Only for those who haven't realized it yet. Did you know?
No?
Beckendorf died believing Perachel was a thing. Oops, did I just ruin your day? Well, you can blame Rick Riordan for that. So, sorry but no sorry.
Water Rides aren't always fun. Especially when they are traps.
"Can I read? Can I read?" Zeus-girl asked, bouncing in front of her throne and waving her hand.
Hestia stared at her.
"Plweeeaseee?" Zeus-girl did her cute puppy-face. Hestia sighed. "Very well." She handed Zeus-girl the book.
"Chapter-15 A GOD BUYS US CHEESEBURGERS"
"Can I also get cheeseburgers?!" Zeus-girl asked.
"At lunch. Now continue reading."
The next afternoon, June 14, 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 sure that was obvious.
"Let's try to contact Chiron," Annabeth said. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."
"Sea spirit" Poseidon corrected.
"We can't use phones, right?"
"Why can't you gods make phones that work for demigods too?" Percy asked to no one in particular. Hephaestus scratched his beard and Leo nodded in agreement.
"I'm not talking about phones."
We wandered through downtown for about half an hour, though I wasn't sure what Annabeth was looking for. The air was dry and hot, which felt weird after the humidity of St. Louis. Everywhere we turned, the Rocky Mountains seemed to be staring at me, like a tidal wave about to crash into the city.
Finally we found an empty do-it-yourself car wash. We veered toward the stall farthest from the street, keeping our eyes open for patrol cars. We were three adolescents hanging out at a car wash without a car; any cop worth his doughnuts would figure we were up to no good.
"Forget that. They would know Percy was a fugitive. They would arrest you the moment they spotted you." Rachel said.
"This is totally unfair." Travis complained.
"Percy gets to be a fugitive at twelve. We got to be fugitives once, only when we were 15." Connor added. Everyone else stared at them.
"What exactly are we doing?" I asked, as Grover took out the spray gun.
"It's seventy-five cents," he grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth?"
"Iris messaging" Annie explained to Percy. "I guess you'll see."
"Don't look at me," she said. "The dining car wiped me out."
I fished out my last bit of change and passed Grover a quarter, which left me two nickels and one drachma from Medusa's place.
"Excellent," Grover said. "We could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good, and my arm gets tired of pumping."
"What are you talking about?"
He fed in the quarters and set the knob to FINE MIST. "I-M'ing."
"Instant messaging?"
"Iris-messaging," Annabeth 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 the goddess with a spray gun?"
Several gods frowned.
"Now that you mention it like that..."Hermes murmured. He decided to have a talk with Iris.
"No. It's beneficial for us this way." Annabeth said. Hermes changed his decision.
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."
Sure enough, late afternoon light filtered through the vapor and broke into colors.
Annabeth held her palm out to me. "Drachma, please."
I handed it over.
She raised the coin over her head. "O goddess, accept our offering."
She threw the drachma into the rainbow. It disappeared in a golden shimmer.
"Half-Blood Hill," Annabeth requested.
"I should have requested Chiron's name instead..." Annabeth muttered.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then I was looking through the mist at strawberry fields, and the Long Island Sound in the distance. We seemed to be on the porch of the Big House. Standing with his back to us at the railing was a sandy-haired guy in shorts and an orange tank top. He was holding a bronze sword and seemed to be staring intently at something down in the meadow.
"Luke!" I called.
He turned, eyes wide. I could swear he was standing three feet in front of me through a screen of mist, except I could only see the part of him that appeared in the rainbow.
"Percy!" His scarred face broke into a grin. "Is that Annabeth, too? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay?"
"We're ... uh ... fine," Annabeth stammered. She was madly straightening her dirty T-shirt, trying to comb the loose hair out of her face. "We thought-Chiron-I mean-"
"Remind me again...what happened to Luke?" Annie whisper-asked Annabeth so no one could hear her. "He made mistakes. He left me. And in the end, he was just like an elder brother to me. The crush was just a misunderstanding. Luke took care of me only till we reached Camp."
Annie was starting to realize what sort of mistakes Luke had made. Maybe if she could fix those things in her universe...
"Don't think about it." Annabeth said.
"What?" Annie asked.
"You know what I mean. Don't try to fix it. You will end up making it worse. Better let things turn out in your universe the same way they turned out in mine."
Annie tried to process the fact that Annabeth was telling her not to try to fix things. Then again, Annabeth was her future self, more experienced and more wise. She should listen to Annabeth.
"He's down at the cabins." Luke's smile faded. "We're having some issues with the campers.
Katie frowned "What issues?"
Luke groaned and put his head in his hands, remembering what he had said.
"Listen, is everything cool with you? Is Grover all right?"
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?"
Just then a big Lincoln Continental pulled into the car wash with its stereo turned to maximum hip-hop.
As the car slid into the next stall, the bass from the subwoofers vibrated so much, it shook the pavement.
"Oh, what fun we had with that dude!" Grover mused, remembering the day. Annabeth smiled.
"Chiron had to-what's that noise?" Luke yelled.
"I'll take care of it.'" Annabeth yelled back, looking very relieved to have an excuse to get out of sight.
"Grover, come on!
