a.n. Sooo...yeah. :)
Nico di Angelo, son of Hades
I love Ella like a sister, but I am sincerely afraid for her mental health.
"Let's follow the arrows!" she says. "Let's go into the giant cage!" she says. "Let's have fun getting killed by a big mutant!" she says.
And she makes me describe them? Thanks, Ella. You suck.
And now she's telling me to get over it and move on.
The big thing that came out of the gloom of the cave that a certain someone got us stuck in looked a lot like a giant ball of mucus. So those of you who are wondering about the question Ella asked the guy on the speaker, yes, they ooze. A lot.
Honestly, he looked like a little boy with a cold had chuck a booger into a vat of toxic waste and left it to mutate into a horrible green, oozing marshmallow that made me want to throw up everything I had in my stomach. But did I? No, I did not. Because that would not be manly.
It did creep up in my throat quite a bit though. It's like what happens when girls start obsessing over a certain sparkly vampire in my presence. It's a little off-putting.
After that rant of ADHD, I shall continue.
There were two, actually. The other was kind of like a blue Frankenstein. Some idiot put a bunch of monsters together and got a big glob of flesh and claws and drool. But no, this one did not ooze.
"I call that one!" Ella cried, pointing at the blue one.
"That's not fair!" I shouted. "I wanted that one!"
"Are you guys in high school or not?" Nathan asked casually.
I just got scolded on maturity by Nathan Grace.
Wow.
I thought the apocalypse wasn't until 2012.
Well, that's embarrassing. "I'm still taking the blue one."
"But it oozes!" Ella complained. "It's like a giant booger!"
"Yeah, but it's smaller," I reasoned. "And I'm better than you." I grinned.
She gasped. "LIES! All of them! Liar!" Ella pointed an accusing finger in my direction. "Bad Nico!"
"Am I a dog?"
"No! You're not cute enough. Maybe a homeless one."
"With fleas!" Nathan added happily.
"Why does the world hate me?" I asked no one.
"Obviously because you hate the world!"
"Shut up, Ella."
The whole time, the Booger Monster and Blue Frankenstein just stood there, blinking dumbly. The stupid part of me thought that it wouldn't be too hard. The part of me that had grown up a demigod knew that the stupid part was being stupid.
I really needed to find Karson before Ella and Nathan began to rub off even more.
"Fine," Ella huffed. "I'll take the Green Marshmallow, but you owe me a cupcake or something. Maybe an ice cream cone. Probably both."
"Whatever."
"Angst!"
"Shut up, Ella!"
"You know," said Nathan. "I think I'm going to take a nap." He sat down on the dirty floor with a thump and tried to make himself comfortable.
"But you're the best out of the three of us!" I told him venomously.
"And being the best takes a good nights sleep, which I didn't get. I'm catching up." He waved a hand. "Night!"
"Nathan. You're an insomniac!"
He was already pretending to be asleep.
Lazy bum.
"Players, step forward."
Why did we ever listen to the creepy guy with the microphone and his stupid sidekick Carl? This was not a heroic way to die. Getting eaten by a booger. Fun.
Ella started before me, kicking the guy in the side of the head, but her foot got stuck. Go figure. Before I could change directions and help her, her foot exploded. Both Ella and the monster went flying backwards, though Ella managed not to land on her butt.
I looked at her ankle, but her foot was still firmly attached, although her shoe had been tattered to bits. She tore the bits off and removed her left shoe before standing straight up again.
"What was that?" asked Nathan, alert as ever.
"I knew you weren't asleep," I told him sourly.
"Oops, sorry. I sleep talk."
Whatever, Nathan.
Ella, in response, held up a fist. Black shadows exploded around her pale hand, tearing the long sleeve of her shirt into shreds. "Oops." In addition to removing her shoes, she rolled up her sleeves to her elbow tightly. She laughed. "I've been working on it for two years."
I stared at her opened mouth.
"I can only do it with my hands and feet right now. Maybe some day I will be able to do it without tearing up my clothes."
"I'm amazed your skin isn't the same way," Nathan told her. "Good job."
Ella tried not to look too excited. It didn't work.
"Um...guys?" I tried. "Evil Booger and Blue Boy? Trying to kill us? Karson?" I reminded them.
"Oh, yeah!
Booger Man lost about half of what I guess was his face. It's hard to tell. One again, it was standing there, blankly.
"Why is it doing that?" I asked. "Why wouldn't it just attack us while we were talking?"
Nathan laughed. "Isn't it obvious?"
"Obviously not."
