Okay guys, next chapter is here.

Remember to review and stuff and that I own nothing.

Oh yea, and in last chapter I accidently forgot to put the word 'introduce' when Persephone said, "Is that any me to your friends?' and then my computer got all messed up and it was really late so I didn't get around to fixing it before I fell asleep and stuff. Just something that was bugging me. I might fix it in the future, maybe.

Oh and just so you know, this chapter is more of a Percy Jackson Series level of seriousness in a fight that X-men Evolution, so yea. Just thought a few of you might want a heads up, not that most of you guys are going to be fazed by it or whatever.

Also, real quick, I'm not doing any pairings but canon parings and maybe a little of what is hinted at in the HOO series, so just keep that in mind as you read this chapter.

It had been a few days since Persephone's visit. Nico had refused to tell anyone what was in the bag that Persephone gave him, but it had shaken him up quite a bit.

But then again, how was Nico supposed to tell his friends that his stepmom had just given him a bunch of magic Pomegranate seeds from her garden and if he ate them, it would mean he was in big, BIG trouble and was likely to die. Pomegranate was Nico favorite fruit… just as long as it didn't come from the Underworld, but he kept the seeds on him at all times.

Anyway, at school, the Brotherhood avoided Nico. They had all been kinda wary of him since they watched him kill those Cyclopes that would have otherwise of eaten them… and it didn't help that he wore the sword he had done it at his side 24/7.

Not that Nico minded. Toad finally stopped bugging him during Current events and he was left alone when he was in his tree before school and during lunch.

It was Saturday, the day they were originally supposed to return from Sargent Hawk's boot camp. Nico was sitting in his window sill looking out over the trees and towards the sea. He was messing with the silver skull ring on his finger, like he always did when he was thinking.

But suddenly, a group of birds suddenly took off out of the trees, like they'd been startled. Then Nico saw what looked like a small explosion of Monster Dust… and a flash of silver. A silver arrow's sudden embedment in a tree confirmed his suspicions.

The Hunters of Artemis were here. And if they were here, so were a bunch of monsters.

The Hunters had too good of an aim to accidently shoot a tree where there was no target. Nico shadow traveled to the edge of the forest, next to the tree with the arrow in it was.

"Long time, no see, Nico," a voice said behind him.

Nico turned around to see a puckish girl, about 15 years old, with spikey black hair with a silver tiara like think on her brow. She was dressed in silvery clothing and held a bow with a quiver of arrows on her back. Behind her, further back in the trees were several other girls the youngest looking about 11 and the oldest, maybe 17.

"Likewise Thalia," Nico replied.

"Last time I saw you was amidst the battle in Manhattan," Thalia said, "But that's not why I'm here. I've been told that you've got something going down here," she said.

"A prophecy requires me to work with these mortals," Nico replied.

One of the Hunters, who looked about 12, stepped forwards, "But these are no ordinary mortals. I sense these are mutants. Mortals with powers," Artemis stated.
"Yes," Nico nodded.

"I was not informed that the magical boundaries around this place had dropped. But they have. And monsters seemed to be coming here quickly. Tell me about this prophecy and why you must be here," Artemis ordered.

So Nico retold them the prophecy, who the X-men were, about the monsters who kept wanting his blood to rise someone and what had gone down so far… though he left Persephone's visit out.

"Do you know anything about this 'most powerful one before them all?'" Nico asked hopefully.

"I know little of the Mutant Race… I never spent much time on Olympus when the original mutants were there. And I did not play a large role in anything that followed their departure of Mount Olympus," Artemis said, "So I cannot help you. My hunters are leaving in the next few days just as soon as we finish the current hunt we are on. Before we leave, I must warn you. Several of the more powerful monsters have suddenly arisen from Tartarus, and more than one have passed through Bayville. I warn you to be on your guard at all times, for your sake and your mortal friends," Artemis replied.

"I know. When I first arrived, a Hydra was here, but no Monster Donut shops are here though I've looked several times," Nico replied.

