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 was intending to go back to Katniss's POV at this point, but I wanted to give everyone a chance to see what Anya and Octavia can do in their new states.

Falling Hope, Rising Threat

As Anya traded blows with the thing Mockingjay had called 'the Abomination', she was unsure if she should enjoy this fight as much as she was.

On one level, she understood that this creature was a dangerous being who threatened everything that she valued outside this mountain, and she had understood from the stories she had heard that this thing was a dangerous entity who had great power, but on another level, she would greatly enjoy the chance to test her new strength to its fullest extent. She had fought briefly with Rockheda and enjoyed her spars with Thunheda even if he chose not to use his hammer in those bouts, but it was something else to face a creature that had nothing more than raw power behind its fighting style. The Abomination appeared withered and frail as though from prolonged starvation, but he was still far larger than any human foe Anya had ever faced, skin hanging slightly on his bones even if his muscles were still at least as large as hers.

When he raised one hand as though to slam it down onto her head, Anya shifted her position so that one arm was directly above her head and the other was positioned to trap her opponent's wrist between her own arms, giving her a chance to take in her opponent's appearance in more depth. Recalling the tales that this man had been transformed by the same process that had changed her into her new state, Anya had to acknowledge that she could have been a great deal less fortunate than she was. Mid-way through a fight was never a good opportunity for someone to show off their appearance, but Anya could see that parts of the Abomination's skeleton had torn free of his skin, with spurs of bone sticking out of his elbows and knees, and she doubted that this man had been bald and had such hollow eyes before he was changed-

The sense of a sharp kick to her chest cut off Anya's examination as she was sent flying backwards. She only just had time to 'grab' the ground before she hit the end of the corridor behind her; she had no reason to believe anyone else was here, but she would adhere to her new leaders' request to minimize unnecessary damage.

"HOW!" the Abomination roared, glaring at Anya as she got back to her feet. "HOW CAN YOU BE THIS STRONG?"

"The blood I received from the man who was once Captain America and the heritage of my ancestors," Anya retorted, flexing her shoulders to work out the kink in her back as she studied her opponent with a nonchalant grin. "I believe you knew Bruce Banner?"

"Banner?" the creature looked at her with a new sense of rage. "He never-!"

"I am part of his family, and thus I bear his power in my veins," Anya affirmed (she realized that Steve and the other Avengers were only guessing at the origin of her power, but she chose to take that as truth until she knew otherwise). "You lost to my great ancestor when you were at your peak, Abomination; do you truly think-?"

"That is not my name!" the Abomination yelled, lashing out once again with a punch that nearly took Anya's head off if she hadn't ducked to the side in time.

"It is the only name you deserve," Anya said with a cool stare. "You possess great strength and you only use it to destroy; destruction is just the simplest way to use power."

"And who taught you that?" Blonsky spat, tensing as he shifted into a combat stance.

"Heda and the Avengers," Anya replied with a solemn smile.

"The Avengers?" Blonsky repeated incredulously, lowering his arms to stare at her incredulously. "But that's- those failures were-"

"They live," Anya cut him off as she cracked her knuckles in preparation for the fight to continue. "And you are remembered as little more than the monster that tried to smash Harlem."

"I am the most powerful-!"

Anya cut her opponent off with a new punch to Blonsky's face, revelling in the sight of the arrogant monster falling back.

Whether or not she could stop this enemy, she would at the very least confirm what she was capable of to herself in this new state…

The thing that had worried Octavia the most when they originally came up with this plan of attack was whether she'd remember their plans for a 'protection point'. According to the other Avengers, Katniss and Clarke had each agreed that destroying Mount Weather's main door had to be a priority, but they also had to take care to keep some of the inner doors sealed so that the civilians and children in the mountain wouldn't just die off because the outside air leaked in.

With that in mind, she was grateful that Johanna and Finnick had joined her small group of Grounders breaking into the mountain; the little girl who was apparently the new Black Widow had gone off to see about disabling a few more of this place's security systems, but while she got the impression she'd like Peeta as a person, Iron Man was better suited to hold the line outside where he could really let rip if he had to.

Plus it's a lot harder for anyone to accidentally break down another door up there if they have to get past all of those sensors and guns of his…

Surprisingly, Fenris was still able to accompany them. After seeing he would not fit through the door leading further into the Mountain's depths at his normal size, the large wolf had magically shrunk down to a size comparable to what one would expect of a more conventional animal. The decrease in size did not affect his strength or his will to protect her. So far they had gone down several levels and they hadn't met much resistance; what men they did end up fighting were taken down swiftly, though Fenris had been leaping first and tearing into whatever was in front of him.

