The Oncoming Storm

by Greed720

A tempest is coming, one that will take the world by storm. Its name, well its name is Perseus Jackson the Son of Poseidon. The question is, can the world handle him?

21. Chapter 21

AN: So here is the next update, and it is twice as long as the seven thousand words I originally envisioned, hence the wait. I had originally intended on posting this last week, but yeah turns out I was foolish and expanded and already large cast. Which of course meant that I had to write more. Yeah, not my best idea, but I have no regrets.

This chapter was fun to write, even if it was very long. Hopefully it'll be fun to read too. So I hope you all enjoy it, and no complaining unless it is constructive. I've recently had a few whiny flamers, which I don't appreciate. Constructive criticism is good. Bitching for the sake or it, or actually insulting me, yeah that's sure fire way for me to either disregard you, or if you are impolite and do actively insult me, ban you. I really don't have the patience for it.

That said, most of you are awesome and are very supportive, both in your positive and constructively negative views. You lot I like, and it's because I like you lot, that I still post the stories I churn out and as when I can. So thanks, I do appreciate the support and read every comment and message sent my way, even if I don't have the time to answer every one.

So yeah, hope you enjoy it and leave a comment or a review. If you want to chat, make suggestions or anything then feel free to PM me, or if you have Discord I am a part of a Discord group, the link is on my bio. If you seen any glaring mistakes, please do point them out, I am sure there are some as this was a long ass chapter to write, and I don't have a beta.

Other than that, please do enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or DC, if I did then there would be no live action versions of them. Save for maybe the Burton and Nolan Batman films, I liked those.

( - )

(Last Time)

Deathstroke grunted at that and absentmindedly fingered one of the guns on his waist. If the pay wasn't so good, he would love nothing more than to put a bullet through the smug telepath's freakish head.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, the pay was substantial. Substantial enough that he didn't bother wasting any more time trading barbs with the telepath, as he instead strode outside and mounted up with another, thankfully fresh, convoy of soldiers.

One of the Bialyian's planes had just been taken down half a dozen clicks north of the encampment.

It was time to hunt down the rest of the brats before they caused him, and the Light, more trouble than they already had.

( - )

Chapter 21

( - )

(With Percy)

Peeling off the shattered and buckled remains of his upper body armour, Percy felt almost relieved as he hauled the dark metal off of his body and threw it onto the ground.

It was restrictive, and far too hot wear, especially in the middle of a desert. The dark armour seemed to just absorb heat, and when combined with the black Kevlar-esque bodysuit he was wearing underneath, it was all entirely too much. It felt like he was being boiled alive.

"Are you sure you should be doing that?" Tula asked curiously from beside him, stopping on the spot as she turned back to see what he was doing.

"Doing what?" Percy frowned as he crouched down and started rifling through the damaged pieces of the armour set.

"Well, you've already been shot…" Tula began, her eyes momentarily lingering on the already bruising and bloody wound on his shoulder. "And the only reason you weren't torn to pieces was because of the armour…. are you sure it's a good idea to just get rid of it? Especially since, well you know, we're in the middle of potentially dangerous territory, and have people with military hardware after us…?"

"Probably not." Percy replied, unclipping the pauldrons from the chest plate now, as he instead buckled just the chest and back plate on now. It was in the best condition, and should at least protect his most important organs. "But it's pretty busted up, and not really fit for purpose anymore. I'll salvage what I can, but the cons of wearing broken pieces of armour far outweigh the pros..."

"I suppose." Tula acknowledged dubiously.

"It's annoying," Percy continued, ignoring her tone, as he instead adjusted the cuirass a bit, and tugged at the constricting bodysuit underneath for a bit. "I used to have a Nemean Lion skin jacket. The thing was as durable as hell, all but indestructible really. If I had been wearing that, then I wouldn't have even been hurt."

"Wait, Nemean Lion, as in the pelt Heracles wore?" Tula asked curiously.

"You know your mythology." Percy smiled.

"It's not really mythology to me, more just ancient history. We might be descended from the ancient Greek gods of the sea, but they were still our gods. The surface dwellers might have mostly forgotten, but we have not." Tula shrugged, before a suddenly sheepish expression passed across her face. "Though admittedly our connection to the sea gods often slant our view of history in their favour. Our stories of Heracles… well…"

"Oh no, he was a complete prick." Percy nodded. "An arrogant jackass of the highest order."

Tula smiled slightly at that, before suddenly frowning.

"So if you had such a powerful protective item, why weren't you wearing it then?" Tula asked, her eyes narrowing slightly as she looked away from Percy now, and instead squinted into the distance. Her eyes swept over the sea of sand in front of them, before then fixing on the plume of black smoke in the distance, the place that marked the site of the crash plane.

"Honestly I don't know, or I suppose you could say, I don't remember…" Percy shrugged. "There was probably a reason though. My guess is that whoever gave me this fancy black armour, did so because it blended in more than a golden coat."

Tula cocked an eyebrow at that, before she then looked around at the sandy golden desert around them. Words were not necessary to express the point she was making.

Seeing this, and looking around too, Percy winced. "Yeah okay, I see your point."

"So do you think we might have been deliberately sent here then?" Tula asked a moment later, as the two of them once again started heading for the crash site.

"I think it's likely." Percy nodded, a frown on his face now as he also started to survey the sea of sand around him.

With the shifting of the sand, dryness of the air, and the all-round lack of water, he was having a hard time using his powers to extend his senses. Which of course meant that he was stuck using the usual five senses. Which wasn't ideal, as it meant his range was far more limited than he was used to.

Fortunately however, the two of them were able to cross the distance and make it to where the plane had crashed without incident. Unfortunately however, doing so turned out to be a waste of time.

"Somehow I don't think the radio is working anymore…" Tula said dryly, her gaze settling on the ruined cockpit of what Percy now recognised was a modern-ish looking biplane.

"No," Percy hummed, his gaze coolly roving over the crumbled and mangled remains of the plane. The wings were in shreds, the cockpit was a flaming ruin, as for the rest of the plane, well the rest of the plane was scattered across a thirty odd metre area of desert. Overall it was a true wreck, and one that was giving off a large plume of black smoke signalling its location to everyone within a hundred miles. That and the smoke also gave off a foul, acrid, burning smell.

Rubbing his forehead with his hand, Percy let loose a sigh.

Things were not looking good.

"Do we just stick with the old plan then, and keep walking till we find somewhere?" Tula asked disappointedly.

He could already hear from her tone, what she thought of that plan.

"We could, or we could try and head in the opposite direction to the way the plane came. It had to take off from somewhere?" Percy suggested.

"I don't know much about airplanes," Tula grimaced. "But I think they have quite a high range, for all we know this plane took off from a site over a hundred miles from here?"

"Maybe," Percy muttered, a frown on his face too. "It doesn't look very big though. Which means it hasn't got a massive fuel tank… there is a chance that the place it came from is a lot closer."

"Do you want to risk it though?" Tula asked.

"I don't think we have much other choice. I am confident enough I can keep us alive, it won't necessarily be luxurious, or even pleasant, but I can get us enough water and food to keep going." He replied, his brow still furrowed as he tried to work out the best option.

"I'll just go with what you suggest." Tula shrugged. "You know a lot more about the surface world than me. Oh, and you're also ancient and survived in hell, with experience like that, getting us out of a desert should be easy."

"I appreciate your confidence." Percy replied dryly. Ignoring the ancient comment for now, as he instead acknowledged, or at least to himself, that as the older and more experienced child of the sea here, he did have a responsibility to keep the younger child of the sea safe.

Tula just shrugged in response.

Smiling slightly at that, Percy was about to speak again, to offer some words of comfort.

Only before he could, he was distracted by the sudden shifting of sand in the periphery of his vision.

"Get down!" Percy snapped out, his hands already moving as he shoved Tula back and away from him with his left hand, even as his right hand unsheathed his sword in a single smooth move as he quickly deflected a green tipped arrow. Easily knocking it out of the air with the flat of his blade. "We're under attack!"

Not waiting for a response, Percy set his feet more solidly on the unstable sand, even as he whipped his sword out again and swatted another arrow out of the air, only this arrow, he learnt to his chagrin, wasn't a normal arrow, because as this blade made contact with it, it exploded.

"Percy!" Tula shouted, leaping to her feet now, as she embraced the flow of magic around her and started to weave her hands through the air. Wispy greenish energy was already flowing off her arms, even as small bolts of lightning started to crackle to life in the palm of her hands as she tried to wield some non-water based magic.

"I don't think so." A voice suddenly interrupted her, before she could even get off her first lightning bolt. A sudden gut punch quickly followed the voice up as a predominantly clad yellow figure materialised in front of her in a blur, a smirk quite clear to see on his face as he then followed the gut punch up with a judo-esque body throw. One which landed the breathless Atlantean on her back with a grunt. "Now where is the other one?"

In answer to his question, Percy erupted back into the fight with a scowl on his face as he raised his hand and sent a wave of wind and sand hurtling towards the yellow clad speedster.

"Oh shit!" The kid shouted before being completely engulfed by the miniature sandstorm.

