Jingle Bells floated through the forest, and the occupants all sang and danced to the tune as they strung up red and green streamers or hung holly wreaths on the trees. Nymphs and demigods alike were scattered throughout the forest, decorating all they could to make it as festive as possible.
Leo and his cabin had built the radios that were currently placed all over, in an attempt to fill the forest of music as well as colors. And Percy contributed by wearing his Santa hat, which was a compromise with Annabeth after she told him he couldn't wear the whole suit.
When they were finally satisfied with their work, the group of senior campers headed back to the campfire where they knew the rest camp sat eating lunch. The blazing light of the fire wasn't hard to miss among the sea of snow blanketing the camp. Of course, it didn't snow often there, but a few times every year Chiron would allow it to come through. The campers usually did enjoy a white Christmas. And it allowed for some cool new activities, too.
As they approached, Percy's stomach grumbled loudly, much to the amusement of those around him. Annabeth punched him on the arm lightly for it though, and he kissed her on the cheek in response.
"No PDA, we're about to be in front of a big crowd of small people, what are you two thinking?" Leo exclaimed with a scandalized, yet sarcastic expression coloring his elfish features.
"Shut it Valdez," Piper said.
"Nah ah Beauty Queen, do you really want a bunch of tiny kids having to cover their eyes 'cause these two are so disgustingly sweet? I'm just telling them that they have to be appropriate."
Percy shook his head, a grin on his face, "Well I want to eat some lunch before we run out of time, so why don't we stop worrying about this and just have some food?"
"Percy, didn't you eat right before we started decorating?" Jason questioned.
"But don't you get it? I'm hungry now, and so is everyone else, that was a lot of work."
"It really wasn't that hard," Katie chirped.
"Not everyone can bend the tree branches," the head of the Tyche cabin, Chiara, retorted.
"Well, at least we got it done and have time to eat." Hazel's distraction worked well enough, and even though they were all laughing at Percy, the group sped up in order to get some food before the game began.
The head counselors all joined their cabins when they arrived, but the seven branched off to find their own place to sit and talk together. Earlier that day, Hazel and Frank had arrived via Arion. They all enjoyed their time together, and there was no way that they were going to miss out on it.
The group of demigods were soon served by the few nymphs that stayed to hand out lunch. Not long after they had dug in did Nico join them.
Leo grinned, "Hello Mr. Gothic Ghost."
Nico glared at him, "Leo, I swear, if you don't stop calling me that, I will kill you."
"No you won't!" the ever cheery voice of Will followed as the camper walked toward them.
"Never mind that, where were you two while we slaves worked our butts off Christmasifying the forest?" Leo accompanied his statement by wiggling his eyebrows, effectively getting Nico to lunge at him. Will ended up stopping the attempt short by grabbing Nico by the shoulders to hold him back, but Nico's glare didn't lose any of its intensity.
"I was in the infirmary, there was an incident at the rock wall yesterday and a few kids ended up in there," Will said, his arms still wrapped around Nico to keep him from killing Leo.
"I was helping him."
At that moment, Chiron trotted to the center of the campfire. That alone only got the place to quiet down slightly, but it fell silent as soon as he stomped his hooves, gaining the attention of everyone there.
"Heroes! In the spirit of Christmas we are going to play capture the flag, but with some modified rules decided on by our head counselors," Chiron announced, his voice bright and booming around the campfire.
At this, murmurs went through the crowd, and the fire blazed a bit brighter, reflecting the anticipation of the demigods grouped around it.
"Today you will use no armor, nor traditional weapons-," a grumble rose from the Ares campers, "only snowballs. If you are to be hit by one, you will freeze for fifteen seconds. Be honest, the nymphs are watching. Magical items are allowed, however they must not be in the form of a weapon. Other than that, you know the rules." Chiron seemed ready to dismiss the group before deciding to continue, "Oh! And you are to wear elf hats, green or red, respective of your team."
