This is the sequel to "Capture the Flag". Read that story before you read this. I wrote this because I got several requests for a sequel. I'm afraid this might not be as good as the first, but let me know what you think. REVIEWS ARE HIGHLY VALUED. If it sucked, tell me, and let me know what was wrong with it. If it was good, let me know, and tell me what was good about it. Enjoy:
"Come on, Nico!" I said.
"I'm sorry, Percy. But I already promised Annabeth I would play for their team this week."
I put my hands in my pockets. I knew it was hopeless trying to convince Nico to break his promise. And I knew I shouldn't try. "What did Annabeth promise you to get you on their team, anyway?"
"Nothing much," Nico said. "Just the opportunity to be the first Son of Hades to be a Capture the Flag Team Captain ever at camp half-blood." I hadn't known Nico would be the Team Captain this week. "Nice job, man. Congrats."
I headed to my cabin to go over strategies... again. The problem was, there isn't much you can do when you the only one on a team, and you're playing a game that requires both offense and defense at the same time. If I tried to get the flag, they take mine without any trouble. And then I lose. If I play defense, then there's no way I get their flag. And then I lose. I sat there, going over different possibilities. None of them were very good.
After dinner, everyone began strapping on armor. Everyone but me that is. A few weeks ago, Nico had convinced me to bathe in the River Styx and become invulnerable, in order to prevent the Evil Titan Lord, Kronos, from destroying western civilization. So now I couldn't be hurt anywhere except the small of my back, which was my one weak spot, my "Achilles heal". Now I didn't need to where any armor, except the Blue Plumed helmet that identified me as the only member of my team.
"Hey, Percy," said a familiar voice. I looked up to see Nico. Annabeth was walking over to join us. They were both grinning evilly, probably planning on gloating about the fact that I didn't stand a chance. Nico was wearing completely black armor. He was using a regular bronze sword instead of his usual Stygian iron blade. I didn't know why.
"You are going to be creamed, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said.
"You wish," I said, although I was wishing I could come up with a better comeback.
"Annabeth's right," said Nico. "You will be creamed." He clamped his scull-shaped helmet onto his head.
"Admit it," Annabeth said. "You've got no chance.""No chance of losing," I said. Annabeth opened her mouth to say something, but just then Chiron galloped up.
"Heroes! Usual rules. No intentional maiming. The creek will serve as the boundary. The flags must be clearly visible, and have no more than two guards."
No problem for me, I continued. "I will serve as the referee and battlefield medic."
Annabeth and Nico turned to leave. Then Annabeth turned back. "Percy, I'll see you after you're done recovering from this crushing defeat." She and Nico left, and I could hear the rest of their team laughing as they headed into the woods.
The game started. I quickly set up my flag, and then rushed back to the creek. Just in time, too. The entire Ares cabin was charging towards the creek at full speed. I concentrated, and willed the water to rise up and form a solid wall, like I had used against Annabeth last week. This time, however, I didn't make it soft like I had for Annabeth. I made it rock hard. Clarisse's eyes got wide. She, and the rest of her cabin, were going to fast. They couldn't slow down in time.
"Did immorta - Aaargh!" Clarisse let out a strangled scream. She and the rest of the Ares cabin slammed into the wall at full speed. Several spears snapped as the hit the wall. The entire Ares cabin lay on the ground by the river, groaning and cursing me. Clarisse and a few others started to stand up. I lifted the wall of water, and slammed it down hard, knocking them flat again. The Hermes and Hephaestus campers all charged out of the woods, but stopped suddenly when they saw what I had done to the Ares cabin. The backed further away from the water. I jumped over the creek, and charged them.
I could see the fear in their eyes as they tried to form a phalanx. I mean, they had all seen me wipe out hundreds of monsters single handedly, and take on Titans and win, so I guess they new as well as I did that there was no way a handful of campers could stand up to me.
I parried a couple swords and a spear aside as I smashed into their half-formed phalanx. A Hephaestus camper swung a sword at me. I blocked it, and kicked him in the stomach. He fell backwards and knocked over a smaller Hermes camper. A newer Hermes camper slashed at me. She was actually pretty good. She blocked three of my attacks, and made two counter attacks of her own, before I disarmed her and smacked her in the helmet with my blade. The rest were no problem. I smashed, kicked, smacked, punched or disarmed them all, until two more groaning, cursing cabins joined the Ares cabins on the ground. I was about to charge off into the woods, when the shadows in front of me darkened, and Nico stepped out.
