Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Chapter 2: Capture the Flag

We entered the mess hall for dinner. Athena and Annabeth went to their table. Artemis and the Huntresses, all except Thalia went to Artemis's table. Thalia went to the Zeus table, of course. Percy and I went to the Poseidon table. Chiron galloped in front of the tables to announce the last capture the flag for the year.

"As everyone knows this is the last capture the flag for this summer. Since Artemis is in camp with her huntresses, she will pick the cabins that she will partner with. Lady Artemis, which cabins do you choose to partner with?" Chiron asked.

"I choose the Zeus cabin, the Apollo cabin and the Ares cabin." Artemis said.

"Good, well in order to make this last event more interesting I have asked a camp trainer to lead the competition. Theseus will lead the Poseidon cabin into battle. Theseus, which cabins will you choose as your partners?" Chiron asked.

"I choose the Athena cabin, the Hermes cabin, and the Hades cabin." Theseus said.

"Interesting choices Theseus. Now you have until tomorrow afternoon to prepare for capture the flag, good luck to all competitors." Chiron said as he walked over to sit by Mr. D.

After we made our sacrifices and ate dinner, Athena, Malcolm, Annabeth, Connor, Travis and Nico came over and sat at the Poseidon table.

"Whose going to plan our strategy?" I asked the group seated before me.

"Your not going to do it?" Malcolm asked.

"Malcolm, why would I need to plan our tactics when I have you and Annabeth to plan for us." I said as I held Athena's hand and smiled. I could see Annabeth and Malcolm look at each other and then smile at me.

"Your serious, we can plan our tactics!" Malcolm said not believing me.

"That's right, I want you and Annabeth to plan our tactics." I said.

"What are you going to do, Theseus?" Athena asked.

"Well, I'm going to work with these four miscreants to devise some surprises for the competition." I said as I pointed to Percy, Nico, Travis and Connor. They all four stared at me and then smiled as I flashed them a devious grin. Athena laughed at the sight.

"What are we going to do?" Travis asked.

"Well, I have some ideas as I walked over to the Hermes table.

Our preparations went very well. I scheduled a second meeting with my group of leaders in the Poseidon cabin that evening.

"Theseus, its been great spending the rest of day with you." Athena said. We left everyone in my cabin as we quietly walked to the beach. I held Athena's hand as we strolled down by the water's edge.

"I love you." I said. She smiled at me and said, "I love you too."

"I know you have to go." I said.

"Yes, duty calls, good luck tomorrow but I know you won't need it." Athena said.

I kissed her and she disappeared in a golden light.

I walked back to my cabin to put the finishing details on our plan. Annabeth and Malcolm had devised an incredibly intricate plan that meshed perfectly with the deception tactics that the Stoll brothers, Nico, Percy and I had developed. Artemis and her team were going to be really surprised. We split up for the night and all went to our cabins.

"Theseus, tomorrow is going to be the greatest capture the flag ever." Percy said.

"I hope so, we have put a lot of thought, effort and imagination into this plan." I said.

I dreamed of Athena as usual and about the great battle plan we had devised.

The next morning Percy and I awoke with a real sense of urgency. We had all morning and the early afternoon to get our plans in order. We met Nico, the Stoll brothers and the rest of the Hermes cabin. We had the task of going to our side of the battlefield and implementing our plan. Whereas, Annabeth, Malcolm and the rest of the Athena cabin were responsible for establishing the defenses and implementing the major plan components such as flag location, weapons, etc. Put it this way it was a fun morning, thats for sure.

I met up with my team leaders and we prepared for the battle ahead. Both teams met at the center of camp where Chiron was waiting for us. Artemis and I walked to the center to meet him.

"Artemis and Theseus, are your teams ready?" Chiron asked.

"Yes!" Artemis and I said at the same time.

The teams split up and went to their specific sides of the battlefield. Annabeth and Malcolm were directing people to the correct locations, while Travis and Conner were putting the finishing touches on our surprises. The horn sounded, the beginning of the battle. The battle commenced in the forest and I could hear our team battling the enemy. As planned our soldiers retreated at a certain point to allow the other team to come forward.

As Annabeth and Malcolm expected the Ares team was in the lead. They would always charge forward without thinking and on this day that was a bad idea. As Clarisse and her cabin reached the edge of the woods they could see our flag near the stream. One problem, Percy and I had interrupted the stream so that the flag was on a small island in the middle of the stream surrounded by a torrent of raging water. As the Ares team came to the edge of the forest, the Hermes cabin initiated the surprise. In the trees above the Ares team gallons of liquid jello poured down upon them. The jello was almost solidified and it had been reinforced with extra gelatin. It was now a sticky goo that landed on the heads of the Ares team and into they're eyes. The rest of the goo landed on the ground at they're feet causing Ares campers to fall down and run into each other. The Stoll brothers initiated the final part of they're plan. As the Ares campers tried to fight through the goo, the Hermes campers in the trees dropped nets fashioned from volleyball, soccer and field hockey nets. Once these fell on the Ares campers, the remaining Hermes campers on the ground pulled the ropes attached to the nets until the Ares campers were completely enclosed and surrounded by our forces.

