swift as a shadow (QUEST) | melanie

Melanie watched Deacon work, slightly fascinated by the way he moved the pen over the paper without looking. His power was nifty, she'd give him that. When he was done she waited for him to shine the light over the paper, familiar with the use of invisible ink. If he didn't, she had another black light around here somewhere that she would use momentarily. The issue of camp Half-Blood would need to be looked in to first, it seemed. Daytona would need to wait a little while longer.

"We'll need to gather intel before actually heading to the camp. If there's anything there, people in the city would know it. It's highly unlikely that they've gotten past everyone to build an entirely new camp." Melanie reasoned, trying to think of protocols and going over former tactics. Her own sources would have alerted her already, but she had a few other places to look before just walking in to the camp. "Last time we went there were some nasty traps set up, but a team took care of those. It's been about three years since then." She relayed, trying to convey why she didn't just head there now.

It didn’t take long for Deacon to realize the error in this being their first mission together. He had never been completely serious around her for anything. Between archery and rock walls, all she knew was relaxed Deacon. It would be hard to believe that she knew anything about Captain Jacoby of the Minotaur Brigade, and how could he really expect her to? She had never been given the opportunity to meet him in this manner. Such a tactical error…

Deacon watched her as she seemed to be working through the plan out loud. He wondered if she was actually trying to explain to him why they didn’t just march right into a potentially deadly trap, or if she was trying to convince herself that it wouldn’t be a good idea to start there. He thought it would be obviously that knocking on the bad guys’ door was not the best plan, but that took him back to the tactical error again. He didn’t know her that well either.

And so he closed his eyes and pictured Camp Half Blood in his mind. The image was as clear to him as if he were standing under Thalia’s tree that very moment. His blue eyes scanned his surroundings, changing the scenery to one of fire and destruction. He hadn’t wanted to imagine Camp that way. It was always easier to pretend like it was still glittering and shining and safe. Unfortunately, reality was different and he couldn’t ignore that.

“The Big house was burned to the ground…” He was replaying the memory in his mind to try and find a vantage point, “And Thalia’s tree was destroyed…” Which, of course, made sense. Without Thalia’s tree, the barrier between Camp Half-Blood and the rest of New York would be down and the camp would have been basically defenseless, “You could see that tree for nearly a mile up the road, if you were looking hard enough.” He stated, opening his eyes and looked at Melanie, “If the Titans were there, how would they be masking the Camp? Obviously it would be too suspicious to build there without some sort of shield or barrier.”

Melanie nodded as Deacon spoke, even though he had his eyes closed. He was correct,the big house, the hades cabin, and the poseidon cabin had all been heavily targeted, but most of the structures were either gone entirely or damaged badly. That was why they hadn't tried salvaging the camp sooner. It was a wreck, to put it lightly.

"We've looked in to several leads as to what they could be using as a cloaking device. Right now the most realistic one that I have evidence about is that they are using large versions of Tyet amulets in place of stele's as their boundaries. For sure, we know that most of the egyptians wear them, specifically the children of Isis and Osiris. We did find the busted remanents of a five foot one after a raid, but they seem to have been the ones that broke it." Melanie relayed, assuming that Deacon would either know what she was talking about or ask her questions. She needed to get a feel for what he did and didn't know and to stop assuming that he would be a hindrance on the mission. He wasn't a captain for no reason, after all.

If she was being honest, Melanie didn't mind Deacon being there and wouldn't have batted an eyelash at his presence if she hadn't met him back on Concordia. Sure, he wasn't necessarily field trained and she would always automatically assume that an unknown soldier needed to have some supervision, but she didn't need to care. When she looked at him, she saw the guy she climbed the wall with, the one she met on the archery field. She wasn't mad, but maybe she was slightly scared. Attachments were never good.

Taking a breath to steady herself and break out of her silent reverie, Melanie grabbed her bottle of water and opened it to take a drink. The water was cool and calming, providing the perfect distraction while she waited for Deacon to answer.

Deacon took in a deep breathe as he leaned back in his chair, propped an ankle up on his knee. It surely was something to think about, after all the amulet suggested that they were being watched over by Isis. That couldn't be good news for them. The thing that scared Deacon the most, though, was that the Egyptian army wasn't protected by their own gods. If they were, in fact, being protected by the Titans, as they were led to believe by the joint attack, it could cause some serious issues.

Now, the Olympians had beaten the Titans once, many years ago. Deacon knew this was true. But in that era, it was far more common for demi-gods to be trained in the art of war and there were rules. Rules on how battle was meant to be conducted, rules about honor and loyalty and compassion that has all but disappeared from modern culture. Guerrilla warfare is far more common than a gentleman's war with armor and pikes. This variation could mean one of two things. Either the Titans were still used to the ancient ways of war and would be easy to defeat when it came to a true battle. The far more likely alternative is that they have embraced the new methods of battle and will be able to easily crush such an unprepared Greco-Roman force like the one they are attempting to create back on Concordia.

