I don't own Percy Jackson, obviously, or else I wouldn't be writing fan fiction instead of the real thing.


Chapter Three: Commanding Reality

"Alright, everyone! Time to wake up!"

Percy grumbled into his sleeping bag. He would've asked for a few more minutes, but it seemed like too much effort.

"Come on! Move, move, move!"

Loud clapping followed Luke's last morning call. After a few seconds, Percy decided it was too obnoxious to ignore and sat up, stretching out his arms and giving a large yawn.

He cringed when he heard all the popping that it caused, and was already dreading having to sleep in the Hermes lodgings for the rest of the summer. There weren't many beds, and they were all reserved for the senior campers. All the 'squirts' had to use the sleeping bags provided by the camp, which were all laid side-by-side on the ground to provide more room to the cramped cabin.

"Everyone head towards the showers, and then the pavilion for breakfast! Let's go, there's no time to rest!"

Percy snorted. It was easy for someone who slept in a comfy bed to be up and ready at eight in the morning.

"Come on Luke, just five more minutes!" shouted a camper who slept on one of the comfy beds.

Well, it was supposed to be easy.

As he was heading out of the cabin, Luke stopped Percy and waited for everyone else to get out before speaking. "Listen, Percy," he started, "after you're done with breakfast, I need you to meet up with a tutor on Ancient Greek instead of following everyone else to sword training."

Percy was confused and a little put out. He'd wanted to actually learn how to use his sword and now Luke was telling him that he couldn't train with everyone else. "But why?" he asked, a little resentfully.

Luke held his hands out. "Don't worry, I'll still teach you about fighting, but since you're a new camper you need to learn how to speak the language. Everyone does it when they first come here, and it'll only be for an hour a day."

Percy nodded with relief. "So when are you gonna teach me then?" he asked.

Luke smirked a bit. "Oh, I'll teach you later, at 3:30 PM. Alone."

Percy beamed at his councilor. "Alone? Why me?"

Luke shrugged his shoulders. "You just seem like you could be really good, and you're new, so you'll need more help than the others. I'll see you in a few hours, alright?"

Percy nodded enthusiastically. He'd be getting training from the best sword fighter in centuries, alone. It was like an apprenticeship, except that it was only a few hours a day... not counting weekends. Hopefully he'd get decent enough before the capture-the-flag game on Friday. Then again, he had something else to work on that might give him an edge...


Breakfast had been fairly dull, not that Percy didn't enjoy it. Hanging out with his cabin-mates and eating a healthy serving of cereal and apples (provided, of course, by the Demeter cabin) was a great to spend his morning, but after all the excitement from the day before it was decidedly uneventful.

The young demigod smiled to himself. Uneventful was exactly what he wanted, especially seeing as he had just got there the day before.

He was heading to the meeting place Luke gave him, but was interrupted by Katie's appearance on his left.

"Percy," she greeted him, "I got it."

Percy stopped walking and gave her his full attention. "Really? So, what'd you find?"

Katie's grin widened. "Well, I looked around a bit, and found out that what you have hasn't been seen or heard of in any demigod in history."

Percy's spirits fell. "Well what's so great about that?" he asked hotly.

Katie rolled her eyes. "Calm down, I'm not done yet. It turns out that there have been mortals with your powers, not demigods. The things you can do are most likely a type of Psychokinesis."

Percy looked at her with a bland expression, blinking a few times, and the daughter of Demeter scoffed.

"Really?" she asked, annoyance slipping into her voice. "Don't you know anything? Hmph. Well, Psychokinesis is the ability to control stuff with your mind. More specifically, you can control atoms."

Percy looked at her weirdly. "So I can control atoms, and your point is..."

"Percy!" Katie almost shouted. "I'm not a child of Athena, but even I know that controlling atoms is a big deal! Everything is made up of atoms. You probably have the most powerful ability ever!"

Percy nodded, a little embarrassed at having missed something so apparently obvious. "So you're saying I can move atoms with my mind. Wonder what I can do with that... You think I can just take control of people and stuff?"

The demigoddess shook her head at his underwhelming reaction. "We'll talk about it later okay? I have arts and crafts now."

Percy nodded and watched her leave, wondering how she had been able to deduce his powers in one day when he couldn't do it in twelve years.


Percy found his designated table in the open field between cabins a few minutes after his encounter with Katie. He made his way to his seat, nervously glancing at his new tutor.

She looked around his age, with blonde hair and the grey eyes that every child of Athena seemed to share. She was sitting on the other side of the table, a stern and slightly peeved expression on her pretty face.

