It was another day before we reached Denver. Annabeth had said something about contacting Chiron but I wasn't really paying attention. Every single time I saw something in the corner of my eye, I would instantly go on alert. Maybe I was a bit paranoid but what Echidna had said was stuck in my mind.
I didn't even notice when we arrived at the empty DIY carwash.
'It's seventy-five cents,' Grover grumbled as he detached the spray bottle from the wall. 'You guys have any spare change?'
'I have some.' I said as I pulled out four quarters. Annabeth took three and inserted them into the machine. Grover set the knob for the spray bottle to FINE MIST.
'Excellent. We could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good, and my arms gets tired of pumping.' Grover grimaced.
'Here, I'll do it.' Grover handed me the spray bottle and let out a subtle sigh of relief.
'So what do I do?' I asked Annabeth. Even if I have used Iris-Messaging before, summoning the Goddess of Rainbows with a spray bottle was still weird to me.
'Aim the nozzle at the sunlight,' she pointed at the rays of afternoon sunlight streaming through the air. 'And just spray the water to make a rainbow.'
I nodded and started pumping. It wasn't long until a rainbow shimmered in front of us. Annabeth rummaged through her backpack until she took out a pouch of gold drachmas. She fished one out from the leather pouch and held it out in front of the rainbow.
'O goddess, accept our offering,' she threw the coin in the rainbow and it shimmered before it disappeared. 'Half-Blood Hill.'
I blinked and the misty rainbow was replaced with the strawberry fields of camp. Long Island Sound glittered in the distance. The Iris-Message had popped up at the Big House Porch. There was one person there: Luke leaning against the porch railing, looking down the meadow as if the campers had broken up into a fight.
Knowing them, they probably did.
'Luke!' I called out, startling him.
Luke whirled around, his face breaking into a grin. His smile made the scar on his face stick out more and it unsettled me. Nonetheless, seeing a familiar face calmed me down, albeit slightly.
'Percy!' Luke exclaimed happily. 'Is that Annabeth, too? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay?'
I nodded and watched Annabeth as she blushed and stuttered in front of Luke. I never realised how much she had a crush on Luke and instead of feeling jealous, I found it quite amusing. I was too busy trying not to laugh as Annabeth tried her best to straighten naturally curly hair, I almost stopped pumping.
'Where's Chiron?' I interrupted Annabeth's stammering.
The smile on Luke's face instantly vanished, 'He's down by the cabins. We're having some issues with the campers. Listen, is everything cool with you?'
The way Luke was talking to us made me think that he really cared about what happens to us. How could he change his intentions so quickly?
'Yeah, we're fine,' Grover cut in. 'What kind of issues?'
Luke opened his mouth to reply but before he could get a word out, sounds of people singing horribly and music filled the air. A car pulled into the carwash and slid into the stall next to us, the volume of their music so loud, the entire block was shaking. I could feel the vibrations coming from the ground.
'What's that noise?' Luke had to yell to be heard.
'Some idiots!' I yelled back just as Annabeth yelled, 'I'll take care of it.'
I looked at Luke and shook my head as Annabeth pulled Grover to the stall next to us. After a few seconds, the volume of the music dropped back down to a reasonable level.
'That's better,' I sighed. 'What were you saying again?'
'Chiron had to break up a fight,' Luke said grimly. 'Word leaked out about the Zeus-Poseidon standoff. We're still not sure how - probably the same scumbag who summoned the hellhound.'
I tried not to winch at that. I knew it was Luke who summoned the hellhound and I knew that it was him that let that piece of information loose. I tried to keep a blank face as Luke continued.
'Now the campers are starting to take sides. It's shaping up like the Trojan War all over again,' he shook his head. 'Aphrodite, Ares and Apollo are backing Poseidon, more or less. Athena is backing Zeus.'
My arm was seriously starting to get tired now. A beep drew my attention to the spray machine, the small blinking red light letting me know that I have a minute left before the water shut off. I tried digging through my pockets again but I only found Riptide and a quarter.
'We don't have much time,' Luke said as he eyed the blinking red light over my shoulder. 'I'll let Chiron know you called. Listen, how are the flying shoes? Have they helped?'
I know I shouldn't feel guilty lying but I just couldn't help myself. Luke sounded so sincere.
'Yeah, they've come in handy,' I forced a smile. 'It fits and everything. Thanks, by the way.'
'That's great!' Luke grinned again. The water suddenly stopped, causing the mist to slowly evaporate. 'Look, take care of yourself over there. And tell Grover it'll be better this time! Nobody would get turned into a pine tree is he just-'
I resisted the urge to punch the empty air in front of me. That was low, even for Luke. Grover already blamed himself for Thalia's death and Luke was just rubbing salt in the wound. I stood there looking at the fading image of Luke, wanting so badly to punch that smile right off his face.
