Demigods Assemble (PJO/MCU)

Chapter 46

Peter

Peter was overwhelmed. He'd never been in a fight of this magnitude for this long before. The closest he'd ever come to was the airport fight in Germany, but that had just been against superheroes and they weren't really trying to kill anyone. Plus, it had only lasted maybe fifteen minutes. Peter had been fighting for two hours at this point, and the monsters kept coming. The news about Keto's demise was nice, but it didn't seem to have made a difference on their numbers.

There were very few HYDRA agents left, but they were picking their targets well. They searched for the weakest demigods and attacked them since their weapons didn't work on mortals. Peter did the best he could to protect them, but the monsters were keeping him very occupied.

Peter punched aside a dracaenae and shot a web at an unsuspecting soldier, pulling him away from the centurion he was about to ambush. Peter charged him and kicked him in the head. He followed through with a few more kicks and punches until the soldier lay unconscious on the ground. Peter was about to look for more mortals to take care of, but his sixth sense told him to duck.

Peter did, spinning around to face the telekhine that had tried to kill him. Besides the Chimaera, the telekhines freaked Peter out the most. The human/dog/seal combination just felt wrong in every way, and their weird waddles and way of barking just made them weirder. This one was over seven feet tall, snarling angrily at Peter.

Before Peter could think of a plan, two more giant telekhines joined their friend, surrounding Peter. He was trapped, and there wasn't a whole lot he could do against these things without a proper weapon.

The telekhines lunged and Peter reacted instinctively, jumping up and kicking two of them in the face simultaneously. The third grabbed Peter around the waist and slammed him to the ground. Peter gulped as the others closed in on him. A few feet away, he spotted a Celestial bronze hunting knife lying unattended. If he could just get to it, or hold off the telekhines long enough to fire a web . . .

And then something weird happened. Music floated through the air, a frantic little melody Peter couldn't place. The telekhines looked down and panicked as roots burst through the concrete and snaked up their legs, ensnaring them hopelessly. Peter took the chance to shoot a web at the dagger and pull it into his hand. With the telekhines occupied, it was almost too easy to stab each one in turn.

As the dust fell to the ground, Peter wondered what had happened. As far as he knew, only Demeter/Ceres children had such control over plants, and he knew for a fact that all of the ones who'd come to fight were already in the infirmary since he'd helped some of them get there safely. He found his answer as Percy's best friend, Grover Underwood, trotted up to him. The satyr looked completely energized and was entirely unharmed.

"You okay?" Grover asked, lowering a set of reed pipes.

"Yeah." Peter gestured to the pipes. "Did you do that?"

Grover looked at the pipes and smiled. "Yeah, it's an old trick."

"A good one," Peter said.

Over the comms, Peter heard Clint report that Phorcys was also dead. Peter was glad of the fact, but as the battle raged around them and more fighters had to retreat to the infirmary/armory, Peter was reminded of something.

"What are you doing here?" He frowned at Grover, not that the satyr could see his face. "I thought you were with the others in the lobby."

Grover grimaced. "I'm looking for Percy. Something's coming."

"What do you mean?"

"He and I have an empathy link, and . . ." Grover clenched his fist. "Something feels wrong. I think something's about to happen."

And just like that, Peter knew that whatever Grover feared was coming to pass. Peter looked up at the buildings around them, locating the one his "spidey-sense" was screaming at him to find. Peter's heart dropped to his stomach as he saw the body tumble off the roof.

"Percy," Peter breathed.

He barely registered Grover's cry of anguish before Peter was off, racing towards the fifty-story building as fast as he could. He saw Percy's head hit a windowsill on his way down and when his flailing movements stopped, he guessed he was knocked unconscious. Vision, Carol, Sam, Wanda, Rhodey, and Mr. Stark were all the way on the other end of the battle. Percy was free-falling and there was no one close enough to catch him. No one except Peter.

Peter couldn't seem to move fast enough. He launched over the hordes of monsters, desperately trying to get to Percy before it was too late. He had just reached the building and was staring wide-eyed at Percy's body as it approached him, picking up speed. Peter tensed and sprung at the wall with the intent of getting closer and catching Percy, but the unthinkable happened.

A hellhound collided with Peter midleap, sending him crashing to the ground under a giant mass of fur. Peter cried out and struggled to free himself, but three more hellhounds appeared above him and it was all he could do to keep them from ripping him to bits. Peter watched helplessly through his metal spider legs as Percy continued to fall.

Something strange happened around the fourth floor. Percy seemed to slow down for no apparent reason, almost coming to a complete stop. As quick as it had happened, the pull of gravity yanked Percy down again, and there was nothing to cushion his fall as he hit the ground with a sickening thud.

Peter managed to escape from underneath the hellhounds, but they kept attacking, reinforced by a few Cyclops. They pushed him back and Peter was forced to abandon Percy, who lay completely motionless.