Tower of Secrets

Percy Jackson

Gods, I just love getting judo-flipped by my girlfriend in the morning.

It started out like most of my mornings in the tower: swimming laps in the pool for hours on end to clear my mind and just live off of the energy the water gave me. Who needs sleep when five minutes in a pool can make a guy feel ready to run a marathon?

Gods, that sounded pathetic.

Anyways, I headed back to the kitchen around six, knowing that Mr. Rogers would be up. To my surprise, he wasn't. Weird.

"Jarvis," I called, "where's Mr. Rogers? It's six, isn't it?"

"Mr. Rogers is still asleep. He had a late night last night. Yes, it is six," Jarvis said, informative as always.

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. I figured everyone else would discuss my whole 'nightmare' thing, but they shouldn't have stayed up late enough to offset Mr. Rogers's rigorous sleeping schedule.

What were they up to?

I almost grabbed an apple, but decided against it. I wanted to wait and see what Dr. Bruce had come up with. I ended up wondering back to my room where I puncjed the Hades out of that punching bag. It may or may not have fallen off of its chain from the impact of my last punch. I guess I was still riled up from the nightmare.

I hate those nightmares. They make me feel like I'm helpless; like I'm some kid. I can't afford to be that way, not when it's life or death. I certainly needed to figure out how to put an end to them before a monster attacks in the middle of the night and my mind isn't in the tower anymore.

I decided to take a shower to try and cool off my buzzing thoughts. Gods, I wanted to talk to Annabeth so bad. Sadly, she was sleeping soundly in California as far as I knew. Granted, if she was asleep, she was probably terrified out of her mind by the horrors I knew her brain would make her relive.

I walked into the bathroom and almost laughed. Was this some kind of practical joke? A prank? What was this and why was it sitting on my toilet? It looked like a war hammer. Inspected it and notice some old Norse runes.

I made a mental note to study Norse after I mastered Latin.

I slipped my wrist through the leather loop on the end of the hilt and grabbed the handle, bracing myself for what I was sure would be a heavy haul.

It was honestly lighter than I expected.

I hefted it and twirled it around. I left my room and charged through the halls like I was going to battle, knowing that no one was awake to watch my childish behavior. When I made it down to the training room, I charged a dummy and beat the Hades out of it, laughing at my own antics. I chucked it at the farthest one, curious as to how far I could through it.

If anyone asks you, I didn't make the hole in the wall.

And then, I realized a new problem: the hammer was too far away. It had gone through several walls and was definitely too far away. I whined and outstreched my hand, waving it around as though the hammer would magically come back. The strange thing?

The hammer magically came back.

"Poseidon's Underpants!" I yelped when the hammer came crashing back through the walls and landing in my palm.

If anyone asks, the second set of holes wasn't me, either.

Deciding that I'd had my fun for the morning, I tentatively put the hammer with the other weapons and walked back to my bedroom, whistling with my hands pocketed as though nothing had happened.

(Little did I know, a certain daughter of Athena had apparently been watching the security footage of the incident and was currently laughing her head off).

I finally went to go check on Estelle after a few restless minutes, the shower from earlier having been completely forgotten. She was starting to squirm in her sleep so I waiting until I heard her start to cry, which didn't take long. I changed  her diaper in a matter of minutes and got her dressed and ready for the day. I took her to the kitchen where I mixed her formula and sat to feed her. Around an hour of playing around later, and the tower was just starting to wake up.

Mr. Rogers walked in first. "Good morning, Perce."

"Hey, Mr. R. How're you?" I greeted.

"Tired," he yawned. "I was up late last night."

"Oh, yeah? Doing what?"

"You'll see."

That's about when Clint sauntered in, grinning. "Hey, Percy! Bathroom troubles this morning?"

I frowned and thought about that hammer that had been sitting on my toilet. I also thought about the holes downstairs that were shaped like a hammer. "No, nothing was different."

Clint's smile faded into a frown. "Nothing?" It dawned on me that the hammer was indeed a prank and I had just severely disappointed the archer.

"Hey, kid!" Tony exclaimed as he burst into the room. "Anything out of-"

"No," I interrupted. Okay, so Tony and Clint were working together. "Also, not a kid."

"Percy!" Peter hollered, entering in with the same excitement the other two hooligans had. Peter must've also been in on it.

"Peter!" I mimicked.

"Notice any-"

"No," Tony grumbled. "Thor must've forgotten to plant the ham-"

"Don't tell him!" Clint yelped. "Thor forgot to plant the ham."

"Oo!" I deadpanned. "Deli meat. Great prank, I'm totally terrified."

That's when a tall musclular man with goldilocks block hair wearing Norse style armor and a red cape came walking in.  "Hello, Perseus!" the man boomed.

"Hello, Random Dude I've Never Met Before!" I greeted in return with a cheerful wave.

"I figured you would not recognize me ," Random Dude I've Never Met Before chuckled. "My name is Thor, Norse god of thunder. You're glorious deeds are well known among my fellow Asgardians."

"Okay, Thor," I mused, "I haven't told these guys about my 'glorious deeds' yet."

"Would you like me to do the honors?" Thor offered.

I shrugged. "I'm trying to see how long I can keep my, erm, heritage secret."

"Good luck to you, then," Thor smiled. Whilst our exchange went down, Natasha, Wanda, and Dr. Bruce entered, all giving me curious glances. I realized that everyone knew about the hammer that got planted on my toilet.

I started to turn around and stopped, hearing someone running at me. I turned back to be slammed onto my back, my sea green eyes staring into startling grey ones. Blond curls fell from my attacker's head and onto my face.

I blew them out of the way and leaned up, effectively planting a kiss on the girl.

"Hey, Wise Girl."