The comic store trip turned out to actually be pretty fun, much to Sadie's surprise. She wasn't much into Mythomagic, or other card games, RPGs, or other stuff she considered geeky, but she had to admit there was something adorable about watching Nico/Anubis and Felix getting so excited about a simple game.

They might have taken it a bit too far though, by challenging this really big, foul tempered guy to a few matches, then beating him every single time. And rubbing it in his face, how he'd been beaten by kids who were only about a third of his age. Taunting him and teasing him until the guy looked ready to flip the table over on top of them.

"Boys, I think that's enough," she said hastily, trying not to stare at the peculiar shade of red that the man's face had turned as Nico and Felix gave each other some sort of complicated high-five hand-shake thing that ended in a bro fist.

"You're right," said Nico, smirking deviously.

"We are getting kind of bored just beating the same loser over and over again," said Felix.

Sadie fought down the urge to shake her head at them. If they were anyone else, she'd probably be worried, but Felix was extremely fast when he wanted to be, and Nico was probably the most dangerous person she knew. If the old, red-faced uber-geek decided to start something with them, she was sure Nico would finish it for him.

"Come on, boys," said Sadie, grabbing both of them by one arm and pulling them away from the tables that seemed to have been set up just so people could play games at them. Sadie found the whole concept interesting, having never thought about it much before. It was almost like the game store was as much a meeting place for gamers as it was a business to sell them stuff.

She released Nico when he pulled away from her near a rack of comics, and drifted over to look through them. Then she released Felix when he pulled away too, and ran after Nico, trailing him like a baby duckling.

"What're you reading, Nico? Is it any good? Does it have any penguins in it?"

The look on Nico's face was priceless as he raised one eyebrow, then gave Sadie an accusing look, like it was her fault Felix had started tailing him.

"Wonder Woman? But isn't that for girls? What would you want to read about her for?" demanded Felix, reading the title of the comic Nico was holding.

"It's not just for girls," Nico said defensively. "And Wonder Woman's a daughter of Zeus. And she reminds me of one of my cousins, who's also a daughter of Zeus."

"Oh, that's cool I guess. Hey, do you -"

"Here. Look at this." Nico handed another comic over to Felix, who immediately snatched it and started leafing through it.

"Whoa, this looks cool."

"So you're into comics too, huh?" asked Sadie.

Nico shrugged. "Not hardcore. I just read them from time to time. Some of them are interesting."

"Well what about all this other stuff I see around here?" asked Sadie.

Nico shook his head. "A lot of this stuff takes a long time to learn and get into, and I'm kind of short on time these days, what with the world being about to end fifty different ways and all. Maybe after we avert all these apocalypses I'll take up another game."

"We should try Dungeons and Dragons!" said Felix.

Nico raised an eyebrow at him again. "What do you mean we?"

"Well, you need a group of people to play, yeah?" said Felix. "And getting lots of people together isn't really easy. But since we both live in Brooklyn House, we've both got one person we know we'll always be able to get ahold of."

"Well, as fun as I'm sure that will be for both of you," said Sadie, deliberately smirking at Nico, "I think it's probably about time to head back. We've been here for hours."

"What?"

"No we haven't."

Both Nico and Felix protested this, but then Nico took out an old fashioned pocket watch and checked the time.

"Oh. I guess we have," he said. "Yeah, maybe we should head back. Sorry Sadie, you must have been bored out of your mind."

"No, not really," said Sadie. "Watching you guys make that big guy's face turn red was pretty amusing."

"I want to go check the preview display for the new booster packs once more," said Felix, and he darted off before Sadie or Nico could stop him.

"I've got to say," Sadie told Nico as they walked to catch up with Felix. "You make a good baby sitter."

She meant it to annoy him, and to try to get a rise out of him, but Nico actually just nodded and stayed annoyingly calm. "I've been trying to act more grown up, lately. To take things more seriously and be more responsible."

Whoa, where'd this come from? Sadie wondered, looking at Nico in concern. "You serious?" she asked out loud.

Nico nodded. "Yeah."

"Well that's just . . . wow."

Nico scowled at her. "What? I wasn't that out of control and irresponsible before, was I?"

