"This is the person you've trusted with building my new arm."

"…Unfortunately,"

"I have regrets. I have many regrets."

"That is fair,"

Another small explosion rocked through the support room. Percy dispersed the encompassing cloud of smoke with small gust of wind. He'd initially been excited when he'd gotten the message that morning, apparently, his new arm was ready for him. Just in time too, as the festival was set to begin later that morning. It wasn't an ideal scenario, but after two weeks of having to work without an arm, he had thought he was more than ready whatever the support course had built for him.

He was regretting that trust immensely.

He stood in the large workshop next to Power Loader, watching as a small, pink-haired…thing...was putting her final touches on 'her baby,' as she'd referred to it. He didn't how he felt about someone referring to his new arm as their 'baby,' but he'd hung out enough children of Hephaestus not to question it too deeply.

He was, however, questioning Power Loader's decision to trust this Mei Hatsume girl to build his arm. She was brilliant, according to the support hero, a generational talent. But, in the hour Percy had been in the building, he'd witnessed at least three different weapons explode randomly.

"If this thing kills me, I'm haunting you,"

"Again, that is fair."

Hatsume appeared in front of Percy; sweat, oil, and other substances he was scared to identify covering her person. "IT. IS. DONE!" She cheered.

In spite of his reservations, Percy had to smile. According to Power Loader, the girl had been working seemingly nonstop on his arm. In spite of two centuries of potential medical and scientific discovery, the world of prosthetics had unfortunately stagnated, along with much of the scientific and medical community. In a world were even the most gruesome of injuries could be cured with the right quirk, there was little need for advancement. As such, proper prosthetics were rare and tricky to build. Much less something that could actually be used in combat. But Power Loader had assured him, that between him and Mei, they had built up something that would actually work as well as his previous arm.

There were some perks to being a student at U.A. chief among which, was the large network of alumni. That meant a lot of donations to the school. Which for Percy, meant that Nezu and the school had spared no expenses, in terms of constructing his new arm. They had even brought in neural surgeons, and cybernetic technicians to look over the designs, to ensure that what they built would work exactly like a normal human arm.

At this point however, Percy was more worried about the damn thing spontaneously combusting on him.

Hatsume grabbed him by the shirt, and with surprising strength, dragged him over to her workstation.

He gaped at what he saw.

…Should really check and see if Marvel is still around. Between Captain America and Bucky Barnes, pretty sure I've copied the entire Winter Soldier story arc

On the table, was a sleek, glimmering, silvery steel, metal arm. A full arm, complete with shoulder joint and all. It was a curious sight, since he hadn't lost the arm up to the shoulder joint. His arm was gone just about up to the middle of the bicep, so he wondered why they went with the full limb. He answered his own question, as he examined it more closely. There was a hole near the shoulder joint, that was large enough for his stump to fit in. The shoulder joint acted as pseudo protective sleeve, almost like a pauldron, only considerably smaller.

"They gave me a picture of your costume, so I tried to make something to match the silver highlights. We also couldn't figure out a way to attach it without sawing off the rest of your arm, and soldering it to your body. Which is why we went with the full joint." Hatsume explained, watching him intently as he stared at his new limb. "Well?" she demanded impatiently, "Try it on!"

"Um," he started, unsure, "How-how do I put it on."

"Oh," She said, "That's easy, here." she grabbed the arm from the workstation, and demanded that he take his shirt off. He glanced over at Power Loader, who just shrugged tiredly at him. It was par for the course with the girl. Deciding to just humor her, he did as ordered, and shucked off his t-shirt. Shivering slightly in the cool air of the workshop.

"This might sting a bit," She said, before grabbing him by the shoulder, and slamming the metal limb into place.

He yelped in surprised, then cursed in pain, as what felt like several small needles, were embedded into the rough flesh. As quick as the pain arrived however, it disappeared, leaving only the cool sensation of metal against skin.

"Those are neural jacks." She said, noticing his discomfort, "I don't really know how they work, the other specialists that were brought in designed that part, but they work to replace the neurons and muscles that were lost when you lost your arm. Go ahead, give it a whirl!"

He didn't really know how to proceed. Deciding to just wing it, he ordered his arm to raise in the air, like he was asking a question. Faster than he anticipated, the arm shot into the air.

He gaped, and lowered it. It felt exactly like a regular arm. He made a fist, and closed it. Getting into a boxer's stance, he started shadow-boxing. He started out slowly, trying to get a feel for the limb. Steadily, he increased his tempo, until soon enough, he was moving at his full speed. Dropping to the floor, he caught himself with the limb, and attempted to do some push-ups, in order to gauge his range of motion. He was able to fully extend, and bend the arm, with no difficulties. He pushed himself off the ground, but stumbled a bit. There was more strength in the metal limb than he had been anticipating,

He caught himself on the workbench and looked at the limb in utter awe.

"Yeah, be careful, not really sure what the strength limit on that thing is. During testing, we tried to match what we had on record of what you could and could not already do, but it was kind of a guess. Also, range of motion is going to be a bit more limited, but you don't really look like an acrobat, so I'm guessing that won't factor into how you fight much. You got a brawler feel to you."

Percy just nodded absentmindedly, still too stunned to say anything.

