"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!"

The first thing she did was blast the multivitamin bottle to colorful bits.

Clarisse yelled in surprise and winced. Her hands were scorched from holding the bottle before it'd been destroyed.

The Hunters were being flocked by mutant birds and pigs. They were doing fine, but they were slowly running out of arrows. The co-lieutenants Kayla (theHalfbloodhuntress) and Bella were fiercely stabbing at a towering grizzly bear fifteen feet tall with spiked skin and two heads.

"Sleep sleep sleep sleep," Clovis muttered, still lying spread-eagled in the dirt like a murder victim.

This seemed to have no effect whatsoever. Circe had as much energy as before. Her hands were constantly shrouded in colorful sparks, flames, or mist. Miranda had stirred, and was attempting to wake Hazel while waving her Celestial Bronze sword at two boars with foaming mouths.

Circe still had all the energy to talk as well, even while fighting with both Reyna and Hylla. Clarisse had been turned into a shrew, and had been nipping at Circe's feet before being kicked into the trees.

A daughter of Apollo, Tristan (ImNotCrazyImAFangirl), was hacking at an iron-skinned humanoid figure that roared a lot. It had burst out of the ground without warning. Perhaps it was guarding the area, or perhaps scary iron monsters appeared in London on a daily basis. Her twin sister, Sky (SkyDaWolfGamer), was fighting alongside her.

All but two of Circe's attendants were up and fighting, having been energized somehow by Circe. They were causing tons of trouble now, throwing random magic items that shot electricity or turned someone into a dancing frog.

Circe had created a staff out of thin air, and was blasting magic at Reyna while sparring with Hylla. "You see my dears? I've gotten much more powerful than you remember, correct? I'd appeared in Tartarus to see Pasiphaë. Of course I didn't trust her enough to try to speed up her regeneration, but I let her teach me how to control the Mist, and in turn, I taught her charmspeak." The witch rolled her eyes, "She will not be coming back anytime soon. But I am enough to stop all of you!"

Hylla's expression hardened further. So that was how Circe had made a sword materialize to kill Lacy. Normally the Amazon Queen wasn't fond of Aphrodite/Venus spawn, because they reminded her too much of Circe's island, but she saw how brave the girl with braces had been when she'd resisted the charmspeak. "Your Mist doesn't impress me," she growled. She thrust her spear at her, but Circe therw up a green shield, which faded as soon as Hylla's spear bounced off.

"Oh, but it should!" Circe cackled. "And my charmspeak will impress you even further. No one is able to resist it for long."

The sorceress snapped her fingers, and her three students stopped fighting and ran to her side.

Reyna was about to try attacking, but what the four enchantresses said stopped everybody in their tracks, "STOP."

Everyone stilled, including the animals. Even the trees seemed to have heeded her words. Leaves stopped rustling, and suddenly the street was silent.

Circe spoke out in a tone layered with charmspeak, "Dear heroes..." She purred this while sounding somehow commanding at the same time. She gestured at Lacy, "Stop fighting, and there will be no more loss. Do you wish to cause more harm?"

A few people shook their heads.

"That's what I thought." Circe's voice became gentle, "Now children, do as I say and I'll stop the wedding. I won't get so much power, and I'll let the poor innocent prime minister go free. Just do some simple tasks for me. Do we have a deal?"

There were some mutters as the demigods tried to resist the charmspeak and reason with themselves.

All the guys were nodding in agreement, even Clovis, who had sat up. Circe flashed him a blinding smile.

Well...not all the guys were affected. Michael Kahale wasn't since he was a son of Venus, but he was currently in the form of a turtle.

Mitchell was also unaffected, and was subtly scanning the bushes for something. Probably Drew Tanaka, who must be able to resist Circe's charmspeak easily. He started slowly backing away.

"Do you all agree?" Circe asked again.

The Hunters of Artemis shifted uneasily. Some started to move their heads in disagreement, but Circe gave them the puppy eyes of death. So they nodded.

Circe's assistants were spewing pink fog from their hands, which was no doubt something that was going to mess with their heads.

Hylla moved first. "Sister, move back," she yanked Reyna back, away from Circe as the mist—or Mist—swirled toward them.

But their movements were slower, weakened from the charmspeak.

"Relax," Circe said, "listen to my voice, and only mine."

"And MINE!" Reyna managed. She turned to the demigods, and the Roman ones seemed to stir just a bit at the voice of their praetor. "Do not do as she says! She—"

The Mist suddenly sped up, and curled around her feet. She faltered. Hylla finished for her, "She's a lying monster who won't keep promises!"

Miranda Gardner unfroze and frantically tried slapping Hazel awake.

"ENOUGH!" Circe bellowed, and a flash of light hit Miranda in the head and she flew into a stop sign.

Sky and Tristan, who seemed to be stirring, went still again.

Mitchell took another slow step back.

The Hunters were wearing expressions of high determination, but weren't having much luck resisting, The Amazons and Reyna were going in and out of charm, and so was a young daughter of Hades, Katanga Winterlight (crazed_fangirl2002).

Hylla reached out and tore a tree right out of its roots, her Queen of the Amazons belt giving her immense physical strength. She swung it at Circe as easily as if she were swinging a baseball bat at recess.

Circe shrieked in surprise and ducked. An attendant tried blasting it, but the tree was too fast, and she ended up getting hit across the street.

Mitchell took the opportunity to sprint over to Drew Tanaka, who was still cowering behind a bush.

She spun around, and her eyes widened as her half-brother knelt down beside her. The sleeves of her pink sweater was covered in rubbed-off makeup. "What are you doing here?" she hissed.

