Hello everybody! How are all you lads and lasses doing today? Well here is the next chapter to Liz's adventures. Which as always I hope you enjoy!

Also I'd like to thank beauty0102, Guest, Crazy Chick, kate1243, power214063 , Tomnomlinson, Dark0w1, laurenroxbrough, bloodydarkangel, SilverShadowSoul, yorushihe,sarsho, Hanna, Paradox, ShadeMidnight, 917brat c, the reading girl , Extended Experience , TheNorwegianAuthor, percyjacksonfan135 Vangran, Engineer4Ever, The Lady Geek, Pikachu79 , Matron, and BlizzardDragon for reviewing and everyone else who has read and reviewed so far.

0o0o0o

Matron- Liz just assumed that was how she was born from what she has heard about Athena birthing her children, it's not actually true though. She'll learn the true way she was born when her dad, Poseidon, tells her.

0o0o0o

Bloodydarkangel- Aww your threats make me feel all warm inside.

0o0o0o

Warning- Not so much as swearing more along the lines of spiders… and lots of them…., and now on with the show!

0o0o0o

The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time we found the water park. Judging from the sign that was missing three letters, I assumed it had been closed for a while.

The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, huge dry waterslides and tubes with pipes curled everywhere, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements where plastered to the ground from the rain over time.

It looked…. Creepy.

"So who is Ares girlfriend?"

"Aphrodite's," Grover said a little dreamily. "Goddess of love."

"Blugh," I muttered sticking my tongue out.

I studied the padlock for a few seconds before I nodded, "I got it," I told them, " Now I have to be very careful here, this is going to be a very precise and delicate procedure." I transformed a purring Riptide into an axe and happily cut off the padlock.

"Well that's one way." Anna muttered.

Grover still flew over the fence, doing a somersault mid air, dusting off his jeans like he planned the whole thing.

The shadows grew longer as we walked around the park. Bored, I swung Riptide back and forth happily while Grover and Anna kept a as they said, 'a healthy distance' from me.

"Please Liz," Grover begged. "Change your weapon back into bracelet form; it doesn't need to be a giant battle axe that is half your height. How are you even holding that anyway?"

"Grover for shame! My 'weapon' as you called it had a name and it also happens to have feelings to! And you just trampled all over them. It's not up to you to decide what form it should take it's Riptide's choice to make its own choices with its own killing forms and for you to force it into a mold is cruel."

Riptide feeling thoroughly offended then by Grover's lack of sensitivity transformed itself to fit its mood better. The words 'Grover is an Insensitive Jerk' appeared on the giant battle axes handle.

"Y-your weapon is sentient?!" Grover exclaimed.

"That's not safe Liz," Anna chimed in. "Maybe you should get rid of it. Sentient objects have a habit of altering people or possessing them."

Riptide and I were both fuming by the time they stopped talking.

"You have no right to tell Riptide and I what to do. He was given to me by my dad and has protected me very well so far and for you to go assuming things just because he's a little sentient is uncalled for." With those words I stomped away angry at both of them. Riptide was right with me growing angrily in my mind just itching to lash out at them and teach them a lesson. Riptide's battle axe handle changed then to read 'Anna and Grover our insensitive jerk wads' and I completely agreed.

I stomped my way up to a souvenir shop that had been left open. Merchandise still lined the shelves: foam fingers, swim suits, necklaces, rings, and racks of-

"Clothes," Anna said. "Fresh clothes."

"Hmp," I hummed crossing my arms and turning my back to them.

"Come on Liz were sorry," Grover said placing one of his hands on my shoulder. "We were being a little insensitive there and brainless, I mean why would your dad give you something that was dangerous I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry to." Anna sighed.

"Come on forgive us." They both pleaded at the same time.

"It's not only me you should be apologizing to."

They both sighed and at the same time said, "We're sorry Riptide."

Riptide grumbled in my head but finally forgave them. His battle axe handle transformed so it was clear again without any words written on it.

"Okay all is forgiven. Now let's loot!" I rubbed my hands together smiling happily.

Anna snatched an entire row of stuff off the rack and disappeared into the changing room. A few minutes later she came out in Waterland flower-print shorts, a big red water land T-shirt and surf shoes. A Waterland back pack was slung over one of her shoulders stuffed with more things.

"I'm surrounded by thieves." Grover sighed, shrugging as he walked over to a rack of clothing. And he too was soon a walking advertisement for the Waterland Park.

