Chapter 9 - Target

Percy woke up in Chaos' office. He must not have been out for very long. Chaos was sitting at her desk, typing at her keyboard. Percy was still in one of the visitor chairs. She glanced over at him when she saw his eyes open. A smile graced her face.

"Hey, how do you feel?" she asked.

How did he feel? He wasn't sure how to put it into words. He felt powerful. He felt strong. He felt like he had lived his life with a 10-ton weight strapped to him, but it was finally gone. He noticed that all of the cuts that had littered his body were healed. He knew Chaos hadn't done it. It was the blessing. He had healed several slices and a myriad of bruises, in the last 30-40 minutes. He felt unstoppable.

"I feel pretty good. Strong."

She smiled.

"Good. That's how you're supposed to feel. I'm just glad I'm not losing my touch." she replied cheekily.

"Yeah, I'm sure you were real worried about that."

She just smirked.

"So, how long was I out?"

"About half an hour."

Percy nodded. Half an hour seemed reasonable.

"What have you been doing while I was out?"

"I've been trying to find a replacement trainer. It's proving to be... challenging. Most of our operatives don't really want to be back here, training the grunts. No offense."

"None taken."

"Thanks. I've got a perfect candidate lined up. She's really nice, extremely competent, and I'm sure she would make a wonderful teacher. The problem is that she's deep cover. She'll be unavailable for several years."

"I'm sure we would get by with one less instructor until she gets here. The people down there seem to have things covered."

"Yeah?"

Percy nodded. He could see how she might be stressed over something like that, but the truth was that they were fine. One instructor wouldn't make or break the regime.

"Alright, if you think so. I'll trust your judgment. I guess you can let me know how it goes after your training tomorrow.

"I still get the day off?"

"If you want it. I've already sent word to your instructors that you'll be missing today. You might as well take advantage of the free time; you won't be getting very much of it for a while."

He shrugged.

"I guess I just wouldn't know what to do with it. I feel kind of hyper. Like I've got tons of energy."

"Yeah, I meant to tell you. Because of the healing, you won't need much sleep from now on. A couple of hours here and there should be enough to sustain you. Why don't you try exploring the city? You might find some things that interest you."

"Fair enough. I'll see you around, then?"

"You sure will."

He got up and walked to the elevator. Halfway there, he stopped and turned back.

"Hey, I was just wondering. When do you think I'll be ready for the third blessing? Just so I know what to expect."

Chaos' answer was to give him the 'come here' gesture with her index finger. He walked back to the desk and sat down in the same chair he had been in. He rolled up his sleeve and presented her with his arm. She went through the same process she had gone through before. Once she was done with her test, she looked at him.

"Maybe a few decades? It's hard to say by this point since you only just received the second one."

He blinked at the time frame, and just tried not to comment on it. For some reason, showing any kind of vulnerability just felt incredibly uncomfortable when you were around Chaos.

"Alright. Thanks for letting me know. Good luck with the whole 'running the universe' thing."

"Your support empowers me," she replied drily.

He smirked slightly and left her office. Percy hit the button for the ground floor and waited. He wasn't sure what to do. He would probably spend an hour walking around the city before he inevitably ended up in the library. He left the training building and strolled around the city. It was a beautiful place. There were several gardens throughout the place, with benches in front of quiet lakes. There were idyllic cafes that looked like they had been taken straight out of Italy.

But no matter how pleasant the scenery was, he wound up in the library. It was just too tempting for him. Despite having been forced to pretend otherwise, he had craved knowledge since he was a child, so a library belonging to the creator of the universe was simply too enticing. He spent most of his day at a desk, surrounded by books.

He gave up on history and started pulling books at random. He chose whatever subject looked interesting to him, and read about it. There were a few texts about the best applications for his extra senses. He found a few guides on techniques for shadow control, which he studied preemptively. The hours flew by, and he completely lost track of time. He realized his mistake when he glanced at a clock on the wall. He had training in 5 hours.

