Tower of Secrets

Natasha Romanoff

I half expected for Percy to finally tell us his story about what was behind the PTSD and the scars. What I did not expect, however, was for him to bolt two seconds after coming to his senses.

And that's coming from me.

The entire team stared at the hallway he had ran down, not saying a word. Steve cleared his throat to break the silence. "The kid has been through something traumatic."

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," Tony snarked, somehow managing the sarcasm on top of looking completely shellshocked.

"So, 'wars'?" Wanda commented. "What's up with that?"

"Son of Jack is truly a brave warrior," Thor said gravely. "It is saddening to see him in such distress."

"Thor, you know what happened?" Bruce questioned. We all watched the god's sullen movements.

"It is not my place to share, my friends."

"We can't help him if we don't know what happened," the doctor countered. Thor sighed, shaking his head sadly as he exited.

"Let's give him time to clear his head," I ordered. "Where is he, Jarvis?"

"Mr. Jackson seems to be heading to the pool."

"Let's go ahead and clean up," Steve suggested. Clint stood and grabbed everyone's now empty plates. I headed back to the kitchen to start and sweep up the flour and everyone else joined in.

An hour later, I found myself in a vent. Was I eavesdropping and totally invading Percy's privacy? Trick question: when I'm around, privacy doesn't exist.

I watched Percy and Annabeth talk for a bit. I watched them kiss for a bit. Then, I watched them talk some more. They were mostly discussing Annabeth's home life filled with annoying stepbrothers and parents who were on her case about her general lack of nutrition and rest.

"Wanna talk more underwater?" Percy suggested after a few moments.

"Sure," Annabeth replied, acting as though it was completely normal for two fully dressed teens to have a conversation under the deep end of a pool.

"Jarvis, will you turn off the audio and video in here and alert me if someone is coming?"

"Of course."

The boy and the girl held hands, jumping in at the same time. Despite being underwater, they both appeared to be dry. I stared closer and noticed what appeared to be an air bubble around Annabeth's face. Nothing og the sort was around Percy, so I concluded that he was the one with freaky water related abilities, which must have included breathing underwater.

"Don't tell them I'm watching, Jarvis," I whispered quickly, pulling out a phone and snapping a picture of the sight. I noticed that the water diluted what they were saying si that I couldn't hear what they were saying. From the looks of it, it was along the lines of what had shaken Percy up so badly. Perhaps it had something to do with the Pit?

I crawled away to go meet up with Bruce in the medbay. I found the doctor in deep conversation with Steve.

"Hey," I said, alerting them to my presence before jumping out of the vents. "What are you two discussing?"

The two males shared a glance. Bruce sighed. "When Percy first showed up, I had Steve get me a DNA sample."

"I'm guessing that there was an anomaly?"

"Half of his DNA is missing," Bruce exclaimed. "It's like only half of him is a human! The missing half hasn't been replaced with other types of DNA so he hasn't been crossed with an animal in a manner similar to Peter."

I nodded. "I thought there was something up with his biology. He can breathe underwater and control it to an extent, from what I've gathered. Remember when his plumbing broke almost immediately after he showed up? We live in Stark Tower, the plumbing doesn't just break. My theory is that he has an emotional connection with his control over water. Something must have set him off."

Steve didn't seem surprised. "I knew he had something going on with water."

"Which," I continued, "probably amplifies the affect of eating fire - however he managed to survive that."

"Sounds like something my dad would say to me when I was just a kid," Bruce said with a small smile playing on his features, "'Son, fire doesn't burn me, I burn fire.'"

Chuckles resonated throughout the group at that.

I spotted one of Bruce's sweaters lying around. Upon realizing that, yes, I was a little chilly, I stole it. I know he noticed. Heck, I looked him right in the eyes when I did it. Much to my pleasure, he didn't say anything.

My reputation as a merciless killer can be so fun sometimes.

I stepped out of the room, but remained within earshot.

I heard Steve's voice first: "Did she just steal your jacket?"

"Yeah, she stole Tony's sweats last week."

"I thought I saw her with my hat the other day. Why do think she steals our clothes? Some weird assassin intimidation?"

I could hear Bruce gulp from where I stood. "It's working." I smirked, already making plans to steal Clint's sweatshirt.

I decided to head to the living room to see what everyone else was doing.

"Where's the spider?" I asked stoicly.

Wanda, from her position standing on the couch giggled. "What spider?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Why else would you be standing on the couch?"

"I live here, I can stand where ever I want."

"Okay then, I guess I'll just lea-"

"On a completely unrelated note, there's a spider under the table. Seeing as you're also a spider-themed hero..."

Yeah, this is my life.