chapter four: remain calm, do not panic. follow these instructions
"Hold on, back up." Jason places his hands in a 'T', (which, Annabeth notices, gauging from the heroes' reactions is apparently a multi-universal sign for 'time out'). "A different world?"
"Not a different world," Nightwing corrects. "A different universe."
Annabeth kind of wants to laugh hysterically, the irony of the situation not lost on her. This whole thing feels so surreal; like she's in an episode of Fringe or something and any second now she's just going to wake up and realize it's all one horrible, terrifying dream.
Nico's eyes are wide and he looks about as good as Annabeth feels.
Please, Annabeth desperately thinks. Please let this not be real I don't want to fall into another world I don't want to fall into- she takes a deep breath, focusing on the conversation around her, the lights, the physical feeling of the couch under her butt. You're okay. Percy's okay. It's just a different universe, it's not- not that place. Annabeth slowly relaxes her shoulders and brings her focus back to the discussion.
"-you're saying the multiverse theory is real," Jason asks, his blue eyes troubled.
Nightwing inclines his head, the movement slow. "Essentially. It's a little bit more complicated than that but that's a good way of understanding it."
Leo practically leaps off the couch and starts pacing, the need to move finally getting to him. "I don't know if I should freak out, or just, you know, roll with it. I mean, on one hand this is like a regular Friday for us. On the other, we're apparently stuck in an alternate dimension, world, whatever. I give up."
Percy is still resting his head against the back of the couch, his eyes closed and his brow furrowed. He looks like he's in pain and Annabeth slips her hand into his, instantly feeling more grounded. You've been through hell and back, Annabeth thinks to herself, breathing deeply. This is a walk in the park.
"I know this must be a bit...hard to believe," Kaldur starts just as Piper speaks up.
"You're joking." The daughter of Aphrodite says, but it sounds more like a question. "There's no way, that's not possible."
Kaldur simply replies, not unkindly, "I am sure that is what some people might say about you."
Nightwing smiles slightly at her, almost like he's sorry this is happening to them and knows what it's like. "I know this is a lot to take in. "I-"
He's interrupted by the doors opening, a quiet swish sounding and the other kid that had shown up halfway through the fight walks in. He's wearing protective gear similar to Nightwing except with vastly different colors, and the same mask over his eyes. On the left side of his chest is a stylized 'R' and underneath a lock of black hair Annabeth can see gauze applied to the left side of his face, from across his temple and to the side of his ear.
They all stare at him for a moment before Jason says, "sorry about your face, man."
The kid starts to shrug it off but stops the movement halfway through, grimacing. "It's no biggie." He moves over to sit next to Nightwing and Annabeth can't help but notice he also makes no sound while he walks.
"Robin," Kaldur says as the younger guy sits beside Nightwing. "I am glad you are up and walking. I hope your mission was a success?"
Robin freezes for just a split second before nodding seriously. "Totally. We brought down the house."
Annabeth forces her jumbled feelings and frantic thoughts into a small little box and shoves it down, down, down to focus on observing their hosts interact with each other. Their expressions, body language, conversation are all clues that she can use to learn more about them and be sure they won't turn around suddenly and try to kill her and all her friends.
Nightwing looks at the teen, Robin, with an unreadable expression and a deep closed mouthed sigh escapes through his nose. "We'll be reviewing that after this."
Robin grimaces again then turns back to the demi-gods, eyeing them quizzically. "So, trouble with the multiverse, huh? That's got to be a shitty day."
"Language," Nightwing says, almost like it's automatic for him.
Robin makes a face. "B's not even here."
Too young to be his father, Annabeth thinks, trying to work out their relationship. Or maybe not? Would that be different in another world?
Nightwing just looks at the younger teen. "You and SB eavesdropping on conversations again?"
"Just using all the resources available, you know, like we're always told." Robin replies without missing a beat. "Also, BTWs, Superboy left to meet up with Batgirl and the others. I told him I'd pass on the message."
Kaldur shakes his head with a grin.
"Okay um, am I the only person still confused about who or what exactly you guys are?" Leo asks, ignoring the two on the couch while running a hand through his curly hair. "Or did you already talk about that and I just zoned out?"
"Right." Nightwing responds, turning back to them, giving Robin another narrow-eyed glance. "We're heroes that work as a team alongside the Justice League."
"And that means…?" Nico questions, waving his hands in a 'continue' gesture.
"Little to no sleep, lots of coffee, and saving the world every other week." Robin replies casually. Nightwing kicks him in the shin with his foot.
