Chapter 10
Disclaimer: I haven't obtained the rights for PJO since the last chapter, so I still don't own anything.
Percy woke up in the same medical room. He was really getting sick of that fucking place, but he just kept getting knocked out. He was going to have to break that habit. It was a real pain in the ass. He wasn't sure how long it had been, but he was almost sure that the blonde guy he had fought would be recovered. He had Chaos' second blessing, so the damage Percy had done to him had probably corrected itself by then. Percy, on the other hand, was just waiting for someone to tell him he had been unconscious for 2 weeks or something. That seemed to have been the trend since arriving in Chaos' realm.
The door to his room opened and Chaos walked in. She had a light smile on her face.
"Hey Percy, you've been asleep for 3 weeks."
"Are you fucking kidding me?"
"Yep."
He stared at her. She burst out laughing.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, it's only been a day."
"Yeah, you're fucking hilarious."
"Well, I try."
"Try harder."
She rolled her eyes at him and sat down on a chair next to his bed.
"It was a good fight, you know?"
"Thanks. Didn't feel too good."
"Well, it looked good. And it did you some good too."
"Did it really?" he asked sarcastically.
"Oh, it did. Of course, no one likes you. It was a good fight, but not a magic fight. But, they might not fuck with you like they were planning to, so that's something."
"Yeah, I'm overwhelmed by joy."
She smiled at him.
"I've gotta get back to my stuff. Running the universe takes a lot of work, you know? I just wanted to be here with you when you woke up."
"Why?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, why me specifically? You said there are millions of people in your army, and I bet you don't take the time to be there for all of them when they wake up."
"Oh, I don't."
"Ok, so why me?"
She shrugged at him.
"I like you."
He stared at her. The fact that the creator of the universe had taken a personal liking to him, was pretty weird. He honestly didn't see what was so special about him. He supposed it had something to do with his lineage that she wouldn't tell him about.
"Well, I like you too."
Which was the truth. He really did like her. He couldn't explain it, but he did. There was something about her presence that calmed him.
"I'm glad to hear it. Anyway, once you're up and running, head down to the same room you were in earlier. You're about to start your first day of regular training."
"I assume that I did well on that test then?"
She laughed lightly.
"Yeah, you didn't do half bad. In fact, that reminds me. There are a bunch of different levels in our training ranks. You were supposed to start at the first, but because of your performance in that fight, you get to skip ahead slightly."
That was music to his ears. The quicker he got through the training, the quicker he would get to join the regular ranks of the army, and the sooner he would get to kill his brother. The thought made him salivate.
"Really? How much do I get to skip ahead?"
"Instead of graduating in 200 years, you might make it in 190"
His heart sank. It was still such a long time.
"Lucky me."
Chaos smiled at him sadly.
"I know it's not as soon as you would like, but it's necessary. And anyway, you're still doing much better than most. On average, it takes our recruits 250 years to graduate. Doing it in 190 is above and beyond."
"250? You told me 200."
"200, if you committed yourself to your training. I was already expecting you to make a fantastic recruit, but I wasn't expecting it to this degree."
"Like I told you, I aim to please."
"I see that's true. Anyway, I'll see you around."
She got up and left. He took a second to reflect on his current situation. He was on track to graduate in 190 years, rather than 200. He was already doing pretty damn well. But he wanted to do better. He wanted to be out on missions in 150 years. Maybe earlier. But to do that, he would need to seriously dedicate himself. Somehow, he didn't see himself getting very much sleep for a very long time.
He swung his legs to the side and sat up in the bed. There was a pile of clothes left on the chair Chaos had been sitting in. She must have left those for him. They were pretty much the same as he had been wearing before. The same as all recruits wore. He got dressed and left the room. It was nice to leave the room on his own. He stepped out into the busy streets of Chaos' city. It was a nice place.
He strolled through the city at a casual pace. He wasn't very fussed to get there as fast as he possibly could. As he walked, he stretched out his arm experimentally. He found that it was mostly ok. He could feel a slight tinge in the joint, but it would probably go away reasonably quickly. He brought a hand up to feel his face. His nose seemed ok. Maybe slightly sore, but it definitely wasn't broken anymore. His teeth felt solid in his mouth, and they were all there. He poked at his ribs gently and found that they were reasonably solid. He had made a pretty decent recovery, but he couldn't wait until he got the second blessing. That would help so much. No more of that recovery room bullshit.
After 10 minutes of strolling, he reached the building he had been sent to. He walked in and went straight to the training room. People still glared at him on the way. Instead of hating him because he was worthless, they had evolved to hate him because he had shown up someone that had trained with them for years. Perfect.
But he didn't care. If they just stayed well out of his way, then they could hate him all they wanted. He didn't give a shit about what they thought. But if any of them tried something, they would be made to regret it.
Once he reached the training room, he found it occupied by different people. The trainers were the same. There were the same amount of people in the room. But the trainees themselves were different. Percy supposed that these were his new 'classmates'. He saw the room had been split into 2 different sides. There was one side, which looked like a gym, and the other side was full of floor mats and boxing rings. The side with the mats and rings was empty. The gym part was further separated into 2 sides: weights and cardio. Everyone was split between weights and cardio. There were 2 distinct groups.
He felt a trainer approach him.
"You know what you're supposed to be doing?"
"Not a clue."
"Start with a workout to warm yourself up. After you've done that for an hour, pair up with someone and spar. You hear me? Spar. Not a regular fight. I don't want any broken bones in this one."
Percy narrowed his eyes at the guy.
"This bitch..."
"That was a regular fight. We were told that there were no rules. We were also told to go until one of us passed out or gave up. He wasn't giving up."
"Do I look like I give a shit? Just get to it."
The trainer walked away. Percy rolled his eyes. He should have seen it coming. These trainers had spent years training that guy, and then Percy showed up out of nowhere and kicked his ass. That was bound to bruise the old ego. Especially since Percy was a demigod, and as such, was considered inferior.
Percy walked over to some of the weights. Most of the machines were being used. He made his way to the rack of free weights, grabbed some half-Ton barbells, and got to work. He was 30 seconds in when he felt someone come up behind him. He had no idea who it was, just that it was a woman at around 5'11 and 180 pounds. He had expected her to just move past him to pick up some weights of her own, but she didn't. Instead, she tapped him on the shoulder. Confused, he put the weights down and turned to her. She was pretty enough. Red hair tied up in a ponytail. A few freckles across the bridge of her nose. The image was ruined by the mean snarl that her mouth was contorted into. He was kind of taken aback. He wasn't sure what he had done to piss her off like that. Then he remembered.
"Oh, right. Everyone hates me."
"What do you want?" he asked gruffly. He figured he might as well match her tone. No reason to be friendly to someone who greeted people snarling like a hellhound.
