Percy blinked, uncertain how to respond to the odd greeting. Even more confusing was when the small, ostentatiously dressed boy strode passed by Percy, brushing him aside at the keyboard. He pulled a chord free from his gauntlet and plugged it into a port on the computer terminal. Percy wasn't sure how Earth technology molded to alien tech like that but clearly it was working as a holographic keyboard appeared over his gauntlet which he started typing on.
"You good, dude?" Asked the red-haired teen clad in an odd yellow jumpsuit, and Percy jumped out of his stupor. Judging by the yellow lightning bolt on his chest, Percy figured he must have been the Flash's kid. Beside him was a slightly taller teenager. He too had deep red hair and small domino mask akin to the smallest of the group, who Percy could only presume was Robin. He had a quiver of arrows on his back, and a loaded compound bow gripped tightly in his hands. He was glaring at Percy, not in anger but clearly distrustful of Percy's presence. Beside him however, was the most curious of the eclectic group.
Also a teenager, his light blonde hair was shaved close to his dark head, and was clad in a deep red vest. Strapped to his back was a strange metallic device with two appendages poking up over his shoulders. He had a set of very intricate tattoos crisscrossing down his arms. Though what had Percy's attention were the very odd flaps of flesh along the boy's neck. If Percy didn't know any better, he would have said that they were gills.
The young man noticed Percy's staring and nodded his head in greeting.
"Hello, Percy Jackson. I have been wanting to meet you for some time. The pleasure is mine."
"…you too," said Percy uncertainly. "Um…hate to be that guy, but who the hell are you? And what are you doing here."
"Could ask you the same thing," said the redheaded archer and Percy could see his grip tighten somewhat on his weapon. "That's quite the mess you made back there."
Robin glanced over his shoulder at the bigger boy, his brow furrowed. "What are you talking about?"
"Go check the hall yourself," the taller boy said, "You and Kid missed it because you snuck ahead."
Robin and the yellow boy, Kid - Percy thought he remembered him as Kid Flash - looked at one another. Kid Flash shrugged before he disappeared in a blur of yellow and red. There was a brief shout of surprise from the hallway before he reappeared at Robins side at the terminal, his eyes wide and face ashen.
"Blood," he whispered hoarsely, "There's so much…what the hell did you do?"
Percy glared at the boy, not too keen to be judged by a literal child. "In case you hadn't realized we're at war."
"You butchered them," Kid Flash said, and Robin was looking half curiously and half mortified in the direction of hallway. "I don't know what you think is going on here man, but I don't think Supergirl would-"
Percy snarled at the boy "I don't know what Kara would think, because these fucking birds kidnapped her!"
"I don't know what we're doing here," scoffed the archer, raising his bow a little higher in the air. "You sure this is the guy A was talking about? Looks like nothing more than a common thug to me."
"All of you, peace," commanded the darker skinned boy. "We accomplish nothing by antagonizing one another." He placed a hand on the Archer's bow and gently pushed it back towards the ground before turning to Percy.
"My apologies, this was not how I had envisioned meeting you. You may call me Aqualad, I am of Atlantis."
Percy blinked at the realization.
"Well, that explains the gills," Percy muttered. "Mera okay?"
Aqualad blinked, taken aback. Quickly shaking it off, he nodded, "The Thanagarians have not yet attempted to invade the seas, Queen Mera is safe. Thank you for your concern."
"Wait how do you know-" Kid Flash started to say, when a strange red glow bloomed around them. A klaxon boomed and Percy could feel multiple parties closing in on them.
"We need to leave," he said quickly but the others were already moving. Robin was pulling his chord free from the computer terminal. "Come on, we got someplace safe to hide out." Without further ado he strode over to a nearby window, thrusting it open and jumping free. Following in Robin's footsteps, Kid Flash disappeared in a blur of color. Aqualad rolled his eyes, muttering something under his breath that Percy didn't understand. He walked over and placed a hand on Percy's shoulder.
"Come, we must leave here."
The archer stood in place for a moment, his glare still firmly on Percy, before brushing passed him and following the other sidekicks out the window. Percy was torn for a moment. All of this was a little too much too fast. He'd thus far managed to stay well out of the way of Kara's other life, and his only real association with the League and the Hero community at large was limited to Clark and Diana. But now he was suddenly surrounded by the sidekicks of the biggest names, who had somehow managed to evade capture. But he didn't exactly have much else to go off of. It had become painfully clear that he was in over his head. Monsters and demons he could deal with, but threats of a galactic proportion were well outside his wheel of expertise. If nothing else, maybe he could use whatever tech these kids had at their disposal to find Kara. Maybe this "A" character they had mentioned would be a little easier to speak to.
