DISCLAIMER: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Heroes of Olympus

Mythomagic: For Beginners

A Percy Jackson Fan Fiction

"A Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step"

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Year 21ΔΔ

Percy lay awake in his bed, staring up at the ceiling above him. It was painted bright blue, just like the sky outside the window. From where he was laying, he could hear the hustle and bustle of the city, the machines from the flying cars, the digital sounds of the future world gently mixed with the sounds of people conversing with each other just like in the old world. Percy knew these sounds all too well.

It was a Saturday morning, and there were a couple of errands the nineteen-year-old needed to run. Percy got up from his bed, grabbing his watch from the night stand as he did so. He took a peek at his watch as he gulped mouthfuls of water. His watch clearly stated that it was eight in the morning.

He walked out of his bedroom, glass in his right hand while his wrist watch in the other, and made his way to the kitchen. As he put his watch and glass on one of the counter, he grabbed for his favourite cereal. After that, he opened the refrigerator for some milk, but the milk wasn't there. He looked around the kitchen and, still, he couldn't find the milk. As a last resort, Percy called for his flatmate, "NICO!"

Percy heard a loud thud from Nico's room before the black-eyed boy emerged from behind the door. His skin was as pale as ever, his hair, black and messy and there were faint bags under his eyes. He walked slowly towards his cousin before he scowled. "What?"

"Where did you put the milk?" Percy demanded.

"It's in my room," Nico said, rubbing his eyes.

"Go get it, I need to eat."

With a grunt, Nico went back inside his room to collect the milk. As he trudged back, he asked, "What time is it?"

Snatching the milk out of Nico's hand, Percy said, "Eight fifteen." He grabbed a bowl and poured his breakfast into it. "You said you need to go and grab that new game you have been fangirling about for the past few weeks," He continued as he shoved a spoonful of cereal inside his mouth.

Wide-eyed, Nico screamed, "DAMN." With sudden realisation, he ran back to his room to change. After awhile, he was back outside, fully dressed. "I need to go, bye Percy, see you at lunch!" The pale boy landed his hand on the censor and the door slid open.

As Nico went outside, Percy stood up from his chair and put his bowl inside the dish-washing machine. He drank another glass of water and put his watch around his wrist. He picked up a blue v-neck shirt with a pair of black jeans. He put it on as he stride towards the door, landed his hand on the pad and went outside to do some of his errands.

After borrowing some books, in which he will skim through for his upcoming project, he took his time to walk to the meeting place assigned by Nico for lunch. It was a cafe near their flat, people rarely eat there but it actually had a nice atmosphere and good food. The owner of the place was their friend, Grover Underwood, a twenty-six-year-old brunette who just got married to a woman with the same age, Juniper. The newlywed managed the cafe together, with Juniper as their cook and Grover as their barista. Percy personally thought the main reason the cafe wasn't as crowded as the others was because most of their dishes were vegetarian.

Percy stepped into the deserted cafe and waved at his friends. He sat at the table near the window as they returned his wave. Grover approached him immediately with a broad smile and said, "What can I get for you today, Percy?"

"The usual please," Percy returned his smile.

"Is Nico coming too?" Grover asked while he noted down Percy's orders.

"Yes, he'll be here in a few."

The brunette gave Percy's order to his wife after Juniper greeted Percy. She went back to the kitchen to cook the order whilst Grover gave Percy his glass of Pepsi Blue. They continued their conversation until the bell rang and Nico came in.

Nico came up to Percy with a bag in his right hand. "Got it," He said, at the same time he took a seat next to Percy.

"What game is it anyway?" Percy curiously asked his pale faced friend.

Nico brought the bag onto the table and took out a small blue box. "It's a new MMORPG game based on ancient Greek myth called 'Mythomagic'." Percy snatched the box from Nico's grasp and read its back. "It came with two pairs of these," He continued as he pulled out two pairs of ear-plug-like devices from the same bag.

"Interesting," Grover said as he read the back of the box Percy handed him a few seconds ago.

"They tried to mix Greek mythology with a lot of other things, it will probably be another MMORPG fail," Percy stated as he reminisced at the past online games Nico had played in his high school years. At the same time, his blue pasta (both Grover and Juniper made the dish especially for Percy) arrived and Juniper scooted in to the chair next to her husband.

Nico scowled at Percy.

"What is this all about?" Juniper spoke up.

Percy started to eat his blue pasta as he replied to the older woman, "Some new game Nico bought earlier." Juniper gave an 'oh' in response with a glaring eye given to Grover. Nico frowned at this but let it go and grabbed a fork to steal some of his cousin's blue pasta.

Percy and Nico went home after they finished Percy's dessert (a blue velvet cake). As soon as the door slid open, Nico dashed to the couch and turned on his laptop. The small device lit up with a 'beep' as it sprouted out a wide translucent rectangle into the air. The overly excited nineteen-year-old grabbed the case that held the game and started downloading the content into his laptop.

