Disclaimer: Avengers, Hunger Games, and all other elements belong to their relevant owners; I merely borrow them to write this story

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Falling Hope, Rising Threat

Looking around the ever-expanding army in our new training field, I had to admit that I was impressed at how far we'd come.

A sneak attack spearheaded by the Avengers was still our best chance of victory, but if Mount Weather had the kind of resources we believed they did, we had to give them more to 'worry' about if we were going to get inside undetected until we were ready to strike. While Lexa still appeared slightly displeased that we weren't committing more resources to this fight ourselves, she seemed to have accepted our reasoning that we had too much going on in our territory to risk provoking Mount Weather into escalating what they were willing to use against us.

Fortunately, with Anya's support and Lexa's own agreement with our plan of attack, getting the Coalition to work with us as we trained was actually fairly simple. They were still uncomfortable at the thought of using some of the Ark's weapons, most likely due to the similarities between those and what the 'Mountain Men' had been using against them for so many years, but they seemed to be willing to accept the Arkers fighting alongside them.

The only real challenge was working out how best to use the team in the final confrontation. Finnick had quickly proven his worth against the Grounders in a practise fight- considering that he was the 'weakest' of the team by their standards, it made sense for him to prove our mettle to any doubters- but that still left me to work out how best to divide up our resources when the time came to mount our assault. We needed to get someone inside Mount Weather to shut down some of its defences without endangering any innocent people in there who didn't approve of what their government was doing, and I knew that I was only willing to trust the Avengers with that kind of responsibility, but the challenge lay in working out who would be the best choice.

Obviously Peeta and Johanna were out, as Peeta still wasn't that capable in a fight without his armour and Johanna's arm would raise too many questions if we 'faked' being captured (and it would take too long to try and take the arm off just to let her sneak in), but after that it was hard to be sure who I could send. Clarke and Anya were obviously my top choices, since they would know their way around the mountain already, but I wasn't comfortable ordering them to do something like that unless I was sure it was the best option, considering what they'd been through last time they were in there. On an emotional level, I wanted to go in myself rather than put any of the team at risk, but on a practical level I wished we had some plans of the system so that I could find out if it might be possible to sneak Prim into the mountain, given her greater skills at stealth. As much as I wanted to protect Prim, I had to acknowledge that she was determined to help out as an Avenger, and I couldn't exactly help her grow by stopping her doing anything she really wanted to do…

In the end, the best thing I could do was wait and see how the training unfolded before I came to a definite decision. We'd had a couple of crash-test sessions with Clarke and Anya, but this was still basically our first time working with our new members in a prolonged session, so this was helping the Avengers develop our own working dynamic as well as working with the Ark residents and the Coalition.

The only complication to the plan so far had been the former Ark Chancellor's decision to leave the Ark with a small group as part of his own quest, but I wasn't particularly concerned about him. Our numbers might be small, but we weren't so limited that the loss of the few people who'd gone with ex-Chancellor Jaha would have that much impact on our plans, and his own dismissive attitude towards the 'Grounders' had done little to endear the man to me, so it was probably for the best that he'd taken himself and his issues out of the picture to follow his own quest. Once we'd dealt with the main problem, I might send Peeta after them to see if they were all right and to investigate the rumours of the 'City of Light' that had captured Jaha's interest, but right now we had more immediate concerns.

Looking at our small training field, I was actually impressed at how quickly we'd come together. After relocating our hovercraft to an area a short distance from the crashed Ark so that we wouldn't have to worry about collateral damage while training, Steve had settled in to act as a coordinator for our primary training efforts, leaving me to directly supervise the current training session while he went over everything Clarke had been able to give him about the internal structure of Mount Weather; whether we got someone inside or not, it couldn't hurt to cover all the angles.

We'd already had a few lessons with the Coalition, but I'd soon concluded that it would be a good idea for the team to get some practise with each other as well, especially when Clarke and Anya were still new to the team dynamic. Clarke was currently engaging in hand-to-hand combat practise with Johanna and Finnick at the same time, getting used to her harness and its weapons while also improving her skills at more conventional combat from her current level of 'talented amateur', while Peeta was fighting with Anya as the only available Avenger who could even hope to match her in a fight. As with most of his group training sessions, Peeta was under orders not to use his repulsors and just engage Anya in hand-to-hand combat, but I had also instructed Anya to try and watch her strength and try something more sophisticated; power might be useful, but there were times when we wouldn't want to just hit everything really hard.

Privately, I just hoped that we weren't putting too much on Anya too fast; she might have accepted our offer of membership because we had offered to help her use her new power, but she was starting to experience the isolation of that role in a manner that I wasn't sure she or the Coalition would like that much…

"Hey!" Peeta said, his voice drawing me back to the present as I looked over at where he was sparring with the transformed Anya, his face-place raised as he indicated his dented left gauntlet while glaring at the green-skinned ex-thief. "We agreed that you'd watch your strength, remember?"

"I cannot hurt you-"

"That doesn't mean this is easy to fix, you know!" Peeta countered. "I get that you don't understand the technical details, but it takes a lot of effort to keep this thing going-"

"Are you implying-?" Anya began in a threatening tone.