This left the Apollo cabin, Artemis and the huntresses. As expected the Apollo cabin was left in the rear to stop our attack. One problem, we never initiated an attack. This completely through off Artemis's plans. Therefore, we knew that the Apollo cabin would be ordered up except for a few soldiers at the rear to guard the flag just in case we sent Nico after it. We all knew that Thalia and the Ares cabin knew about shadow travel. So they would keep some soldiers in reserve. The wave of soldiers from the Apollo cabin came forward and as they approached the Hermes cabin jumped from the trees and attacked. The Hermes cabin was holding their own until Artemis and the huntresses joined the battle. When that happened I ordered forward the rest of my soldiers led by Annabeth, Percy and Nico. This helped stem the tide against us and we were holding our own. When Artemis saw Nico fighting her forces she immediately called to her remaining forces from guard positions around her flag. When these forces added their might we were in some trouble. With the help of these additional forces Thalia and three soldiers broke through and headed for the flag. She and her soldiers would have to cross the stream and that would be hard. A wall of water surrounded the flag area and they would have to break through. They managed to get through the wall and approached our flag. Standing in front of them was Malcolm and I. Thalia looked at me with determination and I knew exactly what she would do. She raised her spear and called down lightning, unfortunately for her and especially her three soldiers we had planned for this. When the lightning came down, instead of striking me or Malcolm it hit our flag. We had turned our flag pole into a massive lightning rod with attached wires. Malcolm and I were standing on a large rubber mat, but Thalia and her three soldiers were standing on a magnetite rock outcrop. The electricity radiated through the flag pole into the ground and was transmitted directly to Thalia and her soldiers. The three soldiers collapsed unconscious and Thalia was stunned slightly. As she recovered she looked at me enraged. Then I put my hand on Malcolm's head and removed the blonde wig he was wearing. Thalia's eyes grew wide as she saw Nico standing before her dressed as Malcom. Nico vanished into blackness. Thalia, recovered and attacked, she charged at me and was about to strike. Instead of hitting me with her spear I darted inside her defense and knocked the spear from her hand. She recovered and tried to hit me with Aegis, her shield. One problem, I had already taken out my club and as she tried to hit me with Aegis, I hit her as hard as I could with the club. The club hit her shield with such an impact that the wall of water around us exploded. The explosion was so great that Thalia flew across the stream and hit hard against a tree at least 100 feet from our flag. At this event, all of the fighters stopped and before they could recover Nico appeared next to me holding Artemis's flag. At that my team erupted into cheers and the horn sounded. Chiron galloped down to the stream and I made the stream go back to its normal path.

"The winner is team Poseidon with great assistance from the Athena, Hermes and Hades cabins. A great display of tactics and deception." Chiron said as I shook his hand.

I then made my way to Thalia, kneeling next to her was Artemis looking worried.

"What do you want?" Artemis asked angrily.

"To help her." I said, Artemis nodded, I carried Thalia to the stream. She was alive but she had a horrible laceration on her back and I could tell she had a punctured lung, broken ribs and a couple of cracked vertebra. Even for an immortal it was bad. I touched the water with one hand and then I touched Thalia. The water moved over my body and then onto Thalia. I willed the water to cover her back and to seep into her ribs, lung and spine. It took a lot of concentration. I was struggling a little until Percy sat down next to me. He leaned down and copied my actions. We both concentrated and then Thalia opened her eyes, coughed and breathed normally. Percy and I let go of her and slumped down exhausted.

"You did it, you healed her." Artemis said clearly taken aback by our actions.

"She is a friend of my brother and my cousin, of course I would help her." I said as I smiled at Percy.

Thalia looked at me and then at Percy, she smiled and said, "Thank you, sorry for losing my temper."

"Its understandable your Zeus's daughter after all." I said with a smirk. Then I heard thunder in the sky. "Sorry uncle" I said with a smile.

"That was certainly some interesting tactics." Artemis said.

I walked over to Annabeth and a dark haired boy that looked like Nico. "All the thanks go to Annabeth and Malcolm." I said as I took the black wig off of Malcolm's head. Everyone gasped until Nico walked over carrying the flag, he was clearly dressed like Malcolm.

"We need to change clothes." Nico said to Malcolm as he handed him Artemis's flag.

We had a great celebration that night. Everyone had fun even Artemis and the huntresses. After saying our goodbyes Percy and I walked back to our cabin.

"Theseus, today was my best day at camp ever." Percy said.

"It was." I said.

"Yes, it is great having you at camp." Percy said.

"I'm having a lot of fun, good night brother." I said as I crawled into my bed still tired from the battle and our healing of Thalia. As soon as my head hit the pillow I was out like a light.

I know this was a short chapter, I hope everyone liked the battle. I couldn't have camp training scenes without a good flag battle. The next chapter "Darkness Rises"!