Percy 3/4

It wasn't long before Percy decided to put his plan into action. The Stolls helped him come up with the plan, but Percy decided on most of the small details himself (with a few suggestions from the brothers). In hindsight, probably not the best decision on his part, but he didn't want the Pranking Kings to take over his mission.

Percy stood on top of Mr. Sunshine's cabin with a special tool that, according to the Stoll brothers, would cut through the roof and allow the son of Poseidon to slip through the roof and into the cabin below. The tool looked like a bar with a blade on one end and a suction cup on the other. He bent down and pushed the suction cup to the roof of the cabin. Then he took the bar and spun it around, pushing the blade into the roof. Once he had made one complete circle, Percy pulled the bar up. The suction cup stayed attached to the roof and pulled a small circular piece up with it. Percy set it aside and looked down into the cabin below him.

He couldn't see anything. He had picked a night with no moon so he wouldn't be caught by his victim or girlfriend as easily. He knew Annabeth would not approve of pranking Mr. Sunshine. But now, with no light, when he looked into the cabin, he couldn't tell how far or where he should jump.

Percy pulled a rope out of the small bag he had brought and attached it to the roof so he would have a way to get out again.

Percy looked down into the darkness again and decided to go for it. He jumped down and heard a crash as pain shot up his legs and he crumpled to the floor, which was a lot closer than he had expected it to be.

He tried to stand up and something hard rolled out from underneath him, causing him to fall back down. It felt a little like a bar, but why would Mr. Sunshine have a bar laying around? Every time Percy had been in this cabin, it had been clean, with almost no clutter, unlike his own cabin. Percy couldn't see anything and had a feeling that his eyes weren't going to get used to the darkness either. It was really dark with no moon, but being inside this cabin made it that much darker. Percy tried to stand up again, but when he did, something rolled out from underneath his foot and he fell down again, causing another loud crash. There was no way Mr. Sunshine didn't hear that.


Nico had been sleeping when a loud noise woke him up. He opened his eyes and moved his hand to the side of the bed, where he kept his sword. His grip tightened when he heard another crash come from above him.

Nico rolled over and punched in the numbers to make the stairs come down without a sound. Then Nico stood and walked over to the staircase, gripping his sword. Luckily, he could see in the dark and didn't have a problem finding the stairs.

He quickly and silently went up to the second floor and poked his head above to see what had made the noise.

What he saw really shouldn't have surprised him much. There was a hole in the ceiling and just below it, where the bars that Will liked to do somersaults over had been, was a mess, as if something heavy had fallen on top. About three feet away from the mess, Percy was facing away from Nico, holding his hands out in front of him, occasionally bumping into something and limping slightly. Percy had a small bag with him that Nico assumed held pranking supplies. Since there hadn't been any quests for Percy to go on, he had started to get into pranking and unfortunately, he was getting lessons from the best. Nico had figured it was only a matter of time before he became the son of Poseidon's next target.

A mischievous grin settled on the son of Hades' face. Why not give Percy a taste of his own medicine? Percy had come to prank Nico, but soon the tables will turn.

Nico climbed the rest of the stairs and took a couple of steps forward, making sure to plant his feet firmly so Percy would be able to hear.

Percy turned around to face Nico. "Nico? Is that you?"

Nico nudged a loose bar in front of him with his foot and listened to the noise of the bar rolling away from him.

"Nico?" Percy's voice had changed. He sounded more unsure of himself than he had the first time.

Nico shadow traveled to the other side. "Percy," Nico whispered just loud enough for Percy to barely catch what was said.

Percy spun around. "Nico?" His voice was almost a whisper now.

Nico shadow traveled back to the opposite side of the room, by the stairs, not bothering to hide the grin that was starting to spread across his face. "Percy," he whispered again at the same volume.

Percy spun around again, this time tripping over something. He let out a stifled yelp, as he fell. When he stood back up, Nico could see that Percy's stance had changed. He looked about ready for a fight.

Nico smiled; Percy was getting scared. Nico shadow traveled to the clear space by one wall. "Percy." Nico didn't wait to see Percy's reaction before disappearing into the shadows once again. "This is the famous Perseus Jackson?" Nico taunted, covering his mouth with one hand to mask his voice the best he could. He watched as Percy whirled around and cursed as he ran his face right into another pole.

Once Percy had got his bearings again, Nico noticed that he had his hand over his pocket, most likely where Percy kept Riptide. This gave Nico another idea. He shadow traveled to the opposite side.

"Percy," he whispered.

Percy spun around to face Nico and pulled Riptide out of his pocket and held it in front of him in pen form.

Nico saw his chance and shadow traveled right underneath Percy. The son of Poseidon must have sensed something because he took a step back, barely avoiding kicking Nico in the process. Nico reached up and grabbed on to Riptide, not letting go. Percy tried to yank it back, but Nico shadow traveled away, carefully using the shadows to bring the pen, but not Percy.

