𝑺𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝑨𝒏𝒏𝒂𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒉...

Vampires and mosquitoes

"Do you think mosquitoes are related to vampires?"

"Wh- what?"

All of them looked horrified, well... All of them save Percy. He looked like he genuinely pondered about the thought. Leo was definitely from another planet. All the while, the accused man just laid back on the neatly trimmed grasses flipping through some vampire comics.

They were all gathered outside the headquarters, on the grass field to discuss further plans from where they stopped earlier. The building was bustling with people moving in and out so they sought to the ground outside. They were all silent, thinking of a fool proof battle plan when Leo burst out his discovery.

"No Leo, definitely not. Vampires are characters made by clear sighted mortals who had the displeasure of seeing an empousa and monsters are not related to anything." Annabeth reasoned in an attempt to shut Leo up.

Leo grumbled under his breath and tinkered with something.

"Tony, how are our guests doing?" Steve questioned, trying to divert the topic to more pressing issues.

Tony took out a screen from his pocket and read the report of the current situation given by his A.I.

"That lord guy is still knocked out. They'll come out once he's awake."

"We need to wait for them before we start planning anything" Clint pointed out all the while inching his fingers closer to Tony's pocket, probably to get the screen.

His actions turn futile when Tony abruptly stands up, dusting his pants off of mud and grass. "Come on, we have only seen Percy in action. Lets entertain ourselves until they come. Shall we."

*****

To say they were astonished would be understatement.

Avengers and demigods were both extremely skilled in their methods of combat. While demigods' technique was ancient and war like mostly with swords, knives and bows and arrows, the avengers' fought with the right mixture of advanced weapons and hand to hand combat. They weren't dependent upon the weapons totally.

They started off with a friendly match between Natasha and Annabeth, first round being hand to hand combat. They were both equally tough. At first both of them had similar technique. Their blows were calculating and patterned, repeating after a certain timeframe but the time gap between each repetition was so much that nobody could calculate it before getting knocked out. Well nobody except Annabeth. She realised this and changed her stance to a more Greek. No strategy, no patterns, slam head-first and trust your instincts.

It was then that the match became interesting. Natasha was unable to predict her next moves while Annabeth noted when Natasha's moves repeated.

Leo brought out some buttered popcorn from his tool belt and passed on to others all the while not leaving his eyes off the two women.

When Natasha went for a punch to the jaw for the fifth time Annabeth caught her wrist, bent her legs in a half squat and judo flipped her by her wrist. Percy visibly winced, having previously experienced it but relaxed when Natasha didn't fall on her back. Instead she balanced herself on her hands and legs.

She looked like a cat, the only difference being that a cat doesn't stands with her stomach facing towards the sky.

She pushed herself off the ground and brought her forearm to block Annabeth's jabs. Natasha swiped her legs under her opponent's to distract her. She obviously saw how trained Annabeth was so it was likely that she would jump away. Natasha used this momentary distraction to swing herself over Annabeth's back, held her hands with one hand and pressed a part of her neck with the other. All this happened in a second and Annabeth was on the ground, unable to move in the next.

Natasha fell to the ground as well. Both of them panting heavily.

Leo whistled and Steve clapped.

" You won by a hair you know" he began, "both of you are tied fighters."

"Clint and Thalia" Tony called, "you're next. Archery"

Leo rummaged through his tool belt and brought out some screws, metal pieces, welding glasses and some other things that nobody knew of and started piecing them together. "Hey Perce, get some blue cookies, would ya?" He asked all the while making the thing.

Percy gave him a weird look but compiled nonetheless. He ran into the building to get cookies while everyone just stood there watching a fully engrossed Leo making whatever he was making.

By the time Percy came out with a plate full of cookies Leo was done. His new invention looked strangely like a cornucopia, just with a trigger at an end similar to a gun's trigger and some type of lever. He placed his invention beside him on the ground and took the cookies from the plate and burned them muttering what looked like a prayer to Hephaestus.

Percy frowned and glanced at the now empty plate in his hand. He looked up to see a grinning Leo gesturing him to pass on the plate. He did as he was told and Leo placed the plate on the ground and picked up his device, gripping it as if it were a gun with its closed end as a handle and adjusted the lever to minimum, pulled the trigger while the open end faced the plate.

The device let out some creaking sounds and out came....
Fruits?

With each press of the trigger another fruit would come out and land on the plate.

He then turned to his spectators, a proud smile on his face, "ta-da, Ladies and Gentlemen presenting you my latest invention. Super McShizzle Fruiter" he announced.

All of them were dumbfounded except Annabeth. Well, she was just facepalming herself.

"Fruiter? Really?" She deadpanned but there was a twitch of lips which shattered her facade of annoyance.

"Yup. Fruit Shooter. In short Fruiter."

"Okay, so I figured you needed targets for archery so boom" he explained and passed it to Tony, "do me a favour and shoot these for them."

He then picked up the now full of fruits plate, walked over to find a nice spot to sit.

"What are you going to do?" Tony furrowed his eyebrows at which he just scoffed.

"Where do you think this super hot body comes from" he stated gesturing to himself, "I need to maintain man." He sat down crossing his ankles and plucked out a perfectly round grape and popped in his mouth.

"You guys carry on." He waved between mouthful of fruits.

Thalia sighed and grabbed her bow and arrows and so did Clint. Clint had black shaft while Thalia's was silver. It made distinguishing easier.

Steve counted down for Tony to start while Percy shrugged and walked over to Leo, making himself comfortable beside him.

****

It's safe to say that Clint lost. Miserably. No doubt he had years of experience on his side but he used his skills only on missions whereas Thalia lived her life running. Earlier, from monsters and now after monsters.

Life and death situations do that to you.

Then came Leo's turn but he refused, saying that physical fighting was not his style. He'd rather make something nasty and throw it to the opponent.

Just when Annabeth and Natasha had to start the second round, which was knife fighting the ground shook as if there was a mini earthquake. Annabeth squinted her eyes to see what was happening when once again the ground shook again. The wave seemed to be coming from the barrier which meant that someone or something strong was trying to get past the barrier.

They all ran towards the barrier to have a closer look.

Annabeth froze as soon as she saw what was on the other side of the barrier.

A drakon.

Specifically The Maeonian drakon.

********

Drum roll
Here comes the surprise.
Let me know if you liked the chapter and please point out if there's a mistake. English is not my first language so there's ought to be some mistakes.