These guys must have heard my speech about everyone staying inside, Octavia noted, observing her new 'pet' with a slight smile. She wasn't entirely sure if she was comfortable with his brutal approach, but at least it ensured that nobody was going to get the drop on them any time soon.

"And down we go!" Johanna Mason grinned, the woman apparently known as 'Bloodaxe' slamming the broad end of her axe into the face of the next soldier to round the corner. Fenris growled slightly at the lost opportunity, but a firm glare from Octavia stopped him; she tolerated him attacking immediate enemies, but she wouldn't allow him to take bites out of the unconscious.

"Any ideas on how deep this thing goes?" Finnick looked curiously at her.

"You're asking me?" Octavia looked at him in surprise.

"Just making sure we're covering all our bases," Finnick clarified. "Our last few operations were a bit more private then this; we're not used to dealing with this many people being caught in the middle of a fight when they aren't actively trying to kill us."

"Say what you like about Snow, but the man knew how to inspire loyalty," Johanna shrugged as she slung her large axe over her shoulder. "We've been taking down his bases for months, and we're still not sure we've got them all-"

"NO!" Octavia yelled, cutting Johanna off as she desperately lunged after Fenris, thrusting one hand forward as the wolf's jaws almost closed over a small figure that had stumbled before it could run around a corner up ahead.

"What-?" Finnick began, only to stop himself when he realized that they were looking at a small, trembling child, looking at the large wolf that had almost eaten her with wide, terrified eyes.

"What the Hell?" Johanna stared at the trembling girl before them incredulously.

"We knew there'd be kids here-"

"Yeah, but I didn't think we'd run into any this close to the surface; how desperate are these people for living space?" Johanna clarified, before calming herself when she registered the sheer terror on the little girl's face.

"Hey there, sweetie," Finnick said, passing his trident to Johanna as he crouched down to look at the girl with a warm smile. "What's wrong?"

"…W-w-wolf…" the little girl said, her gaze shifting between Finnick and Fenris with wide-eyed terror.

"Yeah, he's a wolf," Octavia put in, her solemn expression shifting to a soft smile as she joined Finnick in looking at the girl. "But it's OK; Fenris's my wolf."

"Y… your wolf?"

"He won't hurt anyone if I tell him not to hurt anyone," Octavia said, tone soft as she reached out with one hand, even if she paused before she could actually touch the little girl. "I get that you're scared, and you've probably heard all kinds of… bad things about what it's like out there, but you have to believe this; we will never hurt children, and neither will Fenris."

"And," Finnick put in as he looked at the corner the girl had just come from, "we won't kill anyone here who isn't actively trying to kill us first."

Johanna's brief confusion about that particular statement was ended when two people came around the corner, the couple looking at the three outsiders and the giant wolf as though they weren't sure how to react.

"Hi," Finnick smiled reassuringly at the new arrivals, slinging his trident over his shoulders to add to his air of nonchalance. "Like I said, you don't need to worry; unless you try to kill us, we're not going to do anything to you."

"You say that, but you are here now in our home," the man said, glaring over to Octavia and Fenris. "With a beast. Just move away from our daughter."

Octavia motioned to Fenris move away but as the wolf was doing so. "Alright. It's like we've said. We aren't here to…"

The sound of gunfire caused all to scatter, but for Octavia it had four rounds hit her straight in the chest, the shock of it causing her to drop backwards. The shots impacted against her armor but didn't pierce through.

Even as her group started to react, a group of Mount Weather soldiers had come on the scene, four with weapons and two holding what appeared to be a Grounder captive.

"Thank you! Thank you for showing when you did. These people," the mother began, only to to be hit in the head with the butt of the machine gun held by one of the new arrivals.

"Stupid idiots! You were supposed to stay inside your rooms! This is a war, one we are going to win," the lead soldier responded.

"Now you're resorting to harming your own people?" Octavia asked in disgust.

"Everyone needs to serve a purpose for a much greater plan, just like the President and the Doctor have shown us," the fanatic responded as he pointed his gun at the little girl. "All one needs is the strength of will to do what is necessary-"

"Hold on; you're talking about needing strength of will and you're going to shoot a kid?" Johanna glared indignantly at the guard.

"If you're not monsters, you'll just surrender-"

"And you don't see the flaw in that argument?" Finnick stared coldly at the guard, tightening his grip on his trident to prepare for whatever might happen. "You've spent years justifying what you're doing to the Coalition as protecting your people, but you're going to threaten the life of a little girl, in front of her parents, to stop people who've already made it clear we're not a threat to you?"

"We have to-!"

