"The customs in Atlantis are a little different than what you'll be used to, I'm sure," Hestia blew on her hot cocoa. Ringlets of smoke trailed upward into the morning sky.

Seeing the sight made my head swim a little. My mom used to make the best hot chocolate when I was a kid.

I'd come home from school, bummed about whatever happened in fourth-period, or mad about whichever bully tried to take my lunch money, but it would all vanish when my mom handed me that steaming cup.

I was broken out of my thoughts as Hestia continued. "Percy's always kind of been able to act how he wants- he was the newest in the long line of royalty, and now he's the crown prince, of course, but there will be a much greater eye on you."

"How much is much greater?" MJ asked nervously, looking at me for some support. Her cup of cocoa was set on the log beside us, untouched. Shame. She really looked like she could use a cup.

The cocoa wasn't my idea- it was my aunt Hestia's. She had this saying, "No meeting was complete without a good cup of hot chocolate and even better company."

It also helped that any food or drink created by her had this weirdly calming sensation- almost like downing a bottle of Nyquil, or something, without compromising on any of its world-class taste. I still wouldn't say her cocoa was anywhere near my mom's level, but I'd be willing to say it was closer than anyone else had ever gotten.

Back to my aunt, though, I tried to make a point of visiting her whenever she was at the camp instead of hanging out with my mom or doing Olympian stuff, and today was no different. The moment I saw her tending to the hearth on my morning walk, I dragged MJ out of bed and pulled her over here with me.

I've never had much of a family besides my mom, so now, I always feel like it's my job to make sure my ever-growing family members all get along. It's important to me.

Even then, though, I just honestly wanted to say hello. Maybe catch up a bit. MJ's a huge fan of hot cocoa, too, so I figured the drink could help the two of them bond a bit, too.

I was still trying to be somewhat realistic.

I knew things like this tended to take time. I wasn't expecting MJ to fall in love with my aunt on their first meeting, and I sure didn't expect Hestia to be blown away by MJ at first sight (especially not after she'd just woken up), but I wanted to at least break the ice so that their next encounter would be more comfortable.

The rather casual- and quick, I was hoping- encounter ended up being a bit heightened, though, when I mentioned that MJ would be joining me in Atlantis. It was supposed to be an offhand comment, one of those small-talk things, but Hestia's mouth tightened.

"Yeah, babe, she's not exaggerating, honestly," I said. I didn't have a cup of hot cocoa. I was sipping on my patented Jackson morning smoothie.

A scoop of grass-fed whey protein, a cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk frozen mango, organic vanilla extract, chia seeds- this creamy vat of goodness got my body ripe and ready for my afternoon workouts.

Well, workout. More on that later, though.

I did feel kind of bad for MJ. Having your boyfriend back up his aunt on your potential difficulties wasn't the most comforting thing to hear, but trust me, I knew that if she didn't shape up, she'd hate her life down there. And, if she didn't come, she'd hate her life up here. Lose-lose.

I patted her head, "I'm basically a celebrity down there. I was already kind of popular when I got down there last summer, and then Hades recorded my adventures and made a movie series out of them, and even after all that, I killed Oceanus. For good. That kind of stuff gets you some major brownie points."

"Oh. That's great. Do you want me to sign a prenup while we're at it? Protect your assets in case we break up when we're down there?"

I stifled a laugh. MJ had the tendency I had where I tended to make jokes during tense situations, but I had to admit, her overall timing and quality were better. Anyway.

"Don't fret, young one," Hestia replied calmly, placing a hand on MJ's shoulder. The fire in her eyes swam comfortingly, and I even felt the tension in my shoulders lessen a bit- I didn't even realize I was stressed. "I was his first etiquette teacher, you know. I'd be more than willing to do so for you, too."

"Really?" MJ seemed to perk up at that. I could've guessed her next question, "How well did he do in those lessons? I feel like I can't imagine Percy acting all prim and proper, with his hair all tidy and his posture straight. That image is just so wrong."

"He's inherited his father's tact, and unfortunately, skipped out on his mother's love for the classier aspects of life."

My aunt was so nice, I usually had to gauge her insults on her very own scale, and with that one, she'd basically done the emotional equivalent of giving me a wedgie.

They both laughed, and I just rolled my eyes. The women in my life loved to grow closer over my misery. Even then, I was happy to see them already hitting it off.

