Chapter 1

Greetings readers!

I know this is not what all of you expected this month but the thing is, over the past few weeks, I realised I had spent more time on my other stories than I've spent on the next chapter of Curtainfall itself. So my self-imposed curtailment of not writing other stories was of no use. And that is why I have decided to go ahead and publish the first chapter of a story I've been working on for quite a few months now – the DC crossover. And I can assure you, this will be an entirely different and completely novel experience from reading my trilogy.

I also want to clarify that this doesn't mean the trilogy is on hiatus, instead, I will be working on it and these other stories simultaneously, cycling through pangs of inspirations to ensure I can give my best as an author.

Now without further ado, onto the story.

All credit for the characters goes exclusively to Rick Riordan and to the owners of the DCEU.


Percy was having a normal day in his life as a partially immortal demigod with his scent completely snuffed out. It had been more than ten years since they had defeated Gaia and Percy was now all the more convinced of his choice to give up being a hero and live as a nomad. A very rich nomad.

Today, he had come to Metropolis in order to attend a ball after donating half a billion dollars to the Marine Life Conservation Organization. However, he hadn't done it out of some noble intention. Rather, his motivations were shallow and frivolous, and he proudly embraced that side of himself. The reason he had made this contribution was to woo the bewitching beauty who was the head of the organization – Alicent Banks.

He had met her a few days ago in Gotham, where he had just enjoyed another successful romantic exploit. And he had been stunned by Miss Banks' beauty, which is why he had readily made such a humongous contribution. After all, what worth was a fortune, full of mortal and divine riches, if it couldn't buy him what he knew would be one of his most memorable one-night stands.

So here he was, in front of a lavish hall, where a speech was going to be made in honour of the magnimous and anonymous donor who had given half a billion dollars to the foundation. Percy didn't want the publicity, he only wanted Alicent Banks. And he already had her. As in they stepped into the hall, with their arms interlocked, with her laughing at something witty he just said and with him sporting a debonair smile on his face. He knew he would not be getting much sleep tonight. No, he would be busy in other activities.


It was early in the morning, as Percy left Alicent's apartment. She had been fast asleep and had passed out like a rock after all their nightly activities had finally concluded. He had left her a note along with a full English breakfast. That was the least he could do for someone he would never be seeing again.

He grabbed a coffee in one of shops in the streets and sat down to read a newspaper. And unsurprisingly, the front page was full of headlines of how Superman had saved Metropolis' star reporter Lois Lane from imminent death at the hands of a warlord in an African country mired in civil war.

He didn't have any opinion on the intentions of the Kryptonian per se, and he knew he didn't need to. The attack of the Kryptonians eighteen months had caused humanity to reel in shock as they came to terms with the fact that they were not alone, but Percy had been completely unfazed.

He knew all about the Kryptonians, rather he had known all about them for quite a while now. Despite how hard the paranoid Olympians had tried to hide the existence of other lifeforms, of other planes of existence apart from Olympus, the Earth, the Underworld and Tartarus, of other gods from other worlds using the Mist, Percy had managed to find out all this and more a few years ago thanks to his excellent sources.

He knew that the gods were not the supreme creators that they claimed to be. They were merely a race of individuals who were very powerful and had taken the planet of Earth as a base for their operations. The Titans before them were no different. All of them were technically aliens themselves. Humanoid, very, very powerful aliens. But aliens nonetheless.

The true creators of the universe were Chaos and the first protogenoi – Aether, Erebus, Chronos, Pontus and Ananke. They were the first gods. They were the Old Gods. All other races in the universe, gods Titans, mortals and other protogenoi were nothing but creations of the original creators with varying degrees of power, birthed to colonize different planets on different planes of existence on the fabric of space-time, which had also been created by the Old Gods.

So, it had not really fazed him that finally, another race of beings, apart from the gods, Titans or mortals had staked claim to Earth. And he had remained anonymous throughout the entire conflict. He knew that the gods would step in if necessary, but surprisingly, a Kryptonian raised on Earth – Superman, had dealt with his own kind. But Percy didn't pay much heed to that either.

It ultimately didn't matter to him who eliminated which threat. As long as the gods needed Earth, they would defend it, using their pawns – the demigods. And poor old blue undies didn't know that he was just making the divine mafia lazier since he had taken it upon himself to be the protector of Earth.

He saw a mirror of his younger self in Superman, and if nothing else, he pitied the alien. He had given up on the life of a hero exactly because he knew how horrible it was. There was no upside to it whatsoever.

The life of a hero was a pitiful and pathetic one, there would always be someone unhappy with your work even though you had just staked your life to save their sorry hides. You had no respite, always fending off threats since people found it much, much easier to depend on heroes to protect them than they did to actually make themselves stronger.

Worst of all, at the end of the day, you had nothing to show for all that effort. All those broken bones, those little moments of horror where you thought your life was forfeit, all of those meant absolutely nothing because you would eventually die saving some ungrateful bastard who would never remember you. And it seemed Superman would die doing exactly that, if he continued down this path.

