Percy couldn't say what it was that woke him up. It was late. The sun having set hours ago. He'd gone to bed some time before, having tried to wait up for Kara but ultimately deciding to just go to sleep. He felt around the bed beside him, but found the sheets cold and empty. He sighed, he supposed it wasn't too surprising. Kara could have been halfway across the planet for all he knew, and gods only knew how long whatever talks were occurring would last.
He felt…odd. Worried. What if something had happened? He tried to shake off the feeling. He was being dramatic. Nothing had happened. The meeting had likely just gone long. There had been a sudden arrival of alien invaders, it wasn't surprising that the League would be scrambling to figure out what they needed to be doing.
He checked the small clock beside the bed, it was a little after four in the morning, but he knew he wouldn't be getting back to sleep. He had work in three hours, and decided he might as well get started for the day.
But as he prepared for the day, and as he worked, he couldn't help the sinking feeling in his chest. The painful constriction of anxiety. He found himself continually checking his phone, hoping to see something, anything, from Kara. But nothing. Hour after hour, nothing. He was beginning to panic when he returned home that evening, and still, Kara was nowhere to be seen. He kept his eye on the news, and social media, but still nothing. More worryingly, there wasn't anything about any hero in the League. No Superman, no Batman, nothing. Nobody.
He didn't trust it.
He had half a mind to call Diana, but decided against it. He was overreacting. His own, always present, sense of impending doom taking control of his rational thinking. He tried to occupy his mind with work. Mindlessly grading papers and tests for a couple of hours, but it was a half-hearted attempt. He was distracted, and unable to focus properly. At about eight, he gave up and turned on the television. Maybe there would be a report of some kind of meeting between the Thaanigarian leadership and the League being discussed.
But when he tried to turn on the television…nothing happened. His screen remained black. Empty. He frowned, and turned the tv off then back on again. But the screen remained blank. He tried unplugging the television but it was more of the same. He checked his phone, thinking that maybe there was some kind of a blackout in the city, but when he tried to connect to the internet, he couldn't. He tried calling Kara, but the line was dead.
No cell service either. That was unnerving, he'd been able to use it only a few hours previously.
His stomach lurched painfully. This…this wasn't right. Wasn't normal. Something was wrong; something was very, very wrong.
He jumped as someone knocked on his door. For a long moment, he simply stared at the door. He approached slowly, cautiously. He moved slowly, gripping the small dagger he'd stashed under the side table by the front door. holding the weapon tight to his person, he peered through the peephole, only to sigh in relief, before thrusting open the door.
"Lois," he breathed, stashing the weapon the away in the back pocket of his dress-pants. But his relief at seeing a familiar face morphed into mounting horror. Her expression was hard. The stony mask of someone trying desperately to keep it together.
"Please tell me you've heard from Kara,"
Percy felt his stomach fall through his shoes. Reaching out, he gripped Lois around the wrist and gently pulled her in to the house.
"Nothing," he said, leading her into the kitchen, and depositing her in a nearby chair. She collapsed into it without a word, her fingers hammering a dance into the table as Percy began fishing through the cabinets for a glass.
"Haven't heard from Clark all day, which wouldn't have been unusual if there had been any sightings of the other guy," said Lois, "But he hasn't been seen all day. And now Wi-Fi all over the city seems to have gone down, and I can't get a call through. Not John, not Martha, or Iris or anyone."
"I haven't heard from Kara either," said Percy, grabbing a bottle of wine from the fridge and pouring Lois a hefty portion, grabbing a bottle of rum from the liquor cabinet for himself.
"She got a call late last night about a meeting with the League. That was the last I saw of her."
"Clark said the same thing," said Lois, biting her lip as she swirled the wine around in her cup, "I was reaching out to my people all day, at least when I could, and you know what all of them said? Not a single cape sighting. Not one, all day." She downed the entire glass in a single gulp. Percy poured her another.
"If it was anything else, if it was fucking anything else, I wouldn't even be worried about it."
"But most days don't involve an alien invasion," said Percy softly, taking a pull from his own bottle. It didn't do much, but the idea of the alcohol was enough to bring him some comfort.
"They're…" Lois gulped, took another drink and composed herself, "We're not overreacting, are we?"
"No," said Percy forcefully. "Kara and I were talking just last night how fishy all of this was. And Kara has gone radio silent before, but never without prior warning. If she was going to go quiet, she always, always told me first. And the fact that they aren't talking to us, the entire internet seems to be down, we can't call anyone…this isn't coincidence."
He took another pull.
"It's invasion."
The television sprang to life with sparking, popping noise. Percy and Lois whirled around, as the picture of the screen distorted for a moment, before the image of one of the Thaanigarians came into focus. He was a burly man, wearing the same kind of odd, hawk-like headpiece that the Hawkman and Hawkgirl wore. His large, angelic wings beat a slow rhythm behind him, as he glowered into the screen.
"People of Earth," he said, his was voice low and powerful. Commanding. "As of this moment, your planet is under the control of the Thaanigarian Empire. Your Justice League has been captured, and though they remain alive, they are under our control. We tell you this, in the hopes that the leaders of your Nations will be intelligent enough to recognize that resistance, is a foolish endeavor." He paused, allowing the words to sink in. "Our aim on your planet is not one of malice. Earth simply sits in an…opportunistic position in the galaxy. One which benefits our cause in our fight with the Gordonian menace. We do not wish your planet, or your people undue harm and suffering. You have my word, that once we have what we need, we will be departing from your planet for good."
