Percy blinked dazedly as he adjusted to his surroundings. His head was pounding and the details of whatever led him to this predicament were hazy. In the back of his mind, he registered the fact that he was wearing his suit. He also heard the AI in his suit informing him of a concussion but it sounded like it was coming from underwater. Or, more accurately, like he was the one underwater and the AI was talking to him from the surface. After a few minutes, the throbbing in his skull subsided to a dull ache and Percy fully opened his eyes to analyze where he was.

The site of boxes and crates sparked the memory of his fight with the Vulture. Peter scrambled up, different scenarios of what could possibly be waiting for him on the other side of those doors playing through his mind. One one hand, the man with wings could have hijacked the truck and brought Peter to his hideout. On the other hand, the man seemed to want to avoid confrontation, based on the way he went for the last truck and didn't blow it up.

Percy resigned himself to the possibility that he might have to fight his way out. He decided to go for a surprise attack. If there were people outside waiting for him, he had the advantage because they didn't know he was awake. He walked to the back of the container and then turned around and ran full speed at the metal doors. At the last second, he shot a web at the roof of the container and used his feet to kick the doors off of their hinges.

He landed in a fighting position before realizing that there was no one around him. He seemed to be in a warehouse that was empty of any people. The only thing he could see was multiple storage containers, like the ones you saw on cargo boats.

Deciding to pretend that he didn't just try to attack empty air- Thalia would have a field day if she found out- Peter moved onto the most pressing issue. "Where am I?"

"You're in the most secure facility on the eastern seaboard," the suit told him. "The Damage Control deep storage vault."

Peter felt pure panic wash over him. When his cousins asked later, he would refuse to admit that he had spent the next ten minutes trying to get the door open with his hands.

"The door will most likely remain closed until morning," she informed him helpfully.

Later, he would also refuse to tell his cousins what happened within the twenty-seven minutes before he finally cracked. It wasn't that bad, in fact, Peter would even say that some good had come out of it. He went through the refresher course on his suit's new abilities (the wings looked the coolest) and he even gave the AI a name.

"Hey, suit lady. I kind of feel bad calling you "suit lady," you know?" he had told the AI, somewhat guiltily. His mother had raised him with better manners, after all. "I think I should probably give you a name, like Liz." He had blanched at the thought a moment later. "No, no, no. Gods, that's weird."

Percy had briefly entertained the idea of calling her Pythia. Naming her after the original Oracle of Delphi, who helped guide demigods on their quests seemed oddly fitting. He had dismissed the idea after another moment of thought. He had left his life as a demigod in the past. Or, he was trying to. He was already being forced into another prophecy so there was no need to remind himself of it even more. Something mortal, with no relation to the gods, would be the best option. He had thought for a minute before the perfect name came to mind. "What do you think of the name Karen?"

"You can call me Karen if you would like," she had approved.

Peter, unfortunately, spent the next twelve minutes lamenting to Karen about his crush on Liz. The only silver lining was that in his pathetic ranting about Liz he got a great idea. He had just commented that it was nice to have someone to talk to when a switch in his brain flipped. He really was a Kelp Head, not that he would ever admit it out loud.

He clambered up from his spot on one of the crates and made his way back into the original crate where he had stashed his backpack. He gave a mental apology to Karen before he took his mask off and stuffed it into his bag after hastily zipping his backpack open. After seeing the Training Wheels Protocol he had the sinking suspicion that the suit recorded everything he did. He quickly refocused and pulled out the things he needed to make an Iris Message.

He quickly set everything up, using one of the boxes as support, before reluctantly uncapping the water bottle. He hadn't actively used his powers over water since that day in the throne room where he had received his new identity. He had no doubt that he could do it, he just didn't want to. However, as the saying went, 'desperate times call for desperate measures'.

Percy felt a familiar tug in his gut as the water turned into a fine mist and a rainbow formed. He placed the drachma on the tip of his thumb and flipped it into the mist. Oh, Fleecy, do me a solid, show me Nico di Angelo, Queens, New York he thought. The mist shimmered for a moment before refocusing on his sleeping cousin.