"Have to what, defend yourselves?" Octavia cut them off, clenching a fist as though trying to stop herself doing something out of anger. "We're working on a way to help you people that doesn't involve condemning a bunch of innocents to death, we're perfectly willing to let you live so long as you're not trying to kill us first, and all of a sudden we're the bad guys here?"

"That's exactly the point!" the leader snapped, holding his gun at Octavia's head. "We've suffered! We've been in this mountain forever! We are the ones that deserve to live! Not you savages!" His face took on a crazed look. "In fact, just getting rid of you all should be worth the collateral damage…"

Octavia didn't even have time to voice her disgust at that statement before the man had raised his weapon, followed by his associates, but the expected gunfire didn't come from the soldiers in front of them. Instead, the three Avengers found their latest opponents downed by gunfire from the side, the little girl running for her parents. The men holding the grounder girl swung in a different direction and pulled out their weapons only to hesitate and then let their weapons fall to the ground.

Turning in the direction of the new wave of gunfire, Octavia watched as another group of Mount Weather personnel came into view, checking the fallen bodies as well as putting restraints on the two remaining hostiles. Even with Octavia's relatively limited direct experience of death, it was clear that only one of the fallen men who'd just been attacking her was still alive. He was looking up in disgust at his killers.

"Damn you traitors," the dying gunman spat, blood coming out of his mouth, staring at one in particular with hate. "Damn you Jefferson. We… we could have ended this... the doc's weapon... we were so close... so…" he stopped speaking, his eyes glazed over as he stopped breathing.

"It isn't worth selling out our humanity," Jefferson said simply, shaking his head as he stared at the body before looking up at the group around him. "Is everyone okay?"

"Confused, but we're good," Johanna nodded.

"And what are you doing anyway?" Finnick asked. "I mean, I'm not complaining, but when I last checked, you were meant to be 'defending' this mountain against us, now you're just… letting us in?"

"My men and I have chosen to defy our own orders. With Cage unleashing the Abomination and now the doctor conducting multiple tests with her weapon, it's going against everything we believe in as Americans."

"Good in theory, but in practice, there is no America," Johanna observed. "That nation died when the bombs fell."

There were angry stares levelled at her, not just from the soldiers but from the civilians in the hallway.

"America isn't just a nation," Jefferson said grimly. "It's a people. We've all tried to strive for the ideals that nation was built under centuries ago… even if some have lost their way."

"Yeah, we can get that," Finnick observed. "But what you need to keep in mind is that this team was brought together by the man who personifies the American Dream, and he's already accepted that America can't come back. He still stands for its ideals, but he's accepted that this is the time to make Panem what it should be, not try to force everyone else to go along with his vision of an old way of life."

"Who are you talking about?" one of the soldiers asked.

"Captain America," Johanna smiled. "And when I respect a guy, you know he's got a lot going for him."

They could hear the soldiers starting to converse with themselves about that little bit of news and it was spreading to the civilians who had ended up coming out as a result of the gunfire. Johanna could only imagine how such knowledge could play out, but anything that sowed even a few seeds of doubt among the Mountain Men had to be a good thing in this situation.

"OK, getting off the topic of Cap, what did you mean the doctor was conducting multiple tests with her weapon?" Octavia cut in; she was an Avenger now, which meant that she had to find out more about the immediate threat, which included the doctor and the weapon that had killed her brother.

"That girl there," Jefferson said, indicating the grounder captive who was with Indra and the other two Grounders who had been part of their infiltration team. "She's the only survivor of the second test Doctor Tsing has run with those death crystals. Twenty or so natives died from exposure, but not her."

"I thought Cage's speech said that this bio-weapon killed any living organism?" Johanna asked.

"So did I," Jefferson nodded. "But when the President asked me to collect the doctor to keep her safe once he unleashed the Abomination, I saw your spy strapped to a table."

Octavia's head spun directly to Jefferson. "What did you say?" she breathed.

"I was there for that execution, part of guard detail for President Cage. I watched what happened to those people, they all turned to stone. Before I left one even crumbled into dust… so you can probably imagine my shock to find that spy somehow a flesh and blood human being again."

"He's alive?" Octavia gasped, staring Jefferson with a frightening intensity. "My brother's alive?!"

"Your… brother?"

"Half; same mom, different dad," Johanna clarified nonchalantly. She would have said more but caught the glare Octavia just sent her, and decided to avoid sharing too many personal details too fast.

Octavia walked up to Jefferson, allowing her right hand start showing her ability to generate cold. "If you are lying to me, I swear you'll wish I simply froze you solid."

"Believe me, I would never lie about something like that," Jefferson returned, his tone showing no fear. "Family to me means everything, I would never toy with something like that."