"You're late," she said flatly the moment he sat down on his seat.

Percy chuckled sheepishly, scratching his cheek and dropping his bag with his other hand. "Sorry about that," he apologized, "I was talking to someone about something pretty important."

She didn't seem impressed with his excuse, and he wasn't expecting her to be. It was a bad excuse.

"Anyway," he said quickly, "my name's Percy Jackson-"

"I know what your name is," she interrupted, to Percy's annoyance, "everyone does. Minotaur, remember?"

Percy fought the urge to sigh in exasperation. Seriously, people were making that out to be such a big deal, and he was sure at least half the people in camp could do the same, and more efficiently.

Not aware of his thoughts, the blonde continued. "My name is Annabeth Chase, and I'll be tutoring you in the Ancient Greek language."

Percy nodded. She was a little harsh, but he couldn't blame her. After all, she was probably as excited about this as he was.

"I don't get it though," he said "I already know how to read it and stuff. It's in our blood, right?"

Annabeth sighed. "Yes, but just because you can translate the words doesn't mean you can speak it properly. Every language has its own grammar, and this is no different. Now let's get started."

And so began the most boring hour of Percy's life. He tried paying attention at first, but after almost falling asleep he just decided to think about what Katie had told him. If he could control anything with his mind, could he just fling cars around? Did an object's weight make it any harder for him?

What about people? when Katie said that he could take control of everything, did she also mean things that were alive, like animals and plants? Did he even want such an ability? It sounded a little evil to turn living beings into puppets.

"Percy," a frustrated voice called.

The psychokinetic was brought back to the world only to see a very annoyed daughter of Athena glaring at him.

"Are you listening?" she asked.

"Yeah, you were saying how the term 'am' could be used in two other forms than what we're used to in English," Percy replied without missing a beat, at the same time wondering if his multitasking abilities were related to his powers.

Annabeth blinked in surprise before rubbing the bridge of her nose. Percy gulped, feeling a sudden, survivalistic urge to calm her down somehow before she went all female fury on him. He tried thinking of something to distract her with, but then remembered that she was one of the few people who could answer his questions.

"Hey," he began, trying to sound as uninterested about his own words as possible, "hypothetically speaking, if I were able to, say, move atoms with my mind, how would that affect other people?"

Hey, she was a daughter of the wisdom goddess. If she didn't know, who did?

Annabeth was caught off guard by his seemingly random question, but after a few moments, narrowed her eyes in thought.

"Well, I guess that it wouldn't really affect people at all," she said, and then seeing the questioning look on Percy, she continued, "I mean that, since all the atoms in a person are being manipulated by the person themselves already, an intrusion like that would be blocked off instinctively. Hypothetically speaking of course," she added as an afterthought, wondering why her temporary student would ask something like that.

Percy didn't know whether to be dismayed or relieved. On one hand, he couldn't control people and make them do whatever he wanted, something that would've been awesome. On the other hand, he would've felt slightly tainted at taking away someone's free will.

"What does it matter anyway?" Annabeth asked.

Percy hesitated, which made the blonde narrow her calculating eyes.

"Oh, uh... I was just curious y'know? It'd be a pretty cool power to have," he finally said.

Annabeth didn't look like she was buying it, but she dropped the subject and got back to Ancient Greek. Percy almost sighed in relief, but stopped himself before he arose any more suspicion. He didn't want it to get out that he might be the most powerful demigod ever, especially before he even learned how to use his own power.


With a satisfied smile and a full stomach, Percy made his way to the shore of the camp lake, where he and Katie had agreed to meet. They both had free time to do whatever they wanted after lunch, and it was going to be spent training their abilities.

The daughter of Demeter hadn't really wanted to spend her free time training, but Percy convinced her, saying that the reason she couldn't grow anything bigger than a cherry bush was because she never trained her own powers.

When he got to his destination, Percy found no one else there. Sitting down on the grass under the shadow of a large tree, he decided to wait for his friend. After a couple of minutes, he quickly grew bored and decided to start on his own.

'Alright, start with something small,' Percy thought to himself. He looked around until he spotted a sizable pebble, only slightly bigger than his fingernail. Seeing this, he reached out and plucked it from it's place on the ground, holding it out in front of his face. The psychokinetic started to concentrate on the pebble like he did with the toilet seat the day before, imaging it flying up from his hand.

What he thought would be an easy exercise turned out to be a frustrating task. 'Why can't I do it now?' he asked himself after several minutes of failure, seriously thinking of just throwing the pebble into the lake and being done with the whole thing.

