Prelude

The moonlight was dim, and it seemed even more dim when it came to Temple Hill. An intruder drill was ridiculously rare within New Rome. In nearly ten years of service, this had been the second time he'd ever seen an outsider be declared inside their walls. The first time had turned out to be a surprise drill. This time had similar protocol, but as all situations, until proven to have been a drill, Christian took it dead serious.


"Corinne and Cassia have the outer rims covered, Liam and Jack are outside, and Rowan and Laurel at the base of the hill." Christian gave Sophia the low-down on the situation as they paced up to Temple Hill. The hour was late, but when the alarm was called, everyone was up, and they'd all wait up until it was done, most likely. Centurions had been dispatched to catch this guy, and the Optios were left to handle and contain everyone else inside the barracks. "This guy isn't going anywhere." Christian mused. He wasn't sure what this could entail.


"If we flush him out, one of the other teams can grab him." If it was a drill, Christian wanted to finish it strong. If it wasn't, Christian wondered how someone even could invade New Rome. "What's the plan?" He asked Sophia. "You wanna take each temple individually until we get him? Or flush him out with a lot of noise?"

Sophia found it highly annoying that Christian felt the need to repeat to her everything they had both been told less then fifteen minutes ago when they were both assigned to the same area to scout. But the younger girl kept her mouth shut, even though she really wanted to point out that she knew where everyone was at, without him needing to remind her. Sophia was just as inclined to take this seriously as Christian was. Intruders never happened, and this was her first time, if it did just end up being a drill, she wasn't about to mess it up. She figured probably to keep the kid who'd done this before on his good side, was in her best bet.

As they reached the top of temple hill, Sophia looked around, from the outside all the temples looked normal, nothing to suggest any of them to be broken into. If there was anyone inside, they couldn't assume making noise would be enough for said intruder to want to try and escape. "Individually, would probably work better. Call each other if we find anything unusual or find the intruder?" She suggested. "You take the temples to the left, and I'll go right?"

"It's faster, but not as safe." Christian warned. "If Katrina was here, she'd say safety in numbers. We don't know who this is, or what they can do." Christian lingered on the thought. They were at the top of the hill now. No one had spotted the figure outside, so there was no doubt that if this was a reality, their intruder was in one of these temples. The rows began in front of them, each temple a work of art in itself. Christian wondered how much good this hill had done them, compared to how much bad it had done.

"On the other hand, the more time we put in this, the more time they have to make a move." He finally agreed. "Just don't get in over your head. Your life is worth more than your pride." He had a feeling the advice would fall on maybe not deaf ears, but certainly annoyed ones. He was a firm believer in not mixing Cohorts; they had the teamwork and chemistry down to themselves. Five bad fighters from Cohort Three could work together better than an excellent fighter from each Cohort.

Christian stepped into the first temple in his path, the Temple of Venus. It'd be ironic to find someone here, even more, it'd be terrifying. He took caution stepping into the dark temple. He had a gladus in his hand, for the first time in weeks. He had it forward with a tight grip. Dim pink lights illuminated. Christian had feint feelings, like he'd fallen in love here before, even though he'd never stepped in this temple in his life. He checked the small corners, benches, and found nothing. He figured now was as good of a time as any, while no one could see him, to get his fix.

Christian opened his mouth before tossing a couple pills into his mouth and swallowing them promptly. It would solve any jitters he might get. He tossed a final one into the offering bowl, before it absorbed into a dim pink light and fluttered away like cherry petals. Christian left the temple. "Clear." He whispered across to Sophia's first temple, before moving to his next.

Sophia knew splitting up would be less safe, but in this case being as fast as possible was also key to catching any intruder. They wouldn't be able to catch an intruder if both of them were in the same temple. For all they knew the intruder could see them right now. Which was just as bad as getting into a fight with her or him alone.

The younger girl nodded at the advice, he wasn't wrong. But she just didn't have anything to say back right now. Instead she made her way into the first temple closest to her, she held her bow ready to fire if need be as she searched the room. Finding nothing after a couple minutes of searching, she exited the Temple. She heard Christians confirmation that his was also clear, and she nodded, "clear," back.

She moved into the next closest temple. Temple of Pluto, it was quiet. In fact, Sophia had never really been in the temple before. BUT she was pretty sure the benches were supposed to be right side up, and not on their side. It looked like someone had ransacked the powers. The centurion stuck to the wall, that way no one could sneak up on her from behind. She rounded a second power, when she heard the front door slam shut. She cursed, and ran back the way she came, as she exited the temple she watched as someone disappear down the hill. "CHRISTIAN!" She yelled, "Not a drill!" She added, the only thing Sophia could think to do, was run after the girl. If no one did, she'd get away. So before she could see whether Christian heard her or not, she darted down the hill, following the girl as best she could.

Christian's next stop, as if the fates willed it themselves, was the Temple of Mercury. Straight legacies weren't rare, but they were less common then demigods or legacy mixes. Needless to say, Rome favored glory and honor, and Mercury was none of those things, as Rome's senators so-graciously reminded him. Not that he could hold a grudge very long. It wasn't Mercury's fault that his kid had a kid. Though, some grandfatherly guidance wouldn't have hurt thorough the years.

