Nico Di Angelo needed some peace, and was wandering the desert, when he found a large building, hidden in a sand dune. He entered and accidentally hit a button in the abandoned lab.

A green energy lit up the room, and before Nico could register what was happening, a large amount of Gamma Radiation hit him. The place exploded. Nico was caught in the blast, hitting him with even more radiation. The lab, as. Nico's luck would fare, was a lab created for the purpose of testing how gamma radiation affected different living and inanimate beings or objects. Nico, being a demigod, was affected differently. Rather than creating an alter ego, or giving him new abilities, it heightened and added to his powers, made him into a part shadow being himself, and changed his DNA on a molecular level. He groaned loudly, before passing out as his vision blurred.

Nico woke up with a groan. He immediately noticed that he was in the desert. Nico quickly recalled the recent events. He stood up and noticed he was among the wreckage. Yet, He was fine. Okay that's weird. Not even demigods could make it out of a explosion like that alive. Nico looked down at his hands, and noted that they were tingly. Instinctively, Nico waved his hand. A shadow moved. Nico curiosity got the better of him, and Nico waved his arm again. The shadows quivered, and seemed to reach out to Nico's arm.

"Cool!" Nico said, his voice a few octaves higher than before. Nico stood up, and looked into the reflective image.

He wasn't shocked by the new muscles, or his hair, which had turned into shadows. Not even that he'd deaged to 12 or 13. No. The thing that caught his breath was his eyes. The pupils had become dark purple slits and his dark brown had become a pitch black, which seemed to glow with power and light up his eyes.

Nico held his breath. He was completely different. His senses were about 120 times better. He managed to get his powers under control in a span of twenty days. He spent these days in the desert, away from humanity. He was too powerful to return to the Greek world. Zeus would kill him in an instant. Nico chose to instead form a pair of sunglasses out of shadows (A new trick he'd learned), and go into the Mortal world. He was a mutant now. A freak. Nothing could change that.

Nico chose to start his new life in New York as a regular street kid.

NICO POV

I jumped from the roof of one building, using shadows to propel me to the next. I was a shadow in the night... er afternoon. Literally. I had molded into the shadows, and unless someone shines a light on me, I'm invisible.

I had just finished a day of running from a gang that didn't like me, and decided to take a quick trip around New York. All in all, it had been a pretty good day. I was sitting, watching the horizon while hiding in the shadows, when a portal opened. I stared at it for a few seconds, then the ugly alien things attacked, and I jumped into action.

I jumped off the skyscraper I'd been on, and disappeared into the shadows, reappearing in the center of the battle. Still shrouding myself in shadows, I killed alien after alien. After while, I found a redhead woman in black spandex. She was talking to someone on her earpiece. I grinned, and listened in, trying to figure out what was going on, all the while killing the aliens, who, I now knew from listening in on the conversation, where the chitauri. The woman was suddenly pushed down. A couple of chitauri had ganged up on her. I, despite wanting to keep my existence a secret, killed one with a knife made of shadows.

"Thanks-" the woman looked around, not seeing me. I started to walk away. She turned towards me, and seemed to notice the shadow walking on it's own.

"What are you?!" She demanded, still fighting. I stayed silent, and killed more chitauri.

She suddenly lunged at me, I jumped out of the shadows partially, but enough to reveal someone was there. She stared in shock.

"What are you?" She asked.

"How can I answer a question," I asked quietly, while killing a chitauri, "that I question every day myself?"

The woman lifted a hand to her ear. I started to head back to the shadows, but she asked me a final question.

"What do I call you?" It was a good question, one I pondered.

"Call me Ghost King. That's already one of my titles." I said, then shadow traveled out, as soon as I slaughtered the last chitauri in the area.

After a while, I came across a man in spandex also speaking on a comm. It was reasonable to guess they were from the same unit, or group. I fought carefully, not revealing myself, then the man was suddenly trapped underneath one, and I shadow traveled, while making a mask of shadows on my face, and using shadows to cover my clothes like a cloak. I swung my sword and killed the alien. The man stood up, looking shocked, but I wasn't so sure why.

"you're like 13!" He protested, "you shouldn't be fighting!" Well that answer that question.