I snaked my arm around MJ's waist and pulled her closer to me, giving her a fake glare, "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. I don't need to bigwig around up there. They love me. I can do whatever I want."

"Perhaps. Regardless, a lot of scrutiny will be placed on Mary-Jane," Hestia pointed out gently, the last bits of her smile dying down. "Not only is she romantically involved with you, but she's also a mortal. Some people will have a reaction to that. Atlantean tradition around dating is similar to the ancient Greek traditions in that way- to them, you two will be basically engaged. It will be not unlike a scandal- the crown prince of Atlantis marrying a mere mortal."

MJ's face pinked, while mine remained passive- not my first marriage, heh, "That's true. How mixed do you think this reaction is going to be?"

"Honestly?" I should've known better.

"Honestly," I still took the bait.

"Bad. Well, it'll start bad," Hestia said almost instantly. "You've seen how insistent some of your fans are. This sort of effect has been around for a while. Usually, you see it with gods and mortals, but in my opinion, a lot of your fans, whether it's platonic or romantic, suffer from a love-obsessional type of celebrity worship."

MJ's hand tightened around mine. Why couldn't the problem have just been that I was too handsome?

"As the name suggests, individuals who demonstrate this sort of stalking behavior develop a love obsession with somebody who they have no personal relationship with. The people that demonstrate this form of stalking behavior are likely to suffer from a mental disorder, commonly either schizophrenia or paranoia- fans like yours do both. Sometimes, individuals that are love obsessional stalkers often convince themselves that they are in fact in a relationship with the subject of their obsession," Hestia pursed her lips. "For example, Helen. She was a queen, sure, but she was also destined to be one of the most beautiful women in the world. That kind of beauty is talked about. Therefore, men wanted her. They believed she was theirs."

"It can't be that bad, can it?" I leaned back in the chair, trying to drum up memories of the past summer. Carcinus' party stood out to me the most. "I just felt like a really cool kid at a party. Some of them were clingy, yeah, but what you're describing seems a bit, I don't know, excessive."

"That was before," Hestia reminded softly. "You've vanquished Oceanus, edged out Triton as the crown prince of the seas, and now, you're going to be competing and representing Atlantis in the largest tournament in the recorded history of the sea- but you know that. Even if you choose to ignore it."

If my aunt were a little bit meaner, she could've called me an idiot and just told me to go do the math myself.

Somehow, her version of it stung the same.

"You said it'll start bad," MJ pointed out, pushing a strand of hair out of her face. "Do you think it'll get easier? Or at least somewhat more manageable?"

"Indubitably. Percy's fame is a double-edged sword. While they'll initially have negative feelings toward you, when they see Percy be nice to you- which I assume won't be a problem- they'll want to follow suit. Eventually."

"Okay, then that's that. No point worrying about it," MJ gave me a smile. I returned it instantly, feeling a little flutter in my stomach. That was one of my favorite things about her- she always maintained that hope.

"Good. That sort of determination will do you well," Hestia complimented. She turned to me. "Will you be staying? I would love to give you a refresher, nephew."

"I'm good, auntie. Believe me, I'm good."

After saying bye to MJ and Hestia, I found myself skipping on down to the arena. I reserved a slot for a few hours, partly because I wanted to make sure no one else would be there in case I wanted to pull out some more destructive moves, and partly because I knew that if I reserved a slot, I'd make myself go.

I've been lax about training recently. It sounds bad, I know, but sometimes I really do feel like I'm suffering from success.

Sure, Luke whooped me. Almost killed me, in fact.

Maybe you're wondering why that hasn't spurred me into high gear- why I'm not spending every waking moment training and plotting for our inevitable showdown.

To be honest- I'm finding it really difficult to care. If I could somehow survive a fight with all those enemies, I'm pretty sure Luke by himself won't be too much of a problem. Even if I don't truly believe that, I believe it enough to justify not training like I'm going to war.

Which, well, I will be. In a few years.

Maybe you think differently. And, well, you're probably right. Logically speaking, it only makes sense that I should keep trying my hardest to improve and build upon my skills and whatnot.

The thing is, the Game keeps my skills in a constant state of adhesion- they're airtight. Even if I were to stop all physical exercise, as far as I can tell, I'd still be in this state of physical prowess for a long time.

That kind of knowledge is poison to my drive. It kills it. I've all but been relaxing since I got back from the quest because truth be told, it's hard not to.

