And so, welcome to the fourth installment. So, quick story time, this whole bit with the potion being hidden in the White House was a spur of the moment idea. When I originally wrote this, Bob and the other four sons of Mars had hidden the potion inside the Underworld in the realm of Morpheus. Now, I don't know if the dream realm was actually a part of Greek mythology, but at the time I was like ohhhh this is so cool. Once I got stuck and had no way to write myself onward, I started to realize that none of it made sense and a lot of the events were contradicting eachother. So I rewrote it and came up with this, which I think flows much better. I also really liked adding detail on who the Demigods were (Making JFK and Robert Kennedy part of it was awesome) which was something I didn't do, sort of how I did with Eli's character. The first time I wrote it, there was no mention of his past or a story to emotionally tie you to the character, the only friend he had being a guy named Q that was mentioned when he and Raven summoned a bunch of dead Bloods and Crips to help them storm Mount Othrys and they tied their bandannas together to stop them from fighting eachother. Now, as cool as that sounds now, if you'd actually read it, the way it was written was just really corny and stupid. Sort of like me going "Hey guys, remember, these dudes were in gangs." Honestly, I like the whole basis of what I did, but the only reason Raven and Eli were gang members is because I had a huge, random obsession with gangs when I first started writing this, which is where most of my knowledge about them comes from. I'm telling you, if I'd put that kind of effort in school, I probably wouldn't even have time to write these because I'd be like a doctor or a lawyer or something.

Chapter 1: Outsmarted

Raven:

"If I know Annabeth," I told Travis "And I think I do, she's gonna have something crazy up her sleeve."

"Our spies just got back," Clarrise reported "Percy's leading the main force, Annabeth is nowhere to be found."

"Antonio?" I asked

"He's with Percy," Piper nodded "Judging by past games, I'd guess Annabeth is intending on going for the flag, Antonio and Percy are meant to distract us."

"Athena's always got a strategy," I told them "But I'm finding that their strategies are getting predictable."

"Then you haven't been around long enough," Clarrise grunted "Right when you think you have it figured out, they'll hit you with a curve ball."

"We've got a few curve balls of our own," I assured her before turning to Piper "Leo got our little surprise in place?"

"Oh yeah," She grinned "So, what's this master plan you and Clarrise came up with?"

"According to the spies, Percy's right here," I said, indicating to a small creek on the map "He's going to keep the main force where he's most powerful, that means we've gotta draw him away from his source of power."

"How do we do that, exactly?" Travis asked

"Two solutions," Clarrise cut in "We get the flag, Percy follows us. However, since the blue team drew the bigger team, we don't exactly have the numbers to get past them, and if we could we wouldn't need to draw him away from the water."

"So what's the other one?" Piper asked

"That's where she comes in," I said, nodding to Lucy, the leader of the Hecate cabin "We may not have the wit of the Athena kids, but we've got magic. So, the Hecate kids use the mist to make the other team see our flag, Percy goes after it, we cut Percy off from the water, which means we stand a fighting chance."

"Except we have no idea where their flag is," Piper reminded me "The longer we spend looking for it, the longer Annabeth has to find ours."

"We've got the Nyx kids working on it," I told her "As soon as they've got a location, we move. Clarrise is taking our main force and going right for the center, Piper you'll be taking a smaller force and hitting them from the sides."

"What about you?" Travis asked

"You and I will take what's left and go around their back," I told him "Our job will be to cut them off from retreating back to the creek, then all we have to do is hold out until Kayla and the others get back with the flag."

"Seems simple enough," Travis nodded "So what's Leo's little surprise."

"Something Annabeth isn't going to like." I said with an evil grin

Antonio:

"I'm not a huge fan of all this waiting," I said, looking to Percy "It's too quiet."

"Trust me, I get it," He nodded "But Annabeth said stay put and defend the creek, and you'll learn quickly, always follow her instructions to the letter, Athena's plans rarely fail."

"What is our plan, exactly?" Nico asked

"We just wait," Percy shrugged "That's our job anyways, Annabeth and four of her siblings are looking for the flag, and as long as we do what we're supposed to, everything will go according to the plan."

"It had better," I sighed "I can't look Raven in the eye if I lose to him twice in a row."

"He had the Athena kids last time," Percy laughed "This time, we've got the edge."

It had been a few months since everything with Circe and Mount Othrys, and I'd settled into Camp Half-Blood alright. I'd nearly given Dad a heart attack the first time I'd sent him an Iris Message, guess Mom didn't tell him about those.

In that time, we'd been working on training as Magicians. Sadie came to Camp Half-Blood every weekend and stayed with us, bringing along a few different Magicians to teach us different types of magic. Carter did the same for Eli, being that he had a flying Griffin and could make the trip to Camp Jupiter much easier. We'd also been putting together a crew for the White House job, which I still couldn't believe that we were actually going to try and pull off.

