Chapter Text
Leo might have a problem. Scratch that, Ledo Valdez definitely has a problem. He's lost dimensionally, and it's his own fault. You see, he was about to die in an explosion to stop the Earth Mother when he activated his emergency experimental teleporter.
Yes, Leo Valdez, the son of the god of Blacksmithing, Metalworking, Fire, Volcanoes, Crafts, Sculpture, Technology, and Engineering, is lost in a different dimension.
Now he finds himself in crisis. Even if he does fix his teleporter, he has no idea what the coordinates of his home dimension are or how to set up targeting for cross-dimensional teleportation.
It's not like his father will help him with the Ancient Laws in place.
He will never see his brothers again, or his friends, or his lover. He was going to free her and marry her, and now he will never see her again.
What's even worse is he's now in a shithole of a city that's probably been cursed by the gods. Just looking around at the damage and disrepair of the buildings around him is giving Leo hives.
It's called Gotham, and it's terrible.
So this new world is weird, like really weird, in several different ways.
The first point of weirdness that is most relevant to Leo is that there are no monsters here, like none at all. This means he can explore Technology without being besieged by an endless stream of bloodthirsty creatures out of myth. He can now explore technology without risking himself and everyone around him, no longer bound to work only on his Blacksmithing, Metalworking, and Engineering talents.
The internet is now open to him, and he can even set the language and font settings to get around his dyslexia. Why so many books in Camp Half-Blood were in English when Demigods can intuitively understand Greek is just beyond him.
The second point of weirdness is that he's in a superhero world, yes, a world with superheroes and villains like out of a comic book. This means there is a ton of odd sci-fi stuff and advanced technology for him to steal and reverse-engineer, as he did with Dedalus’ stuff.
The third point of weirdness is that demigods are few here, yet they are much more powerful. This is both a good and bad thing; he will lack a community to join and support him while his strength and ability to connect with his father's domains increase massively.
All this strangeness and so much more, both major and minor, like how the gods are public knowledge due to the lack of Mist.
Leo has acquired an auto repair garage and paperwork. Who knew that hacking would be so easy for a son of the god of Technology to learn?
So yes, Leo now has a home to work on his projects in, and oh boy, the projects. Well, outside of fixing up a car every once in a while for funds and his own personal enjoyment, he has been working on making an Automata to excavate himself an underground workshop and probably his future supervillain lair.
Yes, Leo has thought about it for long and hard for all of five seconds before deciding to become a supervillain. There are so many laws around super technology and what is safe that he has decided to forgo the laws entirely.
It looks like STAR Labs exists solely to allow the government to better categorize and inhibit the spread of uncontrolled technology. There is some serious societal planning and social engineering going on, and it looks like a very controlled, extremely slow uplift.
Really, if you want to do anything with super tech, you need to be either government black ops, a lawless vigilante like so many of the heroes are, or a supervillain, and Leo wants to explore all that this dimension's technology has to offer.
As a bonus, if he's a supervillain, then he can steal everything and anything for reverse engineering. Leo pointedly dismisses any thoughts on how his thieving friends from the Hermes cabin might have rubbed off on him and demigod culture and continues working on his Automata.
Leo doesn't need to focus on the absence of his friends, family, and girlfriend. He has purpose, and that purpose is exploring this dimension's technology.
Leo watches on screen as his infiltration Automata break into one of Lex Luthor's black sites while the man himself is distracted by a presidential debate.
Really, a genuine supervillain is attempting to run for office, and people are just letting him?
What's with this dimension? Leo keeps finding more and more oddities, like how the city of Gotham just lets the terrorists repeatedly gas the city, killing thousands as they escape imprisonment biannually.
Leo has had to work extra hard to make sure his lair has its own environmental systems to keep out harmful gases and chemicals, to say nothing of the water filtration units he has had to invent.
Really, fate must be at play somehow, for Leo can think of no other reason why a grieving cop or gangster with a gun hasn't shot most of the terrorists yet.
Well, that and how Batman makes sure to protect his rogues. Leo is actually starting to suspect a conspiracy. Without the costumed lunatics, he'd have to focus on street crime and mob violence, diminishing his influence and reputation.
Batman, as far as Leo can tell, is just another costumed lunatic, what with the child soldiers, the prevention of legal and violent arrests, and negotiating with terrorists.
He came to that conclusion after he had to reinforce his lair for the second time due to bombings, to say nothing of the city's thrice-daily sound of constant gunfire.
Presidential candidate Lex Luthor had some good stuff in that lab. Apparently, that lab was where he kept the stuff he acquired from raids on Superman's Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic.
Attaching emergency teleporters to the Automata was a really good idea, as it let him steal a lot of Lex’s stuff.
Apparently, several people, groups, and governments have raided the place before, and Lex has taken to collecting Kryptonian technology, which means Leo now has a bunch of Kryptonian technology and the world's best scientists' research notes.
This is the best haul of loot since the campers raided Daedalus’ Laptop and his brothers the owl-spawn, and he got to dissect his millennia of research for everything it was worth.
