[act one; chapter eight - to drown or to fly?]
Andromeda Storm had imagined her death many times. Many ways. There were always so many possibilities, especially given the way her life had already gone. The way that she had already lived and nearly died.
She imagined that maybe, just maybe, she would die in a bed in a senior living facility, memory foggy and skin wrinkled. Or maybe she would die on a battlefield, fighting for the life that she had fought so hard to create. Or maybe she would pass sometime in her sleep, a phenomena, if you asked her.
But not like this. No, never like this.
She tumbled through the air, feeling as it folded around her, feeling as it pricked and tore at the skin that had become her armor. She could feel it, feel it rip at the torn skin. She could feel the blood; nearly even tasted it on her tongue. She knew what was coming. And she found that she was not afraid.
No. No, Andromeda Storm was terrified.
And the next thing she knew, everything was painfully dark.
———
Percy hit the water just seconds after she did. He had watched the wind fold around her, almost like an invisible casket, preparing her for the death that surely awaited her.
He just prayed to the Gods that she was still alive, that maybe, by some miracle, she hadn't died on impact.
He thought hitting the water would hurt, that his arms and back would sting, or maybe his lungs would give out on him, but his impact with the water hadn't hurt. Not really, at least. He was falling slowly then, bubbles trickling up through his fingers, passing by him as if he were just another creature of the sea. He settled on the river bottom soundlessly, untouched. A catfish the size of his stepfather lurched away into the gloom. Clouds of silt and disgusting garbage—beer bottles, old shoes, plastic bags— swirled up all around him.
He knew, then, that Grover was right. Humans were destroying the earth, and he felt his heart hurt, felt it crack, as that harsh reality crashed into him.
At that point, he realized a few more things: first, he had not been flattened into a pancake. He had not been barbecued. He couldn't even feel the Chimera poison boiling in his veins anymore. He was alive. He was not dead.
Second realization: he wasn't wet, not even a little. He could feel the coolness of the water on his skin, feel it move around him like fog. He could see where the fire on his clothes had been quenched. But when he touched his own shirt, it felt perfectly dry.
Third realization: he had no idea where Andromeda Storm was. He pictured it then, her ghost haunting him until he met his grave just as she had. He thought, almost humorously, that she was someone he would not want to haunt him.
(Almost selfishly, he wondered if he would mind it at all.)
A second later, his eyes were looking through the water with anxiety, looking, searching. He just needed one sign of her, one sign that she was close, one sign that maybe—if a miracle was at work—she was alive.
Luckily enough, and with a slight tug in his gut and heart, he found something glinting in the sand not even ten feet away. It was Mania, Andromeda's ring.
He swam forward, the air bubble around him moving as he moved, keeping him dry, as strange as that was.
He picked up the ring, watching it settle in the palm of his hand. For a moment, he felt like he was looking through her eyes. Like he could see and feel and understand her even more. Power, some form of energy, flowed through him, then, capturing his heart and soul in an entity of immortality that he recognized from being around Mr. D. Godly power.
He followed that tug in his gut, let his heart guide it, and found himself turning and walking, following the invisible path laid out before him.
He could see her now.
She was lying motionless on the bottom of the river, her red hair floating slightly around her in a beautiful halo, her arms floating up from the light tug of the water. Even then, even in a seemingly morbid event, she was beautiful.
Percy slipped Mania onto one of his fingers as his arms encircled her, pulling her to him. The moment she passed into the strange bubble surrounding him, her hair fell, soaking wet, just as the rest of her was.
But then he noticed the lack of breathing, the way her chest was completely still. Pressing his ear to her heart, he heard nothing within the cavern of her chest. Not a single thing. Not a single sign that pointed to her being alive.
Laying her down, quickly, he pressed his hands to her chest, pushing down, hoping, praying to the gods, that her heart would start to beat. That if they could hear him, that if they would finally listen, they would hear him beg. They would hear him screaming and ordering them to keep her alive, to give her the chance that they had never given her.
To let her live.
The ring on his finger began to glow. It was the same color as his eyes, he realized. The same amethyst. He felt that power again, feeling it surge through him, reaching from his head to his heart, all of the way to his fingers and into her. Straight into Andromeda's chest.
And within mere seconds, she was alive. Coughing and full of life. She was breathing, and Percy swore he had never felt so much relief.
