[David's Pov]

Trouble never comes out of nowhere.

Whenever tragedy strikes, there will always be breadcrumbs foreshadowing the catastrophe beforehand.

You just don't realize it until it hits you in the face.

"You sure you can manage with that?" Marcus asked as we trudged through the woods.

I fingered the leftover sword strapped to my waist.

Ever since the Olympian council confiscated my sword, I had no weapon to call my own.

I tried out a couple of remaining weapons, but none of them were in good shape. More importantly, none of them felt balanced in my hand.

"I'm positive," I said, "Besides, Percy isn't around, so what's the worst that can happen?"

Marcus snorted, "Don't hold me back if a bunch of Owl-head jumps on us. We're not letting them keep the flag thrice in a row!"

It was hardly a secret that we, the Ares Cabin, had a losing streak against Athena Cabin. It was one of the billion reasons why we had a constant rivalry between us.

As I excelled at our last Capture the Flag against the hunters, the whole Red Team had high hopes on my shoulders.

This time, our job was to distract the guards around the flag so that the Stoll Brothers—the quickest feet in the whole camp—could snatch the banner and make a getaway.

We kept on walking through the woods. Soon enough, through the thick leaves, we saw the Blue flag propped on a pile of white rocks.

Two guards were just outside the 10 feet radius, but only one of them seemed to be interested in guarding.

Thalia looked ten times more intimidating in a complete set of greek armor, with her Aegis and spear held in each hand.

Marcus scowled, "You've got to be kidding me."

"Yeah, Thalia is going to be a problem—"

"I'm not scared of that Zeus girl," He growled, almost too loudly, that he blew our cover.

I frowned, puzzled. The other guard was sitting with her back against a tree, a thick book in her hands.

I'd bet Skaw that she was one of Athena's Campers. I didn't like judging people by a stereotype, but nobody wanted to read as much as them.

"She doesn't look like a threat," I commented.

The supposed Athena camper was thoroughly unarmed. The only defense I could spot was the 2 feet long Short Sword propped to the ground beside her.

Marcus looked like a pair of invisible hands were suffocating him. His hands waved around in the air for a moment, but he finally gave up with a sigh.

"Whatever. Let's just take down the punk," he pointed out to Thalia.

"What about the other guard?" I asked.

Marcus scowled and pulled his helmet down, "Well, you said she wasn't a threat."

"Yeah, but since when did you pass an opportunity to squash an Athena Camper?"

Marcus opened his mouth furiously to retort, but our short argument was cut short by a throwing knife whizzing between our faces.

"Yaa!!"

I turned just in time to see the sculptured face of Medusa flying into my face.

Knowing that Aegis caused fear to whoever looked at it didn't do me any good in preparing for the real deal.

My legs seized up in fear. When my brain asked, Wait, maybe we should move? It was already too late.

WHAM!

Stars sprinkled before my eyes as the metal plate smashed my nose. I flew back two or three feet and landed in a clump of rose bushes.

As I tried to untangle myself from the thorns, shaking off the dizziness ringing in my ears, Thalia and Marcus were locked in combat.

One can say many negative things about Marcus; He is violent, stubborn, uncaring, etc...

But one thing that anyone can't say about him is that he is terrible at combat.

Marcus ducked under the jabbing spear and stepped in range. Thalia tried to brandish her shield, but Marcus swung his shield and knocked it aside.

"What's the matter? Can't fight without your daddy's shield?" He boasted.

That rubbed Thalia the wrong way. Within the first week of the New Year, everyone in the Camp learned not to mention the Lord of the Sky in Thalia's presence.

She cast the replica of Aegis aside and swung the spear around.

Marcus deflected it off his armor and pushed her back with his shield. Thalia staggered back, and he stepped forward with a victorious cackle.

"Wait!"

Marcus flinched. A sword came swinging from the side. He sided-stepped it easily.

The Athena guard tried to slash at his helm, but her movement was too sloppy. Marcus dodged it, and the girl slipped on a wet rock.

"Whoa—"

"Hey!"

In a split moment, Marcus threw aside his gears and caught the Athena Camper before she fell flat onto the ground.

