Here is chapter 3 for you all, thank you for the reviews and suggestions and remember to leave more reviews and suggestions for me at the end of this chapter. Love you all and remember I own nothing.
None of the X-men could fall asleep that night. After giving their report of what happened to the Professor, they all just went and kinda sat in bed, not asleep but not doing anything active. Just sitting there, each of them silently freaking out over the days events.
Scott just couldn't believe that he had attacked a dragon today… well, he only blasted it once, but still. He couldn't even believe it was real. Nico had called it a Hydra. Scott didn't know much about Hydras other than they were a monster from Greek Mythology… and apparently grew two heads for every one that gets severed.
And what really got him was that while he was only able to attack once and then was shocked for pretty much the rest of the battle, Nico sauntered up and stabbed the thing with a sword. A sword of all things. Where did a kid even get a sword like that? And what kid knows how to use one? Nico was like, 4 years younger than him.
And then there was the fact that Nico stabbed the thing, gave them one really vague answer to their question then just disappeared casually.
And what the heck is Tartarus? And why would a now dead Hydra be there?
It was obvious it wasn't Nico first time in a big fight like the Hydra. His reflexes with pinning Scott to the ground in a split second were incredible.
Scott was secretly embarrassed that this scrawny kid pinned him down to the point he couldn't move, but he pretended he wasn't.
Kitty was totally awe struck. When she saw Nico, what she saw was a small scrawny kid, a year younger than her, who was totally adorable.
Sure he didn't have Lance's height or strong and muscled arms or chocolate colored hair or his cocky attitude, but Nico, just… well Kitty honestly thought he looked like someone who needed a really big hug and lots of friends.
She honestly couldn't help thinking he was adorable. Not quite dating material, but still, really, really, adorable. He gave off the same Bad Boy charm Lance did, even if he didn't use it.
And then she saw him fighting that thing- the Hydra he called it. And where she grew a bit more fearful of Nico, her liking to him also grew.
He had not only warned them to leave, out of trying to protect them from the Hydra, but also killed it and was able to walk off like it was nothing.
Kitty truly thought Nico was adorably awesome. Not 'I'm in love awesome,' but like 'I should adopt you and give you lost of hugs just because you are you and you deserve it' adorable. She wasn't sure where it came from, but she had to intention of changing these thoughts on Nico.
Evan honestly couldn't believe that the shy boy he had sat next to in biology and then later at lunch had just done something Evan only imagined could happen in stories.
Sure, Evan had powers, he'd gotten into fights with other super powered kids, heck, his petty rival from elementary school ended up being one of his worst current enemies with super speed powers, but this was something else entirely.
Evan knew he had gotten a bad vibe from Nico that morning, but it had gone away after spending a bit of time with him at lunch, but now that bod vibe was back stronger than before after that Hydra attack.
And why the heck did it explode into yellow powder of all things?
The Professor knew that Mystiqe was probably going to make a move an attempt to get Nico to join her brotherhood with Magneto.
He had to get to him first. Nico was obviously extremely powerful had had experience fighting. And if Nico was on Magneto's side, the X-men's chances of stopping his plans dwindled lower.
Mystique decided tomorrow would be a good time to talk to Nico di Angelo about an offer…..
THE ORPHNANAGE THE NEXT DAY….
Nico sat in bed, his alarm clock had just gone off and he wasn't quite ready to get out of bed. In fact, he was debating weather it was wise for him to get out of bed today. After the previous day's events, he knew today was going to be nothing but pestering questions from those other kids with powers.
He could already imagine the questions now.
Who are you? How did you know what that thing was? Where did you go yesterday? How did you get your powers? What's with the sword? Why did the Hydra explode into yellow powder?
He would just have to deal with it. The orphanage supervisors would have a fit if he stayed here or skipped school. He'd seen them get after one of the other boys at the orphanage for skipping. Nico was the only boy there at the time since it was before he started school, and he decided he would rather not be the kid getting yelled at.
