I've decided to keep the original text of the first chapter, but I made some changes to it.

The Running of The Bulls

Nico

It was dark by the time we made it out of camp. Since Percy didn't bring his car, they had to walk the entire way to the pizza restaurant. Which sucked. Annabeth miss judged the time it would take for them to reach the restaurant because the sun began to bleed from the sky leaving white dots scattering in its path. With the sun's absentees the air became crisp and cool.

Between the sharp pain his feet felt every time they hit the raw concrete, and Leo's dreadful stories, life was pretty good. It felt nice to be back home. Since Nico was tuning Leo's babbling out and was focused on the sidewalk, he didn't realize they had made it to the restaurant till he ran into the door. The glass was cold but Nico was too numb to feel anything. He heard soft laughing in the corner and saw Percy and Annabeth smiling. Nico felt his cheeks burn and he wanted to do something back, but he was in too good of a mood to glare at them so they just walked in.

The door made a sharp bell ring when they entered. The restaurant wasn't different to the others across New York. The walls were plastered with a weird green pattern and some random pictures of people Nico didn't know nor cared about. It was a simple room, except for the hole cut out for the chef's orders. They sat down at one of the tables near the front. The chairs were plastic and cheap, making a knocking noise when Nico slipped his balance. And, the tables had a tacky checkerboard style printed on them along with a mysterious sticky residue in blotches. The room smelled of cooked pizza and cheap beer, but it didn't matter to him. Nico looked across the table to see Annabeth wrapped around Percy's neck trying to read him what the menu said. It made him smile as he turned in his chair to giver her a quick peck on the cheek.

Then there was Leo.

Leo seemed to be occupying himself by building some type of catapult out of the plastic sporks given to them by the waiter. No one didn't even want to ask. Annabeth ended up ordering for all of them, since she was the least dyslexic one out of bunch. It took about ten minutes till their waiter came with the pizza. The smell made Nico realize that he hadn't eaten since his last mission. Quickly, he snatched a piece and started to eat.

"So Nico how was the mission?" Annabeth asked holding her slice in her hand.

Nico held his half eaten slice over the table, "It was fine I guess. I mean it took a lot longer than I thought," he said grumbling with mouth full of pizza.

"I know, but what was it like? You know meeting the wizards?"

Nico shrugged. "It felt weird, but I got use to it. Even made some friends."

Leo laughed "Were they invisible?"

Annabeth turned red "Leo! That was-"

Nico butted in, "It's okay Annabeth I can fight my own fights. I mean if I had invisible friends then they must be super close to Leo's girlfriend." Nico then felt a meatball hit his cheek.

"Hey, it works!" Leo chanted to his catapult. Nico then turned to him and snapped it in half.

"What was that for!" Leo complained, but no one paid him much attention.

"So, Nico you made friends?" Percy muffled out between bites, directing his third slice and his attention to Nico."That's great."

Nico wanted to change the subject,"So, anything new at camp since I was gone?" he asked. Percy shook his head. "Just the usual stay alive thing." Percy then made a hand shape mimicking a monster's mouth, making Nico laugh.

"Are you okay Nico? Your acting, different." Annabeth started to analyze him, poking a paper straw at his shirt.

"I'm fine, it's just, the last mission opened my eyes more that's all." He brushed the topic off. At the end of the meal they all chipped in to pay the waiter and started for the door.

Walking in quiet streets always made Nico feel uncomfortable. The fog had settled in, making the path harder to see. There was literally no one on the streets, and for New York that was weird. He stopped walking.

Noticing his absence Annabeth turned, "Nico, are you okay?" she asked resting her hand on his shoulder, bringing him back to this reality.

"Something is off..." Nico half mumbled. And, as if on cue a huge metal bull came flying out of the fog just missing Percy's head.

"What the-" Percy turned to the bull. "I thought I dealt with you already!" He complained, throwing his hands up for exaggeration.

"You did?" Leo yelled, as the bull came running towards him.