As her eyes opened, Percy found himself looking into a mirror. This girl in front of him was like him. She was afraid and confused, perhaps a little tortured, and very lost. But she was doing her best to be brave, to be the very thing she was named for.
He got the feeling that she felt the same.
Pushing herself up, she launched herself into him, her arms wrapping around him tightly. Without question or any ounce of hesitation, Percy's arms wrapped around her, too.
She whispered, "Thank you."
And he knew she meant it. He knew those words weren't easy for her to say, that she didn't say them often. But here she was, saying them to him, a boy she had only known for a few days. And he found himself feeling just as grateful for her as she was for him.
And that, in itself, meant more than anything else.
They pulled away from each other, suddenly embarrassed. Both of their faces burned, turning red. But then Percy gasped, looking down. There, on his finger, Mania glowed. A small emblem, a delicately designed trident, glowed the color of his eyes.
Andromeda whispered, "My ring..."
They both turned, the two of them each feeling that familiar tug. There, not five feet in front of them, was Riptide, its gleaming bronze hilt sticking up in the mud.
Percy heard that woman's voice again: Percy, take the sword. Your father believes in you.
This time, he knew the voice wasn't in his head. He wasn't imagining it. Her words seemed to come from everywhere, rippling through the water like dolphin sonar.
Andromeda's head snapped to his, her eyes wide. "What is that?" She asked.
"Where are you?" He called aloud to the voice, subconsciously reaching for Andromeda's hand to hold.
Her brows furrowed, following his gaze. Not once did she question his hand reaching for hers, not even a small part of her thought to.
Then, through the gloom, they saw her—a woman the color of the water, a ghost in the current, floating just above the sword. She had long billowing hair, and her eyes, barely visible, were green like Percy's.
A lump formed in his throat. He croaked, "Mom?"
No, child, only a messenger, though your mother's fate is not as hopeless as you believe. Go to the beach in Santa Monica.
"What?"
Andromeda glanced between the woman and Percy. She hadn't ever seen anything like this before, not even in her dreams. She could hear the beautiful woman clearly, her voice echoing through the water.
It is your father's will. Before you descend into the Underworld, you must go to Santa Monica. Please, Percy, I cannot stay long. The river here is too foul for my presence.
"But..." He was sure this woman was his mother, or something of a vision of her, anyway. "Who—how did you—"
There was so much he wanted to ask, so much he wanted to say. But all of those words melted into one another, forming nothing but confused mumbles and uncertainty.
I cannot stay, brave one, the woman said. She reached out, and he felt the current brush his face like a gentle caress. You must go to Santa Monica! And, Percy, trust in your friend with the amethyst eyes, but do not trust the gifts...
Her voice faded.
"Gifts?" Percy asked. "What gifts? Wait!"
She made one more attempt to speak, but the sound was gone. Her image melted away, disappearing into something carried by the currents. If it was his mother, he had lost her again.
He felt like drowning himself. The only problem: he was immune to drowning.
Your father believes in you, she had said.
She'd also called him brave...unless she was talking to the catfish or maybe Andromeda.
He stood, pulling Andromeda with him, and waded toward Riptide and grabbed it by the hilt. The Chimera might still be up there with its snake-like mother, waiting to finish them off. At the very least, the mortal police would be arriving, trying to figure out who had blown a hole in the Arch. If they found him and Andromeda, they'd have some questions.
He capped his sword and stuck the ballpoint pen in his pocket. "Thank you, Father," he said again to the dark water.
Carefully, he wrapped his arm around Andromeda's waist and kicked up through the muck, swimming for the surface.
A block away from where they surfaced, every emergency vehicle in St. Louis was surrounding the Arch. Police helicopters circled overhead. The crowd of onlookers reminded Percy of Times Square on New Year's Eve.
A little girl said, "Mama! That boy and girl walked out of the river."
"That's nice, dear," her mother said, craning her neck to watch the ambulances.
"But he's dry!"
"That's nice, dear."
A news lady was talking for the camera: "Probably not a terrorist attack, we're told, but it's still very early in the investigation. The damage, as you can see, is very serious. We're trying to get to some of the survivors, to question them about eyewitness reports of two people falling from the Arch."
Survivors. He felt a surge of relief, and he assumed Andromeda did, too, by the squeeze of her hand. Maybe the park ranger and that family made it out safely. He hoped Annabeth and Grover were okay.
Percy tried to push through the crowd, keeping a tight hold on Andromeda's hand, to see what was going on inside the police line.