Jason cracks a smile and Leo gives a sort of half laugh. "You guys get coffee? Um, where do I file my complaint?"
"Don't look at me," Percy says warily. "Talk to Chiron."
"Or Mr. D.," Nico adds, grinning faintly.
Annabeth eyes Nightwing and Robin, and from just the short interactions she's seen, she knows they're close. Okay, not birth father, at least. They don't necessarily look like they're related; it's hard to tell with the masks on their faces, but Nightwing definitely looks slightly foriegn, maybe Eastern European, and their facial structures are different. But the easy way they sit and interact together reminds Annabeth of a time years ago with Thalia and Luke, people who were her family at the time. Brothers? Step-brothers?
"Think of it like a group of people who have special powers they use to protect the earth. That is the Justice League; we work alongside them." Kaldur elaborates, bringing the conversation back on track. "We use our powers to protect and safeguard the innocent, opposing evil and those that wish to hurt or destroy." He shrugs. "Some consider us superheroes."
"Oh," Leo mumbles.
Kind of like us, Annabeth thinks distractedly to herself.
"The Justice League," Jason repeats softly, like he's rolling the words around in his mouth.
Percy half-smiles. "Neat name."
"Thanks," Nightwing says, his tone light. "But," he continues, once more serious. "I think it's safe to say we're your best chance of getting back home. So. Walk me through it; what exactly happened from when you were all in New York to finding yourself here."
Percy catches Annabeth's eye and she squeezes his hand reassuringly. They both know that they're all in between a rock and a hard place; they have no clue how they got here, or anybody else in this weird world, or any idea of how to get back. Annabeth doesn't like it, because she doesn't like not having all the facts, but Nightwing's right; working with the heroes is most likely their best chance, despite the fact that Annabeth knows absolutely nothing about them except that they claim to protect the earth and act for the good of humanity.
"Can you show us?" Annabeth asks, a thought popping into her head and out of her mouth. "Like, news headlines or a map of the U.S or something." Something to confirm what you're saying is the truth.
She can feel her friend's appraising looks and not for the first time is grateful that her mother is the goddess of wisdom.
Kaldur nods, not giving any indication that he finds her request concerning. Which is hopefully a good sign to mean that they are who they say they are, are actually superheroes and will help them get home, and have nothing to hide. Except for hiding their identities, apparently.
"Good idea." Nightwing nudges Robin who nudges him back but sits forward, extending his left, gloved hand. With his right he does something that makes a holographic screen appear and starts typing something.
"What the heck, that is sick." Leo is staring in amazement, watching as two other screens appear and start pulling up headlines. "Dude. You don't even need a bronze sphere for that to project, and it's so compact! I mean, you just need a glove."
Robin grins. "Pretty sick, right?"
"Holy crap." Jason says, his eyes wide also, but for a different reason. Annabeth knows how he feels, because she's also starring at the screens which are showing various different things; videos, some look like they were filmed with cell phones, other's t.v. news stations, and online articles, social media posts, all displaying headlines or images that are totally foreign to her.
Annabeth isn't the most updated about what was happening in the mortal world back home, but she still makes it a point to have some knowledge about the recent events happening in politics, economics, and the STEM field. Despite the danger that modern technology poses to demigods, Annabeth is pretty sure that she would have at least seen some of this stuff pop up on her google news feed that morning.
If it was happening in her world.
The most eye-catching of the projected screens displays a video of a man, his red cape fluttering in the wind. He is carrying a school bus above his head as he gently floats to the ground, placing it on the torn up road. There are other people standing about, waving their hands or clapping and clearly cheering. The superhero (because he must be) pulls the bent doors open like it's nothing and starts helping people out. It takes a while for Annabeth to correctly read the capitalized words under the screen rolling from one side, 'SUPERMAN SAVES LIVES ONCE AGAIN, REPORTS LOIS LANE', with The Daily Planet. Beside it, a web page published by the same newspaper company says 'Metropolis Meteors Take Home Another Victory Against the Gotham City Nights' by Steve Lombard.
There's another video on a separate screen that shows what looks like a congressional gathering at DC, the plaza crowded with people and banners. Annabeth has to re-read the headline twice, 'Amazon Ambassador, Wonder Woman, Calls For A Diplomatic Peace Negotiations Amid Growing Tensions in Qurac and Bialya'. Below, a newspaper article from Picture News lists the 'Top Ten Best Lebanese Restaurants To Eat At While In Central City, #1 Endorsed by The Flash!'
