Disclaimer: I do not own any content recognisable as belonging to the MCU or the Percy Jackson universe. All rights go to the respective owners.

2 - Clarisse

Back to the future…

"No, stop, you're doing it wrong." I was teaching the Black Widow how to hold a sword properly. Bullets could be quite effective, and were, most of the time, but Natasha had requested lessons, and I had no reason to refuse. She worked as a spy and agent, but we were both women of war, and understood that the more weapons you knew how to handle, the better. In return, she had agreed to teach me how to shoot some of the bigger guns that were in the Avengers' weapons room. They had some massive ones that I could not wait to get my hands on.

Following Thor's return to Asgard, Prissy and Rogers had started sparring twice a day, though neither of them were going at each other particularly hard, and Barton had taken up residence on the rooftop, claiming to be scouting for signs of the enemy. It's kind of obvious that the portal being destroyed equalled no more aliens, but I guess either no-one told him about it, or he's just a dumbass.

"This better?"

"No, that's even worse." I sighed. "Put your feet in a fighting stance, bend your knees slightly, and just relax," I told her, demonstrating. "The looser you hold your weapon, the more manoeuvrable it is, see?"

"Got it, I think."

"Yeah, that's good." She was picking this up faster than some of the older campers I had coached, and that was saying something for some of my siblings.

"Okay, we'll move into some of the more offensive movements now, just watch and copy me."

Prissy is a seaweed brain. I think we all kinda knew that, regardless of the fact that it was Know-it-All's nickname for him. So when he got me to go on this quest with him, I could not think of any reason why he'd want me of all people, to go with him.

First guess, it was a prank.

Second, he actually meant it, but only so he could kill me or something without Chiron seeing, or knowing. I was less sure of that one. I mean, he annoys me, constantly, but he annoys everyone really. I wouldn't exactly call him evil. Deranged, maybe, but evil?

Third was that he was being nice to me. I mean, he did kind of steal my quest to get the Golden Fleece, but he ended up letting me take all the credit for it, so I wasn't sure if that still counted as him owing me. Then I did save everyone's lives, including his, from the drakon in the Battle of Manhattan, but that was for Silena. SILENA. We were all a bit cooped up at camp, I guess. Maybe he could see that I needed to get out.

It didn't matter, anyway. We delivered the parcel (it was a crate of strawberries, surprised? I wasn't) before noon, and stopped to grab a bite to eat. When we were done, Annabeth went to the bathroom.

I was still waiting for Prissy to spring at me. Analysing the possibilities. How many different ways he could kill me. I caught him looking at me, and glared at him. When Annabeth walked back in and sat down in a vacant seat next to him, I left the two lovebirds, making sure they were looking too deep into each other's' eyes to notice me standing up, and went to the toilet.

You'd think I was being paranoid, but really? He'd blown up toilets on me once, and he could definitely do it again.

We were walking down a street next to a park in Queens. I wasn't sure exactly where, but we were planning to find somewhere we could wait for Argus to pick us up. Annabeth and Prissy strolled ahead, while I kicked a rock along the pavement. Nobody else was around, which seemed strange, but I was too bored to care. I wished Chris could've come, but quests with more than three people always ended badly. Because only three ever come back.

I'd started dating Chris Rodriguez at the end of last Summer. He was a son of Hermes, and one of the toughest guys I'd ever met. I'd found him lost in the Labyrinth, wandering aimlessly and babbling nonsense. So I brought him back to camp. I saved his life. Neither of us wanted to risk it again, and he volunteered to stay behind, so I was stuck with Know-it-All and Prissy the punk.

"Alright. Clarisse?" It was Annabeth.

"Yeah, what is it?" She had turned around and was walking backwards, facing me.

"Threat incoming. We need cover."

"Ok." I had heard her, but hadn't registered what she was saying. I lifted my head to look her in the eye, but she was gesturing towards the sky. I looked up.

The sky was blue. Okay, nothing new. Little puffs of white cloud were scattered here and there, the sun wasn't too bright. It would have been an 'ideal day for a picnic' or something, except it wasn't. A bright shot of blue was arcing down towards the Earth. It looked a bit like a laser beam. And Annabeth wanted us to fight it.

"Oh sh*t YES!" My senses kicked back in. I was wide awake and alert. I summoned my spear, and drew my sword. I analysed our surroundings. Mostly open space. A bit weird for New York, but there you go. There was a sort of bus-stop style awning about 20 yards away. Taking one last glance at the sky, I bolted.

Once I reached the shelter, I looked back. Not that I was worried about them or anything. Annabeth was still staring at the laser thing. Percy said something to her and she nodded, before they both turned around and ran towards me. I crouched down and readied myself, as they ducked down beside me. Adrenalin pulsed through my veins, and despite the cool day, a bead of sweat trickled down my forehead. The laser-light thing crashed to the Earth.

We fought for about an hour. The aliens were easy to kill, but we were outnumbered. I locked eyes with Annabeth, remembering a new battle plan we had in play if something like this ever happened.

