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
Standing in the middle of a panicked village, Clarke was privately amazed at how easy it was for her to start helping out. The Coalition had been her enemies for longer than they'd been her allies since she'd arrived on the ground, she'd barely been an Avenger for more than a couple of weeks, and now, when faced with a Coalition village in a panic, her first priority was to assure everyone around her that they were safe.
Granted, the village was comparatively calm after what had happened, considering that they'd just witnessed a massive explosion in the sky and had to have seen Iron Man flying through the air for the first time, but there were still enough people shaken at what had just happened for Clarke to feel needed. The Falcon armour attracted a few concerned stares, but so long as she kept the guns holstered, there was enough 'armour' for villagers to just assume she was wearing unusual clothing, and the fact that Lexa was with her probably added further reinforcement of the idea that she wasn't a threat.
"You cope well as a fisa," Lexa noted, as the two young women walked away from the last woman she'd examined.
"My… my mother was one back in the sky," Clarke said, deciding to stick to the key details right now. "Well, she's still one now, but at the moment she's more occupied acting as our peoples' leader to devote herself full-time to that…"
"You are not their leader?"
"Well… I have some authority down here, but it's not official or anything," Clarke shrugged, not wanting to waste time talking about her peoples' complicated leadership dynamic when there were so many other things to be focusing on right now. "I mean, I wasn't explicitly chosen by my people for the job, but when we came down… it wasn't easy, but everyone else was just talking about freedom because they couldn't face our responsibilities, or just didn't think about what we'd need to do long-term…"
"It is the burden of leadership," Lexa mused. "We so often receive such power and responsibility precisely because we are the ones willing to bear the responsibility, even if we have never sought power for the sake of power."
"Something some people never learn themselves," Clarke smiled solemnly. "That's actually how the Avengers started."
"In what way?"
"Before the first bombs fell… the Avengers came together to stop a madman who thought he had the right to put himself in charge of everything," Clarke explained solemnly. "He had power, and he was very old, but his method of putting himself in charge involved unleashing a lot of monsters on people to prove how strong he was."
"I… see," Lexa said, looking at Clarke in a probing manner that still avoided giving away anything else.
"The point," Clarke continued, "is that one of the most famous moments of his conquest is that, during his first major public appearance, the Avengers' enemy allegedly said something about how the human race was made to be ruled, and some old man stood up and told this guy that, even if he thought he was unique, there were always men like him, which was why the world would always need people like the Avengers to fight them."
"And that is why you join them?"
"Yes," Clarke said. "The Avengers only failed to stop the war that destroyed the world because… well, I don't know the full story, but one of their most powerful members went through a series of terrible events, and they weren't able to help him until it was too late."
"And that will not happen now?"
"These new Avengers know what to watch out for, and… to be blunt, the one who fell last time had some mental problems that none of the current team have," Clarke said, not wanting to insult the Hulk's memory by implying that he'd been weak in some way for going insane after everything else he'd been through. "We're taking care, and we're providing everyone with a support network that should prevent that from happening to anyone else-"
The sound of a body hitting the ground briefly made Clarke panic, but she soon calmed herself down when she looked up and saw that it was only Katniss and Lincoln dropping a man to the ground, particularly when she noted that the man in question was carrying a particularly advanced-looking rifle despite dressing in grounder-esque leathers.
"From Mount Weather?" she asked her new team's leader, already noting that the man's leathers were slightly too clean to be 'real'.
"That's my guess, anyway," Katniss confirmed, looking down at the man as she twirled an arrow in one hand, her other arm close to her back as though prepared to draw her shield. "He's not wearing any obvious protective gear, but considering what we're worried about…"
"They're escalating the experiments?"
"Most likely," Katniss confirmed, before she looked at Lexa. "He's out for the moment, but considering that we have an agent in the mountain already, I thought it might be an idea to keep this one alive to interrogate when he's conscious; even if he tries to lie to us, it might give us some idea what to expect."
"Even when he lies?"
"That just shows he's afraid of us, which gives us some idea of how much of an impression we're making on them," Katniss smiled slightly. "I may not have liked the propos some of District Thirteen were trying to get me to film before Steve recruited me, but I got the impression that every side was trying to say that they were doing better than they actually were."