"It's more than just out of place Hydras," Artemis replied grimly.

The truth was, Artemis had somewhat of a soft spot for Nico. His sister was a fine hunter and would have been her lieutenant if things had gone differently. Nico was Bianca's little brother, and a good person, even if he was male. The goddess protected the families of her Hunters should they still love them as Bianca did Nico.

"I warn you again to be on your guard. I've got a feeling that before the year is up, something evil will stir. Until then, goodbye, Nico di Angelo. Perhaps we will meet again," Artemis and her hunters disappeared into the forest until just Thaila and Nico remained.

"Good to see you Nico," Thalia smirked, "Maybe I'll see you around before we leave."

"See ya," Nico replied as Thalia turned and joined her hunters.

Little did Nico know, his encounters with the Hunters of Artemis weren't quite over….

Later that day, Nico and the X-men were suited up and doing a session in the Danger Room.

The objective of the session was to be the last one standing. Out of Jean, Scott, Kitty, Evan, Rouge, Kurt and Nico, only Nico, Jean and Kurt were left.

Kitty had gotten out when a tentacle grabbed her and lifted her to a height where she would fall and get hurt if she phased out. Scott and Evan went out together when Spyke was shooting down blasters with his spikes while Cyclops did the same with his optical blasts, but when a spike and blast collided, they were forced to avoid dozens of little mini spike toothpicks and in their distraction, got blasted.

And Rouge got out when the floor panel opened up when she wasn't expecting it and she fell into a hole in which she couldn't get out of.

Kurt was starting to get tired, seeing as they had been doing this for over half an hour. And half an hour of non stop attacks and porting was starting to tire the poor fuxy elf out, but he kept going. But when a wall suddenly came up, knocking him off balance, he was finally out.

Jean, where she too was getting tired, was keeping up the fight, Though it was more dodging that using her powers.

Nico had been holding his own very well. His sword deflected blasts and sliced tentacles. His ADHD also helped him dodge these things and the trap holes were dark enough for him to just shadow travel out of. And he wasn't tired in the least. A half hour of dodging tentacles and blasts and trap doors was nothing compared to fighting for hours in the war he was in last summer or the constant monster fights he put up with as a demigod.

Another half hour later, and Jean finally gave in, too tired to continue. Everyone was sore, Nico too, but he wouldn't ever admit it.

"Hey guys, after we rest up want to go for Pizza?" Scott asked as the group trudged up the stairs to the level where the bed rooms were.

"You mean the new one next to the area where they're building the new apartment building?" Rouge asked.

"I've heard they've got the best pizza to ever come to Bayville!" Evan exclaimed.

Jean, Kurt, Kitty, Rouge and Evan quickly agreed, with the agreement of taking a well-deserved rest before going though.

Nico was about to agree as well, but he suddenly remembered what Artemis and the hunters had said earlier that day.

"Several of the more powerful monsters have suddenly arisen from Tartarus, and more than one have passed through Bayville. I warn you to be on your guard at all times, for your sake and your mortal friends."

"Why don't we just eat a snack here?" Nico suggested.

But Nico really was hungry, like, a lot. Pizza sounded awesome right now, but he really didn't want his friends to get hurt if a monster suddenly showed out of the blue. But the sudden growl his stomach made didn't convince anyone to stay behind.

"No, we're going for pizza, and you're coming with us," Kitty said.

"I don't know," Nico muttered.

"Dude, pizza," Evan taunted, "You know you wanna come."

Nico was still hesitant to come, but finally agreed, seeing that they would go with or without him and he could protect them better if he went with them.

About an hour's rest later, the X-men found themselves sitting at a table inside the Pizzeria. On the table before them was a large 4th cheese, 8th veggie, 8th meat lovers, 4th peperoni and 4th everything pizza. Scott had been so relieved that this place made complex orders, because no one would agree on what Pizza they wanted to eat… well except for Nico of course, who said he didn't care what kind they got.

