Disclaimer: Avengers, Hunger Games, and all other elements belong to their relevant owners; I merely borrow them to write this story
Feedback: Always a pleasure to receive.
AN: I have to make a few assumptions about geography to make this one work, but I hope that the result works as the Avengers meet more of the 100
Falling Hope, Rising Threat
Only able to stare at the door of the conference room after Clarke and her new… friend?... had run out, Abby had no idea how she should feel about what had just taken place.
She'd already accepted the idea that Earth wasn't as abandoned and lifeless as she'd spent years believing it would be, ever since she received that first transmission from Clarke on the dropship, but learning that a few primitive tribes had survived the nuclear holocaust was completely different from learning that there was a civilisation down here that could recreate the Avengers…
Granted, Abby had only seen Clarke and that woman who had introduced herself as 'Mockingjay'- and where had she come up with a name like that?- but Clarke's harness alone was evidence that there was more to Earth than the 'Grounders'; something that complex couldn't have survived this long without some kind of maintenance, and nobody would train a group on how to repair one thing and neglect everything else.
Still… if the Avengers had been reassembled for this new world she and the rest of the Ark had landed on…
What kind of threats were out there that necessitated a new team of Avengers to fight them?
And more importantly, even if Clarke was telling the truth about Mount Weather… once that issue was dealt with, would the Avengers help the Ark or the Grounders?
As Clarke carried her new team leader up into the hovercraft, her mind was already racing as she tried to work out what they could do next; the majority of the 'missing' members of the 100 might be trapped in Mount Weather, but if she could track down the Blakes, Murphy, Raven and Finn, that would at least give her something that she could actually do right now.
Approaching the hovercraft, Clarke was briefly unnerved when only the small side-door was opened, but she quickly decided not to worry about that in favour of getting inside as promptly as possible. With Katniss still held in her arms, she adjusted the harness's jets and altered the wings with the controls on her palms before diving through the door, coming to a rapid halt on the ground as she dropped Katniss to the floor and quickly turned the jets off.
"Nice," Johanna nodded at her in approval. "Talk about turning on a dime."
"It's actually not too hard once you know how," Clarke said, deciding not to mention her various near-crashes in that VR simulation (which had only been 'near' because she kept getting pulled out before she could do anything that would have hurt her in real life).
"So what's up?" Finnick asked, turning from his position in the driving seat. "Negotiations not go well?"
"No, my mother seemed willing to listen, but we have a more immediate issue," Clarke explained urgently, before she turned to Anya. "We've got search parties out looking for me and the rest of my people who were in the dropship, and if they find one of your villages first, there's no telling what any could do; if they set out from here, can you tell us what a search party might find first?"
"You ask me to tell you where my people are-?"
"We are asking you to help us find missing people before anyone does anything stupid," Katniss interjected, glaring firmly at Anya despite the fact that the Grounder leader could tear her apart with her bare hands if she changed. "You're one of the Avengers now, Anya; we're not going to ask you to go after anyone you care about, but in turn you need to trust that we won't ask you to do anything that compromises your ties to your people."
"That's the thing about Mockingjay," Johanna put in, smiling over at Anya in her usual sarcastic manner as the Grounder commander looked appraisingly at Katniss. "That whole righteous, save-everybody act gets under your skin even after you learn that it's not an act."
"I thought you agreed that I was team leader?" Katniss said, looking back at Johanna with a slightly teasing smile that seemed at odds with the nature of the conversation.
"Never said I didn't respect you; just saying it still gets me that you can be all that after all this," Johanna shrugged. "Hell, you killed Snow with an explosive arrow to the head and you're still willing to give Thor some of the credit."
"An explosive arrow?" Anya asked, looking at Clarke in an intrigued manner.
"To the head?" Clarke finished in shock. "Isn't that a bit-?"
"When he wanted to, Snow could turn into a Hulk state that was bigger than Anya and far stronger; hitting him that hard was the only way I was ever going to put him down for good," Katniss said firmly before she indicated Finnick while looking at Anya. "We can discuss the past later; right now, we need to know where we should be looking if we want to prevent any mistakes in the present."
Taking Katniss's point, Anya walked up to the front of the hovercraft as Finnick produced a straightforward map from the ship's links to the various remaining satellites; the old maps might have been rendered useless from the past bombardments, but they could still provide a starting-point to work out what might have survived from back then.
