Chapter 21
The next day found Percy, Nico and Thalia standing at the crest of Half-Blood Hill with the Avengers including Thor who had brought Loki along with him. This had of course caused a huge mess with the Avengers but it was all sorted out when Thor explained that Loki was mind controlled himself, though he didn't say who. The Avengers were still a little wary of him but Percy liked him. They informed Thor and Loki about the events that took place and both agreed to help and protect the demigods.
With so many of them protecting him, they were assured that Percy wouldn't die. Unbeknownst to them he had steadily grown on everyone, charming his way into their hearts. And nobody was frankly ready to let him go just yet.
Percy, Nico, Thalia, Thor and Loki walked in easily when the rest followed they found themselves bumping into some sort of barrier.
"Hey Percy, a little help here?" Asked Tony
Percy looked back sheepishly, Thalia rolled her eyes at him and he cleared his throat and loudly announced, "I, Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon, give Steven Rogers, Natalia Romanova, Bruce Banner and Anthony Stark, permission to enter Camp Half-Blood."
Everyone looked at him shocked and confused, "What? You're not the only ones who went through the files." This was Percy's cryptic answer.
How had he gone through those secure files? Tony shelved away the question for later.
"You guys gonna stand there or come in?" Percy's question shook them out of their daze and they followed him in, this time it showed them the Camp spread out below them. They all took in the scene.
The cabins were spread around the pavilion and several children were running around dressed in battle armour. There was a big house facing the volleyball grounds and strawberry farms where....were those satyrs? Were playing reed pipes. Around their feet the vines grew like crazy scattered around the field, lots of children were picking strawberries.
"So that's our strawberry farm, then those are the cabins, each one stands for a God or Goddess and the demigods stay in their Parent's cabin all except Rachel, who stays in her cave, over there." Percy pointed out the places as we walked along.
There was some seriously cool stuff, Natasha looked particularly excited to see the weapon's rack where Percy assured them that they would be getting their own personalized weapons.
Thalia and Nico split off soon to do their own stuff, while they walked, everyone who encountered them greeted Percy and made small talk, it seemed like everyone knew Percy and he knew them well too. Percy was clearly respected and popular here.
"That's where I stay," Percy pointed out his cabin, it seemed cool with its low walls. Next Percy pointed out the training arena with it's dummies and targets,
Percy explained that he taught sword fighting when he came to Camp that's when a punk girl came up.
"Hey punk? You ready?" She asked Percy not sparing a glance in the strangers' direction.
"Yup all set, how are the preparations going on? Is everything ready? Oh and I forgot you might want to consider asking Reyna and the Roman Legion for help Dad reckons that Kronos is going to have a huge army backing him. And this is war Clarisse not a matter of pride, so think about Camp before your pride. I'm going to talk to Chiron, I'll see you later." He says.
Clarisse huffs and replies, "Fine I'll go talk to her, so I might not be there when you leave. Be safe Punk, use your head and don't die otherwise I'll have no one to punch when I get mad, understood?"
Percy smirks and replies, "Aye, aye captain, orders clear: Get out, get the weapon, try not to die, will that be all?"
Clarisse punches him but then hugs him whispering something in his ear before going away. Percy stares at her in shock for a minute before shaking his head and muttering, "That girl definitely is crazy."
The rest of the team look at him in confusion he just shakes his head again mumbling something like 'girls' under his breath before turning away and leading us inside the big house.
Inside the first sight that greets the team is a centaur, "Hello, I believe you are the Avengers, quite pleased to finally meet you. I'm Chiron by the way."
The mortals take a few seconds to process this but Loki and Thor nod and greet him pleasantly exchanging a few polite words before Chiron turns to them again.
"I believe that you need weapons, Percy please take them to the Hephaestus cabin and then you better get ready to leave, collect your stuff I will be waiting with Thalia and Nico at Thalia's tree."
Percy gives him a smile and ushers the still confused team out leading them to the Hephaestus cabin, "Okay sorry guys but I have to leave soon so you guys can asks the Hephaestus campers your questions, they'll answer and also tell them the kind of weapons you want they'll make them for you. Now I'll see you guys later."
Percy bids them goodbye but before he can leave one by one every member gives him a hug and tells him to be safe before allowing him to go. Percy leaves with a huge smile and a slight tint of pink in his cheeks.
The Avengers except Percy are quickly ushered into the cabin. Tony's mouth drops open in awe, the Hephaestus siblings share amused glances which go unnoticed by the team as they take in their surroundings and explore the place.
Tony is talking and asking questions a mile a minute so Nyassa exasperated shouts at him, "ONE question at a time and slower, please." She adds the last part as an afterthought though.
Tony looks startled by a second before his features morph into one of understanding as he starts,
"So do you guys have your own forges to make your weapons?"
