AN: LINDSEY7618 you haven't told me what character you want me to put in, you won the last question, remember! But this chapter is going up anyway, because I want to update, and a little lack of a character to put in the story won't stop me! Put it in a later review, and I'll add it to a later chapter.
Anyway... The winner of the last question was Percebeth Jackson-Chase, congrats! Have cookies (::) (::) (::) (::), and remember to review the person you want me to put briefly in my story!
Yep, it was Clarisse at the end, who else would throw a grenade at the Hephaestus cabin? (Aside from the rest of Ares cabin) And I meant when Clarisse Won, she finally declared that... I accidently wrote one instead of won. You are good at pointing out mistakes in a nice way. You could be a teacher...
I'm planning to do all the Percy Jasckson books, but please bear in mind that this is an AU, so the stories may not be the same as the books, SPOILER (IE, Leo will replace Percy as the one to fight Hyperion) WHAT, I TOLD YOU IT WAS A SPOILER.
Yeah, can an American reviewer (If I have any) kindly explain to a poor stupid English girl what duck tape is? I am ignorantly assuming it is an American thing. Is it like cello tape?
On with the chapter...
Chapter 3: In which Leo captures a flag...
"Whose team are we on?"
Leo had been looking forward to capture the flag all week, and yeah, so what if he had been knocked out by a bench two nights ago, and had a nightmare that woke his entire cabin last night (which he was still kinda embarrassed about), he was not missing it!
The rest of his cabin were being very protective of him, and while he didn't blame them, he would have done the same to Harley, or any of the others who were in the Hephaestus cabin in his past future. It was getting a little irritating though, even Shane was being overprotective, and he was four years younger for Hephaestus's sake! It was Leo's job to protect him, not the other way around.
Leo was still kinda shaken up about the dream though; he had asked Chaos about it. The reply of 'I only dulled the memories, I couldn't take them away entirely' explained why he was getting the nightmares. But it was just his dam bad luck that made sure the first nightmare he had in the past, or present now, was his first day in cabin 9. He knew the cabin rule about no-one sleeping in their underground room during someone's first day. It would have been easier to wake up alone and sort it out without his siblings being overprotective. Then again, he was forced to admit to himself, he kinda liked that his siblings were being protective, and that they had comforted him last night. It was good to see that they cared.
"Leo, you're spacing out. Are you sure you're OK."
Nyssa, of course she would notice, out of all of cabin 9, she was the best with 'organic life forms' as his dad would say. "I'm fine Nyssa, honestly, I was just thinking." He didn't think that helped his case. Time to change the subject before he dug a hole so deep it reached Tartarus.
"Whose team are we on?"
Nyssa sighed, but picked up the spear she had been working on, and finally answered him. "We have made a temporary alliance with Athena, just for this game. Hermes cabin hold one of the flags; the red one. Athena cabin the other. Hermes got the flag off Ares last time; so now Hermes holds the flag. It's Hermes, Apollo, Dionysius, Ares and Aphrodite. They're against Athena, Poseidon, Demeter and us. We're outnumbered, but they're outclassed."
Leo grinned, Hermes cabin were tricksters, they'd be hard to beat, and there were lots of them, since all the unclaimed demi-gods were thrown in there as well, which Leo still thought was harsh. He thought it even harsher that Hades didn't have a cabin; he'd save complaining about that for another day though. So, Hermes would be hard, Apollo's were fast, and brilliant archers, they'd also have to be watched. Dionysius could be bad vine-wise, but since their side had Demeter, though vines could be nullified. So Dionysius was no threat. Ares were dangerous, preferring to attack head on, so if you got past them, you were alright. Aphrodite's didn't care, unless they were Piper, or the hunters were the opposition. They were no threat at all.
But, Leo's side, or rather Athena's side, had battle strategy and skill to back it up. They had Percy, who in himself was a one man army when he tried his best. Demeter, who could string nasty traps, and Hephaestus, who could do the same... Just better. All in all, Leo's team was more defensive, but, the best offence is a good defence. If Demeter and Hephaestus could hold up Apollo, Hermes and Ares long enough for Annabeth to get the flag with her invisibility hat, then they were home free.
Before too long, well after Leo had to sit through tea, sending glares at the Stolls all the way through, so he still might hold a bit of a grudge for the bench thing. Then they were armoured up and in the forest. Leo grinned, he had spent his time in the forge that morning making armour that actually fitted him, so he didn't feel like Percy looked, a mouse in an elephant's armour. Thought that could be a slight exaggeration. More like ten year old Nico in Beckendorf's armour.
