Percy was quick to recover from his shock, and retaliated to the newest development in the only way he knew how.

Overwhelming force.

Reaching out to the body of water beneath him, Percy commanded a mighty cyclone to erupt, whipping the winds into a frenzy around him, and sending the attack towards the suddenly stunned looking pro.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Hawks said, and despite the calm and aloof facade he was pretending to maintain, his voice had a slight edge to it, laced with uncertainty.

"I would hate to have one of these innocent civilians caught up in your little attack, hero." The way the word "hero" fell from the hero's lips couldn't have been more sarcastic than if Percy had said it himself.

Cursing under his breath, because Percy knew that the Pro was right, Percy called off his sudden attack, and the gale and cyclone receded. He needed to remember that this was still an examination, and that this was part of the examination. The teachers obviously wished to test his reactions, his adaptability, see how well he could overcome sudden and unexpected obstacles. Well, Percy was never one to shirk away from a challenge. The first problem, however, was how did he deal with the civilians standing between him and launching an attack on Hawks? He immediately grew angry, not at the teachers for the surprising development, he should have known they would pull something like this, but instead he was angry at himself. Had he been able to make more progress in being able to fly, then he could have simply flown at the airborne enemy, rather than sit pitifully in the water, while someone far more maneuverable could avoid any ranged attacks Percy threw their way.

Deciding on a course of action, Percy decided that he would take a risk. Stretching his arms wide across his body, he summoned his power and focused on creating a maelstrom. Amassing the energy of his abilities in his hands, he let loose a mighty clap as he brought his hands together. It sounded no dissimilar to a cannon being fired, as a powerful blast of weaponized air launched itself at Hawks.

The Pro, surprised by the sudden and very aggressive tactic, didn't have time to get out of the way and was hit squarely in the chest by the concussive blast, which threw him end over end as he spiraled through the air. His concentration on his quills waned, and the feathery appendages loosed from the captive civilians as they darted back to Hawks. The civilians, no longer safely secured, began to fall to the earth, but Percy was prepared for this, as dozens of bubbles launched themselves from the water at Percy's command, catching the falling civilians safely. The bubbles were quickly ushered into the evacuation zones as Percy launched his next successive attack.

Taking a cue from his new home, Percy raised his hands into the air and summoned a monstrous looking dragon, made entirely of water from the lake. The dragon opened its tremendous maw, several sharpened teeth bared in anger as Percy commanded the sky serpent towards the still recovering Hawks. The dragon tore through the air at blinding speeds, bobbing and weaving around feathers and even just colliding straight through the minute obstacles on its way towards its destination. But Hawks was not one of the top up and coming heroes in the nation for no reason.

The man, in an absurd display of aerial agility, managed to fly out of the way of the oncoming attack, just in time to avoid being devoured by the enormous mouth of the flying behemoth. Percy had to dive back under the water to avoid a sudden onslaught of quills that Hawks commanded to fly at him. Diving deep into the water, Percy was dismayed to see that the quills worked as annoying well in the water as they did out of it, and were not dissuaded in the least by the water. Commanding the water around him to freeze in order to form a tough protective barrier, the majority of the feathers impacted the wall of ice and were stopped. Two, however, managed to eek their way through the shield, and embedded themselves in Percy's leg. Percy let out an audible cry of pain, as blood seeped from the wound, mingling with the water.

Pulling the quills free, Percy was pleased to see that simply being submerged allowed the wounds to be closed relatively easily, but he made a mental note to try and avoid getting hit with the damnable things once more, they hurt a lot more than he'd expected.

Seeing that no more quills were flying in his direction, Percy swam back to the surface, but much to his dismay, Hawks had taken advantage of the situation and had retreated back towards the urban district of the city. He could see the man was flying about, collecting as many of the civilians as he could, and hoisting them high into the air. Knowing that he had to give chase, Percy launched himself out of the water, flying in the direction of the winged hero.

As he approached the city, Percy made some calculations about his enemy. The man was avoiding direct combat, which led Percy to believe that he wasn't that gifted at it. Assuming that he wasn't a gifted fighter, mixed with his agility told Percy that if he could simply land one solid blow on the man, it would be enough for him to end the fight. Checking the large digital clock that was displayed on the wall of the complex, Percy's heart dropped as he saw that he only had a little over fifteen minutes left to complete the exam.