"What?" Grover said. "But-"
"Give Percy the nozzle and come on!" she ordered.
Grover muttered something about girls being harder to understand than the Oracle at Delphi,
"EXCUSE ME?!" All the girls asked. Grover whimpered. Rachel looked doubly offended. Nothing was harder to understand than the Oracle of Delphi.
"But its true!" Percy yelled.
"Well, boys are even more dense than girls!" Annie yelled. "MMMMPPPPHHHHHH!!!" Hera wailed in agreement.
"Touche" Nico said, remembering his days with Percy, and then his first few days with Will.
"But..." Percy tried to argue, but all the glares from the girls shut him off. "This is totally unfair." Jason muttered.
"Did you just say something?" Piper asked. Jason shut his mouth.
"Girls are so hard to understand. It took me 3 years to understand whether Katie liked me back or hated me..." Travis muttered.
"That's just because your brain was too thick to understand that." Katie smirked.
"What do you expect me to understand if you keep promising me that you'll murder me one day ? And you say us boys are thick..."
"How do you expect me to react if you prank me ? Of course you boys are dumb!"
"You were supposed to laugh along with me and have fun. Girls are more complicated..."
"And-"
"I think it doesn't depend on the gender, it depends on the personality and attitude of the person. And we are not going into this argument anymore." Hestia interrupted.
then he handed me the spray gun and followed Annabeth.
I readjusted the hose so I could keep the rainbow going and still see Luke.
"Chiron had to break up a fight," Luke shouted to me over the music. "Things are pretty tense here, Percy. Word leaked out about the Zeus-Poseidon standoff. We're still not sure how-probably the same scumbag who summoned the hellhound.
Thalia's eyes flared and her finger started crackling with electricity.
Luke put his head in his hands. Annabeth tried to hold back her tears. It was still painful about how Luke had betrayed her.
"I hope he keeps insulting the person who summoned the hellhound." Grover snorted. Luke winced.
"That was uncalled for, Grover. He regrets it." Annabeth said.
Grover put his head down. "Sorry."
Everyone else now were almost sure who the betrayer mentioned in the prophecy was. But Annie still didn't believe it. She wouldn't believe it till she read about it.
Now the campers are starting to take sides. It's shaping up like the Trojan War all over again. Aphrodite, Ares, and Apollo are backing Poseidon, more or less. Athena is backing Zeus.
"Oh! Those issues..." Katie realized. "See? You are denser than me." Travis teased. Katie smacked him on the head.
"Yeah, like the Trojan War. The teams have been almost completely unchanged ever since." Athena mused.
"How about we change that?" Hestia asked. Athena went silent.
I shuddered to think that Clarisse's cabin would ever be on my dad's side for anything.
It was just because of my father." Clarisse grumbled.
In the next stall, I heard Annabeth and some guy arguing with each other, then the music's volume decreased drastically.
"Okay. You need to tell me this. What did you do?" Thalia turned to Annabeth.
"I may or may not have turned invisible, threatened him with a dagger, and hijacked his car while Grover argued with him. " Annabeth said innocently. Grover opened his mouth to say something, but gulped and shut up when Annabeth glared at him.
Thalia narrowed her eyes playfully.
"So what's your status?" Luke asked me. "Chiron will be sorry he missed you."
I told him pretty much everything, including my dreams. It felt so good to see him, to feel like I was back at camp even for a few minutes, that I didn't realize how longIhad talked until the beeper went off on the spray machine, and I realized I only had one more minute before the water shut off.
"I wish I could be there," Luke told me. "We can't help much from here, I'm afraid, but listen ... it had to be Hades who took the master bolt. He was there at Olympus at the winter solstice. I was chaperoning a field trip and we saw him."
"Stop blaming me!" Hades groaned. "I don't want the bolt, and I am pretty sure my future self didn't want it or possess it either."
"Maybe if you eat more cereal?" Demeter suggested.
"Mother!" Katie groaned.
"But Chiron said the gods can't take each other's magic items directly."
"That's true," Luke said, looking troubled. "Still ... Hades has the helm of darkness. How could anybody else sneak into the throne room and steal the master bolt? You'd have to be invisible."
The room want completely silent except for Dionysus's and Coach Hedge's snoring noises and, the noises from some project Hephaestus was quietly working on, and the sound effects from Apollo's gamepad, who seemed to be playing Call of Duty.
A few people in the room gasped with disbelief.
Annabeth turned to Luke with an angry and pained expression on her face. " Me? You would...you would blame me?"
Annie's heart almost broke. Was this the mistake Luke had made?
"Let's not jump to conclusions." Hestia spoke up.
We were both silent, until Luke seemed to realize what he'd said.
"Oh, hey," he protested. "I didn't mean Annabeth. She and I have known each other forever. She would never ... I mean, she's like a little sister to me."
Annie put her head down. She had now decided to accept to let go of her stupid crush on Luke. Luke would always see her as a little sister. But atleast Luke didn't blame her for this.
I wondered if Annabeth would like that description. In the stall next to us, the music stopped
completely. A man screamed in terror, car doors slammed, and the Lincoln peeled out of the car wash.
"I feel bad for the poor man now." Annabeth grinned sheepishly.