After that announcement, Chiron began divvying the campers into teams. Once they were given a side, they all scrambled to join their team around the pile of colored elf hats splayed on the ground.
"I have to wear this?" Drew said with disgust as she held up a green hat. "It'll mess up my hair!"
Piper rolled her eyes, "Just put it on Drew, no one cares about your hair."
The other girl pouted, but begrudgingly pulled the hat on. She glared at Piper and crossed her arms, as if saying 'are you happy now?'
Percy was on the red team just as he'd hoped, and he kept his Santa hat firmly on his head while Annabeth tried to grab and replace it with the 'proper' one.
Finally, the two teams ran in their separate directions, ready to start the game. The red team on the right side of the creek, and the rest taking their place on the opposite end.
Annabeth immediately got her group into a huddle, explaining her plan to them as quickly as she could before the conch was blown. "Okay, so I want cabin nine on defense, I bet you'll be able to come up with something, build something- a snowball launcher maybe? It'd be helpful, especially since the green team will probably use Jason as offense, we need something that'll be able to hit him."
"We can do that," Nyssa replied. The gears in her head started to turn as she quickly turned to her cabin mates and began talking with them under low whispers.
Annabeth nodded and continued her directions, "Great, cabins seventeen and nineteen can make it their goal to get the flag and-"
Suddenly, a large snowball came flying towards Annabeth, nailing her in the back of the head and splattering snow all over her ponytail. She swiveled around, faster than anyone could blink, searching for whoever had thrown it.
Her eyes narrowed when she spotted Travis, hand still outstretched from the throw. His eyes widened as he saw her vision catch on him. Annabeth bent down, scraping a handful of snow from off the ground and packing it together. Travis adopted a frightful look as he started to make a break for it, attempting to push his way through the crowd of people on his team, all of who were snickering and not moving in the slightest to help him through.
"You're gonna pay for that Stoll," Annabeth shouted to him, just as the conch horn blew to signify the start of the game. She threw the snowball at him, hitting him square in the back and freezing him.
Travis slumped as the snowball exploded on his jacket with much more force than any snowball should be able to attain. Connor burst out laughing at his brother's face, "You owe me ten drachma!"
Travis looked even more defeated, "You have no faith in me."
"Not when it comes to Annabeth," his counterpart responded, still chuckling.
His laughing continued slightly as two more snowballs were launched - one at each Stoll - courtesy of Annabeth. They scrambled away, back farther towards the forest. They weren't willing to risk any more time that close to the angry Annabeth.
All around them, the rest of the campers had taken off as well, some rushing on out with determination in their eyes, and others sprinting away from the enemy, fear showing. But they all seemingly knew that they should not stay and risk Annabeth's wrath.
"Cabins six, seven, and nine stay with me on defense! The rest of you split into groups, distract the other side long enough for one group to get the flag, and once it's obtained, everyone run towards the flag and protect it. Go, go, go!"
As Annabeth watched Percy run into the fray of demigods, she heard him yell 'Ho, ho, ho' as if it were a battle cry. And as stupid as she thought it was, the child of Athena found herself grinning.
"Apollo and Athena, scatter yourselves throughout the trees, keep out of sight, and be quiet. But remember, make as many snowballs as you can while you wait. Hephaestus, stay by the fist and do what you can."
Everything had been complete chaos for the first few seconds. Well, the chaos never really faded. Capture the flag games were always really hectic, what with the hoards of competitive demigods ready to beat up the other team. But with the new twist, it'd somehow made everyone just that much more motivated.
Percy was running; he didn't really know where the other team was stationed, but he had an idea and was currently doing his best to try and find their flag. Both teams had found their footing pretty quickly, if the fact that they had both organized their teams on either side was anything to show for it.
The green team had fallen into a relatively straight line, trying their best to act as a wall and push through the red team's smaller groups of campers. It was a lot more of an every-man-for-himself situation on the red team, each person on offense making it their personal goal to wriggle through the uniformity of the green team and onto the other side.
