A Part of The Family (Nico Di Angelo meets the batfam)

1

Nico found himself standing on someone's fire escape. Thankfully no one noticed him standing there. It would have been hard to explain how he got there and why he was there. 

He had been forced to shadow travel out of a fight when a group of monsters cornered him in an alley. They had already injured him, and it was clear that his only option was to shadow jump. Unfortunately, a hellhound leapt at him just as he was about to escape. He managed to kill the hellhound, but it had distracted him. This meant that instead of landing at camp Half-Blood like he had meant to do he ended up on someone's fire escape covered in golden dust and blood. 

Nico quickly but carefully climbed down the fire escape, not wanting to accidentally hurt himself even more. He had cuts and scrapes on his arms and a few on his face but the main problem was the large, bleeding gash on his side. The sticky blood made his shirt stick to the wound uncomfortably. He wasn't hurt too seriously considering the other things he's been through, but a normal human would see a heavily injured teen. 

Once Nico was on the sidewalk he looked around. He didn't currently have the energy to try shadow traveling to camp so he'd have to figure out where exactly he was and hope that it was near New York. 

It was pitch black outside, the only light came from the streetlights and those did little to illuminate anything other than the streets. The moon and stars were concealed by thick smoke that made it harder to breathe. The ground was littered with trash and puddles of unknown liquids made it look like it had just rained. If not for the fact that the puddles smelled like sewer water Nico would've thought that it was just rainwater. 

There were also mean looking people standing around. Nico felt their eyes on him as he walked, some were glaring others watched him hungrily looking for a sign that he had something of value on him. They left him alone when they noticed his worn-out shoes that were falling apart, the ragged clothes he was wearing, and the dirt that almost hid his pale skin. What was the point in going after him if it was clear, it was a waste of time? This wouldn't last forever though. Eventually, someone would decide that going after him wasn't a complete waste of their time. 

Nico needed someplace safe to hide but there was nowhere he could go. Wherever he had landed it was bad. Nico went down an alley way. This was usually a horrible idea, but Nico needed privacy more than he needed an easy escape. 

Nico crouched behind a dumpster and lifted his shirt to look at the gash. It would probably leave a scar, but it wasn't anywhere close to being one of his worst injuries. Nico checked his pockets. He had some nectar in a small vial, but there was barely any left and he wasn't sure he wanted to use it on something like this. Other than that, he had some drachmas. 

Nico scowled. He had next to no supplies, no idea where he was, and his energy was already too depleted to use any of his powers. His powers were still weak from shadow traveling an entire statue halfway across the world. 

Nico leaned against the brick wall behind him and tried to think. He couldn't just walk around aimlessly, and he couldn't just IM someone. That would be useless. He didn't even know where he was so how would anyone else help him, besides they were all probably sleeping. He also didn't know how far away Long Island was. He needed to first figure out where he was. 

He wouldn't figure that out by just sitting here. Nico got up and brushed himself off. When he turned to leave the alley, a man was standing in his way. He had bulging eyes and a permanent sneer on his face. He reminded Nico of a toad.

"Well, what do we have here? You really shouldn't be out here on the streets. Now that your here I might as well teach you a lesson," The man said stepping towards Nico. Nico dropped into a battle-ready position. The man lunged at him, and Nico thought he saw something silver in his hands. He had a knife.