Obviously, Raven, Eli, and I would be going, but we'd recruited others, knowing we'd need a ton of help.

First, we'd enlisted the help of Leo and Annabeth, two Demigods I'd been introduced to almost immediately. Leo had an amazing way with machines and inventing things, and Annabeth was smart as a whip, and could no doubt come up with a way to get us inside, two skills that would be very invaluable to us.

Second, Eli had sent an Iris Message and told us that he'd talked Frank and Reyna into joining us. Well, actually, he'd talked Frank into it, apparently the guy had the ability to shape shift into animals, and Reyna had overheard them talking and volunteered herself. Eli had tried to talk her out of it, to get her to understand that somebody would need to lead with Frank gone, but she had insisted on helping handle this personally, saying she'd leave the camp in the hands of some guy named Jason.

Third, we'd enlisted the help of two Hunters who I'd met but didn't really remember, Amber and Maya. Raven figured that their stealth skills could come in handy, and the rest of us readily agreed. The bigger the crew got, the more the plan came together, the better we all felt about the whole thing.

Incredibly, we'd also gotten Carter and Sadie to agree to help us, as hard as that was to believe. Carter was hesitant at first, but Sadie made the point that if Apophis was involved, this was just as much their problem as it was ours, and I also got the sense that Carter wasn't going to let his little sister walk into something like that without help.

Finally, we had another volunteer, a girl named Kayla, who Raven informed me had a thing going with Eli, or did, at least. He suspected she just wanted to see Eli again, but she'd told us she was tired of being cooped up at camp, and wanted the chance to get out and stretch her legs, get a change of scenery.

That, I could already understand.

Unfortunately, we wouldn't be able to form a solid plan until we actually got to Washington DC and scoped the place out, and got our hands on a blue print. Although there were plenty of pictures of the inside of the White House online, there was very little to actually give you a solid layout of the place.

I suppose it would be a risk to national security.

"Hey," Percy said, nudging me "Still with us?"

"Yeah," I said, jarring myself back to reality "Just lost in thought."

"Get ready for a ton of that." Nico laughed

Suddenly, I saw movement in the distance, and I strained my head to get a decent look. There were four campers standing guard around a cluster of rocks, and, for a moment, I wondered if they were just stragglers from our team, then I noticed a small flash of red.

"Percy!" I hissed "I think that's the flag."

"No way," He said, shaking his head "They wouldn't have put it this close, would they?"

"It's right there." I told him, pointing

As I said the words, I saw more campers appearing, all hanging around in a defensive formation. Percy noticed too, and his eyes it up, we had the game won. He grinned at me, raising his sword and turning to the others, who had all begun to notice it to.

"ATTACK!" He yelled

We rushed forward, screaming and hollering, right towards the flag. In a panic, the other team scrambled for defensive positions, their archers taking cover and firing smoke arrows as fast as they could. One went off in front of me but I plowed right through, meeting a Demigod with a shield and spear head on.

I ducked and rolled, the way Michael, the kid from the Ares cabin who'd been training me to fight with two blades, had taught me. As I came up, I kicked the back of the guy's leg and then his back, slamming him face first into the ground.

I'd learned in my first game not to be gentle during capture the flag.

"Retreat!" Somebody was yelling "Fall back and defend the flag."

The enemy team did so, taking position around a cluster of rocks and forming a phalanx. I blocked a sword from a girl as she tried to club me from the side, twisting her hand and disarming her as I shouldered her into the ground.

As I focused my gaze on the flag, I noticed that it had vanished. For a moment, I looked around, trying to figure out where they had taken it, before I remembered that it was against the rules to move the flag after it was placed, and I knew Raven would play by the rules as long as everybody else did, so where the hell did it go?

"It's a trick!" Percy yelled "Back to the creek! Go! Go!"

At that moment, I realized that we were being rushed from the sides and pushed back. We were about a hundred yards or so from the creek, our original defensive position, and I knew Annabeth would be livid at Percy if he cost her the game because he'd fallen for some stupid trick, although I still wasn't sure exactly what we had fallen for.

Unfortunately for us, as we turned to retreat, I saw Raven leading a massive swarm of Demigods from the other side of the creek, aiming to cut us off. It worked, and we were surrounded on all sides, and Percy, our ace in the hole, was out of his element.

I found myself back to back with Percy, trying our best to fend off Demigods as they attempted to take us down. We did alright, but I knew we couldn't keep it up forever, they were already starting to overwhelm us, and we had nowhere to run to.

"Not so tough out of your element, eh, Waterboy?" I heard Raven yell as he rushed us

Before Percy could respond, Raven hit him with a blast of silver light, knocking him into a tree and he fell to the ground, unconscious. Raven raised his sword and attacked high, and I threw my swords into a V shape, catching his and pushing him back.

