Tony Stark was having a hard time focusing recently; Ever since the incident with Percy and Annabeth he's been unable to stay working on any one thing for longer than an hour, he can't eat more than a single plate of food, and every time he leaves the tower all he can see are the multitudes of monsters that happen to be in the area. Whether it be giant wolves walking around cars and people, or teenagers and young kids with weapons that look like they should not exit. 

The worst part of it. No one believed him: Steve just thought that he needed time to cool off and he would be back to his normal self in a few weeks, Natasha and Clint weren't around for what happened so they've just been giving him space recently, Bruce kept on doing a multitude of tests and he even made Tony wear a Smartwatch that notifies FRIDAY who then notified Bruce if his heart rate so much as goes above 175bpm for more than a minute. 

Pepper was probably the only reason Tony hadn't lost his mind in these past few weeks as she was the one giving him the comfort he needed and even going as far as to clear a week off her work-schedule to stay at the tower with him to make sure he recovers well enough, but yesterday she had to go back to work and when Tony want outside again to see if things had changed he saw a lady with donkey legs and a spear standing in the middle of street looking around. 

Tony decided to stay inside and try to work on one of the many pending projects he had in the waitlist. The most recent being that of a new kind of power-source harnessing energy from the Quantum Realm. Of which he's been unable to so much as study thanks to lacking the correct kind of equipment needed to build such a machine, and the resources. Though the thing that he was doing today had nothing to do with any of his projects...well maybe one or two, but it was research about the things that he's been seeing on a daily basis. 

Several sources were busts and others were nonsense, but a few of them stood out as feasible but not verifiable, so he couldn't get anything else from them. Then he got the idea to search Kids walking around with weapons and that got a few recent hits that he followed and dug through all the way to a conclusion that what he was seeing was the start of some kind of war between the Greeks, Romans, and/or Monsters. 

Nevermind this lead no-where as well. 

Tony sighed and stood up from his computer for a short break, he cracked his back and asked FRIDAY what the time was. 

"It is 3;54pm, and the Director of SHIELD is currently in the elevator up to your floor." FRIDAY said, her voice dripping with mock amusement as Tony scrambled around the area for something moderately presentable.

"FRIDAY Why didn't you notify me about this earlier?" Tony growled and the only response he got was his watch beeping twice to show an angry pirate emoji, and the timestamp of an ten minutes ago. 

"I swear you're going to get me killed someday you faulty ----" Tony was interrupted by the *ding* of the elevator opening. 

"Stark I do hope you aren't in your pajamas again when I see you" Fury's voice came resonating off of the walls and Stark looked at his shorts and greasy T-shirt with a contemplative look before shrugging and heading over. Fury was in the room where he had just been and was looking around the room at the 'research' Tony's been doing on his off time. 

"Interested in a little Greek and Roman Mythology now are we?" Fury said as Tony stepped through a door's threshold. He always seemed to know when a person entered a room even being blind in one eye and selectively deaf. 

"That's just a little thing I'm doing on the side," Tony said closing the screen of his laptop and standing in front of a desk full of printed drawings of the several creatures he'd seen daily. Fury side-eyed him and hummed before moving on to look at the other things littering the room...mainly cans of stimulating drinks. He tapped one with his cane-umbrella and sent it rolling across the floor towards the desk Tony was at. Tony just hit it off to the side where it was sucked through a hole in the floor and went to the other end of the room. 

"Have you finished what I've asked of you a week ago?" He asked and Tony looked at the blueprints for what looked like a giant cage of some sort. As if he was building a new contraption to capture the hulk, but it was bigger and had internal as well as external defense mechanisms. 

"I've been...distracted." Tony said turning around and forming all of the papers on his desk into a single pile he would take care of later. Fury noticed he was trying to hide something but didn't mention it further. 

"I can see that." He stated motioning to the state of the room, "When's the last time you got any decent amount of sleep. And don't even think about lying to me, FRIDAY will just correct you, or I will order her to should you not speak." 

"She's my AI Fury." Tony said glaring at the one-eyed man. 

"Maybe, but currently she's piggybacking data off of SHIELD Servers so technically were in a joint partnership, of which I am in charge of." He said and Stark just scoffed and walked off to another room. 

"FRIDAY--" 

"I can't sleep" Tony interrupted, "I haven't been able to get more than a few hours every night." 

"Every other night" FRIDAY corrected and Fury raised an eyebrow. 

