When The Mist Fails: A Legionnaire's Guide To Mortal Authorities

Leandra was enjoying the hot humid air of Alabama again. She had managed to get leave, and tickets to Alabama to visit her family, and she had brought Tiberia and Gunther along too. It bad been a good weekend, no duties, no drills, no monsters or injuries. She almost felt at peace.

The trio was out in downtown historic Athens, basking in the sun as Leandra showed her friends the town. Not many people were out, and the diminutive Roman actually felt fairly relaxed. She was still armed with her pugio, and she had her backpack, but she wasn't exactly being paranoid. It was a good week.

"Hey, if we go down Jefferson a little more, just past that big church is a little soft-serve ice-cream place. Excellent ice cream, you guys should try their strawberry." Leandra said as they walked. "Want some?"

Ah yes, sweet home Alabama...or rather, Leandra's sweet home Alabama. Gunther-Klaus himself have never been to Alabama. In all honesty, the only states he's been in is New York and California. He looked around as they walked through the town, er city. He wore a black shirt with dark blue jean shorts with tears on them. His shoes were Vans which went perfectly with his outfit. "Soft served ice cream? Sure I would like that." He smiled down at the beautiful daughter of Angerona. "Matter of fact, I'll pay. How does that sound?" The son of Veritas looked between Tiberia and Leandra.

Leandra slapped a mosquito absently as she looked at the ice-cream options. She hadn't had Kreme Delight in years, and it would be excellent for this kind of muggy day. She was in black denim shorts and a bright purple tank top, something she hardly ever wore at camp, and then her backpack from her mother. She waited as the other two ordered their ice cream, then ordered a strawberry cone for herself. "Thank you." She said to the cashier, a middle aged man with a white paper hat on.

"No problem, hon, you three have a good day now, y'hear?"

Leandra smirked slightly, she knew it was innocent southern hospitality, but she could bet dollars to denarii that Tiberia hadn't appreciated being called hon by a stranger. She led them to a small bench across the street where they could eat in peace. There was a few minutes of silent company.

She looked around as she continued on her ice-cream, noticing a police cruiser a block away at the south side of the square.Then she noticed something that made her blood run colder than the ice cream she was eating. A big black mastiff looking thing.

Despite actually being around the size of a regular full grown mastiff, and being on a leash held by a jogging owner, that is not what Leandra's brain registered. She saw a huge black dog, and she was certain she saw the red eyes instead of brown. She pulled her pugio quickly, yelling "HELLHOUND!" in a high pitched terrified squeak as she abandoned the last bite or two of ice cream.

To be honest, she wasn't sure if she should attack or run. Could she attack while running? Fight or flight was active, but it was stuck between gears. Her training said attack, but every bit of her said run. For some reason, the hellhound wasn't attacking. It was just...sniffing and looking confused? Now was the time to attack. Yes. Kill it. Leandra lunged, her knife headed for the hellhound, her heart in her throat as adrenaline replaced all coherent thought.

(Feel free to pull her back. The "hellhound" is actually a harmless black mastiff dog. With a very confused owner.)

After the German demigod ordered himself a medium chocolate ice cream with brownies mixed in with it. His was a bit more expensive, but he didn't mind. "Danke, ebenso." Gunther thanked the cashier in German and  took his white plastic spoon and dug it into his chocolate filled soft served. "Wow, this is really good." He stated after he put the spoon in his mouth. The favor of it seemed to fluid his mouth with chocolate-y goodness. The Roman demigod glanced behind him and frowned a bit, wondering if he wanted to get more. However this thought was shattered when he heard Leandra call out "hellhound!"

Gunther's snapped back forward, automatically reaching for imperial gold ring that was in his backpocket. But he paused and narrowed his eyes. "Wait, that's not a hellhound...Leandra no!" He shouted and chased after her, picking her up from behind and placing her over his shoulder. Both the jogger and the large mastiff looked frightened by the little girl who seemed to want to kill the dog.

"Sorry about that, she....mistook your mastiff for something else. Carry on." He laughed a bit before carrying off back to where Tiberia was.

Tiberia had jumped up when Leandra had yelled and ran at the hellhound, but Günther saw it before: it was just a normal dog. Briefly putting her ice cream cup away, she went to get Leandra back, smiling apologetically at the dog and owner.

"Deepest apologies."

OOC: Sorry it's so short D:

Leandra flailed as Gunther picked her up. Obviously he was being controlled by some monster telepathically. Not that that made sense. She twisted, then flipped her pugio around so as not to stab him and slammed the hilt into his left kidney. It was enough to make him drop her.

