Sorry for not updating in a while, it's just that I was writing my other story, Siblings in Everything But Blood. It will be more sporadic, because I'm mostly focusing on SIEBB, but I'll try to update as often as possible. Also, I'm pretty sure the chapters will be noticably shorter than on SIEBB, but that's because I'm not writing in five chapter arcs. - Spathi

Bruce was content for the first time in years. There was no immediate threat, no stress, no anger, just him and Natasha, sitting on a beach, watching the sun go down. He kissed her on the cheek and turned towards Percy, who was walking towards them. Percy was carrying - was that a sword?

"Where did he get a sword?" Natasha murmured, voicing his thoughts. Bruce stared incredulously at Percy, who smirked.

"Weird question. I need to find out whether this sword can hurt you two, so could you please touch the sword?" Percy was right, it was a strange question. Percy handed Bruce the sword, which easily sliced open the tip of Bruce's finger.

"That's one sharp blade." Natasha remarked, testing it with her own finger and drawing blood. Percy beamed.

"So you do have godly blood! Awesome! Okay, then. The short explanation is that Greek and Roman mythology exist, and I think that you two are both demigods. I'm going to bring us to Olympus, so we can see if you two are claimed, and then, we can proceed from there." Percy explained. Bruce stared at him, confused. Natasha simply quirked an eyebrow. Percy clapped his hands.

"Bruce, you might want to put on your stretchy pants. Ares is really good at making people angry. Natasha, you might want to bring a backpack full of weapons for the same reason. Don't hide them on your person, as I have a feeling that you might undergo an unwanted wardrobe change while you're up there." Bruce and Natasha went and did as Percy advised, and returned to the beach. Bruce wondered what made Percy so sure that they were demigods. He realized that they would probably find out.

"Alright you two. Grab my hands, please. Here we go! I, Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon, ask Heimdallr, guardian of Asgard, to open the Bifrost for myself and my companions." He yelled the last sentence in a strange language that Bruce decided must be some form of Greek. A rainbow came down from the heavens, and swallowed them. Bruce belatedly realized that Thor had used this form of transportation before. When the rainbow disappeared, Bruce found himself standing in a circular room. He could see a bridge leading to a beautiful city. Natasha was gazing at it with wonder. He couldn't blame her. The city was amazing. Percy was talking to a man wearing golden armor. That must be Heimdall, the gatekeeper Thor mentioned, Bruce thought. Percy and Heimdall finished their conversation, and Percy turned towards them.

"Okay, grab my hands again, please." Bruce and Natasha did as they were asked, and the rainbow swallowed them again. This time, they appeared at the edge of a city floating in the sky. Bruce looked down, and his eyes widened. Was that New York?

"Huh. So there was a city floating over the Empire State Building. I thought I had imagined it when I saw it for a split second." Natasha muttered. Bruce looked at her in surprise. Percy led them through the city, the architecture of which was amazing. There were extremely detailed statues, sweeping arches, and Doric columns supporting high ceilings.

"Who designed this? It's beautiful." Bruce asked.

"My girlfriend, who is deceased, unfortunately." Percy said grimly. Bruce winced, and Natasha bit her lip. Of all the things he could have asked, he asked the question that would involve Percy's dead girlfriend.

The trio arrived at a throne room, where Bruce saw the Olympians seated around a hearth. Bruce knew his Greek mythology pretty well, so he could identify each and every god and goddess. Near the hearth, nine teenagers sat with a young girl who must have been Hestia. These nine looked up as Percy walked in, and rushed towards him. Percy started greeting them all, and Bruce looked around the room. He noticed a god who was probably Hades sitting on a chair near the Olympian thrones. All of the gods were about twelve feet tall, but shrunk down once they noticed Bruce, Natasha, and Percy. A man in a pinstriped suit with flashing electric blue eyes, most likely Zeus, cleared his throat. Percy knelt in front of him and a man in a Hawaiian t-shirt, probably Poseidon.

"Lord Zeus. Father." he said. Bruce was shocked. Did he just call Poseidon father? Percy was the son of Poseidon? Percy turned and bowed to the rest of the gods as well.

"I have brought Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff here to be claimed." Percy said. For a couple of seconds, nothing happened. Then, Natasha started glowing pink. She was wearing a blood red dress that flowed around her ankles, with matching heels. Her hair was done up in a bun, and her arrow necklace was gleaming brightly.

