1 Chapter 1

Percy POV

It all went wrong after Tartarus. Annabeth, the girl I loved, didn't survive the fall, but I did. I wished to the fates that I didn't but I did, so I had to trudge through Tartarus alone. I likely wouldn't have survived if not for the help of Damasen and Bob, who both sacrificed themselves to get me out. That's two more on the long list of people dead because of me.

I would never forget the horrors I witnessed down there, the tortures I had endured before Bob came to rescue me. The other quest members could tell as soon as I emerged, and said nothing about the absence of Annabeth, for fear of setting me off.

Eventually we made our way to Olympus, set on eliminating the giants and preventing the rise of Gaea, but I managed to fuck that up too, with a fucking nose bleed, that supplied the blood of the male demigod. The other came from Hazels impalement.

Once Gaea had risen, my friends started falling one by one, either from a giant, or a spear made of dirt stabbing them from behind. I somehow managed to dodge or block each fatal blow, but ended up covered in minor cuts and bruises all over until I felt more like a living wound than a person. However, as I witnessed each friend die, I shoved down the urge to break down and weep, and replaced it with the drive to fight harder.

We had hoped for aid from the gods, but only one came. As I became the last one standing, surrounded by giants, my father arrived with a look of rage on his face matched only by mine, along with Tyson riding atop Mrs. O'Leary, and accompanied by Ella flying above him.

Poseidon looked at me before we began the final and explained how the other gods were ordered to take refuge on Olympus by Zeus, forced to only watch as their children died. He had been the only one strong enough to break through Zeus's grasp and come to my aid, determined not to watch his son die alone. I could only nod to him in gratitude before the fight begun.

Dad with his trident, Tyson with his club on Mrs. O'Leary, and me with my sword riding atop Blackjack was all that stood against Gaea and her giants upon the ruins of Athens, and we fought with all we had. Somehow, we managed to take down each giant, with dad and I combining our powers to create a condensed hurricane, keeping our enemies unbalanced and disoriented, and Tyson and Mrs. O'Leary jumping through the shadows to the enemies' blind spots. Ella, for her part, tried her hardest to keep the giants' attention while Tyson got behind them with his club, and it worked fairly well, until she was swatted out of the sky by Enceladus.

Tyson hollered her name in agony as she fell to the ground and rushed to cradle her, only for her to turn to dust in his arms.

The giant above him laughed at his enemy and made to crush him with his foot, only for Tyson to catch it in his hands. He then began growing to his thirty-foot size, all the while shouting his new battle cry, "FOR ELLA!"

I didn't see all of what happened next, as I was busy doing drive byes at giants faces with Blackjack but I knew it didn't end well for the giant. Once dad had finished off all the giants with his godly power, all that was left was Gaea.

Until then she had simply attacked from the earth, but as the last giant fell, she formed forty foot tall body made of earth to face us, "You will pay for destroying my children! Let's see how you fare without your daddy here to save you!"

Before even Poseidon could react, she shot her arm down at him, simultaneously growing it into a long spike that drove itself through his chest. Splattering ichor on the ground behind him. He could only look down at the hole in his chest before whispering, "I'm sorry." And collapsing on the ground.

Tyson and I looked at each other, and I knew we were thinking the same thing, I readied Blackjack, and Mrs. O'Leary stood by Tyson' side, only reaching his knees at his new height. Together we screamed in anger and charged at her. Mrs. O'Leary started the attack with a surprising leap straight at the giant woman's face, knocking her off balance and clawing at her eyes to blind her. as she stumbled back screaming, "Filthy mongrel! Get off me!" Tyson used the opening to charge straight at her an wrap him up in her arms. He then used his massive strength to heave her body off the ground and away from her power source. "Now Brother!"

I nodded to him and rode Blackjack to Gaea's body held off the ground, before jumping off onto her chest.

She could only look down at me as she flailed her arms to try to get out of Tyson's grasp, "You? What do you think you can do that all of your comrades and family could not! I am a primordial youfilthy demigod!"

Instead of shooting back my usual witty remark, I could only glare ferociously at her, before closing my eyes and focus on channeling a power I wasn't even sure I had. However, after a few moments I felt the familiar tug in my gut, alongside an unfamiliar sensation of my hands vibrating violently with the power of a catastrophic earthquake.

Upon seeing this, she looked down at me In horror, "No… it's not possible! Don't—Aghhhh!"

She cried out as I thrust both hands into her chest, channeling the vibrations into her body, shaking it wildly. Soon bits of her began to crumble away, but I felt myself tiring quickly. I knew the power needed to finish her off might just kill me. I was fine with that.

