Published: July 8, 2021
Edited: July 18, 2022
~✰~

The next afternoon, June 14, seven days before the solstice, our train rolled into Denver. We hadn't eaten since the night before in the dining car, somewhere in Kansas. We hadn't taken a shower since we left Camp and I was sure that was obvious.

"Let's try to contact Chiron," Annabeth decided as the four of us climbed off of the train. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."

"We can't use phones, right?" Percy asked, confused.

"We're not talking about phones." I informed him, rolling my eyes.

We wandered through downtown for about half an hour, looking for somewhere we could make a rainbow. The air was dry and hot, which felt weird after the humidity of St. Louis. Everywhere we turned, the Rocky Mountains seemed to be staring at me, like a tidal wave about to crash into the city.

Finally we found an empty do-it-yourself car wash. We veered toward the stall farthest from the street, keeping our eyes open for patrol cars. We were four adolescents hanging out at a car wash without a car; any cop worth his doughnuts would figure we were up to no good.

"What exactly are we doing?" Percy asked in bewilderment, as Grover took out the spray gun.

"It's seventy-five cents," The satyr grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth?"

"Don't look at me," she protested. "The dining car wiped me out."

I fished out my last bit of change and tossed Grover a quarter, which left me two nickels and five drachmas from Medusa's place.

"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."

"What are you talking about?" Percy demanded, annoyed now.

Grover fed in the quarters and set the knob to FINE MIST. "I-M'ing." He answered as he did so.

"Instant messaging?"

"Iris-messaging," I 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, but the mist sputtered and the rainbow kept breaking up.

"It's not enough to establish a connection..." Annabeth lamented. I frowned.

"Let me try." I asked. I held out a palm towards the water and focused on stabilizing the mist and by extension, the rainbow. I felt a tug in my gut and the mist converged, a clear rainbow filtered through.

"Way to go Neridia!" Grover cheered.

Annabeth held her palm out to Percy. "Drachma, please."

He handed one over.

She raised the coin over her head. "O Iris goddess of the rainbow, accept our offering."

She flipped the drachma into the rainbow where it disappeared in a golden shimmer.

"Half-Blood Hill," Annabeth requested.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then I was looking through the mist at strawberry fields, and the Long Island Sound in the distance. We seemed to be on the porch of the Big House. Standing with his back to us at 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!" I called out.

He turned, eyes wide. I could swear he was standing three feet in front of me through a screen of mist, except I could only see the part of him that appeared in the rainbow.

"Mermaid!" His scarred face broke into a grin. "Is that Annabeth and Percy too? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay?"

"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. "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?"

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, looking concerned.

"I'll take care of it!" Annabeth yelled back, looking very relieved to have an excuse to get out of sight. "Grover, come on!"

"What?" Grover said. "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 he handed Percy the spray gun and followed Annabeth.

Percy readjusted the hose so he could keep the rainbow going and still see Luke.

"Chiron had to break up a fight," Luke shouted to us over the music. "Things are pretty tense here. 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."

I shuddered to think that Clarisse's cabin would ever be on my dad's side for anything. In the next stall, I heard Annabeth and some guy arguing with each other, then the music's volume decreased drastically.

"So what's your status?" Luke asked. "Chiron will be sorry he missed you."

Percy told him pretty much everything, including our dreams. It felt so good to see him, to feel like I was back at camp even for a few minutes, that I didn't realize how long we had talked until the beeper went off on the spray machine, and I realized we only had one more minute before the water shut off.

"I wish I could be there," Luke told us. "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, didn't we Mermaid?"

It was taking a lot of effort to keep the water steady so I just nodded.

"But Chiron said the gods can't take each other's magic items directly." Percy mused.

"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."

What on earth was he insinuating?! I glared at him as intensely As I could. Percy and I were both silent, until Luke noticed my glare and seemed to realize what he'd said.

"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. You know that Mermaid."

I wondered if Annabeth would like that description. In the stall next to us, the music stopped completely. A man screamed in terror, car doors slammed, and the Lincoln peeled out of the car wash.

"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 some good."

"Oh...uh, yeah!" Percy tried not to sound like a guilty liar. "Yeah, they've come in handy."

"Really?" He grinned. "They fit and everything?"

The water shut off. The mist started to evaporate. I held out both of my hands to try and hold the image together.

"Well, take care of yourself out there in Denver," Luke called, his voice getting fainter. "And tell Grover it'll be better this time! Nobody will get turned into a pine tree if he just—"

My hands dropped in shock. How did he know we were in Denver? And why in the name of Zeus did he bring up Thalia of all people, he knew how sensitive Grover and I especially were about that situation. Now the mist was gone, and Luke's image faded to nothing. We were alone in a wet, empty car wash stall, with the bitter memories I kept pushed down so far threatening to come to the surface.

