IMPORTANT NOTE! This is a SEQUEL. Not reading the first story (It's the Mindset) will probably mean this won't make sense. You can find it on my profile page. :)
(It's The Mindset, year 1 Interlude)
Man had Percy forgotten how much school sucked. It wasn't the kids. The kids, Percy could handle just fine, for the most part—even if they happened to be problematic rich kids with too much money on their hands and little to no discipline at home (and only marginally more at Yancy, but he couldn't do anything about that). Of course they'd honed in on Percy's less-than-new, and very cheap clothing almost immediately, marking him as a target. He didn't have Grover there as a buffer or even motivation to stand up to the kids this time… but then, he didn't really need motivation anymore.
That probably put into perspective how many issues he'd had as a kid.
But now he had the confidence and cool head to stand up to more or less anyone, and the know-how to subdue others his age without technically hurting the other person. Full nelsons were amazing things. And after so many confrontations he'd peacefully 'won', most people left him alone.
As for the teachers…
Don't get him wrong, he had great respect for teachers. It was something he'd gained after he'd been given the oversight of more or less an entire camp of demigods and nature spirits. He had to do some teaching and had finally gotten how hard it could be. But these teachers…
They weren't even an under-funded school! So why did most of them sit behind a desk and just ignore everything in their classroom when they weren't lecturing in the most boring tone in existence. Percy actually knew most of what they were teaching and he still couldn't really listen in.
Three days in and he made a silent fidget spinner out of bottle caps, hot-glue, pennies, and a toothpick. He was grateful he remembered how (it was something Annabeth had helped the kids make a couple of times) as it helped him stay still… or at least not draw attention to himself. He was a little surprised when a couple of the other kids approached him for some of their own. Within a week, he had a decent little side-business, until the teachers tried to confiscate them all.
He accepted that as a challenge.
They weren't allowed to leave the campus very often, but when they did, he got his own glue gun (he'd been using the school's before) and toothpicks. The students had to bring him the bottle caps and pennies.
By December, the teachers had given up trying to take the fidget spinners away unless someone made a nuisance of themselves. Percy considered that a win.
He was, thankfully, still doing better than he had before in all of his classes. Maybe it was because he'd decided to try. He actually wanted to learn something, in memory of his wife if nothing else. And she'd better appreciate it because… yeesh, it was hard.
It didn't help that he was sharing a room with a guy named Barry. The kid had taken one look at Percy, turned up his nose, and hardly spoke to him. Percy hadn't been impressed. After all, if the guy was so much better than Percy, why was he stuck sharing a room here at Yancy? At least Percy had gotten there first and had been able to set up some wards, minor though they were.
He'd really have to talk to Hecate about stronger wards for demigods, by demigods. It could make life so much easier in so many instances…
Around the beginning of October, he'd started to get little tugs at his… power. His domains, he realized. It took him all too long (and a prophetic dream—he still hated those) to realize that those little tugs meant demigods were in danger. And he hated it. Because he could do nothing. That had been driven home after he'd looked up the Colorado River to try and get to Colorado from the sea. The river didn't even reach the Ocean anymore. No. It stopped about one-hundred miles up the river bed and wound through some of the driest land in the US. Which meant if Percy wanted to help Erin, he'd have to find a different river over there.
Thankfully, he'd been able to trace a series of rivers very near to Colorado. The problem was, he'd have to get over the Great Divide, a part of the Rockies where one side flowed more or less to the Atlantic and the other to the Pacific. So he'd have to get over a barrier of mountains. By himself. Away from oceans. Ouch.
Technically, there was one river that (very unusually) split, and one side flowed to the Atlantic while the other flowed to the Pacific, but that river split way too far North to get to Erin. Eventually, and after way too much research, he'd finally realized what he'd need to do and where he would need to go. He just hoped he could do so in time.
Basically, he'd have to teleport all the way to the Rio Grande, follow that river up until he reached the start of it in the San Juan mountains, then find a way to the exact source of a river that would leak down into the Colorado river. One of the tributaries.
And he'd likely have seconds or minutes to do something if she even did call him. Traveling that distance alone would not be easy, and that didn't count finding the exact right rivers (he'd memorized coordinates, and finding those had been a pain and a half) to get there.
That was for one demigod. And he'd known where to look for her. If he had to do that much research for just one, he had no idea what to do to get to most of the others, and he was kicking himself for not thinking about it before camp.
So he began calling up the different campers, one by one, to ask where they were just in case they could meet up. Not everyone would give him even their home state, let alone city (though all of the Hermes kids who went home did, at least, so there was that).
The first call that didn't connect, to an Aphrodite kid he'd only barely known, almost gutted him. Somehow he knew that kid would not come back to camp. And he couldn't differentiate between each signature with his power like he could when he'd been a god.
So, in short, he would know when a demigod was in life-threatening trouble, but not who or where. That frustrated him to a point of near constant anger, which drove the kids away even more, aggravated the teachers even more (and none of them were remotely on his side this time as he didn't have Chiron or Grover) and he had very little he could take his anger out on. Which meant it was likely building, which was a very bad thing for him and anyone around him when he snapped.
More than one freak storm came his way in those months, and there was a near-constant drizzle for most of October and November. He wasn't entirely sure if that was in reaction to him and his powers, his father, Zeus, or just natural. He suspected a combination, but had no clue beyond that. He hoped it wasn't all him.