"So," Katniss asked, looking uncertainly at Clarke as they sat alongside each other in the back, "what was that you meant down there about your mother making decisions based on… the 'greater good'?"
Clarke sat in silence for a few moments, but finally nodded as she looked at her leader.
"My mother killed my father," she said grimly.
"What?" Katniss and Johanna yelled, looking sharply at the new Falcon.
"Why would she do that?" Johanna asked. "I mean, I've heard of families disagreeing-"
"Callie told you about our life-support problems, right?" Clarke said.
"Yeah, she mentioned that Jake Griffin-" Katniss began, before she slapped her head in frustration at the realisation of what she'd just said. "Oh… that was your father, right?"
"Yeah," Clarke nodded grimly.
"Callie told us that Jake was floated before he could tell anyone about his discovery that the life-support was about to fail…" Katniss said, looking uncertainly at Clarke. "And… your mother reported him before he could do it?"
"And I spent months thinking that my best friend was responsible because he decided that it was better for me to hate him instead of my mother," Clarke said grimly, staring out of the window for a moment before she sighed and looked back at her new team. "God… my father always liked telling me the stories of the Avengers; he'd never believe this…"
"You miss him," Katniss said, looking solemnly at the new Falcon. "Believe me, that's normal no matter how it happens."
"Hey, if you've got a screwed-up family, join the club," Johanna smiled over at Clarke. "My whole family were killed by that asshole Snow because I wouldn't play his games, Mockingjay lost her dad in a mining accident and her mom was a mess for a while afterwards, Mariner never mentions his parents, and Iron Man pretty much moved out as soon as he could because his mom's some kind of grade-A bitch."
"Ah," Clarke said.
"His mother is a what?" Anya asked, looking back at the other Avengers in confusion.
"She's… basically abusive," Katniss said, looking over at Anya; this topic wasn't something she felt comfortable discussing in depth without Peeta present, but if these two were going to join the team they needed to know more about their teammates. "It all dates back to this old issue where she was basically her husband's second choice after the girl he really loved married someone else, and she was at least rumoured to beat her sons for not measuring up to her standards."
"In Iron Man's defence, he never had much reasons to stand up and fight back before he ended up getting selected for the Games; he's more of a talker than a fighter most of the time," Finnick put in, turning around to join the conversation. "Anyway, we're coming up on the most likely danger zones that Miss Green here identified, so we thought you should be alerted."
"Thanks," Katniss nodded at Finnick, before she turned to look at Anya as the man now known as the Mariner tapped a few controls to activate a holographic map in the middle of the hovercraft. "Where should we go?"
"Here," Anya said, indicating two particular areas on the projected map. "There is a village in this area, and there is an underground construction of some sort in this part of the woods; if your people are searching in this area, it is likely that they will arrive at either of these places before they reach anywhere else."
"OK," Katniss said, taking an assessment of the map for a moment before making her decision. "Clarke, you and I need to get to the village as soon as possible; if anyone's there, we'd have a better chance of calming anyone down. Johanna, take Anya and investigate the car-park-"
"Car park?" Anya asked.
"According to some of the old maps, it looks like that underground construction you're talking about is most likely an old car park from before the wars," Katniss explained, quickly realising the need to elaborate given Anya's background. "Basically, people used to travel around in… machines… to go long distances in short times; this location is a public location for people to leave those… machines… when they weren't in use."
"I see," Anya said, her tone putting Katniss in mind of her own experiences at dealing with politics or the early days of the war; she probably had trouble even understanding the situation facing her right now, but she was choosing to focus on what she could handle.
"Good," Katniss nodded in approval at her new teammate before turning to Clarke. "We need to get going now; Finnick, take Anya and Johanna to the cark park area and then maintain a holding pattern until someone calls you."
"Check," Finnick smiled, opening the door as Clarke walked over to stand beside Katniss. "Good luck."
"Appreciated," Katniss nodded at Finnick before Clarke grabbed her under her arms and hurtled out of the ship, goggles snapping down to provide Clarke with a suitable flight-path to the identified village.