"Try channeling your quirk through it," Power Loader instructed from the side,

Shaking his head, Percy nodded. He reached out his hand, and tried to summon a simple sphere of water. No issues, a small sphere of water appeared in the palm of the metallic hand, floating a few inches over his fingers. He snapped his fingers, and the water disappeared.

Turning, he grabbed Hatsume around the shoulder's and pulled her into a hug. She "Eeped," in surprise at the sudden gesture.

Percy laughed, and quickly released her, both hands resting on her shoulders, "It's incredible Hatsume, you're incredible!"

She looked uncomfortable, a small flush creeping up her neck, then she just cocked her to the side and gave him an exasperated look, "Well duh," she said with a roll of her strange, yellow, eyes. "But," she said, jabbing a finger into his chest, as he released his grip on her, "This means you need to go far in the festival today. You're going to be a walking advertisement for how incredible my babies are!"

"Hatsume," Percy said with a laugh, "You've got nothing to worry about." He then thought about something, "After today is over, I'm going to hook you up with more business than you'll know what to do with." he said, already thinking of introducing the little gremlin to the Cat's as well as Miruko.

Hatsume blinked at him, then she grinned, sticking her hand out, "You and I are going to get along great,"

Percy smirked back at her, gripping her outstretched hand in his new metallic one, "That we are Hatsume, that we are."

He released her grip, then glanced around workshop as an idea occurred to him. The arm was missing something. A little token, to those who helped him get this far,

"You got any spray-paint around here?"

BREAK

He'd gotten so wrapped up in his work that he was almost late getting to the arena. It didn't help that he'd gotten lost wandering around, before an attendant kindly pointed him in the right direction. He opened the door in time to hear Iida shout,

"…And now our class president is late, we only have a few minutes before-"

"Iida, relax bro, I'm right here. Sorry, just had to pick something up," He said with a chuckle. He liked the guy, he meant well, but he went beyond an Athena kid sometimes.

All movement in the room stopped, as mouth's dropped in awe at his new arm. "Well?" he asked, flexing it for them, "What do you think?"

He was quickly surrounded on all sides.

"That's so cool!"

"A fine replacement indeed,"

"Wonder if they could make something like that for my arm's"

"YOU JUST KEEP GETTING MANLIER!"

"Kero. Will they even allow that in the competition?"

"Huh," Percy said idly, rubbing at his chin, "That's a really good question actually. Hadn't thought about that."

"It's not exactly a support item," Yaoyorozu mused, idly lifting up the new limb to examine it. "Besides, since it's literally part of you, it would be a little…cruel to take it away."

"Yeah, but I can see them pulling some shit. Ya'll do remember who our homeroom teacher is don't ya?" He asked with a small chuckle. There were some scattered looks and nervous laughs at that.

The laughter ended abruptly however, when Todoroki approached him, he heard someone mutter something about another declaration of war.

Is that a Japanese thing? It feels like it might be a Japanese thing. I don't remember anyone ever declaring war on me until coming here.

Todoroki didn't say anything after he approached. He just glared at Percy, as though trying to appraise him,

"What's up Frozone?" Percy asked when he finally got sick of the silence. Todoroki just ignored the nickname, Percy had been calling him that for weeks, and the man refused to explain why.

"I had thought, after your injury, that I would be better than you. Apparently, my belief was unfounded," Percy blinked at the rather casual dismissal of his loss of an arm. Not that he was exactly offended by the comment. If anything, he was more offended by the idea that this kid thought that a lack of an arm was enough to slow him down.

"However," Todoroki continued, ignoring the indignant look on his face, "In light of your newest…acquisition, I have to reevaluate. You are my stepping stone towards proving myself to be better than…someone else. I will beat you today."

Percy just looked at the kid. He knew who Todoroki was. Rather, he knew who the boy's father was. A simple internet search had clued him in, after all, the kid looked annoyingly similar to that Endeavor tool he'd dropped the koi pond on. He'd found it odd that the kid of the fire-hero, had ice powers. After a brief discussion with All Might during a training session, the number one hero confirmed his suspicions. Half-n-half had control over both ice and fire, but only used his ice.

To be honest, it didn't matter if the kid did, in fact, use both sets of powers. Not only was the sea Percy's domain, making ice his bitch, but because of his father's blood, fire was relatively harmless. Though it still hurt; he never wanted to fall in lava again.

Regardless, the kid had the worst possible matchup against him. More than that, he clearly had a daddy issue. Maybe not like Luke did, but the resemblance was still there, leaving an uncomfortable pit in Percy's stomach. So, Percy wanted to help him out, but he had to go about it a bit differently.

Todoroki had turned, and was in the process of leaving the green-room, when Percy called out to him.

"Todoroki," The teen looked over his shoulder at Percy, who's features had hardened, "I may have lost an arm, but I'm not the one crippling himself," Todoroki's eye's widened slightly, as his body stiffened, "I don't care why you only use your ice. Fact of the matter remains, unless you come at me with everything you got, and I mean everything…" Percy trailed off, as he willed several pillars of ice to form around Todoroki,

"You'll never come close, to beating me. You're not the only one who's been growing. The USJ taught me something, a lot of somethings. But most importantly, in this instance, it taught me to stop holding myself back."

Percy released the ice, and it exploded into tiny snowflakes and crystals.

