"Something's wrong." Julius Kane said, scanning the street. "Don't you feel it?"

Carter's dad was always spot-on about this sort of stuff. But it seemed pretty impossible that something bad could happen on such an amazingly beautiful day, with New York City humming with possibility.

Carter shook his head. "Why? What's -"

The ground began to sway under his feet with sickening force. He lost his balance and nearly fell on his face, but his dad gripped his arm with surprising strength.

"Move, Carter!" he yelled, shoving him away from a shaking streetlight. "Go!"

"Where?" Carter screamed.

"Away from the buildings! Away!"

Where? It was New York, for God's sake. There were buildings everywhere.

But Carter pushed through the panicking crowd, his fingers curled tightly around his dad's forearm. As quickly as the earthquake came, it stopped.

He was beginning to be crushed by the masses of people. He tried to jog towards an open area, but he kept tripping over other people's shoes. A girl crashed into him, sending them both tumbling to the ground.

The girl looked absolutely miserable. Her lips were trembling and her green eyes were swollen and red from crying. Carter considered asking if she had lost her parents or something, but she was scrambling back from him, trying to get as far away as possible.

"Carter Kane!" his dad scolded. "Let the girl through. She's in a hurry."

Carter stumbled to his feet and brushed the gravel from his collar. "Sorry." he mumbled.

He looked up, expecting a response. The girl didn't say anything. She gazed at him intently, like she was trying to communicate with him telepathically. She opened her mouth to say something, but Carter's dad put an arm firmly around his shoulder and led him away.

And the girl kept running. She didn't look back.


Nico's POV

Nico was started to feel a little tense. He should be, of course, since they were two Greeks in an Egyptian's mansion with no clear idea of what they were doing. He didn't think it would get any worse, but, seeing as they were half-bloods, it did.

"I know you." Carter said. "What are you doing here?"

Sadie yelled, "You two have met?" at the same time as Nico demanded, "Leila, you know this guy?"

All the color drained from Leila's face.

"Uh, no." she said, her eyes skipping nervously from Carter's. "We've never met."

"Yes, we have." Carter insisted. "I remember. You knocked me over, right after that earthquake."

"I don't - no." Leila shook her head. "I don't know what you're talking about."

She was lying. Nico knew she was lying. Her face was white, and she was trembling with...fear? Anger? Her jaw was clenched, and she was in a defensive position, like she was ready to punch anyone who disagreed with her. Maybe Nico didn't know as much about Leila as he thought.

Carter - on the other hand - refused to back down. He said stubbornly, "You were in New York. And you were running. Where were you -"

His sentence trailed off at the look on Leila's face.

"That was a bad time for me." she said, her eyes darkening. "Destroying half the city doesn't really -"

"You caused that earthquake? No wonder you were running!"

"Drop it." Leila advised. "Long story short - monsters were attacking. I panicked. And there you have it."

Carter frowned. "Fair enough. But that still doesn't explain -"

"She said she doesn't want to talk about it." Nico said calmly. "And unless you'd like her sword in your face, I'd advise you to listen to her."

Carter looked hurt, but Sadie's lips twitched. "I like him." she stated, looking at Nico with renewed interest.

Obviously, Nico blushed. Out of the corner of his eye, he could have sworn Leila's fingers make a slight move towards her bow.

He cleared his throat. "Great. So, uh, Anubis said you guys had a problem?"

Carter stared at him. "You know about that? I thought you two were new recruits!"

"They are." Sadie said, with that cross expression she got whenever anyone mentioned the funeral god. "Anubis happened to pick them up off the street. He thinks they can help."

Carter shrugged. "Well, I guess if a god brought you guys here, you must be pretty good. Know any magic? Following the path of any gods?"

Leila wrinkled her nose, and Nico shook his head in confusion. Path of the gods?

"I take it that you two know nothing." Sadie said in a patronizing voice that maddened Nico. "Shall we show them the training room, dear brother?"

