Chapter Twenty

Disclaimer: I do not own the PJO or HoO series by Rick Riodan.

James' POV

"Alright guys, I already know where I'm placing the flag. I need Gail and Sam over by the creek, up in the trees to make sure no one passes into our territory. James, I want you, Lydia and Adrienne in Ares' territory, causing a distraction. The other cabins on our team are going to be trying to hold back the enemy." Tristan says, strapping on his gleaming armor.

We had made alliances with Hebe, Nemesis, Hephaestus, Hermes, Hecate, and Dionysus, as well as Hades, for this game of capture the flag. We had a pretty sizable team, but then, Ares had a really good team too.

"Uhm, Tris, I have a problem with that setup." Lydia says.

I roll my eyes as I buckle the breast and the back plate together of my golden armor. Of course Lydia was going to bring this up again, even though Tristan had settled it already.

Tristan sighs and I could tell he was counting to five before he spoke. "Lydia, I don't care if you have a problem with the setup. You're going to cause a distraction with James and Adrienne, whether you like it or not. That argument was settled this afternoon, don't bring it up again." he says.

He turns away from Lydia and looks at Gail, Sam, and me, nodding. "Ready? We're going to whip Ares' kids' asses tonight." he says, grinning.

Sam jumps up from his bed and starts doing some weird dance. Leave it to Sam to lighten the mood a bit with his weirdness.

"Sam, man, what in Hades are you doing?" Tristan asks.

"Oh, my mom told me about this sacred dance people used to do for Nike to get her blessing before a race or something." he says, still wiggling around.

Tristan covers his eyes with his hand, shaking his head.

"Dude, I don't think you're doing it right." I say, chuckling.

"James, why don't you go check on Adrienne, make sure she's ready. I'll get them corralled out of here somehow." Tristan says.

"Okay. I'll just meet you guys by the creek." I say, slipping my sword into its sheath and grabbing my bow and quiver.

I walk out of the cabin and start heading over to the Hades cabin. I was hoping playing capture the flag would take my mind off of the situation at hand, at least for a little bit.

As I walk up the obsidian steps, I hear a crash from inside the cabin.

I quickly open the door to find Adrienne in a comical position, tangled in her new black armor. Dad had gotten it for her last week, up until then, she hadn't been wearing any armor at all. She really hadn't had a reason to wear any before, since when she was doing little bits of training at home, it was by herself in the backyard or with mom, and she usually let Addie win.

"Here, let me help." I say, chuckling.

"I can do it." she protests.

"Sure you can. I can see how well doing it yourself turned out." I say, unbuckling all the straps.

"Did dad not show you how you put this stuff on?" I ask.

"Didn't have time." she says.

"Oh." I say.

Within five minutes, I had all her gear straightened out. She looks at herself in the mirror and smirks.

"You gotta show me how to do that so fast." she says.

"You'll learn. Just takes some practice." I say, shrugging.

"So what exactly are we doing?" she asks, grabbing her throwing stars and dagger.

"Capture the flag. I'll explain on the way, but we need to meet the others down at the creek. C'mon." I say, waving her on.

My sword clashed with Sabrina Richards', the sharp clang of metal against metal blending in with the other sounds of battle going on around us.

The game had been going on for at least half an hour by this point. By the turnout Addie, Lydia and I had had, I'd say we had done our distraction quite well.

The two Richards siblings from Ares, Sabrina and Mark, had shown up. I hated those two so much. I really didn't know why, but there was just something about them that rubbed me the wrong way.

Some kids from Demeter, Iris, and Nike had shown up too, but most of them had gone on to try and find the flag. What they'd find though was a bunch of our team mates waiting at the creek.

"You can't hold out much longer, di Angelo." Sabrina snarls.

"Wanna bet?" I grunt, pushing her away from me.

She stumbles backwards, but manages to stay on her feet. We charge each other and clash swords again, trying to disarm each other.

This goes on for another ten minutes before I finally mange to knock her sword out of her hand.

It flies away and lands at the base of a tree five feet away. She starts to make her way towards it, but I block her path.

"Don't even think about it." I say.

She scowls at me, but stands down. I look around and see Lydia was still fighting a guy from Demeter. I didn't see Adrienne and Mark anywhere though.

I look around some more and spot Addie's Stygian iron throwing star on the ground.

I move away from Sabrina, completely forgetting that I was supposed to be keeping her from her sword, and make my way to the small weapon.

As soon as I pick it up, I hear an ear shattering scream. I quickly look up and glance around. Everyone had frozen, trying to locate where it had come from.

"Addie." I whisper. I sheathe my sword and pull out my bow.

I quickly make my way to where it had come from, Lydia, Sabrina, and the guy from Demeter right behind me. I was praying to the gods it hadn't been Adrienne.

A/N:

Hmmm. Where do you think Adrienne and Mark Richards got to? And who do you think screamed? Also, I'm sure you guys remember the scum known as Daemon Richards from Revival. Yea, well, in case you didn't realize from their last name, Sabrina and Mark are his kids.

Today has been an extremely long day. I actually didn't wake up until 11:00, I was really tired last night. Then at about 12:00, my mom and I took my dad lunch and then we went Christmas shopping. I think we got pretty much all the gifts, I know I did.

And I also got this cool thing at Target. It's a Bluetooth signal thing and you plug it into your dock and it submits a Bluetooth signal and you can connect your iPod to iPad, or any of the other electronics that can use Bluetooth, and you can listen to your music and stuff and control it up to thirty feet away. So yea, really rad and handy thing to have.

M/A:

"'Way out nowhere
Take me out there
Far away and save me from my self-destruction
Hopeless for you
Say a prayer for California'"

Boy Division by My Chemical Romance.

XOXO,

Mrs-diAngelo25