"No, I'm just wondering what brought this on," said Sadie. She would have liked to have teased Nico about this newfound desire to be responsible, but had the feeling that it would be inappropriate to do so, and it would probably cut him deeper than she meant to, and she wasn't completely heartless after all.

"Just . . . everything, I guess," said Nico.

"Could you be a little more specific?"

"Everything that's been happening," said Nico. "From even before I met you and Carter. Everything that happened in the Titan War, and now with your big chaos snake, as well as the Mad Oracle's prophecy. It just seems like I'm always ending up in the middle of everything, whether I mean to be, or want to be, or not. And it sucks, but I don't think it's going to stop any time soon. And since I'm going to end up being responsible for so much, I should try taking responsibility for it . . . if that makes any sense. Does it?"

"Kind of," said Sadie. "You're basically saying that you know that a lot of heavy burdens are going to fall to you, and you want to shoulder them the best that you can. So you're trying to be more grown up and responsible, right?"

"Yeah. That," agreed Nico.

"I can respect that," said Sadie. She actually thought it was extremely admirable, but it wasn't in her nature to gush or over compliment people, and she doubted Nico would have known how to handle that anyway.

"I'm just tired of always having to be rescued by Percy . . . and you guys, but mainly Percy. I want to be more like him. The kind of person who looks out for others and who people can depend on."

"Um . . . yeah. Because what you just said doesn't apply to you at all," commented Sadie, smacking Nico lightly in the back of the head.

"You know what I mean," said Nico. "I only spend half my time trying to do that, it seems like. The other half of my time is spent being a damsel in distress -"

"Through no fault of your own."

"Most of the time, yeah, but that doesn't change it," muttered Nico. "I just want to be stronger. I want to be able to stand on my own two feet."

"I hate to break it to you, Nico," said Sadie, "but in our line of work, and I'm talking about saving the world from mythological threats bringing about the apocalypse here, no one can stand on their own. We all need other people because, hello, these are gods and monsters we're dealing with. No one person can stand up to them on his or her own. Every single one of us needs friends to watch our backs."

"You sound like an Avengers trailer," said Nico, but he looked a little less morose than he had just minutes ago, so Sadie took that as a victory.

"If only it were that easy," sighed Sadie. "They only had to save the world from aliens. Us? We get to deal with a magician civil war, chaos demons, Egyptian gods constantly trying to possess and take control of us, and oh yeah, Apophis, the mother of all snakes, trying to plunge the world into eternal chaos."

"Hey, can I ask you a question?" said a girl standing nearby with earrings made of many sided game dice and a Spider-Man tank top. "What game are you guys talking about?"

"What?" asked Sadie.

"The game you guys were talking about. With the magician civil war, chaos demons, and Egyptian gods. It sounds leet," the girl said to Sadie.

"It's just an RPG that we made up," said Nico, when Sadie would have just gaped at the girl.

The girl's gaze shifted to Nico and her eyes widened a little bit as she looked him up and down appreciatively. "Oh. Wow. Any way I could get in on that game?" she asked, though Sadie got the feeling that the game itself wasn't really what that girl wanted to get in on. Because that girl was definitely checking Nico out.

That realization made Sadie annoyed for reasons she couldn't quite explain.

"Sorry. The campaign's only about two sessions from being over," Nico lied smoothly to the girl. "I like your shirt, by the way."

"Oh. Thanks."

"Come on, we need to leave," said Sadie, seizing Nico's arm again and dragging him after Felix. "What was that?" she demanded once they were out of earshot. "You like her shirt?"

"What? What's your problem?" demanded Nico. "I'm allowed to like Spider-Man shirts!"

"Yeah, but you - oh, never mind." Sadie couldn't even explain what she had gotten annoyed about to herself, and didn't want to vent her frustration on Nico. "Let's just go."

"Spider-Man's philosophy kind of ties into what I was trying to say earlier," said Nico as he followed Sadie. Thankfully he didn't seem too upset with her for her outburst. "With great power comes great responsibility."

"Huh?"

"With great power comes great responsibility," repeated Nico. "If you think about it, it's actually really profound. Especially for people like us. And it sucks for him that he had to learn that the hard way."

"What are you even talking about?" asked Sadie.

Nico blinked at her. "Are you telling me you don't know Spider-Man's origin story?"