While this was all happening I was looking for my outfit. Though it tore me up inside to steal, since I couldn't handle thievery. …Haha ahhh I couldn't think that with a straight face. Me? Not wanting to steal? That'll happen when Anna hugs a spider.

I came skipping out of the changing booth with black cargo pants that stopped just a few inches above my shoes.

….they may have been shorts to some people…they were shorts…I'm ashamed of my height…

With a shirt on that happened to have a giant White Shark on the front jumping out of the water about to bite a seal. The words 'fish are friends not food' was just beneath the picture, on the back of the shirt showed bloody water with the words 'But no one said anything about seals' underneath it.

"That's morbid." Anna stated.

Grover rubbed his temples, "Only you could find such a death related joke on a T-shirt at an amusement park meant for families."

I shrugged at him smiling, "It's a gift."

My hoodie, thankfully, was self-cleaning and hadn't gotten dirty this whole time. Beat that laws of the universe.

We continued on searching for the Tunnel of Love. And soon we found it. Up ahead was an empty pool that was about fifty yards 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 was the opening to a tunnel. The words 'THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!' was above it.

Grover crept towards the edge, "Guys look."

Abandoned at the bottom of the pool was a two-seater swan boat with a frilly canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it. In the left seat, glinting in the setting sun was Ares's shield, a polished circle of bronze.

I frowned in confusion, "So we just walk down there and get it?"

Anna ran her fingers along the base of the nearest cupid statue.

"There's a Greek letter carved here," she mumbled. "Eta, I wonder…"

I hummed thoughtfully, "Grover you smell anything?"

He sniffed the wind. "Nothing."

"Okay," I nodded. "I'm going down there… but first hold on guys I need to go get something."

"Liz!" Grover yelled. "Wait Liz, where are you going…" Grover's voice faded away as I walked down the street.

I came back a couple of minutes later with my acquired item that was needed for my new plan. I found Grover and Anna standing near the edge of the pool still. Anna was studying the Eta symbol like nobody's business while Grover was eating some poor spare shirt we had.

Grover looked over at me. "What are you doing with that?"

"Grover, for shame," I scolded. "I have the perfect opportunity right here to try out something I've wanted to do since I learned I was a daughter of Poseidon. So I'll be going down there now."

"I'll go with you." Grover did not sound thrilled at all, in fact, he looked like someone had just told him to go down into a pit full of snakes.

"Aww, G-man, I wuve you too. See I knew if I died you'd care." I pulled Grover in a one armed hug. "Besides you should stay up here, you know with your mad skills when it comes to those flying shoes. You could just swoop in pterodactyl style and save us."

"You know Liz, there are so many different ways you could of went with that. You could have said, Red Baron style or Superman style, but you went with the pre-historic flying monster."

"But Grover, be my giant man-eating predator fossil bird tonight, sounds way better than be my Superman tonight."

Grover sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "Do you even listen to yourself talk or has it just gotten to the point where even you gave up on understanding yourself?"

"Shhhh, Grover," I put a finger over his mouth.

"But Liz-"

"Shhhhh…"

"No offense Liz, but you're insane."

"Why would I take offense? I've seen your sanity and frankly it bores me."

"Okay Liz, why don't I explain all the benefits of being sane for you so you know-"

"Shhhhhhh…."

Grover threw his hands up, "Sure, fine I'll stay up here. Go have fun at the bottom of the pool. Heck you know what? Why don't you have your own little insane party down there."

"Gladly," Looking over at the very occupied Anna, who was currently on planet nerd population: Anna, I decided that it might be best to leave her there. Turning to leave, I stopped when I heard Anna's voice.

"Wait aren't you forgetting something?"

I turned to her confused, "And what could I be possibly forgetting?"

"You're suppose to ask, 'Hey Anna do you want to come down there with me?' not just walk away."

"So the problem there," I explained, "is that me asking you was a option not a rule. Also you're not invited to the insane people party going on at the bottom of the pool. I don't want you going down there and spreading your rationality and logic around."

I started down the side of the pool and Anna in all of her enraged glory followed me, to teach me a lesson or something like that. She was so annoyed with me that she didn't even notice what I was carrying.

We reached the boat. The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf. I picked up the scarf. It shimmered pink, and I stared at it wide eyed. Anna seemed to be waiting for something beside me like she expecting me to spontaneously combust, a frown crossed her face.

