XXXVI
NICO
Nico woke up tied to a huge bronze dragon zooming through the air. He wasn't sure exactly when he stopped screaming and recovered from the initial shock. The last thing he remembered was running into Bunker Nine and straight into an outstretched metal bar. His head was smarting, but he'd taken a bit of ambrosia to soothe the pain.
"WHERE ARE WE HEADED?" he shouted over the roar of the wind. "SAN JACINTO!" Jason shouted back. "NO!" Nico shouted. He'd had a conversation with Thanatos again yesterday. The god of Death had told him where Gaius planned to carry out his next attack. "WE HAVE TO HEAD TO RIO!" he shouted back at Jason.
Jason raised a sceptical eyebrow at him. "ARE YOU SURE? WHY WOULD HE DO IT IN BRAZIL?" "JUST TRUST ME!" Nico shouted back. Jason nodded and shouted something to Festus. The bronze dragon clacked and groaned, and slowly began turning left. Nico's head spun as he saw an entire freeway below him. He gritted his teeth to keep the bile from creeping up his throat and closed his eyes. He heard familiar screaming from Festus' other side and realised poor Hazel was suffering from her age-old motion-sickness.
They had to stop after 6 hours of flying. The sun had set and visibility was low. Festus circled above the city, finding a safe spot to land. He set down in the middle of an old abandoned cafe. As soon as Festus landed, Nico untied his harness and fell on the ground, trying to ease his aching limbs. He hadn't been able to move them properly for six hours. He saw Jason stumble off Festus, and then walk over to help Piper struggle off of him. "HELP!" came a cry from Festus' other side. Nico ran over to see Frank cradling an unconscious Hazel in his arms. There was vomit on the floor. Nico placed a tender hand on her brow. She was sweaty and hot. "It's just a slight fever; the motion sickness. She'll be out for a few hours," he said before gesturing to Frank to lay her on one of the cafe tables.
This place looked familiar. Nico looked around and with a flash realised where he was. "I've been here before," he stated calmly. But the last time he'd been with a satyr, a praetor and a forty-foot tall statue. "Really?" Piper asked interestedly from beside him. Nico nodded, looking around the cafe. "Reyna, Hedge and I were transporting the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood. Her sister, Hylla, pulled us off course and we landed here," he finished. His eyes were still scanning the walls, as though he expected Amazons to dart him again.
"Something's wrong," Jason said from beside him, suddenly alert. Nico felt it too. There was a strange sloshing sound coming from somewhere behind him. Nico stood up and walked over to the edge of the cafe's railing. There was a view of the sea from there. But what really caught Nico's eye was the humongous trireme floating in the sea. And by humongous he meant, like, three times the Argo II. It was churning the water around it, making the small fishing boats look like mosquitoes in front of an elephant.
"Gaius," Jason growled from beside him. Nico followed his stare and saw a figure standing next to one of the railings. The ship was moving fast, within a few minutes it would have passed from their sight, obscured by the cliff. "We need to get on that ship," Nico said, his teeth gritted in anger. "Why doesn't Poseidon just flip the thing over?" Piper asked beside him.
"It's because he can't," Annabeth suddenly spoke up. Nico jumped up, he hadn't heard her arrive at the railing. "Courtesy of me," Annabeth added sheepishly. Piper groaned. "So we'll really have to go aboard?" Jason nodded beside her. "Yup. We're going." "Hazel's still unconscious," Frank spoke up from behind them. "Frank, you stay here and watch over Hazel," Jason barked out, immediately shifting smoothly into leader-mode. "The rest of us go and get that son of a bitch."
Nico raised an eyebrow at Jason's use of the word. "Language, Jason," Annabeth joked from beside him. Jason turned around and stalked over to Festus. Nico, Piper and Annabeth followed him over and strapped themselves in securely. "FESTUS,GO!" Jason shouted and Festus rose in the air, his wings flapping as he gained altitude. He did a 180 and began flying out to sea, following Gaius' ship.