•--• •• •--• • •-•

Piper had not been planning to go into battle today.

Well, at least she didn’t have to worry about what clothes to wear for this. 

She’d pulled out her old Camp Half-Blood attire: soft, worn jeans and boots with a Camp Half-Blood shirt. The shirt may or may not have bloodstains on the front, but it didn’t matter much because her breastplate and shoulder guards covered most of it anyways. 

It felt odd to have the time to put armor on. Much of the time on her quest she had gone without, but Chiron had insisted she take a set with her, in case of emergencies.

Considering the numerous times Piper had fought monsters since leaving camp, she couldn’t fault his logic.

Leo wore his own armor over a simple white shirt and brown trousers that Piper knew had been woven by Calypso herself to be fireproof. He greeted her enthusiastically, pulling her into a hug. His skinny limbs were feverishly warm as they wrapped around her.

He had always run warm, but since Gaia’s defeat he seemed like a furnace. It was as if all that fire had stayed trapped under his skin, even all these months later. 

He released her and pulled something small and bronze from his tool-belt proudly.

“What is that?” she questioned, he held it out for her examination. It had silicone around one end, like an earbud.

“It’s an earpiece.” Leo grinned. “I figured out how to link them without signaling monsters.”

“Seriously?” she asked. He nodded.

He looked at her expectantly for a long moment. 

She gave a fond sigh. “How does it work, oh master mechanic.”

“I’m glad you asked, my young padawan.” he said in an (admittedly accurate) impression of Chiron. “I used a kind of Virtual Private Network. It scrambles the locations, and signals all over the globe which makes us impossible to track except through the old fashioned way —smell. I’m still working on integrating some old inventions to fix that, so I had to make these without.” He fiddled with the belt loops of his pants and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like it had the word explode in it, which didn’t bode well. 

“The coms themselves are operated by non-verbal signals, so they wouldn’t be activated or changed by accident.” He continued. “I wanted something that would be easy to do in battle, no matter what weapon you use. It also had to be audible so the earpiece could distinguish it.” he paused for effect. “So all you have to do is click your tongue and say the name of the person you want to talk with. It will automatically connect you to that person until you click your tongue again. If you want to talk to multiple people, two clicks and say their names. If you want everyone, three.”

“What if I want to disconnect?” she asked. “Like, so nobody can hear me when I charmspeak.” If she gave orders to monsters and they affected the people on her coms, it could be disastrous.

“If you want to be completely disconnected, nothing coming in or out, click your tongue once and say ‘mute’. If you just want to mute yourself you click twice and say the same.” Leo said proudly.

“And it doesn’t explode?' she asked suspiciously, hesitating to take hers.

“These ones don’t.” He promised.

“If you say so,”she ruffled his messy hair. He preened and held out the earpiece again. She smiled fondly, taking it and slipping it into her ear. The silicon molded itself to fit her, securing itself comfortably in her ear and letting off a soft chime.

“Now you say your name.” Leo prompted.

“Piper.” She said obediently. The earpiece chirped cheerfully and fell silent. “Nice one, Leo. Color me impressed.” 

He preened at the praise and tugged on her hand, walking over towards Festus.

“How’s my best boy?” she smiled, running her hand under Festus’ chin. He nuzzled into it, preening in a way that was eerily similar to what Leo had just done. Gods, they really were forged from the same metal, metaphorically speaking of course. She gave Festus one last pat and made her way to his wing, which he obligingly extended to aid her ascent.

As she climbed onto Festus and settled into her seat with Leo in front of her, Piper was painfully reminded of her quest to save Hera. She found herself glancing over her shoulder, expecting to see Jason sitting there, his eyes serious and the little scar over his lip pulled into a crescent by his worried frown. 

Gods, that was, what… two years ago?

It felt like centuries.

She took a shaky breath and forced her gaze forward. Leo was looking back as well, his ever-present smile sagging on one side, as if he couldn’t quite recall how it was meant to look. 

In that moment, he looked a lot like he had after coming back from Ogygia. Wistful, melancholy and a bit lost. 

He met her eyes and she rested a hand on his shoulder over the strap of his leather armor. “We should go.” She prompted gently. “Percy and Annabeth, they’re here now and they need us.”

He gave his head a little shake and his grin pulled up into its usual position. “You’re right. We shouldn’t keep them waiting.” He turned forward again and patted Festus fondly. “I wouldn’t want to deprive them of our company for longer than necessary.”

Piper snorted.

“What, you don’t think we’re good company?” Leo asked as Festus spread his wings and launched into the sky. “I’ll have you know I’m a delight to be around.”

They dissolved into warm golden light, and when they emerged they were surrounded by tall buildings and… aliens, apparently.

“Huh,” Leo frowned, looking at a passing alien. “They kind of look like armored slugs.”

Piper choked on a laugh. Then she looked closer at the swarming creatures. He was kind of right. They did look like armored slugs, if slugs were humanoid and had several rows of  very sharp-looking teeth. 

“Something that ugly is just asking to be shot down,” she smirked. “What do you say we put them out of their misery?”

Leo laughed gleefully. “I like the way you think, Pipes.” He pulled out a leather pouch and handed it to her. “Bet I can get more of them than you!” he extended his arm and shot a white-hot burst of flame at an alien, cheering as it slumped and went spiraling towards the ground.

Piper opened the pouch. Inside were several small spheres, about the size of large marbles. They were clear glass, slightly warm to the touch, and glowed acid green. “Leo, is this Greek Fire?” she asked incredulously.