However, just as Percy was getting close to the city, the very ground under his feet began to shake and tremble. The pavement of the street began to vibrate, and the metal of the fake buildings creaked and groaned as the entire world began to shake. In his ear, Percy heard the increasingly agitating voice of his principle.

"Oh dear," Laughed the rodent, "It would appear that an earthquake is striking the city, how unfortunate."

Growling contemptuously, Percy was forced to deal with the immediate problem of the earthquake, allowing Hawks more time to round up more civilians. Since the earthquake was man-made rather than natural, Percy had no way to use his ability to stop it. However, he had a stroke of realization. If the earthquakes were being generated autonomously, then it meant that somewhere under the ground were the machines causing it. If he could localize his ability to cause earthquakes to the areas only around those machines, he could likely put a stop to the earthquake before it managed to do any damage to the city.

With the tremors and vibrations becoming increasingly more violent and erratic, Percy pressed his palms to the ground and focused. Channeling his divine abilities, he felt through the very earth itself, and attempted to find the source of the quakes. He was immediately overwhelmed by the sensations he was feeling, it was as though he could feel every spec of dirt, every worm crawling through the sediment below him, but he couldn't lose himself to the strange sensations, and he focused even harder, fighting through the onslaught of the feelings and sensations.

There, a few meters under the earth surface, Percy could feel something that did not feel natural, that felt entirely artificial. Taking a breath, Percy latched onto the feeling, focusing so intently on it that his temples began to throb. With a roar, he commanded the earth around the man-made structures to shake and collapse. He felt the very earth complied with his orders. It would be difficult to describe the sensation he felt. The closest he could say, was that it was similar to taking his shoes off at the end of a long day, as he felt the earth over the constructs collapse, and fall to pieces over top of the machines causing the earthquakes. At once, the ground around him stopped shaking, and the buildings no longer groaned in protest at the trembling planet.

Sweat dripping from his temples, his breathing heavy, and his head pounding, Percy turned his attention back to Hawks. The man was simply smirking down at him from some several meters in the air. Surrounding him on all sides were his feathers, clutching onto the clothing of dozens of the fake civilians.

"That was pretty cool man," The hero complimented, "Localizing your attacks and destroying the machines causing the earthquakes?" He let out a low whistle, "No wonder Miruko doesn't shut up about you. And hey, sorry about losing my cool the other day," He shrugged apologetically, "It's not really my nature to get so worked up, but what can I say, you kinda ticked me off. Anyway, water under the bridge and all that, get it? Cause you got water powers and stuff."

"The comedy thing only works when I'm doing it," Percy groused, as he tried desperately to come up with a strategy. Looking closely at the man's wings, Percy realized with a start that they were considerably smaller than when Percy had seen them at the cafe. Moreover, Percy had seen earlier, when he'd caught Hawks unawares, that his feathers had returned to the man instead of him simply getting out of the way. Percy surmised that when Hawks used his quills for something, he lost some ability to keep himself airborne, and that meant he was likely less agile. But knowing that didn't do anything useful for Percy, because he knew the man would simply dodge out of the way of any attack Percy threw, his way and drop the civilians. Not a problem in and of itself, and Percy could probably win a war of attrition by forcing him to keep dropping civilians and catching them. But Percy didn't want to just outlast Hawks, he wanted to beat him. Wanted to beat him into the ground for disrespecting him the way that he had.

Percy's eyes narrowed as he took a second look at the way Hawks was flying, and he was struck by sudden inspiration. He'd been approaching things wrong the entire time, he had been trying to blast his way through the air like he was Iron Man, when he needed to be more precise about it. Closing his eyes, he reached out to the air, uncertain if it was going to work but growing more desperate with each passing second, and he decided that it was worth the risk to at least attempt it. If the circumstances were different, he would have taken things a touch more slowly, and built up to actually flying, but that simply was no longer an option for him.

With a mighty roar, he leapt through the air at Hawks, who predictably maneuvered out of the way, but as Percy soared through the air, he summoned a gust of wind that was localized exclusively to him. His leap halted, and he was left with the strange sensation of floating. It was similar to being submerged in water, though it lacked the sense of weightlessness and freedom the ocean provided. He grinned in triumph, proud of himself for finally finding a way to work around his problem. He whirled around, the wind around him answering his wishes and spinning him to face the direction of Hawks. The pro was looking at him with an expression of incredulity and mounting aggravation.