Percy left the library and walked back to his bunk. He showered, crawled into bed, and fell asleep in moments.

When he woke up the next morning, he felt revitalized. He felt strong and energetic. He felt powerful. He dressed in his usual training clothes and headed down to the hand-to-hand combat room. During the hour of exercise, he pushed himself to his limits. He lifted more than he had ever lifted. He ran faster than he had ever run. He still felt great afterward.

He was looking forward to the sparring. He remembered everyone howling with laughter after his performance on the obstacle course a few days prior. He had done quite poorly, granted, but they were going to pay for making him feel even shittier about himself.

Eventually, the gym time came to an end, and they all paired up for sparring. Percy was paired with some guy that he didn't know. But the guy had been one of the ones laughing at Percy after the obstacle course. So he was going to suffer a little bit. Not too much, but enough to make sure he learned his lesson. The sparring commenced, and Percy swung first. He went low and hard. A massive punch to the solar plexus and the guy was winded for several minutes. It would have been hours, but he had received Chaos' second blessing.

The partners came and went, each of them learning not to mess with Percy. He was starting to cement a reputation within his cohorts. People were learning.

The rest of the day progressed in a similar fashion. The training with knives was easy enough. Now that he didn't need to play defensively anymore, Percy was on his way to becoming a force to be reckoned with. He just had to make sure he didn't cause any serious harm. He didn't want to blind anyone, even if it would only be for a few hours before they healed. Firearms training was progressing well. Percy was becoming proficient with all types of guns, but he was discovering that he had considerable talent with a sniper. He had managed to hit the inner ring on a target that was over 2 kilometers away. The instructors had taken note. Once they were done, they progressed to the obstacle course. Percy did quite well. He finished in second place, 2 seconds behind the girl that finished first, and 5 seconds ahead of the guy that finished last. He was happy enough with that. These people had been training for over 10 years, so he was glad to even be contending with them. For now, at least. He preferred to accept nothing but the best from himself. Once he was done with the obstacles, he went to the library for a few hours. He did some light reading and then went back to his bunk for 3 hours of blissful sleep.

5 years later

Percy's routine had shaped into something quite comfortable for the demigod. He woke up, trained as hard as he could for 18 hours, went to the library for 3 hours, went back to his bunk, slept for 3 hours, and then got up and did it all again. Routine.

Over the past 5 years, Percy had improved considerably. He had already been pretty decent, but he had taken his skills to a whole new level. That tended to happen when someone did nothing but train for 5 years. He had always been pretty good at hand-to-hand combat, but he had risen to entirely new levels. None of the other recruits in his area wanted to spar with him. They always left covered in bruises, while he went the entire fight without taking a single hit. It had reached the point where the instructors took turns sparring with him. They kicked his ass, but they had over 1000 years of experience, so he wasn't too bothered by it.

The knives training was going similarly. Again, the instructors sparred with him. None of the other recruits were brave enough to face him. Percy couldn't say that he blamed them. They hadn't even brushed him with a knife in a year. The instructors tore him to shit every time, but he carried on relentlessly. Once, he had even managed to slash one of them across the ribs. It had only been a minor nick, but it had shocked the instructor to his core. There had to have been some very serious staff meetings after that.

Firearms training was, by far, the best. Percy's skill with a sniper rifle was virtually unparalleled. Few in the entire army could shoot at distances like his. Chaos had even expanded the range, just for him. She had added targets up to 20 kilometers away. A considerable amount of research and development had gone into creating a gun that could even shoot that far, but Chaos' team of engineers had managed it. They only made one. And only Percy used it. No one else could even get close. Percy couldn't quite hit the target when it was at its full 20 Km distance, but he had perfected the process of shooting at 15 Km. He was pretty good with pistols, assault rifles, submachine guns, machine guns, and shotguns too. Not quite the best, but far from the worst.

