Notes: Written for sangkar's AU Oneshot competition. This idea thanks her for letting it out from the murky plotbunny pens of my brain and into freedom of some sort. Also serves as proof that I have been obsessing over way too many Superhero things lately.

(for which i personally blame young justice and all members of the batfamily)

Hydrokinetics

or, the summarized story of how Percy Jackson decided to become a costumed superhero

(A PJO Superhero AU)

1.

The first time Percy used his powers, he had been twelve, bored and contemplating possible money-making ways at the local swimming pool. But visions of dream jobs went out of the window when a moderately sized robot (who had the word 'Quasher' painted on it in neon orange paint) crashed into the poll building and an accompanying bright-red spandex-clad supervillain (with the word 'Builder' printed on him in neon green spandex) demanded everyone's money.

Percy, who unfortunately happened to have most of his meticulously saved cash from the last month or so in his pocket, protested. The led the Quasher to hold him by the ankles and shake all his money off him before unceremoniously throwing him into the pool. Percy hit his head on the tiles, spluttered, and savagely wished he could punch the Quasher and his color-blind Builder out with his bare hands.

He couldn't, of course. But the ginormous waterspout which suddenly raised itself out of the pool did it for him instead.

2.

When he got home, he told his mother about the whole thing, fully expecting (and hoping) her to laugh it off and tell him something about stress-related hallucinations and freak accidents. But instead she looked determined sat him down across the table from her, and proceeded to tell him the story of his conception.

No, not that. He thought he would have fainted out of self-defense if that was the case. But as it was, what he actually got was not all that much more comforting.

"My father lives under the ocean?"

"Yes, dear."

"And he told you there was a possibility I might develop water-centric superpowers?"

A nod.

"Like, if I try to say- levitate the water from the jug-"

The water in the jug decided to respond eagerly to Percy's squint, and immediately splashed itself all over the ceiling before dripping back down on to them. Sally patiently wrung it out of her hair.

"Oh."

3.

Two weeks into the new school year, he discovered he could breathe underwater. And since he had discovered it mostly because his head was being held under the pool by a couple of bigger guys with nothing much to do, he retaliated by waving his arms and redirecting the water at them instead. Which ultimately turned out to be a problem, since a teacher and more students were watching and stuff.

His mother responded to hysterical calls from the principal's office by calmly asking for a transfer certificate, packing most of their belongings into the creaky old car, and driving them out into a new city; all organized and implemented in the span of less than twenty-four hours. When Percy responded with a stupefied "Who are you and what have you done with the woman who raised me?", Sally told him that his father had left her a set of very helpful contacts.

"Contacts, like how?"

"People," Sally said, concentrating on the road, "An organization. I don't know much about them, to be honest- but they tend to keep in touch. Make sure the wrong people don't find us."

"You mean we're under Witness Protection or something?"

"Or something," Sally confirmed.

4.

It wasn't that he wanted to use his powers and force them to move, it was just that things seemed to always end up being that way. A tendency to create plumbing disasters when you were moody combined with an inclination towards said moodiness made keeping a low profile next to impossible.

By his fifteenth birthday, Percy and Sally had moved six times. Uprooted every tie they had, all friends and jobs and recommendations, arriving as lost new souls in firmly established towns and leaving before they could put down anything more than the smallest of roots.

His mother never complained. It made him feel a little guilty.

5.

The seventh time they decided to move, Percy tried to put his foot down.

"Can't we stay? I mean, it's not like powers are unheard of or anything. So they'll call me a freak- big deal. I can take it."

"That's not the point, dear. Pass me the hairdryer, would you?"

"Mom, are you even listening to me?"

Sally stopped clearing space in one of their well-used trunks, and closed her eyes.

"We have to, Percy."

"No we don't- this is ridiculous. You know good jobs get harder to find every time we take across the state without giving any notice. You're working yourself to death."

"Yes, yes," Sally waved away her sleep-deprived eyes and aching body with little more than a thought, "But that's all right. I can live with that. But I can't let them find you."

Percy paused and stared. That one was new.

"Who, Mom?"

"I don't- I honestly don't know who they are, Percy," Sally shook her head and started piling their things into the trunk again, "I just know they can't find you- they'd- I don't know what they would do to you."

Percy tried to get more answers, and discovered that contrary to what he'd always thought, he'd inherited his stubbornness from his mother's side of the family and not from the fishy ancestor.

(or possibly, from the haunted look in her eyes, she really had no answers she could give him)

6.

A week before his sixteenth birthday, he slipped up and talked a dolphin into maneuvering itself out of a barbed net within sight of a couple of very surprised marine biologists.

"How did you-" one of them asked him, wide-eyed.

"Um, I'm good with animals?" Percy tried.

"So am I," the guy told him, "But that was incredible."

Percy accepted the compliments and awe and recommendations for future college courses (unlikely, given his tendency to pack up and vanish in the middle of the night) with a pained grin, and completely failed to notice the narrowed eyes behind the bright smile of the second guy.

And since his mother had managed to get a set of jobs that gave her enough time to sleep this time, he decided to not mention the incident to her.

7.

A week after his sixteenth birthday, he came home from school to find a man in black- black pants, black shirt, black mask- holding a gun to his mother's head.

