The New Avengers #1: The First War
Prologue
Nick Fury was standing in front of the Gods of Olympus silently. He stares at them with his one good eye.
"Director Fury." Zeus says in a deep voice. "I'm guessing you're wondering why we asked you to come here before us."
Fury nods. "Yes. I am. What's this all about?"
"Gaea is rising and we need a way to stop her. We brought you here to see if you had any ideas." Fury's dad, Hermes replies.
Fury thinks for a moment before an idea comes to him. "I do have an idea, but I don't think Zeus would like it very much."
Zeus stares down at him from his huge throne. "Tell me and I'll decide that."
Fury shrugs. "Alright. I was thinking that we could activated the Avenger's Initiative."
Zeus shakes his head furiously. "No. I will not leave the fate of the world in the hands of mere mortals."
Athena glances over at Zeus. "But if they could possibly help us defeat Gaea, then that'd be our best option."
Zeus sighs and nods. "You're right, Athena. Alright. Activate the Avenger's Initiative and bring them here."
All the gods nod before disappearing. Zeus then teleports Fury back to S.H.I.E.L.D.
Fury sighs and slumps into a nearby chair. He rubs his face in thought. "This war will be one hard fight. Lets hope that the heroes will be up to the challenge." He whispers to himself.
Jake
I stand in the middle of Cassie's barn and glance around to make sure that everyone's there. Marco's sitting on a bale of hay playing with a strand of hay, Tobias is up in the rafters preening his feathers, Ax is standing a few feet away from me keeping a look out for any danger, Rachel is staring around at everyone, and Cassie is standing next to me silently. My eyes narrow.
"Where's Erik?" I ask. The others shrug.
""Don't know." Marco replies simply.
At that moment, Tobias screaches and flaps his wings. "He's coming! And he's got company! Bad company!"
Rachel growls as she rushes to the barn door with the rest of us. When we look out the door, we see Erik racing towards us with a group of Hork-Bajir and Taxxons behind him.
"Run! They know who you are! They know you're humans! Run!" Erik yells, sprinting off in a different direction while the Hork-Bajir and Taxxons keep coming towards us.
I turn to everyone. "Battle morphs! NOW!" I shout, concentrating on the mental image of the tiger. Everyone nods and starts morphing, minus Ax who raises his tail blade.
I concentrate and watch as strips appear on the tiger DNA and watch as strips appear on my skin, then become three-dimensional fur. my knees reverse directions and I fall forward on to my newly formed paws. My tail sprouts out behind me, and my teeth grow longer and sharper. My ears climb to the top of my head, and finally, all of my senses sharpen. I growl.
"Allright guys, lets push them back!" I order. They all nod before we hurry out of the barn. A tiger, a wolf, a gorilla, a grizzly bear, a hawk, and an andalite crash into the group of Hork-Bajir and Taxxons. I roar and slam into a Hork-Bajir.
The Hork-Bajir and I hit the ground. He tries to gut me with his blade, but I easily dodge his blade and sink my teeth into his throat. The Hork-Bajir squirms for a moment before going limp. I growl then let go of its neck. I turn to see that I'm separated from the others by a line of Taxxons and Hork-Bajir.
They all make noises like laughter before advancing on me. I growl slightly and start to back up slowly. I then realize that they're trying to divide us, but I couldn't do anything without being killed.
When they had backed me up to where I couldn't see the others, they all leap at me at once. I snarl and prepare for the end, but it doesn't come. I glance back at the small line and see that they're all dead on the ground. All of them were burnt.
"What the...?" I start to say, I then see a beautiful young woman standing in front of me. I just stare at her. she was the most beautiful girl I have ever seen. Her hair falls perfectly around her shoulders. Her clothes were perfect. A tight red dress that matched her ruby red lips. And her eyes seem to change color. I shake my head as I remember Cassie. "Who are you?"
The woman smiles slightly. "I am Aphrodite. Goddess of love and beauty."
I shake my head again. Either she was crazy... or she was telling the truth. "And I'm supposed to believe that?"