"...an adolescent boy and girl," another reporter was saying. "Channel Five has learned that surveillance cameras show an adolescent boy going wild on the observation deck, somehow setting off this freak explosion. Hard to believe, John, but that's what we're hearing. Again, no confirmed fatalities..."
They backed away, trying to keep their heads down as best as possible. They had to go a long way around the police perimeter as uniformed officers and news reporters were everywhere.
Both of them had almost lost hope of ever finding Annabeth and Grover when a familiar voice bleated, "Perrr-cy!"
They both turned and got tackled by Grover's bear hug—or goat hug. He said, "We thought you'd gone to Hades the hard way!"
Annabeth stood behind him, trying to look angry, but even she seemed relieved to see them.
Andromeda backed out of the boys' arms, walking straight towards Annabeth. The two girls immediately enveloped each other in their arms, curling into each other. They were like sisters, Percy knew. Just like Luke was something of a brother to them both.
Annabeth looked over Andromeda's shoulder, looking straight at Percy, "We can't leave you two alone for five minutes! What happened?"
"Andromeda sort of fell."
Annabeth rolled her eyes, holding her best friend just a little tighter. "Percy! Six hundred and thirty feet?"
"And I jumped after her."
Behind them, a cop shouted, "Gangway!"
The crowd parted, and a couple of paramedics hustled out, rolling a woman on a stretcher. Percy and Andromeda recognized her immediately as the mother of the little boy who'd been on the observation deck. She was saying, "And then this huge dog, this huge fire-breathing Chihuahua—"
"Okay, ma'am," the paramedic said. "Just calm down. Your family is fine. The medication is starting to kick in."
"I'm not crazy! This girl fell and then the boy jumped out of the hole and the monster disappeared." Then she saw the two. "There they are! That's the boy and girl!"
Percy turned quickly and pulled Annabeth, Andromeda, and Grover after him. They disappeared quickly into the crowd.
"What's going on?" Annabeth demanded. "Was she talking about the Chihuahua on the elevator?"
Andromeda let Percy tell them the whole story of the Chimera, Echidna, Andromeda's fall, his high-dive act, and the underwater lady's message.
As he described every inch of the incident that never seemed to end, Andromeda reached for her ears, pulling her hearing aids off. They were both wet, and, no doubt, ruined. She groaned, tucking them into the small bag she had tucked over her body. Rubbing at her throbbing ears, she looked down at her hands, realizing her ring was gone. That was when she remembered where it lay: Percy's hand.
Silently, she approached him, grabbing hold of his hand, pulling the ring from his finger. She smiled at him gratefully, and he saw that. He smiled back at her, nodding his head without saying or doing much else.
Once Percy finished telling the story, explaining the events of what had happened, Annabeth and Grover looked—to put it plainly—shocked.
"Whoa," said Grover, eyes wide. "We've got to get you to Santa Monica! You can't ignore a summons from your dad."
Before Annabeth could respond, they passed another reporter doing a news break, and Percy almost froze in his tracks when he said, "Percy Jackson. That's right, Dan. Channel Twelve has learned that the boy who may have caused this explosion fits the description of a young man wanted by authorities for a serious New Jersey bus accident three days ago. And the boy is believed to be traveling west. For our viewers at home, here is a photo of Percy Jackson."
They ducked around the news van and slipped into an alley the first moment that they could.
"First things first," Percy told his friends, looking between the three of them. "We've got to get out of town."
Somehow, they made it back to the Amtrak station without getting spotted by any more news reporters. They got on board the train just before it pulled out for Denver. The train trundled west as darkness fell, police lights still pulsing against the St. Louis skyline behind them.
———
The next afternoon, June 14, seven days before the solstice, the train rolled into Denver. They hadn't eaten since the night before in the dining car, somewhere in Kansas.
Andromeda's lack of hearing aids had, if anything, caused her a mass influx of pain and annoying ringing of her ears. Without them, she was almost fully deaf in one ear, with partial deafness in the other. The world seemed to fade in and out at every moment, never sticking around for very long.
"Let's try to contact Chiron," Annabeth said. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."
"We can't use phones, right?" Percy asked.
Andromeda nodded, rubbing gently at her temples. "That's right. No phones, Fish Face."
They wandered through downtown for about half an hour. The air was dry and hot, which felt weird after the humidity of St. Louis. Everywhere they turned, the Rocky Mountains seemed to be staring at him, like a tidal wave about to crash into the city.