"I'll hit you with everything I have, because I want to respect you, and how hard you've worked to get where you are. Same goes for everyone in this room. If you don't do the same…well it just tells me the kind of character you really have."

His piece said, Percy checked the clock, and his expression softened as he smiled around the room, "Alright guys, let's rock this bitch!"

Yaoyorozu's sigh of disappointment in his course language, and Iida's cry of dismay were drowned out by the cheers of his fellow classmates. With a wave of his arm, he gestured for the kids to follow him out of the door, and into the tunnel leading into the arena. They were stopped by an attendant, just outside of the arena. They had to wait a few more minutes before they were cued in.

Midoriya, who had taken up a position to his left side, was quivering like a leaf. Percy frowned; he'd thought that they'd managed to get some of that under control. But he supposed that nerves were common in a situation like this. They were about to performing on live-television, and in front of thousands of people and pros. Even he was feeling a fluttering of nerves.

Looking down, Percy placed a calming hand on the kid's shoulder, "Midoriya," he said sternly, "Take a breath, and relax. You've got this. You've trained hard, you've earned this moment. Cherish it, revel in it. This is your chance to tell the world that you are here!"

The boy stared up at him, awe dancing in his eyes for a moment, then he nodded, a grin of eagerness and determination finding root in his expression. "Right!" he said, punching his fist into the air.

Percy smiled at him, before turning his gaze back to the stadium, at the nod from the attendant, Percy took the first steps, and led his charges out onto the field.

BREAK

A hand found its way onto her knee. Her foot had been thumping in nervousness ever since they'd gotten to their private box.

"Rumi," Mandalay said softly, "Relax,"

The rabbit woman glared at the offending hand, but acquiesced. She was still upset with the four friends she was sharing the box with. For three weeks, they had been dodging her questions. She'd been in the middle of dealing with a villain during the attack on the USJ, and hadn't been able to respond to the emergency hail that had been broadcast around the city. At first, she hadn't thought much of the attack. Other than the sheer surprise that someone would have the balls to try something against the most illustrious school in the country.

But then the rumors started coming. The villains had attacked a group of first-year students. One of those students had been hurt, and was rumored to be in critical condition. The Cats had refused to tell her if Percy had been involved in the attack. The Cats had also refused to inform her of Percy's health status.

Rumi was not an idiot. If Percy had not been present for the ambush, they would have told her. If Percy had been ok, they would have told her. She knew he'd been hurt. Judging by the anxious way Ragdoll was biting at her claws, and the tightness around Tiger's jaw, it had been bad.

"We're sorry," Mandalay said for the umpteenth time, "But you know how NDA's work. We couldn't tell you, not if we wanted to risk losing the job, and losing Percy."

Rumi grumbled, but didn't say anything. She knew the Cats were beyond fond of Percy themselves. A fact that she adamantly refused to admit she was jealous over, because that would be ridiculous. She also knew that whatever had happened, had seriously rattled them, which did nothing to settle her own nerves.

She couldn't explain her worry over a man she hardly knew. All she knew, was that his progress, and his well-being were important to her. She supposed that it had been the way he had stubbornly promised to make things right with her. To fix the damage he had done to her reputation. Damage he had created, through no fault of his own. All because some bastards had kidnapped him and stolen him away from his friends and loved ones.

Her foot started thumping again, this time in agitation.

She was not willing to deal with her confusing obsession with the young man. Nor was she ready to face the reality that she not so subtly wanted him to wipe the floor with the competition, so she had an excuse to bring him into her agency. He was just a walking mystery. How did his quirk work, how strong was he now that he was healthy, what could he really do? All these questions and no answers.

Her head hurt, so she distracted herself. "I'm going to find out anyway, so how bad was it?" She asked Mandalay, not beating around the bush.

Mandalay grimaced. "Bad," She admitted, "Six ribs were broken, fractured skull, broken leg, ruptured spleen, punctured lung, broken spine-his T12 through T1 were shattered-and…" she trailed off, but Rumi didn't think she wanted to hear any more.

She let out a breath, her eyes wide, "H-how is he even alive?" she asked, disbelievingly. That kind of damage, at the bare minimum, should have left him crippled for life. Let alone alive, even with Recovery Girl using her quirk.

Pixie-Bob snorted, "He's stubborn."

That was an understatement. One that Rumi felt grossly undersold the mental strength of the man in question. He'd lived for three months on the run. Nobody to help him, and nothing but the clothes on his back and his quirk to protect him. Stubborn, didn't even begin to describe Percy Jackson. Even still, to undergo all of that damage, and not only be alive, but well enough to be fighting?

Her chest burned pleasantly at the thought.

THAT, was strength. That was heroism.

"To actually answer your question however," Tiger said lowly, "His body already heals quicker than most, we don't know why exactly, but it does. On top of that, when he is submerged in water, the liquid acts as a recovery aid. He has spent the last three weeks mixing baths with healing from Recovery Girl to fix what was broken."

"Hey, Tiger, did he ever get back to you?" Ragdoll asked seemingly remembering something, "I know he was supposed to go over to the support department to pick up-"

"He did. Texted me not too long ago, said he swung by and snagged it. Blew all of his expectations out of the water, he also said he had a surprise for us. Whatever the hell that means."

"What the fuck you guys talking about?" Rumi demanded. She hated being out of the loop, and she had the unnerving suspicion that something else had happened.

