The morning everything went wrong, started out normal, which seemed unfair to Percy. He figured that if everything was going to change then he better get a warning, maybe like tripping down the stairs or pouring his cereal down his shirt. But neither of those things happened. In fact, looking back, that morning was the best he'd had in a while.

His mother was home that morning, making breakfast of oatmeal that sent spirals of cinnamon spices to wake Percy up from his and Tyson's room down the hall. Tyson was laughing when he walked to the tiny kitchen.

Gabe was leaving for work (he worked at a mega mart in the electronics department). "Beat it, punk." He grumbled to his step son and shouldered his way out the door in his blue and yellow uniform that was a couple sizes too small for his overweight body. He shoved Percy into the doorway but that was it. Percy let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding in.

"Percy! Good morning!" His mother said, offering him a spoon of oatmeal. Even though it smelled like heaven, Percy didn't think he could stomach any food, "Tyson and I made breakfast for you!"

"It's really yummy, Percy!" Tyson said standing in his chair.

"I'm sure it is!" Percy ruffled his hair, "Save me sum okay? I've got work this morning but the second I get back I'll eat all of it."

The kitchen clock read eleven which surprised Percy a bit. He hadn't realized he slept in. He was glad he didn't really have a job, because he'd totally always be late. Though he was shocked he'd slept at all. His side was burning still. Last night he'd found that the cut he'd gotten from the beer bottles had turned a not-so-nice red color. And still he didn't dare tell his mother.

He glanced at Tyson again, remembering just the last week when he leapt in front of the younger boy and taken that bottle for him. Gabe had gotten a bad hand and Tyson had slipped from the room without Percy's knowledge. Gabe had thrown the bottle at the four year old kid. Percy hadn't even thought twice. He'd give anything for his brother.

In a couple hours he'd either be fifty million dollars richer or he'd be lost in a never ending void of misery that was his life.

"Gotta go, Mom," Percy said and kissed his mother on the cheek as she smiled fondly. She looked at him with such pride Percy felt guilty for letting her believe he was working. At this point getting a job would probably be more beneficial, but every place he went to seemed to hate hiring teenaged guys. The only place that still was hiring was the mega mart and Percy would rather fighting in AOH than work there.

"Be safe, Percy!" His mom said scooping oatmeal into a tubberwear container and placing it in the refrigerator for him to eat later.

Percy wished above all else that he'd gotten to eat that oatmeal.

He looked back just once before he left, seeing his grinning four year old brother, and his for once smiling mother sitting in the kitchen like a real happy family. He never even got to say goodbye.

Grover was at the door, hobbling with his crutches. He looked more worried than anything else. There were bags under his eyes and he was wearing the same outfit from yesterday slept in and everything.

"There's something weird going on." Grover informed him, "Really Weird."

Percy raised an eyebrow, "It's Virtual Reality, everything's weird."

"Weirder than normal." Grover was quiet for a moment, and he set himself in his swivel chair. His computer was on, displaying tabs of blogs that he perused for fun. Percy wasn't nearly as good at navigating the Olympus Gamer's blogs like he was.

"I was reading on the threat base that I saw yesterday." He said, "The Titan Hackers? They're serious. I'm getting kind of nervous about this, Percy. They claimed the success of that Hack on Olympus back before it was a big deal. Remember that game that drove like four people insane? The titans claim they did that. I don't think you should go in. Really, Perce."

Percy shrugged off his jacket and stretched, "Relax, Grover. You said yourself: AOH is going to be seriously defended. Firewalls upon firewalls. The only thing we need to be worried about is how I'm going to beat little Miss -Chasing- and win the money that will get rid of Gabe."

"You know you can always just report him, right?" Grover said, "I mean, there's a reason they have an abuse hotline."

Percy picked the visor off the bed that Grover hadn't used last night, "It's not just that, G-man, Mom won't tell me directly, but Gabe keeps betting off the money for our bills and we still need to pay Rachel for watching Tyson...I need the money."

He nodded reluctantly, and turned back to his blogs, typing something in. "Right. Also regarding the brunette terror -Chasing-, I searched her last night. She runs a blog, Grey Owls. She's got a really bad obsession with grey, man. I've scanned a couple posts, she does daily updates on her battles, adventures, she was already planning on entering this back in July. Also she does killer examinations on pro fighters, weakness and strengths.

"She's got this one on xxRedClarissexx that points out things I didn't even know was possible in this game. I don't think they've even ever fought before. Call me crazy but I'm sure she knew you were going to win that fight before you'd even stepped on that field."

