Adapting to Time and Fate

Chapter 3

Alright, so chapter 3….not much I can really say….stop looking at this sentence and read the story, jezz, I'm not that interesting.

-Is it Heavy Yet?-

Percy felt a little nervous admittedly. Out of all the things he had done, this one felt only a slight notch stupider than most. He was going to have a boulder dropped on him to see if he could with stand the weight or, at the very least, survive such an impact.

"You ready Percy?" Annabeth yelled from above him. Percy didn't know how they got an eight ton rock to the top of the climbing wall, but it was definitely not with his help. His girlfriend had said something about him adapting to the weight before they dropped it on him wouldn't make the experiment authentic.

Annabeth on the other hand was absolutely terrified. If this killed him, she didn't even want to think about what would happen afterwards. It was unthinkable. This wasn't even her idea, or Percy's for that matter. It was Clarisse's, after she had been beat by Percy in a weight lifting competition. Normally she wouldn't be too upset, but he had been showing off and done it one handed just to see how red he could get her face.

He wasn't having any trouble when he was at two hundred fifty pounds with one hand while Clarisse was struggling at two hundred thirty pounds with both hands. Then the Hephaestus kids got involved. Percy stopped at eight hundred pounds in the end, out lifting three of the smith god's children at the same time. He had only stopped because Annabeth had told him to. She knew it wouldn't be long before he started taking bets on who could beat him. Soon Conner and Travis would get involved and then camp would have several penniless cabins.

Speaking of the two brothers, they were currently taking bets on if Percy would survive this. Chiron hadn't found out what they were doing yet. That was the only reason they had gotten away with it, so far. They all looked in complete nervousness as Percy yelled up to the group that he was ready.

Like the blade of an execution ax, the boulder fell. Percy raised his hands bent his knees in preparation for the weight. There was a loud crash and dust went flying. The entire camp watched with wide eyes despite the dust. Once the dust had cleared, Percy could be seen on one knee, but the boulder was in his hands, resting on his shoulders.

Someone in the crowd whispered impossible. Will got closer to look at how Percy was doing. He could have sworn he saw the young man trembling under the weight, but that wasn't the case. His skin looked like it was….rippling? Was that the even the right word? Then Percy began to do the impossible once more. He began to stand. The ground beneath the Percy cracked under the weight of the boulder when it was focused on two small areas. Percy then went even further and began to walk for the beach. His skin continue to ripple, ground cracking. The entire camp watched in awe of him as he just walked to the beach where he then let the boulder off his shoulder.

Percy knew he couldn't throw the rock, it was too big and he didn't have the right grip. Once he was at the ocean, he knew what he wanted to do. He used his powers over the ocean to lift the rock and carry it out to sea and had it sink to the bottom of the ocean.

Annabeth walked up to the shore and called out for him to come in. He turned around with that smirk on his face. Annabeth rolled her eyes at it.

"Told you, nothing to worry about Wise Girl," Percy said with that shit eating grin on his face growing.

"Yeah, you did, but given that it's the so called end of days and you are currently the only one with even a slight chance of pulling off the impossible; I think I have right to be worried about you dying more than usual," Annabeth replied dryly.

Percy scuffed as he walked to the edge of the beach. "Like you don't worry every time I walk out of the cabin."

Annabeth smirked, "Oh, I do, for you and everything around you. You have a tendency of blowing up small areas remarkably easily."

"It's not my fault that everything likes to spontaneity combust every time I walk outside," Percy retorted sarcastically.

"The problem is you usually just walk out on the Ares cabin lawn and the work is already done for you," Annabeth snorted.

"I still can't figure out how I got to the door before being blow up by one," Percy chuckled.

"Yeah, I'd like to know that too," A third, gruffer but still feminine voice came into the mix.

"No idea Clarisse," Percy answered with a silly grin on his face.

The daughter of the war god walked away grumbling about replanting deadlier mines.

-To Sleep or Not to Sleep-

Percy had had enough. He needed to relax a bit. Pushing his body beyond its limits every second was tiring and stressful, sometimes even demigods need to rest, even one that could adapt to damn near anything thrown his way.

"Come on Percy, you need to get up, its morning," Annabeth coaxed impatiently.

Percy mumbled inaudibly, then rolled on his back, his eyes still closed.

Annabeth sighed, annoyed he was being this lazy. Seriously, the fate of the world was laid in his hands and he was doing this?

"Percy, come on, breakfast be called soon," Annabeth said, hoping it would wake him up. Unfortunately, Percy was having none of it, those sea green eyes stayed hidden. Annabeth groaned at his unconscious stubbornness.

Annabeth had had enough. He needed to get up.

"Percy, I'm about to IM your mother if you're not awake in the next ten seconds," Annabeth threatened. She sighed when he still refused to get up and figured she would see if Sally could wake her son up.

As Annabeth got up, he sprung his trap. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back into bed. Annabeth yelped in surprise as her boyfriend pulled her into his embrace and began to cuddle with his new found prisoner.

"Perseus Jackson, you will release me right now!" Annabeth growled at him.

"No, you're staying here, we are taking a day off, both of us," Percy replied sleepily.

"No, you're going to get up and train, Will and Malcom are waiting for us," Annabeth argued.

Percy laughed. "Will has a boyfriend doing the exact same thing to him as I am doing to you right now. It's all been thought out. I know, I've talked to Malcom about it, and he agreed that you need a rest as do I. In fact, we will be getting breakfast in bed thanks to Grover. Perks of knowing a Lord of the Wild."