With a final scream of determination, I put everything I had into my power and forced the primordial to burst into an explosion of rocks in Tysons arm, sending me flying high above the battle ground, barely conscious.

As I began my descent toward the ground, I knew that the impact of the fall would be the end. Then I would be with Annabeth, in Elysium. I closed my eyes and waited patiently for the end to come.

It was after about 30 second of no impact that I decided something was up. I opened my eyes to find that I was suspended in midair, along with all the rubble from Gaea's body. I looked down to find that Tyson, Mrs. O'Leary, and Blackjack were all frozen as well. I saw that Blackjack was on route to catch me mid fall, making me smile, but at the same time, I really wanted him to fail.

"Don't think like that Perseus, it is unhealthy." A trio of familiar voices spoke in unison.

In front of me appeared the three fates, floating in mid-air. They all were looking at me with an expression I'd never thought I'd see from them: regret.

I glared at them, "What do you want? I'm kind of in the middle of something here."

The middle one sighed, "Indeed. This is the end of your life Perseus. One way or the other."

The right one said, "either your Pegasus will not catch you, and you will die,"

The left continued ,"Or you will be saved. Either way"

All three spoke, "You will spend the rest of eternity in torment."

The center finished, "Zeus has seen your true power, you have just defeated a primordial! He will not allow a being such as yourself to exist unchecked, dead or alive. If you die, he will toss your soul into the farthest depths of Tartarus, where you can never escape, and if you live, he will imprison you for the rest of your life, however long that may be, or kill you and still toss you into Tartarus. No matter what, your future is bleak."

I scoffed not the least surprised in the information, but still steadily brimming with anger and despair, "So? You orchestrated all this right? Why are you telling me this now."

They sighed and spoke in unison, "We knew this would come to pass before you were even conceived, but we did not know of the person you would become. That is something even we cannot control, and you Perseus, have grown into the finest hero this world, and possibly every other world has ever seen. You do not deserve the fate given to you. Which is why we have decided to give you a new one. We will send you to a new world, one that has use of someone like you. But fear not, you will not be alone."

I looked at them hopefully, but they shook their heads, "We are sorry Perseus, but we will not send Annabeth with you, she has already passed in this world, and will eventually choose rebirth. Her soul will go on to do great things, we cannot allow her to be taken away."

I resisted the urge to burst into tears and hung my head, "Yeah that makes sense, I always figured she'd do great things."

They smiled sadly at me, "Indeed. Prepare yourself Perseus, the world we are sending you too is much like this one, but at the same time vastly different. You will likely face many more hardships along the way, but we also see the potential for you to finally find the peace you've craved your whole life. We wish you luck. Farewell."

I had a lot more I wanted to say, ranging from asking who she was sending with me, to flipping them again for old time's sake, but before I could do anything I was enveloped in a blinding white light, and then all went dark.

I awoke to the familiar sound of a bustling city, though definitely not as loud as New York. I opened my eyes and sat up to find myself in an empty alleyway, because gods forbid I ever wake up somewhere nice and cozy.

The first thing I noticed when I tried to stand was that all my cuts and bruises had miraculously disappeared. I was wearing a simple pair of jeans and a blue t shirt. I held a hand up to my neck and was relieved to find my camp necklace still around it. I reached into my pocket and found Riptide in its usual place, making me sigh in relief yet again. For a moment I entertained the idea that I had just been in a really intense nightmare and that I didn't lose everyone I've ever loved. But the thoughts were shattered when I found a newspaper on the ground. The date was 2010, just like my world, but the headline read: "Plans revealed to establish direct contact with Martians." I wasn't as up to date on current events as most mortals, having other things to worry about, but I'm pretty sure even I would have heard if we discovered Martians. I was definitely on a new earth.

As I came to this realization, all the events leading up to this moment suddenly crashed down on me at once, and I fell to my knees, tears streaming down my face. I felt the need to cry out, yell my sorrow for everyone to hear, but my mouth remained dry and motionless.

That's when I heard the faint sound of someone screaming, "Help! Get us out"

I stood up, eager to find a reason to distract me from my pain, and started running towards the sound, As I ran, I soon realized that I was in Washington DC, which explained the awful heat.