Working on his powers helped, though. He got to a point where he'd sneak into the pool and practice sensing the water whenever he could. He would focus on what was in the water—he kind of regretted that—how the water flowed, what it was touching, etc. because he couldn't practice sensing distance very well, so detail would have to do. He also worked on water traveling. He didn't just practice that one in the pool, but in the shower too, though he was more conservative about that simply because anyone could peek in at any time. Other kids were jerks like that. Still, he was getting pretty good at water travel, if he said so himself. He could even go over dry land for almost a foot.
He just hoped it would be enough when he needed it. Because he would need it.
He called Annabeth two or three times a month (as well as the other kids he was friendly with). She still hadn't figured out the time-travel, but she was getting awfully close. He hadn't known whether to be offended or amused when she brought up the clone theory.
As the days grew shorter and the solstice approached, Percy found himself more and more concerned, though. He would often stare in the direction of downtown New York. Would Kronos convince Luke to steal the Master Bolt? Or someone else? Hades' helm too? Or only the helm? Or would Kronos go for something completely different? He had an inkling of the future after all. It worried Percy that he had no idea what would happen. The only thing he did know was that he needed to stay away from Olympus. Too much could go wrong if he tried to intercede. If he was found hanging around the throne room when everyone else was gone, that could start a war, whether the symbols were stolen or not. Zeus was paranoid in all the worst ways, especially regarding anything dealing with Poseidon. And Hades was bitter. None of them would appreciate finding him being remotely near. Especially if the bolt and the helm did manage to get stolen.
Another reason he didn't want to go was that Percy was more loyal to the demigods than the gods themselves. He wanted to stop a war between the gods because that would stop a war between the demigods. But when it came to their items of power… he cared about his father's a little, and he didn't want them to fall into Titan hands but… otherwise, he didn't care. If the gods were lazy enough to leave their items of power laying around without supervision, they kind of deserved to have their things stolen in his opinion. Well, okay,
no one deserved it, but come on! These were supposedly super powerful instruments! Who just left that by their chair when they went off to brag and posture to each other about who was the best? Because he'd been to enough Solstice meetings to know that's what they did more than half the time. Not every god had a symbol of power—he sure didn't—but even he wouldn't just leave his lying around if he did have one.
Besides, if the weapons got stolen again, he'd just have to find them again. It may not be the same, but that wouldn't stop him. Ares would probably be involved, so there was that. He could prepare, and he was preparing. He practiced with his hydrokinesis every day and water travel as often as he could. He would find empty classrooms to practice his fighting forms in and he was putting on some muscle due to it all. That didn't stop him from being antsy, though.
The day of the Solstice was actually the day his school let out for Christmas. He thought it was a little late in the season for the vacation (he hadn't remembered that tid-bit), and had just gotten on his second bus to get to his third and final route. He sat by the window, looking up at the sky, hoping it would stay relatively clear.
So, when clouds started rolling in suddenly, both out at sea and over the land. Percy cursed, causing the middle-aged woman beside him to look scandalized, but he didn't pay her much attention. Instead, he put both hands on the window and concentrated on the sky. Of course, over the land, the storm had lightning. Nothing too big, but a lot of it. So there wasn't much he could do.
"No," he whispered, willing the clouds away. It could just be a minor disagreement, after all. Not something major like their symbols of power being stolen. Once they got over themselves, he could use his own power to make the clouds disperse, right? (He didn't know if he actually could, he'd never tried to unmake a storm before—at least not as a demigod—but he was willing to try.)
However, the storm didn't disperse. No matter how much power he had at his own fingertips right now, it was nothing compared to his father and uncle. And it didn't go away.
Finally, after nearly twenty minutes of watching it all, Percy slumped tiredly back in his seat, hands in his hair.
He had to accept that the Masterbolt, at the very least, had been stolen.
xXx
He, of course, spent Christmas with his mother. Where else would he go? Still not camp. Nope. He was staying far away from that until he could be sure his presence wouldn't start a battle or schism. And while he loved being home, it didn't help that his mother seemed to keep getting calls from someone that made her mouth thin. At one point, he heard her say, "No, Gabe! Stop calling me! I've already blocked your number how many times? Get the hint!"
Of course, when he asked, she'd just tell him it was nothing. Just Gabe harassing her and if he kept it up, she'd get a restraining order.
"I thought he was in jail," Percy said, maybe a little darkly.
She sighed. "He got community service. It was a last-minute change, so I'm guessing he got a hold of someone and pulled some strings."
"How does he even have strings to pull?" Percy asked, throwing his hands in the air.
Sally's mouth thinned into a grim line. "I… wouldn't be surprised if there were family connections. I don't actually know. If there are, he never told me much about them."
"How could his family have that much influence?!"
"I always knew he came from some kind of money, and money always has influence, unfortunately," his mom said with a sigh.
"Then why did he make you work multiple jobs to pay for things?"
"Because he's an awful person," she returned with a pointed look.
Fair. But still… Percy took a deep breath, weighed his options, and then figured he'd offer his next thought anyway.
"I have 'strings' too," albeit to Greek gods, but it worked. "I could… take care of him." He winced at the thought. He didn't like killing humans. He didn't like setting them up for anything. He avoided it if he possibly could, unless he was absolutely certain about a situation.
"Percy," his mom said, dismissing it as a joke. "I can take care of it."
He almost pushed father, but under that amusement in her eyes, he saw something he didn't like. No less love (Sally Jackson could never not love her family), but something… fearful? He wasn't quite sure. So he dropped it.
He still enjoyed being home with her as much as he could, baking blue-iced cookies to take around to neighbors and friends, talking about her work and her stories and helping her come up with ideas to write about.
He still had to fend off the occasional monster, and he also kept calling his friends. He even called Luke a couple of times, although he didn't dare say anything about the Masterbolt over IM. He'd confront the boy when he got to camp. Luke, for his part, didn't seem any different. He still said he was thinking about everything that had happened, but he was also still talking to Percy, so there was hope.