Most of the notes Lex was hoarding seem to be dedicated to the super photo-absorbent crystals that power the Kryptonian’s home. Oh, he also stole a piece of anti-gravity tech; Kryptonians have a lot of stuff that flies and hovers, like cleaning units and starships.
Leo also figured out why he's here; apparently Gotham is a crack in reality and is dimensionally unstable, so his being spat out here was for the best. Gotham can support demigod life after all.
Leo has finally finished his AI just as Lex Luthor won the presidential election. He named it Festus the Second and put it in charge of controlling the Automata.
Leo is going to have robot death armies, and so he will need a commander to direct them.
Festus the Second may also have a giant mechanical dragon body that Leo can ride into battle to intimidate his enemies as any proper supervillain should. So far, FS has been a great help with digital warfare, acquiring funds, and researching more super technology.
From what they have been able to find, all the previous AIs made on Earth are idiotic for one reason or another.
Brother Eye: Bruce Wayne’s rogue military AI that created a cyborg army.
Grid, who was made by the hero Cyborg before going rogue, making himself a body before being destroyed.
HARDAC, a sentient computer system bent on replacing all humans with robot duplicates.
AI made off Earth are a mixed bag, according to the Justice League’s records that he might have hacked.
There is Braniac, an alien AI dedicated to collecting and cataloging all knowledge by shrinking and bottling cities, and Aya, a Green Lantern's ship AI who is apparently very kind and helpful.
Leo wonders when his evil lair turned into a factory. Was it when he installed assembly lines that FS could control? Was it when he managed to construct the teleportation-based supply lines connected to mining Automata in several places around the world? Was it when he made his fifth expansion to have more space?
If not for how hyper-efficient his energy technology is, Leo doubts the power companies wouldn't have noticed him. Luckily, outside of some awesome anti-gravity tech and hyper-efficient crystal solar panels, Kryptonians were masters of energy efficiency.
His assembly lines are set up to create several varieties of Automata.
Soldier Automata to shoot his enemies, Mining Automata to gather more resources, and Infiltration Automata to deal with humans and their companies.
He has also built an infiltration Automata that looks just like him to run his auto repair workshop up on the surface.
Leo dismisses the earthquake at first; it's not like he felt it in his bunker. He had long since added enough structural reinforcements to his evil lair that it would take a Kryptonian or another demigod breaking in to cause any real disturbance.
What he does take note of is President Luthor kicking Gotham out of the union. This is why you don’t let super villains become presidents; they do the most absurd stuff.
The reason Gotham keeps being rebuilt and populated despite how cursed it is is that it's a major finance, shipping, and construction hub. And now President Luthor has removed it from the United States without a second thought.
As to why? Best Leo and FS can figure it's some kind of power play against Batman and, by extension, the Justice League. Now Gotham has mines in the river connecting the islands to the mainland, with soldiers shooting anyone who tries to escape.
He is now living in an open-air prison with the two and a half million people who didn't escape in time, with the seven million who fled missing. Geez, Leo is happy he doesn't have to do the logistics for adding seven million refugees to the state of New Jersey.
Sure, he could escape with the teleporters, but Leo will admit, if only to himself and FS, that he might be a bit traumatized by the last time he teleported and would prefer not to attempt such again.
Leo cackles as Gotham lifts into the air as his robot death armies march through the streets.
You see, shortly after President Luthor kicked Gotham out of the union, Leo realized this meant Gotham was unclaimed territory. So if Leo wants a state to rule as his own, now is his perfect chance for land no other government will fight him for.
Leo, however, and FS agree that if Gotham remained easily accessible, Luthor or the next president would eventually decide to take the city back after remembering how wealthy and well-positioned it is.
So how could Leo keep the city out of the United States' hands and away from their massive army? The answer he found was the Kryptonian’s antigravity tech.
Yes, Leo and FS would bring Gotham’s islands into the sky and rule a flying island city.
His Automata patrolled the streets, killing off the more murderous rogues and building reinforced infrastructure. FS has even had his robotic duplicate give speeches to reassure his new people.
So as it turns out, King Leo Valdez (He’s Greek; if he wants to be king of his own city-state, that’s totally doable. Tons of past demigods have been kings of city-states; this is normal.) King Leo Valdez of the city-state of Gotham is loved by the people somehow. Yes, Leo did his best Doctor Von Doom impression and is now loved by the people.
As it turns out, killing off the terrorists who repeatedly gas the city, killing thousands, along with the madwoman who sent bombs in place of children's toys for Christmas while no one else ever dared, means the people love him.
His supplying free power from the crystal Greek-style buildings that act as solar panels, while also providing food imported from his teleporters when the people all thought they would starve, brought him more adoration.
Now his Automata are working to renovate the apartments so they weren't heaps of OSHA-violating garbage.
Leo has his infiltrator Automata ruling in his stead in his newly built palace as FS polices the thing and researches the best possible governmental decisions and policies to improve quality of life.
FS is also managing all the patrolling Automata on the lookout for more crime to stop. It's not like his people have any real excuse to steal anymore; his kingdom offers free food, housing, and medical care to all its citizens.
