and Nat's trancs don't seem to work," Said Cap over the comms, while I was catching my breath behind a column.
"No shit, Sherlock." Said Rocket, as he and Rhody were battling Perseus together.
"Language!"
"Hey, Nat, do you have that electric thingy?" Asked Rhody.
I pulled the small device out of my pocket, "You mean the one I used to disarm Bucky? Yep."
"Do you think that'll work?"
"What choice do we have?"
"Okay then. Rhodes, you, me and Rocket will distract, and Nat will throw the stunner. Got it?" Asked Cap.
We all chorused 'yes' and then set to work.
Cap threw his shield at the black haired boy, causing him to drop his gun. Then, Rhodes and Rocket both blasted him to the ground. I finished off the attack by throwing the stunner. Fortunately, it hit the boy's arm and gave him an electric shock, causing him to be knocked out.
Finally.
We tied the boy up and Cap slung him over his shoulder. I picked up his shield, which was rather heavy. Once we were ready, I looked at the column he was looking at when we found him. For one reason, one name stuck out.
Annabeth Chase.
Who was that?

We walked to the quinjet and entered, setting the boy down on a seat and strapping him in. Once we had taken off and was silently cruising in the air, we were able to take a breath.
"That was harder than expected." Breathed Rhodepy as he exited the war machine suit. Rocket sighed.
"No shit. And don't say 'Language' America."
"Language!- oops!" We all burst out laughing, including the raccoon, surprisingly.
"I wonder why he was resistance to the trancs."
"So? I am."
"Do you want me to test that out, Rogers?" I cocked the tranc gun and pointed at him.
"Not particularly, no."

I shot him, and he crumpled to the ground. So much for being tranc resistant.