Nico joins the club

Percy knew that Nico didn't care too much about the whole missing bolt thing. He had been a bit suspicious of Nico, but not the point that he felt like he needed to do anything about it. He just didn't have the evidence to properly suspect Nico.

Percy was in the middle of scrubbing the door of the stables clean when he looked at the Hades cabin. He'd been watching it from a distance for a while now. So far, he hadn't seen Nico or anyone else come in or out of his cabin.

Annabeth had chores today, so this was going to be solo for Percy. He needed to sneak into the Hades cabin without anyone seeing him, otherwise he'd look very suspicious. Jason had cooled down on the accusations recently, but getting caught sneaking into Nico's cabin could easily cause them to ramp up again.

Looking around, Percy started walking towards the Hades cabin. He was looking anywhere but the cabin. There were a few people walking by, but no one paid him any attention. How could just walking be suspicious?

Luckily for Percy, Annabeth had given him the blueprints for the Hades cabin, so he knew exactly where the entrances were. Annabeth had designed the place, and apparently she kept a whole archive of every building she designed or built. That was how Percy knew that there was a secret basement for the Hades cabin. If Nico was going to hide anything, it would be down there.

Percy walked past the Hades cabin a little then he stopped to look around. No one was looking so he sprinted behind the Hades cabin and started looking for the entrance of the basement according to the blueprint.

"How does she read this stuff?" Percy muttered as he looked down at the blueprint. Everything was written in Ancient Greek, which Percy could read easily now but it still looked like he was reading something out of a alien's diary. Even the pictures were confusing.

Percy folded the blueprint up and started looking at the wall. There had to be something that gave away the basement. How else would Nico be able to go in there from the outside? The issue was that Percy could not make out any details because the entire wall was smooth and painted black.

Then Percy started pacing back and forth, maybe he'd get lucky and see something from a angle. Then his foot caught something and tripped him. Percy let out a yelp before falling face first onto the grass. He rolled onto his back and looked down at his shoes and got really confused when he noticed they were still tied, so he didn't trip over his shoe laces.

Percy looked around for what he tripped on, his eyes landing on a rusty handle poking out of the ground. Seeing that was like seeing the last piece to a puzzle. Percy scrambled over and pulled on it.

Sure enough, the grass and dirt above the hatch started to fall away. The hatch squealed when Percy pulled it open. The stairs down to the basement looked terrifying, with only dim torches lighting the way.

Percy reached into his pocket and pulled out Riptide before making his way down the stairs. The hatch slammed closed behind him, causing Percy to jump. He uncapped Riptide which gave him a little more light than the torches.

Percy had no idea what he was expecting when he made it to the bottom of the stairs. Maybe a torture dungeon, or something like that. What he wasn't expecting was a whole game room. Nico had his own pool table, a Mythomagic table, and even a flatscreen TV with a bunch of gaming consoles wired up to it. The torches down here weren't too bright, but they were encased in glass so it was way cooler than the stairs.

At first, Percy thought that this would've been the best place to hide a bolt. He didn't move anything but he did check under every table. Much to his dismay, he didn't find anything. He found the door which had to lead to the rest of Nico's cabin, but there he ran into another problem.

The lock jiggled when Percy turned it but the door didn't budge. Unlike the Hermes kids or Annabeth, he had no idea how to lockpick.

A loud bang from upstairs caused Percy to look at the ceiling in alarm. He turned on his heels and ran to the stairs and scaled them with no problem. He pushed open the hatch and ran out, walking as soon as he reached the commons again.

It took a while for Percy's heartbeat to calm down but eventually he just started walking to his cabin. He'd have to tell Annabeth that he failed, and they'd have to come up with a new plan. To be fair though, Percy didn't really like the idea of sneaking into Nico's cabin. It just didn't feel right, especially since he didn't want anyone sneaking into his cabin.

Percy walked into his cabin and shut the door behind him, sinking down and sitting in front of the door. He'd felt a bit guilty about sneaking into Nico's cabin, but what he didn't know couldn't hurt him, right?

A knock at the door caused Percy to look up. He got to his feet and turned, opening the door to find Nico standing there. Nico looked utterly confused and tired, as if he'd been running around his cabin for the past few minutes.

"What's up?" Percy asked.

"Hey, can we talk?" Nico asked.

"Sure." Percy moved aside.

Nico walked in. He turned around and said, "So, this whole thing with Jason, no one knows who stole his lightning bolt?"

"No, no clues at all." Percy said, "Why'd you ask?"

Nico paced before stopping. "You know that hat that my dad gave me?" He asked.

"Yeah, the shadow travel one?"

"Yeah, that one. It's missing."