Hello, everyone. This is a REWRITE of a previous version. It has also gone from a two shot to a one shot.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
When the magicians arrived at Brooklyn House, it was oddly quiet. Freak was squawking up a storm on the roof, and Philip was splashing in the pool, but other than them, it was dead silent. Sadie called for Carter, ready for an update on the monster from Long Island, but he didn't appear. She checked his room. Nothing. She checked the library. Nothing. Eventually, the entirety of Brooklyn House was searching the mansion for the missing magician, but no one found him.
By dark, Sadie was getting worried, even though she'd never admit it. The caramel haired girl commanded everyone to continue searching for Carter, and if he hadn't returned by morning, they'd expand their search to outside of the mansion walls.
It was ten o'clock at night, and every occupant of Brooklyn House was seated in the living room. Sadie had told them they could go to bed, but no one had; she wasn't surprised. Their teacher-not to mention their leader and friend- was missing, after all.
Sadie's fingers tapped against her knee caps, a nervous habit she'd never managed to shake. She was concerned for her idiotic, clumsy older brother. He'd gone after a dangerous monster no one knew anything about with no back up. He could be hurt... or dead.
She'd pushed him into the mission; she'd told him to go, even though no one else could be there. What had she been thinking? She should've told him to wait until one of them could go with him.
At exactly 10:13 PM, Carter strolled into the living room, looking like a total wreck. He smelled like a sewage plant, which no one could blame him for since he was chasing a monster down by Long Island Sound. Drenched in water, it dripped off of him and onto the floor, leaving a trail of greenish liquid in his wake. In his arms, he cradled a baby crocodile and a necklace dangled from his fingertips, glinting in the dim lighting of the room.
Ignoring the strange accessory, the random animal, and the putrid water, Sadie demanded, "Did you catch the monster?"
"Oh, we caught him, all right," Carter replied, strolling over to the pool and depositing the baby animal in the water. Philip swam over, curiously, to check out his new roommate.
"Apparently, a baby crocodile had managed to get a petsuchos around his neck, and it turned him into the monster," Carter continued. "W-I got it off of him, and I brought the crocodile back for Philip to play with. This is the necklace he had on," Carter held up the necklace for everyone to see. "We need a safe place to keep it. For now, I'll put it in the Duat until we can find a safer place to hide it."
With that, her elder brother thrust his hand into the Duat and dropped off the necklace before retracting his hand.
As he turned to face them and give them his undivided attention, the members of Brooklyn House finally got a good look at him without the crocodile and the necklace to distract them.
He was soaked in greenish water and what may have been sea water, and he smelled like he'd crawled out of a sewage pipe. His black curls were matted with a darker substance, and Sadie prayed that it wasn't blood. The skin that could be seen was littered with scratches and burns, and luckily, none looked dangerous; Sadie remembered that Jaz had given Carter a healing potion. He must've taken it, but healing potions can only do so much. Anyway, he looked like he was ready to drop, and Sadie could tell he'd been using a lot of magic, a lot more magic than any magician should be using without any time to cool down. His wrist was wrapped with a piece of papyrus, and there was blood had seeped through, but it was now brown and had obviously dried a long time ago. Finally, Sadie thought she saw some blood through a hole in his jacket, but he turned away before she could get a better look.
"Carter," Jaz broke the silence. "I think I should go check out your injuries in the Infirmary."
Waving away her offer, Carter, being the stubborn idiot he was, responded, "Nah, it's not serious. I just need to rest."
Carter began to head towards his room, either oblivious to or simply ignoring the dozens of eyes watching him go. The crowd was just about to disperse when a loud thump! echoed through the silent air.
Everyone whirled towards the sound, and for a moment, no one moved. No one even breathed. After a few moments of mounting fear, Sadie dashed towards her unconscious brother, who had collapsed and had yet to get up. She rolled him onto his back and started shaking his shoulders.
"Damn it, Carter, you idiot! Wake up!" She shouted.
Suddenly, strong yet gentle hands were pulling her away from her fallen brother, and Sadie struggled almost as much as she had when social services was taking her away from her dad several years ago.
"Sadie, stop struggling! Let Jaz do her job!" Walt told her as he locked his arms around her to keep her still.