If he hadn't stolen the bolt.
Percy also got a couple of calls from kids not currently at camp, though those seemed far less often than him calling them. He didn't mind. Not only was it expensive (he was glad he'd spoken to his father about that, and got a sort of allowance on the DL every month or so), but also inconvenient, even with the Hephaestus kids' devices. He still wanted to keep in touch and help any demigod he could. That kept up even when he went back to school. He especially kept a close eye on Erin, who just seemed amused.
He didn't get the expected call from her until late March.
Thankfully, he was awake. Unfortunately, he'd only just barely woken up. (Mornings were worse than he remembered too…)
Barry had just zombie-walked out of the room with his plush towel, bath robe, and caboodle kit of skin care (no, seriously) while Percy just shook his head and watched. It was a morning ritual of sorts. Then he grabbed his own bag of shampoo and body wash when one of those dreaded tugs pulled at his being. He could never pinpoint where inside of him it was, but somewhere in his chest area at his closest guess.
Stopping, he took a deep breath, thinking through his options. He could call around and ask if everyone he knew was alright, but… he'd been chewed out by more than one kid who had been riding a bus or on their way to school. He was contemplating what else he could do when he heard his name.
"Percy?!" Blinking he looked around the room. "Percy! Please tell me you're there!"
Oh! He was getting an Iris message. He turned around and saw a small circle hanging in the air in front of him. An emergency circle then.
"I'm here," he said seriously.
"Oh, thank Father."
"Erin? Is that you?"
A choking laugh. "Y-yeah." She sounded like she was running, breathing heavily. "I… I'm not sure why I—whoa! Why I called you, really."
He was already climbing out his window. The message window followed him, thankfully.
"I did say you could, if you needed me," he said, grunting as he planned his way down the side of the school. The vines could hold him a couple of times, he remembered. Yeah, that would probably be the best.
"You're in New York," she pointed out. "Not that anyone is close enough to help me." She let out a sob and a hiss of pain. "But… I had to call someone. I…" she took a shuddering breath, "I don't think I'll survive this one."
"Where are you?" he asked. "In your city. Can you make it to the river?"
Silence from her. Percy grunted as he hit the ground, then turned around and sprinted for the gate. He had to get to water that would lead to the ocean… so a grate. He knew where one was. Though he'd have to travel through a sewer. Yay. Worth it, though.
"I don't think so," she finally answered.
"Look, Erin, I'm going to do something, but you need to stay alive, no matter what! Understand?"
A pause, then a snort. "I… don't think I have much of a choice."
"Think! Your father's the god of knowledge! You can do this. Even if it's just for a couple of minutes. Stall."
Another pause. "I'll… I'll try. But Percy, what are you going to do? You're still in New York, right?"
"I'm going to water travel. See you soon."
He waved his hand through the small window as he came to the grate he wanted. Thankfully it had rained the day before and he could hear water rushing through it.
"Well," he thought, "here goes."
By that point, he could travel two feet from one body of water to another. Which meant he needed to get wet first. Thankfully, the body of water didn't have to be large. So he called up a sphere of water a little larger than his fist and touched it, asking the water to let him through.
He felt himself dissolve, and then he was gone, joining the dirty, rushing water below, uncaring if anyone saw him (the mist would… should fix it). For once, he was glad for the near constant precipitation over the last months making sure there would be enough water to navigate.
He got to the ocean within twenty seconds. His sensing area had grown, it seemed, which meant his practice had paid off.
Good.
He pushed his senses to the limit, not knowing how far he could sense, but straining to the very edges of his power.
And he knew exactly where he was, traveling in giant leaps and bounds down the East Coast faster than he'd guessed, but not fast enough.
He pushed harder.
He may not be able to save anyone else, but he would save her.
It took him a minute and eleven seconds to reach the gulf of Mexico, and another five to reach the Rio Grande. And he could still tell where he was coordinate wise. If he'd had a breath for more than a second, he would have let it out in relief. He hadn't been sure he'd be able to navigate through rivers, but either his Father's realm spread this far, or he was leaning on something Roman and going for Neptune's fresh-water powers.
Either way, he was grateful.
He was also glad he'd been able to calculate and memorize coordinates of the tributary mouths he'd need to watch out for. That got more difficult the farther upstream he traveled and the tributaries seemed about the same size as the river.
By the way, yes, there are waterfalls in the Rio Grande. Nothing so large as in the cartoons he remembered seeing as a kid, but definitely some tricky areas. If he hadn't been able to breathe in water, he definitely would have drowned. Thankfully, that wasn't an issue, and he could often jump right past seriously problematic areas.
Forty-nine seconds brought him to the very cold source of the river, in the San Juan mountains. It came from snow melt… and precipitation. He'd expected more forest, like tons of pine trees and bushes and stuff, but while there were a few trees, most of it was grass and brush. At least, that's what he could see through the rain. Because it was pouring.*
Percy didn't know if that was a blessing or a coincidence, but he thanked Apollo anyway (because he was not about to thank Zeus). He paused to take a breath. Jumps in rivers weren't pleasant like in the sea. The ocean had plenty of water to work with and he'd appear in nice, deep water. Rivers had long stretches of both deep and rocky landscape. Plowing into a stone after a jump was not pleasant on the rockier parts, and the only reason it probably didn't kill him was because it was in, you know, water.
His last several jumps had been like that.
He only let himself pause for a moment before tackling the next leg of the trip.
