Chapter 5
Greetings readers! I hope that all of you enjoyed reading the previous chapter!
I would like to thank Death Fury for your continued support! It means a lot to me that you enjoy this story so much!
Ryan Fowler: It's fantastic to have you back and I am super thrilled that you are reading my stories again. Of course man, you have my sympathies. I know how overwhelming life can be at times. Thank you for your continued support!
Thunderofdeath97: The powerscaling in this story, is roughly similar to how powerful gods are in the trilogy and I'm not going with the basic canonical power levels. So given that, it feels like Percy is more than strong enough. Also, Kryptonians may seem overly OP but that's just how they are in the presence of the yellow sun. Finally, all divines being basically aliens is my way of integrating the DC and PJO universes. Thank you for your input!
Guest reviewer: I am very thrilled to hear that you're excited for the time travel fic. It's something I am excited to present but will come only after I finish Curtainfall. Thank you for your support!
Guest reviewer: Whatever story I write, somehow, even if Percy is the antagonist, I simply cannot write Poseidon in a bag light. And that's carried over to this story as well. And I'm glad you like that. I felt the Titans holding off the Kryptonians was just good AU lore. Yes, I am using this arc to set the background for JL and also give some more background into Percy's character in this universe. I am super thrilled you also liked The Tragedy Of Percy Jackson! Thank you for your continued support!
Spacestrider: I am glad you liked the little background I gave to Percy's training arc. Of course, I will give a detailed account into why Percy actually turned into this amoral hedonist and why he left Annabeth. And I assure you it's not going to be one of those cringe stories where Annabeth betrays him or stuff like that. My take on it will be very sombrely realistic. Thank you for your continued support!
Guest reviewer: This Percy is more or less on par with Diana, maybe being slightly stronger. I follow a different form of powerscaling in this. He met Luthor after talking to Poseidon. No, Percy cannot blood bend. I explained how he become immortal in the beginning of the third chapter. Thank you for your input!
ShadowHunter2077: I am super thrilled to have you reviewing this story as well! I look forward to your feedback! I'm following the movie power levels to an extent, but I'm beefing up the villains, especially Steppenwolf. I'll get into the lore of Darkseid soon and trust me, you'll not be disappointed :) True, Diana's victory means more because it was a straight fight but the Percy of this universe is pretty arrogant so I've just presented it from his view. Thank you for your continued support!
Exodus12345: Well, Superman is not really dead, I explicitly specified that earlier. And I of course have plans for him again. Percy walked away because his fatal flaw was tearing him apart, and he had to walk away before that happen. He realised that which is why he walked away. I will give more background to this. Thank you for your support!
I would like to thank CRUDEN for your continued support!
Ultima-owner: Apokolips is always bad news and I am extremely excited to introduce more about Apokolips into this story. I feel like the DCEU never really went deeply into the goldmine of content Apokolips and Darkseid really had to offer, and that is something I plan to do in great detail. Thank you for your continued support!
Audrey Lucencio Royo: Exactly, like you said, the sea is truly primordial in comparison to the other gods. And I have never made my protagonists stronger without proper explanations, and I am glad you liked that. Thank you for your continued support!
All credit for the characters goes exclusively to Rick Riordan and to the owners of DCEU.
Percy was back in Gotham, and this time, he was with another beautiful bombshell in one of the city's finest restaurants. And of course, that seemed to be the perfect time for the Joker and his gang of psychopathic ragtags, who had just escaped Arkham Asylum, to break into the restaurant.
Percy calmly looked on as the Joker and his minions barged into luxurious restaurant that he had gone out to with his date for the night. As he sipped on a glass of wine, he noted that the clown faced goons had cut off all the telephone connections in the restaurant and had taken the staff hostage.
"Allow us to put you out of your misery. All of you know me as the Joker and today, I come here to award you with the gift of death. You see, I broke out of a very bad place and I couldn't think of a better way to announce my return to our dear bat vigilante than blowing all your heads off." Joker stated with a sinister, maniacal laugh.
