chapter six: the party gets started but it isn't fun. like, at all.
"You want to go inside our heads and probe around?" Nico asks incredulously.
His eyes are wide, like he can't believe this is actually happening. Because well, he can't believe this is actually happening. Coming into the 21st century after growing up in a magical arcade, learning that his father is the god of the underworld, losing his sister, surviving Tartarus, and saving the world, twice, Nico has lived through and experienced some extremely mind-blowing, demented, and truly terrible things. It was hard enough getting acclimated and caught up to all the changes that have happened in the modern- like cell phones, streaming movies in 4k, or liquid nitrogen ice cream- not to mention everything demi-god related. But this, this situation? It's getting to be slightly beyond barely tolerable.
Beside him, Leo looks just as startled, but like, in a happy, excited way. "Dude, out of everything she just said, that's what you're freaking out about? What about the part where she said she was Martian? Or the fact that aliens exist?"
Nico glares at him and crosses his arms tightly, trying to not let it seem like he's hugging himself. The girl, Miss Martian, doesn't look any different from a regular human, aside from the fact that her skin is green. She's standing next to Superboy, and like Nightwing, who's leaning on the side of one of the chairs, is wearing a costume, navy blue with red lines going across one shoulder and the other, forming an X across her chest.
They're still seated in the same room, except this time it's just the demi-gods and the older heroes present. Kaldur is observing from the side, next to Batgirl. Beside them on Kaldur's other side is another girl with blond hair, who had introduced herself as Artemis. Aside from Kaldur, she seems the most honest in her body language and expression. The younger heroes-who Nico has to admit, weren't unlikable- had either left or been asked to clear out, presumably so Miss Martian could go perusing about in their heads. Which, out of all the actual insane plans and propositions Nico's heard in his short fifteen years of life, is definitely one of the worst.
Nico can't help the glare that comes across his face. "I don't appreciate someone raking through my mind and personal thoughts, thank you very much."
"Dude. She's Martian." Percy looks as equally astonished as Leo. "From Mars."
"Yeah, I'm with Nico on this one," Jason says, his tone polite but he looks about as gung-ho about it as Nico feels. "I don't really want that either."
"And I respect that," Miss Martian looks at them honestly and seems completely unfazed by their looks of unbelief. "Your personal thoughts, feelings and memories are your own. I won't breach that privacy."
Annabeth frowns. "Look, I don't mean to be rude, but we have absolutely no guarantee that you won't. Or even how to stop you if you do."
"Or any reason to trust that you won't," Nico mutters.
Batgirl inclines her head; possibly like she's acknowledging their argument. "You're not wrong, but that goes both ways; you're just as much of a threat to us as we are to you. Unfortunately, though, we're not in a position where we can simply overlook that point."
Superboy nods. "Right, and one other thing; Miss Martian isn't going to 'go inside your heads and probe around'."
Nico continues to stare at them distrustfully.
"Think of it like a word search," Nightwing adds, standing up. "Like there's a bunch of jumbled letters, in this case, your thoughts, and Miss M is just going to be searching for specific names among those thoughts. So, she won't touch anything else. If she finds a name, then she'll see it."
"Names?" Piper repeats, exchanging looks with the other demi-gods. Leo is still blinking disbelievingly at Miss Martian and if he's honest with himself Nico can relate; he's also little in awe and weirded out by the idea of her.
Artemis nods. "Right. I think we're all operating under the assumption that we don't need to play on different teams. But, like Batgirl said, in order for us to really do that we need to be absolutely certain you're not, well, being mind controlled or manipulated by any of our enemies, people who want to hurt us, or take over the world."
Annabeth chews on the bottom of her lip, clearly analyzing their responses and thinking through it all. Both Percy and Jason are looking at her for direction and Nico gets why; if there's anyone who has the forethought and wisdom to make the best decision and game plan, it would be, well, a daughter of the goddess of wisdom.
"Look," Nightwing says. "If dropping you into our universe isn't something you think anyone from your world would do to you, our next best guess is that it's someone from ours. Figuring out who that is will help us figure out why they did it." He looks at Annabeth steadily. "I know this doesn't sound attractive, but trust me; it's one of the quickest ways of ruling out a ton of possibilities."
