A/N: Welcome back! Contrary to popular belief, I haven't died! Hurray!
Also I'm updating this story again... maybe. I'll try but sometimes life throws lemons and a whole bunch of other larger objects at you and you gotta dodge for a bit.
Regardless you get a new chapter; I tried to continue with the style I had going from the previous chapter but I dunno if it's changed at all over the months.
Anyways, I present chapter 16 and I hope you like it.
Chaos was waiting for Percy and the two girls to arrive. While doing so, she stopped and cocked her thoughts out loud. "I wonder what took so long." She glanced upwards arbitrarily. "Hey, are things good up there?"
A basket of lemons appeared at her feet. She kicked it away and disregarded it for the time being. "Whatever."
She was spurred out of her verbal thoughts by Percy appearing with Amber and Jenny. Percy immediately disappeared for reasons to be determined in a few lines.
Chaos smiled kindly at the girls. "Hey, you two okay? Also, where are we?"
Amber blinked. "Um... isn't this Hestia's Palace?"
"Oh, right, I almost forgot what happened last chapter."
"... what?" Amber was confused.
"Don't think on it. But seriously, are you guys doing alright?"
Amber nodded. "I'm fine. Are you really gonna train us?"
Chaos shrugged. "Well, Percy will help you too, I'm sure."
"I'll what?" Percy asked, returning from his excursion at the end of chapter 15 to prevent littering in the throne room.
"Help train Amber and Jenny," Chaos supplemented.
"Oh, yeah, of course!" Percy said.
Chaos nodded. "Alright, well, this is Hestia's place, and we've kind of been staying here for the past night. I'm sure she'll show up any second now."
Sure enough, a pillar of flame formed in the middle of the kitchen area, where Hestia materialized, appearing as a teenager.
She noticed them, then smiled warmly. "Hello."
Chaos grinned and waved, Percy gave a high-five, and Jenny and Amber looked unsure of what to do.
Hestia smiled slightly. "Relax, I'm not mean!"
Jenny shrugged. "Alright. How should we relax?"
Hestia rolled her eyes. "Sit down, I'll get you some food, talk, play around?"
Chaos frowned. "Aww, Hestia, you don't have to cook for anybody, that's too sweet of you."
Hestia shrugged. "I like cooking, so don't worry about it. I cook for myself all the time anyways."
Chaos sighed. "Alright. I can help you, though."
Hestia quizzically looked at her. "You know how to cook?"
Chaos chuckled. "I essentially invented cooking, you know? Who do you think taught the original primordials about food?"
They chatted while trailing off into the kitchen area.
Meanwhile, Percy grinned and turned to Jenny and Amber.
"Hestia seems nice," Amber commented.
"Oh yeah, she's one of the best goddesses out there. I've said that multiple times already, but it's true," Percy spoke.
"Yeah, you have... uh... would you mind telling us a little about yourself? Because as of now I really have no idea who you are," Jenny pointed out. "Besides, you know, you kind of saved me back there. So thanks for that. But could you please, uh...?"
Percy chuckled. "What do you guys want to eat?"
Amber glared. "Really? It's like you're trying to avoid talking with us."
Percy shrugged. "Alright, I'll just ask them to make a meal out of brussel sprouts, broccoli, and obscure, strange ingredients you've never heard of."
"Hey!" Amber fumed.
Percy chuckled. "Alright, how about I just leave the cooking up to those two and I'll talk now?"
Jenny sighed. "Alright. Talk."
Percy sighed and furrowed his brow. "Okay. My dad is Poseidon."
"Woah," Amber said.
"Hush, your dad is Hades. I could make hurricanes. You can raise dead people and teleport through shadows," Percy cracked a grin.
Amber glared.
"Geese, what is it with you people and glaring at me?" Percy pouted.
Amber sighed, slowly smirking. "Whatever. And you said that you could? So you can't anymore?"
Percy shrugged. "Oh, no, I still can. Though, a certain all-powerful pajama goddess forced a bunch of other powers and stuff upon me which I don't even know how to use yet-"
"I heard that!" Chaos yelled while preparing an unidentified meal with Hestia.
