I am so sorry for the slow updates...I'm being slowly killed by school...and yeah that's really my only reason. Sorry guys.
"Terrible plan," Clarisse interjected, throwing a dagger across the room, which stuck into the metal wall hilt-deep.
"Stop being such a party pooper Clay-Clay," Connor said.
"This isn't a party Stoll," Clarisse shot back. "This is battle strategy. We've been in this truck for hours, and we haven't thought of anything."
"I'm sure we will," Chris assured her. "And it hasn't been hours."
It was the morning of the wedding, but it wasn't due to start for another two hours.
Clarisse, the Stolls, Katie, Miranda, Clovis, Lou, and some other campers were in a Camp Half-Blood strawberry delivery truck parked two blocks from the prime minister's house. The Stolls had called a favor with Hermes to carry them here, which had been a terrifying journey. The truck was more furnished than the usual ones, because they used this one to travel long distances.
They were in the back of it now, where the Hephaestus kids had added chairs that were bolted to the floor, and other random gadgets nobody knew how to use.
Reyna, Hazel, and Michael Kahale were scouting the London area, and they were waiting for them to get back. They weren't sure why Reyna had to come along, the only thing they knew was that she had a score to settle with Circe.
Drew Tanaka groaned and slapped her pillow against her face repeatedly. "Why are they taking so loooonnngg?"
"It's only been ten minutes," Katie said.
"Clarriiseeee," Travis wailed.
"WHAT IS IT YOU SCUMBALL?!!"
"Do I have your permission to slam my head against the wall?"
The daughter of Ares stood up and marched towards him, "I'll help you with that."
Travis gasped and ran around the room, then used his winged shoes to fly up and hug the ceiling. "SOMEONE STOP THAT MAD LADY!!"
Clarisse was about to throw her spear at him, but Chris touched her arm. "Relax. We'll think of something."
Miranda sighed. "Reyna should have stayed, she's better at this."
"It's not like she's going to be gone for long," Lou reasoned. "They should be back in at most ten minutes."
Clarisse wasn't satisfied, "She told me to think of something while she was gone. Make the most of our time."
Drew Tanaka suddenly gasped, like an asteroid was going to destroy the Earth and all its beauty products. "Lacy, is my makeup smudged? Tell me!"
"Um..." Lacy tried to answer politely. "The pillow moved your lipstick and mascara around so..."
Drew screamed.
"Only a little!" Lacy reassured her. She leaned over, "I'll help you fix—"
Drew just screamed again.
"Oh shut up!" Clarisse told her. "You've been whining since you got on. Just suck it up."
"NO YOU SHUT UP!!" she screeched.
Clarisse went silent.
Clovis stirred, "What? I wasn't talking."
Two seconds passed, and Clarisse exploded again, "GET OUT OF MY TRUCK!" Maimer sailed through the air and impaled Drew's curly hair to the wall. Clovis promptly fell over.
Drew gave the daughter of Ares a seething glance, "I CAN'T!! MY HAIR'S STUCK TO THE WALL HON!!"
Clarisse's glare was so murderous that Drew immediately yanked her hair out and scrambled out of the truck.
"Come back!" Katie yelled, standing up. "Clarisse, I can't believe you did that."
"You heard her earlier, she didn't want to be here in the first place. I don't even know how Chase convinced her to come."
"She didn't have to," Lacy said. "It was Piper who threatened her into it."
"Doesn't matter," Clarisse grumbled. Katie and Lou had gone out to find Drew, who had run away.
Minutes later, the truck bounced slightly as several people got on at once, and Clarisse stopped picking at her spear and looked up.
In all her praetorship glory, Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano stood glowering. Her appearance was shimmering slightly from Hazel's magic, but the expression on her face was nowhere near friendly. "What is the meaning of this?" She was holding Drew by the arm, Hazel and Michael behind her, and Katie and Lou biting their bottom lip in slight fear.
