Chris woke up Tuesday morning and was immediately confronted by the girl that had nursed him back to health, Annabeth, and a boy about the same age as her.

"We hear you're going on a quest," Annabeth said.

"Uh," Chris was stunned that she was just right up in him. "Yeah?"

"We want in," Annabeth looked into it but the boy didn't.

"Um, okay, why?" Chris asked suspiciously.

"The people you are about to face are big, bad, and are after us as well. The hunted should stay together right?"

Chris thought about it for a minute. Annabeth was the daughter of Athena, she would be a great addition. But he didn't know who this other guy was, he wasn't a Hermes, so Chris didn't have to worry about the whole "Will he be killing me" part.

"Sure," Chris finally said. "One thing though, who's your friend?"

Annabeth looked back at the boy. "Oh, man. That was rude, I forgot you just got here. This is Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon."

"Poseidon," Chris repeated. "It'll be good to have a son of the Sea God on my side. Its nice to meet you Percy, I'm Chris, son of Hermes." He extended his hand and shook Percy's.

"Nice to meet you," Percy said.

Chris turned back to Annabeth. "Be ready by tomorrow morning," he told her. "We leave at dawn."

"Sweet," Annabeth said, smiling. "We'll be here for Capture the Flag tonight!"

Chris had forgotten about the Capture the Flag game that night, he had promised the Stoll brothers he would fight for them. They were in alliance with Athena's cabin, along with Poseidon, Hephaestus, and Demeter. They would be fighting Ares, Apollo, Dionysus, and Aphrodite. Ares was the only one Chris was scared of, the kids of the God of War were surely going to be bad news for them.

Chris went to breakfast and ate a helping of pancakes and eggs, talking to the Stoll brothers about the visit from their father. He showed them the shoes, after telling them what they really were they saw the sandals with wings. He also showed them the ring and laser pointer that saved his life, the gaped when the pointer became a sword and the ring became a shield. They went through their daily routine, which Chris didn't have, only being there for a day he never really got into a routine. He kind of just walked around camp, thinking about what he needed for the quest at hand. He went to Chiron who gave him a baggy of nectar and ambrosia. Other than that he could think of nothing else they would need, they all had their weapons, they had their ambrosia and their nectar. All they would need is mortal money so they could get food. Chiron gave Chris a big wad of 20s, it had to have been at least $200.

Now that he was situated with their provisions, he could focus on more important things, like Capture the Flag...

At four o'clock the conch horn blew, signaling everybody to get to the game area. Chris arrived in his armor and sword and shield in hand. He found the Stoll brothers and walked over to them.

"Alright," he said. "What's the plan?"

The Stoll brothers looked at each other and laughed, Chris laughed with them.

"Ha-ha!" Chris said. "What are we laughing at?"

Travis looked at Connor as if Chris was crazy. Then he looked back at Chris and realized he wasn't joking. "Hermes cabin never really participate."

"What?" Chris asked. "Why?"

Connor answered this time, "Well, because none of us are very good fighters. That's why we team up with Athena, because they do all the work while we just sit around and talk and stuff."

"Where's the fun in that?" Chris asked him. "We should at least try to win!"

"Try? What for? We'll just lose!"

"And so you come back next year and try again! You can't just give up, you have to do what it takes to kick some..."

"Alright team," came a voice from behind Chris, he turned and saw Annabeth standing on a rock. "Today's the day. We will win against Ares, they have nothing on us!"

"They have the God of War on their side," came the voice of someone in the Hermes crowd.

"Yes," Annabeth rolled her eyes. "But we have the wisdom of Athena and the power of the son of Poseidon!" She gestured to Percy, who looked around, surprised at his name.

"Not to mention," came a rugged voice from behind Chris, he turned to see the Ares cabin counselor, Clarisse La Rue, a big brutal looking girl, brown hair and piggy looking brown eyes. "You have Brain girl to think of all your plans and moves. While we," she gestured to he fellow members, who were all wearing red armor, "have all of little miss prissy priss's battle plans!" She held up a blue notebook which, cliché enough, said "All of Annabeth's Battle Plans."

"What... where... who..." Annabeth stuttered.

"I already explained the what," Clarisse said. "The where would be, your cabin. As for the who, well," She moved aside and there was a girl standing there, she was cute but something about her sneer made Chris think about...

"You're an Ares kid," Chris said. "What does that have to do with anything... wait," Chris looked more closely at the girl. "I saw you go into the Athena cabin on my way down here!"

"Well," the girl said with a sneer, "A Hermes with a brain and doesn't like stealing!"

"I only like stealing if it benefits me," Chris said. "And this definitely doesn't benefit me."

"What do you care?" Clarisse asked. "Your cabin doesn't even try."

"Well," Chris said, looked from Travis, to Connor, to Clarisse, "I guess we will just have to try now won't we?"

The Hermes all looked at each other as if Chris was bringing them into something that was none of their business. Everyone on the Ares side laughed and pointed, Chris blushed.

Annabeth went over to him and said over the laughter, "It was a nice try Chris, but now they know all of our attack formations and plans."

"What a loser!" Clarisse chuckled. "You can tell he's a cabin 11!"

