DISCLAIMER: I do not own Percy Jackson/Heroes of Olympus, all rights to Rick Riordan! I also don't own The Avengers either, so rights go to Marvel or whatever. Btw, I don't own Ford either, I'm just using the name. All rights to…whoever…:D

Nico opened his eyes groggily, the world around him fuzzy and indistinct. He was lying flat on his back on a thin mattress. His arm was swathed in thick bandages, but blood still seeped through. He closed his eyes, the memories coming back to him. Yes, now he remembered.

He sat up and immediately regretted that decision. He blacked out for a split second and his ears started to ring. His head felt like it was falling off. He curled up on his side, wondering if someone was coming for him.

He wanted nothing else than to have someone here with him. Yeah, Nico di Angelo wished for another living human being to comfort him. Anyone would be great, especially Hazel. He pushed Bianca out of his head, ignoring the numb pain that resurfaced. His arm was strangely tingly, like a painkiller was wearing off. How long had he been asleep? He tried opening his eyes again and found that, though he was still sensitive to the light, it wasn't that bad as long as he didn't try to sit upright. He could only imagine what standing would do to him.

Had his cell had been reinforced while he slept? No doubt it had been. From Nico's position, his prison looked just as it had before, minus the blood. He figured they changed the code on the door lock, too.

They probably have this place infested with hidden cameras, the son of Hades thought, and as soon as the thought crossed his mind, he snapped his eyes closed. If there were cameras, he didn't want them to see he was awake and start interrogating him. Now they knew what his powers were—though they could never comprehend their full extent. Melting into the shadows, exploding the lights, and raising the dead to bust him out of jail? That was a seriously toned-down Nico di Angelo.

Unfortunately, he hadn't feigned sleep quickly enough. A door slid open in the room surrounding his cage, and three people walked in. The first one was—surprise—Agent Coulson. The other two were agents Nico had never seen before. They looked like scientists, judging by their white lab coats and nerdy glasses. One was a young lady with tawny hair pulled back in a ponytail, the other a young man with short, curly hair.

When they entered his prison, Nico ignored the nausea and sat up. No use faking any longer, and he certainly wasn't going to be completely unprepared for whatever they might throw at him.
"You're awake," Coulson said, stopping in front of the demigod.

Nico snorted derisively.

He pulled up two chairs Nico hadn't noticed before and gestured for the young woman to sit in one, seating himself in the other. The other man pulled up another chair. The son of Hades couldn't quite comprehend why this agent showed respect for a woman—it didn't seem like something SHIELD would do. He mentally shrugged it off.

"I hope you've had a nice nap. As you can see, the SHIELD facility is four times as powerful as any demigod could ever be," Phil's smile was kind and menacing at the same time. "Trying to escape again will result in…well, let's just say it won't end well for you. Am I understood?"

Nico could tell this man wasn't going to take any more flack. He wholeheartedly believed that any threat Phil Coulson made, he would carry out without hesitation. Nico nodded slightly, but his spirit was far from broken.

~*~

Travis Stoll walked casually down the dark street with Annabeth Chase, whistling annoyingly.

"Can you shut up? We're trying not to attract attention," the girl hissed.

"What do you mean? Whistling won't attract attention. Everyone does it," he replied innocently.
"Well, shut up anyway. You're driving me crazy."

Travis shrugged. When Annabeth was in a bad mood, he didn't want to be the one to irritate her even further. He'd be pushing up daisies before you could say Elysium.

"We're here," Annabeth stated after a few minutes. SHIELD HQ loomed overhead, just a few buildings down. It seemed to touch the night sky above them, and Annabeth had to stop for a minute and gape at the architecture. She never would have guessed it, but the top secret government organization had their own headquarters right in the heart of Manhattan. Of course, it didn't say "SHIELD Headquarters right here!" with a big arrow on it; it was cleverly disguised.

"Ford Automotive Headquarters," she read aloud.

"I stole one of those once," Travis said.

"Let's go."

Half an hour later, they'd found the back door. They had spotted a side alley that appeared to go around the back of the building and followed it. The two had narrowly missed getting attacked by a rabid cat, kidnapped by a sleezy old man, and slipping in who-knew-what.

The pair climbed a chain-link fence before finally making it to the corner, where the alley branched off to the left and right. Annabeth peered around the corner of the alleyway to the left, her gaze landing on a metal door with two buff guards on either side of it. Great.

Annabeth grabbed Travis' wrist, forcing him to listen as she told him her plan.

Then she started walking and whistling quietly.

"How come you get to whistle, but I—"

She clamped a hand over Travis' mouth briefly and rounded the corner. At the noise, the two men whirled around.

"Hey! What are you doing back here? This is for authorized members only," The guy on the left growled.
Annabeth feigned a look of innocence. "Oh, really? Sorry, I guess I just got a little mixed up. There weren't any signs on the fence…."

"Isn't that enough, stupid girl? What did you do, climb it?"

