Chapter 1

Another godly quest. And another fight

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"I got a little proposition for you"...

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."

"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."

'"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..."

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(Percy's POV)

"... I'll meet you back here when you're done. Don't disappoint me. Oh and you might want to hurry before you lose this chance to get some help."

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, 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 probably some kind of trick," I said. "Forget Ares. Let's just go."

"We can't," Annabeth said. "Look, I hate Ares as much as anybody, but you don't ignore the gods unless you want seriours bad fortune. He wasn't kidding about turning you into a rodent."

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."

"But this water park . . . he acted almost scared. What would make a war god run away like that?"

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 looked like it was padlocked but with some closer inspection you could see that it had been smashed with something hard to break and be dented with because whoever or whatever was smarter enough because the top was covered with barbed wire. inside, huge dry watersliders and tubes and pipes curled everywhere, leading to empty pools. Old tickets and advertisements fluttered around the tarmac. 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."

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

"Why? I thought you hated Ares."

"He's still a god. And his girlfriend is very tempera-mental."

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

"Who is she? Echidna?"

"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.

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

"Maia!" Grover's shoes sprouted wings.

He started to fly up to go over the fence.

"Wait, look at the lock," Whispered Annabeth. Grabbing Grovers leg to stop him from flying over, "Someone else is here so stay quiet. And don't do anything stupid." While giving me a look when she stopped talking to make a point

Grover walked over to the gate and took the lock off and opened the door gesturing. "Ladies first."

Annabeth just rolled her eyes and made her way through. As I bowed, "What a kind gentleman, good sir."

The shadows grew long as we walked through the park, checking out the attractions and to see if there was anybody else here. There was Ankle Biter Island, Head Over Wedgie, and Dude, Where's My Swimsuit?

No monsters or people came to get us. Nothing made the slight-est noise beside the sound of wind and some footsteps but they were definitely all coming from us.

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 and what happened to being quiet," I said. "But you can't just-"

"Watch me."

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 grow-ing 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 black-smith. 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?"

"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, turning her head towards the both of us pointing to the empty pool, "Like-" but her face went cold with a look.

"Like what exactly?" said an unknown voice.

Me and Grover quickly whipped around to see someone standing behind us, someone about my height dressed in a long poncho jacket with a hood on just enough for eyes watching us to see what we would do next but still cover in a shade of dark material that blends with the shadows, with worker pants that look worn down and dusty steel boots.

"Now it's definitely past your bedtimes?" the stranger said with a joking taunting voice. While walking around us just to stop where we were going, looking up at the sign " Ah ok the great 'THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!' not that good of a ride from what I've seen so why would you-"

"That's none of your business" I spoke with a threatening tone after noticing a large backpack with a metal looking baseball bat strapped in a holster behind it.

"Are you sure because where I'm standing it looks like something that could be sold for a far bit," turning back to face us with a smile on there face, "Now what would you want with 'That' down there"

"As we just said it's none of your business so just leave while you can unless you want a fight" Annabeth said with venom stepping forward.

"Oh now you really got me interested and now I just have to know what it is," said the stranger while taking the hood off showing hair that was as black as charcoal and styled like my own hair just more wild with silver eyes that looked like they could change depending on the lighting. "Ok then who am I fighting?" The look on his face was confident.

"Me I wil-'' Annabeth started to say only for me to interrupt "No I will '' I said, stepping forward before anyone else could.

"Ok, Ok before we start some rules," he said stepping forward to stand front of me," One, no hitting below the waist just gotta get that out there before we start," holding a finger up, "two, we keep going till one of us calls quits or knocked out," adding another finger, " And the last rule no weapons to make it fare," "Oh and it's for keeps" Raising his hands into fists

"Fine let's get this over with, we're on a time limit," Lifting my fist to match he's, "We're leaving with it either way."

I should be able to win this fight really quickly with the training I had with Luke and capture the flag against Clarisse. So I start with fixing my stance and throwing a right hook aiming for his head, only for my hit to be dodged making it miss and to be countered with a hit to my stomach with an expected force from the hit now making me step back.

"Calling quits so soon?" with a confused face like he was expecting more from me

"What are you doing Percy, think of your training?" Annabeth called from behind the fight.

"Yeah Percy, remember your training?" he said mockingly.

Gritting my teeth from the mocking and the oh so great help from Annabeth, I ran straight at him catching him off guard with how fast I recovered hitting him right in the face knocking him down to his feet.

"I don't need your help with this Annabeth." I said to her, turning my head around to look at her. Only to get distracted and kicked in my stomach and tripped over, looking back over to him to see him getting back up.

"You hit really hard, I was really not expecting to be hit that hard," clicking his jaw, "Really good hit nice, how about we finish this?"

"Yes, let's finish this." Grabbing riptide from my pocket and uncapping it.