"Do you feel any different Liz, at all?"

I looked up at her, "No why?"

"You don't feel the need to stare at the scarf adoringly or to rub it against your cheek?"

I studied her, "Anna, do you need to tell me something about your relationship with scarf's?"

"Amazing," she muttered ignoring me, "she's so oblivious to something like this strong love magic… she's going to be hopeless in the future when she's older."

"I mean," I continued, "it's okay if you have an odd relationship with scarf's. I'm sure many people fall in love with inanimate objects."

"Liz should at least feel a little fond for it, even someone as young as her."

Snapping my fingers, as Anna paced back and forth I exclaimed "Oh I know! When you and your scarf husband have your babies you can give it a cute name like Scarfy, that'd be adorable."

Anna continued to ignore me, deep in thought as she stared at the scarf. I turned to ignore her as well only for Anna to rip the scarf out of my hands.

"Oh there is no way I am leaving something like this, in the hands of someone like YOU. It would end horribly within an hour."

She went to shove the scarf into her pocket only for me to tackle her. "It's mine!" I yelled. "How dare you steal it from me. It's my precious shiny! Sure it's pink but I'm willing to accept it for it's faults."

Anna cries out in surprise and before she knew it I had finished mugging her… which I've never done before… yeah never. I held the scarf to my chest it was just so… sparkly and shiny! I heard an angry growl from the floor where Anna was laying with a scowl on her face.

Anna stood up, brushing the dirt from her clothes. "Fine you can have the damn sparkly scarf, just get the shield so we can get out of here."

The moment I touched the damn thing, I knew we were screwed. My hand broke through a fine, nearly invisible, filament right before I touched the shield. In other words a trip wire.

"Wait," Anna shouted.

"Haha.." I laughed nervously, "and what if it's already to late?"

Noise erupted from all around us, millions of gears grinding together, like the whole pool had just turned into one giant machine.

Grover yelled, "Guy!"

Up on the rim of the pool, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Instead of firing at us though they shot at each other. Silky cables trailed from the arrows, arching over the pool and anchoring when the arrows embed in the cement with thumps. Smaller metallic threads started to weave together through the silk cables, creating a net.

"Well this is a problem," I said.

Duh!" Anna cried.

I grabbed the shield, strapping it to my arm after I stuffed my precious shiny into my pocket, and we ran, but going up the slope of a pool was not a walk in the park. It was more like a walk up the side of a mountain… covered in ice.

"Come on!" Grover shouted.

He was tying to hold open a section of the net for us, but whenever he touched it, the golden threads started to wrap around his hands.

The Cupids' heads popped open. Out came video cameras. Spotlights rose up all around the pool, blinding us with illumination and a loudspeaker voice boomed: "Live to Olympus in one minute… Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight…"

"Hephaestus!" Anna screamed. "I'm so stupid! Eta is 'H'. He made this trap to catch his wife with Ares. Now we're going to be broadcast live to Olympus and look like absolute fools!"

We almost made it to the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic… things popped out.

Anna screamed bloody murder.

"Spiders!" Anna yelled. "Sp-sp-aaaah!"

It was an army of wind-up spider toys. They had tinny bronze-gear bodies, with spindly legs, and little pincer mouths. They came at us as a wave of clicking, whirling metal.

With a sigh I led the hysterical Anna back to the boat helping her climb in. The whole time the spiders kept coming. Hundreds of them poured down from the rim of the pool, all of them moving to surround the boat.

Leaning down I grabbed the item I had brought earlier from where I had dropped it. Idly kicking away some of the spiders who had started to swarm us. Anna was no help, she just sat there paralyzed as she cowered in the boat not able to do anything but scream.

"Thirty, twenty-nine," called the loudspeaker.

The spiders started to spit out strands of metal thread, trying to tie us down. They were easy to break at first but after sometime the thread started to pile up becoming harder to break through. Above us Grover was flying around, trying to pull the net loose.

This was great, oh I mean, ahh what a horrible turn of advents it's a good thing that I have a backup plan for this… Well at least now I can get away with what I was planning to do without Anna or Grover yelling at me for it.

"Fifteen, fourteen," the loudspeaker called.

"Hey Anna let's have a race, you and your boat vs. me and this." I held up the item in my hands.

It was odd enough for Anna to snap out of her state of panic. "Where did you get that?"

"So you agree?" I questioned.

