No man's land.
"Fuck, I forgot how much I hated this."
"People in misery?" Artemis asked.
"No, walking on a muddy road," Howard said.
Setting off early in the morning they headed for the warzone, and the way there was filled with dramatics. People shouting in panic, children crying searching for their parents, all classic war misery that no one wants to deal with.
"It's just the way it is." Howard grabbed Diana's hand who was looking around at all of the chaos.
"But I can help them."
"We can't waste much time on them, Diana," Howard said walking with her a bit further from the group, "You need to learn to see the bigger picture, the sooner we end this war the sooner the people will find peace."
Diana watched a wounded soldier screaming in pain and wanted to go help but Howard puller her back. "There's nothing you can do about it, so better not go."
"You really are cold." Diana held his hands tighter.
"Everyone is." Howard said looking forward ignoring everything around him, "Trust me when I say this that they won't do the same for you."
"So what makes us different from them?"
"Don't hit me with that heroic rhetoric," Howard rolled his eyes, "What makes us different is we're going to fight a god that none of them will be willing to. Also, all these explosions are reminding me of something."
"What is it?"
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Somewhere in London, inside an office, all you could see were smokes and burnt furniture. A man stood up dusting himself as he stared at the broken recorder that caused the explosion. He frowned thinking of the event that transpired just a couple of minutes ago. The recorder was left at his doorstep and was labeled to Ares. Curiosity filled him as he took the small recorder he hadn't seen before in and played it on his table.
"Dear Ares, or would you like me to call you Sir Patrick Morgan. But I will stick with Ares since it's shorter and easier to remember. Anyway, I am sending this to thank you for your generous gift this morning, waking up to women cheering my name has always been a dream. You're probably wondering how I know of your identity and why would a mortal knowingly dare pick a fight with the God of war, but c'mon that's all old talks. And you of all people should know that people should change with time.
Or maybe not, because I hear you're still manipulating things on the sidelines, you sneaky-devil. So with this, I am putting some of my cards on the table and I expect you to do the same. So we can have a proper conversation as normal adults. And I am extremely curious about why you're so interested in me as well. Also, a very bad choice manipulating a reporter who knows nothing about me since you know, you're the only one with such abilities I can think of.
So consider this a declaration of war or whatever they called it in your time. And I do hope we meet soon.
P.S. I am quite petty so just a quick warning."
And right after that the voice coming from the recorder began distorting and the explosion went off.
"To think he will be so much more than I anticipated," Ares smirked looking at the burnt down office, "A declaration of war, huh? I don't know about that but we will see each other very soon, Howard Smith."
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"Where are we?"
"You wanted us to take you the war, so this is it," Steve replied
"So we will find Ludendorff here?"
"If it will be that easy," Victor said ducking a little from the explosion, "But since you wanted to reach war ever since you got here, I hope you're at least a little excited."
"Chief's back!" One of the soldiers shouted as a few others looked at him and greeted him. Howard noticed Chief's influence as he figured he wasn't totally a waste of resources as he thought he would be.
"Keep moving!" Steve shouted from the front when one of the women suddenly grabbed Diana's hand begging for help.
"Help, please help." The woman said with a small baby in her hand, "They've taken everything... homes, food... the ones who couldn't escape they took as slaves."
"Where did this happen?" The compassionate Diana asked,
"Veld ...on the other side of the No Man's land." The woman pointed as Steve and the others came back.
"Diana, we have to go."
"We have to help these people," Diana said as the others didn't look too willing.
"The mission comes first." James said trying to get through to her, "The next crossing is still a day away."
"We can't leave without helping these people, they have nothing to eat and villagers enslaved she said," Diana said desperately.
"We understand, but we need to leave," Steve said again strictly, "We can't save everyone in the world and this isn't what we came here to do."
"How can you say that there are children..." The group gave up as they looked at Howard for help, after all, he was the leader of this group whether anyone agreed to it or not. Diana wasn't expecting much from Howard either, she had seen how cold he could be at times.
"This is the No man's land, these soldiers have been fighting for nearly a year and haven't gained an inch because there are Germans on the other side pointing machine guns at them. So basically crossing it is an impossible feat to accomplish."
"So you're saying that we should ignore them and look at the bigger picture?" Diana said out frustratedly.
"I haven't said that, have I?" Howard came forward, "Diana you lead the front with Artemis, James, and Victor following after you. Arthur, you head straight for the enemy base and destroy all the machine guns pointing towards us. I and the rest will provide support from the back."
Diana who was still frozen not thinking Howard would actually take her side on the matter, woke up when he passed her the shield. "We will talk about why going against the group is the wrong thing but for now go ahead."
Diana nodded and rushed into the battle with Artemis and his brothers following her. Arthur became invisible and ran off to the enemy's base as well.
"You really think this is the correct time for this?" Steve asked,
"And who's going to stop her from going in?" Howard asked a question in return, "Some people are just meant to fly with their own wings, so we should let them. And this is a good chance for me to evaluate all your skills for the upcoming big fight."
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A/N:- So I've decided to do POV of side characters after the end of each arc, so it won't disturb the flow of the story midway like an unwanted filler.
Also, most of the story is driven through Howard's POV, so you don't have to worry about his personal growth. It's just with a huge time skip, I needed time to develop his character to fill out the missing gap. So there is a lot of hearsay in this arc after all this arc is more focused on the introduction.