9
The following afternoon, June 14th, seven days before the solstice, our train rolled into Denver. We hadn't eaten since the night before in the dining car, somewhere in Kansas. We hadn't taken a shower since Half-Blood Hill, and I was certain that was obvious.
"Let's try to contact Chiron," I said, "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."
"We can't use phones, right?"
"I'm not talking about phones."
We searched through downtown for about half an hour, looking for a do-it-yourself car wash. The air was dry and hot, which felt strange after the dampness of St Louis. Everywhere we turned, the Rocky Mountains seemed to be staring at us, like a tiger about to pounce on its prey.
Finally, we found an empty do-it-yourself car wash. We veered towards the stall furthest from the street (we didn't want anybody to see the Iris message because it would look very weird to mortals), keeping our eyes open for patrol cars. We were three teenagers- who looked like they had been dragged through a bush backwards twenty times- hanging out at a car wash without a car; any cop worth his doughnuts would figure we were up to no good.
"What exactly are we doing?" Percy asked, as Grover took out a spray gun.
"It's seventy-five cents," He grumbled. "I've only go two quarters left. Annabeth?"
"Don't look at me," I said. "The dining car wiped me out."
Percy fished out his last bit of change and gave Grover a quarter, which left him with two nickels and a drachma from Medusa's statue garden.
"Excellent," Grover said. "We could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good, and my arm's getting tired of pumping."
"What are you talking about?" Seaweed Brain asked.
Grover dropped the quarters into the hole and set the knob to fine mist. "I-Ming."
"Instant messaging?"
"Iris-messaging." I corrected. "The rainbow goddess Iris carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for half-bloods."
"You summon a goddess with a spray gun?" I couldn't be bothered answering his stupid question.
Grover pointed the nozzle in the air and water hissed out in a thick white mist. "Unless you know an easier way to make a rainbow."
I waited for the late afternoon light to filter through the vapour and break into columns before holding my hand out to Percy. "Drachma, please."
He handed it over.
I raised the coin over my head. "O goddess, except our offering."
I threw the drachma into the rainbow. Just as I expected, it disappeared in a golden shimmer.
"Half-Blood Hill." I requested.
For a instant, everything was still.
Then I was looking through the mist at the ripe strawberry grassland, and the Long Island Sound in the distance. We seemed to be on the covered entrance in front of the Big House. I recognised the sandy-haired boy with a bronze sword standing on the porch instantly. Immediately, I began straightening my very grimy camp-half-blood t-shirt and tried to comb the loose hair out of my face, I didn't look very presentable to my really good friend.
"Luke!" Percy called.
He turned, eyes wide. He was standing a metre from us through a screen of mist; I hoped the mist made me look less unclean.
"Percy!" His face broke into a grin. "Is that Annabeth too? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay?"
"We're...uh ...fine." I stammered, still madly cleaning myself up. "We thought- Chiron- I mean-"
"He's down at the cabins," His smile faded. "We're having some issues with the campers. Listen, is everything cool with you? Is Grover alright?" Issues? What was wrong? Had campers found out about our 'secret' quest?
"I'm right here." Grover called. He held the nozzle out to one side and stepped into Luke's line of vision. "What kind of issues?"
At that precise moment, a large Lincoln Continental pulled into the car wash with its stereo system turned to the utmost volume. As the car slid into the next booth, the bass from the subwoofers vibrated so much, it made the pavement tremble.
"Chiron had to- What's that noise?" Luke yelled over the volume.
"I'll take care of it!" I yelled back, relived to get out of view and be able to do something useful for Luke. "Grover, come on!"
"What?" Grover complained. "But-"
"Give Percy the nozzle and come on!" I ordered.
Grover muttered something about girls being harder to understand than the Oracle of Delphi, I ignored him and started to walk towards the next stall. As we neared the vehicle, the music got louder and louder. The noise was so loud it made my eardrums throb.
I stomped up to the driver's seat and knocked on his window firmly. Two quick raps.
Thud. Thud.
The driver lazily turned his head round to face me. He rolled his eyes as he rolled the glass down inch by inch, and gave me a questioning look. When the window was fully down, I bellowed over the noise "COULD YOU TURN THAT RACKECT DOWN?" He turned it down two notches, it didn't make much difference.
