Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson of DC Comics. If I did, I wouldn't be here writing fanfiction.
Breaker
Chapter 1
East End, Gotham City
An old run-down house, its white paint chipped and turning yellow sits under the dim light provided by the moon, and the flickering bulb from the streetlamp located at the end of the front yard. The front yard filled with dying yellow and brown grass still has a sold sign from Gotham City Real Estate. Shouting is heard from the house as a huge whale-like human being lumbered to the front screen door and pushed it open. A half-empty beer can in his hand he stuck his hand outside the house and began to shake the hand. While with his free hand the whale like human being gestured it to the dimly lit street.
"Since y-y-you don't want to deal with m-my rules. You can stay right the fuck outside until your ungrateful ass is willing to listen to me."
Somehow managing to get his words out through his drunken slurs he turned his head back into the house and adopted a glare as he stared at the unknown person in the house.
"Liis-listen here you little shit. You have until I count to three to get out of my house before I shove my foot so far up your ass that you'll be eating my shoe for your next ten meals."
Once the blob of a man began his count down a small blur rushed past him and headed outside and down the dying grass front yard and into the street.
"And s-s-stay the fuck out." Belching once again he slammed the door shut effectively leaving the boy outside.
The small scrawny kid just sits on the curb tears starting to fall from his eyes. His black hair blending into the night and the tear-ridden sea-green eyes being illuminated from the dim lighting of the streetlamps.
"Stupid Gabe. Guess I'll have to wait for him to pass out again before I sneak back in. This always happens. He spends all this time yelling and screaming just to pass out and forget what he did to me."
After spending some time silently crying to himself the boy finally began to calm down and used his too large long-sleeved shirt sleeves to wipe the tears from his face. Now he just sat, resigned to his fate the boy began to stretch out and relax on the curb while he waited for his stepfather to stop drunkenly yelling at the television and finally pass out.
A voice cuts out through the darkness and seemingly came out of nowhere.
"Are you finally done crying?"
Shooting his head up the boy searched around looking for the voice. As his search provided nothing through the darkness a girl around the same age as him steeds into his vision.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I just wanted to make sure you were all done crying before I walked over to you."
Finally getting a good look at the girl he can see she's dressed similar to him. Both wearing torn-up ratty jeans and a too-large long-sleeved shirt. The only real distinction is that her shirt was a deep royal purple instead of the cobalt blue shirt he had on. Her blue eyes meeting his green ones and she gained a curious look on her face.
"Well? Do you talk or you just gonna sit there?"
"I-I-I'm sorry. I just didn't expect another person to see me like this?"
"I'm just kidding. You looked like you could use a friend to sit here with you."
Shooting the unknown girl, a small. Probably the first one he's had the whole day the boy finally seemed to be truly calmed down after everything he just experienced.
"Yeah sure. Thank you. But can we be friends if we don't know each other? Because my mom says not to be friends with people I don't know."
Laughing at his comment the girl holds her hand out to the boy.
"Well then. My name is Stephanie. Now since you know my name, we can be friends."
Reaching his hand to shake the girl's outstretched hand the boy finally looks truly happy as he joins the girl in her laughing.
"Hi, Stephanie. My name's Percy. And now I guess we're friends."
"Well, Percy. Since we're friends you can come over to my house until your dad calms down. I think it's supposed to rain soon."
Pointing up the boy follows her gaze as the sky is a darkening gray with the moon and stars completely hidden behind the clouds with some drops beginning to fall around the two kids.
"Are you sure I can?"
"Trust me, Percy. My mom gets the same way when she takes too much medicine. It's good to have a friend who has the same problems."
Beginning to head across the street Stephanie notices Percy isn't following. Stopping halfway across the street she turns back to him.
"Are you gonna come with me?"
Percy who had been sitting in a stupor at the conversation that just occurred shakes his head to clear his mind before looking at Stephanie's curiosity-filled eyes.
"Yeah sorry. I was just shocked at the idea of someone actually wanting to be my friend."