The others were silent for a moment, before Mandalay finally spoke, "You'll see soon enough." She said softly, looking more than a little distressed. The poor woman was almost shaking in her seat. She knew that she in particular, had a close bond with Percy, but this was next level. Whatever she had been cut off from revealing must have been bad.

Good thing she didn't have to wait all that long to find out what it was.

"Everybody, listen up and say hey!" came the amplified voice of Present Mic, as his image appeared on the Jumbotron, as well the smaller screen in the VIP box. "This year's show is about to get underway, you've all waited long-enough. So, without further ado, let's get this show underway! Please join me in welcoming the courageous young stars, who fended off the villainous attack on their lives three weeks ago. CLASS 1-A!"

The camera shifted away from the image of Mic, to show the tunnel as the students marched out onto the field.

Rumi found him immediately. An easy enough task, since he was taller than all of the other students. But that wasn't how she spotted him. Her eyes had caught the glimmering sheen of something metallic, as the sun reflected off of it. The glare was screwing with her enhanced eyes, so she shifted her focus to the monitor in their box, just as it panned over to him.

A chill ran down her spine. He wasn't wearing the top half of the gym suit, only a tank top over the athletic pants. Where a month ago, tanned flesh, hardened with muscle, had been present, was replaced by cool, shimmering steel.

Her mouth was dry; that explained some things. Explained why Mandalay had been a bundle of nerves. Explained their hesitance to explain his condition, even more than an NDA. An injury like that could normally be crippling to a pro's career. Prosthetics were good, but often times, the body rejected the new implement. The natural musculature and synapses of the body unable to mold properly to the new limb. If what Tiger had said was correct, then it looked like they were about to witness one of the first truly successful cybernetic prosthetic replacements in action.

"Fucking shit…" she breathed out,

Mandalay just nodded her eyes also fixed to the screen, "One of the villains at the USJ had an eradication quirk. Percy jumped in front of an attack meant for another student. That…that was the result. Then the bastard had the gall to steal the hand from his arm so we couldn't even use Recovery Girl to try and reattach the limb."

Her chest roiled in rage at the sight. The thumping of her foot against the floor increasing in erratic tempo as it matched her growing agitation. "How could he let something like that happen? Why didn't he just use his wind and blast the bastard away?" she demanded,

"According to him," Pixie-Bob explained morosely, "It happened too fast for him to even think, he said his body just reacted to the threat before he had the time to think of anything better."

She grimaced, but then she grinned, "Well then," she said, pushing her anxiety away, and focusing on everything else, "Guess he'll just have to work twice as hard to prove that he can keep up,"

Tiger snorted in amusement, "His exact words if I'm not mistaken. Kid's been working like a man possessed the last two weeks in order to get ready for this." he then shot her a mischievous look, "Guess he's got something to prove, eh little rabbit?" her cheeks flushed, and her ears drooped to cover her face as she turned away from the larger man.

She wasn't going to dignify that with a response.

The rest of the students from the other Hero course, the support course, general studies, and business courses were soon brought onto the field in class order. Before long, the entire first-year class was standing at attention in front of a large, make-shift podium, at the center of the stadium.

Midnight, who was acting as umpire for the event snapped her whip to gather the attention of all the students and fans in the stadium,

"Alright everyone, settle down," she called out, her voice amplified by the speakers in the stadium, "It's time for the student's pledge. Mr. Jackson, if you would."

The camera shifted, and Rumi cackled at the look of utter disbelief on the man's face. He didn't move for a few seconds, until the girl next to him nudged him, and he finally made his way up the steps. The camera shifted again as he ascended the steps, showing off the glistening silver of his metal arm, and Rumi noticed there was something painted on the bicep of the artificial limb.

She squinted, "Is that…"

"Oh, that little smart-ass" Mandalay said, though her voice was more fond than anything else.

Tiger let out a deep, rumbling laugh as Ragdoll cheered in her seat, while Pixie-Bob…it would be best if Rumi just ignored the way the woman was looking at Percy as she rubbed her thighs together.

There, on his right bicep, was a large Cat's Paw. Each pad colored differently, highlighting the different members of the organization, and stenciled underneath, was the kanji for the Cat's team.

It was a very moving gesture, if not a slightly confusing one. She had known that the foursome were his teachers, but that kind of devotion spoke to a deeper kind of bond. Just what exactly had happened for them to have that kind of relationship?

Percy approached the microphone, contemplating what he wanted to do for a moment, before he removed the mic from the stand, and gazed out on the assembled masses.

"Gonna be real here," he began, his low voice filling the stadium, "Nobody told me I'd have to do this, so I don't have anything prepared," He chuckled to himself for moment, and scratched behind one of his ears, "If I'd known there would be public speaking involved, I wouldn't have tried so hard in the exam's." There was some polite laughter at the joke,

"I'm standing here right now, and a million different things are flying through my mind of what I should say." He looked down, mic still gripped in his left hand, as his artificial one found purchase in the pockets of his pants.

"But honestly, all of things I think I SHOULD say, feel hollow, and empty. So, I'm going to say what I WANT to say."

Rumi's grin only grew, even as Mandalay groaned and buried her face in her paws.

"This is going to be either inspirational, or monumentally embarrassing, there is no in-between with him," she mumbled into her paws.

