Tower of Secrets

Dr. Bruce Banner

Several days went by and I was growing more and more concerned by Percy's strange behavior.

First of all, he never ate dinner with us. Sure, he'd sit and listen in on the conversation, occasionally making his own snarky remarks by what was said, but I never saw him actually eat anything. At first, I thought nothing of it, but it soon became too big a problem to ignore. "Jarvis, show me all the footage you have of Percy Jackson eating," I asked after the third day of school.

I watched a handful of scenes play out in front of me. Percy would walk into the kitchen and grab something small, usually an apple. Half the time he didn't finish his fruit.

"Jarvis, where is Peter Parker?" I asked, wondering if the raven haired teen ate lunch at school.

"Peter Parker is currently doing homework in his bedroom. Would you like me to send for him?"

"No, that won't be necessary. Thank you."

I stood from my desk in my lab, hurrying to Peter's room in search of answers. I found him, just like Jarvis said, doing homework. He also happened to be on the ceiling. "It's a good thing Percy hasn't caught you doing homework," I chuckled.

He glanced up (down?) from his work and smiled sheepishly. "I told Jarvis to let me know if he came my way."

I nodded. "I had a question about Percy, actually."

"Shoot," Peter encouraged, adding an extra layer of webbing to keep his books from falling.

"Does he eat at school?"

Peter seemed taken aback by the question. "Why wouldn't he?"

"I've noticed he doesn't eat at dinner and Jarvis only has footage here and there of him eating a few bites of apples or blueberries," I explained. "I've been a bit worried."

Peter scrunched up his face to think. "I never paid any particular attention to it. Now that I think about it, he does eat for sure, just small things though." Concern washed over his features. "Goodness, how can he run on fruit?"

"Let's find out at dinner tonight," I mused. "Finish your homework, Pete. Stark wants to continue with the extra studies once Perce gets his hands on those Greek textbooks." I turned and left, careful to close the door so that no unsuspecting teenager caught a glimpse of Pete doing his work Spidey style.

Dinner that night was... Enlightening.

"Percy, want a slice of pizza?" Stark coaxed, waving a greasy slice of cheese pizza in front of the teen. I had filled the team in on my fear about the kid's dietary habits. Everyone was in on it.

"It's fine, I'm not really hungry," Percy replied.

"C'mon kid! You've gotta eat sometime!" Stark replied.

"I'm not a kid," Percy chuckled with a roll of his eyes. Despite having seemingly said it in good humor, I think everyone caught onto the underlying message: Not after what I've seen.

"You still have to eat," Steve said, narrowing his eyes and taking on a more commanding tone.

"I told you, I'm not really hungry," Percy backtalked, an edge to his voice. I figured Steve would be mad, but the soldier looked worried. What was so bad about eating?

"You're never hungry," Clint argued.

"So?"

"You need to eat. It isn't healthy," I ordered.

"No."

"Why?"

"Just drop it."

I made eye contact with Wanda and she quickly got the message. She closed her eyes in concentration before throwing them open and gasping. "Percy-"

"I told you not to go looking into my mind!" he growled.

"We asked beforehand," she countered.

"Then maybe you should take the hint and back off," he whispered, staring at the floor. He stood abruptly. "I think I'm going to turn in for the night." Having said that, he left us all wondering why in the world he had an issue with food.

I turned to Wanda once I figured he was out of earshot. "When he goes to bed, see what you can do."

She nodded. "Jarvis, please let me know when Percy falls asleep."

"Of course."

"Thank you." According to both Wanda and Jarvis, Percy never went to sleep that night. Upon further questioning, I learned that Percy hadn't slept for the past several days. What was wrong with this kid?

The following morning, Natasha, Steve, and Clint ganged up on him and locked him in the kitchen, forcing him to eat a large breakfast. That day he came home from school early, having puked in first period. He spent the rest of the day, puking up anything in his stomach until he was left retching up blood.

"Why can't you eat normal servings?" I asked him during one of the intervals between the puking.

His face looked pain. "There was this place I had to suffer through a little over a year ago. I had to eat things people shouldn't be able to eat. Now, I can't seem to be able to stomach much normal food."

"Where was this place?" I found myself asking, intrigued by the trainee.

"Imagine the scariest thing you could possibly think of, the sort of place that drives you to the brink of insanity," he ordered. I did as he asked, not entirely sure I liked where this was heading. "Now square it."

I shuddered at the thought. The most terrifying part was that his deadly serious expression almost gave me the impression that, wherever he had been, it was worse than what he just described. I couldn't even begin to fathom what the kid had been through.

"Kid-" I started. He cut me off.

"Trust me, I'm no kid."

"Percy," I corrected. I found myself at a loss for words. How do you even respond to something like that? I settled for a very cringe worthy, "That's rough, buddy." We sat in silence in the medical center for a while before I decided to change the topic. "You have a girlfriend?"

He flashed me a grin. "Annabeth Chase. Gods, she's amazing." Gods, I noted. He said gods, plural.

"Tell me about her," I smirked.

"Well, she has these blond natural princess curls and grey eyes. Gods, her eyes are so..." he trailed off, thinking of the proper word.

"Beautiful?" I offered. "Entrancing?"

He nodded absentmindedly. "Yes, but I was going to say intimidating."

I leaned forward in interest. "Your girlfriend intimidates you?"

He barked out a short laugh. "Hades, yes! She's new to sword fighting, but she's been training with the dagger since she was seven. She's also super smart. Like, she's a total nerd--always seems to be reading. She's into architecture, as well. That's Annabeth wants to study in college, actually."

"What do you want to study?" I asked casually.

He thought for a moment and sighed. "I'm not really sure. I've been considering Marine Biology, though."

"Marine Biology," I echoed. "What has you interested in that field?"

Percy smirked. "Fish like me." That's about when he turned to the trash can and started coughing up blood.