Superheroes and Demigods

Chapter 11 (part 2)

The final result:

Percy's POV

Everyone's expressions were priceless. Percy wished that he had a camera. The Joker's thugs were still frozen in shock, mouths open wide in a very good imitation of a goldfish. The boss-man and his girlfriend were no better, and Percy was reminded of when Frank had turned into a koi at the aquarium.

When we were fighting Gaea, Percy suddenly remembered, that feels so long ago. Has it only been three months? Gah! Focus, Percy!

Snapping himself out of his thoughts, Percy looked at the scene before him. The Joker had finally processed what had happened and was starting to yell orders to his henchmen. Percy's ADHD, battle-wired brain took over immediately, and he whispered into his earpiece, "Flame, mute the outside comms." This would mean that the team could speak into the comms and others could hear it loud and clear, but to outsiders, the only clue of the conversations being held were people's lips moving. With this, Percy could tell them his plan easily. And as the first wave of thugs hit, he did just that.

"Quartet plan, let's go. Spark and I will push forward with Owl and Charm watching our backs. Animal, find a high place and start shooting. Gem, get the hostages free. Flame, how are we looking?"

Leo answered quickly, slurring his words in his rush to get them out, "I'm sending over some automatons now. Give me five minutes."

"Copy. When they get here, use them to shield the crowd. The rest of you, get ready...GO!!!"

The entire team sprung into action, quickly getting in position and pushing the wave of thugs back more and more with every step. Hazel had reached the hostages and was in the process of hurriedly cutting through their bonds.

And that was when everything went wrong.

Hazel was busy untying Barbara Gordon, who was the last one, so it wasn't her fault, really, not Hazel's, whose back was turned. Not Frank's, whose position had been discovered and was forced to take evasive maneuvers. Not Piper and Annabeth's, who had been cornered. Not Percy and Jason's, who had been surrounded. Least of all, Leo's, who was two miles away.

So it was absolutely no one's fault that Harley Quinn had a burst of imagination and grabbed the closest person to her, which so happened to be a small child, no older than ten. It was pure coincidence that Jason Todd was nearby and that his self-sacrificing factor kicked in. It was just back luck that when Jason, shoved the child out of the way, Harley grabbed hold of his jacket.

But Percy knew better. And that was why he was currently cursing out the Fates for doing this. For putting them in this situation where the Joker was holding a loaded gun to Jason Todd's head and one wrong move could cause that trigger to click.

Oh, sh*t.

"One move and the boy dies," the Joker hissed.

The entire team was frozen in place. Percy was desperately scanning their surroundings for something, anything, that could save the young Wayne's life. No magical saving grace appeared, and Percy could feel the team waiting for his call.

A pang went through the demigod as he realized Todd was only Nico's age. And there were other similarities between his cousin and the 15-year-old orphan. Both had parents that died at a young age, and were forced to survive with little help. And because of this, both were led to believe that they were burdens. Deep in their minds, both knew that that was not true, but they continued to push people away, not letting anyone in. Both boys' eyes held sadness, regret, and pain. Sadness for the ones they loved, regret for their actions, and pain, pain for the things that had inflicted on them, things they never deserved.

Percy sighed and motioned for the team to stand down.

The Joker smirked, "Good. Now, you are going to let us go and-"

CRASH

"Actually,” Flame’s voice dripped with sass. Percy grinned to himself. This was gonna be a showdown. Leo had mouth that said whatever came to mind and a mind wired to disrespect authority, with a sarcasm switch that was permanently stuck in the “on” position. The result was a hyper teen that constantly blurted out insults and comments to people he really shouldn't anger. So, like a small, Latino elf version of Percy. Another trait Leo shared with him with loyalty. If someone threatened the people he loved, you better believe he will kill them, by using words as his weapons.  Which was why Percy was so excited to see how this would play out.“We have you surrounded.” Leo had created several automatons for this purpose, in case the team was stuck and needed on-site support.

 All of the robots were equipped with state-of-the-art tech, and all of them could be controlled from one place, in this case, the black minivan parked in an alley. The machines also allowed Leo to project audio through them, which, of course, he used to blast “This Girl is on Fire” during testing and preformed an amazing sing along with a hairbrush (that looked suspiciously like the plastic blue one that a certain red-head used to hit the eye of the lord of titans). 

A/N In which PJO book did that happen? The first person to answer gets a shoutout. 

“We?” The Joker's posture was confident, but his eyes gave him away. He was scared, eyes scanning for any sign of more robots. Not seeing any, he seemed to come to the conclusion Leo was bluffing. “I don't see anyone else and you will be quite easy to... dismantle.”

“Hmm,” Leo's signature smirk graced his face, “I wouldn't be so confident if I were you. After all, you're already defeated.”

 Bots that were disguised with the missed shot tranquilizer darts at the thugs, while others pinned down the Joker and Harley Quinn. The gun flew out of her hand and skittered across the floor.  The Joker reached for it but before he could, Jason's shot a gust of wind that sent the weapons skidding on the polished floor until it came to stop at Dick Grayson’s feet. The boy grabbed it and retreated back to his family, his stride a little more confident now that they had a weapon.

 Percy stalked towards the Joker, Annabeth flanking him with Piper and Jason a step behind and Frank and Hazel breaking off from the group to comfort the helpless guests.  The Joker saw the anger in Percy's eyes and scrambled backward, but was stopped dead by Leo’s bots.

“No one,” Percy growled, his voice low and dangerous, “ And I mean no one, messes with my team. And absolutely no one gets away with it.”

Percy threw a punch that knocked the villain out cold and sent him sprawling. Annabeth handcuffed Harley Quinn and the rest of the team took care of the henchmen. 

 As police sirens sounded in the distance, Percy gathered his team. “Time to go,” he said through the comms so hostages wouldn't hear him, “Demigods, out.”

“Ahem,” a cough sounded from Leo's line.

 Percy sighed, “Demigods and flame machines, out.”

“Better,” Leo still didn't sound satisfied. “One...more...thing…”

“This Girl is on Fire” started playing on the comms. Percy inwardly groaned but took off into the sky anyways, the rest of the team following.

“Hey bookworms. So, sorry it took so long updating this. This chapter was written on different days so you can see when I was angsty and when I wanted fluff and when I liked action XD. So I took a poll for my readers, and the majority wanted longer chapters once or twice a month, so that's what is going to happen, at least for the story. Sorry for the cliffhangers but I wasn't sure how to finish it off. And you can tell how I rushed the endings because I realized how long I have been since I updated. Bye bookworms!

- Wild_Dragon_Girl