"You'd better go see what that was," Luke said. "Listen, are you wearing the flying shoes? I'll feel better if I know they've done you some good."
"You little punk!" Clarisse started getting up to hit Luke but Chris pulled her back. Annie was starting to wonder what role those shoes played in all of this. Athena and a few others had the same thought.
"Oh ... uh, yeah!" I tried not to sound like a guilty liar. "Yeah, they've come in handy."
"Well, you were good at that. I didn't suspect a thing." Luke smiled sadly.
"Really?" He grinned. "They fit and everything?"
The water shut off. The mist started to evaporate.
"Well, take care of yourself out there in Denver," Luke called, his voice getting fainter. "And tell Grover it'll be better this time! Nobody will get turned into a pine tree if he just-"
Everybody turned to stare at Luke again. He shrunk deeper into his seat. Thalia's eyes flared and fingers cackled. Nico backed away from her a little bit.
But the mist was gone, and Luke's image faded to nothing. I was alone in a wet, empty car wash stall.
Annabeth and Grover came around the corner, laughing, but stopped when they saw my face.
Annabeth's smile faded. "What happened, Percy? What did Luke say?"
"Not much," I lied, my stomach feeling as empty as a Big Three cabin. "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 eating burgers and drinking malts and sodas.
Finally the waitress came over. She raised her eyebrow skeptically. "Well?"
I said, "We, um, want to order dinner."
"You kids have money to pay for it?"
Grover's lower lip quivered. I was afraid he would start bleating, or worse, start eating the linoleum.
Annabeth looked ready to pass out from hunger.
I was trying to think up a sob story for the waitress when a rumble shook the whole building; a motorcycle the size of a baby elephant had pulled up to the curb.
"Awww. I wanted to hear his sob story" Leo pouted. Piper smacked him on the head, as usual.
All conversation in the diner stopped. The motorcycle's headlight glared red. Its gas tank had flames painted on it, and a shotgun holster riveted to either side, complete with shotguns. The seat was leather-but leather that looked like ... well, Caucasian human skin.
"That's disgusting!"
"Eeewwww!"
"MMMMMPPPPPPHHHHHH!!!"
"How dare you?!"
"Horrible!"
"Punish him!"
Lots of glaring*
"What the f*#@! , You b*@#$! "
Ares just grinned, though he was also confused as to why he was there.
The guy on the bike would've made pro wrestlers run for Mama.
"You're darn right, punk." Ares grinned more.
He was dressed in a red muscle shirt and black jeans and a black leather duster, with a hunting knife strapped to his thigh. He wore red wraparound shades, and he had the cruelest, most brutal face I'd ever seen- handsome, I guess, but wicked-with an oily black crew cut and cheeks that were scarred from many, many fights. The weird thing was, I felt like I'd seen his face somewhere before.
As he walked into the diner, a hot, dry wind blew through the place. All the people rose, as if they were hypnotized, but the biker waved his hand dismissively and they all sat down again. Everybody went back to their conversations. The waitress blinked, as if somebody had just pressed the rewind button on her brain. She asked us again, "You kids have money to pay for it?"
The biker said, "It's on me." He slid into our booth, which was way too small for him, and crowded Annabeth against the window.
He looked up at the waitress, who was gaping at him, and said, "Are you still here?"
He pointed at her, and she stiffened. She turned as if she'd been spun around, then marched back toward the kitchen.
"Just because you're a god doesn't mean you can treat mortals like that." Percy grumbled. Ares scowled at the boy. He was starting to think that he should not have stood in favour of the boy against Zeus.
The biker looked at me. I couldn't see his eyes behind the red shades, but bad feelings started boiling in my stomach. Anger, resentment, bitterness. I wanted to hit a wall. I wanted to pick a fight with somebody. Who did this guy think he was?
"Ares, the God of War." Ares mused.
He gave me a wicked grin. "So you're old Seaweed's kid, huh?"
I should've been surprised, or scared, but instead I felt like I was looking at my stepdad, Gabe.
"Don't you dare compare me to that worm." Ares growled.
I wanted to rip this guy's head off. "What's it to you?"
Percy had never before paid much attention to Ares before, but now as he looked at Ares, he realized why his future self must've hated this guy so much. He radiated anger and violence. He was a big bully. And he didn't likebullies; he didn't care where they were from. (Pretty sure that's a marvel reference.)
Annabeth's eyes flashed me a warning. "Percy, this is-"
The biker raised his hand.
"S'okay," he said. "I don't mind a little attitude. Long as you remember who's the boss. You know who I am, little cousin?"
Then it struck me why this guy looked familiar. He had the same vicious sneer as some of the kids at Camp Half-Blood, the ones from cabin five.
"You're Clarisse's dad," I said. "Ares, god of war."
Ares grinned and took off his shades. Where his eyes should've been, there was only fire, empty sockets glowing with miniature nuclear explosions. "That's right, punk. 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."
The waitress came back with heaping trays of food-cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings, and chocolate shakes.
Ares handed her a few gold drachmas.
"You better not interfere with my son's quests." Poseidon grumbled. Ares shrugged. He still had no idea why his future self was there. Probably to pulverize the punk?
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," I told Ares. "You can't just threaten people with a knife."