He felt a sadistic grin forming on his face when he saw the terror filled faces of the occupants of the room and his malicious grin widened upon seeing a tall, black haired, green eyed man eating his steak calmly, as if this was not of any importance to him.
"You in the green shirt, enjoying your last meal?" Joker asked with a dark smirk. He was a bit surprised when the aforementioned man looked at him with an unimpressed look.
"I highly doubt that this is going to be my last meal. You on the other hand, won't be eating or for that matter be doing anything once I'm done with you." Percy flatly stated before promptly getting back to finishing his steak. The Joker and his minions burst into laughter after listening to him.
"Ooh, looks like Gotham has a new hero. Or is this a dead man accepting his fate and trying to go out with a bang." Joker asked, not loosing his sadistic glee.
"Dead people don't talk and you won't either in a few minutes." Percy impassively replied.
"Maybe you'll come to your senses when I shoot her." One of the clowns stated while pointing his gun at one of the waitresses next to Percy, whose legs started quaking in fear.
"I couldn't care less about what you are going to do. I don't know these people, I won't lose any sleep if any of them died. But, if you value your life, you won't shoot this one because her blood will splatter all over my plate and I will be very angry if you ruin this juicy steak." Percy arrogantly stated.
"You talk like you can stop us. Why don't you try to?" The Joker asked with a challenging smirk and his goon immediately fired a bullet at the waitress. But it never hit her.
In the blink of an eye, Percy was in front of her, holding the aforementioned bullet in his hand. And before any of the others could react, with just a quick motion of his hand, a pipe of water erupted and all of the Joker's minions were impaled with ice daggers. Sensing that this was not a man who would hesitate to kill, the Joker used a smoke bomb to escape and ran to the helicopter outside.
Rather than following him, Percy allowed him to get to the helicopter and even allowed it to take off as he leisurely strolled outside. Once it was a few hundred feet above him, a triumphant smirk made its way on his face as he took a deep breath and fluidly executed the motions required before firing a bolt of lightning at the helicopter.
In a fraction of a second, the lightning struck down the helicopter and the helicopter exploded into fiery comets that rained on the streets below. A moment later, he heard an angry roar. A roar from a certain masked vigilante.
"What did you do?!" Bruce roared in anger. He was angry enough to assault Percy then and there, but given what he had just seen, he had a feeling that the metahuman would respond to that extremely violently, which is why he reigned in his anger.
"He interrupted my date. And I don't like it when anyone messes with my dates." Percy answered in a bored voice.
"So you killed him?" Bruce asked in disbelief.
"What's with the offended tone? I just took a psychopath off your hands. This one seemed to have some personal beef with you as well. If anything you should be thanking me." Percy replied with a smile playing on his lips, a smile that the cruel edges of his mouth twisted into a dangerous one.
"I didn't ask you to kill him for me." Bruce stated through gritted teeth.
"Joke's on you because I didn't do it for you. I did it for the cute waitress he was about to kill. Maybe I'll take her back to my penthouse suite." Percy stated with an infuriating smirk.
"How can you be so cheerful after ruthlessly killing more than two dozen men? If we don't think twice before taking a life and kill just because we can, what makes us any different from them?" Bruce angrily asked.
"I don't care what you define me as. Good, evil, order and chaos are all only opinionated notions. We live in a grey world filled with grey characters. I have no interest in getting involved in your personal feud. But this douchebag threatened me and I put him in his place for it. I didn't do it to protect these people. In fact, I wouldn't even need to do this if you did your job properly." Percy shot back with narrowed eyes.
"I would have gotten here and apprehended them." Bruce defensively retorted.
"And by that time, that waitress would have been dead, all because of your unwillingness to kill a homicidal psychopath. If you are playing the hero, at least do it properly. That psychopath would have killed Chaos knows how many more people if I hadn't struck him down today. The next time you chicken out from putting down a murderer, think about the lives you will put in danger if you don't go through with it. " Percy condescendingly stated.