'Percy?' Annabeth said as she emerged from the next stall with Grover trailing right behind her. She looked around and just seemed to realise the Iris Message with Luke had already ended.
'What happened?' she asked as she walked towards me. 'What did Luke say?'
I looked up into the sky and sighed, 'It's getting a bit late now. I'll tell you guys over some dinner. I'm starving.'
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
'This is the best burger I have ever tasted.' Annabeth moaned as she took another bite from the half-eaten cheeseburger in her hands.
'I know right?' I said with my mouth full of fries.
'You guys are being so dramatic.' Grover rolled his eyes as he nibbled on the grease paper from our trays.
I feigned an offended look and pointed my drink at him, 'You just don't know what you're missing, my vegetarian friend.'
'Yeah, whatever.'
The small diner bustled with life. Waitresses rushing back and forth from the kitchen to the tables filled with patrons. The smell of food filled the air, making my cheeseburger taste better than it is. I didn't quite remember it being so lively last time.
Of course, good things never last. Soon enough, the person that I expected to come finally arrived.
Or should I say god?
I felt him before I even saw him. The hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up and I suddenly had the urge to punch something. As the disturbing-looking bike rolled up the driveway, all the previous cheerful chattering in the diner stopped abruptly. I watched as Ares got off his bike with as much grace as the Stoll brothers and started walking towards the entrance to the diner.
I had to resist the urge to stand up like every other mortal in the diner. I could see Grover and Annabeth were suffering the same problem. Ares strode across the floor as if he was floating and waved his hand as he did so. Everyone in the diner suddenly sat back down and continued their conversations as if nothing had happened.
I reached into my pocket and clutched Riptide unnecessarily tight. My eyes followed Ares as he strode towards our table. I swallowed the last bit of cheeseburger in my mouth. My fries didn't seem so appetising anymore.
Grover let out a small yelp as Ares sat directly opposite him. Due to his massive frame, Annabeth had to practically shift into the window to avoid being squashed by him. Before any of us could say anything, Ares smirked and reached over to my tray of fries before grabbing a handful and shoving it into his mouth. That just made me want to stab him more.
'Thanks, punk.' Ares said, his mouth still full of chewed-up fries. His voice was just as I remembered it to be. His gruff voice made it seem like Ares has never cleared his throat in his entire immortal life.
'So you're old seaweed's kid, huh?' Ares' eyes were covered by his red sunglasses but I had a feeling he was looking me over.
'Got a problem?' I couldn't help but bite back. I never liked Ares in the first place and his aura just made it harder to resist doing anything remotely violent.
Annabeth looked like she was one second away from panicking, 'Percy, this is-'
'Ares, the God of War,' I finished her sentence as I stared the god down. 'I know.'
Ares raised an eyebrow, visibly impressed. 'That's right, punk. I heard you broke Clarisse's spear.'
Surprising even myself, I rolled my eyes. 'She was asking for it. What brings you here, oh mighty God of War?'
Grover made a soft choking sound next to me. Annabeth's face went pale as she sneaked a glance at Ares.
'You have some spunk, kid. I like that,' Ares chuckled as he continued staring at me. I could feel his burning gaze looking right into my eyes. 'Just remember who's boss and we'll get along just fine.'
Annabeth let out a small sigh of relief as Grover gnawed on some grease paper nervously. I know what I said was really stupid but I couldn't help myself. My ADHD just made it ten times worse.
'As for why I am here, I have something for you all to do.' Ares continued as he took out a hunting knife and started cleaning his nails.
'And what would that be, Lord Ares?' Annabeth asked as politely as she could.
'I left my shield at an abandoned water park here in town. I was going on a...little date with my girlfriend,' At the word "girlfriend", something in Ares' face changed. Like girlfriend was the simplest way to describe his relationship with Aphrodite. 'We were interrupted. I left my shield behind. I want you to fetch it for me.'
'Fetch it yourself,' I said nonchalantly, freaking out Annabeth and Grover even more. 'We're in the middle of a quest already. We don't need any distractions.'
A glow lit up in his eyes, the light of a flame licked the side of his shades. His face hardened and his arms went rigid.
'You better watch your attitude, punk,' Ares said deadly calm. 'I am offering you and your friends a chance to prove yourself. Be glad that I am giving you this opportunity, Percy Jackson.'
We stared at each other for a few seconds, neither side wanting to give in. I was gripping Riptide hard now, so hard my knuckles turned white. Ares looked relaxed but I knew he could decapitate me in a blink of an eye.
Before either of us could give in, Annabeth courageously stepped in. 'Of course, Lord Ares. We are honoured to retrieve your shield for you.'
