Hey guys! Sorry I took down the previous version of the story, it just wasn't working out how I wanted it too. And no one reviewed and gave me advice as how to improve it! Except Lemariz. So here's the sequel to Son of Time, rewritten! Nico's point of view now. Please review!

Chapter 1: A Lost Friend

I sheathed my sword panting heavily. I glared at the plant, now chopped clean in half.

"You're kidding me Nico," Kyle said, "You're killing the plants."

"Who knows?" I said, "They might be poisonous."

"Last I checked, no one smuggled dangerous plants into supermarkets."

"Which was...?"

"Uh..."

"Exactly," I told him. The strange scratching sound started again, echoing through the empty store. I shushed Kyle and pushed forward. Kyle hefted his mace over his shoulder and followed me.

I peered around the toothpaste isle. Gunshot erupted in my ears. A rush of cold air passed by my face. I ducked my head back in the cover of the isle. Kyle was peering through the cracks in the shelf to see our attacker. There was another gunshot and Kyle jumped violently. He looked back at me and mouthed something about blue cheese, or trying to kill me.

"You're sure we evaded our pursuers?" a harsh deep voice asked.

"Not entirely," another said.

"We have to get this back to the Master and you know it! We have to be alive, remember?" There was a grunt of agreement and the scuttling noises moved away. I peered around the isle again. All I saw were the scorpion men disappearing around the corner, their lower scorpion body clicking against the ground with each step. I jogged after them.

I hid behind the back of an isle as the scorpion men headed towards the exit. I had no idea what they were doing, but I had a crazy feeling they needed to be stopped; so I crept after them, trying figure out where I should strike. The maroon lower half of the scorpion men looked harder than armour. Their weak point had to be their human torso and head. They drew closer to the automatic doors, too close to their escape route to be bothered turning behind them. I unsheathed my dagger and threw it at the automatic doors' sensor. An alarm blared and the doors slammed shut.

"Fools!" one of the scorpion men yelled, "You can't stand against us!" Kyle trotted along the tops of the isles to catch up with me.

"Where's Justin?" I asked, "We saw you with him bound moments ago."

"He's far from here by now," one replied.

"Probably dead," the other remarked, an evil smirk spreading over his toad-like face.

"I know he's not," I told him.

"You can't tell when someone's dead without seeing them," one laughed, seeming to think I was insane.

"My dad is Hades," I said plainly.

"Who?" they both asked.

"Bla-ah-ah!" Kyle started, clearly agitated, "Let's kill these guys and get out of here!"

"Kill?" one yelled outraged. He reared up on his back four legs and his tail hit the ground right in front of Kyle and I. Kyle charged forwards and climbed up the deadly tail. The tail was plucked from the ground and scorpion man started trying to shake Kyle off. The other scorpion-man pulled out a gun. Kyle was too busy having a good hack at his scorpion-man, so I went for the other one.

As I approached him, he fired randomly into the cold air, missing me each time. He gave up on the gun and unsheathed a large curved blade. I unsheathed my own sword and went for a jab straight at the heart. Scorpion-Man swiped it aside easily. He tried to push my blade to the ground, but I pushed on. I struggled against his force and when the time was right, ripped my sword away from his, sending Scorpion-Man falling forwards. As he fell he sent his armoured tail at me. I hit it aside with my sword, unsurprised that it failed to cut through the tail. The tail continued jabbing at me, each swipe I avoided by less and less space. Scorpion-Man regained grip on his sword and proper fighting stance. I spun to face his blade. There was a rush of air near my back and I had to throw myself left to avoid getting poisoned by the tail. His blade made a small cut in my arm as I fell. He gave a deep satisfied laugh, as he came over me. He poised his sword over his head, before he decided better and raised his jointed tail.

His tail stabbed down on me in record time, but I had a backup plan. Shadows whipped around me and took me away, well behind Scorpion-Man anyway. I stabbed my blade through his side. The unhealthy sound of ripping skin crawled through my ears. Scorpion-Man started chuckling loudly.

"You thought you could kill me?" he bellowed, "Fool!" He pulled my sword from his side letting black blood spurt freely from the deep wound. I was at a loss for words. The Doors of Death were closed, what could possibly be stopping them from dying? He advanced on me, flipping my sword over in his hand.

