A/N: Well, I'm back. Went to England, passed my finals, and I AM STILL ALIVE! To respond to the anonymous reviews:
Anonymoose: thank you darling! And I agree, the day to day life is just as important as the battles.
Amesfh18: Thanks the plan, and basically the chapter after this, which is capture the flag.
HoOisawesome: I'm so sorry, I know it's been a really long time. I plan on balancing the Percabeth fluff with other fluff, perhaps frazel? And I will absolutely be adding in the other 7, and naturally Nico will be appearing, though perhaps not a regular, as he comes and goes.
Love you guys, and ENJOY! FUNNY STORIES IN THE A/N AT THE BOTTOM.
Nobody seemed to take notice of Annabeth slipping into the pavilion, but Percy wasn't so lucky. From across the pavilion, a certain son of Jupiter took notice and called out to him.
"Hey, Jackson! Long time no see!" Jason smiled from his lonely table and got up to give Percy a bro-hug. Unfortunately, others took notice of his late arrival as well.
"How was the rest of your afternoon, Percy? I didn't see Annabeth leading the Athena campers here." Mitchell waggled his eyebrows suggestively, and the rest of his table giggled with him. The children of Aphrodite were so giggly, except for Piper, who just shot a wink to Percy.
Percy waved to the table and scraped some food into the brazier for Bob, before taking a seat at his table, his brow crinkled with focus on the upcoming game.
"Campers, tonight marks the official start of the summer. Welcome to all new campers, and Welcome back to all returning heroes. The teams for tonight's capture the flag game are as follows: Defending the north side, Ares, along with Hephaestus, Apollo, Demeter, Nemesis and Hermes, defending the South side, Athena, Poseidon, Zeus, Iris, Hypnos, Aphrodite, Hebe, Dionysus, and a late arrival, Hades." Chiron's old eyes smiled as a thin figure stepped from the shadows of the pillars.
"Nico!" Percy and Jason shouted in unison. Nico smiled uncomfortably and waved a little. He walked over to the empty table between the two of them and smiled creepily at Clarisse. He loved torturing her, all because she'd harassed Percy. He adjusted his aviator's jacket and pulled out a dagger from the folds, flipping it end over end in his hands. A little known fact: Annabeth had called him and specifically asked for scare tactic, which she knew, was his specialty.
Chiron smiled, noticing a trend in the teams. Annabeth had gotten four of the five that were part of the prophecy of 7, only missing Leo, who was in Hephaestus, and Frank and Hazel, who hadn't come to camp yet. They were scheduled to visit tomorrow, because Frank had to set up a praetor to oversee in his place. There was no chance he would leave Reyna all alone with Octavian.
The campers ate dinner faster than usual, which was practically record setting for the rest of the world. Before Percy could strategize with Annabeth, Nico and Jason, it was time to armor up and get the team together.
"South defenders, over here!" Annabeth called out, pulling her hair into a ponytail and putting it into her helmet. Percy adjusted the straps on her armor as she adjusted his. They shared a quick smile then went to help the newer campers with their clunky breastplates and scabbards. Percy and Jason went to help the older kids, while Annabeth and Nico (ironically) helped the younger kids, tying shoes at the same time as handing out swords.
"You ready?" Annabeth asked Taylor with a smile. The smaller girl shifted uncomfortably under her too big armor.
"I'm not sure I'll be any good." Annabeth put a hand on her shoulder and smiled.
"Don't worry about a thing. Just try not to get hurt, and you'll be just fine. This is an excellent team, so I'm not worried at all. Wait, you're in Hermes. You should be on the other team!" Annabeth pulled her hand back like she'd been burned. Taylor smiled a little, but sadly walked over to her own team.
Annabeth shook her head, and sent a good natured glare over to Clarisse, who returned the gesture happily, or as happily as Clarisse does anything.
"Ok South Team, let's move out!" Annabeth lead the team out of the pavilion in lines of two next to Nico, whispering strategy with Jason and Percy who were right behind them. They carried the flag to the cluster of trees close to the beach. Their side was bigger, which gave them more hiding territory, but with their smaller team, a much larger chance that somebody could slip through.
They hid the flag in a tree, which was in the center of a grove of tightly packed trees, so tight that even hiding the flag would be difficult. Running in and grabbing the flag would be next to impossible.
"Huddle up!" Jason called out, softer now that the North team was in the woods. They all put their arms around each other's shoulders and put their heads in the middle.