Octavia didn't feel like he was lying. Could she believe it? Could Bellamy truly be alive?

Further conversation was cut short when the floor below them began to shake, with an irregular rhythmic pattern that was far too erratic to be natural.

"The Hulks?" Octavia asked.

"Technically only Anya's a Hulk; Blonsky's officially the Abomination," Finnick observed.

"What's the difference?"

"Basically the Hulks will only hit you if you started trying to hit them first, and the Abomination trashed an entire neighbourhood the first time he got out just because he felt like it."

"…Right," Octavia nodded, making a note not to make that mistake against before she glanced over her available forces. "I don't think we want to leave that fight for too long, so Mariner and Bloodaxe can get down there to help She-Hulk out."

"I can have half my men help you with the Abomination," Jefferson offered, "But the rest will need to come with me to Tsing's lab. She's still expecting her results from her latest test."

"Yeah, I actually have an idea about that," Octavia said. "I need... sorry, what's your name?"

"Echo," the grounder said in a short response.

"Right, Echo," Octavia nodded. "I'm going to need to borrow your clothes."

"HA!" Blonsky roared gleefully as he hit Anya in the side of the head with a sweeping blow, with a force that would have sent anyone else flying into the wall if she hadn't possessed strength almost equal to her opponent. "You thought you could take me down?"

"I… am still… standing…" Anya said, fighting not to fall down as she glared at her enemy. The figure seemed to have become slightly more muscular than he had been when the battle began, but Anya refused to give in just because her opponent was stronger. "You… will not… win…"

"If you're the best these 'Avengers' have to offer, I question what the rest of them can do to me," the large green figure chuckled. "Once you've been pounded into the ground like the insignificant speck that you are, I'll leave this prison and confirm what I am truly capable of; the world must learn what true power is now that Banner has fallen-!"

"NEVER!" Anya yelled, lashing out with a spinning kick that dislodged her opponent's jaw. Blonsky let out a twisted roar as he caught her next punch and threw her over his shoulder into the nearest wall, stamping down on her head as she hit the ground. Anya reached up to grab his leg, but the force was more than she expected.

"I'm gonna crush your head like a grape, and then no one can challenge me! I am..." Blonsky's boast was interrupted by gun fire, which bounced right off of his gamma-hardened skin. "Are you kidding me? Did you fools forget that bullets just piss me off?!"

Forgetting Anya, Blonsky ran in the direction of gunfire, which had come to a halt, only for a massive wolf to jump onto him, swiping and clawing at him.

Fenris? Anya asked herself, shaking her head to get past her blurred vision as she slowly got back to her feet.

"What the hell is this?! Another freak experiment!" Blonsky asked as he pushed Fenris back so to kick the wolf with one of his legs. However that wasn't the real attack.

Finnick and Johanna had taken advantage of the distractions of the guards and Fenris in order to attack with their weapons, cutting through Blonsky's skin at the ankles and back of his knees. Hitting those spots caused him to fall to his knees, allowing the guards to fire a chain piercing weapon that went through his shoulder, connecting the chain to the wall. It wouldn't hold for long, but it would be long enough to finish this with the right weapon…

"Here," Johanna tossed the axe over to Anya. "Just for the moment, but I think you're better suited to take this guy out with this then I am."

"Thank you," Anya said gratefully, adjusting her grip on the large axe as she glared at Blonsky.

"You think this makes you better than me! You aren't!" Blonsky snarled, even as he tried to move to break free. "You didn't do this by yourself! You aren't stronger than me! You aren't stronger than the Hulk! I am! I am the strongest all by myself! I AM-"

His last rant was interrupted by Anya's swing which decapitated him, the force of the swing had cleanly cut through his neck. The Abomination's head flew from his shoulders before Anya shifted her grip on the axe to ram it into the severed stump from above. The final blow didn't completely cut Blonsky's body in half, but his torso was clearly divided in a manner that it wouldn't be recovering from regardless of how good his healing factor was.

"And I care nothing for your opinion of my strength," she stated scornfully to the fallen form of her enemy. "In any battle, all that matters is victory."

"Good call," Johanna nodded at the new She-Hulk as she took her axe back. "Nice job for your first day on the team, She-Hulk."

"Thank you, Bloodaxe," Anya affirmed, surprised at the warm feeling of acknowledgement she felt at those words.

"OK," Finnick looked around their small group, "shall we track down our missing associates and bring this mountain down?"

"That seems a fair plan to me," Anya responded, flexing her shoulders as the group began to walk down the corridor into the mountain.

Her new apparent teammates were an unconventional mix by any definition, but she was starting to become fond of this eccentric team that had taken her in as a member…