Percy was doing pretty well, he had passed the main defenses of the green team, and the creek was a good distance behind him, but he still hadn't made it to the canopy of the woods. A few random campers ran after him, straying from the rest of the offense to get Percy out before he became a problem for the people protecting their flag. Percy wasn't worried about them.
What really stopped him in his tracks was the smell of ozone, the aura of quickly dancing bolts of energy.
"Knew you wouldn't be able to resist a fight, Grace," Percy smirked, looking to the forest where knew Jason was waiting.
He had a snowball already resting in hand as walked towards Percy. The few campers who'd been following the son of Poseidon rolled their eyes and quickly ran around the pair. Steering clear of the two sons of the Big Three was a pretty good idea when they were ready to fight.
There'd always been a competition between the two of them. And yeah, a lot of it was pretty lighthearted, but there was a rivalry that ran a little deep between them. Percy had to admit that they were a little petty, and maybe the beef between their fathers had rubbed off on them a little bit, too.
"Just doing my job, Jackson," Jason told the other boy, a grin on his face and a glint of competition in his eye.
"Then just throw the dam snowball already," Percy replied, and didn't even wait for a response before launching his own at the son of Zeus. It wasn't that easy though, nothing was ever that easy. Jason's reflexes were quick, steering him clear of the snowball before it could make contact with his chest.
Though Percy had known the second the snowball that had left his grip that it most likely wouldn't hit its target, he couldn't help but curse Lupa for training Jason with all the experience she had… and Zeus, for being the reason that Jason was half god.
As Percy bent down to try and scoop up more snow, Jason threw his. It was pretty close to making contact, but Percy managed to swerve just in time to avoid the ten second freeze penalty that would've come with the hit.
Jason jumped as if dodging another attack, but instead of plummeting, he continued to rise higher into the sky. A snowball in hand and control over the air had gained Jason the high ground - ironically by removing him from the ground.
And with that, they launched into the real highlight of the game.
Jason had the advantage in this very cold, and snowy battle. He stayed away from Percy, flying not too far above him, but far enough as to keep out of reach.
Percy'd never looked at snowballs the way that he was now. They were frozen water, that was his thing, and so they'd never been a big deal. But once they were being hurled towards him at breakneck speed from a person at least fifteen feet in the air above him, he began to see the true deadly nature of them. They were quickly moving up his list of deadly projectiles, now definitely on par with flying burritos.
It became clear how hard this would be, Jason was an especially hard target to hit with the air around him clouding to shield him from view, the constant movement, the fact that he was so high up. And the snowballs, it's not like Percy had the time to look for Jason when he was focusing all of his energy on dodging them. Where was Jason even getting all this ammo?
Soon enough, he noticed Pollux, and the small pile of snowballs sitting next to him. Every time Jason went empty-handed, Pollux just tossed a few up to him. Percy wondered how many of the things would actually make it to Jason if not for his wind powers helping guide them up.
He didn't know what was up with Jason, maybe the haziness in the air was affecting him, too, or maybe Jason was just a terrible shot, but so far he hadn't landed a single hit on Percy. The son of Poseidon attributed that to being on the same team as the Tyche cabin. What luck.
Percy had to take out Pollux, which was probably an easier feat than taking out the son of Zeus. But with Jason's continuous throwing, it still wasn't simple. If he ducked down to scoop up some snow for his own snowball, he would most likely be nailed in two seconds flat.
All he could think of was trying to reason with the son of Dionysus - or at least distract him trying. "Hey Pollux, are you sure you're on the right side here? To be honest, I think you might get put on the naughty list for this act of treachery," Percy said, his voice taunting and filled to the brim with sarcasm as he continued to pull some fancy footwork getting away from the snowballs.
"Yeah, well, a spot on the naughty list doesn't sound so bad. I hear the coal burns real warm," Pollux replied, not buying into Percy's attempts to turn him.
"But what about poor Santa? He'll be devastated when he finds out that you've gone over to the dark side." Percy could feel his luck wearing off, and the snowballs came flying closer and closer to him, each one just a bare miss. "It's not too late, come, join me!"
