Chapter Text
Annabeth sighed, chin resting on her hand as she looked out the M100 bus. It had been over an hour already and they still hadn't reached their destination. Speaking of, she almost let out a cackle when Chiron had told her and Percy where they were going.
Past the war with Kronos and past the war with the Giants, there were still some rogue demigods who sided against the gods—against their own people. One of the more notorious ones was a son of Hermes named Kress. He was a sly one, more into the lucrative side of war: business deals and smuggling.
Which brought the two—Percy and Annabeth—to where they were now, on a bus to Gotham City of all places.
Why Gotham? Annabeth had no clue.
If Alaska is the land beyond the gods, then Gotham was the city abandoned by the gods. No monster, demigod, or deity placed their feet there (or whatever limbs monsters had these days). The godsdamned Mist didn't even work there. There was no place to hide for a demigod from the public eye. It was a land of depravity and ruin, the modern-day equivalent to Sodom and Gomorrah in Abrahamic religious text.
And yet, here came Kress, setting up a trade business deep within the city streets. From what Annabeth and Percy knew, weapons from both the New York camps and California camps had been going missing. Imports from both the camps were intercepted and somehow the trail led to Gotham City.
In Annabeth's eyes, it didn't really make sense. Sure, Gotham was a great place to hide from the eyes of the gods, but there was no benefit (material-wise) with trading demigod material with mortals. Unless the weapons were being used against something other than monsters, but Annabeth had no clue.
"You're thinking so hard over there that it's making my brain hurt from here," Percy joked. He seemed a lot more relaxed than she was, with him slouched in his chair and a hat pulled over his eyes to give a resemblance of a sleeping man.
"Didn't know there was something in there to hurt, Seaweed Brain."
Percy suddenly clutched at his chest and made a choking sound. "Ugh. Ack! You got me there. No, but seriously," Percy straightened. "What are you thinking about over there?"
Annabeth sighed again, hand coming to massage the space between her eyebrows. "We will find Kress."
"Yes?"
"But how long is that going to take? We only have a general location. We don't have any leads. We didn't even consider that Kress might be in one of the neighboring cities."
Percy blew a raspberry and went back to slouching (Annabeth really needed to get on him about fixing his posture). "He's not."
"You don't know that," Annabeth remarked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, I do."
"Okay, want to spill the beans?" Annabeth leaned closer towards Percy and snatched the hat away from his face.
Percy jolted before giving her the stink-eye. "I thought you were the daughter of Athena."
"Har har har, Seaweed Brain. Now spill. What do you know?"
Percy grabbed his hat back before shrugging his shoulders. "You're all about stats, did you see the ones for crime in Bludhaven and Crime Alley?"
"They've lowered in recent years, sure, but that doesn't mean anything. Crime isn't suddenly just gone."
Percy shook his head. "No. But it means that the Red Hood and Nightwing have a tight leash on their communities. If there was a smuggling business—demigod aside—they would be the first to know about it and handle it. This has what? Been a problem for several months now? If it was truly an issue then they would have heard."
Annabeth shook her head in confusion. "But Gotham has Batman, no? Why is it different for him?"
"Have you seen the population density of Gotham? Yes, it's a small city but it's really dense. Which makes it big. Too big. Big enough for a business like Kress' to grow even if it's just for a few months."
Annabeth let out a "huh" at his explanation. Sure, it was sound reasoning, but there were still enough holes in the reasoning that made Percy's confidence make no sense. To be fair, none of this made sense to Annabeth and she wanted to figure out why.
"How can you be so sure?" Annabeth asked.
Percy turned to her and gave a confused look. "I thought I told you I'm from there."
"From where?"
"From Gotham."
Annabeth really let out a laugh this time and nobody on the godsdamned bus could stop her. "Percy, you're not from Gotham."
Percy's hands shot out and upwards. "How am I not from Gotham?"
"You don't give the vibes of someone from Gotham."
"Oh yeah?" Percy said with a sarcastic drawl, "Who gives the vibes of someone from Gotham?"
Annabeth gave herself a moment to think. "Nico. Or Thalia."
"What?! That's just because they're emo!" Percy exclaimed, some eyes on the bus drawing towards him in his shout of frustration.
Annabeth gave them all a reassuring and apologetic look before turning back to him. "They're not emo, Percy, don't be rude."
Percy sank into his chair and crossed his arms before grumbling, "I'm so from Gotham."
Annabeth could only chuckle at his childish antics. Sometimes she forgot how young Percy and her still were—how they weren't even adults yet and they were still fighting for their right to live. "Okay 'I'm so from Gotham,' where are we going then? Because you're the one who bought the ticket."
Percy slowly turned towards her and gave her a smirk before saying words that she was shocked to hear coming from him: "The Gotham Library!"