Traveling through raindrops was… difficult. He'd tried it in the shower, with some success. It had helped when he'd learned to jump upward to keep from smashing into the ground with the drops. Of course, that was hard in the showers. It was terrifying in the San Juan mountains. If Zeus caught him, Percy could very easily be struck down, water travel or not. It wasn't like he was in… wherever his body went when he jumped all the time. He had to pop back into being every so often. All this while jumping over mountains and glaciers and crags and boulders and cliffs and… Well, he'd felt fear of that magnitude before, but it was most comparable to when he'd been in Tartarus. The danger wasn't the same, he knew, but he hated being in the air at all, let alone jumping over places that would very much turn him into hamburger if he didn't jump right. And if he'd had a stomach more than a couple of seconds here and there, he would have lost whatever was still in it from dinner the night before.
Still, he kept going. He tried not to look down, but that didn't stop the knowledge that if he fell, he doubted anyone would be able to get to him (if he survived), especially in this weather. Oh, and on top of that, he'd also lost any sense of where he was coordinate wise. Apparently, for that power, he had to be in a land-based body of water. Go figure.
He knew where he'd been though, and approximately where he needed to go, so Percy kept pushing in that general direction until he finally, finally sensed a larger, moving body of water that definitely wasn't a raindrop. Or puddle. Or lake for that matter.
Jumping to the area, he found a creek and could finally check his position again.
He cursed. He was too far south for the tributary he wanted and his gut was starting to hurt. Still, he reached out with his sensing abilities. Maybe it would work. Most tributaries would have to flow to the Colorado River, right? If he'd gotten over the divide, which he definitely had…
After a moment of indecision, he decided to trust his gut and pushed forward again.
Jumping downriver was far easier than jumping upriver, by the way.
By that point, it had been about four minutes. Great time, sure, but would it be good enough? He hoped so. He prayed so. And he kept pushing.
He knew when he'd reached the Colorado river. Wider and deeper than any of the other rivers he'd been in, and somehow calmer. Which didn't make sense. It wasn't a calm river to his knowledge. The Rio Grande had felt… tired for some reason. This river felt… wise.
Athena's river, he thought to himself, somewhat amused, before he forced himself back to focusing. Erin's life might depend on him.
He knew the coordinates of Fruita: Latitude: 39.1589, Longitude: -108.7290. He was getting there.
Five and a half minutes after he left his school on Long Island, New York, he reached Fruita, Colorado, jumping up onto a bank from the river and traipsing up the dirt towards where he could see a road. His gut hurt and he realized he hadn't brought a weapon or armor, but that was fixed with a thought, freezing some water into a breastplate, sword, and helmet wasn't difficult, thankfully. That would have to do for now.
As he prepared, he grabbed for his own emergency Prism-Maker (hey, he didn't name it) and clicked it on. He'd never been so thankful that water wouldn't touch anything he didn't want it to in his general vicinity, or the light definitely wouldn't have worked.
The necklace he preferred (because he'd be wearing Tyson's watch-shield in the future) had a space for drachma. With shaking fingers, he fumbled for one and shoved it into the rainbow.
"O Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, please show me Erin Colewood in Fruita Colorado!" He may have said that a little fast, but she was a goddess.
The small window opened and Percy immediately winced. It sounded like a hoard of…
"Are those Harpies?!" he asked, incredulous.
"P-Percy?"
He swallowed and felt for that tug in his gut, pushing past the pain from his mad-water-travel-journey to that part that belonged to himself and the other demigods.
Left, it said. He must be close enough for some detail. Ignoring the strange looks he was getting, he turned and sprinted, bare-foot (heading up the bank had not been pleasant) down the side of the road.
"Where are you?" he asked.
A pause. "I'm… not entirely sure. When the harpies attacked me, I just ran."
He huffed in frustration. This wasn't exactly New York. Sure, it wasn't tiny, but it wasn't super large either.
"Percy… I've been cornered. I'm safe for now, but I'm scratched up pretty bad."
"I'm coming to you."
Another pause, this one far more surprised. "What? How?"
"Like I said, water travel. Original name, I know." Keeping her talking and focused on him would probably help.
"Is… this a Poseidon thing?"
"Yup. Took me forever to figure it out."
"I just called you!"
"Yeah. If I could shadow travel, I could have probably gotten here faster."
He heard spluttering from the other side, although he couldn't see much through the darkness of wherever she was.
"It's a big three thing," he went on. His gut tugged him right. He followed. "From what I understand, some children of Z… The King of the Gods can fly. And children of the Lord of the Underworld can shadow travel. Basically jump through shadows."
"What even…" she started, but faded off. Percy snickered.
"So you're really here?"
He felt his smile fall into something far more fierce and determined. "Yeah."
Another pause. Was it just him, or was the shrieking fading off. Did she actually need his help? Would she have gotten out of this just fine on her own?
"Thanks," she whispered. "For coming."
"No problem," he started. "I—"
A loud bang had him jumping.
Erin screamed.
"ERIN!" he shouted, pushing from a light jog to a full-on sprint.
Right. Left. Left. Left. Right. Left.
Then he saw them. A group of harpies surrounding what looked like a shed. Several of them had landed on it and had definitely broken it.
With a harsh shout, he threw himself at the monsters, cutting through three before any of them had even realized he was there. Then they turned on him. At least a dozen shrieking, screeching monsters with dirty wings and twisted, human faces. He ducked, slashing one as he went by, and drove his sword up into one above him. They both vanished into dust.
"Percy?!" a shout from inside the shed. He let out a breath, thanking Apollo she was still alive.
"I'm here!" he called. The distraction cost him as one of the harpies' claws raked along his arm. He hissed in pain, but kept attacking and defending.
