Finding A Sister : A Nico Di Angelo Adventure

I Break Into Someones House. They Don't Care

               'Seriously, why me Chiron?'

                       When Chiron had said that he had a special task for Nico, he hadn't thought that he would have to travel to a random city in Michigan to get a demigod back to camp.

                       Wasn't that Satyr's job?

                 He still wasn't sure why Chiron had sent him here in the first place. He and Will had already done a quest this year at camp, a rather dangerous one at that. For some reason, Nico had gone along with it. He hadn't even tried to bring Will along or another camper. He just did what he was told and moved on. That wasn't like him at all. 

                       The neighborhood he was walking through was pretty suburban. Lots of tall trees that had probably been there since Nico was born. So about 80-something years? Really long time. Nico hated dwelling on his age. It was a reminder of how different Nico was from everybody else. Like a moth in a bucket full of butterflies. Gods the poetry kid in the Apollo Cabin was really getting to him. 

                    Nico had tried to shadow travel to the right address the first time and after that didn't work he tried to do it again but for some reason, he could not shadow travel anymore. He felt something off as soon as he got to Michigan. Something weighing him down from using that specific power. What that means is that if Nico got the demigod from their house, he would have to travel all the way from Livonia to Long Island, which left more to be desired. 

                     The house wasn't much to look at, just like the rest of the neighborhood. It had two floors visible from the outside and a nice garden in the front yard with bushes and flowers. There also appeared to be a vegetable garden in the back but either this demigod was a kid of Demeter, or they haven't used that garden in a long while.

                      Nico wished that he had Will or Annabeth or Piper here to help him. They were much better at consoling new campers and helping them deal with their emotions. At least Annabeth was good at making plans. Alas Nico was alone so he had to figure it out on his own. He thought about climbing up to the window then immediately scratched that idea. There are cameras in the garage and the front door. It was approximately 12 at night and with any luck, he would be able to open the back door (if the house had one) and sneak in through there.

                       Looking back on it, he probably could've come up with a better plan, but he didn't have the patience for that right now. He ran around the street to the back of the house where there was a loop with houses on it. He went through one of the backyards of the house and climbed the fence. 'That's one problem solved', he thought 'Now onto problem #2. Getting inside.' 

                     Was it hard getting into the house? No. Was it easy getting to the bedroom the demigod was in? Also no.

                    Nico had started to pick the lock with a spare enchanted set that the Stoll brothers had given him. Once again his thoughts started working overtime trying to keep him busy while doing something boring like picking a lock. He was special that way.

                   By the time he had picked the lock, he had finally figured out the quadratic formula that Will was trying to teach him earlier at camp. Apparently, he wanted to act like normal teenagers for once. Weird.

                   He went inside and everything was as he expected. A normal living room with a couch, a recliner, a loveseat, and a TV. The carpet felt as soft as cool sand on his feet. Eriee silence filled the room as he walked a few steps into the house. Maybe it was just Nico's brain but this felt like the calm before the storm...

                He finally snapped out of it as he went farther inside and pulled out a new gadget Leo had sent him from the waystation. He called it "The great deity electromagnetic pulse detector" but Nico had decided to call it a lightsaber for demigods because that's exactly what it looked like. It worked as a visual to spot living things. If the thing was a demigod it would have a blue aura around it, red for monsters, yellow for mortals, green for animals, and purple for anything else such as deities or satyrs. It worked by locating higher percentages of mist around living organisms (can you call gods that?). The higher the mist around an object the more mythological it was.

Nico waved the strange gadget around the house 'two humans directly above me. Most likely parents. They might be an issue. the gadget also found three other auras in the house. One more human, the demigod in question, and an animal that looked suspiciously like a dog. 'That's going to be a problem' Nico thought grimly 'Here I am hero of Olympus and the only person to ever have gone to Tartarus twice, scared of a dog'. It was silly but still a reasonable concern.

Nico walked through the living room into the kitchen and then the hallway, careful to put the dog into a nice deep sleep. He had to hold both the dog and the entire household asleep while walking up the stairs because the house was quiet and the stairs were very very creaky.

            Nico was exhausted by the time he got to the right room. He carefully opened the door and found a tall slightly chubby person pacing back and forth in the room. He couldn't quite make out their facial features but they appeared to be feminine. The room was bright pink with one large window and a walk-in closet. There was a bunk bed with only a bottom mattress on it and many bookshelves with the neatest organization. The rest of the room was in total disarray. Paint everywhere and clothes on the floor. It kind of reminded me of R.E.D's room all messy and rebellious with a hint of creativity. 

          The half-blood still hadn't noticed Nico. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness Nico could see much more clearly. Her Nutella brown hair was cut short just above her shoulders in a wolf cut sorta style. Her eyes were a fascinating blueish gray and she wore two necklaces one silver and one black. she had a black circular ring on her finger that looked handmade, but it was her clothes that suprised him the most.

             The demigod wore a black long sleeved undershirt, a baggy pair of sweatpants and a black T-shirt that said "camp half blood" on the front. 

              Nico's shock quickly overwhelmed him 'have they already been to camp? did I break into this house for no reason? Why does that shirt look so similar to my own?' 

The girl had finally stopped pacing and was  now sitting on her bed in an upright position.

"you should not of come here" she said without any emotion "they'll be all over us"

"who's they?" he replied anxiously "And where did you get that shirt?" 

Nico at this point did not care about monsters or people waking up in the house. He was so confused that he managed to shut everything out.

"two powerful demigods in one place will draw monsters from every corner of the state."

she got up and started packing books, clothes, and money in a turquoise string sack.

"Especially this close to Alaska" she muttered under her breath "we have to leave now."

She climbed up onto the white dresser opened up the window and jumped out leaving a very confused Nico Di Angelo alone in her room. 

<1239 words>

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