Heroes of New York

TWENTY - PLAN

Chapter Twenty - Plan

~Tony Stark~

The three heroes (depending on who you asked, of course) stepped out of the elevator.

"Stark, we got your message. It sounded urgent, what's going on?" Steve crossed the floor, eyes scanning the screens.

From beside me, Peter twitched and I had the vague recollection that he had never actually met any of the others. It must be killing him trying to stay silent, but we had more important things to talk about.

"Some sort of magic shit - Loki might be involved, not sure yet. We've got an expert on the subject but he's decided to take a nap." I gestured towards the couch where Percy lay, still sleeping. He was frowning and scrunching in on himself a little, and I absently wondered what he might be dreaming about.

"An expert, wh-" Cap cut himself off as his eyes fell on the kid. "Percy? So SHIELD's already sent someone."

I made a face. "SHIELD? No, no, the kid is Pep's nephew or something. How do you know him?"

"I met him last week in one of the New York bases, he was doing some sort of combat training." Steve moved around the couch to crouch near the kid's legs. "The instructor used him in some demonstration - broke his foot. I could hear it from across the room."

He carefully pulled up Percy's pant leg to reveal his ankle, but there was nothing there - no cast, no bandage, not even a bruise.

I didn't know what was going on, and I really didn't like not knowing things - but clearly someone was keeping some pretty deep secrets.

"I've never seen him before except around the Tower, I guess he's a recruit? And I heard about that class, met the instructor once or twice before. She's a real piece of work, but we've never had better agents than the ones she trains up," Clint explained, as he and Natasha examined the holo-screens I'd pulled up.

"Is this all him?" Natasha questioned, not taking her eyes off of the reports in front of her.

I nodded and asked Jarvis to expand them so the others could see what I'd found.

"First, he said he and Bird-Brain over here had an encounter with some 'purple wavy magic' but that Barton doesn't remember; then the coffee tin was full of bees being hidden by purple runes; and then Brucey here has an incident in the lab that he can't remember and the kid and I had to take him on. He insisted it was magic and that I should get the team together. Other than that and the fact that he makes some mean pancakes, I know barely anything about this."

Natasha gave me a look. "You didn't know who he was and you ate his food?" She smacked me upside the head, "I have no idea how you're still alive, Stark."

I heard the clicking of heels as Pepper came into the room. "Neither do I, but what specifically are we talking about?" Then her eyes landed on the screens and she turned to me, eyes boring holes through my precious brain. "Tony! Are you searching up Percy's files? What the hell! I thought I told you not to do this kind of shit?!"

She glared, but didn't resist as Natasha gently took her arm and pulled her to the side of the room to explain the situation.

Peter let out this little squeaking noise, before clearing his throat. As all eyes turned to him he spoke up, "Look, I- I don't think Percy's gonna hurt anyone. He's one of the nicest people I know. But also... I've seen some weird things happen around him. If anyone knows about this kind of thing, I have a feeling it's gonna be him."

Cap suddenly stood up, eyes wide like he'd just realised Peter was here. "You're Peter, right? The Spider-kid or something?" He held out his hand.