Death Angel

Chapter Ten

This chapter is dedicated to _Creater_! They rock!
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Nico looked around the Training Room. It was huge, twice the size of the sword fighting arena at Camp Half-Blood.

In one corner was a pool, and in the one opposite was an archery range that Barton was currently using. The ghost king wasn't sure where the other Avengers were, because they had all immediately split up after breakfast.

The son of Hades glanced around. There were several dummies on one side of the room, and Nico palmed his black sword. It would be much more fun to fight an actual person, but a dummy would have to work for now.

Nico moved all of the dummies into a circle, evenly spaced far apart. Unbeknownst to him, Barton had stopped shooting targets and was now watching his activity.

He attacked the inanimate objects, slicing off their heads and limbs, hacking at their torsos, and practicing basic moves.

When every dummy was hacked to pieces and lying on the floor, the Italian turned around to the sound of clapping.

"Nice job," Barton commented. "Hpw good are you when the targets are alive?"

Nico sheathed his sword and shrugged. "Pretty good. Not as advanced as Percy, Annabeth, or Reyna, but still better than someone like Leo or Frank with a sword. Mechanics or archery is more their style."

"I've been meaning to ask you," the archer began. "The Apollo campers-how good are they compared to those Hunter girls?"

"Depends on the age and experience. Why?"

"Just scoping out the competition a little bit."

Nico shook his head. "I don't think you'll have to worry about that."

"Sirs?" JARVIS's voice asked politely through the speakers. "Mr. Rodgers has requested your presence. He says that it is urgent that you report upstairs immediately."

The two looked at each other and shrugged, heading for the elevator.

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"What's the emergency?" Barton asked, sliding into a chair with his bow slung over his shoulder.

"I... don't know," the super soldier admitted. "But there's something happening downtown, and it looks like it might be those monsters you told us about, Nico."

He pointed at a small floating screen that Stark had pulled up. Nico leaned forward to get a better look, and his lip curled angrily.

He gestured to the monsters. "That one in the lead is a manticore, named Dr. Thorn. He's very dangerous, and the first monster that I ever met. The ones behind him are called Earthborn; I thought that we had gotten rid of them. And at the very back are hellhounds."

"How can we defeat them?" Romanoff crossed her arms.

"You need Celestial Bronze, Imperial Gold, or Stygian Iron. Once you get a fatal hit on one of them, the monster will explode into yellow dust or goop. Usually the big ones will leave behind a spoil of war, like a head or a claw."

Nico frowned. "But none of you have the right kind of weapons. Thor, your lightning will probably work, but I don't know about anyone else."

The ghost king reached down and unstrapped the Celestial Bronze dagger from where he kept it on his leg. Occasionally he used his arm, but legs simply worked better. He handed it to Romanoff.

"Once you get close enough, stick them with this dagger in a vital spot."

The Russian accepted it, turning the blade over in her hands. "What about everyone else?"

"They'll just have to make do."

With that, Nico stepped into the edge of a shadow. "I'll meet you there."

The son of Hades felt power move through his entire body, and then he spun into cold darkness.

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Nico stepped out from behind a tall tree right into an Earthborn.

Before it could raise the alarm, the ghost king stabbed it in the chest and watched it dissolve into mud. He looked around for more, then tucked himself back into the shade of the branches.

The son of Hades crept around the trunk, listening to the strangely familiar snarl of Thorn's voice.

"The demigod will come," he hissed. "You must have faith in our leader. They know how to make their plans. I thought you knew this?"

The Earthborn roared, their grunting voices echoing loudly. A few of the hellhounds barked. Nico did a quick headcount.

Twenty Earthborn, ten hellhounds, and one manticore. Against him, a super soldier, two assassins, a flying suit of armor, and an Asguardian prince. Somehow, Nico doubted that Banner would be coming for a small battle like this one.

Speaking of which, Nico could see a spot of scarlet in the clouds. Across from it was a large grey fleck. A movement in a tree made him tilt his head, and he spotted the tip of an arrow sticking out of the leaves. Two other flickers of fabric, and the Italian saw Steve disappearing behind a tree as Romanoff did the same.

Excellent. Backup had arrived.

So Nico threw caution to the winds and attacked.

He managed to kill about three of the Earthborn before any of the monsters could react. Then a huge black body pounced on his chest, and Nico stared up into the gaping maw of a hellhound.

There was a sound akin to a whistle, and a large shield smacked into the side of its head. The hound yelped in pain and surprise, and the momentary distraction was all that Nico needed to send it back to Tartarus.

He nodded to Steve, who hurled his shield at another hellhound. The ghost king stabbed an Earthborn in the chest and decapitated a second that was behind him. He barely had time to wonder where everyone else was when there was a flash of bright light and two hounds were vaporized.

"Who said that you could start the party without me?" A mechanical voice asked indignantly. A bolt of lightning arced past him an incinerated an Earthborn.

Satisfied that they could handle the lesser monsters without him, Nico looked around. He didn't care what happened to the other monsters, as long as they were killed. But the son of Hades wanted Thorn.

As if in answer, a long, sharp spike buried itself into a tree trunk beside him. Nico spun around. The manticore was advancing towards him, scorpion tail lashing.

Thorn bared his fangs. "Nico di Angelo... "

The demigod raised his blade in response. "Thorn."

With a snarl, the creature lunged at him. Nico dodged, slicing down. He meant to hit the manticores's spine, but Thorn spun around an the Stygian Iron sank into a part of his wing instead.

Thorn roared in surprise, lashing his claws out and raking Nico's hip and leg before the ghost king could get out of range. The son of Hades hissed in pain and blood seeped through the slashes in his clothing.

Thorn ground his teeth in satisfaction and began to advance. "What will happen when the son of Hades is gone?"

He launched another spike from his tail, and it grazed Nico's shoulder. The boy growled and automatically raised a hand to the wound. Blood trickled through his fingers as fiery pain lanced through his arm and ribs.

"I wonder if you'll see your sister again?" Thorn asked rhetorically. "Or maybe she chose to move on and forget?"

The manticore grinned savagely and licked his lips when Nico froze. "Oh, yes. Word travels fast in the Underworld, especially in Tartarus. But I think you know that already?"

The world around Nico contorted, and suddenly the air was to hot. The acrid scent of the Pit tickled his nose and mouth. The ghost king didn't even realize that he was attacking until his sword bit into Thorn's neck, and the monster crumpled into ash.

But the wounds that the monster had inflicted, both mental and physical, had already done its job. Nico's world spiraled into darkness, and the ground spun upward to meet him.