Pollux gave a small laugh.
And just as Percy could feel the coolness of the snowballs, barely brushing against the hairs on his arms, so close, they finally stopped. Maybe Percy had managed to distract Pollux- even for just a minute, or maybe it had always been an oversight, but the pile of snowballs next to Pollux had finally run out. He scrambled to gather some more snow, but there wasn't much more around him, at least that he could get to in time.
Jason, realizing that he'd have to provide his own from here on out, lowered himself to the ground as quickly as he could. As soon as his feet touched the earth again, he immediately bent down to scoop up a handful of the snow. Taking advantage of his small window of time, Percy quickly threw his snowball at Pollux. He hit with dead accuracy and in turn granted himself a bit more time.
With Pollux out of the race, Jason was forced to stay on the ground; for the time being at least. Jason threw first, making a pretty well-aimed hit towards Percy's knees. Said demigod jumped, and the projectile exploded on the ground behind him. In retaliation, he threw another ball back at Jason. They got in a few more throws, but neither made their target.
Until finally, one did. A burst of frozen spray exploded on the back of Percy's neck. His eyes were still trained on Jason, but the snowball had come from the now unfrozen Pollux.
"Aww, seriously? I actually thought I was doing pretty well." Percy whined as he threw his hands up.
"Hey! You can't move," Jason policed, already poising his hand to throw another snowball.
"Fine, fine."
Percy could feel both boys extend their arms to throw their snowballs, and the whooshing of ice through the air was a pretty dead giveaway that he wasn't gonna win. But his mind reeled as he immediately realized that he could actually feel the snow, too; he could sense its position in the air as it came flying at him. He smirked a bit, he had a plan. Albeit a pretty short one, consisting of the one simple step of 'pummel them with snowballs,' but he counted it as a plan nonetheless.
As the snowballs came flying towards him, almost in slow motion, Percy closed his eyes, praying that this would work. And when he opened them, there they were, suspended in front of him, two snowballs. It felt different from controlling straight up water in liquid form - it was harder to keep a grip on them. But it had worked, and that was good enough for him.
And so he willed the two snowballs at Pollux, paralyzing him once again.
"Hey, that's definitely cheating!" the boy said as he was hit.
"Well I'm not moving," Percy said matter-of-factly as he shrugged and shot Pollux a look that said 'what can you do?'
Pollux rolled his eyes in response and crossed his arms.
Jason had thrown another snowball, but Percy had stopped it once again. "There's no way that this isn't against the rules."
Percy grinned, "All powers are out on the table, this is just as legal as your flying, Sparky."
Four… three… two… one.
Percy counted his time left frozen in his head, and finally sprung free of his punishment. Jason once again tried throwing snowballs at Percy, but at this point he'd practically given up. It was all halfhearted.
Reaching his senses outwards, Percy found a few patches of melted snow. The familiarity that came with hydrokinesis made it a lot easier to move than snow, and so he opted to use the puddle instead of the rest of the material around him.
Jason, seeing the water floating up at Percy's command, kicked back off the ground. He was empty handed, but he knew and accepted the fact that he was going to have to switch to defense if he was to keep from getting hit.
Percy shot the freezing liquid at Jason, reaching out to experiment with his abilities once again. He was still testing out the limits of his powers, and though Percy had never really been very happy to be a demigod, he had to admit that some of the perks that came with being a child of Poseidon were pretty cool.
Today had resulted in being a pretty lucky day for him, which made him fear whatever was in stock for tomorrow. But nevertheless he pushed on. As the small clusters of water sailed towards Jason, Percy successfully managed to freeze them. And then he hit Jason, right in the head.
Jason fell back down to the ground; the layers of snow broke his fall, and he hadn't been too high up either, but the impact of Percy's weapons seemed to have knocked him unconscious.