"Well, couldn't you just ask us if we know the names?" Piper asks. She twists a lock of her hair around and somehow it doesn't look like a nervous habit at all.
Batgirl shakes her head. "Not really. Most of the time, people who are acting against their will or being controlled don't even know it- it's all subconscious programming or hidden behind layers of magic."
"Right, totally," Leo says in a tone that Nico can interpret to mean 'this is totally crazy.'
Kaldur spreads out his hands, and now Nico is no longer looking at a girl who is really a green Martian but at a dude who apparently comes from Atlantis and has webbed hands. "This is why we need Miss Martian to do a deeper search. I promise you; she will not breach your privacy."
Miss Martian smiles. "This is all pretty confusing, I know. But if you feel me getting a little too close to something private, just think 'stop', and I will."
Percy turns to look at Annabeth. There's a moment where Nico knows they're doing their silent conversation thing, before finally she turns to the heroes in front of them.
"Okay." Annabeth breaths out. "We'll do it." She smiles faintly and Nico appreciates the attempt but frankly, this whole situation sucks and Nico can't really bring himself to pretend otherwise.
Miss Martian nods her head and motions to the seats. "Good. Just get comfortable and close your eyes. This will only take a few minutes."
(\M/)
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M'gann closes her eyes and breaths deeply, extending her mind out and linking up with young teenagers. Distantly, she knows her body is in the physical realm, seated lotus style in the middle of the circle and hovering gently in the air, but she feels detached.
After the horrible mistakes she's made, first with Conner then with Kaldur-breaking his psyche and piecing it back together-even something as simple as searching for names makes her hesitate. The trauma that she has caused, to both of them, still haunts her, and it's in moments like these where she is about to do something psychically that she vividly remembers everything that she's done and all her shame and self-hatred comes flooding back.
Focus, M'gann. Steadily, M'gann pushes all her own thoughts and insecurities away and starts her work.
Being this close to the demi-gods is incredibly strange; there's a sense of old magic around them, a feeling of something more ancient than should be possible. It's the same type of feeling M'gann's experienced in her past encounters with Captain Marvel and Etrigan. M'gann reaches a little deeper, feeling something else. She is by no means a strong empath, but her ability to read people's minds and thoughts gives her some supernatural abilities.
Oh. This feeling, specifically strongest around Nico and slightly less so around Percy and Annabeth, is one M'gann and many other heroes have experienced before, or glimpsed as they came close to it: death.
M'gann carefully starts moving deeper, something about...something she's feeling not sitting right with her. For the most part it seems like the demi-gods are actively trying to refrain from remembering or thinking of memories and people, but M'gann can still feel some of their emotions; fear, confusion, happiness, sadness, love, loss and frustration. Faces and voices take shape before being blown away like mist.
A half-blood of the eldest gods, shall reach sixteen against the odds…
Luke Castellan. Kronos. Manhattan.
A single choice shall end his days, Olympus to preserve or raze.
Seven half-bloods shall answer the call, to storm or fire the world must fall…
Gaea.
"Legion, cuneum formate! Advance!"
Tartarus.
"He only helped us in Tartarus because you were kind to him. You told him we were worth saving. That's the only reason we're alive."
M'gann gently pushes away their thoughts and breathes deeply. Here we go.
The Light. The Injustice League. Lex Luthor. Darkseid. The Joker. Professor Zoom. Professor Ivo. Toy Man. Blockbuster. Ra's Al Ghul. Black Manta.
The list is long. Sometimes it pains M'gann deeply to know that so many people have disregarded their sense of virtue, of humanity- something that she knows is incredibly precious- and have become corroded by greed and evil. It always makes her wonder at how close the line is between good and evil, right and wrong. It gives her a numerous amount of villains and criminals to eliminate, but despite the many names she thinks of and searches for, all M'gann receives back is half-formed memories of friends and fragmented feelings. Slowly, M'gann starts pulling back and focusing on her own body, opening her eyes and bringing them all out of the trance.
