Solo Player (AU)

Percy spit blood out of his mouth. The metallic taste burned his senses as the next punch came before he could move. 

He didn't even realize his body left the ground until he hit it again with a force that was crippling. His vision broke but he he had enough sense to roll out of the way. A fist slammed into the space he'd just been, breaking the polished floor that wasn't suppose to be penetrable. Percy went for his sword.

"What are you gonna do with that toothpick, Prissy?" The taunt came to him faster than the next move, a right hook that was strong enough to remove his head from his shoulders. 

Percy smirked. He might not be the best hand-to-hand fighter, but he was a good swordsman. The girl in front of him had no clue what was coming for her. She was huge, but that meant nothing. A red bandanna pulled her light brown hair back and her crooked teeth were framed in a signature smirk that everyone from the Ares Guild had, from one too many combat fights. Her eyes were dark and beady like a pigs. 

Percy bent at his knees, unsheathing the sword that he named himself after: Riptide. It was his opponents first and last mistake. With that sword he was unstoppable. 

Percy moved like a flash when she went for her next attack, a power boosted uppercut. He dodged it, dragging his sword across her stomach. She let out a booming laugh and swiped for his head.

"I've got armor on, you moron!"

Percy rolled out of the way, coming back up to grin widely at her, "Then what's that red stuff?"

Her eyes went wide looking down at herself. The agony must have had a delayed reaction because her face suddenly contorted. Riptide had slashed right through her chest piece, the metal drawing blood which spewed onto the white floor in a pool. 

Her eyes burned with a fire and she stumbled at him with another fighting punch. Percy flicked his sword and it was over before she stumbled past him. Percy stood to the side, letting her fall to her knees. He sheathed his sword in the scabbard to his side. xxRedClarissexx's health hit zero.

Blood splattered on the ground.

Percy fixed his cloak, making sure the hood was still pulled over his head and his mask was still in place. By the time he turned back around the girls moans as well as her body were gone. The crowd was silent. 

"Well?" Percy asked, "I won right?"

The rest of the entire world seemed to move in a sudden haste to scream at him. People threw themselves at the glass walls surrounding him. The commentary box was fighting for the mics. 

How dare he, the newbie, take down the best Prime player of the guild! How dare this kid who no one has ever heard of be classified for the Age Of Heroes Tournament! Percy glanced to his left where his own health bar and stats were floating in a ghostly pale, easily see through text. 

Riptide: Male, Swordsman.

Health: 76%

The lights flickered rapidly as if they were having a seizure just like all the guild members around him. A man slammed his fist into the glass, but Percy ignored him. He scanned the crowd for the person he knew would not miss this fight for her life.

He found her just as she was leaving.

-Chasing- was well known in these competitions. She was notorious. She went into fights with just one dagger and she slaughtered armies. Her cloak was grey, grey like ashes from the fires that burned in her soul. Her outfit was simple, something that any player could buy from the universal shop: a gray tank top, work out pants, combat boots for every terrain. Her hair was in a loose brown pony tail, and it was the only thing that swished as she left without one look back at him. 

"And it seems that the player Riptide will be going to the Age Of Heroes tournament tomorrow!" the mics finally got to a sensible person, "Currently he is the seventh of the twelve teams that will be chosen to join the games! Behind solo players: -Chasing-, xClassicx, BlackMagic, Hannibal, and Scipio, and the team, *STARS*. They will be competing tomorrow at noon for the world wide annual, Olympus sponsored competition for the grand sum total of fifty million dollars! In the next  hour the last of the qualified competitors will be posted on the AOH news board! Please refer there for battle times and rules and any questions about sponsoring competitors!"

The screen button to teleport to the locker room appeared in front of Percy and he didn't think he could hit it fast enough. He was afraid if he let himself think too much about it he would realize he was dreaming. This...this was too good to be true. A miracle.

His avatar, appeared in the locker room, where only two other guys were sitting. The next competitors: a team that called themselves >Stolls<. Percy had met them before the match, when the girl informed him he was going to die.

The locker rooms were shared by team so Percy wasn't surprised to see a sister and brother team in there when he came in. They both had neon green hair and wore matching outfits that would have driven any real world siblings crazy. 

"Dude!" Imthebest, the boy said.

"How'd you do that?!" Imbetter, the girl asked. 

Percy shook them both off, "Magic." He said,waving his hand above his stats to access his settings panel. The buttons flashed, Logout, Help, and the lovely Items storage space.

