[A/N] I wanted to take a break from writing something with a plot and write some good old-fasioned actiony shit.
[DISCLAIMER] I don't own PJO and I never will.
"Welcome to the Lotus Hotel and Casino!" said a beautiful woman in a glittering green dress matching several of the women around her. Nico smirked an odd gleam in his eyes and a determinded set to his shoulders.
"Would you like a lotus flower?" she inquired when he didn't answer her, she gasped as he abruptly knocked the tray out of her hands, sending the small flowers flying through the air. Everyone around him abruptly stopped what they were doing and turned to face him. Several of the suits around him were either speaking into their sleeves or listening intently to their earpieces.
"Sir, is something wrong?" she asked him, her eyes flicking side to side. He snorted flipping his hair out of his eyes contemptuously.
"Where's your boss?" he asked completely ignoring her question, her mouth opened and closed repeatedly reminding him of a fish out of water.
The women handing out the flowers quickly made their exit deeper into the casino while the mortals not yet drawn in by the lotus eaters, kept their distance from the source of the commotion. The suits were forming a circle around him attempting to cage him in, the circle completed they began to slowly move in for the capture. He grinned madness shining in his eyes, the suits directly in front of him noticably slowed. He felt a life force jumping towards his back, a suit no doubt, strong arms circled the smaller man attempting to crush him with a bear hug. He melted into the man's shadow cast from the lights behind him, the man looked down at his hands dumbfounded.
"Over here!" Nico said cockily in a sing song voice, the suits whipped towards the sound of his voice, he was leaning against a wall in the shadow of a support pillar. He grinned, a twisted parody of joy, reaching an arm into the deepest shadow around him and withdrawing a stygian iron sword.
"I'm waiting." he taunted stepping from the shadows and spinning his sword in one hand. The suits looked at their fellow suits, fear clearly evident on their faces, they were trained and payed to handle unruly guests not sword wielding demi-god maniacs. Nico took a step forward, the suits took a step back, Nico scowled at them and raised his right hand calling forth six legionaires of the damned. Their bleached white bones, leering skulls, and gleaming celestial bronze armor and weapons frightened the suits even more.
"This is the last time I'm gonna ask you, where's your boss?" Nico asked, obviously struggling to maintain his composure. He could feel the frantic beating of their hearts, taste their fear, and he loved every second of it. They had stolen his life, stolen his sister's life, and he would return the favor. The skeletons had formed a half-circle around the suits, a wall blocked their escape. The living dead made prodding movements with their weapons keeping them trapped, the sound of bone scraping against bone was almost thueraputic to frayed nerves, almost as theuraputic as his revenge would be.
"W-w-we d-don't know." one of them said moving forward so he was in front of the rest, his uniform was better decorated than the rest defining him as their leader. Nico scowled, his eyes burning into the man who refused to meet his eyes, he was lying, before moving onto the rest of them searching for the one among them brave enought match his gaze. All of them failed proving themselves just as guilty as the first, except the last one his gaze fell upon did not waver, Nico smirked, he was young barelly even twenty years old.
"You, come here." he said pointing at the man with his sword, he hesitated before slowly making his way forward, the skeletons parted to let him pass before returning to their place. He stopped just out of the range of Nico's sword, Nico made a 'move over' gesture with the tip of his sword, he complied.
"I gave you a chance." Nico said shrugging his shoulders and snapping his fingers, the skeletons closed in, screams of agony and terror richocheted off the walls of the casino as they skeletons bleached white bones were splattered with the blood and gore of the suits.
"Mercy please! He's on the top floor!" one of the few remaining survivors screamed, a shiver of pleasure ran down his spine.
"It's too late for that." he laughed out, insanity oozing from his very pores as his laughter grew, it passed as quickly as it came. He shooed the single honest suit away and pointed at the door, he took the hint fleeing from the bloodbath. The rest of the suits were dead, his minions clashing their weapons against their shields, music to his ears.
