Chapter Text
An hour later, they’d received word that the survey teams had returned but they were still going over the engineering specs for things. Percy was bored. Robin offered that they could play cards but Percy refused, saying he wasn’t in the mood. In truth, he’d played cards with Robin as himself before and he didn’t want to accidentally give anything identifiable away about himself.
“Are you hungry? Your file said you need to eat more when you use your powers a lot,” Robin said.
“I’m not hungry, this isn’t that exhausting compared to wrangling a hurricane. Also, it’s weird that you’ve read my file, has everyone read my file?”
“Most people haven’t, it’s just us Bats that are diligent about reading all personnel files. Also, I’m one of the leaders of Young Justice and it was noted that we were one of the teams on which you might fit, so I made a point of paying attention to it. How old are you, anyways?” Robin said casually.
“Older than you, kid,” Percy said grumpily.
“You’re taller than your file said you were, it has you listed at 5’10” but you’re more like 6’ even,” Robin commented.
"I’ve grown,” Percy said simply, “People do that,”
“So, it’s interesting that you came out for something like this, a hurricane I can see how that would be noticeable but how did you respond to this so quickly?” Robin said.
“I sensed it, it’s hard to explain,” Percy said.
"I find it doubtful that you sensed it from the Caribbean,” Robin said pryingly.
“Does my file have my listed as from the Caribbean? That’s presumptuous,” Percy said.
“Presumed Caribbean or perhaps Florida, it noted you were multilingual in English and Spanish. So, are you saying you’re not from the Caribbean. Are you from Gotham? That would explain why you sensed the flooding this time,” Robin said.
“I’ll admit to being from the northeast,” Percy said, letting a hint of a New York accent peak out, “But I’m not from Gotham.” Technically this wasn’t a lie, Percy was from New York.
“Noted,” Robin said.
“You know, I’m not really a fan of all the prying questions,” Percy warned.
“Right, is that why you ran away from the Justice League?” Robin asked.
“They were prying and it made me uncomfortable,” Percy admitted.
“I must say, it was clever of you to freeze their feet to the floor without them noticing, a good way to counter both the Flash and Superman with their superspeed, you’re clever,” Robin complimented him, “Superman said he couldn’t melt the ice easily with his heat vision, would you like to explain that?”
“For the same reason the ice isn’t melting now, I’m exerting my will over it for it to be ice, it isn’t going to be melted by heat. I mean, if someone actively tried to melt it I’d have to pay more attention to keep it from melting, but as long as my willpower is strong enough it stays the way I want it to be, at least while I’m awake,” Percy explained.
“It’s interesting how you explain it as being based on willpower, kinda like with the Green Lantern’s rings,” Robin commented.
“If you say so,” Percy said with a shrug.
The conversation died down for a bit. Then, Percy saw through the glass window of the office a man approaching, Bruce Wayne. “I thought you said he rarely comes in?” Percy asked.
“He must’ve decided it was a special circumstance,” Robin replied.
The boisterous man entered the office, “Good to see you, Robin, know you’re always working hard to keep our city safe. And you must be Riptide, I hear you’re the one responsible for saving our city from the flood, thank you for your service as a hero,” Bruce Wayne said enthusiastically, extending a hand for Percy to shake.
“Okaaay, I’m just gonna go wait on the roof, let me know when I’m needed,” Percy said, ignoring the extended hand and leaving the room.
“Was it something I said?” he heard Bruce ask Robin as he left. He made his way to the roof and just sat up there, enjoying the feel of the wind on his face. He took a few deep breaths.
A few moments later, Robin joined him on the roof. “So, what was that about, leaving abruptly?” Robin asked him.
Percy hesitated a moment before replying, “Maybe I’m just not interested in talking to fake-ass rich people.”
“Was it because he referred to you as a hero?” Robin asked.
“I don’t consider myself to be one, I don’t like doing hero things. It’s just when it’s something like this, where my powers make me uniquely qualified to save people, the guilt would eat at me too much if I did nothing while people died. But I’ve no interest in the hero life, I don’t want to always be battling the villain of the week. There’s plenty of people who are heroes that can fight villain’s, y’all don’t need me for that,” Percy said.
“Why not join us as a healer, if not as a fighter?” Robin asked gently.
“Healing isn’t….pleasant. It feels wrong when I do it for other people. And I’m not very good at it anyways. It’s far more draining than my other powers, and I worry sometimes that there’s a cost to it I’m not understanding,” Percy said, wrapping his arms around himself.
“I guess that makes sense,” Robin said reassuringly. Percy didn’t reply, allowing the conversation to die out. Between the ice and the wind, he felt cold.
After a while, Mr. Fox came and got them. They went down to another meeting. Mr. Wayne was at the meeting but he sat quietly while the engineer’s went through the plan. Percy got a good look at the engineering specs, at how they wanted him to build the ice wall and the mold for the concrete. They decided on which site to start with, the ones facing out to sea the most.