He had perfected the obstacle course down to a science. It was almost criminal, how easy it had become. He kept pushing himself to do better, but he hadn't finished anything except first, in 2 whole years. It was easy.

The past 5 years had also had quite a considerable effect on Percy, physically. When he had arrived in Chaos' realm, he had stood at a respectable 6'2. He had grown taller since then, and now stood at a monstrous 6'7. Chaos had told him it was to do with the first blessing. He had also packed on the muscle. Training every single day for 5 years had transformed him into a machine. He hadn't become a bodybuilder like Arnold Schwarzenegger, instead appearing as a more lean version. He looked like a swimmer that had spent a few extra hours at the gym.

But that had done nothing to dampen his speed. He was as quick and dexterous as he had always been, his supernatural speed coming from Chaos' blessing. He was the type of person that could carve out his own path in a crowded room.

One morning, Percy woke up and got ready to go about his routine. The same way he had for the last 5 years. But he was interrupted. As soon as he reached the first training room, one of the trainers caught his attention, which was no easy feat. Percy had wanted to practice masking his presence, and it had become a habit. He kept his heartbeat perpetually low and constantly kept his temperature consistent with his environment. He was always fresh from a shower, and he made sure to walk perfectly silently. He had become virtually untrackable. The only way to identify him was to see him. Hardly a difficult task in the outside world, but among Chaos' troops, it was easy enough to hide. There were quite a few guys as tall as him. One or two were even taller.

"Jackson, report to Lady Chaos immediately," was all the instructor said.

Percy didn't bother questioning him. If Chaos wanted to see him, then she would tell him why. He just nodded and walked back to the elevator. He didn't waste energy thinking about the possible reasons for her asking for him. She would tell him in a few moments anyway.

He stepped off the elevator, into her office. He found her sitting behind her desk, as she always was. She smiled when she saw him. He smiled back. She was the only person he really spoke to since arriving at her realm. No one else was of any interest to him.

"Percy, thank you for coming."

"Sure thing. You wanna tell me why I'm here?"

"I do indeed. First, let me ask you something. How's training going?"

Percy considered his answer for a moment before he decided to simply tell her.

"Honestly? It's getting kind of monotonous. No one else in my group can keep up with me anymore. I spar with the trainers."

"And how does that go?"

"Pretty badly. I virtually never hit them, for obvious reasons, but I suppose it keeps things challenging enough."

Chaos nodded.

"And your firearms training? How's that going?"

"Great. I still haven't been able to hit that target 20 Km away, but I'm working on it."

"I see. What's the furthest range you can shoot at comfortably?"

Percy thought about it.

"When you say 'comfortably', you mean confidently?"

"Sure."

"I feel good up to 15 Km. After that, things get a little dicey. But I can shoot at 15 with my eyes closed."

Chaos nodded again. He wasn't sure where she was going with this. They chatted with some regularity, but she had never pulled him out of training just to shoot the shit.

"You're absolutely sure? 15 thousand meters?"

"Without a doubt."

She watched him for a few moments. She looked like she was trying to make a decision. She must have made it after a few moments, because she started to speak to him with purpose.

"Ok. Truth be told, I knew all of that. I spoke to all of your instructors last night, and they've given me glowing reviews of your progress. Well, they were about as 'glowing' as they get. I just wanted to hear it directly from you."

"Why?"

"Because I have a job for you. There aren't too many people in my Army who could pull it off, and you're the only one who can do it within the time frame necessary. And the job needs to be done."

"A job? You mean a mission?"

"I do indeed. I'm not going to bore you with details, so I'll give you the abbreviated version of the story. There's a planet, far from here, that has devolved into tyranny. The tyrant has absolute power over the entire planet. The whole population is subject to his will. As my organization does, we've planted the seeds of rebellion among some of his people. We've ensured that once he dies, they will take control, and democracy can be restored. The only problem, is killing him. It's proven to be very difficult. He may be a horrible person, but he's quite shrewd. He knows that people are after him, and has taken extreme measures to ensure his security. No matter what we do, we can't get close enough to him."

