Nico, being the dutiful son he was, was helping guide dead souls to their afterlife. Mainly, he dealt with the ones who were a little more.. complicated..? Okay well, they had certain beliefs, and to navigate with those beliefs he did some magic thing that let him see what they see- well while also seeing what he sees at the same time so he actually knows where stuff is.

Otherwise, he would've been completely lost with the way some mortals had completely redecorated the place. There was even one where it was all HOT PINK, blindingly, and everything was written in glitter. He shivered. That one gave him nightmares.

Basically, it more so projected someone's consciousness over the whole place, as a way to cope or something? It might be better to compare it to the mist, how some will expect to see things like guns, and therefore that is what they will see when it really isn't, when it could be something like a certain celestial bronze sword..

That didn't mean that beliefs meant nothing though. As he stated before. Especially considering some people thought of this as Hell, and therefore that is what it was, and so on. The atheists tend to have more interesting decorations, or maybe some that don't devote their life to God, or Gods.

..Wait, does he count as a devotee?

Maybe not have an existential crisis over what his will look like. (Briefly, he wonders what Bianca's would have, had he had the chance to guide her to her afterlife.)

Of course, Nico being Nico, with his trash luck as a child of the big three, ended up nabbing someone's consciousness that he hadn't meant to exactly.. He froze up, shivers running down his spine as he ran straight for where the 'host' was. It felt wrong. It shouldn't have, but it did, and that could really only mean one thing.

He clenched his teeth. They looked like a potato. A he? It wasn't an exaggeration either. Bald, with no face. " You. Cheater of death." The words flowed out from his mouth, and he unsheathed his stygian sword.

Unfortunately, the sinner was not intimidated, rather disappearing in a flurry of smoke. Immediately did he pinpoint where the other was, striking, only for it to bounce off? That made no sense! It wasn't as if it was because it was a mortal either. He didn't use celestial bronze, and he'd heard from Percy that his sword would go straight through humans as if they were never there- but his sword could hurt both demigods and mortals, so even if it didn't act like celestial bronze did, it shouldn't have just bounced off harmlessly. He knew it wasn't one like him either.. They'd have some sort of demigod aura.. Could they even use their powers when dead? The potato man didn't look dead though.. This guy only gave him the aura of a monster , almost. All the bad ones tended to have those, ones that made you tremble with fear.

Shouldn't this guy have been sent straight to The Fields of Punishment? No judgment needed, it wasn't hard to tell this guy had committed atrocities, and was quite proud of it.

It didn't take long before he came to a realization. This guy wasn't dead! Sure, that still meant it didn't make sense how his blade had done nothing, but it could've been, say, the curse of Achilles. ..Can mortals even get that?

Nico was cornered into a secluded area, grumbling under his breath. As much as he hated leaving this guy to roam, it was all too clear that he was too weak to face him head on. If anything, he needed to warn his dad, and maybe try to get to Camp Half-Blood if this was gonna turn into a problem like, say, Kronos. At least check in to see if they knew anything.

He held the blade towards the guy's direction, reaching backward and feeling the pull of the shadows, destination in mind. Come on, come on!

"Why don't you lend me your power, Ghost King? "

His eyes widened, nearly dropping his sword as the man's cold hand gripped his wrist in a firm hold. No matter how hard he tugged, he just wouldn't let go. He can't bring the potato man to camp or his father! Who knows what could happen?

Nico hissed, letting go of the shadows and grabbing his sword with his other hand, uselessly trying to hit the other's arm off to no avail. "Let me go you– potato! "

It burned, as if his natural coldness was being sucked away and dropped him in a steamy room, and a sinking feeling made its way into his gut, and he felt dread build up. He's better than this! Nico let go of his sword, letting it fall into the shadows for him to harness later. It wasn't like it was of much help anyway, he'd rather not end up losing it forever.

His instincts seemed to be accurate though, as one moment he was in the Underworld, and the next he was in an unfamiliar building. Wobbling a little with pained tears prickling at his eyes, he noticed the potato man was nowhere to be found. It could've been that his ability to teleport wasn't exactly like his that let him bring anything with to a location..

As a demigod, if you focused, you could sense the tunnels of the Labyrinth underneath. Nico though, saw there was nothing.

Spotting a door, he stepped out, ready at any second to get his sword out in case there was danger, only to find himself in another room.

He sighed, looking forward only to see a very angry blonde chained up. Clenching his fists, thinly veiled horror must've been on his face, and it was clear that guy didn't belong here if the way he was yelling into a muzzle meant anything.

"Um.. Do you know what this place is?" Nico hesitantly asked, unsure if he should try cutting the chains off, or if the blonde was a pretty hostile person and that was why he was chained.

After a moment of muffled yelling, he tried to mentally prepare himself. "Right, right, you're chained and everything. Hold on- Please don't bite." He added an afterthought, mumbling to himself. "I'm still not used to Cerberus biting whenever he gets a little too rowdy.."