Think about it. How difficult would it be to make yourself do things, knowing that this magical, otherworldly was going to keep you in prime condition no matter what?

Yeah. Thought so.

Still, I understand that Luke isn't the end-all-be-all. It's starting to look like I'll be fighting all kinds of deities and maybe even Kronos himself. Life's only going to get harder from here on out.

So, I'm making myself do stuff. I'm forcing myself to follow a routine, get into a flow. I'm calling it Percy's Get Right For Atlantis training plan.

Step one: allocate all my points and jazz.

I walked past the marbled columns of the arena, trailing my fingers on the door handle before forcing it open.

I got to the main arena floor and plopped myself down, pulling up my status screen.

[PERSEUS JACKSON]

[SON OF POSEIDON]

[HESTIA'S FAVORED]

[ECHIDNA'S BANE]

[GODSLAYER]

[LVL]: 64 (15,600/70,000)

[HP]: 66,000/66,000 (BOOSTED)

[SP]: 46,000/46,000

[MP]: 90,000/90,000 (BOOSTED)

[FEALTY]: N/A

[STR]: 88 (+5)

[VIT]: 25

[DEX]: 76 (+5)

[INT]: 64

[CHA]: 51 (+5)

[WIS]: 48

[LUC]: 37

[SP]: 60

[PP]: 18

[$]: 5000USD, 530D

|| Son of the legendary God of the Seas and Sally Jackson, Percy is the current [Child of Prophecy]. Despite his murky past, Percy is ready to take on his future with determination. ||

|| The title [SON OF POSEIDON] permanently grants 1000 [MP] and boosts the rate of mana regeneration. ||

|| The title [HESTIA'S FAVORED] permanently regenerates your health by 30% and increases by a factor of 5% for every 1000 [HP] below half! ||

|| The title [ECHIDNA'S BANE] allows the user to be immune to all poison! ||

|| The title [GODSLAYER] grants the user double EXP when involved in a fight with a deity! This effect scales, doubling for every immortal opponent and tripling for every Olympian! ||

|| The title [HERA'S BLESSING] allows its user to trespass on sacred grounds and feel ambient divine energy! ||

|| The title [DIVINE CONSULTANT] doubles the [EXP] gained by doing a quest given to you by any deity! ||

Just about what I expected. Surviving an encounter with so many high-level opponents was more than enough to catapult me past sixty.

I don't feel the need to allocate all my points right now. Not only am I pretty comfortable with where I'm at right now, but my dad's going to be training me soon, too.

I'd much rather hold off on giving myself all this help without a necessary need to. Even then, I might as well shuffle five points into everything to just get a bit of an overall boost. I guess I already kind of failed step one, huh?

Well, anyway, step two- get a better grasp on my limits.

Even before those current upgrades, my stat points placed me pretty high up there in terms of physical capabilities. On a mortal scale, anyway.

My base mile time's trickled down to right around the speed of a D1 college athlete. If I used a bit more strength, I could push myself under the four-minute mark, and if I used my powers, it took seconds.

Jumping wasn't even a problem for me. In the past year alone, I went from touching the rim on a basketball hoop, to catching alley-oops, to being able to dunk from a standstill.

Weight-lilting? Again, I don't think I need to beat this horse to death. I'm good. Really good.

The only issue is, well, I'm good from a mortal's point of view. My high school thinks I'm destined to be the next Michael Jordan. Jason says I'm the strongest demigod he's ever met. Some of the younger campers have actually fallen victim to the circulating rumor that I'm a god pretending to be a mortal.

The truth of the matter, that both you and I know, is that none of that matters in the grand scheme of things because once I max out my fitness on a mortal scale, I'll have to do it again on the scale of a minor god- people like my brother Triton.

It'll be a whole new grind.

And after that, your semi-major gods come in. Deities like Nemesis, who might still be classified as a minor god, but have pools of influence that stretch so far and wide you'd be hard-pressed to lump them together given that power divide.

Olympians are the top dogs right now, and right under them, Titans. I'm not even sure how I'd ever go about attaining the raw power of one of those ones.

Bear in mind, being on the level of a god, and being able to defeat a god are two entirely different prospects. I'd wager that even a minor god could take down an Olympian in the right circumstances.

Eh, enough rambling. Time for the fun stuff.

I took a deep breath in, and my hands flickered with lightning.

Fighting Luke was a wake-up call in a lot of ways. He wasn't the fastest guy I'd ever faced, and he wasn't even close to the strongest. I'd been in the presence of an Olympian letting loose. Luke was kiddie stuff in that regard.