When the game finished downloading, Nico grinned. He took a pair of the gaming ear-plug from the bag and put it on as Percy sat beside him on the couch. Nico pressed a button on the ear-plugs and a translucent blue coloured rectangle shade appeared, covering both of his pitch black eyes.

Percy casually turned on the television while drinking his left over Pepsi Blue as the boy beside him fell into a deep sleep to the virtual world of Mythomagic.

A couple minutes before sunset, Nico woke up. He took off the device from his head and headed to the kitchen to find Percy in there.

He was at the dining table under a small hanging lamp that illuminated the whole room with a yellow colour. The light gave out a warm atmosphere to the room. On the table were three thick opened books, a half- filled glass, a jug of water and some stationery. "Hey, Perce," Nico said to the sea-green-eyed adolescent. "What are you doing?"

Percy took off his glasses and placed it on the dining table before looking directly at Nico's eyes. "Doing my project," He said as he stretched and poured mineral water from the jug into his glass. "How's the game?" He asked without much curiosity in his voice.

Nico grabbed a mug from one counter and poured himself a glass of water. "Interesting, so far it's good," He nodded while drinking his water. "It's actually fun."

"How fun?" Percy put his glasses back on and he was back skimming the books in front of him.

"Very," Nico stated shortly.

"That's great, though I think you should start thinking about your college and start doing your projects instead of gaming."

Nico rolled his eyes, "Since when you got boring, Perce?" He groaned.

Actually, Nico knew the answer to his own question. Since he and Percy went to college with Percy making his way to be a marine biologist, he has been very diligent. Nico himself couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Percy studying for his tests and taking notes.

Percy, who used to pull all kinds of pranks when he was still in high school, the one who never paid any attention in class, the same one who always drifted into sleep right when the teachers started speaking, and the one who rarely passed his tests, actually studied for once. Despite the fact that his step-father, Paul Blofis was their English teacher, Percy got into detention quite frequently and this has brought his mother to worry about whether he would graduate. When Percy did graduate, Nico was left stunned.

However Percy remained silent. Unaffected by his cousin's statement and kept his eyes on his books, taking notes and marking pages every now and then.

Nico, wanting his fun-loving cousin back, started to devise an instant plan to get Percy to play the game with him. There was no denying he missed the 'everything is fun and nothing hurts' persona his cousin once had.

He needs a little fun, Nico thought.

"You are a bore, Perce," He huffed. "But who am I to judge? It's not like a blue food eating; fish smelling person could beat up this fine man over here in his own zone, right?" Nico smirked, showing off his pearly whites.

Percy stopped abruptly in the midst of turning a page of one of the books and stood up. The edge of his lips turned upwards, making an evil smirk. Due to their height difference, Percy could look down at Nico while wearing that dark smirk all over his face. "Oh, we'll see Di Angelo. We'll see." With that, he exited the kitchen, leaving a paralysed Nico behind and disappeared into the living room.

An angered Percy, who hated being looked down especially by his own cousin, snatched a pair of the gaming ear-phones from the couch. He turned on Nico's laptop and placed the ear-phones inside both of his ears. He toggled the button on the device, a couple of seconds later; a green shade appeared to cover both of his sea-green eyes.

Percy smiled at himself as he drifted into the virtual world.

The next thing Percy knew, he was in an area where everything was black. Bit by bit the lights turned on, although the source of those lights remained unknown. Gradually, he was starting to get a good view at his surroundings. He was standing on a black and white tiled floor, like the ones from chess boards while the walls remained black.

After being confused for more than a minute, a red-haired NPC appeared at what Percy thought as the edge of the room. The red-haired girl was wearing a red long-sleeved shirt that went from her neck to her hip with a bunch of intricate designs on it. She had a short-sleeved black leather jacket over her red shirt that only went until her waist. She wore a short black cargo pants and black and white knee length socks with black boots that covered half of her calf. A sheathed twin blade hung on her hip, dangling as she made her way to Percy. Her gloved hand waved at him in a very subtle manner, slowly gesturing for Percy to come closer.

Percy approached the red-haired NPC that held all of his current attention. They walked towards each other in a room that seemed to have no end. The sound of their shoes hitting the ground echoed throughout the seemingly endless space.

"Welcome," She said, Percy thought her voice would sound more digital, instead the voice he heard held a little glint of softness and sound very much human. The girl shot a smile at him. Her emerald green eyes, that were staring straight at Percy's sea-green, held some intensity. He himself felt like she could see through his skin, like there weren't anything he could do in this world that could fool her. "To Mythomagic."

Percy couldn't do anything but stare.

This story is going to revolve around this online game. I took the idea from .hack/, they are my absolute favourite game of all time. I will be using some of the quotes from the series too, and I can say that they have fabulous quotes. I wrote this in a rush, afraid I'll lose the idea, very sorry for the grammar mistakes and all that. This story won't have the same story line as .hack/ although I am going to use some of the ideas and tweak them a bit.

Staring is rude.

Thanks for reading~