Demigods Assemble (PJO/MCU)

Chapter 38

Peter

Peter was having trouble keeping track of everything going on. The streets of Manhattan were filled with monsters, HYDRA soldiers, demigods, and superheroes. Every time Peter took out a HYDRA agent, another took its place. That saying of theirs really was true.

He was also finding it hard to avoid the monsters. They just kept attacking everything in their path, demigod or not. Since Peter couldn't kill them, he had to keep directing them toward demigods while making sure he wasn't sealing his allies' deaths. It was hard work!

During Peter's few breathers as he swung through the fight to find where he was most needed, he noticed some of the demigods and Avengers working together, since each could only fight half of the enemy's army. Perched on the roof of a nearby short building, Frank and Clint were firing arrows into the enemy's ranks. Clint seemed to be alternating between regular arrows and Celestial bronze ones because he was targeting both mortals and monsters. Beside him, Frank was only focusing on the monsters. Whenever one climbed up to their roof and tried to attack them at close range, he showed off his shape-shifting abilities to make quick work of them.

Flying over the fight, raining down pain from above, were Mr. Stark, Rhodey, Sam, and the fire-enthusiast Leo on his giant bronze dragon. The four of them were like angels of death, swooping over the battle and delivering devastating attacks against those who had cornered their allies. Leo and Festus were so well coordinated that they never even hit Rhodey or Sam or Mr. Stark on accident. Peter made a mental note not to go up against them in their monthly game of paintball.

Back on the ground, the fearsome daughter of Ares, Clarisse La Rue, had joined forces with Melinda May, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent the others called "The Cavalry." The two of them worked so well together that if Peter didn't know they had just met one day ago, he would have thought they'd been fighting together for years. Clarisse wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty either with the HYDRA agents, easily wrestling them into submission. She was more about brute force, while May was so skilled at hand-to-hand combat that her opponents never stood a chance.

On the other side of the fight was another female demigod-Avenger pairing—the huntress Reyna and Natasha "Black Widow" Romanoff. Peter had been impressed by Clarisse and May, but he was blown away by Reyna and Natasha. Reyna seemed to have abandoned her bow long ago, instead fighting with her deadly hunting knives. The blades were a blur as she slashed at monsters left and right. Next to her, Natasha alternated effortlessly between guns and fists as she fought off endless HYDRA agents. Whenever a monster attacked Natasha and a mortal attacked Reyna, they simply switched weapons for a moment and took care of the problem before switching back.

Percy's half-brother Tyson and his Cyclopes were running around the fight as well, attacking monsters and mortals without distinction. Before the fight, they'd all painted their faces red to distinguish themselves from Echidna's Cyclopes so they wouldn't accidentally be killed by an ally. Peter was glad they were on his side. He had seriously underestimated what Tyson could do with that stick.

Peter had just started swinging over to a group of stressed-looking demigods when the tension in his web disappeared and he dropped to the ground. He popped to his feet and rolled under the hellhound that lunged for him and scrambled out of the way. He shot webs at it, but it just ripped free of them. He was only making it angry.

The hellhound was about to attack again when suddenly it yelped, fell over, and melted into shadow. Behind it stood Percy and Daisy, both looking a little worse for wear but still ready to fight. Peter remembered hearing something about a drakon over the earpiece.

"You all right, kid?" Daisy asked as Percy helped Peter to his feet.

"Yeah, I'm great," Peter said, trying to make it sound like the truth. "Did you guys take care of that drakon?"

"Yep." Percy grinned. "He won't be bothering anyone."

"Then let's get back to work," Peter said.

So they did. The three of them fought in a circle, and Peter thought they were pretty badass if he did say so himself. He used his webs to draw in HYDRA agents and beat them up while Percy annihilated any monsters that dared to come close. Daisy didn't discriminate between monster and mortal, using her inhuman abilities to fight them all. The three of them worked in harmony. Peter dragged enemies into the line of Percy and Daisy's waiting weapons and Percy used the water in the fog to direct the mortals towards Peter and Daisy.

Peter thought they might have a good shot at making it through Echidna's army if they continued working together so well, but eventually, they were overwhelmed and became separated. Peter found himself pressed against a wall, fighting desperately for his life. A moment of relief presented itself when a body came swinging through the mob on a cable, kicking soldiers out of the way. Clint dropped next to Peter and readied his bow.

"You looked like you could use a hand." Clint strung three arrows at once and fired them with perfect accuracy.

"Thanks," Peter said.

"Leo, the Hydra is approaching from the south end of the street," Chiron's voice shouted in their ears. "Take it out before its acid can do any damage."

"Sir, yes sir!" Leo said.

Over the sea of bodies, Peter spotted it. The thing was huge, with a scaly lizard-like body sprouting nine necks from its torso. Each head was in the shape of a diamond with rows of sharp teeth in its mouth, and even from the distance, Peter could tell it was spitting dangerous acid. And Leo was heading straight for it.

Peter and Clint glanced at each other. "He's gonna need help," Peter said.

"Agreed."

Without hesitating, Peter grabbed Clint and attached a web to a tall building to propel them towards the Hydra. They landed in front of it at the same time as Festus swooped overhead, dropping Leo with them. He grabbed a fallen Celestial bronze sword, nodded at Peter and Clint, and charged.

Peter fired webs at the monster's heads to try to distract it and keep it from spitting acid, but it just melted through them and became angrier. Clint launched arrows at it, but they just lodged in its body and enraged it. It seemed that beheading was the only way to kill it—the problem was, there were nine heads. Even with one hand aflame, Leo was facing some difficulty in attacking while avoiding the other heads.

Somehow, Leo got close enough to lop off the rightmost head but was immediately knocked to the ground by the nearest neck. Before he could recover, the headless neck split in two and suddenly the Hydra had ten heads. Leo cursed and launched himself back at the creature.

Peter and Clint engaged the monster on the left while Leo attacked the right. Most of the heads were focused on Clint and Peter since there were two of them, giving Leo the chance to cut off two heads and burn the stumps. Two down, eight to go.

Clint got in a good shot and his arrow sliced off another head. The stump was soon engulfed in flames, courtesy of Leo, bringing the remaining number down to seven. Leo took his chance while the Hydra reeled in pain and cut off the middle head. Six.

Peter jumped in the air and swung around the Hydra in a circle, firing a web from his free hand and wrapping the last six heads together. Clint shot a few arrows over the Hydra that carried cables, tethering the monster to the ground and eventually knocking it off its feet. As soon as it was down, Leo chopped off the final six heads all at once and burned the stumps. The headless body flopped around for a few seconds, but a fireball to the chest quickly put an end to that.

Peter, Clint, and Leo shared smiles before turning to the main fight and plunging back in.