It was my turn to roll my eyes. "Big difference." I shouted sarcastically.
"What your prob'em?" He barked.
"My friend over there," I pointed to the next stall, "Is trying to speak; but can't be heard over this noise!"
He looked over to the next stall. Luckily, the motors and pumps were covering the Iris-message from view. Grover, who was looking around the stall like nothing was bothering him, was standing in front of a gap in the machines- so you defiantly couldn't see Percy and the Iris-message.
"What's he doin' there?" He accused Grover.
"He is my friend." I defended Grover. Grover looked at the man with a scared expression on his face. That's when I realized the man did look pretty scary, but not scarier than monsters. He had a red bandana with skulls dotted all over it, tied around his large head. Thick, greasy, murky, brown hair fell to his shoulders under his bandana. The man had piercings all over his face; piercings ran all the way down the side of both ears, two rings on his left nostril. He even had one on his bottom lip and a couple on his eyebrows. He had piggy black eyes with a very large nose. His eyebrows were as thick as slugs; it looked like his eyebrows needed a cut in the middle because they were slowly starting to create a monobrow. The guy had massive biceps, with a skull tattoo on his shoulder.
Eww, was my only thought, he looks like an Ares kid.
"Anyway," I stated, "You could at least have better music on than that old hip-hop."
With that, he decreased the music, drastically. He then flexed his muscles and opened the car door and stood there with a pure look of hatred written all over his face.
Leisurely, he clenched his fist. I took out my knife, though it was no use against a mortal. He was just about to punch me when his beady eye saw my knife (fortunately, the Mist transformed the knife into something else.) His eyes widened and he let out a petrified scream. "AARRRRGGGHHHHH!" He jumped back into his car, switched the music of fully and slammed on the accelerator and swerved out of the car wash, leaving a cloud of diesel behind.
I coughed and turned to Grover. "Why didn't you help me?"
Grover gulped, still looking at the exit of the car wash with wide eyes. "Blahh-haha. You handled it fine by yourself."
I smirked. "Guess he didn't like me insulting his hip-hop."
Grover laughed. "Yeah…"
We both started laughing and headed back to Percy. The smile slid of my face, like water drips of a vertical surface, when I saw the look on Percy's face. "What happened, Percy? What did Luke say?" "Not much," Percy said, I could tell he was lying, but let the matter drop. "Come on, let's find some dinner."
A few minutes later, we were sitting at a booth in a gleaming chrome diner. All around us, families were tucking into their meals.
At last, the waitress came over. She raised her eyebrow sceptically. "Well?"
Percy said, "We, um, want to order dinner."
"You kids have money to pay for it?"
Grover's lip quivered. I prayed he wouldn't start bleating, or worse, start eating the furniture. Percy looked like he hadn't had food for weeks. It was just then that I realized how hungry I was- I felt as empty as Cabin One.
I couldn't think very clearly of a good sappy story for the waitress when a grumble shook the whole building; a motorcycle the dimension of an infant elephant had pulled up on the pavement.
All discussion in the diner halted. The motorcycle's headlight glared red. Its gas tank had flames decorated on it, and a shotgun holster engrossed to either side, absolute with shot guns. The seat was leather- but leather that looked like... well, Caucasian human being hides.
The guy on the big would have made pro wrestlers look like gangling kids. He was dressed in a red muscle shirt and black jeans and a black leather duster, (go figure) with a hunting knife strapped to his thigh. He wore red wraparound sunglasses, and had the unruliest, most violent face I'd ever seen- handsome, I presume, but evil- with an oily black crew cut and cheeks that were scarred from numerous fights. There was only one person- God, even, - who this could be.
The immortal, Ares, god of war.
Get ready for the sudden anger problem, I thought.
As he walked into the diner, a dry, hot wind blew across the place. Everyone rose, except me, Grover and Percy, as if they were hypnotized, but Ares waved his hand dismissively and the all sat down again. Everybody went back to their convocations, as if nothing had happened. The waitress blinked, as if someone had pressed the rewind button on her brain. She asked us again, "You kids have money to pay for it?"
Ares said, "It's on me." He slid into our booth, squishing me against the window.