Dick makes eye contact with her, and M'gann shakes her head.
"Wow." Leo blinks, looking around with wide eyes.
Percy clears his throat. "Yeah."
"That was weird." Jason adds.
Barbara and Artemis have clearly read M'gann's exchange with Dick and both look like they're running through other possibilities. Kaldur sighs, his shoulders relaxing slightly.
"Well?" Annabeth asks, her grey eyes boring into M'gann. "Anything?"
Miss Martian shakes her head. "No, nothing. I've ruled out the bigger possibilities on our end, but without some help from other members of the League, I won't be able to tell you more." Telepathically, M'gann says 'They are telling the truth.'
Leo taps his fingers against the couch rapidly. "I have so many questions about what just happened and how that worked. Like, seriously."
'Well that takes care of one problem,' Barbara thinks back.
"Great." Nico exhales. "So, we're just stuck here then?"
Kaldur offers him a consoling smile. "Only until we can figure out a way to get you home. You mentioned earlier that you thought magic was involved. Thankfully, we know a few people who are well versed in that area."
"Nice." Leo comments.
"That's good, right?" Piper asks, her tone hopeful. "You mean they'll be able to send us back?"
'And there's our other problem,' Superboy's voice echoes in her head telepathically. 'It's too bad all our magic users aren't home and we don't have Motherbox. Or even a Green Lantern ring.'
'Yeah.' Artemis agrees. Despite them just communicating telepathically, M'gann can make out a grin in her voice. 'Seriously, the timing of all this couldn't be better; John and Guy have been off-world for a while and Hal went with the other League members since Kyle is back on Oa. We're fresh out of Green Lanterns at the moment.'
"Well," M'gann responds slowly. "They're a little tied up at the moment."
Nico frowns. "What does that mean?"
Piper curls a lock of her hair behind an ear and then un-tucks it, speaking on top of the smaller teen. "When will those people be able to help us?"
'We should also talk to Adam Strange.' Barbara adds. 'He might be able to help, or at least give some advice.'
'Good idea.' Dick voices back. Aloud he says, "It means that we're going to have to sit tight and wait for a bit." He exchanges a glance with Kaldur and Conner. The latter shrugs. Dick continues, "we've contacted a few League members and they should be able to help us out soon, but when that will be, well. We'll let you know soon."
Percy gently rubs his right temple, a grimace crossing his face. M'gann doesn't miss the concerned look Annabeth gives him, or the closeness of their bodies. They're obviously together, and she feels bittersweet, a memory from when a different boy with black hair would hold her hand. M'gann pushes those thoughts aside, glancing at Conner from the corner of her eye. He meets her gaze with a questioning look, and M'gann just smiles softly before turning back to the teens in front of her.
"We'll keep working on different angles in the meantime, though." Barbara says, her tone consoling. "I know you mentioned magic but we might find a solution from a boom tube or another piece of tech."
Annabeth looks away from Percy to her, a determined expression on her face. It reminds M'gann of a lot of Artemis, her grey eyes like flint and her blond hair framing her face. "We can help." She declares confidently. "We might not be as experienced with all this as you guys are, but we're not helpless. Leo," she nods towards the curly haired boy who had remained mostly quiet, listening to the conversation. "Is one of the most skilled and talented mechanics I know. If there's some sort of technology that you think might help, I guarantee Leo will be able to figure it out."
Leo, for his part, looks slightly stunned at Annabeth's praise, but nods assuredly. "Definitely. I'm on it. Or, will be on it. Whatever."
"And maybe we haven't run through all the possibilities on our end." Piper adds. Annabeth's enthusiasm must be catching, because the other girl looks less worried than she had when M'gann had first met her. "Give us some more time to think through everything, and maybe we'll be able to come up with something that could help."
"Right." Annabeth replies. "Nico, maybe you can talk to the dead, see if they can tell you anything."
The boy rubs his arm. "I can try, but this isn't even the same underworld here. I have no idea if that'll even work."
'Okay, that's new.' Artemis comments telepathically, clearly impressed.