"You're using my weights." she said snarkily.
He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Is that a fact?" he asked sarcastically.
"Yeah, it is. I'm glad we cleared this up. Now get out of my way, new boy."
"We haven't cleared shit. I don't see your name on them. You can wait until I'm done." he said, turning back around.
If she had just asked politely, he would have been more than happy to get out of her way and let her have them. They were only weights. He could find more. But 'manners maketh man'. Or, in this case, woman.
He felt her glaring a hole into the back of his head. She was clearly pissed. But he wasn't going to give up. He wasn't going to get anywhere if people thought they could walk all over him. It was better that they learned early on.
He finished his set, as slowly as he could go. He wanted to make her wait. She stood there glaring at him the entire time. It gave him a sick satisfaction to see that he had pissed her off so deeply. Once he was done, he put the weights back where they were, and turned around. She was going red by then.
"All yours." he said sarcastically.
She walked past him to the weights, making sure to bump his shoulder as she went. He was expecting it though. He gave just as good as he got. He was not a pushover.
He walked around the weights area, looking for something else. He noticed that the guy on one of the bench presses was nearly done with a set. Percy walked over to him and stood patiently. Once the guy was done with his set, he sat up and saw that the man waiting for him to finish had been the new boy. He had sensed him since the moment he had arrived, but had thought he was just one of the others. But now that he knew who was waiting for him, he decided to take his sweet time.
The guy on the bench press stayed right where he was. Percy stood watching him. First, the guy used a towel to wipe off some sweat on his forehead. Percy waited. The guy took a few long moments to get his breath back. Percy waited. The guy took a very long swig of a protein shake, which a trainer had explained to Percy, wasn't covered by the planet. Basic hydration was taken care of, but most recruits were encouraged to bring some kind of protein with them. Either power bars or protein shakes.
Percy waited for the guy to get up. Surely he had to. He was out of excuses. But apparently, the guy decided that he needed no excuses. He just sat on the bench, clearly doing nothing. He stared at him. The guy was taking care to look anywhere except at Percy.
He cleared his throat.
The guy looked over and pretended to only just notice him standing there.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Were you waiting for this?" he asked
"As a matter of fact, I was." Percy said, trying to be diplomatic.
"Ah, I see." the guy said.
Percy was expecting the guy to pick up his towel and his drink, as slowly as he possibly could most likely, and then wander off. He'd had been wrong. The guy went right back to doing nothing. Just staring into space.
He raised an eyebrow and narrowed his eyes. This was a tough situation. If he gave up and used another machine, then it would be seen as weak. If he beat the shit out of the guy, it would be seen as hot-headed. There weren't many options.
He decided to go with the more neutral approach. As the guy on the bench press raised his drink to take a sip, Percy reached over and knocked it out of his hand. There was silence in the gym area. Everyone had stopped their workouts to watch what was about to happen. They wanted to see the new guy get taken down a peg.
The guy on the bench press slowly turned to face Percy.
"You spilled my drink."
Percy took a step toward him.
"Then go lick it up." (A/N: 10 points if you get that reference)
Percy sat on the bench behind the guy, pushed him to the ground with his knees, and started working out. He pretended not to track the guy with his senses. If he felt the guy's adrenaline spike, he was going to use the weight bar as a club and swing for the throat.
He felt the guy standing there, speculating. Weighing up his options. Eventually, the guy must have decided that it wasn't worth it. He wandered off to pick up his drink. Percy felt the guy glare at him as he walked away. He made a mental note to watch out for him. He had pissed off a lot of people since arriving at Chaos' realm. At this rate, he might find himself getting shot at during target practice. But he gave as good as he got. And he always would.
Once Percy was done on the bench press, he got up. Unlike the fuckhead that had been there before him, he didn't take all day. He just got up and moved on. As he walked around looking for a new machine, several people bumped into him 'accidentally'. He made sure to bump them right back, and never break his stride. He ended up at weighted squats. He took the machine with no resistance. He spent the rest of his time there. He was about to move on when he heard a sharp whistle. Everyone that had been on the weights side, moved over to the cardio side, and everyone that had been on the cardio side, came over to the weights side. Percy just moved over to the cardio side.
The cardio stuff was pretty good. There was only one common item among the weights and cardio. Punching bags. He supposed they could be used for building some muscle and building stamina. He went for those. There were dozens of them, so he figured he could use one without someone getting in his face. He was mostly right. A few people came by to try and get him to move to another one. He ignored them until they went away. He spent a total of 15 minutes on the punching bag before he moved on.
He found a running machine that was empty. He walked over to it, but someone must have seen him coming. Just as he was about to climb on, a woman beat him to it by milliseconds. Once she was on, she turned to him with a challenging smirk. He shrugged. Technically, she had been first. Yes, she had done it just to piss him off, but she was technically in line with the rules. No reason to take revenge on her.
He walked over to an adjacent stationary bike and started peddling. He pumped his legs faster and faster until the built-in speedometer told him he was going at 210 miles per hour. He kept up that speed for 45 minutes until he heard the sharp whistle again.
Once he heard it, he saw everyone moving from the gym section to the sparing areas. Percy walked slowly. He wasn't sure what to do there. Sparing required a partner. The absolute last thing he wanted to do, was to ask someone. But luckily, he was sparred from that unpleasantness. The guy from the bench press walked over to him.
"You and me. We're sparring. Get in the ring."
Percy took a moment to observe the guy. The guy was near Percy's height of 6'2, and near Percy's weight of 215 pounds. He was pretty well built. But apparently, that guy had been training with Chaos for around 10 years, since that was how much she had moved him up. Percy was reluctant to get into the ring with someone who was very well trained, and whom he had recently pissed off. But he couldn't back down. And anyway, this was just a spar.
"Fine." he said.
They got into one of the rings on opposite sides. The bench press guy was grinning cockily. They both moved at the same time as if there had been some kind of whistle. Percy decided to let the guy attack first. He knew he would be pissed off enough to go straight in. He'd been right. The guy moved as soon as they were within range of each other.
The first attack he sent Percy's way, was a cleaving right hook. Percy had been expecting it, but he hadn't been expecting the speed of it. Not even close. Even though he had foreseen the attack, it slipped straight past Percy's guard and connected with his left cheek. It was suddenly very clear to Percy that this guy had a lot more training and practice than he did.
"Jackson! Guard!" he heard someone bark at him.
He turned to see what it was and saw one of the trainers watching them. He was about to turn back to the bench press guy when he felt an elbow shoot into his neck. He started choking and sputtering.
"What the actual fuck?!" he thought angrily.
"Jackson! Focus!" he heard the same voice bark.