"Agent Thorn," Deacon started, wanting to make sure he phrased his words carefully, "Have you already been back to Camp since the attack?" He narrowed his eyes, "I noticed in your mission logs the Commander provided me that there have been no sanctioned missions to Half-Blood since we found the amulet. I am curious if you took a little sojourn there on a mission and if you could provide any further insight not provided by reports." He honestly didn't know what Melanie would think of this. It could really go either way. After all, Thorn was a loyal and dedicated soldier, but being a spy lent itself to doing things in secret. It would help to know.

Melanie took in the question and exhaled slowly. No, what she had done hadn't been on the books, but the Commander had known about it. It also wasn't quite a secret, the trip just hadn't been advertised. "Yes, twice actually. Once directly after that to retrieve a piece of equipment that had been left behind, hardly worth writing a report over." Melanie recounted, thinking back. It hadn't been important, but they had been new then and resources were hard to come by.

"The last time was about two years ago. I had a lead and didn't have enough time to call back for assistance. Something about an artifact that the Titans had lost when they attacked the camp. I searched the place high and low but didn't find it. It was a false lead, I told the Commander about it, and we decided to keep it off the records due to a possible mole in the intelligence crew at the time." That had been a hard pill for the Commander to swallow. The informant had been his own, one that they had trusted time and time again. They found out the hard way that the unfortunate soul had turned on them, deciding that Egyptian gold was more valuable than the lives of the Greco-Roman Demi-Gods. It was lucky that they hadn't told him about Concordia.

It was like an alarm going off in Deacon's head, "A Titan artifact left behind during the attack..." He narrowed his eyes, "Are you telling me that there is potentially a Titan artifact at Camp Half-Blood that has not been recovered?" This thought terrified Deacon beyond imagining. There were a number of things this artifact could be, and most of the options were not the kind that would benefit the Demi-Gods in any way. In his studies, Deacon read that nearly all Demi-Titan tools were only operable by those of Titan blood. In the decades leading up to the attacks, it was assumed the Titans were not reproducing, which made these artifacts just that, interesting exhibits for Demi-god museums and fun experiments for the Hephaestus kids.

The one artifact Deacon had seen on the day Half-Blood was attacked was a large sword carried by the assumed general of the Titan army. It bore the sign of Cronus and carried the dark glow of evil. The only thing Deacon was able to observe between sword swings was that any Camper who went near the sword turned and began fighting for the Titans until the sword was outside of a certain distance, "Assuming the lore is right, we wouldn't be able to wield any Titan artifact anyway. Can I ask the motivation in searching for something that is potentially useless?" He knew of many reason, this was merely a test to see if Melanie was just a robot meant to take the orders from the Commander or if she thought for herself.

"We've chased down quite a few leads on such objects, some of them come back to Concordia, others are eliminated as false leads and written off until the next time we get intel." Melanie explained. Surely there were safer places for the Titan weapons and other relics, but they had few choices at this time.

When Deacon asked for the motives behind rounding up the offending objects, she was quite stunned. Surely he was testing her, so she chose her words carefully. "On the one hand, even an ineffective weapon in our possession is one that isn't in theirs. I think we all saw what Cronus' sword did, not to mention Oceanus' scepter." She recounted, not managing to repress a shudder. "That's the official reason. At least on Concordia they are just weapons. In the hands of the Titans, we've got a much bigger problem."

"Personally, I tracked that specific lead down because the weapon in question is the one that killed my little brother. Call me sentimental, but I wanted to watch the thing be destroyed." She said quickly, standing up and walking towards a window. Melanie cursed at herself as she lifted a shade to make a quick scan of the alleyway, which she knew she didn't need to do. Deacon hadn't needed to here that any more than she had needed to say it, but there it was, out in the open.

Deacon raised his eye brows behind her back. He watched her peek out the window and contemplated his response. His silence was not due to any shock that she had lost her brother, many of the Concordian residents lost people in the battle. What truly shocked him into silence was her obvious emotional drive for finding the artifact. Emotions were dangerous when they were pulled onto the battlefield.

He stood up and stretched, deciding it would be better to leave the discussion at that and not ask her too many questions about her brother. It would make both of them uncomfortable and the information wasn’t relevant or useful, “Is there more paper somewhere? I will make us a map of Camp so we can lay out our plans in a more concrete fashion.” He offered, changing the subject smoothly.