The sky had already been cloudy when he got there, but now a full-on storm was developing. Percy cursed himself. He really needed to figure out how to fight without calling an inland hurricane!
"Percy! Do you have an extra weapon?"
He opened his mouth to say no as he swiped at another harpy, who avoided his swing. Then a raindrop hit his arm.
He blinked.
Then he rolled aside as several harpies dove for him.
"Yeah, I do!" he called back. "Sword?"
"Do you have a bow and arrow?"
"No!" He doubted a bow and arrow made out of ice would do any good.
"Then a dagger if you have one!"
"Dagger it is!" he said, calling water to his hand, shaping it and freezing it in moments. Then he looked for his opening. He had to do some fancy footwork, but he managed to dodge towards the shed and toss the dagger inside. Then he was back on fighting duty just as claws scraped along his helmet, throwing it off.
He cursed again, but kept going. What else could he do? At least they'd gone from over a dozen to maybe seven left. It was still a lot. And the remaining seven seemed smarter than the others.
Half-way through his next attack, a bloodied Erin charged out of the shed, swiping at the monsters, who seemed to have forgotten about her. Their mistake.
It took them another five minutes to whittle the pack down enough that the remaining four flew off, squawking.
For several seconds, the two of them just stood there, panting, as they watched the monsters retreat.
Finally, Erin spoke up, turning to Percy. "You," she pointed at him, "are utterly… insane," she said between breaths.
Percy returned her accusation with a large grin. "You're welcome."
xXx
The two of them supported each other back to Erin's house. Once there, she called her mother at work and let her know what had happened and that another demigod had come to help. They were locking the doors and holing up in the house for the rest of the day and could she please call the school?
Percy didn't hear her mother's reaction, but Erin did look relieved, so he figured it had been something positive. Good. Seeing positive relationships between demigods and their families made him as a human and his demigod domain very happy.
Once she got off the landline, she went into the bathroom and brought out a first-aid kit. Then they got to work on cleaning themselves up.
"So," she said as she disinfected the scratches on his upper arm. "Was that storm you?"
Percy sighed. "Not all of it." The clouds really had already been there. "It seems to happen whenever I'm feeling particularly strongly." He grumbled. "That didn't used to happen." His first time around, he usually had to consciously make storms… or completely lose himself and push any and all power out.
"Powers do tend to get stronger once you start working with them," she said as she threw the dirty cotton ball in a trash box (probably to be burned later) and began bandaging the cut.
"I've noticed," he muttered.
She snorted. "You always knew who your godly parent was, didn't you." It wasn't a question.
"Yeah," he sighed. "Well, at least since the beginning of last summer."
"Confirmation you were taking everyone in with all the different bets. How'd you do it? I told you you'd need to let me know."
He smirked and held up a fist. "Cabin eleven," he raised his pointer finger, "with the prank to begin with. Cabin ten," he raised his middle finger, "is actually not that difficult to fake if you're observant about how her kids tend to focus on their hygiene. Cabin five isn't difficult to fake if you just train and fight, which comes naturally to a lot of demigods. Cabin six? Annabeth thinks that comes from my father being the strategist of Olympus before her mother. Cabin three was the easiest to "fake", of course. It was actually harder to not gravitate towards things that would make other people believe he's my Father.
"Naturally I left cabins two and eight out of the running altogether. I'm reckless, not stupid."
"So did you have water with the wine when you asked Mr. D?" she asked as she began to clean up her own scrapes and cuts. Percy helped her bandage her arms and they'd have to wrap some ribs that had been bruised.
"I seem to have some power over liquid in general," he said with a shrug.
"Does that come from your father?"
"It could. I mean, I don't know of any legacy from my Mom's side, and don't know who else it could come from anyways."
"Huh. That's how you helped Roxanne, isn't it. You kept her blood in her veins and flowing."
Percy paused. He always had taken issue with his ability to control blood. He thought he'd come to accept that, but apparently not. It could just be his pre-teen body (ugh, going through puberty again, no he wouldn't get over that) but if he were honest with himself, it had always been something he'd shied away from.
"Yeah," he finally said quietly. "I was able to stop most contamination that way too."
"That's…"
"Terrifying?" he asked, voice soft.
"Useful."
He snorted, appreciating her discretion.
"I've always had strangely prophetic dreams, though they're usually about what's happening now or what will happen in the immediate future. No long-term prophecies or anything. I think that goes back to my dad too, though."
"You got a lot from him."
"Yeah," Percy said, securing the bandage around her lower ribs.
"Most people in my cabin have only one or two traits from our father."
Percy sighed. "All my powers… I think it was him trying to keep his oath. I know my dad doesn't have the best reputation—for good reason—but… he tried. I don't know what he was thinking when…" Percy shuddered. He, like most kids, didn't like to think of his parents sleeping together. Even after three-hundred years.
"He probably wasn't," Erin said, amused.
"Fair," Percy muttered. "The gods seem pretty human to me sometimes. Faults and all."
She outright laughed at that as she rolled her shirt back down over her bandages. "You're surprisingly good at wrapping bandages. And mature."
"You didn't see me blush when you asked for help," he muttered. Silent though her question had been, with her just holding out the roll and pointing to her stomach (referring to the wound she'd outlined earlier), he'd still felt his cheeks heat up. Then and now.
Erin laughed again. "You're a good kid, Percy," she said, ruffling his hair.
"Anyway, my Dad's the Stormbringer, and the Earthshaker, so that's how those two came into everything. Most people attribute storms to Thunder Uncle and earth with the Lord of the Dead. But Thunder Uncle's storms have, well, thunder and lightning. Sometimes exclusively. My father's rarely do, and mine don't either. It's not my fault people jumped to conclusions." He shrugged.