That time, Percy didn't look at him. He kept his eyes glued to his opponent. Percy tracked him carefully. No matter how fast an opponent is, no matter how well trained they are, they'll always telegraph their attacks. They might be good at hiding it, but they still did it. And for someone as observant as Percy, he knew that he would be able to see it. He just had to react quickly enough.
Percy saw the bench press guy getting ready to go in for another blow. He was 2-0 so far. It was time to even the score a little bit. He felt the guy getting ready for a left hook. He could tell by the way his muscles were tensing. He probably wasn't even aware that he was doing it. Most people weren't. But they always did it.
When the bench press guy sent his left fist scything towards his face, Percy was ready. He stepped outside the arm's reach and pushed it inwards so that it was crossing over the guy's body. He immediately followed up with a strong headbutt, straight into the bridge of the guy's nose, sending him stumbling back.
The guy looked at Percy with rage.
"2-1 now, motherfucker" he thought.
The guy came at him again. This time, he was going for a straight right. Percy brought his own right arm up to catch the wrist, and then he snapped his elbow straight into the guy's chin.
"2-2"
The spar went on for another 10 minutes. They each took many more hits. It was clear that the bench press guy was better than him, but Percy had a good amount of natural talent and great reflexes to even things out.
Eventually, there was another sharp whistle. Everyone started switching opponents. Casting his senses around the room, Percy noticed that only half the trainees were moving. It seemed like there was some kind of rotation. He looked over at the guy and glared at him. The guy glared back. A few moments went by, and the bench press guy buckled and moved on to the next ring.
A few seconds after he left, someone new joined the ring. This time, it was a woman. She was a big woman, who vaguely reminded him of Clarisse LaRue. She must have been around 6'1, and 200 pounds of pure muscle. She looked especially mean.
Percy sighed, and they began sparring.
The rest of the training session went by much the same way. Percy would spar with his opponents and get him. A lot. But he made damn sure to hit the back, just as hard. The instructors kept barking at him. Sometimes they gave legitimately good advice. Sometimes they were just assholes. The drones flying around were far more objective. They dispensed some decent lines of advice.
Once they were done with unarmed, they moved on to the armed area. He remembered from his schedule from earlier, that each session would last 6 hours. He expected a repeat of the process from earlier. An hour of weights, an hour of cardio, followed by 4 hours of sparring.
He had been right. Everyone made their way to the gym area. Percy went for weights first. He started out with squats. There was no resistance offered against him. He moved on to weighted pull-ups. Again, no one interfered with him. The whistle blew, and everyone switched sides. He went straight for the running machine. He set off at 30 miles per hour. He had kept up that speed for 45 minutes during his initial test, and it had exhausted him, but he was only going to hold it for 30 minutes before he moved on. He got through it, mostly unbothered. Around 25 minutes in, someone wandered over to him. Whoever it was, started glaring at him. He didn't care. He finished his last 5 minutes and got off the machine.
After the running machine, he moved on to a rowing machine. 30 minutes later, the whistle blew. Percy walked to the sparring area with a bowling ball in his gut. Taking a punch was one thing, but getting stabbed or slashed was entirely different. And he knew that no one would be holding back against him.
Each of the trainees was given a knife. He wasn't sure when the swords and spears would come into play, but he was more than happy to focus on knives in the meantime. He didn't have very much experience with them, but he'd been forced to participate in a few classes back at Camp Half-Blood. He had been reasonably good. He'd preferred swords of course, but he'd been ok with knives. He was sure that his new strength, speed, and reflexes would only help. But on the other side of the equation, his opponents had far more experience than he had. Bottom line: he was going to get cut. A lot.
He took a knife from the rack and got in one of the rings to wait for an opponent. The first person to walk in was the bench press guy. Apparently, he was pretty horny for revenge. The guy was probably hoping to catch Percy totally off-guard. He was probably going to. Percy knew that he was going to need to be very careful. One slip up and his throat was slashed.
They began. Percy started off far more cautious. He didn't want to go for any wild slashes. His opponent must have lived by a different philosophy. The bench press guy went straight for a slash aimed at Percy's face. The asshole. He managed to dodge back and avoid the blade, but his opponent kept coming. Percy had made a mistake. He had retreated by an inch. He'd been forced to backpedal, and he couldn't stop. He knew he was going to run out of space pretty soon. Unless he did something about it. He waited until the guy came out with a particularly wild slash, and pressed forward. He locked the guy's knife hand against his own body, stepped in, and crashed the but of the knife into his temple.
The rest of training went by similarly. Percy tried to be as cautious as he could, but he still ended up getting stabbed a few times and slashed to shit. His arms were covered in long cuts. There was a smaller one on his cheek. Of course, everyone else was totally unharmed. Not because they hadn't been stabbed; they had. But because they all had Chaos' second blessing. They all had a supernatural healing factor. By the time training was over, they all looked brand new. Percy looked like he had fallen through a woodchipper. But he had managed to get through it without getting killed, so he saw that as a bonus of some kind. But he was going to need to ask Chaos when he could get the second blessing. He feared for his health if he didn't get it.
Once they were done with the close combat stuff, they moved on to the guns. From what Percy had seen of his schedule, they were going to spend the next 3 hours there, before moving on to the acrobatic areas. He didn't know what to expect with those, but he assumed they were obstacle courses. Of course, he could have been wildly wrong.
The firearms training was mostly ok. He had started out pretty shit, but he had improved considerably throughout the session. They used a lot of different types of guns, but there was a focus on pistols and assault rifles. That told him that the main use of the army was open combat, but they still did some assassinating on the side. The snipers got a good amount of attention too, just not quite as much as the handguns and assault rifles.
There had been one incident though. It had happened during pistol training. He had been firing at his target when he had suddenly felt a gun pointed at him. His enhanced senses had picked up on the muzzle pointed at him, by feeling the disturbance in the wind. The gun fired straight at him. He had barely reacted in time, managing to drop to the ground. The bullet whizzed over his head, harmlessly enough. But it would have embedded itself in his shoulder had he not dropped. He rose up and turned around. He saw the girl that had done it. She was a petite thing. Barely 5'5. Maybe 90 pounds. She had brown hair and brown eyes. But those eyes. They were the eyes of a psychopath. She was grinning at him. But he could see the cold, hard hatred in her eyes.
Percy walked straight over to her and punched her square in the face. Her head snapped back, and he was about to wrap his hands around her throat and choke the life out of her when he felt a hand on his shoulder spin him around. Before he could register what had happened, a massive punch connected with his stomach, forcing him to bend at the waist. The same hand that had turned him around, was used to shove him away.
He managed to look up and saw a trainer standing between him and his future victim. The trainer looked pissed.
"What the hell is going on here?"
Percy made sure to get in first. Who knew what bullshit she would come out with?