Ignoring his comment, Percy forged on through the sandstorm, his eyes narrowed against the biting, sand filled wind. Before, with another thought, he allowed the wind and sand to drop, revealing the disorientated speedster again. Smiling at this, Percy then rushed the last few metres and delivered a brutal straight cross with his hilt, into the side of the boy's head.

With barely an utterance, the yellow clad boy collapsed to the floor in a heap at Percy's feet.

"Tula?" Percy said, completely ignoring the unconscious speedster now as he instead scanned his surroundings for the archer.

"I'm fine." Tula rasped, getting back to her feet as she did so.

"Good- watch out!" Percy began to say, before suddenly swivelling around his freehand moving through the air as he once again called up a powerful, uncontrolled squall of wind, and just in time too, as it blew another arrow off course and away from them. Not that this helped, as moments later the arrow exploded, though not with a concussive blast this time, but instead with a flash of retina burning light.

"Artemis now!" A vaguely familiar voice suddenly snapped out.

Blinking and rubbing at his eyes, Percy was only just able to see the two blurry shapes rushing him and Tula, before the shapes were on them.

"Megan secure Kid, we'll deal with these two!" The same voice barked out again, even as the speaker, a blurry, short, slim figure, pulled out a black, extendable staff with a twirl and started to attack him.

At the younger kid's side, Percy could see his partner, an older blonde girl in green, with a bow, moving to engage the disorientated Tula. They were both moving like trained fighters, and with good synchronicity.

Snarling at this, Percy acted on instinct, his blade moving up as he blocked the kid's bo staff once, and then several more times as he went on the defensive, fending the boy off, even as he gave ground, and backed away and over to where Tula was struggling to fight back against the quick blonde girl in green.

Blinking his eyes again, Percy's vision thankfully started to return, even as he continued to give more ground. His brow furrowing as he fended off the, now he could see him, child. A task he noted, which was made harder by the kid's obvious skill with his bo staff, which was a longer weapon that a sword, as well as by the fact that the kid was leaping all over the place like a dancer, and was interspersing his melee attacks with smoke bombs, bird shaped throwing stars and all manner of other bizarre gadgetry.

"What's your problem kid?" Percy growled, as he batted away several more throwing stars, before moving in with a sweep of his sword, knocking the questing bo staff away from his chest, even as he then twisted his body and slammed his right elbow, like a spear, into the kid's chest.

Or at least he tried to, only the kid somehow managed to pick up on his intentions, and acrobatically dodged at the last second.

Holding back a snarl at his annoying foe, Percy glanced to his side, and saw that Tula had gotten back to her feet and was giving the blonde archer a run for her money. With lightning visibly crackling down her armoured arms and compacting in her open hands as she fended off the bow wielding girl's attacks, and returned fire with controlled bolts of lightning and her own, noticeably weaker, kicks and punches. For a would-be mage, she was surprisingly competent at hand to hand combat.

"You tell me, you're the one that brought down that plane and killed the pilot aren't you?" The kid snapped back, his childish voice laced with real anger as he twirled the bo staff in his hand and rushed back in, the black stick a blur as he once again went fully on the offensive.

"Only after they fired at us." Percy growled back, holding off from grimacing as he blocked several blows with his sword, the wound on his right shoulder flaring up as he stressed it.

"You're still a killer!" The kid growled, viciously. His partially masked face twisted into a snarl as he ducked low, and swivelled on one heel before bringing his staff up and smacking it into Percy's armoured legs with a clang.

"I'm a survivor." Percy snapped back, kicking up another wave of sand as he sent it blasting into the boy's face. "And you're a child." he continued as he lost his patience, a scowl on his face now as he slashed out with his blade and cut the kid's bo staff in two with a single blow. "You need to fucking grow up," Percy then finished, as he lashed out with his booted foot and kicked the teen in the chest. The blow knocked the short boy off his feet and sent him sprawling onto the sand with a gasp of pain.

"Robin!" The green archer shouted, her attention momentarily leaving her fight as she instead turned to see the precarious situation her comrade had been put in.

Seeing her distraction, Tula took advantage. Her right hand practically swimming in lightning she got inside the blonde girl's guard and landed a gut punch of her own. Only the punch she landed was not a normal one, but one infused with lightning, which of course meant that it hit the blonde girl like an overpowered cattle prod, and proceeded to knock the other girl almost comically off her feet with a yelp.

All three attackers were down.

The speedster was unconscious and dead to the world.

The female archer was on the ground, her arms and legs occasionally twitching and spasming oddly as she slowly tried to recover from her sudden shock.

The younger, wannabe ninja meanwhile, was wheezing on the ground at Percy's feet, the broken remains of his bo staff on either side of his hunched over body, and his arms clasping at his stomach as he tried desperately to take in air.

Rolling his injured shoulder to try and ease some of the pain, Percy grimaced. These kids had been tough and organised. They had executed a solid ambush, picked their timings well, and almost taken them unawares.

He certainly hadn't been expecting exploding arrows, or one which created blinding flashes. Nor had he been prepared for a super-fast teen, the kid was even faster than a child of Hermes.

Overall, he was grudgingly impressed.

"Where's the other one?" Tula asked as she ran over to him, her eyes surveying their downed foes as well as the surrounding landscape.

"Other one?" Percy frowned, his eyes narrowing for a moment in confusion, before widening as he remembered that the kid had called out orders to someone else before him and the blonde had engaged.

"Tula-" Percy began, his sword already moving as he raised his other hand and kicked up another gust of wind.

It was too late though, the moment he made his move, was the moment his opponent completed hers.

With a sudden rippling of air, a pretty and very familiar looking, green skinned, red haired girl appeared hovering over the downed ninja teen.

"Shit!" Percy cursed, already throwing himself backwards.

He was too late though, the moment she had appeared the green skinned girl had flung her hands out, her eyes glowing a solid green colour as she sent the two shattered halves of the bo staff whizzing through air towards him.

Swinging his sword, Percy managed to deflect one of the projectiles, the other one however struck him, with the sheared end of the staff striking and penetrating through his armoured gut in seconds, before puncturing straight through his stomach and out the other side.

With a gasp of surprise, blood sprayed out of both his mouth, and out of the exit wound in his back, just an inch to the right of his spine. Falling to his knees, his blood slicked free hand grabbed onto the shaft of the firmly lodged spike, even as he gave it a testing tug. Only for him to quickly relinquish his grip with a hiss of pain. Turns out being impaled hurt.

"Percy!" Tula shouted, her hands already exploding with lightning, even as the air itself seemed to distort around her.

The other girl however, just looked over at her, and then gestured with her hand, a wall of pure force seemingly following the action as it struck Tula head on and blasted her clean off her feet and sent her ragdolling across the sand.

"Bitch!" Percy snarled, arcs of lightning exploding around his own form as he pushed himself up and onto one knee. The sky overhead likewise darkened as the wispy clouds that had previously been overhead, thickened and became a dull grey colour.

Letting out an almost bestial growl, Percy ignored the spike of metal through his gut and instead forced himself up and onto his feet through sheer willpower.

All around him the desert wind began to blow harder, whipping up more sand, snuffing out the flames on the wreckage behind him, even sand began to cover the remnants of the plane, and the fallen bodies around him

Across from him the red haired girl's glowing green eyes widened slightly in surprise, before they then narrowed, her form lifting higher into the air now, far beyond the reach of Percy's blade.

"Megan…!" The boy ninja's weak voice called out.

She ignored him.

Instead her attention remained on Percy, even as they both glared at each other.

It was what one might call a Mexican standoff.

Or at least that was what Percy had thought, right before he felt a sudden lance of pain shoot through his head. It felt like a migraine, only a hundred times worse.

A mental attack, Percy thought furiously, his thoughts and emotions raging as past memories of having his mind violated and his memories erased and manipulated flew through is head, combining as they did with his more recent memories of waking up in a fucking desert with no idea how he had got there, or how he had even gotten out of Tartarus.

At that thought, his mind flew back to his time in Tartarus, of the acrid air that burned his lungs, of the acidic rain that would melt his flesh if he was caught out in a heavy shower. Of the denizens of that deep Pit, and his seemingly eternal and endlessly futile struggle against his immortal, ever reforming foes.

He had been through all of that.

He had been through all of that, and he had survived. He had been through it, and it had forced him to grow stronger, harder, tougher, and far more ruthless.

As his mind focused on that one irrefutable fact, Percy's face contorted in anger even as his cloak of lightning became more unstable, great arcs of the stuff leaping off of him and scoring the sand around him black. Far above him, the clouds started to swirl even as a tornado began to form with him at the epicentre.

With a sudden cry of alarm, the green skinned girl started getting buffeted by the sand filled wind. Her cloak was whipping around her madly, even as she tried to desperately keep herself steady.

As for the others, the ninja boy had by this point moved to his two comrades and was using his own cloak and body to shelter them.

Tula meanwhile had crawled back within Percy's sphere of direct influence, and was thus safe from the arcs of lightning and the almost gale force winds.

"Megan!" The kid ninja shouted again, his voice barely audible over the furious sound of the wind.

Hearing the kid's desperate cry, Megan's eyes glowed and even fiercer green as she glared down at Percy.

