A Lost Soul

Chapter 1- Hades is a Bitch

Percy was in Gotham. Why? you might ask, well he was going to GU, Gotham University. Yes, his original plan for college was to go to New Rome University, but Gotham had a better marine biology program, and the rent was really fuckin' cheap.

Life was going pretty well for him. He lived in a small apartment, only a few blocks from campus. And he worked part-time at a small cafe down the street.

In fact, he was just finishing up his shift. He hung up his apron and grabbed his bag, before making his way out of the employees-only backroom.

"Bye, Danny," He called as he made his way to the door.

"Bye, Percy," She responded as she took an order. Danny was the owner of the cafe. She had dark brown hair and bright blue eyes that always seemed to sparkle when she laughed. She was also a demigod, a daughter of Apollo, to be exact. She was full of sunshine—like most children of Apollo— and she took every customer with a smile. Her being a demigod, was, in fact, the reason why Percy worked there, it was a safe place. One of the very few in Gotham, from monsters both godly and otherwise.

Percy rushed down the street, he had a scheduled iris message with Annabeth in 10 minutes,  but he needed to stop at the store first. He was out of bread.

He practically sprinted down the street and into the store. Thankfully—it wasn't usually this way—there wasn't anyone in the store except a very bored-looking, dark-haired cashier. He barreled down the bread aisle, grabbed the bread—probably squishing it— and tore back through the aisle to the cash register. The 2 minutes he spent watching the cashier scan the bread, bag it, and print out a receipt on a particularly banged-up computer, were the longest of his life. He quickly grabbed the bag as soon as he could and ran out the door, or at least he tried to.

He slammed into someone, knocking them over. At the last second, however, he reached out and grabbed their hand. Preventing the other person from slamming their head into the concrete. He looked to be about 25, he had messy jet-black hair, and blue eyes that—though tired—were filled with life, and upon helping him to his feet, he was maybe 2 inches shorter than Percy.

"Sorry," Percy muttered before rushing out the door. Thankfully, his bread hadn't been completely squished. Squished Bread is a tragedy that puts Shakespeare and the greeks to shame, after all.

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Dick grabbed the handle of the door of the small store and pushed it open. Well, he did reach out to push the door, but he didn't manage the opening part. As soon as he put his hand on the handle, he was jerked forward, as someone on the other side pulled the door. He was then promptly knocked backward towards the concrete as the other person slammed into him, attempting to go through the doorway the opposite way.

His arms flew upwards as his body fell. The air seemed colder than before as it seemed to simultaneously rush past him and yet not move at all.

Thankfully, a hand grabbed one of his outstretched ones just before he would've slammed the back of his head on the solid concrete. That would not have been fun in the slightest.

The stranger pulled him up to his feet and locked eyes with him. He had jet black hair with a single small grey streak in the front, the entirety of which was a mess on top of his head—in a similar fashion to Dick's own hair. The stranger also had eyes that were as green—no, greener than the sea and swirled like a tropical storm. He was a few inches taller than Dick, causing him to slightly incline his head to meet eye contact.

The eye contact only lasted a few seconds though, before the raven-haired stranger muttered a quick "Sorry." and ran off in a hurry.

That was weird. Dick thought to himself as he once again grabbed the door handle—successfully making it inside this time.