"What?," she scowled at me, "I never agreed to anything. Don't just avoid my question, where did you get that? Where you planning something?"

Her eyes widened in realization, "Wait Liz, you can't be planning to..."

"Great so you agree, now make sure you hold on tight!"

"Five, four-"

"Annabeth, Liz!" Grover called out looking lost.

"Grover help! She's crazy!" Anna yelled back.

While I cackled, erm laughed, happily as I got ready to execute my plan. Closing my eyes I focused on trying to find the water I knew was there. I had never controlled so much water before, but hey, pressure always is a great motivator. You know like the pressure of being torn apart by millions of robot spiders. Motivation you got to love it.

"Two, one, zero! We are live now in Olympus!"Spotlights glared down at us, as the Cupid cameras were rolling.

I felt the familiar tug in my stomach as water exploded from the pipes. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. Anna screamed as she quickly fastened her seatbelt, grabbing onto the sides of the boat so hard her knuckles turned white. I laughed beside her standing in a running position. The moment the water got close enough I started to run leaving Anna behind. The water swept up the boat making it spin around widly before it straightened out riding right behind the crest of the huge wave. Anna screaming the whole time, though she had nothing to worry about I was making sure the boat wouldn't capsize the whole time.

While Anna was having her little scream time I was running forward, just a ahead of the wave. When it got close enough I jumped up into the air while pulling the item I had been carrying the whole time under me. Letting the water sweep over me and surround me.

I willed the water to move around me and I burst up out of the water right next to Anna. I shifted my crouching slightly as I got into a stance balancing on the surf board.

"You're crazy!" Anna shouted at me.

I laughed, "I've always wanted to try and surf."

"Wait a minute you had that before this even happened! You were planning on doing this weren't you!"

"Whooo!" I yelled raising both hands in the air.

The water was high enough now that we were feet from the net. Then we both were directed towards the tunnel and we rocketed through into the darkness.

"We're going to die!" Anna screamed.

"This is awesome," I yelled back.

I had to really control the boat and surf board here. We were shooting around turns and hugging corners as we zoomed through the amusement ride. We fell from forty-five degree plunges past pictures of Romeo and Juliet and hundreds of other Valentine's Day themed props.

"Ahh!" Anna suddenly screamed.

Looking over I saw that one of the spiders had somehow gotten into the boat, which Anna was now currently trying to jump out of. Her hands shook as they wildly tried to tear off her seatbelt and once she managed to do so she lunged jumping off the boat.

I quickly teleported myself in her jump path, while doing so I heard a pained squeaked that was followed by the sound a electronic that was short-circuiting would make. Grabbing her arm I pulled her onto the surf board with me.

"Oh come on Anna, if you wanted to surf so bad you could have told me. Not jumped out of a boat, that seems a little drastic."

Anna only grabbed me in a death hold, clinging to me like a Koala as she stared in horror at the rushing water around the board. "When we get off of this, I'm killing you." She vowed.

Then we were out of the tunnel, the night air whistling through our hair as the surf board speeded straight towards the exit.

But there was a problem there. If the ride had been in working order, we would've sailed off a ramp between the golden Gates of Love and splashed down safely in the exit pool. Instead, as of right now, The Gates of Love were chained.

"Okay Anna we can work with this."

"How?! I don't know if you noticed but we're about to become pancakes when we hit that wall!"

"We're just going to do some mad surfing here. What's the point of doing this without some tricks mixed in."

"Liz! You better keep this boat firmly in the water, because I swear if this boat goes into the air…!"

"Okay!" I cheerfully whistled as I got ready to do what I was planning.

"Liz what are you- AHHHH!"

My plan was simple, why bother jumping the gate when I could just make a path of water through the air, which would carry the surf board. When we got close to the gate I focused on the water again, filling the tugging in my stomach, and pushed my hand out. A stream of water six feet across and four feet deep appeared in front of us. The surf board slid smoothly onto it actually speeding up from the water like it was a jet stream.

The path was like a rollercoaster track. It spun and twisted in the air, plunging high and low in some areas even turning completely upside down in some parts. And we experienced every second of it.

My eardrums were about blown out by the end of it. Let me tell you Anna could scream, LOUD, and for long periods of time. I laughed the whole time, ecstatic my plan had worked, because this was awesome, I love rollercoaster's and this was five times better than any I had ever been on.