I found the source of the screaming at a burning building, three stories tall. Standing at a high window, two men were impatiently awaiting the fire department to get them down, as the flames grew wilder behind them. That's when an explosion went off behind them, sending them flying towards the ground. I was about to step in to do… well I wasn't sure, I was more of a "in the moment" kind of guy, but before I could a yellow blur blew past me and ran straight up the side of the building. It caught both men and threw them on the roof, before losing its momentum and falling down. Now that it was slow enough, I saw that it was actually a young kid wearing yellow and red spandex, now dangling from the window the men were in. For a moment he seemed familiar, but I didn't waste time thinking about it. I raced forward and held my hand out to harness the water from the firefighter's hose. I then wrapped it around myself and propelled myself towards the kid. Once I was clsoe enough I channeled some of the water to put out the flames, and some more to offer the kid some support while I got inside to pull him up.

As he was pulled up he sighed in relief, "Thanks Aqua—"He froze when he looked up and saw me though, "You're not Aqualad..."

I blinked then nodded, "And you're not dangling off a building, you're welcome." I probably could have been nicer, but I really couldn't care enough at the moment.

He shook off his surprise and opened his mouth to say something, but was stopped when a dark-skinned, blond haired dude rose up to the window, riding a plume of water that he seemed to be controlling with weird handles and glowing tattoos. He had a weird red and black suit on, and a small black back attachment. Basically, he was weird looking I guessed that this was the real "Aqualad". He looked at me with narrowed eyes and asked in stoic tone, "How did you do that?"

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Same way you did I'm guessing." I actually didn't think our ways were similar at all, but it gave me time to inspect him further. He was wearing a strange suit with fins on his legs, and on his neck, were actual gills. Maybe he was some sort of fish-person hybrid?

Our stare down was interrupted by the sound of a young boy laughing creepily. A kid dressed in red and yellow with a cape and a mask, swung in on some kind of grappling hook. He landed nimbly in front of us and got right up in my face, inspecting me like an interesting new creature.

"You have three seconds to get out of my face, before I get angry." I stated coldly. The boy seemed to get the message and backed away.

"You seem pretty angry already…" The fast guy muttered, only to flinch as I looked back at him.

"Well," I drawled, "This was annoying. Since no one's going to thank me for saving your life I'll just be on my way then." I made my way towards the window, only for the redhead to appear in front of me.

"Wait! Sorry, thank you! really!" He stammered,

I then felt the other two close in behind me, the boy said, "We can't just let an unknown meta run unchecked. We should take him to the League to get registered in the database."

"Indeed," the fish guy said, "His power over water was definitely not Atlantiean, not even my king can control it with such ease."

I felt myself getting antsy, and a little confused at the reference to Atlantis, the fish guy wasn't blue and didn't have shark teeth, "I really don't care what you guys think you should do. I'm not interested. So, I suggest you let me go peacefully."

In response, the fish boy grabbed my arm from behind. I reacted with a quick spinning kick, sending him flying back into a wall. Then the one with the cape did some weird flip kick and knocked me back a few steps, where the redhead wrapped his arms around me in a bear hug, "Dude calm down! we aren't going to hurt you! You're very strong!"

With a growl I forced my way out of his hold, sending him stumbling back… towards the window again. I sighed and rushed to catch him right as he was about to fall. He looked up at me with a startled look on his face, "Thanks again?"

I rolled my eyes and threw his lighter body at the kid, who was in the middle of a stealthy charge straight at me. they collided in a tangle of limbs, but I was more worried about the fact that fish boy was nowhere to be seen.

Then I felt a heavy weight drop down on my. I grunted as I threw the man off of me only for him to use the momentum to land a flip in front of me. his weird tattoos started glowing and he shot out a tendril of glowing water to wrap around me. "Stand down, perhaps we can talk this out."

I smirked at him as I felt the water empowering me. he seemed to notice this and looked at me in shock. He whispered, "Your eyes…" before I simply walked through the water trap, my element making way for me to escape. I threw a quick punch to his face to disorient him before moving behind him as the other two had finally gotten to their feet. I pulled out Riptide and uncapped it before holding the glowing blade to fish boys throat. "One more step and he's filet"

They got the message and froze in place. The redhead held his hands up, "Look man this has gotten way out of hand, you've saved my life twice now, I doubt you'll kill him."

I simply stared at him, not moving my blade. The kid shook his head, "I don't think even he knows what he'll do. Look at his eyes, their wild and unfocused. Think maybe he's schizo?"

I tuned out the rest of their conversation, as my attention was turned to the unfamiliar voice in my head. maybe I am schizo. A voice that sounded like it belonged to a far off man called Help us! We are trapped, imprisoned, tortured! At those words I felt flashed of Tartarus fly through m head, causing me to flinch and nearly drop my sword, something that didn't go unnoticed by the fish boy. Before I could react, he took full advantage of my momentary lack of focus and threw my across the room. I slammed into the wall, losing the air in my lungs, before falling to the floor.