Good Rumi thought Speak your mind. Show everyone here who you really are. Show ME, who you really are

"Truth is, I'm pretty pissed off," Percy began, as he pulled his hand out of his pocket and held it on his hip, "For those of you who don't know. I'm not exactly from around here, and no, I'm not referring to the United States. A couple of months ago, I was just a kid in college, my biggest worries were getting to class on time, and trying to save up enough money for an engagement ring." A brief look of sadness flashed over his face, and Rumi realized with a start what the ring around his neck must have been. She remembered seeing it occasionally during their fights and chases, and had always been curious what it was from.

"But then I got taken away from all of that, and dropped here. Two-hundred years into the future, and a reality that, in my time, only existed in movies and comic-books." He started to pace across the stage now, as he built up a head of steam, "And for a while, I was on my own. Just me, the clothes I had on my back, and the power in my body. Then, the most miraculous thing happened." He stopped, a small smile on his face, "I got offered to come here. In my darkest hour, I had someone reach out, and offer me a chance; a chance to be something. A chance to belong to something. Most importantly, a chance to no longer be alone."

He laughed bitterly at the last comment, "Took me a while to understand that part though." He resumed his pacing,

"For a few weeks, I tried to go at it alone. Tried to isolate myself. But the students and staff here are every bit as stubborn as I am," Tiger snorted in disagreement, "And before I knew it, I found myself with friends. A support network, and people to rely on. It was…an incredible revelation."

His expression turned stony, his eyes flashing brightly. The wind in the stadium suddenly picked up, as a distant crack of thunder was heard. Rumi inched closer to the front of her seat, "Then, three weeks ago. Cowards tried to take that from me. They tried to take, the only thing I have left on this godsforsaken planet. So yeah, I'm pretty pissed off." He turned, and scanned the crowd for a moment, before seeing what he was looking for. There was a small, hovering camera, a few yards away, recording the speech. Percy gestured for it to come closer, and it obeyed, stopping just in front of Percy's face.

"Which is why right now, I'm not going to pledge to 'try hard' today, or that 'we'll show the world what we're made of' or any of that PBS crap." The reference was lost on the crowd, but Percy didn't seem to care.

"No, my pledge goes out, to the weak, pathetic, and cowardly villains, who were arrogant enough to try and take something from me." The winds had picked up, and the thunder boomed with increasing frequency, "I pledge, that I will continue to grow stronger, I will continue to train, and I will continue to fight. I pledge, that I will not rest, I will not give-up, and I will not stop, until I find you sorry mother fuckers."

Lightning had joined the thunder, illuminating Percy with every flash,

"Shigaraki Tomura, Kurogiri, and all of the others who were behind this attack. I know you're out there, and I know you're watching this. Enjoy your freedom while you still can. 'Cause first, I'm going to show you that you made a mistake not killing me three weeks ago. Then…I'm coming for you."

Then, with his left hand, he crushed the microphone, and stepped off of the platform. The wind and thunder died down.

The stadium erupted.

Mandalay had her head back in her paws, "I cannot believe he just called out the goddamn League of Villains on live TV."

Rumi barely even heard her. She was on her feet, screaming even louder than the rest of the stadium. This. This was the shit she lived for. None of that pussyfooting around. No games. Just a plain and clear call to action. She was cackling in utter glee.

"Oh, this is gonna be GOOD!"

BREAK

Percy slowly descended the staircase, drowning out the roaring cheers of the stadium behind him. Retaking his place next to Yaoyorozu, the girl looked immensely uncomfortable.

"Was that…wise?" she asked cautiously,

Percy shrugged, "Probably not. I'm almost certainly going to be getting a talking to at some point about it, but I meant everything I said." He looked her square in the eye, and she blushed and averted her gaze, the intensity in Percy's eyes was too much, "Everything."

He turned his attention, as a teary eyed Kirishima clapped him on the back, "One day," the redhead vowed, "One day, I will be as manly as you are!" Some kid from class B cheered something similar behind him. Percy just smiled, and wrapped an arm around Kirishima's shoulders,

"Stick with me kid, we're going places," Then he wrapped his arm around his neck, and gave him a playful noogie. Kirishima squawked in protest, but Percy's grip was too tight. After a moment of half-hearted wrestling, Percy released the boy with a light shove. Words could not accurately describe how good it felt to feel like him again. To not have the overwhelming burden of guilt hanging like a cloud over his every action. To be able to just have fun, and enjoy life.

It was beautiful.

Turning his attention away from the grumbling, albeit smiling Kirishima, Percy tuned back into Midnight, just as she announced the first event of the festival. It was a four-kilometer obstacle race. They had free rein to use their quirks as they so chose. He examined the starting gate, and the massive tunnel leading to the course. As the students charged forward, it would lead to stopgap, as the mass of bodies would prevent one another from moving forward. A plan was beginning to formulate in his head while the directions were being handed out. As the students all began to crowd around the starting block, Percy hung back. Making a conscious effort to be a few yards behind the crowd of students.

He watched as the lights on the start pillar slowly started to brighten. He began gathering his wind around him, and a soft breeze descended on the stadium.

"Beep"

Percy focused the power of the winds in his hands,

Beep

He raised his arms, so his palms were facing the backs of the students.

