Rachel swallowed hard and read the scroll;
The 7 warriors of then
Shall come together once again
And take up arms to join the fight
To war beside Olympus' Lyte
To find the answers that you seek
Climb the tallest mountain peak
Beat the swiftest being alive
If your world is to survive
The Lyte to find his destiny
Must find the eldest prophecy
They all stood there for a moment or 2, none of them knowing exactly what to say. Micah finally spoke up.
"Look, guys, as cool as this seems; I can't be part of this wonder team. I work alone. I only helped you guys because you really needed it. But it sounds to me like you 7 have some history. I don't do good with big groups. Being alone for 10 years kinda makes teamwork not really, well work. I…. I can't." he ended, Staring at the floor deep in thought. Annabeth had to pull her eyes away from him. She was still visibly shaking from seeing Micah clean shaves
'It's not even like they look a little alike; they look almost IDENTICAL! They could seriously be twins! The way he looks, talks, acts….smiles.' Annabeth felt herself nearing tears again, then steeled herself.
'Pull yourself together, Annabeth; you're a daughter of Athena for crying out loud!' She nodded to herself, making up her mind. Just then Percy leaned over and whispered
"Hey, I think I have a way to convince Micah to come on this quest with us. I just need some time. Think you and Ray could work on him until I'm ready?" She nodded.
"Yeah, I've got a few ideas." She whispered back. She was going to do this with him at some point anyways. Now was just as good a time as any.
"Hey Micah," she snapped him out of his trance. "Hows about you come with me so I can run some tests. It'll help clear your head." she finished. Micah shrugged and half smiled.
"Sure. I've got nothing better to do anyways." He said. She turned to Rachel, who also shrugged.
"Could be fun," she commented. The 3 of them set off towards the training center, while Percy went to see if he couldn't find a way to convince Micah to join them.
BREAK*
Annabeth led the to the giant training center. The training center was built after the war with Gaea to ensure the next generation of heroes would be well equipped for any task that may arise. Now, as Micah walked in, the air even smelled new.
"Welcome to the training center. We've got everything we'll need to push you to your limits right here. Come with me." she led him to an area in the back of the building. It looked like a catwalk, with a bullseye at one end. Annabeth pointed at the bullseye.
"You stand down there." she said. Micah slowly walked to the far end, until he stood 140 yards away from Annabeth, and only inches away from the target. To her immediate left was a white table. She opened one of the drawers, pulling out a tiny rubber push dagger.
"These are rubber daggers," Annabeth explained. "They are designed to be just as heavy and fast as the real deal, but a little less...pointy." she loaded one into a machine that looked like an automatic baseball pitcher
"This machine is designed to shoot these daggers at you at various speeds. But for you, I'm setting it on top speed" she yelled across the room. Micah suddenly appeared in a whoosh
"Why am I so far away?" he asked. She shrugged.
"This is actually designed to be a spear throwing tunnel but I thought it would suit our purposes. Micah grunted.
"Fair enough. Whenever you're ready. He zoomed back over to the other end. Annabeth waited a few seconds, then pushed a button. What sounded like a canon going off rang through the building, firing a single rubber blade. Time seemed to slow down around Micah as the harmless dagger seemed to come to a stop mid air. Micah walked over and grabbed it. All Annabeth and Rachel saw was Micah suddenly appear in front to them, holding the dagger not 5 feet away from Annabeth.
"Whoa. That was awesome." Rachel stated. Annabeth was still stunned.
"Do...do you have any idea how fast you were just moving?" she asked as she looked at the computer screen on top of the table.
"Well, considering you probably shot that at…" Micah worked the Math instantaneously
"250km/hour that's roughly, what, 155.343 mph? And it didn't even move .00005 inches…. You were 140 yards away so i covered 139.995 yards in .00001 seconds that….. 2,863,472.727 mph" he said resolutely. Annabeth just stared.
"2mil…. No one could run that fast. thats almost…"
"quarter light speed, yeah." He finished. Annabeth glared.
"No thing could go light speed." She half growled. Micah scoffed.
"Yeah I can. I can probably go a little above if I really want to." he muttered to himself. Annabeth couldn't stand this, it was just like arguing with Luke or Percy.
"No, because the atoms in your body would vaporize." she stated with finality. He just cocked his head, his look saying,
'Really?'
