Percy works with Tony Stark

1. He's Back

It had been 2 years since Percy Jackson had worked for Tony Stark. Not an incredibly long or short time, but Tony still believed Percy was still out there. He had stopped actively searching  around a year ago because of the villains that had started to pop up, but JARVIS always had his face pinned to search the cams. It had started with the entire world, but slowly Tony had to narrow it down to New York due to everything else he needed JARVIS for. The rest of the team was hesitant to let Tony hold on to the tiny hope he had left for his old assistant, but he was still doing his job as Ironman so they let him keep searching.

~~

Meanwhile, Percy had been working at SHIELD  for about 6 months now. It wasn't too bad, he liked the rush and he knew it was something he was good at. The other matter of the pit, let's just say he bust his way outta there.

~~

I stretched my arms and tilted back to look at the sky. It was nice to see the open stars. They were still refreshing even after what, 6 months? I still gave Zoe a greeting, a habit I hadn't lost.

I sighed in satisfaction that the fresh air brought and yanked my knife out the the dead agent I kicked away. It was dirty but I just found a bag to wipe it off on. Huh- this was what I was sent here for. Oh well, this is the best they are going to get.

I shrugged the bag onto my shoulders and headed towards my motorcycle. Putting the helmet on, I revved the engine and zoomed away from the crime scene to get this bag to another agent.

"Mariaaa," I sang as I threw the bag to the agent.

"Would it trouble you to take one second to just hand it to me," she said as she rolled her eyes.

"yes," I answered as I kicked back in a chair next to me.

"What's next?" I eagerly asked.

She checked her tablet, "Do you still demand on staying out of the US?"

"yep" I said popping the p.

"You know Tony is still searching for you?" she asked.

"Hmmm, yes," I answered as I walked away, done with the conversation.

There was no way I was going anywhere near New York, especially the Empire State Building, residence of Olympus.

"Those backstabbing traitors," I cursed as I kicked a door open.

I heaved out a sigh and looked at the ceiling. I didn't even furrow my eyebrows now when I thought of how I was thrown down. They will get what's coming to them, best to not let them discover I escaped.

After reassuring myself, I spun out the the facility happily.

Fury got quite the scare when I popped up asking for a job. I made sure to wait when he wasn't in contact with the Avengers and showed up in his quintjet.

I told him not to inform anyone and that I would do missions for him. But! On my terms, purely for enjoyment. It's not like I have some sad sob story and hope for world peace, believing I could save the world--- I exploded in laughter in remembrance of my time on Earth before. I narrowed my eyes, no, I was not the same person after 20 years in hell.

When I came out and everything looked the same, I guess I was pretty relieved. It didn't even occur to me that I had to consider Tartarus's time difference. But then when I saw a newspaper nearby and seeing the date was only 2 or so years later, I had a good laugh.

I would have gone crazy if I didn't know better.

Thankfully after I settled myself in down there, I started to count how long had past. 20 long years. I was sure of it and didn't believe it could have been only 2 years. Soon the monsters got easier to defeat and I could also spend my time doing other things instead of fighting. For instance, honing my powers. I had to make use of every resource I had, and my misgivings of Alkyls and Annabeth's fear of my power became insignificant.

Why was a want for power so scary? Power is crucial to live.

I got first hand experience of that from down in the pit, and obviously because I couldn't save Annabeth.

I sighed. I had gotten over Annabeth after a few months of hell, so why was the guilt plaguing me again?

Well it was no matter. I would soon learn that if I wanted to live, nothing could be standing between my victim and my blade.

I didn't use my powers at SHIELD, I didn't trust Fury enough to not start experimenting on me, or manipulate me into blindly following him like he had with the Hulk, another inhume or mutant or whatever. It's not like I would tell him the full truth of the Gods and everything.

And my fighting was enough. A messy but uniform drilled in fighting style. It was mine I perfected over the decades, and considering the easy missions I had been on lately, I trusted I wouldn't need more.

I stared at my hand that didn't age. Immortality. Something I didn't want had shown itself annoyingly like this. Twenty years but I didn't look any older than before. At least that wasn't something I had to explain to everyone who knew me before, as 2 years wouldn't age me visibly either.

I learned that it was slowly growing in me. No, I didn't think I was fully immortal yet, but I was getting there. The curse of eternity, chaining me to save the Gods and their children at every beck and call. My blood was yellow, but it didn't have that lustrous glow yet. The Gods had another thing coming if they think I would come back for them.

I finally reached my housing that was next to SHIELD grounds and opened the door. It was a standard issue home, but nicer than the other ones. And only high level agents even got the right to any sort of free housing by the facility. It was plain, strikingly clean, and cold, but it did the job.

I jumped into bed and sleep enveloped me.

"Let's see what tomorrow will bring," I drowsily muttered under my breath.