"Of course, I want to be your friend. I wouldn't have said we were if I didn't mean it. Now come on. My mom's asleep and we can split some hot chocolate."
Eyes lighting up at the prospect of hot chocolate Percy springs up to follow Stephanie to her house. Both now laughing they walk off into the darkness that is Stephanie's front yard. Coincidentally located next to Percy's house just so he can keep an eye on Gabe.
Gotham, City 1 Year Later
Fear. That was the only thought that ran through Percy's mind. Forced to watch his mom suffer in pain as Gabe stood over her body, as she screamed for him to help her. Yet every time he reached out for her to help her, she would scream even more and seemed to get further away from him, and Gabe would beat her more and more.
Gabe turned his head to Percy and stared him down. Instead of his normal brown eyes this Gabe had eyes that were black as a black hole. They absorbed all the light around them and turned the classroom from the brightly lit room it had been to a room that was as dark as the first night Percy spent in Gotham.
The rest of his third-grade group seemingly melted out of existent around him as Percy focused more and more on his mom and her wailing.
The image in front of Percy shifted as what was once only his mom and Gabe grew to include his best friend Stephanie too, and Gabe shifted his angry from his mom to her. As Percy watched his mom and best friend be viciously beat down by his stepfather, with the inability to do anything to help them fear truly took over.
While Percy was focused on his mom and friend being beat by his stepfather, he failed to notice the shifting green gas that has filled into the classroom minutes before his fear took over. Percy wasn't alone in the room. The other 4 kids had joined him in rolling around through the gas, all of them screaming in terror at sights they can't see, all while the teacher in charge of watching them sat slumped down in his chair his face stuck in a permanent look of fear as blood rushed down his body as it gushed out from his slit throat.
Amongst all the chaos stood a tall lanky fellow dressed head to tow in different shades of brown, a big straw hat adorned on top of a woolen sack like mask. The beady red eyes that shown through the mask being the only semblance of color amongst all the brown. And in his hands, he held a tall scythe that only seemed bigger when he began to do some practice swings with it. This is the master of fear himself, the supervillain Scarecrow.
"Breaking out of Arkham gets easier and easier. Shame I didn't have time to make a new Fear toxin. But these children are the perfect specimens to work on my old one with. But the real question is which of these little brats will be my new test subject."
Seemingly pleased with himself he looked over the kids as they screamed in fear. Taking in a deep breath he seemed to be enjoying himself as he attempted to directly inhale the fears of the children around him. As he stepped over one of the children and waded through the other children he walked over to Percy. The boy was screaming the most and the loudest as he slowly cowered more and more and shrank into as small as a ball he could while he rocked himself attempting the clam down.
Scarecrow crouched down in front of Percy and lifted his head with his hand and stared into Percy's terror filled eyes.
"Yes, you will do perfectly. The fear rolling off is just what I need. You will be the perfect test subject for me to practice my new fear gasses on."
As Scarecrow reached down to grab Percy the window shattered behind him as a figure clad in black flew in through it. Red hair flapped behind the figure as the yellow helped accent the bat shaped symbol on her chest.
"Alright Scarecrow. Back to Arkham with you. Testing your fear toxin is bad enough. But choosing to test it on children is a whole different level of evil."
Scarecrow turned his head to the noise and once he saw the figure that burst into the classroom cocked his head and attempted to analyze the situation.
"Batgirl. What? Am I not important tough to warrant the Bats attention? So, I have to settle for one of his sidekicks?"
Batgirl laughed at Scarecrow's comment.
"This sidekick has kicked your ass plenty of times before. And she'll do it again."
Instead of choosing to comment Scarecrow reached into his pocket and threw a pellet at Batgirl. The pellet separated in mid air and a green gas, much like the gas that was already in the air for the classroom began to smoke out of the pellet.
Batgirl simply reached onto her yellow utility belt and pulled out a portable rebreather like device and popped it into her mouth. The gas swirled around her but unlike the students who were still being impacted by the toxin with their fear-stricken expressions, Batgirl simply leaped and broke through the thick green gas as she lunged at Scarecrow.