"Seriously?" The pro called out, having to shout to be heard across the distance.

Percy grinned, his teeth bared in a feral and predatory expression. "Playtime featherhead!"

With a burst of energy, Percy shot forward. He raced through the air, blasting across the distance between him and Hawks in less time than it took to blink. But he overestimated his own control over his new ability. While he had indeed crossed the distance quickly, he used far too much power and instead charging into Hawks with a blistering fast attack like he'd planned, he blasted straight past the stunned hero. By the time Percy realized what he'd done, he was nearly a block away from the hero.

"Just 'cause you can fly, doesn't mean you can control it man!" Hawks called out, "There's more to flying than just not falling to the ground ya know?"

Growling, Percy stretched his hands out in front of him and summoned a blast of wind that he shot at Hawks. The pro yelped and was forced high into the clouds, but that had been what Percy was hoping for. He knew that Hawks was right, and that he was far from refined with his newfound flight, but he was going to worry about that later. His plan was to make up for his lack of finesse with overwhelming power. Which might be the only option that he had left available to him at the moment. It was taking far more energy than he had anticipated to keep himself in the air. He supposed it was a tradeoff as flight was his natural opposite. He was starting to feel dizzy, and his vision was beginning to blur. He knew that he needed to end things with one last shot.

As Hawks was soaring away from the gale Percy had tossed his way, Percy blasted through the air once more. Though this time, he didn't bother to try and control his flight. Instead, he simply opted for pointing himself in the direction of Hawks and hoped that his own natural speed, and the unpredictable nature of the attack would work in his favor.

It did.

Percy launches himself at the pro, his head tucked low, and willing with his entire being that his aim was truer this time.

Hawks barely had time to register what Percy had done, before Percy crashed into him, Percy's forehead colliding painfully with Hawks' stomach. Hawks let out a startled gasp of pain and surprise, and Percy could feel something inside the man's stomach shift and bend. Percy was fairly certain that he'd cracked a few of the man's ribs, but he didn't concern himself with that at the moment. His head spinning, and stars blurring his vision, Percy whipped a hand out and tangled it in Hawks' jacket while the other coated itself in ice, forming a large sphere that would no doubt shatter more than a few teeth should Percy use it.

"Give…up…" Percy panted, sweat dribbling down the side of his face. hawks simply groaned in response, and Percy took that as a sign that he was down for the count. Pulling the man's hands together, Percy bound them with a tendril of water and tried to bring them gently to the ground.

The key word being tried.

He was so exhausted, and his control over his wind was so much less refined than his control over his water, that he and Hawks dropped about twenty feet, before Percy's wind gave out entirely and they plummeted to the ground.

Or rather, they plummeted into the icy waters of the bay. Percy hadn't even realized that the fight had moved off in that direction, but he was certainly thankful. The cool water hit his skin, and he immediately felt his energy come flooding back to him. Whipping a hand out, he grabbed onto the jacket of the sinking Hawks, and swam them up to the surface. Jerking his arm, Percy carelessly tossed the soaking hero onto the beach, where he began coughing and spluttering.

"Easy there!" Came a familiar voice, and Percy turned his head to see Recovery Girl slowly meandering her way over, "Pretty sure you fractured a few of his ribs there, and I don't need him puncturing something because you're being careless again."

Refraining from rolling his eyes, Percy simply sat in the water and watched as Recovery Girl got to work on fixing up the damage that Percy had done. He would have gotten out of the water, but he was fairly certain that, given the amount of energy he'd used, he wouldn't have been in much better shape than Hawks.

"Well, that was certainly illuminating." Turning his head once more, Percy watched as Aizawa meandered over to him, Nezu bouncing happily along on his shoulder. They approached the edge of the small embankment and Nezu climbed down from his perch and sat down in front of Percy.

"Since your exam was more unconventional, I hope you don't mind that I took the liberty of determining your grade." Percy didn't quite like the look in the principle's eye as he said that. "First, I wish to commend you on your growth. I received the report that Miruko wrote on what you did over your internship. So I know that you worked very hard on your rescue abilities, that training paid off well."

"Thanks." Percy grinned.