Percy nodded. He understood the dilemma. And he understood what she was going to ask him to do.

"And you want me to do it. Why am I in such a unique position?"

Chaos sat back in her chair.

"Take a guess. Why are you being asked to do this?"

He thought for a few seconds. Then it dawned on him. He wasn't sure why it had taken him so long to realize.

"Ah. You found an opening. You've got a window of opportunity that you need to take if you want him gone, but none of your snipers can shoot far enough with confidence."

She cocked her head.

"How do you figure?"

"I'm pretty good with guns, but there are people that are better in my own class, never mind the rest of the Army. I have no training in espionage or infiltration yet, so that's not the way in. So we can rule out poisoning him. I couldn't impersonate a member of his security team and kill him when I get close. A guy so concerned with his safety would know every single face assigned to protect him. There's some unique window of opportunity, and it's unique for a reason. No one else can make the shot, can they? I'm guessing he's got a public appearance scheduled for sometime in the next few days. He'll be exposed. But a guy like that wouldn't go to the bathroom without having all possible sniper vantage points covered. There must be a single vantage point that has a clear line of sight to wherever he's gonna be, which is also too far away to be covered by his security. He'll probably have snipers posted at every sniper point within 10 Km of where he'll be. You want me to set up a vantage point and kill him from somewhere outside that distance."

Chaos smiled at him.

"I'm glad all that extra muscle didn't cost you any brainpower."

"So am I. When do I leave?"

"In a few hours. You'll be briefed in-depth on your way. Now, I'm going to give you some extra motivation to do this well."

Percy raised an eyebrow.

"If you kill the target and escape without being seen, then you can skip ahead in your training."

His eyes went wide. Another opportunity to become a member even faster. That was one hell of a reward.

"By how long?"

"To accomplish this mission, you'll prove that you're ready to start studying infiltration, camouflage, espionage, and spycraft. That's what the classrooms in this building are for. You can skip ahead by 30 years, and join the current 'class' of that level."

A 30-year skip would be amazing. He had skipped ahead by 10 years when he had first joined, trained for another 5, and now he was going to skip 30 more. That meant he would be 45 years into a 200-year training course. Only 155 left after the mission. He knew it would be difficult to join the ranks of a unit so much more experienced than him, but he would acclimate.

"Ok. So, what do I do now?"

"Well, you can go practice your shooting if you wish. The vantage point we suggest for you, is 12 Km away from where he's scheduled to make his appearance. Make sure you bring your sniper with you when you leave. Wherever you are when it's time for you to leave, I'll find you and escort you to where you need to go."

Percy nodded.

"Sounds good. Just to spare you any tracking stuff, I'll be shooting. See you in a few hours."

Percy nodded to her one more time and left. He was excited for a change in his routine. He hadn't realized it, but he hated the feeling of monotony. He craved some variety. And he was about to get it. He took the elevator down to the shooting range, and picked up his special sniper. He started practicing his shooting. He started out with targets of 12 Km, but he got bored. He moved on to the 15 Km targets. After an hour, he got bored of those too. He started trying for the 18 Km target. He could certainly hit it, just not dead center. The closest he could get was 2 rings out.

After 2 hours of shooting at it, he managed to beat his closest shot. He put a bullet one ring away from the center. He was glad for the improvement, even if he still needed some work. He was going to try to

He was about to try and improve further, but he realized Chaos had just walked in. Not because she had said anything; she hadn't. Not because he could sense her presence; he couldn't. But he knew that she had walked in, because everyone had stopped shooting. They were all staring at her as she walked by. Most people in the army rarely ever saw her.

He got up, picked up his sniper, and nodded to her. Together, they walked to the elevator and rode up to the ground floor. While they were on the elevator, she gave him a case for his sniper, which he accepted gratefully. It was a massive gun, and he was glad for the carrying case. They left the training building and walked to the edge of the city. They approached a structure that reminded Percy of a New York airport.

