"Welcome back," Apollo said, placing a cool compress across Percy's forehead.
He pulled himself into a sitting position, wincing as pain whipped through every muscle.
"Easy there. You've been out nearly ten minutes." Apollo flashed an orb of yellow light around him and put on his glasses.
"Ten minutes? What happened?"
"I have no idea. I've never heard of anyone getting seriously injured while splotching. Leave it to you."
His memories flooded back. Splotching. Flying backward through the room. Annabeth's crumpled body. "Where's Annabeth? Is she ok?"
"She's fine." Apollo pointed to his left, where Annabeth lay with her eyes closed.
"She's unconscious!"
"She'll coem around any minute." Apollo placed a cold compress across Annabeth's forehead and her blue-gray eyes sprang open.
"WhereamIwhathappened?" she mumbled, closing her eyes.
"Must have been some splotching match," Apollo noted.
"Will he be ok?"
"Of course. If he weren't, Asklepios would be freaking out. Or worse, laying next to him." He pointed to the slinky gray creature curled up in the corner. "Banshees sense when someone's in mortal danger. Annabeth hit her head a little harder than you, so she needs another minute for the medicine to set in."
"This is my fault," Percy groaned. He didn't actually know if it was his fault, but that seemed likely.
"What did you do during the match?" Apollo asked.
"I don't know."
Annabeth stirred and she looked more lucid when she opened her eyes.
"How are you feeling?"
"I've been better, but I'll live." She winced as she sat up. "Are you ok?"
He nodded.
Apollo handed them each a blue vial. "This will ease the pain. You'll still be stiff tomorrow, but I can't help that."
The glands behind his tongue zinged as Percy swallowed the sour medicine, but the ache in his back vanished.
"Do either of you remember what happened?" Apollo asked as he collected the empty vials.
"Not really," Annabeth admitted. "I remember pushing toward the splotcher, but then it was like it rebounded or something."
"Rebounded?" Sir Frank asked, poking his head through the wall.
"Yeah. I felt my force hit his and then bounce back at me."
"That's what I felt too," Percy agreed.
Sir Frank's eyes widened. "Could be..."
"Nah," Apollo said.
"Nah what?" Percy asked.
"That sounds like what happens when someone does a brain push, using mental energy for telekinesis instead of core energy," Sir Frank explained.
"But a brain push is a highly specialized skill that only the Ancients can pull off," Apollo added.
Percy's heart hammered in his ears. He'd pulled energy from his mind during the match. Was that a brain push? "Doesn't telekinesis always use mental energy?"
"It uses mental control," Apollo explained. "Your concentration controls how you use the energy, where you send it, how much you send. But the actual energy comes from your core. Don't you feel the tug in your gut?"
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Project Percy (Kotlc Meets Percy Jackson)
Fanfiction12 year old Percy Jackson has a secret. He's a Hydrokinetic, someone who can control water - something that he's never spoken about, and has made him an outcast, even to his own family. But everything changes the day he meets Annabeth Chase, a myste...
