Ghost King Meets Batman

So Not Asterous

Nico looked around his room for things that he could use to wrap his hands with. He figured that it wasn't very high voltage, but touching the knob to try to open the door meant accepting defeat. Nico wouldn't let that happen. Nico crept over to the trunk at the end of his bed, searching for his non-conductive combat gloves They were made with cotton, nylon, and polyester which weren't very good conductors. Once he had found them, he went back to the door. The gloves didn't have fingers so he put his hands on either side of the knob-- being sure to keep his fingers straight-- and twisted. When it opened, Jason jumped at him and yelled 'HA!'. The rest of the batboys were there as well, watching on in amusement.

Nico laughed as he saw Jason's smirk drop when he saw the gloves on his hands, "No way! How did you not fall for that!?" Nico glanced at the other boys who also seemed very surprised as well. Oh great, he blew it again.

" I uh,  I have a lot of experience with being pranked," Nico said, embarrassed that all the attention was once again on him. He knew that it was a weak response that wouldn't hold up to serious questioning, but luckily the others didn't press the issue. 

" Well boys, we can up our game! Nico seems more than ready to handle it." Dick said wrapping one arm around Jason and the other around Damian. The boys called a temporary truce to eat.

"Ok guys, we have to add some rules: all pranks are to stay upstairs until after the gala, and no pranking during the gala either," Dick said after breakfast. Dick held up his hands to stop the protests from both Jason and Tim, "by request of Alfred."

" Fine." The two boys said dejectedly. No one dared defy the will of Alfred in this house. Not only would you get it from Bruce (or so he was told), but you would also get a lecture from Alfred about courtesy and manners. Once was enough, according to Jason.

"Ok, I'm going to the orchard," Nico said. Without waiting for a reply, he pivoted on his heel and made his way out to the back of the house. Nico had to do some planning. He had been shown around the grounds during his tour and decided that the orchard would be the most private place at the manor. It was also really nice to be a part of nature for a while and pretend that he was free of the supernatural world. If he daydreamed hard enough, he could almost pretend that he'd grown up here and that the monsters were the fantasy.

Once he had tucked himself behind a cluster of trees, the son of Son of Hades settled in to plot his next move. Nico remembered something that Beckendorf had been designing before he died. It was a mosquito-killing centaur. He wasn't good with machinery but had always been great at assembling things with instructions. He figured that, if he could recreate the automaton, it would be great to set it loose on his brothers. He just needed to call in a favor.

Nico used a hose by the greenhouse to make a rainbow that he used to contact Nyssa. She said something about a curse and said that it would take her a couple of hours to replace the celestial bronze with copper or plastic, and the arrows with Nerf darts. Nico thanked her and told her that he would be by that night to get it. Until then, he was going to have to keep the others occupied. Nico was about to head inside to go and start phase one, but he was stopped by the first monster he's come in contact with since he'd been there. This monster, though, wasn't quite as frightening as it probably should have been.

"Demigod!" Nico turned, grabbing his skull ring. When he looked, he was confronted by a dracaena (sp?).

" Sssssurrender now Demigod! Kronossss will return and overthrow the godssssss!" Nico stared at her in confusion, his fear turning to wariness. This poor thing was obviously very lost. It had been well over a month since the last titan battle. How she had gotten so far off course was a mystery.

" Um, sorry to ruin your party, but we already sent him back to Tartarus. Go root for some other evil being." The snake woman eyed him suspiciously.

" Are you ssssssure?" It asked, her snake-like trunks twining around anxiously. Nico nodded seriously, almost having a civil conversation with her. He didn't know why she should believe anything he told her, but she didn't seem to think twice about it.