Blue and red lights flashed and a siren sound of whoop-whoop filled the air as a old crown vic cruiser pulled up and a man in a black uniform stepped out. Leandra wasn't paying attention to it as much as she was the big black horror, who was now growling. She didn't get a chance to attack again, because Tiberia grabbed her from behind, pulling her away. She was having trouble wriggling out of the grip. "TIB! LEMME GO!" She yelled, kicking out pretty hard until she felt it connect with something. It wasn't the hellhound, or Gunther, it was...oh dear. A police officer.

*********

Officer Holt had been enjoying his lunch from the local pizza place when all hell broke loose over by Kreme Delight. Looked like a kid trying to attack a dog with something, and then a brawl with her two friends. Sighing, he flipped the siren on and started the car. He drove right up to them and got out as the smallest one was grabbed by the older female.

He looked at the man and dog who had been accosted. "If you could back away, please, to a safe distance." He said sternly as he started to approach the three teenagers. "What seems to be the problem?" He asked, trying to move closer to get to the struggling teen. "Calm down, just calm down, okay?" Then she kicked in her flailing at his him hard in the thigh. He grunted, looking up. This kid was not getting out of this now.

While Gunther was haling Leandra away, he felt a sudden pain in his lower back. "Ouch! I think you hit my kidney!" Without thinking, the Roman male dropped Leandra on the side walk, gripping his side. He stumbled away from Leandra and Tiby to resemble himself and thoughts. Then he heard the sirens which meant the cops were now involved. After watching the cop try to contain the little daughter of Angerona, he shuffled back over to the group. "She didn't mean it sir! She thought the dog was...something else! We promise not to kick another police officer." Gunther couldn't lie, but he could give vague details.

"You, little one, drop the weapon, then up against the car, hands spread apart." The officer said as Tiberia guided Leandra towards the car. Leandra was starting to calm down a little, but her agitation was amping back up. This was a bad idea. This was a very very bad idea. On a scale of one to screen doors on a submarine, this was somewhere around gargling in the Lethe. Nevertheless, she basically counted it as an order from Tib, and the hellhound wasn't around anymore. Why did it leave? Was the cop in league with the hellhound? Or did the mortal cop scare the demonic dog off? It didn't matter. The small girl dropped her pugio, then put her hands against the hood of the car. It wasn't long before the officer was briefly frisking her, removing her backpack and then cuffing her. At least her shoulder stayed in socket.

"Non bene, Tiberia. Secretum prodere non possum. Non potest mendacium. Nostrum tantum optionem est taciturnitas." Leandra said quietly to Tiberia as the officer put her into the back seat of the car.

***********************************************

"Alright, you two, do you have any weapons on you? If you do, tell me now." The officer said patiently, now that his main threat was out of the way and tucked safely into a vehicle. These other two didn't seem like as much of a threat. But what was with the other language? Was that Spanish? Or maybe French. Actually kinda sounded like Latin, but who in the world speaks Latin? Priests. And historians. And he had a feeling that a teenage girl was neither.

Gunther tried to hold back his tongue, but he couldn't. "Yes we have weapons, but not firearms." Dammit, Gunther! Did you really have to had the last part?! He said to himself as Leandra was saying something to Tiberia. He looked between the two demigoddesses and back at the officer nervously. His curse of not having the ability to lie was going to get him someday. "Please, just let us go home. We won't do anything else bad, sir." The son of Veritas didn't want to go to the police station and get questioned. Questions from police officials meant answers from Gunther. Real answers that could put all of their lives in danger.

"Place the weapon on the ground, then put your hands against the vehicle, both of you. Now, child, I am not arresting you because your friend is afraid of dogs. I'm arresting you for harassment, assault and concealed weaponry. Because your friend doesn't know how to deal with her phobia of dogs without trying to kill a pooch. And if you all cooperate the charges may be lowered or dropped and you turned over to your parents." Officer Holt said as he quickly frisked the two, removing the weapons from the guy and ensuring that there were no other weapons on the girl. "Alright, in the car. You should both fit in the backseat with your friend. I'll forgo the cuffs on you as long as you behave."

******************

Leandra slammed her head against the cushion of the seat, trying to contort her way out of the handcuffs, but she wasn't having any luck at all. She sighed, then kicked the back of the chair angrily. Monsters always had to ruin leave.

The son of Veritas frowned and pulled out his "knife" and placed it on the ground. "You're making a mistake, sir." He mumbled his breath as he placed the "concealed weapon" on the ground next to Tibby's. Was he seriously gonna call their parents? That wouldn't be good. First off, Gunther's dad was in Berlin while his mother was somewhere in the universe. Most likely sitting in some law room. He got in the police car, staring down at his feet. He realized that speaking now would only endanger the lives of both Leandra and Tibieria.

