Oh a little late on day Nine, Whoops. Just be happy you get your next update on the twelve Days of Updates, Darlings. I had to work all night to have this ready for you guys.

Percy skimmed through the pages and pages of blogs, in clear frustration. It had been a couple minutes since Leo had gotten their connection to work again, but Percy already felt like he was losing an absurd amount of time. -Chasing- was leaning against the counter, just opposite of Leo, who had gotten back up on the counter to sit. His tired eyes swimming over lines of white code. xClassicx and Hannibal were playing with a card deck that the taller boy had acquired during his adventure in the Trailer yard.

"There are snakes there," he had said when -Chasing had inquired about the other region, "Lot's of snakes." He shuddered, "And they spit acid and they are really fast."

Leo had looked concerned, glancing at Charm4u's icon in his menu. Though he didn't say anything, Percy was sure the elfish kid was insanely worried for his famous friend. But on the other hand, Percy also expected that Piper Mclean had a couple tricks up her sleeve.

-AngelQueen- chewing on her thumbnail, looking anxious. She had no way of knowing if the other deceased player was her brother or someone else. The options were limited, seeing as six of them were residing here like a huge beacon of "KILL US PLEASE". Percy feel a stab of empathy. If Tyson had been in this he would be only slight more crazy about finding him.

"So this contact of yours...?" -Chasing- said finally, "Does he have a name?"

Percy slid the page again searching for Grover's blog name. He was mentally cursing himself. What type of friend was he that he didn't know this off the top of his head? He'd tried everything to narrow the search, but any connection to his name was leading straight to an avalanche of memes and status reports and just stories of him. Dear gods he even had a fucking fan club. Betting polls were apparently through the roof for both him and Iam_superman.

"Grover," Percy said, answering her question. It had something to do with frying pans right?

"And you're sure we can trust him?"

Percy's hands hovered mid air as he registered her words. Despite his frustration, their situation, and the general fact that his face was all over the web, Percy allowed a slim smile. "I would assume so."

"Forgive me if I'm not overly reassured by that statement." -Chasing- huffed. Hannibal glanced up at her statement, shifting slightly.

"Well I figured if he was part of some terrorist group trying to kill all of us, he could just turn around and plunge a knife into my chest." Percy shrugged, like it was no big deal. But he really wouldn't have been surprised if the Olympus Gaming system emergency notification popped up as fiery hot pain in his chest dismissed him from the world permanently.

-Chasing- didn't reply verbally or with one of those huffs she was so good at.

"How do you know he's at your house?" xClassicx asked innocently. She placed down a card on the pile resting between her and Hannibal. "One Queen."

Percy read through the next page of usernames. "I'm at his house so I think he would still be there."

Leo looked up suddenly interested in their conversation. "Were you using his avatar?"

"No?" Percy responded, "Why?"

"No reason." Leo took another swig of his alcohol. An obnoxious alarm blared out from his menu screen and a flashing red message appeared in front of him. "You're drunk!" Leo told the notification as he dismissed it with a scowl.

"Great," Hannibal muttered, though Percy was sure he did not intend for anyone else to hear. xClassicx stiffled a giggle. The taller boy looked at the girl in surprise, his cheeks reddening.

"You'll let us know if you find anything right, Riptide?" -AngelQueen- asked anxiously hugging herself. Her dark eyes looked at him pleadingly.

Percy was unsure how to respond. Once again he was reminded how much he liked being anti-social. Oh what he wouldn't give to be sitting in the school cafeteria, ignored by all except Grover. What would he not give to be one of these stupid outsiders who were watching them instead of playing.

Percy's fingers froze. "Wait repeat that," he commanded.

She looked startled but complied, "I was making sure you would share when you find anything."

Percy laughed, much to his own surprise. "Oh duh!" he exclaimed suddenly.

"What?" -Chasing- asked eagerly.

"It's not about frying pans." Percy said fully aware that she had no clue what he meant by that. "It's finding Pan." the sudden jostle of memory sent a flood of relief and triumph coursing his veins. Percy tapped viciously on the keyword fixing his mistake. When his search came back, Grover's icon (a "Save the Trees" sign) was the top result.