So Nico forced himself out of bed and got ready for the day. He swung his bag over his shoulder and started walking to school. He was about a fourth way there when a familiar green jeep stopped on the road just ahead of him.
'And so it begins,' Nico thought to himself as the one he recognized as Pietro got out of the passenger side of the jeep.
"Heeey Nico," Pietro greeted, "I don't believe you have met my friends officially, this is Lance, Fred, we call him Blob though, and Toad." Pietro said quickly, gesturing to each of the Brotherhood members in turn, who had gotten out of the jeep.
"No," Nico said, cutting of Pietro as he was about to say something else.
"You don't know what I was even gonna say!" Pietro exclaimed.
"You have questions, I don't really feel like answering," Nico replied simply and walked around Pietro.
Toad hopped in front of him and Nico's path was blocked again.
"But we saved yo life?" Toad argued.
"And I said thanks," Nico replied bluntly and pushed frog boy out of the way.
"Hold up for a second will ya," Lance said, grabbing hold of Nico's shirt and pulling him back.
Big mistake.
In almost an instant, Nico had turned around and kicked Lance in the stomach. Lance stumbled back and had to lean against the jeep to not fall down, but Lance couldn't stop from moaning in pain.
"Don't," Nico said simply.
"Whoa! Wait, look, we just wanna talk!" Pietro exclaimed.
Nico turned around to leave again, only to have Blob blocking his path once more. It was obvious no kick Nico could do would hurt him.
Nico realized that they knew about his powers, so there was no use in hiding his at the moment since they were no cars or people on the street other than them and the jeep.
"I'm not supposed to tell people, and I'm not going to," Nico said truthfully.
Nico turned around began walking towards the jeep. At first, Lance thought he was going to hop in, but Nico went around the other side of the jeep where the shadow was.
When the brotherhood boys went to see what Nico was doing, only to find him gone. They looked up and down the street, but Nico was nowhere in sight.
"That went well," Lance muttered, recovered from the kick.
AT SCHOOL
Nico came out of the shadows of the tree he had sat under yesterday before Scott had invited him over to sit with him and his friends.
There was no one around at the moment, which was good for Nico. He really wasn't ready for another hellish day of high school. Sure monster attacks and nearly dying were part of demigod daily life, but Nico really didn't want it at school.
This was Nico's one chance at being somewhat normal. A normal he hadn't had since before that school dance at the military school almost 4 years ago.
Nico knew normal could never be achieved for him, but he could get close. Well… he could of gotten closer if it weren't for the Dracanae, the Hydra and the super powered non-demigods he met all on the same day yesterday.
Even with the encounter with Lance, Pietro, Toad and Blob taking up a bit of time, Nico was still pretty early to school since he used shadow travel to get here.
So it was another morning spent exploring around the school, making sure he knew where all of his classes for the upcoming B Day were.
Nico managed to avoid the few people he knew at the school all morning long. It wasn't hard to tell that both Scott and his friends and Pietro's group were looking for him. The fact that Pietro could run and look all over the school in under 10 seconds wasn't or Jean using her telepathic powers to find everywhere he hid so he had to keep moving wasn't helping. He had a few close calls, but he managed not to talk to anyone all morning long.
However, what he could not do was avoid contact with Jean in his Computer Technology class, which of course just had to be a mulit-grade class, meaning students from every grade could be in here. And he was seated right next to her.
Great.
Nico tried his hardest to concentrate on the assignment the teacher gave them, but that was really hard when Jean kept starring at him. He could only take the starring for so long before he snapped.
"What," he hissed at her once he caught her looking at him again.
"What happened yesterday?" she asked.
"Nothing you really need to know about," Nico replied, his fingers began typing on the keyboard in front of his harder.
"Nico, you were attacked by a –by a Hydra," Jean exclaimed in a hushed tone, "You didn't seem surprised by it. And you said it went to Tartarus. Both of those things are from Greek mythology and-"
"I know they're from Greek Mythology, and it's still not any of your concern."