"She fucking shot at me!" he yelled.
The girl had already recovered from the punch he had let loose on her face and was grinning again. This time, her eyes showed genuine amusement.
"By accident. My gun got away from me a little."
Percy couldn't believe what he was hearing. If anyone actually believed that utter bullshit then he was going to need to rethink a few things. But then it dawned on him. Everyone already hated him. Why would they care if he happened to get shot?
"Well, that sounds reasonable to me. Jackson, if you go attacking people for making mistakes, then there won't be a future for you here. You mark my words." the trainer growled at him.
"Un-FUCKING-believable" he thought
The tiny psycho was staring at him, a victorious gleam in her eye. The trainer turned away from Percy to look at the psycho again. She tore her gaze away from Percy to look at him back. There was something off about the way they were looking at each other. Percy was sure that he was the only one to notice. He had always been more observant than other people, and that was no different in Chaos' realm.
The trainer gave Percy one last glare, before he stalked off somewhere. The little psycho have Percy one more grin, before she walked away too. Something was going on there. He made a note to research that later. It could become useful for him. If the heat he felt between them was physical, and they were sleeping together, then he could use that to get them both kicked out. He wasn't absolutely sure, but he was willing to bet that fraternization between ranks was prohibited. The sooner that psycho and the asshole instructor were gone, the better.
All he would need to do would be to ask Chaos for something he could use to record video. He was reasonably sure that he could follow them without being seen. Ever since he had been blessed by Chaos, his footsteps hadn't made a sound. He naturally walked with enough grace that he was entirely inaudible. He could work on masking the sound of his heartbeat and the heat of his body. He wasn't entirely sure how he would accomplish such things, but he would. Where there's a will, there's a way.
But there was nothing he could do about that at the moment. He was still in training, the psycho and the asshole were in public, and he didn't even have anything that he could use to record them with, even if they were going at it right in the middle of the room. He decided to try and push it out of his mind for the time being. He could get back to it later. He went back to shooting, keeping track of every single weapon in the room while he did. He was taking no chances.
The rest of the course went by without incident. Though he caught the psycho's eye as they were leaving. She looked like she was having a fabulous time. He wasn't sure what the hell she had planned for later, but he didn't want to find out. The sooner he got her and her asshole boytoy kicked out, the better. He was going to ask Chaos tonight after everyone was asleep. Hopefully, she would agree to see him.
They all walked over to one of the buildings opposite the main training area. Stepping through the doors, Percy had to take a moment to appreciate the sight before him. There was an open field before him, the size of 10 football fields. It was insane. One of the instructors tapped a few buttons on a console, and a series of obstacles appeared from nowhere. They were arranged to form a course. There was a clear progression. He tapped a few more buttons, and 2 more identical courses materialized next to the original.
The instructor turned toward Percy and everyone else. He pointed at 3 random people, and they all stepped up to the beginning of each course. There were a few moments of silence before a loud buzzer went off, and they all started running. From what Percy could see of the course, it looked very detailed. There were lots of aspects that would challenge slightly different skillsets. There was a lot of jumping, lots of parkour, a decent amount of climbing, some crawling, and a bunch of sliding. There were phases where the contestants were forced to climb rope; there were phases where contestants were forced to climb flat surfaces. There were phases where the contestants were forced to descend by rope; there were faces where the contestants were forced to descend flat surfaces. It was a good course. A lot better than a Gods damned lava wall.
One by one, or rather, 3 by 3, people raced against each other on the course. It was very competitive. No one was causing anyone else physical harm, but everyone was taking it just as seriously as sparring. Percy was wondering who he would be racing against. But he was a lot more concerned with simply finishing the damn thing.
Eventually, Percy's time came. The instructor pointed at him and he took his place. Before he started his course, he checked who he was racing against, just out of curiosity. He was racing against psycho girl and bench press guy.
"Son of a bitch!" he thought.
There was no way he was going to settle. Not anymore. He was going to win, and show both of those motherfuckers their place. Percy took deep breaths. As soon as he heard that buzzer, he was going to go all out. He tensed his muscles experimentally, to make sure that he was warmed up.
BBZZZZZZZZ
Percy set off running before the buzzer had even stopped buzzing. He felt his opponents at his heels. He had started a fraction of a second before either of them. Percy pushed himself harder and harder. He knew that he would need to save every possible second. He was up against opponents that had far more experience than him.
He and his opponents made their way through the obstacle course. It was neck and neck. They each kept overtaking the other. There was the occasional fumble here and there. Sometimes someone would slip up, and the other two would take it to their advantage, only to slip themselves 100 yards later. By the time they reached the final stretch, they were all exhausted. It was a very long course. But they were all determined to finish first. When they got within distance, Percy called on his final attempt. He launched himself forward, soared through the air, and crashed in a heap. Past the finish line.
He had won by a hair. But he had won. Bench press guy finished just after him. Psycho girl finished milliseconds later. Percy barely had the energy to move, but he forced himself up. He didn't want to lie down anywhere in the vicinity of those two. His competitors were glaring at him with true hatred. It was understandable, of course. He didn't care. He had proven his point.
Once everyone had raced on the course, they were all dismissed. Percy saw a few recruits heading towards the bars. Not in groups. Just a large amount of people going to the same destination, but not together. Percy had never set foot in any of those bars, but he was sure that none of them would resemble any bar he had been in back on Earth. The bars he was familiar with, were group affairs. There were tables for 2, or 4, or 6, and so on. Percy was willing to bet that there were only tables for 1 throughout the entire bar. No one was even remotely social.
Percy ignored the bars. He had no interest in them. He went straight back to the main building. He wanted to check his bunk first, and then he would try to see Chaos. He checked the paper he had been given with his schedule and found his bunk number on it. It took him a moment to navigate the building's organization system, but he found it easily enough. He was one floor below Chaos' office. He found his bunk.
His bunk consisted of a bed, and a footlocker. That was it. There were showers at the end of the hall. Nothing else. Chaos seemed to take after the Spartans in terms of their views on amenities.
He checked the footlocker and found a few things that interested him. He had expected it to be empty. Instead, there were a few piles of clothes, all of which looked vastly more comfortable than what he was wearing at the time. He took a quick shower and put on a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie.
The only other item in the footlocker was a phone. It looked like any phone Percy would have seen back on Earth. But it really interested him. He had never had a phone of his own, due to his demigodly nature. But now, he supposed, there was no danger. He sat on his bed and managed to set it up. It took some trying, but he made it. Something he was quite pleased about, was the fact that it could record. He wouldn't need to ask Chaos for something he could use, he could just record the psycho and the asshole on his phone.
