Chapter 27

Percy's Point of View

Denver wasn't a bad place, I supposed. Oh course, it was in the muggle world, and so was much messier and louder than what we were used to, but you have to take what you can get. We collapsed in a litter diner after over an hour of searching without luck for anyone who would be heading to New York today. Much to our surprise, shortly after our food had arrived we had a rather unexpected visitor.

The first time I noticed that someone was approaching there was a familiar presence that set our teeth on edge and made me tense ready for a fight. Harry, sensing where my thoughts were heading shook his head at me and shoved me to the back of our mind.

'Oh no.' He snapped. 'You've going to sit this one out very much. Especially after last time.'

I pouted, but conceded. 'You may have a point…'

A couple of minutes later a large man in a leather biking jacket and wearing large combat boots came in and sat down at our table, stealing some of our crisps. Harry frowned, but didn't comment on it.

"Lord Ares." He inclined our head to the War God. "What brings you here?"

Luna smiled. "One might think you were stalking us."

Grover just slunk deeper into his seat. I chuckled when I caught his faint pray that we don't annoy Ares so much that he kills us all this time.

Ares gave us a frown. "You sound different. And… your aura's changed. Just a powerful, but… more like Hecate's than Poseidon's."

Harry offered a lazy smile. "I offer our sincerest apologies, Lord Ares, for my brother's reckless behaviour at challenging you yesterday. He has a tendency to do things without consulting me first."

Ares' frowned. "Your brother?"

Harry smiled, then shook his head as if having suddenly remembered something. "I'm sorry, I had presumed that Percy had properly introduced us. We are Harry and Perseus Potter, demigod son of Poseidon and wizard."

Ares let out a booming laugh. "No wonder my aura affects you so little. You're constantly at war with yourself, aren't you? So where's Perseus today? Doesn't feel like coming out to play?"

'What? Oh no he did not just accuse me of being a coward!' I snarled. Harry did the mental equivalent of grabbing me by the scruff of my neck and throwing me back as I fought him for control.

'Can't you see this is what he wants?' Harry hissed. 'He's egging you on to fight, and that isn't going to get us anywhere, understood? Now. Be quiet and let me do the talking for once ok? Not everything can be solved by fighting.'

I acknowledged his wisdom grudgingly, and shut up again, following the conversation Annabeth had struck up with Ares.

"So, as Harry asked, what brings you here? Surely you can't miss our charming –" (here Annabeth sent a glare our way) "– personalities."

Ares' chuckled again. "Oh, I don't know. You do amuse me some. Especially that twin soul over there. Though if I didn't know better I'd say the same about you, Athena spawn. You seem to have a rather split personality as well."

Annabeth and Harry glared at Ares while Grover glared at them for glaring at the god. I burst into laughter until Harry smiled slightly. Ares did eventually drop his façade however.

"Alright. Well, I heard you were looking for transport. I want to propose a favour for a favour. Deal?"

Before Annabeth could agree, Harry jumped in. "What kind of favour would we owe you? We're not going to agree to do any favour, any time you want with no conditions."

Ares snorted with amusement. "Fine. I lost my favourite shield when I was out with Aphrodite. I'd like you to retrieve it for me."

Annabeth glanced at us then nodded. "Alright. Now where did you lose your shield? Nearby I presume."

Ares nodded, summoning a map. I giggled when I noticed it was a theme park map. Ares cheeks tinted pink, but he didn't really blush. He pointed to one of the rides – The Tunnel of Love. I gave up on trying to laugh quietly and burst into full out laughter.

'Percy!' Harry scolded. 'Be nice! He's dating the Goddess of Love after all. I bet you'd bow down to her if you were him.'

'Yeah, but I don't have to admit that!' I sniggered.

"I forgot my shield there. If you return it to me before sundown I'll have your transport ready." Ares said, scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment.

Grover was the first to agree. "Well do it. Thank you Lord Ares."

"Don't thank me yet, satyr. You have to get the shield first."

The water park was rather run down, we noted as we stood at its gates. The paint was peeling from the large metal gates and the once bright and cheerful sign was dirty and falling apart. The attendant at the gate taking pay for entry was delighted to see us. Hardly surprising given that it looked like we were probably among the few hundred that might have visited today.

Finding the ride was easy – getting onto it was even easier. Given it was a couples ride, and Grover looked scared by it, Annabeth went on it with us. The boat was small, so how the mortals had missed Ares' massive war shield was beyond us. Then again, they're hadn't been a queue either… Stepping into the boat I noticed a Greek symbol on the side of the boat. I frowned at it.

'Hey Harry, look at this…'

Before I could finish my sentence everything seemed to happen at once. Strange metal spiders came out of cracks on the wall, and the cherubs at the top opened their eyes and began filming us as a loud voice announce: "Airing to Olympus in 5, 4, 3…"

I snarled. No wonder Ares didn't bother retrieving his shield himself.

'It's a trap!'

Annabeth groaned, fingering the Greek letter. "Hephaestus, of course! Trying to catch his wife and Ares' on camera to show the entirety of Olympus!"

