Happy one year anniversary to this story (despite me typing this chapter in February). It's scary to think that the final ToA book came out a year ago but here we are.
I almost published this as a separate one-shot but it works here. I saved this wonderful, extra-long and chaotic chapter for this special day.
Story #30: Percy's Unnamed Team Captures Their Own Flags
Every new camper is terrified of Capture the Flag days when Percy and Annabeth are the opposing captains. They go all out, yelling obscene things and sabotaging one another to the extremes. New campers think they hate each other and are confused when they're later joking with each other as if the game never happened. It's the same whenever anyone's the leader but it's more evident when those two are in charge.
As for today's game.
Annabeth was one team captain and she chose Ares's cabin with Aphrodite's and Apollo's to team up with her Athena cabin. Their team was deemed "Quadruple A." A perfect strategic team for Capture the Flag. If Artemis and her Hunters were here, they would've been "Quintuple A" and a much more determined force.
Meanwhile, Percy was the other team captain and he got Hephaestus' cabin with Hermes's, Demeter's, and Dionysus's. There were too many letters to come up with a cool name or even a viable acronym so they're going in unnamed. Given that Percy's cabin and Dionysus's cabin only have one kid each, their whole team has fewer people despite having more cabins.
No name and fewer people? Whatever. They'll be fine. They hope.
-o-
Annabeth runs through the forest, dagger gripped in her hand. Her team got ambushed by Demeter's and Hephaestus's cabins by the rock-climbing wall so as they held off the forces, she continued through campgrounds to find the flag. She stops at the edge of the forest near the lake, looking around. It was oddly quiet for a nature scene at Camp during a Capture the Flag session, minus her holding her breath.
Annabeth looks around, sharpening her eyes as she scans her surroundings. Under rocks, behind bushes, along the lakeside. When she starts examining the foliage above her, a piece of teal fabric with gold stitching along the edges catches her eyes. The flag.
Annabeth jogs over. She stabs her dagger in the tree to give her some leverage to climb. She hoists herself up onto the branch. Once she's at arm's length to grab it, she's washed out of the sky by a sudden tidal wave. Annabeth screams, choking on water. Once she lands on the ground, she looks up and sees that she's in a water bubble on land, like a snow globe.
She knows only one person who can do this and she's mad. Annabeth gets back up on her feet, squeezing the water out of her curls as Percy comes out from the other end of the forest, laughing cockily which makes her body fume. Behind him are Beckendorf, Connor, Travis, Katie, and Miranda. All enjoying seeing her as a spectacle on display.
"That was a close one, Wise Girl," Percy says, walking up to her water dome. He smiles brightly seeing her ball her hands into fists, trying to break out.
"Now she knows where our flag is," Beckendorf says, turning Percy around to face him.
"Then I'll keep her in that water bubble," Percy turns around and waves at an angered Annabeth again. She mouths a Seaweed Brain! combined with many curses in English and Ancient Greek. He's seen her say that to his face enough times that he can easily read her lips. He looks back at his teammates. "Look, if we leave her there, then she can't tell her team."
"Unless she Iris messages them," Miranda says, looking around to make sure nobody on Quadruple A is nearing them.
"There's no service in there."
Miranda blinks, not believing but believing he's serious about that reasoning. "That's - that's not how they work. Light on water can make a rainbow."
Connor scoffs. "Relax, that's not even our flag."
Everyone on Percy's Unnamed Team looks at him confused.
"No way Annabeth would get her own flag or show us where it is," Beckendorf says.
"It's not hers either," Connor says, turning his back to Annabeth so she wouldn't be able to read his lips. A mischievous grin creeps onto his lips. "Travis and I hid fake flags all over Camp to distract them."
Katie nods, glancing at Travis. "Smart."
"None near our real flag, right?" Beckendorf asks.
Connor and Travis shrug in sync.
"What do you mean by," Beckendorf mocks their shrugging.
"We hid so many fake flags that we don't even remember where the real one was," Travis explains, "but that's okay because you guys know where it is."
Silence.
"Right?" Connor asks, his voice squeaking on that one syllable. Their silence was an answer enough but he didn't want to believe it.
Continued silence.
"Ah, Styx," Percy curses, putting Riptide down. "Who hid the flag the first time?"
"You did," Katie responds.
"And whose decision was that?"
"Yours."
"Who let that happen?"
"You because you're the team captain."
Percy clears his throat. " … right, um, okay, new plan."