He hit me three times before I could react. He slashed again, and I blocked, and kicked him in the stomach, sending him backwards a few feet. He got up and attacked me again. Nico slashed, and I parried. I Counter attacked, but he side stepped an slashed at my knees. I blocked, and tried to kick him again, but he jumped out of the way this time. Nico slashed at me again, but I blocked, shoved his blade to the side, and lunged at him. He jumped back, but he was off-balance, and I smacked him in the head so hard that his helmet went spinning off his head. He staggered and fell backwards.
For most Demigods, that would have been the end. They would have been stunned for a moment, and I would have disarmed them and smacked them a few more times. But not Nico.
Nico rolled to the side, avoiding my strike, and my sword hit the dirt where he had been a moment before. Nico managed to get to his feet, and he slashed at me hard, putting all his weight into the strike. His blow hit my shoulder, and if I hadn't been invulnerable from my little swim in the River Styx, it would have cut my in two. And that's if I was wearing armor. As it was, it sliced through my shirt, but glanced of my shoulder harmlessly. I counter attacked at Nico, and he blocked. I was about to smack him in the head again, when an arrow bounced of the side of my helmet. I looked around to see that the entire Apollo Cabin had come out of the woods and formed a circle all around us. And now they were pelting me with arrows. I tried to ignore it, but I figured out pretty quickly, that was not going to work. You see, being hit with several arrows every second is annoying. I was distracted, and Nico got the upper hand. He was blocking all of my attacks, and more of his were getting through. Then I had an idea.
I willed water from the creak to rise up, and made it swirl around me, creating my own personal hurricane, like I had done when I fought Hyperion a few weeks before. The Apollo cabin's arrows were caught in the hurricane, and began swirling around me with the water. Nico could hardly keep his balance. I stepped forward, and he almost fell over. I disarmed him easily, and hit him in the shoulder with the flat of my blade.
Now to deal with the Apollo campers. I willed several hundred more gallons of water to join the hurricane, and made it spin faster. The Apollo Campers were blown of their feet. I let the hurricane die down. My mind was racing; I had just taken out four cabins, five if you count Nico. Annabeth had most likely taken a few campers with her to get my flag. That meant that there would be a couple more cabins guarding their flag. They would be no problem. But I had to move quickly. I took off running towards Zeus's Fist. The team that had that side of the woods always put the flag there, because it was very easy to defend. You see, Zeus's fist is this big pile of rocks. If you look at it from the right angle, it looks like a big fist sticking out of the ground. People always put the flag on top of it, because its hard to get to, and is still in plain site like the rules say.
But when I got there, I was in for a surprise. The flag wasn't there. What was there was the entire Aphrodite Cabin, Demeter Cabin, and most of the Athena Cabin. I didn't see Annabeth, so either I was right about her playing offense, or she was invisible.
I charged right at the Aphrodite Cabin, who weren't much of a problem. I disarmed a few within a matter of seconds, and the ran away muttering something about chipped finger nails. I tripped another, and knocked down two more, and disarmed the last one. The Demeter and Athena Cabins had formed a tightly packed phalanx, a solid wall of shields in from of them, with spears bristling of the top, and between the spaces. I charged. I knocked aside a few spears, and jumped as high as I could, smashing into the shield wall. My plan was for the force of my impact to knock over the campers holding the shields, and, in turn, the entire phalanx. But it didn't exactly work that way.
I hit the shield wall as hard as I could, but the campers in back were bracing the front ranks well. It held, and I fell to the ground it a heap. The entire phalanx broke and jumped on me, several thousand pounds of campers and armor squishing me into the ground. I couldn't breath. I couldn't move. I couldn't even see. The river, I thought. I concentrated, and heard a roar and felt the wave smash into the mound of campers who were pinning me down. But it was no good. It would take a lot of force, and probably the whole creek, to blast them off me. Then I had another idea.