In the end, he didn't think he had much of a choice and followed Aqualad out of the window. The boy was waiting for him as Percy landed heavily on the ground below, his boots squelching in the mud.
"This way!" Aqualad hurried him, sprinting off in the direction of the Thanagarian perimeter line. Following after the boy, they passed by a number of already unconscious Thanagarian soldiers. The kids had been busy apparently.
There was a crinkle in the back of his neck. Trusting his instincts, Percy dove out of the way just as a bolt of plasma raced passed him. With a snarl, Percy rose to his knees and drew his weapon. Behind him he could make out at least seven Thanagarian soldiers charging towards him. He was about to meet their charge when Aqualad was suddenly at his side, the strange silver appendages off of his back and in his hands. They were almost like sword pommels. Then, to Percy's surprise, the strange tattoos along the boy's arms began to glow a faint blue as twin blades of water blossomed from the pommels. Aqualad pointed the weapons in the direction of the soldiers and a blast of water materialized, racing towards the charging soldiers. Most managed to fly out of the way but an unlucky two were caught in the blast as they were bodily thrown to the ground.
Not content to sit idly by as the fighting commenced, Percy darted towards three of the flying soldiers. Swiveling out of the way of the blast from the first Thanagarian, Percy dragged his blade across the man's stomach, who screeched in agony as he fell to the ground his life spilling onto the wet ground below him. Another soldier, wielding another of the odd sparking weapons - this one a mace - swung at Percy. Percy ducked under the blow, but he could feel an odd magical energy dance over his skin. Ignoring the odd prickling sensation the magic brought, Percy buried his blade in his blade to the hilt in the alien's stomach. The man's blood washed over Percy's hands, and with a twist and a yank he pulled the blade from the Thanagarian's stomach.
Feeling the hair on the back of his neck rise, he dropped to the ground as plasma arced over his back. Twisting around, Percy was about to charge forward when Aqualad took initiative and slammed a pair of conjured maces into the man's temple and he dropped to the ground, unconscious.
"There will be more," panted Aqualad, "We must hurry." Without sparing another glance at Percy he darted back off into the darkness. Percy wasted no time in following in his footsteps. They managed to make it to the perimeter without further interruption. Aqualad led Percy into a cramped alleyway, skidding to a stop near an open manhole cover.
Without needing to be told, Percy jumped into the opening, landing with a light splash in the dark and filthy water of the sewer. He waited as Aqualad followed him down, replacing the cover as he came down. He then continued on his running pace down the sewer, Percy hot on his heels. Glancing around, Percy noted the absence of the three other kids and he glanced over at Aqualad.
"Where are the others?"
"We are using a different means of escape," Aqualad explained. "We were under the impression that perhaps you are able to swim better than you can run."
Percy snorted, "You could say that. Where are we going?"
"Batcave," Aqualad answered.
Percy arched a brow, surprised at the blunt admission, "Bit of a ways away from Gotham, aren't we?"
"We will use a series of interconnected rivers and causeways which feed into Gotham Harbor," Aqualad answered. He grimaced and looked over at Percy as he turned a corner. "Please, I understand your confusion and your frustration, but give us your faith. We are professionals."
Percy bit back a retort. He and Kara had thus far avoided the rather touchy subject regarding the sidekicks of the League. Percy had been fairly…vocal about his distaste for the League using young children in the way that they were. It brought up too many bad memories for Percy to be entirely comfortable with it. But he couldn't deny that at least Aqualad could fight, and they had certainly thought through this little escapade well enough.
He decided to try and bury his own biases for the moment, and focus on the task at hand. First and foremost was Kara's safety. Finding her, and killing the people responsible. There would be time enough to discuss the ramifications of young heroes when she was safe and sound.
Aqualad had been correct in his directions to Percy. The sewer fed into a water treatment facility, which sat at the mouth of a large inland river. Diving into the water Percy and Aqualad followed the river for several miles, before switching up and following into yet another river. This pattern followed for the next couple of hours before they finally emerged into the mouth of Gotham Harbor. For a second, Percy thought that they might head to the mainland, but Aqualad changed directions and began heading off to the east.