The interesting thing about him- the curse of Achilles made him impossible to physically hurt. I could sling flames at him, push every ounce of strength I had into a punch, smash a car on him- and he'd just be fine.

He'd walk away as if nothing had even happened. I mean, sure, he'd probably be naked if an explosion happened right on him, but you get my point.

Nothing I could do hurt him. No matter how hard I tried.

And the truth is- I'd never fought anyone like that before. Even going toe to toe with Ares was doable from a practical standpoint. Luke made me realize I needed an ace in the hole for fights like that. Summoning Heket's holy ribbons was a great last-ditch move, but it drained me too quickly and I could only use it every so often.

I needed a more lightweight move. Something that could subtly turn the tide of any fight in my favor.

My version of bloodbending- yes, that's what I'm going to be calling it- doesn't stack up against him. Even if there's internal bleeding, none of it would show up on his actual person, let alone turn into a gash.

Based on my limited knowledge, I needed an open wound to really deal damage with that. If you can suspend your disgust for a second, try to think of a person like a big body of water, with their blood circulating around inside their skin.

For me to gain access to a body of water, I needed a constant stream to it. Drops of blood or bruises just wouldn't do that for me in this case- it's like if you brought me a drop of water from the Pacific Ocean and told me to cause waves off the coast of California. The whole idea wouldn't work with Luke's invulnerability, so bloodbending was off the table.

If I wanted him dead off of pure internal devastation, I'd need to either get the inside of his mouth to bleed enough to cut him up with his own blood or blast down his throat with a detonation of small ice fragments specifically manipulated to be like fiberglass shards. The odds of that happening in the heat of battle were low, though.

That just left my current plan. I needed to cause his body to give out from the inside- and the only way that'd worked was when I blitzed lightning into him like an exploding taser. When I'd grabbed his eyes and just let loose, he'd actually felt it- leading me to believe that while capable of withstanding outward physical pain, his body could still conduct electricity, which would let me get some damage in.

So…I vowed to create a new skill. One that would let me constantly feed in electricity, much faster and more sustained than any lightning bolt could do. That way, when I found myself stacked up against anyone invulnerable or physically strong, I had a method of slowly sapping away at them.

The whole skill generation of the Game still felt kind of weird. Most of my skills came from repeated actions, some came from being in the presence of gods, and others came from gods themselves.

It was almost like this funnel that took in prospective powers and broke them down in ways I found entertaining.

Phew! Phew!

I started tossing jabs in front of me, ignoring the overflow of lightning sparking off my closed fist and into the ground.

I kicked up one of the straw dummies and launched a punch at it.

My fist smashed into the side, and the impact of it rocked the dummy to the left. The lightning encased in my first lurched forward and ripped through the sandbag armor like it wasn't even there.

If that was a human…well…the punch would've probably torn deep into their ribcage.

I weaved under an imaginary hook and threw some more jabs out in the air, bobbing and weaving the whole time. The dummy, normally meant to withstand spear jabs and sword slashes, was getting tossed around like nobody's business.

A few minutes passed, and I stopped my flurry of punches, panting and staring down at my hands.

Too much electricity was being leaked.

I thought lowering the mana flow to my fingers would somehow fix the problem, but it didn't. Instead, it just lowered the amount of lightning being generated altogether- the same amount frenzied, more or less.

It was just unacceptable, no two ways about it. It might work as a decent move if I ever wanted to KO someone with a taser-like experience mixed in with my hammer of a fist, but that was beside the whole point here.

I needed sustainability, not power, and that's something I couldn't seem to grasp with this stuff.

Maybe I was thinking about it wrong.

I was trying to control it like I control water. As you might expect, that's beyond natural to me- like a muscle, really. Applying that here felt wrong on a few different levels.

Frustrated, I rocked the dummy with another hit that splintered right through its trunk torso. It folded in on itself like a lawn chair and crumbled to the ground.

"Oh wow," A voice said from behind me. "You really showed that dummy."

"Piper?" I turned around, wiping some sweat off my forehead. "And Thalia. Did you guys not read the sign on the door?"

"Read the-the sign on the door, he says," Piper started laughing. I frowned as she doubled down, howling, and clutching her stomach. "Oh, Percy, you can't be, oh…you're serious."

"Uh-huh."

