Side by Side: A Percabeth story [ON HOLD]

1 - Capture the Flag

   "Wait up, Seaweed Brain!" I called as my best friend, Percy Jackson, raced ahead of me. We were playing capture the flag, and Percy and I were on the same team.

   I finally caught up with him as he found Ares' base. We were crouching in the bushes and waiting for a moment when the demigods on patrol wouldn't notice us.

   "Clarisse has done a good job stationing enough campers on base," Percy observed regretfully.

   "Well, so have we!" I panted, still trying to catch my breath. We'd run all the way from the Athena base, so we'd have time to get the Ares flag, and I was not a long distance runner.

   Athena's flag was positioned at Zeus's Fist, on the other side of the pile, where the Labyrinth tunnel entrance used to be. It had closed up by now, and the mark of Daedalus was gone, mostly because Daedalus' life force had been tied to the Labyrinth, and he was gone. The Labyrinth had essentially died as well.

   Ares' flag, however, was on the other side of the creek, deep into the woods. It was in a tree -- an easily climbable tree, thank goodness -- and there were at least five Ares campers patrolling the enormous oak. It was going to be quite tricky to actually capture the flag. We needed backup.

  "I see the Stoll twins!" I exclaimed as I spotted the sneaky pair. I'd assigned them to be distractions, and they were not doing that job very well right now. "They were supposed to distract the Ares guards! Percy, can you get them to do that right now, and point me out, too?"

   "Sure!" Percy agreed, then got up and stealthily crept over to the other demigods. I saw him whispering a couple things, moving his hands frequently. It looked like he wanted them to go around to the other side of the tree . . . so the Stoll twins could see us through the branches. Now why didn't I think of that?

   Eventually, Percy motioned in my direction. I gave a tiny wave and smiled faintly, and the twins waved back. They were about to move off to the other side of the base oak when I realized they wouldn't catch the attention of all five guards -- maybe only one or two. I had to fix this. Motioning to Percy to wait, I slipped through the trees and tapped the shoulders of the distractions.

   "Pretend something really bad has happened," I advised. "Maybe Chiron is in serious trouble. Maybe Ares has come down from Olympus, and he has something for all his demigod children. I don't know! Something that would catch the guards' attention -- all of the guards. Then we'll steal their flag while they're away, and win!"

   Travis grinned. "Can we tell them there's a supply of weapons down at the Hermes cabin, and then they'll turn out to be pocketknives?"

   Connor shook his head. "Blood-colored ice cream!"

   "No, pocketknives!"

   "Ice cream!"

   While they were arguing, Percy and I crept back to our hiding spot. We whistled to get the twins' attention, and then motioned to the other side, like Go!

   Connor started through the trees. When he reached an Ares camper, he tapped them on the shoulder. "Hey, whatever-your-name-is!" The camper turned, furious, but when he saw Connor's distressed expression, he stopped reaching for his dagger and looked confused. Then Connor started sniffling, and tears began to drip from his eyes. "Clarisse . . . it's Clarisse . . . brave Ares camper . . . at the creek side . . ."

   "Oh, no! Clarisse, I'm coming for you!" The guard bolted in the general direction of the creek.

   Connor grinned at us, faintly, but enough to know the camper wouldn't be coming back for a while. Then Travis appeared, and the pair began working their dramatic magic on all the guards at the base. Soon, there was only one left. Travis started mumbling and crying, and in no time the camper was racing as fast as her feet would carry her toward the creek. Connor and Travis gave us both high-fives, and we bolted up that tree. Well, I bolted, and Percy fumbled.

   I grabbed the banner and jumped down from the tree, which was not easy considering I was ten or fifteen feet off the ground. But I managed, with a small bit of foot pain, and took off in the direction the Ares campers had gone -- toward the creek side, Percy right behind me.

   "Percy, take this and jump in! You're going to sense the water better than I will." I thrust the flag at my best friend, and amazingly enough, he caught it. Somehow, he found a burst of speed and flat-out sprinted toward the creek. I glimpsed Clarisse with Athena's banner deeper into the woods, but she was too slow. Percy cannonballed into the stream and gave everyone within a ten-foot radius a nice wet soaking.

   When he got out, I hugged him, which was easier than I thought it would be, since now we were both dripping. He pulled away eventually, laughing. "Now I'm not the only Seaweed Brain, I guess," he observed innocently. I kneed him in the thigh and he crouched down, whimpering, "Ow," and laughing at the same time. It was actually kind of funny to watch.

   Chiron stalked up to us, his horse leg mostly recovered. "Congratulations, Percy and Annabeth," he announced, smiling and patting us on the back. "Athena is the winner!"

   All the cabins that had sided with Athena cheered: Apollo, Hermes, Hephaestus, and of course Poseidon. All the other cabins grumbled and reluctantly shook our hands, mumbling, "Good game." Of course, it sounded more like "Gugame," but it was good enough for us.

   With the sweet taste of victory fresh in our mouths, we headed back to our cabins. Percy and I parted ways with a "Good job!" and a smile.