~The Beginning of Life~

~ Chapter 38 ; Capture the Flag ~

Date: July 1
Time: 7pm, Time to Die.
Place: Near the Forests

Normally, when there's a Capture the Flag game, I stay away.
This time however, Ash wanted to fight so I joined too. I wonder why...

They've just finished the groups.
Hades, Ares, and Nemesis are the leading ones on one team.
Athena, Poseidon, and Hermes on the other.

I think I'm missing something...
Oh
Oh shit
Nico
Is against me
With a weapon.

And he's still sleepless.

I swallow and edge closer to Ash.
Not good.

Irina, a girl with purple and black hair, one of the Sleepy Sixteen, turns around. Her red eyes don't seem so freaky now.
"You scared?"

"Not really. It's just that someone who wants me dead is on the other team," I say indifferently.

"Nico?" She guesses. "Red button, eh?"

"You too?"

"Yeah. Jason."

"Ah." I have no idea how we're having this broken conversation...

"Nico normally doesn't play."

"Neither do I. Well, just my luck."

Ash turns to me. "Oh, I think the effects wore off." She pokes my arm again, like when we first met.

"Ash," I say seriously. "I don't think that works."

Right then, a javelin shoots past my ear.

Ash raises an eyebrow at me. "Really?"

"Hey, if I had good luck, that javelin wouldn't have even come near me!"

Ash rolls her eyes. "Just take it like a man."

I frown at her.

Annabeth calls us over.
"Alright, I've explained the plan to everyone else, your main job is to keep to the trees and cause distractions."

I nod.
Yeah, because that's totally safe.
Annabeth walks off.

Chiron sounds the horn and Ash and I run for the trees.

I weave through the thin trunks with my daggers in hand. Occasionally, I throw them out towards the knees of other campers. They all return in a few moments, so I'm running on infinite daggers. Which get bloodied every second, but details aside...

After a while, I run across an entire set of arrows on the ground, which someone evidently dropped. I pick them up to find the arrows are colour coded.
I shoot out a red one, since I know red means bad-for-people-other-than-yourself (though according to one specific red button, it's isn't) and it breaks into small mines.

Thankfully, they didn't blow up people's feet. No, that'd be too violent. Instead, they release hot smoke which definitely distracts the opposers.

I then shoot a green one. It releases stunning gas. Not stunning as in pretty, stunning as in ew-that-smells-let-me-gag-for-a-moment.
I keep experimenting, not paying attention to who I'm shooting because I know I'm aiming at the right people. I just know. Shut up. My teammates are fine. Hush.
There's a blue arrow that shoots a wall of steam. A grey one that releases a bunch of dark smoke. And then there's a yellow one that shoots blinding rays of light. None too harmful.

I chuckle and before I can shoot another one, all the campers outside vanish and Ash stops me.

"Were at their base," she whispers. "There's the flag."

Sure enough, there's a blue flag in a small clearing. That was easy.

I squint and scan the trees around it.
"There's no one nearby," I whisper back.

Ash's huge purple eyes to bigger. "Should we take it?"

I nod. "Cover me."

I step outside, pulling out my plain old sword. Suddenly, something jumps at me, knocking me down and I instantly lose the pathetic, useless bronze stick.
Swords suck. I should've gotten a shield.