Scott didn't know why Nico seemed so tense- well more than usual anyway. Ever since Persephone had shown up and given him that brown punch, he'd seemed grim, fearful, tense, alert and nervous-well more so than usual. And he refused to tell them what was in the pouch… he also refused to tell them why he and Persephone seemed to hate echother- or talk about anything to do with dandelions.

Of course Scott knew that Nico always had to be on guard for a monster attack- but this was way more than usual. As 'team leader' Scott just wanted to know that Nico- one of his teammates- was okay.

Nico fidgeted in his seat, drummed his fingers on the table, his eyes constantly darted around, sometimes his hand went down and rested on the hilt of his sword for a moment before darting off to his jacket or back to the table. Of course, most people would just write it off as his ADHD… but Scott- and Jean for that matter, thought it was probably something else.

"Nico- hey Nico!" Evan said.

The demigod flinched as Evan seemed to snap him out of his thoughts.

"You gonna finish that?" Evan asked, pointing to the uneaten slice of pizza on Nico's plate.

Nico said nothing as he gently slid the plate over to Evan, who happily began shoving it into his mouth.

"Eewwww Evan! Like, chew with your mouth closed!" Kitty exclaimed.

"Sorry," Evan replied emptily.

Suddenly, a dreadfully familiar feeling swept over Nico. The son of Hades suddenly stood up, panic flashed across his features.

"Nico? What's wrong?" Jean asked.

A sudden loud crash was heard across the street in the construction zone. Needless to say, Nico didn't reply to her question, he just ran outside, hardly registering that the X-men were following.

Because that feeling that had washed over him- that was his 'death sense' as you might call it. Someone had just died, their soul had slipped into the Underworld just seconds ago- and they were extremely, extremely close to Nico's location.

He ran straight across the street, causing a few cars to swerve to avoid hitting him, and straight into the construction zone.

Upon rounding the partially built building, they saw a horrible sight.

The first thing you noticed was the not one, not two, not even three or four- but 15 much larger than normal Hellhounds. This was concerning because Hellhounds 1) shouldn't be taller than the second partially build story of the building next to it and 2) never travel in packs of 15!

Of course the more concerning sight was the next thing you saw. The 15 Hellhounds were closing in on two children, both of whom couldn't be more than 8 years old. One was a boy, the other a girl, and they both had blonde hair. Their backs were to Nico and the X-men, so their eyes couldn't be seen, but even from behind, it was obvious they were twins.

And a third thing you wouldn't notice unless you were ADHD and taking in the entire scene at once, was the pair of slightly bloodied High Heeled feet sticking out a little bit from under a pile of what used to be a small part of the wall of the half built building.

The twins were facing the hellhounds, which were in somewhat of a ring formation, getting closer and closer to them. Nico was directly behind them. By now the Hellhounds had spotted Nico and the team, and a few were now growling at them.

Nico drew his sword and walked forwards. He stood directly in front of the terrified twins, who Nico had decided were probably Demigods if they could both see and were getting attacked by hellhounds.

The largest Hellhound stepped forwards and snarled, looking directly into Nico's eyes and Nico starred back.

"Find a place to hide and stay there," Nico said firmly to the twins, even though his eyes never broke contact with the Hellhound he was having a starring match that came before the attack.

The Hellhound, who Nico dubbed to probably be the leader of the pack-since these Hellhounds apparently were a pack- took another step forward.

A sudden twang sound filled the air, and the next moment, a silver arrow tipped with Celestial Bronze was embedded in one of the other Hellhound's side. It hadn't gone in deep enough or in the correct place to kill the hound, but it did hurt it.

Nico saw the silver clad Hunters of Artemis come out of hiding at various points around the construction site, all armed and ready for a fight. Nico didn't have time to greet them before the Hellhound began running towards Nico.

There was the sound of Kurt teleporting the two terrified twins out of the middle of the battle field as the hunters and Nico went into battle against the Hellhounds.