Simultaneously, we started working our ways around the outer edges of the masses of the idiot creatures, deflecting them off towards Percy, stabbing a few along the way. When there were only about a hundred or so left, he started some sort of earthquake, and killed all the rest.

Dodging around the moving foothills that had formed, I beheaded the last of the creatures. An oozing, slimy greyish substance drooled out of them, like blood, but infinitely more disgusting. I wiped my sword on a dry patch of grass, and stood up to arch my back. Annabeth, who had dragged Percy back a little way, turned and ran back towards me, and from the hacking and squealy grunting noises that followed, I could tell some of the aliens were still alive.

Annabeth walked back around beside me, and I gave her a fist bump. She had a cut on her sword arm, and I had a few bruises, but we were otherwise unscathed. The fight had been exhilarating. After the war against Kronos, the monster population significantly lowered. The year of intense battles and constant patrols ended quite abruptly, and all but the newest campers started coming down with serious cabin fever. A few weeks ago I destroyed a drakon with nothing but my spear; nothing could possibly come close to that, could it?

Curse f***ing demigod luck, fortune, karma, whatever you want to call it. Curse it all.

First warning I got was from Prissy. Dammit why couldn't he have shouted louder? I couldn't make out what he was saying at all.

Second warning I got was Annabeth cursing under her breath in Ancient Greek behind me. I had no clue what she was talking about, but I knew I did not want to be on the receiving end of that string of words. I redrew my sword from its sheath.

Third warning was the strangled roar. Too big and loud to be another one of the aliens, but far too unnatural for anything else.

I spun on my heel, Maimer crackling with energy where I clenched it in my fist. At first I was stunned that a creature could exist that was more colossal than a f***ing titan, but these were aliens, unpredictable as Zeus on a good day.

Of course, I charged the creature. I mean, what else was I gonna do?

I could sense Annabeth protesting behind me, but I could tell from a glance that this creature was far too big for a set of blueprints and brand new square rulers. It was about a quarter mile mark past the end of the 'planning' stages. Or, in other words, brute strength was the only force Ι could think of on the spot that I could conceive it possibly succumbing to.

Anyway, as I ran towards the (no joke, gigantic) alien creature, I muttered a quick prayer to my father, asking him if there was anything at all that he could f***ing do to possibly help me save most of Queens from becoming mashed up monster mince, or whatever these aliens did to people on the planets they invaded. Fortunately, Ares was in a good mood and decided not to leave me to do die a horribly painful death.

I stopped and crossed my weapons in front of me, my spear crackling with blue lightning, and dug my feet into the dirt until I felt properly grounded. I was facing the beast nose to nose. Easily larger than the drakon, it was protected by giant golden armour plates that slid fluidly over one another without a sound. Its wide mouth was a labyrinth level maze of vampire grade fangs, and its eyes were hellish pools of pure darkness.

Slowly it advanced, slithering silently through the air, glaring gaze fixed on me.

I stood my ground. I would not back down.

Ares' voice echoed in my mind, catching me a little by surprise. Clarisse, he said in his steely, battle-ridden voice. I liked that voice, it reminded me that he was a more experienced soldier than I was, and made me listen to him more. Humbling, I know.

Clarisse - You are strong, perhaps the strongest of my children. I smiled. It wasn't often that he communicated with me. You have slain a drakon to defend those you were loyal to, and have proven yourself to be worthy of my blessing - the blessing of Ares. I grant you the power to call on this store of strength, but it will only respond when you really need it. Like - right now, for example. Life and death sort of thing. Anyway kid, have a good life, yadda yadda. Destroy your enemies, fight well, die strong. He launched himself out of my head and was gone, leaving me blinking in the sunlight at the leviathan that was making a beeline for me.

In my mind I reached out for my father's blessing, and felt it wrap around me like a second skin. I was taller, faster, stronger. I felt like I could lift an elephant with my bare hands.

The thing was speeding up, and I braced myself as its bone crushing weight connected with my crossed weapons.

The effect was instantaneous. As it made contact, the strange metal plates crumpled up like aluminum foil, and the momentum of the beast was thrust against me as I struggled to hold my ground.

Overcoming my body's instinctual reaction to freeze in shock, I pushed forward against the creature, forcing every ounce of strength and power that I possessed to pull apart the leviathan from its core, shattering its armour piece by piece. I would not give in.

After what felt like a lifetime of energy flowing through my body in a matter of seconds, the beast collapsed on the ground, emitting a sound louder than a hunted elephant falling to its death after the firing of a bullet.

With a relieved sigh, I let out a deep breath. It was dead. It was gone. I had killed it. No, I had destroyed it. The mess that covered the ground in front of me no longer bore any resemblance to the creature I had faced.

Lowering my weapons, I turned back to Annabeth. She was frozen in shock, eyes wide as saucers. Letting the aura of strength surrounding me fade, I walked slowly towards her, exhaustion, like a blanket, settling further over my body with every step I took.

"I guess that's that then," I supplied.