Glowing emerald green eyes, locking with glowing sea green eyes.

"Fuck!" Percy cried in pain, his free hand once moving to his head as he tried futilely to fight off the sudden, sharp, agonizing spear of pain that seemed to lance through his head. The pain was far worse than what he had felt before. Worse in fact than the literal spear of metal that was still protruding from his gut.

Collapsing to his knees again, Percy dropped his sword and clasped his head with both hands, his eyes scrunched shut even as the pounding pain in his head continued to mount. Already mental images were rapidly bombarding his mind, and a small trickle of blood was dribbling down from his nose.

Percy let loose a soundless scream as the pain in his head grew to an unmanageable level.

Only for it to then suddenly stop.

The pain vanished completely, leaving him feeling almost blissfully muddled as he fell forward boneless on to the sand. He felt both weak and dazed.

"Percy?" A soft, nervous, and painfully familiar voice asked.

"M-M'gann…?" Percy replied raspily, his hazy mind supplying him with the girl's name as he sat up and watched her descend from the now still air.

From around him he could hear the others starting to stir.

"Percy?" M'gann said again, her voice still very soft. It almost sounded like she was in pain. Her face twisting into a look of anguish as she touched down on the ground, and then made to move towards him, only to draw back at the last second.

"What the fuck is going on?" Percy asked, his temper suddenly flaring as his mind sharpened and a few of his lost memories started to flow back into his head. With a slight grunt he used the back of his hand to wipe away the blood trickling down from his nose.

He was pissed.

He didn't know who he was pissed at yet, but someone was about to have a very bad day!

( - )

"So, we're a team?" Kid Flash asked irritably. The yellow clad speedster was looking little the worse for wear at the moment. His costume and hair were covered in sand, and he had sticky, partially dried blood flowing down one side of his face. Spitting out a goblet of blood, and clutching the bloodied and badly bruised half of his face, Kid Flash sent Percy a sour look. "Really? I'm on a team with this ass clown?!"

"You started it. I finished it." Percy replied bluntly, the expression on his face slightly more strained than normal, as Tula, sandy but otherwise unharmed, tried to safely dislodge the broken half of Robin's bo staff from his gut.

"Hold up, can we just backtrack a bit!?" A frazzled looking Artemis interrupted, a scowl on her own face as she looked around at the surrounding heroes. "We are all in a team?"

"Yes," M'gann nodded solemnly, her attention not shifting from Percy as she worriedly watched Tula and Robin working the metal spike, the one that she impaled him with out of his gut. With Robin, who also looked pretty roughed up, already holding a bundle of gauze that he had pulled out of his utility belt. "The six of us, Batgirl, Aqualad and Superboy."

Tula sucked in a breath at her words, but said no more as she instead continued to focus on Percy.

"Superboy, huh? I didn't know Superman had a son?" Robin muttered, wincing slightly as the act of speaking worried his split lip. Not that that stopped him from pressing on with his view on things. "And Batgirl? Who's she supposed to be, some kind of female parody of Batman? There is no Batgirl, nor a Batwoman, or even another Batperson, it's just Batman and me, that's how it has always been."

"Looks like denial is not just another river in Egypt." Kid Flash said glibly, before wincing as he once again brought his hand to the side of his face. "By the way Percy, or whatever your name is, did you really have to hit me that hard?"

"Oh my god, will you stop complaining!" Artemis snapped, rubbing at her temples as if trying to ward off an oncoming headache. "Look, you attacked the two of them, and he put you on your ass, deal with it! Me, I'm more interested in the whole missing memories thing, that and an explanation for why I am dressed up like a Green Arrow cosplayer!"

"Who even are you?!" Kid Flash snapped irritably.

"I thought we already covered that Flasher Boy…" Artemis retorted dryly, her arms folded in front of her and an unimpressed look on her face.

"Can everyone please shut up?!" Percy finally snapped. "We've all got questions, and we've all got fragmented memories. Let's just focus on the things we know. Apparently we all know each other, and are in some kind of team. That to me suggests that we at least get along in normal circumstances, and that if we're here together in these costumes, then we are presumably here for a reason!"

"That and we need to find the rest of the team; Aqualad, Batgirl and Superboy are missing." M'gann tagged on worriedly, her eyes still not leaving Percy's wound.

At the additional mention of Aqualad, Percy glanced over to Tula. So far the other girl hadn't said much, but he could tell she was worried.

"Well Superboy is already accounted for. That nut job is leaping round causing chaos." Kid Flash said.

"It's not exactly his fault he has no memories!" Artemis reprimanded.

"Besides, the last we saw of him, he was moving to fight Deathstroke, you know the insanely scary mercenary. Chances are he's been captured." Robin added, his expression twisting into a grimace of regret.

"Or dead." Percy added bluntly. He didn't know much about this Superboy, but if this Deathstroke was as ruthless as Robin implied, there was a good chance he was a goner.

"No, I don't think he would be killed." M'gann interrupted, her expression finally changing from sad and anxious, to concerned as she looked out over the desert. "I've regained a lot of my memories. Including some of my memories of Caleb, or Superboy. He is a Superman clone, and has many of Superman's strengths. I don't think he would be easy to kill."

"Great, and now we're dealing with clones!" Kid Flash groaned. "What next, aliens, or maybe wizards!?"

They all ignored his complaining.

"Right, almost done." Tula suddenly spoke up, a sigh of relief leaving her lips as she finished pulling the metal rod out of Percy's gut with a wet squelch, and a sudden spurt of blood.

Robin, seeing this, quickly started to staunch the flow of blood with his gauze.

"Thanks," Percy muttered.

"It's fine." Robin allowed, before looking up at him and frowning. "But it's only temporary. You said you had a way to heal the wound?"

"Yeah," Percy nodded, ignoring how Artemis and Kid Flash were still bickering in the background, as he instead used his free hand to gather the water he'd spent the last ten minutes gathering into his hand, before he then placed it on the wound.

"Water based healing?" Robin asked curiously.

"A gift from Poseidon." Tula nodded, a slight smile on her face as she threw the metal spike away, and instead focused on Percy's rapidly healing wound.

"So is that who your godly parent is?" Artemis suddenly interrupted, drawing all eyes to her. "What?"

"What do you mean by godly parent?" Kid Flash snorted in amusement. "Don't tell me you're some kind of bible basher? Next thing you'll start trying to convert us all to the worship of the flying spaghetti monster!"

"Oh god, do you ever shut up?!" Artemis groaned irritably, before looking back at Percy. "Sorry if that was a secret or something. But literally the only thing I can remember about you, is that some creepy pale kid called you a godspawn…, and well…"

"The gods do exist." Tula nodded, a scathing expression on her face as she sent Kid Flash an icy glare. "But they all left the mortal plane long ago. It's not unheard of though, for one or two of them to come back to earth every now and then. If Percy says he is the Son of Poseidon, after some of the things I've seen him do, I would not dismiss him out of hand."

"Like you say, gods are real." Robin acknowledged his attention not on Percy but instead on the bloody gauze in his hand. His sharp eyes took note of the numerous golden sparkles that seemed to dot the predominantly crimson blood. "Batman has identified and tracked several such cases of gods and demons arriving on earth and causing trouble. It's not something he deals with personally, but he is aware of it, and sometimes liaises with other heroes who are better equipped to deal with the occult. He's never flagged up Poseidon though, except in reference to Aquaman potentially being of his lineage."

"Come on Rob, don't tell me you're buying into this crap?" Kid Flash complained.

"It's not the most believable of things. In fact I personally would want to exhaust all other options before jumping to the conclusion of the divine. But I've met Wonder Woman, who is supposedly a Daughter of Zeus. Still, for the moment we have nothing to go on either which way but his word. So for now I am happy to take his word on it." Robin replied carefully, a frown on his face revealing just how uncomfortable and out of his depth he was talking about something as illogical and esoteric as the divine.

"Either way it doesn't matter. I have nothing to prove to you or anyone, and my past and my origins, they are my business, no one else's." Percy said, bluntly cutting off any further discussion as he instead got up, his stomach sore but mostly healed. Looking back over at M'gann, he then pressed on with his point. "Instead I want to focus on, you know, fully retrieving all of my past memories..."

"Right, I think I can help with that." M'gann nodded nervously. "I have an idea to help us all. But it will involve me using my telepathy on you all. I need you to trust me."

They all grimaced at that.

"If it means getting my memories back, I'll allow it." Artemis broke the sudden awkward silence.

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind letting a beauty like you in my head." Kid Flash added with a grin.

"Really, now?" Artemis shot back scathingly.

"Give it a rest you two." Robin interrupted, cutting off Kid Flash's snarky reply as he instead gave M'gann a sharp look. "You're related to Martian Manhunter aren't you?" M'gann nodded. "Okay then, I'll trust you for the moment..."

"I don't like it, but fine." Tula sighed, standing up and wiping Percy's blood off her hands, as she instead sent M'gann a small smile. "I'd appreciate your help."

M'gann perked up slightly at Tula's words, a soft smile spreading across her own face.