They navigated through the building and ended up at something that looked like a dropship. It was like a helicopter, but with 4 fans. It was pretty small, and Percy was sure that it was fast and maneuverable. There were sliding doors on both sides. Chaos gave him a quick hug and wished him good luck.

He climbed aboard the dropship and saw that there was someone else in the back with him. A woman who looked around 22 years old. Shoulder-length black hair. Brown eyes. She was sitting down, so he couldn't really tell how tall she was. She didn't look very happy. Few people that Percy interacted with ever did.

There were 2 rows of seats on the dropship, and a table between them. The woman was sitting in the center of one of the rows, and he sat down opposite her, laying his gun along the seats next to him. He didn't nod to her. She didn't nod to him. If Percy were to guess, he would say that she was there to brief him on the specifics of the mission.

"Jackson, listen up. I'm going to tell you everything you need to know about what you're about to do."

He was glad to have been proven right so soon.

"I'm listening."

The woman waved a hand over the table between the two rows of seats, and a hologram appeared over it. It looked like it was depicting the terrain of a certain area. He assumed it was the terrain where his mission was due to take place. He listened as she explained in detail where the target would be, what he looked like, what time he would arrive, how long he would stay, and where his security would be. He noted all of the names and locations with ease. He had perfect recall, so the information was seared into his brain immediately.

The holographic presentation was good. It gave him a good idea of the territory, and where he would set up. He ran over the events in his mind, and he was reasonably confident. They had been on the dropship for 10 minutes before it reached another aircraft. This one, was much larger. Percy assumed that the journey from Chaos' realm to any planet would take quite a long time, and it would be very uncomfortable in a dropship. It seemed that the other aircraft was for travel between planets, but it didn't dock anywhere, so the dropships acted as a go-between.

The dropship that Percy and the woman were on, docked into the bigger ship and the doors opened into it. Percy followed the woman. She seemed to know where she was going. He followed her to a sitting room. It looked like a study. Percy shrugged, picked up a book, sat down, and started reading.

The journey took 8 hours. Percy had finished 2 books in the study and was starting to get restless. Thankfully, his name was called over a PA system. He left the study and retraced his steps back to the dropship. He climbed aboard and sat down in the same seat as before. His sniper was still there. The dropship detached from the main ship, and the rest of the journey began. It only took 30 minutes, before the dropship started to hover in mid-air and the doors opened. Percy took one look outside and realized they were several miles above sea level. He was a son of Poseidon, so it wouldn't really hurt, and he could make his approach quickly and stealthily. It was a good plan. He was given a tracking beacon. Apparently, it would turn itself on 6 hours from then, and the ship would pick him up wherever the tracker was.

"Fair enough." he thought.

He put the tracker in the sniper case, which had a carrying strap, so he slung it over his shoulder and jumped out of the dropship. The fall took a while, but he eventually landed in the water. He immediately started using his powers to propel him through the water like a torpedo. It took him 10 minutes, but he made it to the mainland. He walked out of the water and took a moment to get his bearings. He spotted a few landmarks he recognized from the hologram presentation. He summoned a mental image of the map he had been shown and followed it until he arrived at the vantage point that had been selected for him. It was a good spot. He was provided with a clear line of sight toward the spot where the tyrant was scheduled to appear.

He took his sniper out of the case and loaded it. He set up the bipod legs for it, and settled himself in. He knew he was going to face a very long wait. He had arrived nearly 3 hours before the tyrant was scheduled to show up.

"Better safe than sorry." he thought.

The tyrant arrived on time. There had been a podium set up. Apparently, he was going to give a speech about how gracious he was or some bullshit like that. Percy didn't care what the speech was about. Just walking through the city to his vantage point, Percy had seen the living conditions of the citizens. It was appalling. They were dying of disease. Starvation. Abuse. It had to stop.