"I've never really paid attention to comics, Nico. They really don't interest me -"

"I was out of time for like seventy years and I still know Spider-Man's origin story!" said Nico, seeming almost annoyed now. "How can you not know it?"

"Because like I just said, I'm not interested in comics."

"Then don't think of it as a comic. Just think of it as a myth," said Nico. "Or a cautionary tale where one day a teenager, a kid just like us, suddenly got these amazing powers. And this kid, his home life wasn't bad, but it was far from perfect. His parents were gone, so he lived with his great uncle and great aunt, and they were like parents to him, so that's a hell of a lot better than lots of us have it. And one of the things his uncle used to always say to him before he got those powers was that with great power there must also come great responsibility. The kid, he didn't really get what his uncle was saying. So when he got those awesome powers, he didn't think much about responsibility. He used them carelessly, but then the chance to use them for something good presented itself. There was this robber, and Spider-Man could have stopped him. But he didn't. Even though he had the power to, he just stood by and let the guy get away. Then the robber went on to murder Spider-Man's uncle. The guy who was like a father to him. And Spider-Man could have stopped the guy. Can you even imagine what that must have felt like?"

Sadie stayed quiet, but shook her head. She hated to admit it, but the way Nico told it, made it seem like a pretty compelling story. And she couldn't imagine what it must feel like, to know that someone she cared about had gotten hurt when she could have prevented it. It hurt bad enough when people she cared about got hurt and she couldn't prevent it.

"So . . . yeah," said Nico. "Since then Spider-Man's taken his uncle's words to heart. He started trying to use his powers responsibly, and to save as many lives as he could. Not just to try to make up for the life that he couldn't save, but because he knows now, that's the right thing to do. The right way to use his powers."

"You're talking about Spider-Man?" Felix was back. Or actually, they'd caught up to him, where he was at the shop's front window, drooling over this big window decal advertising new booster packs for Mythomagic. Half a dozen gods with armor and weapons were striking heroic poses, hoisting their swords and spears, or summoning elements. Sadie scowled at the title of the new line of cards: Roman Fury. Her experience with Roman ghosts did not make her want to suddenly run out and buy their trading cards, but Nico and Felix both seemed to think they were awesome.

"Kind of," answered Nico. "Ready to go?"

Felix nodded, then hesitated. "Hey Nico?"

"Yeah?"

"Will you bring me back here when the Roman Fury packs are released? Please? I've been saving my money for them for months, but -"

"Sure."

"What? You will?" Felix perked up enthusiastically. "Thanks Nico! You're awesome!"

Then the kid darted up and hugged Nico quickly, before turning and dashing out the doors. That's right. The little penguin freak hugged the son of Hades. Sadie could hardly wrap her mind around that, except she knew she needed to, and quickly, or she'd lose the opportunity to tease Nico about it.

"Awww, how sweet," she crooned at Nico, who stood there still dumbfounded.

"Shut up."

"Sweet enough to rot your teeth out," said Sadie. "Though I must say, I'm surprised you didn't punch his teeth out."

"Shut up," Nico repeated gruffly, heading toward the doors. "Come on. Wasn't it you who wanted to get home?"

"I can walk and tease you at the same time," said Sadie, slinging an arm around Nico's shoulders. "So tell me, how long do you think it'll be before Felix starts calling you Big Brother Nico? Oh, and have you been taking big brothering lessons from Percy?"

"Percy's not my brother," growled Nico.

"Details, details. Hey do you - yah!" Sadie yelped as Nico suddenly shoved her backwards so hard that she fell on her rear. "Hey! What do you think you're -"

She broke off as she saw Nico sprint forward, faster than the speed of darkness, and tackle Felix, who stood directly in front of the game shop window, still drooling over the Roman Fury promo decal. Half a second later, the window exploded, struck by what looked like a blast of red energy that hit the window right where Felix had been standing. Glass rained down over the two boys, but Nico managed to shield Felix from the worst of it. He jumped up quickly though, before his cuts could really start bleeding, because they all knew what happened when his black blood touched anything . . . and what happened when it touched another living person.

" . . . doing," finished Sadie feeling stupid as she clambered back to her feet and reached into her Duat storage for her staff. "Alright, who did that?"

