The Awakening

Batman

"Batman," Keefe finished Sophie's sentence.

Sophie started crying a bit more at the mention of the name, while Keefe looked back at her and started to comfort her again.

The rest of us blinked.

We exchanged a look.

Then, we looked back at the weeping crybabies.

Of course, I knew that Batman wouldn't kidnap my sister's parents and sister, but I decided to go along with the small prank.

Leo, who had joined us in the room when he heard all of the commotion, Annabeth, Piper, Hazel, Frank, Nico, and Jason all seemed to be sharing my thinking, because they didn't laugh at all.

We all kept our stoic expressions, while the elves' faces exhibited great confusion.

"I'm so sorry, Soph," I started, muffling a laugh as a choked sob. "That's horrible. If. Batman kidnapped them, then there's no way to get them back."

Sophie, who had raised her head to look at me with a quizzical expression, caught on to my antics with our twin telepathy and reached out for comfort from me.

See, I totally would've given her a hug and fake-comforted her, but I was kind of attached to another being at the moment.

I shook my head slightly and nodded down at Jason. It looked like she was going to laugh from not realizing my predicament, but she covered it up well with another sob, much like mine.

We must be twins, or something.

"Okay, who is Batman?" Tam piped up, looking around at everyone in the room.

Annabeth and Piper were clutching onto each other, as if they were afraid of Batman.

Leo was hyperventilating in a corner over the thought of Batman kidnapping Sophie's parents and sister.

Nico remained indifferent as usual, but that's to be expected.

Frank was soothing a sobbing Hazel, wrapping his burly arms around her small torso. They were closer to the door than the rest of us, as they had arrived just a few minutes after Leo.

I didn't know what Jason was doing because he was facing the empty corner of the room, away from both the group standing and the two on the bed.

"He's like this evil creature of the night that attacks little children and families," Hazel cried.

"He's from the Forbidden Cities," Leo choked out through his heavy breathing.

I just continued to let fake tears run down my cheeks.

Someone give me a Grammy.

Keefe shifted on the bed to put his arms underneath Sophie's legs and back, effectively lifting her off the mattress. He shuffled on his knees to the edge of the bed and stepped off, still holding Sophie.

"I'm still confused," Fitz said, frowning. "I thought Batman was the good guy."

"Wait a minute," Dex suddenly said, looking at Keefe and Sophie accusingly. "Batman is just a fictional character from a movie."

Silence.

Then, the guffawing and chortling of all of the demigods, plus Keefe, sounded throughout the room.

"ENOUGH WITH THE PRANKS!" Tam shadow-yelled to all of us. The chill that ran down my spine was enough to shut me up.

It seemed like it worked for everyone else, too, because Jason went absolutely stiff against me, Keefe almost dropped Sophie, Piper and Annabeth were actually shivering this time, Nico seemed a bit affect, but still indifferent, Leo was not even breathing anymore, Biana looked even older, Frank and Hazel had both tensed up, and the rest of the elves were frozen, as well.

"Now," Tam continued calmly, as if that hadn't just happened. "What's really going on? Because, I know Sophie, and she can't fake tears like that to save her life."

"Her family was taken by the Neverseen," Keefe said truthfully, all jokes aside, a somber expression filing his face.

"Why lie about that?" Biana asked.

"Foster did it to me first," Keefe argued like a kindergartner.

"Yeah, because you went behind my back and pranked Percy and Jason with Leo. I just wanted to prank you for once," Sophie admitted. "I didn't know you'd actually start crying when you found out that your favorite superhero could be evil."

"You can't do Batman like that, Foster," Keefe said tightly, actually sounding in pain.

Keefe finally set her down on her feet, and everyone turned their attention on the both of them.

We all kind of stared at them, while they tried to look innocent.

Uh uh, not buying it.

"So," Keefe started awkwardly. "You guys wanna go get some breakfast? I think Della's making Mallowmelt for breakfast, courtesy of your two favorite elves."

"First of all," Fitz seethed. "You need to tell us how to erase the damage you caused, then we can beat you to a pulp."

"Okay, let's not get ahead of ourselves, Wonderboy. I mean, I am the only one who can reverse all of that teal," Keefe replied, somewhat nervous.

Fitz's jaw ticked, but he remained silent.

"I need guarantees that you won't beat me up if I fix all of you," Keefe negotiated.

All of the prank victims and I nodded our heads. Except for Tam.

Tam's POV

He thinks he's so sly.

Too bad he didn't prank me permanently. I may have had the evil that is glitter all over me, but that would wear off over time.

Right?

"You're forgetting, Mophead, that my the damage done to me has already been fixed," I smirked.

"You sure about that?" Keefe asked smugly.

"What are you talking about?" I narrowed my eyes at the blonde mop.

"You didn't think I'd actually go easy on you and give you a temporary glitter makeover, did you?" Keefe asked sardonically.

That little . . .

"Fine, I agree to the guarantee," I groaned.

I still have yet to reveal Sophie's involvement anyways. Or, maybe I could use that as some good old 'sibling' blackmail.

I couldn't do all of the good things about having a sibling with Linh, because she was too happy and innocent. Sophie was the perfect little sibling that I could torment.

Muahahahaha.

Linh's POV

I heard all sorts of shouts, yells, and screams coming from Sophie's and Keefe's bedroom, so I steered clear of all of that.

I wandered into the kitchen, finding Della cooking platters upon platters of sweet desserts. There were two whole plates of Mallowmelt, another two of Custard bursts, and about six more of other elven desserts.

Sneakily, I dragged one plate of Mallowmelt out, intent on eating the whole thing after my tiring walk.

I was down to the last piece of Mallowmelt, when all of my friends came running into the small nook of the kitchen where I hid.

Of course, they came right when I was shoving the last piece in my mouth.

They started screaming like banshees and shouting out war cries.

I took that as my cue to run away, taking the large, crystal plate with me.

Hopefully, I don't get pranked again.

A/N: and this marks the end of a fun pranking journey. here on out, is a series of unfortunate events *cue 'look away' theme song* (if you got that, i love u)