Annabeth opened her mouth, pretending to be at a loss for words. "Well…yeah."

Suddenly, both of the guards' pants fell down, and Annabeth cringed away from the sight. It took them a split second to realize what had happened and grab their clothes, shouting in protest. They tried to pull them back up, but their belts were gone. Annabeth concealed a grin as the two man suddenly fell over backward, groaning as their heads hit the concrete. She lunged forward, slamming her elbow into the first man's nose as Travis ran past her toward the door. The second guard started to rise, but the daughter of Athena stuck her foot out, sending him crashing back to the ground. His eyes rolled up in his head and he went limp.

The door beeped and hissed open. "Done," Travis said proudly.

"Good job, Travis. Come on, they'll be awake soon."

Then the two demigods disappeared inside SHIELD headquarters.

~*~

Blackjack whinnied in protest as Connor Stoll fell precariously to one side, having to grab the pegasus's flank to keep from falling 300 feet to the sidewalk.

"Connor!" Percy shouted in alarm, grabbing his friend's arm and pulling him back up behind him. "Be more careful! You're going to get yourself killed."

Connor shrugged, his face pale from fear, but a mischievous grin on his face. "Sorry," he said. "But you gotta admit, that was pretty cool."

Percy redirected his attention back to the ground, where he saw Clarisse leading a phalanx of half-bloods against SHIELD's army of agents. They were withdrawing back inside the camp's magical borders, and no one seemed to be hurt or dead. That was a relief to Percy.

The Athena cabin had devised the plan. Clarisse would lead the Ares and Apollo cabins in a frontal assault, while the Hermes and Hecate cabin—besides Travis and Connor—sneaked up from behind and struck them. It had worked; it bought Percy, Annabeth, and the Stolls enough time to get out of Camp Half-Blood so they could rescue Nico.

"Hopefully SHIELD is nice and distracted. Wouldn't want them to suddenly see a flying pegasus land on their roof," Percy said. The son of Poseidon sensed Connor was nodding, but he wasn't about to turn around and see for himself. They were nearing SHIELD HQ. The building was massive—almost as wide as it was tall. It could easily land ten airplanes on the roof. Percy was surprised no one had noticed that this obviously wasn't Ford Automotive Headquarters.

They landed on top of the roof behind a stack of empty garbage bins. Blackjack's wing accidentally hit one and the metal rattled loudly. Percy and Connor froze. Thankfully, no one made an appearance. The two demigods exhaled in unison and dismounted, Percy thanking Blackjack for the ride and promising him extra donuts later.

With that, the half-bloods sneaked into the facility.

~*~

"What is your full name?" Phil Coulson asked. There was no kindness in his voice anymore.

"Why don't you tell me who they are—"Nico jerked his head at the pair of scientists—"Then I'll consider answering your questions."

Agent Coulson tipped his head to the side, as if considering his request. "All right. Agent Fitz, Agent Simmons," he motioned towards the man and woman respectively. "This is…" he raised his eyebrows at Nico.

Nico decided to play along. "Nico."

Coulson nodded, and Fitz and Simmons started to jot something down on their papers.

"Nico….what?" Phil asked, his eyes on Nico's.

"Di Angelo. Nico di Angelo."

"Good. Now we're getting somewhere," Phil stated, giving Nico a brief smile. The son of Hades didn't return the gesture. "Any living relatives?"

Nico winced inwardly. "No." Never would he give them Hazel's name.

"I'm sorry for your loss. May I ask how they died?" Though the words sounded friendly enough, Coulson wasn't asking for information. He was demanding it. Nico could see it in his eyes.

The demigod thought about how he would answer that. "No, you may not," he said, his voice full of venom.

"Now, Mr. di Angelo, let's not get snappy. Remember, you're at our mercy. Not the other way around."
Agent Simmons glanced up at him, and Nico thought he caught a tiny glint of sympathy in her eyes. He wondered if she felt bad for him just because he was only fifteen.

"If you want any more answers, then you better keep you big nose out of my business," Nico snarled. His arm was starting to throb again.

Phil smiled humorlessly.

Nico bit back an insult.

"How about this: I ask you questions, and you answer them…" His voice trailed off when he realized the whole room was growing dark, waves of anger and shadow rolling off their captured half-blood. He practically radiated danger.

Nico couldn't tell if the agent was smiling or grimacing, but he assumed neither was very good.

"Don't worry, Mr. di Angelo—can I call you Nico? —we've proofed this cell against any powers you could possibly possess." His voice turned ten times more firm. "So, let's drop the whole "skeleton game" and get to business, shall we?"

Nico glared.

Phil locked his gaze with Nico's.

Then a new voice piped in.

"Hello Gentlemen."

Well, the last chapter was just a lame filler. This one kinda turned out the same way :| Well I hope you guys enjoyed reading these two rather…boring…chapters. Pinky promise the next one will be better :D And really sorry it took so long. I thought I'd posted this chapter, but apparently I hadn't super sorry.

Arrow :D