The Shadow of a Hero

Chapter 9

A/N: Please read the other Author's Note at the end of the chapter.

I use the wall to help me up and then as support when dark spots dance across my vision for a second. Like Hades I'm going to let Ultron look down at me.

Kelli and those cyberman wannabes step into the truck and close the large steel doors behind them. Another metal lackey must be up front at the wheel. There goes the hope of having a simple escape. On to plan B, distract until I come up with a better idea.

"So," I take half a step away from a weird, creepy, mechanical coffin. "what does kidnapping have to do with your scheme for world destruction?"

"Salvation." Ultron is quick to correct. Not like I care or am really listening. I'm more focused on getting away from this metallic freak. Shadow travel is out, I might get away, but so would Ultron and then it's back to square one. Ultron rambles on; I'm only catching a word here and there. And I can't summon zombies to help me since the truck is moving too fast for me to summon them. I pause in my planning when I notice what Ultron's rant not only involves the Avengers, but also the demigods. "What's that thing you humans say? Two birds, one stone?" He finishes.

Now I know why Kelli didn't just kill me when she had the chance. "I'm bait?" I clarify. Ultron doesn't say anything, he doesn't need to, Kelli's smirk tells me all I need to know.  He doesn't just have a vendetta against the Avengers, but the demigods too, and he wants me to draw them all who knows where so that he can destroy them both. Last time this happened Percy and Annabeth fell into Tartarus soon after. Well not if I have anything to do about it.

In a spit second decision I shove the machine towards Kelli and the smaller robot's direction, trying not to be to unsettled by the fact that there is a body and something glowing inside it. At least for the moment the two are pinned against the wall giving me time to deal with Ultron next. I don't have access to my sword since last I saw, it was stuck in a metal arm. Instead I pull another knife (this one being celestial bronze) out of it's sheath in my boot and attack, well more like tackle. Under normal circumstances Ultron probably wouldn't have been fazed, but thankfully the  truck goes around a sharp turn that knocks him off balance. Maybe the Fates don't completely hate me.

Of course that's when my luck takes a turn. A few quick bangs come from the ceiling. Almost like someone is running across the roof. The distraction gives Kelli and the two mini mechs their chance to get out from between the wall and the coffin (it's holding a body, so it's a coffin), and the first thing they do is come to Ultron's aid, who as soon as he no longer has a knife pressed to his neck, blasts the door off the back of the truck. I didn't know his hand had that feature. Hanging desperately onto the swinging door is none other than Captain America himself, so that's what the pounding was.

"You're late." I complain. I'm glad that the calvary is finally here, but I would prefer it if they could have came just a little later. Because of Steve's not so subtle entrance, I'm surrounded with Kelli behind me, the robot with my sword in his arm on my left and the other robot on my right.

Capt. uses his super soldier strength and momentum to swing himself into the back of the supply truck. Now there's even less room. I watch as he stupidly forms his famous red white and blue shield at Ultron who blasts it with a beam of energy coming from his hand. Since when could he do that? The shield heads back the way it came forcing Steve to move or risk getting nailed with his own weapon. Since Rogers isn't in the way to stop it, the shied flies out the back of the truck and into on coming traffic. With Steve being defenseless, I try to rush forwards and help only to be help back as two sets of metal hands clamp down on my arms.

"Not so fast." Kelli tuants. She's so close that it would be easy to land a blow on her, but all I can do is bide my time. After all, with the the metal lackeys flanking me it makes it easier to sense their twisted souls which gives me an idea. Though wether Steve lasts long enough for my plan to work is still up in the air.