Beep

Too late to do anything, Tokoyami turned, realizing Percy was not part of the throngs of students. He saw Percy, his arms raised, a smirk on his face. His own features turned blank, as understanding dawned on him.

"I hate you,"

"No, you don't,"

Beep

'BOOM'

BREAK

"Ok, what the hell is he doing?" Pixie-Bob asked. They had directed their in-box monitor, to stay fixated on Percy for the duration of the competition. A nifty little feature that had been added so that pro-heroes could scout future interns.

"He's planning something," Ragdoll hummed happily, though she refused to expound on her statement. She was almost too far to use her quirk, but after weeks of close contact with Percy, the woman simply understood how his mind worked.

"No shit," Rumi snorted, "I just want to know what…" she stopped, as she noticed his hands. There was something happening there, a distortion of the airflow. Then, he raised his hands up, so they were pointing at the backs of the throngs of students.

"Clever little shit," she muttered, as she understood what he was about to do,

"Is that even legal?" Mandalay asked, catching onto the plan as well,

"If it wasn't, Midnight would have called him out by now, she's been looking directly at him since the countdown started. I'm guessing, that as long as he doesn't use it directly against his opponents until the start of match, it's legal." Tiger explained, his own smirk of amusement on his face.

Rumi started to say something, but the timer hit zero, and Midnight called the start of the match. Though her announcement was drowned out, as a massive explosion blasted through the lower bowl of the stadium. Dust, debris, and bodies were thrown in every direction, as students screamed in pain and surprise.

Rumi's foot thumped excitedly against the floor of the box. The clever little fucker had shot compressed air out of his hands with the force of a damn canon, directly into the mass of bodies in front of him. What would have been a wall of students, became an open road. Percy had wasted no time, taking off at a dead sprint down the tunnel, the second he'd launched his attack.

And just like that! The festival is already off with a bang as 1-A's class representative Percy Jackson strikes first. Was that even legal? Was it dirty? And also, holy hell Aizawa, what on earth are you feeding that boy for him to move like that?"

Rumi snorted as the underground hero sighed into the microphone. She'd never met the man personally, but she'd heard enough about Eraserhead to have a good read on his personality. It was shocking that he'd somehow been roped into doing the play-by-play for the festival.

"Of course it was legal. If you had been watching, you would have seen our umpire was watching him the entire time. If he'd attacked before the start of the race he would have been disqualified. No, it wasn't dirty, this is a competition, and Jackson has shown time and again that he's willing to do whatever is necessary to win. And I've fed him nothing, he's simply augmenting his quirk to make himself move faster than he can normally."

"UTTERLY FASCINATING STUFF!" Present Mic shouted, "But more importantly, while Jackson has taken a massive lead, the rest of the stragglers are only now beginning to recover, it looks like 1-A's Bakugo, Todoroki, and Midoriya are already in pursuit of the lead, with several others following close behind!"

Rumi tuned out the rest of the commentary, choosing instead to focus on Percy, as he came up to the second obstacle. The first being the tunnel.

Percy exploded out the other side of the tunnel, only to have to immediately duck out of the way of a massive metal limb, as it tried to blindside him. The enormous metal monsters of the entrance exam, the zero-pointers, were the first "real" obstacle of the exam.

However, Percy paid them little mind. With a wave of his hand, the ground underneath him grew slippery, as the entire pathway became soaked in several inches of water. Instead of sinking below the surface however, Percy stood above the water. Using it as a make-shift skating rink, as he bobbed, and weaved his way in and out of the metal monstrosities. The water was effective for a number of reasons. It was clear that while the wind he had been using to run was faster than skating over the water, he had been nowhere near as maneuverable.

In the water however, was an entirely different story.

"And it appears as though the first obstacle hasn't even fazed Jackson!" Present Mic called out, "Curiously though, he's not even stopping to try and fight the robots. Some would say that isn't very heroic, what would you say Mummy Man?"

Again, Aizawa groaned, but answered all the same, "I'd say he's being perfectly rational. He knows that his objective isn't to try and stop the villain bots, but rather to get to the end as quickly as possible. Moreover, if he can avoid having to destroy any robot, he leaves something behind him to slow up his competition. It's not cowardly, it's intelligent."

Part of Rumi, a large part if she were honest, wanted to disagree with the assessment. She wanted to see some action. But Aizawa was correct. Percy's goal was to win, and win in as dominating a fashion as he could. If that meant not having to stop to topple a couple of overly-large toasters, then so be it.

But just because that had been his plan, didn't mean that it worked out the way Percy clearly wished. There were simply too many zero-pointers in his way. As a pair of the metal behemoths bore down on him, Percy slashed through the air, as though his hand were a sword. The water below him rose up, and slashed through the legs of the pair of robots. Cutting through the joints with ease, and toppling them to the ground. Percy managed to jump, and clear through a space in between the falling villain-bots just before the space closed.

With that, he was clear of the first obstacle.

"This is going to be an utter wash," Pixie-Bob commented, as she glanced up to one of the other screens in the stadium. By the time Percy had cleared the first checkpoint, the other students were coming through the tunnel, and were engaging the robots themselves. Present Mic and Aizawa choosing to supply commentary over the remaining students, in favor of the clear favorite for the event.

