Struck by Lightning

II

The blue team's flag weakly fluttered in the breeze, still standing, as it was, on Zeus's Fist.

Still, it was moving more than Percy was. Some game of capture the flag this was.

Percy threw another rock against a tree, his third in a single minute. Beside him, Nico, Beckendorf, and the Stoll brothers looked varying shades of bored, just as he did. Thalia, his co-captain – though, in reality, she acted more like she was the only captain, having sidelined him as she did – was off somewhere in the forest with the main force, trying to track down where the Hunters had placed their flag. Elsewhere, Silena's smaller scout force was also in the forest, running interference for Thalia's group and trying to throw the Hunters off of Percy's defensive squad.

A rustle came from the forest to their left. All five heads snapped to it immediately. Through the clearing of the woods, Percy could see a glimpse of Silena and her two scouts running through the forest as they were being chased by the Hunters. Five, by his count.

Percy felt a little smile creep onto his face. That meant that Thalia's plan was working. They were drawing the Hunters' attention and splitting their forces. His smile dropped as he noticed another group of Hunters, a little way into the forest on their right, setting up a fortified position with bows at the ready. Not good.

But if five Hunters were chasing after Silena's group, and another group of Hunters were positioned to defend against Thalia, that meant... the flag itself was relatively undefended. Percy nodded to himself. There was a real opportunity here.

"Can you guys defend the flag?"

Beckendorf snorted as the Stolls nodded. "Yeah," came a chorus of voices.

"Stay here, Nico," Percy quickly said, rushing off toward the boundary line without waiting for a reply. Leaping over the creek that demarcated each group's territory, Percy felt the wave of adrenaline rush over him, invigorating his muscles and letting him run even faster. He could see it! A silvery, silky flag that waved in the breeze, and with only one guard!

The guard turned, hearing the sound of Percy's footsteps, but he crashed into her, causing her to yelp as she fell to the ground. Her hood fell off, revealing that it was Bianca.

"Sorry," Percy yelled behind him, grabbing the flag as he did so. Without sparing a glance back, he took off into the woods.

Behind him, he could hear Bianca yelling for help, but a grin still spread on his face. He was virtually homefre-

Percy tripped on a wire and found his face in the mud.

"Percy?" Thalia's voice floated beside him. "What are you doing here?" Her voice took on a hint of incredulity.

An arrow whizzed past them, sticking itself into a nearby tree before bursting into a puff of yellow smoke. It covered Thalia and her group, causing a cacophony of coughs to emit from the nauseous cloud's area.

"No fair!" Thalia said from inside the smoke, coughing as she did so.

Ignoring the cries of his teammates, Percy gathered himself to his feet and grabbed the flag as he ran off again. The creek was right there! In the distance, he could see Beckendorf and Nico running toward him. He couldn't fathom why they had left the flag to greet him, but then he saw Zoë Nightshade, Lieutenant of Artemis and leader of the Hunters' team, weaving through campers like nobody's business while carrying their flag.

"No!" Percy yelled, drawing his sword. A Hunter tried to stop him by swinging her dagger, but he parried and knocked her to the ground as he continued forward. He was only a mere two steps away from the creek when Zoë leaped over it. She slammed into Percy as she did so, knocking him to the ground and the Hunters' flag out of his hands.