Speaking of Hestia, she was giggling at Percy's antics from the kitchen. Chaos rolled her eyes at her.
Percy sighed. "So yeah, that's a thing. Anyways, you guys know about the titans?"
Jenny nodded. "Yeah..."
Percy frowned. "Just so you know, I'm going to ask you later exactly how you know so much about Greek gods and goddesses anyways, even Chaos."
"Right..." Jenny trailed off.
Percy chuckled. "Okay, well, I kind of beat them. Not alone," he added in response to the two shocked looks he was getting. "It was back when I was sixteen and a regular demigod. I had lots of help, including a certain blond-haired idiot genius. Chaos knows exactly who I'm talking about."
Chaos shrugged from the kitchen. "If she does something really dumb, should I kill her or do you want to?"
"Depends on what she does," Percy called back.
"Wait a second, this is a person, right? Why are you talking about killing her?" Amber asked.
"Because, well... I only kill people who deserve it. If she winds up deserving it, then I really have no other option, do I?" Percy answered.
Amber glared at him. "There's a thing called mercy, you know."
Percy sighed. "Aren't you supposed to be Hades's daughter? But seriously... There's also a thing called betrayal and revenge, which I kind of fell victim to."
Amber tilted her head, silently asking what happened.
Chaos gave up on cooking and plodded over and hugged Percy loosely. "Alright, well, uh... he basically got accused of being a traitor during another war and was supposed to be killed but I saved him."
"... huh?" Jenny asked this time, confused.
"Well... there was this giant war after the titan war..." Chaos started explaining.
(Line break)
Half an hour or so later, Hestia walked in carrying trays of sandwiches, chips, drinks, salads, and hot food items like potatoes and assorted meats.
"Thanks, Hestia," Percy grinned at her gratefully.
Chaos, Amber, and Jenny mimicked him by smiling widely and nodding in thanks.
"Geese, you're a trooper, Percy," Jenny mumbled through a sandwich bite. "Makes us look like we were spoiled little kids."
"Nah," Percy said. "What did happen to you guys, anyways?"
Hestia interrupted briefly. "Hey, well, I'm gonna go check on the camps and such just to see what's going on. I'll let you know if anything comes up, you tell me if anything comes up. I'll be in the campfires... See ya," she waved and teleported away.
"Well, now we have a limited supply of food since I'm probably not as good at her as cooking without magically creating food," Chaos said. "Anyways, yeah, what was going on with you two?"
Jenny shrugged. "Well, we kind of were wandering around together. We're besties," she gestured between her and Amber "Found each other a while back, realized that both of us were insane, linked it up to mythology, snuck into libraries and read up on some of the old stories to see how to beat certain monsters just in case..."
Percy whistled, impressed. "Reading though? You have dyslexia or not?"
Chaos chuckled and punched his shoulder lightly. "You're a rarity in that regard. And you can actually read now, thanks to me. You just don't."
Amber chuckled. "We may or may not have stolen a few library books, then lost them one way or another."
Chaos frowned. "Well, what happened earlier today?"
Amber frowned. "We kind of got attacked by the group of monsters and the men at the same time. Jenny got dragged away, I guess I ran away and screamed."
Jenny shrugged. "Thanks a bunch for the rescue, by the way."
"Don't mention it. Neither of it was your fault, or ours. They're dead now," Chaos said soothingly.
"... that's only somewhat comforting," Amber muttered.
Chaos clapped her hands. "I'm gonna go speak with a few of the gods and goddesses, I'll be back. Perce, take good care of them. Shouldn't be too hard."
She teleported to an undetermined location while the other three just stared at the spot she had gone from in relative shock.
Percy spoke. "Well, I guess I know how you know so much about Greek stuff now. Libraries."
Jenny turned back to him and nodded. "Yeah... I kind of ran away when my mom was killed, so..."
Percy winced. "I feel you. Being a demigod sucks."
Amber tilted her head. "What about you?"