"Ya, when I was-" Percy started to explain.

"Stories later!" Annabeth barked. She pulled her dagger out, but Nico doubt that it would do any damage.

"Leo, can you do something about this?" Nico half shouted.

"Why would you think I can...oh!" Leo started to tumble out scraps of metal and wires from his belt. "Distract it away from me for a minute!" He dropped his metal on the concrete floor, making a ping sound. "Crap!" Leo bent down on his knees, blindly filling around the thick fog.

Nico then decided to throw his sword at it. "Hey you, uh, thing, get over here!" It was sad that was all he could say but it seemed to work. Nico scrambled to get out of the way when it came charging at him. The bull seemed set on Nico as he ran by percy, jumping off the light post, slicing the bull's smooth metal shell with his sword.

Then it was Percy's turn to distract it. They all took turns in a way. They threw rocks and other depre they could find littered in the streets to distract it as long as they could. Percy managed to crack one of it's rubie eye's as Annabeth cut off a horn. The chase started to get old as the bull never seemed to tire, but they slowed with every new step.

"How's it going over there, Leo!" Annabeth asked.

"Just! Just ugh! Perfect, this stupid fog isn't helping, but there it's done." He fumbled a remote in his hands. "Direct it towards me!" Percy ran it next to Leo. As Leo began to press buttons left and right. It was twenty feet away... ten ...five... He started to get frazzled "It's not working!" Before he could do anything stupid Nico flung himself towards him tackling him to the ground.

The bull turned and l came at them with its full speed. Leo threw Nico off then flung his hands wide, and ran straight towards it. Before Nico could yell at him that he was stupid, he stopped. Leo was melting it. His red sneakers skidded against the floor, but he held his ground. The color red burst through the fog. Soon the bull was just a puddle of liquid metal. Brushing his hands on his pants, "I wouldn't touch that if I were you it's hot." He smirked. Before they could thank their friend for friend for liquefying the death bull because that's what friends are for, the floor started to thump. In the horizon, Nico could faintly see not one, but twenty bulls coming their way.

"Really!?" Percy threw his hands in the air. "

So run?" Annabeth turned to her boyfriend.

"Yup."

Nico ran so fast his legs started to trip over themselves. Running down block after block he knew they couldn't outrun them. Percy kept throwing his sword at them and again when it came back to him like a boomerang. Sometimes he wondered how he stayed alive this long, if it was talent of just plain luck. Looking at his friends they seemed to be unharmed from the first one. Except for maybe Leo who had a couple of scratches and his hands were still glowing red from the last bull. It probably attracted the bulls more, the more he thought about it. Out of breath their Percy luck finally ran out when they were faced with a dead end.

"What do we do?" Leo whispered.

Percy grabbed my shoulder. "You have to get us out of here." His eyes were so intense and focused, sweat trickled down his hair to his face from all the running. His camp shirt was the only thing that stood out in the fog.

Nico shuddered under his touch, it was too warm, "The fog, I won't know where we would-"

He rudely interrupted him. "Whatever just do what has to be done."

With a sigh he directed my friends to the corner with the darkest shadow."Everyone hold on." They all started to fade, but suddenly turned back to normal their normal solid shapes.

"What's wrong?" Annabeth asked.

"It's this stupid fog. It's blocking my vision."

"I swear, if we die because of fog that's a sad way to go," Leo complained.

He tried again and again. "Nico I would hurry if I were you." Percy bugged. He looked up to see the bulls feets from them. Their glowing eyes cutting the fog with ease. They got so close that he could see the gears running in their body, the way they fluently formed the anatomy of the bull. frantically he tried again and again.

Then finally he connected to a source. Squeezing his eyes shut to focus, he instructed," hang on everyone" And, in that instant the bulls disappeared and they landed on soft grass.

The trees swarmed Nico's vision engulfing him with greens and yellows before it began to bleed black as he promptly blacked out.

I'm back boyz!