Hello everybody! This is going to be the first part of a chapter about the CTF game mentioned in other parts of the book. A few quick notes: if you're a fan of Game of Thrones and are not caught up on the show, read not further! Spoilers ahead. Also, I'm including a link below of a diagram to a historical battle described in this chapter. It might help some people visualize what I'm talking about. It's not 100% necessary but I thought I'd include it anyway. Part 2 will be out tomorrow, and then I'll be able to continue the story line in a more linear fashion. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!

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Chapter 3 - I Try to Out-Think the Thinker (Capture the Flag Part 1)

Percy POV

The day everyone anticipated for so long had finally arrived. The first capture-the-flag game since the war with Gaea was announced; finally, things at camp could start returning to normal. Normally me and Annabeth would be working together, but a few days back she'd teased me about only being the muscle in our 'operation.' Muscle, huh? I'll show her.

Thankfully, I knew my girl pretty well by now. If I couldn't beat her after five years of quests and battles, well...I'd have to take a serious step back and rethink. But I was confident I'd be able to play on her expectations.

My inspiration had ironically come from the latest episode of Game of Thrones. Weird, I know, but stick with me. Me and Annabeth both love it, so we watch it together on her laptop...yea, we watch it on one of those video hosting sites. Who the hell has money for an HBO subscription? SPOILER ALERT Episode 9 featured Jon Snow facing off against the Boltons, and the Starks win the day when Sansa enlists Baelish's help (I'm a huge Stark fan, so many feels were felt that day).

While we watched the episode, Annabeth explained to me how the battle tactics Ramsay Bolton uses were actually modeled after those used against the Romans at Cannae by Hannibal, a general from the ancient civilization of Carthage. Actually, Annabeth met Hannibal's father, Hasdrubal, on Ithaca this summer. Technically it was his angry spirit, but same difference right?

Annabeth's eyes shone with admiration as she described how Hannibal used his enemy's overconfidence against them. He placed his weakest troops at the center, and the Romans, seeing an easy victory, attacked those troops, thinking they could break Hannibal's army into two groups and then surround them. Instead, the opposite happened. Hannibal ordered his center troops into a controlled retreated, leading the effort from close by. The Romans, thinking the Carthaginians were running away like cowards, pursued.

But Hannibal's troops on the left and right (his best men) didn't move. So, the Romans funnelled in and were quickly surrounded. The battle turned into a slaughter, with almost 100,000 Romans packed together, unable to defend themselves thanks to the lack of space. Luckily, I found it interesting enough to listen, thank the gods, because it was critical for my idea to beat Annabeth. She did warn me never to mention Hannibal to Jason or Reyna, though. Apparently Romans are still salty.

While she would never be stupid enough to fall for the same trap I knew I could still manipulate her hubris to win the game. I'd need the help of the Ares cabin, though. Ugh, Clarisse. And the Hecate campers as well. They'd be critical.

- LINE BREAK -

First, I met with the Hecate cabin. They were the most important, so I knew I couldn't get tied up in commitments with Clarisse. Hecate only had a few demigods in her affairs with mortals, but they were powerful. I knew Annabeth would be pushing for an alliance as well. When I knocked on the cabin door, I saw two girls sitting together, talking intently. The one nearest to me turned, and I groaned. Of course Annabeth had gotten here first.

She stood, staring at me. "Why hello there Perseus, me and Lou Ellen were just talking about capture-the-flag this Thursday. Should be fun, huh?" I rolled my eyes at the fact that she had tried to use my full name to get under my skin. She was really taking this seriously. But two could play at that game.

"Oh, really? I thought you'd be trying to figure out how that bracelet works. I mean, I just really thought you'd have it figured out by now, but-"

"OK, I should go," Annabeth snapped quickly. I had to smile. My birthday gift was frustrating her. Each object had a unique ability, and she'd figured out the first two pretty easily. The earrings grew and expanded into a Greek helmet when you rubbed the owl's heads. The helmet was shaped like the face of her mother's sacred animal, with the eye holes designed to look larger than they were. It was pretty scary, actually. The middle section came down to cover her face, forming a beak shape, with the cheeks coming in to protect the face.

I had, of course, made sure to leave a personal touch when I had it made. Down the middle, a trident ran along the top of her helmet, starting where the plume stuck out, and ending with the tips pointing downward, where the nose guard was connected with the rest of the armour. Just so all those punk ass mosnters knew that if they hurt her, they'd have me to deal with.

The fountain was also a combination of protection, good looks, and the whole Poseidon-Athena combo. When you pressed a button on the bottom, the side popped open. Inside, a small compartment held a device, to be worn on the wrist. It was a calculator, like the one Dwight wears on The Office. It was super nerdy, which is how I knew Annabeth would love it. What a goober. When you pressed the small đťš« button, the device expanded into a shield. On the front, an imposing owl's gaze was designed to scare off enemies. Behind the animal, a pair of tridents crossed into an X. I'm not going to lie, I borrowed ideas - the shield Tyson gave me, and the powers from Thalia's version of Aegis. I still thought it made a pretty kickass gift, especially because it made Annabeth look like some weird ancient Greek pirate.

Finally, the charm bracelet expanded into a bracer; a type of armour that protected your forearms. Again, totally stole the idea from Iron Man. When activated, it had an expanded green trident running down the side. Pretty cool, right? But it had another element. Annabeth had marched up to me proudly, telling me she'd solved everything. When I corrected her, I received a sour expression. That was three days ago - I haven't seen her since.