Percy ran over to check on him. "Well, I guess that works…"
He looked at the ground next to Jason, where his makeshift snowballs had landed. Percy winced, he obviously had not mastered the art of mid-air snowball making. Sitting right next to Jason, was what Percy could only describe as an ice-brick. Jason really had a knack for getting hit by those things.
The campers around Zeus' Fist were quiet with anticipation for the game to begin. The first few lines of defense were keeping people from the green team at bay, but everyone in the clearing knew that it was only a matter of time before they'd get their own taste of the action.
Kids from the Hephaestus cabin were the only cause of any sound within the group, aside from the crunch of snow beneath everyone's feet when they moved. The clanking and scuffling from their construction echoed around. It wasn't exactly subtle, and everyone knew that their outpost wouldn't be too hard to find once people got past the hordes of demigods fighting on the creek's border.
"How's it coming Nyssa?" Annabeth asked as she continued pacing in front of the flag lodged between the boulders of Zeus's fist.
Nyssa looked up from her work on what seemed to be a large gun, fitted to launch snowballs instead of traditional ammunition. "Good, this should be about done." She held up the shooter, fiddling with a few of the mechanics as she did.
Annabeth nodded and Nyssa walked over to where two of her brothers were setting up a net. They had a short conversation, pointing to pieces of a mechanism hidden between a crack in one of the boulders. Without the siblings' shared ability of technokinesis inherited from their father, there was no way that anyone would be able to see anything beneath the stone.
A second later, Nyssa's brother Christopher set off the hidden trap, making sure to stand a good distance away as a weighted net was launched into the snow where he'd stood moments before. Once it was approved as a working machine everyone went back to their own tasks and it was reset.
Annabeth crouched down, sitting on her heels as she absentmindedly packed together a snowball. She didn't like sitting around, but it was the best strategy to stay watching over the flag instead of seeking people out and leaving it unprotected. Maybe their team would be able to get the other's flag before they even got to see a single other person enter the clearing. Annabeth hoped that wasn't the case, she wanted to experience a bit more excitement before this was all over.
Jake Mason sighed as the pile of screws next to him was finally depleted through his construction of another net trigger. "You know, we could really use Leo's tool belt right about now. You have any more screws Shane?" Shane shook his head and Jake groaned, reaching into his pocket for something else that he could use.
Malcolm looked at him, "Wait, where is Leo"
"Who knows," Annabeth responded. "It's Leo, Malcolm, he ran off right when the conch was blown. He could be melting all the snow in the forest. I mean, he better not be, but still."
"Probably wouldn't be able to sit around here anyway," Will pitched in.
"I mean can you imagine it? He'd be bouncing around the place - checking traps and setting them up. He would've lit at least a few trees on fire by now, angered the nymphs and he would be talking so much that not a single one of us would even be able to concentrate." Nyssa added.
"Talking about talking, where did Percy go? Annabeth, I thought you said he was going to be on defense," Will asked.
"I think I saw him run off with Leo, he doesn't really listen to instruction very well." The child of Athena punctuated her sentence with a sigh.
Everyone's heads whirled towards the forest as the echoing snap of a twig rang out. It wasn't by any means very loud, but they'd all been on high alert since making it to Zeus' Fist. They now knew that they finally had company.
The Hephaestus cabin quickly finished their contraptions, wrapping up as quickly as they could before a group of campers came rushing out of the woods. Most carried huge armfuls of snowballs, and others just decided to steal from their teammates' stores.
There wasn't a huge number of people from the green team who'd come into the clearing to try and get the flag, but there were just enough to initiate a battle. The Ares cabin was very enthusiastic, as they usually were during games of Capture the Flag, and along with them, and fighting alongside them were a good number of Hermes kids.
In only a few seconds, the first net had been triggered. Each one was marked with a patch of subtle scratches in the ground, light enough that they were visible, but only if you knew what to look for. Unfortunately, the green team did not know what to look for.
A boy from the Ares cabin was the first to have been caught by one of the nets, and he was immediately pummeled by snowballs. The Apollo kids had especially good aim, which was very useful against the speedy children of Hermes who were well known for their sneak attacks.
