Okay quick warning: BlackMagic has a bit of a problem with excess cursing! Like more so than any other character I've ever written. Please be aware!

Solo Player 3 (AU)

Percy forced himself to stand. His body ached, but the pain was subsiding back to that throb that had accompanied for the past week. -Chasing- was right by his side, her grey eyes looking more worried for him than her own self. He forced a lopsided smile on his face, the same one he'd perfected for everyone else.

"I'm fine," he lied, "just wasn't expecting it."

The (now) brother team >Stolls< appeared on either side of him, the matching outfits making it impossible to tell them from each other.

"That looks pretty nasty!" Imbetter commented.

"How'd you get that?" Imthebest asked.

"Magic," Percy gave them a look that clearly told them to drop it. The boys shared a look, but they complied. -Chasing- however just seemed to be more interested. She made that face that people made when they were given a puzzle to figure out. Before she could ask any of her questions though, a large amount of shouting broke out behind them.

"You're Delusional!" Iam_superman spit.

"Gullible!" El3ctric snapped right back.

"How the Hell could you even think that!"

"Because I'm not an idiot like you, Daddy's Boy!"

"You've been drinking again, Thalia!" The boy spit at her. Her face got dark and she shot up right into his face. She was only an inch taller but that didn't stop either of them. Her knife flew into her hands. His sword glistened in the fake sunlight. "You think this is a joke! After all of this?"

She turned on him snarling like a wolf, "Yeah, I do! Got a problem? This is Olympus. They are the most secure virtual realities supplier. This is one big dumb joke and sometime soon all those idiots are going to pop up and throw a party like they're super funny!" Thalia's eyes lit up like her username, "Show me a bit of proof! How do you know that these Titan guys are for real? They wore masks, Jason! It was probably Zeus and Hermes and Apollo with voice overs!"

He was going to reply but Hawtstufz9 beat him with just a simple whisper, "They're real."

"What?" Hannibal asked.

The scrawny boy hugged himself and seemed to look at everyone and no one at the same time. "They are real. The Titans? They're a group of hackers. You can't possibly call yourself a hacker and not know about them. They tried to take over Olympus years ago and drove four people completely insane with a virus leak into the coding."

"You're a hacker?" Scipio asked sharply.

He hesitated glancing at the floating orbs around them uncomfortably.

"It does not matter what he is." Stargirl365 spoke up. Her voice was thick like English wasn't her first language. She helped -AngelQueen- to her feet. "We are all in this together, no? So for now we will avoid causing...pain.. to one another. I do not think this is... how you Americans say, a bluff."

"No one cares what you think, Stars." Thalia the El3ctric girl made a face at her.

"Hey will you cut that out!" Charm4u interjected, "We don't know what's going on and you picking fights is not helping!"

"What are you going to do about it?" BlackMagic got in her face. For the first time Percy noticed that the boy actually wore an eye patch under his black bangs. "Little Miss Princess, why are you here?"

Her cheeks flamed up and she stiffened. With the look she was giving him, Percy doubted that unsheathing her dagger and gutting him did not cross her mind. BlackMagic must have noticed it as well because he spread his arms out in a blatant dare.

He sneered, "Yeah, I know who the fuck you are: Piper Fucking McLean, daughter of Fucking Tristan Fucking McLean, AKA the richest fucking girl on the fucking planet."

"I'm honestly surprised he fitting fuck into a sentence that many times." Imbetter whispered to his brother. xClassicx looked like she might faint and was furiously fanning her face.

"Why the Fucking Hell did you need to enter this tournament for, Princess?" BlackMagic ignored them, "Isn't fifty million your daily allowance?"

Percy hadn't noticed before but now that BlackMagic pointed out his recognized the famous movie star's daughter. Despite the male getup that had been on her avatar and the dirt on her face, she still looked like the girl from the news headlines. Piper McLean.

Hawtstufz9 stepped between them, smartly. "Back off, Pirate boy. She's part of my team. You got a problem with my home girl then you go through me." His fist caught fire with heat so hot Percy felt it from wear he was standing. BlackMagic jumped back to avoid getting burned.

-Chasing- spoke up, "Guys lets just all calm-"

"SHUT UP!" They yelled at her

Piper turned on the Hawtstufz9, looking even more angry at him than she was at BlackMagic. "Don't fight my battles for me!"

"He was just trying to help!" xClassicx grabbed her arm, "You could at least say thanks!"

"I don't need any help!" Piper yanked her arm out of the other girl's grasp, so violently xClassicx tumbled to the ground.

"Hey!" Hannibal shouted, "Be careful!"

"This is a joke!" Thalia screamed.

"You're a joke!" Jason yelled right back.

"I ordered pizza..." Imbetter moaned, "I'm never going to get to eat it am I?"

"You're a hacker!" Scipio shouted 

"What's it to you!" Hawtstufz9 snapped.

-AngelQueen- pushed ~GhostKing~ away from her, "I'm fine! Stop hovering!"

"You're not fine!" He argued.

"I'll show you just how perfectly fine I am if you keep treating me like I'm a fragile egg!"

Percy sighed. He turned around and grabbed the top of the nearest rock. He blinked back tears that pricked the back of his eyes and yanked himself up on top of the monstrous Boulder. A black floating camera hovered by his ear but Percy just brushed it away. The last thing he needed was a close up of his ratty hair and sea green eyes for all the world to make memes out of.