"It's so it will take longer. If we need a break, we get it. He doesn't want to speed things up by making us defend ourselves. If we take longer than an hour to defeat them, we lose. It's already been about forty-five minutes since we got into this game. We have fifteen minutes to beat these guys to a pulp. Get to it!"
Darn you, Nathan, for being right while you sleep talk.
Unfortunately for me, I didn't have any cool new technique to show off. While I was torn between saving Karson quickly and having some fun at the monsters expense, my choice was made for me.
"Please, no skeletons, Mr. di Angelo, son of Hades."
How the crap did he know that?
Then I remembered that one time when I had laundry duty and I had used them to help speed things up. Oops. I knew I should have paid that nerd to do it.
Breathing deeply, I took out my sword and, knowing I had to make the first move, charged.
He pushed me back without blinking. I tried to cut his arm, but my blade was met by the dull ring of metal on metal. Then I knew I was in deep doodoo. Of course, I had to be a sissy and pick the big one to get away from the ooze. That guy had hands as strong as iron.
Evil Serial Killer, you suck almost as much as Ella does.
"Do you need help?" asked Nathan lazily from where he was.
"Dude, decide whether you're asleep or not and stick with it," I told him irritably.
"Well, do you?"
"Go back to bed, insomniac."
"Will do." This time he added snoring to his act. I will never understand how those Grace's can be so at ease in the face of danger. It was fascinating.
I turned back to Frankenstein. The black iron sword in my hand glinted cruelly in the dim light. If I ever had one reserve about the sword I had, it was that it looked evil. It didn't exactly make people like you.
It did, however, get the job done every time. And that's all that matters. Because people liking you is over rated.
Two minutes later, I was heaving, Nathan was still "asleep" and the hem of Ella's pants was tattered. My monster had lost two fingers, and Ella's was still oozing.
What a gross word. Oozing.
Whether it was oozing or not, Ella was getting pissed. She wasn't in bloodlust mode, thank the gods, but her eyebrows were knitting together bit by bit with each hit both of us took.
Nathan was still sleeping.
Screw you.
My method was to cut off the smaller pieces of my monster. Fingers and ears. At one point I gouged out his eyes. It was disgusting. Little yellow orbs that rolled marbles. I almost threw up again.
But with the thing blind and flailing, I thought I had a better chance than before. Of course, provided that he didn't fall over and sit on me. That's almost as bad as getting eaten by a booger. Being sat on by Frankenstein.
Man, this is just not my day.
"Nico, hurry up! I need your help real fast!" Ella shouted.
"Hurry up? Are you kidding?" I shouted back. "Get Nathan to do it!"
"Why? He's asleep."
"Oh my gods, he is not!"
"Are you calling my family a liar?"
"Ella, shut up and beat up your booger."
Big Blue reached out for me, looking like he wanted a hug. I didn't really want to get hugged to death either, so I barely dodged. I could feel wind at his hands passed my head. Then I had an idea too.
I plunged my sword into the things wrist and then through the floor, pinning him down. "Ella! Explode?"
"Gotcha! Switch!" she scrambled over to my side of the cage. I held off Mucus boy as Ella place her hands firmly on the blue guy's head. I heard her mutter, counting to ten, building up energy I guess. Then something that looked suspiciously like a mushroom cloud erupted from her, his head turning into ash in her hands.
Ew.
On the plus side, my sword, which Ella threw to me in a dangerous fashion, sliced through the guy's head like butter. On the down side, I had no idea whether it was his head or not, because little circle I was aiming for kept moving around.
"Nico, I need to touch him with both hands!" Ella shouted, coming back to me. "It works better that way."
"What do you want me to do?" I asked.
"Fly!" She pointed at the lamp hanging above us.
"Excuse me?" I asked, a split second before I really got it. "Oh..." I ran over to the bars of the cage and started climbing. The monster didn't move, just kept his green little eyes on me as I went up and up.
"Are you ready?" I asked.
"Ready when you are." Ella lowered her center of gravity, preparing to run.
After a few second of inner screaming and panic, I launched myself off of the bars and grabbed the lamp that hung in the center of the cage. I was more or less still screaming in my head. I'm insane. Ella's insane. This situation is insane. Nathan is still asleep.
But it worked. Two beady little eyes followed me, looking at me above it blankly. I moved myself to a position so it looked like I was going to attack it. He didn't pay any attention to Ella.
Which was good, because that's when she took off running, straight into the mucus ball, plunging her hands, palms flat into the big guy's chest. "Ewewewewewewew." And then the guy splattered, flinging mucus everywhere, mostly on Ella, quite a bit on Nathan (thank you karma) and not on me at all. I hid behind the lamp.