Percy glanced at Leo and pressed the "communicate" button.

The screen appeared to the right of his menu, the blue color feeling oddly familiar. Percy rubbed his knuckles, a bout of unease suddenly coming over him. Both xClassicx and Hannibal placed down their cards and scrambled over to the counter.

-Chasing- elbowed Percy in the side, "Frying Pan?" She asked as the screen loaded. Percy could only shrug. She huffed, "Idiot."

They held their breath as the screen finally displayed the backwards video of the well known room. The camera was tilted slightly, per usual. Grover was constantly moving the position, but none of it ever seemed to straighten the hub. Grover was sitting at his desk, exactly how Percy expected to find him. He didn't see the video message at first allowing Percy four seconds to analyse his friend.

Before the AOH tournament start yesterday, Grover looked like he hadn't slept in a couple days. Now he looked like he hadn't had a wink of sleep in years. Grover's hair stuck up in awkward random places, and shone from lack of a proper shower. He was still wearing the same outfit from before. The bags under his eyes were so deep it seemed like he wasn't even the same person.

"Grover?" Percy ventured.

Grover's head snapped over so fast he might have given himself whiplash. His brown eyes lit up at the sight of his friend. "Oh my god Pe--"

"SON OF A BITCH!"

Before Percy could think of another thing to say, Grover was gone. Something hit the camera and the vision shook violently. There was a series of yells, and flashes of red and orange. When the screen refocused, a figure stood in place of Grover, and it made Percy's blood run cold.

"YOU ABSOLUTE IDIOT!" Rachel Dare screamed at the video feed of him, "YOU'RE AN INSUFFERABLE SON OF A BITCH. WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING? Oh look at me! I'm Percy Jackson! I'm so cool! Let's jump into a murder game despite obvious warnings from my best friend and against permission from my lovely, caring mother! It'll be loads of fucking FUN!"

Percy took a step back, realizing he was cornered by the counter behind him. Rachel jabbed a finger at him, glaring enough for Percy to want to just close down the screen and then kill himself with Riptide, "If you get out this game alive, Jackson, I swear to all the nonexistent gods that I will bury you alive with my own two hands!"

-Chasing- looked her over, before turning back to Percy, "is this...your girlfriend?"

Percy was about to answer but Rachel was faster. "So what if I am?" she raged, "What are you going to do about it?!"

"Guys guys!" Percy intervened before -Chasing- could draw her dagger and slice their communication efforts in half. "She's not my girlfriend!" Too late he realized that maybe that was a bad way to phrase that. Leo hit him on the back of the head, eyeing him to a look that read what-a-dumbass!

"I'll be your girlfriend if I want to be your girlfriend, Jackson!" Rachel snapped, "Gods know you couldn't get another one even if you tried!"

"You tell him!" Leo encouraged, which only soured her expression. Percy wanted to melt into a puddle of his own code.

"We're wasting time." Hannibal, savior of Percy's life, spoke up, "And as honestly entertaining as it is to hear about Riptide's lovelife, I really don't want this to be the last conversation I hear."

Leo grinned and punched him in the shoulder as a way to show his agreement. The taller boy looked less than thrilled to have him anywhere near him.

"Dare!" a voice moaned from the background, "You mind?"

Rachel looked back over her shoulder seemingly still irritated. A flash of something like guilt, crossed her face and she shifted enough for Percy to see Grover sprawled on the ground. His eyes caught sight of the familiar room behind them. A breath hissed through his teeth, and he felt -Chasing- straighten.

There was something strange about seeing himself in third person like this that made Percy tense up. There was his body, laying on Grover's bed, like it was completely normal. His clothes were a bit ragged, and Percy was suddenly very self conscious. He didn't even seem remotely presentable. Percy couldn't help but think about just how easily it would be for some trained hitman to storm the apartment and end his life, in the virtual reality and in the real world.

"Is that a Billy Joel record collection?" xClassicx asked, eyes wide and wonder in her voice that grounded Percy from his uncomfortable thoughts.

Grover and Rachel followed her line of sight, "Uh, yeah. You a fan?"