I opened my eyes to find the kid pointing a fancy looking Taser at me. "Don't make me do it man, because I will."

I sighed and got to my feet, lazily deflecting the Taser prongs with my sword before walking past the stunned teenager.

I started making my way through the building, looking for the source of the voice. I wasn't ready to accept insanity just yet. I was very aware that I was being followed around by three very curious weirdos. Who seemed to be studying my actions for a change from straight up assaulting me.

Eventually the fish boy got in front of me again, holding his hands up, "Please be calm, I will not attack again."

I shrugged, "You can attack all you want, you're not going to win with those weapons. I appreciate the gesture though." I then walked past him, almost laughing at the dumbstruck look on his face.

The redhead spoke next, "What are you looking for? Are you investigating Project Cadmus too?"

I whirled around to look at the trio in shock, "Cadmus? As in dragon's teeth?"

The kid looked at me curiously, "They mostly deal in genetics so… probably not? You're thinking of the myth, aren't you?"

I shivered as I remembered the ghostly soldiers hunting me form the ends of the earth, "Myth. Right. To answer your questing Zippy, someone's trapped here."

Zippy seemed offended by me calling him "Zippy", but the kid ignored it and pressed on, "You're sure? How do you know?"

I groaned, "I don't know for sure, but I just heard a voice asking for help and claiming he was being tortured. I know that makes me sound crazy, but trust me, my crazy is way different."

Fish boy raised an eyebrow, "Trust you? A moment ago you were holding a sword to my throat, where did you even acquire a sword like that?"

I rolled my eyes and walked up to him casually. Once I was close enough, I shot out Riptide towards his body, only for it to phase right through, reassuring me that he was definitely not a monster, or at least one I knew of. "See? You were never in any danger alright?"

He was too busy looking down at the sword through his chest in shock, so I just sighed and put it away. The kid was the first one to pull himself together and say, "What the hell! That was solid before! How did you fit it in that small a compartment?"

I shrugged as I turned to continue searching through rooms, as they followed behind me, "Magic. Also you shouldn't curse."

The speedster scoffed, "There's no such thing as magic."

I turned back to smile without happiness. "If only that were true. Besides, what do you think your friend there is doing."

Aqualad, as I believe he was called looked at his comrade with a look that said, "He's not wrong" but the just scoffed, "Atlantean magic is just science we don't understand yet, just like what you're doing."

I nodded, "Maybe, honestly I don't care. How about instead of just following me around like children, you actually help me out. Judging by your getups your "superheroes" or something, right?" They all nodded silently, "Then do your job and help me save someone. I know they're around here somewhere."

"Can you at least tell us your name?" Aqualad asked.

"You never gave yours, why should I give mine?"

They looked at each other before looking at me curiously, "You mean you've never heard of us?" Aqualad asked

The redhead slumped forward, "Speedy was right, we are just a bunch of sidekicks, why would he know us?"

The kid stepped forward, "I'm Robin, I work with Batman. You know him, right?"

I just stared at him, "Doesn't ring a bell. I'm not exactly from around here."

"You'd have to be from a different universe not to have heard about the Flash," the redhead said, "I work with him, they all me Kid Flash."

Upon seeing the look on my face, his eyes widened, "Wait really? You're from another universe?"

I looked at the three curiously, "You don't seem overly concerned about that,"

Aqualad shrugged, "Travel between dimensions has long since been proven possible. It is not so hard to believe, my name is Kaldur'ahm. But you can call me Kaldur, or Aqualad if you wish."

I nodded, "I think I'll stick to Kaldur. Now are you all going to help or am I on my own here?"

They looked at each other, and seemed to confer for a moment before turning back to me. Robin said, "We'll help you, but afterwards you have to stop by the Justice League HQ, just so they know who you are, in case…"

"In case you turn evil and we have to take you down." Kid Flash stated, earning a smack in the head from Robin, "What? It's true!"

I narrowed my eyes at them, "Swear on the Styx that It's not a trap."

Kid Flash raised an eyebrow, "Uh, which sticks would you be referring to?"

"I think he means the River Styx, from Greek Mythology." Robin guessed.

Kaldur nodded in agreement, "Swearing on the Styx is supposed to be a contract that could not be broken, less one suffer divine consequences. That was the story anyway.'

I nodded, "Exactly. Now make the oath, or I start walking. Can't hurt if it's just a story right?"

