This Isn’t Ivy League || Brooks, Cat, Harper, and Marcus
Brooks and Harper attempt to go out for a nice afternoon of nature exploration and get more than they bargained for.
Brooks left camp pretty frequently. He liked to think that he was becoming very good at sneaking in and out of the camp unnoticed. It wasn’t uncommon for people to leave camp, Brooks had noticed that. The camp had still gone unraided by Roman soldiers which meant that the secret hadn’t gotten out yet. Today, as Brooks was heading toward the edges of camp he had run into Harper and invited her along. “I know some great spots with beautiful views.” Had been Brooks best selling point. That’s how the two found themselves wandering around the lake above camp. “I come here a lot to clear my head. It’s quieter than camp.”
When Brooks had suggested that they go and explore some parts outside of the camp, Harper had agreed quickly. She loved the camp, and she was fairly certain that they weren’t exactly just supposed to go about everywhere. But she was still new, relatively speaking, and it was important to go and see new places. “Quiet is good.” Harper nodded, offering a small smile. “I am certainly a fan of it, especially in a place as beautiful as this.” She gestured around them. “Thank you for inviting me.” The lake was beautiful, and Harper breathed in the smell of all the trees and flowers around them.
“How are you adjusting?” Brooks found himself asking her. It seemed strange, those words coming out of his mouth instead of someone else saying them to him. He still didn’t feel like he had a good grip on everything that demigod and camp life had to offer, but he thought himself adjusted enough to at least offer assistance to others. He liked helping others, the sensation was new but pleasant. “It took me awhile to find my bearings, but once I started making friends it became a lot easier.” Once he had started training and involving himself in the war. He knew Harper had no desire to fight, but maybe she just needed to find her own reason to stay.
“It’s all still more than a little confusing,” Harper admitted honestly, “but it is so beautiful. So I am rather fond of it all.” She looked up at Brooks. It was all true, she did still have a great love for her new home, even though she still hardly understood anything that was going on. But one day her mother would out her - claim her - though Harper still didn’t understand what needed to happen in order for that to happen. “I like to think I have started on the friends thing,” she looked over to Brooks, not wanting to add on ‘with you’, because although she was fairly certain he would agree, she did not wish to assume that he would. “Besides, I have my schoolwork and dance courses to focus on, so that is something.”
“That’s an understatement” Brooks laughed. “If you ever have everything figured out please enlighten me.” Across the lake he could see the large lake houses that were part of New Rome. A portion that the greeks were no longer welcome at. “Well the people here are friendly, so it’s not surprising.” The two hadn’t known each other long but Brooks considered Harper a friend. He quite liked all the people that he had met so far actually. “Well at least you have something to keep you busy. I spend my free time roaming around keep or sneaking around outside of it.” The last thing he needed was to be sneaking around outside of camp only to be kidnapped by Roman soldiers.
Harper shook her head. “I have high doubts that I will ever find and figure everything all out.” She bit her lip. “But if I do, I’ll let you know first of anybody.” She pulled one leg up and out, into a stretch much like the one she and Brooks had done before their run not too long ago. “I have been very lucky to find such kindness here, yes.” She listened to Brooks and gave a nod, “I think that is still a valid way to spend your time, so long as you enjoy it.” She glanced around them both quickly before wrapping her arms around her body, slightly chilly despite the beautiful day.
Brooks appreciated Harper’s willingness to stay positive and kind despite the war. Especially with how little that she knew about the demigod’s world it was amazing to see her so positive and willing to learn. If Brooks had a life to go back to outside of New Rome he wasn’t so sure he would be as willing. He wasn’t sure he would have stuck around or he might not have even come to New Rome in the first place. These were the things he came up here to think about. Brooks glanced at his watch, the two had been gone for a couple of hours now. Roaming around for too long in the open probably wasn’t a smart idea. “We should probably start heading back. It’s going to get dark in a little bit.”
She breathed in the fresh air all around them, only half paying attention to what Brooks was saying. Harper enjoyed the time spent out here more than she figured that she ought to. Especially since neither she nor Brooks were technically supposed to even be out here. Which were rules, and rules did often and usually have importance, but these rules only existed because of excessive fighting that should have never had to happen in the first place. “I suppose we should.” She whispered.