Percy shrugged. "My mom is alive. And now I'm a full immortal, which is even worse. By the way, Chaos the ever so cheerful either gave you or is going to give you blessings that'll make you partially immortal. Like, you'll live forever unless you die in battle or something."
Amber shrugged. "That's fine. I probably won't last a minute."
Percy frowned and started counting seconds. "60, 59, 58..."
Jenny answered. "I'm more of the monster fighter... she's the logistical person. Not as good with a sword."
Percy nodded. "Amber, you're actually not bad. From what I saw, you're better than average. I mean, that's still not enough against a Titan or Giant... but it's good. You're just comparing yourself to Jenny, who's really above average. 43, 42, 41..."
Amber got a tinge of pink on her cheeks from embarrassment. "Hey, I'm not too good. Jenny has the better reflexes with a knife and sword. Beats me in a duel every time."
Jenny chuckled. "Well... I'm good that way. Chaos is obviously better, and I assume you're better, too."
Percy shrugged. "I beat her in weapons-only fights. She'd probably beat me in a fist fight, and she'd probably beat me if she unleashed all of her powers on me strategically because I don't really know most of them yet. 31, 30, 29, 28..."
Amber perked up slightly. "Show us something!"
Percy shrugged. "Alright. Well, water is my best," he spoke. Raising an arm, he shot water out of his fingers. It swirled around him for a few loops before plunging into his glass and refilling it."
Amber pouted. "Is that it?"
Percy laughed. "Well, if I felt like it, I could summon a giant wave and sweep away enemies, or form ice spears and impale them, or... you know. But I'm not about to destroy Hestia's place. She'd never let me hear the end of it. 19, 18, 17..."
Jenny sighed. "Alrighty then. So, I'm supposed to have the light powers, whatever that means."
Percy nodded. "I can't really help you with that. I don't know how to use them yet. That's what Chaos will teach us."
"Us?" Amber asked.
Percy shrugged. "Well, she's teaching me a bunch of different elemental stuff. Jenny will learn light powers. Amber will learn powers related to the underworld. And I'll teach you to fight with swords and knives and such. Chaos helped me get the hang of it, but apparently I've surpassed her already. 6, 5, 4..."
"Huh..." Amber scratched her head in confusion.
Jenny chuckled. "Seems simple enough, I guess."
Percy blinked. "Hey, look! You survived a minute. And yeah, I don't know. Chaos is the legendary pajama goddess, after all. She'll just do whatever she wants."
Chaos flashed back in. "Hey! I'm back briefly. Talked to good ole Hephaestus. He's happy to help us out and will fight if necessary."
She teleported away again.
Percy rolled his eyes at the two girls and said "See?".
"Uh..." Amber trailed off.
"Don't worry about it. Look, I kind of want you to stop thinking of me as some magical guy with superpowers. I'm just me... you should've seen me when I was twelve." Percy sighed.
Amber sighed. "Alright. Well, Percy, what were you like when you were twelve? You've told us the general story, but I kind of want to hear it straight from you."
Percy shrugged. "Okay. Well, I was a kid. Pretty innocent, naive, a nose for danger. I was properly terrified on my first quest. Though, it was kind of a quest to the underworld. I'll admit it- I just wanted my mother back. I didn't really care about the gods or anything back then. But my two pals on the quest convinced me otherwise, and the prophecy was fulfilled. Oh yeah, some other dude betrayed me and almost killed me but then ran away."
"Wow," breathed Jenny.
Percy shrugged. "A year later, and Annabeth saved me again. During a dodgeball game. Don't ask," he added, seeing the puzzled looks of his audience. "Anyways. the camp's barrier had been destroyed. Thalia's tree was dying - that's a daughter of Zeus who got turned into a tree which is another long story -, and we needed the magical Golden Fleece to revive it. And Tantalus, the dumb oaf, refused to give me the quest. So me and Annabeth snuck out. It took a bit, but we were able to get the fleece. I sent the people who were supposed to get the fleece back to camp, while I took on the traitor, Luke. He inadvertently proved Chiron's innocence, so we kicked Tantalus out."
