N/A: Please review! Also this is my equivalent of a Halloween Episode. Also I have forgotten to inform you. This story should be 12 to 13 chapters long... I will be sad when it ends.
Ludwig always looked forward to this day, it was the one day that he truly excelled at. It was July the 13th, or Camp Clearwater's equivalent of Halloween. He personally was great at it, because, though he tried not to be, most of the campers found him "intimidating". He smiled secretly, the Italian laying in his lap, she looked at him, eyebrows knit together. He smiled and he ran her hands through her hair. She sighed and closed her eyes and leaned into his touch. The corners of his mouth tugged up and the Italian sighed.
"You look so much better when you relax…"
He chuckled lightly, before he stopped moving his hands through her hair. She open her eyes and stared at him. It was disconcerting to him actually, to have her caramel eyes on him, she blinked.
"What?" She asked.
He blinked and shook his head. "Oh… What are you going to be for tonight?"
She sat up and smiled. "Sakura told me that she had something for us…. You know if-a you don't already have a costume…"
His signed with relief. "I didn't have anything… Thank god for Sakura." She laughed and leaned against him, basking in his heat.
Alfred just stared at them. "You guys need to sit down. You make me feel inadequate."
Antonio appeared next to him and laughed. "I agree. My bigger question is how did you get Mrs. Mary to switch you guys?"
Ludwig shrugged and looked at Feliciana, who smiled evilly. "I have my ways…"
Alfred shuddered and looked once more at Ludwig. "Ready to start?"
Ludwig pushed Feli off, who shivered and pouted, before standing up and walking towards the kitchen in the middle of Mary Randall.
Alfred followed closely behind. Ludwig nodded at him as they both began to set out the little plastic cups filled with colourful liquids.
The campers began to stream in moments later. The two units of 7-9 year olds, poked at each other, laughed and sat down at the three wooden tables. Ludwig cleared his throat, instantly gaining all of the attention in the room.
"We have three things to do for the next two hours. We will start with our first design challenge. You have 40 minutes to split into groups of five and come up with the most menacing Halloween themed Mento/Cola cannon. We will then proceed to have a war. Materials are in the far corner, your time starts now."
Kids made the let's-be-partners-best-buddies at each other and as soon as Ludwig said go, there was a mad rush towards the scrap pile. Alfred laughed and the kids began ripping duct tape and poorly cutting cardboard, and the councillors just sat back and watched.
40 Minutes Later….
They all sat outside on the main lawn. Six Halloween themed canons stood in a row. Feliciana stood in front of them, eyes tightly closed as she gripped a clipboard and smiled.
"I will be the beauty pageant judge." She waltzed over to the first one which was decorated with pumpkins and and gourds. Her caramel eyes popped open and she walked around it, nodding and writing notes. She repeated this six times, before skipping back to the judges table. At the last moment she whirled around, looking into the eager faces.
"We will now have the length contest and then we will announce the winners… One at a time. On Ludwig's mark…" The German man held up a hand, before seemingly giving into to gravity. Team one watched it fall. "GO!"
The "Cannon Fodder" was continued, the farthest spray reaching up to 3 meters away. In the end though, Team One won the distance contest and Team Three won the design challenge. They began to clean up, only after Alfred chugged a defective bottle of coke. There was laughing and spilling and quite a lot of stickiness. A gentle smile hung on Ludwig's face. Feliciana tucked herself under his arm and sighed. He looked down at her and made a face. She smiled.
Life was perfect….
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Madeline was once again sitting in her camp, staring at nothing and once again, two girls sat on either side of her, one gently poking her in the face. Madeline shook her head. The slightly younger girl was now sitting on the ground tying her shoelaces together. She looked up and saw a pair of mirthfully disapproving violet eyes.
She stood up and wiped the dirt off of her pants. "That was going to be funny…. By the way, we are finished cooking again and are now playing mafia." She walked off leaving Maddie alone with Madeline. The younger teen stood up.
"Your "Not-boyfriend" just arrived, so I'm off." She walked away in the same direction as Abby. Madeline looked around and sure enough, Alfred was sauntering up the path. She watched him as he walked right past her and into the game of Mafia that was going on around the fire. Madeline closed her eyes.
Sounds of laughter, snarky comments and the clatter of plastic dunk sets. Her eyes snapped open, and she strode over to her campers. They sat there laughing and messing around and it appeared as though Alfred took over the game.
"Just as Sammy…" He winked at her. "Walked through the door and INTO A PORTAL!" The teens rolled their eyes. Alfred pouted. "I thought that was pretty good…."
Anika yawned. "Maddie can do better." All eyes in the circle turned to face the brunette, who puffed her chest and stood.
"Gruesome or child friendly?" Smirks and evil smiles burned across the circle.