Percy flew off, meeting them at the first location. He made the extended out ice wall and the ice mold for the concrete, then he pulled the excess water out. The mold of concrete they were doing was still somewhat offset from the wall, 3 sides of a rectangle, and left room for them to make a more permanent patch of the wall later. The engineers got there and measured the mold he’d made, making sure it was the right size and thickness; it was. Then they poured the concrete. It would take a while for the concrete to actually set up, so he would need to maintain the ice wall and the mold. Percy offered to accelerate the drying of the concrete by pulling out the water but they were worried the concrete wouldn’t set up right if he did that initially.
They then continued to the other build sites, pouring the concrete for all of them as well. They finished pouring the concrete around sunset. Robin stuck with Percy the whole afternoon while they worked. Eventually, all the was left was waiting for it to dry and for the concrete to set up.
Robin offered him food again but Percy refused, he didn’t want to remove his lower mask and risk being recognized. They waited a few hours for things to dry. Then Percy went to the sites, one by one in the order which they’d poured them, making sure they were set up right. Under careful instruction from the engineers, he pulled out some of the moisture of the concrete to accelerate it drying. They had had him practice with some test pieces of concrete first. Once the engineers were satisfied the concrete was sufficiently set up, he released the mold and the wall of ice. It worked well, successfully keeping the water out. He then continued this for all the sites until the last one was done. By the time they were done, it was the middle of the night.
“Well, looks like my work here is done, I’ll be leaving now,” Percy announced.
“Yes, well, thank you for your help today, everything would’ve been much worse if Gotham had flooded, you helped a lot of people today,” Robin said earnestly. Percy just nodded in return before flying away then diving into the harbor. The water was still disgusting.
He sensed and located the trackers Robin had managed to place on him, all 3 of them. How rude, these Bats with their trackers. He squashed the bugs and released them into the water. He then swam off to the clearer water and the rock where he kept his suit, taking them off and securing it under the rock.
He then meditated for a bit, thinking of Jay’s bathroom in the apartment where they’d been staying, and willed himself to return to where he had been. He appeared in a tub full of water. Percy was pretty sure that even if he had missed a tracker, it wouldn’t follow him through such a transportation method.
Jay came into the room, “Hey, there you are. I kept the tub filled with water since I figured that might make it easier if you returned the way you left.”
“Good idea, thanks,” Percy said.
“How are you feeling, hon?” Jay asked.
“Tired, cold, anxious,” Percy admitted. Jay came over and gently scooped him up out of the tub, pulling the plug to drain it. He then carried Percy to the bed, where he cuddled him and wrapped him in blankets. Percy burrowed his head into Jay’s chest, enjoying his warm embrace. After a while, he stopped shaking.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Jay asked gently after a while.
“Keeping things frozen like that for so long, it made me feel cold. And it felt like a lot of pressure to keep it up to save people for so long. And then interacting with people in my disguise is stressful because I really don’t want to be recognized. And then we were working with Wayne Enterprises and then because of that my foster father showed up and I really didn’t want him to recognize me so I just kinda noped out of there. And Robin kept wanting to ask me questions, it makes me feel anxious that he’d apparently read my file and I think he was trying to feel out whether I’d want to do hero stuff regularly which was stressful, got enough of that the first time. And I was so worried about being recognized I didn’t want to remove my lower mask so I haven’t eaten all day. Think mostly so anxious because of how much I didn’t want to be recognized,” Percy rambled while Jay rubbed comforting circles into his back.
“Will have to make you something to eat then,” Jay commented.
“Later, for now want cuddles,” Percy said. Jay acquiesced and gently combed Percy’s hair with his fingers, soothing him.
They heard rain outside, it wasn’t a thunderstorm but it was starting to pelt rain fairly hard, “That’s my fault, the rain,” Percy said, “It’s weird when I use my powers like that, when I’m so connected to all the water around me, it picks up on my emotions like that. Normally I manage to not affect things but it’s hard after stuff like that, I’m sorry.”
“Shhh, you don’t have anything to apologize for, it’s just a little rain storm, much better than the flood Gotham would’ve had otherwise, it’s normal to get a bit of rain in Gotham. Just relax, sweetheart,” Jay said. He started rubbing Percy’s shoulders, rubbing out the tension he held there and helping him to relax.
They cuddled for a little while longer until Percy started to drift off to sleep. Jay moved to get up and Percy whined at the loss of heat, “Hey, I’m gonna make you something to eat, you just rest easy, okay?” Jay said.
Percy followed the instruction, curling up under the blankets. After a while, Jay came back with a tray of food, some grilled cheese sandwiches and a mug of soup for him to eat. He ended up sitting in bed behind Percy so he’d have something to lean on while he sat up and ate his food. When he was done, Jay took the tray back to the kitchen and then returned. The two of them cuddled for the rest of the night, too tired to do anything else.