Hot Chocolate and Muffinz: BELATED MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Callisto: *wearing a Gryffindor Christmas hat* Merry Chriiiistmass!
Dustin: Jingle beeeelllsss~
Annika: Hey, Merry Christmas!
Hot Chocolate and Muffinz: What are y'all doin' here?!
Traci: WHEEEEEEEEEEEE! LET US SING A MERRY CHRISTMAS~
Faith: Hush up, Trace...
Clarissa: Will you all calm down?!
Hot Chocolate and Muffinz: ...Aren't you guys from my mermaid story on Quotev?
Traci, Faith, Clarissa: Yes.
Hot Chocolate and Muffinz: Oh gods.
Kane: What the-
Claire: Merry Christmas! *tosses a spinning helicopter model in the air*
Calliope: *dodges helicopter* Merry Christmas...Claire, stop throwing your inventions everywhere!
Hot Chocolate and Muffinz: Okay. Pandemonium. *zaps everyone back to their respective dimensions*
Percy: Blue cookies for Christmas!
Annabeth: Seriously, Seaweed Brain?
Hot Chocolate and Muffinz: ...Let's just get this over with.
An unknown video pops up on your computer screen, much to your surprise. You warily click it, hoping it's not one of those creepy viral videos that actually do host viruses. The video fast forwards by its own and stops...at a grotesque picture of a freaky monster that could honestly be compared to the basilisk in Harry Potter. You pretty much fall off your chair with a scream. The video fuzzes out with static to reveal Claire's room, which is definitely more messy than before.
Cautiously, you scramble up to your chair and squint at the screen. Kane, Claire, and Callie all are sitting in their previous chairs, but look a lot more tired than before. Their clothes are ripped in a lot of places, and they don't exactly look squeaky clean.
"Hey there again," Kane forces a weak smile, feebly raising his hand in greeting.
The two girls nod tiredly, the bags in their eyes seemingly more prominent that before.
"You're most likely wondering why we're not exactly presentable right now. We can explain that," Kane states.
"We went to Hypnos and asked him for vials of our memories," Typical Claire sums it up, holding up a vial of glowing blue liquid.
"Careful with that one, Claire!" Callie leans forward. "So anyway, Claire's attempting to wire our memories into videos. That way, you can pretty much watch our lives in third person."
Callie leans back on her chair, and Kane continues. "We drew lots just before we set up the camera. Callie got first, Claire got second, and I got last."
It is only then you realize that Claire is fiddling with a few suspicious looking wires on her lap, trying to braid them. A small coffee table nearby has three vials of glowing liquid on it - one green, one silver, and one blue.
"How's it going, Claire? Tell me we don't have to cut this short," Callie pleads.
Kane tosses some sort of gadget at her, which Callie expertly catches. Upon closer inspection, it looks like a Wii controller. Actually, nope - it is a Wii controller. A few more seconds of extremely loud sparking and vehement cursing in Claire's direction passed, and the auburn-haired girl looks up with a grin on her face, the wires triumphantly braided in an intricate pattern on her lap.
"Done. Let's hope it doesn't make anything explode," Claire says cheerfully as she grabs the vial containing blue-colored liquid recklessly.
"Oy, careful," Kane barks.
Claire ignores him as she dumps the knotted wires into an empty beaker. She makes an annoyingly slow show of pouring the vial's contents into a beaker.
The screen flickers as she pours it in, and Kane stares into the camera, his brow furrowing.
"Claire...what exactly is your invention supposed to do..." He asks slowly.
"Why do you ask?" Callie frowns and stares at the camera as well.
"Because the ground around the camera is flickering," Kane answers in a monotone.
Both blanch and stare at Claire, who is attempting to hold the beaker steady. It is popping sparks like no tomorrow, and the contents are bubbling like mad. "I was trying to make it so the camera could see the past, but apparently I made a mistake!"
"What in Hecate's name did you do?" Callie yells, definitely panicking now.
