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ᴡᴇ ᴄᴀᴘᴛᴜʀᴇ ᴀ ꜰʟᴀɢ (ᴘᴛ.2)

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"HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?" asked Ron in shock as Hermione and Harry nodded besides him.

It was big news to everyone except for the greeks and Ginny (but people didn't know about her yet.) 

While everyone was questioning the Weasley parents the eldest children couldn't help but think. Both Bill and Charlie might have been young when the twins were born but even they were old enough to understand what went on between their parents. 

The two of them looked at each as they remembered the one big  argument their parents had when George and Fred were born about the twins not looking enough like Arthur. Both of them vividly recalled the first time they saw the twins, they had seen the two children with sharp, upturned, elf-like features even for newborns before their looks completely changed after a few days. 

Could it be that Molly had cheated? That was the only explanation unless their parents had a threesome with a random stranger who just so happened to be a god.

Tuning back into their surroundings they saw a red faced Molly Weasley and an angry Arthur. They missed a lot but even over the chattering they could make out the gist of what their parents were arguing about.

"-REMOVE MY MEMORIES!? DID YOU TRULY THINK THAT I WOULD HAVE JUST ABANDONED THEM?!" Arthur shouted at his wife who now had tears down her face.

"I didn't want you to know about them being mistakes!" She cried back which seemed to anger him further.

"Do not call them mistakes because of your inability to remain loyal!" 

"THEY'RE NOT EVEN YOURS SO WHY DO YOU CARE!?"

"BECAUSE I RAISED THEM. Biological or not they're both MY children and i will not tolerate you speaking against them. Now keep quiet and we will continue at home after this is over."

As people started to look away from the dramatic scene in front of them, the screen turns on to show the movie

"Hey, nice to meet you!" I said, stretching my hand out for a handshake from both of them. 

"Good to see ya mate" one of them spoke, Fred, I think it was and his brother nodded at me with a smile. 

"You get to camp alright?" The former asked me and I replied, "i'm alive so i guess so." 

The two of them smirked at me and then turned to Astrea "I think we'll like this one Aster."

She rolled her eyes at them and said "bug off." Hearing such a British phrase in her American accent was funny. The conch horn was heard the distance and she looked at the three of us.

"Let's go, it's dinner time!"

★

That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.

At last, it was time for capture the flag. When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.

Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.

I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?"

"Yeah."

"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"

"Not always, sometimes Astrea does when she plays" he said. "But often."

"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do— repaint the flag?"

"No it just changes because ✨magic✨"

He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."

"Whose side are we on?"

He gave me a sly look, as if he knew something I didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight. "We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you are going to help."

The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins along with Poseidon which was just Astrea. Apparently, privileges had been traded—shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities—in order to win support. 

Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. 

From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive. 

Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped. 

The Cabin 10 children scoffed along with their mother.

Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem. That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.

Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble. 

"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!" 

He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.

"Whoa," I said. "We're really supposed to use these?"

Luke looked at me as if I were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here—Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol."

My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds. I could have snowboarded on it fine, but I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast. My helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.

Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"

"Blue!"

"Blue!"

"Blue!"

We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.

I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment. "Hey."

She kept marching.

"So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?"

Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I'd stolen something.

"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you your job?"

"Border patrol, whatever that means."

"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan."

"You nearly got me killed!" Percy cried out, remembering the moment as Annabeth looked at him apologetically before saying , "we won didn't we?" 

She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust.

"Okay," I mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team."

It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.

Standing there alone, with my big blue-feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt like an idiot. The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.

There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?

"Nope! They couldn't care less about their kids. That's why they're the suckiest parents ever to exist"

Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue-plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.

Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual.

"Well you don't anymore"

Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.

I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling some-thing was stalking me. Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.

On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.

"Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed.

"Clarisse!" Astrea sighed again as she looked at her best friend

Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard-issue bronze swords—not that that made me feel any better.

They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.

I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid the Minotaur. They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned.

Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric. I fell back.

Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt. They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.

"Give him a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab his hair."

I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.

"Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared."

"The flag is that way," I told her. I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way.

"Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid."

"I mean.... Priorities i guess?" said a 4th year Slytherin

"You do that without my help," I told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say. 

"No shit you dumbfuck"

Two of them came at me. I backed up toward the creek, tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armoured breastplate, I would've been shish-ke-babbed. As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabin mates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut.

Seeing my own blood made me dizzy—warm and cold at the same time.

"No maiming," I managed to say.

