Yuri knew what her job was. Get in. Grab the flag. Get out. It was simple, really.

Except it wasn’t. Not really. No.

“Oh man,” Joy, a daughter of Hecate, breathed out through her teeth as she teetered nervously on the branch next to Yuri. They were dangerously perched atop a tree, spying on the beach where the Roman warships were surrounded by at least ten or so Romans.

Next to Joy, Sooyoung was as steady as a rock despite balancing on a branch that looked too thin to be able to hold her body weight. Yuri wasn’t surprised though. She knew the Hermes children were nimble people, both on the ground and up in the trees.

“This isn’t going to be easy,” Sooyoung tutted, eyes squinted into the distance. “Do we even know which ship it is?”

Yuri frowned as she observed the three imposing warships - golden, heavily armoured, and armed with cannons bigger than her person. They were all completely identical except for the middle one, which based on the extra decoration, was probably reserved for the higher officials.

Yuri dipped her gaze down to the Romans below and tried to analyze their positioning. They were spread out relatively even among the three warships, giving away no sign of which ship had the flag. Each ship had two archers and three swordsmen guarding it. Yuri sighed. They must’ve seen this coming.

“We’re going to go for the middle one,” Yuri randomly decided.

“Why?” Sooyoung inquired, shooting Yuri a questioning look.

“Because I said so,” Yuri shrugged her shoulders, not really having a solid reason for it. “It’s obviously the most important so we’re going there.”

Joy tilted her head and hummed a noise of indifferent consent. “Eh, why not?”

“Well I hope you picked correctly,” Sooyoung mumbled under her breath, eyeing the death machines in front of her. “Because we only have one real chance at this.”

Suddenly, in the distance, a Greek war horn sounded. The three demigods looked at each other with eyes wide of surprise and Yuri startled so suddenly she barely held herself up from falling off the tree.

“We captured a flag,” Sooyoung breathed out in astonishment.

“We’re leading???” Joy questioned, not believing their luck.

Yuri smirked at the two girls. “And we’re about to get another one. Now let’s go.” She turned around and faced the five other demigods in their team and nodded, giving them the signal to get ready to engage the enemy.

Nodding at Yuri’s words, Sooyoung dropped to the ground, catching herself on various branches on the way town so it was a smooth descent. In true Hermes fashion, she landed quietly on to the forest ground without a single scratch or sound and then peered up at them, telling them to hurry it up.

Yuri and Joy watched her drop before looking up and giving each other wry expressions. There was no way they were about to jump to their death. Instead, they shimmied down.

“Jeez, you guys are slow,” Sooyoung huffed looking way too proud of herself when they finally hit the ground. Her expression turned wry as they straightened out. “So, you ready not to get blown to bits?”

There was no way they were going to be able to sneak up on the Romans; they were in the middle of a wide open beach. Any assault on the ships was going to have to be a frontal one.

Yuri breathed in deeply, feeling her comrades gather themselves behind her. She knew that no matter what, no matter the odds. they had each other backs.

“Remember this moment,” Yuri stated quietly. “This feeling inside your chest? Let it carry you to victory.”

Next to her, Joy snorted at her pathetic speech.

Then, they ran in guns ablazing and screaming at the top of their lungs.

“FOR CAMP HALF-BLOOD!”

The Romans were on them in seconds. Yuri rushed to engage, even going as far as willing the tide of the ocean to pull inwards until they were all ankle deep in sea water. It helped in restraining their enemies a little so they weren’t too overwhelmed by their disadvantage in numbers.

As Yuri bashed a poor Roman boy on the head with the hilt of her sword, she saw Sooyoung climbing up the side of the middle Roman ship mostly unhindered. Joy was doing a good job taking care of herself by throwing fireballs at the three Romans that surrounded her. The other Greek demigods were all doing a good job holding their own. Things were going well, Yuri thought.

Until the ground beneath her suddenly exploded and the sky roared in anger, cracking with a ferocity that hurt her ears. She feared for a hot second, of having permanent hearing loss in both her ears.

At first Yuri thought it was the stubborn Jupiter born Roman girl’s doing until she looked up. No, in a way, this was worse than the brooding, reticent, slightly bratty, very electric Roman demigod.

“TAKE COVER!” Yuri shouted as the Romans retreated and the warships started to rain cannons upon them.

“THIS CAN’T POSSIBLY LEGAL!” Joy shouted with her hands raised. She had an almost transparent purple barrier surrounding her from the carnage around her. Yuri wasn’t too worried about her. Hecate kids were known to create the sturdiest shields with their magic. At least she hoped. “DIDN’T CHIRON TELL THEM ABOUT THE NO KILLING RULE? I’M TOO YOUNG AND PRETTY TO DIE!”

Yuri didn’t have time to answer. She ducked into a roll, narrowly avoiding a cannonball that was clearly aimed at her head. It exploded a few feet away, sending her stumbling away on impact, making her swallow a mouthful of sand as she face planted into the beach. These Romans were savage.

Amidst the buzzing sound in her ears. she picked up the sound of motors whirring to life. She stared at the ships in horror. They were going to take to the skies.

“WE HAVE TO STOP THEM!” Yuri yelled out, hoping the others could hear her.

Sooyoung was nowhere to be seen. Yuri could only hope that meant the girl was already safely on board and not buried in the sand under one of these imperial gold cannons. Yuri turned to find Joy only to see the girl already looking back at her. Yuri tried her best to convey her message through a desperate glance. By the nod, Joy gave her, the girl understood.

They had to get on the ship. The ship that was now three feet in the air and rising. Right. Yuri should probably do something about that.

Yuri trusted her instincts and pumped her legs as fast as she could, pushing aside any Romans that got in her way. Just as she jumped for the middle ship, she felt a force propelling her upwards (‘Thank you, Joy’)  until she was able to grasp onto a ledge on the side of the ship.

Twenty feet in the air and climbing, Yuri gulped and looked down. Joy and the others were still on the ground, sending her off with a silent salute as they were overcome with Roman demigods and taken prisoner. Yuri sent her fallen comrades a nod of reverence despite knowing that they couldn’t see her anymore. They had done her part. Now she had to do hers.

Taking a deep breath, because wow the air was getting thin fast, Yuri looked up. She had a long way to climb to get to the deck of the ship. She only hoped that no one would try to push her off. It was a rather long way down. Her fear of heights didn’t help either. With shaking hands, shaking fingers, and shaking legs, she scaled up the side of the ship.

When Yuri managed to finally peek her head over the bridge to look at the deck, she was greeted by five Roman demigods glaring her down with gazes so sharp she doubted they needed the weapons in their hands.

How welcoming. They were waiting for her.

She ducked her head instinctively, but knew that there was no way they didn’t see her. Meekly, she raised her head once more praying that somehow the Roman demigods disappeared. But alas, they were still there, and still glaring at her.

Tied up and tossed to the side was Sooyoung. Yuri shot her a subtle glare at being caught so easily. The girl could only offer a shrug in response.

“So much for being a stealthy Hermes kid,” Yuri bit out as her mind reminded her that she was still hanging on the side of an in-flight warship. Her legs went jelly all over again and she held on extra tight with her hands.

“They had their own Mercury kids,” Sooyoung stated nonchalantly like she didn’t care that she was completely at the mercy of their enemies or the fact that she just got beat up, if the black eye and bruised jaw was anything to go by. “They’re like my Roman siblings. Can’t really sneak around them.”

The smallest Roman, a girl with shoulder length hair and mischievous eyes, winked at her. Yuri had no doubt she was the Mercury child in question. Yuri held back a snort. The g