They seemed to hesitate for a moment, before Robin shrugged and said, "I swear on the River Styx that we will not trap or trick you."

Off in the distance, the familiar sound of rumbling thunder sounded. It seems that some things never change. I smiled lightly and clapped Robin on the shoulder as I walked past the stunned superheroes, "Don't go breaking that now. You can call me Percy."

Kid Flash whispered, "That a was a coincidence, right? Guys?"

We ignored him as Robin strode forth with purpose towards a console next to the elevator. "This will go faster once I'm hacked into the network." He pulled out a cord from his wrist armor and plugged into the console. A holographic display popped up from his gauntlet, surprising me. What came next was an impressive display of computer skills that I don't think even Leo could pull off.

At the thought his name, I winced as the image of his head being removed from his body flashed in my head. I had to take a step back from watching Robin to clear my head again.

Kaldur noticed this, "Are you alright Percy?"

I nodded as I rubbed the bridge of my nose, "I'm fine, don't worry about it. Any luck?"

Robin frowned, "If there really is a telepath calling out for help here, I'd bet that their somewhere on the 60 stories below ground level that don't show up on the city plans."

I nodded, "That would make sense."

He continued to scroll through the information, "I'm not sure which one though, each level has weird project names and nothing else attached to them. Whoever built this system didn't want any average hacker getting important information. It will be a long search."

I nodded, "Then we start at the lowest level and work our way up. What's the name of that project?"

He typed a few things in before reading, "Project Kr."

In nodded and took out my sword to pry open the elevator doors, revealing the seemingly bottomless elevator shaft.

I looked down and whistled. "That's a long drop."

Robin sighed, "I don't think my grapple can reach that far. Any ideas?"

"We could take the stairs?" Kid Flash suggested,"

"Are you insane?" I snapped, "That would take ages! Kaldur, please tell me that's water I sense in your back attachment,"

He nodded, "I always keep a backup amount."

"Mind if I borrow it?"

"I don't like this!" Kid Flash commented.

"I'm aware," I said calmly, "you've said it numerous times."

I was currently lowering us down the shaft on a platform made of water. I was going as fast as I could without throwing anyone off, but it still took pretty long. We were just now finally reaching the bottom level.

I pried open the doors and let the others off before dispelling the platform.

"Your stamina for water constructs is truly extraordinary," Kaldur commented, "Might I ask where you acquired your powers?"

I shrugged, "You can call it a birthright. Anyone else see the weird fleshy substance covering the wall?"

"I do," said a very uneasy looking Kid Flash, "I think I might be sick."

We made our way through the grotesque halls, looking for anything suspicious, or more suspicious than what we've already seen. Eventually we spotted a very heavy looking door with the letters "Kr" over it.

"Think that's it?" I asked sarcastically.

"Last one there's a rotten egg!" Kid flash joked, before racing forward, caution to the wind. I turned to Robin and Kaldur who were sighting to themselves, apparently, he did this a lot.

I more or less expected it when suddenly a giant creature nearly flattened him if he didn't get out of the way in time. As we watched in awe, several enormous, and very weird creatures lumbered past us in a hallway crossing. We were so caught up marveling at them that we didn't notice the smaller creature in the lab coat spot us, until he called out, "Halt!"

We looked over and saw that he had begun to lift explosive tanks with his mind and was preparing to throw them at us. Behind him was a squad of small, monkey like creatures running toward us.

I rushed towards Kid Flash and helped him up, "Time to run."

We spirited towards the doors, I turned to KF, "Take Robin up there to hack the door open, Kaldur and I will keep them off you!"

They nodded and went ahead, while Kaldur and I turned to face the oncoming horde. I uncapped Riptide and tried to slice through the first one that lunged at me, but it phased right through, and landed on my arm, biting at me until I through it back. "Shit!"

"What happened to "no swearing"?" Kaldur asked, making me turn to glare at him as he sliced through one of the creatures with his water blades. He held one of his blades towards me, "Use mine, I can make do with one blade."

I nodded to him gratefully and pulled water from his device and formed a water version of Riptide. I hadn't ever done that before, as I never needed to, but it was effective enough. I was soon slicing through creatures as fast as Kaldur, if not more so. He took notice of this, "I take it you are an experienced swordsman."

I was going to tell him "Yes, and you're not too bad yourself" but my attention was drawn to the taller creature, sending an explosive tank straight towards him. Without thinking I rushed forward to shield him, while at the same time sending my water out to cover it as it ignited.

I sighed in relief when I managed to subdue the explosion in a cocoon of water, and turned back to the stunned Kaldur, "You alright?"

