As Cally began to make steps forward the world around her suddenly turned a strange shade of sepia and everything save herself and the man who stepped out in front of her stopped completely dead.
"Now, now." Jerry admonished, adjusting his stereotypical cap. "If ya'd had half a mind ta begin with, lass, ya would've spotted the girl straight away. Face it, yer losin' yer old edge."
"Step aside." Cally ordered, flatly.
"Sounds like a challenge ta me ears, it does." Larry withdrew a worn wooden wand from inside his coat, and scowled.
"Oh? So fast for the wand, Jarvis? Your words and wit not quite enough?" Cally put her hand on her hip and shook her head mockingly. "Or have you lost your nerve?"
His grip on the wand tightened, though somewhat shakily. "T'wasn't me lookin' for today's plaything, Calliope. Like I said: she's mine."
"You know you can't best me in a duel. And you certainly haven't the charisma to persuade me otherwise. So let's make this easy. You walk away, find some other poor thing to train with your meager talent, and we both part ways after a hundred years of misery in each other's company. Deal?"
"No." Jerry stood his ground. "You had yer chance, lass. But you decided to drown yourself in suds over what's his damn name."
"I see." Cally drew her own wand, now. A finely carved slice of ivory with a intricate golden handle. "So what'll it be, then, Jerry? Frog? Rat? Or... worm? Each a fitting karma for your particular character."
He visibly gulped, and sweat beaded down his forehead. Was the girl worth it? Could he beat Cally? Regardless, the young girl had the mark. It had to be tried. He raised his wand. "And then what shall it be fer you, whore? Bitch? Cow? Or bloodsucker?"
Ahhh, at last. Calliope smiled inwardly. Two hundred and seven years since a fateful meeting with the detestable Irishman. Two hundred and seven years he'd mocked her, interferred with her plans, and stolen countless chances for happiness. And now, he had the stupidity to try and best her at a craft at which she was not only stronger, faster, but also far more skilled. It was already won. Jerry would lower his magical defense to make a move on her, long enough for the split second she needed to utterly destroy him with a transfiguration spell. So... frog? Rat? Or worm? "Your move." She said simply, raising her wand to bear.
Jerry growled an ancient spell, threw forth his pitiful switch, and a blue gust of energy flew towards Cally. She easily deflected it with her own wand, capturing the energy and returning it as her own spell.
As Jerry stood there with his jaw agape, the magic returned, slammed into his body, and sent him flying backward onto the floor, his wand clattering away several feet from his hand. The color slowly returned to the scene and time began flowing once more. It hadn't been anything more than a blink of the eye to the mortals.
Cally walked over and firstly picked up Jerry's wand. She looked down at the horrid man, smirking, and snapped it in half over her knee.
"N-No..." Jerry gasped. "Please. D-Don't... leave me ta... ta... change. Not like this, lass. No."
Cally grinned wider, fogging the mortals so they wouldn't notice Jerry's oncoming fate. "Tsk. Not even please?"
With that, she walked away, just as Jerry raised a rapidly dehumanizing hand to his view, gasping as the green scales began to overtake it. He let out a last cry for help as the spell rapidly completed, his cry of distress fading quickly as he shrank down to a tiny green anole. The lizard blinked feebly, unable to turn back himself, and with a flick of his tongue Jerry the Anole darted away from the empty pile of clothes on the floor just in time to be crushed to death by a heavy boot from a nearby biker.
"Shit." The bearded man shook his boot. "Just stepped on an iguana or something."