The mousy girl blushed, "Not really. Mom played him around the house back in Orleans. It was...nice." she bowed her head looking embarrassed.

Percy took her sudden tension as a reason to start talking. Time was short after all. "Look Grover, we need your help. The cameras-"

"--are directly linked to all devices linked to the internet." Grover cut in. He pulled himself back into his chair blocking the view of Percy's corpse. "They've been live broadcasting since yesterday. The Titans are probably seeing every second of this conversation right now. By the way, you've got a camera right outside the window to your left."

Percy's breath caught and he froze up. The entire group swirled towards the direction he indicated. Before Percy could even think about moving, Hannibal was jumping out the window. Percy was glad he wasn't the only one surprised.

"What the Shit!" Leo yelled.

Grover whistled looking at something from another screen. "That was...wow..."

xClassicx ran to the window after him, but before she could do anything there was a loud crash and a bird screech. Rachel scowled at whatever Grover was watching, but Percy didn't missed the flicker of interest in her eyes. He knew she hated these games, everything about them. So if whatever Hannibal had done was enough to impress her...well Percy was doubly sure he didn't want to be on the tall Asian's bad side.

xClassicx let out a gasp as a hunting Hawk burst into the room through the shattered glass Hannibal had made. It shook its feathers and looked at them as if to say "don't mind me! I'm just a bird!" Even -Chasing- was gaping at it. Then all at once the feathers shook and started to shrink, the beak flattened out and became a mouth, and the cold eyes gained a humour glow as they turned brown.

Hannibal stood up from the ground and stretched.

"Dude," Leo said, "That was single most weirdest thing I have ever seen. And I've been in the New York Subway."

Percy turned back to Grover, "How long has that camera been there? Are we screwed?"

"You're playing Virtual Reality Hunger Games, Perseus. You're screwed no matter what you do." Rachel griped.

"About two minutes." Grover answered, "Just long enough for everyone to know who you are and who I am, and that you're single and that you've never kissed a girl before."

"You've never kissed a girl?" -Chasing- repeated looking at Percy.

The raven haired boy massaged his temples, "I died already didn't I? This is my eternal punishment: Stuck in this video game, letting you kill my reputation on screen for everyone to know..."

"Uh, can we get back to the semi outline of a plan now?" -AngelQueen- suggested quietly.

Leo took that as his cue to get to work, grilling poor Grover over his computer's working. Percy leaned back against the counter again. He was feeling more ill than before, and it must have shown becuase -Chasing- gave him a meager nudge.

"You okay?" She asked softly. Her grey eyes were cold and calculating but Percy found warmth in the idea that she was calculating about him. Even though he wasn't good at math he was suddenly very aware that there were only about five inches between the two of them. Percy wondered if she knew.

"I'm fine." He whispered back.

A faint smile graced her lips, but Percy wasn't sure why. He wasn't complaining; as soon as she did smile, Percy would have had to be blind to not realize how pretty she was. -Chasing- was good looking before, but now...Percy wouldn't have been surprised if she was a goddess in disguise.

"So....Perseus?"

He frowned, "Just Percy."

"Oh? Any reason for such a...Greek name?"

Percy twiddled his thumbs watching Hannibal shuffled his deck of cards and perform a card trick for xClassicx and -AngelQueen-. "My mom liked it."

"Fitting," The blonde haired girl said. When Percy looked at her she explained, "He was the only Greek Hero to get a happy ending."

Percy wanted to say that his namesake had nothing to do with the here and now. In fact he was sure that if the hero Perseus was faced the scenario Percy was dealing with the poor guy would have a heart attack. Computers? Fake universes? The only thing that probably wouldn't freak the guy out would probably be the superpowers. Weren't gods always blessing people with weird shit like that in the stories?

"My name's Annabeth." -Chasing- said.

"Can I call you Annie? Or Beth?"

"Only if you want to see how many limbs I can cut off before you die of blood loss."

For some reason Percy laughed. It was the first one he'd had since the start of this madness that wasn't tainted with fear or bitterness. Percy felt as if he had lifted a weight off his chest.

