Act 11

ACTION!

Disclaimer: I don't own HOO or Avengers

*Camp Jupiter*

Steve POV

Steve had never been on the receiving end of a full SHIELD attack. And he was surprised by how intimidating and massive it was.

The Helicarrier hovered over the camp like a giant storm cloud, the buzzing of engines and small fighter planes flying through the air. On the ground, from the Caldecott Tunnel, was a small force of SHIELD agents in black and armed with guns and blasters. These kids were all going to die!

The thought of kids dying brought Steve back to World War II, back to when he was fighting. All the kids who lied about their age to fight for their country, who had died in blood and fear and gore. It had been horrifying to witness, and Steve felt that after so many years, decades, children would have stopped fighting in wars.

It seemed that wasn't the case.

He turned his back on the Helicarrier and gazed around the room, spotting something in the same, formless pattern of the entire room.

There, one of the curtain edges was out of line. No one would have done that unless there was something behind the curtain. He moved forward and pushed the curtain back. There was a wooden door, with a gold plated handle and a lock.

"Natasha, can you get this. Bets are this has our weapons." Steve called over his shoulders, to the other Avengers still watching the tense minutes before battle.

Natasha turned away and came over, kneeling down in front of the lock to examine it.

"You can just kick it open." She stated, stepping back to give him room.

Steve shrugged and with a powerful thrust of his foot, the lock broke and the door swung inwards. His shield, Natasha's weapons, Stark's armor and Clint's arrows and bow were all lying in a heap on the floor, as if they were toys or something that wasn't dangerous in the slightest. He grabbed his shield and fitted it back on his arm, the comforting weight bringing some familiarity to the strange situation. But of course, he had been in stranger.

Tony grabbed his helmet and said "Alright, it will take me a minute to suit up, then we'll get out of here before things go from bad to ugly."

Steve felt guilt eating at his insides. It didn't seem right, to leave these kids to die after they had been doing the best they could in a situation that was just as strange to them as it was to the Avengers.

He put an arm on Stark's shoulder and said "We can't just leave them."

Tony gave him a funny look and asked incredulously "You want to save the people who just locked us up for two and a half hours?"
"You were overdue for a time out Stark." Natasha tossed over her shoulder.

Tony grumbled something about stuck up red heads.

"They're just kids. We can't just leave kids to die, that's not right."

Clint pulled his quiver over his shoulder and said "Rogers, they are the enemy. SHIELD will deal with them. As it is, Fury's going to have your asses on a silver platter for getting into this mess in the first place."
Steve steeled his nerves. He wouldn't leave kids, even these kids, to face a powerful, military force with only two hundred strong.

"You guys can go running to Fury, but I'm staying and helping out. Grace is out there, and he is a teammate, however much you guys may not like that. I'm doing the right thing."

He turned and was running towards the door, when Natasha's hand was on his shoulder.

She looked over at Stark and Clint, and Tony immediately started shaking his head.

"No. No way are we doing this." Stark muttered, but Steve ignored him.

"We'll have hell to pay from Fury later anyway. Might as well delay the consequences." Clint shrugged behind Tasha and Steve felt himself grinning.

As annoying as they were, they could pull through at times.

*Camp Jupiter*

Jason POV

SHIELD's first move was to send down rockets.

The whistling sound first made Jason think of some old war movie he had seen somewhere, before the fiery explosion filled the air. Heat waves washed over the Roman army, and Jason squinted against the wind. The smoke had blown away to leave a massive crater in the earth, blackened from the fire.

"Duck for cover! Third, get the Greek fire bombs!" Reyna shouted over the wind. Romans scattered, ducking behind buildings and in doorways as another missile rocketed through the air to land by the barracks, sending a few building up in an orange fireball.

They had thought ahead enough to bring the scorpion ballistae to the stables, and Jason ran for there.

He spotted a few of the Romans ducking inside another barracks building, and shouted to them "Man the ballistae!"

They nodded and following his lead, ducked and weaved around buildings, bullets peppering the ground nearby. He heard one person give a strangled cry and Jason didn't want to look to see if it was someone he knew.

The scorpions were hidden under hay piles outside the stables, in case of foot soldiers, and they tossed the grasses aside.

One of the soldiers was a Vulcan kid, who wheeled the machine around and closed one eye, aimed, and fired.