"Wait, wait, wait how did you do that," holding his hands up and face with confusion.

"Percy, wait you can't he is mortal and it will just go thro-" Grover starts to say something only to be interrupted.

"Ok, the fight just got more interesting, let's continue this," he said, grabbing his metal bat from his holster on his back.

"Now the new rule is that the first person to land a hit wins with or without a weapon or by hand and fist doesn't matter." taking a quick breath before starting up again.

"So if you win you get what in the tunnel and as a bonus I'll help get it if you are the winner and help with whatever after getting it ok, but if I win ha, I want that sword thingly."

"You're not going to win." I said readying myself for the fight to restart.

I didn't have to wait that long because he start with a upwards swing than swing to the left with a quick speed that showed he has had the skill to swing it quickly and precisely but that didn't matter much with the training I had it was hard to block against but no too difficult to deal with, with the next swing going towards my shoulder I saw a opening to land a hit and when he noticing his mistake me made but with some luck he managed too back up to the side to dodge.

But out of nowhere a slap sound rang out loudly in the silence, stunning me for a bit just to look to my left to see that Annabeth had just slapped him and his face was facing the other way.

"There you lost, now get down there and go get it." Annabeth spoke with authority and pointed to the empty pool in the tunnel.

"Ha ha ha, I didn't think of that, I did say whoever lands the first hit wins so," laughing while rubbing his now red cheek, "Ok, ok, you win what was your name again was it Anna I'll help but before we do that introductions are in order?"

Keeping a steady glance for any sudden action while he put back into its case and taking both his case and backpack off dropping them on the ground then putting his arms up as a sign of giving up. Letting out a sigh I recap riptide and put it back into my pocket.

"Seriously how you do that you some kind of magician or something," still in the same amazement. "Well that can wait, come on winner lets go and get your prize," Turning around walking towards the pool stopping at the edge looking back at us. "Well, are you guys coming."

"Are you both sure we can trust him," Grover quickly jogged up to me and Annabeth. "What if this is just another trap or trick." whispering quietly to us.

"I'm doubtful that he's a monster, he is probably just a normal person." shrugging her shoulders walking up to him.

"Yeah Grover he's just normal, a bit unlucky to run into us and fight me," I said looking at Grover, "Come on let's just finish this and get back to the quest."

As we walked up to the both of them, noticing 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. Which made more sense with it called the 'THRILL RIDE O' LOVE'.

"Well there's your prize." the guy pointing his thumb at the empty pool.

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 you both just walk down there and get it?" looking at him and Annabeth.

Annabeth ran her fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue.

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

"Greek?" he spoke out to her with a questioning tone.

"Grover," I said, "you smell any monsters?"

He sniffed the wind. "Nothing, but something weirdly strangely faint from him."

"Ok wait, smell monsters," looking even more confused, "Just who are you all?" looking at us closely, "Wait I've seen you guys were on the news you guys blew up the Arch, ok now just who are you?"

Nervously looking between us but before any of us could speak he did.

"What you guys did was really damn dumb ok I hope you all know that," sighing and shaking his head, "Ok fine, I'll start then I am Danny."

"Ok look it's a long story ok but I'm Percy," I start to speak, then pointing at Annabeth, "She is Annabeth," and then to Grover, "Grover ok."

"Ok, hi to you all and sorry for before," Danny says with a sigh and looking down," You guys clearly have a need for that something and whatever that is I'm willing to help I've got nothing better to do with my time, come on Annabeth was it" jumping down.

"I'll go with him ok." Grover didn't sound too enthusiastic about doing that.

"No," Annabeth told him. "I want you to stay up top with the flying shoes. You were a great help from before 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, still it's bad enough that I'm- " She spoke looking at him as if he'd just dropped from the moon. Her cheeks were bright red.

"What's the problem now?" I demanded

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

"Who's going to see you?" Danny spoke looking up at her. Leave it to a girl to make everything complicated I thought. "Fine," he told her. "I'll do it myself." But quickly she hopped down, muttering about how boys always messed things up.

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(Annabeth's POV)

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: them-selves.

I saw Danny pick up the scarf. It shimmered pink, and I could just smell the perfume was indescribable-rose, or mountain laurel.

Something good. He just looked at it and his face changed to a dumb goofy looking smile, and a stupid dreamy look, and he was about to rub the scarf against his cheek when I ripped it out of his hands and stuffed it in my pocket. "Oh, no you don't. Stay away from that love magic."

"What?" he questioned like he didn't know what he was just doing.

"Just get the shield, Princess , and let's get out of here."

"It's Prince but whatever."

The moment he touched the shield, I got the feeling that we were in trouble. His hand broke through something that had been connecting it to the dashboard. A cobweb maybe, I thought, but when he bought his back then I noticed a strand of it was connected to his palm and saw it was some kind of metal filament, so fine it was almost invisible. A trip wire.