Having expected this maneuver Scarecrow reached his limbs out and threw Batgirl to the side as he used her momentum against her. Crashing into the wall Batgirl rolled off it and crouched down low as she lands.
"Did you really think I'd fall for that? It's the most predictable move you have."
Batgirl simply shot Scarecrow a grin. Her eyes bright with mirth she instead just pointed behind him.
As he turned his body to see what Batgirl was pointing at all Scarecrow saw was a bat shaped device. As Scarecrow stared at the weapon, he missed Batgirl reaching down to her wrist communicator. As she pushed a button on it the bat shaped device beeped before launching a net at Scarecrow.
Simply raising his scythe Scarecrow cut through the net before he began to laugh.
"You Bat people get more and more predictable every fight. Do you think so little of me that you think that a simple party trick like that would stop me?"
"No. But I knew you would be too busy mocking me about that to notice the fear toxin you filled the room with was being absorbed."
True to Batgirls word the green gas had become less and less prevalent in the room until it was completely gone. Even the children had stopped cowering in fear, with their faces now showing mild fear instead of the full-blown terror that they had when the gas was at its height. Well expect for Percy who seemed to be even more terrified, as if he had absorbed more of the gas than the rest of the students.
Scarecrow as he registered Batgirls words looked around the room. If his mask would allow it all that would be visible from his face would be the absolute confusion as to what had happened.
"What? No. No you little bi- "
Before he could finish his insult, Batgirl had rushed Scarecrow from behind and slammed his head into the stone wall effectively knocking himself out."
Standing up fully Batgirl shot out a Zipline from her grapple gun before securing the gun. Walking over to grab the students and get them out of the building Barbra noticed that the devices she had planted when she broke the window to absorb the fear gas hadn't activated.
"That doesn't make sese. How did the gas disappear so quickly without the help from the air purifiers?"
As if she was asking a rhetorical question her thoughts get interrupted by Percy screaming at the top of his lungs.
"Stop Gabe. Please just stop. Don't hurt them anymore."
The scream gained Batgirl's attention as she rushed over to Percy and attempted to hold him and calm him down.
The sudden feeling of someone touching him caused Percy to lash out and throw a punch at Batgirl. Batgirl was pushed back as this little 9-year-old ended up hitting her with more force than though possible.
After Percy flailed his arms in random directions a few more times the exhaustion of everything that just occurred to him seemed to take his toll as he slowly passed out into a state of unconsciousness.
As she regained her balance Batgirl stood up and slowly picked Percy up again. Making sure she has him secured she walked over to the zipline before slowly riding down it, keeping Percy safely secured.
Gotham City, Yancy Academy, 3 years later
Two sets of feet pounded the pavement as the front doors to Yancy Academy School for the Troubled burst open and two students rushed out of them. Both dressed in the schools' uniforms, one belonging to a male and the second belonging to a female the two students sprinted down the paved walkway and onto the sidewalk of Gotham City.
The blonde girl turning her head towards her male companion gave him an exasperated look as if this was all his fault.
"Percy you asshole. I'm going to kill you if this ends with me having to buy yet another school uniform."
Instead of the look of sorrow that the girl hoped her statement would garner, Percy instead shot her a shit-eating grin as he pumped his arms faster and started to leave her behind him.
"Oh, come on Stef. Live a little. And you would never kill me."
"And why wouldn't I?
"Because if I die, you'll never meet another person who would be willing to put up with your shit."
Rolling her eyes at her friend Stephanie chose to instead take the mature route and stuck her tongue out at him.
"Real mature Stef. You don't want to be involved fine. I'm gonna go left you go right. For some reason, these assholes always choose to go left."
At the word assholes the front doors to Yancy Academy flew open as three pissed off 16-year-olds sprinted out from within the school and searched around for the two 12-year-olds.
Landing their eyes on Percy they gain malicious grins and begin to descend on him as he attempted to sprint away from them.
"Jackson you little fuck. Give us back our shit and we'll only half beat your ass."
Percy instead just turned back to the three bullies and raised his middle finger.