"Is this really the only way?" Percy spoke up next, his gaze on the familiar redhead. He remembered bits and pieces of his lost memories. These fragments of recovered memory were mostly in the form of flashing images of disjointed events, and the muted emotions that went along with those events. That said, he had not recovered all of them, not by a long way.

M'gann shook her head. "Your memories will probably come back with time. They've been scattered, not lost. But this is the fastest way I can think of, of getting them back."

"Okay," Percy nodded. After his most recent experience, he was not keen on letting the girl into his head again. But for expediency's sake, he knew he would have to allow it. "Okay, let's do this."

"But just the last six months for me, and only what you need. I don't want you delving any deeper than that!" Artemis tagged on.

"Why, got something to hide?" Kid Flash asked snidely.

"Enough." Percy cut in sharply, before giving M'gann a level gaze. "When you're ready, M'gann."

"Okay, everyone, close your eyes. This probably won't be pleasant." M'gann said, her eyes once again glowing green as she raised her hands and prepared to initiate a mind meld, or whatever it was she was planning on doing.

( - )

(Elsewhere in the desert)

Weaving under another wild swing, Aqualad introduced his opponent's gut to his knee. Following this up, he grabbed the back of the man's fatigues and hurled him over his hip, and into one of his fellow camouflaged soldiers.

"How are you doing over there?" Aqualad called, a frown on his intense face as he hurled himself to one side, avoiding another soldier that had just lunged at him.

"Fine," Barbara replied tiredly, looking out at the six downed attackers, and four remaining ones as she knocked yet another arrow on her borrowed bow, and then drew it and released it. Her aim wasn't great, or at least not compared to Green Arrow, but then again nor was the distance she was shooting.

With a bang the tip of the arrow exploded in mid-air and engulfed a pair of the remaining soldiers in some kind of yellow goo. The goo noticeably hardened the moment it made contact with the air.

"I've got to get me some of these arrows." Barbara continued, choosing another green tip arrow at random from the black supply box, even as Aqualad dashed in, disarmed another soldier, one that had just dived for one of the fallen sub-machine guns on the ground. With the white haired teen then dealing out two punches, a left and a right, and then felling the soldier with a solid, club-like, right elbow blow to the side of his head.

"I'll pass your compliments on to Green Arrow." Aqualad replied dryly, his expression still intense as he dashed towards the final soldier.

As attacks went, this one was not a particularly well planned or executed one. The soldiers had simply driven straight to their position in a single, desert camouflage truck. There had been no tactics, it had just pulled up and the soldiers had rushed out en masse with military hardware, and very little training or common sense.

They had been easy pickings for Barb, a thankfully competent enough archer, to hit with a concussive arrow. With the blow befuddling them enough for him to rush in with one of what looked like Robin's spare bo staffs.

Another arrow from Barbara, with this one unleashing a cloud of greyish, was enough to tilt things in their favour, even as he made contact and started laying into their attackers with the staff.

Five minutes after their arrival, and their attackers were all but down.

Kicking the fallen bo staff up and off of the sand, and catching it in his hands, Aqualad dealt out a quick strike to the side of an oncoming soldier's head, stunning him. After which he then turned around and slammed the stick into the side of the final soldier's neck, knocking the soldier back down again before he even had a chance to get back onto his feet, and then stunning him with a kick to the side of his head.

"That should be it." Aqualad nodded, his gaze still intense as he looked around at the unconscious, incapacitated or unmoving bodies around him. "If you can get me some zip ties from the supply box, I'll secure them."

"Right," Barbara nodded, re-compacting her bow as she turned back to the box. "That was far easier than I thought it would be."

"Yes," Aqualad agreed, still surveying their arid surroundings for any sign of reinforcements. "That's because they're conscripts."

"Conscripts?" Barbara queried, her brow furrowed beneath her mask as she walked back over to him with some zip-ties in hand. "And yes, before you ask I know what they are in principle, but how do you figure this lot are conscripts?"

"They're all barely older than us. I'd put most of them at around seventeen, eighteen maybe, but most probably younger than that. They're old enough to fire a gun, but it was easy to tell they were lacking in training and discipline. Only one of them looks to be a proper soldier, and even he is barely in his twenties." Aqualad replied, a frown on his face. "They're just untrained, untested kids, following orders."

"They attacked us." Barbara said, handing over some of the zip-ties to Kaldur, before then joining him as they both started zip-tying the hands and feet of the downed soldiers.

"And that was because they were told too." Aqualad said. "I recognise the flag on their arms. They are Bialyian, and in case you didn't know, Biaylia is an autocratic, totalitarian state which is ruled by a ruthless dictator who calls herself a Queen. These kids probably had no choice but to allow themselves to be press-ganged into the country's security forces."

Barbara sighed but nodded. "Okay so they're not necessarily the bad guys, they're probably just victims in a shit situation. But what does that mean for us? Now you know where we are, what do we do now?"

"Now we-" Kaldur started to say, before suddenly wincing as a voice started speaking directly into his head. Across from him, Barbara also winced and clasped at the side of her head with both hands.

"Aqualad, Batgirl."

"Who's there!?" Aqualad snapped, his posture tense as he quickly looked around his grip on the bo staff tightening.

"My name is Miss Martian. We are all on a team together. You two, Robin, Kid Flash, Artemis, Aquagirl, Superboy, Perseus and myself. We were sent on a mission here to Biayla by Batman to investigate an immense power surge in the desert. Spectral analysis revealed elements non terrestrial in origin. Since Bialya is a rogue state, ruled by Queen Bee, it is not a member of the League's U.N. charter. We were sent in a night on a covert operation, and were told to maintain radio silence at all times."

Aqualad and Batgirl shared a look at that.

"During the mission, we had a psychic link. This link was hacked by an enemy telepath and the backlash caused temporary memory loss. The rest of us have regrouped, and have regained our memories. I am heading to your location. Once I get there, I will bring back your memories, find my Bioship, and then we will pick up the others and rescue the captured Superboy, and then hopefully complete our mission."

"This all sounds very odd. Why should we believe you?" Aqualad asked, his eyes narrowing as he caught sight of an approaching figure in the distance. The figure was small, and flying very fast in their direction.

"Because I am your friend. That and if I meant you harm I wouldn't be warning you of my coming, would I?"

"It could be a deliberate move aimed at making us lower our guard." Aqualad said.

"Yeah, like using reverse psychology." Batgirl nodded, her gaze also on the rapidly approaching figure, even as the figure revealed itself to be a pretty, green skinned girl, with a blue cloak and bright crimson hair.

"That's the kind of thing Robin would say." Miss Martian said audibly, a slight smile on her face as she drifted down to the earth. Her gaze flicking between the two of them. "I am a friend and a teammate. Please, trust me."

Narrowing his eyes, Aqualad shared a look with Batgirl, before looking back at Miss Martian. The girl was obviously not native, as that was not the way one normally went about creating trust, or least not without bringing up a number of red flags. "Are you related to Martian Manhunter?"

"He's my uncle." Miss Martian confirmed, fully touching down on the ground now, directly in front of the two heroes and in easy arms reach.

"If it means getting our memories back, I'm willing to give out a little trust." Batgirl said, looking from Miss Martian to Aqualad now.

"Yes," Aqualad nodded. "Though I still feel like this is all a bit too convenient…?"

"Well, think of it this way. The fact I am asking should show I mean you know ill will. If I was truly your enemy, I could have turned you into drooling vegetables by now, and there wouldn't have been a thing you could do about it." Miss Martian replied, a hint of impatience entering her previously pleasant, friendly voice.

"Well that doesn't exactly fill me with confidence." Batgirl replied dryly.

"Indeed," Aqualad added cautiously.

Miss Martian winced at that comment, one of her hands raising as if to wrap herself on the head, before she seemed to think better of it and let the hand drop and instead gave them an awkward smile. "Sorry, with all that's been happening, and the whole memory loss thing, I've been having a bad day. That, and I might've spent too much time in Perseus' mind, his brashness is rubbing off on me." Miss Martian, visibly winced again as she said that.

"Yes, well I can understand the frustration of missing memories." Aqualad allowed.

"So how about letting me help you with that?" Miss Martian replied, offering her hands to each of them.

"Right," Aqualad nodded, sharing one more look with Barbara as he did so, before they both took Miss Martian's offered hand, and everything went dark.

( - )

(With Percy)

"So…" Robin said awkwardly into the ongoing silence that had permeated within the group since they had regained their memories.

"Yeah, sorry about the whole beating you up thing." Percy nodded, his lips twitching slightly as he looked around at the rest of the group.

Kid Flash was standing next to Robin looking sheepish.

Artemis meanwhile was off apologising to Tula for her part in the fight, with Tula likewise apologising for her part. Apparently nothing brings heroic inclined girls together more than bitterly fighting one another whilst missing memories.

"Yeah, did you have to hit me that hard?" Kid Flash muttered, touching the now bandaged up side of his head. Despite the bandages covering the worst of his injury however, there was still bruising around one side of his face, and the flesh around his right eye had become very swollen and inflamed.

"I did hold back," Percy replied, gesturing down at the spiked crossguard of his sword. "I could have hit you with the spiky end and put you down permanently."