"You look amazing, Tasha." Bruce whispered. Natasha smiled slightly.

"Now I understand why Percy had me bring a bag with my weapons in it. Where will I hide my weapons now?" she quipped. Bruce laughed. A goddess who Bruce swore looked ridiculously like Natasha frowned as she spoke up.

"Can't do anything about the scars, but at least they aren't that visible." Aphrodite said. Natasha turned her green eyes on the goddess.

"So you are my mother. Why leave me in the hands of the Red Room? Why allow them to train me to kill without remorse, to be a monster?" Natasha asked, her voice flat and her face expressionless.

"You were trained to be an assassin?" Aphrodite questioned. Bruce winced. Wrong answer.

"Ah. I suppose you just didn't care about me, seeing as you know absolutely nothing about my life." Natasha spat with a slight edge to her tone, and Bruce realized that she was doing what she did best when faced with emotions she couldn't handle. She was closing herself off. Bruce grabbed her hand, and squeezed it reassuringly.

"We aren't allowed to interfere in the lives of our children. It's against the Ancient Laws." Aphrodite defended herself. Natasha's eyes narrowed.

"That's your excuse? It's against a law? You couldn't keep me from being impaled with a knife at four years old because of a law? You couldn't ask someone who is free of the Ancient Laws to stop the Red Room from forcing me to assassinate people at seven? I'm sure there was something you could have done, but you didn't lift a finger, did you? No. You didn't remember me at all." Natasha stared accusingly at Aphrodite, who looked away, ashamed. There was absolute silence for a minute. Then Dionysus spoke up.

"She doesn't seem all that mentally stable." he said. Bruce supposed Dionysus would know, being the god of insanity.

"Is that so?" Natasha all but purred, twirling a knife around her fingers and smiling in a rather terrifying way. Her eyes were cold, and she turned them on Dionysus, who seemed rather disturbed.

"Then again, I don't even know which memories from my childhood are real, and which the Red Room made up for me." she continued, still smiling. Ares snorted.

"You're the Black Widow? Likely story, seeing as you're the daughter of Venus." Natasha's smile slipped off her face. A second later the knife in her hand was quivering next to Ares's head, and Natasha was inspecting her nails. Bruce was impressed and intimidated at the same time. Something Ares said confused him.

"Venus?" Bruce asked. Percy glanced over at him.

"The gods have Roman forms." he said.

"Ah." Bruce returned his gaze to Ares, who looked mad. Natasha nudged him and pointed above his head. Bruce looked up. There was a glowing gray owl above his head.

"Athena." Bruce said. He turned to a goddess with stormy gray eyes, black hair, and an olive complexion.

"That's you, right?" She nodded.

"Brian was abusive. And he killed my stepmother right in front of me when I was seven. I thought you'd like to know. Knowledge is power, after all." Bruce said flatly. Athena winced.

Zeus snapped his fingers, and Bruce's arm suddenly started smoking. So did Natasha's. Bruce looked down and found a tattoo of an omega under a spear crossed over a shield. The shield was the Aegis, Bruce realized. It had Medusa's face on it. The tattoo also had a single line below the omega. Natasha had a rose with the letters SPQR under it. Under that was a line just like Bruce's. Bruce looked at Percy for an explanation.

"All demigods who have been claimed have this tattoo. The number of lines increases with the amount of years you've known you are a demigod. Because of that, I have five lines. If you are Roman, you have the SPQR tattoo. If you are Greek, you have the omega tattoo." Percy explained.

"What do you have? Are you Roman or Greek?" Natasha asked. Percy smirked and pulled up his sleeve.
"Both, actually. I'm unique like that." He had the omega and the SPQR. He also had a tattoo of a trident, a scythe, and a circle with a plus sign in it.

"What's with the circle thing and the scythe?" Bruce wondered aloud.

"They represent the two wars I've been through. The first against Kronos, and the second against Gaea." Percy answered. Zeus cleared his throat.

"You three are part of the third Great Prophecy. As such, some of us have decided to bestow blessings on you to give you the power you'll need." he thundered, waving his hand in a circle.

"Natasha, I give you the power to channel electricity through your body. Bruce, I give you the power to generate strong winds." Zeus boomed. Bruce wondered why all thunder gods felt the need to shout. Thor was loud enough, but Zeus was practically yelling into a non-existent microphone. Next, Hades stood, snapping his fingers.

