BA BOOM! The sounds of ballista being fired shook the Argo II. Arrows blazed down from the night sky skewering parts of the deck. Nico, who stood at the apex of the ship, was meant to be on guard duty until he’d fallen asleep. The ships of bandits raided through the Argo and enraged the crew members who had been woken from their slumber. Jason fought along-side Percy as they both warded the infiltration of their ship. The bandits were sordid, their hair must’ve gone untrimmed for years, and the clothes they wore were ragged and tattered with holes. Piper stood her ground as she spoke with her charm speak, confusing the enemy raiders and leading them to leave the ship. The crew was not satisfied with a raid this late into the night, there were a multitude of bandits and the crew was already exhausted from their lack of sleep. Nico summoned ghosts to aid him while he batted off the thugs with his Stygian iron dagger.
The small skirmish raged on, each of the crew members fighting beyond the break of exhaustion. Most of the crew had struggled but been captured. Hazel and Frank had both been tied up and thrown onto the enemy ships. Jason and Percy, the leaders of the struggle between the bandits were becoming weak themselves. They could no longer bring about the storms and waves that gave them their advantage, they used only their swords now. Leo incinerated the clothes off the backs of the bandits with his fiery power, shouting vitriolic insults at the invaders. Below the ship, discarded bodies floated about in the ocean that the crew had been sailing shortly before the attack. Leo was not interested in dying today, he would do all he could to protect his friends and this ship. More bandits flooded the deck of the ship. The crew was nearly hopeless, they were beyond tired and two of their friends were already captured by the bandits. Leo still blazed and illuminated the scene of the battle. He rescinded the thought of burning the ship up with
his own powers. Nico D’angelo was still summoning warrior ghosts at the top of the ship. All of the sudden, Leo was overtaken by five bandits at once. They doused him with water and put out his flame and put a sword to his throat so that he wouldn’t ignite again. Nico saw the act and jumped from the top of the ship. He grabbed Leo and tried to hold off the attackers but there were too many. Nico huddled up to Leo in a suave manner. Nico did something brave, he took a deep breath and ran at the bandits with Leo still in his arms.
SWOOSH. Leo heard a sound much like a person jumping into a pool of water. When he looked up, he saw nothing but darkness and void. “Where are we?’ He asked Nico who looked like he was running through the void.
“It’s okay, you’ll be fine. Just hang on to me, okay?’ asked Nico in a slightly sympathetic manner. Leo tried to get along with Nico D’angelo more than the other members of the crew, he could relate to losing a family member and trying to hide his pain. Leo came to the understanding that at the moment, Nico and 'he were shadow traveling. Since Nico was a scion of Hades, he had the ability to travel through and somewhat beyond the shadows of the world. He could travel ten times faster than any other mortal or half-blood. Leo was frightened at the thoughts of where he was. The space around him seemed to be an ever-expanding abyss. Leo really revered Nico. The guy had gone through Tartarus and back and was now traveling through an empty void. This guy is crazy, thought Nico. Leo began to wonder how the others were holding up. They were most likely already captured but they would probably think up a way to escape like always. Frank would turn into a dolphin and Percy would burry a ship full of gold in diet Pepsi, you know, the usual.
All of a sudden the ‘ride” got bumpy. Nico seemed to be having some trouble with his power and began to slow down. “Uhhh, the heck’s going on?” asked a confused Leo.
“I don’t know but whatever it is, it’s no good. I’ve never shadow traveled with another person before,” said Nico, still nervous from the current predicament. Out of nowhere Nico came to a speeding halt and Leo was thrown off of him. He felt like he was falling and running at the same time. He couldn’t control his own body motions for a long time and every so often as he fell, he’d run into invisible objects. Everything was dark, Leo was a blind bat. Worst of all, he lost sight of Nico. Finally, Leo came to a stop. He could walk again but there was no direction, there wasn’t anything.
NICO
2
Nico was guilty. Though his plan to be brave and save his friend seemed like a spectacular idea, it ended poorly for both Leo and Nico. Nico had just lost one of the people who had saved him time and time again, this was not okay. Nico stood on solid ground again, he was somewhere in New York on the top of a tall building. He hadn’t really been thinking much when he was shadow traveling; he just wanted to stay away from the ship until everything was handled. And though that thought seemed a little selfish, it was for the better. Nico hoped the gods of Olympus would indict these stupid bandits for ever coming onto their ship. Nico made a travesty of the bandits as they entered the ship. He staggered and fell to his face on the top of the building he was on. Nico decided he’d better try and find Leo or he’d probably be ostracized more so on the ship. He felt so bad for losing Leo who had only been tolerating the escape plan. Nico let out a deep breath and concentrated.
Nico appeared back into the void. He concentrated on Leo and all of his qualities. He concentrated on his dumb fire ability, his tool belt, everything that was Leo. Nico ran and felt his unusual haste as he traveled through the darkness. Nico ran into something and lost his track. “Hurumph,” Nico heard a familiar voice. “Look who showed up,’ said Leo with the devilish smile that he always had. Nico nonchalantly threw Leo over his shoulder. To the Argo II, thought Nico.
Back on the ship things weren’t going so well. Nico spotted Percy and Jason being tossed aboard the enemy ship, they were tied up and muzzled along with the other crew members. Leo’s arms blazed golden, hot fire. Nico forcefully pulled his hands down and motioned for him to extinguish his magical flame. “We need a plan,” said Nico intently watching the moves of the bandits. Leo scolded the men who were leaving the ship and stealing their stuff.
“Let’s just do our demigod thing. Kick butts. I can see that they took out more than half of the bandits,” Nico had a great idea. He remembered the staff that Cupid had “given” them. He knew that if he could get to it, these guys were as good as dead. Nico ran down the stairs to the second floor. He grabbed the staff and ran back up to the deck. He put all his thought into the staff, he willed the dark images of the underworld to come to his mind and show themselves to the staff. For a while nothing happened, and then a billion wisps traveled out of the staff and landed onto the deck like locks of cotton. The wisps began to grow and from the emerged bodies of the dead. Both Nico and Leo began to fight. Leo radiated white, hot flames. The two fought like a genuine team, as Leo scared the bandits with his fire, Nico impaled them with his Stygian iron dagger. The two saved their friends and burned the enemy ship until it sank into the dark ocean water. Nico and Leo were finally vindicated, they had left there friend in need but returned to save them in the end. The crew came together for a group hug and finally, they were at peace again on the Argo II.
