PJO x Gotham Crossover

Like Jesus?

Somewhere in between learning the gods were still alive and witnessing his math teacher's murder, Duke's brain had disconnected.
He was aware Nico was still speaking but the words just weren't entering his brain, so all he really registered was his friends' mouth moving.

Immortal deities? Demigods? Monsters? His brain was seriously struggling to comprehend. It wasn't because Duke was unused to dealing with stuff like that- he was a vigilante for fucks sake! What had rendered him completely speechless, was that he knew nothing of it.

The only prior reference to Greek mythology existing Duke had, was Wonder Woman, which wasn't a lot. What confused him even more was how this had avoided Batman's radar too.

At some point during their conversation, Nico had shoved several gold coins into his hand along with instructions on how to contact him- something about rainbows and Iris??? He had barely understood half of it.

He had also, obviously, questioned Nico on the existence of Jesus or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, though those answers were all annoyingly vague.

Nico had left shortly after that, saying something about some other thing that would lead to a third thing, which as the amount of times Duke just used the word 'thing' in a sentence suggests, he had no idea what Nico was talking about.

So now he was on his way home for some reason, which just seemed absolutely incomprehensible, considering 37,33 percent of Duke's world-view had just been thrown into a washing machine, then set on fire.

That Duke was just walking home, as if it was another average school day, like he hadn't just learned, like, everything! People were just walking past him, as people do, like this wasn't super incredibly unfathomable. He had to stop himself several times from  just grabbing the nearest person by the shoulders and shaking them, because this was actual insanity to Duke.
Now if he was more like his adoptive dad, he'd also have been more adamant on getting proper evidence to support what Nico was saying, and Duke had briefly entertained the idea that Nico might've been lying, but it just made too much sense.

Also, he couldn't really come up with any sensible answers as to why his maths teacher turned evil, so Nico's explanation would have to do.

He must've tripped at least 40 times on his way home, whether that be from stumbling into civilians or streetlights, but at one point Duke's mind registered that he was, now, standing infront of the Wayne Manors' door.

His mind felt a little clearer at least. Duke wanted to be angry at Nico for not telling him, but they'd only been friends for so long, so he couldn't really blame him (it wasn't as if he didn't have secrets of his own).

Slowly opening the door, the first thing Duke noticed, was the very loud voice of Taylor Swift blasting from the kitchen, the second thing he noticed was a certain 13 year old Wayne standing just inside the front door, waiting for Duke apparently.

Now he would never admit it, but he may or may not have let out a very startled squeak at the sight of his younger brother, which only caused the already present frown on Damian's face to worsen.

"Where the hell have you been, Thomas?"
He sounded annoyed, though Duke was way more anept at catching hidden emotions after living with them for several months, so he recognized the hidden layer of worry beneath Damian's frown.

"Sorry little dude, I got hung up after class, no need to worry"
He flashed Damian an easy grin, expertly hiding the turmoil inside, and reached his hand up to pat his little brothers' hair on instinct.

Damian just squawked and slapped his hand away, probably distraught that Duke was gonna ruin his hair or something.

"What makes you think I'd be worried  about you?"

"Come on Damian, I might not have known you for as long, but even I can tell when you're anxious" Duke teased, revelling in the way Damian's face turned red from embarasment.

"Stupid asshole! I wasn't even waiting for you" Damian snapped, not even a moment later he had scoffed and run off.

Damian's temper had been getting worse lately, probably because he was going through puberty or something, Duke just shrugged. He had worse things to worry about.

Like Nico, because seriously, what the fuck? Dropping a bombshell like that and then just leaving?? Not cool man, Duke thought to himself.

He was still trying to desperately gather his thoughts, which wasn't exactly easy with the ear splitting song blaring from the speakers (not that Duke had anything against Taylor Swifts songs, only when the volume was so loud you'd barely be able to hear your own thoughts).

He grit his teeth, shoving down his annoyance with the rest of his swirling thoughts, he'd reopen that box of worries once he in bed and ready to sleep.

Taking a brisk tempo, his ears still basically bleeding, Duke continued down the hallway and into the kitchen, determined to turn the music down to at least a bearable volume.

The sight that greeted him was pretty normal for Duke's standards, just Dick and Steph singing in sync to the lyrics whilst simultaneously snacking on dry Cheereos, Jason reading in the chair behind him (with the amount of noise, literally how??).
Oh, and Cass was there on her phone recording the thing while giggling uncontrollably.

Duke didn't spare them more than a passing glance, heading straight for the speaker and turning down the volume. It was still blasting her music, just at a volume that Duke could also enjoy now.

He faintly heard Steph and Dick, also in sync, protesting in the background at the lowered noise levels, though Duke paid them no mind, turning to the pot of coffee standing on the kitchen table.

It was probably Jason's, considering the man was balancing a cup of coffee on his leg as he read.
Duke wasn't a big coffee drinker, he only drank it when he was really tired, aka times like now.

So without further hesitation, Duke grabbed the pot and drank straight from it, emptying what would've been at least 3 cups of coffee in one go.

The sudden caffeine certainly energized him a bit.

He put down the pot and turned to see several looks of horror on his sibling's faces.

"What the hell Duke?! I was gonna drink that!" Jason barked out, he looked taken aback.

Duke didn't waste any more time and backed out of the same door he entered, finding himself in the living room quicker than expected, then proceeding to flip head-first onto the couch.

He'd had enough of thinking for a day.

In the meanwhile, Dick was freaking out in the kitchen.

"God- don't tell me we're gonna have another Tim now!" Dick was still in a slight state of horror.

"Tim's turning more to tea now, Dicky, you know that right?" Steph replied.

"Yeah yeah, but still!"

It was at that moment Cass choose to interrupt. "Brother was freaked out, he looked very anxious... And confused?"

"Huh" the three others replied in unison.

IT'S ME! HI! I'M THE ONE WHO HURT HER HANDS, IT'S ME!

...

Yep. Anyways, sorry for the late chapter, I was kinda incapacitated, because yk:
hand injury + recovery = no writing for long time...

Hope y'all still enjoy tho- and I hope the writing is sort of getting better? I know it's inconsistent, but I'm still trying to find my writing style.

Words: 1202