He reached down into the depths of the shadows, relieved to find his sword unharmed. He hadn't been able to make sure it wasn't bent or something because of potato man, so thank Hades .

It was worse when he realized he couldn't feel any of his dad's or even his uncles' and aunts' influence.

"This won't hurt. ..Maybe." He tried for a strike against the chains, creating a crack but not much. With a groan, he harnessed the shadows, forming it around his blade and creating a much bigger impact, freeing the blonde.

Nico tightened his grip on his sword as the blonde shoved him against the wall with a blast of explosions!?

"Who the fuck are you? Are you a villain!?"

He was absolutely dumbfounded. "Hey! I know my dad's considered evil and everything but he really isn't- don't you think it's kinda cruel to just accuse someone of that!?" The son of Hades shadow traveled behind the blonde man, holding his hands up in hope that the teenager would calm down.

How did he make explosions? A son of Hephaestus..? No, he can't sense any godly blood.

The blonde kept yelling and yelling at him, and he groaned. "Shut up, please, porca miseria. "

He tensed up as he heard footsteps. Ominous.

Nico grabbed the blonde guy, putting a hand over the teenager's mouth. "Shh! I hear someone."

Well that quickly shut him up. With a sigh, he quietly dragged them down, crouching behind the counter as some humans walked on in, clearly surprised at the sight of the chains broken, and no angry blonde man in sight.

"Where'd he go?" The other blonde questioned. She wore a schoolgirl outfit, but she seemed much older, so it was more likely she was no longer in school.

The lizard? guy shrugged. ..He didn't look familiar at all, nothing on any Mythomagic cards.

Nico glanced at the teenager with him. "What's your name?" He whispered, figuring they might as well talk a little. He could shadow travel, but he'd figured it would be better not to unless he absolutely had to. Who knows where he'd land, and he'd rather not pass out on foreign territory.

The boy, reminiscent of a pomeranian, was clearly irritated, but got the idea that perhaps they were on the same side. "Bakugo Katsuki." He muttered, and Nico nodded. "Nico di Angelo."

"What are you here for?"

"..Shitty fuckers kidnapped me."

Nico winced. "I ran into some guy with no face, and he brought me here, though when I awoke I was alone." He hesitated. "He said something about wanting my powers." The demigod muttered as an afterthought.

Bakugo seemed to go pale, as if having an idea on who that was. " Oh. "

"So.. Who?" He was really hoping it wasn't someone like Kronos. ..or Gaea. He'd had more than enough wars under his belt.

"All for One."

Nico blinked. "Huh? What kind of name is that?"

The blonde raised an eyebrow. "It's- well- his villain name."

He almost wanted to laugh. "Let me guess, superheroes are a thing too?"

Bakugo nodded. Nico nearly choked.

" Oh. So that's how you.. did that? The explosions?"

"Yeah.. It's called a quirk. Have you really never heard of it before?"

Nico shook his head. Where was he? No, when was he? "What year is it?"

"3149, why?"

He paled. No. It didn't happen again. It couldn't be. "..I'm from 2016.." He whispered under his breath, though it was clear Bakugo heard if the way he was surprised meant anything.

"But quirks didn't develop then.. How can you use them?"

Nico wanted to curse himself. "I- Uhm-"

Luckily, he was interrupted just in time by a knock on the door that presumably led outside.

"Pizza delivery!" What kind of villains would order pizza to their BASE where they're holding HOSTAGES?

"Wha- Who ordered pizza?" One of them asked, only for the door to be smashed. " I AM HERE!" A buff man, who is also blonde yells, wearing some cheesy obviously superhero outfit with how flashy it was. It was.. cringy. He groaned. Imagine someone from camp wore outfits like those. He'd think he'd laugh and cry at the same time.

Bakugo waited for a good time that the villains were being dealt with to abruptly grab hold of him and boost himself with his explosions to safety to where other heroes were. His stomach might've flipped in on itself. Never was he so thankful that Zeus wasn't here to strike him down for daring to be in his domain.

"Oh thank Hades ." He muttered, being dragged to where the supposed 'heroes' were. That thought was almost funny, but he had no idea where he was- Well, he seemed to be in the future..? Merda. Was it the potato man who did that? 'All For One' Bakugo said. Either way, the Underworld didn't have a similar effect as the casino.. He wouldn't just appear a hundred years into the future upon leaving. He shouldn't.

Glancing behind him, the 'villains' had been restrained by something that resembled wood- yet he couldn't be too sure now, could he? If Bakugo here could create explosions, who knows what that could really be.

He jumped though when he was brought to the buff guy who had taken down the door. "Young Bakugo, I am so sorry you…" Nico ended up zoning that out a bit, realizing that it was probably personal stuff, until he felt a hand on his shoulder. Barely holding his flinch in, he looked up.

"And who may you be?"

"Nico di Angelo." Not offering anything less or anything more, the buff man looked at him with curiosity.