"Like you did with the pilot?" Robin said snippily, nodding towards the partially buried ruins of the plane.

"That was an accident." Percy defended, absentmindedly bringing his hand up to rub his sore shoulder. He had used the small amount of water he had managed to gather to heal up the worst of his injuries. They weren't fully healed though, he hadn't had enough water to do much more than some surface treatment. Additionally the water hadn't been pure enough, in terms of its connection to the sea, to properly heal all his wounds. His internal organs were still pretty raw, and the muscle around his shoulder was still pretty bruised. "They were shooting at us, I had to think quickly to bring it down."

"Is that how you did the shoulder?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, I managed to avoid the worst of it. The bullets though. They were pretty high calibre, if it wasn't for the quality of my weapon, and my… nature…, it would have probably shattered, and both of us would be wounded, or dead." Percy shrugged.

"Guessing, you've got issues with long-range attacks then?" Robin said, dropping the accusatory note from his tone as he instead looked back at the plane, his brow furrowing as gaze roved over what little of it he could see.

"I'm more geared to close combat, or mid-range combat. If I was near a large body of water, I might've been able to come up with something better, but in the middle of a desert. My options are more limited." Percy said. "In the end I did the best I could, but it was nowhere near as controlled as I would have wanted."

"Ah yeah I guess as a, what was it, Son of Poseidon? You are pretty much a fish out of water in the desert…?" Kid Flash chipped in.

Percy sent him a dry look.

"Really?" Robin muttered, glaring at Kid Flash. "Now?"

"Just injecting a bit of levity into things, this conversation was getting a bit too serious!" Kid Flash laughed, waving them off.

"But he does bring up a good point. You are a demigod ,aren't you?" Robin said, bringing the conversation back on track.

"Yes." Percy nodded, after a moment of thought.

"Why didn't you tell us? We're supposed to be a team, and you're our leader." Robin stated abruptly, his eyes narrowing.

"Why should I have? I don't know your real name, or anything about your personal life, nor have I asked. The same can be said for most of you. I didn't invade your privacy, and I expected you not to invade mine. Like I said before, my origins, my history, that is my business. What I choose to share is up to me, and no one else." Percy replied sharply, his hackles rising slightly at Robin's tone.

"Hey now," Kid Flash quickly interjected himself between the two. "It doesn't really matter now does it? It's now out in the open, no point whining about it now, let's just keep our heads on the problem ahead."

"He's right." Percy said after a moment. "We should focus on rescuing Superboy, and finishing the mission."

"Right," Robin allowed. "But that doesn't mean this conversation is over."

"Maybe," Percy replied. "But remember, if you don't show me the same courtesy I show you then expect to be questioned on your own motives, history and identity. Quid pro quo, that's what they say isn't it?"

Robin narrowed his eyes as he frowned at Percy.

Percy meanwhile met his gaze, and held it stoically.

"Awkward…" Kid Flash muttered softly, looking between the two of them.

"Are you two both getting along?" Artemis interrupted, as both her and Tula re-joined the group.

"Yep," Percy said, popping the p.

"Absolutely." Robin added.

"Right," Artemis replied unconvinced.

"Miss Martian should be back soon with Batgirl, Aqualad, and her Bioship," Tula also chipped in. "Then hopefully we can finish this mission and head back. I hate being in the desert. The way I'm feeling at the moment, I reckon I'll go for a swim."

"Right, that sounds like a good idea to me. I think I'd join you." Percy smiled, grasping onto the offered branch out of the spiralling conversation he had been having with Robin. In response Tula sent him a bright smile, a hint of pink entering her freckled cheeks.

"I think it'd be a bit cold for me," Artemis smiled, a sly glint in her eye as she met Tula's gaze for a moment, before looking back at Percy innocently. "But who knows, maybe we can use the Zeta Tube, and head somewhere warmer?"

"The Tubes aren't meant to be used for recreation." Robin quickly cut in.

"Well aren't you a buzzkill." Kid Flash rolled his eyes, before pushing on, his gaze now flicking between Percy and Tula. "So with Percy being, well what he is, and you being an Atlantean. Is he like a prophet to you then, like a damp, kind of fishy Jesus Christ?"

Both Tula and Percy sent Wally flat looks at that comment.

Artemis meanwhile sighed and started massaging her temples again.

As for Robin, he just snorted slightly, breaking his serious façade for a moment.

"No, he is not some kind of messiah. He would probably have some political impact at court, and I'm sure there are some religious crazies who might start calling him Lord and praising him. But no, for the most part he'd probably just be welcomed as another son of the sea, only one with a greater connection to the sea and to our gods then most of us have." Tula explained quickly, skirting over the Atlantean's heritage as she instead kept it to the broad strokes.

"Alright, alright I was just asking!" Kid Flash laughed, waving his hands quickly in front of him as if to ward off Tula's irritation. "I just had a funny image in my head of Kaldur losing his shit, and bowing and calling Percy, my lord, and stuff like that."

"He does come across as pretty serious doesn't he?" Tula replied, her expression softening slightly, even as a note of fondness entered her voice. "But I don't see him ever doing that, or certainly not to Percy. Kaldur's loyalty, like most Atlantean's loyalty, is unshakably, and undeniably to King Orin and Atlantis, above all else."

"Shame," Kid Flash sighed, before smirking. "But that doesn't mean I'm not going to tease him about it!"

"That's because you're an asshole." Artemis sighed exasperatedly.

"You love it!" Kid Flash shot back.

"I really don't." Artemis replied, her tone flat.

"Well as much fun as this is." Percy interrupted, fighting off the slight smile Kid Flash's antics had brought. A part of him could see how messing with the far too serious, 'stick up his arse' Atlantean could be fun. "It looks like M'gann is back, and with her ship too."

As he said this, Percy pointed off over Robin's shoulder and at the rapidly approaching Bioship in the distance.

( - )

(In the Bioship)

"It's good to see you all." Aqualad said with a slight smile and a nod to Percy and the rest of the team as they all piled on into the camouflage Bioship. "But I think a reunion and a catch up can wait. From what Miss Martian has shared, Superboy is in trouble."

"Yes, I can feel his pain from here." M'gann nodded grimly, her gaze no longer on any of them, as she instead started out into the distance looking out at something they could not yet see.

"You can sense where he is?" Percy asked quickly, clapping Aqualad on the shoulder and sending Batgril a smile in greeting as he did so, before focusing back on the Martian.

"Yes, his anguish is acting as a beacon to me." M'gann replied, her eyes getting a bit moist as she turned to look at Percy. "We need to help him, quickly. He has no memories at all. He is only sixteen weeks old, and the psychic that attacked us wiped away everything. He doesn't know where he is, or who he is. I can feel him from here, he is scared, confused, and angry."

"We'll help him." Percy said resolutely, before looking around at the assembled team.

"Yeah, we can't leave him in enemy hands. He's probably too much of an asset to kill, but I wouldn't put it past their psychic to try and steal vital information from his mind." Robin nodded, a scowl on his face. "And that's if they haven't done so already."

"That and he's also our friend and he is in pain." Artemis cut in sharply, a scowl on her face.

"Yes, and that." Robin nodded quickly.

"Smooth." Kid Flash drawled.

"Alright enough wasting time, Robin, bring up the map of the enemy camp." Percy said, with Robin nodding before hastening to do as he was ordered to.

"The camp will be heavily fortified, and there will be soldiers. Batgirl and I ran into some conscripts while we were in the desert. Judging by the number sent out, I would guess there will be far more back at their base." Aqualad jumping in, his eyes narrowed as he looked down at the map.

"They might have heavy armour too." Artemis added. "They had a plane, sure it might not be a jet fighter, but I suspect that for something this important they would have more than just machine guns."

"That's a good point." Robin nodded. "But I think the biggest issue will be the psychic and Deathstroke."

Aqualad and Batgirl drew in short breaths and looked at Robin wide eyed.

"Deathstroke the Terminator is here?" Aqualad asked, licking his lips nervously.

"Yeah, that guy gives upper ranking Leaguers trouble. He's a pretty heavy hitter. I mean I am pretty new to all this and even I know that you don't mess with the Terminator." Batgirl said, her eyes moving to Robin, and then to Percy.

"I'll handle Deathstroke," Percy cut in abruptly. "But he's not the one I'm worried about."

"The psychic?" Robin asked.

"I'll handle him." M'gann said suddenly, her voice frigid and expression cold. "He caught me by surprise before, he won't do it again."

"Does anyone else suddenly feel sorry for that guy?" Kid Flash asked into the stark silence that followed the usually happy and chipper Martian's angry words.

M'gann just gave him a flat look, quelling any further comment from the speedster.

"Be careful." Percy broke the silence, his gaze on M'gann. "Don't let anger control you. It makes people sloppy. Focus on the goal. You need to shut him down as quickly as you can. Artemis, Tula, Kid Flash. I want you three to go with her as back up, deal with any soldiers guarding him and rescue Superboy. That's your job. Miss Martian I take it you can shield their minds and your own from the psychic?"

"He won't know what's hit him." M'gann replied curtly.