-o-
"If only any of my sisters knew how to charm-speak," Silena says to the other cabin leaders on her team minus Annabeth who was still MIA since she went rogue during Percy's Unnamed Team's ambush.
Clarisse leans against a tree, readjusting her shield strapped on her forearms. Beside her, Michael Yew quickly tends to a wound on Silena's calf as she chews on some ambrosia. It was always an advantage to have Apollo's cabin on their team, regardless of the game.
"We could easily get the flag," Silena continues as she passes the rest of her ambrosia to Clarisse to heal whatever bruises or cuts she may have. "Though I'm still persuasive if I bat my lashes as I talk."
Before Will or Clarisse could laugh, oncoming rusting coming towards them makes them grip their weapons and jump back on their feet. To their relief, it's only Annabeth who's completely drenched. Once she sees the rest of her team's cabin leaders, she takes a seat on the rock and takes a bite of the ambrosia despite not really needing it.
"Now's not the time to go swimming, Owl Head," Clarisse jokes, "unless Jackson hid the flag in the lake."
"They trapped me but I learned something useful," Annabeth says.
"What?" Silena asks.
"They planted many ruse flags to distract us but then they forgot which is the real flag."
Silena pauses, waiting for a punch line that never comes, as do Michael Yew and Clarisse. " … you're kidding."
"She can't make that stuff up," Clarisse states, "Jackson and the Stolls are there."
Silena nods, smiling. "So this changes everything. We'll need a new plan."
"We don't," Michael says, getting the girls' attention, "we could just wait it out and continue playing normally."
Clarisse raises a brow. She didn't like being told to wait and play normally. "Excuse me?"
"Think about it. They'll be looking for their flags. Not ours."
Annabeth nods, getting excited about this turn of events. "And they don't know which flag is their actual flag so they'll lead us right to it."
"They're literally capturing their own flags!" Silena exclaims.
Clarisse laughs loudly. "Let's get the morons!"
-o-
Percy's Unnamed Team hasn't been tracking time or how many fake flags they found, but they only knew it wasn't their real one because Percy's gut feeling said so. Whether it was questionable wasn't up for debate because if they find all their planted flags, then one of them has to be the real one. As long as their godly siblings don't catch up on the fake flag ruse and Quadruple A doesn't find any, they'll be in the clear.
To cover more ground, they split up for a bit.
Katie and Travis run onto the main grounds of Camp where the cabins and most facilities like The Big House are located. Since the game was still going, it was empty since the woods are where most of the battle and searching happen. The only camper on-site was Pollux, who was technically on their team but never really played the games with them despite the rule of all uninjured campers needing to participate.
He's sitting on the porch of his cabin, drinking a concoction of Kool-Aid mixed with Diet Coke as Katie and Travis climb the stairs.
"So, how's the game going?" Pollux asks, offering them some of his drink.
"You could help," Katie says.
Pollux offers a chilled can of Diet Coke.
"Seriously?" Travis asks as he takes it, ignoring Katie smacking his arm.
Pollux hands them a flag which they didn't expect.
"Is this the real one?" Katie asks, shoving it in her pocket.
"I don't know anymore," Travis whispers. "Probably not."
Katie grabs his hand as she stands. "We have to get out of here before the other team sees us."
She turns around and sees a brigade of Athena kids ready to attack them. All their blond heads blur together as they charge. Travis and Katie mutter strategies to each other as Pollux groans that his peaceful moment was ruined. They start firing little balls at them which Katie, Pollux, and Travis later learn are olives upon impact.
"They're really coming after me with a plant-based object?" Katie asks rhetorically.
Pollux eats an olive he caught as he stretches an arm out towards his cabin's vineyard and Demeter's gardens (shared land, more or less). He makes a fist and throws it towards the Athena army. Vines shoot from the ground, twisting around each kid who doesn't dodge or slice in time.
"How's that for help?" Pollux sasses.
"It's a start," Katie responds.
Copying his move, with one hand, Katie grabs more vines and shoots them out towards Athena's kids. With her Demeter-given advantage, she extends the stalks of the asparagus, Swiss chard, rhubarb, and fennel to add to their bounds. She and her godly siblings can fix the gardens later. With her other hand, she picks up a handful of olives, controlling the other ones scattered on the ground around them and throws them back at top speed. She probably broke half the rules but at least Chiron wasn't here to see it.
"Not so much a peace offering anymore," Pollux mutters as he goes back to his relaxing.
"Wow," Travis says once Katie lowers her arms, "um, we should go."