It was clear pretty early on, though, that the green team was outmatched. The combination of numerous traps and gadgets from the Hephaestus cabin, and the implementation of these things from the Athena and Apollo cabins was more than enough. They were on their home turf, and happened to be prepared.
Leo had made it all the way to the clearing the green team was using to harbor their flag. He had hoped getting to the flag wouldn't be too hard because of the new rules, but their defense was more than some flying snow, and he was not ready.
Tree branches were swooping down, knocking people backwards, and sometimes even fully out. Vines became tripwires, sticks were pointy distractions, and the kids behind it all were throwing snowballs left, right, and center. Most of the snowballs that were thrown from above knocked whatever they hit back several feet. Well, the smaller things. Including some plants, snow, and a certain daughter of Tyche.
Piper McLean, head of Aphrodite cabin should have been there defending the flag, but Leo was thankful she wasn't, for it would have made everything a lot more difficult. She happened to have a taste for action, and therefore charmspoke her way into the offense. As a replacement, Drew had taken up her post, and it was sufficient to say that she didn't do nearly as good a job as Piper could have done.
With her unpractised powers only being able to charmspeak one person at a time, she had much less of an effect. In addition, she seemed to have gotten side tracked from her original mission - to get Kody to go back to his side - and currently appeared to plainly be hitting on the son of Tyche and trying to convince him to follow her into the woods.
Two of the Hypnos campers were sleeping, curled up on the outskirts of the clearing. One, however, was standing up -though leaning heavily against a tree - and looked to be fighting just to stay awake.
Leo was dodging the constant attacks like a mad man, and even shooting flames at some of the snowballs flying at him. This resulted in Demeter kids yelling at him for almost harming their precious plants and 'cheating,' a term which Leo thought was unfair to categorize his abilities under.
The two Tyche campers working with Leo were dodging to the best of their ability, trying to avoid the oncoming projectiles. They were doing an exceptional job at not getting hit, some of the oncoming snowballs even seeming to swerve around the kids slightly. Leo pinned that on their above average luck, a perk that came with the title of being in the Tyche cabin, and something Percy obviously didn't have, because he was supposed to be there fighting in the clearing with them.
Leo was frozen once, and his teammate from cabin nineteen, Reagan, was frozen twice. Her half brother Kody wasn't so lucky, though, and got hit about four times, all before Percy ran in, grinning like a maniac, and very late. And with the son of Poseidon, came the arrival of a snowstorm; the demigod had so many snowballs tucked into his arms that there was no possible way he had made them all by hand.
He was chucking them faster than any of the others could keep up with, and he momentarily took out at least half the green team's defense before he was forced to slow down and fight with Leo and Reagan. Through a lot of dodging and maneuvering, Percy made his way towards Leo. And soon enough they were standing back-to-back.
"When I say go, heat your feet up and run for the flag. Grab it and just run like hell outta here, got it?" Percy side whispered to the person at his back.
"How am I gonna-"
"Just do what I say, okay? Be ready, don't wait up."
Leo had no reason not to trust the dude (even though his voice seemed a bit unsure). All his plans thus far had turned out fine, considering that Leo was indeed still in one piece. The latino also figured spending that much time with Annabeth must give someone pretty good planning instincts. "On your go Sergeant Santa Snowball."
"Wonderful... three, two, one, go!" Percy said, his voice still locked into a whisper, but it was loud enough for Leo.
He made a mad dash towards the flag, not even taking his eyes off the target and hoping his demigod reflexes would guide him. Around him, the snow on the trees slid down and wrapped around the branches, coating them with ice, and effectively keeping them in place against their will. Every snowball within ten feet of Percy exploded, and the ground became slippery as it turned to ice.
Leo grabbed the flag which had been previously guarded by Drew (who'd dragged Kody somewhere), along with the Hecate campers (who had slipped from their now iced trees). All the plants and other campers were currently occupied, too. He then simply ran out of the clearing as fast as he could, yelling like the deranged elf he was.