Returning to reality, I watched Annabeth leave. She smiled politely at Lou Ellen and then threw me her best stink eye. Her expression said "I've just made a business pitch. Mess it up and you'll be sleeping on the couch for a month."

"You guys are adorable," Lou Ellen said, watching Annabeth go. "Total power couple."

I wanted to say "Wait, what? How do you get adorable from that? You girls are nuts." But, seeing as how I was supposed to be diplomatic, I just chuckled, shaking my head, and settled for a "she's pretty awesome."

After a brief moment of silence, she gives me a look. "I know why you're here, Percy. Just get on with it."

"Can I sit?" I ask politely. She nods, so I take a seat on the one of the bunk beds. "I'll be straight with you, I want you on my team." I lead with a pleasant smile.

- LINE BREAK -

I stride over to the armoury to talk with Clarisse. For someone who seemed pretty nice, Lou drove a hard bargain. She'd demanded the best activity slots for her cabin, lasting the rest of the summer. Personally, I didn't really care when I did stuff, but I'd have preferred not to get up at 8am every morning for arts and crafts.

When I looked for Clarisse in her cabin, one of her younger sisters yelled at me for interrupting her Guns' and Roses jam session. After asking where Clarisse was, I had a sandal thrown at me. How I love Cabin Five, the most pleasant group of demigods at camp! Screw those kids, so obnoxious. Lately, when Clarisse wasn't in her cabin, she was typically in the armoury, unless she was at an activity. I decided to start my search there.

When I walked in, I heard loud banging from the back room, along with quite a bit of yelling. After passing through the shop, I watched, laughing, as Clarisse and Harley tinkered with a piece of bronze machinery, which looked suspiciously like an engine. It was hanging from the ceiling from long chains, and they seemed to be arguing over how to fix it.

"No, you idiot!" Harley yelled. "If we don't fix the piston before we try to-"

"The issue isn't with the pistons! The damn thing keeps overheating," Clarisse growled. "If you're just too little to see that-" She was interrupted by Harley whipping a wrench at her. Clarisse ducked, which left it flinging towards me. It smashed against the doorframe, about a foot from my head. Harley's facial expression quickly turned apologetic.

"P-P-P-Percy, oh my gods I'm so sorry, are you-"

"What the hell are you doing here, Jackson?" Clarisse interrupted roughly.

"Actually, Clarisse, I was hoping to talk to you," I said, chuckling to myself. "I promise I come in peace. Can you hold off on your Ares instincts for like 9.2 seconds while I explain?"

She gave me a skeptical look in response. "Make it quick, punk, I've got stuff to work on." I lead her outside to talk, as I wasn't sure I'd trust Harley to keep the contents of our conversation a secret.

- LINE BREAK -

"Un-fuckin'-believable!" I exclaim to myself in frustration, viciously throwing open my cabin door. I'd been muttering every curse word in my vocabulary on my way back from the talk with Clarisse. She'd been impossible to negotiate with, demanding everything from premium activity slots to my crowning her with the laurels after the battle. Worse than that, she'd insulted me at just about every opportunity. Normally, I'd tell Clarisse to shove it where Apollo don't shine, but I needed her. No one else had a larger or tougher cabin, except maybe Hephaestus, but they'd already sided with Annabeth. So I ended up wasting almost all my bargaining chips on Ares. UGH were they ever annoying.

I was so busy thinking about how stupid Clarisse could be, that I didn't even notice Annabeth laying on my bed until I nearly sat on her. I stopped short, confused.

"What are you….hi?" She had a huge smile on her face, and she was leaning forward, as if she were dying to tell me something. She sat up when she noticed I'm distracted by something.

An expression comes over her face, I've never seen it before. If I had to describe it, I'd say it was almost...mischievous? A grin spreads across her face. She grabs my arm and seats me next to her on the bed.

"Oh," she says in a pouty voice, "you look upset." Ok, really unlike Annabeth, I'm really confused. We're still holding hands, but with her opposite she runs a finger gently up and down my arm.

"Uh...yea…" I stutter. It's pretty much all I can muster, as she's pretty distracting. Those beautiful grey eyes of hers are wide-open, and they're moving slowly up and down… "Hey, Annabeth," I say, caressing her chin. "My eyes are up here kiddo."

"Right, sorry," she says with a hint of a giggle. But when I let go of her face, she continues. Her free hand is moving now, to the inside of my knee. There's a lot of thoughts running through my head I'd rather not share.

When I try to get her attention, my words jumble together, as if I'm drunk. "What'reoudoing?" And my voice just cracked, shit. Good one Jackson. Is this seriously happening right now?

She smiles at me seductively. Now she's massaging my shoulders, the small of my back, my chest. "I just want you to know that you can always talk to me about anything. Your stress..your trouble…Tell me all about what's bugging you."

"Just Clarisse," I sigh. "She was pretty tough, just now."

"Uh-huh," Annabeth responds. "And what exactly was that all about?" She hasn't stopped massaging me, though she's moved considerably farther down my torso.

"I was trying to get her on my t-" I stop myself and jump off the bed, standing. I've been an idiot. When I look at Annabeth, shocked by this betrayal, she sits back and laughs. "You-you-you-"

"My mother's the goddess of strategy," she says, still laughing. "I'm playing the cards I've been dealt."

"So, so what?" I demand. "You decide to come in here...and...and do something so crazy, all to win some stupid game?"

"Percy," she says, striding past me. She stops at the door and turns, momentarily pausing her chuckling. "Who said this had anything to do with capture-the-flag?"