"What do you know about being a hero? You're just an amoral hedonist." Bruce harshly retorted with a scoff.
"I am an amoral hedonist and I am proud of it. But I was once hundred times the hero you will ever be. You know why? Because I had the willpower and determination to make the toughest choices. Unlike you, I didn't prioritise my unrealistic ideals over the lives of people I had to save and scythed down enemies when I had to. This is a cruel game, Mr Wayne. He who plays the hero must do whatever it takes to save people. And if you can't do that effectively, hang up the cape. You're not helping anyone with your misplaced mercy." Percy stated with a scoff before snapping his fingers and using the Mist to make it seem like Batman was the one who had saved everyone.
"Goodbye, Mr Wayne. I hope you learnt something important about being a hero today. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date to get back to." Percy cheerfully stated before heading back into the restaurant, leaving behind a furious yet deeply contemplative Bruce Wayne.
Diana was fidgeting impatiently as she waited for her source - a certain Hunter Of Artemis with whom she had first come into contact with over a five decades ago. It was a daughter of Ares called Phoebe and Diana was waiting for her in a coffee shop in Denver.
Ever since she had been exiled from the Divine World, Diana had lost the ability to communicate with people through Iris messages but it turned out her father was not a total deadbeat after all, as he had helped her discreetly by finding a way to heavily suppress her presence. To most competent immortals, she was still identifiable, but it did spare her the trouble of dealing with monsters.
It also gave her the added benefit of being able to use mortal communication devices without sending a signal to all the monsters in her area. And that was exactly what she had used to contact Phoebe.
Her relationship with Phoebe and the rest of the Hunters of Artemis went back a few decades. Artemis had been one of the few gods sympathetic about her situation a century ago when Hera had turned the Council against her. But she had lost contact with the goddess of the hunt after her exile.
However, she had come back into contact with the Hunters of Artemis a few decades ago while hunting a pack of extremely big hellhounds and had instantly hit it off with the rest of the hunters and Artemis. Unfortunately, she couldn't maintain contact with all of them. But she had still managed to covertly maintain contact with Phoebe, although she suspected Artemis knew about this and simply chose to turn the blind eye. Diana was brought out of her thoughts when Phoebe walked through the door.
"Well, well, well, there's my second favourite daughter of Zeus." Phoebe stated with a roguish grin on her face as she entered the small café that Diana had chosen as their meeting spot.
"Hello Phoebe. I hope you and the rest of the Hunt are doing well." Diana greeted with a warm smile as Phoebe took a seat before ordering a latte
"So tell me, how have things been in the divine world lately?" Diana asked after a few minutes.
"Oh the usual. Things have been relatively peaceful recently. Monster activity has trickled to an all time low, which has coincided with a boom in demigod population. Makes sense, the moment things turn a little rosy, the gods stop keeping it in their pants." Phoebe stated with a wrinkle of her nose.
"Well at least they don't completely abandon their children like before. It was an entirely different level of messy back then. Most demigods barely made it to their twenties. Even less had families of their own. Only the Roman ones survived with their city but oh Chaos, the politics of that city are suffocating. By the way, the Greeks finally managed to finish their dream city of New Athens after ten years of work, thanks to the star architect Annabeth Chase. She's a daughter of Athena and she's the smartest person I've ever seen. You should meet this kid some time." Phoebe ranted as she took a bite of her cinnamon roll.
"Now that you talk of that, you never actually told me how the gods finally became more responsible when it came to their demigod children. Surely, they couldn't have had an epiphany on their own, they are incapable of that." Diana pointed out with a underlying hint of disappointment.
"Huh come to think of it, you're right, I never did tell who asked the gods to own up to their actions. You won't believe that it was actually a guy. He was probably the only man anyone in the Hunt has ever respected. In fact, he even earned Zoe's respect before she died. Enough for her to say he was a good man." Phoebe acknowledged as the mood sobered up a little at the mention of Zoe.