"Are you at all surprised?" Mandalay asked, "He's four years older, a hell of a lot more experienced, with a quirk that literally breaks all known understanding of what quirks are supposed to do,"

"I've been meaning to ask about that…" Rumi said, Percy still had about a kilometer before the next obstacle, so she had time to ask her question, "He's clearly got multiple quirks. Either that, or the first wave of quirks was a hell of a lot stronger than what we've come to understand,"

Mandalay and the other's looked uncomfortable at the question, which just irritated Rumi, "Well?" she demanded, "Oh come on, quit pussy-footing and just tell me."

"Really with the cat puns?" Mandalay grumbled, "To be honest, we have no idea. Percy doesn't remember anything about his time in captivity, so principal Nezu thinks that it's reasonable for Percy to have been experimented on. The shock of coming to future, or perhaps heavy medication would explain why he doesn't remember anything, but it would certainly explain how he seems to have multiple quirks at once."

Rumi looked down at that. Her ears folding slightly at the thought of Percy having to be subjected to something so horrible. She forced the thought from her mind for the time being. She was here to enjoy herself, and the time for self-reflection and consideration could wait for the time being.

Percy had approached the second obstacle, a large chasm, with several isolated platforms, connected only by small chords of metal. A small icon appeared on the bottom of the screen, she assumed for the parents of the students, assuring watchers there was a recovery system in place that was out of sight of the cameras.

Rumi couldn't stop the grin from forming on her face, as she watched Percy. He didn't slow down as he got closer to the cliff-face, but instead, went even faster. He rocketed toward the cliff's edge, before his legs were suddenly coated in water, and he seemed to launch through the air. She looked closer, and wasn't surprised by what she saw,

"Heh," she laughed, "He's channeling the wind into his feet to launch himself further, while wrapping his legs in water to cushion the landing. He might have more potential than I thought."

Ragdoll's dry look could have evaporated the Amazon, "Sweetheart. We're all friends here. You don't have to keep pretending like you haven't already filled out the paperwork to have him intern for you."

Rumi's cheeks flushed, and she turned her face away in a vain attempt to hide. She crossed her arms under chest, and tried her best to focus on the screen, "This is only the first event. "He still has a long way to go before I think he can hang with me."

She refused to acknowledge that she had indeed, filled the necessary paperwork out to offer Percy an internship weeks ago. The festival was just a formality, if he didn't win the whole thing today, then she was not the hero she thought she was. And she knew how good she was, and she knew how good someone had to be to keep up with her.

Percy kept up with her.

And he was a golden ticket to fixing her popularity problem and then some.

And she was beyond interested in the man out of time. Anybody who could go through the things that he had, and still be strong enough to fight, smile, and live, was worth knowing to her. She wanted to surround herself with strong people. People who got it, who understood the life. From what little she had seen of Percy Jackson. He more than got it.

She shook the thoughts from her mind as Percy approached the final obstacle, a large strip of seemingly barren earth, that was actually covered in faux landmines. He stopped.

"The fuck is he doing?" Rumi asked the room at large,

"I have no idea," Mandalay muttered, leaning forward in her seat, as though sitting closer to the screen would explain the mystery away.

Rumi checked the other screens in the stadium, "Well whatever he's doing, he better do it fast, apparently there's a really good crop this year."

True enough, clearing the final ledge on the second obstacle was the number two's kid, followed by some blonde with an explosive quirk and a green haired little doll of a kid.

"He's got something," Tiger said, sounding confident, "Kid's always got a plan."

BREAK

"I could really use a fucking plan…" Percy muttered to himself as he stood at the gate to the minefield. The race had been cake so far. The robots hadn't been an issue, and clearing the chasm had been relatively easy. This, however, could a problem. The other side was too far away to jump, and for a moment, he considered summoning an earthquake to just destroy all the mines at once.

Only problem with that, was he had never had the chance to actually practice summoning earthquakes. Given the inherent destructive capabilities of a literal seismic event, Percy had never found somewhere isolated enough to practice, without potentially damaging people or property. He also didn't think he could summon one here, without putting the stadium and civilians at risk.

So yeah, earthquake was out.

He also ruled out simply summoning a wave of water and washing away the landmines, he didn't want to have any more competition than he absolutely needed, and he was sure this aspect would rule out a fair number of competitors.

He though back to the chasm obstacle. His method for crossing had been an idea he'd had in the back of his mind for years, but had never actually tried out before. An idea floated to the forefront of his mind, an idea he'd had years ago, after watching Jason soar through the skies like goddamn superman.

Percy had always wanted to try and use the winds to fly. What kid in their right mind wouldn't want to fly? But the threat of the king of the gods always kept his feet firmly planted on the ground.

Only he wasn't around anymore.

And Percy was in Japan.

Ok so he was committed to trying this. But how to go about it?

The image of Nejire floating through air, her energy shooting out of her heels came to mind. Followed immediately by the mental picture of Iron Man, shooting energy from his palms and the soles of his boots to guide him through the air.

"There's an idea," he mused.

He knew he'd wasted a fair bit of time, so he decided to throw caution to the wind. Focusing on the soles of his feet, and the palms of his hands, he jumped, throwing blasts of air out of the aforementioned body parts as he did so.

The effect was…different.

