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

"Right," I said, lost for anything better to say as I looked around at the remaining members of my team, the five of us sitting in a small tent in the camp that was rapidly being established around the Ark. "It's been a few hours now, so we can assume that Thor and Johanna are fairly busy with… whatever they're doing… up in Asgard. Until they get back and we're back to full strength, our first priority has to be making sure that we've got our defences worked out for the base and that Mount Weather doesn't know what we're capable of."

"Defences?" Anya repeated curiously. "We have seen no sign of the Mountain Men since we met you-"

"Which doesn't mean they haven't sent some kind of spy drone we don't know about or aren't planning some kind of attack on us here that they think would work against what they think is here," Peeta noted, glancing over at me as he indicated where his armour was standing in one corner of the tent, the suit sealed and waiting for him to return to it. "I've been working with Beetee on a stealth armour that should let me evade most conventional detection systems to try and get a closer look at the mountain, but its weapons are more limited as we had to dedicate more systems to stealth functions; we haven't been that careful so far, so…"

"We haven't been that careful because they don't know where we are or have any reason to know about us, so we haven't been worrying about anything more than our facility being found by a lucky patrol," I explained my reasoning. "If we're going to prepare for the final attack, we need to be sure that these people can work with us, which means training more closely with the Ark residents and the Coalition instead of just practising amongst ourselves."

"Which leads to you being in a position where you are more likely to be observed by our enemies," Anya finished.

"Precisely," I nodded at her. "Peeta, get Beetee to send you that armour, and then you and Clarke can take up aerial watch-shifts for any sign that Mount Weather's forces are aware of us; if Clarke keeps the jets' power low and tries to glide more, she should be able to avoid detection while still keeping an eye on things, and limited firepower should be enough if you can take them by surprise."

"You think so?"

"Steve told me that the Falcon gear was designed for stealth rescue purposes; it wouldn't be much good at that if it was easy for the enemy to detect when it was being used," I noted. "You've got a good knack for combat and you're still going to be training with us when you're on the ground; we might as well diversify and kill two birds with one stone… no pun intended."

"Right," Finnick smiled at me. "Interesting strategy, Girl on Fire; you're really thinking long-term about our available assets."

"Tactical training from Captain America; it's useful."

"What the Hell?" a voice said, prompting a groan from Clarke as she turned to look at a young man in dark clothes, storming into our tent with an outraged glare on his face as he stared around our small group. "Octavia's gone?"

"Bellamy," Clarke said, stepping forward before I could say anything myself, "Octavia hasn't gone; she's been… taken to Asgard for…"

"You don't even know, do you?" Bellamy looked indignantly at the newest Avenger after Clarke failed to finish her sentence. "You've signed on with these people and you don't even know what they're doing to her!"

"Thor wouldn't have taken her to Asgard on a whim," I said, wishing suddenly that I knew how to talk to people in a situation like this; Mockingjay could command anything from the other Avengers to armies to follow her orders, but I'd never been in a position where I had to defend my teammates like this to someone who didn't have some idea of who I was. "I don't know what made Thor do that, but I trust him-"

"To keep us off-guard and useless while you swan in and make us all feel oh-so-grateful to the goddamn Avengers for saving our asses after the last team screwed up!" Bellamy spat at me. "You're just setting yourselves up to take over-!"

"NO," I countered, my tone so cold that I liked to think I would have made anyone in the old Panem short of Snow stop what they were saying, Bellamy only able to stare at me in stunned silence as I walked up to stand directly in front of him. "We are the Avengers, Bellamy Blake; we are here to protect the world and fight the forces that no single hero could stand against, but we are not here to try and rule the world just because we have the power to do it. This team's sole purpose is to protect the weak from anyone who would try to keep them down just because they can-"

"And you think you can tell a man who thinks he's a god what to do-"

"I think that I can trust the last original Avenger to respect the legacy he's part of and the chosen successor of his original commander," I countered firmly; I might sometimes wonder if Steve had made the right choice when he made me the leader of the Avengers, but I would never stop trying to be worthy of that faith. "Thor never questioned Captain America's orders, and Captain America has made it clear that I have his full trust to lead his team; I appreciate that those names may not mean much to you, but they mean a hell of a lot to me."

"Yeah, you respect the man who failed to save the world-"

"When one of his best friends was driven insane because certain people couldn't accept the difference between what someone can do and what they will do," I countered. "If you think you can handle Mount Weather on your own, fine, but don't blame us when they decide that you're so much trouble it's easier to turn to the Abomination than keep on putting up with everything you have to throw at them-"

"We could have-"

"What?" Clarke asked. "Run off and find somewhere else to make a camp? Mount one last desperate stand against the Grounders to protect what we've got left because we'd rather die trying to say we were right than admit we were wrong? Tried to make peace with people who want our blood and bone marrow to let themselves walk on the surface again and think they're more deserving of life than anyone else here? Bellamy, I appreciate that's how you grew up, but this isn't 'them or us' any more; it's us, the Coalition and the Avengers against Mount Weather, and we should just be grateful that we've got any kind of assets after everything we've been through!"