The other three named all nodded as Percy looked at them, confirming that they understood their roles in the plan.

"We're going to go in hard, and go in fast. Rescuing Superboy is the priority here. But the mission is also important. Robin, Batgirl, Aqualad, I want you to find the source of the non-terrestrial power surges, take what data you can, and then shut it down. Take down any soldiers that get in your way, and if you have a chance try and capture some of the scientists. We can drop them off anonymously en route back home, at the nearest UN base for interrogation." Percy pressed on, his gaze now on the subtler and more stealthy members of the team.

"What if there are complications?" Robin asked.

"Use some initiative. Robin since this task is more suited to your skillset, you are the leader of your trio, I'm going to call you Team B. Kid Flash, since your the most experienced of your team, you'll lead Team A, don't fuck it up, keep you head in the game and focus on the objective. Rescuing Superboy is your top priority, remember that." Percy replied, his gaze first going to Team B, with Robin smiling and nodded, even as Aqualad and Batgirl also gave their assent.

Before he then looked at Team A, ignoring Artemis's slight frown, as he instead saw Kid Flash stand straighter and give him a curt nod. Aquagirl meanwhile gave him a warm smile. As for Miss Martian, she just stared down at the floor, and didn't meet his gaze.

Frowning at M'gann and Artemis' reactions, Percy made sure to take note of them, and that he would need to speak to both of the girl's later, when he could. They both had problems, M'gann's he could at least hazard a guess at, but as for Artemis, he had no idea. Either way, he knew he would need to confront these issues soon, before they were allowed to fester.

"So what will you be doing during all this?" Aqualad broke in, disrupting his tangential thoughts.

"I'll be confronting Deathstroke and keeping him out of the way. As you said yourselves, he's far too dangerous for any of you to handle. As the oldest, more experienced, and arrogance aside, the most powerful person in the team. I'll be the one to deal with him." Percy stated abruptly, surveying the rest of the team steadily as he did so. "Besides, I'm better suited for this task than for the other two."

"Be careful." Robin said simply. "I hate to say it, but the guy is probably more skilled than Batman, only he has enhanced physical abilities and minor regeneration to back his skills up. That and he is ten times as ruthless. Don't let your guard down."

"Thanks," Percy nodded, a smile on his face. "Now that's sorted, let's move out. By this point subtlety is pointless, with the previous psychic attack, and the captured Superboy, they know we're here. Miss Martian, take us directly there in the Bioship. But also shield our minds too if you can. They might know we're here, but the additional surprise of a sudden and direct attack could still be useful."

"On it," M'gann said, taking her seat in the centre of the ship now, even as the rest of them rearmed and prepared themselves using the supplies from the black box.

The real mission started now.

( - )

(In the Bialyian Camp)

Patrolling the edges of the camp, the members of the Bialyian security force tried not to listen to the screams emanating from one of the tents. The soldiers had learned early on that the pale mutant, freak, Psimon was a sadistic bastard. Already a few of their number had fallen under his less than tender care, all because they had thoughts that he didn't like. Thoughts!

Suffice to say most of them were living in almost constant fear of putting a toe out of line, and having their minds broken by the psychotic psychic. The walking reminders of just what Psimon could do were visible even now standing guard outside his tent, their eyes glazed and vacant, and their expressions blank. They had been reduced to little more than mindless, meat puppets.

Just the sight of them was enough to put the chills in even the hardest and meanest of their number.

Thankfully, the other freak in their midst, not that they would ever dare say it to his face, Deathstroke, was more reasonable. Which meant that he wouldn't kill or maim them so long as they immediately followed his orders to the letter, and didn't talk back. So, essentially he was a marginally stricter officer in the Biaylian army, only one that was many many times more dangerous than a normal human.

Speaking of Deathstroke, the guards on the borders of the camp were trying to avoid him too at the moment. He might not be as impulsively sadistic as Psimon, but the black and orange wearing freak was currently in a frightfully bad mood. He'd just come back to camp empty handed after several fruitless hours of searching for the remaining members of the team of freaks that had foolishly attempted to infiltrate the base.

Wincing as yet another scream issued forth from the psychic's tent, two of the guards peeled off from the others, their guns held awkwardly and unfamiliarly in their hands as they started their patrol through the camp. First, they passed by the small airstrip, and the waiting planes, and then they passed the group of soldiers that were tinkering and maintaining their heavy weapons, after which they looped around, and passed by the mess tents and barracks, and instead over to where the white coated scientists were still messing with that silver mechanical orb thing, and those creepy, heretical red portals.

Theirs was not a glamorous life, nor even one any of them chose, but it was the one they were stuck with, and so for better or for worse they tried to make the best of a bad situation.

Continuing on with their patrol, the duo were just about to head back to their compatriots when they were stopped by an arrow suddenly landing in the ground directly in front of them.

Turning to look at one another in surprise, they were both about to sound the alarm before the head of the arrow twisted, and with a hiss it started to disseminate thick green gas. With some rasping gurgles, both men collapsed to the ground the moment they accidentally inhaled their first mouthful of gas.

As the world around them darkened and unconsciousness slowly overtook them, the last thing both men saw was a red alien ship ripple into being above their heads, even as several more arrows shot down around the camp, and a number of shadowy figures leapt down from the mysterious craft.

( - )

(In Psimon's Tent)

Superboy's screams of pain filled the small space of the tent, even as one of the scientists upped the charge electrocuting the clone.

Standing off to one side Psimon watched on in amusement.

He had expected so much more from the clone of Superman, especially after all he had heard. Unfortunately it appeared that the old adage about copies never being as good as the original was indeed true.

Still, he could at least take solace in the fact that the Light would reward him for capturing the Superboy weapon. That and he was also enjoying the sight of such a strong being, being subjugated at his word. It was kind of enthralling.

Unfortunately however, his enjoyment was soon curtailed as he heard shouts of alarm sounding from outside the tent. Reaching out with his mind, he could sense at once that they were under attack. His minions were all panicking.

"Looks like Superboy's friends have decided to show up," Psimon sighed, his eyes gleaming with malice as he reached out with his mind to connect to the foolish children. Only this time he wouldn't just break their psychic link and muddle their minds. No, this time he would shut them down completely.

"What should we do sir?" One of the scientists asked, reducing the output of electricity as he did so.

"Nothing for now." Psimon replied softly. "No, the Superboy will keep for later. For now the real entertainment is outside. I only hope Deathstroke leaves enough for the both of us to enjoy."

With that thought in mind, Psimon took a step outside the tent, a slight frown on his pale face as he found the minds of the attackers, but couldn't find any purchase. It seemed the little girl that was playing at being psychic before, had upped her game.

Psimon smirked at that thought. If the girl wanted to play, he was more than happy to take the kid gloves off and show her what a real man could do.

"Oh Psimon says come out, come out wherever you are?" Psimon cooed softly, his lips curling up into a smile as he continued to bombard the shields around the attackers minds. They were holding strong for now, but he could almost feel how brittle they were. Just a few more minutes as he would have them at his mercy. "There is no need to hide, Psimon won't hurt you?"

"Who says I was hiding?" A cold, angry voice suddenly sounded out directly in front of him. The air rippling as the source of the voice, a green skinned girl, with long flowing red hair appeared in front of him. Her eyes glowing green and her face contorted in anger.

Quickly pushing down his surprise at her appearance, Psimon opened his mouth to speak again. As he did so, mental tendrils exploded out of his mind and towards the girl. The girl was a fool for confronting him so brazenly.

"No," The green girl said bluntly, before with a wave of her hand he was blasted backwards, off his feet and back into his tent.

With a grunt, he hit a table and knocked it over.

"You dare?" Psimon hissed, his eyes alight with anger as he pushed himself up, ignoring the panicking scientists in the tent as he instead focused on the green skinned girl, even as she floated imperiously into his tent. "I'm going to break your mind, little girl. Psimon promises you that much."

"I don't think so." The girl replied, before with a cry of anger he felt a sudden tidal wave of force hit his mind, freezing him to the spot as he desperately threw up mental shields and hopelessly tried to hold up against the torrent of vindictive anger assailing his mind.

Unfortunately, he was so focused on the mental attack, that he didn't see the physical one coming, even as yellow and red blur appeared in front of him without warning, the figure's arm already moving to deal out the third and fourth punch before he had even felt the first and second.

With a cry of pain Psimon went down, his concentration broken, and at the worst possible moment too as the redhead, M'gann he gleaned from her mind, continued her relentless assault, battering down his shields and invading his mind with a brutal, and ruthless vigor.

"And that's the psychic down." The yellow costumed figure said, even as another redheaded girl and a blonde girl rushed into the tent, both of them immediately headed for the restrained Superboy, even as Psimon lay on the floor, his mind going dark.

"He's not down yet, not whilst he's still conscious and capable of using his powers." The other psychic said, entering his vision now, her eyes still glowing green. With that said, he felt the pressure on his mind double, before with a cry he felt his mind unravel and the darkness fully enclose him.

( - )

(Elsewhere in the Camp)

Running through the camp, a rebreather in his mouth, Robin led his team directly to the sight of the experiment.

