Solangelo: The Infirmary

Dangerous Places

Two things came to Nico as they weaved through the trees, heading to the source of the continuous screaming. First; Nico wasn't armed. Second; Neither was Will. Problem.

Percy had Riptide, Jason had his sword attached to his hip, and both Annabeth and Piper were sure to have some dagger or two on them. But Nico's sword was still under his bed in the infirmary, and Will didn't really carry weapons. Another problem; Will. He wouldn't let Nico use any underworldy powers, especially after the harpy indecent. That left Nico defenseless. Plus Will wasn't a fighter, he was a healer.

Suddenly, the screaming stopped, and so did Nico's heart beat. He glanced at the others, but they just sped up in the direction of the screams.

"We're coming up on Zeus's fist." Percy said quietly. They slowed to a jog and stopped as they reached the treeline. After listening for a moment, Jason said, "Sounds like a battle."

"Against a monster." Nico growled. They all ran towards Zeus's fist. With their backs against the rocks, they looked around to see the commotion behind. Nico's eyes widened as he watched as two boys and one girl fought a massive, red colored centipede-like thing. There was a girl lying unconscious on the ground-not even close to death, Nico could feel her life force just fine- with a boy leaning over her, trying to wake her up. Nico twisted around and locked eyes with Piper and asked, "Any extra weapons?" She shook her head no. Alright, this might get tricky.

"Beth, what kind of monster is that?" Jason asked as they looked around the rocks again.

"Not sure." Annabeth said. Nico watched the thing swing its tail at the kids.

"Those kids are about to get stabbed by that thing. Time to attack." Percy gritted through his teeth, eyes set on the monster. Nico continued to watch the tail. He sucked in a breath.

"Will." He breathed.

"What?" Will asked as he looked at Nico.

"Look at the tail." Will's eyes whipped back to the monster. The tail had long spikes that looked like giant thorns sticking out from it. Exactly like the thing that was jabbed into Gracie.

"Oh gods." Will whispered. "That's the monster that killed Gracie." Will stated louder. Something boiled up in Nico, and before he knew it, he was standing on top of Zeus's fist and glaring at the monster. Something twisted in the bottom of Nico's gut, and the air immediately chilled, the wind picked up, a shadow spread over the clearing around Zeus's fist, and the earth started to shake.

"Nico! Stop!" Will's voice sounded as though he was on the opposite end of a long tunnel than Nico.

"GET BACK." Nico called to the kids fighting the monster. They took one look at Nico before they turned and ran away from the monster.

The monster watched them run before charging Nico. Nico thrust his hands out at the monster, then pulled them away from each other. The earth split in two and the monster fell mid-screech. Nico clapped his hands together again and the earth sealed and stopped shaking, leaving nothing behind but a crack in the ground marking where the monster had fallen.

Nico dropped his hands, and felt the air warm, the shadow melt away, taking the strong winds with it. Nico swayed on the spot before falling backwards. He fell through the air, but instead of making contact with the ground, he was enveloped by strong and warm arms that could only be Will's. Nico was set on the ground with his head in Will's lap. NIco's vision cleared and he met the eyes of a very mad looking Will.

"What?"

"I SAID NO MORE UNDERWORLD STUFF NICO! And what did you do? UNDERWORLD STUFF, THAT'S WHAT!" Will yelled. Nico reached up and patted Will's cheek sarcastically.

"I'm glad you care Solace." Will glared at Nico before shoving him off his lap. Will stood up and ran to the unconscious girl across the clearing, who was surrounded by the other kids, Piper, Jason, and Annabeth.

Nico stood up and shook his head, clearing the last of his dizziness and watched Will move the kids out of the way so he could get to the girl.

"Will's gonna kill you." Percy said to Nico as they walked over.

"I know." Nico groaned. "Hey Will! The girl should be just fine, I think she just fainted!" Nico yelled to Will.

"I gathered that." Will said from his seat on the ground beside the girl when Percy and Nico joined everyone else.

"How do you know?" The boy who was trying to wake the girl up before snapped at Nico.

"Whoa, chill. What are your names?" Jason asked the kids.

"What are yours?" One of the boys asked. You could tell from the way he carried himself that he thought he owned the camp.

Piper rolled her eyes. "Nico just saved your lives, at least you could drop the Attitude."

"Says the Aphrodite child." Said the other girl who was actually conscious. Jason tensed but Piper reached down to grab his hand and he visibly relaxed.

"look, I'm Annabeth, this is Percy, that's Piper, the angry looking guy beside her is Jason, this is Nico, and the healer currently helping your friend is Will."

"And I know your friend is fine because I can feel her life force. And that's still strong." Nico added to the guy.

"How can you feel someone's fucking life force?! What is a life force?! This is bull shit! This-"

"Chill Shane, these guys are part of the seven." The lead guy said lowly as he put an arm in front of the boy who was apparently Shane. All four of them froze.

"And he's the Hades kid." The girl whispered loudly, staring at Nico.

"And he's the head of the Apollo cabin." The lead guy added, looking back to his friends. "Shit." Shane whispered. Suddenly the four took off running in the opposite direction of Nico, Jason, Annabeth, Percy, Will, Piper, and the unconscious girl.