"Okay . . . so do you demigods hate the Roman forms of your pantheon or something?" asked Sadie.
"I've never heard of anything like that," Nico started to say, when Anubis spoke up.
Nico . . . there is something that you do not know.
"Wait," Nico requested to Sadie and Felix. To Anubis he stated, I'm listening.
There . . . your pantheon of gods . . . they have a Roman form. And at one time, their Roman forms were able to have children. And . . . the Roman demigods were once at war with the Greek demigods.
"But that . . . that doesn't make sense," said Nico accidentally speaking out loud. Then he caught himself. Why would they do that? Why would we do that? I mean . . . they were our brothers and sisters, right?
I cannot pretend to comprehend the minds of mortals, let alone Greek or Roman ones, Nico.
Why do I get the feeling you know more than you're telling me? asked Nico.
Damning silence was his only response.
"Okay, I just remembered that there used to be demigods who were children of the Roman forms of our gods, and that us kids of their Greek forms used to be at war with them. But . . . I guess those guys aren't around anymore since I haven't heard anything recent about them . . ."
But even as he said that, he realized that might not be true. Sadie apparently came to the same conclusion.
"Not necessarily," she said. "They might still be around. I mean, you guys hadn't heard of the House of Life before you met us."
You think that's what this is? Nico asked Anubis.
I don't have any idea what this is. Even if he is a Roman, I don't know why he would be trying to kill a window cling with the Roman pantheon on it.
Hey, stop that! shouted Nico, realizing that while he was distracted, Anubis had taken control of his body and was shaking his head at Sadie. He wrested control back and mentally glowered at Anubis. When we get back, you're going to tell me everything you know about this, Anubis.
There's not much to tell. I don't keep track of the affairs of demigods. Or at least I did not until I accidentally possessed you.
"Maybe," said Nico, suspiciously. That one word conveniently served as an adequate response to both Sadie's comment and Anubis's lie. "I can't remember anything else right now. But there's a chance that this demigod might know something about them," he continued, addressing Sadie.
"So what do we do?" Felix wanted to know..
"You don't do anything. I'm going to try talking to him. Both of you, stay back."
Predictably, Sadie had protests. "We're not letting you do this alone," she said immediately.
"He's unarmed. And the only thing he really wants to kill seems to be that window decal. I'm just going to try to talk to him, and see if I can figure out what's wrong with him," said Nico. "You guys are magicians, and lately we've been being taught that you guys can be dangerous. So you should probably stay back and not provoke him."
He was expecting more of an argument from Sadie, but she surprised him.
"Alright," she said. "But be careful."
"I will," said Nico, then started toward the angry demigod. Then stopped as something occurred to him. "Oh, and Sadie?"
"Yes?"
"This is all your fault," he told her.
"What? How is this my fault?"
"You jinxed us," he told her. Then to Anubis said, And see? I told you jinxes were real.
Coincidence, said Anubis dismissively.
"Boy, it's your own bad luck that brought this down on us," argued Sadie.
"Keep telling yourselves that!" Nico turned and stalked toward the angry demigod, staying on full alert.
Truthfully, he was wary of anyone or anything that could pull a fire hydrant right out of the sidewalk. He would have preferred not to get too close, but that would meant Sadie or Felix would have to, and of the three of them, he was the best choice for approaching crazy berserker demigods. Aside from being a fellow demigods, as opposed to a magician who was more likely to be treated with suspicion, Nico was the best fighter out of the three of them. His demigod blood gave him a heightened sense of awareness in battle, better reflexes, stamina, and strength . . . even if his strength wasn't on level with this particular demigod's. If this angry Roman-hating demigod managed to hit or seriously hurt him, he had the best chance of surviving. Nectar and ambrosia worked wonders on him, but would burn Sadie and Felix alive. But Nico didn't anticipate being hit by this thug. He was fast. He sparred with Percy on a semi-regular basis. Even if he couldn't beat his cousin yet, he could definitely give him a run for his money.
Nico found himself wishing Percy was there now, actually, as he caught sight of the geyser of water spouting up where the fire hydrant once stood. Percy could redirect that water and use it like a high powered fire hose, and pin the crazy demigod in place while he interrogated him. As soon as he realized what he was thinking, Nico tried to shove those thoughts aside. He didn't want to have to depend on Percy for everything. He wanted to be able to stand on his own, and be taken seriously by other people.