It worked. But he wasn't really flying. Whereas someone like Bakugo focused their quirk in a controlled manner to simulate flight, Percy's first attempt, was more akin to being launched off a trampoline. He soared through the air, screaming as he did so, as the ground suddenly came up far too quickly for his likely. In a moment of utter panic. he shot more compressed air out of the soles of his feet. The blast worked, but also triggered some of the landmines, and Percy ricocheted through the air, with all the grace of scared kitten.

He was descending again, the sensation of being airborne far too foreign, and unlike being in the water for him to focus on sustaining his flight. But he didn't need to necessarily fly, what he was doing was technically working, albeit sloppily.

He fell with more confidence however, as he grew more comfortable and confident with what he was doing. He chanced a brief glance up, and saw that he was within one more good push of reaching the end. With one final blast, he soared. This time, focusing on maintaining the current of air coming from his feet. As his feet pushed him skyward, he focused the air out from his palms, and tried to balance himself in the air.

It worked, shockingly enough. And for a brief, glorious moment. He flew. He soared through the air, like he was goddamn Superman. He realized why Jason loved to fly, why he always said that he would soar above Camp Jupiter when he needed to think. It was like being in the ocean, a different sensation to be sure, but equally weightless, and free. It was beautiful.

Until he lost concentration.

He crashed painfully on the other side of the range. Sod and earth exploding around him as he braced his arms in front for impact. Luckily, he had felt the fall coming, and had enough time to tuck into himself. So, he when he landed, while it was painful, he managed to use his momentum to carry him forward into a roll. Leaping out of the roll, he transitioned semi-gracefully back into a sprint.

Straight to the finish line.

BREAK

"Ok, since when could he fucking fly?" Rumi demanded. In her entire career, she had never seen someone with such a versatile and varied skill set. Better than that, was how Percy was creative in how he used his abilities. He wasn't hamstrung into being a one-trick pony, as so many heroes were. He had a multi-faceted skill-set and used it to his advantage.

It was honestly kind of annoying.

That being said, she couldn't keep the delighted grin off her face at seeing the wide-eyed smile of absolute glee on Percy's face as he tumbled gracelessly through the air.

"As far as I know?" Mandalay said, looking utterly flummoxed, "Since about right now,"

"I don't know if that was flying, so much as it was falling with style," Pixie-Bob laughed, though she too had a wide-eyed grin on her face. Though Rumi suspected Pixie-Bob's exuberance was for entirely different reasons, if the way her thighs rubbed together was any indication.

"Well, that's one event down," Tiger half-shouted as the crowd roared in approval as Percy jogged casually back into the stadium.

"Two more to go!" Ragdoll cheered, sending Rumi a cheeky wink as she did so. Rumi ignored them, choosing instead to watch her screen of Percy, as he rose both arms into the in celebration, and goaded the crowd into cheering louder for him.

"And with that, Percy Jackson claims the first event in spectacularly overwhelming fashion. Mummy man, as his sensei, surely you must be proud of your student for his overwhelming display!" Present Mic cheered,

"Jackson is four years older than his classmates, has more active experience in using his quirk in combat situations and routinely works as a teaching assistant in class. Frankly, if he hadn't won, I would have moved to expel him."

The comment was met with boos and hisses from the crowd. Rumi's voice mixing in with the displeasure of the crowd, not even realizing she was doing it, and completely missing the amused looks of her friends.

"Such encouraging words from the sensei of class 1-A! But now it comes down to a race for second place! And in the lead is, oh, what's this?" Present Mic paused he saw Percy doing something down on the field, "It looks like our current points leader has something to say to the camera! Let's see what he's got on his mind!"

A camera floated down to directly in front of his face. Percy looked dead into the lens; his face coated in a light sheen of sweat from his workout. With a very confident smirk on his face, the kind that made Rumi's stomach do that uncomfortable backflip routine that was custom around Percy, he moved.

Raising his hand, he pointed to the camera, before raising his index finger and mouthing the words, "That's one," then, with his metal right arm still in the air, he placed his left hand behind his head. Two fingers poked up from behind his dark black hair, and he wiggled the digits around.

Like rabbit's ears.

Rumi's face burst into a furious blush.

And she swore. Violently.

AN: Cheeky Percy is a cheeky little shit and I love him to bits. So yes, I did end up keeping the first event, simply because I felt like it was a good opportunity to check in with some of our other character's, namely Rumi. She's going to be a major, major player in the arcs to follow, so I want to really start carving her character out for you. Next chapter I really change things up so I hope you're excited. Also, let me know what you thought of Percy's pseudo flying. It's been something I've thought about for a long time, and I think it'd be a fun addition. With no Zeus to blast him out of the sky, I see no reason why he wouldn't give it a try. Anyways, I've been getting a lot of messages and suggestions on Percy's arm, and while it's flattering that people are so invested, I want to clarify something. The arm itself isn't important, and he won't be getting some hyper-super megaman style buster arm. It's just an arm, because when I wrote him losing it, I did it because the moment he loses it, is Percy's single most important character moment of the entire first arc. If you want to know more about why I had him lose it, feel free to message me I'm happy to answer your questions, but yeah, his arm won't be like, some game breaking thing. It was a character choice to round out his development from the first arc. Anyways, hope everyone is doing well, love you all, and stay safe! See you tomorrow for some more fun!

Love,

LilDB