"But this is a magic free zone!" Imthebest argued.

"Dude, Riptide, join our guild, please?" Imbetter begged, "We could make an unbeatable team and own this tournament!"

"I'm a Solo Player, man." Percy shrugged, "Besides, I already own this tournament!" He hit the Logout button wishing it was as true as he made it sound.

For a second the world around him froze and faded to black. There was a prickling of his skin, like someone brushing against his arms and legs and his brain. Then Percy woke up like he did any other day.

For a second Percy didn't move he just lay there, feeling the weight of the headset on his head and the cheap cotton blanket under his body. Then he slowly moved his hands and removed the visor that had the power to transport him to another world. The bright light took a second to get use to. 

The whistling however was something he was use to. 

"Damn!" Percy's best friend said scrolling on his computer from the desk chair in the corner, "How do you do it, Perce?" Grover swiveled around to look at him grinning ear to ear. No doubt he'd already read the thousands of updated on the match from the blogs.

Grover was a short teenager that had befriended Percy so fast it was unnatural. Percy had always avoided other people but for some reason Grover, with his crippled legs and dry humor had a charming effect on Percy's antisocial-ness. He lived alone in a small apartment that was paid for by a distant aunt that Percy had never seen. Grover didn't seem bothered by the lack of his own family members though.

"I don't know, luck?" Percy answer truthfully. 

Grover readjusted his Rasta cap looking doubtful, "Better hope that luck keeps coming then. You took out xxRedClarissexx in four minutes? Where did you get that sword? Man!"

Percy grinned and place the headset on the bed. He swung himself into a sitting position, feeling a little stiff but other than that as fine as he was before he went in. That was Percy's favorite thing about the Olympus Gaming system. All the damage was virtual. As long as you remembered that it was just a game, you couldn't really be hurt. Of course there was that official warning on the box that warned for insanity being a side effect, but no one took that seriously.

Games weren't made to be taken seriously.

Unless they involved fifty million dollars.

"Thanks, Grover." Percy said, "I owe you for this."

Grover dismissed him, "Dude you've got to be one of the best swordsmen to hit this game ever. You've got this competition in the bag!"

Percy wanted to believe him, but suddenly he couldn't swallow. Everything he had was riding on this dumb competition. Fifty Million....that could change everything. All he had to do was login tomorrow and destroy the world. 

"Was -Chasing- there?" Grover asked, "She's probably checking out the competition to build a strategy. But, man, she's got nothing on you." He scrolled the blog again reading the text at an impressive speed. 

"Anything interesting?" Percy asked rubbing his side to wear down the pain that had come out of no where.

Grover shrugged, "Just empty threats from the Titan Hackers. They say something about having the code for the Age Of Heroes Competition and that they are going to take over and blah blah blah. Just dumb stuff like that. There's no way they could break the Olympus coding."

"That guy did a couple months ago, remember?" Percy said snapping his fingers but no name came to mind. Even though the story blew up the media world wide.

Grover shrugged, "He hacked Sanction Island. AOH is a lot more intense than a dumb zombie game. There's got to be firewalls on firewalls for this one."

Percy sighed and looked at the clock, "I've got to go. Thanks again for letting me borrow your set."

"Win Fifty Million and then you can really thank me, Jackson." Grover turned back to his computer. Percy grabbed his book bag from the bedside. He nearly tripped over Grover's crutches on the way out of the small bedroom. 

"Hey, Perce," Grover called suddenly, "Are you ever going to join a guild?"

Percy stopped just at the front door making a face, "Why would I ever do that? I'm a Solo Player, man."

Grover seemed to be expecting that answer, because he just rolled his eyes. "Tell your mother I said hello." 

Percy gave him one last wave before he left the tiny apartment. He broke into a wild sprinttowards the end of the hallway to the staircase that would lead him up to the floor where Rachel was watching Tyson for the day.

He'd barely hit the wood twice before she flung it open. Rachel Dare was the only other person Percy talked to. She was his age, with brilliant red hair, and paint splattered clothes that she probably made herself. She was crafty like that. 

"Dude, you're late." She said, staring at him with her accusing green eyes.

"I know! I'm sorry!" Percy panted leaning against her door way. His side burned and he had to work to make sure he wasn't crying in front of the pretty girl. Rachel pursed her lips. 

"Did you get in?"