It was with that in mind that he approached the other demigod who, the other gamers in the card shop, were wisely keeping their distance from.
"Excuse me?" he said.
The demigod responded with something that sounded like, "Garchargh! Blach varaaugh!" as he continued assaulting the Roman Fury window cling. Though to be fair, he might not have been responding to Nico at all. He'd been making similar noises even before Nico approached him.
"Excuse me?" repeated Nico, but that got no response either. "Hey!"
"Gods . . . their fault! Araugh!"
Nico . . . this demigod is clearly unstable. The wisest course of action would probably be to subdue him and take him to Camp Half-Blood.
OK, I'll give you that he seems unstable, but . . . it just seems wrong to knock him out and drag him somewhere . . . plus it's not dark enough for me to shadow travel him yet, said Nico.
Anubis gave a mental sigh. Please be careful, however you choose to proceed.
Right, promised Nico. Then he spoke again to the other demigod. "Hey! Noob! What the crap do you think you're doing? Taking out your daddy issues on a Mythomagic display? You suck!"
That's not proceeding with caution!
Perhaps it was not, but it got a reaction from the other demigod, when being polite hadn't. The boy looked up and locked unsettling blue eyes onto Nico's. "Who are you?"
"Nico di Angelo," he answered. "Son of Hades. And you?"
"Son of Hades?" the other demigod growled, his voice rising and falling in weird, disturbing ways, like his vocal chords had been used to string a guitar or something, then unstrung and put back in his throat.
"Yeah," snapped Nico, not liking the way the other guy was looking at him, like he was some sort of weakling who would be cowed. "Wanna make something of it, punk?"
The other demigod blinked, taken aback by Nico's refusal to be cowed. "Hades is bad," the guy muttered after trying to stare Nico down for several seconds longer.
Nico gritted his teeth and fought down the urge to react violently.
Do not stab him, ordered Anubis.
I wasn't going to . . . even though I'd like do, returned Nico. "You think your father's so much better, huh?" asked Nico, trying to redirect the conversation in a way that would get him some information. "But you won't even identify yourself, or your father? Or is it your mom who's a goddess?"
The other demigod continued glaring with those weird blue eyes, and Nico was suddenly struck by how wrong they looked. He couldn't really explain how, but they didn't look natural, the same way bottle blondes or people with dyed red hair didn't look natural. He found himself wondering if the other demigod was wearing contacts, even as he tried to remember if he knew of any god who had eyes like that.
"Have you not been claimed yet?" asked Nico when he was only met with silence. "Is that it? Or are you just ashamed?"
"Ashamed? It is them who should be ashamed!"
"Them? Who?" asked Nico.
"Your father! My father! All the gods!" shouted the demigod. "It's all their fault!"
"What's all their fault?"
"Everything!"
"Alright, look, Leroy –"
"Leroy? My name is not Leroy!"
"Well I have to call you something. So unless you tell me your name and heritage right now, I'm just going to call you Leroy."
"My name . . . is Piers. Son of Kratos."
The god of strength, Anubis supplied.
Who only has 1700 attack power. Yeah, I know.
"Okay, Piers, son of Kratos – Whoa!" He had to dodge as Piers took a swing at him that probably would have broken him in half.
"Don't call me that! Don't speak of that being as my father! It's his fault! Everything that's happened to me! Everything that's happened to everyone! His fault! Aurghah!"
Nico –
Shut up! I know what I'm doing! Nico ducked under Piers's next punch then came up under his guard and upper-cutted him. As the other demigod staggered, he hooked out one of his legs and sent him falling backwards. "Look," he said angrily, "you're pissed off. I get it. I don't know you, or what's happened to you, but I do know what it's like for demigods. So yeah, you probably have a right to be pissed off. But you don't have the right to go around putting other people in danger! That stunt you pulled with the fire hydrant? You almost killed a kid with that thing!"
Piers growled.
"Growl at me again and I'll cut your throat," threatened Nico. "You think I won't?"
"I know you will. It's your father's fault."