Carter rolled his eyes. "Shouldn't we introduce them to Amos first?"

"Well, let's see what they're made of first."

"You shouldn't talk about them like that."

"Whatever do you mean?"

"You said, 'what they're made of', like they're objects or something."

"Well, it's a common expression that most respectable people know, but seeing that it's you, Carter, I'm not too surp-"

"Are you two done?" Nico said, exasperated.

Carter and Sadie immediately stopped arguing.

Carter scratched the back of his neck and bustled towards the end of the hall, and Sadie stayed behind, warily watching Leila, who was having difficulty hiding the barest trace of a smile.

Nico had only walked a few feet before he started to feel his eyes burning. He tried to blink the pain away, but it persisted in bothering him. Everything he was seeing was just so un-Greek, so wrong, that Nico thought his brain would melt from all the stuff he was seeing in the house. Gods with animals for heads. Hieroglyphics. Magic.

"There are a lot of Egyptian gods and goddesses." Carter said, striding in front of them. "Ra, Nut, Isis, Set, Geb - they all control some part of the mortal world. I host Horus."

"And I host Isis." Sadie said from behind. "She's in my mind all the time, bloody annoying if you ask me…"

"The gods prefer the blood of the pharaohs." Carter continued, like Sadie hadn't said anything. "They come in a bunch of different forms, but sometimes they choose mortals or magicians to sneak around in human form."

"Kind of like Luke and Kronos." Leila said quietly to Nico.

He nodded impassively. This whole hosting business was insane. He tried to imagine hosting a god, like Hades or something, but the idea was way too weird.

"Uh, do Egyptian gods ever have kids?" Leila asked unexpectedly.

"Well, yeah." Carter said, laughing a little. "But a really long time ago, at like, the beginning of the world."

"That's not what I meant." Leila said uncomfortably. "I mean, do they ever have kids with mortals?"

Sadie stared at her. "Oh God, that would be horrible! What made you think of something like that?"

"I was just wondering." Leila muttered.

They passed room after room - there must have been about a hundred on the third floor alone - before reaching a staircase that wound down to the second floor. As they climbed down, Nico tried not to get distracted by Leila's hand brushing against his, sending shocks of warmth up his arm.

They reached a gigantic room about a size of a basketball court. It had a hardwood floor, statues of gods lining the walls, and a vaulted ceiling with pictures of Ancient Egyptians. Huge falcon-headed statues of that sun god (Ra?) were stuck perpendicular to the floor, ten feet up, like the sun disk crowns were being used to basketball hoops or something. Again, Nico felt that weird burning in the back of his eyes. He felt as if the painted figures on the ceiling were watching him, and the stone eyes on the statues were following his every movement.

He shut his eyes for a few moments, opened them, and tried to focus on the chaotic scene in front of him.

Yelling incantations, running around, or relaxing on the floor were around twenty kids who ranged in age from 6 to around 17. They all nodded and smiled at Sadie and Carter, but immediately stopped what they were doing as soon as Nico and Leila entered the room.

Leila gave a half-hearted wave which was met with stony silence. Nico stared determinedly at the ground. He hated it when people looked at him.

Then, the silence was broken when a small kid from the back piped up, "New trainees?"

Carter nodded solemnly.

The kid's face broke into a grin. "Awesome!"

All at once, the room erupted into conversation, and the group surged forward. Nico was besieged with questions. What was his name? Where did he come from? How did he find Brooklyn House?

"Guys, guys!" Carter raised his hands to quiet the room, but he was grinning too. "This is Nico and Leila. They'll be training with us for a while."

Leila exchanged a panicked look with Nico. He knew she was thinking the same thing: Awhile? They only had a few days, at best. If Leila didn't make it to Camp by the end of the week...she would be facing a death sentence from Artemis.

Sadie pointed at random people, who introduced themselves and said weird things like: "I'm following the path of Geb." or "Fire magic's my game!"

