Chapter 4: Capture the Flag

And I'm back! Ready for the next chapter? So am I! Let's goooo!

Jackie's POV:

I'm really liking this Camp Half-blood place. Everything is orderly yet chaotic, and there are so many different stories to be heard. Honestly, my favorite is when Leo went all "Bad Boy" against Narcissus. Now that is something I wish I was there for. The Ares cabin is right up my alley, especially the music. Though the fact that you can hear it halfway across the camp is a bit much, it's pretty cool. I can tell Alex likes it too. Man, I've known her for years now. The stuff we've been through was all pretty bad. My mind came upon this one particular person in our lives, well, mostly Alex's life, that was traumatic beyond belief when a dude with unruly black hair and sea-green eyes that I could see from twenty feet away. I was sitting at a bench in front of the Hecate cabin, waiting for Alex.

"Hey, the name's Percy, and you're Jackie?" he asked. I nodded.

"You're Annabeth's guy, saw you in the arena. You were pretty good," I said. Percy thanked me for the compliment. "I'm just waiting on Alex. I assume you're here for training?"

"Yeah, what's Alex like, anyway? Didn't get the chance to talk to her much yesterday at the arena," Percy inquired.

"She's pretty cool, I mean, she definitely changed a lot since when we were little," I told him, looking at the ground. When he asked me how, I hesitated, wondering how much information to give out. I continued, "Well, she's a lot tougher now, and not as social. I don't think I've seen her cry once since, well, let's just say a long time ago. She tries her best to stay the same, though. I know that for sure." Percy nodded as Alex came running out. She filled me in on what had happened, and apparently she had gotten the lecture about how you can't have phones. We ran off to the arena to train.

Alex's POV

Training was fun. Annabeth was teaching me how to best use a dagger, since she had the most experience. I also got the crash course on all the other weapons, and Jackie was off to the side getting the same info, just the main subject was spears. By the time we had finished it was almost noon. I sat on the bleachers drinking a water bottle that Annabeth had brought.

"So, how's the whole magic bit going," Jackie asked.

"Well, I can shoot these bouncing energy balls, and I can hover a foot off the ground by outputting a force through my hands. More stuff like that, and I have a lot of power, Adam says, but not the best aim. We're gonna work on that tonight after Capture the Flag. Come on, let's go shower and eat. Don't want to go to Arts and Crafts smelly and hungry enough to eat the clay." Jackie laughed and we headed out.

We headed to arts and crafts full and freshly washed, and we had the class with Leo, too. There were giant blocks of clay in front of each spot, and I quickly got to work. Jackie started on a crudely made guitar, while I started on a sculpture of what I thought my mom looked like. Hazel has walked up behind me and watched me work.

"Is that you're mom?" She asked.

"Oh, uh, yeah. It's supposed to be," I told Hazel looking back.

"Here, make the chin a bit sharper, and the nose needs to be a bit more elegant. Her hair is either in a braid or free-flowing, and it's very long," She told me.

"You've met my mother?" I asked.

"Yeah, when we had to close the Doors of Death during the Giant War. It was rough," I was informed. Hazel walked away and I worked on my improvements. Soon later the Hecate statue was painted and looked kind of normal compared to everything around it. Jackie's guitar looked extremely crude, and Leo was controlling a tiny clay helicopter with a clay remote. He had some spare wires in his bag, and he found some more in the randomly placed baskets of supplies.

Leo's POV

"God dangit, Leo! If you fly that helicopter near my statue one more time…" Alex exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah, insert threat here," I responded, not really playing attention. Alex went somewhere to clean up, and I landed the helicopter and looked around. I ripped a piece of sketch paper in half and wrote a quick note on it. I clipped the messy note to the bottom of the helicopter and began to fly it over to the current girl I was paying attention to. She saw the helicopter and rolled her eyes. The girl began to swat at my device, and I got the message quickly enough. My helicopter flew back, and Jackie snatched the note before I could stop her.

"'Want to go to the fireworks?' is seriously what you wrote on this thing? You need to either lower your standards, or work on better pick-up lines," Jackie said. I grabbed the note and crumpled it. I ran over to wash the clay off my hands. Alex looked at me.

"Ready for capture the flag?" she asked. I looked over at her. She had silver paint smeared across her forehead, along with two or three more smudges in purple or black. It hadn't taken me long to adjust to her new-ish look. Her hair was different, her eyes were different, and even though the shorts and orange camp t-shirt, weren't her style, it somehow fit her perfectly. I stuttered.

"Uh-umm, yeah. Is it already time?" I asked. Alex nodded we both cleaned up our clay, and ran out to get changed. Jackie wasn't far behind. I was casually walking next to Alex, getting as close as I could without being creepy. Hey, she was a new girl who didn't realize how much of an unpopular nerd I was, even being part of the Seven. "The Leo" would take any chance he could get. I was about to move and inch closer when Jackie caught up and squeezed in between us, pushing me over to the side. We all laughed as I fell, partially tripping Jackie with my foot. I got up and nervously rubbed the back of my head. Jackie nudged Alex and they ran off ahead of me.

I met up with them at the arena, where Percy and Jason were choosing teams.

Alex's POV:

Jackie and I nudged our way to the front of the crowd next to our friends. Percy saw us and poked Jason. They began to pick out names.

"First and foremost, senior campers," Percy announced. "Piper, you're on blue team with me this time." Jason chuckled.

"Alright then, Annabeth, you're gonna be red," he chose. They went back and forth until it was just me, Jackie, Leo, Adam, and a girl with glasses and straight ginger hair. Percy thought, being it his turn.

