I just realized I can't put this in Percy's POV because the book already has it like that do I guess Annabeth has an open slot. Great I always do this.
Grover's POV
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.
We call home to Half-Blood Hill via a spray hose in a do-it-your-self car wash. It's called Iris-messaging because the rainbow goddess Iris carries messages from the gods. If you know how to ask, and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for half-bloods.
Luke answers the Iris message, saying that Chiron is busy with the campers. Camp Half-Blood is having issues. A car pulls into the next stall, blasting music so that they can't really hear Luke. Sure enough, Baxie ran off covering her ears screaming.
Annabeth and I go ask the driver to turn his music down. Percy talks to Luke and learns that the campers have all taken sides in the brewing war between Zeus and Poseidon. The camp is a mess.
"Aphrodite, Ares, and Apollo are backing Poseidon, more or less. Athena is backing Zeus." Luke says.
Percy tells Luke everything that's happened so far. Luke accuses Hades of stealing the master bolt, guessing that Hades used his helm of darkness to make himself invisible as he stole it. The water runs out and the Iris message fades.
We go to a diner. A big, and we mean BIG, mean-looking biker dude rolls into the diner. He sits right down in our booth as if there was space and rudely orders the waitress around. Percy is super-annoyed and angered by this dude. But he did get Baxie another battle axe, since she lost the other one.
"That is not mine." Baxie looked wide-eyed at the axe. One side was made of fire the other of water and the middle was a crystal on top with lightning surging around it.
"The big three got this for you, I don't exactly like what they did with it but it will do."
We learn that this is Ares, the god of war. Ares has a favor to ask of Percy and us –he left his shield in the Tunnel of Love ride at a local water park. He needs us to get it for him, as a way of proving themselves to him. Percy is very saucy with Ares. But we do out anyway since he bought us food.
Baxie's POV
Percy doesn't like the god one bit. But Ares promises to get us a ride to Los Angeles if we successfully retrieve his shield. So, we go to Waterland, the run-down water park down the road. The sun is setting. We jump the padlocked fence and make our way through the park, past different rides, trying to find the Tunnel of Love. I wondered how long the park had been run down.
"Percy you have to be more respectful when talking to Ares AND his girlfriend." Grover says.
"Who is his girlfriend?" Percy asks.
"Aphrodite." He said.
"Isn't Aphrodite married to Hephaestus?" I asked.
"Yes." Grover said.
"Hold up doesn't that mean she is cheating? Won't Hephaestus notice? And doesn't that make Aphrodite a true step mom to me? And Ares a step-step dad? Oh ok I get it now! The gods are just like Ares...Um...I don't actually know anymore." She said.
"Huh?" Grover and Percy say confused.
"You, by far, ask more questions than anyone I know. Even me." Annabeth said.
"Forget it, come on Annabeth let's go get some clothes from the water park store." I say.
"You mean steal?" Annabeth states.
"Duh. You two keep walking see if you can find a map or if you could find the tunnel of love right away."
Annabeth's POV
We find the Tunnel of Love ride, which is basically like a tunnel that leads to an empty pool. Surrounding the pool are statues of Cupid. They were creepy with their chipped paint and a couple were half melted from the gods know what.
In the middle of the empty pool is a pink-and-white two-seater boat with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it." Ares's sword is right there in the boat, but when Percy grabs it, he breaks a cobweb-like substance. A trip-wire! The whole thing is a trap!
The Cupids start shooting arrows of rope across the rim of the pool. That was a dumb idea they could have just shot the boat, it would be more efficient. But there was no time to think about it because Percy and I are trapped inside the pool. The Cupid's heads pop off, revealing cameras. A voice over a loudspeaker tells them they will be filmed live for Mount Olympus in one minute.
Then came the best part, metallic spiders start pouring into the pool and a couple start crawling next to Baxie and Grover who are on the ledge of the wall. Being Athena kids we do what is expected of us when we see spiders, be deathly afraid of them and panic. Percy uses his water powers to pump the water into the pool and propel us on the boat toward the exit. Using my knowledge of physics, we catapult over the fence blocking the exit. Phew! The shield is intact. But we left poor Baxie and Grover up there.
The next thing I see is Baxie running out using her axe to burn the ropes as a spider chases her. When Grover and her got out, she smashed the spider with the water side of the battle axe and started screaming crushed spider was on her axe and rubs it off on Grover.
"Hey! I didn't ask you to kill it!" Grover complains.
"Well...I killed it anyway. You should thank me!" Baxie said.
"I was not the one being chased!" Grover says.
"Come on guys we're wasting time. We'll talk while we move." I say as we start walking.
"Turns out that Aphrodite's husband was jealous. He tried to catch her and her boyfriend in the act of cheating on him. He's always trying to trap them and humiliate them in front of Mount Olympus." Annabeth said.
We look back and the Cupid cameras are still filming us. Percy yells at them, and they shut off. Percy is really angry at Ares.
"Well if he knew it was a trap why would he go there in the first place? And why would he notice after? What's the meaning of making a trap no one is going to use?" Baxie said.
"Good point, but since he knew already he should have gotten it himself." Percy says.