"Okay gruesome it is. Once upon a time…." Madeline sat down and the real game began.
After lunch was finished, the two councillors (Alfred had stayed, saying his unit was at waterfront and had no need of him) ushered the campers into the pavilion. Madeline perched on the front table as everyone settled, before she spoke.
"So what are we going to be for July the 13th?"
"Mable Pines."
"Jack Frost."
"Minnie Mouse."
"Sherlock."
"50s star."
"What are you going to be?" Hazel eyes probed Madeline. Alfred turned to her.
"Yeah Mads, What?"
She smirked. "Wait and find out." There was snickering and Alfred pouted again. Then there was silence. She broke it. "So what are you guys doing for the end of summer?" Instantly there was noise. Lexie spoke above it all.
"This is the first year we are allowed to stay up until sunrise! So of course we are going to party all night!" There was yays and a few hell yeahs. Madeline chuckled.
"Is there a theme?" This time Alfred answered.
"Yeah, for the first time ever, its music through the ages." Madeline looked at her campers who seemed surprised.
"Really a theme this year? But I already had a dress…" Niamh looked at the ground, obviously disappointed. Madeline stood up.
"How many of you already have a dress?" Every girl's hand went up. Madeline began pacing and muttering running over ideas in her head. She snapped her fingers, startling everyone who had been watching silently.
"What if I helped you edit your dresses? Or made accessories to help it work better?" Alfred looked at her in awe.
"You can do that?" Madeline gave her best "are-you-fucking-kidding-me?" look, before exasperatedly sighing.
"Yes dumbass, I can. You know who my mother is and you expect me not to know how to sew?" Alfred rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the ground embarrassed.
She turned to the tables. "Same for you gentlemen, I can edit your stuff as well. We have two weeks left… We will devote an hour a day to this." She paused. "Lets get to knives. I don't even want to see the look Natalia will give me if we show up late again." She watched the kids grab their backpacks and stream out following Alfred.
This was going to be fun….
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She was gorgeous. Ivan couldn't help but stare. She had a white dress, the feathers made of book pages were glued to it randomly getting thicker towards the bottom. Behind the tule there were fairy lights making her look unearthly. On her back there was a huge pair of wings made of book pages. She looked magical and Ivan felt stupid in comparison to her. He was dressed as Genral Winter from the comics. Chun-Yan though, she was some sort of gorgeous book goddess. They had been in charge of handing out candy under the huge oak trees near the flagpole. Chun-Yan lit up the tiny place and Ivan thought it looked like it had been dipped in evening light. His favorite part of the whole thing is when she twirled. It made his heart stop and that was just ridiculous. She came back over from her most recent storytelling extravaganza and leaned back into him. He circled her in his arms and she sighed.
"You're warm." He smiled.
"So unlike my soul, da?" She laughed and that made him smile wider. A sound caught his attention. Down the path leading from the last spot, emiged Lovina dressed as mob boss, holding a lantern, guiding a string of children, all dressed in different, if not slightly spooky costume.
Chun-Yan released herself from Ivan's arms and glided over to meet them. Only to be stopped by Lovina. The Italian looked the Chinese girl straight in the eyes and said, "You need to calm the fudge down, you are making the rest of us look like slackers." Chun-Yan laughed.
"Well maybe that was intended." Lovina rolled her eyes and the five year olds following her ran after Chun-Yan like she was their savior come to life. He watched as she sat them in a circle and began to tell her story once more, her dress catching the awed look on their faces. Ivan tuned out the world and began to daydream, only hearing the rise and fall of his love's voice.
That is until a sound caught his attention. It came from behind him, a place where rustling sounds should not come from. He picked up his fake sword and stalked towards the bushes. Then he sliced it through.
"Ow! What the hell…" A scrawny boy tumbled out. "Watch where you're swinging that thing!" The kid had dirty blonde hair and was dressed up as Aquaman. After this realization, it struck Ivan why this was odd.
"Where is your group?"
The kid shrugged. "I left them…" Ivan gave him a look and he put his hands up defensively. "Only because I have to warn you! I was working with the people who have been doing the horrible things, but after what they did to Arthur, I was less certain… But Gilbert was the last straw…" The kid shuddered. "I can't tell you their name, because then they'll know it was me and I don't want to spend my last days here in the infirmary. I can tell you that they are planning something awful for the End of Summer… And that tonight, we'll be hunting Madeline. Keep an eye on her and don't tell Alfred. He'll freak out and send her to an isolated place, only making it easier for us. Be careful." With that the kid disappeared into the bushes, leaving Ivan alone with his thoughts.
Chun-Yan could notice a difference. In the way he talked, walked and looked at the world and it, whatever it may be happened in the last five minutes. As soon as the group left she confronted him.
