Boom, Gryphon! That's Life
...
Aura's question was answered almost as soon as she thought of it.
She saw Spiderman running towards her, the girl close behind.
Mortals were mostly talking worriedly to each other, looking in Aura's direction with varying levels of panic and confusion.
Which was to be expected of course, but one of these days a mortal was going to call the police on Aura and there was going to be a problem.
"Are you okay?" Spiderman asked, panting.
"Yes, fine," Aura said, and even she couldn't tell if she meant it or not.
Yeah, plenty of scrapes and bruises and a massive gash in her thigh weren't exactly optimal, but all things considered, she was just happy to be alive.
The kid ran up to Aura and put Aura's phone into her hand. Aura slid it into her pocket.
"Thanks, kid. What's your name?
"Chloe."
"Come with me, Chloe."
Aura gave Spiderman a lopsided smile and started limping away, grabbing Chloe's hand.
She had gotten good at throwing up a constant shield of carefree and casual energy in trying situations. If she was around other demigods right now, she would probably be slumped against a wall or sitting on the ground, cursing and putting pressure on her wound.
But that wasn't an option, and her body acted accordingly, stopping her from collapsing until she could get somewhere safe.
"You need a hospital!" Spiderman yelled after her, like he didn't know which one of them was extremely confused about the situation, and was betting it was him, but couldn't be sure.
"I don't," Aura said as he caught up to them. "I understand you have a civic duty or whatever, but I've got it from here. Thank you, see you around."
Spiderman didn't protest, but as Aura walked home, she could hear him following, jumping from rooftop to rooftop. He was probably making sure Chloe was okay, which Aura appreciated, but she really hoped he didn't take note of her address. It felt like daggers were stabbing into her thigh every time she took a step, going home for medical care was really her only option.
As soon as Aura shut the door and leaned against it, taking a deep breath, Chloe launched into questions.
"What was that? Why couldn't anyone see it? Why could you?"
Aura gave her the rundown as she bandaged her leg and texted Nico.
He teleported into her apartment a few minutes later, mercifully interrupting the start of Aura's panicked answer to the question "And what do demigods typically do after they turn 18 and leave Camp Half-Blood?"
"Hey guys," Nico said, striding over to Chloe.
"Whoa," Chloe said.
"I'm here to take you to camp," he said, grabbing her hand.
"Will says hello. I hope you're doing well," he added, nodding at Aura.
"Give Will a hug for me," Aura replied. "See you around."
Nico gave Chloe a wan smile. "Hold tight."
He stepped forward, and they were sucked into the shadows.
…
Two days later, Will texted Aura a picture of Chloe sitting with the Athena cabin at the campfire, eating a smore and laughing with her siblings.
…
A few days after that, Sally Jackson invited Aura over to her and Paul's apartment in the Upper East Side for cookies.
Sally had taken Aura under her wing after Aura expressed interest in leaving camp early and making a life for herself in the city. Aura hadn't had a motherly figure in her life for years, and it was really nice to have someone other than demigods her age express care for her.
Sally had become a motherly figure for a lot of demigods. She and Paul often hosted movie and game nights, inviting any demigod that wished to join. Camp wasn't very far, and Nico's teleportation came in handy often.
Except on the way there, Aura saw, of all things, a gryphon crashing into the window of Stark Tower.
Aura stood there for a moment in shock. Then she texted Sally a quick "Can't make it, sorry" text and started running.
See, fate is different for demigods. Fate isn't used to talk about love or luck, it's used to talk about the stupid small 'coincidences'. Fate isn't all-knowing and all-controlling. You can make your own decisions. But chances are, it'll come back to get you.
Destiny isn't being forced to walk an unchangeable path. It's more like being given an impersonal middle finger and handed a handwritten note that says "This is your problem now, have fun dealing with it"
But all Aura knew when she saw the gryphon attack Stark Tower was that she was there for a reason. The Avengers were important somehow, and she was meant to be involved. Whoopee.
When she reached the tower, she ran through the doors and past the secretaries and civilians, most reacting nervously to the gryphon's attack, many of the secretaries on phone calls or rapidly tapping on computers and many of the civilians running around anxiously, some hiding under tables or going outside to see what was happening.