Melanie nodded before pulling a pad of paper out of a drawer near where she was standing. "You work on that, I'm going to make a call in to a source. I would like to get this show on the road sooner rather than later and he may know where to start." She said, grabbing a phone out of her jacket pocket and walking in to one of he adjoining bedrooms. Punching in a few numbers to unlock the phone and then more to call the informant in question, Melanie waited for him to pick up.

Ugh. What, what is it. Who is this and what time is it.

"Carter." Melanie said, knowing he would recognize her from the sound of her voice.

Shi-. Are you back in town already? I thought that lead was a dud.

"It was. I'm working a new case. Do you have anything for me?"

Nah, just some weird trucks driving by camp. I think they are with a moving company or something.

Melanie held her breath for a moment. "When, how, and do you know where they are going?"

Started about three weeks ago. Looks like they leave the city and head towards that creepy old house a few miles away from the camp. Man, I don't know.

"These are the the things you call the emergency number for Carter. Meet me at the drop off with everything you know in twenty." She snapped, closing the phone as she finished. Returning to the main room, Melanie began replacing the gear she had taken off.

"We've got a lead, are you coming?" She asked Deacon as she shrugged her jacket back on. Maybe some action would do both of them some good.

The map wasn’t difficult to draw out. Deacon included a detailed key that showed camp the way it was before the attack, and the parts he recalls from during and immediately after. Each of these was drawn in two different colors of vibrant ink. Blue for the original layout and red for any major or noticeable differences. In the time it had taken her make finish her phone call, Deacon had had time to scribble in some trees along the perimeter and even draw the beach in detail. He didn’t realized how bored her had become until she re-entered the room and he let out a breath of relief, “A lead, huh?”

He stood up and shrugged into his favorite jacket, “Where to, Agent Thorn?” He asked, raising his eye brows in wonder.

"A drop off point about ten blocks away." Melanie explained as she took a moment to visually sweep the room. Everything was still secure, she hadn't opened anything other than the two doors, so she wasn't worried about locking anything down. They'd be back soon anyways as long as everything went well.

"I'll fill you in on the way, but this should be a simple drop and grab. A contact has some intel that could prove to be important." Walking towards the door, she was briefly thankful that she didn't have any protocols to follow in order to leave. This stupid thing was ridiculous and wouldn't keep any Demi-God that she knew of out. Then again, no one had asked her on this one.

The steps flew by as she ran to the bottom floor, starting to call the shadows the instant that they reached the empty landing. "Ready?" Melanie asked, waiting to proceed until she knew Deacon was prepared.

Deacon followed Melanie down the stairs, thankful that he was in shape because these stairs would have been a nightmare otherwise. After a curt nod verifying that he was ready to go, Deacon pushed through the door and out on to the street. He glanced from side to side and pulled the black hood over his blond hair. The action was mostly for the sake of hiding his face, but he was careful to make it look like he had felt a chill in the air, "How about you?" He asked, not bothering to turn and look at her.

"Yep. Are you running out there?" Melanie asked, slipping out the door behind him and into a deeper set of shadows on his other side. It really wasn't a bad idea for him to go out in the open for this one. A second set of eyes would make her feel more comfortable than having to keep him in the dark. If he could see, then she could at least cover him. Heading in the direction of the drop off, Melanie called over her shoulder to let him know which direction to take. "We're heading south. The drop off is in a park not far from here. How do you want to handle this?" She would rather be back at the safe house with this intel sooner rather than later, so that maybe they would have some concrete data in their hands.

Deacon looked down either direction of the side-walk, knowing that the threat of monsters attacking out in the city was higher than it ever would be on Concordia. It had be so long since he was in any real danger that this was exhilarating. He nodded in response to her question, making sure to make it seem like he was just stretching or something. His plan was to simply follow the shadows along the wall and keep look out for any trouble that may pop it's way into their path.

((we can add a monster to this thread if you want. they attack in the city constantly when they smell demi-gods.))

Taking off at a brisk pace, Melanie made her way towards the drop off. They were going to a small park, which was generally deserted this time of night. She hadn't had issues with this one before, plus it had been out of the rotation for a while. They should be just fine.

At least, that's what Melanie was hoping for. Checking every now and then to make sure Deacon was following, she walked down the familiar streets of New York. The ambient noises were comforting, almost too much, as she went along in silence. Though it wouldn't be uncommon for someone in the city to talk to themselves, she didn't want to draw any attention to Deacon.

The park was in sight when she heard the noise. Hair stood up on the back of her neck as she turned to face the alley next to her. From where she stood, nothing seemed to be amiss, but she could hear it. Stepping backwards and hoping that Deacon would follow suit, Melanie tried to find a more strategic place to fight from in case she was right. "Please tell me you don't hear that." She whispered as soon as she was close enough for only Deacon to hear her.