Nico di Angelo and the Avengers

Chapter Nine

Dedicated to -Shiki- cuz you were the first comment, and everyone go follow Albathor! They need more followers they only have 1!

Steve's POV

We all walked in silence back to Stark's Tower. The only sound that could be heard was the honking of cars, pedestrians as they made their way home from work, and the occasional animal. All in all the city hummed with an untamed life, one that you become attuned to when you've lived in this era your whole life. To me, the amount of cars and flashing lights were still a bit overwhelming. We had cars of course, but they had been a little different...

"Shouldn't those two be... I don't know.... catching up or something? They look like they're trying to ignore each others presence." Natasha's hushed voice brought me out of my thoughts as she made silent hand gestures towards the two demigods that stood in front of us.

It was almost as if there was an invisible brick wall that stood between the two. Nico kept very close to the right side of the side walk, his arm almost at risk of being hit he was so close to the speeding traffic of New York. Leo on the other hand was so far to the left of the side walk that his left arm rubbed against the buildings, his worn shoes scuffing against the rough structures. Neither one looked at the other, but you could feel the tension building in the air, thickening the wall between them. No matter how hard the two were trying, the fact that the other was there only seemed to become more pronounced by the second.

"I would think so, but I don't know if they don't like each other too much or what. Remember, we don't really know them, so we don't know if they have a rivalry or something like that." Just then one of the boys spoke.

"Nico..." The son of Hephaestus stopped in his tracks, his eyes making quick darting movements to three very large beefy boys. They all wore large black hoodies and ripped jeans. On their left side, directly over their hearts were name tags, "Joe Bob, Marrow Sucker, and Skull Eater... Percy told me about them..." Nico's voice seemed so dark and haunting, just like you would imagine a ghost to sound like as he quickly moved closer to his fellow demigod.

"What are they? They're really ugly!" Leo scrunched up his nose in disgust, leaning against the wall.

"They're just a few teens aren't they? Why are yo..." I stopped mid sentence as the three teens flickered to reveal eight foot tall giants with tattoos trialing down their arms. All three had wicked smiles pulling up their loose dry skin, revealing pointed yellow teeth. "Oh."

"If I remember right, they're called Laistrogens, or Laistrygonians, something like that. Percy might have mentioned something about them being Canadians or whatever. Either way they're cannibals, but luckily for us, they work with fire. They usually use flaming cannonballs, or flaming anything they can through..." Nico explained, and for the first time since he arrive Leo and the son of Hades made eye contact. The pain that shot through their eyes was very noticeable, but neither one broke contact. "You distract, I kill?" Nico suggested.

"Works for me... and um... watch my back..." Both boys cringed at those simple words, but they both set to work. Luckily the street had mostly cleared, and only a few people remained in the vicinity. All the people that were left was a teen-aged couple, a stumbling drunk man, a business lady, a few shop owners, and the occasionally cars rushing to get home.

"We can help too!" Clint informed the two boys, notching an arrow on his taught bow string.

"That would be great, but is that arrow head celestial bronze or imperial gold? Because if it's not you'll only tick them off." Nico calmly stated, making his way across the street as Leo stepped up, hands cupping around his mouth to amplify sound.

"Hey you, uglies!!" Joe Bob, Skull Eater, and Marrow Sucker all turned in our direction. Their dark beady eyes zeroing in on the son of Hephaestus. "Have you ever heard of brushing your teeth because your breath stinks! I knew you were idiots, but I didn't realize just how stupid you were. I bet you were to dumb to even realize that I was a demigod. And gods, why are you so freakishly tall? That's just weird!" The three giants let out angry growls, and Marrow Sucker picked up a table. He light it on fire and threw it at Leo, but the demigod just dodged.

"Gods I didn't think this through. I may be able to resist fire, but I can still be flattened like a pancake!" Leo hissed dodging another flaming table that was thrown by Skull Eater.

Leo threw himself down onto the ground just as a flaming car smashed into the building behind him, debris flying everywhere. I made a move to help, but was held back by Thor who silently pointed to the other end of the street. Nico di Angelo had a very scary look in his eye as he raised his onyx sword, and brought it crashing into the earth. Three cracks in the ground split off from his initial blow, and skeletal hands reached up. Two swords clattered against the ground, and a spear was lodged into the earth as the dead men rose up. All three brandished their weapons, and charged towards the giants who turned around just as the skeletons reached them.

Skull Eater and Joe Bob were able to stop the deadly attack from their skeleton, but Marrow Sucker was run clean through, disintegrating on the spot. "We will kill you son of Hades! We will kill you for our Lord!" Joe Bob screamed, picking up another table. The flaming object flew through the air like a hurtling meteor, but Nico made no attempts to move. Instead the shadows moved to the son of Hades, and he disappeared just as the table reached him.

"Who do you work for!?" I jumped in surprise as Nico di Angelo materialized right beside me, his pale face set in an angry glare.

"We could tell you, but it won't matter because we are going to kill you anyways!" Skull Eater yelled triumphantly.

"Hey! Don't forget about me!" A blazing hot jet of fire slammed into Joe Bob, who screamed in agony. The giant flailed around, throwing himself into a wall, and soon putting out the flames. His already ugly skin was now scorched with burn marks, but other than that he seemed fine, just very angry.

Joe Bob walked back to his place beside Skull Eater, clenching his yellow teeth together in hatred. "That won't kill me son of Hephaestus!"

"I wasn't planning on it." Leo smirked. Joe Bob's eyes grew wide as the tip of a dark blade jutted out of his stomach. The blade was jerked to the left towards Skull Eater, slicing through the other giants torso as well. A cloud of monster dust enveloped the spot where the two had stood seconds prior, and as it cleared Nico di Angelo could be seen. His dark hair was casting a dark shadow over his eyes which glinted dangerously. His jaw was clenched in anger, and his sword shook with his fury.

"Nico! You could have at least left one of them alive! They could have known where Hazel was!" Leo shouted, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"They didn't know anything Leo..." The son of Hades voice was surprisingly soft. I had expected him to yell, or glare and not answer at all.

"How do you know that!?!"

"Because Laistrygonians are very stupid and they know it. They say whatever they know when asked, so they sound like they're more important than they really are. When we asked who their leader was, and they didn't say who it really was that was a sure sign for me that they didn't know. Even if they had been trained to say that, they wouldn't have, because like I said, they're dumb." Nico sighed.

"Well.. thanks for watching my back." The two made eye contact, and it seemed as though the tense atmosphere was slowly relaxing around the two. Whatever issue that had, they seemed to have come to an agreement.

"Yeah.."

"We should get going. It's late and you two look tired." Bruce informed us, checking his watch.

"Yeah, you two ready?" I asked the two demigods beside me.

"Lead the way my good sir!" Leo bowed, taking an imaginary top hat from his head.

Chuckling I nodded, and we set off. Luckily, this time we weren't interrupted.

I'm trying with the fight scenes I really am!! What has everyone so down? Why is everything so weird between the demigods?

Question of the day: How far are you in the Percy Jackson/ Heroes of Olympus series?