He nodded, "Y-Yes, thank you."

I nodded, "No problem, now pay attention!" I snapped. He nodded stiffly and focused on the enemy at hand.

Finally, Robin called out, "It's open, come on!"

Kaldur and I made a run for the door. As we approached though, the doors began to close, "Robin!" I called, "What the Hades!"

He was tapping furiously on his hologram, "I can't stop it! It's a manual override!"

"I don't care! Override the override!" I yelled, but I knew I was no use. I held my hand out and sent my allotted bit of water toward the door, and did my best to hold it open, but I only slowed it down. The effort took a bigger toll on me than expected as I ran.

When we finally made it through the doors, I released the water, allowing the doors to slam shut, keeping the enemies out, but also keeping us in.

"Great, now we're trapped." Kid Flash sighed.

I groaned, "You should try being more positive."

"I'm positive we're trapped."

I was just about to slap the speedster upside the head, when Kaldur interrupted us, "Guys! You should come see this."

We all gathered around the center of the room, which housed a strange dark container in front of a console. Kaldur pressed a button, and suddenly, lights turned on inside the container, illuminating a young man, dressed in a white jumpsuit with a big red S on his chest, trapped in a diamond shape. He had jet black hair similar to mine, and an insane physique. Above his head sat three small versions of the creatures we fought before, that appeared to be asleep with him, only they had glowing blue horns.

I looked at the others, and saw that they were in some form of shock. "What's wrong? I mean it's shocking for sure, but it can't possibly be the first time you've seen something like this."

Kaldur looked at me, "You don't understand, that symbol is the symbol of Superman, the most powerful being on the planet, and he looks like a slightly younger version of him. Which means…"

"A clone of Superman," Robin stated. "Likely being psychically fed an education from those creatures and whatever else the feel like putting in his head."

"They're basically making a slave out of Superman's son!" Kid Flash exclaimed, "That's so messed up."

"So, I'm guessing he probably doesn't know about this." I stated dryly."

"It is highly unlikely." Kaldur stated. "What should we do?"

"Free him." I stated simply.

"Uh yeah but," Kid flash drawled, "what if he tries to kill us or something? I don't know if we can take him."

I shrugged, "If worse comes to worse we defend ourselves, even if it means putting him down. it's better to be dead to live as a puppet."

Robin stared at me, "Are you speaking from experience?"

I just looked at the clone, "Hack it."

He didn't need further encouragement. However, as he was plugged into the computer he held a hand up, "Whoa. I just found the data on the creatures.'

We all looked at the screen curiously, "And."

"Super strength, super speed, razor claws… these things are living weapons! And by the looks of it there's already enough to make an army!"

I sighed and mumbled, "Great, another army of monsters." Before speaking up, "If this guy is as powerful as you think he is, I'd wager he would be the general. All the more reason to deal with him now. Wake him up."

Robin nodded and punched in a few commands, before backing up several feet, as did the others. I was the only one standing directly. In front of the guy when he finally opened his eyes, I spoke first, "Hey, my names Percy, and we're here to rescue you."

There was a moment of silence where we simply looked at each other. Then he growled and shot forward, faster than I could react, and punched me in the face. Knocking me out cold.

I awoke in restraints, suspended inside some kind of glass tube. I tugged on the restraints a few times, to confirm that they were in fact very tight, before looking around. I was in different room than before, with a console in front of the containment tubes. Several other tubes sat next to me, containing the rest of the superheroes I was with. Most of them looked unconscious, except one, Kaldur. He appeared to be muttering something to himself. I tried calling out to him, but he didn't respond, I guess my voice was too muffled.

I stared at him in anger for a moment, before my eyes landed on the gills on his neck. That's when I got a crazy idea. I tried reaching out to him with my mind Hello? Kaldur, can you hear me?

Instantly he looked over at me and met my eyes, Percy? How? Are you a telepath?

I shook my head It only works on sea creatures, a category which you apparently fall under. Interesting.

He looked at me in awe, Amazing… but how…. Never mind, it's not important now.

I nodded I agree. We need to get out of here. I have a plan, but it's a bit messy—

Fret not Percy, I believe our rescue will come soon. Just be patient.

I looked at him curiously What do you mea—AAAGH!

All thoughts in my head were swept away as I felt my entire body become engulfed in pain. It felt like I was being set on fire and being electrocuted at the same time. Suddenly I was back in my cell in Tartarus. the place I was held captive for what felt like years, but only lasted two weeks.