"I don't know what the fuck the three of you are talking about. I've been with Stephanie all day."
Percy pointed at the area where Steph had been. But what had once been home to his blonde best friend was completely empty save for the scuff marks from her shoes. When he heard no backup from her Percy turned his head to look at the space. And instead of being greeted with his friend all that he could see was an empty space.
"I didn't think she would actually leave me. Stupid self-preservation tactics. But also smart by her. Didn't want to get involved in this."
Percy turned his attention back the bullies who had moved in on him during his short monologue. Now only a few feet away Percy turned on his heel and began to haul ass through the sidewalk of Gotham. Managing to clear a few more feet Percy hit the ground as the three boys tackled him and began to pat him down.
When they didn't find the wallets of watches that they were missing on his person the lead bully grabbed Percy by his school jacket and pulled him up in order to face the boy face to face.
"I know you have our shit, Jackson. Where the fuck are they?"
Percy simply gave the bullies the best innocent expression he could.
"As I tried telling you three fine gentleman. I don't have your things. But none of you would have believed me."
"It's because we know you have our stuff."
"You think I have your stuff? Prove it. Oh, wait. You can't"
Instead of responding the lead bully cocked back his arm and punched Percy straight in the face bruising up the area around his eye.
As Percy's body hit the ground the head bully turns back to his cronies.
"Come on guys. Let's go check back inside. We're done out here."
They then walked off leaving Percy rolling around in pain as he brought his hands up to his face and felt up his bruise.
"Shit. I'm not gonna have fun explain this to mom when she comes for Parent's day tomorrow."
"You did a good job at hiding the stuff you got from the. But anyone worth their salt would be able to find the stuff on you. You're lucky you robbed those three idiots instead."
When Percy heard the voice, he turned his head to it and was greeted by the sight of an attractive woman with short cropped black hair, and a tight-fitting black dress.
"I don't' know what you're talking about ma'am. I didn't steal anything from them."
Instead of buying his lie the woman simply gave Percy a look of amusement as she walked over to Percy and opened up his jacket before with her, she reached in with nail and ripped open a secret pocket Percy had sewn in earlier.
When she did three wallets along with three fancy looking watches fell to the ground with a thud.
"Really you don't know what I'm talking about?"
"Alright you got me. So, what now? Are you gonna report me? Maybe call them back over to have them kick the crap out of me some more?"
Instead, the woman just laughed.
"No. None of that. I'm here to give you a warning. This city has enough thieves that if you try to join in your newishness will leave you in the dust?"
"So, what am I supposed to do? I need to do something for money."
"Not my problem kid."
Before Percy could give a response off to the woman she just began to walk off. Any attempts of calling out to her died in his mouth as he stood up and began to fix himself.
Once he straightened his jacket and gave it a shake a white business card fluttered out from it and landed softly at the ground. As Percy bent down to check out the card, he stared at it with a look of hatred.
"Stupid dyslexia. Always has to make life harder than it has to be."
Once Percy is finally able to make out the title on the card, he is surprised to see it's a restaurant. The Tin Roof. Finding the location of the card Percy sets off to find it.
"Wow you look good for a guy who almost died."
Percy jumped three feet in the air as Steph appeared next to him, seemingly out of thin air.
"I can't believe you actually left me."
"You told me too!"
"Yeah, just because I say something doesn't mean I want you to do it."
"Then why would you tell me to go right?"
"Whatever Steph. You're up next though."
Laughing at her friend's statement Steph realizes that Percy is still holding the business card. Looking at it she yanks it from his hand and reads over it herself.
"The Tin Roof? What do you want to do with this?"
Percy just shrugged his shoulders as if he seemingly didn't care.
"Yeah, sure why not. Maybe it will end up with us getting actual jobs."
The two students, one blonde in a skirt and blazer lead the way as her beat up friend in pants and a blazer hobbled next to her, his body still sore from the beating. As they walked off towards The Tin Roof it seemed as if it would be the second good thing they ever experienced together in Gotha. The first obviously being meeting eachother.