The son of Hephaestus continually looked over his shoulder, watching for anyone that could be hiding or following. No snowballs, demigods, plants, or otherwise hindered him, and yet he still sprinted until he broke out of the forest line.
Finally free, he attempted a victory dance, but it was soon cut short thanks to Nico, who had shadow traveled over once Leo had popped out of the woods. His snowball had just whizzed by Leo's ear (and only missed him because of his fast reflexes), making a loud enough noise that Leo was sure he did not want to be hit by one.
Startled, Leo lit himself on fire (on accident of course), and started to sprint towards the border line with renewed speed and energy, paying no mind to the now burning flag that he carried.
Most of the red-hatted demigods that had seen Leo running through the forest sprinted towards him, and more importantly, the burning flag he held.
"Leo if you don't put that fire out right now the banner is gonna burn to ashes and we're going to lose!" a Nike camper screeched at the still-on-fire Leo, whose clothes (along with the flag) were beginning to char. He dunked the banner in the snow as he ran, and quenched the fire that had previously engulfed his body. His teammates began to form a sort of circle around him, and acted like a shield/defense system to the flag bearer.
Leo was tempted to try his little dance again, but immediately thought better of it as he caught Annabeth's eye and was quick to receive a glare. As he neared the border, out of the corner of his eye he caught sight of Percy sprinting towards him, white powdery puffs of snow all over him as he ran closer, panting and grinning.
Leo kept running through, he had to keep his focus on the people around him. Snowballs were coming from every direction, but he was dodging them as best he could while keeping a firm hold on the flag.
The demigods around him were dodging, throwing, and blocking. It was difficult, but not impossible. There were many people against them, but they kept fighting through. As the distance closed between Leo and the creek, he noticed the deteriorating guard, and soon he was practically just sprinting and dodging, hoping he wouldn't be hit before he could make it to the other side.
The game had become a full fledged battle, and it was raging. Before that day Butch had never thought he would see such an aggressive snowball fight, nor did he ever think he would see a snowball used as an actual weapon. Camp brought all sorts of interesting experiences.
There were snowballs being thrown with a force that made them violently explode wherever they hit. Groups of people were trying to break free and make it to the flag, though they were all - for the most part - being stopped. Very few people from the green team had yet to break past their border line, at least that he knew of. The son of Iris, however, did hear the sounds of something happening behind him, most likely from the small number of kids who'd made it past the border.
Presently, he heard a surprised yelp, which he identified to be Leo's. The sound was shortly followed by someone yelling, "Leo if you don't put that fire out right now the banner is gonna burn to ashes and we're going to lose!"
Butch would have liked to yell at Leo himself if he did indeed manage to be stupid enough to light the flag on fire, and definitely would if he only came back with the charred remains. Butch could now hear the sounds of the battle elevating again, and he hoped it was because the reckless son of Hephaestus still had the flag.
Based on previous experiences playing this game, he could take a pretty good guess at what was going on. There would probably be a posse of campers around Leo, protecting him from the other team, who were most likely attacking said demigod. He felt bad not doing much, but he had to stay on defense, even though no one was really trying to get past him at the moment.
Soon enough, a group of red hats came into view, and closely following them were a sea of green hats. Butch, finally able to join the action again, grabbed some snowballs and attempted to hit as many people as he could. The son of Iris managed to strike a few, and was yet to get hit himself, when Leo made it across the border.
As soon as Leo had crossed the creek, he skidded to a stop and promptly attempted to do some sort of (really odd) victory dance. He was immediately hit with a snowball. Leo looked absolutely scandalized. Butch felt like strangling him, the demigod could be so stupid, and more often than not, it was more than he could handle. Instead of scolding Leo, he ended up trying to hold back the green team who were very close to grabbing the flag.