He looked up at the waitress, who was gaping at him, and said, "Are you still here?"
He pointed his finger at her, and she stiffened. She turned as if she had been twirled around, then strutted back in the direction of the kitchens.
Who was he too, like, robot people to do what he says?, I thought angrily. A bad feeling started blistering inside my stomach. Fury, hatred, acrimony, sourness. I could go on and on. I wanted to punch somebody. Hit something. I wanted to scream and scream at something or somebody.
He gave Seaweed Brain a wicked grin. "So you're old Seaweed's kid, huh?"
"What's it to you?" Percy retorted.
I flashed him a warning, trying to keep him (and myself) calm. "Percy, this is-"
Ares raised his hand. I stopped speaking straight away.
"S'okay," He said. "I don't mind a little attitude. Long as you remember who's boss. You know who I am, little cousin?"
Seaweed Brain thought for a moment.
Wow, Seaweed Brain is actually thinking!, I thought sarcastically. It was kind of obvious who this guy was; he had the same brutal sneer etched onto his face as the one Clarisse and her siblings had and he had a, kind of... aura, that made you really mad for no reason at all.
"Your Clarisse's dad," Percy said. See the resemblance? "Ares, god of war."
Ares grinned and took of his shades. Where his eyes should have been, there were only small balls of glowing fire. "That's right, punk." Same word used as the cabin five kids. "I heard you broke Clarisse's spear."
"She was asking for it."
"Probably. That's cool. I don't fight my kids' fights, you know? What I'm here for- I heard you were in town. I got a little proposition for you."
At that moment, the waitress came back with heaping trays of food- fries, cheeseburgers, chocolate shakes and onion rings.
Ares handed her a small number of gold drachmas.
She looked nervously at the coins. "But, these aren't..."
Ares pulled out his huge knife and started cleaning his fingernails. "Problem, sweetheart?"
The waitress swallowed, then left with the gold.
"You can't do that." Percy told Ares. "You can't just threaten people with a knife."
Ares laughed. "Are you kidding? I love this country. Best place since Sparta. Don't carry a weapon, punk? You should. Dangerous world out there. Which brings me to my proposition. I need you to do me a favour."
"What favour could I do for a god?"
"Something a god doesn't have time to do himself. It's nothing much. I left my shield at an abandoned water park here in town. I was going on a little…date with my girlfriend. We were interrupted. I left my shield behind. I want you to fetch it for me."
"Why don't you go back and get it yourself."
The fire in Ares' eyes glowed a little lighter.
"Why don't I turn you into a prairie dog and run you over with my Harley?" That's nasty. "Because I don't feel like it. A god is giving you an opportunity to prove yourself, Percy Jackson. Will you prove yourself a coward?" He leaned forward. "Or maybe you only fight when there's a river to dive into, so your daddy can protect you."
Percy looked like he was ready to through a punch at him. His hand curled into a fist but then, like he knew Ares wanted it, his hand slackened.
"We're not interested," Percy said. "We've already got a quest."
"I know all about your quest, punk. When that item was first stolen, Zeus sent his best out looking for it: Apollo, Athena, Artemis and me, naturally. If I couldn't sniff out a weapon that powerful…" He licked his lips as if he ate weapons. "Well… if I couldn't find it, you got no hope. Nevertheless, I'm trying to give you a benefit of a doubt. Your dad and I go way back. After all, I'm the one who told him about my suspicions about old Corpse Breath."
"You told him Hades stole the bolt?" Percy took the words right out of my mouth.
"Sure. Framing somebody to start a war. Oldest trick in the book. I recognized it immediately. In a way, you got me to thank for your little quest."
"Thanks." Percy grumbled.
"Hey, I'm a generous guy. Just do my little job, and I'll help you on your way. I'll arrange a ride west for you and your friends."
"We're doing Fine on our own." Humph.
"Yeah, right. No money. No wheels. No clue what you're up against." I had to agree with Ares on this one. "Help me out, and maybe I'll tell you something you need to know. Something about your mom."
"My mom?"
He grinned. "That got your attention. The water park is mile west on Delancy. You can't miss it. Look for the Tunnel of Love ride." The Tunnel of what?
