yet another short story based on real-life events. enjoy

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"The lightsaber guys are doing a show thing tonight," Piper said, closing her laptop. "Wanna go?" Annabeth didn't look away from her homework, but her curiosity was piqued.

"Where at?"
"Outside the union. Jason's one of them. I think he's a Jedi?"
"What time?"
"Twenty minutes. Should only be a five minute thing," explained Piper. Annabeth sighed.

"What the hell. I don't plan on doing anything else."

The walk to the union wasn't long and when the two arrived, there was already a sizable crowd. Word had clearly gotten around. Annabeth had seen mentions of this on various social medias and heard some classmates talking about it.

The not-so creatively named "lightsaber guys" was a trio of boys on campus who, like their name suggested, had lightsabers. And not the cheap plastic ones like Annabeth's half-brothers had. These ones were high quality, metal-hilted lightsabers designed for dueling. Jason, Piper's boyfriend and one of the lightsaber guys, had a gray-blue hilt that he built himself and when it turned on, the blade was yellow. Annabeth didn't know much about lightsabers, but it was beautiful. The other two Annabeth didn't know, nor had she seen their hilts, but she did know that the three of them had been working on the performance for some time, almost a month.

Jason was standing alone in the brick oval area, talking with some people. One of them put her hands on her hips and across the oval, a shorter guy with black hair came out of the crowd.

"Jedi!" He yelled and a red blade crackled to life. Jason saw Annabeth and Piper standing on the nearby knoll and winked before activating his own blade. Some guy on the other side had a speaker and Star Wars music started playing. The black hair guy ran across the oval before bringing his lightsaber down in a fierce strike.

The two of them went back and forth. Annabeth knew that Jason had been messing with lightsabers for quite awhile and the other guy clearly knew his stuff as well.

"His name is Nico," Piper said after Jason simulated a push that knocked the other guy, Nico, away. He brought his forearm up to his mouth and said, "Master! There's a Jedi by the union!" Jason sprinted forward and spun, swinging his saber in a brutal side strike.

They struck and parried again, until Jason was pushed to the middle.
Someone pushed by Annabeth and she was about to protest hotly when she realized that the person was wearing an ornate mask and a black cloak.

"Oh shit. Here we go," Piper murmured. The new person activated his blade with an elegant flourish and a sound that was strikingly different from Jason and Nico's. The black cloaked figure walked slowly and deliberately to the opposite side of the oval from Nico and Jason. His impassive black mask was broken up by white, red, and silver. Jason took a breath and twirled his saber as the music changed.

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Percy watched Jason indicate he was ready with a flourish. Stepping faster towards Jason, Percy twirled his saber, hearing the Darksaber sound whine in his ear. With a half-step, he swung his blade wide to Jason's right side and as soon as Jason blocked, he swung to the left. They exchanged two more blows just as they had rehearsed and locked. Nico ran forward with a yell, but Jason pushed out his hand and Nico pretended to have been clotheslined by a Force push. Jason slid out of the lock and retaliated.

The first act had gone well, Percy thought as he waited for his cue, and the second act was going just as well.

The trio reached the midway point and began their one-strike exchange. Percy attacked, Jason blocked then attacked Nico before spinning back to block another strike from Percy. They performed that act for a minute before Percy and Nico delivered a crushing dual strike to Jason's front. He slid out of it and Percy spun to attack Jason. They did their exchange and Jason pushed Percy away. Nico leapt forward and Jason slashed his back, signaling the beginning of act three for Percy, who began to disrobe. He watched Nico writhe on the ground, as if in pain, as Jason moved to where he needed to go. Percy took off his mask and heard quite a few gasps from the crowd around him.

"Oh my god, he's hot," someone said from his right. Percy tried to not smile as he stalked towards Nico.

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When the masked guy took off his mask, Annabeth was not expecting to see Mustard Bottle Guy from her class. She also wasn't expecting him to be that attractive.

The hat he was wearing had messed up his hair in a sort of "fuck you" kind of way. Black eyeshadow was around his eyes, giving him a strange look that made Annabeth's breath catch in her throat.
He walked across the oval, keeping eye contact with Jason as the music turned more sinister. Nico looked up as the guy approached him and the guy lifted his hand in a choking gesture, holding Nico's saber before ramming his own lightsaber between Nico's arm and torso. Nico fell and lay on the ground.

"That's Percy, by the way,"
"Yeah, he's in one of my classes. I knew his name at one point, but I guess I'd forgotten it," Annabeth said back. As she watched, Percy swung his two red sabers around menacingly and Annabeth saw a hint of fear for Jason.

Without warning, a feral yell came from Percy and he delivered multiple strikes with both lightsabers to Jason, who was seemingly barely able to defend himself. After a few more attacks, Percy swung the lightsaber in his left hand and Jason knocked it away, but Percy followed with another strike from his right that Jason also barely blocked. A few exchanges and Jason pushed Percy back a few steps before dashing up another small knoll. He twirled his blade and Percy did the same, which must have been some sort of visual thing for them to say they were ready.

Percy dashed up the hill and jumped, kicking off a tree before swinging his lightsaber as he came down. Jason blocked and Percy swung again. The two locked blades, yellow and red light illuminating their faces. Jason's face was set in a scowl of determination while Percy was gritting his teeth together. Annabeth heard a few frat boys yell "Oh shit!"

They brought their hands up, probably trying to show that their characters were trying to use the Force or whatever, when they were both knocked back. Jason tumbled down the hill and Percy remained at the top. He spread his arms and grinned.

"It's over, Jedi! I have the high ground!" Percy yelled. Some scattered laughs reached Annabeth's ear and even she smiled a bit. Jason sighed.

"You overestimate your power," he said. Percy scowled.
"You overestimate yours!" He yelled and ran down the hill, leaping and trying to stab at Jason, who sidestepped.

They exchanged blows again, with Jason executing with a rather impressive spin and strike. Percy seemingly managed to gain the upper hand and struck at Jason with three downward strikes. He stabbed out at Jason who knocked away Percy's lightsaber.
Percy lunged forward and Jason spun, driving his saber backwards and between Percy's arm and torso and he dropped to his knees slowly, as if he was scared of death. Jason slowly let Percy fall onto his back and his lightsaber rolled away. Jason picked up the lightsaber and deactivated it, placing it over Percy.

The crowd erupted into cheers as Percy and Nico stood. The three high-fived each other as Piper and Annabeth made their way towards them.

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Percy was stoked. The performance had gone off without a hitch except for a few missed strikes here and there. People were crowding them, congratulating them, telling them how amazing it was, and so on. More than a few girls asked Percy for his social media tags which was a bit awkward, but hey. Who cared?

He saw Jason's girlfriend pushing through with the blonde girl from his one class. The one who asked him about his mustard bottle.

"That was so good you guys!" Piper said, throwing her arms around Jason and giving him a kiss on his cheek. Percy and Nico shrugged in thanks and smiled. Blondie nodded in agreement.

"It was pretty cool. I don't know much about Star Wars but it was cool." Percy smirked.
"Hey, if you get a lightsaber, I could teach you sometime. Maybe a private lesson or two." Wow. Bold, Percy. Real bold. Blondie looked him in the eyes.

"Maybe," she said, her lips turning up slightly. "I'd be down."

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i have a black and gold lightsaber from Neosabers and i love it. i am also about to actually do a show like the one i described in the story with two other people. my role is basically a Sith Master, like how Percy was and yes, i do get killed at the end.

Peace, Love, and Donuts: 8Ball3