"He must have truly been a great hero if Zoe of all people told him he was a good man. Who was he?" Diana curiously prodded.
"Well, he was a son of Poseidon, a very, very strong one. He was the one who was basically the centrepiece of the Olympian defence during the Battle of Manhattan when the Titans almost destroyed civilization. And he was one of the seven demigods who were crucial in defeating the Earth Mother. In fact, he actually turned down godhood in order to make life better for other demigods. Can you believe that? None of us could." Phoebe stated with grudging respect shining in her eyes. By this point, Diana had already started to suspect who this son of Poseidon was.
"What was his name? What happened to him? Where is he now?" Diana quickly asked.
"His name was Percy Jackson. As to what happened to him, the same fate befell upon him as that of all great heroes, he died in combat ten years ago, protecting a group of innocent young demigods, from an entire army of monsters, a remnant of the forces the Earth Mother had gathered. It was truly an unfortunate event." Phoebe stated with a glimmer of sadness to her voice.
"An entire army of monsters?" Diana asked with a raised eyebrow.
It seemed that Percy' Jackson had faked his own death to escape to his retreat of amoral hedonism for the rest of his immortal life. And he had definitely chosen to fake his death in the most heroic way possible.
"How do you know he died? He may have managed to hold off the monsters and escape." Diana calmly stated back.
"It would have been nice if that were true, Diana, but the gods themselves confirmed his death. And his scent vanished off the face of the Earth. Even we can't find him. The only way that's possible is if he's dead." Phoebe answered with a small sigh.
At that moment, Diana had no doubt that Percy Jackson had faked his death with the help of the gods. But it was something Diana could not understand. Why would the gods, renowned for their extreme selfishness, allow such a powerful and useful demigod to slip by and go into a peaceful exile. It seemed uncharacteristic of them.
"I assume the news of his death devastated many." Diana stated as she put on a mask of sadness.
She knew that Percy Jackson was alive. But she didn't want to reveal that. She didn't doubt that he had faked his death to be away from the divine world and while she didn't like the man's hedonistic personality, she respected his past actions as a great hero enough to not spill the beans about his secret.
"Oh certainly. Most demigods were shattered because he was a beacon of hope to all of them. But the past has passed and we can't do anything about it now." Phoebe stated with a small sigh before moving on to other topics and Diana didn't ask about Percy again. She had gotten all the information she had wanted.
Bruce had been a bit surprised when Diana Prince had contacted him and informed him that she had managed to track down Percy Jackson's location, and this was a relief since Bruce had been searching for him, in vain, for the past few months. So he had flown to Rome in his private jet and had hurried to one of city's fanciest restaurants where he was greeted to the sight of an immaculately dressed Diana Prince.
"He knows we are here. He must be expecting us." Bruce gruffly stated.
He knew enough about Percy Jackson by now to say that he was not someone who anyone would be able to find unless he wanted to be found. And it seemed he had allowed them to find him this time. Or specifically, allowed Diana to find him.
"Of course. Tracking him down so easily could not have been sheer luck. He is far too resourceful for that. I only found him today because he wanted me to find him." Diana concurred.
"Shall we? Let's not keep him waiting too long." Bruce gruffly stated and Diana nodded at him as they entered the restaurant in tandem. And they were not one bit surprised when they were ushered into a table where Percy Jackson was sipping on a glass of wine, with two empty chairs at the same table.
"Ahh, I was thinking that you two would never come here. Please, take a seat." Percy graciously offered and the two of them gingerly sat down as Percy poured them two glasses of wine.
"Mr Wayne, Miss Diana, to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" Percy asked with a drink in his hand as his lips curled into a dangerous smile and his calculating sea green eyes bored into them.
"You know why we are here, Mr Jackson. In fact, you were expecting us because you let us find you." Bruce flatly stated.