He cupped his hand over his mouth and shouted, "Excuse me? Can you all hear me?" All the other gamer's fell silent with confusion. He took a long breathe and exhaled, awkwardly. He hated talking in front of others, but as soon as he started the words wouldn't stop coming. "Yeah, well, you people are the reason I play completely solo. Honestly! It's been less than five minutes and this game has gone to Hell!

"I don't care if its a prank or not! All I know is my log out button is missing and those guys just claimed that they have an assassin whose mission is to kill us. All of you standing here shouting and screaming at each other is just going to alert that guy to where we all are. That is if he didn't already know where we are.

"I had a cut on my side, before I put the headgear on this morning. It's back. And I'm no longer even playing as my avatar! I didn't even think that, that was possible! So I'm going to treat all this insane shit like it's real." Percy glanced at the cameras, "Quite frankly, I'd rather be humiliated on live TV than dead."

The clearing was so silent Percy could hear his own breathing. He wondered if his mom knew already, about the game. It had only been half an hour since the start. He could imagine her and Tyson sitting at the kitchen table. Was today her day off? He'd totally forgotten. She was probably cleaning the counters while Tyson was practicing reading to her from one of his kiddie action adventure books. Percy didn't even want to think how she'd react if she found out he'd done this.

She'd kill him.

This what I get for lying to my mother, Percy thought, Listen to your parents kids. Sometimes they actually know stuff.

He wondered if she knew already and was watching him stand on a rock addressing this group of kids, while his health bar was slowly sinking. It must seem so unrealistic. Her little Percy, the antisocial kid who'd rather hang with his little brother or by himself than with others, was speaking to all these other kids, and only panicking a little bit.

Suddenly a ding rang out in the clearing. Percy looked confused to his stat bar. Where an orange blimp was hanging over his username. A friend request. He looked at -Chasing- surprised.

"What?" She closed out her menu again, "You make a good argument."

Percy opened the blimp, looking at the request, "Are you going to be pissed if I decline?"

"I'll have no regrets about killing you, if that's what you mean."

Percy hit the accept button.

"Yay, Friendship!" Hawtstufz9 called out and threw his arms up, making a face, "Next thing you know they're going to be making babies in some virtual cave-"

-Chasing- slammed her fist into his face. Her grey eyes sparked, and Percy what agitated him more: that she punched the scrawny kid so hard his nose was bleeding or that she looked flipping terrific doing it. Not that Percy was paying special attention or anything, but he thought that her hair looked ten times better blonde than it did with that dark chocolate color that her avatar had.

BlackMagic rolled his eye, "So now what?" He asked spitefully towards Percy, "You lead us, Riptide?" He drew out Percy's online name as if he was making fun of it.

Percy swallowed uneasily. The guy had a point. The last thing Percy wanted to do was become a leader. He had enough trouble talking to people normally, much less when they were looking to him for instructions. Percy played solo because he hated talking to people. With the standing ovation of his Why We Should Not Kill Each Other speech, the black haired, green eyed teenager was fighting the urge to empty his already empty stomach.

"Uh, um," Percy couldn't help but remember he was being watched by a lot more than just 28 eyes, "I, uh,-"

"LOOK OUT!" Thalia screamed, suddenly reaching for her knives..

Percy didn't have time to move. His brain froze at the sound of her words and by the time he was processing the phrase, the tip of a silver blade was already sticking out of his stomach.

******

I interrupt your regularly scheduled program for this important message: I believe it would be criminal to not let my wonderful, patient readers know about my other main project for right now: Key to the Stars. It's a collaborative work between Jaz, Twila, and I that is a crossover between Zoë Nightshade and the Tragic Trio and the anime Fairy Tail.

Shining, Shimmering Stars.

"Let the world honor you, my huntress."

Silver and gold glittering key.

"Live forever in the stars."

Zoë Nightshade's death was only the beginning of her adventure.

Go find it on @FangirlFates and make sure to prepare you feels and give us lots of wonderful comments!

Now back to the drama:

******

"Riptide!" -Chasing- and xClassicx screamed. Percy couldn't hear them. He let out his own yelled that stopped abruptly. Percy choked, surprised that blood was suddenly coming out of his mouth. Blood was coming from everywhere.

The girl called Thalia let out a shriek. Who ever had stabbed him yanked the sword out.

Percy gasped. His legs crippled at his lost of balance. He fell off the boulder, landing heavily on the ground.

A world away, a mother let out a scream. She stumbled back hands over her mouth, desperately trying to deny what she was seeing. A world away, a four year old boy grabbed his brother's unmoving, clammy hand sobbing even though he wasn't sure what was going on. A world away, a red haired girl hugged herself and didn't bother to wipe the tears that were obscuring her vision as she watched the live broadcast on the TV. A world away....A best friend slammed a hand on his keyboard yelling for Riptide to get back up.

He didn't get back up.

"PERCY!" Grover shouted, even though he knew the other boy could hear him. Behind him, Tyson sobbed into the quilted blankets that his brother's body laid on top of. Percy's mother ran from the room to the bathroom down the hall and emptied her breakfast.

"I told you..."Grover shook, placing his head on his desk, "I told you not to, Perce."

A dark figure stood on the boulder, the same place Riptide had just been standing. He wore a simple outfit: a hunting garb of dark greens and a black cloak over his shoulders. His silver sword glistened liquid red. His blonde hair fluttered in the virtual wind. He wore a mask, a smiling gold mardi gra mask, just like the ones the Titans had been wearing.

"One down," The player called Kronos said. "Four to go."

~~~~

(If you guys remember to check out our story, I'll consider making this an actual story as well, okay?)