ATYCHIPHOBIA¹ | p.jackson

FOUR.

NICASIA followed the path to the south woods, next to annabeth. the two of them were going over the plan before they were interrupted. nicasia looked over to see who exactly had interrupted them and saw percy jackson.

"hey" he said to annabeth. the blonde ignored him and kept walking. the boy obviously couldn't take a hint and see that she was not in the mood for talking. "got any magic items you can loan me?" he tried again.

annabeth sighed before answering. "just watch out for clarisse's spear, you don't want that thing touching you. otherwise, don't worry. you're with nicasia today, you should be fine." nicasia's head shot up at that. she made eye contact with annabeth, silently asking what the hell? annabeth just looked away.

the blue team split up and went to their respective positions, leaving nicasia and percy alone. "you're the one that helped me that night. -with fighting the minotaur i mean." nicasia looked to him and nodded. she realized that he looked a way different than he did that night. his skin had been pale compared to his now tan skin, his jet black hair was wavy now that it was dry, and his eyes were a vibrant sea green color. overall he looked better than he did that night.

"keep it moving toilet-boy. we need to get to our spot before the red team starts heading for our flag."

"toilet-boy?" percy asked as the two of them continued walking to their position. "you did make the toilets explode didn't you?" she asked. percy nodded and stayed quiet. they stopped walking once they got to their position.

they had the most challenging spot, a few meters from the flag. "look, you're only with me so i can make sure you don't mess this up for us and make us lose. and really, this should be fairly easy for you, considering i do all of the work. I don't care what you do, as long as it doesn't make us lose and you stay out of my way so that i can make sure we win. stay out of my way and you should be just fine. got it?" he nodded and stayed quiet for a while. she knew she was being a little bit harsh, but capture the flag was no joke. losing was big deal to everyone, especially herself and her siblings.

"why don't you have armor? or a weapon?" he suddenly asked, confused. "i do. i just don't need it yet." she said, rolling her eyes as they kept walking. she heard the sound of swords clashing a little bit away from them. they were starting earlier that usual today.

she looked at him. "and now i do." she said as she grabbed the green LA dodgers hat out of her pocket. she put her hat on top of her head. the second the hat was completely on her head, a half set of armor formed on her body. a golden chestplate, two golden shoulder armor pieces, two golden arm guards, and a gold helmet with a blue plume were now a part of her outfit. she reached up and touched the laurel wreath engraving on the front of her helmet, and the helmet disappeared. she then grabbed the old war medal from her pocket and tossed it into the air before catching it. her spear formed in her hand as she lightly banged the dull end onto the ground. she looked up to see a very confused and surprised percy.

"what!? -i mean how!? how did that hat just turn into armor?" he asked her. nicasia let out a laugh.

"the hat... i don't really know. it kinda just happens because it's magic." she explained. percy opened his mouth to say something, but was stopped when nicasia suddenly held her finger up to her mouth in a shhh motion.

nicasia readied her spear as she crept forward. in front of them, two kids on the red team were walking several feet ahead of them. the sound of something hitting the ground behind her caught all of their attention. nicasia turned around and saw the thing that had hit the ground. percy. percy had tripped and fell onto the floor. the two kids in front of them had turned around and nicasia recognized one of them immediately.