"Since when has science ever applied to our kind?" he asked smugly. She wanted to hit him…. Soooo badly
"Fine, Speedy, you want to test that? Right this way!" Annabeth stomped off towards the other end of the building. Rachel and Micah followed her to what looked like a futuristic treadmill.
"I asked the Hephaestus cabin to make this while we were driving here. It's a treadmill that feeds off of the equal but opposite energy you give off when you run, essentially making it so that it can go however fast you can WHICH I might add is nowhere near even half light speed because your body isn't a pile of charred ash." She finished, teeth grit. Micah stepped on the treadmill
"What's the max speed this thing can clock?" he asked. Annabeth shrugged.
"Don't know." she pointed to a set of stop lights. "Red is stop, yellow is jog or half speed, green is everything you've got. Understand?" Micah nodded, so Annabeth and Rachel stepped behind a tiny little control panel built into another white table. She hit the yellow button, and Micah started jogging. At first he looked like a normal guy, and his speed told a similar story. He was clocking in at 25 mph, when suddenly he just started picking up. He went faster and faster, until he was just a blur of a human, bathed in purple light. He hit 768 mph, and a tiny sonic boom caused both girls to jump. He kept accelerating, until in a matter of seconds he went from 768 mph to 768,000 mph. He held it to within 3 mph of that speed for 10 minutes.
"Ok, Speedy, lets see how fast you can really go." Annabeth muttered to herself. She hit the green, and the speed instantly went from 769,000 soaring up to 1,987,000 and climbing, the instruments stopped reading, and a loud explosion went off, followed by crashing sounds. Rachel pointed in horror to the remains of the exploded treadmill, as well as the giant hole in the wall behind in.
"Oh gods…." Annabeth said fearfully. She and Rachel ran outside and looked into the forest to see a line of trees split in half as far as the eye could see. Rachel took off into the forest, and Annabeth ran to get Chiron. On the way, who should she bump into but Percy.
"Hey, whoa Wise Girl slow down! Wheres Micah and Rachel?" he asked. Annabeth merely pointed at the destruction behind them. Percy instantly hardened his expression
"Let's go." he said as they both took off to get Chiron.
BREAK*
When Micah finally opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was red spots in his vision. He tried to sit up, only to realize he couldn't. He looked down at his body, and had to instantly look away. His body looked, well, exactly what you would expect a body vaulted at 2,000,000 mph through an innumerable amount of trees to look like. Smushed and bloody. Mostly bloody.
"Well, this sucks." he said with a little less care than most. He heard rustling, and Rachel screaming his name. She burst into the clearing, and also instantly looked away. She was somewhere between convulsing and bursting into tears when Chiron, Annabeth, and Percy caught up. Annabeth covered her mouth in horror, while Percy panicked
"Oh man, just….just hang in there ok? I'll go get help." Percy exasperated as he was about to run back to camp
"That won't be necessary." Micah said a little too calmly
'This is the part that sucks' he whispered to himself. Percy and Annabeth had seen things they thought would haunt them forever. But even Tartarus did not match the disgustingness of what they witnessed next. Micah's body somehow started coming back together. His arms snapping and grinding back into place, his neck popping straight again. His legs squished and scraped back into place, his vertebrae each making a sickening snap as they wretched back together forcefully. His splintered legs ground back together, and the giant gashes all over his body slowly healed, until all that remained of the aforementioned bloodbath was a giant puddle of blood where he once lay, and a giant scar on his now-bare chest. They all stood abhorred at what they had just witnessed.
"Ok that hurt pretty good," Micah said tiredly. Silence. Percy was the first to break it.
"Um, well… why don't we get you to the sick bay and have you checked out?" he whispered, still shocked. Micah shook his head
"Won't be necessary, PJ, but I appreciate the thoughtfulness….. got any food in this place? I starving." Micah stretched his 'new' body. He looked at his clothes, his shirt completely gone and his shorts barely covering him.
"First clothes, then food." he said strategically. Percy nodded.
"Yeah… yeah sure. Let's get you some clothes. Percy and Micah walked back to camp, leaving Annabeth to ponder what they just witnessed. Rachel was too busy emptying the contents of her stomach behind a tree. Annabeth's thoughts were interrupted by her phone ringing. She looked at the caller ID; Superboy. Jason. She answered the phone slowly, shaking the image of Micah's recovery out of her head.
"Hey Jason."
"Annabeth hey! I talked to the others, and they agree. Tell Percy we'll be there tomorrow."