"What interrupted your date?" Percy asked. "Something scare yu off?"
Ares bared his teeth, Clarisse had bore this threatening look on her face before. Not a good sign.
"You're lucky you met me, punk, and not one of the other Olympians. They're not as forgiving of rudeness as I am." Yeah, cos you make people angry. Duh! "I'll meet you back here when yu're done. Don't disappoint me."
After that, Ares must have put a trance on everyone because when I opened my eyes again Ares was gone. I looked at Percy and Gave him a worrying look, so did Grover.
"Not good," Grover said. "Ares sought you out, Percy. This is not good."
Percy stared out the window. I noticed the motorcycle had disappear as well as Ares. My anger drained out of me. That was Ares; power: mess with people's emotions and make them all cranky.
After a couple of minutes Percy said, "It's probably some kind of trick," He said. "Forget Ares. Let's go." What was he thinking? You can't ignore a god!
"We can't." I said. "Look, I hate Ares as much as anybody, but you don't ignore the gods unless yu want serious bad fortune. He wasn't kidding about turning you into a rodent."
He looked down at his untouched burger. "Why does he need us?"
"Maybe it's a problem that requires brains," I said, everything requires brains. "Ares has strength. That's all he has. Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes."
"But this water park… he acted almost scared. What would make a war god run away like that?"
Grover and I glanced nervously at each other.
I said, "I'm afraid we'll have to find out."
The sun was descending behind the snowy mountains by the time we found the water park. By the looks of it, it had once been called WATERLAND, but now some of the letters were smashed out, so it read WAT R A D.
The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, huge dry water slides, tubes and pipes arched everywhere, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around the tarmac. With the night sky, creep into the sky, the place looked depressing and spine-chilling.
"If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date," Percy said, staring up at the barbed wire. "I'd hate to see what she looks like."
"Percy," I warned. "Be more respectful."
""Why? I thought you hated Ares."
"He's still a god. And his girlfriend is very temperamental."
"You don't want to insult her looks." Grover added.
"Who is she? Echidna?" Do you really think Ares would date Echidna?
"No, Aphrodite," Grover said a bit dreamily. "Goddess of Love."
"I thought she was married to somebody." Percy said. "Hephaestus."
"What's your point?" Grover asked.
"Oh." Percy said. "So how do we get in?"
"Maia!" Grover's shoes sprouted wings.
He flew over the fence, did an unintended somersault in midair, and then stumbled to a landing on the opposite side of the fence. He dusted of his jeans, as if he'd planned the whole thing. "You guys coming?"
Easy For him, Percy and I had to climb the old-fashioned way, holding the barbed wire for each other as we crawled over the top.
The shows grew longer and longer as we walked through the park looking for the Tunnel ride of Love.
No movement was made except our shadows. It was pretty suspicious.
We found a souvenir shop that was left open. Merchandise still lined the shelves: pencils, snow globes, postcards and racks of… fresh, clean clothes.
"Clothes," I aid. "Fresh clothes."
"Yeah," Percy said. But you can't just –"
"Watch me." No- one, I mean no-one, was stopping me from being clean, especially after my embarrassing moment in front of Luke, being drastically dirty.
~I snatched an entire row of stuff of the racks, I didn't know which ones would fit me, and disappeared into a changing room. A few minutes later I came out in Waterland flower-print shorts, a big red Waterland T-shirt and commemorative Waterland surf shoes. A Waterland backpack was slung over my shoulder, which I had stuffed with more goodies for later.
"What the heck." Grover shrugged. Soon, all three of us were decked in Waterland clothes.
We continued looking for the Tunnel of Love. "So Ares and Aphrodite," Percy said. "They have a thing going?"
"That's old gossip, Percy," I restrained myself from calling him Seaweed Brain. "Three-thousand-year-old gossip."
"What about Aphrodite's husband?"
"Well, you know," I said. He has a load to learn. "Hephaestus. The blacksmith. He was crippled when he was a baby, thrown off Mount Olympus by Zeus. So he isn't exactly handsome. Clever with his hands and all, but Aphrodite isn't into brains and talent, you know?"
"She likes bikers." Has his simple comment.
"Whatever."
"Hephaestus knows?"
