Demigod Avenger

Chapter 5 - Hellhounds And The Great Captain America

Nico p.o.v.

I was walking back from patrol, heading to the cemetery when my demigod luck struck again. Thankfully it was only only a hellhound. Technically, they are supposed to listen to me, being a child of Hades and all, but unfortunately they tend to find new masters that hate all demigods. Anyway, I was walking down the road to the graveyard, when the hellhound comes. Now, I get monsters after me all the time, but today I got even less food then normal, so I was not in good shape to fight. I ended up defeating it, after a fight that took way too long, but not without getting a slash in my side. I gritted my teeth in pain and looked down. It was not life threatening, but definitely needed stitches and ambrosia. Unfortunately, I ran out of ambrosia and nectar a week ago after fighting off the Minotaur and some of his hellhound buddies, and my med kit currently only contained wrappers. I reached into my pocket to look at my money. Only 3 dollars and 50 cents, not nearly enough to get another med kit. I guess I'll have to just be creative with this one. I continue to walk to the cemetery. I need Di Angelo's help right now.

Bruce Banner p.o.v.

Once we are all suited up, we head to the graveyard. When we get there, I notice Nico is already at a gravestone. His back is facing away from us. We all line up quietly and prepare to announce our presence, when Nico suddenly begins talking, his back still turned away from us, "Hello grocery store buddies, are you here to grieve or to stalk me?" We all jump back in surprise, how does he know we are here? 

"Hey kid, we just want to bring you in to ask questions, if you deny we may have to use force." Steve says. Nico still remains kneeling at the grave for a moment before he stands up. His legs are shaking and he leans heavily on his brothers grave, his face is even more pale than before. Then I look at his shirt, it's covered in blood, is he injured?!

"Are you injured?" I ask, worry filling my voice.

"At the moment, yes. I was about to take care of it before you showed up." Nico says. He then proceeds to take off his shirt, reviling a multitude of scars. Being the doctor I am, I can tell what they are from, some are stabbings, others slashes and whip marks. On his shoulder I can see a branding. Then I look at the wound, is covered in blood, but I can tell it's a slash mark. He rips the bottom of his shirt off and ties it around the wound. "Thank you for letting me take care of that, now where were we?" he asks.

"That is not taken care of," I say. "That definitely needs stitches."

"I am aware of that, I know you've been stalking me, so you know I don't have a lot of money, but after patrol tomorrow I should have enough to buy myself a med kit so I can stitch it up. I'll survive until then." He responds, "and before you comment, yes, I stitch myself up, I have done it before, see that scar up here," he points to a scar on his shoulder, "I stitched up that one by myself, and it turned out alright." I am shocked into silence. None of us say anything, too stunned to say anything.  "Huh, metal arm is with you. I suppose that thing with the 20 dollars was part of you stalking me," he comments. "Oh and thank you for this morning." He looks at Steve when saying this. "Are you guys going to say anything, I'm running out of things to say." 

"uhhh..." Steve starts, but Natasha takes over realizing Steve has no idea what to say.

"Yes, we have been stalking you. Your record is quite interesting, and we were hoping to get some information out of you. We did have Bucky," she points to Bucky, "Go pretend to drop a 20 to see what you would do. I will say, we were quite surprised by what you did. We need to bring you in for questioning, but I'll make you a deal. If you come in without force, we will stitch up your wound and feed you." Natasha offers. Nico ponders it for a moment. 

"Let me finish saying goodbye." Nico says.

"Deal," Natasha says. 

Nico smirks, "a pleasure doing business with you." He turns back toward the grave and kneels down and begins talking in another language. After a moment he stands up and turns toward Natasha, "There is something else you should know," he says after a moment, "Don't double cross me, I am what you call "powered"." Natasha's eyes immediately harden, her hands go to her daggers. I look around and notice all the others hands going for their weapons.

"What do you mean?" she asks. 

"I was born with powers." He says simply, he does not even seem bothered by the fact they all went for their weapons.

"What are they?" she asks.

"You don't want to know." His eyes turn sad. Natasha's hand leaves her side. When the others notice this, they grip theirs even tighter.

"You don't like your powers," she says. Nico nods. "I am sorry, but we need to know what they are." 

"Very well," he says, his eyes harden, "But don't say I did not warn you. I can control the dead and shadows." The air seems to turn colder when he announces that. Everyones face show one of horror. "It is a very unpopular power, people like me are often outcasts or seen as villains."

"People like you..." Clint asks.

"My brother could also control the dead and shadows." Nico says, turning around to look at the grave. "There are many of us throughout history, Hitler was actually one as well, he was viewed as an outcast, which made him turn evil." I look over at Steve. His eyes are hard and he is glaring daggers into the boy. Nico seems to notice this as well, "Do not worry, I am nothing like him." Nico looks down, This however does not assure Steve, who continues to glare at the boy. "You are supposed to be dead," he says, then looks at Bucky, "So are you." 

"How?.." Steve asked. His hatred of the boy seems to grow at this.

 "My brother felt a similar way, he was out of time, born during WWII, were you also born then?"

"Why do you want to know?" Steve asks. Bucky glared at Steve.

"Be nice, Steve. He has not done anything wrong yet." Bucky says. Steve's glaring dies down, but you can still see the hatred in his eyes. Bucky turns to Nico, "Yes, we were. How did you know?" 

"My brother, Di Angelo." Nico points to the grave, "Was out of time as well. He ended up stuck in a magic hotel. He was from Italy during WWII. He used to tell me stories about you," Nico pointed at Steve. "The great Captain America!" Nico said with jazz hands. "He said you are the reason he kept going when he came out of the hotel." Steve hatred immediately dialed down to weariness. 

"So you know who we are?" Tony asked. 

"I have an idea. You guys are called the revengers or something." Tony snickers at that. "He's Captain America," Nico points at Steve, "He's Hawkeye," Nico pointed at Clint, "My brothers boyfriend, Will, was big into archery," Clint's smile immediately grew so large it looked like Nico had given him a brand new bow. "He's metal-man or something," Nico pointed at Tony. Clint burst out laughing.

"Ha! He doesn't know you!" Clint says between laughter.

"It's Iron Man." Tony says. He sounded so upset, it almost made me want to start laughing.

"Your Bruce Banner," Nico says, smiling at me, "My cousins girlfriend used to talk about your work with gamma radiation. She said there was another guy, like smash or something." He shrugs. This kid knew Bruce Banner but not the Hulk? "Your widow spider or something, If I'm going to be honest, I just learned about you from another street kid." he said while pointing at Natasha. "I don't know who you are," he said pointing to Bucky. "I obviously know Thor."

"I would like to meet this Will, and I'm sure Bruce-y over there would like to meet your cousins girlfriend." Clint says. Nico's smile fades. 

"Will is right here," Nico says, while pointing at the grave next to his brothers, "And Annabeth is two over from there."

"What happened?" Steve asked quietly. Nico shook his head. 

"Lets talk about this in a questioning room. Come on let's walk back." Natasha suggests.

"That's a great idea, but I'm about to pass out," Nico says. Then he immediately passes out.