He stepped in to the temple, and it looked the same as each time he'd visited it before. It didn't glow with magic or aura. It was empty, much like other gods that didn't reminded the Romans of Rome. There were some burnt out torches and of course, and offering bowl. Though, Christian didn't feel charitable for blessings of theft or travel at the moment. He made his investigation, which hadn't taken long. He was about to step out of the temple when suddenly he could hear Sophia's voice. It broke the intense silence of the night, and it was probable all of the others heard it too.

Christian made haste, quickly spotting a shadow of a figure, with Sophia not far from them. Chirstian finally felt like he was meant to be here, and almost regretted not leaving a pill to Mercury. It was because of Mercury that Christian had the speed he did, and that this chase wouldn't last long for the invader.

He took Sophia's words dead seriously. They didn't know this person, or what their motives were. Christian gave a quick chase, his enhanced speed was for once, truly a gift. It didn't take long, Christian could break thirty miles per hour at full sprint, and he gave a tackle shortly, but it didn't come uncontested. The woman underneath him pulled a knife, and slashed up. Christian flung his shoulder out of the way just in time.

Sophia was a lot faster than most girls her age, she shot a couple arrows at the girl, trying to slow her down, but the intruder was just as fast and possibly equally or more skilled than she was, probably not the latter either. Sophia had caught up to the girl once, she had reached out and grabbed the girl by the hair and had yanked down, they both fell though and rolled down the rest of the hill. When Sophia sat up again, the intruder was already running away. So Sophia had continued to run after her.

Christian got there first though. For a second Sophia had to think of how he even managed to do that, but then she quickly remembered that he was a legacy of Mercury, and obviously had speed type powers. The younger centurion took out her own knife, and waited to see if he need help. The intruder was putting up a fairly good fight.

Christian made the conscious decision to let the fine details fade so he could focus on the broad ones instead. Having so little light meant that he couldn't use his eyes as well as normal. He made a dismount from the woman; if he'd just attacked her when he'd dived, this could have already been over. She was on her feet the second she could be, and to Christian's dismay, she clearly knew she couldn't run. She had her knife pointed, and for once, Christian had the longer weapon in the situation, which was an awkward rarity for him.

"You've already lost." Christian tried to talk his way out of the situation. "Even if you killed me and then killed her, you're surrounded. Best thing you can do now is surrender. Put your hands-" The woman had made it clear she had no interest in surrender, when she swung the knife again. This time the dodge was even close. Christian slashed at her with the gladus, although not it's original purpose, it seemed somewhat effective. 

Christian purposely threw his gladus to the side, before reaching for his cuffs. It was one of those rare opportunities for him to be able to use them. She swung again, this time, the dodge was just offsides, and Christian got knicked slightly, before he threw his foot at her. "Sophia, I got her arms." Christian said, tossing the cuffs to her.

Sophia caught the cuffs, and pretty much all but dove into the two as Christian managed to keep the intruders arms down long enough so that she could get the cuffs locked on her wrists. The fight didn't end there though, the intruder didn't take being handcuffed as a perfect moment to finally give up. Instead she managed to get a nice head butt in, that made the Centurions lip bleed, and had almost managed to also kick her in the gut, luckily she caught that before it happened. "Give it up all ready." Sophia finally said, as she finally got the girl to stop struggling like a wild animal.

It took both him and Sophia to stop the struggling of this woman. In a way, it made Christian feel some empathy for her. He'd had to struggle before too, it made him feel like an animal caught in a trap. But surely, his own people came far before strangers. "You picked the wrong one to hit." Christian told her. "She's got friends in high places. High enough to influence just how we treat you." He told the strange intruder. He was doubtful that Sophia would even try to influence something like that, but his goal was to instill intimidation into the woman early.

Christian looped his arm around her arm, and pulled her up to her feet. "Good work." He said, looking to Sophia. Christian let out a loud whistle, three paces, indicating the threat was neutralized. Christian leaned down, gripping the knife. It appeared to be made of some sort of stone, but not average rocks. It was jagged and sharp still. He'd never seen anyone make stone hold an edge to it. "You wanna take her in, or do you wanna debrief?"

Sophia ignored Christians comments to the girl about her having friends in high places. It wasn’t that he was wrong about it, cause he wasn’t. What bugged her was that he apparently thought that she would actually use the connections. When both she and Christian were very well aware of what her connections could or would do. But maybe he was also trying to intimidate the woman. Either way it worked, and Sophia found herself biting her lip to keep from saying anything. Now wasn’t the time for a fight about social status.

“Thanks.” Sophia said, using her sleeve to wipe the blood off her mouth. “You too,” she added. She heard a whistle in return to Christians as she turned back to their now captured intruder. “We should probably take her in first.” She says, “unless you think it’d be a better idea to try and hold her still while we try to debrief.” Sophia figured that would be quite unnecessarily complicated.