"HE DID WHAT!?" Poseidon boomed. Athena winced under her uncle's rage.
" Chiron, Lupa and 240 demigods are gone. The remaining demigods reported seeing visions of a man who fits Perseus' description, the vision they saw were taken directly from his life. He made the same offer. To take them away from the war he plans to wage."
"Who did we lose exactly?" Hera asked
"Our counting reveals it was mostly children of Hephaestus, Hermes, and Aphrodite. With a few from the rest of the cabins except the big 3."
"So we have 800 demigods. We can't send them against that force not yet." Athena argued.
"Agreed." Zeus rose. " We lack the time to train and nourish their might as a result, Hephaestus you have 2 days, you and Athena will craft an army of automatons Hermes, Demeter, Dionysus and Hera will pour power into them to fortify them." The assigned Gods nodded in agreement.
"Poseidon, Hades and I will take our children and train them personally in our domain to ensure saturation. Ares. Apollo. I trust you have prepared for the offensive maneuver against those upstarts." Ares cracked his knuckles.
"The brat won't know what hit him."
On day one of training Perseus sat his 3 leaders down to explain his plan.
"So we have 2 years here, I want to take the first six months to train your divine powers, we will work on activation, prolonged use and increasing potency. The second six will be in actual combat. The 3rd six months will be in creativity, leadership and decision making. Final six months will be Luke, Clarisse and I putting you through hell and back in order to build up your stamina and ability to take a hit." When he concluded, he could see the demigods staring at him in fear but he couldn't help but chuckle a bit.
"Don't worry we have primal ambrosia on hand. Before you ask, think of it as the stuff normal ambrosia is made of just on steroids. Normal ambrosia is a watered down version of our stuff." All three demigods nodded before Perseus continued.
"I think it's vital for me to learn a bit about you guys as So, let's start with Sarah."
"Um hi, I'm Sarah daughter of Hephaestus but you knew that already." Percy noticed that she was fidgeting with wire and plastic while talking.
"I build things almost accidentally…..If I can focus I can make anything." As she finished a miniature sword fighter escaped her palm.
"But um we can be ourselves right?" Percy cocked his head as he started putting it together.
"Of course Sarah." Sarh turned her palms over and concentrated. In front of everyone her palms lit aflame, orange, red and yellow danced across her palms.
"A fire user, wow that's extremely rare." Percy said
" I can't really maintain it but- wait, you've seen this before?!"
"A long time ago a demigod I knew had the same ability…...I promise you're not a freak or a monster. Legend has it that everytime a Fire user is born a great challenge is on the horizon, they're good luck and you are our good luck charm."
Sarah smiled appreciatively at Perseus as the flames in her palms died.
"So who's next?" Wale rose his steadily
"I'm Wale, I'm a son of Aphrodite."
"Let me guess, when you talk people can't help but do what you say."
"How did you know?"
"Again one of your half siblings had that power, it's called Charmspeak….Lets try it out. Tell Sarah and Abi to raise their hands." Wale inhaled and spoke.
"Raise your hands." Before they knew what happened Abi and Sarah found themselves with their hands up.
"Excellent Wale, now try it on me."
"Percy, raise your hands." When nothing happened Percy laughed.
"This is what I meant. Our power is tied directly to our emotions, the more powerful the feeling the more potent our strength. The friend I mentioned watched her boyfriend die and with the strength of her feelings brought him back from the dead with her charmspeak. I don't see why I can't get you there."
"Yes sir!"
"Abi you're up."
"Hi i'm Abi but you can call me abs….I'm a Demeter kid so I mean the best I can do is boast a green thumb."
"I doubt that. Demeter is an Elder Goddess. I wonder." Percy held out his hand and a small knife appeared shocking the demigods. Stabbing it into the ground and removing the concrete, he grabbed one of her hands and put the other on the soil.
"Focus." As Abi closed her eyes she felt a rush of power as a sapling sprouted.
"See?" Abi marveled at what she did.
"I-"
"You seem to have a confidence issue, we'll fix that soon enough. You all represent what can be, I swear I will make all of you great. So let's begin. First thing is meditation. We'll clear your minds and work on activation." Percy walked into a nearby closet and returned with a training dummy.
"Wale you'll practice on this dummy it can respond to demigod powers. I want activation to be like a switch rather than a heater. No warm up just on. Lets go."
Percy was nice and all but if this kept up he would die was all Wale could think. Today was the final training session of the first 6 months and Percy insisted on a showcase. His training had started easy enough using training dummy as targets for offense and defense, the catch? No weapons, all powers. He could feel himself getting stronger everyday. First two dummies then four all the way up to controlling 50 dummies at a time. Then Perseus turned up their resistance and gave them sticks, that was when the bruising began but slowly he was getting it. The primal Ambrosia didn't hurt and every time he ate it all he could taste was his mother's jollof rice. This showcase had started pretty tame. 50 dummies made a circle around him and would come at him 4 at a time. Eventually he defeated them all, directing them to miss him and stab one another. He heard his fellow demigod cheering as the last 2 impaled one another on his command. The only person not cheering was Percy. As he leapt from the seets and onto the training room floor. As he walked towards Wale, every single training dummy repaired itself.
"I am so proud of you, but I think you can do a bit better don't you?" Turning on his heel away from Wale and towards the dummies, Percy raised his hand and the 50 dummies began to slam into one another until a giant dummy remained. It's eyes came alive with blue flame.