"Oh, sure," I said. "He caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them, in a golden net, and invited all the gods to come and laugh at them. Hephaestus is always trying to embarrass them. That's why they meet in out-of-the-way places, like…"
That's when I spotted the Tunnel of Love. I stopped and looked straight ahead. "Like that."
The ride was at least fifty metres across and shaped like a bowl.
Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of Cupid stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire. On the opposite side of us, a tunnel opened up, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full. On the inside of the bowl, around the top of the pool, mirrors ran all the way round the edge; so which ever way you looked you would see yourself with your partner. Just what Aphrodite would love to see: herself. The sign above the ride read: THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!
Grover crept towards the edge. "Guys, look."
Marooned at the bottom of the pool was a pink and white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it. In the left seat, glinting in the fading light, was Ares' shield. A very well polished circle of bronze.
"This is too easy." Percy said. I agreed silently. "So we just walk down there and get it?"
There must be a clue somewhere. I ran my fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue. I inspected it closely.
"There's a Greek letter carved here," I observed, "Eta. I wonder…"
I didn't listen to Percy and Grover's conversation while I thought.
I was a little curious about how we could get our hands on Ares' shield. This Thrill Ride of Love was giving me a weird feeling… like someone was waiting- or watching- us, like this was a trap. My brain was racing to work out a plan. If we could just climb into the bowl-like shape of the ride and grab it carefully before-
"I don't know. Just a feeling. Annabeth, come with me-"
Percy stopped my train of thoughts at once. And a somewhat awkward, thought entered my mind.
The picture of Percy and me sitting next to each other in a heart shaped tube sailing in the water…No way, was I going to let that happen! My cheeks coloured and I failed to bring my blush down.
"Are you kidding?" I stared at Percy.
"What's the problem now?" He demanded.
"Me, go with you to the…the 'Thrill Ride of Love'? How embarrassing is that? What if somebody saw me?"
"Who's going to see you?" His face was burning- just like mine. I couldn't tell whose was brighter. Leave it to Seaweed Brain to embarrass me. "Fine," He told me, "I'll do it myself." Leave it to Seaweed brain? That would make things worse! He would do something wrong and then end up dying!
"Alright," I mumbled, and followed him down. "Boys always mess things up."
We reached the boat. The shield was propped up on the seat. A silky, bright, pink scarf laid next to it. Aphrodite's scarf, probably.
Percy picked up the scarf. He was bringing it up to his face when I snatched it out of his hand. "Oh, no you don't. stay away from the love magic." The Myth was that Who-ever smelt the scarf would fall in love with the next person the saw. I was definitely not having a lovesick Seaweed Brain following me.
"What?"
"Just get the shield, Seaweed Bain, and let's get out of here."
My eyes searched the edge of the boat for any more Greek letters. I spotted another Greek 'H': Eta.
"Wait." I said.
"Too late." Percy Held the Shield in one hand and a thin metal filament. A tripwire.
"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap."
Noise erupted all around us, of a million gears grinding, as if the whole pool were turning into one giant machine.
Grover yelled. "Guys!"
Up on the rim, The Cupids were drawing there bows into firing position. Then before we could take cover, they shot, but not at us. The fired at each other, across the rim of the pool, silky cables traced were the arrows had flown over and anchoring where they landed to form a huge golden basket over our heads. Then smaller metallic thread started weaving together, creating a net.
"We have to get out." Percy stated the obvious.
"Duh!" I said.
We ran, but going up the slope was harder than getting down.
"Come on!" Grover shouted.
He was trying to hold open a section of the net for us to climb through, but wherever he touched it the wire started to wrap around his hands.
Suddenly, the Cupids' heads burst open. Out came video cameras. Spotlights rose up all around the pool, blinding us with clarification and a loud speaker voice boomed: "Live to Olympus in one minute… Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight…"
"Hephaestus!" I screamed in realization. "I'm so stupid! Eta is 'H'. He made this trap to catch Ares with his wife. Now we're going to be broadcast live to Olympus and look like absolute fools!"
We'd roughly made it to the rim when the rows of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic things poured out.
Eight legs. Eight eyes. Small bodies. Little pincers. All lead up to one creepy crawly: SPIDER!