The fiery light that was his eyes dissipated a little bit as he turned towards Annabeth and smirked. 'Good. I will supply you with all the things you need for the rest of the quest. Meet me here when you are done.'
Ares stood up to leave but before he could exit the diner, he turned around and looked me dead in the eye.
'You better watch yourself, son of Poseidon,' Ares said as he removed his sunglasses to reveal miniature nuclear explosions in his eye sockets. His grin was diabolical as he sheathed his knife. 'Do not disappoint me.'
I stared into the neverending explosions in his eye sockets and for a split second, they were suddenly replaced with regular eyes.
Solid golden eyes.
I blinked to make sure I wasn't seeing things but by the time I refocused on Ares' eyes, they were back to their normal mushroom cloud explosions. Ares gave me one last evil grin and put his shades back on before walking out of the diner. The sounds of the customers were drowned out by a motorcycle's rumble as Ares rode off to gods knows where.
As I turned back to face Annabeth and Grover, my head suddenly snapped back towards the diner entrance. I brought a hand up to my stinging face as I looked stunned at a fuming Annabeth.
'What were you thinking?' she hissed at me. 'Are you trying to get yourself killed?'
'No.' I answered in all seriousness.
'You shouldn't have done that, Percy,' she glared at me. 'He is the God of War. You don't want to mess with him and you definitely don't want him as an enemy.'
Too late, I said to myself mentally.
I looked over at Grover to see him looking a bit shaken up. I shook his shoulder and he snapped back to reality.
'Oh gods,' Grover said. 'You made a big mistake, Percy. A big, big mistake.'
I just shrugged.
'Come on, guys,' Annabeth said, still seemingly annoyed at me for pissing off an Olympian god. 'The faster we get this done, the faster we can continue our actual quest.'
Grover and I looked at each other before following Annabeth out of the diner to retrieve the shield of the most annoying god on Olympus.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
The three of us stood in front of the infamous WATRAD sign as the setting sun cast beautiful colours over the sky. The abandoned water park was surprisingly worse than I remembered. The dull-coloured water slides resting on rusted poles, waterless pools filled with litter and gunk. The sun set behind the tallest water slide and cast the entire water park under a shadow, making it look even more depressing than it was.
I looked at Grover and Annabeth before turning back towards the fence. The rusted metal fence was topped with barb wire and the main gate was padlocked shut. Stepping forward, I uncapped Riptide and swung it at the old padlock, snapping it clean in half. I was surprised that worked. I thought Celestial Bronze would only affect mythological stuff but I guess it worked on regular metal too.
Grover and Annabeth walked past me and pushed open the gate with a loud creak. Old flyers and worn-out tickets laid abandoned on the ground blew away from us, as if we had brought the wind with us. The whole park was silent, the only thing making a sound was the fluttering of paper on the ground and our breathing.
'We should finish this before it gets dark,' I spoke up, breaking the eery silence. 'We won't be able to see after that.'
'You're right,' Annabeth responded with a nod. It seems that she had forgiven me for being an idiot. 'Let's hurry up and find this shield.'
Grover said nothing throughout the entire exchange.
Both Grover and Annabeth were following me so I subtly lead them towards the Tunnel of Love where Ares' shield lay. I kept my eye out for any monsters lurking in the shadows. There weren't any the last time but one couldn't be too careful.
Before I knew it, we arrived at the edge of the large cereal bowl. A large empty cereal bowl. I kept my distance from the bronze Cupid statues. I didn't know how I mistook them for normal statues. They were clearly made out of Celestial Bronze from the soft glow it gave off. Maybe I was too preoccupied with the shield that lay at the centre of the pool.
I looked at the small boat at the bottom of the pool in disgust. That one insignificant canopied boat, that one badly painted boat gave us so much trouble. I should have seen a trap coming from miles away. First of all, it was Ares who was giving us the 'quest' and secondly, the shield just had to be in an abandoned waterpark of all places.
'There's the shield,' Grover said in what sounded like relief. 'I could fly down and get it.'
'No,' I said almost too quickly. Images of the mechanical spiders flooded my mind. I couldn't let Grover go through that. He would freak out, and so would Annabeth. 'Stay here with Annabeth, Grover. I'll get it myself.'
'What? Why?' Annabeth protested. She looked at me with those scrutinising eyes, trying to find a reason as to why I would do it myself. But I had learned to hide my emotions and intentions from Annabeth after years of being around her.
'Trust me,' I said casually but I could hear my heart thumping in my chest. 'I mean, what could possibly go wrong? Just a simple trip down and back up. No biggie.'
Annabeth looked like she wanted to protest some more but I gave her no chance to say anything as I turned my back towards them.