"Propos?" Lexa looked curiously at the Avengers' young leader.
"You don't want to know," Katniss said, expression briefly grim at the thought of what her life could have been if Steve hadn't been part of District Thirteen, before she shrugged and turned back to the man lying before them. "Anyway, shall we see what this guy has to say for himself?"
"How?" Clarke asked.
"I just gave him a quick knock, so the old way might be best; do either of you have any water?"
Smiling slightly at the question, Lexa passed Clarke a container of water, which the new Falcon then proceeded to throw in the face of their prisoner. With that act, the would-be assassin's eyes practically popped open, leaving him sputtering indignantly before he realised who was gathered around him.
"OK," Katniss said, arms folded as she studied their prisoner. "Considering what you were about to do, I'll assume that you realise that the Coalition is a bit more prepared for you than you thought?"
"How?" the man said, staring in particular at the shield hanging from Katniss's arm and the complex harness Clarke was wearing. "You're not smart enough-"
"There is a difference between ignorance and stupidity," Clarke cut the man off with a cold glare. "You'd realise that if you'd actually done anything with your vaunted knowledge in that mountain apart from hide away and wait to use it."
"We were trying to survive-!"
"Against what?" Katniss interjected, fixing the man with her own intense stare. "You might call the Coalition 'savages', but they haven't done a thing to you that somebody else didn't start first. Maybe if you'd actually approached them diplomatically and asked them to donate blood for your people, they'd even have been willing to share with you; you're only here because you think they're inferior."
"Have you seen the way they live?" the man countered incredulously.
"That's called working with what they have; they're not stupid just because they haven't had the opportunity to create more," Clarke said, surprised to find herself moving to stand beside Katniss. "Besides, considering that we know that you're going to take the blood of your prisoners so that you can get out of that mountain in the first place, do you honestly think you're in a position to call anyone else monsters?"
"How do-?" the man began, eyes wide in horror before he stopped himself, mouth practically slamming shut as he glared at the assembled Avengers. For a moment Clarke wondered what they should do next, but that thought ended when Lexa struck the man in the face with a punch that sent him to the ground.
"Can I ask why you did that?" Katniss looked at the Coalition leader inquiringly.
"He was surprised at the idea that we knew that much and was determined to stop talking; knocking him out at this point encourages him to think that we are not interested in his information."
"And… aren't we?"
"We are, but now, when he regains consciousness, he will understand that we will punish attempts at defiance," Lexa clarified.
"What…?" another voice said, the Avengers looking around to see Abby walking uncertainly towards them. "What's going on here?"
"Missile strike," Katniss shrugged. "Iron Man intercepted it, but the shockwave still knocked us off-balance when it blew."
"Missile strike?" Abby repeated, staring incredulously at the Avengers' young leader. "And you just- you-?"
"We stopped it," Clarke finished, smiling slightly at her mother. "We're the Avengers now, Mom; this is what we do."
"You… but you're just-?"
"We haven't 'just' been anything for a long time, Doctor Griffin," Katniss said solemnly, glancing up with a smile as Iron Man came down to land beside them, raising his mask to reveal Peeta's solemn face.
"Doctor Griffin," he said, looking firmly at the current Chancellor of what was left of the Ark, "we all understand that you're in a difficult situation and doing your best to adjust, but we are in the middle of an extremely dangerous situation here and facing the kind of threat that could endanger hundreds of people at the very least. We try and stay on the right side of morality, but you need to accept that there are lines we have to cross and risks you have to take if we're going to save lives; whatever you might like to tell yourself, being the 'good guy' doesn't mean we can just do the right thing and that's that."
Abby looked at the armoured Avenger for a moment before she sighed and studied him in a more solemn manner.
"You… you're right," she said at last, looking apologetically at the Avengers. "I… I know that this isn't the world I thought we were coming into, and I don't have the right to judge you; I just… I…"
"You spent so long thinking you'd come down here to rebuild civilisation that it's hard to recognise that we're not actually needed here," Clarke finished with a smile.
"Anyway," Peeta said, looking over at Katniss, "assuming that they're not going to fire another missile any time soon, shall I get back to the compound and see how we're coming along with plans for the assault?"