He put the phone in his pocket and dragged himself out of his bed. He was totally exhausted after 18 hours of training, but he needed some questions answered. He get in the elevator and went up a floor. He knew that Chaos was in her office because he could feel the electrical currents in the lights. He could never sense her presence directly, but there were loopholes. He was about to knock on her door when he heard her voice.
"Come in, Percy."
He wasn't entirely sure how she knew that he was there, or how it was him, but she did and he was willing to go with it. He opened the door and walked inside.
"How the hell did you know I was there?"
OK, maybe he cared slightly. He hadn't made a single sound when approaching the door. Nothing that would give him away personally. Obviously, the sound of the elevator would be heard by someone with Chaos' senses, but that couldn't possibly implicate him.
"Darling, you remember who you're talking to, right?"
"Well, yeah, but how?"
She smiled at him.
"Everyone has a distinct heartbeat. I know yours, as well as everyone else's. It's like a signature. You'll learn how to distinguish between them eventually."
Percy thought about that. He was willing to believe that, she had no reason to lie to him. But that would complicate things. It might fuck with his plan to follow the psycho and the asshole. He was definitely going to have to learn to hide his heartbeat.
"Anyway, how can I help you?"
"I just had a few questions, if you don't mind?" he asked hopefully.
She gave him a sweet smile. He hadn't spent too much time with her, but she seemed like a very warm person.
"I was wondering when I would be eligible for your second blessing."
He rolled up the sleeves of the hoodie to show his numerous cuts from armed close-quarters.
"Training is gonna be pretty tough without it."
Chaos' eyes widened slightly. She looked a little bit worried.
"I'm sorry, but it won't be for another few months. It's not a question of rank or seniority, it's about how quickly your body adjusts to the energy from each blessing."
That wasn't good. The next few weeks or months would be pretty painful.
"Is there any way to check how long it would take?"
"Sure. Hold out your arm."
He rolled up his sleeve and laid his right arm along her desk, palm up. Chaos ran her arm along his forearm and closed her eyes. A few seconds went by before she opened them again.
"Hm. That's interesting."
"What?"
"You're... You're almost ready for the second one. I've never actually seen anyone process the energy so fast. I guess this supports my hope that you'll make it all of the way to the 6th stage."
"So, when do you think I'll be ready?"
"Maybe a few days? This isn't an exact science, but I'm reasonably confident."
A few days. He could survive a few days. It would be pretty damn tough, but he would manage.
"Ok, thanks. I've just got one more question, and I'll let you get back to... whatever it is you do."
Chaos chuckled. It was a deep throaty sound. It was nice.
"Alright, shoot."
"What's the policy on fraternization between trainers and trainees?"
She blinked at him.
"Oh. You got your eye on someone?"
"No. Definitely not. Just a question."
"That's a weirdly specific question to have if it doesn't affect you in some way."
"I never said that it doesn't affect me, I just said that I'm not interested in someone."
She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head slightly.
"Have you picked up on something? If so, just let me know and I'll take care of it. The penalty for fraternization between ranks is instant expulsion."
"Instant expulsion for both participants of the affair?"
"Absolutely. We don't allow anything like that. I want the recruits to focus purely on training, rather than fucking. Relationships are permitted between members, though they'll be extremely difficult. My people aren't usually sent around as a unit, each person is moved individually."
That was good. He could get them both kicked out.
"Alright. Thanks for letting me know."
He got up to leave, but she stopped him before he could.
"Percy. I'm serious if you know something then you should tell me. You don't have to take care of it yourself."
"I know I don't. But I really want to. And I'm going to."
Chaos seemed to hesitate. Percy watched as she had a mental debate with herself. After a few moments of silence, she caved.
"Alright. Just bring it to me when you're done."
"Sure. By the way, I meant to ask you something earlier. Do trainers have the right to dismiss recruits?"
"No, they don't. If a recruit does something that an instructor doesn't like, then it gets brought to me. Kinda like I'm the judge."
"Alright. Thanks for the info. I'll see you sometime in the next couple days?"
"Sure thing. Good luck."
"Thanks."
With that, Percy left feeling pretty good about his plan. He had everything he needed. All he would need to do is figure out how to mask his heartbeat. He was confident that there would be a library somewhere in the city. He didn't go back to his bunk. He rode the elevator all of the way to the ground floor, and then left the enormous building.
He strolled through the city for 10 minutes before he found what he had set out to look for. It was very easy. He just followed the smell of old parchment. The library was open to everyone and offered unrestricted access to any piece of information that it housed. It spanned 5 floors, with dozens of desks and chairs per floor. There must have been millions of books. It took a while to find one that could be of service to him though. But he did find it eventually.
The book was a historical text about the greatest assassin that the army of Chaos had ever had. She was a spry little thing, standing at only 5'2, and weighing 90 pounds. But she was a force to be reckoned with. She had the first 5 of Chaos' blessings. She had been a part of Chaos' organization for over 4000 years. Across that time, she had accumulated over 50,000 confirmed kills. She had used ranged weapons, as well as close quarters. She came from a species that Chaos had mentioned to him. A planet of beings that could run at the speed of sound. And she had mastered a technique to mask any way to detect her. She could reduce her body temperature. She would move without making a single sound. She could stop her heart from making any noise whatsoever. The text contained a few direct quotes from her. Some of them were about her mastery of the skill. From what Percy could understand, the skill wasn't uncommon. Most of the trainers seemed to be able to mimic it to some degree. But none as proficiently as her.
Percy spent hours with the book. He tried to find something that went into more detail on the matter, but there was nothing. Apparently, it was viewed as a skill that one would obtain on their own. And one would have no reason to mask their presence from anyone before graduating, in theory, so it wasn't taught. The text about the assassin was really the only document Percy could find that related to it. But that didn't matter. He would find some way to learn it.
He spent the rest of the night in the library, without a wink of sleep. By the time training was supposed to begin, Percy was ready. He felt reasonably confident that he had achieved a decent level of understanding. He could spend the entire day testing out his proficiency. If people failed to take notice of him, then he would move along with his plan.
Unfortunately, Percy was going to find that he was in for a rough day. After spending 18 hours training, and then 6 hours studying, another 18 hours of training was the last thing he would have asked for. But he couldn't get out of it. There was nothing to do about it. He was just going to have to suck it up and deal with it.
He went back to his bunk and retrieved his training clothes. He changed as quickly as he could. He was already slightly late. Once he had changed he ran to the elevator and rode down to the ground floor. He suddenly wished that the building had stairs. He was sure he could run down them faster than the elevator was currently going.
After a painfully long time, the elevator doors opened, and Percy shot out like a bullet. He sprinted straight to the training room, only to find everyone staring at him when he walked in.
