Chapter Text
Percy had been having a relatively good day so far: he got a good night's sleep (nightmare free) cuddled up next to his beautiful girlfriend Annabeth; the weather was perfect for the beach, so he could spend the day in his father’s domain; and monster attacks were at a record low across the entirety of California after New Rome’s efforts to make California a safer place for all demigods. Of course the key phrase is ‘so far,’ the Moirai had never been particularly kind to Percy and he wasn’t stupid enough to lower his guard an inch especially without Annabeth to guard his back.
Percy had no qualms whatsoever when Annabeth asked him if he was willing to spend his summer in Torrance, after all what's not to like? It’s close to the Pacific and … well that was his only requirement, but it’s a pretty nice city in his opinion. Truthfully he would have spent his summer anywhere as long as Annabeth was there, but Torrance was the city in which the bigshot architecture firm Annabeth had an internship at was based so it was where he ended up. A quick 6 hour drive from New Rome down to the LA area and boom they’re setting up for summer in CA. At first he was worried about the cost of renting for the entire summer but then Hermes popped in and gave him a set of keys for a “completely paid for apartment for the summer.” Though, knowing Hermes and the excessive amount of winks when he said ‘paid for,’ they were probably squatting. Not that he particularly cared though, even if they were caught the Mist would probably just cover it up and if it didn’t they could always pressure Hermes into clearing up the mess he had made.
So, with a busy girlfriend and a ‘paid off’ apartment Percy didn’t have much to do during the day. Most of the time he would just explore Torrance, mapping out routes through the city so he could have a memorized escape route if he ever got in trouble with a monster. That was the other thing he did during his days, kill monsters. It’s not like there were that many, the Legacies in the area did a pretty good job keeping the streets clean, but the ones he did run into were usually left alone by smaller hunting parties of demigods. They were the big names of Greek myth, your hydras, cyclopses, and laestrygonians. Hades one day he even ran into the Minotaur, again! It probably thought “hey fifth times the charm,” because it did the exact same thing as every other time he killed it, making it one of the easier monsters to take down during the two months he had spent in Torrance. Eventually there was no big game left in Torrance and all the monsters who did pop up were usually the most overconfident or braindead of the bunch making them easy pickings. It got to a point where he, a son of one of the Big Three, could walk around while using a phone connected to the internet, an activity which in any other city would probably end in an army of monsters converging on his position.
All this to say, he had decided he had earned a break (or rather his amazing, beautiful, and terrifying girlfriend said he needed to stop moping around their apartment baking all day because she was quote “asked to stop bringing in so many delicious baked goods,” lest her health obsessed coworkers began to enjoy food); which is why he was currently taking his amazing pegasus Blackjack to the Torrance beach to enjoy a day in the surf.
“Yo boss, after we get to the beach you think we can grab some donuts?”
“For you Blackjack? Always bud.”
Blackjack's sleek black coat was a blur as Percy expertly weaved between buildings; he had missed this. He rode Blackjack plenty, but really letting loose and going all out in his flying was uncommon for him. After all he didn’t want to intimidate the younger campers with his amazing skill and have them try to imitate him and during quests it was important to make sure he didn’t tire Blackjack out too quickly so that he could make a quick getaway if needed. Honestly it was refreshing to be flying so high and so fast. Even with his fear of planes his uncle’s restriction irked him at times. It’s not like his dad forbid children from entering the ocean but noooo Mr. Thunderpants had to throw a temper tantrum anytime Percy had the audacity to enter his domain. But that’s neither here nor there and he was just happy to get a chance to have a good time with Blackjack on a sunny morning.
“Kay boss we’re over the water ready to do the thing.”
“I’m ready Blackjack. I’ve always wanted to try sky diving.”
