Hello there, gods, half-bloods and friends. Welcome to the next chapter of The God Hunter.
This is a chapter I've been looking forward to, as it adds a bit to speculation to who Matt's biological dad is.
Anyways hope your going to enjoy and now on to the review.
Lucius Walker: Your welcome. Though wouldn't Ares be his half-brother? Same mom, different dads?
Now story time.
The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time the RV parked outside 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 'Watrad'.
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."
"Percy, be more respectful." Annabeth warned, "Even thought I hate Ares. He's still a god and his girlfriend is very temperamental."
"You don't want to insult her looks." Grover added.
"Who is she?" Matt said with a smirk, "Aphrodite?"
"...Yes." Grover said, a little dreamily, "Goddess of love."
"Really? Like really really? Well, shit. Guess the stereotype of all women liking bad boys also applies to gods." Matt said sounding both surprised and impressed, "So Ares and Aphrodite?"
"That's old gossip." Annabeth told them, "Three-thousand-year-old gossip."
"What about Aphrodite's husband?" Percy said.
"Well, you know. Hephaestus. The blacksmith. He was crippled when he was a baby, thrown off Mount Olympus by Zeus. So he isn't exactly handsome." she said, "Clever with his hands, and all, but Aphrodite isn't into brains and talent, you know?"
"Does Hephaestus know?" Percy said.
"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."
"I like Hephaestus already." Matt said with a grin, "And while I also like to gossip, we got a side quest to do.", calling his sword to his hand, and with a single stroke, he broke the lock making the gate swing open.
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?
"Hey Matt." Percy said suddenly.
"Hey Percy." Matt said.
"I just wanted to say..." Percy said, "Thanks."
"For what?" Matt said confused.
"You know, for doing this side quest to get info on my mom." Percy said, "I know you didn't have to but... It just means a lot to me."
"Don't get it twisted, Percy." Matt said seriously, "I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing this for me."
"What?"
"Back at camp I heard you keep going on and on about how good your mom's chocolate chip cookies are." Matt said with a grin, "So I want to try them for myself, and I can't do that if she is stuck in the Underworld."
The two boys shared a laugh as they fist bumped while they continued through the park. No monsters came to get them. Nothing made the slightest noise.
"Just out of curiosity." Matt said looking around, "What is the thing that can permanently kill a god? Just like to know what to be on the look out for."
"We do not speak his name." Annabeth said rather ominously, "A very long time ago, all of Olympus was being threated with total destruction and the gods only survived because they asked him for help... They are still in his debt for that. The gods needed to deliver a message to him and the only one stupid enough to volunteer was Ares... Who was left a sobbing wreck after being subject to his torments."
"Right, very ominous, Annabeth." Matt said dryly as he gave a thumbs up, "And not very helpful."
They continued searching for the Tunnel of Love. 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.
"Yeah, no way it's this easy." Percy said, "Grover, smell anything?"
He sniffed the wind, "Nothing."
"Yeah..." Matt said with his hands in his pockets, "This is too 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..."
"I'm going down." Matt said at once.
"I'll go with you." Grover offered but he didn't sound too enthusiastic.
"No, you would be more of a help up top. Your our flying ace, remember?" Matt said, "I'll be counting on you to protect Percy, in case something goes wrong."
Grover puffed up his chest a little. "Sure. But what could go wrong?"
"And you just had to jinx it." Matt said, "Annabeth, let's go. Percy, watch our backs."
"Are you kidding?" Annabeth said as she looked at him as if he'd grown a second head, her cheeks were bright red.
"What's wrong?" Percy said.
"Me, go with him to the... the 'Thrill Ride of Love'?" she managed to get out, "How embarrassing is that? What if somebody saw me?"
"And pray tell, who's going to?" Matt said with a roll of his eyes, "But it's okay, I'll do it myself."
But when he started down the side of the pool, she followed him, muttering about how boys always messed things up.
Reaching the boat. The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf. Then Matt noticed something he hadn't seen from up top: mirrors all the way around the rim of the pool, facing this spot. In every direction he looked, he could see himself.
While Ares and Aphrodite were smooching with each other and possible doing R-rated things while looking at their favorite people: themselves.
Matt picked up the scarf. It shimmered pink, and the perfume was indescribable a rose, or mountain laurel. Something good. Annabeth ripped it out of his hand and stuffed it in her pocket. "Stay away from that love magic."
"Right..." Matt said annoyed.
"Just get the shield, Cow Eyes." Annabeth said, "And let's get out of here."
The moment Matt touched the shield. His hand broke through something that had been connecting it to the dashboard. A cobweb but made of metal filament, so fine it was almost invisible. A trip wire.
"Wait." Annabeth said, "There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. It's a trap!"
Noise erupted all around them, of a million gears grinding, as if the whole pool were turning into one giant machine.
Percy yelled, "Guys!"
Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Before they could get into cover, they shot but not at them. 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.
"Let's go!" Matt said, grabbing the shield and they ran, but going up the slope of the pool was not as easy as going down.
"Come on!" Percy shouted.
He and Grover where trying to hold open a section of the net for them, but wherever either of them touched it, the golden threads started to wrap around the 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!" 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!"
"Like hell I am!" Matt shouted as they 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 us in a wave of clacking, whirring metal.
"Spiders!" Annabeth said, "Spiders, spiders, spiders, spiiiiiiiiiders!"
Matt took a second to glance at her. She fell backward in terror and almost got overwhelmed by the spider robots before he pulled her up to her feet and dragged her back toward the boat. The things were coming out from all around the rim now, millions of them, flooding toward the center of the pool, completely surrounding them.