"It attacked our town, yes it is."
Nico was scilent for a moment before asking;
"What did you do with the heads?"
"Excuse me?"
"The two heads your friend cut off from the Hydra. I know they didn't dissolve with the rest of the monster and they were gone from the park when I left this morning, so what did you do with them?"
"We took them back to the Xavier mansion with us. You should come there with us. It's like a school for kids like us, with special powers, we're called mutants," Jean said, doing what the Professor told her to do to try to get Nico to side with them.
"Burn them, destroy them, whatever you feel like, just get rid of them. I won't be coming up to your mansion though. I'm not one of you." Nico replied bluntly.
"You have special powers," Jean argued, "Just like us."
"I know, but I'm not a mutant like you. Not unless you've had more monster attacks than just the Hydra and the Dracanae."
"Dracanae?"
"Weird looking people with snake trunks for legs. The mythology teacher was one."
"I'm sure the mythology teacher is human."
"The mist disguised her true form till she attacked."
"Attacked? Wait, was one?"
"She attacked, I defended, and you guys need a new mythology teacher, preferably a normal mortal."
It wasn't the fact that Nico had just in fact admitted to possibly killing the mythology teacher that got to Jean, it was how casually he said it that took her off balance… well more than she already was.
Jean managed to put that aside for now.
"What's the mist?"
"Nothing you should know about. It's strange that all of your friends can see through it though.
"Why?"
"Nothing you should know about."
"Nico."
"No."
"What did you mean you're not one of us unless we've had more- attacks by these things?"
"Because if you were like me there would be a ton more monsters here trying to kill you."
"Why?"
"Doesn't concern you. It's better if you don't know anyway."
"Why?"
"You ask to many questions."
"Just curious."
"That's going to get you killed."
"How do you know?"
"You don't want to know."
"If you tell me then we might know how to defend ourselves."
"Even if I did tell you, you don't have the right weapons to defend yourself."
"What? We need a sword to kill monsters?"
"Sure. But not any kind of sword you can get."
"What kind of sword do we need."
"You don't need to know."
"Will you stop saying that?"
"No. Because it's true."
The bell rang, and Nico had never thought he would be more grateful to hear that sound. He grabbed his backpack and got out from the room quickly. He had already let too much slide. He needed a way so that he wouldn't have to talk to anyone. Until he had a way to do that, Nico was forced to settle with avoiding and rudely staying quiet.
Nico's day went by slowly. Current Events he had with Toad, but luckily, they were on opposite sides of the room. In PE, he didn't have anyone he knew, so he was good there.
Lunch rolled around. This time rather than sitting on the ground, Nico sat in the tree, blasting his ears out with music and looking out away from the school.
Scott came over to the tree, he managed to get Nico's attention, but he backed off when Nico gave him the scariest death glare that Scott had ever been given. It clearly read, 'stay away from me or else.'
Scott dejectedly went back to the table.
"Yea, he's not coming," he told his friends.
"I managed to talk to him during first period. I didn't get much, but he said to destroy the Hydra head…. He also said he wasn't one of us," Jean said.
"He's got powers though, he could totally be one of us if he came to the mansion," Kitty said.
"No he said he wasn't a mutant. That he was different than us. He said that if we were like him there would be a lot more monster attacks than just that Hydra," Jean replied.
"Vhat do the monster attacks have to do with anything? Vhat makes him different than any other mutant?" Kurt asked.
"He wouldn't say. He just kept repeating that we didn't need to know for most things, said it would get us killed if we knew."
"Killed?" Rouge asked with disbelief.
"Yea. Apparently monsters trying to kill him is normal. The mythology teacher apparently was something called a Dracanae."
"A what?" Evan asked.
"Nico said something about it having snake trunks for legs and that something called mist hid her 'true form from us… and that we need a new mythology teacher."
