Everybody knows I don't own either PJO or Star Trek. Why'd you be here on anyways?

Nico

Groggily, Nico shook his head to clear his mind. He felt weird, but couldn't identify what was off.

As his vision came back to him, he saw Thalia. She was still wearing her leather jacket and punk wristbands, and the violet crystal hung around her neck, like an ornament on a tree. He looked down at his own chest, and noticed his fiery orange pendant, its color vibrant against his black skull t-shirt.

He realized he was lying down on the dusty earth, and sat up. The ground was a dusty, rust-colored red. Lots of dust, more than Nico appreciated. There were several dried bushes, and a worn road. The sun was slowly setting, and in the distance, he could see bright lights coming from several buildings.

"Where are we?"

Thalia grimaced. "You have been out for a while, most of the afternoon. I felt that I should wait until you wake up, before moving. As to where we are, I would say something like, Iowa, or Arizona. Probably the United States, but if not, maybe Australia? Who knows where we are now, if this even is Earth." She stood up and handed Nico a wallet. He opened it, and saw his image, followed by the words, Nico di Angelo. Age: 14. Male. Human/Vulcan. Birthdate: November 7, 2241.

"What does it mean, Human/Vulcan?" Nico asked.

Thalia sighed, and ran her hair through with her fingers. "Hecate did something to you, changed your genetics. Your paternal side, the side of Hades, she replaced it with Vulcan DNA. Like, a hybrid between the human species, and an extremely intelligent, strong, logical Vulcan species. At least you have enhanced strength, from your Vulcan side."

She gave him a lopsided smile. "I am completely mortal, as are you, but I am also completely human. Apparently, my DNA changed the moment we entered this world, but Hecate chose to specify yours, to fit your personality. Vulcans suppress their emotions, since emotional reactions can be dangerous for such a powerful, strong species. They are also touch telepaths, and often avoid much physical contact. They also have pale skin, since their blood is copper based."

Thalia tilted her head. "They are also kind of like you."

Nico gave a harsh laugh, which caught hard in his throat. Swallowing, he said, "Yeah, I see the similarities. How old does your identification paper say you are?"

"Sixteen. I guess that's my biological age, after leaving the tree, and before joining the Huntresses of Artemis. Remember, I joined a few hours before my sixteenth birthday, and since Artemis relieved me, I resumed aging. I think I turned sixteen a few hours ago…" She showed Nico her papers, and he saw Thalia Grace. Age: 16. Female. Human. Birthdate: July 2, 2239.

"Nice," said Nico. He realized his throat was dry, presumably from spending hours in the sun. "Shall we check out those lights and get some lemonade?"

Thalia smiled, but something seemed to dawn on her. She reached down and rummaged through a navy blue backpack with bronze zippers Nico hadn't noticed before. Out she pulled a black hat, which she gave to Nico. "Put this on," she said.

She must have glanced up and spotted Nico's puzzled expression. Her features softened, and took a mirror out of her bag. "Where did you get all that stuff?" Nico asked.

"I don't know, but this bag was with me when we arrived in the middle of this wasteland, along with the identification papers." Thalia handed Nico the mirror, and he peered at himself. Stumped, he moved his fingers towards his ears, and touched them.

"I look like an elf..."

"Like a Vulcan. It's Hecate changing your DNA. But let's go to the lights for lemonade, shall we?"

Nico paused, and fondled his ears once more. He glanced at the lights in the distance, and turned to Thalia, with a small smile. "Let's shadow-travel there. I still have one more jump for the entire week." He donned the black beanie he was given. "Do my ears show?"

Thalia shook her head amusedly. She held on to Nico's shoulders, and as the sun fell past the horizon, the shadows twisted around the duo.

James Tiberius Kirk

James – or Jim, as he preferred to be called – needed a drink. Preferably shared with a cute lady, or better still, an intelligent cute lady, with whom he could discuss astrological physics with.

Since his stepdad Frank left the farm in a huff (probably not because he had destroyed Frank's car) Jim had lived by himself, studying school, skipping the easier grade levels, graduating high school at sixteen with the highest marks ever submitted in Iowa.

And Jim didn't care. He felt completing his education was an absolute must in this world, where almost every person judged you on your test scores.

So after proving himself as a genius, he continued living the traditional way; going to bars, comparing his intelligence to those of many Starfleet officers who did go to bars, and starting bar fights. And visiting the ladies, but you can't blame him for that!

Most of the time, he didn't start a bar fight. One of those macho Starfleet people would get upset over Jim talking to one of their girlfriends, so Kirk became quite adept at learning to defend himself. If anybody asked where he had his combat training, Kirk often replied, "I had many strong instructors. We met up in bars, you know."

