Mason's eyes might have grown a twinkle in them as a beast clamped down on Alex's shoulder, her screams of pain and squirming only egging the beast on. It was a show Mason couldn't tear his eyes from, and Alex in pain, why, he wouldn't miss it for the world even when her screams were likely to bring about attention. She hit at it persistently until it fled then she collapsed against the tree catching her breath and inspecting her glorious wound. Mason's fists clenched into hard balls then Ajax raced on scene.
"You son-of-a-bitch!" Ajax stormed up to Mason and shoved him in the chest. Mason stumbled back and his nostrils flared. "Don't you, EVER, hurt her again. I swear... I will rip your damn head off!" Ajax just volunteered. Mason growled and charged into the son of Zeus, tackling him to a tree. The two battled for control until Mason threw Ajax's weight down. That plus the bulging tree roots helped Ajax lose his footing. Mason got on top of Ajax and punched him in the face over and over with his dominant knuckle.
"Shouldn't have brought her to camp then you piece of shit." Mason smashed his knuckle against Ajax again. Each hit was like sending a message. For Hades, for Jenn, for Andy, for me.
Keith wanted to caution it could be someone playing on Ajax's need to help others and be this leader figure, but it wasn't Keith's place and it was no use because Ajax was stubborn and certain it was Alex's scream above all. But another part of him wanted to laugh at how typical it seemed, how easy he could be lured to trickery. He grabbed his temple as it was like the damn devil in his head and quickly made himself productive. He picked up the flag no one else thought to attempt hiding and pursed his lips.
Thinking of how to protect the base and where to hide the flag had him pacing, but the more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea of having it in plain sight. Misdirection. The word kept echoing in his head. He waved his hand across the woods so blue flags popped up a few feet from each other. The game was capture the flag, not a flag and Keith had to admit it was a fun technicality to argue. Plus, if stragglers got through the brawns of the blues, this little live where's wally edition could hold the Spartans up for a potential time. But maybe not long enough...maybe it wasn't defensive enough. Keith drew up a forcefield closer to the real flag but where decoys still resided. He really did need help but for now he just prepared and acknowledged the worse, treating the base like he was alone.