Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you're having a great day, and if you're not, I hope this chapter is an improvement.
Chapter 12: Sir, This Is An Arby's
It was December 21st, and the only thing on the news was the bombings.
Rather early the previous day, while Aura had been at work, The Ten Rings bombed Ali Al Salem Air Base, in Kuwait. The military church, full of wives and children, was completely destroyed. The soldiers were out on maneuvers.
It was the third bombing from the man who called himself The Mandarin.
Aura had hoped that SHIELD and the government would handle the terrorist threat, but they didn't seem to be making much progress. Should demigods step in?
A squad of powerful demigods could probably eliminate the group in less than a week. All they would need would be a few charmspeakers and Aura's musical abilities and men with guns wouldn't be much of a threat. Add in Percy's water powers, Leo's metal dragon and fire powers, Jason's flight and lightning bolts, Kayla's explosive arrows, Charlie's breaking and entering skills, Lupelele's influence over victory, and Siobhan's superhuman speed, and they would take the terrorists by storm. Not to mention the Athena cabin's strategy, Hephaestus cabin's mechanical smarts, Hecate cabin's magic, and Hypnos cabin's sleep-inducing abilities.
Though, both SHIELD and the government were extremely focused on eliminating the threat themselves, and demigod interference would definitely be noticed. The only thing scarier than a huge terrorist threat is a group of unknowns that can easily go to town on said terrorist threat.
…
On the 23rd, Tony Stark made a public statement taunting the Mandarin.
And revealing his home address.
Aura wasn't surprised when his home in Malibu was bombed.
She was surprised that a demigod celebrating Christmas at home in Rose Hill, Tennessee had reported that they saw the Iron Man suit crash somewhere in the town.
She was also surprised that she had been given the week off for Christmas, seemingly unprompted.
Considering that she had been in the right place at the right time to help with the gryphon attacking Avengers Tower, it was quite clear that the Fates had decided she was going to be involved with the Avengers somehow.
She did want to help Tony, though. The Avengers already being suspicious towards her meant that unlike the other demigods, she could help him and it wouldn't change much.
Also, chances were, if she didn't go to Rose Hill herself, she would end up there somehow anyway. Aura didn't feel the need to wait and see what the Fates would come up with.
So, she packed a bag, borrowed a van from camp (one of the ones without the Delphi Strawberry Service logo), and started towards Rose Hill.
Maybe she could use a road trip.
…
New York and Tennessee are very far apart. Aura knew this. But she had never tried to drive to Tennessee, so she was not aware of just how far the two are.
Google Maps estimated that the drive would take ten hours.
Aura didn't have ten hours.
Even with her fast-as-possible driving (which felt like basically normal driving to her because of her fast reflexes and almost inhuman processing speed), it took the rest of the day.
Aura may have gone well above the speed limit whenever she could. And used the Mist to get out of several tickets.
When Aura finally got to Rose Hill, she was surprised at its quiet beauty.
She had been through quite a lot of small towns on her across-the-country summer field trip of doom on the run to Camp Half-Blood from Seattle, but apparently a small town in the winter is way prettier than one in the summer.
The stars were out, visible on the horizon. Pine trees bordered the road. A thick layer of undisturbed snow covered everything. Soft snowflakes surrounded Aura's van. The silence was the most different, though. It surrounded Aura, making her feel deeply alone, but in a freeing way.
The houses were fairly far apart, but got less so as Aura neared the main part of the town. Many stores had Christmas lights and decorations outside or visible through their windows.
Aura was almost sad when her calm was interrupted by the heavy crash and rush of water of the water tower falling over.
"Metrokoites," Aura said brightly, and sped up.
When she reached near where the water tower had fallen, she pulled over, unbuckled, grabbed her bow, quiver, and arm/finger guards (she already had her kopis and dagger), and hopped out of the car.
The scene by the water tower was not pretty, but at least it seemed easy to handle.
The water tower had crashed into a small building, and the massive amount of water had knocked into other buildings and a small fenced-off area of pine trees being sold for Christmas trees.
Tony Stark was lying on the ground, wet and stuck. One of the structured beams that had supported the water tower was pinning his foot down, and he was laying among other wreckage.
A muscular guy was holding a little kid over his shoulder, taunting Tony.
"Tony, is that child in danger?" Aura called from about 20 feet away as she walked towards him.
"What in the- What are-" Tony stuttered, head snapping towards Aura. "Yes, that child is most certainly in danger, that man is threatening us."
"Now, now, I'm only threatening you! This kid will leave here fine as long as you do what I ask," the man said.
"Come on, that's a threat! That's clearly a threat. You're threatening that kid," Tony said.
The man roughly moved the kid from over his shoulder to in front of him, putting his arms around the kid to keep him in place. The kid looked scared.