And Starfleet? The biggest government organization on Earth, and several other planets. Starfleet was an international space organization, composed of officers from all races.

Half the geniuses on Earth went with the Fleet, attended the Academy, went off on missions on spaceships, and returned to the planet as an international hero and a bigshot. Kirk wasn't interested in that sort of life.

His father, George Kirk, was once a member of Starfleet. Once. He and his wife Winona often went on inter-planetary missions, negotiating with aliens and the like. And that was all way before James saw the world. Then George, acting captain of the USS Kelvin, died while battling against a mysterious Romulan ship, the Narada. Acting Captain George Kirk evacuated most of the crew, his pregnant wife included, and rammed the ship into the Narada. Winona gave birth to Jim in a medical evacuation shuttle and, together with George, named the child James Tiberius Kirk over the conn.

A few seconds later, George died in the collision.

Winona took the young Jim to Earth and took care for him the first year or two. But James kept reminding her of the late George Kirk, and Winona ended up leaving Jim in the care of her second husband, Jim's stepdad, Frank.

Frank was drunk six days out of seven, and when he wasn't, usually when the store was out of beer or wine, he had Jim perform many useless, boring, time-consuming tasks, such as fixing the roof or looking for someone to buy cows from. So one day, when Kirk was twelve, he took his stepdad's ancient red corvette and drove it into a quarry.

Jim almost fell off the cliff with it, but he caught himself on a ledge and pulled himself up. And the adrenaline rush he had received from the experience was awesome. Problem was, a police officer caught him and brought him before the district attorney, who called Frank, who took Jim home and locked him inside his room, without a book or learning PADD.

Two days later, Jim was bored out of his mind, and his stepdad still didn't let him out. So Kirk took an old nail and pulled a Huckleberry Finn, from one of the old carbon books he read as a book. With the nail, Jim loosened the wall boards and let himself out.

With careful observation of the house, which Frank had turned into a pigsty, and Frank's own room, which was worse than a sty, Jim deduced that Frank had left for good. Grinning hard, he gathered all of Frank's useless things, placed them in a big pile outside the house, and set them on fire. Jim lived alone, with some assistance from his neighbours, ever since that night five years ago.

Now Jim, seventeen, had plenty of time for the rest of his life. His career? Blast that, he'll worry later. Maybe he could become a dirt bike racer.

But tonight, he wanted a drink.

He pushed the door to the Riverside Shipyard Bar. It's neon lights flashing orange, pink, and green, the bar was popular and crowded every day. It was the only building for miles. Everybody passing by came to this bar, and so many of them had a story.

Jim sauntered inside. "Hey, Poncho," he mocked, patting one of his rivals on the shoulder. The guy tensed up, almost ready to jump at Kirk, when his blond, red-lipped girlfriend smiled simpering and put her hand over 'Poncho's balled fists.

Kirk was almost to the bar counter when he saw a pair of newcomers sitting at a small table, milk and an orange juice in glasses. Both had short, black hair, but he saw the one with the leather jacket was female. She had beautiful, electric blue eyes. Much like Jim's own irises.

The girl was talking animatedly with her friend. She couldn't have been more than his own age, and the boy was a young teen, about fourteen or fifteen. "…don't know, Nico, maybe we could apply for Starfleet…"

"Hey there," Jim grinned.

The girl turned to glare at him, then her eyes widened surprised. "Jas-" but she stopped herself.

Jim raised his eyes. "I remind you of someone, Bluebelle?"

The girl's mouth thinned dangerously, but she ignored him.

"Don't you want to know my name first before you completely reject me?"

"No thanks," she said cooly. "I'm fine here with my colleague."

Colleague. What an interesting description for the young teen. But the pair seemed natural together, almost like siblings. But their features were quite different, so Kirk could guess they were close friends.

"Alright then, you're loss." But Jim could feel his heart sinking a centimetre. The girl looked smart.

He finally made his way up to the bar. "A Rigellian beer, please, and a shot of Orion rum."

He took his drink and thought about the newcomers. He had never seen them before, but where had they come from? Probably from a different place on earth, since their conversation confirmed they were not with Starfleet, yet.

"Hi. Hey, Melly. Yep, hi." A chocolate lady wove her way through the crowd and took a seat near Jim. "That'll be, a Klavnian fire tea, what else is on the menu… three Budweiser classics and two Cardassian sunrises. You have anything else nice and spicy?" she directed at the bartender.

The bartender, Mike, scratched his head. "Try the slusho mix," he prescribed.

"And the slusho mix, thank you."

Mike hurried off to grab the wide varieties of drinks. Jim rotated his chair toward this new princess. Second time's the charm?