Percy frowned, "Does she have one on me?"

Grover shook his head, "No, but then again she doesn't have one on any one else who's in the tournament. I think she's just saving them. I hate to say this but I stayed up all night and still couldn't find a weakness on her."

Percy gave him a lopsided smile, "Well, then I'll just improvise until I can lay a strike on her."

"Luck, huh?" Grover rolled his eyes, "Mind if I post all about your lucky improv skills on my blog?"

Percy wasn't sure if he was joking or not. To be honest Percy had only a vague idea of his friend's blog at all. He mostly just reposted articles about earth awareness and anti animal abused things. Percy wasn't even sure what the title was, Frying Pan or something like that.

"Alright I'm going in," Percy said, "Wish me luck."

"Don't die." Grover said instead, "I'll see you in a couple hours, partner."

Percy flashed him one more smile and he closed the visor and turned it on. The world remained black and slowly flickered on. White text appeared blinking and waiting for him to enter his username and password.

"Riptide," He said, The letters appearing just how he pictured it was spelled, "SoloPlayer."

The world flashed white, blue text scrolling across the screen, "Player Riptide is entered in the Age Of Heroes Olympus Game System sponsored Tournament. Respond Yes to verify that this is you."

"Yes."

"Player Riptide will now be entered into the forum where the other contenders are preparing. Please wait patiently."

Just like that Percy left the real world behind. The waiting part only took a couple minutes, which was more than enough time for Percy to suddenly feel violently sick about this game. So many butterflies erupted in his blood stream he nearly woke himself back up. He couldn't help but smile to himself, as his avatar faded into a new world.

The area was a clearing, in the middle of the woods. He was standing on a small pedestal, that had his username engraved on the ground. His icon, a trident picture he found and really liked was printed under his name. There were twelve people already in the clearing already off their pedestals and hanging out in the middle of the ring.

"Well, look who decided to show up!" A girl with neon orange hair called. She was smiling deviously with her arm on a guy who looked like he could crush dump trucks with just his bare hands. The girl's name was floating over her head in white text, Hawtstufz9, which did nothing to stop the bat that came from the guy's huge hand. Ironically his name read, Charm4u, which Percy thought might be a bit of an inside joke. They both had the same glowing red icon next to their names signifying they were one of the three teams that had entered: Cliches.

The irony was overwhelming.

Everyone turned to look at Percy when Hawtstufz9 spoke, making him feel a swell of self consciousness. -Chasing- was there in the corner, and the >Stolls< team was looking dangerous in green that matched their team icon. The others Percy had never had the pleasure of meeting. He wasn't sure if that would be a good thing or not.

Scipio was a girl with black hair and a thieves mask over her eyes that was a reward for completing a mission on one of the nearby storyboard worlds. Hannibal was a guy with a tall build and the looks of a elf with the cloak that read his name. xClassicx was a girl with skin so pale Percy would have no trouble calling her snow white, her gold eyes looked him over, and a small smile played on her lips. A guy with the title BlackMagic was throwing rocks at the world around them but they kept bouncing off the indivisible barrier and falling dangerously close to a girl, El3ctric, with wicked blue hair who was cleaning a pair of hunting knives. Iam_superman was dressed in a dark purple cloak, and kept glancing at El3ctric like she was bothering him.

They were only missing two entries (Three pedestals, a solo player and a team) before they could begin.

"Sup?" Percy asked, making sure his mask was still in place. He didn't care about his cloak and hood this time. It wasn't like anyone was going to recognize his blue hair, because he didn't actually have blue hair.

"You're late." -Chasing- informed him with her stern voice that sounded way too much like a teacher who was seconds away from giving Percy detention.

"yo, -Chasing-, relax." BlackMagic said, tossing another rock, "Noon is a bit iffy around the world. Plus what does it matter if a couple are late? I'm gonna kick all your asses anyway!" His rock bounced off and hit El3ctric who moved so fast she was like lightning.

"Will you quit that!" she hissed at him. He snickered and she raised an arm to throw her hunting knife. Immediately alarms started going off and the room flashed red.

"Please refrain from fighting before the game has started," an automatic voice said. El3ctric spat something about stupid rules and lowered her knife. Iam_superman sighed.

"Why so glum, Clark Kent?" Hawtstufz9 slid up next to him placing an arm around him. Her orange hair swished in her long ponytail sparking with the fire special effect.

