The Shadow of a Hero

Chapter 1

A dark figure hides in the shadows of Hades' throne room, watching as the god Hephaestus is escorted in by the skeleton guards before the servants of the Underworld scurry back to their assigned posts. "Zeus sent me to see how the solution to our little spirit problem is coming along." Hephaestus says as the large black doors slam shut with the exit of the last guard.

"You mean the problem you caused by trying to combine my spirits with one of your scatter brained inventions?" Hades makes it sounds like he doesn't care, but the agitated souls screaming to get out of his cloak tell a different story.

"That would be the one." Hephaestus mumbles slightly embarrassed. Not that he would admit it.

"If you are asking if I'm handling your mistake for you then yes, and you being here is only trying my patience, so if you would be so kind as to shoo." A flash of bright light illuminates the dark room before Hades even finished speaking. With a sigh Hades slide his hand down his face in frustration. "I know you're there Thanatos."

The dark figure peels away from the rest of the shadows into the dim light cast by the torches holding a sinister looking green fire. "Does he really need to be pulled into this?" Hades doesn't ask who the 'he' Thanatos is talking about is.

"I don't have any other choice. Please inform Nico that I need to see him as soon as possible." Hades commands wearily.

"Of course." Thanatos gives a small bow before melting back into the shadows and disappearing.

Nico's point of view:

I wake up to the sound of pounding on my cabin door. Whoever is interrupting my sleep better have a good reason or be equipped with armor and a weapon because I'm going to kill them. I stumble over different things that I've thrown on my floor instead of putting way and open up my cabin door to reveal a mop of blond hair and not much else before I'm brushed aside as they push their way through the door. Now that the fogginess has slightly cleared from my brain I fully understand who the intruder is. "Solace, what are you doing here." I ask groggily.

"Making sure you don't starve yourself to death, that's what." He shoots back. I roll my eyes. I've done my time in the infirmary, why does Will still feel the need to check up on me?

"How? By dragging me to breakfast in my pajamas?" Will finally seem to realize the situation and blushes.

"I guess you should change first." He mumbles but doesn't move.

"Solace?"

"Yes?"

"I'm not going to change with you in here." I say with a smirk as his face turns a even darker shade of red before he quickly hurried out. I roll my eyes again and put on my black MCR shirt and a random pair of jeans. I'm interrupted by another knock at my door.

"Nico are you decent?" I hear Will ask through the door.

"I don't know Solace, am I?" I don't have to see him to know that his face probably looks like a tomato right about now. I give him a few seconds to compose himself before I open the door and walk past him towards the dinning pavilion. I walk in silence while Will tries to start a conversation only to stop when he realizes that I'm not going to take part in his small talk.

When we reach the pavilion I stop dead in my tracks causing Will to run into the back of me. The Hades table should be empty. Hazel is staying at Camp Jupiter, so why is there a note being held down with a bone like it's a paper weight on my table? I can faintly hear Will asking what's wrong, but I've learned how to tune him out not long after the Giant War. I slowly make my way over to the table. Who knows what other surprises could be waiting for me. Nothing jumps out at me, so I grab the note. The bone quickly turns to dust and is carried away by the wind as I begin to read.
Nico, your father wishes an audience with you if convenient; if inconvenient come anyways.~ Thanatos

Sorry Will, I don't have time for breakfast today." I say distantly. Will starts to say something, but I've already called the shadows to travel me to the Underworld.

The shadows disperse to reveal my father staring down at he from his spot on his throne of bones.

"Father." I address him respectfully as to avoid being smited on the spot.

"Nico, I have an assignment for you," He gets straight to the point. "Hephaestus convinced Zeus to order me into releasing spirits so that Hephaestus could try to use them in one of his inventions." I arch an eyebrow in confusion, but know better than to say anything as he continues. "As you can suspect, things went wrong and now his creations have teamed up with a robot, dubbed Ultron, created by an arrogant mortal, who wishes to cause human extinction."

"That's certainly ambitious of them, but what does this have to do with me?" Last I checked, Hades doesn't usually send me to fix other god's mistakes.

"A unique team that call themselves the avengers are trying to handle the situation, but they are under equipped to deal with the Greek monsters that have teamed up with this new enemy, so you are going to meet them at an off the grid farm house tomorrow and offer you assistance."

"Of course father," I agree indifferently.

I'm about to shadow travel back to camp when Hades adds one more thing. "Oh, and Nico, due to you lack of concern of the dangers that come with using your powers I advise you to invite that son of Apollo to join you."

"Will?" I ask slightly surprised, but he doesn't go into any further detail. "Yes father." I shadow travel back to my cabin and passing out as soon as I collapse on my bed and my head hits the pillow.

Disclaimer: I'm not Marvel or Rick Riordan. I don't own most of the characters or concepts in this story.