"I'm not your average 14 year old." I growled, "call me ghost king. That's what I told Redhead. I just saved your life. I could've stayed in the shadows, where I usually prefer to be, but I chose to help out. I've seen death before, literally and metaphorically, I don't mind either. So I really couldn't care less if you died, but since we're clearly fighting the same war here, I saved you. A thank you would be nice."

"Fine. Thank you, but you really shouldn't be-" the man started, but I literally walked into the shadows before he could finish.

Then I avoided big green and mighty, swerved to dodge the guy in the iron suit, and hid in the shadow of a wall by an archer, who was seriously wondering where the 'freaking knives' were coming from.

"WHO IS THROWING THE FREAKING KNIVES?!" He is now shouting. I chuckled, and he heard it echo. He swerved towards me, then grabbed my arm. I was pulled from the shadows. I was lucky I'd kept the mask and cloak on.

"What was that for?" I asked, "I was helping you!"

"You're... short." He said, I pointed behind him, he grabbed one of my knives, and threw it into the chitauri that was attacking, "why are you so short?"

"I'm 14. Deal with it." I growled, and killed a few aliens.

"Are you a mutant?" The archer asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm just a kid who was in the wrong place at the wrong time." I said, but quickly added, "but I'm perfectly good at defending myself."

"I can see that." The archer scoffed, as I took down three aliens using their own shadows, "Why are you helping us?"

"Aliens are attacking the planet, and I can do something to help, you figure the rest out." I said with a scoff, and stabbed my sword into the ground, "step back. This gets a bit dangerous." He stepped back, and I summoned a skeleton army, who I sent into battle immediately.

"Whoa." The archer said, "you got skills."

"Yeah," I smirked, "I know. Duck." He ducked and I threw a knife at the chitauri coming from behind.

"You have anything to do with SHIELD, kid?" The archer asked, as I started on the last, and largest alien in the area.

"No." I said, and killed the last alien, I whirled around to face the archer, "Call me ghost king in the future. That is, if we meet again."

"Why ghost king-"

Figuring they could do the rest, I disappeared into the shadows, shadow traveling to my destination, an abandoned warehouse, and my new home. You see, after the mist fell a few weeks ago, everyone blamed the Norse God, except me. I knew that the Norse would not break their contract without a good reason, so being the outcast I am, Zeus banished me. Something about openly disagreeing with the gods being unforgivable. No one stood up for me, except Will, my boyfriend, who was also banished. Though it was after mine. He was banished for hiding powers from the gods.

Speaking of, Will was frantically pacing the warehouse, two balls of light were bursting around his hands, something that only happened when he was anxious, or worried. Oh gods. How long have I been gone?

"Nicolas Di Angelo!" Will shouted, the balls of light bursting from his hands and heating up the room, "you had me worried sick!"

"Will..." I started.

"You went off fighting aliens didn't you!" he scolded, "Why didn't you IM?! Or-"

"Will, the sun's too bright." I said, holding back a smirk. That was our code phrase for, 'stop. You need to calm down, because your sun rays are showing.' That's right, Will could control and create sunlight. Just like I create and control shadows. That's why he was banished, he was so good at hiding it from everyone, that when he revealed it, he was banished.

Will took a deep breath, and continued in a calmer tone, "Look, I was worried sick! For all I knew, you could've been caught by the aliens and brutally murdered!" Will started to cry, "I was scared I'd lost you."

"Hey, look I'm okay. I'm not going anywhere, see." I said, softly kissing him on the lips, Will seemed to savor the moment, before pulling away. I looked him in the eye, while brushing a tear, and some hair away from his face.

"I'm sorry. I got caught in the moment, and I didn't call. Please don't cry. It hurts to see you cry." I said softly, Will smiled.

"Alright, but only cause I love you." Will nodded.

"I love you too." I said, smiling. I tried to suppress a yawn, but failed. Will noticed, and pulled me into his sleeping bag.

"Let's get some shut eye. It's been a long day." Will said calmly.

"Yeah. Agreed." I said, and cuddled close to my boyfriend, who smiled, and blew out our makeshift lantern. I felt his warmth, as I slowly drifted off to the land of Hypnos...

I woke up to Will nudging me.

"What?" I asked.

"There's a group of people in spandex coming towards us, just thought you might wanna know." Will said, weirded out.

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TADA!!!!

XD