Chapter 8: Maybe He's Not Who We Thought He Was

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Hey Guys! Hope this is fixed, and I'm sorry about the mixup! I'm thinking it was weird that I was getting more comments about the problem then the story... Just saying, you could change that.

I'm expendable! Not Joss!

Tony:

Percy Jackson was awesome.

His juvie record, inspiring. The whole manhunt stuff, beautiful. So maybe he wasn't too bright in school, or bright in general. Tony could work with that. He would love to get his hands on whatever that halfblood file was. He guessed it would explain why he could also control water and hold a conversation with horses.

Another thing, he could talk to horses. How cool is that?

"So you said you took this kid in four months ago?" Tony asked Clint after they'd arrived in his lab of awesomeness. He set aside the Hydrabot head he'd been tampering with and turned to his many holo screens. Clint nodded.

"Yeah. He broke into my house and tried to steal some food." He said, re telling the story about how they met. Tony shook his head and pointed at Clint mockingly.

"You got your butt handed to you by a teen, Mr. Agent." He teased. Clint rolled his eyes and Steve spoke up.

"Is there anything more you can tell us about him?" He asked.

And there was the captain, getting straight to the point as usual. Tony pouted. "Are you not happy to see me? No 'hey Tony'? Nothing?"

When Steve didn't speak, Tony shrugged. "I've got some newspaper articles and the kids blood work is coming in shortly." He said.

Clint looked at him in disbelief. "You took his blood work?" Tony nodded happily, and decided to justify himself.

"It was coming out anyway. I just took a bit for, you know, research.

"Anyway, I've got about five articles I'm absolutely sure are about him, but no names are dropped, no clear photos or anything. Still-" he brought the articles out. "-I think that I have a bro crush on this kid." He said. "First the initial car accident report of him getting slammed into the Hudson. I've got a car accident in Virginia, a mall explosion, two stolen cars, one of them a police car." He said, wiggling his eyebrows.

"The last one?" Steve asked, suddenly more interested.

Tony grinned. "Glad you asked. As a final act in what I assume was him making a getaway, a hot air balloon was hijacked in Kansas and it flew into a tornado. They were calling it 'Off to See His Maker' on the news. Sick play on words if you ask me." He said, and then decided he was hungry. Thankfully, Pepper put a sandwich somewhere in his lab. He check his spare parts bin, where they usually end up.

"Are you saying he did all of this before he stumbled into Homestead?" Clint asked, suddenly understanding why Percy seemed a bit edgy everywhere he went.

"Maybe more." Tony said, then grinned triumphantly when he found his ham and turkey shoved behind a workbench. He took a bite and shrugged. "I mean, he's got experience. The cop car thing, he did that when he was sixteen, and he jumped off the St. Louis Arch when he was twelve after supposedly blowing it up." He said. Clint nodded, having heard this before.

"So, what? Are we supposed to arrest him now? I mean, if Hydra's after him, and we've never heard of him, he's gotta be bad news, right?" Tony asked.

"We can't legally, he's still a minor." Clint reasoned. "Besides, we're getting ahead of ourselves. I can't think for a second that Percy is the bad guy here. I haven't even heard him yell at anyone before." Clint said.

Steve shook his head. "Clint, you're being biased about this. He's been playing dead since December, and it's nearly September now. His juvie file-"

"I don't care what the file says. So what if he beats Tony out when it comes to juvenile practices-"

"Hey!"

"-this kid hasn't caused me an ounce of trouble. He's insistent upon being there for me and Laura! He's giving up part of his life to look after his sister! Does that sound like a villain to you?" Clint asked.

"He was already playing dead before, wasn't he?"

Tony noticed how Clint stiffened when he heard the voice, but wasn't surprised. Fury was always just around the corner when it came to these sort of things. He continued speaking. "I mean, the kids' good. Real good. The Hydrabot told you he's been trained-"

"In sword fighting."

"-and hand to hand! He beat you, didn't he?" Fury demanded. "Who's to say that he doesn't already work for Hydra?"

Tony took another bite of his sandwich, watching them verbally fight back and forth, like a tennis match.

"Oh, come off it, director." Clint said, obviously ticked. Classic Fury, demanding why they should trust anyone and throwing doubt into their plans.

"But really, Barton. The Hydrabot just takes you here, after hearing that Perseus Jackson is wounded? Sounds like a ploy to get him into the building." He said.

Clint grit his teeth. "Percy Jackson is my responsibility. We already discussed this. And that means that I'm making the call here. If I say Percy is our friend, he is."

It was a quiet stare down between Clint and Fury until Steve had to stop what he figured would turn into a fight. "Guys, let's just see what happens when he wakes up, okay? Maybe... Maybe he'll just tell us. Then we can figure all this out." He suggested. Clint turned accusingly towards Steve.

"I thought you said he was the bad guy." Clint said suspiciously.

Steve shrugged. "I'm not going to judge him until I know him. Besides, the way he fought... I think even you're a little wary." He said.

Although Tony didn't voice it, even he agreed.

LHG :)