For a moment, all four of us stood dumbfounded by the situation. None of us could comprehend what had happened, and Marcus looked more confused than the rest of us combined.

Still, he helped the girl in her arms stand up properly. The Athena camper fidgeted nervously, suddenly taking a huge interest in her feet.

"I, um...Thanks," She mumbled.

Marcus grunted. I wasn't sure if he would say "You're welcome" or scowl like he usually did.

Then, I saw Thalia barreling forward from the back like a bulldozer.

"Marcus, watch out!"

"Sophia, step back!"

The Athena Camper—Sophia, startled and quickly withdrew. However, Marcus reacted to my warning a note too late.

Thalia's spear slammed into the side of his helmet.

A burst of electric charge exploded, and Marcus flew through the opposite side of the woods and splashed into a nearby pond.

That was when I managed to untangle myself from the vines; a bit too late, I know, but it was better late than never.

I drew the sword from the waist and leaped into action. Thalia pushed back her fellow guard, still distracted by Marcus, and got ready to intercept my swing.

That was when things got wrong.

Well, more wrong than it already had.

In mid-swing, the sword suddenly felt like it had grown ten times harder. The balance wasn't correct.

And this was the worst moment to be reminded of that.

The saving grace was that Thalia was surprised as I was when my sword slipped out of my hand during a slash.

I quickly changed the tactic and dove under the spear and tackled the daughter of Zeus straight down to the muddy ground.

We wrestled on the dirt for a few high-paced seconds until someone grabbed the back of my armor.

Thalia thrust me aside, ripping the armor strap during the process. I rolled back into a safe landing and got back up right away.

"What's the matter?" Thalia huffed, "You weren't this sloppy when fighting Atlas!"

I didn't know why she would bring that up at this moment, but she looked pumped to engage in combat.

Just a few feet to her right, I saw the Stoll Brothers inching to the flag. I couldn't tell them apart, but one of them gave me a thumbs up and silently mouthed, "Keep distracting her."

I stretched my neck a few times and nodded. There were worse ways to risk your life.

"Yeah, well, you'll have to draw that out of me if you want to," I taunted Thalia.

Thalia snarled to the point where she reminded me of Clarisse.

She thrust her spear, crackling like a bolt of lightning. I stripped off the leg armor and rolled under the sailing spear.

Much like most opponents during my quest, Thalia was bigger and stronger than I was.

Seriously, the child of the Big Three was built differently. This meant for me to match in combat with her, I needed to bring in skill.

For all of her powerful strikes and hands-on experiences, professional training was the one thing she lacked.

I ducked low, feinting for a similar tackle from before. I saw Thalia's shadow hunch over, possibly to try and catch me before I slammed into her leg.

Before she could grab me, I looked up and aimed at a swift uppercut to her chin. It caught her off guard, but Thalia was still a veteran by every means.

Even though her eyes widened in surprise, her body instinctively swerved around the shot, and she stepped forward with a hook of her own.

I ducked under it, grabbed the arm, and flipped her over my head. Thalia landed on her back with a satisfying thump!

I quickly turned to Sophia, who had been standing idly, astounded by the combat that had been taking place.

She squeaked and backed away, but before I could try to push her down or something, Thalia grabbed my waist from behind.

With a short, hardy yell, she threw me to the ground with a surprisingly well-choreographed suplex.

As I tried to shake off the daze and not throw up what I had eaten for the past three days, I heard Sophia shout.

"Thalia, the flag!"

"Huh?"

I looked up just in time to see half a dozen chocolate eggs fly over my head. The girls screamed and yelped as the eggs burst open over their heads, coating them with spoiled egg innards.

"Come on, man! This is no place to die!" Connor said, laughing like a maniac as he helped me up.

I could tell that this was Connor because he was the one who constantly quoted movies.

"W, wait, Marcus is over there—" I pointed to the woods behind the two girls gagging from the horrid stench as they tried to rub the sticky substance out of their eyes.

"Dude, we don't have time. And I'm sure he'd be more mad if we lose the flag," Travis pointed out.

He had a point, so I nodded. The three of us hurriedly ran away as Thalia blustered bloody curses at our back.

