"Yo, kid!" A voice bellowed, words slightly slurred by alcohol. Nico tensed, speeding up as he walked pass the dingy little club. Minos had returned to the Underworld temporarily to do his Ghost King duties and whatever. They had just exited the Underworld, and Nico realized running away from Camp meant he's basically homeless now. It's nighttime, and he's an easy target for street thugs, skinny, lost, and alone. "Hey!" the person shouted again.
Suddenly a meaty hand clamped down on Nico's shoulder and swung him around to face the hands owner. He had arms and legs as thick as telephone poles, attached to a beach ball body. He towered a few heads over Nico like a rumbling meat mountain. He was wearing a white shirt, and jeans that would've been baggy on anyone else. An aviator's jacket stretched taunt across his shoulders. Small eyes squinted at Nico from a pale, pug-like face that flushed an angry scarlet from whatever he was drinking. The coloring contrasted against bleach-blond short hair that would've been otherwise invisible in the flashing lightings of the club. "I was talking to you!" he barked in Nico's face. His breath smelled rancid and bitter.
"Oh! Um...sorry?" Nico curled in on himself while his mind whirled for an escape. If he could get Meat Mountain's hand off him, Nico could probably make a run for it, there are plenty of small alleyways here, wherever they are. And with how drunk, how large he is, Nico doubt he can catch up.
"You should be. Ignoring people isn't very nice," Meat Mountain jeered, intruding farther into Nico personal space.
"Um, yeah, sorry, can you let go of me now?" Nico rolled his shoulder and took a step back as inconspicuously as possible. Meat Mountain tightened his grip instead, and took a step forward with Nico. Nico took another step backwards, and M.M. took another forwards. If Nico kept backing up he'll be trapped against a wall. Gritting his teeth, Nico stood his ground as the older teen's odor of sweat and alcohol permeated his nose.
"No," Meat Mountain drawled, "I don't think I'll let go of you. You need to apologize for ignoring me, that was rude." He leaned down as he said this, so they are face to face.
Nico clenched his teeth. "...I'm sorry." He tried not to glare, not wanting more trouble.
"What was that?" M.M. picked at an ear, pretending not to hear.
"I said," Nico tried again, louder this time, "I'm sorry."
"No you're not," M.M. decided, flicking a disgusting amount of earwax from his fingernail. "I don't believe you," he smirked.
"What do you want?" Nico growled, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. Every muscled tensed, ready to spring in a moments notice.
"Now, no need to get feisty," he gave Nico a toothy grin, "I'm could really use some cash, and if you're really sorry, you'd gimme some, yeah?"
"I don't have any money." Nico reached up and attempted to rip that's disgusting hand off his shoulder. The fingers tightened instead, to the point that it's painful. Nico's glare intensified. "Let go off me, cesso!(toilet/ugly!)"
Meat Mountain(M.M.) didn't reply, instead he grabbed Nico's wrist, pinned them with one hand behind Nico, and groped around with the other hand. Nico twisted and kicked, but it seemed to have no effect on M.M.'s thick shins. His curses fell on deaf ears and dissipated in a cool night air before reaching any potential help. Nico watched in helpless, frantic, disgusted horror as the thug shredded his privacy, violated his personal space.
"What's this?" he pulled a stack of cards out of Nico's back pocket, groping his butt in the process. A disgusted shiver shook Nico's body. M.M. examed the cards drunkenly. They were Nico's Mythomagic cards, he'd forgotten they were even there. He didn't take them out of his pocket when the news of the quester's return reached them, so he'd been carrying them around this whole time. M.M.'s stupid, intoxicated bran finally decide it wasn't money and it wasn't anything valuable. He tossed Nico's prized possession carelessly on the ground, and continued the invasive rummaging. Nico's voice is hoarse with all the screaming now, and he stopped and concentrated on kicking Meat Mountain.
When M.M. was done scouring Nico's torso, he forced Nico's wrists in front of him, and inspected Nico's arms and fingers. He yanked the skull ring off.
"No!" Nico shouted, landing another kick on M.M.'s shin. With one of M.M.'s hands occupied with the ring, Nico now had one free hand. He pulled M.M.'s hair and scratched his eyes.
"Mother-" he's other hand flew to the eye Nico jabbed.
"Give it back!" Nico yelled. With both hands free, he wrestled the ring from M.M.'s fingers.
"You little-" Meat Mountain made a blind swipe at Nico, Nico dodged and kneed him in the groin.
While the pain is still keeping M.M. occupied, Nico swiped his cards off the ground and took of randomly into knee of the narrow alleys. He heard M.M. bellowing profanities behind him, and soon the sound of heavy footsteps joined. Nico took blind twists and turns, hoping to throw M.M. off, but M.M. obviously knew this area better, and soon, Nico found himself lost and cornered in a dead-end. Meat Mountain smirked cruelly. Nico forced himself to calm down and tried to remember the hand-to-hand combat techniques at Camp.
"Well, well, well," M.M. scowled and paused. Nico suspects it's because he couldn't come up with anything other than, Who do we have here? to continue that sentence.
M.M. stalked closer. Nico's mind whirled frantically for an idea, an escape, but his brain seemed to have accepted that there's going to be a fight, and Nico's going to lose. M.M. stopped in front of Nico. His large hands flexed into fists.