"Drew," he rolled his eyes, "I thought it'd be obvious. You need to counter her charmspeak. You're the only one of us who can."

She glared at him with her dark brown eyes, "Not only do I not want to, but I can't. Have you heard her charmspeak? I...my power is even weaker than Piper's. Why isn't she here to save the day?"

"She's battling a bigger enemy, the goddess of night, and it's far to risky to try to get her out of Hogwarts."

"Hogwarts," she sniffed with distaste. "A ridiculous school name for a ridiculous girl."

Mitchell rolled his eyes, "Come on Drew. Please, you have to try."

"I can't," she repeated, lowering her eyes to the ground.

Children of Aphrodite had an uncanny ability to read other people's expressions, even if they'd just met. Drew always used charmspeak to convince them that she was thinking something else, or that she was confident.

She wasn't charmspeaking now, or even trying to control her expression.

She was just like most bullies: acting mean and cruel when all they really wanted to do was to hide how insecure they really were.

Drew brushed her hair back behind her ears, which were surprisingly void of her jangly hoop earrings.

Mitchell finally saw that she wasn't wearing any part of her vast collection of jewelry, except for a ring on one finger and a hairband on her wrist, which didn't really count as jewelry.

Drew noticed him noticing, and sighed. She pulled a gleaming dagger out of the scabbard around her waist. It was a tantō, a Japanese blade, deadly sharp. "I've never even fought with this thing. Never even tried. What was the point of taking off all my loud accessories? I can't fight to save my life."

He tried to hold back from shaking her. Honestly, where was her courage? "How about this. Just wake Hazel up."

She blinked at him, "What?"

"She can control the Mist much better than Lou can, and she must be able to resist charmspeak to some degree, but right now she's unconscious. Just shout for her to wake up really loudly okay?"

"How could she—but I'm not—will it even work?"

Mitchell knew he was running out of time. Reyna and Hylla were doing a great job at keeping Circe talking and occupied, but she was soon going to lose patience. Lou Ellen was desperately trying to conjure up some Mist, but she just wasn't Hazel. "Listen. Medea healed people with her voice, and Piper brought Jason back from death."

At the mention of Jason's name, she flinched, looking ashamed.

"It'll be easy, just like how you wake us up when we oversleep. Just without the slapping and the Shoes of Shame."

Drew bit her lip and looked out at the street. Reyna and Hylla were keeping Circe distracted and talking, but it wouldn't last.

Mitchell sighed and pushed her further, "That witch killed your half-sister. Do you want me to die as well? And everyone else out there? Do you want to die?"

"Lacy..." she muttered. Then her face set with a never-before-seen look of grim determination. "I should get closer."

He resisted the urge to thrust his hands up to the glorious sky and scream "FINALLY!" to the glorious sun.

Instead he nodded, and they made their way from bush to bush. They got as close as they could to Hazel before things got too risky.

Drew summoned up all her emotions, because that was what Aphrodite was all about. She concentrated on her fear, desperation, shame, and most of all, the love for her half-siblings and Camp Half-Blood. She put all of that into her shout, "HAZEL LEVESQUE WAKE UP!!"

Hazel shot awake, and Circe whirled in stunned bewilderment.

The daughter of Pluto rolled aside just as Circe threw a potion that broke open on the ground. It steamed and instantly dissolved a hole in the dirt.

The pink mist raced towards Hazel like she was a vacuum. Reyna shouted a warning, but it warped into Hazel's trademark white Mist.

"Di Immortales!" Circe snarled. "You were supposed to be in a coma for years!"

That comment did not sit well with Hazel, "Circe, you're going underground."

She made a face of concentration and held up her hands.

"STOP!!" Circe and all her students screamed.

Everyone went back into a daze, even Hylla and Reyna, but Hazel didn't falter. The Mist was slowly spreading out over everyone. Nobody was sure what she was planning, but Circe clearly didn't like how she looked so confident. The sorceress flung her arms in big flourishing gestures, making spikes shoot out of the ground and branches and rocks fly at Hazel's head.

Hazel returned fire by blasting her with gems, which Circe was barely able to deflect.

After a thick layer of Mist had covered everyone, Circe suddenly dropped her hands in surprise.

In her point of view, the demigods had snapped out of a daze and were raising a wide assortment of weapons and magical items.

Then Circe laughed, "You cannot fool me! I know this is a trick, and I can see through your little Mist tricks just fine!"

Hazel didn't respond.

Reyna spoke up, "Face it Circe, your charmspeak isn't working on us anymore."

"Do you take me for a fool?" she demanded. "I saw the Mist spreading, I am aware that this is a trick. It won't work! I'm not Sciron! Give up!"

Hazel shifted nervously. Drew could just hear her, calling for help.

"It's real," she said, and suddenly, she felt like one of the most powerful demigods present. "We're overpowering you, just like you feared."

Circe managed to scoff, "You are not. You pathetic demigods think you can beat everything. But in reality—"

"Stop trying to convince yourself," Drew said, "charmspeak doesn't work on the person using it. We're going to attack you at any moment, and we'll succeed. Just surrender."

"Yeah," some demigods chimed in. Then everyone was nodding. The illusion the Mist was creating was slowly becoming reality.

"STOP IT!" Circe screamed desperately. "STOP THIS AT ONCE!"

"We won't," Drew said, and everyone joined in, voicing their resistance.

"No! No!" Circe wailed. She backed away, but Hylla and Reyna blocked her. "No matter! I will marry the prime minister anyway!"

She growled in frustration and disappeared in a puff of purple smoke, taking her students with her.