Percy Jackson and Maximum Ride

Chapter Eleven: Enter the Ghost King

Chapter Eleven: Enter the Ghost King

***Nico di Angelo***

"No Hazel, I haven't seen them."

The light of the moon glinted off my skull ring as I gripped the hilt of my sheathed Stygian iron sword.

My half-sister bit her lip, and the Iris Message flickered with the passing of a summer breeze. Her eyes were swimming with concern and fear, and she sighed in disappointment.

"Okay Nico. Thanks. Hurry back to camp, alright? I don't want them to take you too."

I nodded briefly and raised my hand to dismiss the mist composed screen.

"Bye Nico!"

I inclined my head once more and brought my hand through the screen.

I was alone again in New Orleans Cemetery, one of my favorite spots to unwind. Hazel knew this, so that's how she was able to I.M. me. I sighed wearily and passed a hand over my pale face, rubbing at the bags under my eyes.

Gods. When was the last time I had slept for three consecutive hours?

And now I had to hunt down Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia.

I nimbly leaped of the wide, worn down tombstone I had been sitting on, and gazed up at the full moon.

Shaking my head at the hopelessness of the situation, I strode to a statue of a guardian angel that was casting a large enough shadow for me to travel through, when I was suddenly grabbed by my sword arm and flung away from it.

I landed next to a grave-marker, or, rather, on it.

Ow.

My head swam as I pushed myself onto my elbows. Cursing my attackers, I shakily pushed myself into a standing position, blinking the stars out my eyes.

I drew my sword and dropped into a defensive crouch, just in time to raise my sword to block a heavy fist that was swinging towards my head.

I stabbed my attacker and he howled as my sword passed clean through his knee-cap. I quickly tugged my sword out of him and he fell to the ground, clutching at his knee, growling and spitting acrid curses directed at me.

That's what he gets for messing with the son of Hades.

I ducked as another one ran towards me, holding something that reflected moonlight in the dreary darkness of the graveyard. Great. They were armed.

I gathered my wits and crouched back down, sword held before me, tense and ready for action.

I found myself surrounded by . . . mutants? I had never seen monsters like these before. Desperately trying to buy some time for me to think of a plan, I straightened slightly and spoke up, a little curious as to whether or not they would answer me.

"Who are you?" I asked, my voice cold and my glare trained on them. "What do you want with me?"

An especially powerful-looking hybrid stepped forward, hands held up in a surrendering position.

"We want you to come with us. If you do, you can be reunited with your friends. We have the son of Poseidon, the daughter of Athena, and the daughter of Zeus."

My hand tightened around my sword's hilt.

"What did you do with them? Where are they?"

"Come with us, son of Hades, and you'll find out."

I let the corners of my lips raise in a thin smile. I've been told that my smiles are even creepier than my glares.

"It's amusing, the way you think you have a choice." I drawled.

The armed skeletal warriors of my father's army began to crawl out the ground around them, and the warm graveyard got noticeably colder as the smell of death began to invade the air. I dropped my chilling smile and glared at them instead.

"I'm going to ask you once more before I get angry." I began, my voice deadly quiet and dripping with malice. "Where. Are. My. Friends?"

The one who had spoken to me bared his teeth in a snarl. "You'll not get that information if we're dead, half-blood."

"Maybe not yet," I replied. " but I can torture it out of your souls when you're sent to Tartarus. Or I can have Father's torturers, the Furies themselves, wring the information out of you."

The others around him visibly paled at the prospect of bonding time with the Furies, but their leader stayed his ground.

"Well?" I asked. "What is your decision? Eternal torment or a chance to see another sunrise?"

Suddenly, he smirked. "Neither."

Just as I opened my mouth to tell him that that wasn't an option, I felt a sharp pain in the back of my neck.

My vision swam, and I reached a hand up to my neck to find the source of my latest discomfort. Sluggishly, as if I was moving through jello, I pulled a dart out my neck. My sword thudded to ground as my army vanished back into the Underworld. Then my knees buckled, and I fell to the ground of the graveyard. The last thing I saw was the hybrid leader, grinning over me in triumph, before my eyelids became too heavy to keep open, and I sank into blackness.

***Ari***

As the son of Hades fell asleep from the heavy dose of tranquilizer, I grinned in an effort to hide my fears. Busting Max, the Flock, and the other demigods out was going to be more difficult now that I had another one to worry about.

I put a hand to my ear where a small communicator device rested and spoke into it.

"We have him."