"Go live it up." he told the dead chuckling dryly at his own joke "Just don't touch the innocents." he added as an afterthought. The skeletons howled together, the sounds of their bones grinding together, and the sound of various weapons being dragged along the floor and walls created a haunting cacophony, only stoking the fire fueling his lust for revenge. His boots squelched pleasantly on the blood and grisle of the suits, he strolled casually into the shadow cast by a pillar. The darkness readily embraced him like the mother he couldn't remember, he stepped out of the shadow of an air conditioning unit on the roof.
He could feel the glee coming from his small army, but it was nothing compared to his own. Twisted though he may be a genuine smile crossed his features, an image of his sister smiling was the cause. Stepping back into the shadow of the air conditioning unit and back into the familiar embrace. He stayed in the darkness peeking his head out occassionally along the way, the top floor was a fully decked out penthouse. A movie theater, a swimming pool, a basketball court, a huge bedroom, and even more room filled with all different kinds of odds and ends. Finally he peeked out into a room, a library shelves lined every wall and stood in aisles across the room, long flourescent lights hung from the cieling at regular intervals casting plenty of light but also plenty of shadows, in the center of them room was an elaborately carved desk showing scenes of hedonistic pleasure playing out across it. A simple wooden chair sat in front of the desk, obviously meant for visitors, while a large extremely comfortable chair sat behind it. A man in his late forties with thick silver hair and a full beard to match sat in the chair, he wore an obviously expensive charcoal gray pinstriped designer suit with a black shirt and crimson tie.
"Bravo, bravo." he said silkily clapping his hands as he did so and standing from his seat, he was almost seven feet tall, with arms as thick around as Nico's thighs. "So is this the part where we fight to the death?" he asked smirking at Nico and strolling casually towards him, his eyes never leaving the younger mans.
"Who are you?" Nico asked ignoring his question, he could feel the mans life force, even the raw power he was capable of wielding, the man was stronger than him, much stronger. Rather than frighten him, or even deter him for that matter, it excited him, made his blood boil and the madness held within himself fight against his ever perilous control of it. He betrayed no sign of emotion simply glaring at the man, he was determined to be in control of this situation.
"I am Logan owner of the Lotus Hotel and Casino, son of Ares, and yourself?" he asked mock politeness oozing from his voice, Nico grinned a grin so full of malice and twisted ecstacy that even a seasoned veteran such as Logan couldn't help but cringe at it. His minions were on the third floor out of nine he would have plenty of time to dispatch Logan.
"The ghost king, and you will kneel before me." Nico said his control slipping by the second as madness threatened to engulf him. He fought against it pushing his animalistic urges down, he wanted to be fully coherent to enjoy this.
"One problem," Logan said rubbing his beard thoughtfully "I'm not a ghost." he chuckled lightly at the arrogant teenager in front of him. Nico stalked forward sticking his left arm into the shadows and when he pulled it out a black shield with a skull emblasoned on it was tightly strapped to his arm.
"Not yet!" Nico cackled meniachly rushing forward the tip of his sword scraping against the tile floor send a shower of sparks behind him. Logan spread his arms as if to embrace Nico as two identical celestial bronze swords appeared simultaneously in his hands. He twirled them expertly one repelling Nico's attack the other swinging from the other side where it was caught by Nico's shield. The force of his attack would have knocked Nico off balance if it weren't for the extra force created by his running start. Nico jumped back instinctively, narrowly avoiding both of Logan's sword's downward swings, the two swords were buried at least half way into the floor. Nico grinned rushing forward and slamming his shield into Logan's face, he didn't relinquish his grip on the swords using the his own power and the force of Nico's blow to pull them from the floor.
"That the best you've got?" Logan asked laughing and spiting a blood covered incisor to the side, Nico smirked feeling the insanity inside him growling with hunger, with the urge to be free of its opression. Logan lunged forward swinging both of his swords in a wide arc, Nico dove to the side recieving a superficial cut on his calf and rolling when he hit the ground. The shadows welcomed him like an old friend before he was coming out of the shadow cast behind Logan himself, Nico's stygian iron sword slashing down his back as he jumped away, enough to hurt him but not enough to slow him down.