"Always trying to protect people." Nico mumbled. Percy was really starting to dislike this god.
Ares laughed. "Are you kidding? I love this country. Best place since Sparta. Don't you carry a weapon, punk? You should. Dangerous world out there. Which brings me to my proposition. I need you to do me a favor."
"What favor 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."
"I am not your pet dog to fetch things for you. I think you are able enough to do it yourself." Ares scowled deeper but before he could decide to do anything, Aphrodite silently turned to give Ares a questioning look. Ares shrugged. Hephaestus's eyes twinkled. He had a pretty good idea who had interrupted the date.
"Why don't you go back and get it yourself?"
The fire in his eye sockets glowed a little hotter.
"Why don't I turn you into a prairie dog and run you over with my Harley?
"You wouldn't dare." Poseidon growled.
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?"
"I am not a coward." Percy grumbled. "Well, then prove it." Ares smirked. Percy started to get up but Annie pulled him back. Annabeth pulled him into her back and shook her head. Percy crossed his arms over his chest with a grunt.
He leaned forward. "Or maybe you only fight when there's a river to dive into, so your daddy can protect you."
"Let's see if I need my dad to protect me right now." Percy spat and started getting up again.
Ares grinned.
"Ares. Stop provoking my son. I can see you are working your anger magic on him. Stop it." Poseidon said in a steely calm voice.
Ares pouted.
Percy blinked as his anger suddenly faded away. He looked around a bit dazed, before realizing what had happened.
"Don't let me go, or I'll end up sticking my sword in his butt." Percy muttered to Annie and Annabeth.
I wanted to punch this guy,
"Are you too stubborn to understand? He's trying to provoke you!" Athena spoke. Percy tried to keep his anger at bay.
but somehow, I knew he was waiting for that. Ares's power was causing my anger. He'd love it if I attacked. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction.
"Oh!" Athena blushed.
"We're not interested," I said. "We've already got a quest."
Ares's fiery eyes made me see things I didn't want to see-blood and smoke and corpses on the
battlefield. "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 the very thought of the master bolt made him hungry. "Well ... if I couldn't find it, you got no hope. Nevertheless, I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. Your dad and I go way back. After all, I'm the one who told him my suspicions about old Corpse Breath."
"You!" Hades turned to Ares. Ares whistled to himself and didn't even bother to look up. He took out a knife and started cleaning his fingernails. For some reason, this act enraged Percy even more.
"You told him Hades stole the bolt?"
"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," I 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."
"Yeah, right. No money. No wheels. No clue what you're up against. Help me out, and maybe I'll tell you something you need to know. Something about your mom."
"That will get his attention." Nico muttered. Everyone else nodded. "HHHMMMMMMMPPPPHHH!" Hera agreed.
"My mom?"
He grinned. "That got your attention. The water park is a mile west on Delancy. You can't miss it. Look for the Tunnel of Love ride."
"What interrupted your date?" I asked. "Something scare you off?"
Ares bared his teeth, but I'd seen his threatening look before on Clarisse. There was something false about it, almost like he was nervous.
"I DON'T GET NERVOUS!" Ares yelled. Percy grinned. "How can you be so sure? You weren't there."
"Ugh! I'll gut you, punk! Shut your trap!"
"You're lucky you met me, punk, and not one of the other Olympians. They're not as forgiving of rudeness as I am. I'll meet you back here when you're done. Don't disappoint me."
After that I must have fainted, or fallen into a trance, because when I opened my eyes again, Ares was gone. I might've thought the conversation had been a dream, but Annabeth and Grover's expressions
told me otherwise.
"Not good," Grover said. "Ares sought you out, Percy. This is not good."
I stared out the window. The motorcycle had disappeared.
Did Ares really know something about my mom, or was he just playing with me? Now that he was gone, all the anger had drained out of me. I realized Ares must love to mess with people's emotions. That was his power-cranking up the passions so badly, they clouded your ability to think.
"It's fun" Ares agreed.
"Probably he is just jealous that others can think more clearly than him, so he ruins their ability to think." Percy muttered. Several demigods snickered.
"It's probably some kind of trick," I said. "Forget Ares. Let's just go."
"You wouldn't dare." Ares grumbled.
"We can't," Annabeth said. "Look, I hate Ares as much as anybody, but you don't ignore the gods unless you want serious bad fortune. He wasn't kidding about turning you into a rodent."
"I'd like to see him try" Poseidon muttered.
"Now you have put my daughter in danger! If anything happens to her, I swear..." Athena grumbled.
"I didn't ask for it!" Percy protested.
Athena looked at him weird. "I was adressing Ares, boy. But now that you have mentioned it, it was equally your fault too..."
"Mother!" Annie and Annabeth protested.
Thalia gave Annie a teasing look. Now she was even ready to go against her mother to defend Percy. Annie flushed.
I looked down at my cheeseburger, which suddenly didn't seem so appetizing. "Why does he need us?"
"Maybe it's a problem that requires brains," Annabeth said. "Ares has strength. That's all he has. Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes."
Athena nodded in agreement, giving Annie and Annabeth an approving look. Ares scowled.
"But this water park ... he acted almost scared. What would make a war god run away like that?"