After the initial battle in the Eastern district, Cat had been commanded to patrol the more vulnerable parts of the city, and to her great amusement she had found something out of place. Two Greeks, stealing through the streets of her city. Using sign language, Cat directed her troops to fan out around them before motioning for Marcus to follow her. Stepping into the street, she smiled menacingly, pulling her revolvers from their holsters she clicked the hammers back and aimed each one at a Greek head. “By the laws of New Rome, and the authority of the senate and the first cohort, this is your first and final warning. Stand down, and I won’t hurt either of you. Resist, and Marcus will show you why the first cohort is the best.”
Marcus enjoyed patrols with Cat, she always seemed to make the right choices and the tough calls without hesitation. He admired that and learnt everything he could from her. As she signed orders to the troops he read her orders before reading his own. As she stepped out and announced their arrest, he stepped out from behind her, smirk on his face. Yeah, he definitely would show them. As if it had all been planned out, he summoned flames that danced around his right hand and aimed it at them with a wink. Flames were one of the easiest elements he could control, he always reasoned it was due to his descendance from Vulcan. “I’d do as she said.” He added.
Brooks’ heart plummeted as soon as he heard the woman’s voice. Before she even finished her sentence Brooks could tell that these were roman soldiers stepping out to capture them. He immediately felt sick to his stomach and glanced around, taking in and and all exit strategies that came to mind. But escaping demigods with magic, arrows and guns were different than running from a mugger or cop. Brooks stepped in front of Harper and held his arms up in surrender. “Please don’t hurt us!” He didn’t need to fake fear but some tears might not hurt. “We aren’t greek soldiers!” That part wasn’t even a lie. “My name’s Brooklyn, son of Mercury. This is Harper. She hasn’t even been claimed yet. We are just walking around the lake. We aren’t trying anything we swear. Don’t hurt us please.” Whether or not these soldiers bought the story, Brooks needed to find a way to get him and Harper out of there pronto.
This was not happening. Harper wished that she could just sink into herself. She moved closer to Brooks and found herself extremely grateful for once that she didn’t talk too much, and didn’t like to talk too much. She nodded at Brooks’ words - it was okay to lie in this situation, and it also was true that she hadn’t been claimed. Though she was fairly certain that she was Greek, even though that was not something she entirely understood. “I just r-really like nature.” She finally said, finding her voice, though it wavered. “That’s all we were doing, you do - don’t need to hurt us.” The weapons and clear magic were not something she wanted to be anywhere near right now.
Nature. What a quaint ideal. Cat however had grown up in this city. There wasn’t a single member of the Legion by the name of Brooklyn. He was of the age where he’d have certainly joined the Legion were he to be Roman, and she would recognise him if he had joined the Legion. Of course, they didn’t know that. Which meant that she and Marcus could have a bit of fun with their prey. “Brooklyn, son of Mercury,” she pretended to think, scratching at her chin for a moment before frowning, “from the Queen family?” she asked, making up a name to see if he agreed with it. “If you are Romans then what are you even doing so far past the last Roman position? It is incredibly dangerous here, Jackson and his Greek dogs have been killing any Roman that they can get their hands on. Probably as vengeance for what happened to his friend Grace, I heard he lost the eye y’know.” She turned to Marcus for the end of that sentence, hoping to get some sort of reaction from the Greeks.
Marcus didn’t recognize the other and that was saying something. His father and family were well known and everyone who was someone attended their family’s gala evenings and even the most meaningless families were gossiped about. What really gave it away was Cat mentioning the Queen family, which did not exist. Catching on, Marcus made the flames vanish before he sat down and lay himself out besides Cat, propping himself up with his arm and resting his other arm on the knee of his bent leg. “It’s true, although I’d say we helped and that he looks a lot better this way.” He smirked. “It’s dangerous out here, them Greeks can be a real menace.” He paused before asking, “Wait, Brooks? From the 6th Cohort right? I think I might have heard off some good looking guy called Brooks from the 6th?”