"You don't mean he…." Scotts eyes grew wide behind his sunglasses.
"Nico said she attacked, he defended, and we need a new mythology teacher, preferably a normal mortal."
"Did he seriously say that?" Rouge asked.
"Yes," Jean said, "And I checked, the mythology teacher never came in today, no substitute either. The classes are just sitting there."
"Vhat if Nico's one of these monsters?" Kurt exclaimed in a hushed whisper.
"But he killed a monster remember. He took down that Hydra thingy yesterday, he was trying to stop it, remember?" Kitty argued, looking over at the just barely visible boy hiding in the tree.
"It's still possible. But I doubt it," Scott said.
"Oh no," Kitty suddenly moaned.
"What- Oh no," Evan repeated when she saw the Brotherhood approaching the tree where Nico was.
"Nico, c'mere a sec," Lance said into the tree.
The reply was a rather large twig being thrown down at Lance. Not enough to hurt him, but just enough to tell him to go away.
"Don't be like that," Pietro replied, "We just wanna talk."
Blob didn't wait for Nico's answer this time. He grabbed Nico leg, being the tallest and strongest out of the group, and pulled him out of the tree. Nico landed in the circle the brotherhood had formed. Nico glared up at them, a glare which nearly made Toad want to run home.
"What?" Nico asked with a venomous tone.
"Uhh…. L-like we said, we just wanna talk," Lance stuttered, slightly put off by Nico's impossibly creepy glare.
Was it even possible to have that scary of a glare?
"I don't," Nico replied, as he began searching for the best way to get out of the situation. Nico wanted to just bring out his sword, but he knew he couldn't… not with all the other mortals in the area. Of course the blade wouldn't hurt them, they were mortals too after all, but it would scare them off.
"Well too bad because we need to," Pietro said.
"Says who?" Nico asked.
"Boss lady," Toad muttered.
"What Boss Lady?" Nico asked.
"Mystiqe. She'll want to talk to you," Pietro said.
"Well tell her to go bug someone who actually cares what she wants," Nico replied.
"She won't like hearing that," Blob stated.
"Leave him alone," another voice said, they turned to see Scott and his friends walking towards them.
Nico sensed the tension between the two groups immediately, anyone could of seeing how Scott and Lance were glaring daggers- or rather an arsenal of all weapons ever created- at echother. The same thing seemed to occur between Pietro and Evan, and Kurt and Toad. It was obvious these guys had bad history.
"Don't listen to these guys Nico, they're a bunch of losers," Evan said.
"No, don't listen to them, they're a bunch of geek losers," Pietro countered.
"How about I listen to neither of you," Nico cut in.
Nico managed to slip out from between the groups, everyone turned to look at him.
"I'm not interested in joining either of your little groups. I'm not one of you," Nico stated, "And unless you feel like falling into a pit straight to Tartarus, I suggest you leave me alone."
Nico walked away, back inside the school. As much as he didn't want to be around so many people, the crowd of students eating inside would help him disappear from the other's radar.
"What's the heck is Tartarus?" Toad asked.
"It's a place in the Greek Underworld for the worst monsters and villains," Jean said, everyone looked at her with shocked expressions, "What? I looked it up on the library computer."
"Course you did," Lance muttered.
The bell rang, thankfully ending a fight before it could start. The two groups parted ways with hateful glances.
"Why would Nico use a threat referenced to the Greek Underworld of all things?" Scott asked.
"Hydras are from Greek mythology as well," Jean pointed out.
"And I'm guessing so are those Drakon-y things you said he mentioned," Evan added.
"It's Dracanae," Jean corrected, "But you're not wrong."
"What is it with him and Greek mythology?" Evan asked.
"I don't think we can refer to it as mythology anymore," Rouge said.
"I wish we could," Kitty muttered.
Chapter 3 complete. Hoped you liked it and remember to review and stuff. Chapter 4 will be up sometime. Love you all. I own nothing.