"I DON'T GET SCARED, PUNK!!!" Ares bellowed.
"We'll see" Percy muttered. "MMMMPPPPPHHHHHH!!!!" Hera wailed.
Annabeth and Grover glanced nervously at each other.
Annabeth said, "I'm afraid we'll have to find out."
The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time we 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," I said, staring up at the barbed wire, "I'd hate to see what she looks like."
"EXCUSE ME?!" Aphrodite demanded. Percy frowned. "Did I offend you or something? Why are you angry?"
"He doesn't know what he is talking about!" Annabeth spoke up quickly. Aphrodite huffed. Annie leaned forward and whispered something innPercy's ear. His mouth turned into an 'o'.
"Percy," Annabeth 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.
"You really don't want to insult her looks." Aphrodite crossed her arms over her chest.
"Sorry?" Percy asked.
The godess softened a bit. The boy was just too cute to stay mad at. Ares scowled deeper.
"Who is she? Echidna?"
"Well, this is enough!" Aphrodite's nostrils flared. She summoned a heeled shoe out of thin air and threw it at Percy. Percy ducked behind Annie. But somehow, the shoe hit Jason on the head.
"Ow! Hey!" Jason protested. Percy gave Aphrodite a sheepish grin from behind Annie.
"No, Aphrodite," Grover said, a little dreamily. "Goddess of love."
"I thought she was married to somebody," I said. "Hephaestus."
"She was," Hephaestus grunted.
"What's your point?" he asked.
"Oh." I suddenly felt the need to change the subject. "So how do we get in?"
"Maia!" Grover's shoes sprouted wings.
He flew over the fence, did an unintended somersault in midair, then stumbled to a landing on the
opposite side. He dusted off his jeans, as if he'd planned the whole thing. "You guys coming?"
"Looks like the shoes knocked some style into our satyr." Hermes grinned. Grover blushed and gave everyone a sheepish grin.
Annabeth and I had to climb the old-fashioned way, holding down the barbed wire for each other as we crawled over the top.
The shadows grew long as we walked through the park, checking out the attractions. There was Ankle Biter Island, Head Over Wedgie, and Dude, Where's My Swimsuit?
No monsters came to get us. Nothing made the slightest noise. We 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," I said. "But you can't just-"
"Watch me."
Hermes gave Annabeth an approving look.
The Stolls grinned. "We taught her well."
"You didn't teach me anything. I have been stealing since I was seven." Annabeth replied. Annie nodded. Athena gave both of them a disapproving look.
"It's necessary sometimes." Annabeth shrugged.
She snatched an entire row of stuff of the racks and disappeared into the changing room. 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 three of us were decked out like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park.
We continued searching for the Tunnel of Love. I got the feeling that the whole park was holding its breath. "So Ares and Aphrodite," I said, to keep my mind off the growing dark, "they have a thing going?"
"That's old gossip, Percy," Annabeth told me. "Three-thousand-year-old gossip."
"What about Aphrodite's husband?"
"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?"
"That is not true! It was Hera who threw me away. And she blamed it on Zeus." Hephaestus grunted. "MMMMPPPPPPHHHHHHHH!!!" "Yeah whatever. But brains and talent takes out all the fun!" Aphrodite spoke.
"MMMMMPPPPPHHHHHH!!!" Hera argued.
"She likes bikers."
"Yep." Aphrodite's gaze turned dreamy. "They are fun."
"Mother!" Piper protested.
"It's okay, Piper, dear."
"Whatever."
"Hephaestus knows?"
"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.
"Oh, it's fun. Catching them together and embarrassing them." Hephaestus's eyes twinkled. Then he shook his head. "This trap is meant for gods. You should not have gone there."
"It's not like we had a choice." Annabeth pointed out.
That's why they meet in out-of-the-way places, like ..."
She stopped, looking straight ahead. "Like that."
In front of us 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 us, 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.
"This is too easy," I said. "So we just walk down there and get it?"
Hephaestus shook his head. It was going to be as difficult as it looked easy.
Annabeth ran her fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue.
"There's a Greek letter carved here," she said. "Eta. I wonder ..."
"H. Eta is the signature for everything made by Hephaestus." Leo explained. Hephaestus nodded in agreement.
"Grover," I said, "you smell any monsters?
"I don't think there will be any monsters." Hephaestus shook his head. "More like automatons."
He sniffed the wind. "Nothing."
"Nothing-like, in-the-Arch-and-you-didn't-smell-Echidna nothing, or really nothing?"
Several snickers. "But that was underground!" Grover protested.
Grover looked hurt. "I told you, that was underground."
"Okay, I'm sorry." I took a deep breath. "I'm going down there."
"I'll go with you." Grover didn't sound too enthusiastic, but I got the feeling he was trying to make up for what had happened in St. Louis.
"No," Percy shook his head. "You can fly. You should provide air cover."
"No," I told him. "I want you to stay up top with the flying shoes. You're the Red Baron, a flying ace, remember? I'll be counting on you for backup, in case something goes wrong."
Grover puffed up his chest a little. "Sure. But what could go wrong?"
"I don't know. Just a feeling. Annabeth, come with me-"
Several people in the room gasped and stared at Percy, then at Annabeth.