A different video is a news clip of two men, both costumed in green and red respectively, quivers strapped over their shoulders, chasing after three people in black ski masks. 'STAR CITY CAPITAL BANK LOSES THOUSANDS IN RECENT ROBBERY, THREE HOSTAGES INJURED'.
A picture in a newspaper article from the Gotham Gazette displays two collapsed buildings, rubble, overturned cars, road signs, and debris surrounding the area and littering the ground. It looks like a bomb might have exploded; the earth torn apart. 'Eleven Lives Lost In Devastating Attack As Gang Wars Escalate'. An post that looks like an advertisement reads, 'BREAKOUT AT ARKHAM ASYLUM, (AGAIN); HOW GOOD IS YOUR PROPERTY INSURANCE? UPGRADE TO UNEEDINSURANCE TODAY!'Below is an article by Viki Vale that announces 'Wayne Enterprises Beats Out LexCorp And Signs Deals With Okamura Industries'.
An instagram photo from somewhere in the world Annabeth doesn't recognize is captioned 'thank u WaynEnterprises BruceWayne for the new water and sewage filters! our city will become better than ever'.
Annabeth can hear Nico take in a sharp breath and feels Percy shift against her. I don't recognize any of this, Annabeth thinks. I don't recognize any of this!
Robin does something that makes the screens disappear and lowers his hand. It's silent for a moment, but Annabeth can hear her heart pounding in her ears. Percy is gripping her hand so hard it's beginning to hurt.
"You weren't lying." Piper says quietly, hugging herself. "Oh my gods."
Annabeth can tell that it's hitting all them at the same time that they're not even close to home. They're completely on their own.
Nico and Leo tear their gazes away from the empty air where Robin's screens used to be. They look just as shocked as Piper and Jason, and suddenly Annabeth finds herself looking back at all her friend's worried faces. She can see the same question in all their eyes; 'what do we do now?'
Breathe, Annabeth tells herself, gently extracting her hand from Percy's and wiping her palms on her jeans. They don't have many options, in fact, almost none. But the silver lining in all this disaster of a situation is that by some miracle Annabeth and her friends were pulled out of their world and dropped into the laps of another world's heroes who not only actually guessed their situation, but didn't seem at all shocked by it.
In fact, Nightwing had even looked like he could relate to it.
Annabeth straightens her shoulders and tucks a loose lock of slightly damp hair behind her ear. She's sure she looks like a mess, disheveled, and her mascara's most likely smudged all over her eyes. We'll figure this out, we will get home, it'll be okay. She looks at Nightwing. "This isn't your first time dealing with people from another universe, is it?"
Percy glances at her with raised eyebrows as Nightwing shakes his head.
"No," he says. "It's not. The League has more experience with this, but we've had our fair share."
Annabeth doesn't know whether to be slightly relieved by that (because at least these people are not as lost as she feels which means they might be able to help) or lean more towards 'wtf wtf wtf'. She feels like she ends up in a healthy middle while Jason looks like the former, and Percy the latter.
Their mixed expressions must show on their faces, because Kaldur smiles encouragingly (and although they've only met less than an hour ago, Annabeth can't help but be inclined to like him). "We will do everything we can to try and help get you back to your home."
Piper looks visibly more relieved at that and Annabeth tries to not get her hopes up. Just because they're going to try and help doesn't mean it will work. Shut up, Annabeth thinks to herself, trying to ignore the negative thoughts in her head. We will figure this out.
"Right." Nightwing nods and returns Annabeth's stare. "In order for us to do that, we're going to need to know exactly what happened leading up to you guys landing in the Cave."
They're all silent for a moment. Images of Frank and Hazel lying on the ground as the world disappears around her flashes in front of Annabeth's eyes.
"It started at Denny's and was like some creepy-ass dimensional portal opened up as we were leaving and then Hazel had a seizure and Percy started screaming-" Leo begins, gesticulating wildly. His curly hair bounces in tandem with this head.
"-there was something out there that was attacking Percy-" Jason starts-
"-magic," Nico leans forward. "There was some sort of dark magic I think. Hazel couldn't tell me much-"
Piper gasps. "That voice! The one that said it wasn't having fun, what in Hades did that mean-"
"Guys!" Annabeth raises her voice to be heard over everyone talking over each other. Only Percy remains silent, his eyes troubled and jaw clenched. "Let's go at time one at a time, okay?" They settle back, Leo closing his mouth reluctantly.
Kaldur shares a glance with Nightwing and chuckles softly. "We are used to conversations like this, but I think one at time would be best as well."
Robin gestures to Nico. "Wait, did you say magic is involved?"
Nico nods and Jason starts to reply.