"Warn Mariner that we're going to need the jet ready soon," Katniss confirmed, glancing ruefully upwards even as Peeta flipped his faceplate down and took off once again. "We'd better hear from them soon…"
A warning glance from her daughter stopped Abby from asking who 'they' were, but Katniss liked to think that, just like her mother and Prim, the other woman recognised that the injured lying around the camp were the greater priority right now.
Watching as Abby moved among the Coalition members, Katniss made a note to bring her to the compound at some point; it might do Prim some good to get some medical training from someone of Abby's unique background…
"Peeta?" a voice said from the door of what Peeta was surprised to find he was considering his 'lab' after a relatively short time.
"Oh, hey, Prim," Peeta said, looking at the door to see Katniss's sister looking anxiously at him, the girl Katniss till affectionately referred to as her 'little duck' wearing the black outfit of the Black Widow. "Everything OK?"
"Just… dealing with a lot right now," Prim shrugged, before her gaze shifted to Raven. "This is… Raven, right?"
"That's me," Raven smiled at her. "And you are?"
"Primrose Everdeen," Prim replied, holding out a polite hand to the mechanic.
"Mockingjay's sister?"
"That's how it started, but I'm also training as a healer, and… well, I'm working on being the new Black Widow."
"Really?" Raven looked at her with a smile. "Nice job, kid; that's a pretty big gig to be taking on."
"Well, when your sister starts a revolution, you feel like you have a lot to live up to," Prim replied, smiling awkwardly at the mechanic.
"You know Katniss has never expected you to be anything but-" Peeta began.
"I know that, but it still… it doesn't change how I feel," Prim cut in, her tone awkward even as her eyes gleamed with the fire of her older sister. "I know she'd rather I stay safe, but at least she's trying to understand why I want to do this…"
"Older siblings are always protective of the younger ones," Raven put in. "Hell, Bellamy keeps trying to protect Octavia even when she makes it clear she's had enough of that; wish I could give a few more examples, but I didn't exactly have many to give you."
"You don't?" Prim looked at Raven in surprise.
"The Ark had a strict one-child policy, remember?" Peeta smiled at Prim. "Octavia just being born was a crime on its own; most couples up there would have only had one kid, and there were all kinds of rumours about what would happen if you ended up having twins that I don't want to talk about."
"Oh," Prim said, looking at Raven with a new sense of sympathy. "That's so…"
"Eh, you learn to cope," Raven shrugged, with a manner of feigned nonchalance that even Prim could see wasn't genuine. "'Sides, hard to miss what you never really thought was an option… and I probably wouldn't have had a great sibling dynamic anyway…"
"You wouldn't?"
"Let's just say my mom wasn't a great example of any kind of position relationship, considering that she was a bitch who drank so much it's a miracle I didn't die of foetal alcohol poisoning," Raven noted.
"Oh," Prim said, looking at Raven with a new sense of sympathy. "Did she…?"
"Hit me?" Raven finished, shaking her head. "Never went that far, but that would have required her to stay sober long enough to see what she was doing; mostly she just took my share of the rations for herself."
"Welcome to the club," Peeta noted.
"You too?" Raven looked at him in surprise.
"My mother had… well, she had issues," Peeta shrugged. "It starts with her fixation on the idea that she was my father's second choice, escalated when I fell for the daughter of the woman who would have been his first choice, and it never really got better."
"Katniss told me she… basically gave up on you when you were Reaped?" Prim put in uncertainly.
"She thought your sister had a chance of winning the Games but made it clear she doubted I'd last beyond the bloodbath," Peeta noted.
"Didn't your dad do anything?" Prim asked. "He always seemed nice…"
"He was, but he just… I'm not sure if he didn't see what mom was doing or just didn't want to know, but either way, it was…" Peeta sighed. "I never wanted to ask him directly because I wasn't sure which would be worse."
"Worse than knowing your dad let your mom do that to you?" Raven asked.
"Learning that he didn't know and I destroyed whatever happiness he was getting out of that relationship that I didn't see."
"Ah," Raven said, lost for anything to say to that.
"It's… almost a relief none of them got out," Peeta said, looking guiltily between the two women. "I know it's horrible, but I would have never been able to trust my mother with even the knowledge that I was Iron Man now, things with my brothers had been strained ever since I won the Games, and now I can… well, I can tell myself that my dad didn't know everything without worrying that I'll find out I was wrong."