Nico had trouble keeping track of all the names: Jaz, Walt, Felix, Alyssa, Chloe.

When Sadie unexpectedly motioned at Leila, she pursed her lips, deciding what to say. "Er, I'm Leila Brooke. And...I'm from...Cam-" She was about to say, 'Camp Half-Blood', but Nico poked her hard in the back. She quickly said, "Campifornia. Um, that is, California. I've known Nico for a while, I guess. We met when we were saving each other's lives from a bunch of monsters."

Several people nodded appreciatively. Leila looked pointedly at Nico, who said tentatively, "I'm Nico di Angelo. I'm from…" Nico's voice faltered. Where was he from? He tried to remember back, as far as he could. "From...Washington D.C. I moved around a lot."

Carter nodded, like he understood Nico's situation.

Sadie clapped her hands together. "All right then, back to it! Carter, you go and teach that class of yours - what is it called? Magic Marvels?"

"Magic Problem-Solving 101." Carter said irritably. "And would you stop calling it that?"

"No." Sadie said sweetly.

Carter threw up his hands in surrender and trudged towards the waiting group of magicians. Sadie looked at Nico and Leila, sizing them up.

"Combat first." she decided. "Anubis told me you two were good at that."

Sadie slammed her staff against the ground, and a hieroglyph glowed in blue writing. A bunch of targets and a small, elevated podium appeared out of thin air.

Nico had never been trained, per se. At least, not by anyone living. He trained with the dead. Period.

"I'm not good with hand-to-hand combat." Sadie admitted. "So I suppose you two will have to fight each other."

Nico stared at her. "We've never -"

"Well, now's the time!" Sadie exclaimed, waving her staff around dangerously. "In the first training session I had, I had to fight against my brother."

"Fine." Leila said shortly, pulling her bow and quiver over her head and dropping it to the floor. "Let's go, Nico."

They climbed the podium and drew their swords, eying each other warily. A few people had actually drifted away from Carter and looked up at them with interest.

"Don't we need armor or anything?" Leila said, looking over Nico's shoulder at Sadie. "You've got to have armor."

Sadie lifted her shoulders. "A lot of times, you won't have any armor on when something's attacking you in the real world. Often, you're completely unprepared for an attack and you don't have time to put any form of protection on."

Leila stared at her, mystified. Nico assumed that the "no armor" thing must be completely foreign to someone who trained in Luke's army and Camp Half-Blood.

"Well, go on!" Sadie said, waving her hand.

Leila clenched her jaw and raised her sword to attack. Just as Nico instinctively raised his own, Carter rushed at them, yelling, "Stop! Stop!"

"What now?" Nico scowled.

"You two can't fight each other!" Carter said, indignant.

"What do you mean they can't fight?" Sadie said. "Remember what Zia did to us on our first day?"

"Yeah, and that just turned out great." Carter responded sarcastically. "How about I go first? Just to see where they are."

Nico smirked a little. He knew for a fact magicians didn't normally do hand-to-hand combat without magic. He hefted his sword again, but Leila touched his shoulder and shook her head.

"I've got this." she said, smiling wickedly.

She shoved up the sleeves of her sweatshirt and faced Carter, who looked calm and confident. Leila's weapon flickered between an Egyptian khopesh and a Celestial Bronze sword, but no one seemed to notice.

One of the guys standing near Nico snorted. "Good luck to her. No one's been able to beat Carter so far."

"Leila's better than you think." Nico retorted.

"Maybe." a blonde girl - Jaz - said kindly. "But Carter is the host of Horus. He's one of the most powerful magicians in centuries."

Suddenly, Carter lunged. He and Leila traded feints, thrusts, and parries, getting a feel for each other's fighting style. Carter narrowed his eyes. Leila was obviously better than he thought. He pushed harder, and their movements became so fast it was almost impossible to follow.