The members of cabin 11 didn't seem to like that, their brows all made a down pointed arrow and their faces turned red, not with embarrassment, but rage.

Travis walked over to Annabeth. "Ma'am," he said. "I think I have a plan."

Annabeth looked at Travis, clearly trying to decide whether or not to take him seriously.

"Alright," she finally said. "Let's here it."

"Good luck," Clarisse called as the Ares team walked away. "You're going to need it!"

Travis' plan was simple, but the other team would never see it coming. The whole Hermes cabin would make a line across the creek, like a big violent game of Red Rover. The rest of the team would sneak off into the forest while a big fight went off in the center of the gaming area. They would split up into 3 groups, Athena, Hephaestus, and Demeter. Anyone guarding the flag on the inside would be distracted by them, then Percy would sneak around the other side of the forest and go in for the grab. Annabeth nodded, signaling that would be the plan they would go for.

The Hermes got into position along the Creek, Chris on the left flank, where Percy would sneak through. Travis Stoll on the right flank, where teams A, H, and D would sneak through. The conch shell blew, signaling the start of the game. Teams A, H and D snuck off, as did Percy. Ares was smart though, Chris saw Clarisse go into the woods after him. Chris swore, and the little 12 year old next to him looked at him with the "Oooh-you-said-a-naughty-word face." Chris knew what to do he looked toward Travis who looked over in time to catch Chris' eye.

Chris mouth one word, Percy. And Travis nodded and gave Chris the, "Get after him" nod.

Chris snuck off after Percy, he saw Percy, and he saw Clarisse sneaking on a rock ledge above him, she was going to strike from above. Chris used his flying sandals to jet himself up to the top, and ran after Clarisse. He snuck up to her right side and just as she was about the jump Chris stuck his foot out so when she did jump, her foot caught on hers and she plummeted. She landed with a loud THUD! Percy looked back and saw Clarisse twitching on the muddy ground, he looked up the wall and saw Chris standing up there.

"Thanks," Percy called him up.

"Hey," Chris said. "You won't be any good to me or Annabeth on the quest if you're sliced into Percy Fries." He smiled down at Percy, then saw that Clarisse was getting up. Chris fluttered down lightly, but heavy enough to slam the big oaf back to the ground. "Let's go," he said to Percy.

The two demigods sprinted toward where the flag was, they had gone around it, so no one guarding the flag would see them sneaking in. They looked down and saw the Aphrodite girls doing their make-up. Chris looked at Percy with a look that said, "Oh come one this is too easy." When he looked back down he saw Apollo kids walking through with big pointy spears, Chris gulped.

Percy drew a diagram in the dirt, instructing Chris to go left and Percy to go right. The Aphrodites wouldn't wanna mess up their Mannies to get either of them. Chris nodded and moved left, Percy went right. Chris fluttered down with his shoes and landed soundlessly on the ground, Percy looked and was amazed that he had gotten down so fast. Chris saw an idea flicker in Percy's eye, and before Chris could shake his head no, Percy started to climb down, then purposely slipped and fell 10 feet. He landed hard, Chris heard a crunch that sounded like either his leg or a branch.

The Aphrodite girls jumped and looked back at Percy, they walked over to him and started poking fun.

"What, an idiot," one said, the girls kind of sounded like the stereotypical teenage girls you see in cartoons. "Did he, like, seriously think he could sneak past us?"

The second said, "Puh, as if! We are like, ninjas! No one can sneak past us!"

Chris called to the girls, "Hey ladies!" They all turned and gasped, but before they could do anything Chris stuck out a finger and poked the flag with a, "Uh-poke." The flag turned blue with the picture of an owl on it, a conch shell blew and before Chris knew it the whole camp was in front of him. His team cheering, the other using choice words and throwing their weapons to the ground. The team lifted Chris onto their shoulders and started to carry him off.

"WAIT!" Chris yelled over the cheering, which died down. "You're forgetting someone!" Everyone looked around as if the person was standing where the flag had been. Chris rolled his eyes. "No," He pointed to Percy. "If it weren't for Percy distracting the Aphrodites I wouldn't have gotten the flag!"

People ran over to Percy and picked him up onto their shoulders, cheering commenced once more. Chris saw, to his relief, a broken branch where Percy had landed. Sure, it couldn't have been a comfortable fall for him, but he didn't break anything but the branch so everything was good. Clarisse had come from the woods, bloodied and dirty.

"Hey," Percy yelled, cheers died once more. "Let's give a big round of applause to Clarisse!" Everyone looked confused. "If she hadn't snuck off to ambush me and Chris followed her, then we maybe would have lost!"

The Athena team cheered and laughed even louder, all the Ares team glared at Clarisse with both resentment and disappointment. Clarisse glared at Chris and Percy with unwavering hatred, but they didn't notice, they were too busy being carried off as the heroes of the camp. Chris was regretting the quest that was at hand, having to leave the camp with the Box of Pandora.

That night there was a party going on in all the cabins except the losers of the game and the Poseidon cabin. Chris, Annabeth, and Percy slept in there that night, falling asleep to the sound of the music and cheers and thinking about the danger the next few days or weeks will show...