She laughs beautifully. "You can believe what you want, but I thought that after all you've seen and experienced, you would believe anything?"
I think about that and nod. "You've got a point. Alright then. Why are you here?"
Aphrodite frowns slightly. "We need your help."
"With what?" I ask cautiously.
"There's a war coming and we need you to fight in it." She replies.
"Do I even have a choice?" I ask.
She smiles and steps forward. She shakes her head. "I'm afraid not." She then lightly touches my tiger head and we dissappear.
Jace
Jace is in the training room with a pair of seraph blades. He was ripping a practice dummy to peices with quick strikes from the blades. He's drenched in sweat as he takes a step back and tries to slow his breathing down.
At that moment, the door behind him opens and he whirls around quickly. Clary squeaks as he pins her to the wall, placing the blade against her throat. When he realizes who it is, he takes a step back.
"Oh. Sorry, Clary. I'm a little on edge right now." Jace apologizes.
Clary relaxes and nods. "It's alright, Jace." She smiles and places a hand on his arm. "I was just wondering if you'd like to go and get something to eat."
Jace smiles and nods. "Sure. Just give me a moment to get cleaned up and I'll meet you there. Alright?"
She nods and smiles. "Alright." She pecks his lips lightly as she walks out of the room.
Jace smiles after her before turning back to the dummy and decapitating it with one swing. The head rolls away as he turns to a small table that's in the room. He places the seraph blades on the table and starts to draw a cloth across the blades one at a time. He does this for a few minutes before placing the blades in their scabards and puts his stele in his back pocket. He walks out of the room towards the shower.
Half an hour later, he pulls a plain black t-shirt on, blue jeans, and combat boots. Jace smiles to himself as he walks out of the institute towards a small diner down the street. I'm about to be with Clary was the only thing running through his mind on the way there.
He walks down the street with his hands in his pockets. After a moment of silence, the wind picks up slightly. Jace glances around to see an alley. He sees movement in the shadows. His hands slide to the seraph blades he always kept with him just in case. He creeps towards the alley silently and slowly.
Jace's eyes rake the shadows as he walks down the alley, gripping his seraph blades tightly. "Who's there?"
Suddenly, a big buff man with a very large sword leaps out at him. He swings his sword towards Jace.
Jace immediately raises his blades and catches the sword between them. "Raziel! Azazel!" He shouts as his blades light up brightly.
The buff man doesn't back down. He shoves his sword down towards Jace with a snarl. Jace uses the momentum to roll away from the man, farther into the alley. The man catches himself from falling on his face and turns to face Jace with a smirk on his face.
"You're a good fighter kid, but not better than me. No one's better than me." The man says in a gruff voice.
Jace smirks. "We'll see about that." He leaps forward with both of his blades.
The man chuckles as he disappears and reappears behind him. Jace stumbles, but catches himself and turns to face the man.
"As I said, no one can beat me. Only one person has and I don't like him." The man says.
"Well, lets fight and see." Jace growls as he darts forward to strike.
The man again disappears and reappears behind him. "I wish we could so that I could smash you into the ground, but unfortunately, you're needed so..." He steps forward and clamps his hand onto Jace's arm and teleports them away from the alley.
Percy
I raise Riptide slightly as I stalk through the trees towards the other team's flag. Jason walks next to me with his golden sword in hand. We were in the middle of a game of Capture the Flag at Camp Half-Blood. It's Athena, Ares, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Hades, and Hecate vs. all the other cabins, including Poseidon and Zeus. We were on our way to get their flag.
"How much further do you think it is to their flag?" Jason whispers, gripping his sword tightly.
I glance around. "It should be just in front of us here in a second."
We step around a tree and freeze in our tracks. Right there in front of us are 10 huge ants. We watch them carefully and don't move a muscle.
"What are we going to do now? This is the quickest way to the enemy flag." Jason whispers quietly. I could see his hand tighten even more around the hilt of his sword.
"We could either spend the time to fight them or we could turn around and find another way to the flag." I whisper back. I grip Riptide tightly.
Jason glances at the large ants for a moment. "We might be able to handle them."
