The Shadow of a Hero

Chapter 14

It takes about five minuets for everything to go to Hades. Turns out the ground wasn't quaking for fun, but as a warning of everyone's impending doom. The Fates truly hate me, and anyone who disagrees can look at exhibit Q, the floating city! I want to say that nothing could make this day any worse, but of course, I know to never challenge the gods.

As soon as we enter the city we come face to face with a army of maybe a hundred Greek monsters and even more robots. The first one that tried to attack made the mistake of aiming for Thor. As soon as it got within range, the bot's head was dented beyond recognition by Thor's hammer. Clint, perhaps inspired by Thor's very, very small victory, releases an arrow into the herd. He hit the target perfectly. To bad said target was a harpy and did almost little to no damage.

"Thor, Vision, Will, and I will handle the enemy, the rest of you should help the civilians," I order, no longer trusting Roger's leadership. Percy was a better commander than him during the Battle of Manhattan, and Percy was an immature sixteen year old. I'm waiting for someone to object. Sending a majority of your soldiers away from the main fight isn't usually a winning strategy, but I don't know how the Mist will make the Greek monsters look to the mortals on the team, even if Rogers and Clint already saw Mrs. O'Leary. And I'm not going to risk them trying to take on a hydra and give me more work. No one objects in the few seconds I give them to do so. I take that as an agreement and plunge into the thick crowd of my current enemies.

Learning from my past mistake, I swing my sword harder than I normally would to decapitate the first robot I come across. "Come and get me you tin cans," I challenge. Not my proudest work, but it serves its purpose. The monsters and bots are more than happy to try and rip me to pieces it would seem. I'll kill one and another one gets in line to die. The mech in front of me gets it's mechanics shredded when I stab it, then I shift to deal with the empousai on my left. When she's dealt with, a different bot needs my attention behind me which means a strain on my aching shoulder from forcing my sword through their iron armor. At some point the cloth that was covering up my healed bullet wound is ripped away.

Off in the distance lightning strikes a row of robots, frying their circuits as Thor fights and every once in a while Vision or Ironman flies over head. At one point a monster almost gets in a lucky hit, but is stopped by a celestial iron arrow sinking into its throat. I follow the path the arrow should have taken and find Will keeping watch on the roof of a almost intact building. I thank him with a smile and a curt nod.

The next ten or so minutes are spent toppling a cyclops while trying to defend against a mass of assaulting robots. Despite my efforts, a bot manages to deliver an uppercut and it becomes clear that there are to many foes for me to deal with alone. My energy levels are being depleted, my arms ache from swinging my sword around, and now a bruise is probably forming. I've been avoiding using my powers since it's sure to make Will mad at me, but I don't see another option.

I release a pulse of darkness to clear an area around me and buy me precious time. Then I kneel down and plunge my sword through the pavement. The ground splinters out from where my weapon cleaves the earth. Robots and monsters alike are devoured by the widening crevices where they will fall to the Underworld and become Cerberus's newest chew toys. "Serve me," I breathe in Greek. Answering my call, ten skeleton warriors crawl their way out of the pits clothed in battle armor. "Attack." A command and a large output of energy sets my small army on a rampage.

I slide my sword out of the ground and try to stand. My vision blurs. My brain buzzes with a head ache causing me to sway. I blink away the fuzzy eyesight, but the world still spins. That trick zapped my energy, so that won't be happening again unless I'm willing to join my father's realm permanently. I clutch my head, trying to ignore that two of my soldiers have been ripped to pieces, literally, bones are strewn everywhere. A black, smokey figure darts around the battle field making my head swim more than it already is. Why can't Thanatos collect the ghostly souls that come out of the Ultrons instead of zig-zagging around, messing with my eyes? Wait, ghosts? A third zombie is defeated, but now I have an idea, not a great idea, but an idea. Every time the escaped soul's armor is torn open, the soul is released and becomes something that looks like a specter.

