Nico was miserable. You couldn't really blame him since he could obviously tell that his boyfriend, Will Solace, Jason Grace (who was here on "Official Pontifex Maximus Business"), and Percy Jackson (who was probably just bored since Annabeth decided to go home for a week) were following him. He would have much rather preferred it if they were actually trying, hiding behind trees and fountains does not count, as it would have been less painful to watch.
For some reason, though, he had a steadily increasing sense of dread. It was not just him. The whole camp could feel it. It sent shivers up many demigods' spines.
Of course, nothing actually happened until later that day.
...
Oddly, it was wasn't Will, Jason, or Percy that was responsible for what happened, even if they were accomplices. Instead, it was a certain fire-user that created the chaos, not that he was trying to. Things like that just happened to him.
Right after lunch, Leo was sitting in Zeus Cabin with Jason, Percy, Will, Piper, Drew (who begged to come), Grover (who was on a very short break), and Clarrise (it was unclear why she had attended at all). They were playing the oh-so-feared game of Truth or Dare. You may not think that it is scary, but when demigods play, they go extreme, just to say that they can.
Today was "Sunday Fun-Day" (Nico and many other older campers had protested vigorously to the name) which meant that they had no schedules to follow. They could do whatever they wanted. Unfortunately for Nico, that meant that he had absolutely nothing to do.
Sighing, he decided to go to Zeus Cabin and join in the game of Truth or Dare that he had turned down when they offered that he join. Maybe it would be fun...
After Nico arrived, everyone arranged themselves into a circle on the floor. Choosing to start with Jason, they played. It was fun for a while, nothing too extreme. That is, until it was Leo's turn to ask Nico something.
"Truth or dare?" Leo asked.
"Dare," Nico replied confidently. Leo smiled, then walked out of the cabin, telling them to wait for a few minutes. Finally, Leo came back with five bags filled to the brim with different types of chocolates and candies.
"I dare you to eat as much candy as you can in five minutes." Oh, how they would regret that decision.
Clarrise was armed with a stop-watch, which she set for five minutes. They all watched in awe as Nico wolfed down all five bags, one per minute, at inhuman speed.
When Clarrise yelled, "Done!" there wasn't a candy to be seen. Leo stared, slack-jawed.
"Holy Hephaestus! That was five-hundred pieces of candy! How the hellound did you do that?" Leo stuttered/yelled.
Nico shrugged happily.
"Idon'tknowbutitwasverytastyIwantmorecandyistheremorecandygivememorecandyyumyum!"
He then proceeded to run out the door yelling "Candy!"
That was just the beginning…
...
Annabeth was walking up Half-Blood Hill. She had decided to cut her week off short because of the frequent monster attacks. Her Step-mother acted like she didn't mind (opposed how she used to pretty much yell it in her face), but Annabeth could tell she was worried about Matthew and Bobby, her Step-brothers.
"At least I can see Percy again," she muttered to herself. When she reached the top, she was expecting the usual kids playing volleyball, doing archery, or whatever they felt like since today was "Sunday Fun Day" (the name was her idea, and she was quite hurt when over half the camp protested to it).
Instead, she was greeted with the sight of campers running around, screaming, Chiron desperately trying to get their attention, and definite traces of divine power, which meant that the gods were there. Well, at least some gods.
Oh yeah, and the camp was on fire.
"What did those idiots do now? I only left for two days!" Annabeth ran to the camp. She knew she would have to save their butts.
...
Honestly, Leo, Jason, Percy, Will, Piper, Drew, Grover, and Clarrise all knew that they were screwed the moment Nico ran out the door. It was just confirmed when they heard loud screams. Holy Hera! They all ran out the door, following a hyperactive Nico di Angelo.
They found the source of the screams. It was pretty much all of Athena Cabin.
"What's wrong?" Jason asked. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but something was still off.
Malcom, who was hugging (and crushing) a poor little Apollo Camper who had come to see what was wrong, raised a shaky finger towards the far wall.
They all slowly turned until they could see. On the wall were enough skeleton spiders to terrify an entomologist (a scientist that studies insects).
"Sp-spiders!" Malcom yelled in horror. Clarrise burst out laughing.
"Those little guys scare you? Please! They're barely bigger than my pinkie finger!" She held up her pinkie finger to emphasize her point. She then fearlessly walked up and scooped up a spider.
"Hey cutie," she said to the spider, petting it affectionately. That is, until the spider bit her.
"Styx!" (cue thunder) yelled Clarrise as she hurled the arachnid to the ground. "That little piece of-"
"Language!" Jason said. Clarrise just glared at him. "Besides, it couldn't hurt that ba- OUCH!" Jason dropped the spider that he had just picked up. "That son of a-"
"Language!" Clarrise yelled.
"-Titan." Jason finished. Clarrise's glare intensified, and Jason just smiled smugly.
Suddenly, Jason said, "Wait, where's everyone else?" Clarrise looked around and realized that only she and Jason had come into Athena Cabin. Everyone else wasn't there. They must have split up somehow.
They heard another scream and all of the blood drained from Jason's face. "Piper!" he said, racing out the door. That's when Clarrise realized that she was alone in a Cabin filled with dozens of spiders and 20 kids that were terrified of them (oh, and that poor Apollo camper that a terrified Malcom still refused to let go of).
...
Piper and Grover didn't mean to lose the rest of the group, it just kind of happened. They were running towards where Jason and Clarrise were running when they heard laughing. Maniacal laughing. Nico's laugh. Something about the laugh, though, terrified them. Slowly they turned around...and almost puked. There, was a cow, a dead cow, and must not have died that long ago because its flesh was still clinging to its body, but just. It had a deformed face and its rotting skin looked green and it looked like it was melting. Again, Grover and Piper felt they were going to puke. The smell didn't help, either.
