Author's Note: Hello, dear readers. I hope you like the updates! Ah, I love cliffhangers. Don't you? Speaking of, there's one at the end of this chapter. By the way, this one's kind of short, but I think you'll like it. I got some questions about how Barry and Percy were going to combine their powers, so that's in here too.

Percy's POV

"Whatever," I growled. "Annabeth, Thalia, wanna train?"

"Sure," Thalia answered, sounding relieved.

"Mind if I come?" Barry asked. "I want to see what your training's like. Mine is pretty much just running from city to city as fast as I can."

"I guess," Annabeth replied nonchalantly.

Barry led us to an abandoned field outside the city where there was plenty of room for us to train in our own...special way.

"So, what do you want to do?" Barry asked awkwardly. He was all suited up and ready to run. I thought he looked stupid.

Behind my back, I uncapped my pen, and Riptide sprang into my hands. I might like Barry more than some of his associates, but I didn't trust him enough to show him Riptide's secret.

"Fight," I replied simply.

"You...fight...to train?" Barry answered slowly.

"Uh, yeah," Thalia said. "We'll spend our entire lives fighting things, so we need to be good at it."

"You sound like Oliver," Barry muttered rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Who?"

"Never mind."

"Let's go, Percy," Annabeth challenged me with a gleam in her eyes. "You are so going to lose."

"Not likely," I growled back. But really, it was very likely. That's what happened every other time we fought. I raised my sword as Annabeth ran at me, knives unsheathed.

I blocked her first strike on the hilt of my blade and quickly slipped my sword down, stopping a stab that would've caught me in the legs (if Annabeth were trying to hurt me which, hopefully, she wasn't). I lunged forward, blade out in front. The point hit the center of Katoptris and knocked it out of Annabeth's hands.

She flashed a smile of satisfaction, which I barely had time to process before Annabeth lunged at me again. Her strike was going straight for my chest, but I moved Riptide by an fraction of an inch, and the blade sparked off.

I knocked the dagger out of Annabeth's grasp with one hand, and stood still, blade pointed at her chest.

"You lose," I said calmly. "For once."

Her glittering gray eyes had taken on the Celestial bronze of my sword. "Well, well. It appears I'm not quite as good as I thought I was."

Barry stood about ten feet away, mouth hanging open. "You just...fought. Like, really fast. I mean, not me fast, but still."

"Whatever, Streak. What can you do? Besides the running thing." Thalia challenged,

"Well…" Barry trailed off as he started to run, swirling around and around me in a blur of red and gold.

Lightning, Thalia mouthed. I nodded quickly and thrust my sword out in between a miniscule gap. Barry skidded to a halt, feet out in front, leaning back as if he were trying to do the limbo.

"Nope," I smiled. "I don't like lightning very much. She's gotten me enough times," I continued pointing at Thalia. And her brother, I added in my mind.

"Anything else?" Annabeth asked.

Barry showed us a range of his different talents, which didn't have much of a range. They were all speed-related, which I thought was a little boring. But then, I'm not really one to talk. After all, my powers are all water related. Oh, but Percy, you say, you're powers are awesome! Well, thanks. I think so too. But still...what Barry could do was like the ultimate way for demigods to survive. I especially liked the phasing thing. Barry could run right up to an object, vibrate, and go straight through it. I remembered an idea Annabeth had had when she met Sadie Kane, about demigods learning to travel through the Duat. That would enable us to go through things, exactly like Barry was doing. Wait, does that mean he's running in the Duat? Woah. Deep thoughts, man.

"I wonder…" Annabeth mused. "Barry, you're running around and creating lots of wind. And Percy, you can create hurricanes. What if Barry ran around you and made summoning hurricanes earlier?"

"We could try it," I answered. "Thalia, Annabeth, step back. Barry, do your thing."

Barry exhaled loudly through his nose, as if he were irritated, but did as I asked. As he whirled around me in a swirl of color, I closed my eyes tightly and concentrated. The winds responded to me almost immediately, and with only the tiniest amount of effort.

I didn't even realize Barry wasn't helping until I saw him standing with the girls. Normally, I would've had to stop soon because I was tired, but not this time. I felt like I could've gone on forever.

But, I realized I needed to stop, so that I could kiss my girlfriend without tossing her up in the air.

"Um, that worked," I stated.

"No duh, Seaweed Brain," Thalia swatted my arm. "That was the biggest hurricane I've ever seen you make."

"What?" Barry asked out of nowhere. "Cisco, slow down. I can't understand you. What's happening?" He looked up, eyes glinting worriedly. "They got a signal from our metahuman alert app."

"Your what?"

"It doesn't matter. Your friend has returned. Meet you back in the city." And then he raced off without another word.

"Get back here, you moron!" Thalia shouted after him as Annabeth turned to me.

"He's going to get himself killed," she told me gravely.

I nodded. "We have to go after him. But how are we going to get there fast enough?"

"How about one of your shadow-traveling cousins?" Annabeth suggested sarcastically.

"Oh, yeah. Which one should I ask? Nico?"

"No, Hazel. You know Nico's shadow travel is still wobbly."

"Okay." After replying, I reached out with my mind. I had recently discovered that I could telepathically communicate with other children of the Big Three, which came in handy when I was about to be overrun by monsters. Of course that's never happened to me. Or any other demigod. Ever.

Hazel, I thought. We need you here.

On my way, she replied. Then, out of nowhere she was standing next to us, sword drawn. "What do you need?"

"We need to shadow-travel. Quickly," I said.

"One problem. I don't know this area, so unless there's any metal I can latch onto…" Hazel trailed off.

"Well, how'd you get here?" Thalia asked.

"Percy's sword. Wait, could I do that for where you're going?"

"Actually, yes," Annabeth answered. "Lu-the thing we're trying to track down has a special sword. It's half bronze, half steel. It might feel like the metals are fighting each other."

"Yes, I can sense it," Hazel replied. "Grab my hand."

We joined hands in a loose circle before everything went black.

Shadow-traveling is really cold, and loud, and a little scary. When I was with my dog, Mrs. O'Leary, it wasn't as bad. But with just one person guiding you...it's a little bit terrifying. I love it.

When we could see color again (which seemed like an eternity, but was probably only a few seconds) we had dropped right smack dab into the middle of a battle.

Barry was doing his best to stop Kronos, which wasn't saying much when battling Kronos. Mainly, he was just dodging blasts of flames. Great. As if Kronos needed anymore powers.

Hazel made a little squeaking sound in the back of her throat. "What is that?"

"Kronos," Thalia replied grimly.

"The...the same one the Greeks fought in Manhattan a while back?"

"Yes."

"Hazel, get to the demigod he's trying to kill," I commanded her gently. "We'll handle this."

As she raced over to one of the battered cars, Annabeth sighed. "Here we are again. Can't we ever catch a break?"

"We don't have time for this," I reminded her. "Let's get to Barry and talk strategy."

Despite our desperate situation, her eyes shone. She loved strategy. The three of us were about to rendezvous with Barry when suddenly he turned and ran away.

"Di Immortales, Bar-I mean, Flash!" I shouted. "Way to save your city. And the world. I guess we're on our own," I told the girls.