Chapter 2: Capture the Flag (With a few surprises)
An ordinary game of capture the flag with a bunch of minors, what could possibly go wrong? Well for starters no one knew that the other team or their team members for that matter, had powers. Bart used his powers to run through the forest at a fast rate, so fast no one could spot him. Chase had decided to go with a very, up front attack. He lit a small pinecone on fire, and tossed it in the general direction of the fire pit, it lit the fire in the fire pit, and the other team rushed towards the fire pit, except for Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance. They saw through the trap and snuck around into the forest. Back at the fire pit Chase was unleashing a barrage of paint in every direction, using the smoke from the fire to conceal himself. Once the smoke started clearing Chase fell back. Karolina took advantage of the smoke screen and flew above the trees to avoid being spotted. Molly followed Karolina from the ground. Corner and Cassie also decided to fly, they stuck to the trees to avoid being spotted. Jason however had a similar idea, he flew to the top of a tree using the wind manipulation, and then he realized there were three others. He took aim at Corner, and fired. His paintball missed, but barely. Lucas was watching, and he was frankly finding this not interesting enough.
"Ugh this is boring, what this game needs is excitement." Lucas said, "Ah I got it, Thresher! You're up."
A tall girl with brown hair, glasses, and wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and combat boots walked out of the mess hall, wearing a full ammo belt of paintballs, and holding two paintball guns. Lucas got out a speaker.
"Alright campers listen up, if any of you are hit by a paintball from Thresher's gun you're her prisoner, unless your team can save you." Lucas told the campers, "Also remember you can only capture the enemy flag if yours is still there."
Chase and Old Lace darted in and out of the trees to avoid being spotted, they started running after Karolina, knowing their distraction had worked. He loaded his paintball gun, and got ready for anything. Old Lace was fully alert, and he could sense it. They were running closer to the enemy base, but how long until they got there? Meanwhile the Red Ravagers were searching for the base and recovering from the attack. Suddenly they were aware that multiple of them were missing. Percy looked around, and he realized that Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance had used the ambush as a cover to escape. The Mysterious Benedict Society (aka Reynie, Kate, Sticky and Constance) were running through the forest, searching for the enemy base. Then Reynie noticed something odd. There was a strange device attached to a tree. Upon closer examination they discovered it to be a camera, the enemy team had set up cameras all around their base. This meant they were getting close, but they also knew they were there. In the Blue Brigade base Leo was fiddling with his special laptop (designed not to attract monsters) and setting up the rest of his traps. While Nico was setting up some kind of magical barrier, Calypso was helping Leo, and Henry, Star, and Tim were exploring the cave.
"Hey guys this cave is much deeper than we first through." Henry reported.
"Have you found an end?" Calypso asked.
"No, and strangely enough there seems to be a tunnel, should we see where it leads?" Star asked.
"I'm not so sure that's a good idea." Tim said, "It could lead anywhere on the island."
"Aww but what if it leads to the enemy base?" Star said.
"You think it could?" Leo asked.
"Maybe." Henry said.
"Let's not try it." Leo said.
In the forest, Chase, Molly, and Karolina were through the forest. Ready for anything. Karolina flew above the ground slightly. While the other two just walked. Suddenly Old Lace could smell something, Chase motioned for the others to be silent. They became silent, and then Old Lace discovered the location of the enemy base, it was hidden inside of a cave, but it was heavily guarded. They would need a plan b.
"Hazel do you sense anything?" Annabeth asked.
"Nothing… wait a minute yes, there's someone in the forest very close by." Hazel replied.
"How many people?" Frank asked.
"I can't tell, but definitely someone's there." Hazel said.
"Maybe I should turn into a falcon and scout it out." Frank suggested.
"I think that's the best idea." Annabeth said.
Without another word Frank turned into a Falcon and flew around the area of the base. He spotted Chase and the others, but they were moving away from the base. When he got back Will and Nico were arguing over weather Nico should shadow travel and grab the flag, then shadow travel back.
"I could be there and back, we could win easily." Nico argued.
"But last time you nearly got yourself killed." Will practically screamed.
The others let them argue and listened to Frank's report.
"There were three of them, and one of them was flying." Frank said.
"Flying?" Piper asked.
"Yeah, but they didn't seem to notice me. They seemed to be heading in the opposite direction of here. Though I did see Thresher traveling dangerously close to us." Frank said.
"Well let's hope she doesn't find us." Annabeth said.
Back in the Blue Brigade base Chase and the others had returned, using Old Lace to avoid the enemy entirely. They reported what they saw to the others.
"Their base is in a cave, well-guarded." Chase explained.
"We found a tunnel in the back of the base." Star said.