"Spiders!" I screamed. "Sp-sp-aaaah!"
I fell backwards in terror. They started swarming all over me, they nearly over-whelmed me when somebody- Percy- pulled me up and dragged me backwards, towards the boat.
The spiders were coming out from all over the rim now, millions of them, were filing into the bowl. They were completely surrounding us now. There was not a single gap that didn't have a spider in it.
We climbed into the boat. Percy was kicking the spiders away, while I was being very helpful (sarcastic) by screaming.
"Help me!" Percy yelled at me. But I was too paralysed to do much more than scream.
"Thirty, twenty-nine." Called the loudspeaker.
The spiders started spitting out strands of thread. Percy was kicking spiders away from me and breaking the thread that was wrapping around our ankles.
Grover hovered above the pool, tugging at the net, trying to pull it loose, but it didn't make a difference.
"Fifteen, fourteen," The loudspeaker called.
Percy was shouting at someone- whether it was me or Grover, I didn't know.
An unusually large metal spider crawled towards me; I screamed louder.
"Fiver, Four," The loudspeaker was echoing around in my head, increasing it's volume.
More spiders were swarming in from the mirrors.
"Two, one, zero!"
Unexpectedly, water exploded into the bowl. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. Percy pulled me into the seat next to him and fastened my seat belt. Even though I was paralysed by the spiders, I wasn't able to stop the butterflies in my stomach, at the tight grip of Percy's hands on my waist. I didn't have much time to think about that as a huge tidal wave hit us. We spun around in circles like a whirlpool. We were both screaming our heads of as we were tossed around the bowl. I wanted to do a lot of things like…be useful, or thank Percy; but at the moment all I could do was sit there, stunned at the sudden appearance of the metal spiders.
We splashed into the tunnel, past pictures of Romeo and Juliet and gushy romance pictures like that.
Then we were out of the tunnel, the night air whistling through our ears as the boat barrelled straight towards the exit. I realized then that the Exit gates were all locked up. How on earth were we supposed to get out? Two boats that had been washed out were piled up against the barricade- both smashed to pieces.
Then Percy said the most stupidest thing that he has ever said to me. "Unfasten you seat belt."
"Are you crazy?" I yelled back.
"Unless you want to get smashed o death." He strapped Ares' shield to his rm. "We're going to have to jump for it." His idea was straightforward and insane. But I realized what he meant: use the boat to jump and get out. As the boat struck, we would use its force like a springboard to jump the gate.
As the gates got closer, I gripped Percy's hand tightly, ready to jump.
"When I say go," He said.
"No! When I say go!"
"What?"
"Simple physics!" I yelled. "Force times the trajectory angle-"
"Fine!" He shouted. "When you say go!"
Wait…wait…wait..then -"Now!"
Crack!
I was right! Yes! I did it! I got it right!
Unfortunately, it was a little more than we needed. Our boat smashed into the pileup and we were thrown into the air, straight over the gates, over the pool, and down towards solid tarmac.
Someone grabbed me from behind.
"Ouch!" I yelled.
Grover!
In midair, he had grabbed my arm, painfully-might I add-, and Percy by the shirt. But we were to heavy for the flying shoes.
"You're too heavy!" Grover said. "We're going down!"
We spiralled towards the ground, Grover doing his best to slow the fall.
We smashed into a photo board, Grover's head going straight through where the tourists would put their faces. Percy and I tumbled to the ground. Bruised and all, but alive. Ares' shield strapped onto Percy's rm.
Once we had Caught our breath, Percy and I got Grover out of the board and thanked him for saving our lives.
I looked back at the Trill Ride of Love. The water was subsiding. Our boat was smashed to pieces against the gates.
A hundred metres away, at the entrance of the pool, the Cupids were still filming. The statues had swivelled so that their cameras were trained straight on us, the spotlights shining in our faces.
"Show's over!" Percy yelled. "Thank you! Goodnight!"
They turned back to their original positions. The lights turned off. The park went eerie and quiet again. I wonder who was watching our humiliating performance on the ride.
I hated being tricked. Especially being a daughter of Athena. Percy turned to face us. "We need to have a little talk with Ares."