"Wait," I said.

"What?" I could tell by his voice he was either shocked or scared or both.

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

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

Grover and Percy yelled, "Guys!" at the same time.

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.

"We have to get out," I said.

"Really, I was thinking of staying here!" Danny 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 cam-eras. Spotlights rose up all around the pool, blinding us with illumination, and a loudspeaker voice boomed: "Live to Olympus in one minute ... Fiftynine seconds, fifty-eight ..."

"Hephaestus!" I 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!"

"Wait, are you talking about the greek gods and Olympus right," now sounding more annoyed, "Is this some kind of prank show because that will explain the sword trick he did back up there."

He stopped running and stood still looking upset. I almost made it to the rim when the row of mir-rors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic ... things poured out.

I screamed not knowing what to do. There were just so many nasty looking things.

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. But they were just so scary I felt so frightened.

"Spiders!" I said. "Sp-sp-aaaah!"

I'd never seen so many like this before. I just fell backward in terror and almost got overwhelmed by the spider

robots but before they could get to me I got pulled up and dragged 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 us. I told myself they proba-bly 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 I wasn't a god and he was just a mortal he would most likely die from all of them.

Danny and I climbed into the boat. He started kicking away the spiders as they swarmed aboard. He yelled at me to help, but I was too paralyzed to do much more than scream with terror.

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

The spiders started spitting out strands of metal thread, trying to tie us down. The strands would most likely be easy enough to break if they weren't coming from spiders, but there were so many of them, and the spi-ders just kept coming. He kicked one away from my leg and its pincers took a chunk out of his steel shoe like it was nothing leaving a small hole.

Grover hovered above the pool in his flying sneakers, trying to pull the net loose, but it wouldn't budge. And if the spiders and a flying goat person proved that the gods and Olympus were real then he's a massive idiot.

Think, I told myself. I tried to think of something but I couldn't with all the creepy metal monster spiders.

The Tunnel of Love entrance was under the net. We could use it as an exit, except that it was blocked by a mil-lion robot spid-d-ers.

"Fifteen, fourteen," the loudspeaker called.

Water, I thought. Where does the ride's water come from?

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-"

"Wait no don't." Now he's voice and body was shaking oh most as much as my own.

"I don't care, DO IT!" It was a crazy hope, but it was our only chance. The spiders were all over the prow of the boat now. I was screaming my 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.

" GODS damn it Percy do something," Screaming at him, "Create water or control it JUST DO SOMETHING."

"Two, one, zero!"

Water exploded out of the pipes. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. I got pulled into the seat next to me and fastened in the 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 couldn't concentrate and get some control over the boat. I fight to try and steer it against the current, to keep away from the wall because I wasn't getting any help from Danny and when I just about to yell at him I took a quick look to see nothing but fear all over him, his eye not blinking like he was staring at his own death and his breathing sharp matching his look and his hand having a grip so tight on the ride his whole hand was ghostly white it looked like he put cracks where his hand is and the other holding the shield.

But the boat didn't seem to respond to me. Percy might be the reason why I hoped. 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.

Me and Danny held tightly, but only I was 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 prob-lem. The Gates of Love were chained. 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.

"Unfasten your seat belt," I yelled to him but go no reply

"Are you listening?"

"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. 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.

He seemed to break out of his own world and start to understand what was going to happen. She gripped my hand as the gates got closer.

"On my mark," I said.

"Ok I trust you" I still could only hear fear from him.

I hesitated ... hesitated ... then yelled, "Now!"

Crack!

I was right. We got the maximum lift.

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.

As soon as we were in the air he grabbed me mid air. Only to fall hard into the ground but not feeling the full force.

'Thump' then "Damn that really hurt," grunting while getting up, "You good." holding his hand out.

Once I caught my breath, Percy came running over and Grover landed. I took his hand and thanked him for taking the fall. 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 commer-cial break, or if our ratings had been any good.

I hated being so scared. I hated being tricked. And I had plenty of experience handling bullies who did stuff like that to me. I unattached the shield on my arm and threw it to Percy. "We need to have a little talk with Ares."

"That we will," Danny said, grabbing his things from Percy, "Oh and I didn't think you would fall for me, ha ha ha."

"Wait, what, no, yuck." I Felt my face go red while he kept laughing.

"You sure you want to come with us, it's going to be dangerous?" Percy said with surprise.

"Of cause I did say that I will help with whatever happens after getting it or something like that," starting to stop laughing, "After that whole deal just now my eyes are open to the whatever world with the gods and also I want to get myself a magic sword thing or something else, come lead the way to where we are going."

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(Chapter started 25/09/23)

(Chapter finished 27/09/23)

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