Usually, using his abilities this much at once would drain him, but this was such a short distance and it was so dark, that it didn't have much of a toll on his powers. He knew he would be tired the next day and if he had to summon anything else, he would be exhausted. Nico knew that Riptide would appear back in Percy's pocket eventually, so he had to be quick and follow through with his hastily made plan.

Nico shadow traveled right below the hole Percy had made in the ceiling and put Riptide down in the small clearing, then he shadow traveled back below to the main part of his cabin. He took a moment to gather himself. He wiped the grin off his face and rubbed his eyes to make it look like he had just woken up. Then he turned the lights on and walked up the stairs, as if he were just coming up for the first time. Once he was standing on the second floor, he saw Percy coming toward the light emanating from the stairs, limping slightly. "Percy, what are you doing here?" Nico asked, trying to sound surprised.

"Nico! There's something here." Percy didn't seem to notice all the gymnastics equipment, or at least didn't acknowledge it.

"You're right, there is something up here," Nico said levelly as he crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at Percy as the demigod came to stand right in front of the son of Hades.

"You know something is up here? What is it? It wanted to kill me."

Nico rolled his eyes. "You. You are not supposed to be up here."

"But the voice kept calling my name and something took Riptide. I was standing over there." Percy gestured to the middle of the room (toward the mess) "and Riptide was pulled out of my hands."

"There's nothing here, Percy," Nico walked underneath the hole in the ceiling and Percy followed right behind him, not wanting to get separated. Nico bent down and picked up a pen sitting next to some bars and handed it to Percy. "You just dropped it. Nothing stole it from you."

Percy took the pen and uncapped it. It turned into his sword.

"But..."Percy pointed to where he had fallen into the cabin from the roof, then retraced his steps, frowning. There was no trace that anything had been there other than him.

"And was this…" Nico pointed up at the hole in the ceiling "…really necessary?"

Percy glanced up at the hole he had made and shrugged. Then he pointed toward one wall, focused on his predicament. "Then I heard my name from over there," Percy turned "and there" Percy turned to point at a third wall "and there." Percy turned to look at Nico, eyes narrowed. "Wait, was it you?"

Nico allowed himself a small smile.

"It was you!"

Nico shrugged. "You were going to prank me – and you cut a hole in my roof!"

"How'd you know I was going to prank you? What if I had come for a friendly visit?"

Nico gave Percy a look. "Through the ceiling? At night?"

Percy gave him a sheepish grin.

Nico gestured to Percy's bag. "Just a hunch. What were you planning to do, anyway?" Nico asked, hoping he could be prepared for the next time.

Percy pouted. "I was going to find something in your cabin to spray paint blue, but I didn't know you had a whole second floor. How long have you had it?"

"Ever since l remodeled it."

"Oh, why haven't I seen it before?"

"I installed stairs so no one would find my gymnastics equipment." Nico watched Percy for a reaction.

"Oh, so that's what the poles are for."

"Yeah," Nico waited for a couple of seconds to see if there would be any more to his reaction, but the son of Poseidon didn't say anything. "Aren't you going to say anything else about it?"

Percy looked around. "It's cool, what else do you want me to say? Is that a trapeze?" Percy asked, pointing.

"Yes."

Percy just grinned at him in response.

Nico didn't get any other reaction, so he waved Percy toward the stairs. "I guess I'll let you leave through the door instead of shoving you back up the hole in the ceiling."

"I'm sorry for the hole, okay? The Stolls gave me a tool to fix it. You'll never know it was there. I'll fix it tomorrow."

Nico waved one hand as he followed the son of Poseidon down the stairs. "I'll just summon a zombie or two to clean up your mess."

Percy threw his hands up in the air in exasperation.

Once at the door, Nico took out his sword and held the blade barely an inch away from Percy's neck.

Percy's eyes widened comically as he went cross-eyed, trying to look at it. "Don't tell ANYONE about the gymnastics or the second floor."

"Not even Annabeth?" Percy had to ask.

"Not even Annabeth." Nico replied levelly.

"Fine." Percy said, wanting Nico to take the sword away so he could breathe properly and he assumed that Annabeth will figure it out without him telling her, if she doesn't know already. Besides, what's the big deal? Nico can do gymnastics and has a second floor in his cabin. Nothing surprised him anymore.

"And make sure to tell the Stolls to do their own pranks instead of sending you." Nico took his sword away and poked Percy in the side with the butt of it before opening the door.

"But it was my-" Percy cut himself off, deciding that it would be better to blame the Stolls than to have Nico's sword at his throat again. Besides, they were the ones who had gotten Percy into this whole pranking thing. Not to mention that Percy didn't want Nico getting revenge on him and that he still had to get the brothers back for the last prank they pulled on him. (Don't ask)