Percy steers clear of Bruce for a while, which he figured would happen. It's not every day you discover that your science teacher beat up a Norse god half a year ago and is on a mission that had quite a lot to do with you. So in return, Bruce he gives him a wide berth for a while, just to let him get used to the idea.

It's a good idea too, seeing as Bruce values his mental health.

Contact is kept to a minimum in class, which Percy is silently thankful for. Of course, he figures it's just a matter of time before the real fun begins.

The real fun entails another fight in the schoolyard with a guy on the football team, named Martin Spade. Although missing the chipped front tooth, and being rather tall and stocky, the guy could be a brother to Matt Sloan, same initials and everything. Obviously, it only makes Percy dislike him more, because on top of picking on some new Scottish transfer student, he reminds the demigod of his seventh grade bully.

So maybe Bruce finds him with a fist twisted up in the neckline of that ridiculously tight Abercrombie shirt of Martin's, telling him he'd better buzz off if he knows what's good for him, that poor terrified girl he was picking on clutching her books and trembling. And maybe the complimentary black eye and bloody nose is his fault too.

Don't give him that look.

The jerk was asking for it.

That doesn't stop Bruce from promptly handing Martin a detention slip, making sure the harassed girl gets to the nurse in one piece, and leading Percy back to room 412.

"C'mon Mr. Per-" At the look the doctor shoots Percy, he amends, "Bruce – He was picking on her. You saw that. I told him to stop, and he started whaling on me. I think my actions could be filed under self-defense."

Bruce looks at him from over his glasses, then sighs, turns around, and begins digging through the mess in his cabinets, looking, once again, for the First-aid kit.

Déjà vu…

"Oh, it's not Mr. Spade I'm concerned with. It's that you haven't answered my question yet." He says. When he had stumbled across Percy in that alley, he had given him a choice: either come with him to the Avengers Tower, so neither of them have to go through the stress that is 'The Extraction', or Percy can have him call SHIELD to come and pick them up. Percy knows good and well by this point that SHIELD would have him in their clutches before long. They're cocky about their reputation like that.

Percy sets his jaw stubbornly.

Bruce sighs, and suddenly wishes he could just stop and meditate, because all of this stress cannot be good for his anger… issues.

"You're going to end up in their clutches either way you play the game. Might as well go with your head held high."

"I don't want to be part of a government organization. I'm not a danger to people."

"I think that sword is enough argument that you could be. People are still harping on Tony about the Iron Man suit."

Percy looks away. "I have rights… I don't know, I never really read the Constitution or the Bill of Rights."

Okay, it was kind of immature of Bruce to laugh. Sue him. "You're forgetting that this is probably the most secretive, manipulative branch of the government. They're not above framing you, kidnapping you, faking your death."

"What?!"

"You have parents. How do you think they'd feel if you suddenly went missing off the face of the earth?"

He blurts it out before he can think. "They're used to iiiii… Uhhh… Upset?"

"What? What was that?"

"Nothing."

"Are you sure? It sounded like you were saying that they're used to you disappearing without warning."

"It's nothing. It's because I'm always going on unscheduled trips for my dad's side of the family."

That is a blatant lie, but Bruce bites back his suspicion. It would do him no good to further anger the kid with the collapsible sword. He instead opens his mouth to ask him again, what's it gonna be, because SHIELD doesn't like waiting for what they want… kind of like Tony Stark. And then Percy has to look out the window in an attempt to avoid Bruce's strong gaze, go bug-eyed, and run out the room, hastily calling a quick, "Sorry!" over his shoulder.

But nothing's out there. Just a person running like a maniac.

Oh.

The disgruntled doctor tails the frenzied teen across the entire city. Percy runs like a madman, knocking down hot dog carts, plowing through flower bushes, leaving muddy tracks down the already grimy sidewalks.

Even better, up on the top of an apartment complex is a hidden SHIELD sniper, launching a whole fleet of tranquilizing darts at the 'threat'. They miss every time, but

Bruce tries to remain under the radar, unlike those idiotic agents, but of course he's never lucky enough to have that go his way. The boy skids to a harried stop in an abandoned section of a random park, and looks around him anxiously.

Then he throws up a hand.

For a second, Bruce stands there in a perfect WTF? pose, staring confusedly around him. Percy has already begun running off again, but when Bruce makes a move to follow him, a white wall of churning water erupts from seemingly nowhere, and sends the already stressed doctor flying backwards nearly twenty feet.

Apparently, Hulk does not like water. At all.

Tony looks at Bruce, at the devastated expression on his face as the doctor – because there is yet again something in his chair (a pile of junk from the lab this time) – slumps down on the sofa hours after shaking off the monster. And then the billionaire has to go and make one of his famous reckless decisions.

"SHIELD may have scared him off," He states dramatically, because there is a limited amount of settings on Tony Stark's speech, and that 'Dramatic' is the most bearable one. "But I bet Iron Man would get a pretty good rise out of him, don'tcha think?"

There is a flurry of polished gold-titanium alloy flying past Bruce, and then Mark XV is connecting itself to Tony's wrists and ankles, and wrapping rhythmically around his torso and legs.