I nod as I watch one ant drag a huge piece of shining metal away into the tree. Probably to their ant hill, I tell myself.
Today seems like it's our unlucky day because at that moment, the sunlight glints off Jason and my swords. The ants look over at us and snap their mandibles. I curse under my breath.
"Looks like we're going to have no choice, but to fight them." I say, raising Riptide.
Jason nods as I hear thunder overhead. "Yep."
The ants scream before rushing towards us. They're much uglier up close. Their exoskelton is a disgusting brown and saliva drips from their mandibles.
I dodge one ant's jaws before slicing through it with my sword easily. It bursts into yellow dust. Another ant takes its place and leaps at me. I roll to the side barely getting to safety. I glance over at Jason.
Jason's striking the ants with lightning frying them, but there seems to be more coming. He growls before unleashing a long chain of lightning that fries a good majority of the ants. Then we see that more are coming. We curse under our breath as we're forced back to back.
"Looks like we were wrong about us being able to take them on." Jason says from behind me. The ants surround us.
"You think?" I retort. I keep my eyes trained on the ants and raise Riptide.
At that moment, all the ants surge towards us in a huge mass. I prepare for the feeling of their mandibles tearing me apart, but it doesn't come. All I hear is a huge explosion. When I open my eyes, I see that all the ants are dead and burnt to a crisp. I glance over at Jason.
"Was that you?" I ask. He shakes his head. "Then who was it?"
Then we see a woman in a white t-shirt and jeans with blonde hair and grey eyes. She's standing a few steps in front of us.
"Athena." I say, capping Riptide and putting it in my pocket.
Athena nods. "Yes, Percy. I can see that you needed help."
I shrug slightly. "Yeah. I guess we did. That was going to be difficult."
Jason nods. "Yeah. Thank you, Lady Minerva."
Athena shakes her head. "But this isn't the end of your fighting. There's a battle coming that will test your strengths and you don't have a choice whether to join it or not." She grabs our arms and teleports us away from the forest.
Katniss
I wake up and glance around. My hand automatically goes out for Prim, but when I find nothing, it all comes back to me. Prim was dead. My eyes start to well up with tears, but I force them down.
I slowly crawl out of bed and pull on my green shirt, black pants, and my hiking boots. One way or another, I was going to hunt today. I needed time to think and hunting was the only way I could. As I walk out of the building, I see that everyone's already working to rebuild the buildings.
Peeta walks up to me. "Hey. Sleep well?"
"Yeah. If you could call dreaming about what has all happened sleeping well." I reply.
Peeta frowns slightly. "Yeah. Well, everyone's back to work if you want to..."
"I just want to hunt for a little bit, Peeta. I should be back in a little bit to help. I promise." I say, turning towards the forest.
Peeta nods. "Alright. When you're ready, just tell me." He turns to help carry huge bags of flour into the bakery.
I grab my new bow and walk towards the forest. The familiar feeling of the bow in my hand and the arrows on my back are comforting as I walk into the forest silently.
My mind immediately goes out to think about what all had happened during the rebellion. All the friends and family that I lost. I feel a pain in my heart from thinking about them. It was all my fault that they died. If it wasn't for me, they'd all still be alive.
I was drawn back to hunting when I hear a rustle in the bushes nearby. An arrow was already notched on the bow as I whirl around and bring it up. Behind me in the bushes, is a fully grown buck. His antlers spread out from his head gracefully. I was tempted to kill it with an arrow through the eye, but it was too graceful for me to kill it. I lower my bow and step away slightly.
The buck stares at me for a moment longer before continuing on its way. I turn back around and keep walking deeper into the forest. A flash of motion makes me pull back the bowstring and fire an arrow. There's a squawk then a thump as a wild turkey slumps to the ground with an arrow in its side. I walk up to it, pull out my knife, and finish it off with one slice across its throat.
I pull my arrow out and start to wipe it on my shirt when I hear another rustling from behind me. Immediately, I notch the bow and whirl around to see a grizzly bear lumbering into the clearing. The bow doesn't waver as the bear turns towards me. My eyes narrow slightly.