But apparently karma didn't like me as much I thought it did, because a second later I heard a crack and the lamp came crashing down. Ouch.
As I sat there massaging my butt, clapping echoed through the room. We turned, and there was a guy that I guessed was the man who had started this whole thing. Mostly because I recognized him.
He was a murderer who had been caught by the police only to escape five days before his trial. His face had been everywhere, and even a recluse like me knew him. It had only been a year before.
"So that was Thea, too, huh?" Ella asked, smiling childishly.
"You kids are very interesting." He took a few steps toward. A red headed boy behind him, who we all supposed was Carl, trotted over to Nathan and kicked him hard in the stomach.
"Wake u—" he started to shout in his ear, but a slap to the face made him stop mid-sentence.
"Dude, I've been awake the whole time," Nathan informed him, standing up.
"You have dirt on your butt," Ella told him casually, like we weren't standing in front of a serial killer and his loser of a disciple.
"Oops!" Nathan twisted, trying to see the seat of his pants to more accurately clean them off.
The murderer's eye twitched. I don't think that's a good sign. But he continued. "We have the girl."
Carl lugged in Karson, tied up and gagged and very thoroughly unconscious. I bit in my fury. I don't think attacking a murderer would be any better than taunting him or teaching casually.
Ella skipped over to her, but her smile seemed for like a sneer when she looked at him then the usual sunny one she kept plastered on her face. I walked by him coldly. He laughed. "A bit chilly in here, isn't it?"
I glared at him over my shoulder. Carl took a step back. Percy said that I had eyes that were either those of a genius or a madman, just like my dad. Right then, I'm sure I could have frozen him with little more than a cold glare as I switched into mad mode.
Nathan put a hand on the big man's shoulder like they were old friends. "I think you should go."
"Is that a threat?" he asked, a wolfish grin widening on his scarred face.
"A warning, more like," said Nathan, walking over to Karson. "Karson is family. You hurt my family. Nico is almost ready to kill you, and I won't hold him back. I might even join him." He looked at the man and the red head with a cheerful smile. "It wouldn't be hard to kill you, if I really wanted to."
"Thea would be angry," said Carl.
"Thea can go die in a hole." With little effort, I cut her bonds and Nathan picked her up piggy-back style, walking calmly out of the room. Ella and I followed without a word.
"Are we just going to let him go? He's a murderer!" I hissed, still seething.
"Dude, he's in a cage." Nathan grinned, like normal.
Ella held up a golden key. "Along with being helplessly charming, I'm also an accomplished pickpocket."
"You locked him in?" I gaped at them both.
"More or less," said Ella savagely.
Looking over my shoulder, I saw that the golden bars of the cage had been covered in something inky black, a large globe made of impenetrable shadow.
I smiled. "I love you guys."
Awww! Nico is getting attached.
Sorry it is soooooo short. I am currently suffering from lazy-itis. And yes, that is a real disease.
I just realized that I've posted a chapter where the whole thing is in bold. I promise that was an accident. Something weird happens when I upload a chapter onto doc manager. It happened on this one too. Don't worry, though. I fixed it this time. :)
However, I have some news! When Favors of Shadow is over (sigh. All good things have to end), I'll be starting another Nico fanfic. I've already got chapter one done, so I'll just give you all a little sneak peek. :)
Dear Diary...
My life is officially a mass of misery and hatred and bad smells (that last one being my brothers feet). In all honesty, I should have seen this coming when they gave me this stupid thing. Why else would they give a sulky teenager a diary? In my opinion, it is much better suited for a girl to gush about cute boys and gossip. I should give this to the Goodwill, just to help my fellow man. But mom wont let me and dad can't stop laughing at me every time he sees my face. I imagine it has something to do with my sulky expression...
"Tess!" my mom shouted. "Get your nose out of that book and pay attention."
"Mom," I sighed. "You're the one that was all 'Come on Tess! This will be good for you. A chance to express your pent up anger and depression.' What happened to that, mom?"
"Don't get smart."
"Right. I would rather be stupid. Thanks for that."
Dad looked at me over the shoulder of the car seat. "Tess, you need a pick-me-up."
"So, what? An ice cream cone?" I asked, looking at the passing McDonalds. "Gosh, dad. That's so first grade." I rolled my eyes.
My brother hit me with a wadded up piece of paper. I pinched the inside of his bare foot. Howling, he kicked me in the face. "That hurts, Tess!" he shouted at me.
"Yeah? Well your feet stick, brother dearest!" I shouted back, smacking his foot away with my diary. I figured it was the best use I would ever get out of it anyway. My mother didn't share this viewpoint.