"Nothing wrong with hoping for the best," Raven acknowledged, her tone bitter. "Hell, I'm not sure who my dad even was, and considering my mom's attitude I was probably only conceived as some drunken exchange."
"…This is one of those things Katniss would prefer me not to ask for more detail on, right?" Prim looked at Peeta.
"Right," Peeta nodded, before he looked at Raven with an awkward smile. "Still… can you assume he didn't know?"
"About me?" Raven asked, looking thoughtful for a moment before she shrugged. "Hard to say; single parents weren't exactly common for obvious reasons, but so long as I wasn't screwing up the numbers too much, nobody had the time, resources, or inclination to look into where I came from in depth, particularly once I started proving myself…"
Staring at the complex array of controls in front of him, Bellamy wasn't too proud to admit that he had no real idea what he was doing right now.
Actually getting into Mount Weather hadn't been as hard as he'd initially worried thanks to Lincoln's help, and he'd been able to steal a guard's uniform with almost disturbing ease, but it was what he was meant to do after that he'd been having trouble with. Listening in on the mountain's plans and encouraging Jasper and the rest to keep fighting had been almost easy, but he'd quickly established that just listening in wasn't going to get him any useful information. He'd managed to talk with the now-ex President Dante Wallace, and at least the other man had been able to provide him with access codes that might be useful, but Bellamy knew enough about computers to recognise that there was a risk that those passcodes might not work after Wallace's arrest.
Still… when he finally found the control room that ex-President Wallace had told him about, Bellamy was ashamed to admit, even to himself, that he'd hoped this part of his haphazard plan would be easier to put into practise. He could just about work out what console controlled the air filtration system based on the attached screens, and he guessed that this place wasn't currently in use because these people had spent decades believing that nobody could get inside or be capable of understanding what to do once they got here, but he just needed time to work out what to shut down without actually shutting down the air supply completely.
OK, so we're not in the Ark where there's the air we keep up there and nothing else, but we're so far down there's got to be some issues getting air everywhere, especially if they're this paranoid about contamination…
As he studied the map/diagram/whatever of the mountain before him, however, Bellamy soon found his gaze shifting to a particular area of the mountain. It seemed unremarkable the first time he looked over the map, as it was just a comparatively small room in one lower part of the building, but his suspicions grew when he noticed that this area could also be accessed by a long tunnel leading up to the surface of the mountain that reminded him of tales of old missile silos.
One door, one shaft, and nothing else? Bellamy wondered to himself, noting the room's identification number on the map and checking the surrounding screens. Is that…?
His gaze fixed on a screen displaying what he presumed was the interior of the anomalous room, and his eyes widened in horror. The camera made it hard to judge how large this thing was, and the screen didn't display colour properly, but he was certain that thing was larger than a human, and it was also obviously more muscular, with a hairless head and what looked like parts of its own skeleton sticking out of its back. Bellamy could just make out a series of large chains wrapped around the creature's body, along with a set of thick manacles strapped to its wrists and ankles, but somehow even those didn't seem like they'd be enough to keep this thing trapped if it moved.
He'd never heard a detailed description of this thing, but there was only one creature that could be this large, this monstrous-looking, and make him feel this scared even when he was watching it on a screen that made it clear the damn thing was trapped.
"The Abomination…" Bellamy breathed, staring in horror at the screen.
"Actually," a voice said behind him, "he prefers to be known as Blonsky."
Cursing as he spun around, Bellamy found himself staring at a dark-skinned woman in a white lab coat, who was looking at him with a disturbing satisfied expression. Realising that he'd just been caught, Bellamy leapt from his seat, but was sent flying backwards when something jammed into his ribs, hitting him with a massive electric shock that sent him falling back to the ground, his body involuntarily twitching from the shocks.
"You should feel honoured, you know," the woman said as she looked at Bellamy, a coolness in her manner that reminded Bellamy of some of his old science teachers back on the Ark discussing the preserved specimens they had to keep using for biology lessons. "I've been meaning to test this old project for a while now, but President Cage insisted that we save all of the new children for bone-marrow tests; you might be one of their original group, but you aren't one of that group…"
Oh crap… now what?