Blackjack proceeded to perform an aerial barrel roll and just as he got completely upside down Percy let go of Blackjack with his legs and started plummeting facefirst towards the ocean waiting below. Whooping with delight all Percy could look at was the beautiful cityscape lying below him as he rocketed downward to the awaiting ocean. He had no idea what this would look like through mortal eyes but he was tired of caring about what did or didn’t see, either way they wouldn’t be able to tell who they were seeing, so he would get off consequence free no matter how much of a ruckus he stirred up with this stunt.
Now, Percy is someone no longer easily surprised. He has faced Titans, Giants, and Tartarus and came out of all of them alive (if slightly traumatized). He was surprised though when he saw a massive golden portal open right beneath him as he was falling through the air. At first he thought nothing had changed, he was still falling, he was still above Torrance California, and he still had all of his memories, so as a checklist of important things that was pretty comprehensive. It wasn’t until he noticed the massive battle in the sky taking place next to him and the massive amounts of debris falling from the sky did he realize something was probably wrong.
Twisting his still falling body he looked upward and saw a gold opaque portal very similar to the one he had just fallen through except this one stretched over the entire coastline of Torrance. This movement also revealed what appeared to be something straight out of comic books. Flying people in spandex (one of whom was on fire?!) were fighting a man who was completely naked except what appeared to be gold body paint (WTF!) who appeared to be making the portals and was using them to maintain a perpetual state of failing that allowed him to basically be flying. The situation became even more concerning when a massive bat monster swooped down from overhead trying to grab the naked golden man. To top off all of this chaos a never ending stream of seemingly completely random debris was pouring out of the portal overhead. Below on the beach crowds of people ran screaming and scrambled towards their cars in a massive mob as objects ranging from a chair with 5 legs to what looked like a fire hydrant the size of a tree fell from the sky.
No matter how strange the situation though Percy was always a survivor and as a demigod naturally wired for battle and chaos he thrived when shit hit the fan. He was no child of Athena but he found it was easier to plan and take in a situation when it was organized into a list so first things first he needed to figure out what the hell was going on. In a split second he narrowed the possible situation he was in down to three options:
- He had hit his head on a sand bank rendering him unconscious and all of this was a vivid dream. (Unlikely, his control over water would have told him if there was a sandbank.)
- Hecate (goddess of magic) had entrapped him in a Mist formed hallucination in some kind of divine punishment. (More likely though he thought he was still on Hecate’s good side after the whole ordeal with her pets Gale and Hecuba.)
- This was some alternate dimension where superhero shit was common and his being here was just collateral damage. (Insane sounding, but with his luck probably the truth.)
None of these were particularly good scenarios, but one was definitely worse than the others and as the old adage goes ‘Prepare for the worst, hope for the best,’ he wasn’t sure what the best was in this situation was, but he sure as Hades knew the worst. If he was in another dimension his first and most important priority should be to survive. All he needed to do was make sure he didn’t get killed by people with bullshit superpowers and he should be fine. The second priority should definitely be to try and find a way home; this world seems to be filled with magic so after he’s established himself he can find someone who can help him get home if the demigods and gods back home don’t get to him first. Priority number three is beating the everyliving shit out of whichever man, god, or monster interrupted his chill summer break.
Looking around him as he was falling (which damn he didn’t realize he and Blackjack went so high up!) it was absolute chaos. The beach had cleared out but buildings and boardwalks lay in ruins as massive miscellaneous interdimensional objects crashed through them. Cars were totaled on the streets crushed beneath billboards in a language he couldn’t read or lamp posts with far too many bulbs. It really raised the question, how the hell do you get insurance in this dimension? In his world monsters (usually) weren’t doing excess property damage when fighting demigods, he just had a special talent for attracting particularly destructive ones, and most people didn’t know they exist, but in this world (parallel reality? dimension?) superpowered people seemed to be actively beating the shit out of each other in public view. How do you get insurance on anything? Was there separate insurance for if your stuff was damaged in supervillain related activities? Did shit only go down in this city or was it world wide and if it was why would anyone ever bother owning a car when they risk it being crushed in superpowered showdowns? Insurance claims must be a nightmare to …
And then he hit the water.