Disclaimer: I do not own all characters in this fanfiction. The general and some of the characters belong to Rick Riordan. Some of the characters I have made, and some I have acquired the permission to use.
IX
JAKE
Jake didn't even look back to see if Cindy was catching up. He kept on the suspect's tail, chasing him through the streets of New Rome. The runner pushed his way through crowds of people in the tight alleyways and corners of the streets, hoping to slow Jake down. As long as he could keep the suspect within sight, the Senatorial Guard would detect the chase and move to help Jake out. Unfortunately, the runner had the same idea in mind.
Soon, the chase elevated and moved up to the rooftops. There had been some scaffolding, as well as the moment's convenience of accessing it, available to both of them. The runner was trying to keep the chase down to just them two. And if this person were aligned with the secret society, then they probably more people like this guy running. That didn't bode well for Jake or the Order of Romulus.
The runner leapt across a wide gap over a street below. Jake stopped just at the edge, watching as the runner made it to the other side. The suspect looked back at Jake, checking to see if he would attempt the jump. The Legionnaire would give him the satisfaction, taking his place back a couple of steps. He ran forward, picking up speed with each step. In his forward momentum, Jake leapt upward, his inertia sending up and forward. He landed across the other side, causing the runner to keep fleeing.
Jake was breathless after the jump. He knew he would have died, or at least be permanently disfigured if he wasn't able to make it. But that was just going to be more fuel for the fire. And the fires were burning quick as he stayed hot on the trail once again.
The chase was going on to the point that Jake was getting annoyed. In the pursuit, he kept an open eye for anything he could use to throw at the runner, in hopes of either slowing him down or incapacitating him. He took into account where he was. They were in a remodeled part of the city, one that had received the most damage during the Golden Age Revolutionary War last year. This part of the city looked even more like Rome, with the buildings either completely brand new, or in the process of their construction. This area had more hazards than others, as some of the buildings were not yet complete. He tried to keep his senses aware of whatever was going to come up ahead, because it might kill him if it didn't.
They ran through an incomplete building, with construction workers still in there. Jake and the suspect were running too fast and moving too quickly through for them to react. And they were moving too fast to shift their attention to the workers, disregarding them almost completely. Jake then saw a hammer, grabbed it, and chucked it at the runner, smacking right into the center of his back.
The suspect flew off of his feet, falling into an excavated area nearby. Jake heard a thud a split second after he saw the runner fall over. Satisfied with the result, Jake slid down into the dug out area, where the suspect was just getting up to his feet. A couple of construction workers were making an effort to get out of the ditch as fast as possible, knowing what was about to go down.
Without a weapon, Jake was going to have to take on this guy with his bare fists. As a Roman Legionnaire, he was trained in a Roman form of pankration. It was a combination of wrestling and boxing that was supposed to temporarily substitute for a weapon. In normal circumstances, Jake would have been temporarily disarmed, falling back on his training in the martial art until he was either able to fall back or retrieve his weapon. Roman gladiators often specialized in their own form of pankration.
But before Jake could even get a swing, the guy did something really strange.
Suddenly, Jake was blinded. All he could see was white light. He struggled to feel his way around as he stumbled where he stood. The blinding light was put him into a panic mode. His muscles were tightening up, refusing to release tension. Blinded and paralyzed. Jake couldn't feel any control at all.
But this state of being was not permanent. After what felt like minutes, the effects were starting to wear off. His body was begin to cool down, and his sight was coming back to him. He was panting furiously.
What in Pluto's kingdom was that? Jake thought to himself, as he couldn't quite yet function his mouth. With the words he wanted to say, it was probably for the best.
Of course, the suspect was gone. Jake asked the construction workers where he might have went, but the trail based on the information they gave him soon died out.
Jake waited over at the entrance of the building, hoping Cindy was able to figure out where he was. He was so upset with himself, letting himself get suckered like that. He swore that if he ever got his hands on the guy who did that to him, he was going to make him pay. The rage only made him want to get moving and resume the investigation even more.
Cindy came over, a worried look on her face.
"What happened?" she asked.
"He's gone," Jake admitted sourly.
"How?" she inquired.
"He pulled some kind of trick," Jake reluctantly recalled. He was still very bitter from what just happened. "Some kind of light trick. I couldn't see anything or move. It was… ergh."
Cindy stepped forward to put her hand on his arm, but stopped when he glared at her mid-motion. She retracted it, not wanting to push it. Jake was upset. Not just the suspect, but with her. With everything. Everything that could have gone wrong did. Whenever they managed to get anywhere, something had to happen to slow them down.