"Enough!" I yelled, charging over to the two before it could go any further, my shield held out in front of Anya before she could do anything. "Look, I get that we're all working on this, but we need to have patience here; turning on each other because we're annoyed isn't going to stop the bigger problem!"

"But-!"

"Peeta, you need to recognise that Anya's still adjusting, and Anya, you need to take more care," I said firmly. "I get that Peeta's armour isn't the best match-up for you, but we don't have anything better right now-"

The sound of lightning striking on the outskirts of the field prompted all of us to look sharply in that direction, but the three ex-Victors and I relaxed as we registered the sight of a familiar fair-haired figure in silver armour and a red cloak, looking at us with a slight smile.

"Who the… is that Thor?" Clarke asked, grinning at the sight of the last active original Avenger.

"That's Thor," I confirmed, looking at her with a smile. "Didn't quite believe it, huh?"

"I… well, I didn't doubt you, but…"

"It's OK, I get it; there's still a few people back home who doubt that he's real even after seeing him in action," I said reassuringly before I led the group over to Thor as he walked out of the Bifrost circle, smiling as the King of Asgard clasped my arm in the now-familiar 'warrior's grip' of Asgard. "Good to see you, Thor."

"As it is to see you, Mockingjay," Thor replied, looking over the rest of the team with a smile before his gaze settled on the two unfamiliar faces. "And these are?"

"This is Clarke Griffin and Anya; they're… well, they're on the team."

"I see," Thor said, briefly assessing Clarke's harness and costume before his gaze fixed on Anya, her skin still green as she looked at him with a certain tension in her stance. "And how did this happen?"

"Steve thinks that Anya's a distant descendant of Doctor Banner's cousin, which means that she inherited… whatever let him turn into the Hulk after she received a blood transfusion from Steve after a lifetime of being exposed to some of the energy that changed Doctor Banner…" I explained, shrugging at Thor's quizzical expression. "Hey, you know I'm not that hot on the science stuff; that's what we have the team for!"

"Indeed," Thor smiled at me in understanding before turning to Clarke. "It is a pleasure to meet those who have been judged worthy of Avengers membership; which District are you from?"

"Oh, we're not from Panem," Clarke replied, looking at Thor with a slight smile. "We came from a space station-"

"The Ark?" Thor interjected sharply.

"You knew about that?" Peeta looked at Thor in surprise.

"I… heard rumours, but I paid little attention to them before I left Earth; I believe Stark considered it as a… worst-case scenario…" Thor said, his manner calming down even as his expression appeared strangely tense. I wondered at the shift in his mood for a moment, but svoon decided that it wasn't my concern. Once he'd returned to the fold on a regular basis, Thor was always so awkward and ashamed about the fact that he'd abandoned Earth after being defeated by the Maestro in their first clash that I never felt comfortable pushing him on certain topics if he was clearly uncomfortable discussing them, and even Johanna had come to recognise that pushing him on that issue wouldn't get anyone anywhere.

"OK, that's not important," I said, waving a hand to encourage the other Avengers not to ask Thor for anything else right now; Thor might have left Earth because he genuinely felt as though we didn't deserve saving, but unlike some of the Capitol citizens who'd neglected us because they didn't care, he'd stepped in to help when he was really needed, so there was no point blaming him for the past. "The important thing is that you're here now; I can fill you in while we head down to the Ark."

"The Ark is here?"

"It… crash-landed," Clarke shrugged awkwardly, indicating the shattered former satellite. "The life-support systems were running down and all the Exodus ships had been lost in an earlier accident; the only way to get anyone down was to send all the Ark's components heading to the ground and hope enough of them came down fairly intact."

"I see," Thor said, his manner solemn as he took in the sight ahead of us, before he placed Mjolnir on his side and began to walk down towards the camp.

Shrugging at this turn of events, I walked off after him, the others falling in step behind me. I thought for a moment about letting Steve know we were leaving, but decided it wasn't worth worrying about; he had to focus on going over our possible battle plans right now, and the hovercraft's cameras should let him know where we had gone if he hadn't seen it already. I noticed Clarke looking curiously at Thor as we walked down the hill, but she apparently decided that silence would be better for the moment; knowing Clarke, she was probably going to try and talk to Thor once the immediate introductions at the Ark had been dealt with.

Walking into the camp, I was grateful to see that things seemed to be relatively calm between the Coalition and the Ark. There were some areas where both groups were clearly making a deliberate effort to ignore each other, but there were more where small groups were trying to train together. Even if the Coalition were clearly the superior fighters when it came to hand-to-hand combat, it looked like the Ark had managed to preserve some of the more sophisticated martial arts after they were permanently 'exiled' to space, even if a few of the guards used less force than I might have expected.

"Impressive," Thor said, a guarded tone to his voice that I tried not to think about too much; whatever the reason for his discomfort, it couldn't affect his performance as an Avenger…

"Who the hell is this?"