"I give Natasha the ability to shadow travel. And I give Bruce the ability to sense and slightly manipulate metal." he said. Apollo rose, flicking his wrist.

"Natasha, you now have pinpoint accuracy, better than your friend Clint's. He's my Roman aspect's son, by the way. Bruce, you now have a deep understanding of the human body, able to become a medical doctor, perform complex surgeries, and paralyze nerves. Percy, you now have the rare ability of battle foresight. This allows you to see attacks a second or so before they happen, giving you more time to react." The sun god sat down. Hestia turned from her flames.

"Natasha, I give you the ability to control fire. As such, you are now completely fireproof. Bruce, I give to the ability to heal injuries with the power of the hearth." Bruce felt power rush through him. It was a heady sensation, and he missed the rather noticable appearance of Hecate in a flash of light. He was slightly startled when she spoke.

"Perseus Jackson. You have treated my children well. For that, I will make it much easier for you to manipulate the mist." The goddess of magic disappeared directly after her statement. Ares stood up.

"Did they just dump a ton of power on us? We haven't even done anything yet. Why did they make us really powerful all of a sudden? I feel like we should have done some training first." Bruce mused. He snapped back to reality as Ares spoke.

"I want to test these friends of yours, punk. I want to know how well they can fight." Percy looked over at Bruce and Natasha.

"It's up to you guys." he said. Natasha smiled and stepped forward. She slipped off her heels.

"Against Ares? Why not?" she grinned. Bruce stepped up next to her.

"I'll back you up if you need." he offered. Ares laughed, walking up to them.

"Is the son of Athena being strategic? Hanging back like a coward, claiming that it's wise, and only getting involved when you think you'll win?" Bruce laughed.

"You know, someone once told me that all of her friends except for me were fighters. She told me that I was different. I avoid the fight because I always win. But my strategy is never strategy, I'll tell you that much. I'll show you how I fight after Tasha's had her fun." Natasha smiled at him. Ares scoffed.

"As if a mere mortal would -" he was cut off as Natasha locked her legs around his throat and flipped him over, landing on her feet. Everyone stared at her.

"He sounded too much like Loki." she explained, which probably didn't explain anything for most of the people there.

Natasha whipped a knife out of nowhere, and stabbed at the war god. The blade bounced off his skin. Natasha backflipped away as Ares rose to his feet, throwing a wild punch at her.

"Does anyone have a knife I can use that affects him?" Natasha asked. Artemis waved her hand, and a silver knife appeared in Natasha's palm. Natasha flipped it so that she held it in an icepick grip, and grinned.

"Perfect." She charged the god again, who immediately tried to cut her in half with a gigantic sword that appeared out of nowhere. Bruce watched as she slipped under the swing, and slashed at Ares's stomach. Ares roared in pain, and swung his sword around. Natasha jumped up, landing on the blade, and front-flipped, dropping her foot like an axe, and smashing it into Ares's head. Ares stumbled forward, and Natasha kneed him in the face. Ares got extremely angry. He howled, and blasted Natasha back with a wave of energy. Natasha skidded across the floor, and rolled to her feet. The Hulk growled in Bruce's head. Bruce focused on keeping the Hulk back.

Natasha ran at Ares again. Ares's sword shimmered and turned into a gun. A spray of bullets whistled towards her. Natasha barrel rolled to her left, and dropped to the ground, sliding towards Ares. She whipped her leg out once she got close, sweeping Ares off his feet. As the god fell, she launched herself off the ground and tackled the god backwards, sinking her knife into his chest. Once the pair landed, Natasha rolled off of his chest smoothly and returned to Bruce's side.

"I've had my fun." Bruce laughed, and the gods looked impressed. Ares stood up, bleeding from the wound in his chest, and fuming.

"Son of Athena, you said that you always won. Is that because you hide behind your girlfriend all the time? Boohoo, your daddy was mean to you. Now you hide behind a girl because you're scared. You hid behind your step-mother, and let her die for you. Is your darling Natasha going to go the same way?" Bruce's eyes flashed green, and Natasha pecked his cheek.

"Have fun, Big Guy!" she chirped. Bruce stalked forward.

"Are you trying to make me angry, Ares? I'm sure you wouldn't like me when I'm angry." Bruce said coldly. Ares spat at him.

"Is that supposed to be intimidating? Come on then. Show me your rage!" Ares retorted. Bruce smiled without any warmth.

