Chapter Text
Percy was leaving Sunday brunch at Wayne Manor. Jason was staying at the manor until the night, citing vigilante business; he planned to come home to the apartment after patrol that night. Percy was vaguely aware the vigilantes were worried about something but he didn’t really want to get involved in all that.
Percy was driving on his blue motorbike, going across the Mooney Bridge which connected Bristol to the Gotham Heights area. Traffic tended to back up on the bridge heading into the city due to an unfortunate stop light, so Percy stopped with the traffic. He was about 1/3rd of the way from the end of the bridge, on the right-most of 3 lanes.
He noticed after a moment that there was no new traffic going the opposite way on the bridge. He glanced to the side and saw that there were only a couple cars behind him but no more cars behind them, it appeared traffic heading onto the bridge had suddenly been stopped. He was filled with a sense of unease. It looked like the stoplight must have turned green because the cars in front of him on the edge of the bridge started advancing off of the bridge, though there were 8 cars in front of him so traffic for him was still stopped momentarily.
Suddenly, Percy felt an explosion beneath him on one of the pillars of the bridge. The shockwave blasted him into the air. He quickly realized that landing amongst the debris of the now collapsing bridge would be dangerous, so he relinquished his motorbike and kicked off of it, propelling himself into the air further from the bridge. He repositioned himself in the air to prepare to dive properly in the water to reduce risk of injury. The bridge was about 75ft above the water and he was 100ft above the water at the apex of the arc he made.
Percy heard people screaming, including some kids, and his heart broke for them, he didn’t want them to die. He put up a prayer, a blessing, for the protection of children, to save them from this catastrophe.
Percy fell and dived into the water, a perfect rip entry. He dived 25ft under water before his momentum stopped and he quickly kicked up to the surface. He felt the need to do his best to save people, but there was no time to adopt his hero disguise, he would have to mostly work within his civilian means.
He tore off his motorcycle helmet, shrugged off his motorcycle jacket, and kicked off his shoes, freeing himself up to swim better. He kept things in the pocket of his jeans, not in his jacket, and he wasn’t too sentimental about that jacket, so it was easy to dump.
He expanded his senses as he started swimming closer to the now-collapsed bridge. The water was about 50ft deep where the furthestmost traffic on the bridge had been and Percy decided to focus on helping them first because they would have the most trouble swimming up on their own. He focused on locating where there were children.
He swam properly as he dove deep to where the sunken cars were, though as he approached he was sure to start holding his breath so it didn’t look like he was breathing water. He approached a minivan which he knew had two kids in the backseats. He saw they were all unbuckled and they still had air in the car but a window had a small crack in it so they were increasingly taking on water. They were all unbuckled and ready to go, but the father in the driver’s seat was struggling to get the door open.
Percy approached and used his strength to force the door open, the passengers took a big breath of air right before he opened it. He helped them out of the car, giving the mother and father each a boost to start propelling them up to the top before grabbing hold of the two children, around 5 and 7 years old, and kicking hard to propel the 3 of them up to the surface.
The kids started gasping for air as they broke the surface and Percy was sure they hadn’t taken on any water. He realized the father had surfaced but the mother hadn’t, so he swam back down. He found her half of the way up, unconscious, and he noticed she had a headwound. He grabbed hold of her and swam her up to the surface. She had definitely swallowed some water so he hit her hard on the back while subtly using his powers to remove the water from her lungs. She gasped as she woke up, the head wound must’ve been enough to disorient her while swimming but wasn’t enough to render her unconscious on its own.
“Float on your backs, help should be here soon, I’m gonna work on helping more,” Percy instructed before diving back down. He trusted that the father was cognizant enough to take care of his family now that they were on the surface.
He dove down, seeing a red sedan with the front of it crushed but he sensed a life from the backseat but none from the front seat.. The windows were already shattered and he went into one of them, finding a baby and freeing them from the baby seat. The baby was instinctively holding their breath, which babies were instinctively capable of, though Percy suspected his blessing was enabling the baby to do it longer.
He grabbed the baby and rapidly swam them up to the surface, the baby gasped for air as it breached the surface. The family from before was floating on their backs and holding onto eachother, the two kids in the middle with the adults on the outside. “Can you hold onto this baby? Their mother is dead. I’m gonna go back for more people,” Percy said.
“Okay,” the father agreed, extending his free hand and accepting the baby from Percy.
Percy dove back down, extending his senses looking for more children. He found a mother and a 12 year old in a car on its side, passenger side up. The car was airtight, they hadn’t taken on water yet. One of them had a flashlight on their phone on so they could see. He motioned for them to get ready, that he would help them up. They both got into ready positions near the passenger seat.
They unlocked the door while taking a deep breath and he wrenched it open, strong enough to pull it open despite the pressure of the water pressing down on it. He then grabbed hold of both of them and helped swim them to the surface. They gasped as their heads broke the surface and Percy gasped for a breath of air on purpose for a moment. Then he took another deep breath and dove back down.
He once again prioritized seeking out children. He found a car with what looked like a teenage driver with their younger teenage sibling in the passenger seat. This car also was intact and not yet taking on water, though they were 40ft below the surface. He knocked on the window, getting their attention while he held his breath. One used a phone flashlight and then could see him and he motioned for them to hold their breath and he would help them out. They understood, taking a deep breath and unlocking the passenger side door where Percy was. Percy opened the door and helped the pair of teens swim to the surface, gasping for air alongside them. He noticed a coast guard boat had appeared and was starting to pull people from the water, starting with the family with the young kids.