Annabeth and Grover came around the corner, laughing, but stopped when they saw my face. Annabeth's smile faded. "What happened, What did Luke say?"

"Not much," Percy lied, my stomach felt as empty as a Big Three cabin. "Come on, let's find some dinner."

~✰~

A few minutes later, we were sitting at a booth in a gleaming chrome diner. All around us, families were eating burgers and drinking malts and sodas.

Finally the waitress came over. She raised her eyebrow skeptically. "Well?"

I said, "We, um, want to order dinner."

"You kids have money to pay for it?"

Grover's lower lip quivered. I was afraid he would start bleating, or worse, start eating the linoleum. Annabeth looked ready to pass out from hunger. I 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. 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 guy on the bike would've made pro wrestlers run for Mama. 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 shades, and he had the cruelest, most brutal face I'd ever seen—handsome, I guess, but wicked—with an oily black crew cut and cheeks that were scarred from many, many fights. The weird thing was, I felt like I'd seen his face somewhere before. I almost smacked myself. Of course, on Olympus! 

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. The waitress blinked, as if somebody had just pressed the rewind button on her brain. She asked us again, "You kids have money to pay for it?"

Ares said, "It's on me." He slid into our 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 spun around, then marched back toward the kitchen.

The biker looked at me and Percy. I couldn't see his eyes behind the red shades, but bad feelings started boiling in my stomach. Anger, resentment, bitterness. I wanted to hit a wall. I wanted to pick a fight with somebody. Who did this guy think he was?

He gave me a wicked grin. "So you're old Seaweed's kids, huh?"

I should've been surprised, or scared, but instead I felt like I was looking at Helen. I wanted to rip this guy's head off. 

"What's it to you?" Percy snarled.

Annabeth's eyes flashed a warning. "Percy, this is—"

The biker raised his hand.

"S'okay," he laughed. "I don't mind a little attitude. Long as you remember who's the boss. You know who I am, little cousin?"

"You're Clarisse's dad," I told him. "Ares, god of war."

Ares grinned and took off his shades. Where his eyes should've been, there was only fire, empty sockets glowing with miniature nuclear explosions. "That's right, girly. I heard you broke Clarisse's spear."

"She was asking for it." I said as nonchalantly as I could. 

"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.

"You can't do that," Percy snapped at Ares. "You can't just threaten people with a knife."

Ares laughed heartily. "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 we do for a god?" Percy gestured around at our questing group.

"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?" I questioned, staring up at him.

The fire in his eye sockets glowed a little hotter.

"Why don't I turn you into guinea pig and run you over with my Harley? Because I don't feel like it. A god is giving you an opportunity to prove yourself, Neridia 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."

I wanted to punch this guy, but somehow, I knew he was waiting for that. Ares's power was causing my anger. He'd love it if I attacked. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction.

"We're not interested," Percy decided.

"We've already got a quest." I agreed

Ares's fiery eyes made me see things I didn't want to see—blood and smoke and corpses on the battlefield. 

"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?" Annabeth queried.

"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," I grumbled sarcastically.

"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." Percy assured.

"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."

"Our mom?"

He 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?" I asked cockily. "Something scare you off ?"

Ares bared his teeth, but I'd seen his threatening look before on Clarisse. There was something false about it, almost like he was nervous.

"You're lucky you met me, girly, 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 we must have fainted, or fallen into a trance, because when I opened my eyes again, Ares was gone. I might've thought the conversation had been a dream, but Percy, Annabeth and Grover's expressions told me otherwise.

"Not good," Grover whimpered, chewing on the tinfoil wrapping wrapping his burger. "Ares sought us out. This is not good."

I stared out the window. The motorcycle had disappeared.

Did Ares really know something about our mom, or was he just playing with us? Now that he was gone, all the anger had drained out of me. I realized Ares must love to mess with people's emotions. That was his power —cranking up the passions so badly, they clouded your ability to think.

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

"We can't," Annabeth warned. 

"Look, I hate Ares as much as anybody, but you don't ignore the gods unless you want serious bad fortune. He wasn't kidding about turning me into a rodent." I explained.

Percy looked down at his cheeseburger. "Why does he need us?"

"Maybe it's a problem that requires brains," Annabeth pondered. "Ares has strength. That's all he has. Even strength has to bow to wisdom sometimes."

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

Annabeth and Grover glanced nervously at each other. Annabeth sighed, "I'm afraid we'll have to find out."

~✰~

The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time we found the water park. Judging from the sign, it once had been called WATERLAND, but now some of the letters were smashed out, so it read WAT R A D.

The main gate was padlocked and topped with barbed wire. Inside, huge dry waterslides 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 creepy.

"If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date," Percy murmured, 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."