Without warning, one of those fist came in brutal contact with Nico's face. White-hot pain shot through his head from his cheek, his hands instinctive flying up to the site. He staggered backwards. Before he can react farther, another fist crashed into Nico's stomach, punching the air out of him and stifling his scream. The force of the blow tipped Nico's already precarious balance, and he fell on his butt. Pain shot up his spine through his tailbone. His head swimmed with pain, his eyes swimmed with tears. Nico shakily removed his hands from his face and tried to push himself up. Before he could, a foot kicked him in the groin. He curled into himself on the ground from the pain. M.M. tugged Nico to face level by his collar, Nico struggled to get enough air with both feet off the ground.
"Not so tough now, are you?" M.M. hissed venomously into Nico's ear. Without warning, he tossed Nico back, Nico hit the back wall and crumpled into a pile on the ground, dirty gravel digging into his knees and palms. Meat Mountain slowly loomed closer, his humongous shadow slowly swallowed Nico, blocking out all light, all hope, as M.M. approached.
Nico slowly unfurled himself from the fetal position. There's no way he'd be walking out of this situation unscathed, why spare Meat Mountain the pain? He's slow, and drunk, the he only thing he has on his side is strength. If he's going to beat Nico up, he has to at least work for it. A strange feeling spreaded over Nico, a well of strength awakened deep inside of him, a pressure in his gut. Adrenaline? Before he could question it further, M.M. swung a huge fist at his head. Nico ducked, and threw a punch of his own. A column of blackness impacted with M.M. chest, throwing him back with sheer force. Nico blinked, that wasn't his arm. M.M. recovered quickly, swearing, he staggered up and charged at him like a bull. Nico raised his arms to brace for impact, accidentally drawing on the mysterious reserve again. A wave of shadows lifted off the ground, breaking free of their hosts' shapes, turning three-dimensional and gaining substance. The shadow-wall slammed into M.M. and pushed him right out of the alley before collapsing back to harmless silhouettes on the ground. Meat Mountain laid on the ground and didn't move.
Nico's breath hitched, and he slowly walked towards M.M.'s unmoving body, wincing with pain every step. When he's about arms reach from Meat Mountain, Nico stopped to inspect him. Somehow, as he got closer, he knew M.M. wasn't dead. That thought erased some of the guilt when he spotted a huge, ugly bruise blooming colorfully on M.M.'s forehead.
Nico leaned closer in curiosity, when suddenly M.M.'s eyes flew open, and his fist flew for Nico's face. Nico jumped back and a hand thrusted out blindly. A spike of shadow almost skewered M.M. alive. It lanced though a back of M.M.'s hand, grazing his chest and spraying dark red liquid everywhere. Nico was splattered. He stood there, shocked, as M.M. wailed an inhuman sound and passed out from the pain. Nico could feel a scream of his own building in his throat. He raised two shaking hands, also splattered with blood, and covered his mouth in an effort to keep it in. Tears tumbled out of his eyes, carving burning, bloody tracks down his face before dissapearing under his hands. He isn't dead, he isn't dead, he isn't dead...Nico repeated to himself, but every time he felt marginally better, the warm, sticky liquid trickling down his face, down his hands, his arms, his body, his legs, his everywhere send him into another panicked frenzy.
Help! He tried to say, but all that came out was a garbled, stuttering screech, peppered with sobs. Help! Nico tried again, but chocked as all sorts of fluids intruded into the wrong tube. He felt sick to his stomach, Nico coughed and hacked and until he was puking, his guts rebelling and making valiant attempts at flipping themselves inside out. He wanted to wipe his eyes to clear his vision, but his hands were covered with blood. The acidic scent of vomit and blood assaulted his nostrils, and Nico slowly staggered away. Run, his mind urged, but his body felt like lead. He couldn't move, couldn't breathe-
"Nico." someone said. Nico jumped, turning his head to the source of the sound so fast he risked whiplash. He sagged a little at the sight of Minos.
Nico scrambled for his voice, it came out scratchy and broken, "What do I do?" Minos floated closer and awkwardly wrapped his arms around him. He has clearly never tried to comfort anyone before, but Nico can't find enough energy to care. They stayed there for a minute until Nico calmed down a little bit.
"Nico, you are not going to like this, but you need to grab that jacket, and any money he might have on him." Minos said in the gentlest tone he can manage. Nico started to protest, but Minos cut him off, "You don't have any mortal money, and you need that to survive, Nico. It's winter, you'll need the jacket too. One of the first thing you need to buy if clothes, if you don't want mortal authorities' attention." Minos listed a few other reasons, but Nico had stopped listening. He wordlessly collected the idems and tried his best to ignore the blood. Minos then took him to a tiny nameless Underworld stream that tingled uncomfortablely but removed the blood with getting him wet. The banks were hard and dusty, but at least it's not like Styx's banks, all jagged black rock. Nico barely had time to lay down before passing out into a blissfully dreamless sleep.
Arthor's note: well finally another chapter am I right? I hope it didn't disappoint. As usual, tell me if I made a mistake, or if you have a really good idea/suggestion, or anything. I'd like to get to know my precious readers, you are wonderful people, suffering through chapter after chapter of trash. The stream thing I just made up, I just can't stand the idea of ending this chapter with Nico still covered in blood. Tbh the part where M.M. wakes up and almost gets skewered could've been deleted and the plot'll still be fine, but I added it anyways. Idk why, but I'm proud of it. Hope it didn't gross you out. What a great way to ruin the start of 2019! Maybe it's because I'm slightly depressed just realizing how close school is and isn't prepared ;-; Oh, well, have a great day❣