I was chained to the wall, starving as always, and bleeding profusely, but I wasn't too concerned, I knew that my captors wouldn't let me die

Speak of the devil, the door to my cell was suddenly ripped off its hinges. I looked up to see Perses, the titan of Destruction stomping towards me. he undid my chains and threw my too the floor, "Get up Percy. It's time to go." I shivered at his voice. I knew where he wanted me to go, to the chamber where he tortured me every day without fail. He took great pleasure in it, I suppose it makes sense though. I did kill a few of his brothers. However, this time I realized something was different. I felt Riptide in my pocket not locked away in whatever magical container he kept it in to keep it from returning to me. I finally had a fighting chance.

"Get up Percy." He growled, and I had to resist the urge to scream profanities at him. I took a deep breath, and pulled out riptide. In one swift motion, it turned, uncapped it, and shoved it into the Titan's chest, stunning him. For a moment, I thought I had won, but then he became angry. He wrapped his hand around my neck and held me up, and the hope in me died. I closed my eyes, waiting for the beating to come, until I felt a splash of water on my face.

I opened my eyes to find myself back at Cadmus. I was being held up by the Superman Clone, and screamed at by the other superheroes, "Snap out of it Percy."

Upon realizing I was lucid, the clone dropped me to the ground, allowing me to cough and gasp for air while Kaldur patted me on the back while I recovered. When I was breathing evenly I asked, "What happened?"

Robin answered, "Superboy freed you, but instead of thanking him, you tried to stab him with your sword! Thankfully it phased through him like with Kaldur but Dude! Not cool."

I was unsure what to say, but Kaldur was, "Leave him be, he was obviously unwell." He then looked into my eyes, a sad look of understanding in them, "You were somewhere else, weren't you?"

I stared back at him for a moment before responding, "We should get out of here."

I stood up and walked forward, only to hear him stand behind me, "I've seen it before Percy, I can—"

I whirled on him, "You have NOT seen this before. And you likely never will. You do not know me, and I do not know you, frankly I'd like to keep it that way. So let's just get out of here so I can go back to…"

Kid Flash scoffed, "What? Let me guess, go back home? Hide from the world and waste your powers let me tell you some—"

He was cut off as I gave him a wolf stare filled with all the pain and anguish I had acquired, "I do not hide! And I can't go home! It's in another universe remember! Now how about you all shut up and focus on getting out of here, before tear this place down on top of us."

That was the end of our conversation for a while. We made our way to the elevator shaft, where Superboy attempted to fly out of the shaft, only to realize that he couldn't fly at all. The realization seemed to shake him up quite a bit. KF and Robin tried to cheer him up, but to no avail. He ended up standing on the water platform with everyone else as I lifted us up.

After a few minutes, I looked over at him, "Sorry I tried to stab you."

He looked at me with bright blue eyes that almost seemed to be filled with as much anger as mine, "I did punch you very hard in the face."

I nodded, "Yeah I'll be feeling that one for a while." I stopped talking after that.

The others discussed all that they had seen and discovered, and how they would have to report it to "The League". I honestly couldn't care less.

When we finally reached the top, we exited the elevator hoping for an easy walk out of there. Instead there was some lab coat wearing dickbag holding a vial. "Did you really think you could escape so easily. Those genomorphs are useless, I'll have to deal with you myself."

He then opened the vial and drank it all in one go. As we watched, he started growing in size, his skin literally splitting in some areas due to the increase in muscle mass. Once he was finished, his physique vaguely resembled atlas, if Atlas were a thousand times uglier and half as smart. The creature roared in outrage at us before charging at a surprising speed for its size.

All the others managed to jump out of the way, but I, being me, was lucky enough to catch a fist to the gut, and get sent flying into a pillar, slamming into the cement hard enough to send blood gushing out of my mouth. I coughed a bit up before looking up at the others fighting the creature off. Even Superboy seemed outmatched, but I quickly noticed a major flaw in their attacks.

I rushed forward, ignoring the pain in my ribs and gathering the spare water puddling on the floor, "Kaldur! Superboy! Restrain him for a few seconds I think I can take him down!"

Superboy growled as he barely dodged another punch, that cratered the floor, "How?"

I smirked, "You'll know it when you see it."

I splashed water in his eyes from a distance, trying to get him disoriented while Aqualad and Superboy tried to contain him. Robin and Kid Flash seemed to like my idea, Robin with his shurikens, and Kid Flash with drive bys trying to get the behemoth off balance. Eventually we managed to get him wrapped up in a bear hug from Superboy with his leg wrapped up in Kaldur's water tendrils. Robin yelled, "Whatever you're going to do Percy, do it now!"