I'm about to fire the arrow when a golden streak flies past me and strikes the bear. The bear roars before slumping to the ground. I spin around to see a young man standing there smiling. He was pretty handsome and wore a plain white t-shirt, blue jeans, and tennis shoes. He has a nice tan and carries a glittering golden bow.
"Who are you and what are you doing here? That was my kill." I say. My voice drips with warning.
The man smiles. "I am Apollo. I was sent here to get you."
"For what?" I ask, lowering my bow.
"There's a war coming and we need you to help." Apollo replies.
"Not interested." I state, turning to leave.
He appears in front of me suddenly. He smiles. "Who said you had a choice?" He grabs my arm and we are teleported away.
Max
I sit at the dining room table silently. Gazzy, Nudge, and Dylan sit in the other chairs at the table. It's about 6:00 in the morning and we were all there .Iggy was even fixing breakfast already. I glance around at the other four empty chairs.
"Where are the others?" I ask. We had picked up another four experiments on the way here. They were all weird like us, but not in the winged kid sort of way.
There's Richard, who aparently was part cheetah and part wolf. He's extremely fast and he has claws that can shoot out of his fingertips. Plus he can change the color of his eyes and hair and can change into a cheetah and a wolf. There's Wilson, who is part lion. He's very strong. has very good agility, and he can change into a lion. There's Drac, who's part chameleon and panther. He can camoflage himself, can disguise himself as anyone he wants for short periods of time, has extrordinary agility, and can change his hands into panther paws. The last one is Martin, but he likes to be called Tiger, who's part tiger and kangaroo. He can jump very high, has enhanced speed, and enhanced strength. They were part of the flock now.
Dylan shrugs. "I don't know. They may still be sleeping."
I growl as I stand up. "They need to be up with us." I turn towards their rooms.
Dylan shrugs again. "Alright."
"I think one of them is up." Iggy replies.
I stay quiet and hear a bed creak. After a moment, Tiger walks in, rubbing his eyes. I nod towards him and continue to the other's rooms. As I turn to face Wilson's room, I could see Nudge's head whip around to look at Tiger when he walks in. I smile to myself before walking into Wilson's room.
Wilson is fast asleep in his bed. I couldn't help, but smile. He was one of the youngest and he looks kind of cute asleep. I walk up beside his bed and lightly shake him. "Wilson? It's time to wake up." I say softly.
Wilson groans quietly as he rolls over and looks at me with his bright green eye. He nods as he sits up slowly. "Alright. I'm up." He yawns and crawls out of bed in his clothes from the day before. He walks towards the dining room.
I walk out of the room and stomp towards the last two's rooms. Unlike Wilson and Tiger, they were older and I didn't have to give them a nice wake up call. I stop outside Drac's room before slamming the door open. "IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP!" I yell before grabbing the edge of his bed and tipping it up, making him slide off onto the floor.
Drac hits the floor and jolts awake. "Ow! Hey! What was that for?!" He glares at me. I couldn't keep my eyes off of him for a moment. He was too handsome, but from what he told me, the school genetically modified him to be handsome.
I shake my head and glare back. "Because it's time to get up. Now, get dressed and get your butt into the dining room with everyone else."
He grumbles as he reaches for a pair of jeans. "Fine."
I move to Richard's room. This was going to be the hardest one. He had a problem where he wakes up and goes into this wild rampage and tries to kill or capture any mutant nearby. I let him stay, but I kept a close eye on him. I take a deep breath and slam his door open. "IT'S TIME TO WAKE UP!" I tip his bed and watch him roll off of his bed.
Richard hits the floor, but wakes up after a moment. I glance at his eyes as he sits up. His eyes were those of the cheetah. "Uh. Oh." I bolt back down the hallway. As soon as I reach the dining room, I feel a gust of wind and Richard is standing there glaring at me. I take a step back.
"It's time to go back." He says roughly. He reaches for me.
I step out of his reach as I glance Nudge stand up and move around the table behind Richard. "I don't think so."
