Hey! Ready for some more fun? Here's the next chap in this exciting saga. Enjoy!

The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time they found the water park. Judging from the sign, it once had 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 waterslides and tubes and pipes curled everywhere, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around the asphalt. With night coming on, the place looked sad and creepy.

"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." Gohan laughed at that.

"Percy," Annabeth warned. "Be more respectful."

"Why? I thought you hated Ares."

"He's still a god. And his girlfriend is very temperamental." She countered.

"You don't want to insult her looks," Grover added.

"Who is she? Echidna?" Gohan whistled nervously at that. He must have bad taste if that was the case.

"No, Aphrodite," Grover said, a little dreamily. "Goddess of love."

"I thought she was married to somebody," I said. "Hephaestus."

"What's your point?" he asked.

"Isn't it wrong to cheat on someone?" Grover and Annabeth snorted in amusement.

"It's not that simple, Gohan." She chuckled. Gohan cocked his head in confusion.

"Why?" he asked curiously.

"Oh." Percy suddenly felt the need to change the subject. "So how do we get in?"

Gohan seemed to ponder for a minute before pressing his feet together.

"Maia!" Wings sprouted from Gohan's shoes, allowing him to leap high into the air and flip gracefully over the fence, and landing on his feet in a fashion that would have earned him a high score in a gymnastics competition.

"You guys coming?" Gohan grinned as he dusted himself off.

"A little help?" Grover asked. Gohan frowned, but grabbed the bottom and pulled it up. However, he forgot his own strength(of course), and accidentally ripped the entire section of fence off with a loud screech of metal, leaving Annabeth, Percy and Grover with open mouths.

"Oops." Gohan gulped as he tossed the large piece of fence aside.

"Wow." Annabeth stated with a shocked expression.

"Uhhhh... let's keep moving." Percy interrupted again.

The shadows grew long as they walked through the park, checking out the attractions. There was Ankle Biter Island, Head Over Wedgie, and Dude, Where's My Swimsuit?"

"I'm starting to see why this place closed down." Gohan remarked.

No monsters came to get them. Nothing made the slightest noise.

They found a souvenir shop that had been left open. Merchandise still lined the shelves: snow globes, pencils, postcards, and racks of—

"Clothes," Annabeth said. "Fresh clothes." "Yeah," Percy said. "But you can't just—"

"Watch me."

She snatched an entire row of stuff of the racks and disappeared into the changing room.

"Hey Percy?" Gohan asked.

"Yeah?"

"Why are girls so crazy?" Percy had to keep himself from snorting back laughter.

"Buddy... I'm the last person you should be asking about girls."

A few minutes later she came out in Waterland flower-print shorts, a big red Waterland T-shirt, and commemorative Waterland surf shoes. A Waterland backpack was slung over her shoulder, obviously stuffed with more goodies.

"What the heck." Grover shrugged. Soon, all four of them were decked out like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park. Gohan had to rip a tiny hole for his tail, but he was pretty happy as his tail wiggled behind him. Grover glared at Gohan's tail with an uncomfortable look on his face.

They continued searching for the Tunnel of Love. Percy got the feeling that the whole park was holding its breath. "So Ares and Aphrodite," he said, to keep his mind off the growing dark, "they have a thing going?"

"That's old gossip, Percy," Annabeth answered. "Three-thousand-year-old gossip."

"That's pretty old gossip." Gohan stated with wide eyes. Annabeth snorted.

"What about Aphrodite's husband?" Percy asked

"Well, you know," she said. "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."

"Whatever."

"Hephaestus knows?" Gohan asked curiously with wide eyes.

"Oh sure," Annabeth 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 ..."

She stopped, looking straight ahead. "Like that."

In front of them was an empty pool that would've been awesome for skateboarding. It was at least 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 from the small group, a tunnel opened up, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full. The sign above it read, THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE! Grover crept toward 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's shield, a polished circle of bronze.

"Okay! Let's go get it!" Gohan started to climb down, but was quickly stopped by Percy and Annabeth.

"Wait! This is too easy,"Annabeth snapped.

"So we just walk down there and get it?" Annabeth ran her fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue. "There's a Greek letter carved here," she said. "Eta. I wonder ..." "Grover," Percy said, "you smell any monsters?"

