Pathways

24 Steve

After breakfast we all went down to the gym to see exactly what Percy could do. We want to asses his combat abilities before we dive too deeply into his water based abilities. Honestly just knowing this kid makes life seem so much more complicated. The Avengers come from a strange world, no doubt about it, but Percy Jackson is something else.

The kid walked firefly into the middle of the room. He mumbles a string of words in a foreign languages before doing a small stretch. He turns to us and sighs. A strange kid for sure.

"Let get this over with ya dorks," Percy says.

Clint stiffles a laugh while Natasha sends him a glare. I can tell it's more playful than anything. She is slowly warming up to the teens. I know it's hard for her for different reasons than it is for the rest of us to accept letting these people be heroes. They're barely adults. One of them is still like 16 or 17.

"We are going to see how well you do hand to hand before we dive into any weapons," I say. We all decided yesterday I would text hand to hand, Natasha got to do blade like weaponry and Clint would see how is marksmanship held up.

"Well I'll warn you, I am better fighting with swords. Annabeth is the kendo queen," he says. None the less we step into the middle of the matter room while the other move to the sides.

He doesn't start in a fighting ready stance. His arms are slightly raise but he leaves his feet where they are, in a position not great for keeping balance. I hold up my fists and place my feet to be balance so I don't loose my stance. I can't tell of Percy is actually a terrible fighter or trying to throw me off.

I wait for him to swing first but that was clearly not happening so I tried to hit him with a right hook. His left arm quickly went to for a block while his right leg went out to take out my legs. I avoid his kick and go for another pinch which he sidesteps to avoid. Much of our fight goes on with him on defence. After a few minutes he manages to grab one of my arms, pulling me towards him i lift my other fist to hit his face but he suddenly jerks my body to the side. I loose my footing before tumbling to the ground.

Damn kid.

I pull him down with me and try to pin him down but he uses his size to his advantage and quickly slides away. Both of us get to our feet, ready to go again.

"Time," Tony yells.

"He's almost got you beat gramps," Natasha says.

"Hey I'm not that old!"

Percy laughs. "Good fight Cap'n Cronch,"

I give him a look. It's almost like another Tony. Less arrogant sounding, but still, the sass. Not to mention the nicknames.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" I ask.

"Experience and summer camp,"

"Would you like to elaborate on that?" I ask.

"Oh and Annabeth, she taught me a lot of what I know now," he replies. He has a bit of sweat on his forehead but not much. His breathing is normal. This kid is a tank, a somewhat slim tank, but one none the less.

"Alright Mr. Vagueness, let's try some weapons," Clint says. He presses on a few of the wall panels. Natasha steps towards one, grabbing a few throwing knives. Without warning she launches them at the black haired teen. He quickly dodges them.

"What the f-heck spider lady!" He says. She throws two more which he also dodges. I look to the wall behind him. The knives lay on the ground from where they bounced off of the concrete wall.

Nat smiles to herself. The smallest of smirks, but it's still there. "You have good reflexes,"

"Yeah that's cause shit is always attacking me!" He exclaims.

"And it always will be," she replies. She gestures for him to come forward to which he does not oblige.

"Come on and pick a weapon," Nat says. She picks out two silver short blades. They're longer than knives but shorter than say, the sword Percy grabs. It's one of the more slender ones.

"Its not terribly well balanced but this will work," he murmurs. This time he does get into a stance.

Natasha doesn't give him any warning before she swings at her. The two look like their dancing, Nat's hair is swinging everywhere. The clanging of the blades is flinch worthy. Percy was right, he is amazingly talented with swordsmanship. He manages to force a blade away from Natasha so she is only fighting with one.

Both of them are swinging fast and moving around the whole room. Natasha manages to cut Percy's arm slightly but that doesn't stop him for a moment.

Finally, Tony calls time once more and the two stop, both smiling wickedly.

"You're good Red," Percy says. They shake hands.

"Not so bad yourself kid," she replies. Percy groans at the word kid.

"What kind of summer camp teaches you how to use swords?" Clint asks, "Cause I'd love to go to one of those,"

"Its, uh, very selective. It's for troubled kids who typically have only one or no parents present in their life. I swore an oath that I would never disclose the location and I will stick to that. All I can say is, it's a great place. It helps a lot of people," percy explains. The swings the sword around catelessly as he does so.

"How are Di Angelo and Chase with Weapons?" I ask. If they all went to the same camp maybe all of them are already battle-ready.

"Annabeth is amazing at everything. She used to specially with smaller blades, like daggers and knives but she uses swords too. She has this really cool bone sword-," he stops himself, noticing hes going on a  tangent. "And Nico, kid always carries a knife and is deadly with a sword. He is a skilled fighter as well. He isn't super strong, but he is really fast and isn't afraid to fight dirty,"

"Yeah I'm well aware," Sam says. I let out a loud laugh. It was really funny when Sam was attempting to get Nico into the truck that first day. Kid was fierce. I think he cursed us out in like 5 languages.

"I don't have rabies do I?" Same asks holding up his hand that still has the scabs.

"Probably not," Peecy smirks. He goes off with Clint into the side room. That's the one with hologram simulated enemies. The rest of us go on the side to view Percy's work. The kid is first handed a fake glock 19 that was meant to work with the simulation. Percy shrugs and looks at the gun strangely. Clint shows him where the safety is and how to aim and shoot it.

Once Clint is in the observation room with us he says, "I actually don't think that kid has ever shot a gun before,"

"Alright starting in 3... 2.. 1!" Tony says starting the simulation. Percy shoots well at the targets, his aim isn't great though. Instead of hitting them in the chest or head heneither missed or tags shoulders and outer limbs.

"Aim for the head not the fingers!" Nat says. Her voice is stern but her smile says that shes amused.

He tries, the more he works at it the better he gets but we will definitely need to trian him on tanged weapons. He doesn't even bother trying out an archery set up. It, 'wasn't his thing.'

"You've got skills," Tony says, "But even I shoot better than that,"

"I'm more of a close range fighter. I've thrown fire bombs and smoke grenades pretty closely though,"

"Why?" I ask

"Capture the flag," he replies.

"You kids scare me," Sam mumbles.