She snorted. "Loyalty?" she asked. "Isn't that your fatal flaw? But I saw that with Heracles…"
"Surprisingly, that comes from my mother. It's definitely a more human trait. Also, names have power," he warned.
"Right. And the Dem—er… cabin four? Did you just feed water into the plants or something?"
"Something like that," he said, leaning back in his chair. "And cabin nine came from me being resistant to temperature change. Extreme cold and heat can all be found under the ocean, so I have some resistance to fire and high temperatures."
"The naiad thing was people wondering if you didn't have an Olympian as your parent… but wasn't there a Primordial on the betting list?"
Percy huffed. "Yeah. And a Titan." Pontus and Oceanus mainly. "Though I'm pretty sure that was the rest of cabin eleven pranking me back." He wasn't worried about those names. Not yet.
Erin laughed again. "I see. Very thorough."
"What can I say, when I do something, it's a hundred percent. The Hermes cabin demanded to know how I did most of my pranks too. The ones that didn't involve them. They were impressed."
She shook her head. "Good to know. Anyway, are you hungry?"
"Yes." What? He was a growing pre-teen who had nearly exhausted his divine stores. Sue him.
"I'll get us a couple of sandwiches."
He frowned. "Are you up for that?"
She waved her hand. "I'll be fine, as long as you're okay with peanut butter." She paused. "Or do you prefer tuna fish?"
He shot her a deadpan expression. "And it starts."
She blinked, and then her eyes widened in realization. "Oh, I didn't mean…" she faded off, then snickered at her own unintentional joke. "It's a valid question! Though, would that be considered cannibalism?" She tapped her chin in mock thoughtfulness.
"I am not part fish! And even if I was, fish eat other fish all the time without resorting to cannibalism!"
"So you want a tuna-fish sandwich?"
He huffed and folded his arms. "No. Peanut butter is fine."
She let out another laugh as she turned and walked into the other room. Percy grinned after her. This… this was nice.
xXx
"So," he said once he'd sat at Erin's dining room table and scarfed down one of the two sandwiches she'd brought to him, "how did you get an entire nest of harpies to chase you anyway? I thought they were territorial. Did they just move in or something?"
Erin shrugged as she chewed and swallowed a bite of her own sandwich. "I have no idea. I was just walking to the bus stop like normal when I saw them coming. A bunch of kids started shouting about birds attacking when they dove for me even. That never happens around here. I don't know what the mist was thinking." She and Percy shared a commiserating look before she continued.
"Anyway, I was running back the way I came, dodging what I could, kicking myself for leaving my celestial bronze dagger at home—which will never happen again, I can guarantee that."
"Good," Percy said with a firm nod before going back to his sandwich.
"I turn the corner to head to my house when a bunch come at me from that side. All I could do was run down a different street and keep running. That's when I called you. I knew if I didn't find somewhere to hole up, I wouldn't make it. Not without a weapon. But the only people I knew in the area were either at school or work. I didn't dare stop to try my luck with someone being home with those things dive-bombing me every other second.
"By the way, that old movie, 'The Birds'… yeah, never watching that again. Having things randomly attack you from the air like that is actually terrifying."
"Harpies are several times the size of most birds," Percy pointed out.
"Yeah, but still…
"Anyway, I kept running and trying to fight them off until I saw that shed. It was open and I figured better than nothing. I could even lock it from the inside."
"But it wasn't enough," Percy said quietly.
Erin sighed. "No. It was just plywood and… they got through just after you called me the second time."
That seemed to make her pause. "Which brings the question: how did you get from New York to Colorado in five minutes again?!"
Percy put his sandwich down and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Well, I told you about water travel, right? It's a way for me to teleport from one end of a body of water to another, as far as my senses can stretch, in any case. So I just had to find a river from the Pacific Ocean to Colorado and kept teleporting up." Well, that was the easiest way of putting it.
"The Mississippi is too far east, so you came up the Rio Grande, right?"
Percy grinned. "Yup!"
She frowned. "But what about the Great Divide? One half essentially flows to the Atlantic, and the other to the Pacific. How did you get over that?"
Percy blushed a little. "Well, it was raining. As long as it was raining, I could still stretch my senses. I just had to be… really careful about my jumps."
"Wait… jumps? As in you were in the sky? Isn't that—"
"Shh!" he said quickly, glancing around as if he could see Zeus anywhere near. "I'd like to not get blasted out of the sky, thank you very much!"
Erin just stared at him for several seconds, sky-blue eyes wide. "You… risked that… for me?"
Percy looked down. "Well, yeah. I'd do it for anyone from camp. But you're the only one who told me where they were. Everyone else thought I was a creepy stalker or something."
A moment later, Erin stood and walked around the table, coming to him and drawing him into a hug. "Thank you," she whispered. "I'm… not sure I would have found a way out of that today. Normally, I can take care of myself. But today…" She squeezed tighter. "Thank you."
At first he stiffened in her grip, but then he relaxed and brought his arms up around her back, careful of her bruised ribs.
"We all need help some time."
She leaned back, eyes a little misty. "Yeah. So if you need help—like with homework or… well, anything I can help with—you can call me too, you know?" He felt his face break out in a grateful grin, though he couldn't say anything before she went on. "I may not be able to travel hundreds of miles in five minutes—"
"It took me almost six to get here," he muttered.
She went on as if he hadn't spoken. "But I'm a pretty useful person to have around, if I do say so myself."