"I am mildly impressed that you managed to track me down. Not even the Olympian gods can claim to have done that. To be fair however, I did leave a trail of breadcrumbs for you to follow." Percy revealed as he downed his drink.
"Why did you allow us to find you?" Diana questioned as her electric blue eyes locked with Percy's sea green ones.
"I was bored." Percy gave a simple reply as a small smirk played on his lips. Bruce's temper momentarily flared but he calmed himself down.
"So, you will not just disappear?" Bruce asked with a fair bit of trepidation in his eyes.
"Why would I? This conversation is already turning out to be very interesting, I can't wait for more. Besides, you have questions and I am in the mood to answer." Percy calmly replied as he leaned back.
"Why did you disappear after killing the Joker?" Bruce asked with narrowed eyes.
"In case you haven't figured out, I prefer to keep a low profile. Look, I fought with you once and helped you defeat that abomination. And then I fried that clown to oblivion. But after that, I had no reason to stay in contact with either of you." Percy nonchalantly stated.
"No reason?! Superman's death set of a series of disasters. Crime rates have sky rocketed since then. You could have helped people. Didn't Clark's selfless sacrifice inspire you in any way?" Bruce incredulously questioned.
"If crime rates have increased, it's not really my problem. Just because I can help people, doesn't mean I want to. I'm just a normal guy with superpowers trying to live a peaceful and undisturbed life. Clark Kent is a noble man and was a great hero. And Superman, he was a beacon of hope and an ally of mine for a very brief time period. Clark Kent gained my respect that day, which is why I saved his life. But fighting that grey monster was a one-off. I don't buy into the hero gig and I am not searching for any higher purpose in my life either. I live my life the way I want – as an amoral hedonist." Percy dismissed. Once again Bruce's temper flared but Percy cut him off before he could say anything.
"If you're here to lecture me on morals and rigid opinions, this conversation is a waste of my time. I stick to what I told you when I killed that clown. If you want answers, I can give you some of them. But I have no interest whatsoever to help you in this foolish quest of protecting these ignorant mortals." Percy impassively stated.
"Then why did you help us defeat Doomsday?" Diana questioned. She didn't entirely buy the indifferent front that this man was putting up.
"It would have been problematic to let that monster rampage around. If I hadn't intervened, that thing would have eventually killed Superman. Granted, it still managed to almost kill him but at least, we managed to kill it at the end. I helped Superman because that made my life easier. Plus, taking care of it then meant I didn't need to worry about stopping some abomination intent on destroying the cities with great chicks." Percy answered with a frivolous smile on his face.
"That is why you are talking to us and are willing to share information with us. Because you know that will help us protect the world better which in turn means you don't need to get involved." Bruce stated as realization dawned on his face.
"Bingo. Now, ask away." Percy confirmed with a smirk.
"You are a son of Poseidon aren't you?" Diana asked.
"I assume that Mr Wayne over here has been informed about the Greek pantheon?" Percy asked and continued once both of them nodded.
"Yes, I am an immortal demigod son of Poseidon, the God of the Seas, Earthquakes and Storms. I am sure that already gives you a basic knowledge about my abilities doesn't it, Princess Diana of Themyscira, daughter of Zeus, the fearless Amazon who defeated Ares, the god of war during the final stages of the first world war." Percy casually stated with a chaotic smirk and an expression of shock registered across Diana's face.
"How do you know all this? None of this was mentioned in Luthor's drive." Diana stated with narrowed eyes.
"You see Miss Diana, the difference between your exile and mine is that mine is self-imposed. Unlike you, I am not completely isolated from the Divine world, I can do whatever I want without worrying about any annoying gods or pesky monsters. And I still have very strong sources of information in both the Divine as well as mortal world." Percy calmly replied.
"You are awfully resourceful aren't you?" Bruce asked through gritted teeth.