"You need me to pay for that?" Kirk asked.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I can support myself, you see. I'm in Starfleet." Chocolate lady rolled her eyes. Her long, healthy hair swished like an inky waterfall. Jim was mesmerized.

"What's your focus?"

"Xenolinguistics. It's–"

"The study of alien languages, morphology, phonology, syntax. Nice, you have a talented tongue."

The Starfleet cadet smirked. "Nice, you're smarter than you look. I'm impressed." She turned to Mike, who was bringing her drink. After taking a sip of the fire tea, she said, "It's Uhura."

"Uhura… nice name. First or last?"

"Last."

Kirk pouted. "Come on, I'm expecting your first name to be beautiful."

Uhura rolled her eyes. "My first name is classified information, not for people I know for five minutes. Why don't you pretend my first name is Uhura?"

Jim chuckled. "What will I pretend your last name is?"

"Make it up, as long as it isn't your last name."

"I'm Jim Kirk."

She raised her eyebrows, interested.

A large cadet stepped up. He glared at Kirk menacingly. "This townie isn't bothering you, right?"

Uhura brushed him off. Before she could answer, Kirk spoke for her. "No, I'm entertaining her with wit you probably don't have."

The big guy growled. "I saw you, little punk…"

Kirk stood up and walked past the cadet. He patted the big guy on the shoulder as he past. "Not a problem, Cupcake."

'Cupcake' turned red and puffed up. "You looking to get smashed, farm boy?"

"Then get four more cupcakes and it'll be an even fight."

Cupcake, and five more of his buddies jumped forward onto Jim.

Thalia

Nico's thinking he wants to join Starfleet. Starfleet, from what we gathered from people at the bar, is a planetwide organization of intelligent life from different planets, designed to explore the galaxy. Many planets have already been colonized, and the Starfleet Federation sends out ships to analyse planets, to study science, and to find new civilizations.

Amazing. No wonder the Greek gods have faded.

The prophecy spoke of multiple worlds, Watch a world meet destruction, prevent another's demolition.

So yeah, Starfleet is the best choice for them.

They saw many weird things at Riverside Shipyard. One was a giant spacecraft, being constructed near the bar. Another one was this blond guy. Thalia felt he was annoying, but sensed his intelligence from the way he spoke. And most eerily, he resembled Jason, her dead brother.

She pointed this out to Nico, who nodded. They both kept a close eye on the Jason-lookalike. And they were annoyed that he got into a bar fight, just ten minutes later.

As the first guy, who she heard was nicknamed 'Cupcake', threw a punch, Thalia stood up and shoved her chair away. They might not have their full demigod powers (which they couldn't use in this situation anyways), but they still were unusually strong, agile, and fast for humans their age. Nico reached 'Cupcake' before Thalia did, and threw a punch at his ear.

Cupcake, surprised at the fourteen-year old's actions, turned red and attempted to shove him off. But Nico stood his ground, and proceeded to take him down with a Japanese armroll. Cupcake was now flat on the floor, and extremely angry. "Get this punk!" he screamed, not caring anymore if his opponent was a teen or not. Three big guys barrelled at Nico, and his eyes widened, frightened.

Meanwhile, the other two guys were fighting Kirk. Thalia leaped onto one, and pulled her arms tight around his neck. She didn't choke him, but she quickly brought her hand down on the poor guy's shoulders, as she was once taught at Camp Half-Blood. Her opponent went down.

She turned and saw Nico, who was being held in the air by the bigger guys. He kicked one in the nose, and the guy dropped him. But doing so caused his black cap to fall of his head, exposing his new, pointy ears and eyebrows. Both guys saw him, and backed away immediately. "Dang, he's a Vulcan kid," one whispered to the other. With scared, frantic looks, they scampered away and ran out of the bar.

"Stop it, stop it, all of you!" a brown woman shrieked.

Thalia looked at the blond Jason look-alike. He wasn't doing so well, as his opponent was about three times his size. He was being beat up by his adversary, and not looking too good. Thalia and Nico both prepared to rush at the bigger guy, when an ear-piercing whistle blew through the bar.

An older man came into the room, and everybody stopped. Fighting, drinking, talking, whatever. They all stopped. Thalia could tell the man was a person of high authority. Everybody respected and listened to him. Sort of like how other campers used to look up to her and Percy Jackson back at camp.

The old man, who Thalia heard a few Starfleet cadets call 'Pike' glanced around the bar. "Outside. All of you. Now!"

The big guys who were fighting moved outside. So did the other customers, grumbling. Thalia and Nico moved to go with the crowd, but Pike reached out and stopped them.

The bar emptied, and Pike, Thalia, the Jason lookalike, and Nico sat around a table. Pike handed Nico and the blond guy a tissue, since both had bleeding noses.