Clarisse hesitated as the Stolls closed and locked the truck doors, "She doesn't even want to be here."
Reyna looked ready to yell at her, but they were interrupted by something small hitting the top of the truck.
They looked up at the dent in the ceiling. Hazel was about to say something before the roof was blown apart.
They scattered, instantly drawing their weapons as small flaming bits of celestial bronze rained down.
A ball dropped through the hole. It looked like a glass ball filled with fire, and now it was shaking.
"MOVE!" Reyna jumped forward and spread her cloak on the sphere, pressing her hands on it. It exploded downwards, and the praetor nearly fell through the newly made hole before Michael pulled her back.
Maniacal female cackling filled their ears as three more fell through and buried themselves in floor.
With a flick of her hand, Lou broke open the doors. They had only run about five yards before the vehicle exploded into flames ten feet high.
"Argus!" Katie cried frantically. "Where's Argus?"
The many-eyed security guard waved at them from behind some bushes.
Argus was blasted backwards by blue light. To their horror, a guinea pig with a eighty eyes scurried into Circe's perfectly manicured hands. She stood to her full height, her black hair, braided with silver and gold, fell across her shoulders in perfect ringlets. And she was in a wedding gown.
She held Argus by the foot in disgust. "Ew!" Circe flung the animal behind her, which was caught by one of her five attendants and shoved inside a magical purse.
Circe laughed, "You think ten or so campers can stop me? Me and five of my best students? I didn't even need you to lead me straight to your truck."
At this, Reyna shot a glare at Clarisse, who grit her teeth and looked away.
A silver arrow flew towards Circe's face, but in a puff of smoke it turned into colorful candy, and the sorceress caught it in her mouth.
They all prayed that she'd choke, or get sugar high and crash a car and die.
She didn't. Instead she glared in the direction the arrow had come from, which wasn't from the group of demigods.
Bella (xXGirlOfTheNightXx), the new lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis, already had a new arrow loaded, and so did the rest of her twenty sisters. "Don't forget the Hunters."
"And the Amazons!" Hylla yelled. She had five women with her, all fully armed with weapons and mean faces.
Circe expression betrayed no emotion. She acted as if the reinforcements were nothing, and turned back to the campers. "Oooh, Reyna. You are praetor now? And Hylla...my favorite attendant...Queen of the Amazons? Why, at the spa—"
"Percy Jackson and Annabeth released pirates which burned down your school of magic," Reyna snapped. "It is no more, and I have never thanked them enough for that."
"Exactly," Hylla snarled. "Where were you all this time?"
"Relocating!" Circe wailed. "I barely escaped with my life. I searched the ocean for years to find another suitable island. When I did, and returned to America to find new recruits, I discovered my the death of my dear friends Pasiphaë and Medea, and killed by Piper and you, Hazel Levesque. And worse, I received news that the traitor Calypso had been sprung from her prison and wooed by a son of Hephaestus!"
"Where is your new island?" Reyna demanded. "I will burn your spa down once more."
"You will never find it!" the sorceress snapped. "No person but me and the gods can find it twice. My school will forever be there, even if I am dead!"
"Enough talking," Hazel said. "Let's fight."
A hole opened at Circe's feet, but with a puff of smoke, a glass floor appeared over it and Circe cackled.
"Brothers, but almost like twins," Circe smiled, staring at Connor and Travis.
"I love experimenting on twins." She shot bolts of blue light from her fingers, which Connor managed to avoid in time, but Travis was blasted in the chest. He fell to the ground, unmoving.
"BROO!" Connor wailed, dropping to his knees.
"Hazel," Hylla said urgently, "help us fight Circe. Let the others take out her attendants!"
The Praetor of Camp Jupiter, the Queen of the Amazons, and the Hero of Olympus fought the crazy sorceress.
The Hunters shot dozens of different kinds of arrows, none of them normal, and most of them not directly at the sorcerers, since they quickly found out that their dresses protected them like armor.