Finally, they found an empty do-it-yourself car wash. They veered toward the stall farthest from the street, keeping their eyes open for patrol cars. They were three adolescents hanging out at a car wash without a car; any cop worth his doughnuts would figure they were up to no good.
"What exactly are we doing?" Percy asked, as Grover took out the spray gun.
"It's seventy-five cents," he grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth?"
"Don't look at me," she said. "The dining car wiped me out."
Percy fished out his last bit of change and passed Grover a quarter, which left him with two nickels and one drachma from Medusa's.
"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."
Percy looked between the two of them, brows furrowed together. "What are you talking about?"
He fed in the quarters and set the knob to FINE MIST.
"I-M'ing," Andromeda murmured.
"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?"
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, arching through the mist.
Annabeth held her palm out to the boy. "Drachma, please."
Percy handed it over with a puzzled expression. Andromeda almost smiled at the sight, as it was quickly becoming a more common thing to see from him.
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.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then they were looking through the mist at strawberry fields, and the Long Island Sound in the distance. They seemed to be on the porch of the Big House. Standing with his back to them, facing 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!" Percy called.
He turned, eyes wide. Percy swore he was standing three feet in front of him through a screen of mist, except he 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? Where's Stormy at? Is she still alive?"
"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—"
"He's down at the cabins." Luke's smile faded, enough to catch Andromeda's attention. "We're having some issues with the campers. 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?"
Andromeda weaved around the two boys, making it so that she could be fully seen by Luke. She did her best to smile. "I'm alive. Also, your faith in me is asstounding Luke. Really."
Luke laughed, then. When he smiled, his scar tugged upward, his skin pulling. When he looked at Andromeda, all Percy saw was love and adoration. Perhaps a type of protectiveness, but not a kind Percy had ever truly experienced. It wasn't quite parental, but teetered somewhere between siblings and...something more.
He smiled, "The only thing that can kill you, Andy, is yourself."
Andromeda laughed as well, a wide grin pulling at her lips.
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.
"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, almost like she couldn't quite handle being under Luke's gaze. Or maybe Chiron's. "Grover, come on!"
"What?" Grover said, startled. "But—"
"Give Percy the nozzle and come on!" she ordered.
Grover muttered something about girls being harder to understand than the Oracle at Delphi, then proceeded to hand Percy the spray gun and follow quickly after Annabeth.
"Chiron had to break up a fight," Luke shouted to the two who remained, speaking over the loud 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. 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."
Andromeda had never, not once in her entire life, ever questioned Ares' loyalty to those who have stood by him in the past. It was no surprise that, out of all of the cabins, it was his and the others supporting Poseidon. She knew Clarisse would never openly state her opinions or show her picking a side for something like this. But Clarisse's loyalty was unwavering. Andromeda would know that, probably better than most.
"So what's your status?" Luke asked Andromeda and Percy. "Chiron will be sorry he missed you."
Percy told him pretty much everything, including his dreams.
Luke took a deep breath. "I wish I could be there," he told them. "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."
"But Chiron said the gods can't take each other's magic items directly." Percy interjected.
"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."
They were all silent, until Luke seemed to realize what he'd said. Andromeda's eyebrows pinched together, drawing in towards each other.
"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." His words were, clearly, directed towards Percy.
Something settled in Andromeda's stomach, twisting and turning. She couldn't quite identify it, but something about it set her on edge.
She jumped, turning in the direction of the loud and sudden sound of a screech and slam of something metal.
"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 something good."
Andromeda noticed Percy's hesitancy and spoke up, "Yeah, they worked wonders."
"Really?" He grinned. "They fit and everything?"
The water shut off. The mist started to evaporate, Luke's face fading away. Something in her heart, or maybe her head, told her this would be the last time, for a while, that Andromeda would see Luke's face.
"Well, take care of yourself out there in Denver," Luke called, his voice getting fainter, like he was yelling into the wind, trying to reach them. "And tell Grover it'll be better this time! Nobody will get turned into a pine tree if he just—"
But the mist was gone, and Luke's image faded to nothing. Then the two were alone in a wet, empty car wash stall.
Annabeth and Grover came around the corner, laughing, but stopped when they saw Percy's face and Andromeda's fallen expression.
Annabeth's smile faded. "What happened, Percy? What did Luke say?"