"What happened Ivan, Aru?"
The russian looked at her as though she was a flower. She punched him.
"Who is going to get hurt?" He gawked at her in surprise.
"How did you?" She rolled her eyes.
"I can read you like a book. So Spill."
"Madeline."
"How?"
"I don't know he didn't tell me. We have to…" He trailed off looking at her now hardened features.
"Yes." No one hurts her family. Madeline was a councillor and lived in her cabin, there fore she was family. Anyone that could control Alfred the way she did, certainly earned Chun-Yan's respect. She stared into Ivan's, telling him the plan without uttering a word. He nodded. She smiled.
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July the 13th was one of Arthur's favorite parts of the summer actually. He spent the whole night scaring the shit out of people and cackling. It was his kind of holidayish thing. This year for the whole dress up thing he was dressed as the 11th doctor, who was his unabashed favorite. His boyfriend ever the creative one was dressed as a cat, because get this, he was cold. Sure…. Arthur had thought, he saw what the frenchman was doing. This was no time for thinking about costumes. Arthur straightened himself and his thinking. He was headed off to war.
Every year, they held a game of capture the flag. A HUGE game. Arthur had always been one of the team captains. This year, Madeline was the other. She glared at him and he glared at her as they stood across an invisible line from each other. He spoke.
"Ladies first." She shot him a look before replying.
"I think it's babies first." A hush fell over the gathering of at least 50 people. Arthur shrugged.
"I will take no shame in picking first." He scanned the crowd for the right person. Alfred would honestly be his first pick, if he had not heard what a little birdy named Ivan had told him. So he would have to settle for second best.
"Ludwig." Francis looked insulted and he just smirked. Madeline shot him a confused look, before picking next.
"Alfred."
"Francis."
"Ivan."
"Antonio."
"Chun-Yan."
It continued until everyone had a team. Mary began the process of starting the actual game.
"Present your flags."
Madeline had made them this year. They had decided to do it themed with their costumes. So Arthur held out his white flag with TARDIS emblem on it. There were oohs and ahs, but not quite as many as when Madeline held out her green flag with Mjolnir and nordic designs behind it. He knew she had put more time into her own but he really couldn't complain, because one, the TARDIS she had done was fabulous and two, her Genderbent Thor Cosplay was to kill for. Mary continued.
"11," She said gesturing to Arthur. "Your teams jail in the Mess' porch and Thor your jail is the Gaga Ball it. You will have 5 minutes to hide it, you time starts now!" The last thing Arthur saw before being whisked away was a very happy Captain America (Alfred) Skipping after a god of old. He smiled.
30 Minutes Later…
Things were not going well for him. So far he was way back in the woods, nearing the stables from a path only he and Alfred knew about. He also knew that more than half of his team had been captured and that Alfred was well on his way to the waterfront. A rustle of leaves made his blood run cold.
He had initially thought that someone was coming to tag him, so he scurried up the nearest tree, only to discover how close he truly was to the barn. Moonlight shone down on the two figures that stood there. Madeline was talking to Chun-Yan albeit quietly, but just loud enough that he could hear the Canadian giggle about something the other teen said.
That was when he saw movement in his peripheral vision. Three black figures, ninjas, crept closer to the barn from right below him. This is what Ivan was talking about…. He made a bird call and Chun-Yan was instantly on high alert, cutting off Madeline's story so she could hear.
He saw Chun-Yan whisper something and the Canadian shook her head vehemently and haul an obviously not so fake Mjolnir over her shoulder, ready to swing at whatever came her way. Suddenly the three figures charged out of the woods, straight towards them, their obviously not so fake swords raised in a strike position. Chun-Yan ripped off her skirt and grabbed a stick engaging the first combatant. Arthur watched at Madeline pulled Alfred's not so fake Captain America shield off of her back and engaging the second combatant. Two people, that left one more ninja to stab them in the back. Arthur ripped off his tweed coat and pulled out his sonic screwdriver and a fencing sword he stole from Francis. He jumped down from his tree and ran into battle.
15 Minutes Later….
The three assassins laid on the ground. Chun-Yan had used the tulle from her dress to tie hers up. Madeline had knocked her's unconscious with her hammer. Arthurs was the only one not completely incapacitated, that's not to say there wasn't a sword pointed at its trachea. Its eyes gazed up calmly at the Britton as the teens caught their breath. There was a sound from the direction of the meadow. Cheering. Damn. When the three councillors looked back down their assailants were gone.
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Getting knocked out was not fun. They ran through the woods, dragging the Flash behind them. The one dressed as Arrow looked at the other dresses as Canary and nodded. Thought the attack didn't go as planned, there was a traitor in their midst. Someone had listened in on them, and now they would meet their katanas. The final plan was already in motion.