I was thinking one update a month was too little, so when I've got on top of my school work I'll try to up it to 2 updates. How's that sound?

Fleeing through the trees in what I very much hoped was the general direction of our base, I saw Jess sprint up beside me and give me a reassuring smile. Only one or two campers from the red team had managed to break away from the fight and chase us, and they were too slow to pursue us anyway. So now our only fear was that the Demeter and Iris cabin might not have been able to keep the flag, and, considering that most of their best fighters had targeted the flag, I wasn't optimistic in their chances on keeping it.

"It's been taken," I sighed, slowing down to a jog. I wasn't taking a guess, I knew because I could feel imperial gold, heading towards us. It had been Nico's idea (he has a few good ones, every now and then) to put a little imperial gold on the flag, and because no one else in the camp used it, I could track it roughly. I wasn't sure exactly where it was, but I knew it was on the move.

I stopped, glancing behind us. "What shall we do now? Split up so you can take their flag to our base, or just hide it?"

"Well if they've got our flag then I doubt we've got much control of our base. I say hide it -"

"Take the flag, run! Hide it anywhere, doesn't matter! I'll get ours back!" I whispered quickly to her before sprinting off to a clump of trees. Yes, there was definitely imperial gold somewhere around there. I drew an arrow from my quiver slowly, creeping behind the clump of trees. As I neared it, saw a flash of red disappear round the other side. I cursed and ran after them, drawing back my bowstring and notching the arrow in it expertly.

The camper with our flag stopped for a moment and turned around slightly, and then I thought I saw her nod as if agreeing with someone. I swore and dived behind a tree, pressing myself up against it as much as I could. They turned around again and jogged off confidently towards their base, where a small hurricane seemed to be tearing apart massive walls of earth that broke up from the ground, as if trying to imprison it.

I was just about to loose an arrow at the red camper with my flag when I froze. Something wasn't right - they wouldn't leave someone to just run off with the flag alone, they would be an easy target. But I didn't see anyone I thought. It clicked. hadn't seen anyone. My hand dropped the arrow and went to my dagger, and I backed away fast. The moment my fingers made contact with it another figure snapped into sight. Annabeth was standing very still, deciding whether or not I could see her. Well, this was going to be a fun little game.

I jogged quickly forward, making sure not to go to close to her. She followed silently, stepping in time with me to mask her footsteps. She was within a few meters of me when I stood still abruptly and turned as if I had heard something. She stood there, barely 6 foot away from me, holding her breath. Then she did something I didn't quite expect. She stuck out her tongue and pulled a face.

I smirked and made eye contact with her, then cursed, realising my mistake. She lunged at me and I side stepped, and then tried to disarm her. I didn't know what I was thinking. I was caught in an arm lock, judo flipped and then face down on the ground with Annabeth's boot on my back in a matter of seconds.

"Ow," I moaned.

"Nice try, Stone. But I'm making sure tha-" I rolled over to my side, attempting the same move I had done to Piper in the arena. Unfortunately, Annabeth anticipated it easily and before I could get up I felt her kick me in the side and I went down again.

"I was there when you pulled that one. Worked well the first time, I'll admit, but not so this time." She grabbed my bow and quiver, pocketed my dagger and slid each of my knives from my belt to hers.

"Thanks!" she grinned, and then sprinted off to catch up with the our flag, leaving me weaponless and bruised.I groaned as I got up, brushing off mud an leaves. Well, that hadn't gone quite to plan. At all. I tried to figure out where I should go, and then headed back to the blue team's (hopefully safe) base. As much as I wanted to run after Annabeth and our flag I wouldn't be much good in a fight against people who had swords and arrows, I had to find a weapon for myself before I came across someone else.

I jogged off through a familiar part in the woods, presumably where near where we had started. I heard shouts and laughter, and walked confidently towards my base. I stopped dead when I saw red plumes. We didn't have control over our base - the Ares and Athena kids had captured it, waiting for any injured or perhaps lost blue campers to come back. There was no sign of anyone from the blue team around, but a pile of weapons sat under a tree. I wondered where the others had gone; the Demeter and Iris cabin would have had to flee somewhere. The last time I had seen most of our forces, they had been at the other team's base.

