Breaking the Gods

chapter 3

"This is all your fault," he told her.

"What? How is this my fault?"

"You jinxed us," he told her. Then to Anubis said, And see? I told you jinxes were real.

Coincidence, said Anubis dismissively.

"Boy, it's your own bad luck that brought this down on us," argued Sadie.

"Keep telling yourselves that!" Nico turned and stalked toward the angry demigod, staying on full alert.

Truthfully, he was wary of anyone or anything that could pull a fire hydrant right out of the sidewalk. He would have preferred not to get too close, but that would meant Sadie or Felix would have to, and of the three of them, he was the best choice for approaching crazy berserker demigods. Aside from being a fellow demigods, as opposed to a magician who was more likely to be treated with suspicion, Nico was the best fighter out of the three of them. His demigod blood gave him a heightened sense of awareness in battle, better reflexes, stamina, and strength . . . even if his strength wasn't on level with this particular demigod's. If this angry Roman-hating demigod managed to hit or seriously hurt him, he had the best chance of surviving. Nectar and ambrosia worked wonders on him, but would burn Sadie and Felix alive. But Nico didn't anticipate being hit by this thug. He was fast. He sparred with Percy on a semi-regular basis. Even if he couldn't beat his cousin yet, he could definitely give him a run for his money.

Nico found himself wishing Percy was there now, actually, as he caught sight of the geyser of water spouting up where the fire hydrant once stood. Percy could redirect that water and use it like a high powered fire hose, and pin the crazy demigod in place while he interrogated him. As soon as he realized what he was thinking, Nico tried to shove those thoughts aside. He didn't want to have to depend on Percy for everything. He wanted to be able to stand on his own, and be taken seriously by other people.

It was with that in mind that he approached the other demigod who, the other gamers in the card shop, were wisely keeping their distance from.

"Excuse me?" he said.

The demigod responded with something that sounded like, "Garchargh! Blach varaaugh!" as he continued assaulting the Roman Fury window cling. Though to be fair, he might not have been responding to Nico at all. He'd been making similar noises even before Nico approached him.

"Excuse me?" repeated Nico, but that got no response either. "Hey!"

"Gods . . . their fault! Araugh!"

Nico . . . this demigod is clearly unstable. The wisest course of action would probably be to subdue him and take him to Camp Half-Blood.

OK, I'll give you that he seems unstable, but . . . it just seems wrong to knock him out and drag him somewhere . . . plus it's not dark enough for me to shadow travel him yet, said Nico.

Anubis gave a mental sigh. Please be careful, however you choose to proceed.

Right, promised Nico. Then he spoke again to the other demigod. "Hey! Noob! What the crap do you think you're doing? Taking out your daddy issues on a Mythomagic display? You suck!"

That's not proceeding with caution!

Perhaps it was not, but it got a reaction from the other demigod, when being polite hadn't. The boy looked up and locked unsettling blue eyes onto Nico's. "Who are you?"

"Nico di Angelo," he answered. "Son of Hades. And you?"

"Son of Hades?" the other demigod growled, his voice rising and falling in weird, disturbing ways, like his vocal chords had been used to string a guitar or something, then unstrung and put back in his throat.