"Not much," he lied, his stomach feeling as empty as a Big Three cabin as he shared an uneasy look with Andromeda, one that, with just that glance, would stay between them. At least, just for now. "Come on, let's find some dinner."
Percy, almost unknowingly, glanced at Andromeda for reassurance. Of what, neither of them really knew, just that it lingered there between them, silent but there.
A few minutes later, they were sitting at a booth in a gleaming chrome diner. All around them, families were eating burgers and drinking malts and sodas. Unaware of everything that lingered around them, a world that they would never know about, never understand.
Finally, the waitress came over. She raised her eyebrow skeptically, looking between the four teenagers. "Well?"
Percy said, "We, um, want to order dinner."
"You kids have money to pay for it?"
Grover's lower lip quivered. Percy was afraid he would start bleating, or worse, start eating the linoleum. Annabeth looked ready to pass out from hunger. Andromeda, however, kept glancing outside, watching something that lingered in the distance.
He 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.
All conversation in the diner stopped. The motorcycle's headlight glared red, painting the world crimson. 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.
The man on the bike would've made pro wrestlers run out of fear. 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 sunglasses, and he had the cruelest, most brutal face Percy had ever seen—handsome, he guessed, but wicked—with an oily black crew cut and cheeks that were scarred from many, many fights. The weird thing was, he felt like he'd seen his face somewhere before. An eerie feeling of familiarity washed over him.
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, almost as if everything was completely normal, like the world hadn't paused, even if only for a brief moment. The waitress blinked, as if somebody had just pressed the rewind button on her brain. She asked them again, "You kids have money to pay for it?"
The biker said, "It's on me." He slid into their 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 forcibly spun around, then marched back toward the kitchen.
Beside Percy, Andromeda smirked and placed her hands on the table as if she was getting ready to negotiate something, her fingers lacing together.
The biker looked at Percy. He couldn't see his eyes behind the red lenses of the sunglasses, but bad feelings started building in his stomach. Anger, resentment, bitterness, every bad thing that he had spent too long feeling. He wanted to hit a wall. He wanted to pick a fight with somebody. Who did this guy think he was?
He gave Percy a wicked grin. "So you're old Seaweed's kid, huh?"
Percy should've been surprised, or maybe scared, but instead he felt like he was looking at his stepdad, Gabe. That anger, that resentment, all of it was the same. "What's it to you?"
Annabeth's eyes flashed him a warning. "Percy, this is—"
The biker raised his hand and Andromeda snickered, knocking the side of her foot against Percy's almost excitedly.
"S'okay," the man 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 Percy why he 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," he said. "Ares, god of war."
Ares grinned and took off his sunglasses. Where his eyes should've been, there was only fire, empty sockets glowing with something akin to 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.
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, no further questions asked.
"You can't do that," he told Ares. "You can't just threaten people with a knife."
"Sure he can." The daughter of Dionysus said quietly, just under her breath.
Ares laughed as he pointed his knife at Andromeda with a nod as if agreeing with her. "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."
"Why don't you go back and get it yourself ?"
The fire in his eye sockets glowed a little hotter, just a little brighter, like a new star being created.
"Why don't I turn you into a prairie dog and run you over with my Harley? 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?" He leaned forward. "Or maybe you only fight when there's a river to dive into, so your daddy can protect you."
Percy wanted to punch this guy, but somehow, he knew he was waiting for that. Ares's power was causing his anger, just as he figured Andromeda's attitude changed. He'd love it if Percy attacked, but he didn't want to give him the satisfaction.
"We're not interested," Percy said. "We've already got a quest."
Ares's fiery eyes made Percy see things he didn't want to see—blood and smoke and corpses on the battlefield, all of the things war caused, the consequences of defying a stronger power, or an oppressor. "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 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," Percy 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."
"My mom?"
Andromeda sat straighter, her shoulders pulling back. She clenched her jaw, her fists folding in, knuckles turning white. She knew too much about the gods' false promises, the way they were often traded for more false promises. She didn't want Percy to fall into that hole, to get pulled down, to feel those chains, strapping him to the gods and their bidding.
Ares 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?" Percy asked. "Something scare you off?"
Ares bared his teeth, but he'd seen his threatening look before on Clarisse. There was something false about it, almost like he was nervous. About what, Percy was unsure. He could tell, when he looked at Andromeda or the others, that they felt the same.
