3. Going Redneck

Story Start: Six Months Under Time Dilation; Immediately After Breakfast

The first 'semester' of Percy's classes were now officially over and every one of his students were sitting in the coliseum. Every single one of them were practically vibrating with eager anticipation as they waited for their instructor to arrive. No one would really blame them though, not given what was going to be happening today. All of that energy suddenly turned to complete silence As Percy and all of the members of Cabin Nine entered the arena, each one pulling carts with cabinets on top after them. They stopped at the center and undid latches on either side which caused the cabinets to split down the middle and drop to the ground. Mechanisms inside the cabinet had rows of rifles, four per cabinet side and five rifles per row, pop up so that they were standing barrel up.

Percy allowed the campers a moment of excited muttering before he held up a hand and they all grew silent as he took a rifle out of his cache and said "Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you the Sarutobi Rifle. Using seals in a manner similar to a MAC gun, this beauty can fire a six inch rod of celestial bronze at approximately 4,700 feet per second. And yes, for those of you with mortal parents who hunt, that is comparable to the .220 Swift. These bad boys are made for more than just going after small game though, thanks to the elemental imbuing seals they have the option to pierce, crater, melt, slice, or liquify whatever you're shooting at, and yes, I did say LIQUIFY. There are also explosive seals for when you need just a little bit of boom, and finally, these rifles are capable of single, semi-automatic, or fully-automatic fire."

More than one person was actually drooling when Percy finished but they quickly wiped their mouths as he held up a small rod that was pointed on one end and continued "This is the ammo of the Sarutobi rifle. The rifles will each hold five hundred of these through use of a storage seal in its single slot ammo cartridge. It has return to sender along with repair seals along its body in order to save us the hassle of constantly having to make more ammo. On top of that, the tip has a 'dead air' seal which means it will not be affected by wind resistance. I am considering making a sniper version rifle that will fire bolts which also have anti-gravity seals on it in order to make extreme range shots. However, due to how destructive this type of ammo can be I will only do so if anyone is capable of shooting a hundred bull's eyes in a row at one hundred yards, and yes, I'm included in that requirement as well." Every single Apollo child seemed to take that as a challenge if the way their faces set in determination and their fists clenched was any indication. Even Chiron seemed like he was willing to have a go at earning a sniper version of the rifle if the way his body slightly tensed was any indication.

Percy created several clones and said "Alright, everyone link up with your class groups, seven o'clock class on the left, five o'clock on the right. Once everyone has a rifle we will begin proper fire arms safety and management. We'll be working on that for the rest of the day and then tomorrow you can begin using the firing range we made for them. Also, do keep in mind that these weapons will be returned to the armory each night so no personalizing them with any marks please." As all of the students began making their way over to the cabinets to receive their new weapons, Percy slung the one he had picked up over his shoulder using the provided strap. Grover and Annabeth joined him and accepted a pair of rifles as well and he said "Since you two were given the safety course yesterday, we're going to be going straight to the shooting range today." The two nodded and followed him out of the Coliseum.

Given the destructive potential of the Sarutobi rifles, the firing range was a long and narrow twelve foot deep trench dug into the beach well above the high tide line, with wooden planks and seals keeping the walls and floor from deforming. It was approximately a hundred and ten yards long, with heavily seal enforced bull's eye targets made out of pure celestial bronze five feet thick on the far end and proper shooting rests and tables kept ten yards from the other end when not in use sitting on rails that would allow them all to be brought closer or further from said targets. There was an incredibly strong barrier over the top of the trench that could easily tank one of Percy's Rasenshurikens (he checked), and you had to enter the shooting range via a ladder that was behind a short winding set of magically reinforced ballistics glass barriers provided by Hephaestus himself. There were ear protection and safety glasses hanging on both sides of the walls in the firing section and each firing section had a dividing wall.

Annabeth let out a whistle as she took everything in for the first time and said "Your clones built all of this in a single day?"

"Cabin Nine gave them a bit of help with the metal working, but yes. You would not believe how hard it was tracking down ear protectors with selective noise cancellation abilities though. While Hephaestus was fine with supplying the ballistics glass, apparently safety glasses and ear protectors are a bit beneath him. Thankfully I've got a contact who's in the New York State Highway Patrol who hooked me up when the god route didn't pan out." Percy said as he walked over to the safety gear and put a pair of glasses on and set the ear phones around his neck, the other two quickly following suit.

