Chapter Text
The Day Time Froze
Peter Parker - son of Athena, alias: Spiderman
Peter wanted to say it was a normal day when time froze. In reality, he was at Avengers Tower being briefed about a very concerning impending war by Thor.
“An ancient pact prevents any one set of gods and goddesses from taking over.” Thor was saying. “There is, as of now, no indication what led the Greeks to the decision to break the pact, but all markers point to them being about to. Asgard is preparing for war. We must…”
Thor stopped mid-sentence. Peter stared wide-eyed as he realized not only had Thor frozen, everyone had. He couldn’t hear a single heartbeat besides his own rapidly speeding up one.
“Attention Half Bloods.” Peter shot to his feet, eyes wide in trepidation. “If you are hearing this message, you are indeed a Half Blood. We know who you are. We know who you care about. If you do not want us to end your lives and those of the ones you hold dear, you will come to the Empire State Building immediately. You have 24 hours to arrive. There will be transports in every major city for those further away. If you have not arrived or boarded a transport by the moment time resumes, we will deem your decision to be death for yourselves and your families.”
Okay. Call him selfish, but he’d already lost three parental figures. He couldn’t lose anyone else.
He answered the call.
Dick - Son of Zeus The Bat, alias: Robin
Dick had barely gotten a hold of his powers when time froze and the message came through. He knew the story of Zeus raping his mother and how his parents had begged John Constantine to hide his half blood nature in order to keep him safe. He was nearing 14 and a half years old, and the spell was almost halfway done wearing off, set to be completely gone by the time he turned 15.
He’d lost his entire family once. His mother, father in all but blood, his cousin, aunt, and uncle on said father’s side... they had all died around the same time.
Looking around at his friends, his teammates frozen in time, he knew he couldn’t lose his new family too.
Before Wonder Woman could rush over to check on him, he left to answer the call.
Annabeth Chase - daughter of Athena, alias: Wise Girl
Percy, Nico, and Annabeth had less of a thought process in answering the call. They were at Camp Half Blood when it came through. Despite the wrongness that was felt at the fact the call was made at all, everyone at camp answered.
Thalia was already there with the Hunters of Artemis when they got there. So far, only kids from New York City and surrounding areas had arrived. There was one boy from Gotham who was seemingly trying to keep to himself. No one knew how he’d gotten there so fast, but no one really cared either.
Annabeth caught the eyes of Peter Parker, her lips pursing as she remembered how he hadn’t been at camp in over two years. The teen quickly looked away, deciding to make his way over to Gotham boy and striking up a conversation with him.
She inched her way over to them. It seemed like they knew each other from so-called “nerd competitions” (aka academic decathlon and mathlete clubs). Neither had known the other was a half blood.
“Gonna introduce me to your friend, Peter?” She called attention to herself. Peter just sighed. Her appearance seemingly hadn’t surprised either of them.
“Dick, this is Annabeth Chase. She’s the head counselor of Athena cabin at Camp Half Blood. Annabeth, this is Dick Grayson. I know him from some competitions both our schools took part in now and again.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” Dick held out a hand, which she shook. “I’ve heard of Camp Half Blood, but I’ve never been. I’m a little new to the half blood world for reasons I choose not to share.”
Annabeth could tell there was a story there, but decided not to pry. She turned to Peter. “So Peter, care to share why you’ve been avoiding us like the plague the last two plus years?”
“Not fair. I helped in the Battle of Manhattan last August.”
“Irrelevant. You still didn’t come back to camp afterwards, nor did you return this summer.”
“I… have my reasons…” Peter crossed his arms, looking away nervously.
Dick changed the subject. “Why is this happening? I left without telling anyone. I didn’t want them to judge me and most of them don’t know about the whole half blood thing. But I can’t shake the unease of the entire situation. This isn’t right.”
“Well, we’re not going to be able to figure it out right this instant. Stay on your toes if you don’t feel at ease. I don’t think anyone should feel at ease.” Annabeth gave them both a look and walked back over to join her boyfriend, who was talking to Thalia elsewhere.
As she left, she heard Peter say, “Their actions won’t go over well. Pretty sure other belief systems are preparing for war as we speak. Or rather, they will as soon as time unfreezes.”
Donna Troy - Themysciran, alias: Troia
Donna nearly panicked when the call came through. She was on Themyscira and a couple of the other Amazons decided to answer, but Donna could only think about the secret she’d discovered a few weeks prior. Would Robin answer the call? She certainly hoped not!
She boarded the transport with the Amazons answering the call, deeming it her best chance of getting to a spot with a Zeta Tube. As soon as it landed in New York City, she ran. The time freeze would end in three hours and she needed to get to Robin.
There was two and a half hours left when she finally arrived at Mount Justice, slightly out of breath.
“Donna?” She turned to see Diana running towards her.
“Is he…?”
Diana shook her head. “He’s gone.”
Donna cursed in Ancient Greek, punching the wall.
“He was gone when I got here.” Diana continued. “You know what happened to his first family. He probably left immediately to ensure I wouldn’t stop him.” She took a deep breath. “Explain to the team when they wake up what’s happening, but don’t mention Robin. He wouldn’t want that. I’m going to the Watchtower. We need to call in the cavalry for this one.”
“The cavalry?”
“There’s another superhero organization known as the Avengers. We rarely work together, but there’s no doubt they’re affected by this too.”
“The threat though. Will they come here?”
Diana paused where she was about to go through the Zeta, obviously thinking over the implications of that.
“We have a little over two hours.” She finally said. “We need to reinforce the defenses. I’ll go to the Watchtower when time resumes.”
They wasted no time getting to work on anti-monster defense systems. Soon, there was absolutely no way in or out of the mountain excluding the Zeta tubes.
“Think that will hold them?” Donna wiped some sweat off her brow after they melded the last part into place.
Before Diana could answer, they both heard shouting.
“Robin?! Robin, where are you?!”
“We can’t do much better.” Diana said. Almost suddenly, they fell, both landing hard on the rocky peak of the mountain.
Donna groaned. “What just happened?”
Diana grimaced. “Donna, brace yourself for a moment. I need to try something.”
Donna nodded and obeyed.
Diana crossed her wrists in an ‘x’, the pose that typically sent a wave of energy flowing outward.
Nothing happened.
“Zeus has forsaken us. We no longer have any of our godly abilities. We need to find another way to defeat the monsters, as we will likely be unable to wield celestial bronze.”
Donna gulped. “That’s not good. I’ll get on it. See if the others can help me.”
“I’ve got to get to the Watchtower. Keep the others safe.”
They swiftly entered the cave and Diana darted for the Zetas while Donna found the rest of the team.
“Donna, I thought you were visiting Themyscira.” Tula was the first to notice her. “Have you seen Robin? He was there one second and gone the next. And not in his usual look away and he’s gone type way. Wally was looking directly at him when it happened.”
“I haven’t seen him. But something has happened. I need to talk to the team.”
She wasn’t looking forward to the conversation that followed.