Brooks knew when he was walking into a trap. One of the pros of living the last two years learning to lie and act his way out of situations. He had picked up on more than a few red flags in a conversation. Brooks knew nothing about the Queen family, but it was far too specific of a reference for Cat to willingly offer an out to them. In an ideal situation, Brooks would have some semblance of information on the Romans to fuel his lies. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any personal information to to share that would help his lie. But Brooks needed to be flexible. “I have no idea what either of you are talking about.” He was walking a dangerous path, he knew that. But with both his and Harper’s lives on the line he seemed to have little choice. “I don’t know any Queen family and I don’t even what a cohort is! Let alone how many there are.” Grace. A wave of anger rose in his body. They were mocking Jason’s injuries. He was furious, but logical. He couldn’t show his anger. He needed to remain as frightened as possible. “I was claimed a couple of months ago. I was told about New Rome and directed out here. When I got here I learned out about the war and the Greeks found me. I panicked and told them that I was a son of Hermes so they wouldn’t kill me.” His hands were growing tired but he refused to lower them in fear of getting shot because someone thought he was reaching for a weapon. If it came down to a fight, both him and Harper were screwed. So they needed to find another way out. “I was trying to leave the camp and convinced Harper to come with me. We escaped and found the lake but I don’t have any idea where I’m going. Please do not hurt us. You can clearly see how terrified we both are. We don’t even have weapons. All I have is a pocket knife. It’s in my back pocket. I can grab it for you if you don’t shoot me.”
She felt sick to her stomach. This was about a million-and-one times worse than any elementary school playground bullies. Harper continued to let Brooks do most of the talking as she tried to figure out just what the two adults were up to. Even despite her belief in the good of all, there were too many signs that that something was wrong. She felt her body stiffen at the woman’s mention of Jason’s injury. Mocking something like that was cruel, comparing others to animals was terrible. You helped? She bit down as hard as she could on her lip and stared right at them, wide-eyed though remaining relatively silent. “He just w-wanted me to be safe, too.” She whispered. “So that the Gr- the Greeks didn’t decide to lock us up or anything.” Harper silently cursed herself, everyone in the Greek camp who she’d met had been nothing but warm and welcoming and kind. They didn’t deserve even the smallest lie that said they were anything but. “We’ll just go ahead and get back home,” she stumbled over her words, “you know, back to safety and all.”
“Enough,” Cat announced, suddenly growing bored of these foolish games and wishing for another respite from her time patrolling. Bringing these fools into Camp Jupiter would have to do for the days activities. Besides, she was sure that if they were truly telling the truth then it would be found out soon enough. Although she couldn’t quite bring herself to believe their tall stories. They’d made no reference of Lupa, something a true Roman would recognise. “I don’t believe that you’re not Greek, but I guess there is only one real way to tell. We’re going to detain you and take you back to the Camp, they’ll be able to test whether or not your claim is true. Besides, if you’re Romans you’ll be safer off outside of the city. We can transfer your leaving information as soon as we’ve validated your claims.” She nodded at Marcus, and reached behind herself, hooking a pair of handcuffs off her belt. Unsnapping them, she looked at the suspects, daring them to move.
Marcus rolled his eyes as the fun ended. He could see through the lies as if they were the mist. The boy seemed to have a golden tongue, a gift given to children of Mercury and Hermes. There was no telling just yet if his statements were true or not. The girl seemed very timid and unlikely to be a threat, she also seemed to be scared out of her mind. Most Roman’s knew who the Centurions were, especially Cat, yet they hadn’t called her by name once. Jumping up to his feet he too took out a pair of handcuffs but his materialized into his hand rather than him reaching for them attached to his belt. “Listen, don’t make this hard for yourselves. You obviously know the Roman law, and resisting can lead to even greater consequences. Besides, if you run, I’ll just put the handcuffs on magically, and with a moving target, there’s no guarantee it won’t hurt.”
They were so screwed. Brooks was trying to remain positive and level headed but the odds were stacked against them. These two roman soldiers were obviously well trained and if part of a cohort or whatever they were claiming, that probably meant there were more soldiers around. He could not imagine a situation where the two of them were going to make it back to the Greek camp. The two of them were too outnumbered and not nearly skilled enough. It was times like these that he wished his pocket knife magically turned into a chainsaw or something fantastic like Percy’s pen or Jason’s coin. Unfortunately, it looked like the two were on their own. And with Marcus threatening his magic handcuffs, which were apparently a thing, just running didn’t seem like an option. Maybe if Brooks could provide a distraction it would give Harper time to get away. “Fine. Fine. Just don’t hurt us. Like I said, we aren’t soldiers.” Brooks began walking forward, eyeing the ground and spotting a root sticking out from the ground. He veered his path to make sure he would have to walk into it and purposely planted his foot under it, forcing himself to trip onto the ground. He planted face first, digging his palms into the ground and gathering as much dirt as he could into his fists. “Damn it.” Brooks mumbled, pushing himself back up off the ground. “If I’m actually a greek spy I must be the clumsiest soldier known to man.” Then, as quickly as he could, threw the dirt at the two soldiers, and spun to yell “Run!” to Harper. He knew the dirt would do nothing. But he at least hoped that they would focus their attention on him so that Harper may be able to get away.