Normally, Sadie would've loved being held by her boyfriend, but her brother always came first.
"What do you know, Walt?" Sadie shouted. "He's not your brother."
But Sadie didn't resume her struggles. She relied on Walt to keep her standing as she watched Hugo and Marcus load her brother onto a stretcher.
"Sadie, you can come to the Infirmary, but you cannot touch him until he is healed," Jaz's surprisingly firm voice met her ears, and Sadie nodded.
Sadie pried herself from Walt's arms and followed Jaz and the two boys to the Infirmary, watching as the cut on her brother's side stained the pristine white of the stretcher red...
When Carter awoke from his deep sleep (more like unconscious state, I guess), he was staring at the ceiling with intense pain flaring through his body and a death grip on his hand. Brown eyes scanned the room, noting the medications, the potions, and the IV in his arm (Carter cringed; he'd never liked needles) before he noticed his little sister staring at him with red eyes.
Carter was surprised. His tough little sister hadn't cried in front of him (or anyone else, as far as he knew) in many years. Remembering the incident in the living room, he winced, wondering how bad it was if it made Sadie cry.
"Carter, thank the gods you're awake," Sadie gasped before surprising him by slapping him upside the head.
He should've seen that coming...
"How dare you scare me like that?" She demanded. "Jaz told you to come to the bloody Infirmary, but did you listen? No, because you're too stupid and stubborn to realize when you need help. If you'd come here when she asked you to, you probably could've taken a potion and been done with it, but no! You're a stubborn idiot, and not only have you been out for three effing days, but you have multiple fractures and broken bones. Not to mention the fever and the magical exhaustion you had when you came in."
Carter smiled, shocking his younger sibling. "Didn't know you cared, Sadie."
"What? Of course, I care, you dumb dolt! I'm your sister, for Isis's sake! If anything happened to you, I don't know what I'd do!"
"Sadie... I'm sorry. I honestly didn't think I was this bad."
Finally calming down, slightly, Sadie seated herself in a chair at her brother's bedside.
"All right, Carter, what happened out there? Tell me everything," she said.
"Okay, so I went to Long Island to kill the monster, but it was much bigger than I imagined. It was a crocodile that was ten times the normal size, and there was a necklace around its neck, a petsuchos. First, I turned into my avatar and tried to knock it unconscious so that I could focus on the necklace, but that didn't work. I tried a shabti; I didn't have time to shape it into something especially useful, but I did manage to distract it by lodging a very deformed hippo in its nostril. Then, i turned into a falcon and attacked it; I turned back into a human once I hit its neck, and I unclasped the necklace. The crocodile turned into a baby one-the one in the pool- before I called Freak to take me back here."
Sadie could tell he was leaving something out, but she chose not to badger him. Carter was grateful; on the way here, he'd realized just how curious Sadie was, and although he trusted her, he knew she'd want more information than he had. He couldn't have Sadie judging people she'd never met until he had more information. He needed to know if these campers were friends or foes before he dragged his sister into it.
"Okay, so this was just a freak accident," Sadie finally said. "The baby crocodile somehow got that necklace around its neck and became that thing."
"Actually, I have a theory that it might've been a revenge tactic, but I'm not sure. I'm going to be doing more research on it if you want to help."
"What do I do?"
Carter smiled; he'd always loved his sister's determination.
"Research anyone who would want to harm us, and see if you can find a pattern in history, such as how they get revenge on their other enemies."
His sister nodded and stood to leave.
"Oh, and could you send Cleo in real quick?" Carter called after her.
A few moments later, Cleo strolled in, a few scrolls in her hands; she'd obviously been reading, as usual.
"What do you need, Carter?" She asked.
He stared at her with driven look in his eyes that he got whenever he was faced with a challenge he was dead set on completely, regardless of the dangers.
"Cleo, I need you to get every book on Greek Mythology that we have," Carter requested.
Cleo nodded, confused, but turned and left, knowing better than to argue with either of the Kane siblings when they had that look in their eyes.
Carter reclined in the bed, grinning. He was going to find out more about this Camper Boy-Percy- if it was the last thing he did.
Little did he know back then, it just might be.
There will eventually be a spin off. I'm hoping to post it this week, but I make no promises. It will be called I Promised, so keep your eye out for it.