"JACKSON!" one of the instructors yelled. It was the same asshole that was having the affair with the psycho
"I apologize for my tardiness, sir." Percy said, trying to mitigate the damage.
It didn't work.
"You think I give a shit about your apologies?!"
Percy didn't say anything in response. He assumed it was a rhetorical question. He was wrong.
"WELL? Do you think I give a FLYING FUCK!?" the instructor screamed.
"Dear fucking Gods, this guy needs to go." Percy thought snarkily.
"No sir, I don't think you do."
"Well then, why the fuck are you apologizing anyway?! Seeing as you know I don't give a shit!"
Percy didn't have a solid response to that, so he took a shot in the dark.
"Uhh... Habit, sir?" he almost asked.
The instructor went red in the face. The rest of the recruits were stifling laughs. They were amused. But not the way that the campers at Camp Half-Blood would be amused when Connor and Travis pulled a prank. It wasn't a group thing. They were laughing at him. They were eager to see him get punished. Percy realized with a start that he didn't know a damn thing about the punishment system in Chaos' realm. Were they going to dock his privileges? He didn't have any. His pay? He wasn't getting paid. What the hell were they going to do to him?
Luckily, he was sparred from finding out. A voice chimed from the doorway.
"He was with me."
Everyone turned to see who the new voice belonged to, and they were all stunned to their core. Chaos was casually leaning against the doorway. All of the recruits were staring at her in awe. As if they had never seen her before in their lives. The trainers were staring too, but more in confusion than awe. The trainer that had been screaming at Percy, suddenly went very pale.
"Ah- ah Lady Chaos. I wasn't aware that the recruit was with you. My deepest apologies."
Chaos cocked an eyebrow.
"You think I give a shit about your apologies?" she said coldly.
The asshole instructor looked like he was swallowing a live mouse.
"N-no, my l-lady."
"That's what I thought, "she said, before scanning around the rest of the room, "Do you all have nothing to do?"
Immediately, everyone started running around, trying to look busy. Percy caught Chaos' eye before she left, and sent her a silent thanks. Her only reply was to send him back a subtle wink and walk away.
Again, Percy was reminded of how scary she could be. A realization that only made him even more curious as to why she was so nice to him. He assumed it had something to do with his lineage. The lineage that she refused to tell him about. If he ever got any time off, he would need to do some serious research into some history books.
Percy started his training. Things went quite similarly. He got hurt a lot more though. He was extremely tired, so his reflexes had dulled significantly. The hand-to-hand stuff was alright. There were quite a few bruises, but nothing he couldn't handle. The knives training went differently. His very last opponent of the day was the psycho girl. Percy knew that was no accident. She had, no doubt, seen his pathetic performance all day, and decided that she would strike at him when he was at the peak of his exhaustion. There was no more sparring for the rest of the day, so she took her chance. She slid into his ring like a viper, and he knew he was fucked. She grinned like the cat that ate the canary as they were given the signal to begin.
By the end of their session, Percy was bleeding profusely. And not just his arms. Psycho girl was clever. The last activity of the day was the obstacle course, and he had beat her the last time they had gone on it. So she made sure to even the odds. Throughout the sparring session, she kept ducking low and slashing his legs to shit. She also got a good few licks in at his chest, and his stomach. And he was powerless to stop her. It was as if he was moving through jello.
By the time the whistle sounded to signify that they were done with knife practice, Percy was ready to collapse. He had hundreds of cuts along his entire body. Mainly his arms and legs. His clothes were practically reduced to threads. He could hear everyone laughing at him. Mainly, because they were doing it right in front of his face. Gone were the subtleties of laughing behind someone's back. The rest of the recruits just stood in front of him and laughed. He might have taught them a lesson if he were at his usual performance. Surely he could take one of them. Perhaps even 2. But he was far from normal. His performance that day had been apocalyptically shitty. But the thought of getting the psycho and the asshole kicked out kept him moving.
After knives, came guns. He put a lot more focus into everyone else's gun than his own. He barely even hit the target on most of his shots, but he didn't care. He just made sure that there were no 'accidents' like the last time. There weren't.
By the time they reached the obstacle course, Percy felt like a zombie. He was barely even aware of things going on around him. Once it was his turn, he dragged himself to the starting position. He didn't need to glance to his side to know who was next to him. The psycho girl and some rando. He was sure he would be going against her, from the moment that he had seen her asshole 'boyfriend' selecting the groups. Percy was sure that he would be selected to race against her. He wouldn't have been surprised to learn that they had hatched the plan earlier that day.
The buzzer sounded, and Percy stumbled forward. A far cry from his performance just 24 hours prior. The race was a catastrophe. He finished last by a full minute. He barely even managed to finish at all. The entire race, he had been surrounded by mocking laughter, as everyone tracked his progress, or lack thereof, through the course.
"Tomorrow at training, "he thought vindictively, "I'm gonna beat you all into the fucking ground."
But once the race was over, they were all excused. Percy wanted to make a beeline straight for his bed, but he managed to resist. There was one more thing he needed. He cast his senses around the area, to find the asshole instructor. Unsurprisingly, he was talking to the psycho girl. And he was facing away from Percy. They both were.
Percy took a deep breath. He went over everything he had spent all night learning. He brought his body temperature down to match his surroundings. Through his breathing, he slowed his heart rate considerably. He walked toward the couple as silently as he could. He stopped when he was right behind them. They didn't know he was there. They just kept talking obliviously.
Percy cleared his throat to let them know he was there. They both swung around, wide-eyed. Neither of them had a clue that he had been standing there. Perfect.
"What do you want, Jackson?" the instructor grumbled at him.
"I just wanted to assure you that I'll be on time tomorrow, sir."
"Whatever. Leave me." the asshole replied.
Percy just nodded and walked away. He didn't particularly care about assuring the guy that he would be on time. He just wanted to make sure that they really didn't know he had been there, and weren't simply choosing to ignore him. But they hadn't been ignoring him. That kind of shock was extremely difficult to fake. He was sure that the psycho could have managed it since she likely faked 99% of the emotions anyone ever saw from her. But the instructor clearly hadn't been faking. If his earlier 'conversation' with Chaos had been any indication, he wasn't the quickest person when it came to such things.
Percy walked back to the troop barracks, feeling like the king of the world. Yes, he was in agony. Yes, he was humiliated. But he had everything he needed to get those assholes kicked out. He would never have to deal with them again. But he couldn't do it with no sleep. He definitely needed a night's rest.
He got to his bunk. He went straight for a shower, dried himself off, crawled into bed, and passed out. He slept comfortably for 6 hours until he had to get up again. He was woken up by all of the commotion of everyone else in the room getting up. He dragged himself out of bed, got dressed, and went down to the training area.