"Right," Katie states.
-o-
Once Athena's brigade cleared out of their vine and vegetable dilemma, Pollux ended up contributing more by giving his team an all-clear Iris message to let them come here, especially since he spotted a fake flag hanging off the corner of the Big House's rain gutter. Given that the Athena kids were just attacked, they shouldn't expect any of Quadruple A's team members to show up any time soon. Besides, they regrouped to search the area for more of their fake flags since Percy's gut said none were here.
Beckendorf cups his hands to give Connor a boost to get the fake flag on the Big House. The others stand around them, keeping watch for Quadruple A, except Pollux who continues sipping his questionable beverage.
"Gods, I hope nobody sees us," Miranda says, watching Beckendorf try to balance Connor like a seal on a ball. They keep teetering back and forth but not falling. "This is embarrassing."
"Quadruple A's probably busy battling our siblings," Katie guesses.
"Thank the gods our mom had a lot of kids."
"Ew," Travis states, "Demeter pollinating." He shudders.
Katie rolls her eyes. "Your cabin isn't empty either."
"It's not like they're all my siblings!"
"Gods, you talk loud," Beckendorf mutters, straining against his balance while lifting Connor.
Connor grabs the flag and notices Annabeth, Clarisse, Silena, and Michael Yew exiting the foliage and back onto Camp with his height boost. "We need to run."
Beckendorf drops Connor who shoves the fake flag in his pants to hide it.
"Quick, we need a distraction!" Travis yells.
Pollux hands Percy a chilled can of Diet Coke.
"We said distraction, not a commercial," Miranda says.
"Wait…" Percy mutters as he looks at the dripping can in his hand. "I got an idea. Take two cans each."
Everyone obeys, stealing from Pollux's endless supply. They look at Percy as they wait his orders, grateful that Quadruple A's cabin counsellors haven't spotted them yet.
"On my mark," Percy states. Once Quadruple A reaches the campfire at the centre, Percy raises his arms. "Fire!"
The cans go airborne, grabbing their attention. Before they could react, Percy opens his hands and reaches for the water in them - the condensation outside the can and the water content from the drink itself. The cans burst open as Percy shoots the water fusion at them like a hose on high blast. It's a prank he's played on Mr. D countless times.
"Go!" Percy yells at his teammates, telling them to run ahead of him.
"Not again!" Annabeth screams after choking on Diet Coke. This was definitely worse than the earlier tidal wave.
"Oh…" Percy mutters, keeping his laugh to himself as he holds his power. "She'll so kill me later."
-o-
After running all over Camp, Percy's Unnamed Team found all their fake flags. They thought they'd be relieved since all the dupes were gone, but that means their real flag is still out there and they can't guard it without a location. For all they know, they've been running laps around it the whole time.
"We're so screwed," Connor states, kicking a rock in early defeat.
"Maybe one of our godly siblings found Quadruple A's flag," Travis suggests.
"An Apollo kid probably beat them up with a guitar before they could get to it."
"Chiron would've also called it," Beckendorf states.
"If he knows," Silena says.
Percy's Unnamed Team turns around in shock upon hearing Silena's voice. Raising their weapons, they turn around and see Silena, Annabeth, Michael Yew, and Clarisse dripping wet as if they were all victims to Percy's tidal wave. For a moment, they think it was from the Diet Coke explosion, but they were stained with the drink.
"Lost something?" Annabeth asks teasingly, holding Percy's flag that's also drenched and dripping.
"Where was it?" Miranda asks, tired of searching for her team's own flag.
"Clarisse was unintentionally right," Annabeth states proudly, looking at Percy. "You hid your flag in the lake, right underneath the pier."
Percy's mind clicks. "Oh, now I remember! I didn't think of the lake since I didn't get wet."
"Of course you didn't!" Beckendorf exclaims, smacking the back of Percy's head.
"Losers!" Clarisse yells as her team does their victory lap back to Camp.
"Well then…" Percy mutters.
"You're never gonna be team captain again," Beckendorf states.
"Yeah, I doubt anyone will let me anymore."
To be honest, I winged this chapter as I was writing it and we ended up with miscommunication in flags, exploding Diet Coke cans, Pollux being awesome, and a little Tratie. This is definitely one of my favourite chapters to date.
So there wasn't a lot of combat in this version of Capture the Flag but I loved the strategic chaos. This chapter also gave me THG vibes when the main characters would team up against each other.
Here's to an upcoming year for this story.