"Octavia," I sighed, as I turned to look at the woman who was apparently the only sibling born on the Ark for decades, "this is Thor, the last member of our team; he's here to help-"

"Oh, so he's another one of your 'heroes' who's happy to sit around and play while our people are dying-"

"Hey, if you think it's easy to control this thing, be my guest," Clarke cut in, stepping forward to glare at Octavia. "I get that you're worried, but diving into the mountain without a plan will just get everyone killed faster; we're doing the best we can-"

"And our people are dying-!"

"You can't solve every problem by just charging in and hitting it, O," Johanna put in, indicating her arm. "The last time we fought a powerhouse without a real plan, I had this arm shattered and we only got out alive by a total fluke; when it's your people at stake I'd think you'd appreciate that we're being careful."

"I spent my entire life having to be careful; when do I get to live it?" Octavia spat, storming off to another part of the camp. As she brushed past Thor, I thought I saw a blue spark of something leave Mjolnir, but I quickly dismissed that as a trick of the light; maybe something Octavia was wearing had scraped against the hammer somehow.

"She's… had a rough life," Clarke shrugged awkwardly at us.

"We've all been there," Finnick shrugged. "OK, probably not the same way she has, but believe me, we all get that life can suck sometimes."

"Not much we can do for her now but deal with this mess and hope she feels better once it's over," Johanna shrugged, indicating the main 'building' of the Ark. "Let's go."

Acknowledging Johanna's point, I led the team into the main body of the Ark, smiling politely as I walked into the council chamber with Abby and Kane sitting around it, looking up as though they'd been caught in the middle of a conversation.

"Ah, Chancellor Griffin," I smiled at Clarke's mother as she and Kane stood up to stare curiously at us. "Sorry to barge in, but I thought you'd appreciate an introduction to our other surviving original Avenger, King Thor of Asgard."

"Chancellor," Thor nodded at the doctor.

"…Thor?" Abby said, looking at him incredulously.

"As in the Norse God?" Kane added, matching Abby's incredulity. "You mean… you weren't just some guy in a suit?"

"I was," Thor looked at Kane in surprise. "I wore Asgardian armour and wielded Mjolnir for my power, although Stark possessed an advanced suit of technological armour-"

"Let's… not get into that right now," I cut in before the conversation could become more difficult; I could clarify that Thor's powers weren't just technological once Mount Weather wasn't a problem. "The point is that we're all working together right now, so I thought it would be a good idea to let you know that we had another Avenger available to help us…"

My voice trailed off as a thought occurred to me, and I couldn't believe I hadn't realised this earlier.

"Thor," I said, looking anxiously at the original Avenger, "I know you need to wield Mjolnir to tap into your full power… but you're still fairly strong without it, right?"

"Indeed," Thor nodded at me. "Why do you ask?"

"Well-" I began, before a loud yell from outside cut me off; the Ark might have survived for years in space, but after the damage it had sustained while landing certain parts of the hull were fragile enough to let in any particularly loud sounds. With no idea what had caused that call but also certain that it couldn't be good, I turned around and ran back through the Ark's corridors for the entrance, the rest of the team just behind. As I emerged from the Ark, I heard another yell, but it didn't take long to trace the source, as I realised that everyone around the crashed station was watching as a woman I recognised as Indra from Anya's description of other Coalition generals flew through the air, forced upwards by…

"Huh?" I said, lost for a better reaction as I realised that Octavia Blake was standing where Indra had apparently started, her hand outstretched in a manner that made it clear she'd just thrown a punch.

In other words, Octavia Blake, a woman that I had barely spoken to and who was only remarkable for being part of the only siblings on the Ark, had somehow acquired superhuman strength.

"Was that… Octavia?" Clarke asked, looking between her friend and the thrown Indra in shock.

"OK, I know we're getting to know you people, but that isn't something you already knew she could do, right?" Finnick asked.

"No!" Clarke protested, as Octavia knelt on the ground, staring at her hands in shock. "I just… she's coped well with life down here, but I didn't know she could do anything like that!"

"Impossible…"

"What?" I looked curiously over at Thor, who was looking at Octavia as though she was something he'd never seen before. "Thor, is something-?"

"NO!" Thor yelled, storming past us to place a hand on Octavia's shoulder before raising his hammer to the sky. "Heimdell!"

"Hey, wait a minute-!" Johanna began, charging forward to grab Thor's arm just as the brilliant light of the Bifrost struck Mjolnir before spreading out over the ground around the Asgardian king, the light vanishing to leave only the strange runic circular pattern on the ground where Thor, Octavia and Johanna had been moments ago.

"OK," Clarke said, turning to look at me in confusion, "what the Hell just happened?"

"Thor… just took Octavia and Johanna to Asgard," I said, lost for anything better to say as I tried to process what had just happened.

Thor might be King of Asgard, but after all the times he'd made it clear that he would defer to my authority when dealing with any issues on Earth, I had to believe that he wouldn't have grabbed Octavia like that unless he had a very good reason… the only question was what that reason actually was.

Of course, considering that she was armed with what was possibly the only weapon my team had that would be able to hurt an Asgardian, I also had to hope that Johanna's temper wouldn't prompt her to do anything stupid…