One of the planes that had been in a dive for another missile drop was hit, spun out of control and dug a trench into the Fields of Mars about twenty feet long as it crashed into the ground.

"Aim of the Helicarrier!" he shouted over the noise, and more scorpions were fired as the Romans rallied and fought back.

"Incoming!" a short kid shouted, racing to get out of the way. Another missile was heading towards the ballistae the Vulcan kid was manning.

"Move! Scatter!" he screamed, grabbing the Vulcan kid and dragging him out of there, pushing him behind the stable wall as the ballistae went up in a red and gold mushroom shaped explosion. The force of the explosion knocked Jason on his side, and he winced as he skidded across the dirt and gravel road.

He glared up at the Helicarrier that had fired the shot and ran inside the stable that had gone relatively unharmed. Inside, a couple of jars of glowing Greek fire flickered. He grabbed the jar and ran back outside, closing one eye to get a better aim of the Helicarrier.

If they were going to fire on his camp, his friends, they were going to learn that Romans were not to be messed with.

With an extra boost of wind from his powers, the one vial of Greek fire went flying, aiming dead on at one of the engine motors. There was a faint metallic ding as the Greek fire jar connected to the metal. Then there was mass panic and a green fireball engulfed the motor, burning away at the Helicarrier. There were cheers and whoops from the Romans, and Jason couldn't help but feel guilt. There were people on there, not monsters or anything like that. Mortal people, who they were supposed to protect. It just didn't feel right.

But to protect his camp, he would blow that flying castle sky high.

He prepared to launch another firebomb, when the winds suddenly whistled and created a funnel, kicking up dirt and debris of fallen buildings. Lightening flashed across the sky and the wind swept outward, out of his control. He remained standing while the other Romans were knocked to the ground, choking out dirt.

Thor stood from his crouch, his war hammer lax in his grip. Jason reached for the gladius at his side and unsheathed the golden blade.

"Thor Odinson, you know better than the rest that terrible things would happen if you dared enter our camp." Jason called over the winds and buzz of overhead airplanes.

Another missile dropped behind Thor, an explosion of dirt like a wave across the ground. He twisted the hammer in his grip and said "Young Grace, you have made a grave mistake in choosing to fight SHIELD. I do not want to hurt you Grace, but I will if I must defend the mortals of Midgard."

Jason raised his sword in a silent 'come and get me' signal.

Thor didn't waste a second, spinning his hammer and launching forward like a medieval superman. Jason ran forward, the winds like springs under the balls of his feet lifting him into the air to meet the challenge.

The hammer swung in a downward arc just as he raised his sword to deflect the blow. There was a crackle of blue lightning as their weapons connected, and thunder boomed like a war drum overhead. Jason's ADHD was on high alert, and his blood was pounding adrenaline through his veins. Percy may fight gods every other weekend, but this was a little new for him. Titans, sure, giants were a little worrisome. Gods were new territory all together.

He didn't let that fact stop him as fire drove him forward, slashing and stabbing in a mixed style of Greek and Roman, combing the best of both camps fluidly. Thor raised his hammer and deflected his attacks, hitting his hammer into the ground and sending the winds to knock him backwards twenty, thirty feet before he hit the ground.

He spit dirt and jumped back up, in time to roll out of the way of a bolt of lightning that struck where he had been standing moments ago. Thor was suddenly there, swinging his hammer again. He let the blow glance off the flat of his sword, slashing and half cutting through Thor's cape as he narrowly missed the Norse God.

Another gust of wind threatened to push him down, but he was stubborn. He would not let his father's element be used against him. If Thor wanted a show of power, he would give him a show they would talk about for centuries.

The smallest eddies and gusts gathered around him, and Jason though of the tornado or fire that had consumed Leo during the final battle of the Giant War. He modelled the winds after that, until he was encompassed by a swirling tornado of wind, with crackling tufts of thunderclouds sending small bolts left and right. Anyone who dared come close would have to fight for their life.

Thor took a step back, and Jason raised his free hand. The tornado was forced away, into a concentrated bolt of pure wind energy. It crashed into Thor's midsection, knocking him twenty, twenty five feet backwards and sent him rolling on the ground another five.

Thor came up standing, dirty and injured, but still fighting. Jason gripped his sword tighter and narrowed his eyes.

The sudden shout behind him barely had him turn in time to see the missile that was coming straight down with a lock on him. Steve was there, blonde hair ruffled and his shield gripped tightly.