"If you are wise, Kryptonian, and if you have even a shred of self-preservation, you will let these pathetic race of mortals suffer the fate they deserve and decide to actually live out the rest of your life peacefully." Percy muttered as he finished his cup of coffee before exiting the coffee shop. It was time he experienced some of Metropolis' finest attractions.


A few weeks later, Percy found himself in Lex Luthor's grand event. And as soon as he walked into the room where Luthor was giving his speech, he found himself in the presence of two superhumans.

In a rather interesting turn of events, it turned out one of those two superhumans was the Man of Steel himself. And of course, his human alter ego was Clark Kent. In hindsight, Percy should have known. The amount of pro-Superman content as well as the amount of vitriol against Batman in the journalist's articles should have been a dead giveaway to who he really was.

This was information that would certainly be very useful later on if he ever needed to blackmail the Kryptonian superhero. Of course, Clark was suppressing his strength so impressively that Percy knew that apart from the Hunters and gods, only he was capable of detecting it. It seemed the Kryptonian had learnt to subconsciously use the Mist to mask his presence. That was very, very impressive.

The other superhuman was a woman. And to his surprise, it was a daughter of Zeus. He thought Jason and Thalia were Zeus' only demigod children who were currently alive but he should have expected that the old fart would have a grown daughter hidden away from Hera's viperous gaze. Percy would have to find out more information about her later.

A few minutes later, after Lex Luthor's, awful, awful speech, Percy looked around only to find that the daughter of Zeus was missing. And while he was lost in his thoughts, he was approached by Lex Luthor.

"Mr Jackson! I never thought you would actually come here. But I couldn't not invite the magnimous gentleman who donated half a billion dollars to the Marine Life Conservation Organization, could I?" Lex asked with an eerily wide smile on his face.

"Now, now, Mr Luthor, I would be a fool not to attend one of your events. I have heard that they are one of Metropolis' most grandiose events. And I would like it if you kept my donation to the foundation a secret. You see, I happen to dislike publicity of any sort." Percy answered with a polite smile.

"Of course! I certainly respect your wish for privacy, Mr Jackson. Speaking of which, meet Clark Kent! The budding journalist from Metropolis who is making a wave with his recent spate of articles." Luthor, rather gleefully introduced a passing by Clark to Percy.

Clark sized up the man in front of him for a second. He looked quite young. He seemed like someone in his late twenties, with piercing sea green eyes, a sharp face with high cheekbones, an angular jawline and a jet black mop of silky hair that was messily swept back and a swimmer's build.

Clark also noticed that the man was about the same height as him, around six feet and two inches. However, the thing that made Clark's senses tingle was the smile on the man's face. It was a suave smile, one that would dazzle any lady but it somehow looked like it carried a hint of danger, perhaps due to the fact that the man had a bit of cruel mouth.

"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mr Jackson." Clark politely stated as he extended his hand to Percy, who firmly shook it.

"The pleasure is mine, Mr Kent." Percy calmly stated. Just as that was happening, Bruce Wayne walked next to them and Lex Luthor pulled him into the conversation.

"Bruce! I hope you are enjoying yourself this evening!" Luthor cheerily stated.

"Lex." Bruce answered with just a simple, curt nod.

"I want you to meet Percy Jackson and Clark Kent. I just love it when people get to know each other at my events!" Luthor exclaimed.

"Mr Wayne, I'm from the Daily Planet, what is your position on the bat vigilante in Gotham, masquerading around as a hero, trampling civil liberties and following his own cruel form of justice? There are good people living in fear." Clark asked, with a hint of disdain seeping through his voice.

"Don't believe everything you read in the news, son. You see them fawning all over Superman and even the smallest of his supposedly heroic actions, all the while completely ignoring the threat he represents to humanity as a whole. If he wanted to, he could burn this whole place down and we couldn't do a damn thing about it. If you're worried about good people living in fear, you should be worried about Superman." Bruce coolly replied and the tension suddenly became palpable. All the while, a gleeful smile made its way onto Luthor's face, something that did not go unnoticed by Percy.

"What are your thoughts on this, Mr Jackson?" Clark asked Percy.

"Frankly speaking, Mr Kent, I don't care which city has what guardian protecting it. Being a hero is an ugly game, Mr Kent. Even if you do good things, you're called a vigilante by one person or the other. And more people are suspicious of your intentions than they are grateful. It takes a certain dogmatic determination to go at it for so long, which is indeed commendable." Percy neutrally answered as he finished his drink.

"Now if you will please excuse me." Percy politely took his leave and left the superhero duo behind him with much to think about. Percy had not come here to discuss the vices of heroes. He had stopped doing that after he stopped being a hero ten years ago. He was here to enjoy himself.


Percy was sipping on a cup of coffee, in the penthouse suite of one of Metropolis' best hotels. And he was wearing nothing but a pair of trackpants, as he browsed through his phone. He was brought out of his reverie, when a woman leaned from behind him to plant a kiss on his neck.