Then everyone in the hall burst into laughters. Annie scowled. Annabeth was a shade of pink.
Percy frowned "What's wrong with that?"
"Oh my gods!" Katie managed to speak between the laughter. "He's more oblivious than a lovesick minotaur!"
"What's wrong with that?" Percy asked again. Everyone just ignored him.
"Are you kidding?" She looked at me as if I'd just dropped from the moon. Her cheeks were bright red.
"What's the problem now?" I demanded.
"Me, go with you to the ... the 'Thrill Ride of Love'? How embarrassing is that? What if somebody saw me?"
"Oh. Oh."Percy turned a bright shade of red. "But it's not like..."
Thalia cut in "Embarrassing, Annabeth? I am sure you won't find it embarrassing anymore, will you?" She teased.
"Who would even want to go to a place like that for a date." Annabeth wrinkled her nose.
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe some war god who's too scared to go there twice." Percy murmured.
"Shut up! You'll get yourself killed!" Annie hissed.
"Who's going to see you?" But my face was burning now, too. Leave it to a girl to make everything
complicated.
"Hey!" Several girls yelled.
"You were too stubborn to understand!" Annie argued. "I didn't make it complicated!"
"We haven't even done this yet." Percy reminded her.
"Well, I have, and I agree with her." Annabeth said.
"Oh, so now it's my fault you have to think it that way."
"Everyone thinks it that way!" Annie yelled.
"Forget it," Percy said. "You're impossible."
"You're insufferable."
"You're-"
"Hey!" Grover interrupted. "You two are giving me a migraine, and satyrs don't even get migraines."
Everyone else was now staring at them with amusement. Percy and Annie huffed and looked away from each other, arms crossed over their chests. Hestia cleared her throat and asked Zeus-girl to continue reading.
"Fine," I told her. "I'll do it myself." But when I started down the side of the pool, she
followed me, muttering about how boys always messed things up.
This time, several boys protested.
We reached the boat. The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf. I tried to imagine Ares and Aphrodite here, a couple of gods meeting in a junked-out amusement-park ride. Why?
Then I noticed something I hadn't seen from up top: mirrors all the way around the rim of the pool,
facing this spot. We could see ourselves no matter which direction we looked. That must be it. While Ares and Aphrodite were smooching with each other they could look at their favorite people: themselves.
Several people gagged. Athena's nose wrinkled in disgust. Aphrodite's gaze turned dreamy again.
I picked up the scarf. It shimmered pink, and the perfume was indescribable-rose, or mountain laurel.
"Ugh, keep away from that!" Annie scolded.
"What is that ?" Percy asked.
Nobody replied.
Something good. I smiled, a little dreamy, and was about to rub the scarf against my cheek when
Annabeth ripped it out of my hand and stuffed it in her pocket. "Oh, no you don't. Stay away from that love magic."
"It would make you fall in love with the first person you see." Piper guessed.
Aphrodite nodded. Annie scowled at the thought of Percy falling in love with her, then remembered that they were destined to fall in love anyways, and turned a bright shade of pink.
"You wouldn't mind it, would you?" Thalia teased.
Annie turned even redder, if it was possible. Her face was burning now, so was Percy's. This chapter was not going the way she would have wanted it to. She glared at Percy. Annabeth just sighed, lost in memories. That scarf would have saved her two or three years of trouble, but she still preferred it the way it had turned out. Natural love was better than forced magic love.
"What?"
"Just get the shield, Seaweed Brain, and let's get out of here."
The moment I touched the shield, I knew we were in trouble.
"A trap of my dad's" Leo mused. Hephaestus nodded, excited to see what trap he had laid. Then he frowned. He wouldn't want two lousy demigods stuck in the trap.
My hand broke through something that had been connecting it to the dashboard. A cobweb, I thought, but then I looked at a strand of it on my palm and saw it was some kind of metal filament, so fine it was almost invisible. A trip wire.
"Wait," Annabeth said.
"Too late." Percy muttered.
"Too late."
"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap."
"How did you not realize it?" Athena scolded. "You should have known it was a trap!"
Annabeth shrugged. "I guess I just wanted to get it over with."
Athena gave Annabeth a look of disapproval. It was never wise to rush things unless an emergency.
"Maybe because Percy's growing upto her." Thalia suggested innocently. Annabeth just shook her head and signalled Zeus-girl to continue reading.
Noise erupted all around us, of a million gears grinding, as if the whole pool were turning into one giant machine.
Annabeth paled as she remembered what came ahead. She still had nightmares about those creatures.
Grover yelled, "Guys!"
Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Before I could suggest taking cover, they shot, but not at us. 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.
"Oh no. No, no, no!" Athena grumbled. The net was meant for gods. She didn't like the idea of what the net would do for demigods.
"We have to get out," I said.
"Duh!" Annie yelled.
"Duh!" Annabeth said.
I grabbed the shield and we ran, but going up the slope of the pool was not as easy as going down.
"Come on!" Grover shouted.
He was trying to hold open a section of the net for us, 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 us with illumination, and a loudspeaker voice boomed: "Live to Olympus in one minute ... Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight ..."
"Well, it would've been fun if Ares and Aphrodite had been caught together in that." Hephaestus mused.