"Get off," He said. The girl ignored him until Charm4u picked her up by the neck.

"Watch, yourself, Flames." He warned his partner, "You aren't nearly as cute as your username advertises."

"Well you aren't exactly Miss Universe yourself, Charm." Imthebest said, "I mean, who would choose you over this?" He motioned to his own body with his sister moving around and pretending to take pictures with an invisible camera. Then Imbetter frowned and looked at her hands in disgust.

"Aw bro, your ugly face just broke my camera...." She squealed as Imthebest swiped at her.

Scipio rolled her eyes, leaning against the barrier. Hannibal and xClassicx were in a discussion about some TV show that Percy couldn't catch the name of.

A bright light flashed and all at once the remaining pedestals lit up with the last three avatars. A team of two and another solo player. The solo Player was a guy, ~GhostKing~ wearing a black armored tank top. He was glaring at the team with hatred that surprised Percy.

The team was two girls wearing silver both with bows around their back. Their team name was clear: *STARS* composed of Stargirl365 and -AngelQueen-. They had barely finished glowing before ~GhostKing~ stalked over and grabbed -AngelQueen- by the arm.

"What am I not good enough for you?" He asked, "You had to go team up with someone else?"

"That's not what it is!" She argued back, "I just wanted to fight with someone who's not you. We always fight together! I just want to try something new!"

"You joined the Hunter's Guild!"

"So? I can't play with my own friends once in a while?" She shot him a nasty look, "Stop being selfish!"

Obviously that was the wrong thing to say, because even in the virtual world his cheeks redden and his black eyes grew darker. But before he could yell any of the insults that were no doubt running around in his mind, the lights flashed on an off.

"Competitors to your starting places!"

The pedestals flashed like beacons calling Percy back there. Percy stepped back up there stretching his arms to the sky and shaking himself loose. It was a relief to know his side wasn't in crippling pain in this game. Oh the wonders of Virtual Realities.

Around him his foes were getting ready. But with a swell of pride Percy knew that half of them would not stand a chance against his sword that could cut metal. They'd have to be really powerful to beat him in a fast paced fight. -Chasing- was glaring at him for her Pedestal across the arena. He got the distinct feeling she was still trying to analyse him and pick him apart from his weaknesses to his strengths to what he was trying to win this for.

Fifty Million for Tyson.

Percy grinned behind his mask.

A screen appeared in the middle of all of them, displaying the iconic avatars of the Olympic Council that had originally created the game. All the founders had taken on names of the Greek Gods as a joke for the production of the Olympus Gaming system. Percy's personal favorite was the guys named Poseidon who worked with the water coding. He did a lot of adventure gaming too.

"Heroes!" The head of production, Zeus, called them to attention, "Welcome to the Age of Heroes tournament! Here you will compete for the Gods favor and to go down in history as the greatest hero alive!"

Hera stepped up next, "Your avatars have been all supplied with the same survival materials. However the weapons will be whatever you as a player have kept in your Item Storage."

"All weapons and all magic are allowed throughout this battle." Ares said gruffly, "But we warn against going overboard in your fights. A reminder that any excess attack methods can result in insanity. Causing any other player lasting mental damage will forfeit any chances at accepting the grand prize."

The woman who was posing as Aphrodite giggled, "but make sure to have fun, Sweeties!"

Ares smiled at her, which made Hephaestus huff just like the real Olympic gods. The mechanical forger said, "Also these little beauties will be following you all around." Little floating balls appeared from the trees rotating to get good views of all of them with their clear black lenses. "These are Cameras I have coded myself. They will be live broadcasting every fight that takes place. So wave for all your fans, players!"

The >Stolls< squealed and waved like maniacs. Percy nodded to the cameras.

Demeter sighed, "Food will be all around the map, it will be able to cure bits of health after fights but not large amounts at a time. Food Stations will replenish every couple of hours, though I doubt it will take this tournament that long."

Apollo grinned like he was about to get to the best part of the introduction, but the second he opened his mouth the entire arena plunged into red light. Percy looked around confused. It was the same light that had warned El3ctric against killing BlackMagic before the battle started. But they were all looking as confused as he was, even the gods on the screen.

Then the game started to glitch, which was terrifying. The trees disappeared and reappeared. The sky was blotted out with purple blocks. Alarms blared to loud Percy could barely think. xClassicx screamed and jumped off her pedestal to avoid getting crushed by a black block the size of a car that crashed down in the space she'd been.

