–10 minutes later, Camp Half Blood–
Steve Rogers checked his watch and reached his finger to his ear. He pressed on his communicator. "It's been 10 minutes, the Olympians should be distracted. It's time to move in, people!" He declared.
"How are we going to break this barrier here?" An agent nearby asked him. In front of all of them was a shimmering barrier of what Steve figured was solid magic. It was supposed to be able to keep monsters out and make it so ordinary humans would want to stay away.
The reason every agent wasn't affected by the barrier was because Layla had given a tiny blessing to all of them. She didn't bless them all as much as she had Steve and Natasha though. She only gave the agents the blessing of Sight.
Steve had a decently sized broadsword strapped to his hip. "We'll break it with this." Steve said. He unsheathed the broadsword. It was solid black. Steve knew that it was made out of the same metal that Layla had used to capture Ares and Artemis. She gave him this sword. She had also given Clint a set of black arrows and Natasha a pair of black daggers. They were supposed to all break the barrier from three sides at once.
He raised the sword with both hands and swung it hard at the shimmering camp barrier. His sword pierced it like a knife through butter! There was a loud shattering sound as the magic physically cracked in front of them. It looked like someone had punched a hole in reality and they could now see inside the camp.
"Lets move in, everyone!" Steve said and stormed the camp. He and his squad pushed through a small patch of trees before they made it to a clearing full of log cabins. Steve could hear the panicked cries of children.
"The barrier has fallen!"
"Are monsters coming? I don't want to die!"
"Those aren't monsters! They're people! And they have guns!" A young girl cried out and pointed at Steve's group as he approached.
There were many kids of various ages in front of him. Off to the sides, he could see Clint and Natasha's team heading towards the center of the camp as well. The large group of kids in front of his group pointed swords, spears, and bows at him.
"Don't come any closer!" A twelve year old girl stepped forward holding a sword. "I am Annabeth! The daughter of Athena and I'm not afraid to fight you!" She said but Steve could see she was trembling. There were men with guns all around them after all. "What are you all doing here?" She asked.
Steve held his hands up. "It's OK, kids. I am Captain America. I'm here to save you all. You've all been kept prisoner in this camp. Forced to fight monsters or die! That's wrong and your parents are cruel to have done that to you! None of you have to fight anymore." Steve said.
The girl in front of him stared at Steve in shock. "What? We don't have to fight anymore?" The sword in her hand fell to the ground. She had tears forming in her eyes. "You're here to save us?" She asked in disbelief. Steve walked over to her and gave her a hug. She started sobbing softly.
"It's the real Captain America!"
"We can go home!?"
"I can see my mom again!?"
Other kids behind her started exclaiming.
"It's ok," Steve said. "Everything will be fine now!" At this point, the dozens of other kids had all lowered their weapons and many more of them had started crying. Natasha and Clint's groups arrived next to Steve's. All of the agents started preparing to get all of the kids out.
"There's gotta be at least 100 kids here…" Clint muttered. He had children himself and was outraged that all of these kids would have ended up eaten by monsters by the time they were 16 if SHIELD didn't step in here.
"Let's start moving them to the Quinjets. We don't know how long Layla will be able to distract all of the Olympians." Natasha said while looking around. She was getting a feeling that they were being watched.
"..."
"Distract the Olympians? To think that the mortals have grown bold enough to openly challenge the Gods once again!? Perhaps we need to once again annihilate a few cities to show who is truly in charge of this world!" A voice echoed around the camp. It was laced with fury.
Annabeth let go of Steve and wiped her eyes. "It's Lord Dionysus! He sounds mad!"
There was a flash of golden light and a scrappy man wearing a Hawaiian shirt appeared next to Steve and Annabeth. He was glaring at Steve with hatred. "Of course I'm mad you stupid girl! I'm mad that mortals have become so daring!"
Steve pushed Annabeth behind him. All of the kids nearby also started backing away. Their demigod senses were telling them that a fight was inevitable. "Dionysus, the god of wine, parties, and madness?" Steve asked. He had done a bit of reading up on all the Greek Gods before this mission.
Dionysus smiled menacingly. "So you know who I am and you still came here?"
Steve reached behind his back and grabbed his vibranium shield. His other hand settled on the black sword on his waist. That was his trump card that he wouldn't draw just yet. "I know that you and the other Greek Gods have killed countless people. I won't let that stand." He started walking forward. This was his second time fighting a god, but he felt that this time things would go differently. For one thing, he wasn't alone!
Natasha shot forward, far faster than a normal human should be able to move, and tried to punch the God in the face! He casually leaned his head backwards and dodged her blow. He raised his hand to strike back when an arrow flew towards his chest. "Petty tricks!" Dionysus easily caught the arrow out of the air. To his confusion, it started beeping.
Natasha jumped backwards and smirked.
BOOM!
The arrow exploded with the force of a grenade and sent Dionysus stumbling backwards.
XXX
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