"Come on!" Piper complained, crossing her arms. "You're kidding. This is the first time you've actually been in here during one of your reserved times."

"That's not true!"

"Puh-lease! You reserve the arena at this time every week when you're at camp. It's like clockwork." Piper gestured around. "And you're never in here. It's gotten to the point that when you reserve the arena, I come in here and practice because I know no one else will be here."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Well, I mean, you're kind of like Chekhov's gun."

"Chekhov's gun?" Thalia spoke for the first time, scratching her cheek. Piper turned to look at her, and Thalia shifted. "Right. Chekhov's gun! I love that…thing. You should explain it, though. For Percy."

Piper rolled her eyes, "Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers in the world. Percy should know that, seeing as my boyfriend helped him study for his English final, but whatever. Basically, he had this premise that everything irrelevant should be removed from a story, leaving only elements that are vital to plot points. Like, if you were describing a room and there was a gun over the fireplace, that gun would have to go off at some point. Or it would be a waste."

"And Percy's like that because…"

"Because if you see him, he's going to do something important. Percy doesn't ever come to camp to just hang out," Piper explained with more vitriol in her voice than I'd expected. "If he's here, he's here because of some gigantic quest, or he's about to save the world, go to Atlantis, transform the wards- you'll never see Percy here just for the sake of relaxing. That's why I was so confident he wouldn't be in here."

"What!" I exclaimed. "I do too come to camp to relax! I'm relaxing right now!"

"Hey, when do you go to Atlantis?"

"Like, a week."

Thalia and Piper looked at each other with matching smirks, and I threw my hands up. "Well, fine! I'm not going to dwell on you psychoanalyzing me too much."

"Well, do you want help training?" Piper followed up. "The dummies won't really fight back, now, will they?"

"Normally, yeah, I'd take you up on it, but I'm working on a lethal move," I said, holding up my sparking hand. "I don't use those on friends."

"Who will you use it on?"

"Luke," I said, grimacing at the look on Thalia's face. I forgot she still wasn't used to the new way things were with her old friend. "Sorry."

"No, I'm sure he deserves it," Thalia said a moment later, but it was pretty clear to everyone she didn't really mean it. "What're you trying to do?"

"I want to concentrate lightning on my fingertips and fists, but it keeps overflowing," I growled, raising my hand to show them. "I want it to be like a sustained thing, but this version of it just keeps overflowing."

"What's the difference?" Thalia asked, moving closer. "I mean, I never got to experiment with this stuff, but wouldn't it still hurt the same? Maybe more?"

"Oh, right," I backtracked. "I didn't really tell anyone, did I?"

"Tell us what?"

I summoned my water bottle over to me. As I began unscrewing the cap, I said, "Luke's invincible. He has the Curse of Achilles."

"Oh…wow," Piper thought about it for a moment. Her multicolored eyes narrowed at me, "And you still lived?"

"I got lucky," I replied somberly. "I was basically dead."

"Was? How exactly did you get out of that situation, Percy?" The red feather in her hair was starting to match the darkening complexion of her face. I should've dipped out of the conversation, but man, I might just be a sucker for pain.

"Your mom stepped in," I dropped the water bottle on the ground next to me. If I was attacked, I'd need both hands, "It would've taken me way longer to recover otherwise."

"Percy," Piper said in a low, warning tone. I didn't outwardly react, but I felt a pang of nervousness somewhere in my system. This was the same tone she had when she found a picture of Spider-Man and Black Cat on top of each other while reading the Daily Bugle. "Are you still talking to my mother?"

"Define talking."

"You asshole!" Piper snapped her wrist forward. Clarisse's dagger exploded toward me, being trailed by a thin cord that I almost would've missed if I'd been a little less careful. "You know she's in love with you!"

She grunted and pulled back, and the dagger snapped back, slicing right where my arm was a moment before.

"It isn't my fault!" I complained. "She didn't exactly ask for my consent before tugging on my cord."

"Percy!"

"Not like that! I mean, like, draining my body!"

The dagger flashed back into my vicinity, and the sparks on the end of it caused my arm hairs to rise up. "Piper! She just played doctor on me!"

"Percy, if you make one more—"

"Damn it, Piper, these aren't euphemisms!" I eventually just snapped. "I want nothing to do with her. I swear. She just wants everything to do with me!"

"You guys clearly have some issues you need to work out," Thalia placed her hands in her back pockets. "I could leave."