The X-men were stunned for a moment when they saw the sight of a bunch of girls armed with bows and arrows from ages 11 to 17 suddenly appearing at fighting the massive dogs. Kurt had been the first to react by getting the twins out.

"M-mommy?" the girl twin stuttered, looking over at the pile where her mother's feet were sticking out, covered in blood and unmoving.

"No," Kurt whispered when he noticed the sight.

Scott, unable to stand in his place anymore, removed his glasses and shot a beam at one of the Hellhounds, hitting it in the side. Not expecting the blast, the beast stumbled to the side.

The girl who was facing it, who looked 16 maybe, took the chance to put an arrow in it's forehead, effectively making it crumble into yellow dust.

She nodded in the X-mens' direction then went to help her fellow hunter with another one of the dogs.

The largest of the Hellhounds was proving a challenge for Nico. 3 foot sword against massive claws and teeth was a hard battle.

Nico backed up a few steps, and felt someone back to back with him.

"So those are your friends?" Thaila said, referring to the X-men as she kept her eyes on the dog she was facing.

"You could say that," Nico replied, doing likewise with his Hellhound, "These things are too big to be normal Hellhounds. What are they?"

"I'll explain after they're back in Tartarus," she replied, "Wanna switch partners. This one's claws are closer to the size of your sword can parry easier."

"Go," Nico replied.

Nico and Thalia twirled passed echother and attacked the other's opposing Hellhound.

She was right, Nico could more easily block the claws on this slightly smaller yet still larger than normal hellhound that the other one. The leader needed to be taken down at a bit longer range that a 3 ft. sword, which Thaila happened to have.

Nico managed to get in close enough, block the four claws on one paw with his sword then stabbed the hellhound in the chest from the Celestial Bronze dagger he managed to be quick enough to pull out of his coat.

A bunch of bricks flew past the son of Hades head. Jean, who didn't have a monster killing special metal weapon, was using her powers to throw objects at the hellhounds to knock them off balance, while Scott did even more so with his laser eyes. A hellhound was pierced by an arrow after already being pierced several timed with Evan's spikes.

It was quite the epic battle, though the hunters of Artemis and Nico did much more, having more experience with fighting monsters.

Then there was only one Hellhound left.

Rouge watched in the most admiration as one of the hunters, who Rouge thought to look 13, with Auburn hair and silvery eyes jumped high into the air and fired an arrow, which went right between the Hellhound's eyes, disintegrating it.

Artemis looked around the construction zone; assessing injuries, which luckily only minor ones had been obtained, nothing a sip of nectar couldn't fix in a moment, though all those who fought were breathing heavily- which was of course to be expected after fighting a pack of two story tall Hellhounds.

"I assume you are the mutant mortals Nico has joined for the time being," Artemis spoke.

"Hello," Jean said stepping forwards, "We are the X-men."

"I would think you would be an X-woman," Artemis replied, "I am Artemis, and these are my hunters."

"Phoebe, will you get some nectar for those two, I think they could use something to calm them down," Thaila spoke up, nodding her head towards the twins, who were huddled together, clutching Kurt, who they hadn't let go of since he first ported them out of the middle of the fight. Phoebe nodded and began to dig through her backpack.

"Wait, you're the Artemis?" Rouge asked, wide eyed.

"Yes," Artemis replied.

"You look like, 13 or something," Rouge inquired.

"This is the average age of my hunters. I have found it- easier to appear closer to the age of those I work with."

"Makes sense," Rouge said.

"I noticed that you fought rather well during the battle for one who carried no weapon or weaponized power."

"Thank you. Ah've had to train pretty hard in order to do that," Rouge admitted sheepishly.

Artemsis smiled, but then turned her attention to Pheobe, who was kneeling next to the two children. Each of the twins took a sip of the nectar and relaxed a little bit- though they were still very much afraid of the situation.

"Those weren't normal Hellhounds," Nico stated.

"No, they weren't," Thalia confirmed, "They were once Orion's pack of hunting dogs."