He sniffed the wind. "Nothing."

"Nothing—like, in-the-Arch-and-you-didn't-smell-Echidna nothing, or really nothing?" Gohan countered.

Grover looked hurt. "I told you, that was underground."

"Okay, I'm sorry." Gohan took a deep breath. "I'm going down there."

"I'll go with you." Grover didn't sound too enthusiastic, but he got the feeling Grover was trying to make up for what had happened in St. Louis. Still, Gohan was secretly happy that he was finally making some headway with Grover.

"I'll do it. Here." Gohan untied the shoes and handed them to Grover, who looked shocked.

"What are you doing?" Percy asked.

"I have a feeling I don't need them anymore." Gohan slid on Grover's shoes.

"Stay up top with the flying shoes." Percy said.

Grover puffed up his chest a little. "Sure. But what could go wrong?"

"I don't know. Just a feeling. Annabeth, Gohan, come with me—"

"Are you kidding?" She looked at Percy, and then Gohan as if they'd just dropped from the moon. Her cheeks were bright red.

"What's the problem now?" Gohan demanded. She whirled to look at him with red cheeks.

"Me, go with you two to the ... the 'Thrill Ride of Love'? How embarrassing is that? What if somebody saw me?"

"Is this because you kissed Gohan?" Percy demanded. Annabeth sputtered.

"What? No! That was just strategy! Why do I care?" Gohan frowned as he looked between the two.

"Thank you! No one even cares! Luke didn't mind when we told him." A look of shock and disbelief went over Annabeth's face. She let out a shocked squeal of horror.

"WHAT? You told Luke?" she sputtered in shock. Gohan decided to save himself in this regard.

"Percy did! Luke thought it was great that you were branching out.' Annabeth groaned as she covered her face.

"No, no, no! Why did you do that?" Annabeth moaned.

"Look, can we get the stuff so we can go?" Gohan asked.

"Gohan's right. Besides, who's going to see you?" But Percy's face was burning now, too. Leave it to a girl to make everything complicated.

"Fine," he told her. "We can handle it ourselves. Come on, Gohan! Not like anyone's gonna care if two dudes are in a the tunnel of love."

"Ummmm, okay." Gohan said as he followed Percy. Grover let out a small bleat of laughter.

But when they started down the side of the pool, she followed them, muttering about how boys always messed things up.

They reached the boat. The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf. Percy tried to imagine Ares and Aphrodite here, a couple of gods meeting in a junked-out amusement-park ride. Why? Then he noticed something he hadn't seen from up top: mirrors all the way around the rim of the pool, facing this spot. They could see ourselves no matter which direction they looked. That must be it. While Ares and Aphrodite were smooching with each other they could look at their favorite people: themselves.

"Hi! Hi!" Gohan was once again making an idiot of himself as he waved at the numerous reflections of himself. Then, a curious smell perked up his nostrils, drawing him towards the scarf

While Percy looked around, Gohan picked up the scarf. It shimmered pink, and the perfume was indescribable— rose, or mountain laurel. Something good. The tingly feeling came back, and Gohan let out a goofy giggle. Gohan smiled, a little dreamy and took a deep sniff. It smelled… amazing. He couldn't describe it.

"Wow." Gohan said before taking another big sniff. Then, Annabeth ripped it out of his hand and stuffed it in her pocket. "Oh, no you don't. Stay away from that love magic." Gohan laughed as he looked at Annabeth. Suddenly, she looked amazing. Her hair seemed to glow like sunlight, her eyes looked amazing with its brilliant grey, and her teeth seemed to be pearly white. Gohan's eyes grew wide as saucers as everything seemed to melt away but her.

"Ummmm… Gohan?" Percy asked as he waved his hand in front of Gohan's wide eyes. He didn't even look at Percy before racing towards Annabeth. Before anyone could do anything, he wrapped her arms around her and kissed her, hard on the lips. Percy gaped. Annabeth let out a muffled screech before slapping Gohan away. She winched as she rubbed her hand.

"What in the gods are you doing?" she roared. Gohan looked surprised.

"You're so beautiful." Gohan said with a look of awe as he reached out to touch Annabeth's face. Her eyes widened as she slapped his hand away. She turned incredibly red and cursed out loud.

