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—— THE FOUR CAME across an older looking diner, Percy opened the door for Azalea and they walked in. Hearing the obnoxious loud laugh from Ares. "Guess this is the right place." Percy looked over to the man who was being entertained by his phone.
Strolling over to the table were the god of war was sitting. Azalea noticed the fries and burgers stacked on the table in front of them. She thought about the last time she had ate, it had definitely been a while. "Gimme a second, I'm just starting a fight on twitter here."
Azalea shuffled in to the booth seat sitting between Percy and Grover. "Nothing makes me happier than a good old fashioned, burn it down fight." The bearded man smiled down at his phone. "Ah, okay done."
Ares put his elbows on the table and leaned in "so your quest, it's going to fail. Ask me how I know."
Azalea went to open her mouth but Percy beat he to it "it isn't gonna fail."
"Sure it is." Ares scoffs. "For starters." He lifts up his tiny electronic to show the kids a video, showing an interview with a man lounging on a sofa. "Percy was always troubled, but I never thought he was capable of something like this." The mans voice came from the phone.
"Who's that?" Grover questioned next to her. "My stepdad, what's he doing ." Percy said on the other side of Azalea looking back at the video.
"Wait for it." The reporter lady said a few words before the man on the couch spoke up "A kid that messed up? What wouldn't he do."
"What." Percy said.
"Wild, right. The FBI is already spreading your picture around." Ares continued showing them the news video. "It's a Camaro, I really- we really loved that car. Cut."Percy stepped whimpered through the screen.
"I'm going to kill him." Percy threatened.
"I knew I was going to like you. But safe to say, the chances of you four idiots hitchhiking the rest of the way to L.A. without getting arrested are slim to none." Ares explained to the kids across from him.
"You think we don't know that" Azalea sassed. Ares face turned a slight shade of red as he leaned forward to intimidate the blonde girl, pointing his finger out about to say something before Annabeth distracted him with her voice. "Why are you sitting here then. If you're supposed to be looking for the master bolt too. Shouldn't you be out there looking for it?" Annabeth raised her brows.
"Hm, there's no fear in you two, is there." Azalea shook her head no at him, but it was definitely a lie.
"Doesn't matter, whether the bolt's retrieved or not Zeus is going to war with Poseidon." The four looked between each other at the new news. "No, the oracle said if we return the bolt, there wouldn't be a war." Percy corrected.
"Is that what she said? Or is that what Chiron said she meant." Percy fierce face turned into one of thought. "Yeah, you're new to the family, young one so let me fill you in on how we work. See years before I was born, my grandpa Kronos ate my aunts and uncles. Yeah, then my dad made him puke them back up, then chopped him into a million pieces and shoved then into a bottomless pit. So that kind of set the tone right outta the gate. Olympians fight, we betray, we backstab, we will push everyone down a flight of stairs to get ahead. And that's why i love my family so much." Azalea made a grossed out expression towards the god of war.
"My dad knows he's not getting this bolt back with quest or goose chases. He knows there's a war coming and in reality I think he's okay with that. I think he feels it's just time for a war, so we're gonna have a war." Ares inhaled deeply and made a weird face. "Isn't that great."
"We're completing this quest. We're stopping this war. You said you can help, can you." Percy spoke passionately.
Ares clapped his hands together "okay, so hear it is there's an amusement park up the road, I left my shield there. You get me my shield back and I'll get you to the underworld by lunch tomorrow with a plan to invade Hades's palace."
"You left your shield? Like, forgot it on the merry-go-round?" Annabeth piped up from the end of the booth.
"Okay the chirping was funny to me for a minute, but it is getting old." Ares leaned towards Annabeth now, who just raised a brow challenging him. "So do we have a deal, or am I killing all three of you, so I can eat in peace? The man across the table said in menacing tone.
"Okay." Percy looked between his friends.
Ares leaned back with a fake smiles off plastered on his face. "Great one catch. I really do need that shield back so I'm going to keep the saytr and know it all here as collateral so you don't run off."
"What no." The brown haired girl defended. "Absolutely not." Azalea sat up in her seat.
"Okay." Grover spoke calmly, both the girls turned their heads to him a confused expression written all over their faces. "No way, we don't split up again."
"It's okay." Grover reassured
"No, no it is not." Annabeth tried to reason looking between Grover and Ares.