"Stark you need to get some rest" Fury said and Tony tapped his fingers meticulously, "You know just as well as I do that something big is coming soon, and you need to be prepared to face it with a clear head and a working...whatever your using now."

"I will get some rest, but I need to finish what I'm working on currently and then I'll get to making the giant cage." Stark said looking at the blueprint again, "You never did tell me what it was for in the first place...might help for how I'll need to reinforce certain areas." 

"You don't need to worry about that, just make the damn cage and we'll do the rest." Fury said turning away and walking back to the elevator, which opened automatically for him to enter. Fury turned around and pointed his cane-umbrella at Tony again before the doors closed, "And get some rest Stark, you look like a damn zombie." 

As soon as Fury was gone Stark collapsed onto the chair he'd been stuck in for the past six hours. He looked at the time on his watch and seeing that it was still around 4:30 he decided to open up his computer again. 

"I'll take a nap later or something..." Tony slurred leaning against the glass of the wall next to him. 

"I am sorry sir, but Fury is right you need to focus more on getting better at the moment. Dr. Banner and I will handle your projects for the next few days." FRIDAY said as Tony's vision started to darken. "You know I am not breaking my prime directive. I am protecting you from yourself, and you cannot argue against this reasoning. Dr. Banner will be here in a half hour, as will Mrs. Stark. You will regain consciousness in a few days." Then Tony's vision went dark and he settled into a peaceful slumber. 

-----------------------------

Tony awoke to the sound of something crashing nearby. He shot up into a sitting position looking around and saw that Thor had set his hammer on the table and said table had buckled under its weight sending both crashing to the ground in the waiting room. Thor looked at his hammer and the mess it caused and slowly picked it up before stalking off as if nothing happened. 

"Hello Mr. Stark. Did you enjoy your rest?" FRIDAY's said through the vitals machine next to Tony and Tony just scoffed and rotated so his legs were off the edge of the bed. 

"How long was I out for?" He asked.

"Three days," FRIDAY continued, "And you'll be happy to hear that I have compiled all of your 'research' into neat folders accessible through the phone on your left. I have also completed the project given to you by the Director of SHIELD and and currently working with Dr. Banner to settle on a contingency plan for if the giant cage doesn't work." 

"Okay. Have you also--" 

"Yes. A new schematic for a table-top is being made as we speak and the newest order for pop-tarts had been recalled" FRIDAY said and Tony nodded in approval. 

"Good." He said taking out his IV's and standing up, "That muscle-brained idiot needs to learn some manners." At that moment the automatic door out opened and Bruce walked in with a tablet in one hand and a phone in the other. He stepped through the door putting his phone away and looked at Tony apprehensively. 

"You shouldn't be moving around yet." He then noticed that the IV's had been taken out and sighed, "And you know those are there for a reason Tony. You take them out every time and change the subject." 

"How's the new project going?" Tony said walking around a bit to get a feel for how he felt. 

"See. That is exactly the reason you are in this room so often." He said and Tony just stepped towards him and snatched the tablet before retreating back to sit on the bed and look through the info shown. 

"Maybe I would be a little more concerned if I didn't have a small reactor in my chest to keep me alive Bruce." Tony scrolled through a few pages and turned it around at a chemical chain. "What's this?" He asked and Bruce just took the IV, changed the needle and took the arm holding the tablet in it before re-inserting the IV and taking the tablet. 

"You better not take that out again. It is there to help your health improve Tony" Bruce said looking at the tablet for a moment, "This is what me and FRIDAY came up with. It's a composite Compound that is supposedly able to freeze anything near instantly." 

"But you don't know if it's going to work." Tony said getting up and walking out the door. Bruce looked up from the table and watched him leave for a moment before realizing something and looking back at the IV stand and seeing it disconnected again. He groaned and followed after Tony in irritation. 

"FRIDAY can you design an IV adaptation that Mr. Stark can carry around with him or an auto-injector of sorts please." Dr. Banner said as he caught up to Tony and showed him another screen with a paused video. The video played a moment later and Tony glanced at it as a substance was dripped onto a metal pipe, freezing it in seconds. 

"You do know that we're dealing with something much more complex than just a metal pipe." He mocked and Bruce scowled. 