Matt and Annabeth climbed into the boat. He started to swing his sword down to swat the spiders as they swarmed aboard. "Could use some help here!" Matt shouted at Annabeth, but she was too paralyzed to do much more than scream, "Of all times, Annabeth!"
"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. He swatted one away from Annabeth's leg.
Percy was still pulling as Grover hovered above the pool in his flying sneakers, trying to pull the net loose, but it wouldn't budge.
"Okay, we need a new plan." Matt muttered, as he looked at his options.
The Tunnel of Love entrance was under the net. It could be use as an exit, except that it was blocked by a million robot spiders.
"Fifteen, fourteen..." the loudspeaker called.
Looking up he saw 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.
"Percy!" Matt yelled, "I need you to use your water skills! Bend the water out of the pipes!"
He stopped pulling at the net and gave a nod. He closed his eyes as he began to concentrate.
"...Two, one, zero!"
Water exploded out of the pipes. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. Matt pulled Annabeth into the seat next to him and fastened her seat belt just as the tidal wave slammed into the boat, over the top, whisking the spiders away and dousing them completely, but not capsizing.
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, the Cupid-cams were rolling, live to Olympus.
They spun around one last time, the water level now almost high enough to shred them against the metal net. Then the boat's nose turned toward the tunnel and they rocketed through into the darkness.
Matt and Annabeth 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 crap.
"Can this thing go faster!?" Matt yelled.
"By the gods! Your enjoying this!" Annabeth shouted horrified as they were out of the tunnel, the night air whistling through their hair as the boat barreled straight toward the exit.
A problem reared it's head. The Gates of Love were chained. Two boats that had been washed out of the tunnel before and they were now piled against the barricade.
"Oh, that's not good!" Matt yelled, "Get up."
"Are you crazy?" Annabeth yelled.
"The jury is still out on that!" Matt yelled, picking up Ares's shield, "We need to jump."
Annabeth seemed to understand. She gripped his hand as the gates got closer.
"We'll go on your mark." Matt shouted.
"Smartest thing you have said all evening!" she yelled.
She hesitated... hesitated... and hesitated, "Now!"
Annabeth called right, as she got the two of them maximum lift. Their boat smashed into the pileup and they were thrown into the air, Matt pulled her on the shield. They went flying straight over the gates, over the pool, and down toward solid asphalt.
With a loud crash, the shield spun over the solid ground with Matt and Annabeth on it before they where thrown off, sending them tumbling over the ground.
They came to a stop, banged up but alive.
Catching their breath, Matt sat up with a grin as Percy and Grover came running up them.
"I want to go again! I want to go again!" Matt said as he looked at the Thrill Ride of Love. The water was subsiding. Their 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 them, the spotlights in their faces.
"Well that's all folks!" Matt said with a bow before aiming a finger gun at the camera, "Good night one and all! And remember, that's life!"
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.
"Think we'll get renewed for a second season?" Matt said with a grin, the shield on his arm as he other hand rested on his hip.
"I hope so." Percy said, "You were great!"
"No, you were great. All of us were." Matt complimented them, "Now let's go chat with Ares."
Pulling up to the dinner in the RV, they found the god of war waiting for them in the parking lot, leaning against his motorcycle.
"Well, well." he said, "You didn't get yourself killed."
"There is this theory that I might be immortal, and I got a good team watching my back." Matt said, "Some simple trap isn't going to stop us."
Ares gave a wicked grin. "Bet that crippled blacksmith was surprised when he netted a couple of stupid kids. You looked good on TV."
"Makes one of us." Matt said, throwing the shield to him like a frisbee.
Ares caught the shield and spun it in the air like pizza dough. It changed form, melting into a bulletproof vest. He slung it across his back.
"Here's a little something for doing the job." he said as he slung a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed it to Percy.
Inside were fresh clothes for all of them, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas, and a bag of Double Stuffed Oreos.
"We don't want your lousy..." Percy said.
"Thank you, Lord Ares." Grover interrupted, giving Percy his best red-alert warning look, "Thanks a lot."
Reluctantly, Percy slung the backpack over his shoulder. Matt looked back at the diner, which had only a couple of customers now. The waitress who'd served them dinner was watching nervously out the window, like she was afraid Ares might hurt them. She dragged the fry cook out from the kitchen to see. She said something to him. He nodded, held up a little disposable camera and snapped a picture of them.
"Hold on, you owe us one more thing." Matt told Ares, as he had his hands in his pockets, "You promised information about Percy's mom."
"You sure he can handle the news?" Ares said, as he kick-started his motorcycle, "She's not dead. She was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That's metamorphosis. Not death. She's being kept."
"Kept." Percy said, "Why?"
"You need to study war, punk." Ares said, "Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else."
"Nobody's controlling me." Percy told him.
He laughed, "Oh yeah? See you around, kid."
"You're pretty smug now, Lord Ares." Matt said irritated, "For a guy who was reduced to a sobbing wreck after being subject to some guy's torments."
Behind his sunglasses, fire glowed. "You have no idea what I have faced at his hands." Ares snarled, "Watch your back, Matt Hauer." he revved his Harley, then roared off down Delancy Street.
Annabeth said, "That was not smart, Matt."
"Well look at all the feck's I give." Matt said before he turned back to the RV.
There you go, hope you enjoyed.
Next chapter I'm going into a bit more detail about that bit of backstory that was just dropped.
Many thanks to everyone who reads, reviews, favorite, or follows this story.
Take care of yourself, drink plenty of water and I will see you people next time.