"Get DOWN!" he shouted, pulling the shield up to protect both of them. The following explosion sent searing waves of heat rolling past Steve's shield and pushing them both backwards. The leaping orange flames were held at bay though, and Jason patted out a small fire in his hair.

Steve stood, ash smeared across his face, but unhurt.

"Thor, are you alright?" Steve called out, and Jason turned, sword raised to find the Norse God standing feet from him.

"I am unharmed." Thor grunted, and gave him a wry grin.

"That was quite a spectacle of power Grace. I would suggest we spar again sometime soon. I have not fought a battle like that since the invasion of your new city of York." Thor clapped his shoulder. Jason let the compliment slide and turned back to the fight that was still going on.

A few of the white pegasi from Camp Half Blood were in the air, bobbing and weaving around fighter planes and flying missiles. The other campers on the ground had mustered to face the foot agents that had come marching through Caldecott tunnel, and were holding their own by using the massive rectangular shields as bulletproof armor against the agents.

"Its chaos." Jason sighed, feeling the weight of the world suddenly crash down on his shoulders.

"Well, that may be, perhaps, my fault." Jason turned to see the rest of the Avengers had joined the fray, though Stark looked less than pleased by it. He shrugged, dressed up in his armor again and the emotionless mask's eyes flickered.

"You kids have no idea how delicate this armor is, do you? Just tossing it in a broom closet and leaving it there to rot. This suit could probably supply your entire camp for a year, maybe ten if you sell to the wrong people." Tony sighed, shaking his head.

"We're sorry about bringing SHIELD here. We wanted to help." Steve amended for Tony, and Jason felt a grin spreading across his face.

Maybe, maybe, small maybe, they weren't all that terribly bad as he had though two hours ago.

Another explosion brought Jason's attention back to the present, and Jason watched in horror as a Pegasus fell from the sky, its screams mingling with the camper's.

He recognized that voice.

"HAZEL!" he shouted, racing forward and letting the wind become a part of him, as he went faster than he ever had before. Hazel's arms were flailing and the Pegasus, right wing broken, screamed and kicked its legs futilely.

He concentrated as hard as he could, imagining the winds collecting like a pillow ten feet or so from the ground to catch them both. Sweat trickled past his temple and down his spine, and he stretched out his hands.

The wind pillow caught them, lowering them softly to the ground. The energy was draining fast, but he still had to keep going.

"Hazel, are you alright?" he asked, helping the young daughter of Pluto stand.

She gave a shaky nod and glanced up at the sky, as if wondering how she had ever fallen that fast.

"I never want to do that again." She said, shivering. The Pegasus stood on shaky legs and tossed his head, as if in agreement with Hazel's words. He clip clopped off towards the stable again, wing dragging behind it.

"We can tend to the wounded later." He said. Hazel glanced behind him and scowled, and he realized that the Avengers had come to stand behind him.

"Don't worry, they're on our side." He told her, nodding to Thor and Steve as he glanced over behind his shoulder.

Hazel shivered again and said "I'll be fine. Come on, Reyna's trying to gather the flying demigods to get another Greek fire bomb on another one of the engines."

Stark shook his head and said "Do you know what the hell that'll do? Send the Helicarrier crashing to the ground, most likely wiping out your entire camp in the process."

Hazel frowned, then glanced at the Helicarrier, as if contemplating Tony's words.

"Just take his word for it. Stark's not right about a lot of things, but he's usually right when it comes to when something's about to blow up." Clint said, shaking his head.

Jason glanced at the small group of about six pegasi, all mounted and a small purple figure he assumed was Reyna leading them around the first engine trailing green fire towards another. Fighter planes assembled in squads to fight them off.

"I have to get up there and warn her." He muttered.

He turned to Hazel. "Lead the Avengers to the fighting on the ground. Make sure none of the Romans kill them. Thor, Stark, you'll have to cover my six. Move out soldiers."

Hazel nodded and Steve gave him a funny look, and Jason realized he was stepping on his toes as strategist of the team.

"Sound good captain?" he asked, not wanting to uproot anyone's authority. Steve nodded, acknowledging his efforts and followed Hazel towards the fighting, leading the other two SHIELD agents. He partially wondered if they would go turncoat and fight on SHIELD's side, but he couldn't focus on that now. He had to save the camp, and the mortals on board the Helicarrier.