"Perfectly correct, Mr Wayne. I know everything about you as well. Your history, your abilities, your enemies and your activities. While you spent time tracking me down, I did quite a bit of research on both of you myself." Percy stated with a satisfied smirk.
"How long have you walked this Earth? And why are you on a self-imposed exile?" Diana asked.
"Well, I am only twenty seven years old. As to why I am on a self-imposed exile, I am a retired hero. I fought off two great threats a decade ago and I decided to hang up my sword after that. In return for my services, the gods erased my demigod scent and granted me partial immortality. I chose the age of twenty seven because of the peak physical and mental conditioning offered at this age. Coincidentally, I happen to be chronologically twenty seven this year as well." Percy answered before drinking a glass of his cocktail.
"You did all these when you were just a teenager?" Bruce asked with shock.
"Don't act surprised, Mr Wayne. You have first hand experience of how cruel this world is. My life has been in threat since I was twelve. At the age where someone would be worried about not being the popular kid at school or having issues with their girlfriend, I had to save the world twice and try not to get killed in the process." Percy replied with a bitter laugh as he downed his drink in one shot.
"Why did you stop being a hero? I heard the stories about you. You were considered the bravest and greatest hero ever. What caused you to turn from a paragon of virtue to this? Did you lose someone close to you?" Diana questioned with some confusion evident in her expression. Something was not tallying up. No hero would devolve into this without some sort of personal cataclysm.
"I lost everyone. And being a hero was never worth it. It's unfortunate that I had to walk through an actual hellhole to realise how horrible the life of a hero was. But that's all in the past. I like my life the way it is now. I am content. And I don't want to waste my time and put myself in danger for the sake of some stupid weaklings. I would rather enjoy my eternal retirement." Percy indifferently replied as he elegantly cut off a piece of steak before eating it.
"I find it hard to believe that someone with so little regard for others' lives was ever a hero. You don't give a damn about anyone else but yourself, do you?" Bruce stated with a scowl on his face.
"Right on target, Mr Wayne. How people classify you as a genius is beyond me. I must have stated half a billion times by now that I am an amoral hedonist. And somehow, that still hasn't registered in that mortal brain of yours. I suppose it is understandable. A simple little mortal like you, who has a finite lifespan of just a few decades, most of which you spend as a helpless being, either by being too young and weak or by being too old and frail, can never understand how immortals like me think and live. We are of a physically and mentally superior race of beings than you." Percy condescendingly replied.
"That is enough of trading barbs for now. Mr Jackson, we are not here to debate how you live your life. How you live your life, is not of any concern to us. What we do seek though, is your cooperation, and hopefully some information, with regards to Lex Luthor's final actions." Diana calmly interjected before Bruce could say anything.
"Ahh, Miss Prince. You're ever the voice of reason. Of course, I have some information regarding that little stunt by Lex before his untimely demise. And that is exactly why I set up this meeting today. I believe both of you will have great use for this piece of information." Percy stated with a debonair smile directed at Diana who despite her best efforts, couldn't help but be a little charmed by it.
"Do you know who he contacted before he was caught?" Diana asked, leaning in to hear what he said next.
"Not exactly. But I do have a few accurate guesses, after some thorough investigation on my part and after reaching out to my extensive network, it turns out, Luthor was right. Demons don't come from the grounds underneath, they come from the skies above." Percy grimly revealed as his smile fell and was replaced by an expression of concern. He had some worrying news to say the least.
Hey guys! So, I know many hardcore DC fans will be miffed with me just killing off the Joker and I know it feels weird but I had to do this to show what sort of character Percy really was. I had to show how he is someone who while appearing to be extremely calm, is capable of instant ruthlessness. He is also completely unfazed by the concept of killing and you would have noticed, I have set him up with a bit of a god complex and plenty of arrogance, which primarily comes from him being more immortal than he is mortal. But he's also not all bad as you'll see in the coming chapters.
Read and review, I hope that all of you enjoyed reading this chapter! Have a wonderful day!