I nodded and rushed forward. I collected the water in my hands to form a water blade. Once I was close enough I jumped up and ran up the creatures body a little before jumping into the air above him, where I raised my water blade above me. I combined the power of gravity with all of my own strength to bring the blade down on the creature's neck, removing its head from hits body cleanly.

I landed on the floor in front of the now decapitated body, unflinching as a rain of blood poured down on me, unlike the others.

Kid Flash straight up vomited on the spot. Super boy and Kaldur fell on their asses, stunned at the corpse they had been holding. The only one who was able to speak was Robin

"What the hell did you do?" the kid marched up and got right in my face, as if he could possibly intimidate me.

I answered matter-of-factly, "I eliminated the enemy, in the most effective way."

"That is not your call!" Kid Flash shouted before going back to puking.

"He's right," Kaldur continued, "that is not how we do things on this earth,"

"It isn't up to you whether or not someone dies!" Robin practically screamed in my face.

I simply stared back at him, unmoved, "It is when he's trying to kill me. in fact he was trying to kill all of you. I could tell none of you had the will or drive to do it so I did it for you. your welcome."

With that I turned and walked out of the building. I heard the others follow me soon after. Superboy, who seemed unsure of what to say. I suppose it made sense, he was only a few weeks old technically. Kid Flash managed to distract him by pointing at the sky, giving him his first view of the moon.

Robin was on some form of communicator, talking to someone, and Kaldur walked up to me. I glared at him as he approached, "What? here to lecture me more about "the sanctity of life""

He shook his head. "No, I can tell that will mean nothing to you. In fact I understand where you're coming from, having served in the Atlantean army, I know the feeling of taking a life, and I know how much more effective it is."

I raised an eyebrow, "I'm sensing a but here."

He nodded, "But we are not in a military. Here we stand as earths heroes and protectors. People look to us for an example. If we went around killing every criminal we came across, the people would begin to fear us, and would not allow us to save them anymore."

I rolled my eyes, "That wasn't just some criminal, that was a monster, monsters need to be put down."

He nodded "I agree, but it is not up to us, it is up to the courts. I know you are not from this world, but if you are to stay, you cannot do what you just did in there."

I shook my head, "Whatever. Aren't we supposed to go talk to "The League"? what's the hold up?"

Robin put away his communicator, "They're a bit held up at the moment, some monster is trampling around Metropolis. It's strong enough to swat Superman away like a fly, and keeps yelling something about "Peanut butter."

I snapped my attention to him, "Describe it!"

He looked confused, "What?"

I grabbed him by the shoulders, ignoring as the others tensed up, "The creature! What does it look like?"

He blinked, "uh it's kind of weird, it's thirty feet tall, and only has one eye—"

He was cut off as I walked away from him, "Hey wait where are you going?"

I looked back at the superheroes, "Which way is Metropolis?"

Wally pointed south, "That way, but what's the big deal? The League can handle it…"

I was no longer listening to any of them as I searched the night sky. If he was here, then maybe…

I held my hands up to my mouth and gave the loudest New York taxi whistle I could muster, so loud I noticed the heroes holding their ears in surprise. Then I waited.

After a moment of terrifying silence, I heard a familiar whinny in the distance. I looked in its direction and almost wept at the sight of Blackjack soaring through the night sky towards me.

"What the heck is that?" Kid Flash asked, as the other heroes were looking at blackjack in awe as well.

"Horses aren't supposed to have wings… right?" Superboy asked.

I ignored all of them. As Blackjack finally got into range he called out, BOSS! I've been looking all over for you! what the heck happened? What is this bizzaro world?

As he landed in a trot in front of me I rushed forward and jumped on his back , "No time to explain buddy, Tyson is in someplace called metropolis, south of here, we got to get to him now."

Got it, leave it to me boss!

With that he got a running start and took off into the air. Behind me the teenaged superheroes were calling out to me in anger and confusion, but I didn't care. They can capture me, and ask any questions they want later.

But no one was going to hurt my baby brother.

Later

Long after the heroes had abandoned the Cadmus building, a man in an expensive looking suit strode through the main room. Observing the damage done by project Blockbuster. His eye was caught by something near a pillar, that was barely standing.

He walked over to it and crouched down to inspect what looked like a puddle of liquid gold.

The man produced a cotton swab and collected some of the liquid to store in a sealed container. He lifted the container up to his face, the face of Lex Luthor.

"Interesting…" he muttered, before turning and walking off.