"Wait…" Percy said, his voice clear under the water as he realized where they were going. "Are we headed to Arkham?" He had been working in Gotham long enough to know the basic geography of the city. More importantly, he knew where to go and where not to go. One of the first things his fellow staff members at the academy had taught him was not to get on Highway 46, heading towards Arkham.
"Yes," said Aqualad, "There is a hidden cave on the south side of the island. That is where we are going."
"…Okay then,"
On the south side of the island, hidden by a mass of sharp and jagged rocks was the mouth to what appeared at first glance to be a small cave. But the mouth opened up into a massive cavern. In sharp contrast the craggy exterior, the interior looked like something out of a science fiction film. Popping up to the surface, he couldn't help but gape in awe. It was a mess of crisscrossing metal walkways and platforms. Dangling from the rafters, held up by a number of the largest chains Percy had ever seen was an odd-looking plane. Propped against the far back wall, was the single largest computer monitor he had ever seen.
He was pulled out of his stupor as Aqualad chuckled.
"It is rather astonishing, isn't it?" He clapped Percy on the shoulder, gesturing to a ramp at the far side of the cavern. "Come on, the others are likely waiting."
Nodding, Percy followed Aqualad up and out of the water. Sure enough, the other three were waiting for them by the large computer monitor along with a fourth man that Percy had never met before. He was an older man, likely in his early to mid-sixties. The top of his head was bald with a ring of gray crowning his ears, and an equally gray bushy mustache tickling his lips. He was dressed immaculately in a well-tailored three-piece suit. He turned his pale blue eyes on Percy as they approached, bowing deeply, his hand held to his breast.
"Percy Jackson, a pleasure to finally meet you." He had a deep voice, thick with a very posh-sounding English accent.
"You must be 'A', then?" Percy asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
The man chuckled, "The, erm, codename that the young heroes gave me," he sighed despondently then smiled wearily. "You may call me Alfred." He reached out and Percy gripped his hand in greeting. He had a rather surprisingly strong grip for a man his age.
"The kids mentioned that you were the one to send them my way?"
Alfred nodded, "You'll forgive me for…butting into your affairs, however I feel given the times we find ourselves in, it is better to work as a collective."
Percy sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Yeah…yeah, you're probably right. I can hold my own but…all this alien crap is pretty outside my wheelhouse."
"But murder sure isn't," snapped the red-headed archer.
"Speedy," hissed Aqualad in agitation.
"No!" The archer, Speedy, snarled. He marched away from the monitor and up to Percy, thrusting a finger in Percy's chest. "This is guy is dangerous. I don't care if he's sleeping with Supergirl, he butchered half a dozen of the birds, and don't think I didn't see what you did as we were leaving either!"
"Speedy!" Aqualad hissed again, pushing the fiery boy away from Percy. "I know you disagree with his methods-"
"Methods?!" Gawked Kid Flash, "Kaldur, the dude killed those guys! We're heroes, we don't work with people like him!"
"I would appreciate it if you didn't talk about me like I'm not here," Percy said coolly before turning back to Speedy. "And I don't care if you don't like me. I don't care if you disagree with the way I do things. But I'm not one of you, I don't want to be. I don't want to be doing any of this. But these people made it personal." He walked back to Speedy and glared down at the boy.
"These people marched into my life. Took Kara. Are doing the gods only know what to her, to all of the League. So I'm not going to play nice, because the Kid is right. I'm not a hero. I don't want to be. So either you can get on board with me, or you can get the hell out of the way."
Speedy looked like he wanted nothing more than to sock Percy in the mouth, but thankfully Alfred spoke up.
"Enough!" Immediately, the boys took a step back from one another. Percy was suddenly and violently reminded of Chiron. The way that Alfred appeared to command the room's respect with his mere presence was impressive.
"I understand your reticence with Master Jackson's methods-"
"Gods, please never call me that again,"
"But, I can assure you that I did not ask you to go find him if I did not think that he would be immensely beneficial to our cause." He turned to Percy, "Master Jackson-" Percy grumbled but once again the older man ignored him "-We are all here working to the same goal." He walked over to the monitor and Robin graciously moved away from the keyboard. Alfred input a couple of commands on the keyboard and images of the League appeared on the screen.
Percy's eyes immediately danced to where Kara's smiling face beamed into the camera.
"According to what we've been able to ascertain, roughly three days ago the Thanagarians managed to launch a successful surprise attack on the Justice League. We still do not know precisely what happened, but we must assume that they discovered some way to restrain two Kryptonians, a Martian, a demigod, and two green lanterns, not to mention the rest of the League. This means they were prepared and had a battle plan. We must, therefore, not assume that they lack awareness of our own capabilities."