"Oops," the guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privileges.

All the gods and mortals looked towards Chiron who shrunk under all the gazes.

"No desserts!? That's a punishment for nearly killing a fellow camper!?" Sally scolded him

"I will see to it that uhm- more- effective measures are put in place" the centaur replied, slightly scared

"Hmph you better"

He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash. They all laughed.

I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. But then something happened. The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double-espresso jelly beans.

"They were mine not mom's you idiot!" Astrea screamed while hitting the back of Percy's head

Clarisse and her cabin mates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do.

 I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water.

Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.

"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse-breath worm!"

She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek.

"Clarisse, what have i taught you about fighting?" Astrea asked the girl who pouted and replied, "Never trash talk unless the enemy has been defeated because the hesitation gives them a chance to recover and attack."

"Exactly. And what did you do?"

"I trash-talked..."

"And what does that mean?"

"No Fizzing Whizzbees for a week..."

Then I heard yelling, elated screams, and I saw Astrea racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. She was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering her retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids.

 The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse. "A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."

They staggered after Aster, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as she ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to sea blue. The
boar and spear were replaced with a huge trident, the symbol of cabin three.

 Everybody on the blue team picked up Astrea and started carrying her around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.

The game was over. We'd won.

Cheers were heard around as people clapped for the blue teams win in the movie

I was about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to me in the creek, said, "Not bad, hero."

I looked, but she wasn't there.

"Where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialised, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.

"Woah Harry! It's like your cloak" said Ron Weasley and was hushed and glared at by Hermione and Harry, his friends.

I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up,"

I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me, while you sent Astrea around the flank. You had it all figured out."

Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."

"A plan to get me pulverized."

"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but ..." She shrugged. "You didn't need help."

"Everyone needs a little help Ana"

Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"

"Sword cut," I said. "What do you think?"

"No. It was a sword cut. Look at it."

The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared.

"I—I don't get it," I said.

"The water heals us~" Sang Astrea and Triton

"When did you even get here!?"

"Like 5 seconds ago" replied the merman-fish-person-thing.

Annabeth was thinking hard. I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy."

"What—"

"Just do it."

I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Annabeth steadied me.

"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want ... I assumed it would be Zeus... .so bad........Aster no." 

Percy, Astrea, Poseidon and Zeus all looked offended at that comment.

"Ewwww, its bad enough i'm related to the man-whore but to be his son? Nah dude. That same disgusting"

"Percy! The children!"

Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.

The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realise, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!"

Annabeth drew her sword.

There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava-red eyes and fangs like daggers.

It was looking straight at me.

"Who isn't looking at you!?" Nico let out with an exasperated sigh and threw his hands into the air

Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, run!"

She tried to step in front of me, but the hound was too fast. It leaped over her—an enormous shadow with teeth—and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armour, there was a cascade of thwacking sounds, like forty pieces of paper being ripped one after the other. From the hounds neck sprouted a cluster of arrows. The monster fell dead at my feet.

By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat.

Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.

"Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't ... they're not supposed to ..."

"Hades!" Thundered Poseidon, standing up and looking at his older brother

"It wasn't my doing Poseidon, and sit down!"

"You can't tell me what to do!"

"I am your older brother! I can and i will!"

"No you can't"

"Yes i can"

"No you can't"

"Yes i can"

"No you can't"

"Yes i ca-"

"ENOUGH BOTH OF YOU"

"Yes Hestia" "Sorry Hestia"

"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."

Luke came over, his hand left Astrea's which i didn't even notice he was holding.

Apollo glared at the Luke on screen

Clarisse yelled, "It's all Percy's fault! Percy summoned it!"

"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.

We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.

"You're wounded," Annabeth told me. "Quick, Percy, get in the water."

"I'm okay."

"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."

I was too tired to argue. I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me. Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped.

"Look, I—I don't know why," I said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry...."

But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head.

"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um ..."

By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.

"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good."

"It is determined," Chiron announced.

All around me, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.

"My father?" I asked, completely bewildered.

"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."

I looked at Aster to see a blank face. "Welcome to camp little brother." I heard Astrea say before she got up and rushed off somewhere.

"Oh hell nah"

"What the fuck man"

"There's one more!?"

"Too many Astrea's!"

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Sya Notes !

Percy has been claimeddd and it seems like Astrea is not happy. Let's see why 🤭

Anyways my boards (aka my final exams for now) have ended! So I decided to gift you all with an extra long chapter coz i'm happy <3

Stay safe and healthy! 

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