Chapter 9
The shadows warped then solidified and a woman cloaked in darkness stepped out. A sadistic grin spread over her face like a maniac. Half of her face was cloaked by her hair. The woman let out a laugh when she saw Pepper's horrified face in the sea of faces that were like cold marble. Steve stepped up.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
The woman's grin seemed to become more sinister. "I'm your worst nightmare Rodgers. I'm the woman who enjoys destroying the lives of the innocent and murdering those who could pose a threat. When people cower in fear by my feet they call me, Hel," the woman growled.
Annabeth's mind went whirling trying to place where she had heard this woman's name before. Then it hit her in the face. The Norse mythology book she had read a month ago had a chapter dedicated to the offspring of Loki, one of which was called Hel. Annabeth immediately knew that answer to who was taking the souls out of the Underworld.
"Hel, Norse goddess of the dead, why are you here?" Annabeth struggled to get out.
Hel turned with her sadistic smile to Annabeth. "I'm here to first take you from your precious boyfriend and then destroy all hope from humanity by taking down the only things preventing them from dying out."
"Which is what exactly?" Stark said, calling this woman's bluff.
"Asgard and Olympus will fall. You won't have time to save both since Olympus is closed because of Nike's disappearance and Asgard is already falling. You demigods and Avengers will never be able to over throw me because once Olympus falls, Nike will come crawling back to find her siblings and I will be able to destroy humanity in one fell swoop," Hel laughed.
Everyone was frozen in place as they processed the information. Hel just stood there smugly, gloating at how helpless she had made them look at that moment.
Percy could have sworn he heard wings beat before the windows exploded. Glass shattered and Percy made sure to grab Annabeth to protect her from the shards. They glanced harmlessly off his back, all far away from his Achilles' heel. The rest weren't so lucky. A long jagged cut ran down Seward's face. Bruce had minor cuts everywhere and Steve had a large shard sticking out of his arm. Stark had also tried to protect his girl like Percy but had several pieces of glass in his back. Hel, on the other hand was not harmed though was pushed away by the explosion. Bruce glanced Hel's way and saw the hair had slipped away from her face to reveal the hidden half of her face was like a rotting corpse while the other half was perfect in every way.
After hearing footsteps, Steve looked up and saw three people with wings approach Hel, who got up with a scowl.
"Always ruining the mood, aren't we Bia?" Hel asked.
The one woman back handed Hel then went in for a punch though one of the men stopped her.
"That's what she wants Bia, a reaction," he whispered to her.
The woman, Bia, scowled and reached her hand into her pocket and pulled out a keychain with a raven on it. The other men also pulled out key chains with birds on it though the birds match their wings. Hel watched the key chains with unease.
"I'm surprised you area actually going to try and fight without your leader," Hel said, her eyes to leaving the key chains as she backed away.
The three advanced and slowly the key chains morphed into three swords that were both celestial bronze and normal steel.
Everyone else in the room watched the four with great confusion, annoyance, and surprise.
Percy and Annabeth knew these three gods. They were Nike's siblings; Bia, Kratos, and Zelus. Bia was the goddess of force. Kratos was the god of strength and Zelus was the god of zeal or jealousy.
The 'mortals' in the room watched in confusion. Stark was trying to figure out why his alarm system hadn't gone off yet. Pepper was freaking out because she couldn't leave and would get hurt if this escalated into a fight. Steve was trying to find something to act as a shield and wondering why the woman, Hel, had revealed most of her plan. Bruce slipped his glasses off just in case though wasn't really comfortable about the situation and vowed only to let the Other Guy out if the situation really got worse. Agent Seward had sent out a distress signal to SHIELD so she could maybe get the rest of the Avengers who were on Earth or just some back up.
Finally, after the slow approach, Bia lashed out with her sword. It missed Hel who grabbed the sword and wrestled it out of Bia's grip. Bia growled and gave her a round house kick to the face. Her two brothers also lashed out and Kratos managed to stab Hel in the side. Hel let out a shriek and dropped Bia's sword. Bia dove and grabbed it while knocking over Hel and Zelus pinned her.
Hel growled. "I hate Greeks."
Bia laughed. "Really? I personally find them to be the best."
"Whatever Greek, don't worry I'll be back to kill you later," Hel growled then suddenly a shadow enveloped her.
Kratos looked shocked then realized that Hel's foot had been in shadow. He lifted up a nearby table and smashed it into the floor with some very colorful words.
"She got away!" He groaned.
Bia's face screwed up into a sad/angry face. "Now we won't be able to beat the crud out of her to find out where in Hades she has taken Nike."
Zelus made a gesture then hung his head. Bia sighed. "We really need to find her."
"Why can't he talk?" Percy asked, breaking the solemn mood.
The trio looked up at him in surprise.
"We would think that you of all people would know Perseus," Kratos said.
Percy flinched at his full name. "Why would I know? Also please just call me Percy."
"You would know, Percy, because of your fight in Manhattan and all the traitorous demigods. Our children and Nike's children were mostly on Kronos's side so afterwards; Zeus put a 'leash' on us. Zelus lost the ability to speak, Kratos lost his sword that contained a lot of his power, and I don't have enough strength to lift a table without breaking a sweat. Nike took the limit thing the hardest because Zeus-," Bia struggled to get the words out. "Zeus clipped her wings and made her completely powerless. She couldn't fly and she couldn't heal. She was still immortal though she had to get outside help to fully heal," Bia struggled out, tears leaking out of her eyes.
She muttered and apology then buried her face into Zeus's shoulder. Kratos finished for Bia. "Nike left because as she said, 'Being a mortal is better than being the laughing stock of Olympus.' We tried to stop her though she flew off. We haven't seen her since the alien attack on New York."
"I actually wanted to ask why you didn't help out during that," Stark said, getting into the conversation.
"Zeus already had his pride hurt because he was unable to defeat Kronos without Percy's help. So he refused to help his Norse counterpart," Kratos said.
"Why do you think Hel took your sister?" Seward asked.
"Hel made a threat to kill every Olympian if she didn't get Nike. So Olympus shut down and Zeus had us go out and try to find Nike. We couldn't find her so we thought Percy and Annabeth could help out by getting a quest to find her. Though they got caught up with all of you and couldn't even get the prophecy from the Oracle," Kratos answered.
Seward nodded, satisfied with the answer.
Zelus got Kratos's attention and pointed at Bia who was now passed out and was only held up by Zelus's arm.
"Gods, she is so weak, can't even handle one battle without getting exhausted," Kratos chuckled pulling Bia out of his brother's arms.
"Where are you guys staying if Olympus is closed?" Annabeth asked.
Kratos sighed. "We sleep anywhere that we deem safe enough to stay for a night."
Tony's head snapped up realizing that Annabeth would probably then asked him to allow the three gods to stay in his tower. In fact Annabeth was already opening her mouth to ask when Stark interrupted. "As long as there aren't any evil brothers wanting revenge they can stay."
Kratos nodded in acceptance. "Thank you Stark, we promise to be gone at dawn. Once my sister wakes, we must leave and continue our search for our missing sister."
"Yeah, fine JARVIS, show these people to the spare rooms," Stark said leaving.