"A year later, I had my first encounter with the hunters of Artemis. It was... interesting. A girl named Zoe absolutely hated me because of my sword and its past, but we became friends. And then she died, and Thalia who was revived from the tree became a hunter. And Bianca died... Amber's half-sibling, and then I almost died..."
Percy frowned, thinking deeply about his memories.
"The Labyrinth was a tricky quest. Annabeth did an excellent job with the quest, but it was impossible to go anywhere in the thing. And it turns out that there was a giant monster army, and we kind of defeated them. A noteworthy thing about this quest was that it was where the god Pan faded."
"And finally, when I was almost sixteen. The second titan war. With much difficulty, I kind of had to try and lead everybody. We were successful in holding off the monster forces and I had to fight Kronos one on one. Needless to say, I failed miserably. However, with Annabeth's help, I was able to let Luke kill himself to kill Kronos."
He sighed and paused. Amber was almost asleep on Jenny's shoulder, and Jenny sheepishly grinned apologetically.
"I have one question," Jenny said.
Percy nodded.
"Who is Annabeth?" Jenny asked.
Percy sighed. "Former girlfriend. She's the blond haired genius idiot I was talking about earlier."
"Wow, did you guys get into a fight?" Amber asked, perking up from her slumber.
"Oh now you pay attention, right when you start asking about my love life," Percy grumbled. "Okay, well, she kind of betrayed me kind of ish."
"Ouch," Jenny muttered.
"And now Chaos is sweet on me. It's alright, she's-"
Chaos teleported in. "I'm what?" she asked, smirking.
Percy glared at her with eyes showing good natured humor. "Pick an adjective."
Chaos winked. "Sure. Funny?"
"Yep, sometimes," Percy nodded.
"Adorable?"
"Yeah," Percy grinned.
Chaos continued listing off adjectives of a similar nature.
Percy rolled his eyes. Amber and Jenny giggled slightly but otherwise sat silent.
Chaos smirked. "Whatever. Perce, I talked to Artemis and she's fine with teaching you archery."
"What?!" Percy exclaimed. "I'd like to pick a new adjective!"
Chaos giggled at his antics. "Hey, don't complain. It'll be fun."
Percy glared. "No, it won't."
Chaos smiled. "Whatever. Also, Hera's cool with you killing Zeus apparently."
Jenny gaped. "Wait, you killed Zeus?"
Percy sighed and nodded. "Yeah, that was me. He kind of pissed me off..."
Amber whistled in admiration. "Just how powerful are you?"
Chaos answered for him. "Uh, he can beat me, and I created the universe, so... very."
Percy shrugged meekly.
Chaos chuckled. "Oh, shh, I know you didn't want it but I kind of need you for general emotional stability and I didn't want to lose you to some stupid monster attack."
Percy nodded.
Meanwhile Chaos went in for a quick hug. Percy sighed and patted her head.
"Hera was kind of nice considering we killed her husband and I told her that I wasn't going to kill her even if she wanted to blast me to smithereens," Chaos mumbled.
Amber chuckled from the side. "Ah, the good old mumble into the shirt thing. I've heard of it but never seen it in action."
"Shhhhhhhhhh!" Chaos whispered.
Amber burst out laughing.
"Really?" Chaos whined and unhugged herself from Percy.
Amber grinned sheepishly.
Chaos smirked. "Well, you're awfully informed for a thirteen year old."
Amber blushed slightly in embarrassment. "Books," she offered as an explanation.
"Oh really? Which one?" Chaos asked.
"Uhhhhhh... this one series I kept reading involving a bunch of cheesy romance stuff..." Amber mumbled.
Chaos chuckled. "I'm just teasing you. Demigods are generally more mature than snobbish spoiled kids from some rich mortal family."
Amber nodded and grinned.
Jenny, meanwhile, smiled and played with her hair for a bit.
Chaos turned to Percy. "Okay, Perce, you're gonna have to talk to some of the gods because I've been doing our job for you lately."
"Aww, but-" Percy whined,
"No buts," she smacked a hand over his mouth.