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

"Who is she? Echidna?"

"No, Aphrodite," Grover said, a little dreamily. "Goddess of love."

"I thought she was married to somebody," Percy asked. "Hephaestus."

"What's your point?" I asked.

 "Oh."

"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, Percy and I had to climb the old-fashioned way, holding down the barbed wire for each other as we crawled over the top.

The shadows grew long as we 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 us. Nothing made the slightest noise.

We found a souvenir shop that had been left open. Merchandise still lined the shelves: snow globes, pencils, postcards, and racks of—

"Clothes," Annabeth noted, "Fresh clothes." 

"Yeah," I said hesitantly, "But you can't just—"

 "Watch me."

She snatched an entire row of stuff off the racks and disappeared into the changing room. A few minutes later she came out in Waterland flower-print shorts, a big red Waterland T-shirt, and commemorative Waterland surf shoes. A Waterland backpack was slung over her shoulder, obviously stuffed with more goodies.

"What the heck." Grover shrugged. Soon, all four of us were decked out like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park.

We continued searching for the Tunnel of Love. I got the feeling that the whole park was holding its breath. "So Ares and Aphrodite," Percy asked, breaking the tense silence, "they have a thing going?"

"That's old gossip, Percy," I told him dismissively, "Three-thousand-year-old gossip."

"What about Aphrodite's husband?"

"Well, you know," I winced, "Hephaestus. The blacksmith. He was crippled when he was a baby, thrown off Mount Olympus by Zeus. So he isn't exactly handsome. Clever with his hands, and all, but Aphrodite isn't into brains and talent, you know?"

"She likes bikers." 

"Whatever."

"Hephaestus knows?"

"Oh sure," Annabeth answered, "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 us was an empty pool that would've been awesome for skateboarding. It was at least fifty yards across and shaped like a bowl.

Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of Cupid stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire. On the opposite side from us, a tunnel opened up, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full. The sign above it read, THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!

Grover crept toward the edge. "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," I said in a hushed tone. "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," I turned to him, "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." I said apologetically. Percy took a deep breath. 

"I'm going down there." 

"I'll go with you." Grover didn't sound too enthusiastic, but I got the feeling he was trying to make up for what had happened in St. Louis.

"No," I told him. "I want you to stay up top with the flying shoes. You're the Red Baron, a flying ace, remember? He'll be counting on us for backup, in case something goes wrong."

Grover puffed up his chest a little. "Sure. But what could go wrong?"

"I don't know. Just a feeling. Annabeth, go with him—"

"Are you kidding?" She looked at me as if I'd just dropped from the moon. Her cheeks were bright red.

"What's the problem now?" Percy demanded.

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

"Who's going to see you?" But Percy's face was burning now, too. 

"Fine," I told her. "I'll do it." But when Percy and I started down the side of the pool, she followed, muttering about how we always messed things up. I grinned and let the two of them continue down, scrambling back up to where Grover stood by the ride booth.

We watched as Percy and Annabeth reached the boat. The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf. I tried to imagine Ares and Aphrodite here, a couple of gods meeting in a junked-out amusement-park ride.

Percy picked up the scarf. It shimmered pink. Percy smiled, a little dreamy, and was about to rub the scarf against his cheek when Annabeth ripped it out of his hand and stuffed it in her pocket. 

"Oh, no you don't. Stay away from that love magic."

"What?"

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

The moment Percy touched the shield, I knew we were in trouble.

"Wait," Annabeth called.

Too late

"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap!" She called up to Grover and I. Eta. 'H'. Hephaestus, gods we're dumb!

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

Grover yelled, "Guys!"

Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Before I could suggest taking cover, they shot, but not at Percy and Annabeth. They fired at each other, across the rim of the pool. Silky cables trailed from the arrows, arcing over the pool and anchoring where they landed to form a huge golden asterisk. Then smaller metallic threads started weaving together magically between the main strands, making a net.

"You have to get out!" I yelled down.

"Duh!" Annabeth screamed back.

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.

We were trying to hold open a section of the net for them but wherever we touched it, the golden threads started to wrap around our hands.

The Cupids' heads popped open. Out came video cameras. Spotlights rose up all around the pool, blinding us 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!"

They'd almost made it to the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic...things poured out. Annabeth screamed. And I saw what it was It was an army of wind-up creepy-crawlies: bronze-gear bodies, spindly legs, little pincer mouths, all scuttling toward us in a wave of clacking, whirring metal.

"Spiders!" Annabeth screamed. "Sp—sp—aaaah!" She fell backward in terror and almost got overwhelmed by the spider robots before Percy pulled her up and dragged her back toward the boat. I myself had backed as far as possible from the rim. 

