Percy Jackson and Maximum Ride

Chapter Twelve: Shiny New Toy

Chapter Twelve: Shiny New Toy

***Nico di Angelo***

When I finally woke up, I felt a swinging motion. Opening my eyes, I found myself staring at the floor from a few feet up. Twisting slightly, I managed to glimpse the hybrid whose shoulder I was slung across.

I started to struggle against his grip as he turned numerous corners of the white luminous hallway, but he just growled something incoherent and tightened his grip.

So I resorted to annoying him.

I started punching and kicking him as hard as I could, twisting in his grip in an attempt to get him to release me. Then I started threatening him.

I was explaining, in great detail, how I was going to gut him when I got my sword back, and exactly which of his entrails I would trail line the grounds of Tartarus with when we finally entered a room that was especially bright, like it was lit up by neon white lights or something.

One thing was for sure.

In this brightness there was no way I could find a shadow anywhere near big enough for me to use to escape through.

Then I heard a voice that everyone at both camps had longed to hear.

"Nico?!" It was Percy.

I craned my neck as much as I could from my position over the hybrid's shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of the abducted son of Posiden.

"No, it's Hades." I said sarcastically.

Confusion colored hid words. "Really?"

I sighed and rubbed at the bags under my eyes. "It's Nico, Kelp Head."

He blushed slightly. "I knew that."

"Mm-hmm."

"Shut it, zombie."

"You're the one who asked the dumb question, Seaweed Brain."

"Whatever."

Then Thalia interfered.

"Girls, girls, you're both pretty. Can you stop fighting now?"

"Nice to see you, too, Thalia," I said. "Artemis is going ballistic. Hello, Annabeth. Your mother is going to incinerate your captors when she finds you. And your father is going to help her, Percy.

"You hear that, hybrid? Our parents are going to make you regret the day you were born, or made, or whatever, but I can probably convince my dad to let you spend eternity in the Fields of Punishment rather than Tartarus if you put me down and let us go right now."

"Enough already." the hybrid growled as he shook me.

Then I heard something open, and next thing I knew I was shoved into a . . . dog crate? That's a new personal low. I mean, I've been trapped in chains before, even in in a jar, but a dog crate?

Really?

"Are you alright, Nico?" Annabeth asked when the hybrid had left.

I sighed wearily and passed a hand over my face, my skull ring glinting in the white light of the room.

Gods.

I'm just so tired. So sick and tired of all the garbage I had to constantly go through.

But I didn't tell that to Annabeth.

I didn't tell her that I just wanted to curl up in a ball, fall asleep, and never wake up, either.