Nico's unexpected encounters

It's obviously an illusion.

The gas inside the dome barrier started to clear, but there was no sign of the three heroes.
Instead, a massive hole was in the ground. That must have been how they escaped.

The goons in the room swung their guns around the room with caution. Looking for any sign of enemy movement. Everything was quiet except for their heavy breathing.

"Stand down," announced Modeus. "It's not possible to break through the runes I had trapped them in. It has to be an illusion."

"Here that Wise girl?"

Two teenagers, a boy and girl, came strolling into the room from a side door. The boy had a huge grin on his face and the girl looked smug.

"We just did the impossible."

"Why are you so surprised Seaweed brain? We do the impossible all the time."

Everyone in the room swerved their heads to look and the pair.

These two claimed that they had disarmed Modeus's runes. And according to his mentor (a good friend), it was not possible unless you had an equally powerful source of the same energy to cancel the runes out. The only people he could think of that could accomplish such a thing, were more beings like "Jason". Modeus hadn't asked what his new servant's name was, and he didn't much care what it was.

"You two are responsible for this damage?" Moses calmly asked.

The boy scratched the back of his head and looked at the girl. "Sort of? I mean..."

The girl sighed at her friend's words. "Yes, we have to resources to create that sort of destruction."

The goons, who had been miffed by the whole ordeal, finally decided to point their guns at the two teens. They didn't even blink at the sound of guns preparing to fire, or that their targets where children. Instead, they were relaxed and looked bored. None of them believed that the kids in front of them had done what they claimed. And therefore, had no reason to stay breathing.

The pair dove behind crates in separate directions as the gunfire started. Percy to the left and Annabeth to the right. Now that Percy and Annabeth had made their grand entrance, it was time to cause some unexpected chaos.

Once Annabeth had some cover, she flicked a switch on the new wristwatch Tyson had given her. Her appearance immediately became invisible. Tyson sure knew how to make a girl's day.

She waited for the men to run out of bullets. Once they did, she bolted around the hole that the heroes had escaped through, and hid behind more crates. By the time she knelt down, the goons had returned firing at her previous position.

Annabeth was glad she had gotten out of there when she did, because the second round of bullets had shredded through the empty crate. It was now a pile of splinters and rubble.

She lifted Will's bow off her back, notching a specialized arrow in the process. Annabeth took a deep breath. She wasn't as good as Will at archery, but she could confidently say that her aim was accurate enough to make this shot.

She let her arrow fly, and as it did, it left the reach of her invisible watch. It became visible a few feet from her target.

Modeus jerked forward as the arrow hit his back. Immediately, he was electrocuted and went limp. He crumpled to the ground unconscious.

***

Once Percy saw the leader of this little group of mortals get zapped, he took his cue to act. Annabeth's plan was simple, effective, and pure genius. Exactly the way he liked her plans.

He jumped into his senses, willing the water in the underground pipes to flow onto the floor of the warehouse. Once he was sure everyone besides Nico, Anabeth, the random unconscious superhero, and himself, were touching the water, he quickly moved it toward the electric arrow that Annabeth had shot. The reaction through the room was immediate. All their enemies were unconscious and out of the way within a minute. Only Nico was standing.

Annabeth deactivated her watch, and carefully stepped out of her hiding place. Percy cleared the water from the floor. Both were concerned with the way Nico was acting. He hadn't even flinched when the enemy had started shooting at them.

'Neeks?" Percy whispered. "You alright?"

No answer.

The two demigods made their way to the space Nico was facing. His expression was blank, and his eyes looked glossy. With his pale skin and thin form, (along with his eyes) he looked more like a corpse than ever before.

Annabeth gently took his wrist and felt for a pulse. After a moment she let his arm carefully fall to his side. "He's alive, but something is clearly wrong with him. We need to get him back to Will as soon as possible. Who knows what that creep did to him."

"Yeah, ok. Should we bring said creep with us? Just in case?" He gestured to Modeus's limp form.

Annabeth considered it a second before nodding. "Yeah. He might be able to help us fix Nico. He's probably the one who did this to his in the first place."

With that Annabeth gently led Nico's corpse-like form to the side door they had come from, while Percy roughly dragged Modeus by the ankle. He thought the man looked like a meat bag and inwardly laughed at himself for such a ridiculous thought.

Percy remembered something. "Hey Annabeth? Shouldn't we leave a note or something for that other superhero dude when he wakes up?"

Annabeth paused for a second and looked back at the black and blue-dressed hero thoughtfully. "Nah, he'll be okay."

She started walking again. "He'll most likely wake up before the rest. When he sees all those beat-up bad guys he'll tie them up and call his boss."

Percy frowned "Alright, but what if the superheroes come looking for Nico?"

"Then we will talk it out with them. Plus, it's not like they want to kill us, unlike everything else in the world.

He sighed. "I guess you'r right. Like you always are Wise girl."

She smirked. "Yep."

[===]}:::::::::::::::::::::::::::>

Will was waiting with the Ares chariot and Pegasi a few books down the road. After he had rushed the mortal heroes (plus the immortal Wonder Woman) out of danger and healed them up enough to not die from the gas they has inhaled, he had left them unconscious in an enmity house down the road. He didn't want to be there when they woke up. He didn't want to be here either. What he did want, was to make sure Nico was safe. He trusted Annabeth and Percy 100%, but he wanted Nico to know that he was here for him. That he took care of his friends and family no matter what was going on with them.

When Percy and Annabeth walked around the corner with Nico, he had to hold himself back from running up to them and check Nico for injury. Instead, he waited as the group trekked up to him.

Wait.

Something was wrong. Nico was walking stiffly and it looked like Annabeth was guiding him by the arm.

He couldn't stand still anymore. He ran up to the group, meeting them halfway down the road.

"What happened? What's wrong with him?" he asked franticly.

Annabeth scrunched her eyebrows together with worry. "We're not sure. He was like this when we found him."

"We brought this guy though." Percy dropped Modeus' leg onto the ground. "He seemed to be the one in charge."

THANK YOU to all those who have been commenting on my chapters recently, and to the 13K reads on this book.
(that's a LOT of people)

You all have encouraged me to get back into this book.
Plus, now that Christmas is over I have lots more time to write.

P.S.
I love to read your reactions to what I write. It makes me smile. I'll start giving shout-outs to people if you guys want.