"SPIDERS!" I screamed, clutching at Grover's arm. After Athena had blessed me, my fear of spiders (which was always pretty bad after the trauma of the spider incident when I was seven) had increased hugely.

The things were coming out from all around the rim now, millions of them, flooding toward the center of the pool, completely surrounding Annabeth and Percy. I told myself they probably weren't programmed to kill, just corral them and bite them and make them look stupid. Then again, this was a trap meant for gods. And we weren't gods.

Annabeth and Percy climbed into the boat. Percy started kicking away the spiders as they swarmed aboard. He yelled at Annabeth to help him, but she (and I) was too paralyzed to do much more than scream.

"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 Annabeth's leg and its pincers took a chunk out of his new surf shoe. Grover hovered above the pool in his flying sneakers, trying to pull the net loose, but it wouldn't budge.

Think, I told myself, trying to ignore the mass of spiders barely fifteen feet away. 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, I thought. Where does the ride's water come from?

Then I saw them: huge water pipes behind the mirrors, where the spiders had come from. And up above the net, next to one of the Cupids, a glass- windowed booth that must be the controller's station.

"Grover!" I yelled. "Get into that booth! Find the 'on' switch!"

"But—"

"Do it!" It was a crazy hope, but it was our only chance. The spiders were all over the prow of the boat now. Annabeth was screaming her head off. They had to get out of there.

Grover was in the controller's booth now, slamming away at the buttons.

"Five, four—"

Grover looked up at me hopelessly, raising his hands. He was letting me know that he'd pushed every button, but still nothing was happening.

"PERCY HELP ME SUMMON WATER!" I screamed at him.

I closed my eyes and thought about waves, rushing water, the Mississippi River. I felt a familiar tug in my gut, the way I had in the car wash . I tried to imagine that I 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 Annabeth 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 us completely, but not capsizing us. The boat turned, lifted in the flood, and spun in circles around the whirlpool. The water was full of short-circuiting spiders, some of them smashing against the pool's concrete wall with such force they burst which I can't pretend wasn't cool to watch.

Spotlights glared down at the two. The Cupid-cams were rolling, live to Olympus.

But I could only concentrate on controlling the boat, hoping Percy was doing the same. I willed it to ride the current, to keep away from the wall. Maybe it was my 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 the two against the metal net. Then the boat's nose turned toward the tunnel and they rocketed through into the darkness and out of sight. 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 splashed down safely in the exit pool. But there was a problem. The Gates of Love were chained. Two boats that had been washed out of the tunnel before were now piled against the barricade—one submerged, the other cracked in half.

"Unfasten your seat belt," Percy yelled to Annabeth. 

"Are you crazy?"

"Unless you want to get smashed to death." Percy strapped Ares's shield to his arm. "We're going to have to jump for it." Annabeth gripped his hand as the gates got closer.

"On my mark," Percy told her.

"No! On my mark!"

"What?"

"Simple physics!" she yelled. "Force times the trajectory angle—"

 "Fine!" Percy shouted. "On your mark!"

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

Crack!

Annabeth was right. She got maximum lift.

Unfortunately, that was a little more than needed. The boat smashed into the pileup and the two were thrown into the air, straight over the gates, over the pool, and down toward solid asphalt.

Grover, using his flying shoes, grabbed Percy from behind. Annabeth yelled, "Ouch!"

In midair, he had grabbed Percy by the shirt, and Annabeth by the arm, and was trying to pull them out of a crash landing, but Annabeth and Percy 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. I was safe on the ground. In a last ditch attempt to soften their landing, I thrust out my arms. A geyser of water responded to me, shooting up and making a bubble of water around them. I tried to slow down their descent but the best I could do was lower them to just above the ground. Then I lost control and they smashed into a photo-board, Grover's head going straight into the hole where tourists would put their faces, pretending to be Noo-Noo the Friendly Whale. Annabeth and Percy tumbled to the ground, banged up but alive. Ares's shield was still on his arm.

"Oh gods! Oh gods!" I ran up and pulled Grover out of the photo board and panicked at my soaking wet friends. I looked back at the Thrill Ride of Love. The water was subsiding. The boat had been smashed to pieces against the gates. A hundred yards away, at the entrance pool, the Cupids were still filming. The statues had swiveled so that their cameras were trained straight on us, the spotlights in our faces.

"Show's over!" I yelled, resisting the urge to flip off the gods who were undoubtedly watching. "Thank you! Good night!"

The Cupids turned back to their original positions. The lights shut off. The park went quiet and dark again, except for the gentle trickle of water into the Thrill Ride of Love's exit pool. I wondered if Olympus had gone to a commercial break, or if our ratings had been any good. I hated being teased. I hated being tricked. Percy hefted the shield on his arm and turned to us. In perfect unison we chorused:

"We need to have a little talk with Ares."

~✰~
Word Count: 5585