"Percy? Why are you staring at a rock?"

The amused question made him lose his focus, and he gave Katie a glare over his shoulder. "I'm trying to concentrate," he growled.

Katie sat down next to him, leaning on the tree with her hands on her knees. She smirked at his frustration. "Having trouble?" she asked.

Percy sighed, closing his eyes and trying to calm down. "I'll get it eventually," he told her. "I just need to figure this out."

Katie stopped teasing her friend before he blew a gasket. "Maybe it's not just about concentrating. What were you doing that made you need to use your powers in the first place?"

Percy crossed his arms and leaned back against the tree, a contemplative look on his face. "I was getting manhandled by Clarisse. She was about to shove my head in a toilet, so I hit her with the seat."

Katie chuckled at the mental image. "Right," she said, holding her chin. "You must've been pretty scared right?"

Percy held his chin up high. "Yeah right. I wasn't scared, just... nervous."

His plant-loving friend snorted. "Sure," she drawled out, "anyway, maybe you just need to feel, ah... nervous," she made air quotes with her fingers, and Percy grunted, "to use your powers again."

Percy frowned at the her theory. "Nah, there has to be another way. I don't wanna have to be nervous just to lift a rock." He hummed in thought. "Hey, how do you use your powers?"

Katie blinked at his question. "I guess I just, I don't know, ask the plant to grow."

Percy looked at her uncertainly. "You... ask the plants? Really? Do you have to say 'please'?"

Katie shoved his arm. "Not like that. It's more like... I can't just make them do what I want, because plants are living things too. I work with them, and we do it together."

Percy nodded, understanding what his friend was saying. "So you think that'll work for me? How am I supposed to work with a rock though?"

Katie shook her head. "I don't think it's like that. Your powers aren't demigod powers, so they would work another way."

Percy held his face with his hands, giving an aggravated sigh. He'd been so excited to finally start controlling his weird abilities before, but it seemed like it'd be impossible.

Katie suddenly sat up, glaring at something behind him. The demigod turned to look at a couple of younger kids throwing their trash on the grass.

"Hey!" the daughter of Demeter shouted. "Pick that up right now!"

The kids stiffened at her call, and hurriedly picked up their discarded trash before running off towards the camp.

"Wow," Percy said after a few seconds, "I was just joking before, but you really are bossy."

Katie turned her glare on him. "Well someone has to take charge every once in a while. Some people just don't have any sense."

While his friend silently fumed, Percy got another idea. "Hey, that's it!"

It was so sudden that Katie almost fell over. "What!?" she asked after she righted herself.

"It isn't about concentrating, or working together, or any of that stuff!" Percy told her, "Before, I used my powers out of panic, but the truth is I was telling the toilet seat to hit Clarisse in the face, just like you with those kids!"

Katie realized what he meant. "So you're saying you need to will the atoms to move," she stated, mostly to herself, though Percy nodded enthusiastically.

"Alright, I've got it now for sure!" Percy whooped before holding out the pebble again.

Instead of just concentrating on the pebble like before, he used his intent to command it to levitate. After a few seconds of dead silence, both Katie and Percy gasped when the pebble started floating above Percy's hand.

"Yeah! I got it!" Percy said with a fist pump. He stared moving the pebble, having it fly around, doing loops and changing its momentum.

"Isn't it hard?" Katie asked, amazed at such an easy success.

Percy had a permanent victory smile on his face, eyes twinkling with wonder. "Nope! It's no problem at all! Let's try with something else."

Percy, pebble still floating, split his focus and began levitating five other pebbles, forming a ring in midair. The six pebbles started flying around as eccentrically as the first, looping around both the demigod's bodies, under their arms and over their heads.

Deciding it was too easy, Percy looked over at a medium sized boulder, about the size of his backpack. He focused his intent, and suddenly felt really tired. The pebbles dropped, and the boulder, only a few inches off the ground, thumped heavily back to Earth.

"Percy!" Katie's shrieked in surprise, "what happened? Are you okay?"

Percy nodded, noticing the sweat dripping down his forehead. "I'm alright," he said reassuringly, "I guess I just need a little more practice before I start flinging cars around."

Katie smiled at him, before her grin widened. "Hey, you still did it! A bit of hard work and you'll be creating chaos in no time!"

Percy returned her smile before sitting back down next to her. "Okay," he began, "that's enough of me, I can barely breathe. So, let's see what you can do, huh?"