"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 Percy must have fainted, or fallen into a trance, because when he opened his eyes again, Ares was gone. He might've thought the conversation had been a dream, but Annabeth, Andromeda, and Grover's expressions told him otherwise. That it had been real. Too real.
"Not good," Grover said, shaking his head. "Ares sought you out, Percy. This is not good."
The boy stared out the window. The motorcycle had disappeared, not even a dust trail lingered.
"It's probably some kind of trick," Percy said, not thinking much more of it. "Forget Ares. Let's just go."
"We can't," Annabeth said. She shook her head, tugging on a piece of her blonde hair. "Look, I hate Ares as much as anybody, but you don't ignore the gods unless you want bad fortune. He wasn't kidding about turning you into a rodent."
He looked down at his cheeseburger, which suddenly didn't seem so appetizing. "Why does he need us?"
"Maybe it's a problem that requires brains," Annabeth said, shrugging. "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?"
Andromeda leaned back, arms crossing over her chest. Her jaw was wound, but her eyes...they wandered past the place where they were then.
———
The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time they 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 water slides 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 like something out of a movie.
"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," Annabeth warned. "Be more respectful."
"Why? I thought you hated Ares."
"He's still a god. And his girlfriend is very temperamental."
Andromeda let out a laugh at her friend's words.
"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," Percy said. "Hephaestus."
"What's your point?" He asked.
"Oh." He 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?"
Annabeth, Andromeda, and Percy had to climb the old-fashioned way, holding down the barbed wire for each other as they crawled over the top, one by one.
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?
No monsters came to get them. Nothing made the slightest noise. If anything, it was too quiet. Far too quiet. No matter how quiet they tried to be as they walked, the slightest tap of their heels on the ground echoed all around them.
They 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," Percy said. "But you can't just—"
"Sure we can." Andromeda and Annabeth said in unison.
They both grabbed an entire row of stuff off the racks and disappeared into the changing rooms. A few minutes later Annabeth 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. Just behind her, Andromeda came out in fresh joggers and a shirt as well, her hair pulled back in a tight braid.
"What the heck." Grover shrugged.
Soon, all four of them were decked out like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park.
They continued searching for the Tunnel of Love, scanning every section or portion of the park. As they walked, it almost seemed like everything around them had stilled. Like a breath was being held by everything and everyone.
"So Ares and Aphrodite," Percy said, to keep his mind off the growing dark, "they have a thing going?"
"That's old gossip, Percy," Annabeth told him. "Three-thousand-year-old gossip."
"What about Aphrodite's husband?"
"Well, if you want to know," she said. "Ask Andy."
"What? Why?"
Andromeda laughed as Percy's head, quite literally, spun in her direction. She shrugged, almost like it meant nothing at all. "Because she likes to visit me a lot. Remember, the blessing? She likes to make sure I'm doing okay, which always leads to us talking about other things. Gossip and all."
Percy just then noticed the small pink specks in her eyes, the way they were sprinkled all throughout her amethyst irises. "Hephaestus. He was born crippled and well—-Dite didn't really want to marry him but she did, him being a blacksmith and all. But when has any god even stuck to a vow? Not that that excuses the stuff that they've done, because it doesn't. Not one bit."
"She likes bikers."
Andromeda shrugged. "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. "Like that."
In front of them was an empty pool that would've been perfect 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, wings spread and bows ready to fire. On the opposite side, a tunnel opened up, most likely where the water flowed 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, nodding his head towards something. "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," Percy said, shaking his head with uncertainty. "So, we just walk down there and get it?"
Annabeth ran her fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue. "There's a Greek letter carved here," she said. "Eta. I wonder..."
"Grover," Percy said, "you smell any monsters?"
He sniffed the wind. "Nothing."
"Nothing—like, in-the-Arch-and-you-didn't-smell-Echidna nothing, or really nothing?"
Grover looked hurt. "I told you, that was underground."
"Okay, I'm sorry." Percy took a deep breath. "I'm going down there."
"I'll go with you." Grover didn't sound too enthusiastic, but the son of Poseidon got the feeling he was trying to make up for what had happened in St. Louis. He didn't need to, but Percy didn't know how to tell Grover that.
"No," he told the satyr. "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. Annabeth, you too. Help him keep an eye out. Maybe try to figure this thing out."
Grover puffed up his chest a little. "Sure. But what could go wrong?"