"Nico," he whispered harshly. The younger boy continued to sleep soundly. Percy said his name again, this time at a normal tone of voice. He still continued to sleep.

Percy refused to let himself get annoyed. It was his fault that he was in this predicament. He also felt guilty. Nico barely got enough sleep and now he was forcing the boy to get up and find him. Despite his guilt, he needed Nico to wake up. He tried calling his name one more time, this time yelling.

Nico jolted up and pulled his sword out of nowhere. The sight would have been imposing if the boy didn't have bed head and was wearing a Mythomagic t-shirt. Percy couldn't help the snort of laughter that escaped him. Nico turned towards the sound and his posture relaxed. An annoyed scowl formed on his face.

"What do you want?" Nico demanded. His eyes squinted in confusion. "Where are you?"

Percy chuckled nervously. "About that.."

Nico gave a long sigh. "Do you know where you are?"

Percy nodded vigorously. "Yeah, the Damage Control storage vault."

"Only you," Nico said exasperatedly. "Since I've never been there before it's going to take a while. Plus, I have to tell Hestia and Thalia about your idiocy. Hopefully, I'll be there in an hour. Try not to die."

The Iris Message cut out as Nico slashed his hand through the mist. Percy grimaced. He owed his cousin at least two batches of chocolate chip cookies. Since he had an hour to kill he decided to go through the bag that the Vulture had tried to steal. He put the mask back on and was relieved when Karen didn't comment on being stuffed inside the backpack.

Percy pulled out a few strange objects, like an Ultron head, out of the bag before he pulled out another glowing purple stone.

"That's an explosive Chitauri energy core," Karen informed him helpfully.

Peter's eyes widened and he exclaimed, "You mean we've been carrying around a bomb this entire time!"

"It would require radiation to activate it," she told him, like that made it better.

Peter really had to get out of there. He had left the energy core with Ned and he couldn't let the thing explode and hurt his friend. He just hoped that Nico would get there soon.

***

It ended up taking three hours for Nico to shadow-travel into the storage vault. Percy had spent all of his drachmas showing his cousin what the inside of the container looked like so he had an idea of where to go. The faintest of the sun's rays could be seen on the horizon, but it was still dark outside. After his cousin had grabbed him and shadow-traveled directly outside of the storage vault, Percy had to catch Nico as the younger boy stumbled, all of his energy drained.

"I don't think I have enough in me to take you back to Washington," Nico said apologetically.

Percy was quick to reassure him. "Hey, it's okay. Thanks for getting me out of there. I don't have any ambrosia but I do have a Snickers." He pulled out the candy bar that Liz had thrown him earlier and handed it to his cousin.

Nico opened the wrapper and quickly started eating it. He managed to choke out between bites, "You should go. I'll be fine. Thalia is going to get here later, something about cashing in a favor with Apollo. Try to meet up with us after Decathlon, okay?"

Percy looked at his cousin worriedly, "As long as you try to not overexert yourself."

Nico tried to give him a grin but it ended up looking more like a grimace. Percy winced at the state he was in. He knew that his cousin hated swinging but Percy doubted that Nico could walk, let alone shadow-travel to Washington, even after resting. He also didn't want his cousin to be found outside the storage vault. He quickly picked up the much-lighter (he would need to talk to Hestia about that later) boy and threw him over his shoulder in a fireman's carry.

He swung toward the nearest bunch of trees and set his cousin down in the shade. He sent a prayer to Hestia in his mind to find Nico before repositioning him to be more comfortable against the rough bark of the tree. Percy cast a look backward before taking off, hoping that he would get to DC in time to help Ned.

Sorry for the late update but my teachers decided to give us a million projects so I didn't have any time to upload. I'm really happy with how this chapter turned out. I've been trying to incorporate Thalia and Nico into the story more. If anyone was wondering why they aren't really in the story, my excuse is that they are at the camps visiting. Let me know what you think of this chapter.

<3 S