"As long as we're looking for them, could you clarify why your mother mentioned that the Blakes are looking for you?" Katniss asked, after the hovercraft had vanished from her view following a few moments of flight. "I thought you said that the first wave were all juvenile delinquents and families only had one child-"
"Octavia was born and raised in secret until she was a teenager," Clarke explained. "Bellamy was her older brother who kept her secret, and made sure that he'd be assigned to the dropship when he learned about the plan to send the delinquents to Earth. They're good people, but… well, Bellamy has issues with authority, and Octavia's got her own share of issues."
"I can understand that," Katniss nodded grimly, as she saw a gap in the trees up ahead of them that was most likely the village they were looking for. "We're coming in; be ready-"
The sound of gunfire from the village prompted both of them to accelerate their approach, no words needing to be exchanged as Clarke boosted the speed of her jets. The gunfire ceased after a few moments, but Katniss had already reached back to place a hand on her shield as the two young women drew ever closer to their destination.
As soon as the village came within visual range, Katniss gave a thumbs-up to Clarke, who immediately released her grip on Mockingjay to send her hurtling towards the ground, aiming for what seemed to be the centre of the small village. As Clarke moved upwards before turning into a dive, she saw Katniss move the shield below her feet to take the impact with the ground, the young woman in black standing up to face two young men in the dark attire of the Hundred, a small gathering of people wearing the traditional brown leather of the Grounders behind her new leader. She could hear voices as she accelerated towards the ground, but the precise words were unclear as she drew closer, Clarke's eyes widening in shock as she saw one of the figures aiming a gun at Katniss.
"NO!" she yelled, adjusting her descent to strike the boy with the gun before he could fire it; even if Mockingjay's shield could withstand gunfire, Clarke wasn't ready to risk ricochet damage. Lowering her speed so that the impact wouldn't cripple whoever she was about to hit, Clarke struck him with enough force to throw him to the ground, pinning him down with her legs as she glared at the young man who'd been about to shoot the leader of the Avengers-
Her eyes widened in horror as she realised who she'd just attacked.
"Finn?" she said in shock.
"Who…?" Finn asked, looking uncertainly at her for a moment before his eyes widened in realisation. "Clarke! I found-"
Clarke slammed her hand over his mouth before he could finish that sentence, suddenly disgusted at the idea that he'd had anything to do with their current reunion.
As she turned around to see Katniss grabbing a gun from the other boy's arms, she wasn't sure what shocked her more; the fact that the other boy was Murphy, or the fact that he seemed to be just as shocked at what Finn had done as she was.
It had been so easy to consider Murphy the villain for what he tried to do to Wells and what he'd done after returning- he might have considered it self-defence, but he could have just knocked his guards out rather than kill them- but if even he was shocked at what Finn had done…
Looking at Katniss, her new leader's grim expression as she studied the Grounders looking at them in shock was enough for Clarke to know that things had just become very complicated.
The more time she spent looking for the rest of the missing Hundred, the more Octavia had to wonder if they were worth all this effort.
When they'd spotted a small 'patrol' of Reapers coming towards them, she and Bellamy had managed to hide after diving through an old door that had been nearly hidden by the plans growing over it, but they'd been searching this dark area for a few minutes already and hadn't even seen a sign of another way out. She supposed it was academically fascinating to see all this stuff that had survived the nuclear holocaust, and she'd even grabbed what looked like some kind of radio so that she could see what passed for music back in the day, but that didn't mean she wanted to have to stay down here.
God… it seemed like every time she thought she had some stability, it got cut out from under her. She'd appreciated Bellamy's original efforts to take her out of the room, even if it had resulted in her arrest when things became confusing, but since then she'd been from the cells to the dropship to what was left of the Ark and she still had no idea what was going to happen to them all next. If she could just find somewhere comfortable…
The sound of something moving off to the side distracted her train of thought, Bellamy turning his gun in that direction while Octavia clutched her knife and pistol. As soon as the feral expression of the first man came into clear view, Bellamy was firing his gun at the Reaper, leaving Octavia to take a quick shot at the other men approaching. With her brother carrying the only flashlight, she wasn't able to get a clear view of her targets, but it was enough for her to be sure of hitting them-
As she saw something familiar in the manner of the fourth member of the approaching Reaper 'party', Octavia froze in horror even as her brother shot at the two Reapers she'd just put down.
It couldn't be…
Then Bellamy turned his light and gun directly on to the last Reaper standing, and it was confirmed to be Lincoln.