They both knew that this was Nico's idea of a joke, resurrecting a dead cow, but it was a sick one. Piper is a vegetarian, and was since that one time she had driven next to a sausage factory. Grover was also obviously a vegetarian, being a satyr and all, and nature was practically his family. He knew that if Juniper were here, she would single-handedly find Nico and give him a firm talking to.
Grover opened his mouth, just about ready to cause a Panic, when Piper beat him to it. She opened her mouth and let out a high-pitched scream. The cow gave a raspy "moo!" and turned around to stampede the other way. Now, Piper wasn't that loud, but she was loud enough to get the attention of Jason, who came running for them from...wherever he was. Maybe they should have just followed him.
By the time Jason had arrived, panting, the cow had already left to go graze in the woods. "What (pant) happened?" Jason asked.
"Zombie cow," Grover muttered. Piper was still shaking. "I knew I shouldn't have taken today off," Grover continued under his breath. Jason managed to get them both to calm down when they heard another scream.
"What now?" Jason groaned, taking off in the direction of where the scream came from. Coincidentally, that was the same direction Mr. Zombie Cow had went.
...
Drew didn't know why she had come in here. Her Aphrodite senses were tingling, which meant that there was someone or something in need of a makeover. She just didn't think that it would be this bad. In front of her stood all of Mr. Zombie Cow's family. The one on the far right was his aunt, the one in the far left was his mother, and the one in the middle was his sister. Also there was his cousin, step-sister, step-brother, father, step-father, oh, oh, look! There's his third cousin twice removed! Yeah, it was a huge family, all gathered together in a herd. The horror!
After letting out a terrified scream, she promptly fainted. That was how Jason found her, lying on the ground, with dead cows licking her face. He was soon followed by a terrified Piper who was carrying an unconscious Grover.
"Don't (pant) leave me behind (pant) with a scared Grover (pant) ever again!" Jason nodded, then hoisted Drew up, throwing her over his shoulders like she was a sack of potatoes. Now that he had Drew secured, he looked around. There, up on a tree branch, was Nico.
"Nico! That was going too far! You know how scared you made them? Besides, the forest is forbidden-" Before Jason could go on, Nico burst into giggles.
"The Forbidden Forest! Like from Harry Potter! Wait a second!" Nico yelled, his eyes wide. "Percy is just like Harry, Grover is Ron, and Annabeth is Hermione! Wait, but Harry and Hermione don't end up together, even though they should have..." Nico started to mumble to himself angrily.
Jason was about to say something again when someone yelled, "Nico!"
Jason threw his hands up in the air (dropping poor Drew in the process). "Fine! I'll just stand here and be quiet because obviously no one seems to think what I say matters!" Apparently he was correct because Will (the one who yelled, "Nico!") and Leo (who was running behind him) completely ignored him when they got there.
While Jason was sulking next to a tree, Nico looked down and giggled again. "Looks like I've got to go!" He jumped off the branch, vanishing into the shadow of the tree before he could hit the ground. Everyone could ominously hear someone humming the first few notes from the Harry Potter soundtrack.
Everyone looked around...then Leo burst into tears. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for Nico to go all crazy! I just wanted to do an awesome dare! Waahh!" He hugged Will, sobbing.
"There there," Will said while awkwardly patting Leo's back. He turned to Jason and mouthed the word "Help".
Jason gestured at Drew and mouthed "You're on your own".
Grumbling, Will turned back to Leo. "Hey, Leo, why don't you go find Calypso?" Leo perked up.
"Oh yeah! She was helping the rest of Hephaestus Cabin with their forging. Her fire-proof and (almost) undestroyable cloth is great for making light-weight armor!" He then spun around, and ran out of the forest yelling, "Calypso!".
Sighing, Will, walked over to Drew and checked her over. "She seems fine, just unconscious." He said the same thing for Grover. "Now, where would Nico go next?" Jason thought for a minute.
"Well, the only one left is Percy. Nico would probably want to scare him, which, considering how he scared everyone else, would be..." Will, Jason, and Piper's eyes widened.
"Dead fish," the breathed in unison. This was bad. Percy hated dead fish. Even the idea of dead fish puts him on a rampage, destroying everything in sight. And Nico had a whole lake to work with...
They heard a scream. "Right on time," Jason muttered. Then, they headed towards Poseidon Cabin, where the scream came from.
...
When they arrived at the beach behind Poseidon Cabin, they saw Percy looking, horrified, at a plate that was set up on what looked like a night stand. All of the possibilities raced in their minds. Grilled salmon? Just plain rotting fish? Or...sushi? Percy hated sushi the most. A whole art for cooking fish? Despicable. It was actually Percy's fault that fish as a whole was no longer served at camp.
They all ran...and then stopped at what they saw on the plate. It wasn't fish. No, it was something much worse (in Percy's opinion, at least). A plate full of...red cookies! Red! The horror!
Meanwhile, Will, Jason, Piper, and a now awake Grover all face palmed. Really? This was what they came here for? Red cookies? Nico suddenly appeared from the shadows of Poseidon Cabin.
He walked up behind Percy and, before anyone could stop him, whispered (yelled) "Boo!". Percy let out a squeak of terror and...fainted. "I don't even care anymore," Jason said. Grover nodded sagely.
At that point, Will managed to grab Nico, and now the two were wrestling on the ground. It could have ended there. It would have ended there. It should have ended there. Then, Hades decided to show up. You know that something will go wrong when Hades shows up. He was glaring specifically at his son who was completely oblivious, trying to get his boyfriend off of him.
This was merely 15 minutes before the fire. Annabeth was fifteen minutes away from slapping everyone involved in the face. Several times.
Of course that story is for next time.