I've never done it before. Percy is the only one that pulls energy from his dad's element, but in theory I should be able to do it too. I reach out to the energy that the nearest ghost is transmitting, and draw some of it to me. I don't take it all to avoid killing the soul all together. I use the energy of my fallen enemies to replenish my own supply. After the mess they made, it's only right that they help me clean it up. The new wave of power allows me to summon more skeletons to replace those that I lost. The best part, every time a metal freak is slashed though I get a refill. I decide that the zombies can handle the monsters and robots for a moment while I see how everyone else is doing.

I consider shadow traveling to where I last saw Will, but I don't feel like getting a lecture. Maybe I should make sure that none of the mortals have been eaten by a harpy or something. Though which one to I check on first? Rogers is out, my dream is still causing me to have a hard time being around him; Stark is just plain annoying; I don't know if Banner and Romanoff made it on this floating Hades, so that just leaves...Clint.

Barton is surprisingly hard to find. I check the top of buildings and areas filled with monsters with no luck. I end up finding him on a back street away from most of the fighting, tackling Wanda into an empty house to save her from an Ultron. The bot is shut down when Hawkeye's arrows spout from its neck. The danger is gone, but Wanda and Clint remain in the secluded building. If they stay in there for to long they'll become sitting ducks. I tap my foot impatiently, trying to decide if I should stand guard or leave. My choice is made for me when Medusa's sisters show up.

"Son of Hades," They hiss together. I sheath my sword and replace it with twin daggers, causing the serpents that make up their hair to get louder in anticipation.

"The snake sisters," I mock lamely. My grip tightens then relaxes on the black leather that wraps around the bronze handles of my new weapons. The siblings eye my daggers for a moment. Then they attack. Claws swipe at my unprotected arm, but miss when I side step the attack. I'm ready to strike back when an invisible force picks up one of the gorgons. It slams her against the side of a building. When that doesn't finish her off, the force tears her apart. Golden dust rains down on us. The other monster screams like a banshee in the Fields of Punishment at the death of her sister. Before she can come to her senses, I swipe my blade at her, slitting her throat. She's sent back to that place, but most of all, she stopped screaming.

That done, I look up to see the confused faces of Clint and Wanda. She must have been the invisible force."We should get back to the main fight," Wanda instructs, suddenly becoming serious. While she's giving out orders a familiar blue streak runs past the entrance of the road that we're on.

"Fine with me." Clint shrugs.

I don't answer, the blue streak is back. I take the opportunity for some payback and solidify a small patch of shadow right in front of where Pietro should be stepping. He trips over the shadow block I made and falls flat on his face. If someone ever said revenge isn't satisfying, they were wrong. "You really should slow down and watch your step," I suggest, holding back a small chuckle. He glares at me. Then he suddenly bursts out laughing.

"Not bad." He stands and brushes off specks of glittering, golden dust. Barton laughs along while Wanda does not look amused. "You're not so bad," Pietro amends. He grabs his sister and speeds away. "Keep up old man," He taunts Clint before disappearing completely.

Hawkeye aims his bow in the direction the duo went, mumbling something under his breath. With I sigh, he relaxes and turns to me. "We should try and catch up."

"Speak for yourself."I embrace the shadows, hold my breath that I still have enough energy from the ghosts, and vanish.

The last thing I hear is Clint's "You have got to be kidding me!"

A/N: Sorry if nothing really happened in this chapter, I had to split it up since it's turning out to be longer than I thought it was going to be. Thank you to everyone who reads this. Because of you guy I have over 20K views which is completely unthinkable! I never expected to get so many views, how did this happen? Special thank you to those that comment and vote, it's super encouraging and makes me love writing this even more.

Also, I really don't think there are going to that many more chapters to this book, we're in the home stretch. Because of this I was wondering it anyone had ideas of something I should write next, or if I should write something else. I would really appreciate suggestions, though I can't guarantee anything.

Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel or Heroes of Olympus.