****A little while later, at the police station****

Leandra was glad to be out of the handcuffs, but she wasn't happy about the situation at all. She rubbed her wrists a little as she sat in a room with a giant two-way mirror that she knew they could see through. Gunther and Tiberia were in the room with her, and they were all waiting for the police officer to come back. None of them had really talked since they got in the car, so Leandra was feeling rather useless and dumb. She rubbed her arms to try and comfort herself. "Sorry, guys, didn't mean to get us in this mess." She said quietly. She had calmed down quite a bit. "Still don't know why you wouldn't let me just kill the hellhound."

At that moment, the door opened and a man in a suit walked in. He wasn't the arresting officer, he was average height and a litle balding. "Good afternoon. I'm Detective McDondald. Officer Holt asked me to come in and deal with y'all." He said as he walked to the other side of the table and set a folder down. "We're going to get a few things over with right off the bat. I don't know who you three are, and that bothers me. What I do know is that each of you had a lethal weapon on you, and you're pretty decent at fighting, and at least two of you have very similar tattoos on your forearms. I'm betting, young lady, if you took your jacket off, or rolled up your sleeve, we would find a tattoo there too. So what I want to know is what your names are, and what this gang is that requires tattooing it's members like this."

Leandra's breath caught and she felt like she didn't have the physical ability to exhale. So much for her anxiety getting a little less. "They aren't gang tattoos. We aren't part of any gang." She said, her voice a whisper.

"No? I suppose you might be right. Unless you all really love ancient Rome, I'm guessing SPQR does not stand for the Senate and People of Rome." The detective said, tapping his folder a little. "So. Names?"

"It's...uhm. alright. You couldn't really help it." Gunther said as he exhaled. He glanced over at the daughter of Angerona and at Tiberia. They were really in a pickle now. He had never gotten into serious trouble, not even at Camp Jupiter. Firstly, if he did, his father would bail him out, then punish him afterwards.

The son of Veritas listened to Detective McDonald talk about what he was informed on and everything of the sort. "O-our names? Mine is Gunther-Klaus Heinz."He asnwered honestly.

Leandra put a hand on Tib's arm to calm her down. Tibby didn't deal with mortals well, apparently, and this could get difficult. "Calm yourself!" Leandra hissed very quietly.

"Okay then, Miss Skippy-o. Big fan of Rome, huh? That why your friend here spoke Latin? Something about secrets and lies?" He looked to Leandra briefly. "You're the last one to state your name, Miss."

Leandra didn't say anything, she just stared defiantly at him. After a few seconds, she shot a look to Tibby. After another moment the detective sighed, "Alright, why were you all out about in town square carrying weapons? Expecting a fight?"

Gunther still couldn't believe that he was sitting in a police station. They could've at least offered them a donut or a cup of coffee. The Roman watched as the detective, Leandra, and Tibby talk, er, argue. "We have to protect ourselves, sir. There are things that exists in this world that would make your skin crawl and your blood chill..." The teenager had a serious expression on his face. The best thing for him to do is act crazy. "May Justitia find us not guilty." He closed is eyes and tilted his head upwards.

"Well, actually, what you're all facing is not the assault on Officer Holt, which could be charged as a Class C felony and brings up to three years in prison. It's weapon violations for carrying concealed weapons. Which is a misdemeanor worth a fine of $50-$500 or up to 3 months in our county jail. Depending on what the judge says." The Detective explained, though he was looking at Gunther with confusion. "What kind of horrible things are you expecting? Robbers? Murderers? I've seen them all. And who is Justita?"

Leandra sighed, rubbing her arms a little. "It's cold in here. Justitia is the Roman goddess of Justice."

Gunther lowered his head and stared down at the concert flooring. He began counting the specks that were splattered randomly over them. 53. Fifty-three spots in one square. His mind was wondering like it always did, but he was able to chime in saying on word, "Monsters." And with that, he looked the detective directly in the eyes.

"We aren't criminals, sir. We're protectors.We're the heroes of Rome."

"Monsters. Mythology freaks. Working on a play. Mhmmm. Alright, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to go out and talk to a few people for a minute. Then I'm going to come back, and we're going to get you processed and...probably evaluated. If you would all be so kind as to give me the names of your legal guardians, you'll get out of here much faster." Detective McDonald said as he stood up. "Give me a few minutes."

When the door shut behind McDonald, Leandra let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. "Um, so, as far as the law is concerned, my parents actually exist. But, uh, Veritas and the lovely Scipios do not."