The Shadow of a Hero

Chapter 2

Nico's p.o.v

Demigod dreams are the worst. They are constantly trying to gain attention which makes them impossible to avoid, so when I find myself an unwilling participant of one I'm not very surprised. Although this dream is slightly different this time. Instead of fitting in the category of past, present, possible future, or powerful force that my dreams usually consist of, there's nothing. Literally just pitch black, I mean there must be a floor since I don't seem to be floating or falling but that's it. Then, quietly at first, I hear something.

A voice calling out, "Hello, is anyone there?" 

"I'm over here." I answer back knowing that it's an idiot move. There's a beat of silence then the sound of boots is followed by a man coming out of the darkness that surrounds me. He has light brown hair, a leather vest with some kind of bird symbol on it and a quiver full of arrows to go with the bow in his hand, weird for anyone outside of the camps, but it's possible he could be an Apollo camper that survived into adulthood. At first he looks relived to see that he isn't alone in this void until the relief quickly turns into suspicion.

"Who are you?" He questions as he notices the black short sword hanging from my belt. I may be reckless but I'm not an idiot, I'm not going to tell a random stranger my name. Although I would prefer to avoid the question altogether, the way that the stranger's hand is creeping towards the arrows in his quiver tells me that I'll have to come up with another idea.

"I'm the Ghost King, and you are?" I ask steely calm. He looks slightly annoyed that he didn't get the type of answer he was looking for but shrugs it off.

"If we're doing code names then I'm Hawkeye." He replies, holding out a hand for me to shake that I accept. Even though living at camp and in the underworld is like living under a rock, in more than one way, it's kinda hard to miss an alien invasion on New York that was fixed due to a team of mostly humans. Will still won't stop talking about a certain archer named Hawkeye.

"You're an avenger."  I say it more as a statement than a question, but he still chooses to answer.

"Yes, why does it matter?" He asks skeptically.

I can't help but smirk. "I'm going to help you and your friends."I tell him, thinking past to the quest I was just assigned.

"I don't think my team mates would agree to accepting a child's help." He scoffs in disbelief

My smirk turns into a frown and my voice loses all traces of joking. "Then I'm going to help all the people you fail to save by underestimating me." Hawkeye stares at me in astonishment as I turn my back on him and start to walk away.

"Wait, where are going?" He calls to my back. 

My smirk reappears on my face as I turn around to look at him. "I'm going to save the world of course."

 The edges of my vision fizzle as I wake up back in my bed in the Hade's cabin with no archer in sight.  I force myself up and head out of my cabin pausing only slightly as the afternoon sun blinds me. I start my search for a certain son of Apollo to inform him of our new quest featuring Earth's mightiest heroes.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything Marvel or anything from PJO/HOO.