The Jackson Enigma

Getting to Know All About You

While Peter was the youngest of his team of superheroes, he was not unintelligent. When he walked into one of the many med rooms in Stark Tower to see the people in the room frozen in tension, he knew something was up. It was clear to the teenager that no one wanted to talk about it— or at least not with him— so he made some deductions of his own, hoping to at least gather something. After Tony Stark— his mentor and idol— left the room along with Bruce Banner, Peter was left with two of his other teammates and the only other teenager in the tower. Strangely, Thor was not in the room despite the fact that Peter knew for a fact that he was on earth.

It wasn't very easy to read the remaining two team members. One of them was a spy, and the other may as well have been a spy for how well he controlled his composure and expressions. It made sense though, he was after all best friends with said spy. Natasha seemed perfectly controlled and there was no trace of whatever had been going on in the room before Peter greeted them in his optimistic spirits. The spy met his gaze knowingly, challenging him. Instead of accepting, the young superhero smiled awkwardly and moved on. Her partner's expression was casual, in fact his eyes were closed as he was leaning against the edge of the table behind him. It was a smart tactical move. The eyes say a lot about a person and what they're thinking or feeling at any given moment.

Not being able to read the archer with his eyes closed and his relaxed, casual posture, Peter moved on to the only other person in the room, besides himself. The one who had been introduced as Perseus Jackson. Perseus's face was relaxed and his smile bright. His eyes, though, were harder to discern. In fact, Peter wasn't sure what he saw in them. He didn't know if he saw anger, sadness, frustration, or if Perseus was genuinely happy in this moment. The young genius in the making tacked it down to not having known the other teenager for long. After all, the more you knew someone, most times, the more you were able to read them.

The analyzing of the members of the room only took Peter Parker a mere five seconds. Yet, when he took one last glance around the room of his teammates and his gaze returned back to Perseus, the other teenager had a glint in his eyes.

"I'll leave you to catch up with your teammates." Peter noticed how Perseus didn't say 'our teammates.' Perhaps he didn't see themselves as quite a team yet, Peter pondered. Before the teen could respond, Clint stepped in.

"No, that's fine, we can catch up anytime. Peter why don't you get to know Percy here a little." Here the archer paused to chuckle lightly. "You two are the only teenagers in the tower, I imagine you'll be spending a lot of time together, why not start to get to know each other now. Percy will need a friend his age in this new situation, you could show him around." Peter reached up a hand to scratch at the nape of his neck awkwardly.

"Erm, okay, sure." He turned to Perseus who merely shrugged, though he seemed less happy about the arrangement than Peter did. That didn't help Peter's optimism. "Well, uh, follow me, I guess." The unfamiliar teenager raised a brow, but followed Peter out of the room nonetheless. Peter wasn't stupid, he knew Clint wanted them out of the room intentionally. Peter could only imagine it was to talk to Natasha about whatever he'd walked in on. For a while they walked in silence, just walking down the hallway. Peter knew once he reached a room or a door, he'd have to start talking. He was surprised to find that he didn't have to make the first move.

"So, uh, you're Spider-Man?" Peter nodded awkwardly, half expecting the teenager to freak out as it was seemingly just now sinking in. "What do you do? You know, besides, um, superhero-ing. Like, what are your powers?" The brown haired teen almost halted in his tracks.

"What do you mean?" The slightly taller teenager shrugged.

"Like, what can you do? You're called Spider-Man so, do you control spiders? Do you turn into one?" Perseus looked at him inquiringly, sizing him up as if he was trying to determine how Peter would turn into a spider or what he would look like as one. Flustered, Peter spluttered.