"I don't know. Just a feeling. Andy, come with me—"
"Really? Why me?" She looked at Percy as if he'd just dropped from the moon. Her cheeks were bright red, several shades lighter than the color of her hair.
"What's the problem now?" He demanded.
"I don't—uh fine! But if my brothers hear about this, I'll never hear the end of it."
"Who's going to see you?"
But his face was burning now, too. He didn't know why, but something about this situation, especially it involving Andromeda, made sense. The complicated aspect of it all.
"Well, you're welcome to come or not."
As he started down the side of the pool, she followed him, muttering about how boys always messed things up, but also how she would never leave him alone, not for something like this.
Then they reached the boat. The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf. Percy tried to imagine Ares and Aphrodite in the same spot that they were, a couple of gods meeting in a junked-out amusement-park ride.
But one thing lingered in his mind: why?
Then he noticed something he hadn't seen from up top: mirrors all the way around the rim of the pool, facing this spot. They could see themselves no matter which direction they looked. That must have been why. While Ares and Aphrodite were too focused with each other they could look at their favorite people: themselves.
Percy picked up the scarf. It shimmered pink, and the perfume was indescribable—rose, or mountain laurel. Something good. He smiled, a little dreamy, and was about to rub the scarf against his cheek when Andromeda ripped it out of his hand and stuffed it in her pocket. "No. Stop it, no. Percy, stay away from her love magic, please."
"What?"
Andromeda rolled her eyes, sighing heavily. "Just get the shield, Fish Face, and let's get out of here."
The moment he touched the shield, he knew they were in trouble. As he grasped it, his hand broke through something that had been connecting it to the dashboard.
A cobweb, he thought, but then he looked at a strand of it on his palm and saw it was some kind of metal filament, so fine it was almost invisible. A trip wire.
"Wait," Andromeda said, reaching towards him.
"Too late."
"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap."
Noise erupted all around them, of a million gears grinding and whirring, as if the whole pool were turning into one giant machine. As if it were coming to life.
Grover and Annabeth yelled, "Guys!"
Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Before he could suggest taking cover, they shot, but not at them. They fired at each other, across the rim of the pool. Silky cables trailed from the arrows, arching 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. One that would trap something. Or someone.
"We have to get out," Percy said.
"Yes, please!" Andromeda replied, nodding her head rapidly.
Percy grabbed the shield and they ran, but going up the slope of the pool was not as easy as going down.
"Come on!" Grover shouted as Annabeth's eyes scoured the area to find her friends a way out.
The satyr was trying to hold open a section of the net for them, but wherever he touched it, the golden threads started to wrap around his hands, pulling him in.
The Cupids' heads popped open. Out came video cameras. Spotlights rose up all around the pool, blinding them 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!"
As they ran, Percy could hear Andromeda repeating, "No, no, no, no! My dad's gonna kill me!"
They'd almost made it to the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic...things poured out.
Above them, Annabeth screamed which caused Andromeda to scream out of a blind reaction.
It was an army of wind-up creepy-crawlies: bronze-gear bodies, spindly legs, little pincer mouths, all scuttling toward them in a wave of clacking, whirring metal.
"Spiders!" Annabeth said. "Sp—sp—aaaah!"
Percy had never seen her like this before. She fell backward in terror and ducked away from the ride till neither he nor Andromeda could see her anymore.
The things were coming out from all around the rim now, millions of them, flooding toward the center of the pool, completely surrounding Percy and Andromeda. He told himself they probably weren't programmed to kill, just corral them and bite them and make them look stupid in front of the many cameras. Then again, this was a trap meant for gods. And they weren't gods.
Andromeda and Percy climbed into the boat within the few seconds they had to do so. He started kicking away the spiders as they swarmed aboard. He yelled at Andromeda to help him as her amethyst eyes looked around frantically for something to stop the ride.
"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. Percy kicked one away from Andromeda's leg and its pincers took a chunk out of his new surf shoe, not that he cared too much.
Grover hovered above the pool in his flying sneakers, trying to pull the net loose, but it wouldn't budge.
Think, he told himself. Think.
The Tunnel of Love entrance was under the net. They could use it as an exit, except that it was blocked by a million robot spiders.
"Fifteen, fourteen," the loudspeaker called.
Water, Percy thought. Where does the ride's water come from?
Then he 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!" Percy yelled. "Get into that booth! Find the 'on' switch!"
"But—"
"Do it!" Andromeda yelled, realizing what Percy was getting at.