No. No, no, no. Harper’s eyes glanced at the handcuffs that the woman held, and she felt her nails dig into the palms of her hands at the mention of magic handcuffs that the man could apparently use. How would that even work? She found herself thinking, too curious and too unknowing once again. If they made it out of this, she desperately needed to find somebody to help explain all the ins and outs of this place to her. They would make it out of this, though, because nobody needed to die. Nobody ever needed to die. She could feel her mouth go dry as Brooks moved toward the other figures, then her eyes grew wide as he threw dirt at them - and yelled for her to run. But she remained, unmoving, feet planted on the ground. I’m not leaving you. She wanted to say, but remaining mostly quiet was for the best. “Leave us b - be.” She said, her voice wobbling as she attempted to feign confidence, ever part of her body feeling terrified and anxious. “Don’t you dare hurt us.” Especially not my only full-confirmed friend here. She took a few steps forward, finally - unsure of what her plan was, unsure of what she was supposed to do here. Harper finally relaxed her fists from their clenching, giving a small flick of her wrists, and found herself give a half-audible gasp as a few strands of ivy suddenly sprouted from the ground and wrapped around the handcuffs in the woman’s hands.
Cat was moving forwards, having brushed the dirt out of her eyes and blinking a few times, she’d started after Brooks, intent on handcuffing him just a little too tightly. Stepping forward she reached out and was about to snap her cuffs around the Greek when she noticed the girl move. The earth almost seemed to respond as vines of ivy leapt up and wrapped themselves around the handcuffs in her hands, the ivy moved of its own accord, defying gravity and surging through the air. The vines lashed around the metal circles and pulled down tightly, dragging them out of Cat’s hands and causing them to rattle onto the floor. “She’s a child of Ceres or Prosperina,” she snapped, reaching to her belt and pulling a sword out before hacking free of the vines and taking a step away. “We’ve got to stop them, she’s too valuable to allow to join the Greeks.”
Marcus growled as the vines leapt out at Cat and then became annoyed as they seems to move on their own accord and wrap around his arms too. He struggled to pull his arm from the plants but soon the vines had wrapped themselves around both his wrists and held them close together. Now he was the one who was handcuffed. With a roar of frustration, his hands burst into flames, burning away at the vines that held them tight. The smell of burnt vines and white smoke filled the air and with another tug, be broke away from the charred vines. He made a move towards the boy whom was closest, hoping to use him as leverage, hold him captive until they both surrendered. But the same root that has tripped the other seemed to find its way over Marcus’s foot, causing him to topple forward and into the dirt too. He did however, manage to send a ball of flames in the girls direction before his face met the dirt beneath him. He had probably missed and looked up as soon as he could, spitting the blood that had come from his busted lip.
What the hell had just happened? Brooks was so sure that the two were completely screwed when all hell broke loose. Vines began growing from nowhere and both Cat and Marcus seemed taken aback by this new development. Brooks glanced back at Harper and the realization that this was her hit him. She had powers too apparently and they had just completely saved their asses. Or at least, they were giving the two the chance to get away. Marcus fell and in a fit of rage seemed to hurl at fireball. Brooks tried scrambling to his feet to save Harper but when he realized couldn’t get there in time, instead reached out and pushed out at her ankle, knocking her over so that the fireball would miss. A second later, Brooks had crawled to his feet and was helping Harper onto her feet. “We need to go. Right now.” He said in a rush, yanking her along by her wrists as the two made their way out into the forest.
She’d never known that she had powers of that sort. For a moment, Harper stood, wide-eyed as the vines wrapped around the man and woman in part, but then they each broke away from them. This still isn’t working. Her heart was still racing and then the man sent fireballs toward her and before she could even duck, Brooks had pushed her out of the way, causing her to fall down on the ground. She caught her fall with the palms of her hands and then grabbed Brooks’ hand as he reached out to help her. “Right there with you.” She whispered and began to move with him, turning back halfway and gave another flick of her wrist, causing a small fence of vines to grow between them and the others - given that the man could apparently create fire, she doubted that it would do much, but maybe it could help a bit. Until she could figure out exactly what she was able to do. This was much more than simple keeping flowers alive always and growing a few small plants in her room.
