Percy breathed the crisp morning air, these days he had taken up Thalia's habit of waking up at 7. The only reason he ever woke up early these days was for some special training or if there was some special chores to do.
Recently they had taken to sharing a bed in Percy's cabin. Thalia would sneak in late at night and would cuddle up next to him, sometimes they would get a little handsy, but most of the times they just liked sleeping next to each other. Percy couldn't honestly say waking up to someone sleeping next to you was one of the best feelings in the world. He was always energetic during the mornings, Gamer's body made sure of that, but having Thalia next to him made him eager to wake up.
Unfortunately they could only do this for a few more days, the moment John came back from whatever quest he was on they would have company and Percy didn't really think John would like them together. Say what you will about the man for all his attempts to adapt to modern life he was still born in the 1920's where if you even kissed a woman it was a sign of marriage.
They could move into Thalia's cabin if John came back, but again there was a problem with that. Sure Thalia was the only daughter of Zeus so it would be empty. But standing right in the center of the cabin was a giant statue of Zeus looking down at the people in the cabin. It kind of freaked Thalia out staying in the cabin, after all which teenage girl wanted to sleep in a room where a statue her dad was planted right in the center?
Percy quickly made his way towards the Stables that were located near the very end of the camp. He rarely ever went there, but over the past week he had become closer to said horses, he even took over for Selina by taking care of them when she couldn't.
Since his dad was the father of horses Percy was again treated like royalty by them all. The first day he saw them Percy was surprised to learn that he could talk to them. He did have the Equus trainer perk, but he never really spent any points to try and understand them like he did for Leo.
Eventually he realised this was part of his demigod heritage, he was technically the prince of all horses. Percy smirked, Poseidon was definitely the coolest of all the Gods. After all Thalia and the Hades kids weren't considered royalty. Percy was a prince in Atlantis and the prince of Horses. Seriously! Could Poseidon get any cooler?!
The stables were designed to look similar to the ones made in medieval times with a wooden roof and stone walls. The ground was covered with cobblestones with a layer of grass and hay on top of it to provide padding.
As Percy approached it he could hear the voices of his eger 'subjects' inside the building telling him to hurry up.
"The boss is here!" a horse shouted from the inside.
"We noticed shit head!" another horse called out huffing in annoyance.
Percy opened the stable doors and went in. He saw a hay square lying on the side. Percy walked over and tore off the straps holding the hay together before grabbing a bunch of it in his arms.
"Who's hungry?" Percy called out gaining the attention of all the horse.
"ME!"
"ME!"
"ME!"
Several horse shouted in anticipation as Percy smiled. He then used his telekinesis to lift up and feed all of them the hay in his hands. Percy had gotten a lot better with his mental powers, right now he could multitask as lot, hence why there was currently 6 clumps of hay floating around the barn like they had a mind of their own.
The horse munched on them gleefully as they thanked Percy for the meals. While Percy wasn't as close to the horses as Selina was he could still make them obey him, it was because of his status as prince of horses and his Equus trainer perk.
"Hey boss can we get some apples?" a red colt asked much to the excitement of the rest of the horses and pegasies there.
"Ah, didn't Seliana say something about you lot over eating?" Percy asked raising an eyebrow, "if I recall correctly she mentioned something along the line of you lot running into the kitchens to steal a sack of apples."
The horses snicked, "yeah, we do love our apples."
Percy smiled, it's obvious that they got their sense of humor from Poseidon, must be a child of Poseidon thing.
"Okay I'll get you all some tomorrow," Percy assured them, "but for now make do with the hay."
The horses nodded in thanks as Percy walked out, closing the stable door behind him.
Percy walked to the Mess Hall but just before he reached an Iris message popped up in front of him. Percy watched as the rainbow cleared up into the image Edward Neak, the son of Hermes had a bright smile on his face and bags under his eyes. He looked miserable, haggard and exhausted, but for some reason he was smiling like a casher cat.
"Ed?" Percy asked in surprise, "I'm surprised you're up so early."
"Hey Percy," Ed yawned, "yeah, I know. I have been up all night trying to figure the formula out but after a few hours of grinding I think I finally got it."
Percy raised an eyebrow, "you mean the immunity pills?"