"Yeah," she gasped suddenly, as if she had forgotten how to breathe. "Yeah, I guess it is."

"Shame about the mess."

She nodded, and stumbled over to where she had left Percy. I followed her. Kneeling down, she pulled a snap lock bag with a couple of mashed up squares in it. Ambrosia, the food of the gods. I took the small piece she offered me and ate it in one bite, the hot and cold of a snickerdoodle cookie ice-cream sandwich overwhelming my tastebuds and relaxing me completely. I rolled my shoulders as energy coursed back into my veins, watching as she fed an even smaller piece to Percy's still unconscious form. He didn't stir, but he at least looked a little more alive.

We stayed in the park for a little while, Annabeth on the ground holding Percy's hand, me standing guard at the portal, in case anything else came through. One or two rogues stumbled out, but they were clumsy and barely an effort to fell.

I took a chance to gaze into the swirling dark mass that lay through the portal. The gaping hole undoubtedly led into space; and looked as though black had been layered on black, with only pinpricks of light where the stars shone through. As I stared, I felt locked in an awestruck trance - one that I jerked out of almost immediately - due to the sheer emptiness of the beyond. I felt Annabeth come up behind me, and, without turning around, I could tell that she was also transfixed.

The world in the void was dark and terrifying, but beautifully so. Subtle hints of colour traced in between specks of white light that looked like stars, which made me think we were looking in to some sort of galaxy, like in one of the old movies my uncle showed me when I was little. In the distance, which could have been thousands of miles or a few hundred feet, a beam of light like a firework shot upwards. Spoiler alert: it wasn't a firework.

"Di immortals," Annabeth gasped.

"Why, what is it?"

"I don't believe it."

"Don't believe what?" She acted as if I hadn't said anything.

"Not possible." I turned around, and her gaze locked into mine. Her eyes were a hurricane of fear and disbelief. She shook her head at me, saying the words over and over again.

"Damn it Annabeth! Snap out of it!" I grabbed her arm, and saw life come back into her previously expressionless face. She tried to turn her head back in the direction of the portal, but I pulled her away, and she started struggling against me.

"Annabeth! What the f*** is wrong with you! Tell me, NOW."

"We need to run." I could barely hear her, she spoke so softly. "It's the only chance we have."

"Why?"

"There is a nuclear bomb on the other side of that opening, and no matter where it's headed, well, there's no getting away."

I didn't doubt her for a second. There was no time to question her or think about what to do. The situation wasn't life and death anymore. We could only run as far away as we could and hope Hades would show us some mercy.

Annabeth and I were running as fast as it was possible to run while half dragging Percy, but we had only made it to the edge of the park when the bomb went off.

Hearing a whistling sound, Annabeth and I both let go of Percy and instantly dropped to the ground. Something flew over our heads and crashed to the ground in front of us with a deafening clang. I snuck a glance back in the direction the thing had come from, and was shocked to see that the portal was no longer visible, as if it had just winked out of existence. I nudged Annabeth.

"The portal is gone."

"What?" her face flashed with confusion. "Nothing about this is making sense."

"Believe me, I know," I replied. "But I do know that there is something that just landed less than ten feet away from us, and I would rather figure out if it's dead the easy way, for once."

"Agreed."

Together we stood and walked over to the crash site. The aftermath of the battle was deathly quiet, as if someone had threatened to shoot any signs of life on sight.

The first thing I noticed was that I knew him. He was Tony Stark, he was Iron Man, and he wasn't moving, which is never a good sign. Before I could register what she was doing, Know-it-all had walked over to his head and gouged the faceplate open with her knife.

His face was covered in cuts and bruises, but I could tell from experience that they looked worse than they were. He was sweating profusely, and his eyes darted around in panic until he noticed the two of us.

"Ladies," his tone was playful, and he was smiling. "You ever tried Shawarma?" He winked at me.

"Umm excuse us," I said, grabbing Annabeth's arm and pulling her to the side. She went with me, but yanked herself out of my hold as soon as I loosened the grip I had on her.

"You know he's Tony Stark, right?"

"Look, Annie we have a half-conscious demigod, a possibly delusional iron man, and about five hundred alien corpses. What do we do now? What's the plan?"

She looked into my eyes with a serious expression on her face, and uttered two words I never thought I'd hear come from the mouth of a child of the wisdom goddess.

"We improvise."

A/N: Sorry this took literally forever, battle scenes are hard to write, but I'll try and post more frequent updates from now on. (Hope I made it worth it though :)) If it's a little unclear, when she faces the leviathan, Clarisse does something similar to what Hulk does in the first avengers movie, just after Bruce delivers the line "That's my secret Cap, I'm always angry."

Thanks to reviewers gpbumann, PurpleBunny5540, IDon'tLikeLollipops, greekforever, starsandstripesforever29, and brookeyy14, and to all of you for reading!

So far we have 1170 views, 30 favs, 53 follows, and 6 reviews so thanks guys, and see you in the next chapter (hopefully soon!).

Final word count: 3254

McShizzleSupreme778 - 13/02/2021