Percy allowed himself a small smile. He nodded. Rachel didn't lighten up, "Good, because I can't keep watching your brother for free. I love Tyson, Percy, but he eats like a black hole!"

Percy gave a breathy laugh.

"Percy!" A small voice yelled. He looked down as a small figure burst from behind the babysitter. He leapt on top of Percy and wrapped him in a hug big enough to crush skyscrapers. 

Tyson was four. With brown hair and a big toothy smile that could brighten anyone's day it was always hard to feel horrible around the tiny kid. He had two eyes, but a condition during childbirth had left his left eye a milky white  and blind. But it had never slowed Tyson down. He was always been just as athletic as the other kids. In fact the only thing that Percy was sure the kid wasn't that good at was reading. 

Fifty Million.

"Hey, Squirt!" Percy ruffled his hair, "Time to go home 'kay? Thank Miss Rachel, will you?"

Tyson turned back to the girl and waved excitedly to her, "Thank you!" 

"Bye, Tyson! I'll see you soon!" 

Percy grabbed Tyson by his sides causing him to squeal. Straining, the older brother picked up the younger boy and carried him down he hall with just a wink back at Rachel. She rolled her eyes and closed the door. 

"So Rules, Buddy, what are the rules?" Percy asked the younger as they were approaching the end of the hall where their own apartment rest.

"Stay Quiet. Don't wake Gabe." Tyson said, "Go to my room and get the coloring books and sit and color until Mommy says it's time for dinner."

"And?" Percy slipped a hand into his pocket to get his key, "No matter what you hear what do you do?"

Tyson wouldn't meet his eyes, even though they had repeated this conversation every day for the past two years. He voice was quiet, "Stay in my room." 

Percy put him down on the floor, wincing at he pain in his side, "Good." Percy unlocked the door and Tyson scooted in without looking back. The kid was silent as a ghost and gone before Percy had pulled his key back from the door. 

He peeked around the mini living room. It was a mess, even though Percy had just cleaned it yesterday. Gabe was passed out on the sofa, half a dozen beers strewn around him and a half empty one still his hand. Percy could smell the stench of smoke and pot lingering in the air still. Ever since Gabe had moved in, that smell had become normal. Percy despised it. 

Fifty Million. 

His mother was on clearing a bowl and a couple mugs off the coffee table. She smiled at him when he walked in, but it didn't reach her brown eyes. Percy missed when her smile did that. Percy grabbed a plate from the floor and a beer bottle and carried them after his mother into the kitchen. 

"How was it?" Sally Jackson asked in hushed tone as she stacked the plates expertly. 

"Wonderful," Percy lied, "Someone switched the signs for the clearance items so all the customers were mad at me."

His mother's shoulders fell and she pulled him into a hug. Percy wished he didn't feel this horrible about lying to her. She was under the assumption that he had gotten a job and left to work every time that he went out. He couldn't bare to tell her the truth, that he was actually at a friend's house trying against impossible odds to win enough money to save his family from the monster that was their step father. 

The phantom pain in his side burned again. 

Fifty Million.

There was a new red mark on her cheek, Percy noticed darkly. She was walking with a slight limp. 

If he asked, she'd say she tripped down the stairs. She bumped into a table. Hit her head on the table when she was cleaning. Anything but the truth. 

But Percy knew it was all a lie. His mother was the most graceful, precise person on the planet. Gabe had hit her. 

Percy knew because he did it to him too.

They had bee falling behind in their bills. His mother thought maybe the nice man in the dark suit and flashy looking tie was actually a nice person. Turns out appearances in the real world can be as fake as in virtual reality. 

"Did Gabe lose again?" Percy whispered. 

His mother hesitated, "Come on help me with dinner. How's Tyson?"

"Mom, can I get the truth?"

His mother froze pulling the milk from the fridge. "Can you get me the pancake mix? I'm thinking breakfast for dinner." 

Percy sighed. All he could think about was tomorrow. He couldn't lose. Not with everything at stake here. 

Tyson, his mom, Rachel, Gabe....Fifty Million over his head.

Percy wished he enjoyed the pancakes more. Or that he hugged his mom a little tighter. Or told Tyson he loved him. Or gave Rachel a final thanks and Grover one last fist bump....He wished he'd realized just exactly what he'd be getting into with the AOH Tournament.

Tomorrow he'd prove to be the greatest Solo Player Ever or die trying.

He had no idea how true that would be.