"You little punk!" Ares started getting up. Vines sprouted from around his throne and binded him to it.
"Save it, Arepes. I want see how young Percy survives this." Dionysus yawned.
Ares grunted and ripped the vines to shreds.
Everyone turned and stared at Dionysus.
"The trap. It sounds fun." Dionysus shrugged.
"You said my real name!" Percy gasped.
"I have no idea what you are talking about, Peter Johnson!" Dionysus yelled. Everone else shook their heads in exasperation.
"Hephaestus!" Annabeth screamed. "I'm so stupid.' Eta is H.'
"No, you are not stupid. It was my fault." Percy muttered. He knew that a child of Athena calling themselves stupid was some big insult.
"You should stop blaming yourself for everything." Annie muttered, but she was smiling widely nevertheless. Percy grinned at her.
"One second they are fighting like cats over a piece of food, and the next second they are trying to take each other's blames on their own heads. I can never understand their relationship." Thalia mused.
"Really. Being their third wheel is not easy." Leo told Grover as everyone else snickered. Grover nodded with a sigh. Percy quickly motioned to Zeus-girl to read. Zeus-girl frowned. She didn't like this boy telling her to read. But she continued anyways.
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!"
"Oh, no. It was awesome! We saw it on Hephaestus TV. It crossed all the previous ratings and broke all records!" Travis exclaimed.
"Most watched video on all of Olympus!" Connor agreed.
Percy didn't like the sound of that. He hated becoming entertainment for others.
We'd almost made it to the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic ... things poured out.
"They were spider automatons, weren't they?" Hephaestus asked. Annabeth nodded, a bit pale. Annie turned paler as memories and images of all her bad experiences started flooding into her mind. She gripped Percy's hand. Percy's face turned red, but he didn't let it go.
Annabeth screamed.
It was an army of wind-up creepy-crawlies: bronze-gear bodies, spindly legs, little pincer mouths, all scuttling toward us in a wave of clacking, whirring metal.
"Something like this" Leo showed everyone his newly made spider automaton.
They automaton jumped from his hand and started scuttling around. Annie screamed and jumped into Percy's lap. Everyone turned to stare at her as Leo retrieved his automaton.
"S-sorry." Annie muttered as she got down from Percy's lap, her face burning red. But she didn't let go of his hand.
"It's okay." Percy said softly, though his face was also burning. Annabeth glared at Leo for showing them the automaton. Leo gulped and sunk behing Piper.
"Spiders!" Annabeth said. "Sp-sp-aaaah!"
I'd never seen her like this before. She fell backward in terror and almost got overwhelmed by the spider robots before I pulled her up and dragged her back toward the boat.
"I almost got us killed by those spiders." Annabeth muttered.
"Why do you fear spiders so much ?" Percy asked. "You'll see. It will come up." Annabeth said.
The things were coming out from all around the rim now, millions of them, flooding toward the center of the pool, completely surrounding us. I told myself they probably weren't programmed to kill, just corral us and bite us and make us look stupid. Then again, this was a trap meant for gods. And we weren't gods.
"Yes. The spiders and the trap together will get you killed if you don't get out soon enough." Leo muttered. Poseidon and Athena paled.
Annabeth and I climbed into the boat. I started kicking away the spiders as they swarmed aboard. I yelled at Annabeth to help me, but she was too paralyzed to do much more than scream.
"Sorry..." Annie muttered.
"This has not even happened to us yet." Percy said. "It's okay."
"Thirty, twenty-nine," called the loudspeaker.
The spiders started spitting out strands of metal thread, trying to tie us down. The strands were easy enough to break at first, but there were so many of them, and the spiders just kept coming. I kicked one away from Annabeth's leg and its pincers took a chunk out of my new surf shoe.
Grover hovered above the pool in his flying sneakers, trying to pull the net loose, but it wouldn't budge.
"You can't do anything to the net." Hephaestus shook his head.
Think, I told myself. Think.
"Thank gods. Now he will come up with one of his stupid ideas and save the day." Thalia muttered.
"Good thing he can think when he wants to." Nico nodded.
"Hey!" Percy protested.
"Water! Find the water outlets!" Athena exclaimed and crossed her fingers. She hoped the boy was smart enough for that.
The Tunnel of Love entrance was under the net. We could use it as an exit, except that it was blocked by a million robot spiders.
"Fifteen, fourteen," the loudspeaker called.
Water, I thought. Where does the ride's water come from?
"Good." Poseidon nodded.
Then I 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!" I yelled. "Get into that booth! Find the 'on' switch!"
"But-"
"You don't need to try the switches. Just concentrate and call to the sea." Poseidon told Percy.
"Do it!" It was a crazy hope, but it was our only chance. The spiders were all over the prow of the boat now. Annabeth was screaming her head off. I had to get us out of there.
Grover was in the controller's booth now, slamming away at the buttons.
"Five, four-"
Grover looked up at me hopelessly, raising his hands. He was letting me know that he'd pushed every button, but still nothing was happening.
I closed my eyes and thought about waves, rushing water, the Mississippi River. I felt a familiar tug in my gut. I tried to imagine that I was dragging the ocean all the way to Denver.