Behind him he could hear the sound of fighting as both Aquagirl and Artemis dealt with the soldiers in the most humane and nonviolent way they could.

Miss Martian meanwhile, well the moment they had arrived in the camp she had gone after the psychic like a woman possessed. Truly she gave life to that old adage about a woman scorned. As much as he didn't want to parrot Wally, he also didn't want to be the other psychic, not with how pissed off Megan was right now.

Pulling his mind back on track, Robin, Aqualad and Batgirl burst into the cleared space the scientist were working in.

With a flurry of activity they then fell upon the confused and partially drugged, courtesy of an overwhelming amount of Artemis's arrows, soldiers and scientists.

The fighting didn't last long.

"Aqualad, secure the experiment, and whatever that thing is." Robin said, nodding at a large vibrating metal ball that was chained down to the earth, and at the complex looking machinery the scientists were using.

"On it," Aqualad nodded, exploding forward with a pair of escrima sticks in hand. Unfortunately Aqualad had used up most of the water during the day, and after they had all had their fill in the ship to quench their first, there wasn't enough left over for Aqualad, Riptide or Aqugirl to use in combat. Which meant they had to do what they could with what they had, hence both Riptide and Aquagirl using other elements, and Aqualad using some borrowed weapons.

"Batgirl, take down and secure the remaining scientists. Also figure out which one is the most senior one, we'll be taking him with us and dropping him off at a UN base on the way back home, or at least we will once Miss Martian removes his memories of us." Robin called out to Batgirl. The idea of messing with memories didn't sit well with him, especially after his most recent experiences. That said, in this case, if it involved avoiding an international incident he would make allowances. It was for the greater gooder and all that tooth rotting crap.

"I'll hit the databanks, hopefully we'll be able to get a better idea of just what they were doing out here, and how they were doing it." Robin pressed on. From behind him, he could hear most of the fighting dying down.

The mission, or at least this part of the mission, was going surprisingly well so far.

( - )

(With Percy)

Jogging through the camp, his sword in hand, Percy kept his eyes and ears open for trouble, even as he finished dispatching, non-fatally, any soldier that was still on his feet, and foolish enough to cross paths with him.

Hopefully things were going well, so far. After all, up till now the mission had been a confusing shitshow. Already he could imagine Batman having a go at him and the team. The thought of that arrogant, jumped up tool, picking a fight, well, it was enough to make him grit his teeth in irritation.

Still, if they could at least adapt and pull off a win in the end, then that would hopefully negate the majority of Batman's gripes.

Pressing forward through the camp, Percy was quickly forced to throw himself backwards with a grunt of surprise as he heard the sound of gunfire ringing out.

"Shit." Percy grunted, angling his body now as he managed to just about avoid getting shot. In fact, with his senses as dulled as they were by the current climate, it was only due to his well-honed reflexes that he had even managed to avoid the bullet at all.

The other ones meanwhile, now he was aware he was being shot at, and knew the vague direction of the shooter, were easier to avoid using some solid footwork and some very fast swordplay. He couldn't see the bullets, nor properly predict their trajectory, but his senses and reflexes made up for those weaknesses.

"You're good." A strong, baritone voice rang out. "Your reflexes are sharp, and your instincts are solid."

"Deathstroke, I take it?" Percy asked bluntly, his gaze zeroing in on the villain in question, even as he walked out from around a tent. The man was wearing a half orange and half black mask which covered his entire face and head. Other than that he had what looked like a full, insulated, body suit on, which also fit his orange and black theme. What it was made out of, he didn't know. What he did know however, was that the man was armed to the teeth. He had multiple knives and guns on his person, and what looked like a broadsword sheathed on his back.

"Yes, and you must be… what was it again… ah yes, Riptide, isn't it?" Deathstroke replied softly, almost charmingly. "Or is it Perseus?"

"You seem to know a lot." Percy stated bluntly, his grip on his sword tightening as he looked Deathstroke up and down. He couldn't read much from his body positioning, and with his face fully masked, he couldn't see what he was thinking either. The guy was good though, he could tell that, very good.

"Yes," Deathstroke nodded in amusement, before then, without warning raising the guns in his hand and unleashing a torrent of bullets at Percy.

Grunting at this, Percy stamped his foot on the ground, and called up another squall of wind and created a sand screen, even as he darted to the side to avoid the shower of bullets, his body now partially hidden, even as he then headed for where he could vaguely sense Deathstroke standing. His control over wind was pretty shit, and the lack of moisture in the air didn't help, but he could at least sense, at the very limits of his senses, the sand in the air flowing around a man shaped object in his vicinity.

"Nice try!" Deathstroke's voice snapped out, at the same time as his gun firing off several more bullets.

Moving to the side, Percy once again tried to avoid the gunshots, this time however he was too slow as several of them found their mark. With two bullets skimming and then being deflected by his chest plate, whilst another one hit him in the arm and ripped through muscle and flesh.

He can see me, Percy thought at once, his mind instantly going to the man's mask and the unknown gadgetary he probably had in it.

Moving on the defense again, and allowing the sandstorm to peter out, Percy dodged and deflected several more shots, even as he zigzagged his way towards the rapidly running Deathstroke. Their moving fight had taken them into the rows of tents the soldiers used as barracks.

Darting between the tents, his attention still on Deathstroke, Percy focused on the matter at hand.

He wasn't sure how he was doing it, probably infrared vision or some other such bullshit, but Deathstroke was able to keep tabs on him, even through a sandstorm. This was annoying, as it made his initial strategy for dealing with him useless.

"You're slowing down!" Deathstroke snapped out, bursting through a nearby tent now, a pair of freshly loaded pistols in his hands as he let loose a half dozen more shots.

Weaving past some of the shots, Percy threw caution to the wind and rushed the other man. It was a risky, and some might say, stupid tactic. Two of the bullets hit him, one grazing his head, and only missing as he shifted his head to the side in time. the other meanwhile struck his already sore shoulder.

"Foolish!" Deathstroke snapped, moving back and avoiding Percy's sword swing.

Continuing to press the attack now he had him in range, Percy watched as Deathstroke avoided his sword with almost preternatural skill. With Deathstroke dropping one of his guns as he ducked a swing, before then drawing his broadsword with his now freehand as he attempted to avoid another one.

This time however, he was too slow, and ended up getting slashed across the chest as Percy's blade tore through the surface material of his bodysuit and drew a little blood.

"Better!" Deathstroke snapped, before going on the offensive, his broadsword lashing out as he and Percy exchanged a brutal flurry of sword strikes.

With a snarl Percy pulled on the domain of storm and wreathed his form in lightning, even as felt his sword bite into Deathstroke's hip, after which he pressed the attack and during another flurry of swordplay, he landed another deeper cut on Deathstroke's thigh, and another on his upper arm.

Deathstroke was good, very good. On top of that his suit, like Percy suspected, was insulated, which of course made his unstable lightning cloak a waste of energy and an unnecessary drain on his attention. Which is also why he released his control and instead focused on the fight.

That said, despite his lightning trick being useless, Percy was still better with a blade.

Letting out a hiss, Deathstroke locked blades with Percy and forced him back and against a nearby tentpole. Or at least he tried to. Only he didn't count on Percy being physically stronger than him, and being able to force the enhanced human back.

Throwing up his freehand, a pistol still clenched in it Deathstroke attempted to land a point blank headshot on Percy. Tried being the operative word as Percy intercepted it with his freehand. His steely fingers biting into Deathstroke's muscled forearm as he forced the gun away from his head.

Not that this stopped Deathstroke though, as with a grunt he pulled the trigger anyway and shot several bullets from his gun, his gun that was not even half a foot from Percy's head.

"Shit!" Percy hissed, his grip weakening as the reverberating bang of the gun burst his left eardrum and caused a trickle of blood to start leaking down from his ear. It was the downside of enhanced hearing. That said, even a regular human would probably be at least partially deaf if a high calibre pistol went off so close to their ear.

Seeing his advantage, Deathstroke released both his sword and pistol and tore himself away from Percy, breaking the deadlock.

With that done he then moved in closer and locked Percy's sword arm under his right arm, and started wailing on the discombobulated Percy's face with his left, unleashing harder and harder punches.

Releasing his own sword, and landing several kidney punches of his own with his freehand at the same time, Percy recovered his momentum quickly, and twisted his trapped arm and then dug his fingers into Deathstroke's torso. His actions eliciting a hiss of pain from the other man, even Percy tried to burrow his finger under Dethstroke's rib cage.

"Fucker!" Deathstroke grunted, slamming his masked head into Percy's already bloodied face, breaking his nose with a wet crunching sound.

Ignoring the sudden sharp pain, Percy drew on the blood leaking down his left arm from where he was shot. Before with a snarl of his own, he formed a stiletto dagger in his left made of his own blood, and started ramming it into Deathstroke's side in a bloody frenzy.

Letting out a gasp of pain, Deathstroke reached down and grabbed Percy's left arm, taking the blood-formed dagger through the hand as he then pushed it forward and gripped Percy's clenched fist in his own, stopping him from continuing his bloody assault.