Jason rests a hand on his shoulder. "You'll figure it out."
'His dad is Hades, Dick thinks back. So, I guess talking to the dead makes sense, in a weird sort of way.' Something about his tone makes M'gann turn to look at him, but his face is neutral. She has a hunch though, because the idea of being able to talk to those who have passed makes her feel...different. The idea is disconcerting, but also incredibly tempting. To be able to talk to Tula, and Wally, even if it's just one more time...and she knows how much more it would mean to Dick, who's not only lost one of his best friends, but both his parents. The idea is staggering. M'gann wants to do something, say something to bring their thoughts away from that idea, but she doesn't know what.
Almost as if she can read minds, Artemis adds, 'Think him and Batman would get along?' Dick grins, and M'gann is so thankful that her friends are still able to joke and smile, despite the pain in their lives. The joke does the trick a little too well, because Conner actually laughs out loud.
He clears his throat as the demi-gods all look at him. "Sorry, I just thought of something- never mind."
"That sounds like a plan," Kaldur says, easily continuing the conversation. "For now though, I think it might be wise if we all got some sleep and continued looking at our options in the morning."
Percy looks relieved, his hand coming back up to rub his temple. "Yeah, that sounds like a plan."
There are more worried looks and tense shoulders, but an overall murmur or gesture of agreement. There is a sense of determination and bravery though, and M'gann is impressed with the kids; they're handling their unknown, tumultuous situation better than she had expected and with a maturity that can only come from having to grow up too fast.
"Do you," Annabeth starts a little unsurely. She takes a breath and continues with more confidence. "Do you have a tablet, or laptop, or something I could borrow? With internet access?"
'Smart girl,' Barbara observes approvingly over the physic link.
'Reminds me of you,' Dick comments. There's a smirk in his voice and M'gann can't help but smile, happy for her friend's happiness.
Kaldur responds, once again smoothly ignoring Artemis' teasing eye roll and Conner's look of 'get a room you two' in Dick and Barbara's direction. "Of course. We'll get you settled in and set up with something."
"Woop-ee." Leo says, standing up and running a hand through his tangled hair. He tugs slightly hard to rake his hands all the way through it, the curls snagging at his fingers. "A slumber party in a cave operated by superheroes in a different world with a side of no clue in Hades how to get back home or who in either universe brought us here. Sounds super."
(\M/)
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"Okay. Brainstorming time," Annabeth announces as the boys situate themselves around the girls' borrowed bedroom.
The rooms aren't half bad in Leo's opinion; two twin beds, a night stand, extra sitting chair, dresser, and trash bin. They're extra sets of plain lounging clothes (sweats and dark grey tees) in each room for them, along with a towel and the always necessary toothpaste and toothbrush combo. The walls more or less bare and basic, and there is no natural light (because they're in a mountain) so the lights built into the ceilings cast a warm yellow-ish white hue.
After speaking with the Young Justice members for a while longer, they were split into three rooms; Leo with Percy, Jason and Nico, and the two girls together. Neither Kaldur or Artemis gave any indication that there were any 'dorm rules' (like on the Argo II with Coach Hedge- man Leo misses him) so after they'd all had enough time to shower (Percy, Nico, Annabeth) change (Piper, Leo) and do whatever else (Leo's pretty sure Jason brushed his teeth and then washed his feet, a weird ritual that Leo still doesn't get) they game planned to meet up in the girl's room and try to sort through some things.
Piper scoots over to make room for Jason to sit beside her on the bed, her hands busy trying to work her hair out of its absolute mess of a bun. Leo flops down on the other twin bed that Annabeth is sitting on, the borrowed laptop that Kaldur had given her earlier open and resting on her lap. Nico takes a seat on the floor, his back resting against the side of Piper's bed. Percy drags the chair from the corner of the room close enough to the others to where he can sit and look at the lit computer screen with Annabeth, his chin resting easily on her shoulder.
"Let's start with the facts," she continues.
"Our lives suck." Leo says like he's saying 'french fries are one of mankind's greatest inventions.' (So, factually.)