"I never knew Orion had a pack of Hellhounds as hunting dogs," Nico replied.

"Hardly any do. They were in his early career, when he was more arrogant of the ways of hunting. He thought he had trained them, but when he used a powerful potion to make them stronger, they turned on him. This was the first time Orion's Hellhounds have ever all been out of Tartarus at the same time since their master was forced to kill them," Artemis supplied, "We've been tracking them all over the state."

"But that wasn't all of them. Orion tried this twice and failed twice. There's another pack just like this somewhere. We were fortunate to catch up to them before they left the town," Thalia added.

"So Ms. O'Leary remains the only tame Hellhound," Nico smirked.

"It appears so," Thalia replied with a smirk.

"Thalia, you want to explain things or shall I?" Phoebe cut in, nodding her head towards the twins.

"I think we should get them out of this construction zone first," Nico said in a hushed tone, his eyes flickering to the woman who had been crushed under the wall.

"We can take them up to the mansion," Jean interjected, "You can all rest there for a bit."

"Thank you," Artemis nodded her head.

"What should we do with the –ah," another hunter inquired about the body.

"The mortals will find her soon enough," Nico said quietly.

"Wait? So were just going to leave her here," Kitty was freaked out. She had seen Nico kill monsters before- heck she'd seen it about five minutes ago, but they never left a body behind.

"There's nothing else we can do right now. The mortals will ask too many questions if we try to deliver the body to a morgue or call the police," Thalia said.

A few minutes later, and a bit of coaxing to the twins, the Hunters, Demigods and X-men arrived at the mansion.

Nico, Artemis and Thalia sat down in the kitchen and explained to the twins the whole 'You are the children of a Greek god' thing and that Camp Half Blood was a safe haven for them to go to while the X-men waited in the living room.

In the process, they learned that their names were Tyra and Sam Winslow, 8 years old as of five weeks ago, and Tyra was older by an hour and a half.

Artemis didn't dare ask the girl if she wanted to be a hunter though. She was clinging to her brother as if he was the only thing left in the world. Separating them wouldn't be the best idea at the moment.

"I wish my hunters and I could accompany you to Camp, but a small branch of hunters have informed me they have picked up on the other pack's trail. I trust you can get these two to Camp Half Blood," Artemis said to Nico.

"I'll take them tomorrow morning," Nico promised.

Just as they were about to leave, symbols suddenly appeared over the twins' heads. A golden sun hologram that radiated light.

"W-what is that?" Tyra asked as she starred at the symbol above her head.

"It appears your father is my brother. Well then, Tyra and Sam Winslow, children of Apollo, the god of the Sun, Medicine and Archery, I wish you well on your journey to Camp. But for now my hunters and I must leave before the trail goes cold," Artemis said to the twins.

The symbols over the twins' heads faded, but both of them seemed to radiate a warm, comforting light.

"Looks like Will Solace is getting some new siblings," Nico thought.

They saw Artemis and her hunters out.

"Oh and Nico, before I go, I thought you might want this," Thalia said, turning to Nico before she followed her sisters into the forest, "I-I went back for it after the- quest. I thought you might want it."

She took a floppy green hat out of a hidden pocket of her jacket at tossed it to him.

Nico caught it and starred at it in his hands. Bianca's hat. Something he never thought he'd see again. He remembered getting it for her for her birthday back before the Lotus Hotel, one of the few memories he had before the Lotus Hotel.

"Thank you," Nico said.

The Hunters of Artemis then disappeared into the forest without a trace.

Nico kept starring down at the hat in his hands.

"What is that?" Kitty asked over his shoulder, looking curiously at the slightly worn green hat.

Nico didn't reply. He carefully placed the hat in his pocket and walked back inside to talk to the twins.

"I'm going to take you guys to Camp Half Blood tomorrow morning OK?" he said to the twins.

"Where is it?" Sam, or Sammy as his sister called him, asked.