Percy's grin widened. "I might take you up on that. Homework is so hard." Well… that sounded like the twelve-year-old he was currently. And he kind of hated that it was still true. Even after centuries.
Erin outright laughed again.
"So, can you take people with you when you water travel?"
He frowned and thought about that. "I… don't know." He could take his clothes and weapons, but another person? "I've never tried."
She raised an eyebrow. "Want to head down to the river and see?"
He knew his face lit up. "Definitely." He had enough reserves left for that. He hoped.
xXx
So, apparently, Erin could be just as reckless as he was. They traipsed down to the river bank—it only took them a half-an-hour or so—and Percy tried to take her with him when he water traveled. But, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't. He'd ask the water to let him and whatever he was holding onto pass, and then Erin said he'd just disappear, ending up a couple of feet away in the river.
After an hour of practice and no progress, they decided to head back to her house so he could take a nap before he tried to make it back to New York.
Oh, and he needed to call his mom. He may or may not have been putting that off a little. He hated worrying her, but… while he'd told her about his plan to help demigods when he could, and especially Erin, he realized that he hadn't explained how. He'd told her about his water travel but… not the two subjects together.
He needed to work on his communication more than he'd realized.
Seeing as he didn't have much on him besides a couple of leftover drachma from his most recent allowance (he'd called way too many people if he was down to three), he asked Erin if she had something she'd be willing to give up. Something she'd made that she had some connection to but maybe didn't need anymore. The more connected, the clearer and longer the connection would be. It could be as simple as a friendship bracelet.
When she didn't seem too comfortable with that, he'd just used one of his drachma after all and resolved to finding his own things to sacrifice or waiting for two more weeks until his dad sent the allowance. He could ask for more, but the less he and his father interacted this time around, the better. At least, currently.
Since they were able to set up a larger rainbow, it opened onto his mother pacing in their living room.
"Mom!"
She jumped, looking around frantically until her eyes caught on the rainbow window and Percy.
At first she put a hand over her chest, breathing out in relief. Then she met his gaze again, her own eyes hard. Oh, yeah. He'd be paying for this.
"Perseus Achilles Jackson, where are you?!"
He winced. "Um… Colorado."
Behind him, Erin covered a snort and subsequent snicker with her hand. He shot her a dirty look.
His mother's face went blank. Not good… but he could still talk his way out of this. Maybe. "Explain," was all she said.
He tried to hide a cringe. It didn't work very well. "Right," he muttered. "So, remember how I said I would be helping other demigods if I could?" She nodded. "This is me helping them." He reached out and pulled Erin over by her arm. She didn't resist. "Mom, this is Erin Colewood, daughter of Apollo."
She nodded and waved politely. "Nice to meet you."
His mother nodded back and smiled. "Always good to meet a friend of Percy's." Then she turned her sterner gaze back on him. "How did you end up in Colorado?"
He tapped the side of his leg nervously. "Remember how I explained water travel?"
"Where you go 'through the water' but not 'through the water'?" she asked, deadpan. Yeah, now that she said it, he could see how that may not have been the best explanation. It sounded like an actual twelve-year-old Percy explanation, truthfully. He wasn't sure what to think about that…
"I don't know how else to say it! The water just lets me through!"
"You said it was a way to teleport," Erin said, trying to be helpful (even if she seemed to be enjoying this, the traitor).
"I mean… not really but kind of? It's comparable to teleportation, but only through water. I mean, I can only jump like two feet outside of water… if that."
"So you… teleported there via water?" his mother asked.
He sighed. "I made several jumps through the ocean and then up the Rio Grande, over the San Juan mountains—because we were either blessed or very lucky because it was raining pretty steadily—and then down tributaries on the other side that led to the Colorado River, which passes right by Erin's home town."
A pause while his mother digested that. Then she let out a breath and shook her head. "How long have you been planning this?"
He shrugged. "Since the end of camp. She told me where she was and she was by the river. And I wanted to help if I could."
"And it was faster to go up the Rio Grande instead of trying to get to the Pacific Ocean and going up the Colorado river from there?"
See, this was why he loved his Mom. Well, one of the many reasons. "Oh, no! That was the original plan. I was totally going to go down to Panama, around and up the Gulf of California, but the Colorado River's been dammed so many times it doesn't reach the Pacific Ocean anymore. For like a hundred miles."
"Percy."
"He told me to call him if I had any problems," Erin cut in, sounding amused still.
"I told that to a lot of people," he muttered, petulant. "No one else called me."
Erin shook her head. "Well I'm glad I did. You saved my life."
Sally blinked, obviously taken aback. "You did?" she asked her son.
Percy didn't bite his lip, but he had to consciously not do so. He did nod slowly.
"In his pajamas," Erin went on.
No, seriously, the traitor! He blushed and glared at her. She laughed, while his mother must not have noticed before because she looked down at his batman-print pajama pants and 'Road Rage' T-shirt, with a cartoon monster truck on the front and back. To her credit, she didn't burst into laughter, but she looked about ready to. Instead she just smiled widely.
"I see."
And right then, he knew everything would be okay.
"I didn't exactly have time to get dressed," he said. And he wasn't whining. He wasn't. Three-hundred year-old or older beings didn't whine. Unless they were Zeus or Apollo. And a couple of the other gods, but he wasn't about to say that aloud.
His mother shook her head fondly again. "What am I going to do with you?" she asked.
"Love me unconditionally like I love you?" he answered.
Somehow, her grin got brighter.
Then she seemed to refocus. "Can you come home soon?" she asked.
"After I rest up here. I should be home by the end of the day." He'd have to retrace his steps, but he was planning on going far more carefully and slowly this time. "I'll go right back to school. I promise."