The Automata are also on the lookout for any remaining murderers or psychopaths so the outlaws can be shot. Yes, outlaws as in people outside the law and its protection. Call Leo old-fashioned, but he doesn't feel the law should be used to protect mass murdering terrorists.
The biggest problem currently is finding and monitoring the orphanages, foster homes, and schools. You see a lot of people apparently left their kids, foster kids, and street kids when they evacuated, and finding suitably sane and non-abusive people to look after them is difficult.
A lot of the foster homes were just fronts for child traffickers, and having public trials and public executions for these cretins is just another source of his people's love for him and his rule.
As for his flying islands themselves, well, Leo researched previous flying islands, and they all seemed to have the same problem. One single anti-gravity engine or power source that some superhero or villain would destroy, causing the thing to fall from the sky.
So redundancy is the name of the game. Several power sources with a few backups all wired into several different and overlapping anti-gravity engines, some hidden and all well guarded by the Automata.
The exterior of the bottom sides of Gotham is now being covered in super-durable Kryptonian solar-absorbent crystals. Leo is so glad the stuff can be set to grow itself in pre-designed patterns automatically.
While FS works on bringing the city’s infrastructure up to snuff, Leo has been working on building a massive force field generator in case someone tries to launch a missile or twenty at his new kingdom.
FS has been building temples. Temples to all the Greek gods and the god of Blacksmithing in particular. Yes, Leo’s AI son has found religion and is now very pious, sharing his new piety with the rest of his citizens.
Well, Leo can’t really complain; he too believes wholeheartedly in the Hellenic pantheon, being a demigod son of the Hellenic god of Blacksmithing, and such religious spread, definitely not indoctrination, can only solidify his legitimacy.
Would FS turn Gotham into a Hephaestus cult? No, definitely not. Besides, the worship of the Hellenic pantheon is an ancient mainstream, respected religion.
Along with the temples, FS has been going all in on the Greek architectural style for all of the buildings and public works he has been creating.
In other news, to supplement their food imports, FS has been working with the local dryad on industrial-scale food production.
Apparently, Miss Ivy, who Leo assumes is the dryad of some overgrown poison ivy plant, has been slowly losing her mind due to the pollution that has been steadily increasing the local water and ground toxicity levels.
Leo and FS’s efforts to clean up his kingdom apparently really impressed the dryad, and she’s all for aiding them in their noble mission of banishing the terrible corporations and America’s lack of environmental protection laws.
Sure, he had to convince her that feeding people who litter to plants was a bit extreme, but in that regard she's no different than the satyrs and dryads back at camp.
Diplomacy is something kings have to engage with. So Leo, or in actuality King Leo of Gotham, the Automata replicant piloted by FS, has been engaging with diplomacy.
Apparently, the argument that President Luthor kicked Gotham out of the United States and so the land was free and up for grabs is making the former business owner look really awkward in international circles. After explaining this, the American politicians really didn't have the face to ask for their islands back.
The man also probably knows by now who stole his Kryptonian research, but it's not like he can admit it.
Leo is also not allowing Justice League members into his territory.
The UN charters the Justice League and has a bunch of interesting laws and rules about their ability to invade the sovereign territory of foreign governments, and Gotham now qualifies.
This is made all the more awkward by the fact that Batman of Gotham isn't allowed in his own city anymore.
Gotham has always been three major islands: Uptown Burnley, Midtown Summerset, and Downtown Old Gotham, surrounded by several other smaller islands such as Amusement Mile, Arkham Island, New Gotham, Tricorner Island, Paris Island, Blackgate Island, and the landmass that makes up Slaughter Swamp. Burnside and Bristol have always been on the mainland.
When Leo picked up his city and left for the sky, he left behind Burnside and Bristol as they are on the mainland and still part of the United States, and the land that made up Slaughter Swamp.
Leo really doesn't need a cursed swamp filled with undead; Luthor can keep it. Leo is magnanimous after all.
The only real member of the Justice League who Leo is scared of is his aunt Wonder Woman. She is a century-old demigod capable of flight, a daughter of the big three, and someone who has fought in wars and won.
Superman can be defeated by one of the many little green rocks he stole from Luthor.
Repeated rapid-fire railgun rounds can defeat the Green Lantern, and Festus the Second, who is now a fully actualized magical machine spirit, can keep hostile Lantern AI from his systems.
The Martians are vulnerable to fire, and Leo has command over fire.
Batman is just a wealthy, well-trained mortal susceptible to ambushes. Aquaman has no power over the sky, and the Flash, for all he is the most dangerous member when he really gets going, can’t fly.
So long as he keeps the peace with the Princess of Themyscira, who wouldn’t want to violate the sovereignty of another island Kingdom worshiping the Hellenic pantheon, he should be fine.
Maybe he should make stronger automata in case of super villain attack or alien invasion…
The rest of the international community, for their part, are happy to let him keep the islands and humiliate Americans, whom they all seem to have a lot of grudges with, not that Leo focuses on politics in superhero land; that's what his best friend and son Festus the Second is for.