"Never mind that!" Harry replied, glancing at the golden net being woven above our heads. "We need to get out of here!"

Annabeth squeaked when she saw the spiders, so Luna took over.

"Use your sea-god powers." She suggested. "Control the current to move us out of here!"

Harry nodded, turning to me. 'You have the best control…'

'Alright, alright!' I muttered, feeling the water with my magic. We felt a twisting in our gut then the water bent to my control, pushing the boat faster away from the net. The cherubs followed us with their beady red eyes. Annoyed at the trap, I stuck our tongue at them.

"Stupid cherubs!" I muttered.

"Percy!" Luna rolled her eyes. "Not the time."

We reached a corner, and we flinched as I turned the boat a little too late, resulting in it almost hitting the wall. We glanced up, but there was nothing until a metal grate a little way up. Harry nudged Annabeth and Luna, pointing.

"If we jump at the right time, the wave should give us enough of a boost to get up there. Come on brain girls! Can you calculate the optimum time to jump?" Harry asked.

Annabeth smirked. "Big words for a seaweed brain."

"Can you do it?" We insisted, letting the nickname slide just this once.

She nodded, her eyes confident.

"Alright!"

I used my control of the water to push the boat up, our legs bent and ready to jump. Of course, it was in my ability to lift the boat up all the way, but if I did that I doubt we would have had the energy to hold on to the grate, and also the mortals would probably have noticed.

On Annabeth's command, we jumped and grabbed the grate. To our shock and delight, Grover appeared at the top of the wall, a few feet up.

"Need a hand out?"

It was a bit of a struggle, but we eventually managed to get out. It evolved a bit of me boosting the girls, Grover grabbing them, and then the tiniest bit of wandless magic to get us out of the ride. Then, we had to run before any security guards or such found us. All in all, it was brilliant fun!

Annabeth and Luna were soaked, though Harry and I were warm and dry. I sniggered at the girls' bad luck until they hit us, and then Harry and I were quick to dry them off too.

We found Ares back in the dinner where we had left him. Ares looked surprised to see us, but grinned when he spotted his shield on my back.

"I must say," the god grinned, "you two made a spectacular show on Olympus T.V. I think Poseidon and Athena also cried when they saw you together. Then they started fighting again."

"You deliberately sent us into that trap didn't you?" Annabeth demanded. "Next time, do your own dirty work."

"Ah, your safe and sound aren't you? And I've arranged you a lift to St Louis. Live a little will you? I mean, really, you should have seen Hephaestus' face when he caught a couple of demigod kids, not Aphrodite and myself. Priceless!" Ares chortled. I rolled our eyes and handed over his shield.

"Now we've amused you enough, you mentioned transport?"

Ares nodded. "Admittedly it's nothing stylish, but there's an animal circus van outside. Sneak on and it'll get you where you need to go."

Grover frowned, clearly upset. "That can't be human."

Ares tilted his head to one side. "Well then. I suppose you could make the poor animal's lives much better."

The van was stuffy, and we had to hide behind a few bales of hay to remain unnoticed by the circus owners. In order to get Grover into the van we offered to set the poor animals free when we reached our destination. There was a gazelle, a lion, a zebra and a few other animals in the van with us. Grover conferred quietly with the unhealthily thin animals during the twelve hour ride. I dozed for good portion of the journey, but I think Harry must have stayed awake for quite a while longer, possibly talking to Annabeth and Luna, because when I woke our body was physically exhausted.

"Lords." I glanced up to look at the Zebra in surprise.

"You can talk to us?"

"Of course Lords. You are Poseidon's sons are you not?" The Zebra sounded confused.

I nodded. "Yes… We're going to try and set you free when we reach St Louis."

Grover nodded, putting a hand on our shoulder. "We're not going to leave you to suffer here."

I watched in interest as Grover touched the Zebra on its nose and mumbles a strange chant. He then proceeded to do the same to each of the other animals. I gave him a questioning look and he grinned sheepishly.

"Blessing of the wild. It should protect them and keep them safe."

I smiled back at him. "It's nice you care. Most don't. Not it the mortal's community, not in the Wizarding world or many demigods from what I've seen. That just makes you all the more important."

"Rumours have it you healed several Unicorns last year." Grover countered. "You care too."

"I guess." I nodded. "But still, you can do more than Harry and I can at the moment."

Before the conversation could go on much further, the van came to a halt. We quickly unlocked the animals' cages before hiding behind the hay again. The driver and his partner got out of the cab and walked to the back, bickering about whose turn it was to feed the animals. A few seconds later the back doors were opened and the animals pushed out.

"Thank you Lords. Thank you!" The zebra snorted at us in gratitude. I nodded, and quietly urged him to leave.

The circus' owners rain off after their animals, leaving us to quickly climb unnoticed from the van. I gently woke Harry as we all sat down on a bench to decide where to go here. It was about five am in the morning, but it wasn't really worth finding anywhere to sleep. Annabeth really wanted to see the St Louis Arch, and neither Grover, Harry nor I had the heart to say no to her.

It looked like we were going sight-seeing for the morning.