"Cassie," he said, and the girl went forward.

"Adam," chose Jason, who slapped Adam on the back when he got up there.

"Alex."

"Leo."

"Jackie," Percy finished. Each team had about ten people. Percy yelled out "Alright! Today, there is a third team, the Green team!" Every looked around for the final team. Percy smirked. "The Hunters of Artemis are the final team." That remark was followed by groans. I had heard that they arrived the night before, and it sounds like they're pretty good. "First team to get the other two flags at base, and keep their own flag, wins."

"Head to the armory and get suited up. Grab your own weapon. Meet up at the entrance to the forest," Jason added, and the crowd dispersed.

Jackie's POV:

I was glad to be on the same team as Alex, but I hope next time we're against each other. I watched as the red head, Cassie, put her hair up in a ponytail using a vine. "Who's your godly parent?" I asked.

"Demeter," Cassie replied, tightening the vine. "I don't usually need a weapon in the forest, but it never hurts to have a sword handy, especially with the Hunters in the game." I nodded and fastened my belt, with a sword in it, too. My spear was in my hand and I grabbed a helmet with a blue plume. Alex came out from around the corner. She was fully dressed and had her dagger spinning it mid-air. I timed myself and stopped the hilt with my finger.

"Seriously dude? Now you're just showing off," I said, making Alex grin. I could tell she was excited, the gold flecks in her purple eyes were much more pronounced. She ran out to the woods and we got started.

A girl who looked a lot like me first caught my eye. She had a punk look like mine, but her hair was straight and had no red. Alex went up to her.

"Hi, you must be Thalia," Alex said. Thalia nodded. "I'm Alex, and this is my friend Jackie." I waved. Thalia smiled.

"Nice to meet you. I hope we have a good game, and good luck!" Thalia said before running off into the woods. A horn started and the other teams ran in. Percy led us to our banner. It was off to the side, more towards the beach. I took the liberty to assume all the banners were spread out.

"Alright! Who wants to stay behind and guard the flag?" 2 or 3 people including Piper raised their hands. Percy nodded and split the rest of us in half. He pointed to me, Alex, and two other kids. "You guys should go after the red flag. Since you're new, I don't think you can head after the Hunters quite yet, since they've been trained in the forest." He pointed to the other 3 or 4 people, with Cassie in the middle. "Try and locate the green flag. It's probably more towards the entrance. The red flag is most likely in the opposite corner of the forest, across the creek." We all nodded. "Do what you want from there, just stick to what you were assigned most of the way." I nudged Alex.

"I'll stick around here for now, chase after anyone who takes the flag," I told her. Alex nodded and set out into the forest. As I watched her walk away, I sat next to Piper against the flag. There was a rustle in the grass behind us, but Piper held me from getting up. The other people paid no attention. Piper slowly held up Katropis, looking at the clear reflection of the blade. In the small space between the ferns was the barely visible figure of a Hunter. Piper whispered to me to run to get the red flag while the Hunters were distracted. Barely after the whispered words, three Hunters jumped forward, giving me my signal to run past the trees that lined our clearing. I checked to see if anyone was following, and heard a loud crunch behind me. Leo sat there, holding a fiery hammer, the blue flag over his shoulder. I gave chase, running after the lanky boy.

Alex's POV:

I sat in my tree branch looking around. I had already found the red camp, and was stationed directly in between the two clearings. I heard people running, and leaned down to see Jackie chasing Flashy McFirepants, who had miraculously gotten the blue flag. I started to run towards red camp, trying to stay ahead. Leo was beginning to gain on me from below, and I tried to speed up. My careless mistake made me slip and fall, hanging onto the branch with one hand. I yelped and tried to hold myself up. Leo looked up and laughed, before running ahead.

I screamed as I fell, clenching shut my eyes. I tried to hover, but it only worked when I was a foot off the ground. I opened one eye as I slowed down until I came to a stop, hovering like normal. I laughed and started to run.

"That'll come in handy," I muttered. I vaulted over a rock, snatching the rope from Leo. I yelled at the top of my lungs, dodging the increasing amount of red campers I slid, grabbing the red flag. Jackie has also caught up and grabbed it from my hands, and we both sprinted off over the various roots and plants. Over our own footsteps, I could her thuds and plumps behind us. And then we came to the stream.

Jackie's POV:

I looked behind me to see various people giving chase. I threw my sword horizontally, knowing that it was too dull to legitimately hurt someone, especially through armor. Alex started to throw energy balls, apparently getting some tree nymphs pretty mad. I pulled out my spear and threw it into the middle of the stream. The water froze over, allowing Alex and I to gracefully slide over. I ripped out the spear, causing the gaining campers to trip and slide. The blue clearing camp up, and all the battlers gave way as both me and Alex to dig the two flags into the dirt, joining the green flag that the other half of the team must've captured. The blue team cheered us on, and we ran off to the armory to clean up and get ready to eat.

That was this chapter! Sorry it took so long, but I've decided to make a few changes. This story will be shorter than I expected, as a result of my low intention span. The climax will most likely be in a few chapters, maybe only two. I'm deleting my other story, to free up some space. I was having major writers block, so problem solved. Now that Blood of Olympus is out, I will try to get a hold of it and read the final book as soon as I can. Hopefully that will replenish my interest long enough to finish the story. Also, I might change my username to something like ClockworkAngels, or something along those lines.

Word Count for Chapter 4: 2,241 words.

Total Words in the Story (including Author's notes): 8,398