"I see then. We will talk later. Young Bakugo, I trust that you know where to go from here?"

Bakugo nodded, and Nico still had to think of buff guy as buff guy. Seriously, who is this guy? He doubted now was a good time to ask. This was probably the 'villains' base and all, so it might've been a big operation, yet he almost doubted it with the small number of heroes. Don't get him wrong, bigger doesn't necessarily mean stronger, considering the existence of 'the seven', but there were less than that here.

He shivered, going pale as he could sense death lingering on the buff man. It wasn't that hard to tell that this guy was important. The buff guy let go, turning to the other heroes. "Wait–"

A black liquid spilled out, and yet it floated in the air, summoning.. things that were almost comparable to monsters, yet so much more distinctly 'not human', regardless of the brain that peeked out. There was so much taint of death that flooded the place, he felt like he was almost choking.

Bakugo coughed, the liquid spilling from his mouth. Nico turned, watching in horror as it wrapped around him- and.. Warping him somewhere?

The buff guy fruitlessly tried to grab hold of him, but was too little too late. "Dammit."

His gaze snapped to the other heroes who were fighting the monsters now, and the villains nowhere to be found. The buff guy easily took them out, and now we were left with failure. Was Bakugo dead? He couldn't tell from all the possible deaths that flooded in through his nose and permeated his senses. He didn't know what he was doing! He had no Mythomagic to reference to either.

Nico relied on the power of the shadows to look for Bakugo in the hopes he was somewhere . He looked at the ghosts that surrounded the place, finding himself sick in the stomach when in the distance he saw a translucent little girl with black hair, hand in hand with a female (a mother?) who had brunette colored hair. "Tenko." They seemed to whisper, and pointed in one direction.

He didn't know who a Tenko was, but he'd be dumb to look a gift horse in the mouth. Nico expanded his reach, finding a group of mortals to be near someone with such an.. aura, it almost reminded him of Hades'.

The demigod grit his teeth, shadow traveling behind a wall, not wanting to be easily seen. Opening his eyes, he was met with other teenagers. .. Huh? It seemed they were as surprised as he was.

Realizing that they might mistake him for a villain, he held his hands up in a 'mercy' sort of thing and went down onto his knees so he wouldn't be so easily spotted. "I didn't know you were here– I'm not a villain, I swear, it's just my- friend? Acquaintance? Bakugo kinda went poof so I was following him, and–" He whispered nervously, looking carefully at their reactions. When he mentioned Bakugo though, they seemed to relax a little bit more. They must've known him.

He let out a breath of relief when they didn't seem like they were going to attack and put his hands down, peering out from the wall to freeze up at the sight of buff man (when did he get there?) fighting the potato man. "Porca puttana." Nico cursed under his breath.

Buff guy seemed to be taking way too many hits.. Nico summoned his sword, running in. It didn't matter if he didn't stand a chance, buff guy obviously was something special like Percy, and therefore he should at least try to act as a distraction for buff guy to get prepared and everything.

"HEY POTATO HEAD!" He yelled. "YEAH YOU!"

Potato man looked over to him, and he still wasn't going to get used to that sight, of no face. "Ah, Ghost King, what a surprise."

Nico growled, going in for a strike only for potato man to easily sidestep it, yet expecting this, Nico raised his free hand, commanding a chunk of the ground to raise up into the air and raise above the potato man and slamming it down on top of him, only for the potato man to wave a hand and easily break the rock.

"What are you planning?" He questioned, bringing his blade down straight onto his arm and using the others to do something he hadn't before- attempt to control someone's bones. Don't get him wrong, he's done it before, but only of the dead.

He forced it to stay still, only to feel his control waver and slither out of his grasp. Nico stumbled forward as the potato man liquidized and appeared farther away from him. It felt awful, like he'd stuck his hand in sludge.. Unfortunately, said sludge-liquid-thing- person? stole his sword.

Nico wanted to curse the gods, but there were no gods to curse here. Instead, he summoned two bones to act as his blades instead, dual wielding and running after. He was lucky that it was night time at least, there were so many shadows to his advantage, and he welded it around the bones as an extra layer of damage.

Striking seemed useless, so instead he threw them out in a split second like a boomerang, yet more of a homing one as it followed the potato man. It wouldn't do much, but he could exercise enough control to still make himself annoying, no matter how little or powerless.

Glancing behind him, he noticed the teenagers he had seen hiding before must've brought Bakugo somewhere else considering they both were gone. Now it was only him, buff guy, and potato man. He didn't know where the other villains were, but he could hope that the heroes had caught them.

He fell forward when potato man appeared behind him and kicked him in his back- oh, he was so glad he wasn't Percy right now. He knew when Percy had taken the curse of Achilles, his weak point was the center of his back. It would've hurt like hell if it were him.

Still, he cried out, hitting the ground and shadow traveling somewhere else on the battlefield, only for buff guy to appear and hard punch potato man, going ham on him and looking a little bit better than before.

His vision went dark, and he passed out.