We were almost to the end of my water path, which ended in a long flat stretch that went along the walkway and ended right bedside a photo-board the kind tourist put their faces to pretending to be whatever was in the picture. But then Anna's screams changed completely from her 'you are a psychopath for putting me through this Liz' to 'Oh my god I'm terrified'.

"Spider!" she screamed.

Somehow, I have no idea how it was possible, one of the metallic spiders had clung on to one of us this whole time and had just decided to make its presence known to us. Anna freaked again flailing wildly about as she tried to knock it off. I grabbed the poor thing, saving it from Anna's swing arms as she leapt of the surf board.

"Oh come on Anna! Again? Really?" I yelled in exasperation.

Anna screamed as she flew through the air, heading straight towards the solid asphalt. It was lucky that she was saved by, du du du daaaa! Goat Man, um I mean Grover. In midair, he grabbed Anna by her shirt, and was trying to pull her out of her crash landing, but Anna had a lot of momentum.

You're too heavy! Grover said. "We're going down!"

They spiraled towards the ground, Grover doing his best to slow the fall.

They smashed into a photo-board, Grover's head going straight into the hole where tourist would put their faces, pretending to be Clammy the crabby clam. Anna's head went straight through the hole that was for Whalelord the gentle giant whale.

I slid to a stop right in front of them, jumping off of my surf board. They both were dazed and confused, but other than that completely unharmed. After figuring that out I walked around to the back of the sign and opened the book bag that was on Anna's back.

Digging through all the junk that Anna had liberated I finally found what I was searching for. A throw away plastic tourist camera. Walking back out front I set the timer for the camera and put it a good distance away. Once this was done I ran back over to Anna and Grover, posing beside them while I leaned against my surf board and gave a peace sign.

"Say cheese!" I called to Anna and Grover who both just groaned.

The metal spider that I had saved early from Anna's wild thrashing, and who I also suspected might have short-circuited during my teleportation earlier, crawled onto my head waving one of it's front limbs at the camera as it clicked.

The camera flashed taking the picture, blinding me for a brief second.

Walking over to the camera I picked it up and looked at the metal spider, "Now that's a keeper."

It chattered in agreement, clacking it's little pincers together.

"Awww! You're actually a cutie aren't you? Did my teleportation make you stop being a psycho killer spider?" I cooed like it was a puppy. "I bet it did, you're just a little sweetie now aren't you!" I continued to baby talk it as I scratched it's little metal head. It purred in response, pushing back up against my finger.

Finally I helped Grover and Anna out of the photo-board, which was a bad idea by the way… well at least when it came to Anna.

"Ahhhh! Kill it kill it!" she screamed as she climbed the nearest lamp post hanging of it like her life depended on it.

"Aww, but he's such a cutie." I held the spider in my hands up for her to see, it whirled sadly at her. Doing it's best impression of spider/puppy-eyes. Anna only screamed in response unable to understand just how cute the little metal spider was.

"We have to get rid of it Liz." Grover softly told me, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Besides were we're heading is kind of dangerous, no place for something as… 'cute' as that."

"But Grover," I whimpered. "I can't just abandon Mr. Foodles here."

Grover sighed running a hand through his hair, "Don't name it Liz, you'll only become more attached with it. You're just going to have to get rid of it."

Mr. Foodles whined sadly from where it sat on my shoulder.

I pouted, "Fine but I don't want to ge-" My face lit up when a thought crossed my mind, "Wait! I have an idea."

Pulling one of the Hermes packages I had taken from Medusa's place I held it proudly up to Grover. "This should work! That way I can keep the cutie and not just abandon him here."

The Mr. Foodles clicked in agreement, hopping up in down in excitement. Anna whimpered from her lamp post looking like her world was about to end.

"I wonder though," I muttered studying my surf board and the box in my hands. I was rather fond of my surf board and didn't want to just abandon it here either so taking in mind that this was a box for a god's package delivery system I decided to test my idea.

Taking the surf board into my hands I pushed it into the box I had set on the floor. It slid smoothly in like it wasn't way longer than the box was.

"Okay Mr. Foodles this is where we part ways for right now. But you'll appear in my cabin so you'll be safe alright? Be a good little cutie."

Mr. Foodles clicked in agreement, purring into my hand as I patted it's metal head. Placing it into the box I close it and wrote.

No One

Camp Half-Blood

Cabin Three

Warning: Fragile

I placed the required golden drachmas coins into the pouch on the box and watched as it popped away.