After the two were safely away from these Roman soldiers, Brooks and Harper would have to explore this new and exciting revelation in Harper’s powers. For now, the two would have to focus instead on surviving. Along the path of their escape a single Roman soldier stepped out to stop the two. So they did have soldiers spread out. Made sense. Brooklyn was positive that this soldier could outfight the two. But Brooks remembered what Jason had said. That chaos was Brooks’ best friend. He just needed to do the unexpected. So while Brooks and Harper ran full speed toward the soldier, Brooks dropped. And fell to the ground and into a roll, barreling into the soldier’s leg and kicking into the soldier’s groin. Then he recovered quickly and kicked the dude’s head with his foot. He neglected to see if the man was unconscious or not and instead waved Harper along so the two could keep running. He veered Harper off of the path leading back to Camp, “We can’t go back there tonight. No telling if they’ll follow us or not.”
Somehow, they’d made it away. Harper didn’t quite understand how any of that had happened, but right now she just needed to keep moving until both she and Brooks were safe. But another soldier appeared, apparently making their ease of escaping more difficult than it should have been. If there was no war, they would not have had to run, they would not have been attacked simply for being Greek. The prejudice made absolutely no sense to Harper, and she refused to hate someone else simply because they had a different birth than she did. Harper couldn’t help but watch in amazement as Brooks deftly dealt with the soldier - though any violence was not somethings she would ever be fond of, but right now she needed to get out of here alive, and make sure that Brooks did too. Then she could maybe start to process what on earth she had done back there. “Yes, we’ll have to stay in the forest this evening.” She looked around at the upcoming trees. “I - I don’t want to risk harm to anyone back at the Camp.”
The two ran for what felt like forever. Even Brooklyn’s legs were tired by the time they finally slowed. But the adrenaline still hadn’t stopped pumping through his blood. When he was certain that the two hadn’t been followed - and to be clear Brooks still had not been completely sure they had not been followed - the two finally stopped running and decided to take a rest. He leaned against a tree and slid down it until he was sitting on the ground. Then he rested his head back against the bark and took a long second to catch his breath. “We can figure out a place around here to make camp. It won’t be a particularly luxurious night, but we won’t put anybody else in danger.” Then he paused lifted his head to look at Harper, “That was impressive. What you did back there.”
She skidded to a halt when Brooks stopped. “Yes,” she sighed, “we can. I am not bothered by sleeping here, I’m sure we can find a nice patch of grass, or dirt, and it is still lovely out.” At his mention of what had happened, she felt her face grow red. “I - I do not know what happened, I just - I didn’t want them to hurt us, and then,” she gestured vaguely around, “that happened. It’s - I’ve grown f- flowers before, but not that.” She wrapped her arms around her body. Harper smiled down at Brooks, “but thank you. I appreciate your kind words.” She let the words of gratitude hang in the air for a few moments before she moved to sit down - but before she could, she noticed a slight shift in the way the light fell around her and glanced up - a sickle and a few sheaths of wheat floating above her head. “What - what is that?” She said, moving towards Brooks, the image following her.
“Well it was incredible. You saved both of us.” Brooks smiled. A part of him was disappointed that everyone around him seemed to have these incredible abilities. The other part knew that Harper had already had some type of abilities. He recognized the flowers and the way things seemed to spring to life around her. And most of all, he was happy that whatever she had done it saved the both of them. “So thanks.” Suddenly, something was appearing over head and Brooks jumped to his feet to get a better look at it. “You just got claimed.” Brooks admitted, wide eyed. “I don’t know who it is though.” He studied it further, willing the name to come to him, but his mind remained blank. “Damn it.” He groaned. He wished he could have been more helpful to Harper. “When we get back to camp we will figure out. Other’s will know.”
Her cheeks turned a bright shade of pink. “Thank you, again. You were a big help though, I would’ve been in way bigger trouble from the st-start without you there. So thank you.” Harper smiled at her friend. “Claimed? Like, by my mother? But -” She scrunched her nose. “I - we - still don’t know who she is.” Harper glanced up at the image above her as she sat down next to Brooks. “It’s okay. It is no trouble either way, I am just glad that perhaps this means I can be of more use.” Chewing on her lip, Harper gave a small flick of her wrist and let a few vines sprout up from the ground and wrap around one another, forming a small fence around the tree where she and Brooks sat. “Perhaps that can help keep us safe until we go back home tomorrow.”