What followed, was a pretty normal day of training. People didn't fuck with him too much during the exercise sections of the training. There was the occasional asshole that tried to bully him away from any particular machine, but they were dealt with swiftly. The unarmed combat section went reasonably well again. He was pretty good at it. He received fewer bruises than he had last time, but still a fair few. He couldn't wait until he got his healing.
The knives training was interesting. He did a lot better than last time. Psycho girl made sure to be his last opponent for the day. And he spent the entire time toying with her. He wanted to frustrate her. He hoped that if she got frustrated enough, she might turn to her lover to... 'relieve' her frustrations. So, he spent the entire session on the defense. He made sure to hit her a few times. An elbow here, a knee there. But when time started running out, he wanted to teach her a lesson. She was already pretty pissed at him for toying with her the entire time. She was getting wild with her slashes. A few minutes before they were scheduled to move on, Percy ducked down low, and stabbed her right in the foot. The knife was sharp, so it went through bone like it was wet paper. She screeched in pain. It was one of the greatest sounds Percy had ever heard. After that bitch had sadistically taken him apart just a day prior, he felt like he had earned it. Luckily for him, she was determined to keep fighting him. He really started going for it. He slashed her legs to absolute shit. He knew she would heal from them in a matter of hours, as opposed to his, which were still trying to heal.
After knives training, they moved on to the guns. He still made sure to follow her with his senses. He stopped whatever he was doing if she so much as looked at him. But she spent most of her time glaring at the targets, and limping to the supplies table for ammo. Percy had to actively stop himself from grinning.
After a few hours, firearms training was over. They all walked - or in some cases, limped - to the obstacle course. Percy didn't even bother to hide his grin now, instead displaying it proudly. Once there, he knew all he would have to do, is wait. He knew that the psycho girl would take care of everything for him. He knew that she would be far too pissed off to not challenge him. He knew that she had already asked the asshole instructor to pair them together. He knew she wouldn't back down.
And he was right. The instructor called his name. He took his place with the grace of a dancer. The psycho girl joined him a few moments later, with the grace of a sloth. A few moments after that, they were joined by some rando. Neither of them gave a shit about him. If he won, good for him. They were only interested in racing against each other.
The buzzer sounded, and Percy pumped his legs as fast as they would move. He could sense psycho girl behind him. She sure was trying, he would give her that. But she was falling behind. Considerably. About as much as he had, the last time they had tried the obstacle course. Percy turned his attention away from her. She had already lost. He just made sure to beat the rando. He hadn't cared initially, but now he just wanted competition. The rando was pretty good, but Percy was better. Percy won, followed by the rando 4 seconds later, and psycho girl 57 seconds after him.
Percy didn't even glance at her. He knew that would infuriate her. He was goading her. Ensuring that she would turn her desire for revenge, into a desire for release. Due to his new senses, he could practically taste her adrenaline. He had a sense of all of her hormones. And he knew that he would be able to monitor them as much as he pleased. If the right hormones, rose to the right levels, at the right times, then he was golden. All he would need to do, would be to follow her to his place, wait a few minutes, record them having sex, and then he could go back to his bunk and sleep like a baby.
Percy walked straight from the obstacle course to his bunk. He showered, changed, and climbed into bed. He pretended to fall asleep, but in reality, he was tracking the psycho girl. He tracked her as she walked back to the main building. He tracked her into the elevator. She got out 5 floors below him. He sensed her as she showered, changed, and crawled into her bed. Judging by the frantic changing of her hormones, he got a sense of what she was thinking. She was weighing up options. Eventually, she settled on a course of action. The fact that he could tell all of that, from a distance of 5 floors, was amazing to him. He was excited for the second level of Chaos' blessing, but the first was spectacular. He waited, while she waited for her bunkmates to fall asleep. Once they had, he felt her get out of bed. He tracked her as she changed, and snuck out of her room. He waited until she was in the elevator. Once she was in, he cast his senses throughout his floor. Everyone there was asleep, and a few of them were at bars. He got out of his bed and started getting ready. He changed into some sweats and a hoodie, put his phone in his pocket, and stood by the elevator. He wanted to wait until she had left the building before he called it to him.
Once she had left, he pressed the button. He kept his eyes closed, to maximize his other senses. He used them to follow her. If he lost her, he knew that there was no way he would pick up on her again. He still wasn't advanced enough to distinguish between each individual heartbeat. He would need to wait another day before he could get them kicked out, and he didn't want that. He wanted them gone at the earliest possible opportunity.
He rode the elevator down to the ground floor. On his way down, he lowered his body temperature and slowed his heartbeat. He didn't even have any particular scent, because he had just taken a shower. He made himself invisible. He got out of the elevator and followed psycho girl. He made sure to keep a good distance between them. He was invisible to her senses, but he wasn't actually invisible. She could still see him with her eyes. So he made sure to stay far away, but he kept her well within his radar.
She arrived at an apartment about a mile away from the main training building. She walked into an alley that ran next to the building, and climbed up the wall, into a window. He knew that was the trainer's apartment. He tracked their conversation for a few moments. They didn't talk too much. It was mainly just a quick exchange of pleasantries, and then they started tearing each other's clothes off. Percy moved closer to the building so that he could record them. Once he had a good angle with a clear view of their faces and the act they were committing, he started recording the video. He made sure to record for a full 5 minutes so that there could be no doubt about what was seen. Once he was done, he stopped recording, put the phone back in his pocket, went back to his bunk, and climbed into his bed. He slept like a baby.
He woke up the next morning in a great mood. He was going to do something he had wanted to do for quite a while. He sensed everyone getting ready around him. He didn't bother. He just lay in bed with his eyes closed. He made sure to stay there for a full 10 minutes. After that, he started getting dressed. Slowly. He walked to the elevator. Slowly. He rode down, and casually strolled to the training area. Once he arrived, he was greeted by the sight he had expected. Everyone was waiting assembled to watch him get screamed at. The asshole instructor was front and center.
"JACKSON! What time do you call this!?" he screamed, already going red in the face.
"I'm not sure, I don't have my watch on me." Percy replied sarcastically.
Percy's sarcasm had the intended effect. The instructor got up in his face.
"YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY!?" he screamed.
"No, "Percy replied slowly, "I think this is funny though."
And with that, Percy flung his forehead into the instructor's nose, breaking it instantly.
Percy was no idiot. He knew what was coming, and he knew it was going to hurt. But he hadn't been able to resist. The urge to break that fucker's nose was simply too strong. The instructor recovered very quickly. He dashed forward, grabbed Percy by the arm, wrenched it behind his back, and kneed him in the face. The knee to the face had almost been enough to knock Percy out on its own, and it had certainly broken his nose, but he clung to consciousness.