Leo glanced back at her from where he had been scorching his third alien of the day. “Yeah. I call them Marbles of Death.”

Seemed like an accurate title. 

She drew a few out and tied the pouch to her armor. When a slug-thing came a bit too close to the giant bronze dragon for its safety, Piper chucked one of the Marbles of Death at it. 

The glass shattered on impact and caused the alien to combust into green flames.

“Huh, nice.” She said appreciatively. “How did you—

Her words were drowned out by a deep, rumbling roar. She turned towards the sound, startled, and saw an enormous, armored… thing emerging from a hole in the sky.

“Holy Hephaestus, that thing is big.” Leo breathed.

Dozens of alien foot soldiers shed from the beast like dandruff off a middle-aged man. They slid down buildings and began firing at civilians.

“Leo, I need you to get me down there.”

He was silent, staring transfixed at the creature as it flew between buildings, leaving great gouges behind it.

“Leo!” She shook his shoulder. He tore his gaze from the creature and looked towards where she was pointing. “I need to get down there.”

His eyes widened. “Right.” He nudged Festus and they swooped down to the streets. Festus extended his wing like a ramp and Piper gratefully slid down. “Check your Coms!” he called.

She nodded and clicked her tongue once. A soft chime sounded in her ear. “Leo.” She said. Another chime. “Can you hear me?” she said softly.

“Loud and clear.” Leo’s voice confirmed.

“Good.” She pulled her sword from its sheath, its familiar cold creeping up her arm. “I’m gonna get these civilians out of the streets. You work on Big Ugly up there.”

She muted the coms and turned to the civilians, thinking. 

She couldn’t send them into a building, not with giant alien whales crashing into them. They couldn’t stay on the street and be showered with debris either though.

The subways would be safe, right? The thick concrete would be difficult to bring down and they’d be safe from rubble and falling buildings. 

The subway, then.

She would need to word this carefully. A wrong word could cause hundreds of deaths, or prevent them. She took a deep breath and thickened her voice with charmspeak. “Everyone human, go to the subways as quickly and safely as you can. Bring as many people with you as you can without endangering yourself and avoid falling rubble.”

All around her, mortals stopped running around aimlessly and began to head towards the subway. The charmspeak was powerful. The people around her wanted to run to safety, which definitely helped. She slashed through an alien that rushed her and it fell, frost crusting along the wound.

She surveyed the aliens that remained on the streets and they studied her right back. Almost eerily in sync, the creatures stepped forward. 

Words rose to Piper’s lips. She should start with something simple. Commands that went against natural self-preservation weren't even very effective on humans, so it wasn’t going to be as simple as telling them all to kill themselves.

“If you’re an alien, jump once.” she commanded, layering charmspeak over her voice. 

Nothing happened.

Styx.

Piper shifted her grip on her blade.

It looked like she’d be doing this the old-fashioned way.

- --- -• -•--

“Then tell him to suit up. I’m bringing the party to you.” Tony said, soaring through the air, a giant alien leviathan pursuing him.

Just another Tuesday.

Then, all of a sudden, the thing let out an earth-shattering roar of pain. When Tony looked back, he didn’t quite know what to think.

Well, at least after this nothing would ever surprise him. Tony was officially desensitized to surprises. No other event could possibly come close to the sheer shock and confusion he was now experiencing.

Aliens were one thing. Magic portals and violent off-planet visitors were almost expected at this point.

He could admit that the giant armored Chitauri leviathan was a new one, but even that wasn’t the surprising thing.

No, the surprising thing was the giant bronze dragon that was currently tearing the Chitauri apart.

Great bursts of green flames spouted from the dragon’s maw and melted the armor off like acid, leaving vulnerable flesh for the dragon’s sharp claws. Tony very nearly felt sorry for the thing. It squirmed through the air, driven forward by momentum and began to fall downwards, its enormous jaw open wide. It was headed straight for a little group of strangely dressed, very recognizable people on the street.

“Dr. Banner.” Cap’s voice came through his com, “Now might be a really good time for you to get angry.”

Stark didn’t hear his response, but Banner stepped towards the Chitauri, skin darkening and body growing with each step. He punched the beast straight in the face, causing the metal armor to collapse in on itself as its body overbalanced and flipped in the air. The dragon shot another burst of green flames at the soft underbelly, and Tony aimed a rocket.

The beast exploded, great chunks of flesh splattered everywhere. Cap held up his shield to block them, but the others were not so lucky. He landed on the street and took stock. They were all here. Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye, Black Widow, The Hulk, and of course Iron Man.

“Oh dioses,” a voice from behind him said emphatically, “That’s disgusting.”

He turned and saw that the bronze dragon had landed as well. A teenager sat on its back ,wiping indigo blood from his face and muttering under his breath. He was short and slim, with coppery skin and curly black hair. His face was impish and his eyes were dark. He was also wearing Greek-styled bronze armor, though thankfully he seemed to have foregone the usual leather skirt in favor of a tool-belt.

“Um… I’m sorry. Who are you?” He looked over at his shoulder to the others. “Who is he?”

There was a wave of confused looks and shrugs, so none of them knew him either. He turned back to the kid, but he and his dragon had already flown off. “What the h—”

“Guys,” Romanoff said, pointing towards the portal. Several Chitauri leviathans soared from the portal, along with thousands of soldiers.

Right. They could deal with Tiny Adonis later. “Call it, Cap” They backed into a circle, weapons at the ready. 

Cap started barking out commands and Stark braced himself. 

Let’s do this.