"NO!" Octavia yelled, instinctively forcing Bellamy's gun upwards so that the bullets hit the ceiling rather than Lincoln. To his credit, her brother stopped firing as soon as he registered who he'd been about to shoot, but that didn't help them as Lincoln lunged forward, grabbing Bellamy's gun and throwing it away before the elder Blake could try and fire something else.
Octavia still had her own pistol and knife, but she couldn't think of anything she could do with them that wouldn't just kill Lincoln; she had no idea what had turned him into this, but there had to be a way out of this that left all three of them alive-
Before she could start to panic, someone suddenly dived into Lincoln from the side, knocking him to the ground with a force so sudden that Octavia was almost shocked not to hear something crack. As she turned to look at her converted… whatever Lincoln was to her… she was momentarily relieved to see him getting back to his feet before she remembered what he had become, only for their mysterious rescuer to punch Lincoln with such force that he literally flew through the air before hitting one of the abandoned cars.
"WAIT!" Octavia yelled, only to be shocked when their 'saviour' turned around and revealed herself to be Anya, the Grounder leader who'd attacked them at the dropship.
"You?" Bellamy said, voicing her thoughts as he glared at Anya. "What are you doing saving us?"
"My duty," Anya said, her tone cold as she indicated Lincoln. "Just as it is my duty to eliminate him."
"What?" Octavia said, confusion shifting to horror. "No, you can't-!"
"There is no other way," Anya said, turning back to walk towards Lincoln in a purposeful manner. Lost for anything else to do, Octavia ran forwards and leapt onto Anya's back, only to be grabbed by her shirt and hurled to the ground in a single motion. As she struck the ground, Octavia could only look up at Anya in shock-
Was it her imagination, or did Anya look like she was turning green in the torchlight?
Before Octavia had time to take in what had just happened, she was given something else to think about when an unfamiliar figure stepped in, dressed mostly in black apart from what Octavia initially assumed was a gleaming silver glove, holding an axe with a handle that was at least as long as its wielder and a blade the size of her head.
"Can we talk about this before we do anything to piss off a girl desperate enough to plead for a guy's life in that state?" the strange woman asked, glaring at the Grounder leader as she held the large axe to her neck. "And before you start going green, you should know that this axe is probably one of the few things on the planet that can actually cut you, and I'm uniquely qualified to make sure that it would hurt you at the same time."
For a moment, the two women stared at each other intently, but eventually Anya stepped back from the axe.
"We have never found a cure for this other than death," she said, still staring at the woman with the axe.
"No offence, but considering what you've been working with, there are other reasons for that kind of track record," the unfamiliar woman countered, before she turned to grin at the Blakes in a manner that Octavia wasn't sure if she should find disturbing or comforting. "By the way, I'm Bloodaxe; I take it you've met She-Hulk?"
"She-Hulk?" Bellamy and Octavia repeated incredulously.
"As in… the Hulk?" Octavia asked uncertainly. "As in the Avengers?"
"You're looking at us," the self-titled 'Bloodaxe' smiled at the Blakes. "Granted, Greenie here's new, but-"
"Oh, come on; the Avengers?" Bellamy practically spat as he looked between the two women. "Those screw-ups couldn't stop the holocaust-"
"Shit happens," Bloodaxe stated, her axe shifting to point at Bellamy while her other hand went to her waist, where Octavia only now realised she had two smaller axes strapped to her thighs. "The originals had their issues, but Mockingjay's made it clear they failed because of extremely exceptional circumstances; we've had a good track record so far, and we're not about to break it."
"So… you're real?" Octavia asked, unable to stop herself smiling as she remembered all the times she'd begged Bellamy to 'play Avengers' when they were children, with her sneaking around their quarters pretending to be the Black Widow while Bellamy acted as one of the other Avengers or even played a villain for her to 'fight'. "The Avengers are back?"
"Oh yeah," Bloodaxe smiled, spinning her large axe in her hand in a manner that helped Octavia realise that what she'd taken as a glove was actually some kind of artificial limb before their saviour turned her attention back to Lincoln. "In the meantime, we've got a few things to deal with even before we get to this guy, so let's get him secured and work out where we're going from here."
This woman wasn't like the Avengers Octavia had heard so many stories about growing up, but as she watched this woman walk over to Lincoln to look him over before pulling him to his feet with her metal arm, she had a feeling that she was going to enjoy learning more about the 'new' team…