"Indeed," Nezu nodded, "You were quick to adapt to the crises and reacted quickly and appropriately, minimizing collateral damage and maximizing the speed of pulling civilians free from the obstacles. You even adapted well when the villain," He glanced briefly over at the groaning Hawks, and then back to Percy.

"You reacted appropriately, and even started off strong by rescuing the civilians he'd captured and trying to fight him. You even acted appropriately and handled the earthquake in the middle of the battle appropriately."

Percy could feel a "but" coming,

"But," Nezu grinned, "That is where you began to slip." He began pacing back and forth, "You became too enraptured in the fight, and you began to neglect the other civilians that the villain had captured, and even the damage that you and the villain were causing among the city." He pointed and Percy followed the finger, and groaned at what he saw. There was smoke rising from the city. Large buildings were missing windows, likely as a result of Percy carelessly throwing attacks around.

"Furthermore, your final bout." Percy turned his attention back to Nezu, "While I do applaud you for managing to subdue the villain, I believe you forgot about something as well." He gestured around them, and Percy looked around, and felt his stomach drop again. There were mannequin bodies strewn all around the training facility. He'd forgotten that Hawks had been using his feathers to continuously capture civilians, and that they'd likely fallen when Percy had taken Hawks out of the fight.

"Damn," He hissed out, and Nezu smiled patiently at him,

"Don't be too hard on yourself Mr. Jackson." Nezu consoled, "That is the purpose of these training exercises. The mistakes you make, in here, save lives, out there."

Percy sighed, ducking his head. He had a feeling he knew what that meant, "Yes sir."

"That being said," Nezu said brightly, "I think your performance is more than worthy of a passing grade."

Percy looked up sharply, "What?"

Nezu let out a loud laugh, "Honestly Mr. Jackson, after everything we threw your way, and after such an exemplary performance, did you really think that we'd fail you?"

"I would," Aizawa said, but Nezu ignored him,

"You were thrown into the worst type of scenarios that we could think of, and managed to mitigate losses on a colossal scale, I don't know many fully trained pro heroes that would have been able to deal with that earthquake and fight at the same time." Nezu complimented, "And yes, while you did become overcome with battle lust, I believe I can understand why you were, and the rationale behind your decision."

Percy nodded, "I wanted to end the fight quickly. I knew he could evade me and capture civilians all day if he needed to, so I figured if I just kept his attention focused on me, fewer people could get caught in the crossfire."

Nezu let out another laugh, "Exactly as I suspected," He cheered happily,

"While you need to refine yourself more, Mr. Jackson, and you need to take better care to understand your situation and surroundings better. But that being said, you did excellently, and continue to exceed my expectations. Well done, and enjoy your time at camp."

With his piece said, the principle turned on his small feet, and began meandering away from the field. Aizaiwa cast a single, meaningful look in Percy's direction. He nodded at him, before following suit.

BREAK

He recognized where he was. He'd been there enough over the last few days to know it almost immediately. As with the other several times, thunder roared, and lightning forked and streaked across the sky. The building remained the same, just as it had been every other time he'd seen it. He looked up near the top once more, hoping to once more catch a glimpse of the shadowy figure that had been there all the times before.

But as he peered through the rain and inky darkness of the night, he didn't see anything. Lightning flashed overhead once more, illuminating the top of the building again but still, there was no figure there.

He was confused, these sorts of things…they were fairly predictable, but the dream had changed? That was…a first for him.

But just as the thought began to cross his mind, he felt a strange sensation swirl around him. It was strange, as it was the first time he'd felt any sort of sensation since entering these odd visions. It began in the pit of his stomach, before slowly spreading through each of his limbs and creeping up his neck. It was a warmth, the warmth of a campfire on a cool summer night. He felt a familiar calm fall over him, as a nostalgic sense of home, belonging, and love blossomed in his chest. He was blanketed in the warmth, and found himself closing his eyes and enjoying the sensation.

There was a tickle around the tips of his ears, as though someone were breathing softly just over his shoulder.

Then a voice.

It was soft and melodic. The caring voice of a mother looking after her child.

"…er..y…"

But the voice was muffled, and though Percy was certain he could hear it, it was though the speaker was speaking through a muffle. What were they trying to say? Was someone calling after him?

He strained his ears and tried to focus on the speaker.

"…Percy…"

There! He was certain that time that he heard his name.

