It happened again. After the war the seven were recognized for their acts of bravery, their achievements. But nobody noticed the one keeping them all together, trying to hold together both families and making sure they don't fall apart.
It was all Nico could do from lashing out at them. But from the years of helping and not getting the recognition he deserved, he eventually got used to it. Besides, he didn't do it for the gifts or glory. He did it because he didn't have anything else left to live for, and he wanted to make sure everybody else did.
He didn't care, that's what he thought at first. But as time went on he just kept getting angrier and angrier. Nobody knew. Nobody asked. Going through Tartarus alone and then having to shadow travel across the world just to stop a war from breaking out took a bigger toll on him than he thought.
He was exhausted, tired of being pushed around. Tired of helping and getting nothing in return. Sons of Hades never got recognized unless they did something evil. Hell, he did something evil, but there are only two people who know about it. Watching how he stripped away mortal flesh and turning them into a pale soul must have scared them enough to not want to say anything. At least, that's what he thought.
He was never good at dealing with other people, or even socializing successfully. He always ended up alone eventually...
Nico sighed as his thoughts came to an end when he heard a growl. He was in downtown New York wearing a black shirt, black jeans, combat boots, and his silver ring. He even wore his cloak that he got for his birthday not that long ago, it was from Thanatos. And no, it couldn't turn you invisible.
He knew that monsters would eventually catch up to him, but he didn't think that it would be so soon.
"Hello demigod sssssscum. Hmm a sssssson Of hadessssss too," A dracaena(sp?) hissed at him.
He turned fully to see three more hellhounds, a hydra, and four more dracaena. Could his luck get any worse?
"What do you want?" He asked as he unsheathed his Stygian Iron sword.
"Jussst thought that we could ssstop for a sssnack," Another one hissed at him. Nico mentally groaned as he took his stance.
The hellhounds charged first, their patience running thin, and Nico quickly sliced through two. He turned to face the last one as it pounced on top of him but he made a quick move to stab it in the stomach, right as it was about to bite his face off.
After the small victory he shadow travelled behind the rest, making the street lights flicker as it was near midnight. He stepped out of the shadow, a bit wobbly and still a bit tired from his last trip from camp to where he was now.
The monsters huddled in a group back to back, which was weird considering how unorganized they usually are. Well, that's what the dracaena did, as for the hydra, it just breathed fire in all direction. Trying to find its victim.
Nico quickly ducked behind a car as the flames got near. Nearly searing off his eyebrows. He was already exhausted and he knew he couldn't fight off the rest of these monsters alone.
He did the best next thing, he ran. Nico ran for his dear life, he even got on top of roofs. When he reached the edge on top of one building, he tripped.
Which made him lose his momentum to jump to the other building. The dracaena slithered toward him to the point where he could look over his shoulder, and fall directly in the hydras' mouth.
He was cornered. And there was nothing he could do. He turned back toward the dracaena as one took a swing at him with their claws.
There are two things that made him very lucky and one bad thing that would make him want to be hydra dinner. First, the building was thirty stories up, an apartment complex; and second, he was able to manage one more shadow jump before the hydra did make him dinner. Now here comes the bad part. He shadow travelled to the worst place in the world, Gotham.
~•~•~
The place is so full of crazy psychos that the gods forced Hecate to put a barrier around the city to keep out monsters. But that didn't mean they couldn't spawn within the city.
Nico wound up in an alley on top of a pile of boxes, passed out from exhaustion.
As he was sleeping in an uncomfortable position, two men approached him.
"Well look at what we got here, Calvin," a burly looking guy said.
"Brennon, you know the boss don't like us to pick on kids. Especially the ones that are under sixteen,"Calvin, another guy that was just as tall as the first, but lacked in muscle.
"What the boss don't know won't hurt him. Besides, ever since the the old boss got shot everybody been running scared of this guy. Followin orders no matter how crazy it seems. We can't even sell drugs to the high schools anymore! How are we supposed to make a profit!? (I AM NOT PROMOTING DRUGS. I DON'T DO DRUGS AND YOU SHOULDN'T EITHER. THEY ARE VERY BAD FOR YOU AND YOUR BODY. I ONLY ADDED THIS IN FOR A REASON.)," Brennon practically yelled while approaching Nico.
The son of Hades wasn't usually a deep sleeper but with these types of circumstances, he slept like the night would never end.
"Keep your voice down! We don't know if he's watching and we certainly don't know if he would kill us," Calvin spoke as he looked around worriedly.
Brennon picked Nico up by the collar of his shirt, his head rolling back as he groaned slightly.
"Weird. You ever seen this kid in this area before?" Brennon asked as he inspected the son of Hades.
"Why are you worried about where you've seen him before!? We should leave!"
"I'm being serious, Calvin. Something isn't right about this kid. You see him come in this alley at all tonight?" Calvin shook his head.
"Huh, oh well. We should see what he got hidden in his pocket. Maybe he got some extra cash," Brennon put Nico down in a not so gentle way.
He leaned down and started patting down his pockets. A few minutes later there was a small pouch full of coins, a canteen filled with what looked like apple juice to the mortals, and a small pouch of white powder. No, Nico doesn't use drugs. Instead, he sprinkled unicorn powder over poisoned and/or infected cuts.
Brennon picked up the small pouch of powder and smirked.
"I knew this kid did something. Maybe we could-" he was interrupted by a gunshot.
They both looked up to see a man in a red helmet, pointing a pistol toward the sky.
"What are you doing?" He asked as he jumped down.
"W-w-we were j-just-" Calvin stuttered out
"Just. What," The Red Hood now stood over them threateningly, towering over them by a full six inches since they were both five feet eight inches.
"I thought I told you guys to not sell to kids anymore!" He glared.
"Leave! Before I change my mind," They both scurried away, tripping over one another, not wanting to find out what he meant by changing his mind.
Red Hood turned to face Nico, who was still sound asleep. Jason sighed as he collected his things and put them in his belt.
Next he picked Nico up and started toward his safe house, where he can interrogate the kid peacefully. There is no one in this city that he doesn't know about. Especially ones that do drugs. Which in fact, unbeknownst to Jason, it was just unicorn powder used for healing.
Word Count - 1333