Hello, people! I am here with a brand new chapter, hot off the press! (Not really, I wrote it out before, and then I edited it, so this more like a bit warm off the press and whatnot.)

And, anyway, someone gave me a prompt and I wrote it out, but it's really short (like 200 words), so it's going to be the bonus extra of this chapter! So this chapter is dedicated to krikanalo for the prompt!

Disclaimer: I don't own HoO

Piper

"Hazel, you traitor," Marcy snarled, advancing with her twisted cut-through-anything dagger. "You sided with the Greeks. The enemies."

"No, I'm still a Roman," Hazel reassured, holding out her hands to show that she meant no harm. "But this attack on our 'enemies' is totally uncalled for, and—"

With three swift strikes of the hilt of her blade, Marcy had Hazel lying with her face in the sand with limbs that weren't functional. "I'll deal with you later," she spat at the younger girl. Then she pressed on toward Leo and Piper, who backed away uncertainly.

"Stop!" Piper yelled, her hands sprayed out in front of her in instinct defence. Marcy hesitated for a brief second.

"What is this?" she demanded, raising her blade threateningly. "What are you doing!?"

"What do you mean?" asked Piper innocently taking back her arms and shrugging widely. "We're friends. I would never try to hurt you."

"Hurt… me?" asked Marcy. Her eyes seemed to glaze over slightly.

"And you wouldn't do it to me either," replied Piper. Thinking on her toes, she added, "Wouldn't it be nice to just sleep for a while?"

"Sleep…?" clarified Marcy, her eyelids suddenly feeling heavy. Of course, she wasn't actually tired—Piper's charmspeak was simply convincing her brain that she was, even if her body didn't agree.

"Yes, sleep," confirmed Piper. "And you can also pass me that nasty pointed dagger while you're at it. You won't need it when you sleep."

"Sleep," repeated Marcy. Her shoulders fell slightly, but she forced them back up again.

"What sort of bewitchment is this?" she demanded forcefully, though you could tell there was some drowsiness in there.

"No bewitchment," Piper told her soothingly, her voice a lullaby. "We're friends—remember?"

"You're cursed," said Marcy. "I'll get you. I'll kill you. But after a short nap… I'm so tired…"

She had barely finished her sentence before the Roman fell forward, asleep in the air. Piper yelped and jumped out of the way, allowing Marcy to fall on her front, snoring drowsily, snorting sand out of her nose.

Piper turned to Leo to give him a high-five, only to find him knelt in the sand snoring. Hazel was in the same position. Her charmspeak had been so powerful she had lulled her friends to sleep unintentionally. Piper, unsure of what to do, nudged Leo with her foot.

"Wake up," she told him. When this tactic didn't work she tried, "Hey, Leo, they're giving away free tacos at Walmart from one to one thirty, and it's already one twenty-nine."

Leo's eyes shot open. "What?" he spluttered, getting sand in his mouth. He got to his knees, spitting over and over again to get the taste of sand out of his mouth.

"What did you do?" Hazel asked, sitting up with her arms dangling behind her like a rag doll's. The effects of Marcy's karate-jitsu hadn't worn off yet.

"Charmspeak," replied Piper, her voice returned to normal. "Powerful stuff."

"Quick, guys!" said Leo suddenly, startling them. "We have to get to Walmart. Free tacos for another minute! We need to make it—!"

"Not really, Leo," Piper told him, and his shoulders slumped in defeat.

"Is charmspeak dangerous?" Hazel asked Piper curiously.

"Only if I want it to be," she replied with a grin. When she saw Hazel's horrified expression, she laughed. "It's okay," Piper reassured her. "I'm safe."

"Yeah, but camp might not be," said Leo, pulling out the super-important two sheets of paper from his pocket and spreading it out on the sand. Piper knelt down next to him, Hazel doing the same. The Roman quickly skimmed through what they had.

"So you think Gaia sent someone back in time with Cronos's help?" she asked. "I'm sort of surprised. After what he did to her…"

"What did he do?" asked Piper, just out of interest.

"He overthrew both parents, of course," explained Hazel. "I'm not sure how exactly, but Cronos overthrew Gaea and whoever her husband was just like Zeus did it to him."

"That messes up things a bit," said Leo. "But not important. We just need to figure out how we're gonna stop the ruthless Romans from slaughtering us all." He turned to Hazel. "No offense."

"It would be a lie to say that I hadn't taken any, but I'll let it slip you by this one time," Hazel replied.

"Do you know some way we could get to your camp before the attack?" Piper asked Hazel.

"Uh, I got here by plane," Hazel announced, "but the others are coming by warships, which would sort of become a problem."

"So, is your camp in Florida or something?" Leo asked.

"California," Hazel replied.

"But… then how do you guys plan on showing up?"

"Ships can be enchanted to fly," Hazel replied. "It's actually pretty fun."

Leo sighed. "Of course," he said. "In the demigod world, anything is possible. Even purple dragons that dance like Barney and eat little kids."

"I don't know about the Barney part, but there are quite a few purple dragons," Hazel said. "In fact, there's this guy at camp who got his arm eaten by one."

Leo sighed.

-o-O-o-

Super-short request prompt!

Prompt: 'those pesky plumbers'

After a nice long workout, Christine spotted a water fountain not too far away. She jogged toward it, wiping sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. She leaned down and pressed the button that was supposed to make the fountain spew water, but nothing happened. Confused, she pressed it again, and the water shot right at her face.

She frowned, moving out of the way and pressing the button once more. The water shot up forcefully, straight up into the air, going at least twenty feet. Christine looked around at the campers around her to see if they thought this wasn't normal, but no one really cared. She took a couple steps back and pushed the button with the tip of her sword. Something that was definitely not water flew out and hit her in the face, smothering her in green, thick slime.

"Those pesky plumbers," she muttered, stalking away to take a shower at her cabin. "What is wrong with people nowadays!?"

A few feet away, the hidden Stoll brothers silently high-fived each other.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that.

Please check out my other story, The Lost Tales of HoO. I don't update it as often as this one, but it's still good. (At least, I think it is...) And remember to review! I did the math, and for every chapter we have around eight reviews! So to those eight reviewers who constantly review, thank you!