Suddenly shouts could be heard and the group of red campers left to see who had arrived. A few disappointed groans came from Ares kids who were twirling spears as they saw people from the red team come back. I needed at better view of what was going on, so I found a tree with lots of leaves and climbed it, being careful not to make too much noise.

What I saw surprised me - just about everyone I had seen defending the red flag before I had taken it had come to the blue base, where the red had control. I almost laughed, but then I remembered I needed to be quiet. We had effectively switched bases! We had kicked the red team out of theirs, and they had taken control of ours. It was quite a funny situation, except I now had some problems. First of all, I was basically trapped behind their base (well, our base that they were occupying) and it would be difficult to get out unseen. Second, they would have the advantage if they attacked, as they could use the river against us. And I also had no idea where Jess had taken the flag - had she taken it back to their base or was she still hiding around ours?

I sighed. this had been much simpler at the start, but then it had fallen apart rapidly. I scanned the crowd of red helmets. Annabeth and Percy weren't there, and nor was our flag, actually. I felt a surge of hope again - we could have taken back our flag and Jess could've returned with their one, meaning we would have both flags. The bad news was, technically we had to have our flag at our base to win.

I had no idea whether these things had actually happened, but I knew it would be unlikely. My diminishing hopes of this scenario were extinguished when I heard whisper below me.

"Felix!"

I looked down and saw Jess halfway up the tree, their red flag cradled in her lap.

"Get that out of sight!" I muttered back, though I was relieved to see her.

"It's fine, no one's looking! Besides, I don't have anywhere to put it."

"Fine. But what shall we do now? We can't exactly fight the whole red team, so I suppose we should get back?" I asked.

"Yeah, but that's not going to be easy. We could stay here until they move out, at least then we'll have an easier time sneaking away."

"Good idea. Hey - Percy and Annabeth are back, and they've got our flag as well!" I could see three figures jogging towards the mass of reds, and they weren't interested in small talk either. The one carrying our flag had apparently been injured, and while Percy looked after them Annabeth pushed past people to find Clarisse.

I noticed Percy was holding the injured campers hand, while someone patched up her arm. I tried to work out who it was; a close friend perhaps. As I squinted I recognised the long black hair and tall, athletic figure. Jade. I silently thanked Annabeth for knocking me to the ground and disarming me before I had fired - she the last person I would've wanted to knock out!

"Felix!"

"Huh?" While I had been studying (no, not perving on!) Jade and trying to see is she had any serious wounds, Clarisse and Annabeth had been yelling out orders. Those too injured to fight stayed back with a few others while the others hastily scrambled to get into a battle formation. I looked up and saw why. Through the trees, a sea of blue was advancing. We must've had a lot more time to regroup than the reds, and realised waiting around by a river wasn't the smartest idea. So naturally, we pressed on the attack.

Two units of blue, fully armed campers in tight formation stood about two hundred meters away. Unarmed campers grabbed weapons randomly from the pile of looted weapons and joined the ranks of their friends. It would be fairly evenly matched, as a large chunk of the reds had barely been here a few minutes, a were still resting up. I saw one of the reds grab the flag from next to Jade and give it to someone near the back of their ranks, so that it could be defended easily.

The blue ranks stopped advancing at about 50 meters away. The reds waved the blue flag teasingly, while the two blue units awaited orders from Will and Nico. Chiron had galloped up and was watching from afar. Another figure which I could just make out as Mr D was also with him. Mr D had been gone for a while, and I can't say I was pleased to have him back.

My trail of thought was broken as both armies erupted into battle cries and surged forward, and all Hades broke loose before me.

There ya go, much better! I've decided to make it a 3 part thing, so look out for the last bit of this capture the flag :)

-Nightlock64-