Richard snarls and is about to leap at me, but at that moment, Nudge spins him around and kisses him full blown on the mouth. He freezes and stares at her as his eyes slowly change back to normal and he relaxes.
Nudge slowly pulls back and giggles. "I'll never get used to that."
Richard shakes his head as he sits down in the empty seat next to Nudge. Nudge sits back down. I could see Tiger staring at Nudge silently. I smile again before sitting back down.
After a moment, Drac walks in with a hoodie pulled low over his head. He sits down in the last seat.
"Now, that everyone's here..." I start, but at that moment, I hear something land outside. "What was that?"
Everyone shrugs. I stand up and walk outside to see a man with sandy hair and bright blue eyes standing there. He was carrying a staff with two snakes wrapped around it.
"Who are you?" I ask.
The man smiles slightly. "I am Hermes. And I have been sent to fetch you, Maximum."
I stare at him. "Why?" I ask cautiously.
Hermes steps forward. "There's a war coming and you're needed to fight in it."
"And if I say no?" I inquire.
He smiles at me. "You don't have a choice." He grabs my arm and we disappear.
Carter
I dribble the basketball down the court as fast as I can. As I'm about to shoot it, Khufu leaps forward and steals the ball away. I sigh and chase after him. We were at Brooklin house in the gym. Sadie was sitting in a chair nearby, reading over some scrolls. All the others were somewhere in Brooklin house, just not in the gym. Khufu and i were playing a game of basketball. Khufu 78, Carter 13. I was losing miserably.
You may be thinking how could I lose a game of basketball to a baboon. Well, let me tell you that Khufu is really good at the game. He could play in the big leagues. He's that good. I was good too, but not that good.
Khufu makes another three pointer.I sigh again. "Looks like you win Khufu. Again."
Khufu makes a noise and bounces the ball.
I shake my head. "Sorry, Khufu, but I'm too tired. Maybe another time." I walk over and slump into the chair next to Sadie. My shirt was soaked through with sweat.
Sadie glances at me for a moment. "I see that you lost again." She smirks.
I glance over at her and take a deep breath. "Yeah." I look at what the scrolls. "Why are you reading those?"
"Because I'm bored and because they can teach me new spells." She replies, going back to reading over the scroll in her lap.
I shrug. "Alright. Well, I'm going to take a rest." I lay back in the chair and close my eyes.
Sadie doesn't say anything. She's reading over the scrolls silently next to me. I almost fall asleep, but then I hear a crash and leap to my feet with Sadie beside me.
"What was that?" I whisper.
Sadie shakes her head. "I don't know."
Better be careful, Carter. There are things that even you don't know about. Horus whispers in my head.
I shake my head and start towards the door of the gym. Like what? I've seen many monster and demons. There can't be other things I haven't seen. I say back. But I was about to find out how wrong I was. At that moment, the door to the gym bursts inward and a large black dog leaps in.
The dog is the size of a horse with pitch black skin. It's glowing red eyes scan the room before stopping on Sadie and me. It growls as drool drips onto the floor with a hiss. It takes a step towards us.
Told you. Horus replies.
I set my jaw, pull my khopesh, and face the creature head on. What is that? I ask Horus as the dog leaps at me. I roll to the side before driving my khopesh deep into its side. At first, I didn't think that I had actually wounded it, but then it slumps to the ground. It then turns into gold dust.
"What was that?" I then ask aloud.
Sadie shrugs. "Like I would know."
"That, my Egyptian friends, was a hellhound from the Underworld." A voice says from behind us.
We turn around to see a large, well-built man standing there. He had on overalls and a large black beard with small flames appearing here and there.
"Who are you?" Sadie asks cautiously.
"I am Hephaestus and we need your help." The man replies gruffly.
"As in the greek god of fire and forges?" I ask, lowering my khopesh.
He nods. "Yes. The twelve Olympians and we need your help."
"I'm guessing we don't have a choice?" Sadie asks.
His beard twitches as he smiles. "Nope." He snaps his fingers and our surroundings disappear.