"I'm so sick of this investigation!" he said in rage. He ran over and kicked a can a couple of feet off into the distance. His hands had already balled into fists. Jake had a temper, but ever since last year, it had grown worse and worse every time.
Jake thought it started when he was in the detachment that was sent to help out the Camp Half-blood refugees. When they found the Greeks, a small, but bloody fight broke out, killing Andrew Wood, a legionnaire of the First Cohort, in the process. At the same time, Devin and Dwayne Coll, both Centurions of the Fourth Cohort at the time, betrayed the Legion, killing most of the Roman Second Gigantomachy veterans, if not all of them.
That was when the real trouble started. The Golden Age Revolution had a couple of champions, but one stood out in particular over the others. His name was Harkin, and according to the people who had defeated him aboard the Princess Andromeda II, he was a Greek son of Atlas. He wasn't just some average demigod in the Hermes Cabin at Camp Half-blood. No, he was a demi-titan.
It was Harkin that came charging out onto the field of battle when Jake was with the detachment. Never before had he seen someone capable of so much carnage. Harkin's size and demeanor playing a key role in his psychological factors. His size was intimidating to even Jake, almost seven feet in height. His body looked like it had been born in a blender, and came crawling out, all patched up and everything. In the fight, he came toward Scott Ward, Centurion of the First Cohort, and the augur of Camp Jupiter and New Rome. But soon his attention was diverted to his sister, Cindy Ward. Jake didn't know what it was that compelled him to attack Harkin to save Cindy. It was like there was another presence within him, a part of him that he never knew was there before until it revealed itself.
Whatever it was, it worked. Nobody had been able to inflict some damage back at Harkin until Jake did. A couple of shield bashes and he was backed up. It wasn't Jake's strength. He felt it was coming from something else inside of him.
Ever since then, he had instances where his temper would flare up. It happened more often when his family was brought up during a conversation. In combat, it would also happen, but he was able to effectively channel into his martial abilities, making him a more effective combatant.
But Jake tried not to think what happened the previous year. Especially since the same story involved his sister foolishly sacrificing herself.
"What are you going to do now?" Cindy asked him, breaking him from his thoughts. He hadn't realized how long he was going for.
"I'm going home," Jake said reluctantly. He didn't think there were any more leads available to him that day, so he was going to resign, at least for that day. Plus, he felt a little defeated, with the little progress he had been able to make.
When he got home, it was dusk. Javier and Ashley were home. He had allowed them to stay ever since their parents were both killed by Evan Pravus, former Centurion of the Fifth Cohort. His cousins were very unique, in that they were not only demigod legacies of both Greek and Roman descent, but they came from two Big Three gods (Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto), that being Pluto and Poseidon.
Javier was helping Ashley with a puzzle. Gods, the scars around her eyes were still there. During the confrontation with Pravus, Javier unleashed a huge amount of untapped power on him. However, because there was so much energy in it, and Javier had never done something like that before, it was unstable, resulting in the injuries that blinded Ashley.
But things always found a creep through. Ashley may have been physically blind, but her connection to the world of shadows (from Pluto) gave her some sense of cognition. Jake couldn't really explain it, but she was aware of her surroundings, sometimes even more than Jake or Javier.
"Jake?" Ashley called out from where she sat. After a moment of trying to determine if he was there or not, she smiled. "Jake!"
"Hey, dude," Javier greeted his cousin. Beyond family, the two were really good friends. Something he needed since Jake's nuclear family was completely gone. "You look like you've been rolling around in the dirt!"
Jake looked at his purple t-shirt. It was covered in dirt from the ditch he was in earlier.
"Oh yeah, forgot about that," he muttered. "Howard's not home yet?"
"No," Javier responded. "We were the first ones back."
"Oh, okay," Jake spoke to himself. He had been planning on speaking the praetor about the investigation when he got the chance.
Jake had the rest of the night to himself. His body ached from his previous encounter, so he took the time to relax and unwind. He spent some time playing cards with Javier, and then other games with Ashley. A couples into that, and Howard had come home. He had left his praetor armor and robe at the Principia, leaving him in just his purple Camp Jupiter t-shirt. Underneath the very composed figure that Howard Amos was a guy like everyone else in this city. Jake liked the idea that he was able to be himself every now and then.
Later into the night, after Ashley and Javier had gone to bed, Jake spoke to Howard regarding the investigation.