"What's my father's fault? That I'm violent and prone to threatening people with death? Not really," scoffed Nico. "You're not the only one whose had a tough life. I'm a demigod too, remember? I've had to deal with a lot of crap too! I lost my whole family. Now that I've found a new one, I'll do whatever I have to do to protect them. And that kid you almost killed? He's part of my new family. So you will listen when I tell you to control yourself or I'll make sure that you can never hurt anyone ever again. Understand?"
"You think you're strong enough to beat me?"
"You may be the son of the god of strength, but I'm the son of one of the Big Three," said Nico coldly.
"It's not my fault!"
Nico scowled at this weird declaration. "What's not?"
"I didn't want this! It's not my fault! I never wanted his strength! It's his fault! All the gods' faults! They have to be stopped!"
Are you making any sense of this? Nico asked Anubis.
He seems to be blaming your pantheon for something, said Anubis.
Really? What gave you that idea?
Anubis ignored his sarcasm. The Roman pantheon might not even play a part in this at all. He could have merely mistaken them for your pantheon, especially since the art on that display wasn't at all accurate.
So . . . we still think this guy's buckets of crazy, right?
Yes. We do.
But now we know he's a buckets of crazy guy on a guilt trip. Possibly caused by hurting someone with his strength? guessed Nico.
Thinking that wouldn't be a stretch, agreed Anubis, though nothing's certain.
So . . . I'm thinking the best thing to do would be to knock him out, get him out of here before the cops show up, keep him knocked out, and get us some transport to Camp Half-Blood?
That's what I suggested to begin with, Anubis reminded him.
Yeah, I know, and you were right, but I had to at least try reasoning with him, said Nico. For all the good it did.
Trying to be responsible sucked, Nico was starting to realize. He didn't know how Percy did it. It would have been so much easier just to knock the crazy son of Kratos out, instead of talking with him. The only useful thing he'd learned was that Piers's father was the Greek god of strength.
You don't happen to have a sleep spell handy, do you? Nico asked Anubis. Because if you don't, I'm going to have to club him over the head until he passes out.
Give me control, requested Anubis, and Nico obliged. Then the god pointed two fingers down at Piers and spoke several words. The hieroglyphics for "deep sleep" appeared in the air around him, and then Piers was down for the count.
And now if you could just toss him into my Duat storage for me, requested Nico.
You want me to do what?
Where else are we going to put him? If you have any ideas, speak up now. The cops are here.
It was true. A squad car had just pulled up, close to, but not too close to, the place where Piers had pulled up the fire hydrant. The store owner hurried out through the front door to speak to the officer, and started gesturing toward Piers, and by default, Nico as well.
Hmm. Perhaps the best course of action now would be to let them take him into custody, and have Camp Half-Blood arrange for an extraction.
And have him wake up and go on a rampage in jail? asked Nico.
They'll take him to a hospital. The spell I cast will have rendered him comatose for at least twenty-four hours.
I should probably be upset about the comatose part . . . but I'm really not, Nico told him. That'll make it easier for the extraction team.
The cover story wasn't too far out there, and the cops and store owner seemed to buy it. Nico didn't try to refute what Piers had done, since he couldn't manipulate the Mist and rewrite peoples' memories about what had just happened. So he just told them that he tried to calm Piers down, though he didn't let people know that he knew the guy's name. Then he claimed that Piers had a seizure, and told them he thought it might be drug related, because that guy seemed strung out on something. An ambulance was called, and the paramedics took him to the hospital. Then Nico, Sadie, and Felix withdrew back to Brooklyn House.
Nico headed to his room immediately to gather his stuff, so that he could get ready to head back to camp.
"Do you really have to leave?" asked Sadie from his doorway as he grabbed his backpack and started packing. "Can't you just like . . . get the people from your camp to take care of this?"
"They don't know what happened," Nico reminded her.
"So call them. Let them know. Then let them take care of it," said Sadie. 'That's what they do, right?"
"They're going to want me to repeat the story. Multiple times," said Nico. "And they're going to want me to be on hand to answer all their questions while they try to fish for details."
"But you just got here." Sadie did not look pleased at all.
"Sorry," said Nico. "If it's any consolation, it shouldn't take too long. I'll probably be back by tomorrow."
"Except you're forgetting how this is going to turn out to be something bigger than just a random demigod freaking out on a store window. Something that's probably going to involve your Roman demigod counterparts still being alive, and restarting a war, that you're bound to get wrapped up in, probably on some covert assignment that requires you to go deep undercover, then the next thing you know, you'll be gone for another three weeks doing work for your demigod camp," huffed Sadie.