"Tessa, stop that!"
"Moooooom."
"Shut up, Tessa."
"You shut up, Cason! Gosh, put some shoes on, you nasty!" He made another kick at my head. Since he couldn't make contact, he decided shoving them in my face was good compensation. "Cason!"
"What?"
"This doesn't agree with our terms!" I made a line with my finger on the car seat. "This is my side. You are on my side."
"Take a chill pill!"
"Mom!"
"Children!" mom said is such a voice dad almost swerved off the road.
"Shannon, give me some warning!"
I dug in my bag and pulled out a water bottle, still cold, with determined hands. I deliberately screwed off the cap, and we all know what comes next.
Cason thought it was a waste of a water bottle. I thought that I had just made a sacrifice for mankind. He shook out his blond hair, throwing water all over the windows and me.
I guess Cason was cute, in that scruffy, surfer kind of way. He had frosted blond hair that never stayed flat on his head and big gray eyes, like me, only my hair was just past my shoulders and I had bangs cut straight over my forehead hiding a breakout. He is tan, with broad shoulders covered in a red hoodie.
Instinctively, I covered my diary so it wouldn't be rained on. I mean, it was a book, and I loved books. Then I realized what I was doing and started shoving it in my bag with gusto.
"Tess," dad warned. He's an archeologist who has been just about everywhere. He had warm brown eyes and reddish brown hair. "Your mother gave you that book to write in. So write!"
"Fine!"
Dear Diary,
My dad is a turd. Glad you agree.
Dad laughed like he knew what I had written. He probably did. But it didn't make me feel better like usual.
You know why? Because my parents officially decided that my life wasn't suckish enough and sent me to Avery. That is, Avery Institution for the Creatively Talented, AICT. Basically, boarding school for crazy artist-types.
Not that I had never been to boarding school. Most people like me have. More than one, in fact. Let's see, I'm in ninth grade, so that means that I've been to nine different school approximately...five were public, one was Catholic (which just screamed irony to the ninth degree) and that would mean that three were boarding schools. But Avery was the first one for the artistically gifted.
So, no. Normally, a daughter of Athena (which I obviously am) would not be thought to be gifted in anything besides strategy and junk, but that's totally a stereotype. No lie. My parents had enrolled me in...well, I'll let you guess.
Drama
Music
Art
Writing
If you guessed C, well, then you don't know me at all because I can't draw a flower without it looking like an atomic bomb. Writing...hello? Dyslexia? Drama...too dramatic.
That leaves music, which I can do. Well. I play three instruments: trumpet, flute, and guitar. None of those are too much alike, but I like to be a well-rounded person.
Anyway, let's not brag about my musical prowess. Let us return to my issue with being driven off to boarding school [again.]
Mostly because my dad and step-mom just wanted to be home alone without Thing One and Thing Two destroying the house with their celestial bronze weapons and us "eating them out of house and home." Also, because of Thing Two over there, sticking his feet in my face.
Cason was a sophomore, two years ahead of me. Cason is good with a paintbrush, which I really can't help but be jealous of. It isn't fair that he can draw millions of beautiful pictures while I put a pencil to paper and it ends up looking like Hiroshima.
But I guess him in art was good, because the dormitories and classrooms were on a completely different floor. From what I'd seen, the dorms were nice, each with a nice view of the ocean around us, fully stocked mini-fridge, and microwave in case we craved that microwavable burrito sitting their, tantalizingly. I hate diets. They suck.
The only thing I didn't like about the dorms it the beds; more specifically, the fact that there were two of them. This just did not fly. I did like that just around the corner were the guys dorms, but that wasn't enough to redeem my parents.
Unfortunately, my parents didn't want redemption. They wanted me to get the heck out of their car.
"Tess, honestly," signed Cason, jumping onto the hot pavement barefooted, grabbing both of our suitcases. I grabbed my backpack and Cason's art case. My personal instruments had been shipped over from Ohio ahead of time. "It's not like you to throw a fit."
I raised one eyebrow at him. "It's not like you to take my suitcase without complaining."
"We've been traveling together since birth," he said with a grin. I remembered why I loved my brother. He looked up at the school, squinting his eyes against the glare of the sun. This was the farthest we'd ever been from home. All the other schools had been relatively close, so if we messed up, we'd have mommy and daddy to call on. I knew that if I screwed up my whole life, I'd have to fix it on my own. And Cason knew it too.
"Guess we'd better grow up sometime." With a sigh, he walked lightly up the steps to the front door. I shifted our bags on my shoulders and followed him into our new life.