"Hold up," Nightwing interrupts, placing a hand on Robin's shoulder. "Seriously, let's start from the top. One of you guys walk us through what you remember."
Annabeth looks at Percy. He still looks slightly pained, and he slowly runs a hand through his hair.
"I think," Percy says slowly. "I think something wanted to bring me here. Something bad."
"Something," Annabeth adds quietly. "Or someone." A shiver runs down her spine, the haunting, cackling voice echoes in her head.
Kaldur frowns, noting her expression. Nightwing doesn't look completely relaxed anymore.
Nico gazes across at Annabeth. She can tell from his expression that he was thinking the same thing too.
"Well," Robin mutters. "That's probably not good."
"Knowing our luck, yeah." Percy smiles humorlessly. "Anyways, like Leo said, it uh, started at Denny's. Which is better than a middle school field trip, I guess, but. Anyways."
As Percy recounts their disaster of an evening, Annabeth takes a moment to regain her bearings. It's weird hearing Percy recount the events now; there has been so much that's happened in the last few hours that Annabeth feels like she should be dead tired and overwhelmed. Instead, she's high on adrenaline, simultaneously panicking and intrigued at the idea of being in a different universe and really just needs to pee. (And okay, maybe a little overwhelmed too).
"And then the voice said-" Leo interrupts.
Percy holds up a hand. "Leo, I'm getting there."
"Right, sorry."
"And then the voice said," Percy continues, "that we needed to find help."
Jason waves a hand towards Nightwing. "Uh, so you guys, I guess?"
"What about the symbol?" Nico interjects, looking at Percy.
Piper snaps her fingers. "Oh, you're right. I forgot about that."
"Symbol?" Robin repeats quizzically.
Percy leans forward, placing his elbows on his knees. "Right, thanks Nico. The voice, I think it might have been female? I'm not sure. Anyways, the voice said we needed to find the 'symbol of the night', or 'in the night', whatever that means."
Both Nightwing and Robin visibly sit up, an unreadable expression crossing their faces. Annabeth exchanges a look with Percy, noting their reactions.
"You're sure that's exactly what you heard?" Nightwing questions. His tone is serious and Annabeth can feel the atmosphere in the room change almost instantly.
"Yes, I'm sure," Percy confirms, frowning. "Why, is that important?"
"Nightwing." Kaldur murmurs. "Do you think…?"
Nightwing pauses, his eyes narrow. "Possibly. I'm not sure, though."
"Am I the only one missing something?" Leo questions softly, looking clearly confused.
Piper waves a hand, and distantly Annabeth wonders if Jason picked that gesture up from her or the other way around. Piper looks from Kaldur to Nightwing, her eyes sharp. "Uh, hello, what are you guys talking about?"
Nightwing frowns, ignoring her question. "What happened after that?"
Something about the way the dark-haired man asks her makes her feel compelled to answer. Annabeth continues recounting the story, watching Nightwing closely. Something about the 'symbol of the night' clearly means something to both him and Robin. "Then another voice-different from the first, more, I don't know? Like nails on a chalkboard. Anyway, it said 'no, this is no fun' and we were...like, ripped away and landed here."
"And...well, you know the rest." Leo adds, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he paces back and forth.
"So," Jason says after a lapse of silence. "What do we do now?"
Nightwing runs a hand through his hair and thinks for a moment. "For now, hang tight. Kal can show you around the Cave." He stands up and starts heading towards the door, making a gesture to Robin who nods. "If you need anything, Kaldur's got you. I'll be back in a little bit."
Kaldur nods and doesn't look at all confused about what Nightwing's up to despite the fact that he hasn't actually told them.
"Where are you going?" Annabeth asks, watching him cross the room.
Nightwing glances at her over his shoulder before turning back. "I need to go make a few phone calls."
Robin gives Nightwing the peace sign as he exits the room and kicks his feet up on the coffee table that separates the two couches. "So." He says, breaking the momentary silence. "What a shitty day, huh?"
"Language," Nightwing's voice echoes, coming seemingly from the speakers in the room.
Kaldur openly laughs as Robin slouches down and groans. The older teen turns back to the demi-gods, giving them a small smile. "I am sure you still have questions."
"Yes," Annabeth replies immediately, cutting both Jason and Percy off. "Where's the bathroom?"
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(its amazing how the same question of 'wtf is going on who r u' was legit asked like, five times in this chap (idk if im even writing accurate characters at this point or just my family XD (also, title is taken from what every AED says when you turn one on, just btw :))
drop a comment and let me know what u think! xoxo