"Yeah, and you're so grateful for everything they gave you, aren't you?" Bellamy spat.

"Excuse me?" Finnick said, looking at the Blake sibling with a particular edge to his expression. "If you're implying something, say it to our faces."

"Come on, you gave her a position on the team and you think that's all we need to see your point of view?" Bellamy asked, indicating Clarke with a harsh sneer. "Dress her up and parade her around in a fancy suit and we'll suddenly forget-?"

"Clarke did something that nobody has done since Mount Weather started its hunts and actually escaped that place after spending months acting as your leader in a hostile environment she could never have imagined experiencing; believe me, she earned her place on this team," I cut in, looking coldly at Bellamy. "We don't hand out Avengers membership, Mr Blake; Clarke earned her place here with everything she did before we asked her to become the Falcon-!"

"And now she's just-"

"I'm on the team," Clarke said firmly, standing up to look firmly at Bellamy. "I've been consulted on every decision that's been made since I joined these people, Bellamy, and I'm satisfied that they want my input; just because I'm not whining when things don't go the way I'd like them doesn't mean I don't wish things were that simple, but I'm satisfied that I've done the best I can-"

"Hey!" Raven's voice cut in, the mechanic hobbling into the building with a firm glare. "I get that you've got a lot going on right now, but we just got a call I think you need to hear."

"Octavia?" Bellamy asked.

"Monty."

"Monty?" Clarke said, looking at Raven in shock.

"Monty?" I repeated uncertainly.

"He's one of the people still stuck in Mount Weather," Clarke explained, moving over to look eagerly at Raven. "Where's the call?"

"I diverted it to what used to be the main control room-"

With those words, Clarke hurried out of our makeshift Ark base, leaving me to lead the rest of the team after her as she headed into the main Ark facility. Even with her head start, her unfamiliarity with her new suit slowed her down just enough to allow the rest of us to catch up as she reached the radio, eagerly grabbing it as an unfamiliar voice was heard at the other end.

"Monty!" she said, grinning in relief. "You're OK!"

"Clarke?" the man who was apparently Monty said at the other end of the connection. "You're OK?"

"Better than OK," Clarke said, grinning back at me. "We have some very interesting new allies to help us deal with everyone in that mountain."

"Like who?"

"Like me," I said, stepping forward to take the radio from my new teammate. "You can all me Mockingjay, Monty; I'm the leader of the Avengers."

"… the Avengers?" the boy repeated incredulously. "As in Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, all that?"

"Actually, Captain America's retired and it's the She-Hulk rather than the Hulk, but you're basically on the right track with the other two," I corrected with a smile. "Without getting bogged down, let's just say for the moment that the two groups you've encountered so far just reflect a relatively small portion of the surviving human population here on Earth; we had a… political crisis a few months back that prompted my own civilisation to recreate the Avengers to deal with the problem, and we've remained together ever since."

"Seriously?" the boy said.

"It's true, Monty," Clarke cut in. "I know that it sounds impossible, but there really is another civilisation down here; they just left the grounders alone because they thought this part of the country had been completely destroyed in the nuclear war. Mockingjay has Captain America's old shield, they've managed to rebuild Iron Man's armour, there's a new Black Widow, new heroes called the Mariner and Bloodaxe, and…"

"And?"

"And… they've made Anya and I part of the team."

"Hold on; Anya?" Monty repeated. "As in the grounder who-"

"Mistakes were made," Clarke said firmly. "Anya's on the team now, like me; Mockingjay trusts her, and I trust Mockingjay."

"But how-?"

"We can discuss that when we get you out of there," I cut in, stepping forward to take the radio. "I appreciate that you probably can't do this for long, so I have an urgent matter to discuss; do you or anyone else know about a part of Mount Weather that isn't meant to be accessed by the general staff?"

"Why?"

"We… have reason to think that there's something in there that Mount Weather are using to create the Reapers," I said, after exchanging awkward glances with Clarke; we didn't want to get anyone worried about the Abomination in case he was safely confined, but we had to have some idea of where he was being kept if we were going to take action. "We're not sure if we can access the records from outside in case it alerts them to our presence, but if you can work out where it is, we can take it from there and make sure we know where to strike first."

"I'll see what I can find," Monty confirmed grimly. "Just… don't take too long, OK? Jasper and I are buying some time by offering blood donations, but I'm not sure if that's going to keep these people satisfied for long…"

"We'll be there as soon as we can be," I said firmly, before the radio connection cut out.

It might give us an indefinite deadline, but we now had a potential 'in' to speak to our allies inside Mount Weather; the only question now was how best to use that advantage…