Heroes

Chapter 13: Rising

Nico’s eyes were round, and brighter than I had seen them in a while.  His gaze was flickering between me and the Captain.

“Yep, he’s Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America. It sounds like you’ve heard of him?” I asked.

“Heard of him? He was my childhood hero, the first superhero ever! I mean, I don’t remember my childhood, but in the casino I learned all about him- you.” He corrected himself, looking at Steve. “I knew there was a Captain America on the Avengers team, but I guess I didn’t believe it was the same one.”

Steve chuckled, “Yes, I am still alive, frozen in ice in the middle of WWII. You are from my time as well?”

Nick nodded, “Yeah, I was sent to a casino by my father, where I was frozen in time for about 70 years. My dad is Hades, god of the underworld, and he sent me there to keep me away from the war. He released me eventually because he planned to use me later as tool to save Olympus, but,” he shrugged, “Percy got there first.”

I blushed. “I thought you guys might want to talk to someone from your era who isn’t, y’know, 100. I’m not sure how much you remember of the ‘30s and ‘40s, Nico, but you both had such similar situations, I couldn’t resist.”

“When I was in the Casino, I thought it was the 1940s. All of the games, books, and other media I consumed were from the late ‘30s and ‘40s. I feel like I lived there my whole childhood. It was a pretty huge shock when I left the casino and realized there were phones, laptops, and tablets."

"Exactly! S.H.E.I.L.D. tried to fool me into thinking I was still in the '40s, but they got the date wrong and I figured it out."

 "Huh. I had a more brutal awakening. As soon as I got out, my dad's minion dropped me into military school. Luckily, I got out before the second semester started."

"Oh yeah, Percy told us about how he broke you out, but got Annabeth kidnapped," Clint interjected.

"Basically," Nico agreed.

"There was a manticore! It was so not (completely) my fault," I defended myself.

Nico waved away my comment.

I was still slightly offended, but I got an idea, "Hey, Steve, have you ever heard of the game Mythomagic?"

 "Yeah, I think so. It was about Greek myths and stuff right?" Steve responded.

"Seriously?" asked Nico. He tried to remain calm and dignified, but I knew Mythomagic was still his weakness after all this time. "You've heard of it?"

"My friend's brother used to play it. I think I still remember how, if we had any game pieces," said Steve, catching on to Nico's interest.

The next thing I knew, Nico was sitting across the table from Steve, both of them grabbing at the figurines Nico must have conjured. 

They launched in to a conversation about the joys of the modern world, while Clint, Natasha and I retreated slowly to the adjacent living room. The three of us plopped down and started flipping through channels on the TV. We settled on some police drama that none of us were very interested in. An hour or so later I stood up from the couch and stretched my back. I walked over to the table occupied by Nico and Steve, who were debating the pros and cons of modern food. Nico was putting up a strong argument for McDonald's that Steve was effectively contradicting with frozen burritos.  

"Hey, guys, hate to break this up but dinner's in 10 minutes. Are you planning to stay, Nico?"

He snorted, "Nah, way too much awkward interaction for me." He stood up, "It was good to meet you Steve!"