"Woman, stop jinxing me," growled Nico. "It's almost like you want that to happen."
"Be serious," snapped Sadie. "Jinxes aren't real."
"Oh yes they are."
"And we need you here," said Sadie. "Not off running around the country, doing demigod work for your camp again. Not goofing off with Percy at beach week. Here. At Brooklyn House. Helping us so we can beat Apophis!"
"I have been helping you," protested Nico.
"You've been helping us part time with a few sword fighting lessons."
"And gathering information for you when I'm away. And what more can I really do here other than combat classes?" asked Nico. "That's all I'm good at that's of any use here. I suck at magic."
"So you should be coming to our classes and getting better so you can help us," snapped Sadie. "So that if we get in a pinch, you can use magic too."
"If we get in a pinch and I have to cast a spell, Anubis will take over," said Nico, dropping his voice.
"But what about after we figure out how to separate you and Anubis?" asked Sadie.
"Then I probably won't be able to do Egyptian magic at all," pointed out Nico. He tried not to sound too stung by what Sadie was saying. "I'm sorry I have to leave, Sadie, but you know I have to do this."
"What we have to do is figure out what Apophis is doing attacking random museums," said Sadie.
"We've been trying. I've been helping you, remember?" asked Nico.
"You haven't even looked over the pictures we took of the last one to try to help us find a pattern," said Sadie.
"I'll look at them as soon as I get back, but I have to take care of this demigod problem first," said Nico.
"Hey," said Carter, coming up behind Sadie. "Felix said something happened?"
Nico started shoving the few things that he'd need into his backpack as Sadie summarized the trip's highlights.
"Wow. That sounds like a headache," said Carter once Sadie had finished. "I guess you need to go deal with the extraction team or whatever?"
Nico shook his head. "They'll probably send satyrs to extract him, since they can pass as grown-ups. I need to go answer whatever questions they have about the incident and how Piers was acting."
"How long do you think that will take?" asked Carter.
"With luck I'll be back here by tomorrow."
"Alright. That's good. Because we could really use your help here," said Carter.
"I'm sorry," said Nico, to Carter and Sadie both. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
Sadie gave him a disappointed look.
"It's not like I'm abandoning you," said Nico. "Get me a copy of those pictures of the place Apophis wrecked. I'll look at them while I'm at camp."
Carter nodded. "I'll go get them for you." Then he hurried back into the hall, leaving Nico alone with Sadie again.
"I'm sorry," said Nico to her again. "I promise, I'll –"
"I just keep having flashbacks to the last time we knew Apophis was up to something and that we'd be facing him soon," Sadie cut him off. "How you went into the Duat with Anubis to do what you had to do, and then you went missing for like a month."
Nico frowned at her. "It was only two weeks."
"That's not the point! The point is, we didn't know what happened to you," said Sadie. "We had no way of knowing whether you were alive or dead. Then everything started happening so fast, and when we finally learned you were alive, we couldn't even go to help you, because we had to stop Apophis."
Nico shook his head helplessly. "I'm sorry. I never meant for that to happen . . . but this is completely different, Sadie. I'm just going to Camp Half-Blood, and just for a day."
"I've just got the feeling that something bad is going to happen."
Nico didn't like the sound of that. He was aware that foresight ran in Sadie's family. It wasn't clear if she had inherited it or not, but her being worried was enough to make Nico worried too.
"It will be alright, Sadie," he said, hoping he sounded more certain than he felt. "I'll be back in time to figure out where Apophis is going to strike for the next new moon. And I'll be there to help you kick his butt next time. There's no way I'm going to miss two prize fights in a row."
Sadie hit him. Not too hard, just hard enough to sting. "You better not," she said imperiously. "Or I'll tattoo the word 'Slacker' across your forehead. You see if I don't."
Nico managed a laugh at that. "Sure you will. And by the way, you hit like a girl."
He ducked away from Sadie's next punch, knowing that that one really would have hurt, and dodged around her, into the hall.
"Hey! Get back here!" shouted Sadie, chasing after him.
But even though she sounded like she wanted to pummel him, and actually really did want to pummel him, she wasn't truly upset anymore, Nico knew. That was good enough for him, for now at least.