"Ok, here's the plan…" Annabeth's whispers hissed into the circle and seemed to seep into the group. She'd chosen an unorthodox strategy: craftier than actual skill. Percy, Jason and a group of highly skilled fighters would attack quickly and locate the flag, but not actually take it. They would get in and out fast taking out a few guards then coming back to crush any offensive that was sent against their defense. After this, Nico would shadow travel in and out with Annabeth and retrieve the flag, only walking the bit across the stream, but not risk walking through enemy territory.
"Everyone understand their parts?" Jason asked the group, searching faces. After answering questions as to who would be offence and defense, they dispersed into the woods, Nico and Annabeth remaining very close together.
"The matching smiles are very creepy, guys," Percy commented, before running to catch up with Jason and the 'special ops group' as they'd decided to call themselves. Annabeth nicknamed them the idiot brigade behind their backs. Nico enjoyed a good laugh beforehand.
The conch shell sounded and everyone stopped giggling and chatting. The entire forest was silent for a moment, before yells of, "Die!" were heard. Annabeth and Nico smiled silently in the dying light, not speaking but simultaneously rolling their eyes at Percy and Jason's antics.
They'd grown very close; the sons of the big three, and even Nico would agree that they were more like brothers than anything else. When Nico would ask Percy for help on a project, Percy would cite "Family issue" as his excuse for leaving school. As a matter of fact, He'd cited the entire Titan war as a "Family issue", excusing him from more than five months of school. But somehow he'd managed to pass his finals during the summer, with Annabeth's help, and would be going into senior year with Annabeth. Jason, Piper and Leo would all be going in their junior year, while Nico and Frank were sophomores and poor hazel was just a freshman. But high school was a completely different issue.
The silence was pretty creepy, but a sharp wind picked up from the north, rustling the branches, and Annabeth smiled again; Jason was working some skills. The shouts called out from infront of them, and Annabeth recognized Malcolm's voice, yelling about invaders. The offensive was coming.
The set up was rings of defense around a point that was actually a few groves over from the actual one. A risky set up, but so far it was working. Shouts rang out from the north side, and Annabeth could see the 'special ops group' returning from their scouting. After only a few minutes, the game appeared to be ending. The trees to their left shook and they drew their swords, both taking steps backwards. Percy and Jason stepped out of the woods with their swords lowered in a non-offensive manner.
"The left side of Zeus's fist if you're running at it from this direction. A few trees down from Juniper." Percy hissed before splitting off to defend the flag. Their defense was shouting for help.
Jason nodded and followed after Percy. Nico smiled.
"Ready?" He asked, offering his hand to Annabeth. She nodded, not at all nervous. She should have been. She took his hand and fell into blackness, flying at a million miles into the unending darkness. She almost fell into the clearing on the other side, but Nico grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back into the shadow, inches from the flag and about a foot behind the guard's back. The Apollo camper was scanning the tree line opposite, his bow ready.
Nico moved Annabeth's hand to the flag and motioned for her to pull on the count of three. Three…Two…One. Annabeth pulled the flag into her arms and fell once again into the flying darkness, feeling about twelve seconds from passing out. She was not a fan of shadow traveling.
"Go!" Nico shouted, and together they scrambled the five feet to the bank of the river, stumbling over roots and ignoring the shouts from the Ares campers. They rushed through the shallow water and fell onto the opposite bank, greeted by the shouts of their jubilant team. Annabeth would have loved to join them in celebration, but she stood, handed the flag off to Nico ceremonially, and then promptly fainted onto her shocked brother, Malcolm.
The events that she missed were possibly the most important of the century.
In the creek, the fallen north side was clapping half-heartedly, but quickly stopped when a glowing symbol was spotted. Taylor was extremely confused as the owl and dove both floated above her head. It's fair to say that the celebration stopped after that.
A/N: So what's her deal! Throw your guessed in the reviews, because I look forward to them. And now funny story time:
I recently went to England, and went with my family. The plan was to get up early every day, but unfortunately nobody ever set alarms, so we woke up every day at like 10:00, naturally making us kinda crabby when we had to finally get up, or stay up past like 7:30. Jet lag people, it's a problem. So we went to dinner at like 9:00 one night (not my idea) and found this sign hilarious: it said something something crapulence something. The point in the crapulence. PEOPLE, IT'S A MEDICAL TERM! IT MEANS DISCOMFORT AFTER EATING TOO MUCH. GAH I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS MY ENTIRE LIFE.
Okay, that's all. Leave me a nice review, or a nasty review. I'd like to see one of those. Love you all, and Muchas Gracias my lovelies. ~M