"C-Callie," Kane stammers, "you're flickering!"
Callie looks down, blanches again, and begins to let out some rather colorful words in Ancient Greek. "CLAIRE, WHAT WENT WRONG?"
"Time travel. It's going to send you back right into time to replay...everything as the camera records it," Claire mumbles out, now barely managing to keep the beaker upright. "You'll be literally flashing through your memories."
"Oh, Thoth's beak," was all Kane could muster.
Callie opens her mouth to say something. Neither ever found out what she was going to say, because there was a bright flash and she was gone, the Wii controller clattering to the ground.
Claire lowers the beaker shakily. "What have I...done?"
You blink in surprise at the surprising turn of events. You are even more surprised when the screen fuzzes out into static, before clearing and revealing a small elementary school, the US Flag waving proudly in the air.
School seems to be over when the school bell rings and crowds of children jostle their way outside to get to their parents. Some are walking home, some in groups, whilst some seem to be alone. As the last children exit the school gratefully, a teacher stepped out of the doors. She was awfully young-looking in your opinion, and you thought she would look more in place in a cheerleader outfit instead of that starch white school uniform that all the staff wore.
"Miss Blitz!" The teacher called out to the remaining students.
Several heads snapped to attention, but the camera seems to focus on a certain nine year old girl with strikingly familiar bright green eyes. Dressed in cut-off jeans, a white tank top, sleeveless denim vest, and a pair of glossy black combat boots, she definitely stood out from the rest of the girls, who were fixed into girlish dresses and blistering shoes with complicated straps. In simpler terms, this girl stuck out like a sore thumb. She didn't seem to be with anyone either - just walking home all by herself. By the looks of the other children who were still there (giggling like crazy psychos), she was pretty much one of the outcasts of the school.
"What?" Miss Blitz called back lazily, fiddling absentmindedly with the straps of her backpack. Her eyes darted back and forth with an alertness that made teachers squirm. Every few seconds or so her leg would involuntarily kick at the ground hard with no indication that it was hurting her.
The teacher stiffened slightly at her careless and somewhat rude reply. Not enough for just anyone to notice, but the green-eyed girl clearly did. Her eyes narrowed to slits for a second before returning to normal. The teacher didn't seem to notice. She pursed her lips for a second before calling out again. "It's about your project, Calliope. I need to discuss something about it with you."
With that, the blonde twirled on her heel and marched back into the school. Calliope gritted her teeth angrily. Freaking teacher expecting her to just follow like a lost puppy. She was just a substitute too! With a small huff, she raced up back into the school, making sure to "accidentally" hit some of her schoolmates with her backpack. Their cries of pain brought a smirk to the young girl's lips, but it quickly vanished once she entered the school.
The school was dimly lit, and Calliope seemed to be following the teacher's distant footsteps (or maybe she had just an epic memory and a good guess on where she was being taken.) After several looooong minutes of walking, Callie finally emerged through a classroom door, which thankfully had the windows open, letting the light stream in. Teacher Cheerleader stood in the middle of the room, hands on her hips, ridiculously reminding any onlookers of a teenage girl preparing for cheerleading try-outs. The dim light
Calliope barely kept this thought to herself as she dropped her backpack on a nearby chair. It was amusing to place her substitute teacher in a cheerleading outfit, the kind the high school girls wore. Even more amusing was the fact that her teacher would probably fit in with their crazy workouts. "Yes, Miss Emera?" Callie cringed at her futile effort to keep her voice blank.
"You've been quite troublesome to get to, Calliope," Emera almost...did she just hiss that?
Calliope raised an eyebrow but kept silent. The room was awfully creepy-looking with the sun going down and its last rays of light pouring inside the dark room. Miss Emera silently stalked towards Calliope, in a cliche horror movie way that made everyone think "NO! RUN! IT'S A TRAP!"