"Watch my six." He repeated before taking off into the air.

*Helicarrier, over Camp Jupiter*

Fury POV

This battle was not going the way he had expected it to go.

He had expected children, and un-organized band of maybe thirty strong, acting without orders of a leader or any semblance of a military operation.

The battle hardened, organized army of teenagers took him by surprise.

He should have taken what he knew of Jason Grace and applied that to the rest of the major population of Roman demigods, but that logical thought had escaped him until now, as his forces were taking a beating they had been unprepared for.

Biting his tongue against all the curses he wanted to wait to direct at Stark himself. He was going to personally kick the man out of the Avengers himself, and then lock him up in a cell for the next twenty years.

Then he saw Stark waving at him in the window.

Even with the emotionless gold and red mask that covered his face, he knew on instinct that Stark was giving him that shit eating smirk that irritated him to no end, and he had to grit his teeth.

"Watch your fire! I don't want anyone or anything hitting the Avengers. Those damn idiots are going to have hell to pay from me, they aren't getting out of it." He shouted the command, and the agents all nodded and continued watching their screens, locking targets and trying to hit some of the flying horses carrying campers and jars of green fire like in Central Park, and the same substance that had engulfed his engine rotor in a fire that still hadn't gone out.

For the moment, the main priority was making sure that no more of the green fire touched his ship, or there would be hell to pay from the Councilors.

"Hill, report from the ground." He barked into the com link, and the device crackled to life slowly.

"Forces overrun. Have used shields to stop bullets and can't get any closer than the river. They have a war elephant and a dragon, sir."

"Where did they get a damn dragon?" he demanded, and the device hissed before Hill's voice returned.

"Unsure sir. Drawing back forces to drop off planes. Possible three casualties, they appear to want to incapacitate us, not kill."

Fury nodded. Information he could use.

"Get those damn flying horses out of our air space." He shouted, and the agents scrambled to carry out his command.

"Bet that was something you never thought you would ever say."

Stark's voice drifted loud and clear from one of the monitors at his station, and he cast his glance around to spot Stark doing 360s around the fighter planes.

"Stark, what the hell is going on out there? Get the team back together and on this aircraft now!"

He commanded, scowling at the red and gold man flying outside.

"No can do Fury. We've got to stop everyone within a fifty mile radius from going up in green flames, so I'll take a rain check on that order."

He gritted his teeth and took a breath, reining in the temper that always seemed to spark whenever Tony opened his mouth to speak.

"What is going to happen?" he demanded, and he heard Stark shouting at someone off line.

"Turns out, some Roman kids think it's a good idea to crash the Helicarrier in Greek fire. So I suggest you get some non-lethal way of taking them out or all of us are going to die."
There was silence, then a hurried "Stark out." Before the connection went dead.

Slamming his fist into the monitor in a rare, physical display of anger, Fury turned on the crew manning the Helicarrier.

"I want all eyes around the Helicarrier, find a group of capers near the engine rotors. Find them or we're all going down with the ship."

*In the skies over Camp Jupiter*

Jason POV

He never knew it would be so hard to find a group of flying horses in a very small area of air space.

He glanced around as quickly as he could, veering out of the path of a fighter and ducking a missile that flew past inches above his head. He had to find Reyna and the rest, before things turned really, really bad really fast.

Then, he spotted a flash of white against the sky, and all his focus zeroed in on the white speck. The Helicarrier was massive from the sky, bigger than anything else Jason had ever seen. The massive engine rotors spun the wind underneath was almost more powerful than he could control while in the air. He stayed well away from the rotors.

"REYNA!" he shouted, trying to be louder than the loud rumbling of the rotors. "STOP!"

His eyes tracked the white speck until it was close enough he could see the general outline of about four more pegasi, all mounted, bobbing and weaving as one of the fighter planes tried to shoot them out of the sky. Reyna, on another Pegasus, was hovering nearest to the rotors and trying to detach the jar of Greek fire without unsealing it and trying to do it as quickly as possible.

"Reyna, STOP!" he veered to the left as bullets raced past him, and came close enough to make out the glow of the magic fire.

"Reyna, you can't do this. This will destroy the entire camp!" it appeared Reyna couldn't hear him, or was ignoring him. The jar came loose and with one well aimed throw, the jar was flying.