The instructor used Percy's arm as leverage to force him out of the training room, through the main area, into the elevator, and all the way up to Chaos' office. They didn't speak the entire way. Mainly, because Percy was still forced to bend at the waist, due to the pressure of his arm forced against his back. Once the doors opened, the instructor shoved Percy forward, sending him stumbling into the office.
"I want him gone. Now." the instructor said. His voice was nasal because of the broken nose. It was funny to listen to. Of course, Percy knew that his own voice would sound no different, but it was still fun to listen to the asshole talk in a funny voice.
"I'm not the one who's going, asshole." Percy thought glibly.
Chaos was sitting at her desk. She raised an eyebrow at the sight before her.
"Hi, Percy. Making friends, I see."
"You know me..." he said jokingly
Chaos smiled at him before she turned to the instructor.
"And what did he do?"
The asshole gestured at his nose.
"Look what he did! I was disciplining him for being late, and then he headbutted me!"
Chaos nodded understandingly.
"Aha. I understand."
Percy raised a hand sarcastically.
"Could I say something in my defense?"
Chaos nodded at him.
"He's an asshole." he said.
The instructor was about to slap Percy when he was stopped by Chaos raising a hand.
"That's your defense?" she asked incredulously.
Percy pretended to consider it.
"Well, no, that's not my entire defense. You wanna see the rest of it?"
"Yes, please."
Percy pulled his phone out of his pocket, and Chaos immediately understood. Percy could tell from watching her. He watched her put it together. She was really quick. One night Percy comes in asking questions about the legality of instructors sleeping with recruits, and then here he was 2 days later, having assaulted an instructor and he was providing a phone for his defense. Without even needing to see what was on the phone, she knew that it was a video of the instructor doing lewd things with some recruit.
She grinned at Percy, the entire situation becoming amusing in a whole new way. Percy grinned back at her, as he opened his phone and presented the video to Chaos. The instructor also caught a glimpse of the video and went pale as a ghost. He knew he was done.
The instructor tried to speak, but Chaos simply held up a hand to stop him. She wasn't interested in what he had to say. They watched the video in its entirety. Percy knew it wasn't to make sure that it was them, or anything like that. He knew that it was just to humiliate the instructor a little bit more. To make him stew a little bit longer, before he was fired.
Once the video was done playing, Chaos turned to Percy.
"Thank you for the compelling argument Percy. Go back to your bunk, and I'll find you later."
"Seriously? I thought I would get to watch!" he moaned.
Chaos snorted in reply.
"And what gave you that impression?" she asked, clearly amused.
"I dunno. Some kind of variation of the 'finders keepers' rules?"
She grinned.
"I'm afraid those aren't in effect here."
"Well, alright. Give me the details later?"
"You bet."
"I'll be waiting then."
Leaving his phone with Chaos, he got in the elevator and went down a floor. He lay down on his bed and waited for her to come and find him. He tried to listen to what they were saying, but he couldn't. Apparently, Chaos had soundproofed her office.
"Fair enough." he thought.
He heard the elevator go back up to the top floor, a presence get on it, and then it went back down to the training floor. The presence walked to the unarmed combat training room, and walked back to the elevator with another presence. Together, they got back in the elevator and rode all the way to Chaos' office, before he lost track of them.
Percy wasn't experienced enough to recognize people purely through his enhanced senses, but he knew exactly what had happened. Chaos had sent someone to get the psycho girl and bring her to the office.
5 minutes later, the elevator went back down to the ground floor, with 2 people on it. The instructor and the psycho, he assumed. Then, the elevator went back up to the top, then came down to his floor. He couldn't senes anyone on it, which told him precisely who it was.
Chaos walked into his bunk. She nodded her head over at him, to signify that she wanted him to go with her, and walked back onto the elevator. He joined her, and they rode back up to her office. Once they were in, they took the same seats as before.
"First thing's first, "she said as she waved her hand in front of his face and fixed his nose, "There. That's better."
It was better. He had been forced to breathe through his mouth ever since his nose had been broken by that asshole.
"Thanks. I presume they're both gone?"
"They are indeed. How did you know they were sleeping together?" she asked curiously.
"Just the way they looked at each other. I could tell that there was some history there. Not to mention what happened when she and I first met."
Chaos raised an eyebrow at him, so he continued.
"She nearly shot me, 'by accident' when we were at firearms training the other day. Naturally, I punched her in the face. Before I knew what the fuck happened, that asshole had knocked me on my ass. He totally believed her bullshit explanation and took her side. It was almost like he was protective of her."
Chaos sat back in her chair. She seemed to mull over what he had told her. Eventually, she spoke.
"Well, you were right. As if the video wasn't already enough to prove everything, he tried to confess. 'In an attempt to convince you to keep her', he told me. Apparently, he thought that his confession would be like taking the fall. It doesn't matter in the slightest, of course, I fired them both. I guess he really loves her. Maybe they'll have some kind of future together."
Percy shook his head.
"She was just using him. Some sex, a few privileges. That was all she wanted. Did you see that bitch's eyes? Stone cold psychopath. She felt nothing for him. Or anyone, really."
"Is that right?"
"Yep. I could spot them a mile away." he said.
Which was true. He had always gotten vibes from certain people. Maybe because he himself, was borderline.
"Well, anyway. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I'll have a replacement instructor brought in right away."
"Sounds good. Just not an asshole this time, I beg of you."
She smiled at him, clearly amused.
"So, I'll go back down to training?"
"Nah. Take a day to yourself, you've earned it."
"Thanks. I'm pretty tired, and I'm slashed to shit from all of those knives."
Chaos raised an eyebrow. She considered something for a moment before she spoke again.
"Give me your arm."
Percy obliged. She ran her hand over it and closed her eyes, just like when she had checked when he would be ready for the second blessing. She opened her eyes again.
"I can't quite believe it, but you're ready for the second one."
Percy blinked. Apparently, he was setting some kind of record.
"Um. Ok. Let's do it?" he asked.
"Yep. Right now."
"Great. Is this one going to hurt like last time?"
"Oh no, no no. This ones gonna be so much worse."
He rolled his eyes.
"Of course, it will. Why wouldn't it?"
She put her arms on his temple again, and everything went quiet for a few moments. The pain started suddenly. It felt like his body was burning from the inside out. He tried to rationalize it, but he wasn't even able to think. All he knew, was agony. He couldn't even scream. It was a horrific process. He tried to hold on for as long as he could, but he was unable to resist. He passed out, right there in Chaos' office.
A/N: And, that's a wrap, folks. This was a long one. But it's the 10th chapter, so I wanted to make it a bit special. Don't expect this kind of length for every chapter going forward. They'll probably be around 6K words. That's still quite a bit though, lol. Anyway, let me know what you think. Stay safe everyone.