"Oh gods, he smelled it." Percy stared at Gohan.

"Now what?" Percy asked. Gohan fell to his knees in front of Annabeth.

"You look like an angel! Your eyes pierce my soul! Your hair's as soft as bunnies!" Annabeth groaned in exasperation while Percy howled with laughter.

"I'm sorry, but this is hilarious!" she sighed in frustration.

"And this is why I took the scarf. He went and got himself infected with love magic."

"I need you, Annabeth!" Gohan giggled as he ran towards her with his arms out, like a satyr chasing a nymph.

"Oh no you don't!" She sideswiped him and flipped him over her head, causing him to smack the ground hard, face first. Now normally, Gohan would never get taken down this easily. But... he wasn't exactly in his right mind. Percy winched as Annabeth quickly grabbed his tail, causing him to howl as he laid on the ground.

"Ow! Ow! Come on, Annie! We can work this out! I need you!" Gohan giggled as he looked up at Annabeth. Percy stared in disbelief.

"Wow, that love magic is strong." Percy said. Annabeth snorted as she squeezed.

"This is why Aphrodite is not my favorite goddess." Percy looked concerned.

"That stuff will wear off, right?" she nodded, her face still bright red.

"Yeah. I've seen this plenty of times before back at camp. The daughters of Aphrodite love messing with boys. He'll be fine in a little bit, just really embarrassed."

"Your hair is as flawless as gold!" Annabeth turned even more red.

"Get the shield, Seaweed Brain, and let's get out of here." Annabeth snarled as she squeezed Gohan's tail, causing him to howl.

"Everything okay down there?" Grover called.

"No! Gohan got hit with a burst of love magic and went crazy for Annabeth! It's like watching a satyr chase a nymph!" Grover laughed from above.

"Ah, young love! Such a beautiful thing!" Annabeth looked even more livid.

"Will you just get the shield already?" Annabeth snapped.

The moment Percy touched the shield, he knew they were in trouble. His hand broke through something that had been connecting it to the dashboard. A cobweb, he thought, but then he looked at a strand of it on his palm and saw it was some kind of metal filament, so fine it was almost invisible. A trip wire.

"Wait," Annabeth said with surprise as her grip loosened, allowing Gohan to spring up.

"Too late." Percy said.

"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap."

Noise erupted all around them, of a million gears grinding, as if the whole pool were turning into one giant machine.

Grover yelled, "Guys!"

Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Before he could suggest taking cover, they shot, but not at the group below. They fired at each other, across the rim of the pool. Silky cables trailed from the arrows, arcing over the pool and anchoring where they landed to form a huge golden asterisk. Then smaller metallic threads started weaving together magically between the main strands, making a net.

"We have to get out," Percy said.

"Duh!" Annabeth said. Her hands slipped loose, causing Gohan to leap to his feet.

"I'll save you, Annabeth!" She was not in the mood for Gohan's romantic stupor.

"You wanna save me? Come on!" she grabbed Gohan's hand and sprinted towards the edge, Gohan giggling the whole time.

Percy grabbed the shield and they ran, but going up the slope of the pool was not as easy as going down. And Gohan's romantic idiocy was not helping.

"Come on!" Grover shouted.

He was trying to hold open a section of the net for them, but wherever 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 them with illumination. Gohan screeched in pain as he doubled back and covered his eyes in pain.

A loudspeaker voice boomed: "Live to Olympus in one minute ... Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight ..."

"Hephaestus!" Annabeth 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! My mom's gonna see me with this idiot!"

They'd almost made it to the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic ... things poured out.

Annabeth screamed.

It was an army of wind-up creepy-crawlies: bronze-gear bodies, spindly legs, little pincer mouths, all scuttling toward them in a wave of clacking, whirring metal.

"Spiders!" Annabeth said. "Sp—sp—aaaah!"

Percy had never seen her like this before. She fell backward in terror and almost got overwhelmed by the spider robots. Then, Gohan picked her up and threw her over his back like a bag

"I will save you, my lady!" he bellowed as he followed Percy, with the trembling Annabeth in his arms.