"Having fun Percy?"
"Oh Haha, very funny, It's not my fault nothing fit's me!"
Leo grinned at the sarcasm, "You're a better fighter with less armour anyway, heck, you fought Ares with no armour, and won, at least, didn't get killed, and wounded him."
"True." Percy yanked of the helmet, and grinned, "I'm going in armour less."
Leo saw Beckendorf frowning out of the corner of his eye, as he came toward the two. "Are you sure you don't want armour Percy? It could put you at a disadvantage not having it."
"I'm sure man; I'm at a disadvantage wearing it!"
Beckendorf snorted. "Got that right."
Then Annabeth was telling them all where to go, and situating Percy on the creek, with instruction to stop anyone crossing by trapping them in it, or creating a wall of water. Leo was sent to attack, which surprised him as Hephaestus cabin was normally on defence. According to Annabeth, Leo was a right sneaky brat when he wanted to be. Leo didn't know whether to be insulted or complemented.
Leo was sneaking through the undergrowth; he had already passed a Ares sentry, a Hermes sentry and an Apollo sentry. He thought he was home free, until he heard a noise behind him, and turned to see an Aphrodite girl. In fact he thought it was Silena.
"Schist! Um would you mind letting me through?"
"Why should I do that?"
"Because you owe me for the bench thing."
Leo saw Silena frown, then step to the side, Two minutes then I'm screaming that someone's here. Got it?"
"How do I know you won't scream immediately?"
"Beautiful people never lie Valdez." Leo grinned and ran, in that moment Silena had seemed so much like Piper, you could defiantly tell they were sisters. His smile dropped as he got closer to the flag, and kept an eye out for traps. He missed Piper. She was like his sister, and being at camp without her felt kind of weird.
Leo froze, as he reached the clearing with the Hermes flag in. He could hear breathing that wasn't his own, and glanced around. No-one. He took a wild guess and glanced up. Score! The Stolls sat in two trees opposite one another, their eyes trained of the flag, and occasionally the surrounding woodland. He had been right to assume that most of the opposite team would be attacking. Leo didn't relax though. There could still be traps.
Leo felt out with the sixth sense he had for mechanics. There was a clip of metal 3 feet away from the flag there, and there. Leo barely stopped himself gasping, Mines! Actually why was he surprised? This was the Ares cabin after all. All he had to do was avoid them. But first, he had to take out the Stolls. How would he do that?
Then Leo saw a flash of blue on the other side of the clearing. Another attacker and it looked like Conner had seen them too. He nodded to Travis who dropped down to face the attacker. The four attackers Leo corrected himself. Travis was clearly outmatched, and Conner dropped from his tree and ran to help. While the two were distracted Leo made a silent dash for the flag, nimbly avoiding all the Mines.
As he picked up the flag and turned, a scream echoed from the way he had come, two minutes were obviously up. Travis turned to the scream, and saw Leo making off with the flag. One of the Athena campers knocked him out before he could raise the alarm. Did that count as maiming?
Conner shouted instead, and Leo dogged of through the trees, he had an advantage. Due to his adventures with Festus, he knew the forest better than almost anyone. He knew where to hide so he wouldn't be caught. He grinned, and kept running, still silently. He was good at running, always had been.
He almost made it too. Twenty feet before the creek, where he could see Percy grinning at him, he saw a group of Apollo campers waiting for him, swerving left; he saw a group of Hermes campers, advancing on him. He had been too worried about someone following him to think about an ambush. He saw Nyssa standing behind the Apollo campers. A mad idea grew in his head.
Leo jumped high, yelled his sisters name and lobed the flag over the Apollo kids heads. Nyssa jumped, caught it, and hightailed to the creek, the Apollo and Hermes cabins hot on her trail. Percy willed the creak to rise, and splashed it on the campers, disorientating them, as Nyssa made it safely across what remained of the stream. Chiron's horn blew, and the game was won.
AN: Do you like it, Please drop me a review! I know the chapters kinda short, but I wanted to get this bit up, and the next bit wouldn't fit in the same chapter, unless I wanted a monster chapter, and I don't. Chapter 1 was the odd one out. I figured you'd rather have two shorter updates sooner, that a long one, which could take a fortnight to upload.
So here's the next chapter, and the next one will probably be up Friday or Saturday.
Question time: (This is a hard one)
What type of poison did Luke use on Thalia's tree? (Name of the poison please)