"You alright, son?" Pike asked Nico.

"Yes, sir."

"What about you?" Pike asked, looking at the blond guy.

Blondy shrugged. "You can whistle really loud, you know that?"

Pike peered at him. The old man suddenly reminded Thalia of Chiron. "You know, I couldn't believe it when the bartender told me who you are, James Kirk."

Kirk looked at the table. "Who am I?" he asked, barely audible.

"Your father's son."

Pike looked at Thalia. "Who are you, kid? What brought you, and your Vulcan friend here, to Riverside?"

Thalia stiffened. Carefully, she replied. "Thalia, sir. My friend here is Nico di Angelo. He never knew his father, was raised by his mother on Earth before she died. Likewise, my father left my mother when she was young, then she crashed a car while drunk. Nico and I became close friends. Traveled together." Close enough to the truth not to be a complete lie.

Pike regarded her, before turning back to Kirk. "For my dissertation, I was assigned the USS Kelvin. Something I admired about your dad, he didn't believe in no-win scenarios."

"Sure learned his lesson," Kirk replied cheekily.

"It depends on how you define winning. You're here, aren't you?" Pike stated wisely. He looked around the table. "You all are here, without parents. And you all survived."

"Thanks," Kirk said. Nico merely nodded his head.

"You know, that instinct to leap without looking, that was his nature too, and in my opinion, it's something Starfleet's lost."

Thalia glanced at Nico. "Sir, where is this going?" she asked.

Pike turned to her. "Thalia, you are more intelligent than you put out. I looked up your file, along with Nico's. Both of you, dyslexia, ADHD, kicked out of multiple schools, then living by yourself." Thalia raised her eyebrows. Hecate did a good job giving them background in this weird place.

Pike glanced at Kirk. "I looked up your file too. Your aptitude tests are off the charts, so what is it? You like being the only genius-level repeat offender in the Midwest?"

Kirk seemed to be having a bad day. "Maybe I love it". Another cheeky comment.

"Look, so your dad dies. You can settle for less than an ordinary life. Or do you feel like you were meant for something better? Something special?" Pike addressed the entire table. "Enlist in Starfleet. All of you."

Nico paused for a moment, then nodded with Thalia.

"Enli–" Kirk laughed. "You guys must be way down in your recruiting quota for the month.

Pike glared at him. "If you're half the man our father was, Jim, Starfleet could use you. You could be an officer in four years. You could have your own ship in eight. You understand what the Federation is, don't you? It's important. It's a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada."

"We done?" asked Kirk.

"I'm done. Riverside Shipyard. The shuttle for new recruits leaves tomorrow at 0800. You know, your father was Captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved eight hundred lives, including your mother's. And yours. I dare you to do better." With this final, impressive speech, Pike got up for his chair.

Pointing at Thalia and Nico, he said "I expect you, Thalia and Nico there tomorrow." He paid the bartender and left.

Kirk turned to Nico. "You guys serious about joining?" Nico's lips twitched, annoyed.

Before Nico could bring up an angry retort, Thalia spoke up. "Yes, Kirk, we're going. And yes, our lives were as bad as yours, if not worse. This is a chance to change it, and if you don't," she paused, then spoke softly. "You'd better go."

Kirk considered. "Fine. But only because you and Nico are going." Kirk thought for a moment. "We're friends then?" he asked with a little smile. Thalia glared at him, but then laughed.

"Sure, friends."

Nico

Thalia and Nico arrived at Riverside Shipyard early, eager not to miss the shuttle. Riverside Shipyard was the place where they saw the giant spacecraft being built the night before.

"You ready, Pinecone face?" he asked Thalia, teasingly.

Thalia smirked. "You're on, Ghost King."

They heard a loud roar behind them. It was Kirk, swerving his motorcycle around people. "Nice ride, man," an engineer called out to him.

Kirk tossed the keys the the engineer. "It's yours," he called out. He walked up to Nico and Thalia, and looked up at the large starship that is being built. "That's the Enterprise," he said softly. "I want to steer her someday."

Kirk looked at Thalia and Nico. "Four years? I'll do it in three."

Nico grinned. "Is that a challenge?"

"With your dyslexia, it might be."

"I'm half Vulcan. Shouldn't be too much of a problem. And Thalia? She has ways to get around her dyslexia. She can get the best grades if she needs to."

Thalia laughed. "Yep, three years it is."

"You're on," said Kirk.

For those wondering, Uhura was nicer to Jim because he was more polite to her. The reason was because Jim had a crush on Thalia.

Nico's dealing with his new genes. He still doesn't like being touched. Someone will get into trouble for that later... Hehehe...