The things were coming out from all around the rim now, millions of them, flooding toward the center of the pool, completely surrounding the small group. Percy told himself they probably weren't programmed to kill, just corral them and bite them and make them look stupid. Then again, this was a trap meant for gods. And they weren't gods. Well, Percy wasn't sure what Gohan was, but that really wasn't something to think about at the moment.

Gohan and Percy climbed into the boat. Percy started kicking away the spiders as they swarmed aboard. He yelled at Annabeth to help him, but she was too paralyzed to do much more than scream. Gohan was covering her.

"Gohan! You love Annabeth? Protect her!" Percy yelled.

"Okay!" Gohan whirled on the bots as they got close, punching and kicking them, shattering the bots into pieces.

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

The spiders started spitting out strands of metal thread, trying to tie them down. The strands were easy enough to break at first, but there were so many of them, and the spiders just kept coming. Percy kicked one away from Annabeth's leg and its pincers took a chunk out of my new surf shoe. Gohan roared as his hands started to glow. Then, blue blasts fired from his hands, vaporizing groups of spiders by the second. Percy gaped

"You will leave Annabeth alone!" Gohan roared as he continue to fire.

Grover hovered above the pool in his flying sneakers, trying to pull the net loose, but it wouldn't budge.

Think, Percy told himself. Think.

The Tunnel of Love entrance was under the net. They could use it as an exit, except that it was blocked by a million robot spiders.

"Fifteen, fourteen," the loudspeaker called. Water, Percy thought. Where does the ride's water come from?

Then he saw them: huge water pipes behind the mirrors, where the spiders had come from.

And up above the net, next to one of the Cupids, a glass-windowed booth that must be the controller's station.

"Grover!" Percy yelled. "Get into that booth! Find the 'on' switch!"

"But—"

"Do it!" It was a crazy hope, but it was their only chance. The situation was getting from bad to worse every second. The spiders were all over the prow of the boat now. Annabeth was screaming her head off, and Gohan was clearly not in his right mind as he went savage on the spiders. Percy was going to have to be the one to get them out of there.

Grover was in the controller's booth now, slamming away at the buttons.

"Five, four—"

Grover looked up at him hopelessly, raising his hands. He was letting Percy know that he'd pushed every button, but still nothing was happening.

Percy closed his eyes and thought about waves, rushing water, the Mississippi River. He felt a familiar tug in his gut. He tried to imagine that he was dragging the ocean all the way to Denver. He made a mental note not to let Gohan say he told him so about the God of Water Parks thing.

"Two, one, zero!"

Water exploded out of the pipes. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. Percy pulled Annabeth into the seat next to him and fastened her seat belt just as the tidal wave slammed into their boat, over the top, whisking the spiders away and dousing them completely, but not capsizing them. Unfortunately for Gohan, he got the brunt of it. Gohan let out a shocked screamed as he was smashed by water in the face, the jolt sending him tumbling out of the boat and into the swirling typhoon.

"Gohan!" Percy cried as he leaped to the side of the boat and plunged his hand into the water. Despite all the jolting and turning, he concentrated. Then, he pulled. An instant later, Gohan shot out of the water and landed back in the boat. He gasped loudly, blinking as he looked at Percy, soaked to the bone

"What happened? I'm wet!" Percy grinned with relief.

"Good to see that you're still with us, lover boy!" Gohan frowned in confusion.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Percy simply smiled.

"Looks like the love magic wore off! Now come on!" The boat turned, lifted in the flood, and spun in circles around the whirlpool.

The water was full of short-circuiting spiders, some of them smashing against the pool's concrete wall with such force they burst.

Spotlights glared down at them. The Cupid-cams were rolling, live to Olympus.

But Percy could only concentrate on controlling the boat. He willed it to ride the current, to keep away from the wall. Maybe it was his imagination, but the boat seemed to respond. At least, it didn't break into a million pieces. They spun around one last time, the water level now almost high enough to shred the small group against the metal net. Then the boat's nose turned toward the tunnel and they rocketed through into the darkness.

Annabeth and Percy held tight, both of them screaming as the boat shot curls and hugged corners and took forty-five-degree plunges past pictures of Romeo and Juliet and a bunch of other Valentine's Day stuff. Gohan, on the other hand, cheered.

"Wheeee! This is awesome!" he laughed as he held his hands up in the air. The craft lurched, causing Annabeth to let out a screech of terror.