"Now then Wale lets see what you can do. The giant dummy lumbered toward him. No matter what order he gave the giant only hesitated for a second before continuing its attack. Wale was about ready to quit. As sweat gleaned on his forehead he found himself staring down The giant dummy. Percy had given him some advice.
"When you feel that pull in your gut when you use your power, don't play tug of war, lean into it. It is your divine side calling." Don't play tug of war lean into it. Wale exhaled as the giant training dummies charged. The familiar pain in his stomach bagan and this time he leaned into it. As he did he said a single word.
"Stop." Inertia was one hell of a force. Almost as if slamming into an invisible wall the giant halted movement immediately.
"Fall". The giant crumpled to the ground as Wale walked over to the giant, looked it in the eye and gave his final command.
"Implode." The giant began to crumple in on itself, slowly condensing into a neat ball. It must have been his imagination because in his reflection in the dummy he saw himself but with glowing pink eyes.
"What the-"
"That's how to do it." Percy yelled from his seat. Wale could only give a sheepish as he promptly passed out.
Abi was worried after seeing the heights power she saw her friend climb to, she doubted if-. NO. She wasn't worried, that was the old Abi, she had practiced so hard. She was trained by Percy himself. Her hand shaking wasn't from fear or anxiety, only one word matched her feeling right now. Anticipation.
"Clarisse, you see that twitching finger thing? I wonder where she picked that up." Luke said with a chuckle. Clarisse smiled and stole a glance at her boyfriend whose fingers were twitching the exact same way. The gate of the training room opened and 50 training dummies poured out charging towards her. Abi was ready. As she rose her hands vines erupted from the ground twisting around her. With an unparalleled grace the vines responded to her movements flailing like octopus arms around Abi. The first dummy was impaled. A pattern that continued until each and every attacking dummy had a gaping hole through the chest.
"Now that's a powerhouse." Clarisse commented
"That's elder Goddess Power, is what that is." Luke answered
"She isn't done yet."
Just like with Wale, the broken pieces coming together to form a giant dummy.
"BRING IT!" Abi yelled. Abi then did something that surprised everyone present. Stabbing her hand into the ground and yanking a giant bush of vines standing at least 20 feet tall. Then it happened, Abi's eyes glowed green as she began punching. Vines left the bunch at inhuman speeds stabbing into the giant. The vines responding to her will as she punched, another vine stabbed the body of the giant. When the giant was properly stabbed Abi clenched both fists and thrust them apart, ripping it to pieces. The cheering was deafening as abi staggered a bit and felt herself steady with Percy's help.
"Excellent work, Nature lady."
Last up was Sarah. Percy knew that vocalizing this wouldn't help in the growth of Wale and Abi but thinking it was safe: Sarah had potential to be the strongest demigod he had ever encountered. The raw power she exuded reminded him when he and Jason had worked together. From the beginning the nature of her ability made her special but her dedication, her creativity were weapons all their own. That was why he pushed her harder than the other two. A good example would be now instead of the 50 he sent her 100 but it would mean nothing, another example would be a bit more surprising but that was for when she pulled the hat off. As the 100 dummies encircled her, Sarah just watched them as she took a deep breath and extended her palm
"I can do this, I can do this, I can do this." A torrent of blue flame extended from her hand and blasted a row of dummies back.
"Blue flame!?" Luke exclaimed
"Percy, what the hell kind of training did you put her through?"
"You ain't seen shit yet." Percy answered
Sarah was a monster, blasting torrent after torrent with her hands and feet until there was nothing but pools of liquid metal. Naturally the goo swirled up and gathered until 2 giants stood before her. Sarah simply smiled as fire exploded from her feet lifting her into the air. Luke and Clarisse looked dumbfounded as Sarah looked over to Percy and pointed at her hat. When Percy nodded the visible joy and laughter was hard to ignore. Removing her hat and parting her braids, Sarah revealed a Tattoo that resembled an eye with wings extending from center. The audience looked visibly confused but Percy seemed to sit up in anticipation. Sarah drew in a deep breath, paused for a second, leaned her head forward and faster than any could see a small airstream launched at the first giant until it exploded in blue flame with enough force to crack the wall. The second giant received a similar fate. Slowly the fire at her feet reduced as Sarah began to descend. When her feet touched the ground Sarah was swallowed in a hug from Wale and Abi, the rest of the demigods following suit.
"I can't believe you finally got it down!" Wale exclaimed
"Yeah all those forehead burns seem like they're finally worth it." Abi said.
"Percy, what was that." Luke asked stunned
"200 years ago I read a story about a god who could superheat certain particles and push it forward causing explosions….I thought Sarah could do the same. Using her forehead as a focal point Sarah builds up heat so intense it's invisible. She uses hot air to push it forward until it makes contact with something."
"You taught her how to explode stuff with her mind."
"Essentially."
"But what about the blue flame?"
"When they were showing me their powers, I could sense restraint. At first I thought because it's fire she was just trying to be careful but in reality her flame burns naturally blue."
"You really made some warriors out of these kids."
"You know the best part?" Clarisse and Luke shook their heads
"They still have a year and a half to go."
Hi guys Peacoat here, I am really happy the questions and reviews are pouring in soooooooo I blitz wrote this next chapter and was eager for you guys to see it. Please read and review and if you have any questions I'm a bored guy I can talk all day. Later
Peacoat