June 2007

Natasha's P.O.V.

The Miami infilitration was interesting, to say the least. It had been long, and a hard mission, as she was doing her best not to be exposed. She hadn't expected a well trained Red Room operative to be there, though. So she found herself with all the information she needed, fighting a determined man who wanted the intel she had managed to get, hopefully with the added bonus of seeing the Black Widow dead. He was a good fighter, and she ended up trying to lose him, dashing off through the streets of Miami.

She hurdled a bench, running and kicking off a wall to grab onto a balcony. She pulled herself up and climbed onto the roof of a building. With the man right on her tail, she ran to the edge of the roof, and leaped off of it, landing onto another roof. She sped across and jumped off it, landing neatly on a lamp post, which she slid down. She hopped a fence, and purposefully ran into a dead end. Once the man followed her, she ran at the dead end, and backflipped far over the man's head, rolling smoothly as she hit the ground. She kept running.

She ended up right off of the beach with the man still trying to kill her, and running out of ideas. She had managed to disarm him of his gun a long time ago, but he still had a knife, so she pulled out her own in her right hand, and engaged him, knife on knife. She swiped at his head, and he ducked, trying to stab her in the ribs. She trapped his knife with her left hand, and cut across his face. He used his free hand to attempt to grab her knife, but she freed her left hand from her grip on his knife, and dropped the knife into it, slamming it into his arm. He hissed in pain. She followed it up with a kick to the ribs, which he caught and twisted, causing her to spin in the air. Once she landed, she dropped and swept his legs out from under him. He recovered quickly, and Natasha backed up a bit. She decided to try a ridiculous tactic to distract him

"There's something on your face." she said in Russian. It worked, and she shrugged mentally. "Huh. Guess I should start talking more during fights." she thought. The man looked confused, and she took the opportunity to hit him hard enough to break his nose.

"It was pain!" she quipped, remembering when she had seen Cooper watching that video on Youtube. She followed the punch up with a jab to the ribs, and an uppercut to the jaw. The man snarled, and got extremely angry. He launched himself at her, tackling her around the waist. He straddled her and pulled his fist back to punch her.
Splat.
The man howled, holding his eye, which was covered in red. She winced. His eye looked terrible. She shoved the man off of her and slammed his head into the ground. He fell unconscious. Natasha turned and saw Percy standing behind her holding a paintball gun.

"I knew that paintballs could seriously injure people when they hit the eye, but that's a little too much red, don't you think, Alexei?" Natasha asked in French.

"I guess it had red paint." He replied easily. He looked over his shoulder, where a man in a wheelchair and a couple of teenagers stood, dumbfounded.

"I've got to go. Family stuff." he said. Natasha nodded at him. He waved and ran off.

Percy's P.O.V.

After facing Luke and meeting the Party Ponies, as well as Chiron, Percy was pretty tired. He was only 13, after all. He walked to the edge of the beach, took one look at who was fighting a man nearby, and ran over to the nearest Party Pony. He borrowed their paintball gun and dashed back to his earlier location. He took careful aim, braced himself for the recoil, and shot the guy in the eye.
As it turned out, the paintball was red. Natasha looked at him, slightly amused. They had a conversation in French, which really shocked Annabeth, Grover, Tyson, and Chiron, who he had temporarily forgotten about. Or perhaps it was the act of shooting a paintball into a man's eye that surprised them.  Whatever the case, Annabeth started bombarding him with questions.

"Since when could you speak French?"

"Why'd you shoot the guy?"

"How did you shoot so accurately?"

"Did you know that lady?"

"Hold on for a second, wise girl! I can't answer your questions as fast as you ask them. I've been able to speak French since our first quest. I shot the guy because he was attacking that lady. I can shoot accurately because I've practiced firing guns before. And that lady was a friend of mine. She lives in New York. She was being attacked, so I helped her." Percy answered. Everyone accepts his explanations, and they move on. They headed back to camp, and the incident was forgotten.

January 2008

A couple months passed. Natasha had started teaching him Chinese. The quest to save Artemis happened. And then one day, Percy, now 14, found himself watering the plants on his mother's balcony. Natasha was off on another mission, but he was fine with that. The training sessions had come a long way since the first one. He sparred with Natasha now, although she was going easy on him, and he was still sore from the last one. He winced as he filled a bucket with water. He planned to practice his powers by dividing the water into even parts and putting them in the plants. He glanced up the street, and blinked. And then blinked again.

He could see Natasha tearing down the road towards him, chasing a guy with a briefcase. The guy was fast, and Natasha was having a bit of trouble catching up. Percy wondered how he always managed to run into Natasha on her missions. It was probably the Fates screwing with him. He looked at his bucket, and got an idea. He waited until the man was almost right under his balcony, and then tipped the bucket over the railing, using his powers to make sure the water hit the man. The man tripped, unable to see, and crashed into the ground. Natasha caught up with the guy, took the briefcase, and put the guy in handcuffs. She pulled out her phone, and called someone. Then, she raised an eyebrow at him.