Percy laughs and Nico grins, and Piper sighs but can't keep the smile off her face either. "Guys, come on. Let's try to stay positive."
"Okay. Our lives suck," Leo says again, but this time like he's saying 'I'm so happy french fries were invented!' (So, positively.)
Annabeth gives him an unimpressed look.
He grins cheekily back before returning his attention to his phone, a small bundle of portable tools spread out on the bed beside him. Leo is grateful now more so than ever for remembering to stick them in his pockets before they'd met up for dinner earlier that day...evening? week? Not knowing how to gauge time correctly is strangely incredibly frustrating, so he mentally pushes those thoughts away and brings his mind back to altering the hardware in his cellphone. He checked earlier for a signal, but of course there isn't one. Now he's trying to jimmy it to connect to whatever wi-fi, power grid, or satellite exists in this world, partially just for the heck of it, partially because he absolutely needs something to do with his hands as they try to come up with answers to who brought them here and why.
"That's going to be a long list of names to rule out," Jason is saying when Leo brings his attention back to the conversation. Jason reaches over to help Piper detangle her hair from around the elastic band. "We might want to start in some order, or something."
"Should we start with Greek then Roman, or just whatever comes to mind?" Percy mumbles into Annabeth's shoulder.
Nico huffs out a breath. "We're going to be here for a while."
Leo tilts his chin back far enough to look at Annabeth, who mutters something, her fingers tapping something on the laptop rapidly.
"Okay, this is ridiculous- just cut it off," Piper says irritably.
Leo looks over to the other bed in time to see Jason's startled expression. "Your hair?"
"Oh, my gods," Annabeth says, slightly breathlessly.
Percy sounds equally as surprised. "No way."
"No, no," Piper replies, trying to tug the hair tie out. "The stupid thing- ugh."
Leo's impressed; her hair looks more tangled around the hair band than the wires in some of Leo's inventions.
"Oh," Jason drags the word out. He looks at Leo as if to say 'you have any scissors with you?'
"It's okay, guys," Leo jokes as he passes Jason mini scissors, because yes, he does in fact have scissors in his little tool kit. "It's just the hairband."
"Hair tie," Piper corrects as she holds still while Jason starts trying to cut away the hair tie.
There's some shifting as Annabeth leans forward, Percy moving from the chair to the bed so he's in between Annabeth and Leo.
"Not that," Annabeth says distractedly. "I was reacting to-"
"We don't exist here." Percy interrupts. The light from the screen creates shadows under his eyes, the effect making him look...different to Leo.
"What?" Nico sits up. "What are you looking at?"
"I googled us," Annabeth doesn't pause her clicking as she replies, clearly invested in what she's looking at. "And uh, hold on- other things in this world. It's totally different, but our families-"
"Wait, let me see." Piper tugs the cut hair tie out and tosses her hair over a shoulder. She shoves Leo over so he's now squashed up against Percy to see the screen. Although they've been kidnapped into another universe, fought against super-powered beings and showered, Piper still smells like flowers and Percy the sea. It's an interesting combination and Leo elbows Percy to make some more room. He gets his head out enough to also look at what they're reading; a news article published on The Morning Star from Star City dated several years back. Leo has to re-read the headline multiple times before it makes sense. His stomach bottoms out as the words sink in; Award-Winning Actor, Tristan McLean, Dies While Filming In Gotham.
Piper is trembling, her brown eyes wide. Annabeth quickly scrolls down far enough so that Leo can't see any of the photos, and Percy takes the laptop from her so she can reach across to grip her friend's knee.
"Pipes," Annabeth says quietly. "Piper, your dad is alive back home, and you will see him again."
Leo wraps her in a side-hug, Jason coming over to comfort her too, gleaming enough from their reactions to make an assumption about what they learned.
"These dead aren't ours," Nico says. His voice is soft but firm and confident.
"I," Piper starts. She swallows and breathes out deeply. "Thank you."
There's a moment of silence before Percy breaks it. "Annabeth, guys." He turns the laptop around. "Check this out."