Percy strode into the empty clearing, looking around for any sign of his new teacher. Luke had told him to meet him there, but he couldn't find him anywhere. The restless student crossed his arms and started tapping his foot, periodically checking his wristwatch.

Suddenly, his instincts screamed at him to get out of the way, and good thing too, because not a second later a celestial bronze blade chopped down where he was standing. Percy looked up to his attacker, but he was wearing a hood and covered his face with a bandana and a pair of sunglasses. All he could tell was that he was hostile, big, and intimidating.

Percy took out and uncapped a pen, which transformed into his own bronze blade, Riptide. The attacker didn't let him do much more though, for the second Riptide weighted down on his hand, he struck.

Percy dodged a slash to his left, but was too late to avoid the kick to his gut. It left him breathless, and the attacker took the chance to slam him down on the ground. The attacker then tried to stomp on his back, but Percy rolled out of the way and shakily stood back up.

He threw a wild slash, but the attacker easily parried it and grabbed a fistful of his shirt, lifting him up with no apparent effort. Percy took another swing with his sword, but the attacker dropped his own sword and took hold of the younger boy's wrist, stopping Riptide from cutting into him.

The helpless demigod clawed at the iron-tight grip on his shirt, trying to pry it off, but it was no use. The attacker brought Percy's face to his, seemingly wanting to tell him something, but Percy took the chance to headbutt him with as much strength as he could.

The attacker gave a grunt of pain and dropped Percy, holding his forehead and backing away. Percy held his own forehead with both hands, groaning and looking for his sword. 'Never doing that again. No one wins with a headbutt,' he thought, picking up his blade and pointing it at the attacker, who now looked perfectly fine with his own weapon in hand.

Percy charged with an overhead swing, but the attacker chuckled and twisted out of the way, letting Percy pass through, and hit the back of the young demigod's head with the bunt of his sword. Percy dropped to the ground in pain, and couldn't help the fear that crept into him as the attacker pointed his sword at his throat.

Just when he thought it was all over, the anonymous attacker pulled his sword back and drove it into the ground. He then used his now free hands to take off his disguise and revealed the smirking face of Luke Castellan.

"L-Luke? Wh-What's going on?" Percy asked in surprise. He forgot all about the throbbing of his head, and stood up with some effort. The young demigod panted and took several deep breaths, looking at his councilor expectantly.

Luke didn't look like he broke a sweat, and responded jovially. "I just thought I'd test your reflexes, and I have to say they're pretty impressive, even for a demigod. I didn't hit you too hard did I?"

Percy tried to control his breathing, and stood as straight as he could. "Nah, I'm fine," he said. "So that was all a test? What's up with the disguise then?"

Luke smiled sheepishly. "I didn't want you to hold back just because it was me, so I though I'd see how you'd react to a life or death situation. Sorry."

Percy looked a little irritated at that, but waved him off. "It's alright, you're the teacher after all," he cocked his head to the side. "So, what now?"

Luke gave him a smile that sent shivers down his spine. "Oh Percy..." he said, "you could be really good with a sword, and the best way to train is by sparring! So I'll teach you some moves, and then we'll see how you do, okay?"

Percy's eyes bugged out. Was Luke trying to kill him? The pain in his head and the burn on his wrist became all the more noticeable, and Percy didn't think it would get better for him anytime soon.


Percy limped into the camp forge, groaning and holding his bruised sword arm. White marble columns lined walls filled with soot, and the sound of metal hitting metal reverberated throughout he room.

Naturally, most of the campers inside were from the Hephaestus cabin, and they quickly noticed the new, suffering twelve-year-old slowly making his way inside. Beckendorf saw him right away, and made his way to Percy's aching form.

"Perce!" he said worriedly, "You alright? What happened?"

Percy gave the large demigod a thumbs up. "Don't worry about me, I was just... training," he gave an involuntary shudder at the last word, "Anyway, I just wanted to check the place out. I didn't get to come inside yesterday."

Beckendorf nodded. "That's okay. Just because it's mostly us Hephaestus campers here doesn't mean that no one else can come in." The older teen looked him over with a critical eye. "You sure you can walk?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Percy said, taking a few steps to quench Beckendorf's fears. "I'm a pretty fast healer, y'know?"

What he didn't tell Beckendorf was that he was using his powers to lift up his backpack, helping his left foot take the weight of his body, but no one had to know that.

Beckendorf seemed satisfied. "Follow me then," he told him, then started walking, a limping Percy following closely behind.