Edward nodded, "yeah.....Percy, I did it. I finally figured it out. I replicated the formula and managed to find all the ingredients to mass produce it. There were some nicks here and there, for the most part the formula would have only given people a timened immunity, but I think I managed to make it permanent."
Percy's eyes widened, "Ed.....are you sure?"
Edward grumbled, "if I wasn't sure would I be calling you right now?! Bloody hell Percy have some fucking faith!"
Percy was taken back, "alright alright, sheesh, sorry I asked."
Edward sighed, "I'm sorry, it's just, sigh, I haven't gotten any sleep. Look we need to meet. I'm going to be in New York soon, I have a previous engagement with some hot shot business tycoon. After that's done I'll meet you in Central Park at 11, I'll bring you enough pills of last the entire camp. There are like what? 150 demigods?"
Percy formed, 'if you only include the Greek demigods then yeah. But there are Roman demigods as well....shit, should I tell him to bring more?' Percy sighed, "look Ed why don't you just bring 12 pills or so. I'll get the head counselors to try them out first before anything else and then....then we'll see."
Ed nodded, "right, sounds good to me."
Percy nodded, "right, see you at 11. Oh and get some sleep, you look like hell."
Edward grumbled, "yeah....,maybe I can get some rest while on the plane."
The message disappears and Percy imm delicately activated his Speed Demon dashing towards the Big House. He called arranged for a war council meeting and soon everyone of the head counselors meet up in the war room.
Percy quickly explained the situation to them, the demigods looked intrigued while Mera and Chiron looked hopeful. Mr. D on the other hand was blank. Percy couldn't figure out what he was thinking, the God had a very good poker face.
"So what do you all think?" Percy asked them standing at the head of the table with crossed hands.
"A pill that can block our scent?" Lee asked suspiciously, "why haven't you told us this before?"
Percy shrugged, "it honestly never came up. When Ed first mentioned the pills to me even he didn't know if they were legit. We were going on a hunch, and it just happened to pay off."
"And you didn't think to tell us this?" Charles Beckendorf asked raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't want to give people false hope Charles," Percy told the head counselor, "if this ended up being a bust I didn't want to let people done. It was pure luck and nothing else that this thing even ended up in Ed's hands."
"Luck and you," Thalia muttered, "if you hadn't helped stop Agent 46 Ed would be dead right now."
The other head councillors looked at Percy who signed, "a story for another time."
Travis spoke up, "Percy I don't like the fact that you're keeping secrets from us."
"Yeah," Connor agreed, "first it was the whole pocket dimensions thing then Thalia and now this, dude we trust you man, with our lives. Why can't you do the same for us."
Percy rubbed his temples, "look man back then it was different, I still didn't know whether or not I could trust you all. And the thing with Thalia and me was private. I admit that I should have told you all sooner about the pills but I stand by what I said. I didn't want to give you all hope where it might not be."
The campers looked at him as slowly one by one they all agreed to his decision.
"I'm assuming you're going to do this on your own?" Annabeth asked as she looked up from Argo's personal journal.
Annabeth had been carrying that thing everywhere, it seems solving the mystery of that book had consumed her, Percy wanted her to stop, but he would be lying if he said he to wasn't curious. So for now he was willing to let Annabeth have her little obsession, but the moment it became too much Percy knew he would stop in and put a stop to it.
"Yeah," Percy nodded, "I need to make sure that Edward got the formula for the pills down. Once I have that I'll be sure to test it out. Then I'll bring the rest of them to you guys and you can see for yourselves."
"So are we going to give everyone in camp a pill?" Selina asked in anticipation.
Percy nodded, "yeah, that's the plan."
"Are we also going to give them to the Romans?" Annabeth asked.
Percy sighed, "I honestly don't know. I'll ask Ed about creating pills for the Romans as well, let's hope he has enough ingredients."
"Great," Thalia mumbled, "when do we leave?"
Percy raised an eyebrow, "we?"
Thalia nodded as she got up, "yup. No way in hell I'm letting you go alone. Besides, it's been a month since we did anything fun, maybe we can have lunch or something, make a day of it."
Percy smiled while Annabeth rolled her eyes, "you two better not destroy New York while you're there," the daughter of Athena commented, "we have enough problems as it is."
Percy looked offended, "us? Cause trouble? What ever gave you that idea?"
Annabeth simple rolled her eyes again while Chiron spoke, "so when do you have to meet Edward?"