Aura decided that this situation wasn't going to resolve itself. She lifted her bow, stringing it with an arrow from her quiver and pointing at the man's throat.
"Leg or neck?" Aura asked evenly.
"What?!" Tony exclaimed.
"Do you want me to shoot him in the leg or in the neck?"
Aura didn't know if the man was a common thug or serious bad guy, and she trusted Tony's judgement enough.
"Hey now, I'm not doing anything-" The man started, but Tony cut him off.
"Neck, that guy is probably going to explode and murder people."
Like, physically explode? Aura didn't ask. She just took the shot.
It was perfect, of course. The man was dead almost instantly.
His body collapsed to the ground, and the kid shrieked and ran to Tony.
Aura slung her bow over her shoulder.
"What the hell. What the hell?" Tony was muttering.
"Hey, you're the one that told me he was going to murder people. Now he can't."
Aura felt bad for the death, but mostly she felt bad for not feeling guilty about the death. She didn't regret her decision, but could she have handled the situation differently? Was there another way?
Aura walked over to Tony and hefted the beam that his leg was stuck under. Tony quickly pulled his leg out of the way, wincing, and Aura dropped the beam.
"You're a little late to the party, Katniss," Tony said, standing up and ruffling his wet hair. "I already had to kill one of those things."
"Things? What are they?"
"Let's go back to Harley's garage, and I'll tell you about it. You think you'd be up for another road trip?"
"Sure," Aura said. She may as well.
"Wait, who are you?" The kid asked. He looked towards Tony for direction.
"Her name is Aura Davis. We've had a few run-ins. Beyond that, I don't really know."
Eager to interrupt this conversation, Aura started walking towards the van.
"You guys have a car?" She asked, not turning around.
"Nope," Tony said, speeding up to catch up to her. "That van is yours?"
"Borrowing it."
Aura took off her bow, quiver, and finger/arm guards, putting them in the back through the side door, and climbed in the front seat.
"Come on, I'm the adult here," Tony whined.
Aura's only answer was to start the car.
The kid got in the back. Tony eventually gave in, strapping himself into the passenger seat with a sigh.
"Where to?" Aura asked.
…
"So, genetic modifications? They were injected with Extremis, which lets them heat things up, but also they explode?" Aura asked, setting her mug of hot cocoa on the couch end table.
Tony was tinkering on the Iron Man suit, waiting for it to charge. "Yup. They can be killed by normal means though, which works well for us. I blew up the other with a microwave."
"That's nice," Aura said, mildly impressed.
Harley was currently making them sandwiches, because none of them had eaten.
"We gonna talk about the bow thing?" Tony said, turning towards her.
"I don't know what there is to say."
"Well, that's interesting, because I was just thinking that there's probably a lot you could tell me," he swiveled his rolly chair closer.
Aura raised her eyebrow slightly and grabbed her cup of cocoa.
"Let's see, there's that time you met Cap while clearly running from something, with a large cut on your arm. But he says that he couldn't even remember the encounter until we saw you fight something outside that restaurant and realized he recognized you. Speaking of which, there's that time I filmed you fighting something. But the footage came out weirdly blurry, especially what you were fighting, and it can't be analyzed and the closer you examine, the blurrier it gets. Then there's that time you and another teenager helped Daredevil rescue a kidnapped kid," Tony seemed more determined than confused, like he was staring down a puzzle instead of a mystery. That surely wasn't great.
"And can't forget that time that I looked you up and visited your apartment, you showed me some serious scars on your arms, and then somehow I left the apartment even though I don't remember the end of our conversation or any reason I would have left! And it gets better! We have footage from someone's phone of you interacting with Spiderman, fighting what looks like a blurry alien, leaping what should be a near impossible jump from someone your age onto a fire escape, and not letting a massive gash on your thigh stop you from finishing your fight or walking home, taking a little girl with you! And somehow, it gets weirder! A gryphon, of all things, smashes through the window and starts attacking us, our weapons go straight through it like it's some sort of mirage even though it can hurt us, and then you, getting past everyone in the lobby and bypassing the elevator security, come rushing in to take it down!"
Tony paused. "And then you find me in Tennessee and shoot Savin in the neck, though I'm still not sure how to feel about that."
"I don't know how I feel about it either," Aura said mildly.
"So, nothing to say? Not even why you're here?"
"I'm here because you looked like you needed help and I was available. Turns out, you definitely need help, so I'm staying."
The door to the garage opened and Harley walked in, carrying a plate of sandwiches.
"I've got the food!" He proclaimed.
Aura and Tony shared a look, Tony's one of impatience and Aura's a slight smirk.
If Tony was right about Aldrich Killian's involvement and Killian's mansion in Miami, this was going to be a long trip.