"…Percy…home…come…home…"

Come home? What was this, what was going on?

"Must…return…Shinto…"

The voice faded and the warmth disappeared from around him. He felt a familiar jerk around his navel and felt himself once more being yanked upwards. He blinked, and awoke with a heaving gasp back in his bed once more.

Raising a trembling hand to his temple, he thought back on the voice.

"What the hell was that?"

BREAK

She collapsed into her chair, exhaustion overtaking her. Though she could feel some of her former power returning to her, she was still weak and the exercise had taken much of her energy from her. She sighed wearily and sank deeper into the chair.

"Is it done?"

Hestia had to make a concerted effort not to groan. Her…guest was starting to grate on her last nerve. She was patient, perhaps the most patient of any of her kin, but even she had her limits.

"It is." She said, opening her eyes and looking over at the tall goddess in her home. "I have done all I can, the rest is up to him."

"No," The goddess snarled, "Not good enough. I have been more than patient, more than considerate. I have waited nearly a year, I have allowed him time to grieve and to adjust, and now I will have him gone."

"I cannot control him, nor can I dictate his actions." Hestia said carefully,

The goddess let out an indignant huff of agitation, "And here I thought you controlled your spawn."

"He is not my child," Hestia corrected, "He is my nephew, which I know you know. And as you know, he is a child of the sea, and as my brother was fond of saying, the sea cannot be contained…er controlled."

"Which is precisely why he must be gone!" The goddess snarled, a flash of light illuminating the room for a brief moment before disappearing. The goddess took a shuddering breath, and composed herself. "I have given him time, but this is the end. I will not have another storm-born cursing my lands, least of all a Greek. Not after what his father did."

"You are punishing the son for the sins of the father." Hestia countered, "Has he not been through enough? Has he not been a champion for your people?"

"His acts of kindness and heroism have not gone unnoticed," The goddess conceded. "And it is for those acts alone, that I am allowing him to leave, and not simply taking care of the problem myself."

Hestia looked closely, her eyes narrowed as she observed the fine features of the goddess,

"There's more to this…isn't there?" She asked, "There's more than your own hatred toward children of seas and storms. What aren't you telling me?"

"Nothing that is the concern of a withering goddess such as yourself." The goddess snapped, and Hestia's eyes narrowed dangerously, as the temperature of the room began to noticeably climb.

"I would hold your tongue," Hestia said carefully, "My youngest brother I am not, but even I have limits to what disrespect I am willing to tolerate."

The goddess clicked her tongue, but nevertheless, heeded the goddess' warning.

"See to it that the storm-born comes, and that he does not return to my lands again."

"I will pass on the warning," Hestia confirmed, "Though I doubt it will do much good. The boy is ever his father's son."

"Then you know what will happen." The goddess warned ominously, and Hestia didn't bother hiding the snort that escaped her.

"You may not be familiar with my people, but I can assure you, that whatever you think you can do to Perseus Jackson…He will overcome it."

The goddess narrowed her eyes once more, before disappearing in a flash of brilliant white light. Hestia blinked as the light faded, and let out a soft sigh. As she gazed up at the light streaming in through her window, and gazed upon the stars of her long lost niece, a sadness filled her.

Once more, her nephew would be tangling with the divine. She only prayed that he would be up to the task.

B/N: Hello, for all those wondering about updates regarding LilDBs other stories, do not be alarmed by the dates, he is getting back to them. There's certain procedures LDB likes to go through with his stories and constantly asking for updates of stories he's just updated doesn't help because of the way he writes. If you'd like to "professionally request" a story be updated, a PM is better than a review, and if you'd rather a straight answer, send it to me. Just saying. Anyway, have fun, and I'll hand over to him now!

AN: Well, that does it for now! Hope you guys enjoyed the way this arc went down, and I know that you guys will love what we have planned next. The story gets very interesting from here on out, so get ready! As always shoutout to Double0Sxvxn for being an awesome Beta and dealing with my bullshit and as always if you enjoyed this but haven't checked out my other work, give them a try you never know you might find something else you like. I'm also on discord now, where I and a bunch of other writers hang out, chat and brainstorm ideas, you just have to copy the link that's in my profile bio if you want to come and hang out with us. Stay safe, stay healthy and have an awesome week.

All My Love and see you next week,

LilDB