There had been some amount of chaos- outraged shouting from him cut short by a safety clicking off, his mother's consistent whispers of "please run, please run, please run, Percy please", and the roaring in his ears as he struggled to control the rattling old pipes in the apartment. And everything became worse when the apartment was suddenly plunged into darkness.

Percy couldn't see and he couldn't breathe out anything more complex than "Mom", but he could hear things. Sounds of fist hitting flesh, of swishes in the dark and grunts of pain. And then a gunshot.

The pipes exploded, and Percy discovered there was more water in the overhead tanks than he'd thought there was. Certainly enough to knock him off his feet and bang his head on to the edge of a table, masking the darkness and the pain with utter blankness.

8.

The real first time Percy had used his powers, he'd been three years old and had just made a school of goldfish swim in formation. A formation which looked a lot like the toy car in the corner store that he'd been eyeing for a couple of weeks, in fact.

In between muffles of barely suppressed laughter, Sally had channeled all proud parents who had ever lived and given her son a massive hug and a kiss, and had then followed it up with immediately getting him the aforementioned car.

Three days later, she thanked the stars that she had seen the men and the van and the guns before they tried to break into her house. She thanked them again for the sturdy fire escape outside of the window, and then again for the fact that she was a sentimentalist who had never thrown away the number her ex had given her before he'd disappeared. The Organization was helpful in setting her up with a decent amount of money, supplies and fake identities.

Then, once her heart had stopped beating at ten times the normal rate, she had prayed with all her heart that Percy would never, ever use powers ever again.

9.

Nine years later, when he'd greeted her 'you might not exactly be normal' explanation with a stunned look and a glass's worth of water flying, and followed it up by making unrecognizable water sculptures and giggling and being happy and being satisfied, she changed her mind. Her baby could keep any and all powers he wanted to keep.

She was just going to have to make damn sure none of them ever found him again.

10.

When Percy woke up, he was in a crisp white bed in what looked like an underground room. And before he could figure out much more than that, he was greeted by a freckled face in a badly fitting green mask.

"Chiron! He's awake!"

"That's not my name…"

11.

Chiron turned out to be a bearded guy in a wheelchair with kind eyes. If they'd been any lighter, they would have reminded him of his Mom. So Percy barely managed to keep his voice under control once the man started talking to him, and stuck mostly to answering with monosyllables.

"I train heroes."

"Uh?"

"Like our friend Acacia there-"

The guy in the green mask fidgeted, "Actually, it's Baobab now."

"My mistake," Chiron shot a small smile in his direction, "Like Baobob here. I… train heroes. People with skills who can use them for the betterment of man-" a momentary glance behind Percy, "-humankind. To protect them from people who otherwise crush them under their heels."

"Yeah?"

"We had been in contact with your mother for some time," Chiron said, eyes saddening further, "She asked us to keep an eye out for you- we did not realize they had captured her until it was too late. My apologies."

Percy nodded, deciding that even monosyllables were too risky at this point.

"If you like, I can teach you how to control your powers," Chiron told him, "Basic martial arts- some amount of ancillary skills. Things to help you prevent something like that from happening ever again."

"Why would I want that?" Percy managed.

"I don't think anyone would like to be helpless if they can be otherwise," Chiron glanced at his wheelchair with a pained smile, "Speaking from experience."

12.

Two weeks and plenty of sleep later, Percy sighed and told Chiron that whatever happened, he was not going to be one of those people who wore leotards on national television. Chiron responded by nodding understandingly, while Baobab looked mildly scandalized.

"But," Percy fidgeted, "Uh. Chiron, not that I'm not- well. I mean, I'm sure you're great- I already know you're great but- um. Your- how do you train someone when you can't…"

"When I can't walk?"

"Yeah," Percy rubbed his hair uncomfortably, "Pretty much."

"There are many things I can teach you without me having to use my legs," Chiron said, stretching, "And as for the rest- Baobab is a lot more dangerous than he appears to be. And quite besides that, my best student is standing behind you, and entirely capable of taking over the physical parts of the training."

Percy jumped and looked behind him. To see absolutely nothing.

"Percy Jackson," Chiron waved a hand in a general (and apparently random) direction, "Meet Ghost- who prefers to be heard rather than seen."

And out of thin air from a direction he couldn't pinpoint, an indistinct, metallic voice informed him that he drooled while he slept.

End

Notes: Well, of a sort, anyway. It's an interesting universe and I might return to it if I feel the urge sometime. But this is about how Percy decided to become a costumed crimefighter, and that story concludes here.

I realize that as a oneshot, this leaves a lot to be desired- many unanswered questions like who the guys in black are (AU!Kronos minions, obviously- but that's a little like stating a book is a book and saying nothing about what it's about) and how Chiron (which, for anyone who happens to wonder about it, is his codename and not his real name) and the rest of the gang ended up where they are at the moment.

And in case you have not figured out who Baobab and Ghost are, I fail as a writer. And just so you don't have to suffer for my fail- they are Grover and Annabeth, respectively. Annabeth is invisible because that's her sole superpower. And Grover has nature-based powers which aren't very developed yet. He also has no idea what he's going to call himself.

I also apologize for the lack of Percy snark, but that did not sit too well into the overwhelmingly Percy-Sally and dialogue-resistant theme of the story. Suffice to say, let it be imagined that he does snark plenty when his mother is not in trouble. :3

Anyway, thanks for sitting through this. :)