The Stoll Brothers seemed more thrilled that they threw rotten eggs at Thalia than retrieving the flag.

"This is going to be one of our best pranks ever!" Travis snickered.

"It's right up there with the golden mango!" Connor gleefully added.

I wanted to ask what the golden mango prank was, but before I could utter a word, something cracked overhead.

We all skidded to a halt. The Stoll twins suddenly looked scared rather than victorious as we looked around, searching for the daughter of Zeus to come out seeking vengeance.

But then, a different sort of crackling came from above.

We looked up, and a huge portion of the tree was falling on top of us.

"What the—"

"Run!"

Travis and Connor tried to scramble away, but it was too late. All three of us were caught under the bushy leaves of the tree branch.

From behind the bushes, a duet of voices came closer.

"See? I told you they would get caught here. Now you owe me ten drachmas, Kaite."

"Don't rub it in my face, will you?"

Annabeth Chase and Katie Gardner, the counselor of the Demeter Cabin, appeared from the clumps of shrubs.

Kaite scowled down at the Stoll twins, especially Travis, who was grinning widely.

"You bet against us getting captured?" He asked smugly.

"A lot of good that did me," Katie shot back, handing a proud-looking Annabeth a small sack of coins.

She flashed the most innocently bright smile I'll probably get from her as I struggled to push away the branches poking at my nostrils.

"The nymph isn't going to be happy that you cut off her tree," I pointed out, but I immediately regretted talking as a branch nearly shoved itself down my throat.

"Yeah. About that," Annabeth casually picked up the Blur flag, "I asked this specific dryad if we could give her a haircut. She was always uncomforted by how her tree turned out."

She pointed to the side, where a nymph giggled at us while waving her new bob hair.

"Isn't that against the rules or something?" Connor groaned from somewhere around my left foot.

"Not quite," Kaite retorted as she confiscated the Stoll Brother's weapons. "The entire forest counts as fai games, remember?"

"Hey, Kate's. I can see under your armor here—"

Katie let out a frustrated grunt and kicked something. Travis let out a yelp and became silent.

"It's actually. The entire forest is considered fair game, but that's a general idea," Annabeth said with a grin, "Nymphs are, in fact, part of the forest."

"But how did you know we would take this path?" Connor demanded.

Annabeth shrugged, "Basic human psychology and game theory. It's more simple than you'd think."

A few minutes later, Thalia came up, informing us that Marcus was also captured and was being watched over by Sophia.

She was more than happy to find all of us struggling under a tree branch.

"As hilarious as it would be, we can't keep them here," Annabeth said.

When Thalia tried to complain, she reminded her that prisoners weren't supposed to be bound or gagged, and the tree branch over us technically counted as binding.

"Besides, we have the flag. Now, all we have to do is wait for the victory horn."

So, we were pulled out from under the branch and unceremoniously marched back to where the blue flag was kept.

There, the four of us(including Marcus) sat around in circles in a makeshift jail, being watched by our captors.

Connor was grumpy the whole time, trying to cut off Travis as the latter attempted to converse with Kaite. She ignored him for a long time before finally giving up and engaging.

Marcus was showcasing a surprising lack of grumbling or shouting, blaming us for our loss.

Instead, he was quietly gazing at Sophia reading her book. Or at least until he realized I was staring at him.

"What's so special about her?" I asked.

"Shut up," He growled and pushed me away.

Needless to say, we lost the game.

And that day, I made up my mind:

I needed to get a new weapon.


And that's the first chapter of the first story!

It's more of an introduction story-wise, but I had a blast writing the tid-bits of combat.

I originally intended it to be one chapter for a whole story, but it quickly proved that it would be too long to write or read.

So it will come out in parts. Don't worry; I'm already working on Part 2. It is a lot easier to pick up and write shorter chapters.

I think this story would go to 4, maybe 5, but I doubt it, and they'll be around a similar length, if not longer.

Review what you think! I've tried out many new kinds of stuff in both writing and characterizations, so any feedback is welcome.

I hope you all had a fun time reading,

And I'll see you all next chapter!

Ta ta~