"No, no, it's fine," Piper said in a tone that indicated otherwise as she reeled her dagger back in. "We can settle it later. Let's finish the tour."

"Piper, don't be like that!" I called after her, but she left and took Thalia with her in a rush.

"Great. Good talk," I grumbled, moving back to the arena.

My relationship with Piper was strong, really strong, actually, except for that one little pitfall- Aphrodite.

Piper was somehow mad at me for everything her mom did! I think I'm pretty justified in saying that Aphrodite was the one who fucked up- marrying me without asking, sapping my positive feelings, pushing me to see things her way- it was manipulation 101. Literally.

But no! Apparently, since she's never ever been in a healthy relationship, Piper thinks it's on me for not being more patient. More understanding. She thinks I should've heard her out.

What a load of barnacles.

And that thing about Chekov's gun was completely wrong, too. I loved relaxing! Especially at the camp! I just couldn't help the fact that somehow without fail, every year, some big tragedy happened right when I passed those borders.

Besides, it's just a dumb idea. What kind of expectation is it to read a story thinking every last thing is going to mean something? If I ever wrote my own story, I'd be messing with the readers every step of the way.

Hell, I'd make a game out of it. Drop hints, red herrings, make them think one thing, only to be building toward this big, giant secret the whole time. Right under their noses.

As I stared at the smoking dummy on the ground, I lamented that ranting or being annoyed wasn't going to change anything. I might as well get back to work.

By the time I left the gym, I had indeed gotten myself a new skill, even if it wasn't the exact one I wanted:

[ACTIVE][WIS] {LIGHTNING HANDS} [LV: 2][PROG: 40%]

{LH}

|| Allows the user to coat their hands in a steady stream of lightning and attack in a flurry of strikes.

[BASE][DMG]: (10 x WIS x SEC)!

[BUILDUP]: 0.001 AMP/SEC!

[COST]: 25 MP! ||

A nice, lightweight skill that allowed me to deal damage. It still wasn't quite the seeping damage I was looking for. At this rate, I figured it would take me around a hundred hits to do real damage to just a mortal. It would take some serious grinding to get the skill at a level where it could swing high-level fights in my favor, but for now, it would have to be enough.

Besides, I had the whole summer to work on it, too. Rome wasn't built in a day,

"Jackson! Just the guy I was looking for," Medea waved a hand at me, somehow right outside the arena at the moment I walked out. "How's it going?"

"I'm alright, Medea," I said, smiling politely. "How are you?"

"Good, good. You got a second? I want to show you the plot for the city," Medea replied, tightening her snapback.

"Already?" I somehow didn't scoff. "There's no way you've got the project moving already."

Medea smirked at me, "We've got hundreds of magically enhanced demigods whose powers allow them to create things and construct them- you tell me."

"Lead the way."

And, lead she did. We made some small talk as we walked past the growing group of campers walking toward the dining paivilliom.

My stomach growled a bit at the wafting smell of bacon and waffles. Medea gave me a knowing look, and I just shook my head. "Work first, food later."

"Good man," Medea commented. Her faded denim jacket had a new pin on it today, a button with a symbol of a trident on it. She noticed my gaze, "Ah. You like it? I figured I should show some support for our newest strategoi."

"Support?"

"Yeah, I mean, a lot of our citizens have no idea who you are. So, while running interference, I've been trying to ease people into the idea of a new guy up top," Medea explained. She walked a bit closer to me as the dirt road narrowed. "It's going to be a shock for some people."

That brought me up short, "Do you really think that?"

"Please. Could you imagine if you spent the past decade at the same, I don't know, school, and there was a brand-spanking-new teacher? Wouldn't that trip you up a little bit? And then, imagine if someone told you that teacher was a god in disguise."

"Oh, Zeus, don't tell me you believe that dumb rumor too," I grumbled, flinching as thunder rumbled across the sky. I raised a hand. "Sorry, uncle! But come on, Medea!"

"Hey, I think it's a funny rumor!" Medea defended. "Plus, it's like a crazy morale boost. Any time someone feels kind of weird about the move, or uncomfortable with the idea of leaving our underground sanctuary, knowing that some real powerful dude is hanging around will help ease those concerns."

"Alright, fine," I said grudgingly, "I can see how that would be helpful. Just don't let it get too out of hand."

"You got it, rockstar," Medea smiled, and we stopped at the precipice of a large hole. "Welcome to the future home of demigods everywhere."