"Do you think it leads to the enemy base?" Karolina asked.
"Only one way to be sure, Leo you should set up traps around that tunnel too just in case it is a passage." Molly said.
"Right and Molly, Karolina, and I can go through the passage and see if we can spot the others." Chase said.
"Alright but be careful, you will definitely meet heavy resistance." Leo warned.
After they left, Leo took Nico aside to ask a question. Calypso followed and joined their conversation.
"You have been warding against magic right?" Leo asked her.
"Yeah why?" Nico asked.
"Do you think you can ward against shadow travel?" Leo asked.
"I've already warded against that with a bit of a redirection spell, anyone trying to travel here will end up right in front of Thresher." Nico said.
"Good, but we have to be careful. Annabeth is very competitive against others." Calypso said.
Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance had almost figured out a way into the enemy base, when they realized it. They had to find a way in without any of the cameras activating. Reynie knew that there had to be traps, traps of some kind anyways. So Reynie started formulating a plan. He knew it would work, but the question was when to use it. Chase led the way through the passage, but Hazel knew they were coming. And she had them set up a defensive barricade. They rounded a corner, and discovered the barricade. Chase activated the device that Leo had given him, and a full sized table formed. He turned it on its side and used it as cover. The other team's defense opened fire. Chase, knowing this would happen, pulled out a small ball like device from his pocket, and lobbed it over the enemy barricade. Frank recognized it as a grenade, and threw a basket over it. Suddenly Hazel could feel someone else coming, someone coming through the front. She alerted the others and she, Piper, and Annabeth went to the main entrance to deal with it. They discovered it was Thresher, she opened fire and they ducked behind a bunch of rocks. Karolina got an idea, she generated a prismatic shield around the table, and it blocked the paintballs that were being fired. She stepped forward, and put the shield around herself, Chase, and Molly. They slowly went forward and Frank, Will, and Nico fled the barricade and fell back. They discovered Thresher, and ducked down behind some rocks. Karolina, Chase, and Molly had gotten past the barricade and were now heading up the stairs, Karolina providing cover against the enemy shots while the other two shot from small holes opened in the shield. The Red Ravagers were cornered, and finally they realized only one way out of this, let Thresher take them prisoner. Piper let Thresher shoot her, Annabeth did as well, and one by one they were each taken prisoner. Eventually they were all prisoner, and their flag was unguarded. Chase grabbed the flag, and the runaways headed back through the tunnel and towards their base. At the exact same time as this Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance were carrying out their plan. Kate (using Reynie's design) created a paintball grenade that would go off five times when thrown. Reynie examined the shield like device blocking the cave, it would be easy to disable with the screwdriver he had borrowed from Kate. Sticky started firing at the cameras, with Constance helping. Kate was using her slingshot to pelt the shied with marbles. Leo behind the shield was arming his paintball gun. While all the traps and cameras and people were distracted Reynie snuck next to the shield, and disabled it with the screwdriver. Kate started firing, and she lobbed the grenade, the defenders got down long enough for Kate to run in and steal the flag. The Mysterious Benedict Society ran from the enemy base and headed towards their own, unknown to them was that their defense had lost the flag. So they would have to capture their flag again. Percy and the others went back to base to regroup, where they met the Mysterious Benedict society and discovered that their defense was gone.
"Great what do we do now?" Jason asked, looking at Percy.
"I'm not sure, wait is that the enemy flag?" Percy asked pointing to the flag Kate was holding.
"Yeah, we took it just now, but we can't capture it without our flag." Reynie explained.
"Well where could the rest of our team be?" Sticky asked.
"They must have been taken by Thresher." Kate said.
"We should rescue them." Jason said.
"Agreed, but where are they?" Percy asked.
"Hmm, I think I know where to check." Reynie said.
The six of them, working as a team, made their way to the mess hall. They held onto the flag, figuring that it would be best if no one knew where it was. They looked inside, and what they saw was quite terrifying. Their entire defense team was in chains, actual chains, and were chained to the fridge, and Thresher was out, luckily for them. Percy went over and unchained Annabeth, while the others freed the rest of them. The defensive team took the enemy flag, and went looking for a new base. They finally settled in a different cave, which Hazel was sure was not connected to the enemy base. Meanwhile Chase and the runaways were giving their defensive team the enemy flag, and they went out to search for the enemy base, which presumably had been moved. Bart had been running all over the island and had discovered the enemy base, he was working on the perfect way to steal the flag. Finally he decided it would be best to just run in and take it. He ran inside in a flash, and swiped the flag. He started running back to his base, and stopped using his super-speed just before reaching the base, then he ran in, and captured the flag. The game was over, the Blue Brigade had won.