"You're out of your mind, Air-head!"

Then, they were out of the tunnel, the night air whistling through their hair as the boat barreled straight toward the exit.

If the ride had been in working order, they would've sailed off a ramp between the golden Gates of Love and splashed down safely in the exit pool. But there was a problem. The Gates of Love were chained. Two boats that had been washed out of the tunnel before them were now piled against the barricade—one submerged, the other cracked in half.

"Unfasten your seat belt," Percy yelled to Annabeth and Gohan.

"Are you crazy?" Annabeth screamed while Gohan undid his.

"Unless you want to get smashed to death." Percy strapped Ares's shield to his arm. "We're going to have to jump for it."

Annabeth seemed to understand. She gripped Percy's hand with her left and Gohan's with her right as the gates got closer. "On my mark," Percy said. "No! On my mark!"

"What?" "Simple physics!" she yelled. "Force times the trajectory angle—" "Fine.'" Percy shouted. "On your mark!" She hesitated ... hesitated ... then yelled, "Now!"

Crack!

Their boat smashed into the pileup, and they were thrown into the air, straight over the gates, over the pool, and down toward solid asphalt.

"Hang on!" Gohan yelled.

Something grabbed him from behind.

Annabeth yelled, "Ouch!"

Grover!

In midair, he had grabbed Gohan by the shirt, and Annabeth by the arm, and was trying to pull them out of a crash landing, but Annabeth and Percy had all the momentum.

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

They spiraled toward 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 tourists would put their faces, pretending to be Noo-Noo the Friendly Whale. Gohan took most of the impact, landing hard on his back, tumbling over repeatedly before flying straight into an open water pipe. Annabeth and Percy tumbled to the ground, banged up but alive. Ares's shield was still on his arm, safe and snug.

Once they caught their breath, Annabeth and Percy got Grover out of the photo-board and thanked him for saving their lives. Percy looked back at the Thrill Ride of Love. The water was subsiding. Their boat had been smashed to pieces against the gates. Annabeth groaned as she tried to dry off her soaked hair.

"Hey guys? Where's Gohan?" Percy asked. Then, a muffled yelling caused them to turn to see Gohan's bottom half sticking out of the water pipe, his tail wiggling in the air like a crazy snake.

"Help! I'm stuck!" Gohan yelled in a muffled voice. Annabeth let out a loud cruse in Ancient Greek as they rushed over to him.

"Gohan! Stop kicking!" she barked

"How do we get him out?" Percy asked. Annabeth snarled

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 them, the spotlights in their faces.

"Show's over!" Percy yelled. "Thank you! Good night!"

The Cupids turned back to their original positions. The lights shut off. The park went quiet and dark again, except for the gentle trickle of water into the Thrill Ride of Love's exit pool. Percy sighed as he turned to look back at their current mess.

"I don't suppose we could leave him here?" Grover asked hopefully. An angry glare from both Percy and Annabeth answered that question.

"One, two, three!" they each pulled on Gohan's legs. He howled in pain as his tail whipped around, smacking Percy in the face.

"Watch it!" Percy snapped.

"Sorry if I can't help it!" Gohan snapped. After ten minutes, Percy and Annabeth back off and looked at his rear.

"This isn't going to work." Annabeth commented.

"You think?" Gohan yelled. Percy frowned. Gohan was stuck in a pipe… a water pipe... wait…

"You might want to stay back. I've got an idea." Then, Percy held his hands out at the pipe and concentrated. The ground started to rumble.

"Hey… wait, what's going on? Guys?" Gohan yelped from inside. Percy concentrated, feeling the water rise up. Then, he willed it to push through the pipe.

"Hey! Wait! WAIT!" Gohan's scream was cut off by loud gurgling.

"Percy!" Annabeth cried. Then, Gohan shot out of the pipe like a bullet and slid on the floor, coughing.

"Seriously?" Gohan sputtered as he shakily stood to his feet. Percy was pretty pissed off at this point. He hated being teased. He hated being tricked. And he had had plenty of experience handling bullies who liked to do that stuff to him. He hefted the shield on his arm and turned to his friends. "We need to have a little talk with Ares."

Enjoy that? Trust me, there's more coming next chapter! Enjoy!