Chapter Nine: The Hero Gets on His Feet

Annabeth woke up, with an eerie silence in the Big House. She thought she would wake up hearing Percy's breathing, or snoring for that matter. She looked in his room, empty. Oh no, this is just like a rerun of last time, I wake up to him missing, and I don't see him for months on end She thought to herself, "Percy?" She runs outside, the campground is still quiet, everyone else was either asleep or just about waking up. Annabeth ran to his cabin, banging the door like crazy, and, to her surprise, got an answer. Percy was looking down at her,

"Hey, Wise Girl. Why are you banging on my door?" He stepped to the side so she could come in, and she saw his stuff in the corner, "Percy. How many times am I going to have to say this until you get it into your head? Stay-in-BED!" Percy smirked, "Save it, Annabeth. I'm better now, see?" He walked around the room, perfect ease on his bad leg. She wasn't really surprised, Percy was very resilient, and he could heal quickly. "Um, when did you get the new man cave?" He looked over at Annabeth, and then followed her line of sight, "Oh! My dad, it was like, a get-well gift." Annabeth looked up at Percy, who was still staring at the T.V., "Well that's awfully generous." He nodded, walked over and leaned back in the recliner, "And you're not going to offer me a seat?" She said sarcastically, "Um…you can have this seat."

She laughed, "I was just kidding, Perce. Enjoy your man-chair." She could see his shoulders shrug and a hand come around, holding a controller.

"Want to play some Modern Warfare?" Percy asked, turning around and looking at her…

"What the-"Percy said as he got shot by Annabeth on the game, his load out dies. Percy continues to get his butt whooped by his girlfriend, who quick scopes and knifes him every time she gets the chance. "What the Hades? You're so screen peeking!" He whined. Percy's share of the massive T.V. screen read: Defeat, while Annabeth's read: Victory.

"Ha! And you said girls couldn't play video games!" Annabeth beamed.

Percy sulked, "Whatever. But I have to say- you're a natural quick scoper."

He stood up, and grabbed a bag of Doritos, "Chip?" Annabeth grabbed a handful, "Please."

They continued to play the game for about an hour. At around seven-thirty, Annabeth left to join up with the Athena cabin, and Percy lined up by himself. Being the only son of Poseidon at camp had some cons. Grover almost always ate with him, so he was never really alone at mealtime. He sat down at the Poseidon table, and Grover slid on the bench across from him, "Percy!" He bleated. Percy scooped some scrambled eggs onto his plate, along with a few pieces of bacon and a slice of toast. He walked his plate over to the brazier and scraped a portion of his meal off his plate into the fire. He sat back across from Grover and talked about small things like capture the flag and the upcoming warrior competition. Wait-what, upcoming warrior competition? His jaw dropped, causing the food in his mouth to dribble out, "Eh, what? This is the first I've heard about."

"And you're wondering why? Annabeth probably didn't tell you so she would have an advantage." A new voice had entered the conversation, Juniper. She sat down on the bench next to Grover.

"Heh. She's right, Percy. Annabeth may actually beat you. Perce, you've got to get back on track, unless-you want to lose this thing." Grover chuckled.

Percy thought about this. He realized they were both right, and that if he didn't start training up again, he would be left in the dust. Percy felt motivated, like he did when he was studying for a math exam, and he slammed down his fork, "I think I'm going to," He cracked his knuckles, "start some training."

"That's my boy, now get out there!" Grover shouted.

Percy scrounged around his cabin, searching around for his pieces of body armor. He grabbed them all and collected them in his arms. He was about to step out of the Poseidon cabin, but someone was blocking his way, Annabeth, "Hey Percy. How's it hanging?" She had a smile on her face, but it was shadowed by the steely look in her eye.

"Fine…" Percy narrowed his eyes, he knew that from this moment forward, until the competition, that there would be a quarrel between them, until the competition.

"That's good. So, did you hear about the, warrior competition?" Annabeth narrowed her eyes at him as well.

"Yeah, I did? You want explain to me why you didn't bring it up?" Percy shifted his armor in his arms.

"I don't know, actually." Annabeth picked something up that was by her feet, her own armor, "See you at the ring?"

"Wow. In my opinion, it sounds like you aren't going to be kissing those lips until you either give in, or, she wins." A voice said behind him. Percy knew it was Nico, and when he turned, found he was running his index finger across the flat of his blade.

"So, cousin, you're saying that I should either give in or…give in. That's a difficult choice." Percy grumbled, putting his hand in his pocket, and grabbing around for Riptide. "Are you in the competition?"

Nico scoffed, "Yeah. Of course I am, everybody, everybody has to enter the competition. I mean, half the people with be eliminated at the tryouts, then the rest of the people will have to be in the actual competition."

"Well, okay then. I'm going to the arena." Percy said, slinging his gear over his shoulder.

There was a lot of commotion in the ring, Percy could tell. He could hear the clashing of swords and the sound of bodies hitting the ground in defeat. Percy tightened the straps on his body armor. Once he actually stepped into the ring, he could see many familiar faces, and new ones, too. Clarisse swiped the head of a practice dummy of its shoulders with her electric spear, Maimer. Travis and Connor were slashing at each other with their matching swords, while Will was firing an arrow, splitting another down the center that had already been shot on the bull's eye marker. And then Annabeth was dueling one of her half siblings, who looked her about her age. Annabeth's sibling had no chance, he tried throwing her legs out from underneath her, but she stopped his foot in midair. Annabeth twisted his hands, causing him to drop the blade, and her to plant a punch in his stomach. He fell to the ground, and the bystanders applauded.

Percy rolled his shoulder around, and stepped into the arena. He pulled out Riptide, and clicked it, "So, you came to lose, Percy?" Annabeth taunted. She was seriously getting cocky about this, too cocky.

"You're on."

Oh, the suspension, I love it. The next chapter, obviously, is going to have a fight scene. It might be a little crumby, but I'll try my best. Heh, I got a tooth pulled and I had to get nitros oxcide and two shots of nova caine (hopefully I spelled those right). Instead of being all goofy like the last time I got that stuff, I was more like, blargh… *bloody drool coming out of my mouth* I had already been really tired before I was put under, so I just wanted to go to sleep.

Kiransomers: Thanks, I'm glad it wasn't :)

HungerGamesLuver13: Thank you! :D

I will update ASAP, and please review…

Blargh,

~iGwyn12

P.S. I think I'm going to change the summary and name of this story. It's not quite fitting for the story, yet. The next PJATO fanfiction I write will adopt the name, because I don't think I'm going to introduce the college scene until that story. I think I'm going to call it…I don't know.