The son of Hephaestus showed him the entire forge, where they melted the metals, where they forged the weapons, and even a big map they used to hunt down some robo-dragon or something, not that he was really paying attention.

Finally, at the end of the little tour, Percy asked for the entire reason he was there in the first place. "Hey Beck," he started, getting the large demigod's attention, "I was wondering, you think I can learn how to make a celestial bronze shield?"

Beckendorf raised a brow at his question. "There are plenty in the armory, why don't you check there?"

Percy shook his head. "I already did, but they're all too heavy and bulky. I need one that's light and perfectly round."

"Why?" Beckendor asked.

Percy just gave him a cheeky grin. "It's a secret. So, you think you can tell me?"

Beckendorf frowned thoughtfully. "Well... If you want it for capture-the-flag on Friday, it would take too long to teach you. How about this, I can just make you the shield and you pick it up before the game. I'll teach you all about forging later."

Percy's eyes widened. "You'd do that? Really?"

Beckendorf smiled and nodded. "Yeah, it's no big deal. You'd probably just mess it up anyway. Blacksmiths need to be patient." Percy gave him a mock glare that he chuckled off. "All I need is a design, so you think you can give it to me?"

Percy beamed and thanked his Hephaestus friend profusely. They both spent an hour talking about Percy's new shield, and when it was time for dinner, Percy couldn't wipe the smile off his face.


That night, Percy was restless. He couldn't understand why, but for some reason he felt as though something was seriously wrong. Dinner that evening had been just like the day before, joyful and fun. They'd gone to sing campfire songs again, and everything had been going great until Percy laid down on his sleeping bag.

He was afraid of falling asleep, like if something terrible would happen in his dreams, so he stayed awake, even when everyone else had hit the hay. He passed the time by levitating some pennies he found on the floor, making them fly in circles with a twirl of his index finger.

His eyes grew heavy, and he fought to stay awake, but even the hardness of the wooden cabin floor couldn't keep him from dozing off.


Percy found himself in a desolate desert, not a sound to be heard and nothing to be seen for miles and miles. Suddenly, thunder boomed, and the clear skies were filled with violent winds and angry clouds. The noise was deafening, lightening furiously struck the ground and broke off chunks that seemed to disintegrate in the air. After a few tense seconds, a giant bald eagle dove down from the clouds and started flying around in circles.

The earth quaked, and a large crack formed where he was standing. Percy quickly moved out of the way, and from the crevice emerged a giant, three-headed dog. The two monstrous animals started fighting, the eagle's disembodied voice saying something that sounded like "Give it back!" and the three-headed beast saying "YOU give it back!"

Whatever they were arguing about must've been pretty important, because Percy felt as if the very ground he walked on was going to break.

Out of nowhere, the coldest, sickest feeling Percy had ever felt in his young life slammed into him. It was so horrendous and so sudden that the young demigod fell over, landing on his hands and knees. Wide eyed, Percy heard the most powerful and absolutely evil voice he'd ever heard laugh with a glee that brought goosebumps.

"The Gods may play their games of fate, but nothing can stop me now! Go, little demigod, discover your strength, save your precious world, for you can only delay the inevitable!"

The feeling left, but the two great animals were still fighting as if nothing ever happened. The eagle dived at the dog, and the dog's three heads got ready to rip it to spreads.

"Hey!" Percy screamed, but the howling winds, the cracking thunder, and the shaking earth was too loud, and when the two beasts met, the world around him shattered.


Percy woke up with a loud gasp. He sat up and looked around, but quickly noticed that there were no giant animals fighting to the death. He was back in his cabin, in the middle of the night, and thankfully no one woke up from his small outburst.

"It was a dream," he murmured to himself, "just a dream."

Sighing in relief, the young demigod stretched out his arms and gave a loud yawn. He laid back down on his sleeping bag, and with a quick prayer, fell into a dreamless sleep.


AN:

So that's chapter three, and more importantly, a basic explanation of Percy's powers. Really basic.

I might've lied before, because this is definitely shorter than the first chapter. I couldn't think of anything else to write that wouldn't infringe on the next one, and I didn't want to force myself to write something that would ultimately come out as filler, so there. Don't worry though, because this one will be the shortest for sure.

Hopefully Luke and Percy's scrap was good enough. Remember, this is my first story, and even if it wasn't very good, it's not like it was supposed to be some epic battle. Believe me, that's coming later.

And oh no! Percy had a dream! (*cough*foreshadowing*cough*). So yeah, wonder what happens next.

Anyway, 'till next time! :D