Chapter 1

Tony

Tony had been in his workshop for the last six hours, hiding from his wonderful, yet angry girlfriend. He had honestly been trying to help her when he had built the laundry folding robot. And the pancake flipping robot before that. Come to think of it he hadn't been extremely successful with most of his domestic machines, something Pepper claimed had come from a lack of ever performing those tasks himself. So when the laundry folding robot had ripped her favourite sweater in half, he had decided to flee the scene before she found out.

That left him in his shop working on a new weapon for his suits. He had been tinkering with it, trying to get the timer just right so it would explode just as it hit his enemy's face. He was so focused that he jumped when a loud noise startled him. The 'avengers alarm' as he had labeled it was blaring from the security system signifying a threat that the team was to respond to.

He grabbed the remote from the workbench and pressed the big red button which activated his suit. He was already up the stairs when the helmet clamped onto his head and he flew up to the elevator. This was the most amusing part of their missions. As not all of the avengers were as gifted as he was in the art of flight, they usually took a quinjet to their battles. When the elevator door dinged open he jumped in to find the Captain already standing in the back corner in his suit. The two rode the elevator down to the basement in a rather anticlimactic 73 seconds of elevator music. When the doors finally slid open the two ran out and up the ramp of the plane. Natasha and Clint were already in the cockpit while Bruce was running optics from the tower. The spies pulled the plane off the ground while Tony strapped in to one of the seats. "So, where are we going this time?" He asked.

"Huge energy surge coming from the mountains in Oregon. Looks like some kind of chemical weapon." Replied Natasha.

He nodded, thinking about the fight ahead. If he were lucky, he might be able to test out his newest creation.

"Well," he said, "sounds like a party to me."

Percy

When he had told Annabeth about their romantic weekend getaway this was really not what he'd had in mind. The two of them had been planning a trip to Europe so Annabeth could admire the architecture. They had been back from Tartarus for six months now and things were slowly getting better. The nightmares were less frequent and they could go longer without seeing each other but his lungs were still in a vice grip every time she was out of his sight. He felt like he could only breathe when she was there, in his arms, and he knew she was safe.

Right now she was most definitely not safe. In fairness neither was he. They had been doing some last minute packing, or rather he had been as Annabeth had been packed for days. She was sitting on his bed, letting her golden curls fall down her back as she smiled at him. He was throwing t-shirts and jeans into a bag with reckless abandon, wanting to leave as soon as they could. When Maggie Spintler, daughter of Hermes knocked on his door he nearly groaned out loud. She informed them that Chiron wanted to see them before they left. The two shared a look, knowing that whatever their mentor could want it couldn't be good.

They had made their way to the big house where Chiron waited at the ping pong table. He had told them of a few disappearances from the Roman camp that he had been notified of. The satyrs had also reported unclaimed demigods going missing, and two of the Camp Half Blood residents hadn't been heard from in weeks. The two of them were only meant to make a brief stop to talk to the families of the missing demigods. That plan had gone out the window when they were unceremoniously blown from the sky. Poor Blackjack had been knocked out by a beam of energy that seemed to come from the mountain below them.

Percy had wrapped his arms around Annabeth as they fell towards the earth. Of all the things in his life to kill him it seemed a bit unfair that he'd fall to his death, although he assumed Zeus would approve. The wind had whipped past his ears making it difficult to hear anything, but he could tell Annabeth was yelling at him. Something about the glow, the mow? "Use the snow seaweed brain!" She hollered in his direction, arms crushing his ribs as they fell quickly through the air.

He focused all his might on the snow on the mountain. He pulled it towards them, making a cushion of sorts to break their fall. He felt the air slow around his head and decided he was either dead or it had worked. When he finally peeled his head off Annabeth's shoulder he laughed out of sheer relief. They were being held on a platform of snow, rather like a cloud in his opinion. By that point they weren't too far from the ground so he lowered them onto the earth below. Annabeth sighed as her feet touched the dirt below.

"What on earth was that?" I exclaimed. I looked around the ground from Blackjack, keeping an eye out for the enemy that had shot us out of the sky.

"I have no idea but I don't think it's anything good." She replied to me. "Percy over here!" She yelled and I ran over to see Blackjack laying on the forest floor.

Hey boss. Sorry about the drop out there.

"It's okay buddy, are you hurt?" I asked.

Nothing a few donuts can't fix boss. I don't think I'll be able to fly for a while though.

"Stay here, we're going to check out who attacked us." I told him.

Annabeth and I clasped hands and started to trek up towards the mountain where we agreed the beam had come from. The forest was dense and obviously not very populated. We walked for an hour before we came to the base of the mountain. There were no obvious signs of life, human or monster. A small cave opening caught my eye and I pointed it out to Annabeth who nodded silently. We quietly made our way to the entrance where we peered inside. I shook my head in her direction, I couldn't see anything past a few feet. She removed her backpack to search for a flashlight while my mind began to wander. It wasn't like a monster to attack and then hide. They usually didn't have the foresight for that kind of planning. I was running through my list of people who would try to kill me when I heard Annabeth scream.

"Percy duck!" She yelled and I instantly dropped to the ground. I was just in time to see the beam of energy hit the ground next to me, splattering both of us in dirt. I jumped to my feet and drew riptide, moving back to back with Annabeth who had her dagger out. We searched the sky and the trees for the unseen enemy when we heard a distinctly mechanical sound. I felt the wind begin to whip Annabeth's long hair into my face and the two of us searched for the source. The sky darkened suddenly and I had a sinking feeling Zeus had finally come for me when I noticed a large shadow pass over us. When I looked up I was greeted by the sight of a plane over our heads. What the Hades had we gotten into now?