Of course, Calliope was either stupidly brave or just deaf. Take your pick. She didn't budge, not even when Miss Emera towered over her menacingly, her hands back on her hips like a cheerleader. A very scary cheerleader. That's when things became weird.
The color drained straight out of Emera's rosy cheeks. Her skin turned as white as chalk, and those mesmerizing crystal blue eyes that had captured the hearts of every male teacher in one morning faded into a crazy blood red color. Emera's sparkling white smile that had reassured many a student slowly elongated into razor sharp fangs.
So while any normal nine year old would have bolted, screaming for their parents, Calliope stared blankly at her substitute teacher who now greatly resembled a vampire. Miss Emera the vampire stared right back in disbelief, wondering if maybe she shouldn't have brushed her teeth that morning. The bloodstains might have at least frightened a whimper out of this strong-willed girl. Even after just one afternoon of teaching, this vampire knew young Calliope Blitz was a tough nut to crack.
Emera pondered about screeching madly like a banshee, but decided against it. That momentary decision gave Calliope her opening. Her combat boot went high up, crunching successfully against the bloodsucker's jaw. Before Emera could even react, Calliope went into a martial arts frenzy, kicking and punching like no tomorrow. The supposed vampire had a bronze prosthetic leg? No problem, it crumpled easily with a swing of a nearby school chair. The other leg was brown and shaggy with a donkey hoof? Calliope kept calm and kept kicking.
"Stupid human child! You are not worthy to be a daughter of the Lady!" Emera wailed as Calliope's boot cracked against her jaw for the umpteenth time.
"Keep talking, bloodsucking donkey robot," Calliope grunted as she sent another roundhouse kick towards the crazed monster.
She couldn't hold out for much longer, Calliope knew. Every hit that met its mark took something out of her as well. There was only so much damage a nine year old could do, no matter how well versed in fighting. Every blow was weakening, and Emera had regained enough sense to try and dodge the slowing attacks. Their fight had taken them to the middle of the room, Calliope on offence and Emera on defense. The sun's final rays were fading rapidly as they fought.
"You're going to tire out, little sweet. Then I will devour you!" Emera cackled madly.
"Shut up," was Calliope's lame reply. It was taking all her energy and effort to hold back the psychotic vampire-donkey-robot hybrid. Because let's be honest: nobody wanted to be eaten alive.
The light was almost gone, and Emera was firing back attacks of her own. Calliope blinked back her fatigue, struggling to keep herself defended. Emera finally managed a feeble hit - a strike to the ribs. Calliope stumbled backwards from the stinging pain, falling clumsily on the floor. Emera cackled wildly, baring her fangs as she prepared to feast.
"CALLIE, CATCH!"
From the direction of the door flew a bronze dagger, zipping through the air. Calliope reached up, grasping the handle in mid-air, and flung it straight into Miss Emera's belly. The monster was too slow to process the sudden turn of events, and when she finally realized there was a dagger in her belly, it was too late. With a spine-chilling screech of pain, Emera exploded into gritty dust...all over the dazed Calliope.
"Eww," the girl muttered as she spat out Emera's remains.
A dark-haired man stepped into the fading light, grasping a similar bronze dagger in one hand and car keys in the other.
"Dad?" Calliope mumbled as she was pulled to her feet.
"Callie, I was so worried, kiddo," the man muttered as he embraced her in a hug.
Calliope pulled away momentarily to gaze at her father with her bright green eyes. "You have a lot of explaining to do."
The video cuts off to static, and quickly reveals a relieved looking familiar trio.
"We're about to run out of time," Kane mumbles, pointing at the camera.
"Let me get this straight. I get whizzed back into nothingness every time we do a video? Aww, lame!" Callie whines.
"At least you didn't get stuck there forever," Claire protests as the screen shuts off by itself.
Hot Chocolate and Muffinz: Had to cut that short, sorry! Anyway follow, favorite, and review!
Callisto: Hot Chocolate and Muffinz owns nothing except her OCs, the plot, and several unimportant things used to write this, including the internet.