"Move!" Iam_Superman tackled Charm4u out of the way as a tree tumbled on their stands. The red lights flashed and sound exploded from everywhere, the screen with the gods buzzed and broke like it had a bad connection. The Game creators had looks of panics and ran all over the place. Then the screen disappeared completely

Percy scrambled from his base as a rumbling overcame the ground. Giant cracks appeared in the ground in front of him like a giant earthquake. Percy leapt towards the edge just as his and BlackMagic's starting space plunged downwards. He roughly pulled himself up, surprised to find a camera right in his face. They seemed to be the only things still working.

"What the Hell is going on?!" Scipio yelled.

"We're starting, losers!" BlackMagic yelled wiping out a dagger with a green tip. But before he could swipe at Hannibal, he shrieked and fell to his knees grabbing his head.

The pain hit Percy as well just a second later. It was like someone was microwaving his brain. Agony pierced through his mind shredding every thought he had. His scream was louder than the explosions of sound that had overtook the game itself. All of the players were yelling in agony. Through his haze he saw -Chasing- stumbling back, a giant rock appeared out of no where right over her.

He couldn't believe himself, but he launched his body towards her. The rock crashed right next to them leaving coded dust that wrapped around Percy so thick he could feel it burning his lungs.

It's not real. He told himself, It's just a game.

But it still burned. Why was it still hurting?

He coughed.

The pain in his head subsided slightly. He looked down to where he was still on top of -Chasing-. At least he thought he had been. He didn't recognize the girl he'd shoved out of the way. She wasn't the brunet he'd been so afraid off. She had curls so blond they looked like honey. Her eyes were grey and wide with both surprise and suddenly fear.

"Riptide?" She coughed looking at him the same way he was looking at her.

Immediately his hand went to his face. His mask! It was gone, but he didn't remember it falling off or him taking it off. A sick feeling swelled in his stomach but he forced it down. So what if he looked the way he did in real life? The lights flickered back to normal. The dust was starting to settle.

They all had migrated to the north side of the clearing. Giant rocks had glitched into the center of them and half the pedestals were missing. Percy looked around but no one looked the same as they had before.

Iam_superman was hacking dust out of his lungs his blond hair flowing in front of his eyes. Charm4u wasn't even a guy anymore. Under the username a girl with choppy brown hair and strange eyes that looked more gamelike than real life like was leaning over Hawtstufz9, who was also genderswapped to a short guy. He was unconscious in with a cut over his eyebrow. Scipio had lost her mask but her regal glare was all the same. Hannibal was looking around like the glitch was going to happen again. He was tall with chinese features, that didn't quite fit his babyish face. xClassicx crawled from behind a boulder, but without floating stats Percy wouldn't have recognized her. She was smaller, with cinnamon hair and dark skin, nothing like her other appearance.

"Connor?" The voice called, from behind a tree. Imthebest coughed, running a hand through his sandy blond hair.

"Travis?" the male voice responded. An identical boy crawled out and found him. Imbetter was a guy?? "What the Hell just happened?"

"Something bad." ~GhostKing~ used a rock to haul himself back to his feet. Other than a longer hair cut, he looked mostly the same as before, "Where's my sister?"

"Help!" A voice scream making the younger boy's already pale face drain of color.

"Over here!" Another voice yelled, El3ctric with regular black hair, was kneeling with Stargirl365 who actually wore her brown hair in a braid, next to a fallen tree that had trapped an -AngelQueen-. She looked so similar to ~GhostKing~ Percy could see the family resemblance.

"I can't get out!" She said tearfully, "Help, please!"

Iam_superman rushed forward along with ~GhostKing~, but the blond reached first he sent a glare at El3ctric, "Aren't you suppose to be at work?"

"Aren't you suppose to be in school?" She retorted quickly.

They both grunted but Iam_superman turned back to the younger girl. "Hold still." He said backing up, "I hope this works." He held up his arms, the bands on his wrists starting to glow blue. Wind flew around the clearing lifting the tree up slightly. The girl scrambled out crying. The blond boy inhaled sharply and the tree crashed back down. -AngelQueen- was missing a fourth of her health.

"Get off!" -Chasing- shoved Percy off her. He'd totally forgotten he was on top of her.

BlackMagic stood up slowly, pawning his knife like he was expecting one of them to attack him. Hawtstufz9 groaned and let his friend get him to his feet.

"Pipes, your face-" He said.