"Of course I do...well I don't actually because only you and FRIDAY have actually seen what whatever it is this creature we are trying to trap is capable of, but if this works this well on a metal alloy it shouldn't have any problems with any organic being." Bruce walked in front of Tony and continued. "Of course we haven't actually used any kind of animal due to ethical reasons, but so far any kind of flesh has been immediately crystallized in frozen 'water'"

"Why'd you say it like that?" Tony asked turning a corner into what looked like a ginormous kitchen. 

"Because you would stop listening to me if I went into the specifics about the science of freezing something to estimated absolute zero." Bruce said looking at Tony in annoyance. 

"You lost me at 'science" Tony said putting a box of cereal and a bowl on the counter then going over and opening the fridge. "Where'd all of the milk go?"

"Thor" another voice said from around a corner as they turned the corner themselves. "Good to see you're doing better Tony." 

"What are you doing here Natasha?" Tony said letting the fridge close behind him, "Where's Clint?" 

"Getting milk," she said moving around Tony to grab some eggs, and just after saying it Clint came around the corner carrying more than just milk. He set everything on the middle island and huffed at Natasha. 

"You couldn't grab anything?" 

"What you say you had everything handled?" She taunted and he just growled and mumbled antics on his way to the sitting room. 

"I was just talking about the people you --" 

"Clint stop." Another voice came from the same hallway and Clint just scoffed and hopped over the back of the couch into a laying position. 

"Steve we're all adults here." Clint said and Steve just glared in his direction. To which was just answered by the television turning on. 

"Where were all of you?" Tony said grabbing the milk from one of the bags. Steve came over and started to put the other things away. 

"Hydra activity has been increasing these past few days, so we've been busy shutting down their operations while you've been recovering" He said putting the last bag into a kind of suction cabinet under the island counter. 

"And why wasn't I told of this?" Tony said looking at everyone in turn. Clint's hand just appeared above the couch for a moment, Natasha had her gun on the counter and was taking it apart, and Steve just shrugged. 

"You were recovering and were otherwise in no condition to go on a mission." FRIDAY answered for Bruce as he got distracted by something on the tablet. Tony just scoffed in response and took a moment to put away the milk before eating his cereal. Bruce turned and looked up from the tablet for a moment. 

"I think everyone is going to want to see this." He said taking control of the TV and letting a video play on it. It showed a recording of somewhere in the park of Manhattan showing what looked like a pair of kids with swords fighting against a giant wolf of some kind, and then a beam of light struck the creature in the chest and it turned into golden specks of dust. The light having come from one of the kid's hands, but they both disappeared a moment later with a slight shimmer. 

"And similar things to this are happening all over the world" Bruce said and FRIDAY helped by putting up articles and other recent news from other countries and nations: Paris, England, Alaska, Argentina, Rome, Russia, and countless other areas of the world.  

"Do we know why yet?" Steve asked and Natasha noticed that Tony has stopped eating and was looking at the screen in shock. 

"No we --"

"Tony seems to know something about this." She said and everyone turned to look at him. He mumbled something about "monsters" and "it was all true" but no one heard it. 

"What did you say?" Steve asked tapping Tony's shoulder causing him to snap out of whatever trance he'd been in to abandon his food and go up to the screen. 

"I've seen a few of these before" He said, "It's the reason I haven't gone outside recently. Like I always thought they were just figments of my imagination or tricks of the light, but they're all real." He tapped a few pictures and they came to the front of the screen. "I've been doing a bit of looking into why I've been seeing them more but I haven't been able to find anything out other than speculations and guesses as to what they are." 

"And that is?" Clint spoke and Tony turned to look at them all. 

"Apparently it seems that Demigods and Monsters are real." He said. 

Yeah. I know...it's really an evil thing of me to do leaving it here, but I was having a hard time trying to get to a point where I could continue the story like this and somehow connect the two universes together in a way that made more sense than just they meet, they fight, one captures the other, and war. 

Also I know, and I am really sorry for being such an inconsistent writer of all my books...hopefully the one I am editing and publishing in my rare times of focus is helping ease this a bit but I have a really hard time using my free time for anything useful. 

Well I hope that you enjoyed this chapter, please do tell me if the first half sucks and I'll do my best to rewrite it to flow better, but other than that other suggestions are welcome. And I will try to update again in a more recent timeline, but it will more than likely be another month before one comes out for this book...it's just how my brain likes to work I don't know how to fix that. 

I would ask for your support on Patreon, but I need to fix my act and figure out a few things before i actually start to actively use that platform, and hopefully I'll be ready when the time is right...and if you do anyways the links are in other chapters. 

See y'all later!