"NO!" his voice was hoarse from constant shouting, and it broke as the jar exploded against the rotor. The massive green fireball turned the sky a sickly green color for a moment, before reverting back to normal color. The Helicarrier gave a loud whine, and it slowly tilted down towards the ground before the engine Reyna just destroyed quit and the Helicarrier began its slow plunge to earth.

The ADHD part of Jason wondered if this was what the people on the Titanic had felt like watching the ship sink into the depths of the ocean.

But this wouldn't be a tragedy. He could still stop this.

"THOR!" he shouted, flying as fast as he could towards the end of the Helicarrier that would connect to the ground first. It was hovering at a 45 degree angle, the other rotors desperately trying to maintain the current height, but failing as the gravity and the weight of the machine dragged it down in a doomed fall.

Coming towards the falling end, he glanced around for Thor, but the Norse god was not there. He was on his own.

"Stark." He called out, hoping his voice carried and that Stark was close by.

"Present." The annoying voice with the robotic echo reported, and the red and gold robot came to hover nearby.

"Find Thor, and get everyone out of the way; in the air and on the ground." Jason said, feeling nervousness tighten around his heart, making it hard to breathe even in the slightly thinned air.

Stark did a mocking salute and started giving orders to his helmet, chasing people out of the sky.

"Thor!" he shouted again, but there was no response. No help was coming.

He bowed his head and muttered "Jupiter, help me now." Before he gathered all the winds in the sky.

It was as if he had been injected with caffeine. The world came into startling, glaring focus, like his eyes were microscopes and could see each blade of grass even from his lofty height in the sky. Energy thrummed through his body, as he started to weave a net of wind and clouds and air together, a desperate, last bid attempt to save everyone.

Soon, the power he was drawing in started to hurt. Pain started like being poked with one needle, then a thousand, then bolts of fire, then lightning stabbed into his body. The Helicarrier was descending closer to the ground, at a marginally slower pace, but it still would explode on impact. He needed to slow down the giant flying machine even further.

He cast out his senses, calling on every breeze, every tuft of cloud to come to him, drawing it towards him like he was a magnet. He was the eye of a massive windstorm that was swirling like a net under the nose of the Helicarrier, prepared to catch it. They were a few hundred feet above ground, and all the campers were ducking for cover, screaming encouragement and prayers to the gods to save them.

He spotted Reyna, sitting on her Pegasus on the ground with wide, shocked eyes. He couldn't waste the energy on a nod, so he only hoped she knew he didn't blame him for this.

The pain was ripping him to pieces now, particle by particle. The Helicarrier was less then a hundred feet above the ground now, still too fast.

Some wall inside of him broke, and there was energy inside of him again, just as the last of it had gone into drawing in the winds and elements of his father's realm.

The power was vast, but not unending. This was his life force, what was keeping him alive. He would use every last bit of it if it meant saving his camp.

He heard a scream distantly, a loud, unearthly sound that sent shivers down his spine until he realized it was him making that sound. It was like the weight of the Helicarrier was on his shoulders, pressing down harder and harder, determined to break him.

Jason Grace was many things, and stubborn when he wanted to be was one that he used to his full extent now.

He would bow under this weight.

Throwing the last reserves of his dying energy into the net of air, he lost his control of the winds and dropped like a stone, watching through flickering vision as the Helicarrier carved a trench into the ground, skidding across the earth, but not exploding like Jason had expected it would.

Then his back hit something hard, but not hard like earth hard as he had also expected.

"Jason, Grace? Kid, can you hear me?" a red and gold mask came into his vision, but he didn't want to reply. His tongue was thick and heavy, felt far from able to form words.

He still tried anyway.

"C'mp….infirmary." he groaned, his voice weak and shaking even to his own ringing ears. The red and gold face nodded and said "We'll get you there soon kid, alright? Just hang in there."
Jason was too tired to fight right now though. Maybe if he rested now, he could fight like the red/gold man wanted him to. Not right now though. Now was time to rest.

He figured even the Avengers could handle themselves until he was back in fighting shape.

DONE! HOLY FRIGGING CRAP! IT'S DONE! ITS TWELVE O'CLOCK AT NIGHT, BUT IT'S DONE! HALLU-FRIGGING-LUIGHA!

Alright, more on the ground fighting from a possible Hazel, maybe Frank POV, and Fury of course. Then Bruce is going to find something very interesting.

NO! SPOILERS!