"Yeah, we can do pretty much any weapon from scrap, oh that reminds me please tell us of your weapons so that we can upgrade them so that they will be more useful in fighting Greek stuff. You can ask more questions later."
Tony shuts his mouth wordlessly and then immediately begins spouting ideas to upgrade their tech. The team give their weapons over to the cabin and Tony then head out to do some exploring of their own.
*In the Hephaestus cabin*
(I'm not a genius so if these ideas seem weird or not possible just roll with it, hopefully they won't sound too ridiculous...)
"So do you think I can make a completely new suit made of celestial bronze? Or do you reckon we should only coat it with celestial bronze and try and see if we could use the metal in the actual light beams and other weapons?"
Nyassa thinks for a moment before deciding, "I think we should go with the second option, making a complete new suit would take a lot of time and it will be quite heavy too, so I think we'll take you suit and start coating it meanwhile you can work with Cam here, on integrating bronze with your weapons."
Tony is hesitant giving his suit, Nyassa sensing this gives him a reassuring pat saying, "Don't worry we won't break it, we're experts at handling this kind of stuff. You focus on your assignment besides it won't take that long."
Tony still worried but slightly reassured goes off with Cameron, Nyassa watches them leave and once they're out of sight she mutters under her breath, "Let's just hope this works." And sighing she goes to do her own work.
For the first time in Hephaestus cabin it's completely silent, except for explaining something to their partner or asking for something. Everybody is completely absorbed and focused on their work. All signs of humour gone because they understand, This is War, where one wrong shot could lead to dozens of deaths. After all they've experienced it before.
Tony is uncharacteristically quiet too, Cam prods him with a wrench, "Hey man you alright, you look like you're gonna throw up."
Tony just shakes his head, his thoughts running wild, perhaps he picked it up from the general atmosphere of the room, that there will be a war, these people, heck, they're just kids are going to lose their lives.
He desperately tries to remove the vision of his team, Percy, these kids (who he has grown quite fond of despite knowing them for only a short amount of time), lying bloodied and battered on the ground, life seeping out of their eyes.
He represses a shudder at his thoughts and instead directs them at the upgrades he's doing now. He's trying to focus on something else so that his mind wouldn't let him down that path again.
*The other Avengers*
The rest of the team except Tony head out in hopes of finding something else they will like. Natasha takes the time to observe some more, she sees a climbing wall which looks like it has real lava pouring down it. Huh? What kind of Camp is this?
She pushes back her memories of the Red Room, it won't do to have a panic attack right now. She jumps as a hand gently presses on her shoulders, she looks at the owner a scowl ready on her face but as she sees Clint it dies and is instead replaced by a small grateful smile.
Clint being Clint had seen that his best friend was starting to zone out, in an attempt to calm her down and also possibly sign his death sentence he'd placed his hand on her shoulder gently, grounding her, to his surprise she did not murder him but gave him a small smile, although he could have been dead just as easily, he gave her a reassuring smile back.
Steve was walking along thinking to himself, when they were ambushed by a burly looking girl, she was really tall and muscular, with a hard glint in her eye. Clarisse examined the strangers warily, she did not trust easily but she supposed if Percy trusted them then so should she. She'd never admit it but he was a pretty good judge of character.
"Follow me." She simply instructed the three Avengers, Bruce being dragged off by some Apollo kids, the remaining three exchanged glances but followed her when she started walking away without looking back to see if they were following.
They were led to an enclosed arena, which looked to be a training room considering the sparring mats, punching bags, dummies and the weapons racks around them. Some distance away a few Apollo kids were practicing archery Clint immediately bee lined towards them, Clarisse raised an eyebrow but did not say anything as he walked towards the archers.
As a silence settled on the trio, Steve awkwardly cleared his throat, "So, I'm Steve, do you mind telling us what are we doing here?" He tried to be polite.
Clarisse simply replied, "You will be learning to use different weapons, other than your shield and I would like to see your skills with knives or daggers, whichever you prefer." The last part was directed toward Natasha who simply nodded.
Clarisse looked at her for another moment before instructing them again, "Choose weapons for yourselves from the rack over there. Natasha you are using daggers, right?" At Natasha's affirmative she continued, "We also have pistols and stuff like that with Celestial bronze but you already know how to use a gun so I'll give that to you later. For now pick daggers from here."
Natasha nodded and looked over the weapons, there were some used and some practically new ones, she chose some for herself twirling them in her hands, Clarisse gave her an approving nod and a small smile, to which she replied in kind.
Then the muscular teen turned to Steve, "You can choose to although I think you'd work well with a spear rather that a sword. Pick a weapon and Michael here will help you with the basics, if you don't know them meanwhile I will be with Natasha."
She turned to the assassin and the both exchanged evil smiles before heading off to the sparring area.