And it did. Percy took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger. The bullet ripped through the air at amazing speeds, but the journey still took several seconds. If Percy had taken that shot on the target range, he would have shot again by that point. But he kept his eye through the scope. He watched the bullet tear its way into the tyrant's skull, and rip its way out again. He watched, to make sure that the guy was dead. And he was. He was dead, and he was never coming back.

Percy took a moment to consider what he had just done. He had just killed someone. He was half-expecting to feel something because of that. But he didn't. The tyrant had been filth, that had deserved to die. Percy had no regrets about what he had just done. Maybe there was something wrong with him. But regardless of whether he was mentally sound or not, he had just put an end to an oppressive regime. He was happy about that. Now, Chaos' people could reimplement democracy. They could help the people return to some kind of normal.

Once he was done with his short deliberation, he put the gun back in its case, slung the case over his shoulder, and ran straight back to the beach. His best strategy for remaining undetected was to simply sit at the bottom of the ocean. He had 3 hours to wait before the dropship returned for him, so he figured he could spend the first half-hour getting very far away from the city, and then sit back and relax for the next 2 hours. After that, he would rise to the surface and wait for the dropship. Easy.

He got to the beach and went straight for the water. He propelled himself as far down as he could go, and then set off in a random direction. He swam for half an hour before he felt like he had reached a safe distance. He was probably half the planet away. The bottom of the ocean was really dark, so he didn't have very much to look at while he waited. He got pretty bored after 10 minutes. The rest of the 2 hours, weren't fun. But he managed it. Eventually, his time came and he swam to the top of the sea level like a rocket. He ended up on the beach of a small island. He sat on the sand and waited for the dropship.

Half an hour later, it appeared above him. He climbed aboard and 30 minutes later, he was on the main ship again. He decided not to bother reading that time and simply closed his eyes to drift off to sleep. He woke up 4 hours later. He had wanted to sleep longer, but he was too hyperactive. He wandered around the ship for a while, and found a gym. He worked out for the rest of the journey. Eventually, they reached Chaos' realm again, and Percy went back to the dropship. 10 minutes later, he was greeted by Chaos and her massive grin.

"How was it?" she asked curiously.

He shrugged.

"There was a lot more waiting than I thought there would be. But the process itself was fun. Just the travel time was a pain in the ass."

She laughed at him.

"Of course, you describe traveling across the universe, as boring."

"Well, it took ages."

"Don't worry about it. You did very well though. The kill was quick and clean. The escape was well-executed. The choice to wait at the bottom of the ocean, was quite clever. All in all, I'm very pleased with your performance."

"Thanks. So, now I get to skip ahead 30 years?"

"You do indeed. Thank you, Percy, you did a good thing today. Take the rest of the day off, and I'll give you a new schedule tonight."

Percy nodded. He was glad to move on. Things had been getting boring with his routine. From what Chaos had said, he would be focusing a lot more on academics, which would be interesting. He was curious to learn about espionage and spycraft. And he was going to have some better competition for the combat training.

Chaos left him, claiming she had work to do. Percy went to a cafe he had seen a few times before and got himself a cup of coffee to go. With his coffee in hand, he returned his sniper to the shooting range, where it was supposed to be. He walked through the city for a while, before he ended up at the library. The next few hours went by in a flurry of pages. Percy wanted to learn everything he could about spycraft. He was going to be joining a class full of people that had already studied the topic for a while, so he wanted to be prepared.

Hours later, Chaos walked into the library. She told him that she couldn't stay for long, gave him his new training schedule, and left again. He looked it over. He would start each day with 3 hours of espionage class, followed by 3 hours of spycraft class, then 3 hours of interrogation class, and then 3 more hours of interrogation resistance class. Then, he would have 3 hours of unarmed combat training, 3 hours of armed, close combat training, and 3 hours on an obstacle course. He would get 3 hours of sleep, and then he would do it all again.

Percy sighed under his breath.