At the same time, he tried to ram his knee up and into Percy's balls. Only for Percy to stop him by using his own leg to block, after which he then stamped on Deathstroke's feet.

With another hiss, Deathstroke twisted Percy's trapped right arm, ignoring the fact that Percy had broken several of his ribs by now, as he instead forced Percy's arm to straighten out. Before with a jolt and a snarl he jerked his arm and body upwards, twisting at the same time. His move elicited a crunching sound from Percy's arm.

"Fuck!" Percy spat blood, one of his eyes swollen shut as he glanced down and saw the damage Deathstroke had done. His right arm was either broken or partially dislocated, he couldn't tell yet.

"Die!" Deathstroke hissed, his right hand now dropping Percy's limp right arm, as he instead unsheathed a dagger and tried to ram it into Percy's heart.

Moving his body, Percy quickly avoided the heart stab, and instead took the serrated blade in his already ruined shoulder.

At the same time, whilst ignoring the agony of being stabbed, Percy threw all his strength into his left hand and slammed the blood-formed dagger, which was still implied through Deathstroke's hand, back into his enemy's already bloodied side.

A gasp of surprise left Deathstroke's masked mouth.

Percy ignored it though as he instead focused on forcing his blood into Deathstroke, manipulating it as it went by making it solid and thorny, even as he turned the Terminator's organs into a bloody pulp.

Letting out a blood filled gurgle, Deathstroke wrenched his dagger out of Percy's shoulder and tried to ram it into his neck.

Before he could, however, he was stopped by a green arrow hurtling from out of nowhere and tearing through Deathstroke's hand.

"You… die…" Percy gasped, his left hand sinking deeper into Deathstroke's side as he physically forced his hand fully into and through Deatherstroke's torso, until he could literally grab onto the other man's spine.

"Good...fight…" Deathstroke gurgled back, the dagger dropping from his now ruined right hand.

Percy didn't answer, instead, with a twisting motion he broke Deathstorke's spine and forced his now limp body away from his own.

"Percy!" M'gann's voice sounded out, several more arrows preternaturally proceeding her, each one slamming into Deathstroke's already limp body, even as M'gann slid to her knees by Percy's form, even as his legs gave out from underneath him and he fell down and onto the sand below him.

"Kid, get some water, and bring as much of it here as you can!" Tula shouted as she quickly joined M'gann, her hand moving to Percy's shoulder as she tried to use her magic to staunch the blood flowing out of his body. "Quickly!"

Percy smiled weakly at this, even as he felt someone take his hand.

His team had come for him.

( - )

(Back in America)

"Piss off you fucking wankers!" A blonde man snapped, clapping his hands together and forming a glowing golden circle between his palms as he did so.

A blast of fire erupted from the pentagram in the golden circle. Twisting through the air, the fire then immolated a twisted bug-eyed form, with insect-like wings, mandibles and horns.

With a chittering shriek the bug demon backed off.

"Go crawl back up Beelzebub's arse, you jumped up tosspots!" The man continued, shifting his hands as he did so, manipulating the golden circle. Before with another growl and curse word, he sent a spear of ice unerringly through the air, and impaled the scampering, still smoking, demon through the head.

"I am not in the mood for this!" The man continued, his bloodshot blue eyes blazing with a mixture of exhaustion and irritation as he watched the now dead demon slump to the ground, its flesh already turning to black ash now its physical form, and anchor, on the mortal plane had been destroyed.

"Now where is the other one?" He muttered to himself, looking away from the disintegrating demon corpse now, and instead surveying the chaotic scene around him.

It was early evening and he was in the middle of a school's oversized, probably overcompensating, playing field.

Thankfully there wasn't a game of fake football tonight, so the place was mostly empty.

Unfortunately however, mostly empty, didn't mean entirely empty, as although there were no steroid using teens, or annoying rambunctious crowds, there were unfortunately still some spotty geeks on the field.

Turns out this evening was a rehearsal for the school's marching band, go Bears.

Only none of the marching band were particularly hyped up at the moment, what with over half of them having fled by now. As for the rest, well several of their number were dead, with two of the dead having been half eaten by the recently summoned demons that had decided to drop by for a late afternoon, early evening, snack.

All of this was bad, but what made it worse, or at least for him, was that not all of the brats had run off. Like any sensible, reasonable person would. Instead at least half a dozen had decided hiding was the more sensible option when it came to demons, as opposed to running away like hell itself was nipping at your heels.

The little shits.

It was especially inopportune as he now had to keep the brats safe, whilst also trying to kill off two demons from hell.

"Ah, there you are!" He grinned tiredly, his eyes flicking between the bulbous, beaked monstrosity that was perched on a nearby field goal. The leg of a recently living band geek noticeably hanging out of its serrated beak-like mouth like a lollipop, as all four of its eyes rested on the cowering form of a chubby brat that was inexpertly trying to hide behind a set of bleachers.

Twisting his hands through the air, and starting to run, he sent several spears of ice at the demon.

The spears spurred the demon to action, the disembodied leg dropping out of its mouth as it extended its feathery grey wings, and lunged towards the hiding brat.

"Fuck's sake!" He cursed, hastening his pace as he changed his spells up a bit, and started throw bolts of lightning now, even as he interspersed himself between the demon and, what the could now see was a short, chubby band geek, who was holding a set of drumsticks up in a cross. Almost like he thought the two pieces of cheap wood, if held up in the icon of the cross, could protect him from a raving carnivorous demon.

It was an admirable effort, but a futile one all the same.

"Oi little drummer boy, move your fat fucking arse before you get eaten!" John snapped, his hands once again moving through the air as he flung more bolts of lightning at the bird demon, tagging it a few times as he did so.

Letting out a shriek the bird demon dived at him and the fat, pissed soaked piece of shit he was protecting.

Before it could get close though, it was hit by a bat shaped projectile which exploded open and wrapped the demon up like a well thrown bola.

Taking advantage of this, the blonde man unleashed another spear of ice, and this time impaled the bird demon through the brain.

"Thank fuck for that." He sighed, kicking the disintegrating demon away now, before he turned and gave the pissy brat behind him a withering stare. "Next time, little man, when you see a demon from the depths of hell, you don't hide behind some see through bleachers, you instead use those piggy little legs that god gave you and run away, you get that!?"

Letting out a slight 'eep' the teeneager turned tail and ran away.

At the same time as he did that, Batman appeared from the shadows at the blonde man's side.

"Was that really necessary, Constantine?" Batman asked bluntly.

"It was a learning experience." John Constantine replied gruffly. "Now what are you doing here Bats, and what do you want with me?"

"Usually people say thank you when someone just saved their life." Batman replied dryly.

"I had it under control!" John waved him away, a slight frown on his face now as he tried to work out how best to make this all disappear. He needed to make a story that even the most cynical of reporters and parents would believe.

Maybe a school shooter wanted to be original and dressed up as a demon and went on chainsaw killing spree?

No, he knew he could do better than that.

"I need your help Constantine." Batman said to his back.

"Doesn't everyone?" John groaned, before turning to look at Batman. "Alright then fine, what do you want? And it better not be for me to tell you your fortune, or to whip you up a love potion!"

Ignoring Constantine's mockery, Batman shook his head. "Tell me, what do you know about demigods?"

( - )

AN: So what did you all think, plenty of action and interactions, I hope they read as well as I hoped they did. That and I introduce Constantine, a critically underused character in DC, and with him I will delve into more of the occult DC stuff, as well as the Amazon and Atlantis stuff. Suffice to say shenanigan's will ensue.

Also I have seen the whiny comments about Batman being a detective. Yes he is, and like a detective he gathered clues, and exhausted every option and came to the correct conclusion. Stop bitching. Also with regards to Percy's physical strength, also stop bitching. Be constructive and helpful, and stop shouting nerfing and bashing, because I am doing neither of those [Insert eyeroll] sorry if it sounds like I am whining now, I am just in a bad mood at the moment due to rl and things.

Now with that said onto the chapter, I imagine most people will leap on the Deathstroke fight, please do read the rest as there was some important stuff going on in relation to Character Development and what not. As for Deathstroke, well I'd like to think I gave him justice as the hardcore badass he is, it's not everyone that can fight Percy that hard, even if Percy was at a disadvantage because desert + son of Poseidon = not a good combo. That said I am open to your thoughts and look forward to your comments. I am prepared to open the salt mines or Moria.

Speaking of which PJO/ Lord of the Rings? I reckon that could be a pretty cool combo...

But anyway, my salty ramblings aside. An additional piece of news I want to share, is that a YouTuber with a new YouTube channel recently messaged me asking permission to do an audio version of Oncoming Storm on his new channel. I said sure, and he's recently posted the first chapter. If you guys fancy listening to it, or no someone who might want to listen to it, be sure to check it out.

The channel is on YouTube, and is called "Fanfic Reader", so far he has published the first chapter, so please do check it out/ give it a go, if you have the time and desire too. Also, I don't personally have anything to do with the channel, so if you have questions, suggestions or compliments etc, post them there.

Other than that, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

I haven't decided what is next on my docket to update, but I am sure somehting will tempt me.

So catch you all later, and if you're bored please do check out my other stories.

Greed720.