"You have to get this to our flag dumbass!" Percy yelled as he came barreling by, grabbing the flag from Leo's hands. Almost as soon as Percy had the flag, Leo unfroze and went running after him. Everyone else followed, but most of the green team was apprehended as they ran further into the forest.
Thanks to all of the Apollo kids who were still hidden behind the trees and their great aim, only a few green marked demigods remained. Unfortunately, they proved to be quite the challenge for Percy and Leo. Especially because it wasn't a one hit and you're out deal, they came back, and they got right back in the game - even if they had a little catching up to do.
As good as Percy and Leo were at dodging, it was obviously not easy. Them being practically the only easily visible targets by now, there weren't many other places for people to aim. This, though, was quite helpful to all the people in the background - including Butch - because it allowed him to take much clearer shots at the other team without being fired at much himself.
About halfway to Zeus' Fist, everyone who was originally trying to get the red team's flag was on them. Percy, realizing this was too much, apparently decided to do something. Butch was hiding behind a tree, trying to make a few snowballs and watching the battle around him, when he saw the snow swirling at Percy's feet. It was beginning to collect and roll itself into numerous balls, multiplying and enlarging by the second.
After a little longer they were fired in all directions, almost each one hitting its mark due to the fact that no one saw them coming. Butch and Leo took out the few left standing while Percy ran on, albeit looking a bit more tired. Leo and Butch soon followed, neither saying a word to each other as they raced to make sure nothing kept the flag from reaching Zeus' Fist.
They got to the land mark just in time to hear cheers rise up from the demigods rallying around Percy and the two flags. Butch glanced at Leo who groaned, and started a really weird, sort of sad victory dance. The son of Iris looked away, completely weirded out by the pyromaniac.
Percy soon joined him with a different dance, which Leo soon copied. They were doing a sort of… Butch had no idea what they were doing. There was a kind of hopping, sticking their arms out, and bending their knees… then, standing with their legs apart, and leaning back to wiggle their shoulders and arms. He didn't know what he was witnessing, but he just wished he had a camera. It was stupid, and hilarious.
"Percy!" Annabeth exclaimed while laughing. "What in Hades? I told you to stop doing those stupid football things."
"But it's so fun!" Leo complained.
"I suggest you stop too, as funny as it is to watch the two of you make a fool of yourselves, it really does get old quickly." Annabeth complimented her condescending tone with a glare. There was a reason people didn't mess with her.
"Right… but hey, we won!" Punctuating Leo's sentence was the conch horn, officially signaling the end of the game, and calling them back to the campfire.
"We won is right, go red team! Ho, ho, ho happy Christmas. And now we've got two flags, which is two more than Jason happens to have. That's definitely a win," Percy commented as they all headed back to the campfire, the glee in his voice much too obvious and abundant for Butch's liking. "Jason better watch out," he muttered under his breath as he joined the throng of demigods, slightly grinning to himself.
As immature as these games were, there was no denying that it felt good to win. Plus, this weird snowball twist was pretty fun to watch, even if there happened to be snow down the back of his jacket.
Happy Holidays! And sorry that this is a bit late (well, for some people... ).
This idea was so random, and yet so fun to write. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it, and that it satisfies the need for a different story. That is, of course, if you are like me and just want something other than the typical fluff story. Merry Christmas, or happy days, I don't know what all the winter holidays are, but I'm leaving any out, so there you go. Oh, and also, Happy New Year. :)
- BBB (booksy. bumble. bee)
I'm starting this with happy holidays, too! I don't know how else to. So I'm probably the reason why this is so late… a mixture of me being really randomly busy and just super slow in general. Co-writing a story is a lot harder than both of us thought when we started this… but it ended up being really fun and I'm glad that I was invited. Technically, this is still coming out on Christmas (in my time zone) as long as we get this out in about 5 minutes… I have completed my goal (sorry BBB that we didn't finish in time for yours…). Hope you guys liked this one-shot. Merry Christmas, happy holidays, happy random day if you're reading this sometime way after it was published, and happy new years, too!
-Z (ZriptideZ)