"Shut up, are you okay?" She asked.

"I'm...yeah, I'm fine." He winced, as he lied. Even Percy could tell he was lying and he'd never seen the kid before. Hawtstufz9 reached to swipe his stats and get the menu. Then he frowned, "Where's my logout button?"

"You're quitting?!"

"No! I was looking for info on what is going on Beauty Queen! But where the fuck did my logout button go?!"

Everyone looked at his screen which was clearly missing a the familiar logout button.

"Oh shit." Percy swiped at his menu, too, finding his logout to be MIA.

El3ctric let out a breathy laugh, but it sounded like she was close to panicking, "This is getting weird. A bug?"

"I thought the AOH game was suppose to be bug free." Stargirl365 sniffled distasteful, "How unprofessional."

Percy felt sick to his stomach suddenly. Grover's words came back to him in a sudden burst of horrid realization, "The Titan Hackers? They're serious."

"Firewalls upon Firewalls, huh?" Percy let out a laugh that wasn't suppose to come out. Horror wound its way right to Percy's core. Everyone was looking at his shaking form but he barely noticed. He looked at one of the cameras that were floating nearby, "You called it, G-man. I should've listened."

The ball didn't respond but Percy could picture his best friend slamming his fist on the keyboard and cursing him furiously.

"What are you talking about?" BlackMagic demanded, closing out his menu, "Who's G-man? What about Firewalls?"

The entire world flashed red again. xClassicx screamed grabbing onto the nearest person, Hannibal. The tall guy didn't seem to have a problem with her digging her nails into arm. Another screen appeared in front of all of them but in it was not the game creators. It was a series of people all wearing those theater masks, with the Happy Smiles or the Upset Frowns.

"Hello silly gamers." The Man in the middle said in a cold voice that made Percy take a step back.

"No way." Hawtstufz9 cup a hand over his mouth like he was going to be sick, "Not these guys!"

"This is a message from the Titans." The leader continued like the boy hadn't made a noise, "You are now in our game. We have hacked right through the poor coding of Olympus and taken complete control of the Age Of Heroes Tournament."

"With our take over, there have been some...rule chances. But don't worry we're still broadcasting live!" Another voice said, colder, harsher, with his eyes bearing hungry gleam that Percy definitely didn't like. "First of all, as you can see, no more phony avatars. You play as yourself. Your weapons are what you have right now. You're items have been restarted."

"Hey!" Imthebest yelled, "I had a laser canon in my items! If you sons of Bitches dare touch it-!" Imbetter covered his brother's mouth and dragged him back.

"As you've no doubt noticed, there is no logout button. You cannot quit this game anymore. Instead we've place one of our own avatars in the game, run by one of our own. If you can kill him you all get to leave. But be warned: he is the best of the best. And he can only leave if he kills five of you. If he succeeds, the rest of you will be trapped until we decide to let you leave."

Something in his voice suggested that there was a low chance of them ever being able to logging out if they win.

"S-so that's it?" BlackMagic stuttered, "Five of our avatars are killed and he gets to go, or we kill your guy and we get to go?"

Another of the guys on the screen stepped up his purple mask gleaming in the red light. He didn't say anything, but just looked through the crowd. -AngelQueen- made a noise that sounded like a sob. She was looking at her Health bar.

"Why is it still going down?" She whispered, "I'm not poisoned."

Percy wanted to throw up. He chest heaved. -Chasing- cupped her hand over her lips trying to contain the gasp. ~GhostKing~ let out a scream.

"H-how-?" Stargirl365 whispered.

"You dirty little-" Hawtstufz9 screamed, "You hacked the headgear! You directly linked our bodies to the damage factor!"

Percy stumbled over, crying out. His hands were shaking, pain washed over him driving from his side in waves.

"Riptide!" -Chasing- yelled.

"No way." Percy stared at the ground in disbelief. His breath came out in pants, that he couldn't quite slow. He glanced up at his health bar watching the green color slipping down a little. He cursed so badly his mother would've washed his mouth with bleach.

If he ever saw her again.

If he ever saw any of them again.

The lights flickered back to normal. The screen casing the Titan Hackers closed and the fourteen of them in the clearing shared a look.

"I don't understand." El3ctric said roughly, "What was all that about linking our bodies?!"

-Chasing- looked at her and said the words that everyone was thinking but couldn't bring themselves to say it. "He means...." She swallowed hard, "if we die in the game..."

"It happens in real life too." Hannibal finished.