"I am supposed to meet up with Ed in..." Percy looked down at his watch, "...4 hours time. I think I'll go ahead right now, maybe see my mom or something."
"Great, then I'll take over training for today," Mera spoke up for the first time, "I'll make sure they don't slack when you're gone prince Percy."
Mera gave Percy a very suggestive smile that Percy promptly ignored but it did manage to piss Thalia off.
After saying goodbye to Leo and making sure he had enough to eat for breakfast, Percy and Thalia took off for New York.
Thalia was put into Percy's inventory while the demigod ran at at near mach 1 speeds toward New York. He quickly arrived at his mother's apartment at around 8 in the morning.
After sneaking into an alley Percy reached into his inventory and took Thalia out.
The demigoddess looked around, "you know, I think I'm finally getting used to that."
Percy smiled, "good."
The two then left the empty ally went towards Percy's mom's apartment. As they climbed the stairs to the third floor Percy looked at his girlfriend and noticed that she looked worried, nervous even. Last time he saw her this scared they were about to fight a Giant.
"You okay?" Percy asked, "you look like you are about die or something."
"I'm.....I'm fucking scared," Thalia admitted, "I mean, I'm going to see...well....your mom."
Percy blinked in confusion, "yeah....and?"
Thalia sighed, "Percy, I, Thalia Grace, your girlfirend, am about to meet your mom. Do you see where I am going with this?"
Percy blinked for a few seconds before chuckling, "relax Thalia, you don't have to be nervous. My mom's kind of like me, laid back and very caring, I promise she will love you."
Thalia nodded and mumbled under her breath, "I sure hope so."
The quickly reached the third floor as Percy walked towards his mom's apartment door and knocked on the wood.
"Coming!" Sally's voice was heard from the other side as she quickly opened the door. She looked at Percy and smiled, "Percy!"
The demigod grinned back, "hey mom."
Sally wrapped her son in a warm hug, a gesture Percy repeated. Being with her made Percy feel safe, like everything in the world would be alright, a feeling he slowly felt whenever he was with Thalia.
Sally soon broke the hug as she looked Percy up and down, "you have grown Percy. You're almost as tall as me!"
Percy grinned, she was right, Goblin's growth was clearly working for him. He was around 5 foot 6 inches now, something that Percy took great pride in rubbing in Thalia's face as he was finally taller than her.
"Thanks mom," Percy said, "I kind of had a growth spurt this summer."
Sally smiled as she looked at Percy's arms and glared, "Percy....why do you have tatoos?"
Percy looked confused, "what do you-" he then looked down and saw his strength seals in the form of chains around his forearms, "oh these. Well they are kind of strength seals," he explained, "they help keep my strength in cheek, don't want to accidently destroy something."
Sally foran, "really?"
Percy nodded, "yup."
"You sure."
"Yup."
"Percy...."
"Yeah mom?"
"You didn't join a gang or something, right?"
"Mom!"
Sally chuckled as she turned away from Percy towards Thalia, "and who is this?" she asked with a smile.
Thalia stammered, "T-Thalia Grace ma'am, daughter of Zeus." She gulped, "I'm the daughter of Zeus."
Sally looked surprised, "ah, yes. Percy mentioned you before."
Thalia blinked, "he did?"
Sally nodded, "yes, he told me about how you were, what was it again? Brought back by the power of the Golden Fleece?"
Thalia nodded dumbly as Percy smiled, "anyway, can we come in? We were in town on official demigod business and thought we should drop by."
Sally smiled, "of course."
Sally lead them inside and Percy was happy to find that nothing had changed. The place still smelled the same, blueberries with a hint of vanilla floated about in the air. Percy and Thalia sat down in the dining room as Sally went into the kitchen.
"I was just about to make breakfast when you came," Sally called out, "would you two like some?"
"Yeah mom, thanks!" Percy called back as Sally told them to wait for a few minutes. Percy then turned to Thalia who was busy looking around staring at all the pictures on the wall.
Percy smiled, "those are my baby photos," Percy told her pointing at a set of photos hanging in the living room. They were mixed photos, ones of him in preschool or him and Sally at Montauk.
"Those are nice," Thalia said pointing to the ones of Percy as a baby that were above the fireplace, "at least we know you were cute as a baby."