"Geez Anna, you're safe come on down from the pole now."

Anna grumbled sliding down from it and coming over to stand beside us.

A hundred yards away, at the entrance pool, the Cupids were still filming. The statues had swiveled so that their cameras were trained straight on us, the spotlights on our faces. 'Sigh' they saw everything I just did didn't they? Oh well, as long as they don't tell Anna and Grover about the picture I took while they were out of it, at least before I manage to make various copies and hide them everywhere so they all can't be destroyed when they rage, then I'm fine with it.

"Well that's all folks!" I yelled. "Thank you Olympus, you've all been wonderful! Goodnight!"

The Cupids turned back to their original positions. The lights shutting off. The park went quiet and dark again, except for the gentle trickle of water into the Thrill Ride of Love's exit pool.

"I wonder if our ratings were good?" I asked both Anna and Grover.

Anna glared at my, wringing out her wet t-shirt. Grover sighed rubbing his temples.

I gasped falling onto my knees, grabbing the front of Grover's t-shirt, "What if they cancel us?!"

"That's it," Anna snarled, reaching out to grab me.

I stood up and ran from the angry Anna.

"Get back here Liz!" she yelled.

"But Anna I don't want you to hurt me." I shouted back over my shoulder. "I think that would really damage our 'Blank Days Since Our Last Accident' survey I just started for our quest. So far we've lasted five minutes! Do you really want to lose all that progress?"

"Oh I'm not going to hurt you," She shouted back. "I'm just going to beat you till you can't breathe anymore."

I let out a scream of surprise as Anna talked me to the ground, my '5 Min. Since Last Accident' sign flew out of my hands landing on the ground away from us.

"Ahhh! Ow ow ow, Anna I love you, have mercy!"

Grover walked over, sighing as he bent down and picked up my sign. "Well it looks like we just lost our 5 Mins." He muttered as he erased the five and put it back down to zero.

0o0o0o0o

You-Only-Know-Where-The-Edge-Is-After-You've-Gone-Over-It

0o0o0o0o

The war god was waiting for us in the diner parking lot.

"Well, well," he said. "You kids did pretty good; well Tinny here did at least. All Blondie did was scream and I guess Goat Boy did okay at the end."

"Yup, lots of fun all around." I said.

Ares gave me a wicked grin. "Bet that crippled blacksmith was surprised when he netted a couple of kids. You looked good on TV."

"How were the rating?" I asked him.

He smirked," Best ratings since the Gladiator Games."

I turned and smiled at Anna, "See what did I tell you Anna, there is no reason to worry about the ratings." Geez if looks could kill…

I handed his shield back to him.

Ares grabbed the shield spinning it around like pizza dough. It changed form, melting into a bulletproof vest. He slung it across his back.

"Now I want pizza," I told Grover sadly, who just patted my head in sympathy.

"That was great surfing; you get extra points for style at the end. Here a little extra gift for you," he held out necklace that had a silver shield hanging from it. "This will protect you from any kind of attack completely one time, all you have to do is put it on to use it. Use it wisely Tinny." He handed me the necklace which I put into my hoodie pocket for safe keeping.

"See that truck over there?" He pointed to an eighteen wheeler parked across the street from the dinner. "That's your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas."

The eighteen-wheeler had a sign on the back 'KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.

Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the truck unlatched. "Free wide west, punks and Tinny. And here's a little something for all of you, you know for doing the job."

He slung a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed it to Grover, who yelped in fear as he was knocked to the ground from the force of the throw.

Inside were fresh clothes for all of us, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas, and a bag of Double Stuff Oreos along with a container of pizza.

I squealed as I tackled Grover, ripping the pizza from his hand. "Thank you Lord Ares!" I smiled happily at him. He looked away rolling his eyes as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Yeah... whatever," he muttered.

Grover slung the bag over his shoulder as I ate the pizza, offering a piece to Grover and Anna who both refused. Never noticing that Ares glared at them the whole time.

"Well it's time for me to go," Ares told us as he got onto his motorcycle, kick starting it. "Bye punks, Tinny," he revved his Harley, then roared off down Delancy Street.

"Well let's get going," I told them, clapping my hands together. "Besides it looks like our rides about to leave." I motioned to the dinner were two people were paying for their check. They both wore identical black overalls, with a white logo on their backs that matched the one on the KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL truck.

We ran across the street and climbed in the back of the big, rig closing the doors behind us.