"Long Island New York. It's not far from here," Nico promised.

"And how to plan of getting them there?" Logan asked, "You gonna do your shadow travel trick?"

"No. It's not the best idea to shadow travel with younger kids unless it's an emergency," Nico replied.

"Then I could drive you," Scott offered.

"I have other ways I can get to Camp," Nico replied.

"Like what? I know you can't drive yet," Logan growled, remembering the last time Nico got even remotely close to a steering wheel- which hadn't ended so well.

"Zombie driver."

"What?" Scott asked, both amused and incredibly confused.

"Birthday gift from my dad a few years ago… I needed a way to get around while my shadow travel wasn't exactly 100% reliable when I was 11."

"So your dad got you a zombie chaffer for your birthday?" Kitty asked disbelievingly.

"Yea, pretty much. His name is Jules Albert. He was a racer when he was alive, didn't want to stop driving after he died, now he drives me around when I need it." Nico looked at the disbelieving faces of the X-men, "I'm serious. I could summon him right now if you don't believe me."

"How about we just drive you tomorrow. Besides, you've told us a lot about Camp Half Blood, I'd be nice to see it," Scott replied after a moment, "Besides, do you really think a zombie driving a car is the best idea?"

"He literally cannot get road rage and is a very reliable driver," Nico reassured, not seeing the fuss.

"No, I mean for two 8 year olds who just lost their mom," Scott half whispered, his eyes flickering to the still very sad demigods sitting on the couch.

"Oh," Nico muttered, realizing his point.

The son of Hades thought for a moment, "I'll have to contact Chiron, but even if you can come, we're only staying long enough to deliver them."

"Alright," Rouge nodded, "… who's Chiron?"

"The Camp's Activity director."

"Why wouldn't you call the Camp Director?" Jean asked.

"Dionysus? He wouldn't be much help. He's only Camp Director because he's serving out a punishment," Nico shrugged.

"Wait? The wine god is the Camp Director?" Jean asked.

"And isn't Chiron a centaur?" Scott added.

"Yes," Nico replied blankly, "And I have to contact him before I bring mortals into camp. Will you get Tyra and Sam something to eat, I'll be back."

And with that, Nico went up the stairs.

"This is going to be an interesting weekend," Jean sighed to herself before looking over at the two demigods.

Tyra and Sam both had tears streaking down their cheeks over the loss of their moth and the overwhelming introduction to the dangerous world of being a demigod.

Looking at the pair of 8 year olds, how broken they looked over their mom's death during the attack of apparently not normal by demigod standard Hellhounds, she remembered what Nico had said when he was explaining the Greek stuff to them. (Which seemed like such a long time ago, when in reality, it had been hardly a month since they first saw Nico fighting that Hydra in the park across from the Orphanage)

"…if we do make it to old age, maybe 120ish years or if you're really healthy, a bit longer. But a lot of demigods barley make it to 20. Monsters tend to find and try to kill us, we don't always win."

The horrible thought of what if the X-men nor the hunters had shown up crossed Jean's mind. If that had happened, these two obviously didn't have their weapons of Celestial bronze or whatever other kind of metals demigods used. They would have been ripped to shreds.

Jean shook herself out of that thought and told the others to keep an eye on the twins while she went to get a snack for them.

"Defiantly going to be an interesting weekend," Jean mumbled to herself again.

Chapter 8 is complete! So next chapter, a few of the X-men get to go to Camp Half Blood.

And again, only canon parings in this story… sorry if it seemed like there was Thalico (ThaliaXNico) in here, but there's not. No romantic stuff there. I just thought they would have a good friendship or whatever due to Bianca and stuff- and I also felt like Nico really needed to be in possession of Bianca's hat...

Also, few questions:

As it is during the school year, should Percy be there? Probably not, but he could be? Up to you.

And what other demigods should I highlight in here. The Stoll Brothers? Will Solace? Clarisse la Rue? Other? WILL SOLACE!? Tell me.

Review and tell me what little details you want!