"Excellent form." Carter muttered, stepping around an imaginary circle. Leila stepped the other way, so that they were circling each other. Their blades flashed and rang, and soon the only sound in the room was both of them fighting.

Leila smiled grimly as she locked swords with him. She stepped forward and pushed so that the blade of Carter's own sword began to press against his neck. With lightning speed, she disarmed him and his sword clattered to the floor.

Nico folded his arms and grinned. Carter looked shocked - his eyes kept darting from his sword on the ground to Leila's triumphant expression. Sadie's eyebrows were so high that they looked like they were going to disappear into her bangs. The trainees looked at each other in silence. Carter finally recovered enough to laugh and say, "That was incredible!"

Leila nodded, and clasped his hand in hers. "Thanks." she said, before letting go and joining Nico.

"How was he?" Nico mumbled.

Leila examined her sword for a few moments. "He's good. But not as good as Percy."

Before Nico could ask her any more questions, Carter motioned for Nico to come up. Carter was harder on Nico, but he took him down nearly as fast as Leila had.

"Where -" Carter panted afterwards, "- did - you two - learn - that from?"

"You learn fast when you're on the run." Leila said, a smile playing on her lips.

"And I'm assuming you also picked up archery?" Sadie said, eyeing Leila's discarded bow and quiver. "That's not very Egyptian of you."

Leila bit her lip. "I'm not that good with the bow and arrow."

Liar.

"Or with magic." she added. "So how about we lay off the hieroglyphs and stick to the -"

"Are you kidding me?" Carter said, his eyes bulging out. "You need to know combat magic! You won't survive against what we're facing unless you know some degree of it!"

"Alright, alright." Nico said hastily. "Tomorrow, then."

Two trainees bustled over with their hands full of charms and scrolls.

"Carter." one of them said, all serious. "Felix's turned the fireplace into an ice rink again."

"With the penguins?" Carter said hopelessly.

"With the penguins." he confirmed.

Carter sighed, "I'll take care of it." before hurrying out.

"Felix is obsessed with penguins." Sadie explained. "And by obsessed, I mean completely mental. He sneaked a whole herd of them into his room last week."

She turned away and started chatting with one of the magicians - a handsome African American dude who must have glanced at Nico about forty times in the past hour.

Leila frowned. "This place is so…"

"Creepy? Dangerous?" Nico prompted.

"Weird." Leila completed. "I mean - really. Who uses a statue of a god as a basketball hoop?"

She pointed at Alyssa, who was shooting a couple of basketballs into Ra's circlet. She cheered every time she made it in.

"Zeus would incinerate me before I tried that." Leila said disdainfully.

"Let's go upstairs." Nico suggested. "So we can check out this place."

They subconsciously glanced at Sadie, who was too absorbed in her conversation to pay attention to them. As soon as they walked out of the door, though, they stepped right into a barrel shaped man clothed in a trench coat and a fedora.

"Amos Kane." Leila blurted out, though Nico wasn't sure how she knew the man's name.

"That's me." he said, smiling at them. "Are you two new? Carter said -"

His smile faded as he studied them. His eyes widened. "You - how dare - who could have possibly -"

Nico backed away at the murderous expression on the man's face

He only stepped closer, holding Nico's arm in a vice-like grip. "And how -" he said in a dangerously soft voice, "- exactly did you two get in here? Demigods?"


**A/N: I hope you guys liked that chapter! And please, please, please tell me if it's getting too confusing, I can always post a summary/explanation in the next update.

Anyway, I'm not too sure what I want to write in the next one, so I guess you guys can decide:

a) Leila looks into Carter's past and they have a confrontation

b) Amos/Nico/Leila confrontation

c) Filler chapter; all the trainees have dinner together or something

d) Nico + Leila fluff?

e) Sadie or Carter spies on Nico and Leila, overhears their conversations

Or a combination would be cool too. Just let me know! Please review: you guys inspire me to keep updating.