He didn’t sense any more children in danger of drowning. He was vaguely aware there were some crashed cars closer to the shore where there was less than 5ft of water, and they had been able to help themselves out and were otherwise being assisted by emergency services, so his help wasn’t needed there.
Percy dove back down, moving closer to the shore, where the water was more like 30ft deep. He found two cars beside eachother. One was intact and hadn’t taken on water and had a young man in the driver’s seat. The other had been partially crushed with concrete from the falling bridge, crushing the driver side though the passenger side was intact and he sensed one weak life. He started with the one he was more sure of, helping the young man out of the car, he took a deep breath of air while he could. Percy boosted him up towards the surface and the man kicked, capable of propelling himself. Then Percy opened the other car, pulling the unconscious young woman from the passenger seat and swimming up to the surface with her.
Percy breached the surface with the woman, glad to see the man had successfully made it to the surface and was now gasping for air. He hit the woman hard on the back, once more using his powers to force the water from her lungs. She coughed up the brackish water and opened her eyes, she was still alive.
“Hey, mister, can you help keep an eye on her? Coast guard should be here to help you soon, float on your backs it’s easier than swimming,” Percy instructed. The young man nodded, extending an arm to help the young woman.
Percy sensed for more signs of life beneath the water as he dove back down. He found a car with two women, one elderly and the other around Bruce’s age. The elderly woman in the passenger seat was partially crushed, still faintly alive though unconscious from the water she’d taken on. The younger woman was also unconscious though uninjured.
He opened the driver’s side seat and pulled out the younger woman. He briefly tried tugging out the elderly woman, but as he suspected, she was pinned and he couldn’t easily free her. He focused on saving the younger woman who was within his ability to save, swimming her up to the surface. They breached the surface and he hit her on the back, forcing the water from her lungs. She gasped awake. Percy idly noticed it looked like she was wearing her church clothes.
“I…my mom! Is she?” the woman exclaimed.
“There was concrete, pinning her side of the car,” Percy explained between gasps for air, “I couldn’t free her, her legs were crushed, and so far under water….I’m sorry, you’ll be okay now, I need to focus on saving more.”
He dove back down, searching for signs of life. He swam past a blue sedan car, he vaguely noticed a black couple in the car but they were completely crushed by concrete, they were already dead, he couldn’t save them. He kept swimming, heading towards the shallower water. He saw several more cars where he sensed the people inside of them were already dead or maybe gone, maybe some of them had already escaped. But he didn’t sense any more people alive beneath the water.
Percy swam back to the surface, knowing he shouldn’t stay underwater for more than 10 minutes at a time. He gasped for breath.
“Hey, you need to get out of the water, let us help you onto the boat,” a coast guard member yelled at Percy.
“I was trying to save people but…..all I’m finding now are bodies,” Percy said despairingly.
“You’ve done more than enough, let the professional divers handle it from here, come up on the boat, you’re probably hypothermic and if you’re not already in shock then you probably will be soon,” the coast guard member said as the boat approached them. It appeared the rest of the people he’d rescued from underwater along with a few others were already on the boat. He normally wasn’t made cold by the water because he didn’t get properly wet if he didn’t want to, but he allowed the water to start affecting him normally. It was February, it was rather cold he realized.
He allowed them to help him up onto the boat and wrap him in a warm shock blanket. He gasped for air because he knew he should be out of breath, though his breathing evened out after a moment. He vaguely noticed he was shaking a bit. He kept his head down, curling in on himself.
He blinked and suddenly a cup of hot chocolate was being thrust into his hand. It felt like he was missing time. Someone was talking to him but he couldn’t make out their words. He lifted the hot chocolate with shaky hands and took a sip from it, the warmth helped him.
“Hey, are you okay? Can you tell me your name? I’m Mark,” the coast guard member, Mark, was saying.
“I…yeah, I’m fine. Guess the adrenaline wore off and the shock hit me,” Percy mumbled.
“Can you tell me your name?” Mark asked again.
“I’m Percy,” Percy mumbled. He took another sip of hot chocolate, lifting his head a bit.
“Last name?” Mark asked.
One of the others nearby, the teenage driver from the one car, exclaimed, “Oh, you’re Percy Jackson, the swimmer! That explains why you were able to hold your breath and swim to help save us, thank you.”
“Yeah,” Percy mumbled, feeling numb, “Wish I could’ve done more, so many still died, I couldn’t save them.”
“Hey, kid, it’s okay, you’ve done far more than anyone could’ve expected from you,” Mark reassured him. Percy took another sip of his hot chocolate, allowing it to warm him and help ground him.
“Hey, so you were the one saving people, right? Any info regarding the baby you saved, the family he was found with said he wasn’t theirs,” Mark asked.
“The baby was in a red sedan, the mother was already dead, crushed, that’s all I know. Hopefully the father is still around somewhere,” Percy replied.
“Okay, noted, we’ll work on IDing him,” Mark said, making a note on a clipboard Percy only just noticed he had.
Mark moved on, checking up on the others. Percy started to zone out again, everything around him a bit of a blur. He finished his hot chocolate then started shivering under the blanket he wore.