"Oh yes, laugh it up, Jackson!" Grover called to him, "Just remember you owe be a new computer when this is over! The amount of stuff I'm deleting for your sorry ass!"

"Wait if you get a new computer, than he owes me at least ten boxes of Goldfish!" Rachel huffed, "Your brother destroyed my supply!"

Grover paused slightly in his deleting of things off screen to look back at them. Percy swallowed hard. Even Rachel seemed to somber as the weight of her own words settled on them. She tugged a red curl, "Look, Percy they're in my apartment. I can go get them--"

"No!" Percy blurted out, "Don't!"

"Perce, think about this." Grover warned him. His dark eyes filled with enough worry and concern for the both of them and then some.

"I...I can't," Percy told them, "I can't. Don't tell her."

-Chasing-, --no Annabeth-- sent him a sideways look. It seemed that all five of the other players were looking at him now. Grover sighed and turned back to the screen, "You are a piece of work."

"You should talk to them." Leo said voice lower than their chances of survival. "You don't know if you will get to later."

"I would give anything to- to..." Annabeth bit her lip. Percy felt sick but he stood by his words. Yes, it could very well be the last time he saw his mother, it could be the last time he saw Tyson. At the same time it could be the last time he heard Grover's voice or got chewed out by Rachel. It could be the last time for a lot of things.

Percy was an introvert. Grover was a friend by pure chance, and Percy treasured their friendship like gold. Percy couldn't trust anyone else with this task, their lives, like he could trust Grover. But it was now that Percy remembered he'd lasted sixteen years without the other boy. Without anyone for that matter.

Percy knew himself better than he knew just about anything. And he knew if he saw his mother or his little baby brother....

...Percy knew he would break.

He knew he would not be able to stand against the tears, and the focus and the pain. He wouldn't be able to say enough "I'm sorry"-s, enough "I was trying to help"-s, enough.... Nothing would be enough. It was his mother. It was Tyson.

It was fucking Gabe, who hit his brother and his mother and him.

It was Percy.

And it was his chance to be the greatest Solo Player to ever live, or die trying.

"Grover are you recording this message?" Percy asked, staring at the wall beyond the screen.

"Should I be?"

Rachel slapped the back on his head, "yes! So they can...you know...we can post it on your blog when they're done. That way at least their families will know."

Grover froze his fingers hovering over his mouse clicker. He seemed to age forty years in the time it took him to turn and look directly at the screen again. His face was pale and his eyes so tired. "I can do that."

The players looked at each other. A sudden tension drawing tight along them. Grover must have took that as a sign to start recording because He clicked and a blinking red light appeared in the corner of the screen.

"I-I don't have anyone." -AngelQueen- admitted, "It's just me and my brother. I can't lose him. I joined with the Huntresses because I knew it was all girls-- at least in character-- and he was so clingy, so pestering... But I just want to have him back again."

She slid away, fast before anyone could say anything else. Percy watched her settle on the couch, but she looked more distraught than before.

xClassicx rubbed her arm, "This isn't really my place either. There's no one waiting at home for me. I've been borrowing the Public Library's headset for years."

Hannibal took her hand and gave it a squeeze and a small sad smile. "I wish I could say much else, but I know my grandmother would be more irritated at me than upset if I wasted this time to tell her anything other than "I tried, grandmother." She always said I wouldn't amount to anything if I never tried." He looked at the screen as if he could see her hovering right behind Rachel and Grover. "Don't forget to take your meds, Grandmother."

-Chasing- for all her glory did not cry. Though the wobble in her voice made it sound it took all her willpower not to. "Bobby, Mathew, sorry I wasn't-- aren't-- a better big sister. I wanted to be there for you guys, but the house was too small. Dad, Helen...I'm sorry I ran off. I know you were trying. And...and I'm so sorry." She took a deep breath to steady her voice. Rachel tugged on off her red curls again seemingly feeling like she was listening to something sacred. Percy wanted to look away but he couldn't. "If I survive...maybe I can drop by? You know just for a day or two?"