One of the Tower's many windows slides open automatically via JARVIS, and Tony shoots Bruce a cocky grin before snapping the faceplate shut. "Don't worry. I'll make the kid see sense." And then he is off, flying away like a gaudy rocket, and Bruce can only watch from that damned sofa of Tony's. He laughs wearily, and lets his head fall back. This is a nap well-earned.

In Tony's defense, it's not called stalking if the kid is as easy to find as it is to distinguish a fart in church. Seriously kid… How hard is it to follow a path of destruction through a typically (ahem, clean?) city?

Jeez, kid's as noticeable as a whirlwind. Tony trails after Percy for dozens of miles, until he's standing on a deserted stretch of Long Island. There are footprints leading into the waves lapping angrily at the shore. He recalls Bruce saying something about water, and Percy, and Tony's suit has an airlock, so he wades into the salty ocean, feeling incredibly stupid as a family of four stares at him incredulously from further down the beach.

He figures he must have walked, down and down even more, for at least twenty minutes, despite the extremely slow progress he's made. He comes to a stop roughly a half dozen feet away from a figure sitting cross legged on the sand, watching the glowing slits of Iron Man's eyes sluggishly grow closer.

"Hey." Tony waves, kind of awkwardly, because he's never been good with children before, and this boy is here, breathing even, like it's the most normal thing in the world to be totally submerged, 48 feet under the water – according to JARVIS – sitting and staring at Iron Man as he approaches you.

Finally, the boy relieves Tony from making him squirm. "Hi." He responds shortly, rubbing a hand back and forth across the back of his neck like he's got a weary ache there. Tony warily eyes the sword lying next to Percy's right knee. "So are you here to shoot at me too?"

Tony scoffs sarcastically. "Oh no. I haven't really dealt with guns since I gave up designing weapons for the military. Repulsor technology is much more my style." He grins, although Percy can't see anything other than a gold glaring faceplate. "Plus," He adds cheekily, "They can singe the flesh right off a person's body."

Surprisingly, Percy laughs.

Of course, it only eggs Tony on. "I get this reaction a lot. Say you come with me, and I'll let you post a photo of me and you on your MySpace page. Peace signs and all. How's that?"

The boy doesn't respond for a moment, not until the moment Tony set up with his joke has dissipated like… Well, like steam.

Then, "What do you people want with me?" He says, eyes clear and genuinely curious. Tony hasn't been asked this question a lot, because normally targets know that they've got skills and it's either join SHIELD or be turned over to the full extent of the law. The government doesn't go easy on people who are out to harm them.

He responds with a question of his own. "What are you?"

Percy eyeballs him, frustrated. "Why does it matter?"

"Well, if you were bitten by like, a radioactive shark, SHIELD would want to do tests, maybe hunt down that shark, if it's not already dead of course. If you were-"

"I get the gist of it." He stares off past Tony, into a nearby murky trench, eyebrows arched and eyes narrowed. "Iron Man is cool, I guess, saving the world and all that. But you have to earn my trust personally."

Tony has to bite his tongue to not demand what exactly, he is, what his powers allow him to do, was he born this way, and can he look at that sword of his sometime.

Instead, he mumbles, "Oh." I guess you can say that Tony Stark isn't used to being refused what he wants.

"Yeah."

"So will you come with us to SHIELD? Bruce wasn't kidding, they'll send in an army to knock you out and drag you there against your will. They've probably got an entire fleet of submarines… somewhere."

Percy locks his jaw stubbornly. "Let them come."

Tony stares at him, unmoving, arms crossed, silently strangling the boy in his mind. "SHIELD has tranq guns, big sticks, and a lot of agents who have no humor. And the interrogation rooms are really cold." He pauses. "And the coffee is really crappy there. It's like, not even lukewarm, just room temperature."

There is no response.

"Kid, why won't you just save yourself a lot of trouble and just come with me- "

Percy shoots to his feet, angrily almost. "Because I don't want to be in SHIELD! Because these people are assassins, and I'm sixteen! Because superheroes are cool and all, but it sucks to be one!

"I'm a normal kid! SO LET ME BE ONE FOR ONCE, WITHOUT HAVING TO WORRY ABOUT BIG ORGANIZATIONS LIKEYOU!"

Tony holds up his hands slowly, in that universal surrender gesture. (Of course, he figures in the back of his mind that it doesn't work for Iron Man, considering those repulsors he was gushing over are right there, already aimed, when his hands are up like that. Silently, he tells his brain to shut the hell up.)

I guess people can also say Tony Stark sucks at sympathizing.

"You're a normal kid? Is that why we're standing fifty feet below the surface of the ocean? Or are you just taking a nice swim? Normal kids can't breathe underwater, or wield swords like they've been training with the Romans, and normal kids definitely cannot move water with their minds."

Yes, Tony Stark definitely sucks at it.

And yet, it seems to shock some sense into the distraught [mutant?], because he stands angrily and tells Tony that the second they piss him off, he's leaving, SHIELD be damned to Hades.

And that, my dear readers, is the first clue.

I would also like to thank everyone (you know who you are) for there positive comments and great support.