"Fuck with it." Nico said smuggly twirling his sword and smirking, he was slowly but surely losing the battle with his own insanity, and he was loving every moment of it. He lunged forward again as Logan raised himself to his full height holding both swords above him ready to use his full strength and height to his advantage. Rather than attack though Nico jumped directly into his shadow, narrowly avoiding losing a foot in the process, Logan's turned repeated moving for the place with the least shadows, directly under a light.
"FIGHT ME!" Logan bellowed at the top of his lungs, Nico chuckled evily from inside the shadows causing his laugh to simultaneously come from all of the shadows in the room. Sweat beaded Logan's forehead as his eyes flicked side to side and he consistently looked over his shoulder.
"Tell me, are you scared?" Nico asked his voice reverberating through the shadows, Logan growled eliciting a dark chuckle from Nico. His minions were now on the sixth floor. He felt himself start to lose control, the madness breaking free of its bonds and consuming him. His dark chuckle turning into sadistic laughter, the shadows seemed to grow and waver some stretching towards Logan before darting back just as quickly, the light directly over him swung perilously.
"Of what?" Logan asked his voice shaking only slightly "A child whos only trick is hiding in the dark?" he scoffed doing his best to keep up a brave front.
"The ghost king." Nico sneered before laughing sadisticly through the shadows and then stopping abruptly, he came out of the shadows on top of a fluorescent light peeking over the edge he was standing on, a grin nearly splitting his face in two, his tongue flicked out to lick his lips excitedly. He jumped silently from the light coming down on Logan's right side swinging his sword as he did so. It was a good clean cut slicing the length of his massive arm from his shoulder down, Logan howled in agony dropping his sword and diving away from Nico. He stood his right arm hung limp and useless at his side. Nico crouched down picking up his severed pinky finger, the only thing completely severed by his attack. He smiled fondly at the severed apendage like a small boy who had just found a rather interesting bug.
"Mind if I keep this?" Nico asked innocently, his eyes festering as only those with the darkest of demons do. Looking into Nico's eyes Logan had never felt such fear before, such gripping terror, so disturbing the mere sight of it made him want to flee, to kneel before this self proclaimed ghost king. He was however a demi-god son of Ares, born missing the flight part of his fight or flight instincts, not that Nico would complain. Logan roared rushing forward, his right arm swinging uselessly at his side his left raised ready to strike. Nico grinned his onyx eyes blacker than the blackest night, as dark as the deepest depths of Tartarus itself. He lifted his shield to block his attack. The force of the blow and the blood coating the floor caused Nico to slide to his left almost a full foot. Logan attempted to continue his attack but as he turned he stumbled in his own blood, Nico took full advantage of this delivering a savage kick to his left knee.
"SCREAM FOR ME!" Nico howled sadisticly as Logan screamed in pain, he attempted to swing at Nico who jumped backwards out of his range. Nico backed up a few paces before beginning to circle his prey laughing, Logan moaned in pain.
"Kill me. Please." Logan begged, his eyes begining to lose focus due to bloodloss, he didn't even have the strength to grip his sword let alone swing it. Nico approached carefully spinning his sword in lazy circles, still laughing.
"P-please.." he continued to beg, Nico continued to laugh darkly before stomping on his one good arm breaking his elbow with monsterous strength, Logan moaned in pain, no longer strong enough for anything else. Nico stabbed his stygian iron sword straight through the right side of his chest and into the floor, Logan coughed up blood. He let go of his sword where it stayed pinning the almost lifeless demi-god to the floor. A door into the library that Nico hadn't bothered to use was thrown open by his minions who rushed into the room, their bones bathed red in the blood of his enemies. They came to stand in a circle around Logan.
"All hail the ghost king." Logan said with his dying breath as he choked on his own blood while the rest of it seeped from the wounds on his body. The last thing he would ever see was the ghost king and his six skeletal minion's leering skulls dyed in blood.
I don't know if this is going to be a oneshot or if I'm going to post another chapter yet, so leave me a review and tell me what you think.
