"Percy!"

"Percy!"

"Percy!"

The shrill shouts of desperate reporters inundated his ears with noise as he walked from the motorhome to his teams garage. His dark grey fireproof race jumpsuit sat rolled around his waist. He walked through the paddock at the Abu Dhabi track. His personal trainer and assistant, Nancy, provided to him by his team, Corsair F2 Racing team. He waved his hand up to try dispel the flock of reporters from him as he made his way into the garage.

"Gods, I though they would never leave me alone." The Green-eyed driver despaired.

"Well Percy this is an important race for you, I'm not sure what you expected? This is literally the deciding fight for the F2 Championship!" Nancy replied, excitement clear.

"Yes yes yes, just let us get this bloody qualifying over. One final pole position in my F2 Care-" Percy's jaw stopped moving as he rounded the corner into his side of the team's garage, his jaw hung loose.

Before the prime championship contender stood his car, his pride and joy, his Riptide, as he had named it, lay in front of him. Well, it more hung suspended with 3 engineers underneath it, but this didn't matter to Jackson at the moment.

"Why is my car hanging from the ceiling?" He asked the room.

Tim, his race engineer, walked over to him, his headset on and laptop in hand. "Car's broken." He informed the driver, his tone clipped as always.

"Uh, I gathered." Percy retorted.

"Mhm, there was four different mechanical failures when we did the pre checks."

"Four?" Percy's tone was of utter disbelief. "So you're telling me that since the end of Practice 3, not two hours ago, the car has just completely shit itself and exploded."

"Not exploded, however it probably could've reading the technical readouts." Tim's tone was that of disinterest, however he was clearly very stressed.

"God above."

"At this point Gods aren't going to save this thing. There's no way you'll make it onto the track, and the team is going to have to bust their asses off to get this thing to the track tomorrow."

"Fuck." Jackson cursed under his breath.


"Ladies and Gentlemen tuning in from home, what you are currently seeing is the Corsair Racing car of Percy Jackson being taken apart by his team, by the looks of it, he wont make it to the track at all tonight, locking him in P20 for tomorrow's race." Paul turned up the sound of the TV.

"Uhh, Honey!" Paul called across the apartment.

"Yeah?" came the call back.

"You're gonna want to see this!"

Some rustling could be heard before the steps of Sally Jackson made themselves audible as she made her way into the living room. "Yes Paul, I know that my sons final race is on, bu-" Her voice fell short as she lay her eyes on the small TV they had. "Why is Percy not out on the track?" Her previous tone of exasperation gone.

"Commentators say that they think mechanical issues, given that its hanging from the roof of the garage." Her Fiancé replied.

"Percy's not gonna be happy about that one."


"Wait, you're telling me that in the final race of the season, The championship decider, might I add, I cant make qualifying at all?" The right hand garage of Corsair Racing was filled with the shouting of one Percy Jackson, as he faced down his team boss.

"That is exactly what I'm saying!" A shout fired back at the driver. "Maybe if you," He began, pointing his index finger right in Jackson's nose, "Didn't push the car past its limits in a practice session, it would fucking work!"

Percy threw his hands up in exasperation, "For fucks sake. If I don't push the car, I'm not going to know for far I can take it in the race!"

"You've raced the car before!" His boss fired back

"This is an entirely different upgrade package! The car is completely different!"

"Pfft. Hardly."

"Oh, remind me quickly; are you the one that drives this? No, you're not. You sit on the pitwall giving nothing but bad calls that favour your son!" Percy's face was scrunched with anger.

Outrage coated the boss' face and his tone was lowered to a threatening whisper. "You, are going back to your motorhome. You are staying there. I do not want to see you until tomorrow." His back was turned and he was off to the pitwall before Percy could respond. He looked around to see all of the mechanics looking at him, a heavy silence reigned.

He turned to leave, locking eyes with Nancy, who was looking over his shoulder. He turned to follow her gaze, and his blood stilled as his eyes landed on a camera crew, boom mic in tow.


"What the fuck were you thinking!" Not a moment of silence was allowed as the driver - assistant duo made it into the motorhome.

"That fucking asshole had it coming!" Percy fired back

"Yes, maybe. But did you have to do it in front of the cameras? You might've just put the final nail in the coffin of this entire team!" Her voice only getting louder.

"Oh well, I'm free after this race anyway." Percy blew her comment off.

"Okay, but what about me?"

"Huh?"

"Uhh, I work for this team? What do you think will happen to me?"

"Oh um, Sorry Nance." The Driver replied.

She smiled. "Don't worry about it, rest up. Gotta win tomorrow Perce."

He smiled back. "Count on it."


Race Day

And here we have it Folks, the final race of the F2 season, here at Abu Dhabi. Championship contenders Percy Jackson of Corsair racing will need to secure the win here to take the title from rival Jake Mason. Paul reached over to adjust the TV volume.

"Honey! Race is on!" Paul called.


"Okay Percy, back of the grid start, but we have the fuel to push for it."

The mechanics around him began peeling the tire blankets off. He reached up and flicked his visor down, letting out a warm breath in the balaclava under his helmet, warming his chin.

"Formation lap beginning now."