The ones that did the most effect of course, were the farting arrows.
The campers' Hecate cabin enchanted weapons did its work of deflecting spells, but they were still harder to avoid than normal weapons. The attendants were creating wild rabid animals out of thin air and setting them free on the demigods, and they had a hard time killing them. It was especially hard because three people had been turned into ferrets, and it was hard to tell which animal was the one trying to kill them.
Katie and Miranda subdued one attendant by restraining her with grass and flowers. Lacy, Michael, and Clarisse distracted another so Michael Kahale could get close enough to another to knock her out with his sword.
Circe looked back at her two downed students and screamed, "STOP!!"
Everybody froze, and it wasn't because of her sudden shout, but because it was a command. Charmspeak.
"NOBODY MOVES," Circe hissed.
They all fought to fight her words. The Hunters and most of the girls were better at it. Drew seemed completely unaffected, but she was hiding in the bushes.
Lacy broke out first, "NO! Come on people!"
Circe glanced at her, "Aphrodite spawn? No matter. You don't have the power of charmspeak."
Bella let out a battle cry, and all the Hunters fired arrows at once. Lunar Night (ApolloCabinAtCHB), fired three at once. Two were vaporized by Circe, but one hit the woman farthest from Circe, whose hair stood up straight like a porcupine like she'd been shocked, and fell over. Another went down, and the last attendant frantically tried to free the one in a cocoon of plants before getting hit by another arrow.
Circe screamed in rage, and with a big pushing gesture, ice and snow blasted the Hunters and froze them solid. Again.
All the Amazons had been frozen as well, except for Hylla.
Using that much magic took away the charmspeak, and the campers and Hylla attacked again.
Clovis's attack strategy was to keep pointing at Circe and muttering "sleep sleep sleep" over and over. It seemed to work, as Circe was getting a little more tired every minute. He did this while lying on the floor and pretending to be dead/asleep, so Circe didn't pay him any attention.
Connor and Chris were running around a lot. They seemed to be going crazy, throwing bombs at everything and deflecting spells.
Reyna and Hylla's weapons had been rendered useless by Circe's magic, and it was Hazel controlling the Mist that prevented Circe from shooting spells accurately.
Unfortunately, Circe had made a run for her attendants, and by touching two of them, and took all their strength, magic, and power.
With a flash of purple, Connor stopped breathing and fell on his face. His reaction seemed a little late, but everyone was horrified.
A bright yellow light flung Hazel into a tree, and crashing through the branches, she fell on top of Miranda. Both went unconscious.
Lacy, who had been trying to make Connor get up, suddenly ran straight at Circe, after shoving something into Clarisse's hands.
Surprised, Circe actually took a step back, then smirked as black smoke enveloped Lacy.
When it cleared, Lacy was still the same, and she launched herself at Circe, deeply cutting the witch's face with her dagger.
"How?" Circe screamed, her hand pressed against her cheek in pain. With a scream of frustration, she made a sword materialize in the air and stab Lacy through the chest.
"HOW?!" Circe repeated. "TELL ME!"
Lacy tried to speak, but you couldn't exactly say much when you have a sword in you. She managed to gasp out two words, "You're bonkers." Then her eyes stopped changing color, staying a beautiful sky blue.
"TELL ME NOW!" Circe yelled at everyone.
"Multivitamins," Travis said, then clapped a hand over his mouth.
Everyone's eyes looked at the Stoll who they'd thought had died. He and Connor sat up, "I ate one after we ran out of the truck."
So that was why Connor's reaction seemed delayed, and why they hadn't been defeated much earlier.
"We all ate one already," Katie lied pleasantly. In reality, only about half of them had gotten one. It was a bit hard making the vitamin exchanges unnoticeable.
"ARGH!" Circe screeched. "CURSE YOU HERMES!" She was throwing a tantrum now. "You may all be immune to spells, but you are still not immune to my CHARMSPEAK!"