I had only done this once before, and it didn't end well. But I was older and stronger now, I thought. I knew my limits better. This time, I could control it. I concentrated once again. I felt that familiar tug in my gut. The ground directly below me exploded with water. The other campers were blasted, ten, twenty, and some of them, thirty feet away. I was blasted about two-hundred feet in the air. Oh, man, I though, Zeus is not going to like this. Then I started falling about two-hundred feet straight down. I tried to twist the air to make sure I didn't land on my back. I didn't. I hit the ground going faster than a fighter jet, head first. I pulled my head out of the dirt. My helmet had been so smashed up I didn't know if I could even get it off my head. I crawled out of the new crater I had made, and looked around. The campers I had blasted away from me were lying around the clearing everywhere, most of them groaning and cursing me. A few were unconscious. I realized I was no longer holding Riptide. I must have let go of it when I was in the air. I wondered where it would land. As it turned out, it had landed hilt first on Malcolm's head.
"Ouch!" Malcolm yelled. I ran over and grabbed the sword. Then I jumped over Malcolm and into the woods to find the flag. I had been sprinting for about five minutes, when I finally found it. It was in a small clearing, no place that was highly defendable or anything. But it was someplace other than Zeus's fist, and that had thrown me off.
The flag had two guards, Pollux, Dionysus's son, and an Athena camper who's name I didn't know. I disarmed Pollux and knocked him to the ground before either could react. The Athena guy got his shield up in time to block my attack. He was very good, actually. He counter attacked, and almost got me. Almost. I dropped Riptide, and grabbed the blade of his sword with both hands. I yanked it out of his grip, and, still holing it by the blade, whacked him in the head with the hilt. He went down.
I grabbed the flag and took off running toward the river. I knew Annabeth must have the flag by now, so I ran as fast as I could. I could see the river now. I caught a glimpse of Nico somewhere off the my right. Annabeth was sprinting towards the river with the flag. I formed a wall of water, but Annabeth was expecting it this time. She stopped suddenly, and copied my move from the previous week's game. She threw the flag like a spear, over my wall of water. I let the wall fall back to the creek, and ran for the flag. But Nico was already there. He caught it easily, and it shimmered and turned pure black. I groaned. Annabeth and Nico cheered, along with the rest of their team.
"Red Team wins!" Chiron announced.
Beat up campers started arriving in the clearing to celebrate with the rest of their team, except for the ones who needed to be taken to the Big House to recover.
"Percy," Chiron said trotting over to me. "You must try to injure campers less."
"Sorry," I said. He cantered away. "I thought I was trying," I added under my breath.
Annabeth and Nico ran over to me, grinning.
"I told you we would destroy you, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said.
"Yeah," I said. "Help me get the stupid helmet off.
The helmet was completely smashed around my head. Annabeth grabbed onto the edges, and pulled, while I tried to go backwards, and we finally got it off. It was so scratched and beat up and dented, it hardly looked like a helmet at all.
"Percy," Annabeth said. "That's the second helmet you've destroyed in two weeks."I looked down at my clothes. They were slashed up, muddy, and full of arrow holes.
"At least I didn't get kicked in the face this time," I said.
"No," Annabeth agreed. "But you created a second canoeing lake with your head." She and Nico started laughing. Now that I thought about it, I had the worst headache ever.
I took a shower and went to bed. My face had been completely plastered in mud. When I went to bed, I was so tired I fell asleep immediately. For once, my dreams were pleasant. I dreamt that me, my mom, Paul and Annabeth were sitting at a table, eating good food and laughing. I was jolted awake by someone pounding on my door. I got dressed quickly, and opened the door. It was Annabeth. Judging from the sun, it was about 7:30 in the morning.
"Come on," she said, and took off towards the Big House. I followed her, wondering what was wrong. When we got to the Big House, Annabeth opened the door and went in, I followed. Standing there in the room were Chiron, Mr. D, and…
"Thalia?" I said.
Annabeth smiled. "It looks like you won't be all by yourself at the next Capture the Flag game. The Hunters are here."
So, how was it? Notice I left it open for another possible sequel. If you think I should write the game against the hunters, let me know. If I do, that will be the last the this "Capture the flag" series. (Unless someone gives me a great idea for another one.)
Please review! Criticism is highly valued, whether negative or possitive.