The cars slowly lifted off their places and began making their way around the track, snakelike movements up and down the track to warm tires, before arriving back at the start in his grid spot. The 20th one.

The cars stop. Waiting for the lights.

1st light.

Be ready.

2nd light

Anything can happen.

3rd light

33 Laps.

4th light

Clutch on and rev.

5th light

Deep breath.

Lights out.

The roar of cars filled the start straight as Percy flew away from his starting position, slotting his car down the middle of the two cars in front of him.

The rest of the grid ahead of him congealed, coming together as they powered down the straight.

His radio beeped as his engineer talked. "Okay, let's keep it steady. Don't be stupid."


Lap 22

"Okay mode safety car, mode safety car. Someone's gone off the track and car needs to be retired. Percy moved his hand off the wheel and changed modes, immediately feeling the loss of power.

"Okay safety car is out, you need to catch the queue."

"Okay, alright." Jackson responded. "Tell me stuff, how's the race looking?"

"Okay you are P7, you have enough fuel to push for first. Ahead is Michael. Your teammate is P4, Mason is P1. You need to take that from him to win the title."

Percy nodded, weaving his car to try keep some heat in his tyres.

The chain of cars lapped around the track as the marshals worked to clear the retired car away from the track.

"Okay Percy, we think the safety car is in this lap, your tyre temp is looking alright, we just need a bit more heat in them."

"Copy." Percy replied, keeping himself measured.

"Yep that is safety car in this lap."

They followed a few more turns before the pack began to speed up.

"Green flags." His engineer notified him.

Immediately Percy floored the throttle, his engine roaring with delight at his actions, powering him forward. Percy jerked his steering wheel to take his car flying past Michael, keeping his speed into the next corner.

"Good overtake, P6 now. Car ahead is 1.3 seconds away."

Percy could see the car, and began a charge towards it. He dived into the turn going hard on the brakes. Accelerating out of the corner to close the gap.

"Car ahead is 0.4"

Percy really pressed forward, feeling himself approach the limit as a judder began to creep in.

As Percy swapped sides to dive down the inside, the car ahead locked up under braking, sending it off the track in a cloud of smoke.

"Nice job. P5. Teammate ahead, 1.9 seconds."

"Tell him to let me past, I'm faster." Percy replied.

"I'll get back to you." His engineers replied.

Percy switched on his battery to give him the extra power down the straight in order to close the gap.

"Nothing back from team boss yet." His engineer told him.

It was futile really, there was no way that the team boss was going to let him pass his son, especially following their argument yesterday.

His radio beeped on. "No overtaking. No overtaking. No fighting either."

Percy couldn't believe what he was hearing. "What? Is this a joke?"

"Um, no."

Percy punched his wheel in anger. "I'm going for it, tell him to get out of my way."

"Percy I'm going to advise against that." His engineer replied.

Percy reached down and pulled his headphone cord out the radio block, before powering on towards the car ahead.

Following a couple corners and some aggressive pacing, Percy was right behind his teammates car.

Diving down the outside of the next corner, Percy's front wheel was between his teammates, his other just inches away from the wall of the starting straight.

Both engines were roaring at each other in competition. Percy could see over into the cockpit and watched as his head turned to see he him, before jerking his steering wheel. Slamming Percy into the wall.


Their tires came together first, Percy's front right going into his teammates back left, pinging his car into the air, and flipping it instantly.

The car landed topdown, and sparks filled Percy's vision as the car slid down the straight, spinning viciously. The car flew across to other side of the track and slammed into the wall at 230 kilometres per hour, before bursting into flames.

The Gs that Percy had pulled in the crash left him dazed. All around him the fire blazed as he hung upside down in his cockpit. He reached down to his chest to release the harness, immediately dropping to the floor.

He slowly began clawing at the superheated tarmac to pull himself out, before his leg jerked back, trapped under the steering wheel.

No no no he began desperately pulling at his leg, the roar of the flames blotted out by the blood thumbing in his ears. With one almighty tug, and a rip in his suit his leg dropped free, and he resumed his crawl to freedom.

After what to him, felt like an hour, he was free from his wreck. He rested head down on the tarmac, his surroundings were blurry, nothing made sense. He could see feet as people ran towards him, their words useless as he was completely incoherent.


To the many people across the globe, the crash was heart stopping. Seeing the other car squeeze Jackson into the wall and then having it burst into flames was just unthinkable.

The camera immediately cut away, as the race was red flagged. Leaving the viewers only to hear the commentators discuss the tragedy.

Oh my god! Jackson and his teammate have come together, he upsid - he's in flames! Is he out can you see him? The medical car is right there, and his pit crew are rushing into the track to try and get him out.

Is that - is - Yes! That is a hand, he is clawing his way out of the inferno as the marshals combat the flames of the car. He is just about clear, and the medical staff have him, he has survived.

Like a Phoenix, Jackson rises from a cloud of flames:

AN

Uhm, wow I live. Not really sure how but here you are. No clue if this is going to be greatly continued but here we are.

Cheers to CombatTombat for checking out the first section of this chapter and hosting a sick discord server.

Have fun and stay safe,

Dududuhehe :)