Escape (A House of Hades fanfic)

Chapter ll (Nico)

Chapter 2 (Nico)

What was I thinking? I should never have made that promise. I couldn't do this. I wasn't a natural leader like Percy or Jason. I didn't have the skills. I was powerful, but I had no idea how to talk to people or inspire them. The whole crew was hit hard by losing two of their main leaders, and they were looking for reassurances that I didn't know how to give. The white walls of the sickbay did nothing to distract me from my thoughts. The Argo II had seven bunks for the original quest members, two of which were empty since Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't bring myself to stay there; the memories were too fresh. That left the sickbay as my only option. It could have been worse; at least the sickbay had beds.

Hazel came running down the hall and stuck her head through the door. "Nico we need you on deck," she panted. "Shrimpzilla's back."

Great. Another monster attack. Just what I needed. l pulled out my sword and followed her up the stairs. "What's Shrimpzilla?" I questioned.

"That's Shrimpzilla," she replied as she threw open the door to the deck. Oh, now I got it. Shrimpzilla was literally a giant shrimp about twice the size of the ship. The weirdest part was that it was pink. (That's the weirdest part about a giant shrimp attacking you on a trireme in the middle of the ocean? Priorities, Nico.)

"Back? Have you fought it before?" I asked, remembering her phrasing.

"Yeah, on our way to Rome," she informed me.

"Percy killed it didn't he?" Please be wrong, please be wrong.

"Actually, Leo did." she told me. Good, I was wrong.

"Really," I said, impressed. "How?"

"He threw a vial of Greek Fire down its throat, but that won't really work this time. We ran out when we had to torch Geryon a few weeks ago."

I winced. Bad memories.

"A little help here!" Jason yelled, dodging one of the monster's tentacles.

I unsheathed my Stygian iron sword and sliced at one of the monster's pink tentacles before it could attack Jason. Leo stood next to Festus, shooting fire balls at the monster, but it wasn't doing much good. Shrimpzilla seemed to be fireproof, although how a sea monster was fireproof I don't know. (hmmm....probably the same way Percy is fire resistant, the ocean runs in its blood) Frank was changing into different animals, trying to find one that would be able to penetrate its skin. Piper had somehow managed to climb up on its back and was riding it like a bull.

"Nico!" Hazel screamed. "Behind you!"

Cursing myself for getting distracted, I turned around, but a tentacle wrapped around my chest. Shrimpzilla then lifted me up and threw me over the side of the ship. When I hit the water, all I could think was that I couldn't swim. Panic overwhelmed me, and I started flailing around until I slipped underwater. Black spots danced in my vision as I began to lose consciousness. The last thing I remember was something grabbing my ankle and pulling me further underwater, then everything went black.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Sorry about the short chapter, I will try to make them longer in the future

~Roza