I slid down the side of the bowl and reached the bottom in no time at all. I looked back up to where Annabeth and Grover were peering over the edge and gave them a thumbs up. I turned back to face the overly decorated pink boat and it seemed to beckon me towards it, daring me to approach it.
I neared the boat and immediately reached for the pink scarf that lay next to the shield. Without hesitating, I held my breath before throwing it as far as a silk scarf can go. I didn't want to be influenced by Aphrodite's voodoo love magic without anyone with me to stop me. Turning back to the shield, I leaned closer, careful not to touch it.
The Celestial Bronze tripwire was barely visible in the dark. I had to squint my eyes to see the tripwire clearly but even then was it hard to spot. I tried to think of a way to get the shield without triggering the trap but my mind came out empty of ideas.
I looked back towards Annabeth and Grover. The entire bowl-shaped pool wasn't really that steep and just looking at it made an idea pop up in my head.
And like every other idea I have ever come up with, it was a stupid idea. A stupid idea that might work.
'Get ready!' I shouted to them from the bottom of the pool. I watched as confusion graced the features of my friends but they got ready all the same.
Taking my sword out of my pocket, I immediately reached out for the shield grabbed it off the seat, effectively triggering the metal spider trap. I strapped the shield to my arm before whirling around and started running but before I knew it, I found myself face-flat against the tiled floor.
I could faintly hear Annabeth's screams from the top of the pool. The sound of metal clanging against each other let me know that the giant metal net was already cast above the pool. I looked back to see the pink silk scarf tangled up between my feet, causing curses to flow out of my mouth like water.
I could hear little scurrying noises that grew louder by the second. The metal spiders were pouring out of hatches by the hundreds. If I didn't get out of there, I would be dead.
I scrambled up and kicked the scarf away before running towards the edge of the pool. The spiders were starting to reach my feet now. I was starting to panic and questioned my plan, which was a really bad place to start doing so.
Before I could change my mind, I uncapped Riptide and jumped as high as I could with my backpack and Ares' shield on my arm. Somehow, I found myself standing on top of the spiders and I continued running.
Jumping whenever I felt like I was about to fall, I managed to reach the wall of the pool. The spiders were still pouring out of the hatches with no end in sight and I was starting to get tired. Any longer and I would get run over by the spiders. I didn't have a nasty fear of spiders like Annabeth did but I didn't enjoy dying anytime soon.
With one last leap, I yelled and brought Riptide stabbing towards the pool wall. Miraculously, it sunk hilt-deep into the concrete and I held on. I could barely hear the sound of a countdown over the spiders. They flowed out just under my dangling feet as I tried my best not to let go of my sword grip.
My arm felt like it was on fire. My muscles were burning from holding up so much weight. Despite the voice in my head pleading to let go, I held on. The spiders were still pouring out nonstop. I just had to hold on until it stopped. According to the voice over the loudspeaker, I had thirty seconds left.
Those were the longest thirty seconds I have experienced in my whole life. Thirty measly seconds felt like thirty minutes as I told myself repeatedly not to let go. I didn't even realise everything had stopped until I heard Annabeth and Grover calling my name.
I looked down and saw the regular tiled floor of a pool. No more black mass of metal spiders scuttling everywhere. The Cupid statues had stopped filming and everything was dark once again. Breathing a sigh of relief, I let go of the sword and slid back down the pool once again.
'Percy!' Grover shouted. 'Are you okay?'
'Yeah!' I shouted back. I was starting to feel my arm again as I stood up shakily. I looked up at my friends but I couldn't see their faces in the dark. They were trying to make an exit by holding apart the bronze net but every time they touched it, small tendrils crept up their arm and forced them to let go.
I looked over to the far end of the ride and eyed the dark tunnel that boats would usually go through. Looking back up at the net, I realised I had no choice.
'Meet me at the entrance!' I shouted. 'Wait for me there!'
Without waiting for a reply or an acknowledgement, I turned around and strolled towards the tunnel. I instinctively touched my pocket and smiled when I felt Riptide in its pen form. As I walked down the eerily dark tunnel, I couldn't help but picture me beating Ares in a duel over and over again.
A/N: I'M ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
YES, I'm not dead. YES, I'm still alive. I am here to bless you guys with another chapter.
Terribly, terribly sorry for not updating in over a month. School is stupid and there is nothing I can do about it. Hopefully, I will have the time to post another one in the near future.
A crazy thing, how did this fanfic gain almost 1000 reads? I haven't even been updating! This is crazy and it is definitely going better than my previous fanfic. All I have to say is thank you for the support and to everyone that has been waiting for a new chapter, here it is.
Again, sorry for not updating in a while. Look out for the next chapter, fellas.
~Sacai2005