"If you say so." And Bruce let the Hulk come to the fore. Ares backed up as the scientist turned green and got a lot bigger. The Hulk roared at the sky.

"PUNY GOD!" he yelled. Ares scowled, and became 12 feet tall to match the Hulk. He aimed his gun at the Hulk.

"Not so puny anymore! Now come on, beast!" Ares taunted.

"HULK SMASH!" the Hulk roared, and before Ares could even react, the green creature had grabbed the god's leg and thrown him into the ground. The Hulk slammed the god with his fists several times and picked him up. He threw Ares into a wall, and charged after him. Ares attempted to shoot the Hulk. The bullets bounced off of his skin, and the Hulk got more enraged. Bruce watched from the back of his mind as he snatched up the god and jumped into the air. He hurled the god downwards, and landed on him. They started rolling around on the floor, grappling with each other, both trying to overpower the other. Eventually, Ares managed to get a clean hit to the Hulk's face, who stumbled back and glared, the punch having annoyed him.

The Hulk began to completely beat Ares up, while the Olympians watched in fascination mixed with a bit of fear. The beast seemed unstoppable, his rage only increasing as Ares was bounced around like a pinball. The demigods in the room were also scared, Percy and Natasha being the exceptions. After a couple minutes of Ares futilely trying to fight the Hulk, and suffering various injuries, Zeus stood.

"Enough!" he thundered. The Hulk looked at him briefly, and then turned towards Ares, who was crawling away from the crater he had just created. Zeus signaled at Aphrodite.

"Stop fighting, Bruce." she charmspoke. The Hulk ignored her, and Aphrodite looked confused. Natasha laughed. The gods started to panic. Bruce, while in the back of his mind, could tell that they thought that there was no way to get the Hulk to calm down. Natasha stepped forward, and Aphrodite freaked out.

"What are you doing? He might attack you!" she shrieked. Natasha snorted, and the Hulk turned towards the love goddess, an offended expression on his face.

"NO ATTACK KRESTOVINA!" he bellowed. Natasha had a quizzical expression on her face at the Russian word. She walked up to him.

"Hey, big guy!" she said cheerfully. The Hulk lifted his hand up as if to say Wassup?

"The sun's getting real low." She held her hand out, and the Hulk carefully touched his hand to hers. Then, he turned his hand over, and let it rest in her palm. She stroked his palm carefully, and then tapped his pulse point. The Hulk grunted, and stumbled away.

"Bye, Krestovina..." he muttered, and shrunk. Natasha quirked an eyebrow.Soon, a shirtless Bruce Banner lay winded on the floor of Olympus. Natasha tossed him one of his shirts.

"Did the big guy just call me spider in Russian?" she asked. Bruce groaned.

"Yeah, he revealed that he speaks Russian a few weeks ago. He said something like: Hulk likes Natasha. Natasha is Russian. So Hulk likes Russian. And then, he cited the Transitive Property." Natasha laughed, and turned towards the Olympians and demigods, who (except for Percy) looked completely dumbstruck. One of Percy's friends spoke up.

"So... you two are together?" Bruce turned towards the girl, briefly noting her kaleidoscope eyes and rose tattoo. Then, he registered the question.

"Um, yeah. I-right?" he stuttered, turning to Natasha. Everybody chuckled, and Natasha rolled her eyes fondly.

"Yes, Bruce. We are together." she said, amusement coloring her tone.

"Just making sure this isn't a really amazing dream with Greek mythology mixed in." At that, he heard someone go: Awwwww!

He had a feeling that it had been Aphrodite. Bruce refocused his attention on the girl who'd asked the question.

"Are you a daughter of Aphrodite?" he questioned.

"Yeah, actually. How'd you know?" she replied.

"You have her eyes. And a rose tattoo." he responded.

"Ah." Bruce turned back to the gods.

"So, is that all we are here for?" he wondered.

"Yes. We shall send you three back to Lyssa, which has been...improved. There, you shall train." Zeus boomed.

"Alright. When do we leave?" Natasha asked.

"Now." Zeus waved his hand, and Bruce felt a very odd sensation as he was split into tiny pieces, and sent through the air. Upon reforming, his jaw dropped.

"Improved might be an understatement." he thought as he looked around.

Yeah, so that's all for now. Hope you enjoyed the Brutasha vs. Ares showdown! - Spathi