A/N: Hey, guys. Sorry it's been so long since I've updated. Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Here's the next chapter, I hope you like it. Please review!

By the way, this fic is officially pre-Lost Hero because I don't wanna deal with House of Hades stuff.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter Two

It wasn't often that Nico came to Camp Half-Blood. Usually he stayed in the Underworld or shadow-traveled around picking up new sword techniques.

Or sometimes he read. Surprisingly enough, Nico liked to read, when he had the patience to concentrate through the dyslexia. Only Annabeth knew of this hobby, though, since she was the one who had recommended most of the books he'd read.

The main reason Nico had come back to camp was because of a book, actually. His father had sensed a stirring in Tartarus and wanted Nico to train at Camp Half-Blood in case it was attacked. Nico was reluctant to go, but he agreed when he remembered that he needed Annabeth's help to get a new book he wanted to read.

Unfortunately, when Nico had arrived this morning, the daughter of Athena had been unavailable, so Nico still had to wait for Goliath. But, because he wanted to get the next installment of the amazing adventure between a prince and an air "man" off of his mind, the son of Hades had decided to do some training, as his father had suggested.

"You know, Nico," Percy commented. "I don't understand how you fight so well when you're not even paying attention."

"What?" Nico said distractedly, looking up at his cousin.

Percy seized the opportunity and thrust his sword forward so that its hilt locked with Nico's; then he twisted the sword and thrust downward, knocking Nico's weapon out of his hand.

Nico glared at the son of Poseidon, who just grinned at him as Nico retrieved the practice sword.

"Percy, you really need to stop using 'The Luke Move'," Nico advised. "It's starting to become your Expelliarmus."

"What?" Percy asked, confused.

Nico shook his head. "Never mind. Anyway, should we go again?"
Percy readied his sword. "Yeah, let's g—"

The demigod unfortunately never got to finish his word, because suddenly the ground began to shake.

"What the Hades?!" Nico shouted over the rumbling. "What's going on?"

"I don't know!" Percy replied.

The two demigods ran out of the sword arena, into the main grounds of camp. Here, everything was shaking violently, although no one but the two of them seemed to notice. However, before either of the boys could comment on this, a gigantic monster… appeared.

It didn't change over the hill, ready to kill people, or fly towards the camp, as it seemed to be able to fly. It literally appeared; as in one minute it wasn't there, and then the next it was.

And it wasn't a normal monster either. It was sort of shaped like a giant whale, but it had large engines on the sides and a propeller type thing on its tail.

And the weirdest part about the monster was that… Nico recognized it.

"No," the son of Hades whispered. "It couldn't be."

Nico's suspicions were confirmed when people started falling from the sky.

Well, not form the sky exactly. From the monster.

The first person to fall was a woman in a fancy, old-fashioned dress. Next was a man in an old army-type uniform, who—even from 20 feet away Nico could tell—had a rather dramatic mustache.

A boy of about sixteen fell next, then some older men. After that, there was a strange pile. A girl-who-was-obviously-trying-to-look-like-a-boy fell. Then a boy fell on top of her. Then a strangely-striped dog on top of him. Then an animal that looked sort of like a squirrel landed on top and exclaimed, "Belly flop!"

The ground had stopped shaking. The fallen people (and assorted animals) all seemed to be unconscious (except for the talking squirrel). Everything was silent for a moment as Nico and Percy stared at them all. Then, in a flash of white light, the monster that had held them disappeared.

A/N: There's that. Sorry it's so short. To clear something up, by the way, the first boy to fall was Newkirk. Alek was the one who fell on top of Deryn. Just letting you know. I hope you liked the chapter, I'll try to update soon but don't get your hopes up. Unfortunately, this particular fic isn't exactly my top priority. But I will update as soon as I can, so please review!