"Good morning, Iris. I take it you slept well. I have ordered breakfast, why don't you take a seat." Percy calmly offered and Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, who was wearing just a bathrobe, took a seat in front of Percy.

"Ever the charmer, aren't you, Percy Jackson?" Iris asked with a salacious smile.

"I assume we have a deal then." Percy asked in a no-nonsense voice.

"It's a gift greater than what I have ever granted to anyone. Not even my children will have unbridled, unnoticed access to every corner of the mortal world like you will. But what can I do, you were just so pervasive." Iris hummed.

"You're not getting the short end of the stick here by any account, Iris. I have sold you extremely valuable, and classified inside information on the insides of Boreas' base in Quebec. With this, you can force him out of there, drive him up further north and stake claim to the city, increasing your prestige in the Divine World considerably. And in return, I shall have unbridled and permanent access to all the network of spies of different gods as well as that of all mortal intelligence agencies, since all that information passes through your channels. It'll all be encrypted. But that'll not be an issue for me. It's a fair deal." Percy replied with a commanding smirk.

"I'm not entirely convinced that it's a fair deal. I will need more persuasion." Iris answered with a challenging smirk.

"Gladly, milady." Percy replied with a grin as he pulled in Iris for a deep kiss. He was adept at separating business and pleasure. But it certainly was highly enjoyable when his two favourite interests overlapped.


Percy had just discovered a rather interesting bit of information using the latest tool in his espionage arsenal that he had acquired. It turned out that Batman's true identity was actually none other than the billionaire playboy of Gotham – Bruce Wayne himself.

He had used the time in the past few months to understand Lex Luthor's operations, and as he had initally suspected in his first meeting with Luthor, the latter was trying his level best to pit Batman against Superman.

Now, Percy had not initally spied on Lex Luthor so that he could stop a potential conflict between the two heroes. He was not interested in that. What he was after was finding out whether Luthor's hate was targeted only at Superman or at other metahumans as well. And it turned that Luthor had an irrational and all-pervasive hate for all metahumans.

Lex Luthor was a slimy bastard. Percy had learnt that much. And he had been making some grand plans to eliminate Superman by pitting him against Batman. What those plans were exactly and how Luthor planned to do that, Percy had not wasted effort in figuring out since it did not concern him.

However, he had also found out some more vital information from Luthor's records. First, he had discovered that his identity and his existence was something that even Luthor's vast resources had proved to be incapable of finding out. At least for now, Percy was as well-hidden in the shadows as he had always wanted to be.

Second, he had managed to find the identity of the daughter of Zeus who had attended Luthor's event the other day. Her name was Diana Prince and she, was surprisingly a veteran of the First World War, having fought in it all the way back then.

Her story was even more impressive when he dug deeper and used all his contacts in the Divine World to find out more about her. She had been the driving reason behind ending the First World War, which itself, had unsurprisingly been a handiwork of Ares. And she had done so by managing to almost destroy the War God's physical form.

Granted that Ares was certainly not one of the strongest gods and was just a powerful brute, given that Percy had managed to defeat him all the way back when he was just twelve years old, it was nonetheless impressive that Diana Prince had managed to defeat a god.

Of course, as a reward for stopping Ares, she had been made partially immortal but with Hera being the vengeful grump she was and in typical Olympian fashion, she had turned the narrative of the Olympian Council against the daughter of Zeus, portraying her as a threat who would kill gods if left loose, and had gotten her step-daughter exiled. Percy could sympathize with Diana Prince. He had also been a first-hand witness to the Olympians' ungratefulness and paranoia.

Percy also realised another thing. He had to kill Luthor before the man became an annoyance for him as well. Given Luthor's distaste for all metahumans, there was always a threat that Luthor would find out about him. And that was something Percy did not want.

Perseus Jackson had been dead to most of the Divine World. All the demigods, all the monsters, all the enemies of the gods thought he was dead. And the few who he did know were bound by solemn oaths to never disclose that information. Percy fully intended for it to stay that way. He liked his life as it was and he didn't want any potential enemies finding out about his existence from this pesky mortal.

So, he made up his mind to kill Lex Luthor in the coming days. That was the way he would end his visit to Metropolis. With a pre-emptive move to eliminate a possible threat to his perfect life. Little did he know, this would eventually lead him down a path that he thought he had given up forever, in a decision made a decade ago.


Hey guys! So this is my new story, the DC crossover and the one thing you'll immediately notice is how much shorter the chapter is compared to the average chapter of my trilogy. And I intend for it to stay that way since this story is a lot more fast paced and less elaborate than the trilogy ones.

I have also attempted to combine the worlds of PJO and the DC universe in a way I felt made most sense. And the biggest surprise to many of you may be how the Percy of this story doesn't seem like a hero at all. He just seems like an amoral hedonist. And that's exactly what I am shooting offer. It's a exciting to write him like this because it explores new territories and tropes I am super excited about!

Read and review, I hope that all of you enjoyed this chapter! Have a wonderful day!