Annie and I eventually made it home, the warmth and comfort of the restaurant still fresh in my mind.
I opened the door and saw Jason standing there. He looked a bit angry. Well, a bit was an understatement.
"Do you guys know what time it is?" He definitely sounded pissed.
"Annabeth go ahead." She squeezed my hand before heading for her room. " It's not that late! not to mention it's not that big a deal man! I have the right to go out and stay out, I mean come on I'm practically 18!"
"Percy, as much as you might hate it, we still have to watch over you, which means you have to follow a certain set of rules. Now I don't wanna be that person, trust me I don't, but we still get worried and you being almost 18 has nothing to do with that."
"Oooohh so when you guys disappear in the middle of the night it's completely okay if I worry but Gods forbid you feel a twinge of fear." I saw the other three brothers walk in, they really didn't pay us any mind. I turned back to the fight.
"I am an adult, I have the right to leave, you on the other hand, no matter how close to 18 you are, you are still 17 and out there it is still dangerous!" He yells back.
The other three were still standing there. "Oh it's dangerous huh? I could take you down in an instant, don't try me!"
He opened his mouth to speak but suddenly he disappeared. In cartoons I'm sure that a little plume of smoke would appear but this wasn't a cartoon. He was just gone, leaving an eerie feeling hanging in the air.
"Jason?" My voice immediately slipped to one of worry. " I'm not sorry but that's no reason to play games like this" the other two were calling out for Dick who was also missing. "Tim, where'd they go?"
Tim looked back, he looked just as worried, if not more. We shared a mutual look. "Suit up, we're going to the cave" I yelled as I disappeared down the hall.
I rushed into my room and looked around, finally spotting a blonde on my bed. Oh thank Gods.
"Annie we gotta go, Jason and Dick just disappeared" I ran into my closet.
"Percy! What does ''disappear'' mean?!" She yelled through the door.
"Like poof, gone!" I reammerged from the room to come face to face with Annabeth. I smiled and leaned in.
She looked confused before I stopped and shoved one of my spare masks on her face.
"You're coming with me , now no time for debating let's go!" I grabbed her hand and shoved an extra jacket I had around her. As we ran she put the jacket on.
We made it downstairs just in time to see Tim and Damien, both already dressed. "Hurry up you two!"
"We're waiting on you! Now come on!" Tim, Annabeth, and I started to rush off but Damien didn't move. "YOU'RE RIPTIDE!?" He practically screeched.
"Yes! Get with the program! Now come on!" I grabbed his arm and off we went. We made our way to the Bat cave. Now I'd never been but I had heard a lot about it from Tim.
It was massive with cool memorabilia and tech everywhere. A demigods worst nightmare but an inventor's dream, practically Leo's kryptonite.
I looked over and saw the wonder in Annabeth's eyes. I suppressed the smile as my worry for Jason and Dick continued to grow.
I'm not sure how but eventually we ended up at the Yj's cave. The others were gone. Well all except for some girl who was going through the computer. Tim ran over and started tapping on the other keyboard.
The girl's eyes flicked between me and Annabeth.
"Hello, I assume you two are new?" The girl had black hair with blue eyes.
"I guess you could say that, I'm Riptide, this is..." I didn't know what hero name she could have wanted.
"I'm Sophos, nice to meet you!" Annabeth smiled and waved. I recognized that word. Annabeth often used it. It was the Greek word for wise.
The girl nodded. "I'm Zatana" She turned back to the computer before looking over to robin. "Kids all over the world are posting about the missing adults, apparently they're gone everywhere. Anyone over the age of 18 is gone, the force needed to do this? Scary big" Her face looked concerned.
"Robin, I'm gonna go out with Sophos. We'll take care of the kids. Call if you find anything" I grabbed Annabeth's hand as we ran out of the cave.
We ended up running around the city for hours, we collected kids left and right and eventually we had too many to handle.
"Shoot where do we put them?" I looked around to try and find and sort of safe house or building that could work.
"Yo! Riptide! Who's the babe?" Wally ran over, he was in his civilian outfit.
"My girlfriend, thank you very much!" I said back. His eyes opened wide as he put his hands up.
"Sorry!-" He was gonna continue but one of the kids behind me screamed and ran to Wally.
"Marie! Come on, we have to go and get you somewhere safe!" I motioned for her to come back.
"Wait, we have a school you could bring them to."
"Really! Well don't just stand there, show me to it!" I replied impatiently.
We walked for a while picking up about 5 more kids before we reached the school. As we opened the door the light from the inside spread out behind us, illuminating the now dark sidewalk.
I motioned all the kids inside, doing a head count as they walked past me and towards the group surrounding Artemis who was singing to the kids. Luckily all the kids were here.
We walked in and over to where Artemis was, she looked up as Annabeth leaned down to talk with the kids with a smile on her face.
"Who's this?" She looked at Annabeth who was playing with the kids.
"Oh, right! This is a new recruit! Unofficially to Batman but VERY official to me" I looked at her and smiled. I could practically feel the eye roll back.
"Oh? What's her name?" Artemis asked.
"She's Sophos, now what can we do to help?" I asked, looking around at all the kids that filled the gym room.
"Try distracting them, the others are doing a good job at collecting them all but I'm struggling with trying to keep them entertained." She looked back to the group that was suddenly three kids larger. I looked to the door to see Connor leaving.
"Alright, me and Sophos are on the case!" I smile and kneel down next to the kids. "Who wants to play tag?" I asked and all the kids raised their hands and yelled their different versions of yes.
So for the next hour we played tag as more kids were added to the group, some older, which I had to admit helped a ton.
Suddenly the girl from before walks in.
"Artemis, Riptide, Sophos, let's go, we think we've found the people that did this." I nodded but looked back at the kids. They oddly enough reminded me of the kids back at camp.
The kids looked upset as we started to leave and I could tell that Annabeth was upset about leaving them.
I stopped mid-walk and grabbed her shoulder. "You can stay with the kids if you want, I'm sure me and the team have got this." I reassured her.
She looked back at the kids then to me. She smiles before kissing my cheek. "Stay safe, seaweed brain."
"Of course wise girl" I wave as I run to catch up with the two others.
After a bit of a walk we make it to a phone booth and dial in the location for the cave before appearing, our names being called out throughout the cave.
We walked over to the others. They were all standing by the computers looking up the location of a place called Roanoke Island. "
"What'd we find out?" I asked, walking over to get a better look at the screen.
" Zatanna was able to find that the sorcerers who did this are all on Roanoke Island. If we can get there we might be able to find everyone."
"It works!" A kids voice rang out behind us.
Everyone turned to look to see a kid standing there. He seemed pleased.
"Who are you? How did you get in here?" Kaldur asked, approaching the kid.
"Quick Gwen read my mind!" The kid ignores Kaldur and focuses his attention on Me'gan.
She concentrates for a second.
"He's Captain Marvel!" She looked surprised. I looked down to the kid who had a small smile on his face. Who was Captain marvel exactly?
I was gonna ask who Captain Marvel was but Wally spoke up. "Yeah and I'm speedy gonzales. Look, just because he believes he's cap..."
Before Wally could continue the kid smiled "Gee Wally, do I really have to get nachos and pineapple juice to get on your good side?"
At this Wally's eyes widened and he stared in confusion at the kid. The others all looked at eachother a small smile on their faces, seeming to acknowledge that this is that captain marvel guy.
For the next couple of minutes the kid would disappear and reappear, he apparently could travel in between two dimensions, one had only the adults the other, the one we are in, only had kids.
Through this back and forth we learned of a plan to defeat the people who conducted this awful scheme.
Now it was time.
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