Nico hauled Felix off the ground and drug him back toward Sadie, before Felix had even seemed to comprehend what had happened. Then Nico pushed him back to where Sadie was standing and stood in front of both of them, placing himself directly between them and whatever had destroyed the window. The nerve of him! Like Sadie really needed his protection just because he was a man! Not even a man yet, just a kid, younger even than her.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded, storming up to stand beside him.

Nico glared at her sideways. "You need to stay away from me or my blood is going to rot your skin off, Sadie."

Now that Sadie had a closer look, she could see that he'd picked up a few cuts, but none of them looked too bad. None were gushing, which was a good sign, so Sadie decided to risk it.

"I'm not letting you face whatever this is on your own. What is it, by the way?" she asked, glaring at the source of their problems. At first glance it appeared to be kid like them. A boy, maybe about Nico's age, possibly a little younger. But Sadie was well aware how deceptive first glances could be, especially when supernatural forces came into play.

"I think . . . I think he's a demigod," said Nico, but he sounded very uncertain.

"Since when do demigods shoot red energy blasts?" asked Sadie.

"Yeah, that's Cyclops's power," piped up Felix.

"He didn't shoot red energy . . . he ripped a fire hydrant off the curb and threw that at Felix. Or at least I thought he was throwing it at Felix . . ."

As they watched, the demigod, assuming the kid was a demigod, jumped through the broken window and snatched up the Roman Fury window decal. It had survived the onslaught, even when the window hadn't, probably because it was a bendable piece of plastic or vinyl or whatever, and the window was a shatterable sheet of glass. But the demigod quickly began trying to fix this mistake, holding it in one hand and punching at it and clawing it with the other, like he was trying to kill it.

"Um . . . what is he doing?" asked Sadie.

"Hades if I know."

"I guess he's not a fan of the new booster packs," said Felix, trying to get closer.

Nico grabbed the younger boy's jacket and pulled him back. "Maybe it's the release date he's got a problem with. I really don't want to wait another month either."

"Ah. That must be it," decided Felix.

"Be serious, boys," said Sadie.

"Right. Serious." Nico's expression darkened as though on command. "He's definitely a demigod. He feels like one, and I'm not seeing anything through the Mist."

"Okay . . . so do you demigods hate the Roman forms of your pantheon or something?" asked Sadie.

"I've never heard of anything like that . . . wait . . ." Nico's eyes went slightly unfocused, like they often did when he was concentrating hard on what Anubis was telling him. "But that . . . that doesn't make sense . . . Okay, I just remembered that there used to be demigods who were children of the Roman forms of our gods, and that us kids of their Greek forms used to be at war with them. But . . . I guess those guys aren't around anymore since I haven't heard anything recent about them . . ."

Sadie translated that to mean that Anubis had just told Nico about these Roman gods and demigods. It wasn't common knowledge that he was possessed by Anubis, and for his safety, they were keeping it that way. If it had been just her, Nico would have told her that Anubis had told him that, but in front of Felix, he had to stretch the truth a bit.

"Not necessarily," she said. "They might still be around. I mean, you guys hadn't heard of the House of Life before you met us."

Nico's eyes narrowed at her, and he shook his head warningly. And Sadie recognized a slight change in him and realized that it was Anubis shaking his head, giving her that warning. Why, she wasn't sure, but then Nico was himself again, looking confused.

"Maybe," said Nico, sounding suspicious, probably because of Anubis's takeover. "I can't remember anything else right now. But there's a chance that this demigod might know something about them."

"So what do we do?" asked Felix.

"You don't do anything," said Nico. "I'm going to try talking to him. Both of you, stay back."

"We're not letting you do this alone," said Sadie.

"He's unarmed," pointed out Nico. "And the only thing he really wants to kill seems to be that window decal. I'm just going to try to talk to him, and see if I can figure out what's wrong with him. You guys are magicians, and lately we've been being taught that you guys can be dangerous. So you should probably stay back and not provoke him."

It sounded reasonable enough, but it still grated on Sadie's nerves, the idea of letting a friend so close to something dangerous when she couldn't be right beside them. But she nodded, deciding to trust Nico's judgment.

"Alright," said Sadie. "But be careful."

"I will," said Nico, then started toward the angry demigod. Then he stopped. "Oh, and Sadie?"

"Yes?"

"This is all your fault."

"What?" demanded Sadie. "How is this my fault?"

"You jinxed us."