"It's okay, if he wanted to kill us we'd be dead by now." Percy glared at Ares while the saytr talked. "Can I just walk them to the door?" Ares side, and did some hand motion to tell them yes.
Grover accompanied Percy and Azalea to the door, Annabeth staying at the table staring down Ares. "He look don't play his game, he wants to get in your head so don't let him." They stopped at the exit.
"It's okay Azaleas, really. I know what I'm doing. Go, get the shield." Grover assured. "We'll be here when you get back." Azalea gave him a nod and a wave to Annabeth before turning around and walking out of the door Percy held open for her.
—— DARKNESS HAD TAKEN over the sky, Percy and Azalea had been walking for a while before coming across an eerily silent amusement park. Some of the lights around them were making it easier to read the sign that read 'Waterland'.
"I haven't seen a lot of horror movies, but this seems like exactly the kind of place they'd suggest to avoid." Percy looked over to the shorter girl standing next to him.
"I've never seen a horror movie. So I'll have to take your word for it." The two began to walk through the gate of Waterland, Azalea shuffled closer to the blue eyed boy feeling a little nervous about going into this abandoned amusement park. "Then what kind of movies have you seen?" He asked.
"I've only seen a few movies, but the only ones I can remember watching are Descendents and Wall-e." Percy chuckled at her response "So you haven't seen a good movie."
She smiled slightly embarrassed "hey I thought that they were both pretty amazing movies." Azalea shoved him slightly, they both giggled as Percy stumbled slightly. "Well if neither of us are dead in a few days, we really ought to fix that. Your missing out there are much better movies then those."
"I'll take your word for it." She gave him a toothy smile.
"In the meantime, we should probably get this over with, though." He took a more serious tone stepping forward towards the entrance gate that looked quite intimidating to Azalea. "Wait, Percy stop." She instructed him while he was pushing his way in.
The loud sound of metal rubbing together was heard from above Percy who was staring up at the metal piece with a scared look. "Wait, what just happened?"
"Just stay still." Her heart raced she moved forward to get a better look at what was making the noise. "Give me a second." She racked her brain for anything that could help.
"In the mechanism, it's Celestial bronze."
"Oh fascinating. Azalea what is happening right now?" She leaned on the metal to get a closer look at the spinning device. "Celestial bronze is what your sword is made of, if you're a human it'll pass right through you. If you're a monster or a demigod..." she paused her words thinking about everything Annabeth had taught her about Celestial bronze.
"Well, what is it doing there?" Percy panicked.
"I don't know, But it's safe to say this is not just some amusement park. A god built this." Azalea said.
"What kind of god builds amusement parks?"
"Probably Hephaestus." She sighed.
"Why would Hephaestus build an amusement park?"
"Maybe he finds them amusing." Azalea shrugged he was really asking her to many questions.
"That's really not funny Azalea." Percy whined the metal sound getting louder making him more scared. "Maybe, just a little" he shook his head at the girls answer.
"Oh my gods I've never seen something like this." Her words made Percy panic some more "Azalea." He shouted getting her attention of the moving pieces. "Just relax, I'm on it."
She exhaled sharply "Okay, just push through it." Azalea instructed "you'll be fine."
"Push?" His voice cracked.
"Yeah I'll push on this side to." She wrapped her fist around the metal bars in front of her. The blonde boy went to push as well before turning back to face the girl through the bars. "Cause weren't you the one this morning who was all, 'the Fates say one of us is gonna die and we should take it really seriously."
"Percy."
"Yeah." he answered automatically.
"Just push." Azalea begged, hoping her plan would work.
He listened, letting out a breath and pushing his way through to the exit Azalea following close behind hearing two pings go of seconds from each other. "What was that." He asked the girl who was at a step in front of him. "The machine isn't designed to hurt us, it's meant to scare us. It's a test." Azalea concluded.
They stared up at the numbers above them "Hephaestus wanted to know any time one of us came poking around his playground." She sighed the nervousness disappearing a little. "I guess he knows now."
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Is it just me or is the way Taylor Swift acted at the Grammys annoyed anyone as much as me. Like i'm a Lana Del Rey girl till the day i die. (I even went to her concert in Tampa this year) but just the way that Taylor brought her on stage and had her stand there for an award that Lana lost just annoyed me so badly. Like I would've been so embarrassed. Anyways, I hope all of you guys are having a good day or had a good day. Thank you for all the reads and all the voting.
Love Estella