Leo blinks. "Is that...a bat?"
It's another online article, from some website called The Knight Watcher and it shows a slightly pixelated photo of a dark, cloudy sky. Shining into it is an outline that looks like a bat, as if someone projected it with an incredibly high-powered beam as a...symbol.
Annabeth sucks in a sharp breath. "The symbol in the night...is that what we're supposed to look for?" Her voice is a whisper, and Leo can feel goose-bumps crawl up his arms.
Nico leans closer to read the article as Percy scrolls a little bit with two fingers and says in an unreadable tone, "It says it shines in Gotham."
"Gotham," Jason repeats, frowning. "A lot seems to happen there."
"A lot of death," Nico murmurs.
Leo squeezes Piper one last time before gathering his tools and phone pieces that scattered around when everyone had shifted. "That's not creepy at all," he comments sarcastically, trying to lighten the mood a little. Piper cracks a smile, so he counts it as a win.
Annabeth narrows her eyes. "I don't know if this really is what that voice was referring to, but I think we need to check it out. Nightwing and Robin definitely reacted when we told them about the 'symbol in the night thing'." She runs a hand through her hair. "They know something, and-"
"Wait," Nico interrupts. "The symbol is like a calling card for 'Gotham's protector'," he makes air quotes with his hands. "A vigilante known as...Batman, and others like...Robin."
"So, they definitely know something," Leo comments with a raised eyebrow.
Leo looks from Nico to Annabeth, who in turn looks at Percy. Leo notices the look of concern that passes across Annabeth's face; Percy is rubbing his head again, like he has a bad headache, grimacing.
"We're not going to be able to talk to them about it tonight," Annabeth says slowly. "I think we should get some rest tonight and pick up tomorrow morning."
Percy frowns, his green eyes looking slightly glassy. "What? We haven't done any brainstorming at all, and you said you wanted to research more about this world."
"Annabeth's right." Nico interjects, climbing to his feet. "We'll have better luck coming up with actually good ideas tomorrow."
Leo can tell Nico's also picked up on the 'Percy isn't feeling well he needs to rest' thing, and Leo quickly nods in agreement.
"Yeah," Piper says. She presses the palms of her hands to her eyes and laughs sardonically. "Can you believe that this is actually happening?"
Jason gives her shoulder a squeeze. "We've had worse thrown at us. We'll figure this out and be home in no time." He says it so confidently, with so much assurance and Leo is kind of jealous; Jason is actually able to say something like that and believe it. Honestly, Leo wants to be as convicted, but truthfully? There's a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach that is whispering that maybe this time, they won't.
Leo grabs his little tool kit and phone and motions for Percy to follow him back to their room. "That's the spirit," he says cheerfully, shoving his bad feelings into a little box and deliberately not thinking about them. "More researching and discovering, uh, not family members and hashing out the whole, er, bat symbol thing tomorrow sounds like a plan to me."
And who knows, Leo thinks somewhat sarcastically, a little desperately, to himself as the others wrap up the conversation and get ready to leave the girls' room. Maybe this is all just one horrible nightmare and tomorrow we'll wake up and find out that we were just dreaming.
In hindsight, Leo should have known to not tempt fate, the gods, universe, whatever, because nightmares are a very real thing for demigods. And waking up to Percy screaming only a few hours after drifting off into a fitful sleep very nearly gave Leo a heart attack. The image of Percy, back arched off the bed and green eyes unseeing, tears streaming down his cheeks is one that Leo knows will keep him awake for the rest of the night.
Please, Leo thinks as he grabs Percy's shoulders and tries to wake him up while shouting his name. Leo doesn't know who he's praying to. Please let us go home.
I just want to go home.
did i completely forget the fact that atlantis does, in fact, exist in Percy's world and how to spell Barbara's name? I am THE WORST but thank you to those of you who pointed those two little facts out (we're just gonna roll with it) also is this? a plot? Im TYRING i promise X.X also the updates will be every two weeks for right now as life has gotten kind of insane for a bit, but I'll do my best to get them out as early as possible :) drop a comment and let me know what u think! xoxo