As they made their way over to the tables, Grover cocked his head and asked "How'd you manage that?"

Percy shrugged and said "During one of the trips I made to Eagle Roost a couple of years ago there was some whacky robber laying low by a rest area and I called it in. Why the guy stole only candy bars from gas stations and not anything else including money, I'll never know."

Grover and Annabeth traded confused looks before Percy brought their focus back to their weapons and the lesson started with a quick safety rules recap, the two putting the strange matter out of their minds.

Time Skip: Two Months Later

The forest was once more the site of battle as the campers had a Capture the Flag game. However, unlike usual, not only were the campers using paintball guns rather than the usual weaponry, they were ALL going against one other person, or rather an army of one person. Adding to the challenge was that Percy had let his Prankster King from Hell side out and had rigged the whole forest with paint grenades and other embarrassing trip wire triggered traps. Grover and Annabeth were each leading a squad of twelve campers as they tried to advance into enemy territory and out of all of the groups, they were the only ones without anyone 'killed' or 'critically wounded' though both had people who had 'grazes'. Grover was taking the ground route while Annabeth and her group were up in the trees trying to go over as much of the chaos as possible.

As Grover ducked back behind a tree for cover to avoid a barrage of high speed paint bullets, he tapped the over the ear style ear bud that Percy had hollowed out then put a communication seal in and said "Annabeth, we've got a machine gun nest here and are pinned down, can you help?"

"Send coordinates, I'll send two back to help." The daughter of Athena quickly sent back. Grover rolled his eyes and thought 'Of course she's ahead of us, probably only had to deal with a few traps near the top of the trees, that cheater.' Nevertheless, he sent his current position and a few minutes later, the machine gun nest went silent as the clone operating it dispelled when a shot hit the back of his head from above. Grover gave the Apollo camper a nod of thanks which she returned before quickly heading back to the top of the trees and the young Satyr began leading his own team forward again. It was going to be a long night.

Time Skip: One Week Later

Chiron gave Percy a deadpanned stare and said "Let me see if I understand you Mr. Uzumaki. You want me to gallop down a corridor created from your shadow clones and fire an arrow into a hole at the end that is only three inches wide before leaping over the end of the hole. Oh yes, and you want me to do this while more of your clones are firing rubber balls from sling shots at me which I must avoid."

"That about sums it up yes." Percy said with a perfectly straight face.

"May I ask WHY you want me to do this?" Chiron asked.

Percy shrugged and said "Boredom mostly, I mean you've picked up using the Sarutobi rifle rather well so there's not really anything I can do for you in that class. Plus, I want to see if you can pull off a Death Star run."

Chiron sighed and said "I should never have allowed you to have that Star Wars marathon last night. Oh, very well, the challenge shall be interesting if nothing else."

Chiron trotted off to gather his bow before returning five minutes later. In that time, Percy's clones had transformed into the proper shapes and more clones were waiting up top. Chiron gave one more sigh before he settled his shoulders and shot down the long corridor at full gallop, blurring even to Percy's Shinobi sight. Now if only he had some popcorn…

Time Skip: Nine Months Under Time Dilation

The sound of weapons fire hammered the air of the beach. Celestial Bronze targets that floated over the ocean waves just over a mile away from where the water ended and the sand 'began' thanks to the seals on them were being hit periodically, some with somewhat disturbingly accurate groupings. Lying in the standard sniper position on the dunes, half of Apollo cabin were looking down the scopes of modified Sarutobi rifles, the remaining half waiting behind them for their own turns.

The scopes weren't the only modification to the rifles, not only were their barrels roughly six inches longer than before, but the rods had anti-gravity seals on top of the 'dead air' seals of the original rounds. There was also the fact that they were no longer capable of automatic firing but that was a given for any model of sniper rifle.

Percy watched from another sand dune with binoculars. But while he was still acting as the 'teacher' of this class, by his own rules he wasn't actually allowed to use a sniper rifle himself just yet, something which Cabin Five had no problem taunting him about. Well, they taunted him about it until he used a long-range Flight Of Dragons Jutsu to hit all of the targets at once. Just because he couldn't hit a target accurately enough with a small rod of metal fired from a rifle didn't mean he didn't have his own options. Still, he hoped that before the camp ended for the summer that he'd be able to use the sniper model as well. The Apollo kids simply had a semi-unfair advantage on everyone else is all. Even Chiron wasn't quite to the point where he would be able to use them, though what position he would even use once he did was up for debate.