"You'd better. You scared me, Percy, and Yancy is not happy with you."
He felt his smile dim a little. Not that he really cared what the school thought, but his mother... "Yeah. I figured."
His mother sent him a commiserating look. "Because you've been so good this year, they're willing to not expel you, but it will go on your record." Annoying, but he got it. So he just nodded, glancing over at Erin.
"Worth it."
She beamed. And yeah, she had her father's smile, but it looked far better and more real on her than it could on any immortal.
"I'm proud of you, Percy," his mother said, voice quiet and earnest. His own smile returned tenfold, and he wasn't sure he hadn't started beaming too. Three hundred years and a compliment from his mother made him feel like a million bucks. Or more.
"Be careful getting home?"
He nodded. "I will."
"Good."
xXx
They chatted for a little bit more before he ended the call and crashed on Erin's couch. He'd regained a fair amount of stamina (or whatever it was that allowed him to use his powers), but it was getting to be his afternoon slump and he had little problem going to sleep. He didn't have a demigod dream, thankfully, and woke up when Erin's mother came home later that evening.
"You must be Percy," she said, shaking his hand and grinning at him. She looked nothing like Erin, except for their noses. Their noses looked exactly the same. She was a lovely, dark-haired woman who worked as a receptionist at a hospital. She loved to write fiction stories featuring hospitals and doctors. Percy let her know that his mom was a writer too and they should get together. Maybe exchange emails? Erin's mom seemed delighted by that.
She insisted on dinner before he left, and while it wasn't the tastiest thing he'd ever had, he appreciated the casserole she made. Then he thanked her and said he had to get home before it got too dark. It was probably already dark in New York, but he could handle that.
Before he left that final time, Erin made him promise to Iris Call her for anything again. He assured her that he would before he headed out and retraced his steps to the Colorado River.
Heading up that river wasn't nearly as easy as coming down, but he also didn't have to do so in minutes or less. Taking his time, he followed the coordinates he'd memorized and moved up the stream.
Thankfully, it was still raining over the San Juan mountains. Which was good because it took him forever to find the source of the Rio Grande.
Once he finally did, though, he was home free. And, thankfully, nothing stopped him from heading all the way back to Yancy. While in the ocean, he hoped his father would come see him, or a messenger at least, but none did. Probably Poseidon not wanting to look suspicious. Which was fair, if annoying.
He had to navigate Long Island at night (because he had no idea which drainage pipe to head up to get back to the school), but that had never been an issue. He was a New Yorker, born and bred. He was also half god. So yeah. If he would have come across a monster that wanted to fight him, they would have regretted it. He did see one cyclops, but it was either one of his Father's, or didn't want to mess with an annoyed demigod with an ice-sword openly in his hand. Either way, he got back to the school just after dark and they gave him multiple lectures while assigning him detention for a month. He may not even be able to go on the field trip, something he wasn't unhappy about. Field trips and him didn't mix. He still remembered that much, and knew what field trip this one would be too. To be fair, he wouldn't have a centaur teacher and satyr protecting him while a Fury substitute teacher tried to kill him. He'd half expected Mrs. Dodds to show up after all the excitement around the Solstice, but so far, the school remained monster free (if he didn't count the ones that walked by outside, sniffing the air every now and then). So maybe it would be alright?
(He really should have known better.)
Unfortunately, he found out the next day that the school wanted him to go on the trip to the museum after all. He hadn't been happy. Especially when his assigned partner happened to be Nancy Bobafit. She hadn't given him as much grief as he remembered from his past, but that didn't make her a nice person. And she still had cheeto-orange freckles. He wondered why that was what he remembered about her (besides her personality)? From the smile she shot him when she found out about their forced partnership, he could safely guess that it would not be a pleasant experience.
He resigned himself to a miserable time and made sure to bring anything that could help him. More drachma (he was glad he'd taken a stack, even if his necklace could only fit three at a time), the single celestial bronze dagger he had, snacks, and half-a-dozen water bottles.
"This isn't a desert hike," Nancy said when she caught a glimpse of him rechecking his bag.
"I just want to be prepared," he retorted.
"For what? A drought?"
He just shrugged and followed the rest of the class outside to the big, yellow school bus waiting for them. Dreading what was to come, he waited in line while Nancy giggled with another girl behind him. At least she wasn't throwing sandwiches at him. Which was good for her, to be honest. Still… Why had he returned from Colorado again? Oh, right, his Mom. That didn't stop it from rankling. He'd more or less exhausted himself by severely pushing a new power to get across the country and had just gotten back more or less in time to go on this particular field trip. Why? Even after a night's sleep, he still felt that ache in his gut. At least the shower that morning had helped.
The Fates were laughing at him, he was sure.
Eventually, he got to the door of the bus and reached for the railing to help pull him up the steep steps.
"Be careful there, deary. It can be slippery," a familiar voice said. He froze, making Nancy 'oof' as she ran into him. Annoyed, she started to complain about him not moving… or something. He didn't know because he was more focused on the words that had just been spoken to him. The world seemed to slow down as he looked up at the burning eyes of an old woman in a leather jacket grinning down at him with far too sharp teeth that no one else could probably see.
Their bus driver was Mrs. Dodds.
END
AN: And that's it. Next week will start book 2: Regaining Perspective
As always, special thanks to my beta readers and discord helpers: Berix, The Shadow Slayer, Asterius Daemon, Quathis, Harlequin, Speedster, Snow, Starlight3, and The Chronomancer! Also, all of my discord peeps and my readers here! Thank you!
Discord: www. discord. gg/xDDz3gqWfy (no spaces)