"MmHmhmmmnn..." Percy continued to mutter through her hand.
She laughed at his antics and removed her hand. "I'm kidding, kind of."
Percy sighed. "Alright, who should I talk to?"
Chaos shrugged. "Well, Hephaestus is nice, Aphrodite is devastated over the loss of her precious palace which I kind of half-fixed up for her because I hated seeing her so upset, Arty and Apollo are friends, Hades is in our good books, Hera generally regards us as a slight annoyance..."
Percy shrugged. "Also, Zeus is dead, and Athena is effectively dead."
Chaos nodded. "Dionysus is useless. No need to talk to him."
Jenny butted in. "How can you call an Olympian god useless?"
Percy laughed. "Oh, you should see him. Lazy, fat, alcoholic, yeah."
Amber nodded. "Ahh."
Chaos smirked at her. "What, have you had alcohol at your age too?"
"No!" Amber glared and giggled at the same time.
Chaos shrugged. "Okay, why not Hermes? He's a good fighter. And a jokester."
Percy grinned. "Okay, I can deal with that."
Chaos playfully shoved him. "Go, Percy," she smiled at him.
He rolled his eyes and teleported away.
"So, you've got me to keep you company now, huh?" Chaos turned towards Amber and Jenny. "Now, what was Percy really saying about me?"
Jenny laughed. "What he told you. All good things."
Chaos nodded. "Good. Well, you want me to do anything for you, or just hang out?"
Amber frowned. "Do we all have some bipolar mental condition or something?"
Chaos shrugged. "Nah, we're just victims of bad characterization, and also our characters haven't been thought about that much for a few months so we might sound a bit stale."
"... ... what?"
"Knock, knock!" Percy called.
"Who's there?" Hermes's voice called from behind the door to his palace.
"Uh, pizza delivery?" Percy frowned.
The door opened. "Great! How much do I owe you... oh... wait, uh, Percy?"
Percy chuckled. "I don't have pizza with me."
Hermes frowned. "Then what about the knock knock joke?"
Percy shrugged. "I'm not gonna finish it. It's too cheesy."
Hermes laughed. "Cheesy like a pizza. Ah... come inside, and don't step on any rugs or mats because those are rigged."
"... rigged for what?"
Hermes waved it off and ushered Percy to a couch. "Oh, you know, pitfalls, lava, deadly spikes, the usual."
Percy grinned. "I will never touch a rug in your presence again."
Hermes led Percy to a makeshift bar before sitting on a stool and pulling out his caduceus cell phone. "So, what do you want to talk about, Perce?"
Percy chuckled. "Well, I mean, you know about the primordials coming and all that, but you're generally a good fighter, right?"
Hermes shrugged. "Yeah, sure." He tapped a few more buttons here or there.
"Would you mind at least trying to help fight with us against them? You would be some useful cannon fodder that wouldn't wind up dying."
"Well, isn't that glorifying? Whatever, count me in. I'll train extra hard. By that I mean I'll start training since I haven't in a while."
Percy raised an eyebrow. "You just went through two wars that could have ended your existence and you haven't trained?"
Hermes shrugged.
"Whatever."
"Perce!" Chaos said telepathically.
"Hmm?" He answered in his mind.
"C'mon, we need to do training this afternoon!"
"But you just told me to talk to Hermes!"
Chaos laughed. "Well, say bye then leave then. We can make up some social thing later."
Percy glanced at Hermes. "Well, that's all I have for you. And the girl calls," he said.
Hermes smirked. "Who calls?"
"Guess," Percy mumbled.
"Well, no man can ignore a direct summons from his girlfriend, or the creator of the universe, so knock yourself out!" Hermes winked.
Percy groaned. "Don't tell anyone," he said, waving and teleporting away.
A/N: Slip me a review with your thoughts enclosed. I'm interested to see how many people stuck around for a few months. More like nearly a year but whatever.
Next up on the agenda: Training and superhero power exploration, because every story needs an overpowered main character right?
That is, if I ever get around to writing it. It'll work out. Probably.
If life gives you lemons, then get a broomstick and fire back.