"They don't have all of the information though," Percy said as he approached the monitor. "They didn't come after me."
"Indeed," nodded Alfred. "Which was precisely why I wanted to bring you into this little…operation."
From behind him, Percy heard Speedy snort in derision. Percy ignored him.
"I assume you have a plan of some kind?" He asked, and Alfred nodded. "We lack information. We know relatively little about what the Thanagarians plans are, who their leadership is aside from the one who made the announcement, and most importantly-"
"Where Kara is," Percy grunted.
"And most importantly where the Justice League is," nodded Alfred. "But, all of that being said, we are not operating totally in the dark. Robin?"
The young boy nodded and took Alfred's place at the monitor and began typing. "Since the attack, I've been scanning the planet with the League's network of satellites." A map of some kind appeared on the monitor. It showed the entire planet, with a number of different regions across the planet highlighted in a faint orange. "Over the last couple of days, we've been able to isolate a number of regions with extremely high outputs of Nth metal energy."
"Nth metal?" Percy asked.
"This is the guy whose supposed to help us?" Scoffed Speedy, "The guy who doesn't even know what Nth metal is?"
Aqualad glared at the boy before answering Percy. "I am sure you noticed the odd energy powering the Thanagarian's weapons?" Percy nodded, "It is an element home to the Thanagarian home world. The Thanagarians mold into their armor and weapons. It negates the power of gravity, and offers a boon of strength, speed, and durability. It is part of what makes Thanagarians so formidable."
Percy nodded and stepped closer to the map, inspecting it carefully. There were two regions in the United States which was experiencing sharp surges in Nth metal usage. One looked like it was in the desert in Nevada, and another was tucked away in the forests of Montana. A plan started to form in his mind. There was another location that caught his attention though, tucked away in the Cayman islands.
"Whatever these hawks are doing, it's a safe bet that these places are important. There is going to be leadership of some kind at these sites." He glanced over at Alfred, "We need to divide and conquer. We hit these guys at more than a couple of these sites at the same time and we have a better chance of finding something useful. Not to mention that we're able to piss 'em off and screw up whatever their plans happen to be."
"My thoughts exactly," smiled Alfred. He pressed a couple keys and the map zoomed in on the two North American locations. "I propose that we do exactly as you suggested and divide and conquer." He turned back to Percy, "I am suggesting two teams. Kid Flash and Robin will tackle the location in Nevada, while you, Aqualad, and Speedy attack the location in Montana."
"Makes sense," Percy nodded. "But counteroffer." He glanced over his shoulder at Speedy, who glared at him. "Clearly some of us are going to be assholes about this, so leave those two to tackle the location in Montana, and I'll deal with this one." He pointed at the location in the Caymans.
"It works better for my skillset anyways. I can speed in, rip the place to pieces before anyone even knows what's going on."
Speedy stepped forward as though to rebut him, but a sharp look from Alfred was enough to quiet the boy. Turning back to Percy, Alfred frowned.
"I am aware that you are certainly capable, but are you sure you will be all right on your own? There is no shame in asking for help."
"And I'm not afraid to ask when I think I need it," Percy agreed. "But it doesn't make sense for me to work with them. They're friends, and I'm guessing have worked together for a bit at least. Putting an unknown that they clearly don't like or don't trust is introducing an unnecessary element. Better not to play with fire unnecessarily."
"It makes sense," said Aqualad as he molded it over. "If you are truly a son of the sea, then I can imagine that you are more than capable of handling it yourself." "Unless of course you have to use a computer," snicked Robin. Alfred shot a look of warning at the snickering boy, before frowning at Percy.
"Jokes aside, that might indeed be a problem. As we've discussed, we need information first and foremost. I know that Robin and Speedy have been trained in some alien technologies and have tools for hacking into alien devices. But what will you do?"
Percy grinned, already having learned from his previous mistake. It was not a pleasant expression.
"I guess I'll just have to ask for a little help."
AN: As always shoutout to Double0Sxvxn for being an awesome Beta and dealing with my bullshit and as always if you enjoyed this but haven't checked out my other work, give them a try you never know you might find something else you like. I'm also on discord now, where I and a bunch of other writers hang out, chat and brainstorm ideas, you just have to copy the link that's in my profile bio if you want to come and hang out with us. Stay safe, stay healthy and have an awesome week
All My Love,
LilDB