"What's up, buddy?" He asked with a grin, raising his eyebrows

"Same as last time," I shrugged, going for his side "Surrounded, and you seem to be behind it."

"You'll get use to losing," He laughed, blocking my swords and kicking me backwards "Maybe, one day, I'll let you be on my team."

I jumped to my feet and the two of us went back and forth, neither one giving an inch. Raven was good, but I'd been training hard, and I managed to hold my own against him, at least for a little while. He spun around me, aiming to get the back of my head but I turned, elbowing him in the face and sweeping my blades down, catching his ankle and pulling his feet out from under him.

"I win," I said, leveling my swords to his chest "Guess you're the one who's gonna have to get used to losing."

"Nah," He laughed, nodding behind me "I win."

I turned, spotting a small group of Apollo kids rushing back across the creek, our flag held high above their heads.

Dammit.

Annabeth:

"Oh gods," I shuddered in fear, looking at the Ares flag "Raven, that's just evil."

"You can't actually think we're going in there." Malcolm told me

"If we want that flag, we've got to," Gwen whispered, also shuddering "Even if we don't like it."

What were we talking about? Well, let's just say Raven was much smarter than I'd given him credit for. He might've been a goofball, but he was no idiot. Around the flag stood about ten or so Hephaestus campers, led by Leo, and moving between them were several large, mechanical spiders.

Sure, they weren't actual spiders, but they were spiders nonetheless.

"We're also way outnumbered," Thomas reminded me "We should go get some backup."

"No time," I sighed "No doubt, Raven's smart, and he's probably already baited Percy out of position, we need to get that flag and move before they find ours."

"And how are we going to do that, exactly?" Malcolm asked skeptically

I thought as hard as I could, trying my best to formulate a plan as quickly as I could. First, we had to disable those spiders, and I noticed that Leo had a control panel in his hands, I guessed that was how he was controlling them, but the question was how we were going to get to it.

"Three of us are going to have to distract Leo," I told them "Then the last person sneaks up behind him and breaks that control panel, my guess is that's how he's controlling these things."

"Distract him how?" Malcolm asked "You don't intend to go charging out there, do you?"

"Of course not," I grinned "I intend for you to go charging out there."

I explained my plan as quickly as I could before everybody got into position. With any luck, we could take out enough of the Hephaestus campers by surprise by the time I shut down the spiders, which were no doubt also full of nasty surprises themselves.

I moved into position and gave the signal. Malcolm and Thomas charged the front, knocking down two Hephaestus campers apiece before the others realized what was happening, Gwen rushed the sides and took down two more. Leo, being as smart as he was, recognized the plot immediately and stuffed the control panel into his tool belt, pulling out his hammer as he did so.

I jumped him from behind and the two of us rolled down the hill, but without that control panel, I wouldn't be able to deactivate the spiders, and that was a huge issue, as they were already scuttling to surround the others, who had gone back to back, making a last stand.

"Ya know," Leo said conversationally, kicking me backwards "That wasn't very nice."

"Neither were the spiders." I countered, aiming to take his leg out

"Not my idea," He grinned, planting himself and kicking my leg away "But it's pretty effective."

I noticed the edge of the control panel sticking from his tool belt, and I realized that I needed to improvise. I rushed Leo, jumping over one of the spiders as I did so, and grabbing his shirt, feigning as though I were attempting to take him to the ground, which he fell for. My other hand snapped out and snatched the control panel, and I felt it come free of the belt.

I jumped backwards, looking down at it and hoping I would see a big red button that said: Turn off giant spiders, but no such luck. Instead, it was a series of knobs and buttons, none of them were labeled. In that moment, I took a page from Percy's book (Don't ever tell him that) and ran my hand over the control panel, clicking every single button twice.

What happened next was very entertaining for those of us who were not giant, mechanical spiders. All of them started going haywire, snapping at eachother and running around in circles, their gears overheating and sparks flying from their bodies. Suddenly, several massive popping sounds were heard as their circuits blew and they all rolled onto their backs, dead.

"Clever," Leo said, looking around and realizing his cabin mates had been taken down and that he was all alone "Truly a plan worthy of Athena, just click random buttons, something will happen."

"I like you, Leo," I said, smiling slightly as the four of us surrounded him "I really do. So, I'll take you as my prisoner instead of beating you senseless, and, just to watch you squirm, I'm gonna make you carry your own flag across the creek for us."

"Ahhhh, well about that," He laughed, the grin not fading from his face "Your boyfriend is very impulsive."

Immediately, before I even heard the horn, I knew what he was talking about. Raven and Clarrise had done exactly what I feared they would do, they'd baited Percy away from the water, no matter how many times I told him he needed to stay put.

That's the last time I let Percy be on my team.

Also the last time I let Raven be on the enemy team.

I hated being outsmarted, but I could admit when I had been, and I could use somebody like him in future games.