"Percy, we don't know when the world will end, you need to be ready!" Annabeth protested.

"Chaos should warn me at least a bit in advance if the End is near," Percy smirked. Percy could feel her glare, but he knew there was nothing she could do to him, and she knew it too. The last time she had elbowed his abdomen, her elbow had received a bruise (much to his concern). Percy had barely even felt the blow though. That had been last week though. His pain tolerance was much higher now.

"Stop glaring and sulking and get over the fact that your stuck with me for the day," Percy grumbled.

"And what would you like me to do," Annabeth interjected.

"Try sleeping in for once, it's very relaxing. The nymphs will arrive in an hour to drop off our food," came a sleepy answer. Annabeth groaned and then promptly gave up. There was no moving Percy today, she had enough experience in matters concerning him to know that if he planned something like this, he was going to hold on to it like a dog to a bone.

"Fine, I give up, but just for today," Annabeth relented. She didn't need to see Percy's face to see that he was smirking.

"Hmm, good to know," Percy yawned before most likely drifting back to sleep.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, but closed her own eyes in an attempt to sleep. Not that she would ever admit it, especially to Percy, but he was rather comfortable to sleep next to. She soon found herself back in the realm of Hypnos.

The couple wasn't disturbed until there was a knock on the door by two nymphs delivering food.

The day progressed from there as the two simply enjoyed each other's company and relaxed.

-Middle of Nowhere-

"You know on second thoughts, we should never have brought Nico into this plan yesterday," Percy grumbled.

Will was glaring at Annabeth. Nico had only recently been cleared to shadow travel again. He was limited to one a day, so the group and brought some camping supplies. It had left an impact on the son of Hades shadow traveling so far with so many people, but he hadn't been consumed by the shadows, so that was a plus. Now they were in the middle of nowhere with no signs of civilization anywhere. Annabeth had said that Nico and Will could leave if they didn't want to make the trip home on foot like Percy and herself were going to. She trusted her own skills and Percy to keep her alive. The two were going to stay in the desert of Arizona for a day or two before making their way to Camp Jupiter to resupply and then head back to Camp Half-Blood.

Percy felt sorry for Nico. He hadn't felt comfortable asking for the favor from him. The glare Will sent him when he asked almost made him reconsider asking. If he hadn't asked though, Annabeth would have, and he knew that Will was conflicted when it came to Annabeth. He also knew that Will wasn't his number one fan either, but he respected the son of Poseidon at the very least.

Nico was on a strict relax schedule that Percy agreed that he needed to be on. He was slowly becoming shadow for Hade's sake! Percy swore then and there that he would fix Nico, somehow, there had to be a way. There was always a cure for something in the ancient world. Even if it took a little digging or inventing a new way to cure it. He had pulled off the impossible before with a lot of help, this would be no different he hoped. As Annabeth once told him, "it's only impossible until we take a crack at it."

"Well, we're here, nothing we can do about it now," Annabeth mumbled, trying to ignore the glare Will was giving her.

"Now what did you want me to work on?" Percy looked at her, curiosity peaked.

"Well, you know how you can control water on a large scale? I want to see if you can do the same with your lava version," Annabeth explained.

"You mean things like molten hurricanes and large waves of lava?" Percy inquired.

"I guess go as large as you can without hurting someone or yourself. It's why I wanted to go here, no people for accidents to happen, and being as your manipulating a molten substance, I figured this place would be removed enough to allow you to go all out," Annabeth explained.

Percy nodded. "Alright, in that case," Percy then began to manipulate the ground around the camp to create a dome with one entrance. Annabeth pointed out the heat and Percy melted a few holes in the dome. Cool shade in the day, and the heat inside would be kept so that they could sleep through the cold desert nights.

Percy then walked off till he was a bit away from the camp. The other three would set up the camp further. He started small, melting the rock. It was almost second nature by this point. It was easy to change the state of the liquid. He then expanded a ring of lava into a small pool with Percy standing on a small island in the middle. Percy continued to expand the pool till it was over two hundred meters away from the center. Roughly two thirds of the distance between Percy and the camp was now lava.

He started to manipulate the lava then. Giant hands, waves, even a small army of lava dummies, and large tentacles, starting from one till he reached fifteen. Percy would like to say he was working hard, but he hardly felt tired after an hour of constant practice. It was as if his endurance and abilities were near endless. He scoffed at that though, he clearly just wasn't pushing himself hard enough.

He began to step it up a bit. Surfing on waves of lava across the desert may soon be something of a fun thing for him to explore in the future. For now though, he just practiced in his pool of lava. He eventually got curious to how powerful he was and tried something he hadn't in a while. Percy began to manipulate the lava until he was standing eight stories high on the shoulder of a giant of lava. The solidified parts of his giant till there were slabs of armor on it. Percy was sweating a bit keeping this up, but he noticed it too was far easier than it should have been. He grinned, this could be something new for him to explore.

Percy assumed a fighting stance and started to give a mock fist fight. The giant moved in tangent with his own. Everything from kicks to flips (which he did away from camp) to haymakers. Percy felt the strain lessen but he was already tired. He figured he should call it quits before he got too tired to solidify his pool for the night.

-Chapter 3 end-

Alright, so I hope you guys liked that bit. I know I haven't really done any combat stuff yet, but that will be soon, likely the next chapter. Let's just say it's about to get a little more interesting. I wanted to get you guys comfortable with Percy's new found power (as well as myself) before I went into a fight scene.

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