"I need to be taken off the case," Jake told Howard. There was an expression of disbelief on the praetor's face. "Its just for a few days."
"Why, did something happen?" he asked. Howard wasn't using his skills in reading people when he asked that. Jake had been given the rare privilege to not be examined like that, most of the time.
"I had an encounter with one of them," Jake said. "I'm not sure if all of them are dangerous, but this particular one that I faced had some neat tricks."
"You fought one of them?" Howard asked, shocked. "Jake, you're the only who's been making any kind of progress. Everyone else in the Order has reached a stump, except you and Cindy. No, I can't take you off the case. You're already in so much farther than anyone else is. I have to keep you on it. I'm sorry."
Jake knew he couldn't argue with the praetor, as well as his Order Alpha (the chief administrative role) of the Order of Romulus. But Howard was not without mercy. He had given Jake the next day off. Which he was going to use.
The next day…
Jake wasn't expected his day off from the investigation to be spent for a War Game. As part of his training regimen, soldiers had to be constantly tested in the ways of war. In this case, they had to train to operate as a unit. Roman armies, unlike most of the Greek ones, were not made of individuals, but rather a large mass of men acting as a single body. The testudo formation was an example of this. Jake's scutum was just one of many in that particular formation. War Ball helped condition him and his team to act like one.
Unfortunately, to play a War Game, the Legion had to spend the whole day setting up defenses for the defending team. In most cases, a well-trained Legion could set up a defensive line in a couple of hours. These defenses, however, were often set up in a custom design, one that could favor the defending over the attacking one. So most of the day was spent setting up. The War Game itself would not actually begin until later in the day, usually before dusk.
Fortunately for Jake, who was part of the Third Cohort, which was part of the Team Tornitruum (Third, Fourth, and Fifth Cohorts), he did not have to set up the defense, as he was to be part of the offense. Instead, Jake was at a makeshift camp some distance from the opposite team's defense site.
He sat with Javier and talked to pass the time. They were seated near the Centurions, who were busy discussing the strategy for the team's attack. To effectively play a War Game, coordination and tactics were needed. The Centurions in charge for Team Tornitruum for this War Game included: Jade and Adrian Cramer, Nero Alvarez, and Joanna Peake, who had just arrived from Camp Half-blood earlier today. As a Greco-Roman demigod legacy, she spent a lot of time back and forth between the two demigod camps. Jake, being just Roman, did not have the same burden. Javier, on the other hand, was a special case. Since he was staying at Jake's house, he and his sister spent most of their time of the year at Camp Jupiter. Joanna spent a little more time at Camp Half-blood.
Jake remembered going to Camp Half-blood a year ago. It was during the Annual Demigod Olympics. He had passed the Camp Jupiter Qualifiers for the first time at just 12 years old. His sister had done the same thing in her time. But he had performed much better his first time through then she did. Jake was eager to attempt it again. He felt over the course of the year, he had improved, if only slightly.
"You think we're going to win tonight?" Javier asked Jake, breaking him from his thoughts. He hadn't realized how far deep he was in his own thoughts. He took a while before responding. "Jake? You still there, dude?"
"Huh?" he spoke, coming back to his senses. Javier was asking him a question. Jake looked around. He wasn't even aware that they were about to get into formation for the start of the game. "Oh, sorry. Just thinking. Yeah, I think we can win tonight. We just have to watch out for the artillery."
"The water cannons?" Javier indicated. "Can't we, and probably Joanna take those out?"
Jake thought about that. As descendants of the sea god Neptune, they had the ability known as hydrokinesis, which gave them manipulative properties over the element of water, salted and fresh. Although, they worked best with salt water, as Neptune is the god of the sea, not necessarily the rivers. Regardless, should Team Fulminis (First and Second Cohorts), fire on them with water cannons, their abilities should be abilities disable them, or even possibly fire back on, them.
"We probably could- " Jake tried to say as he was cut off by the centurions who came rushing out onto the scene. They were shouting orders for the cohorts to get into formation. Jake and Javier looked at each other. "Here we go. Good luck, brother."
"See you on the other side, man," Javier said. They then proceeded to give each other their handshake. It was based on an older style of handshake, where the hand clasped around the forearm, a symbolic gesture of brotherhood, kinship, and the like. "Let's show these guys who the real shining examples are."
Jake nodded. They then both ran off to get into formation with their cohort. When Jake got into his spot, he put on his helmet. Adrian and Jade Cramer rushed in place.
The fun was just about to begin.