Percy was drawn from his musings when his water sensing abilities told him an object was moving through it in their general direction. Swinging his binoculars to the right, he adjusted them before he loudly called out "Hold Fire, Cruise liner crossing firing lines!" The campers jerked their fingers away from their triggers and flicked the safeties on their rifles before they all turned to watch said cruiser. Percy zoomed a little closer on the cruiser's bow and frowned before he tapped the communication seal earbud in his left ear and said "Percy to Chiron, the Princess Andromeda's back."

"That is rather concerning, I will be there shortly." Chiron said and less than a minute later, he was standing beside Percy who offered the millennial centaur his binoculars. Taking them with a nod of thanks, the Eternal Teacher focused on the distant cruiser and said "This makes the sixth time she's passed this area since we went under time dilation does it not?"

Percy nodded, not that Chiron could currently see it, and said "Yeah, wherever she's going doesn't seem to be very far from her home port which is strange considering how big she is. If she was a double decker I'd just assume she's a week long cruiser but given how she's got at least twenty two levels above water you'd assume she'd have a global route."

"Maybe she's breaking in new engines." The closest Apollo camper suggested, looking up from her scope and towards her two teachers as she continued "They could be keeping her relatively close to her home port so that way if something happens to them they can get her back to port easily."

"For a whole month?" The boy next to her asked skeptically, his rifle slowly panning the length of the ship as he began scanning each deck for anything he would need to shoot.

The girl shrugged and said "If it's really going to be doing global trips then maybe they're doing one continuous circuit in order to simulate a cross oceanic journey."

Chiron gave Percy a raised eyebrow look as he asked "I don't suppose you have a contact who could find out for us?"

Percy snorted and said "Despite the rumors going around camp I don't actually have contacts for EVERY situation that comes up." He cocked his head and said "I think I can track down the company that owns it and from there try and get that information but no promises." A shadow clone appeared which took the binoculars from Chiron for a minute before it pulled out a notebook and quickly scribbled down everything it could think of for the ship he had just scanned and then took off to leave the camp.

Everyone watched it go before Percy shook his head and said "Alright guys, this session's postponed for now, we'll pick up where we left in two days, once the rifles are back in the armory you have the rest of the period to yourselves." There was general accent from the Apollo campers and Percy activated the return seals on the targets out at sea causing them to be return summoned back to their holding area. As they all began heading towards the armory, Chiron and Percy gave the cruise liner one last look before the two followed after them, both with frowns on their faces.

Time Skip: One Week Later

Chiron and Percy were currently looking over a set of ship blue prints that his clone had managed to get a copy of. Gesturing at them, Percy said "According to what my clone found out, the Princess Andromeda isn't just testing out new engines, she's testing new everything. She was finished only two weeks before we went under time dilation and is scheduled for two more 'real time' weeks of test runs before she takes up passengers for her 'true' maiden voyage which will next make port in Miami."

"A perfectly reasonable answer for why we have repeatedly seen her, and yet something doesn't feel quite right." Chiron said with a frown.

Percy frowned as well and said "You think Scythe's somehow involved?"

Chiron's right hand gave a very brief twitch as he said "It is quite possible he was able to sway someone on board to have a look every time the ship passes us though how we could prove it or even what we could do about it if that is the case is unknown. Even if we could confirm that a crewmember was spying on us, it isn't like we could just kill him or her."

"And disregarding the moral side of that, even if we did kill whatever poor shmuck Scythe stuck his hooks in, what's stopping him from simply getting another pair of eyes?" Percy asked with a frown.

Chiron sighed and said "It seems that whether or not we like it, the only thing we can do for now is to acknowledge her presence and move on."

'And I definitely don't like it.' Percy thought as he began to roll up the plans. He'd place them in the Camp's archives in case they were ever needed again, and something told him that they WOULD need them again.

END

Author's Notes: We're coming up to the end of the Time Dilation training period. One or two more chapters before we get to the meat of Sea of Monsters. And yes, I realize I put a lot of focus on the new weapons, that is because they are going to play a MASSIVE role down the line.