Annabeth looked away sharply and the last two boys took that as a hint that she was finished. Percy resisted the urge to give her hand a squeeze like Hannibal had done for xClassicx. For some reason Percy felt that she would cut his arm off before being grateful for his strength.

"You or me first?" Leo asked waving the empty Alcohol bottle between them.

"You."

Leo rubbed his chin, in an iconic and rather ironic way. "Okay." He slid off the counter and rubbed his hands together like he was preparing a big speech. "This one goes out to all the lovely, attractive yet conveniently single girls I never had the pleasure of meeting. I apologise for getting myself into this mess. When I get out maybe we can change your single statuses on Facebook to "In a relationship"?"

Despite the fact that Annabeth kicked him in the back of the knee so hard he fell over, Leo didn't seemed deterred. "Hey Grover, You've been reading the news! How many faithful followers do I have? I'm thinking not more than Riptide, but I've got to have at least two times Hannibal, am I right?"

Grover rolled his eyes, "I'm not answering that."

"Next time I'm stabbing you." The taller asian boy warned Hawtstufz9. Leo just grinned and gave a thumbs up to Percy.

"Hey Rachel, can you do me a favor?" Percy asked. The redhead nodded. "Can you get a report on where everyone is right now? If we can get enough of us together, then we should be able to form some plan to stop Kronos."

Rachel glanced at Grover, "It's streaming on Channel Seven. Give me a moment." She hurried from the room.

Grover finished deleting everything he needed to on his computer and sighed, "Alright. I can receive the data now. It's going to take a minute or two to download."

"That's okay." Leo said, "The Titans can't crack my code in an hour, much less a minute. Just know that it will start running the second it downloads completely. Once you have it up, do not, under any circumstance, close the computer. This is our one chance to get on even ground with these guys. The virus will rewrite the cameras into looking anywhere but where a player is. Even Kronos will be invisible to the cameras."

"Fair enough." Grover said. "We'll all just be here. Worrying."

"Alright, Percy, here you are." Rachel said coming back into the room, she had scribbled down names and places on a napkin from Pizza Hut. She read off the locations of the other AOH players and Percy filed them mentally. He glanced at Annabeth and saw her already working on a plan. Relief flooded his veins.

He turned back to the screen, "How much time do I have left?" He asked.

Grover considered it, "A minute. No more."

Percy took a deep breath, "Gabe Ugliano is an abusive jackass. He fucking hits my mom, he fucking hit me, but the reason I joined was because he went after my brother. No one touches my brother. Not Gabe. Not even Kronos. I'll be there to stop them.

"To my mom, wash my mouth with soap as many times as you need. Tell me you bumped into tables or tripped and fell. I know it's a fucking lie. You're the most graceful person I've ever met. If you wouldn't leave before I die, then at least leave after okay?"

Percy was well aware of the gaping faces of the other around him, but for once he didn't care. They already knew his name. Everyone did. What else could he throw up in the air? He was an open book. Rachel had a hand over her mouth. And Grover placed his head on the table.

"Tyson, I'm going to make it back to you. Somehow. I've got this chance now. But even then you stay strong and you don't let anyone tell you you can't play a sport or read because of that eye, alright?

"Rachel, Thank you. I know I shouldn't be asking this, but if you could check on them once in awhile, please do? At this rate I'm never going to be able to repay you."

She bit her hand, shaking her head, "Percy don't say that. Please!"

"And Grover..." The brunette pulled his head up off the table, eyes red. He was crying, Percy noticed. But the raven haired boy still went for a smile. A cheap, cheesy one, "G-man!"

"Ten seconds." Leo whispered.

"I say this because you're the bestest friend I ever had." Percy ran a hand through his hair, "Juniper, Grover has been in love with you since freshman year, but he doesn't have the guts to tell you himself. Kiss the idiot before he goes and gets it in his head that you're too good for his underwhelming charm."

"Percy Jackson you son of a Bit--"

The screen crackled and shook. Then all at once it went out. And Percy realised just how loudly his heart was thumping. He brought his shaking hands up to his face and wiped the tears away. With a sniffle he swallowed and turned back to his group, the group that he was sure was going to defeat Kronos one way or another.

"Let's do this."