He paused again, and Percy realized that the man had yet to blink the entire time he'd been speaking.
It was…off-putting.
"My people have already begun to disperse among your countries. We will be initiating martial law effective immediately. We do not wish to instill violence, but resistance will be met…harshly. That is all." The screen flicked off, and the room fell silent. Percy was…unsure how he felt in that moment. On the one hand, at least he knew that Kara was alive, more than likely, albeit captured.
But on the other…
He was consumed with a blinding rage so intense that he couldn't see.
"Percy…" he was vaguely aware that Lois was trying to say something, but she sounded a million miles away.
"Percy…"
He needed to make plans. Needed to start strategizing. His gear was still hidden in the trunk in the basement, but he would need additional weaponry. Anaklusmos may have worked on the nasties that went bump in the night, but it wouldn't work against alien angel people.
"Percy!"
He'd need to stop by the Tower. He still had a key, and Kent had a store room of various weaponry that Fate had confiscated over the years.
"Percy!" he blinked, his world coming back into focus as Lois slapped him roughly across the cheeks. His hand stung and he looked down, noticing dispassionately that he'd smashed the bottle, and shards of glass had buried themselves in his hand. Blood ran in crimson streams down his hand, messing up into a puddle with the spilled rum on the kitchen island.
"Whoops," he waved a hand over the mess, and the rum and blood disappeared. Turning on the faucet in the sink, he ran his hand under the water, and allowed the water to pull the shards of glass clear of his hand.
"You okay?" She asked,
Percy didn't answer, but he didn't feel he needed to.
"You look like you have a plan…" said Lois, prodding him further. Still, Percy didn't immediately reply. He waited until the last of the glass had clattered to the bottom of the sink.
"We need to get you out of the city," he said softly. "Need to grab Iris too. We'll get you out to Kansas. You can stay with John and Martha."
"I'm hearing a lot of 'you' but not a lot of 'we,' care to explain that?"
Percy stared at her, and she met his gaze evenly.
"I can't sit back and do nothing, Lois,"
"And if you do something, and get hurt, Kara will never forgive you,"
"I'm not made of glass, Lois," he snarled, stalking forward. "I might play nice with the Club. I might even enjoy myself when we get together. But you and me? We are not the same. We've never been the same!" He didn't even realize he was shouting, but Lois didn't flinch or back down. She held her ground.
"I'm a gods damned half-god, Lois. I've fought literal gods and titans. I've fought and I've won, killed, survived. I'm not the damsel in distress. And I will not stay on the sideline while the single most important thing in my life is held captive." He was breathing heavily, and dabbed at his eyes. He hadn't even realized that he'd started crying.
"You done?" Asked Lois coolly, "Get that out of your system?"
The rage washed away, as guilt and shame washed over him.
"Sorry," he said, avoiding her eyes, "That was…that was out of line. I apologize,"
"It was," said Lois, "but apology accepted." She sighed, walking around the island to rub a soothing circle across his back.
"How are you so calm?" He asked, his knuckles popping as he squeezed the island, chipping the marble. "I'm about three seconds away from charging downtown."
"This isn't the first time I've faced Clark being captured," she said, "And it's far from my first invasion." She sighed, stepping away and leaning down on the island beside Percy. "Panicking and losing my mind has never gotten me far." She fell silent, and Percy was left alone with his thoughts.
"We can't just sit here and do nothing," he said bitterly. Lois sighed, patting him gently on the arm.
"You have to have a little faith, Percy. I know it's hard, but you just gotta trust that the League can get themselves out of this."
Percy's temper flared again, but he did his best to keep his cool. "I'm not going to sit back and do nothing while Kara is trapped gods only know where."
"Then what are you going to do, Percy?" Snapped Lois, the first vestiges of anger and desperation seeping into her tone. She jabbed her thumb out the window, "in case you hadn't noticed, there's tens of thousands of the bastards out there. Warships, weapons beyond our comprehension and God only knows what else! So tell me Percy, tell me what we're supposed to do because I'm all fucking ears!"
Percy didn't say anything. She had a point, and it grated at him. But all that being said, he couldn't just sit back and do nothing. He needed to do something. Needed to take action. But how? He didn't even know what was going on. Not fully, and the more he thought about the situation, the more confused he became. Nothing about the invasion, nor the actions taken by the Hawks were making any sense.
"What's going on here?" He finally asked. Lois turned her head to look at him, brows raised.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that there's something going on behind the scenes that we aren't seeing here. Why are the Hawks here? What do they want? If they had two of their own people here, why did they attack the League, why not just ask for help? What's the point of capturing Earth? Nobody seemed to know what they were doing here, and Kara told me that even Hawkman and Hawkgirl were surprised by their arrival."
"I don't see why it matters at this point."
"It matters," he stressed, "because strategically, their plan doesn't make sense. Why kidnap the entire League and not just kill them outright? They clearly aren't worried about militaries of the world if they can capture the League, so why capture them? If they had two of their own here, why not use them? Warn them? It just doesn't make sense…"
He sighed, running his hand through his hair. He glanced out the window.
"I need information," He got to his feet, and made his way to the bedroom.
"Where are you going?"
Percy didn't look back,
"To war."