When Aura decided to live in the mortal world, she had been taught by Chiron how to manipulate the Mist.
Think of the Mist like a massive Jedi mind trick. The wider magic is, the easier it is to manipulate, but the easier it is to see through. Aura could pull it around and draw from it all she wanted, but if a mortal was determined enough, no amount of training could stop them from seeing through.
Aura envisioned a spheric force field of shimmering gold magic wrapping around her, closing her off from the mortals. As she ran to the elevator and slammed on the second to top button, she imagined herself shoving it at every mortal who seemed to notice her.
The elevator asked for identification, and she poured as much Mist as she could into a response, shoving the feeling I belong here, let me up into the deepest depths of the elevator's wiring.
The Mist doesn't always work with technology, but considering how incompatible godly magic and mortal technology are, if your magic is immediate and coherent enough it catches technology off guard and convinces it everything is fine, the Mist's specialty.
The elevator clinked into motion and sent her up, remarkably fast compared to other elevators Aura had been in. She didn't know if that was because of her magic or if the elevator normally went that fast.
As soon as the elevator halted, she unsheathed her kopis and ran to the sound of rushed conversations and a gryphon's squawking.
The scene she found in the living room was not great. Glass from the smashed window was all over the white tiled floor. Furniture was pushed or flung out of the middle of the room. There were laser burn marks in the walls, presumably from the Iron Man suit. One couch had deep claw marks and fluffing spilling out of it, and another was tipped to the side with Hawkeye and Bruce Banner crouching behind it, the former aiming and firing his bow directed at the gryphon with no avail, and the latter trying to cover his head with his arms, probably trying not to Hulk out. Tony Stark was standing to the side of the room in his Iron Man suit. The Black Widow was running around, distracting the gryphon. She kept leaping furniture and dodging the gryphon's angry claws. Captain America was trying to help, lunging to Black Widow's aid with his shield and getting in the gryphon's face to buy her time.
Everyone in the room, including the gryphon, turned to look at Aura when she ran in.
"You again?!" Tony cried incredulously as Aura lunged towards the gryphon.
Gryphons aren't very hard to avoid as long as you're not in the air. They're small and fast, but their arms aren't very long so they have to be really close to you for more than a second or two to be able to score a hit.
The gryphon backed up, spreading its wings wide in alarm and rearing onto its back legs. Aura wasn't stupid enough to take the opening of its stomach, instead running and jumping behind the couch that Hawkeye and Bruce Banner were crouching behind. Aura pitched herself to the ground and shoved her back to the couch, peering to the side of it.
The gryphon slammed its front paws back to the ground and roared, stalking over to the couch.
Aura noticed Hawkeye's confused-and-done expression and gave him a wild smile, then she stood up and turned to face the gryphon, raising her sword.
The gryphon looked up and cocked its stupid eagle head at her, beady eyes narrowing. It squawked and tried to bite her.
Aura was expecting that. She took a chance, launching one foot onto the top of the couch (which, since it was turned sideways, was technically the side of the couch), pushing her other foot off the far edge of the top (again, technically the side), and used the momentum to slam her kopis into the top of the gryphon's head. The gryphon's sharp claws swung at her, and she let go of her sword to shove herself to the side, falling to the floor. She caught herself in a parkour roll and came up standing, though bruised. Slamming yourself at a tile floor as fast and far as you can is never very fun.
As the gryphon burst into gold dust, Aura grabbed her sword before it hit the ground and sprinted out the door. Aura could hear confused exclamations as she bolted down the hallway, but the Avengers had all been too focused on the gryphon to be prepared for Aura's risky maneuver.
Honesty, Aura hadn't expected it to work.
As she frantically slammed the lobby button on the elevator, she could see Captain America and the Black Widow running towards her and hear Tony Stark talking to what sounded like a robot voice coming from the ceiling. The doors shut.
Aura pulled her figurative gold Mist force field around her shortly before the elevator doors clicked open and made a run for the front doors. She didn't stop running until she physically couldn't anymore, and even then she made herself start speed-walking.
When she got to her apartment, she made herself a mug of tea and held it in her hands as she sat on the couch. She burst into laughter.
That was either the worst or greatest thing she had ever done.