"How the hell did you do this?" I couldn't help but gasp out.

The hole in the ground, well, that might not even do it justice.

Right around the hole, there were the portals constantly opening and closing- tears of reality varying from the size of little car-sized holes to spinning pinwheels of blue energy large enough to encompass entire lakes.

People stepped out, dressed in black vests and holding logs together, hefting them above their shoulders.

Excavators, trenchers, bulldozers- construction vehicles branded with glowing EDEN logos came crushing out, already turned on and ready to go.

Inside the hole itself, hundreds of workers were already hard at work designing the groundwork for the system.

Magnus stood on an elevated crane, pointing all around the place. Giant subsections of foundation lifted into the air, illuminated by outlines of color, like the world's largest game of Tetris.

"This is impressive," I admitted. "I guess I never really thought about how much of a difference magically enhanced demigods could make. Even in a day."

"Oh, I know," Medea said, a proud smile stretching across her face. "Together, we can do things no one could imagine. I don't need to tell you that, though. I think you already know."

"That demigods can make a difference?" I repeated, still entranced by the systematic way the workers were moving around the lumber. "I've believed in that for a while. Ever since I got here."

"That's why I knew I could trust you," Medea recalled. We turned to look at each other, and she tapped the pin, "I'm not huge on trusting outside help. Even when I picked you up in Cali, I was a bit iffy on this whole thing. The more I get to know you, though, the more sure I am. You'll be a good addition to our team."

"Did you call me out here to say that?" I joked, waving at some of the workers who'd noticed the two of us watching. "A text or IM would've done."

"Nah, kid," Medea gestured back to the hole. "Do you believe in fate?"

"Like, the Fates? I kind of have to believe in them. I saw them in person, like, a year ago. It would be tough to say they don't exist now, you know?"

Medea chuckled, "No, not those old hags. Fate. Like, the big whole universe concept of it!"

"I don't know, Medea. I feel like knowing that Greeks and Egpytians and Ze- my uncle- knows who else kind of inherently proves the idea of Fate as a concept, you know?" I shrugged. "How wouldn't it make sense? There's a way all of this fits together, right? There's probably signs somewhere."

"Meh. I think it's dumb to look for signs from the Universe," Medea said, laughing at my look of incredulity. "I mean, come on, don't you think the Universe has better things to do than prove to some random guy it exists?"

"I sure as hell hope it does," I replied, and Medea chuckled. "I don't know, though, Medea. I still think there's some big plan out there. I'd go crazy if there wasn't."

"I guess. I won't dunk on that, yeah, but my point is, I don't believe in fate, and I'm not the biggest fan of giving meaning to every little thing, remembering every last detail. Still, though- what we're doing here, what you helped do by stealing that golden apple- it's significant. It's real. I wanted you to know that."

She was right. Staring off into the hole, I couldn't help but feel a weird sense of pride. What we were doing here could gurantee the safety and prosperity of generations to come. Someday, I could be walking through here with kids of my own.

"I guess you're right," I said a moment later, sunlight flickering through a patchwork of clouds. "You sure you'll be fine handling all this when I'm in Atlantis?"

"Have you met me?"

"That's why I was asking—"

Medea punched me in the arm, hard. "You wanna finish that sentence?"

"Yeah, yeah, my bad," I said, rubbing my arm. "Now, I think you said something about breakfast? Is there any chance we can get to that? I had a long day of training."

"Oh, you actually worked out for once? I guess those rumors about being able to use the arena during your times were grossly exaggerated."

"I really need to talk to Piper about these rumors…"

AN: Hey guys! Sorry for the longer wait than usual! I just had a few exams, and then Elden Ring came out, and then I started my own winter break….

Anyway! New chapter! Almost done with the setting up, so be patient! The next chapter will have a lot of you really excited. It's going to be a return to the good ol' Atlantis formula.

Still working on going back and revamping some of the chapters. I think I'm up to the first Atlantis arc, so that's cool. I'll be keeping up with that, so keep your eyes peeled. It's mainly cosmetic stuff anyway, so don't feel like you're missing out on too much if you don't decide to reread the entire story whenever I end up finishing the changes.

Also, we're 18th all time. Already. We're just below Altered Destinies, which I think is the craziest statistic I've ever seen with my own two eyes. Thank you all for the continued support and I hope I can keep putting out some quality stuff for you guys.

See you sooner than last time. Let me know what you think.