It was a crazy hope, but it was their only chance. The spiders were all over the prow of the boat now. Andromeda was continuing to push and kick spiders away, trying to keep them from flooding the boat.
Grover was in the controller's booth now, slamming away at the buttons.
"Five, four—"
Grover looked up at them hopelessly, raising his hands. He was letting them know that he'd pushed every button, but still, nothing was happening.
Percy closed his eyes and thought about waves, rushing water, the Mississippi River, what it felt like to hold Riptide, and even Mania, the surge of power that came with it.
He felt a familiar tug in his gut, the one that pulled, just slightly, at his heart, like trying to remind him of the things that kept him going, as well as the things that put him there. He tried to imagine that he was dragging the ocean all the way to Denver.
"Two, one, zero!"
Water exploded out of the pipes. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. Percy pulled Andromeda into the seat next to him and fastened her seat belt just as the tidal wave slammed into their boat, over the top, whisking the spiders away and dousing them completely, but not capsizing the boat. It 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 them. The Cupid-cams were rolling, live to Olympus.
But Percy could only concentrate on controlling the boat and keeping himself and Andromeda safe. He willed it to ride the current, to keep away from the wall. Maybe it was his imagination, but the boat seemed to respond. At least, it didn't break into a million pieces.
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.
Andromeda and Percy 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 stuff.
Then they were out of the tunnel, the night air whistling through their hair as the boat barreled straight toward the exit.
If the ride had been in working order, they would've sailed off a ramp between the golden Gates of Love and landed down safely in the exit poll. But there was a problem. 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," Percy yelled to Andromeda.
"Are you crazy?"
"Very! Now, unless you want to get smashed to death," He strapped Ares's shield to his arm, "we're going to have to jump for it."
His idea was simple and insane. As the boat struck, they would use its force like a springboard to jump the gate. He'd heard of people surviving car crashes that way, getting thrown thirty or forty feet away from an accident. With luck, they would land in the pool.
Andromeda seemed to understand. She gripped his hand as the gates got closer.
"On my mark," he said.
But she shook her head, gripping his hand even tighter. "No! On my mark!"
"What?"
"Just let me do it!"
"Fine!" He shouted. "On your mark!"
She hesitated...hesitated...then yelled, "Now!"
Crack!
Andromeda was right. If they'd jumped when he thought they should've, they would've crashed into the gates. She got them maximum lift.
Unfortunately, that was a little more than they needed. Their boat smashed into the pileup and they were thrown into the air, straight over the gates, over the pool, and down toward solid asphalt.
Something grabbed Percy from behind.
Beside him, Andromeda yelled, "Ouch!"
In midair, Grover had grabbed Percy by the shirt, and Andromeda by the arm, and was trying to pull them out of a crash landing, but they had all the momentum.
"You're too heavy!" Grover said. "We're going down!"
They spiraled toward the ground, Grover doing his best to slow the fall.
They smashed into a photo-board, Grover's head going straight into the hole where tourists would put their faces, pretending to be some made up character. Andromeda and Percy tumbled to the ground, holding onto one another, banged up but alive. Ares's shield was still on his arm.
Once they caught their breath, they got Grover out of the photo-board and thanked him for saving their lives as Annabeth came running towards them.
Percy looked back at the Thrill Ride of Love. The water was subsiding. Their boat had been smashed to pieces against the gates. If they had stayed there, even for only a second more, they would be dead. Smashed to pieces just like the boat, being pulled away with the currents of the water.
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.
"Show's over!" Percy yelled at the camera, mock saluting. "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 poll. He wondered if Olympus had gone to a commercial break, or if their ratings had been any good.
Next to him, Andromeda let her arm rest on his shoulder, releasing a deep breath as she looked down at the shield on his arm. Her forehead fell onto his shoulder as she let out a deep breath, her hand patting his back. "It was fun, but let's never do that again."
Percy hated being teased. He hated being tricked. And he had plenty of experience handling bullies who liked to do that stuff to him. He hefted the shield on his arm and turned to his friends. "We need to have a little talk with Ares."
There's something about Andromeda and Percy's dynamic in this chapter that I actually adore. The way they just bounce off of each other with their little comments and overall attitude is, honestly, one of my favorite things.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone that celebrates! And remember, even though it is Christmas, keep talking about the things going on in Gaze, keep raising awareness!
As always, I hope you enjoyed, BYE!