"You know, these interferences of yours are always entertaining. First, it was the catwalk. Then, you blew up a school bus. Next, you crashed a bus into the side of the Lincoln Tunnel. After that, you plugged a guy in the eye with a paintball. And now this. You managed to stop a guy by pouring water on his head. Always something out of the box." she muttered in German.

"Well, I'm known to be unpredictable." Percy replied in Russian.

"Yes. I can see that." Natasha said dryly in Spanish. A van pulled up, and a couple of people in SHIELD uniforms got out. They put the man in the van, and gestured to Natasha.

"Looks like I have to go. Bye, Alexei." she continued in French.

"Bye!" Percy replied, switching to Chinese. Natasha smirked, and climbed into the van.

July 2008

Natasha's P.O.V.

She always ran into Percy on missions that were going wrong. He was one of the reasons that the only mission she'd ever failed was the one involving the Winter Soldier shooting that engineer through her. If she didn't know better, she'd wonder if Percy was following her. But he was always doing something for his father's side of the family in the summer. That family was strange, though.

She broke out of her thoughts and mentally reviewed her mission. She needed to climb up the rocks in the Garden of the Gods, get to the hidden area, and destroy some type of dangerous machine. She harnessed herself and started climbing. As she got near the top, she saw a sniper. While climbing, she was an easy target. However, she had to get to the top to complete her mission. The sniper hadn't noticed her, but he would soon. She couldn't pull out a gun and shoot him because that would cause people to panic when they heard the shots. Also, her hands were occupied in holding on to the rocks. She twisted to look at the sniper. If she wasn't trained to keep her face blank, her jaw would have dropped in shock.

She could see Percy on a hang glider as he flew over. Now that she thought about it, it might have been easier to hang glide up here. He circled around her spire and started heading straight for the sniper. He kicked the sniper in the back of the head and soared off. The sniper dropped, unconscious. "Okay, what?" she thought. She shook her head and started climbing. She quickly completed her mission, and resolved to ask Percy about it the next time she saw him.

A couple months later, Percy returned from camp, having turned 15. She went over knife throwing and the basics of Latin before she asked him about the hang glider incidents. Percy sighed.

"I'm technically not supposed to tell you this, but I'm pretty sure I can trust you. But keep it a secret, okay? Don't tell anyone." he said in Portuguese.

"Alright. I promise not to tell anyone." Natasha replied in Japanese. Percy took a deep breath.

"The Greek Gods are real, and I'm the child of Poseidon. And there's a prophecy about me either saving or destroying the world and I'm supposed to lead the demigods into a war next summer. We just fought a battle, and some of my friends died, and we're all just kids. But there are these ancient laws keeping the gods from helping us directly, and I'm just really stressed about it. And I blew up Mt. St. Helens and Typhon had been trapped under it, and now he's almost free, and the gods barely beat him last time. I don't know what to do!!" he ranted in Russian. He knew Natasha had a good knowledge of Greek Mythology, as she would use it to teach him Latin. Natasha stared at him, her usually emotionless expression gone, and a concerned one in its place.

"All you really can do is prepare for it the best you can. I'll start training you harder, and whip you into shape. And you will win this war." she promised, a determined edge in her tone. She pulled Percy into a tight hug. He returned it, and Natasha felt that his life was rather unfair.

She remembered the determined look in a 10 year old's green eyes as he pulled a lever. She thought of that same look two years later as he crashed a bus, and the serious expression he had on his face when he shot a guy through the eye with a paintball gun. And now, Natasha could imagine the same expression on his face as he charged into battle against... Percy's words sunk in. Greek mythology was real. What type of monsters would he have to fight? Who did he have to fight a war against? She asked him as much. Percy explained everything to her; the fact that monsters never truly die, that Kronos was rising again, that many demigods who felt neglected by their parents had joined him.

It was pretty depressing to hear. Afterwards, Natasha trained Percy harder than ever. She had him learn how to use a shield as a weapon, like Captain America. She made sure he was a deadly shot with a gun, and could nail targets with a knife. She trained him until his strength became almost unnatural, telling him to eat certain foods to stay lean. His being a demigod caused him to be even stronger and faster than normal people, much like a super soldier. She made him light on his feet, flexible, and able to free run easily through obstacles. She had him fight until he could hold his own against her, using his unpredictable fighting style. She taught how to be undetectable, how to gather information, how to manipulate, even. And by the end of it, she felt that she had prepared him the best she could.