Waves (Percy Jackson & DC Crossover)

An Old Friend

Harley's POV

Everything happened too fast. First, some crazy snake and woman hybrids surround them, which were quickly taken out by her awesome Litt'l Bro. Everything was fine for about three seconds before their youngest member was completely encased in shadows.

Haley was freaking out. She ran up to the swirling dome of pure darkness, "Tri? Tri can ya hear me!?" When she got no response she tried hitting the thing with her mallet, but it was like quicksand. Her wooden hammer got stuck in the doom and the shadows crushed it into wood splinters. Needless to say, the other members of the Hero Syndicate didn't try the same thing, but that didn't stop her from trying again. Harley reclaimed her metal bat from Cheshire, but the results were the same and now she'd shredded her favorite mallet and bat.

"Tri!" Ivy called a little desperately. Slade was pacing the doom looking for weaknesses making sure to stay at least a foot away from it.

"Is it a monster?" Cheshire asked.

Slade shook his head, his voice strained, "I don't know."

"It's okay," Harley reassured herself. "He'sa probably defeated worse enemies. And I'll kill'm if he's hurt."

Her eyes were fixed on the doom. She couldn't do anything for now, and that terrified her.

Percy's POV

Darkness whirled around Percy in a force field he couldn't escape. His fire was absorbed into the darkness, and he used the small amount of water around him to form his own force field in case the blackness around him tried to attack him. So far, it hadn't, but Percy wasn't going to risk anything.

"Who are you?" a voice said. Instantly, Percy knew he'd heard that voice before. It was from a recent dream of his he'd had while in Atlantis. However, it had changed a lot since he'd actually heard it in person. It was deeper, but then again, the individual the voice belonged to had matured from a teenager into an adult during those years.

Percy tried to keep his emotions from overflooding, "Nico..."

Last he'd seen his friend was in his dream where he watched helplessly as the Son of Hades plunged into the pit to find him. Out of everyone, he was the only one that had gone through such efforts to find him, although they were crazy and stupid efforts.

The shadow doom moved slightly, as a figure stepped out of it. He was taller and older than when Percy had last seen him in person, about his own age.

"You..." The demigod said with an underlying tone of hope.

Percy reached up and unclipped his nearly full-faced helmet and slid it off. His hair sprang up in its usually unruly manner.

"Percy," The Son of Hades cried as he rushed forward and pulled Percy into a strong hug.

"Hey, cuz. Long time no see." He patted his distraught younger... older, it's complicated, cousin on the back.

After a minute, Nico stepped back slightly looking shocked. "What's going on? Where am I? And how in Olympus's name are you so young!"

"That, my friend is a very long story, which I will tell you in great detail later. Short version is that this is another dimension, I'm young because time moves differently here and I'm immortal like all of you, Champion of Hestia in fact." He lit his hand on fire again as proof.

"Or Hephaestus," Nico muttered. "Wait, you knew?"

"About the Seven and several others getting immortality? Yes, I still have demigod dreams occasionally here."

"Percy, I'm so sorry."

The Son of Poseidon didn't know if he meant about being forcefully given immortality or everything that happened with Annabeth, maybe it was both. Either way, he smiled sadly.

"Well, its not all bad. It gave me my new family. Oh Gods, Harley is going to kill me! Nico can you take down this weird dome. My friends are outside."

Nico reluctantly did so. A second later, Harley had tackled Percy into a bear hug with Ivy closely behind, although hers wasn't so suffocating. Cheshire and Slade had their blades at the darkly dressed demigod's throat.

"Wait, stop!" Percy yelled as he pulled himself free from his adopted mother and sister. He jumped in front of Nico, shoving the weapons away.

The Hero Syndicate watched wide-eyed as the newcomer raised a hand to his neck where one of the blades had nicked him and withdrew it smeared in golden ichor.

"Explain," Slade said simply as he turned to Percy. The assassin noticed that the demigod's helmet was no longer hiding his identity, instead, it was hanging by one of its fastening straps in his hand.

"He's my cousin, he crossed over. He's a good guy!"

Nico smirked slightly at the 'good guy' part.

Percy continued on, determined to get everything resolved as quickly as possible. "Slade, Ivy, Harley, Cheshire," he said indicating each one as he said their name. "This is Nico di Angelo, the Son of Hades, also the immortal Champion of Hades. He was searching for me in... a very dark place before crossing over."

Nico opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out.

He must be surprised I know about him going into Tartarus, Percy thought.

After composing himself, Nico said, "Nice to meet you. It's good to know this blockhead had people he could trust all of this time."

"Dido!" Harley said cheerfully. Then she frowned, "Ya arn't like Percy's o'ther friends and family, right?"

Nico's eyes narrowed. "The Seven..?"

"Crossed over about a week ago if I remember correctly," Percy confirmed.

"Di Immortales!"

Ivy snickered slightly and turned to Percy, "He even sounds like you."

"We've shared a lot of life and death experiences," Percy smiled. "Let's move back to the base where we can talk more in a safer and more comfortable location."

"Anywhere with food would be great," Nico grumbled. He'd managed to scavenge some light snacks since appearing in the new dimension but really didn't have anything substantial in a long time even to his standards.

"Pomegranates sound good?" Percy asked innocently.

Nico scowled, "Fuck, no."