"Strange craftsmanship," he noted, "Much like the enemy. I have never seen metal such as this before today." I took his brief moment of distraction to kick him in the stomach and yank his sword out of hand. His sword weighed a ton so I dropped it and made a run for it. Scorpion-Man yelped in surprise more than pain and ran after me. I was just glad he had six extra legs to drag along, or I wouldn't have gained the lead I did.

I found Kyle chasing the other mutated scorpion around with his mace. The scorpion guy only had half a head left and had thousands of puncture wounds on his torso, every pore on his human side spewing dark blood.

"KYLE!" I called to him, "Get over here!" Kyle leaped over his opponent and ran towards me. I grabbed his wrist and shadows drowned us.

I hit the table heavily. I groaned and rubbed my head.

"Couldn't've picked somewhere better to land could ya'?" Kyle asked standing up from the ground. I sat up and met the hundreds of campers' eyes around me, all previously eating a peaceful meal and mingling happily.

"Don't interrupt my announcements Di Angelo," Mr D scolded, "I hate them enough already."

"Did you find him?" a girl from the Nemesis cabin asked.

"What does it look like?" Kyle responded. His face was covered in scorpion-man blood. The girl turned back to her plate of food. People began muttering anxiously.

"Great landing," Percy said, and I realised I was on his table.

"Oh," I started, "Sorry?"

"Will you all shut up?" Mr D yelled, "Flag Friday evening. You know what's happening! Darn it!" Mr D stormed away. Everyone stared in stunned silence. Mr D had never done that before, it was a wonder he hadn't tried that earlier. Chiron cleared his throat.

"You are dismissed," he decided. Everyone started leaving. Chiron fingered for me to go meet him.

I forced my way through the army of campers and made my way to Chiron. He looked down at me with much concern (which really doesn't boost one's self-esteem). He looked over at Kyle and signalled for him to come over also.

"Did you discover anything this time?" Chiron asked.

"For once," I said.

"How much closer are we to finding him?"

"Not very much," Kyle mumbled.

"What did you find out?"

"That some crazy scorpion guys want to take Justin to their leader," Kyle said.

"'Crazy scorpion guys'?" Chiron inquired.

"Like you," I explained, "Only scorpion instead of horse." Chiron took this into account.

"I've never heard of such creatures," he remarked, "Let alone seen them. Where did you find them?"

"We were searching around Medusa's old place and they just materialized out of nowhere," Kyle explained.

"The weird thing was they wouldn't die," I said, "They had life auras, the average sort, but for some reason they couldn't get hurt or anything. Stabbed him through the side and he came out fine, covered me in blood and stole my sword, but otherwise my attack had no other effect." Chiron scratched him bearded chin.

"Strange," he said, "I fear these creatures may pose a threat. They may also be out there to scare us and bring fear back into our hearts. You boys should head to bed. I believe you've had a tiring evening." He waved us off and we left him.

"Undead scorpion-men," Kyle muttered, "If we find any others, I'm just going to eat them." He spat some of the scorpion-man's thick, oily blood from his mouth.

"Well I know who to call when I want someone to be digested," I said. The bloodstains on my skin were thick and sticky, and much like a small cut, the blood was forming a harder coating.

"I'm going to have seven showers tomorrow," I decided, peeling a strip of the hardened blood from my arm, "And I might put in a special sacrifice to the god of hygiene as well."

"Great idea," Kyle agreed, "A nap also sounds good about now. So does coffee."

"Have you even had a coffee before?"

"No, but from Grover's description, it must be wonderful. I can do without though, I'm not a pansy satyr."

"You only smashed that scorpion guy's head in half today," I said, finding myself yawning.

"Have to teach English to Atlanta tomorrow," Kyle sighed, "I hate teaching. I should eat it." He picked up a chocolate wrapper and chewed it up to prove his point.

"Night Kyle," I yawned.

"Night." Kyle trotted away into the darkness.

I came back into my cabin. I didn't care I was covered in scorpion blood; I dropped onto my bed and closed my eyes.

Of course I being a half-blood made my dreams hate me.

Has this worked out better than the old version? If you've read it. Otherwise review anyway please, tell me where I need to improve, or I have no way of knowing how to. If you haven't can you please read the sequel? I love reviews and I love my readers. Please review. The story will unfold more in the next chapter I promise.