"That will do." Poseidon nodded with a sigh of relief.
"Two, one, zero!"
Water exploded out of the pipes. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. I pulled Annabeth into the seat next to me and fastened her seat belt just as the tidal wave slammed into our boat, over the top, whisking the spiders away and dousing us completely, but not capsizing us. 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 us. The Cupid-cams were rolling, live to Olympus.
But I could only concentrate on controlling the boat. I willed it to ride the current, to keep away from the wall. Maybe it was my imagination, but the boat seemed to respond.
"The boat is bound to respond to you." Poseidon told Percy. "You can control any water vessel."
At least, it didn't break into a million pieces. We spun around one last time, the water level now almost high enough to shred us against the metal net. Then the boat's nose turned toward the tunnel and we rocketed through into the darkness.
Annabeth and I held tight, both of us 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.
Then we were out of the tunnel, the night air whistling through our hair as the boat barreled straight toward the exit.
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. But there was a problem. The Gates of Love were chained.
"Oh no! You will have to jump." Apollo said. He probably had finally finished his game of Call of Duty.
Two boats that had been washed out of the tunnel before us were now piled against the barricade-one submerged, the other cracked in half.
"Uh, oh." Chris muttered.
"How did you even survive?" Thalia turned to Annabeth.
"Unfasten your seat belt," I yelled to Annabeth.
"Are you crazy?"
"I can't believe I am saying this, but listen to the boy!" Athena said.
"Unless you want to get smashed to death." I strapped Ares's shield to my arm. "We're going to have to jump for it." My idea was simple and insane.
"Percy's simple and insane and stupid ideas always work." Nico said. Other demigods nodded in agreement.
As the boat struck, we would use its force like a springboard to jump the gate. I'd heard of people surviving car crashes that way, getting thrown thirty or forty feet away from an accident. With luck, we would land in the pool.
Annabeth seemed to understand. She gripped my hand as the gates got closer.
"On my mark," I said.
"No! On my mark!"
"What?"
"Simple physics!" she yelled. "Force times the trajectory angle-"
"You actually bothered to remember all that taught in school to calculate the physics when you were about to die." Thalia said.
Annabeth shrugged. "Physics can come handy for demigods."
Athena nodded with approval.
"Fine.'" I shouted. "On your mark!"
She hesitated ... hesitated ... then yelled, "Now!"
Crack!
Annabeth was right.
"Of course I was." Annabeth said. Annie smirked.
If we'd jumped when I thought we should've, we would've crashed into the gates.
She got us maximum lift.
"That was a silly mistake. I calculated the equation for maximum projectile height instead of-"
"Okay thanks for your explanation. Can we continue reading?" Travis asked innocently.
Annabeth scowled and he ducked behind Katie.
Unfortunately, that 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 toward solid asphalt.
Something grabbed me from behind.
Annabeth yelled, "Ouch!"
Grover!
Several demigods whooped. "The red baron!"
"The best flying goat!"
"Go Grover!"
Grover flushed and grinned as people patted him on the back.
In midair, he had grabbed me by the shirt, and Annabeth by the arm, and was trying to pull us out of a crash landing, but Annabeth and I had all the momentum.
"You're too heavy!" Grover said. "We're going down!"
We spiraled toward the ground, Grover doing his best to slow the fall.
We 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.
Several snickers.
Annabeth and I tumbled to the ground, banged up but alive. Ares's shield was still on my arm.
Once we caught our breath, Annabeth and I got Grover out of the photo-board and thanked him for saving our lives. I looked back at the Thrill Ride of Love. The water was subsiding. Our boat had been smashed to pieces against the gates.
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 in our faces.
"Show's over!" I 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. I wondered if Olympus had gone to a commercial break, or if our ratings had been any good.
"Any good? Your video had the highest ratings of the century!" Travis exclaimed.
Leo wondered if he should get a Hephaestus TV subscription and watch the video.
I hated being teased. I hated being tricked. And I had plenty of experience handling bullies who liked to do that stuff to me.
"Who doesn't hate it?" Jason muttered.
"Everyone hates it. But Percy hates it the most." Annabeth said. "He hates doing things for other people's entertainment."
"You know me so well?" Percy asked. "Didn't I tell you already? Get used to it." Annabeth smiled at him and ruffled his hair. Percy blushed.
I hefted the shield on my arm and turned to my friends. "We need to have a little talk with Ares."
"Now he's going to get himself beaten up, isn't he?" Thalia asked. "Oh wait! You are there to keep him out of trouble." She looked at Annabeth. Annie wondered how much she would have to keep Percy out of trouble. It was definitely going to be a full-time job.
"And what do you mean by little-talk, punk? You gonna stick your little sword in my butt ?" Ares asked with a snort.
"You want me to try? I am sure I can arrange for a sword in your butt." Percy grumbled.
"You little..." Ares started getting up, but Poseidon doused him with a blast of salt water. He landed hard with his butt on the throne. Obviously, he grunted and scowled.
"End of chapter!" Zeus girl exclaimed. She handed the book to Demeter. Hera, who had surprisingly gone silent for some time, started wailing again. "MMMPPPHHHHHHH! HHMMMPPPHHHH!!!"