Adore

Chapter Fourteen

I Hate Water Theme Parks!

Now, if you're the one to meet with the father of one of your friends, you'd be understandably nervous, right? Then what more if said father's domain was strife, discord, and every little thing you can imagine when wars come and go, how the heck would you feel?

I put my shaking hands below the table, on my lap, so I could hide them. Gods. My hands were shaking so much, not because I was afraid of the god, but it was more of the overwhelming anger I was currently feeling. I felt that I wasn't looking at the god. I felt like I was staring at Smelly Gabe in the face, with his beady eyes leering as he eye r***d me. Gods. How I want to punch him! But then, always at the last minute, my brain would supply me with the thought that it was Ares, not Smelly Gabe, in front of me, and that it was part of his power, his aura. So I did my best in restraining myself.

The others, I could see, were having the same reactions. Grover was whimpering so much, probably from all the anger and hate leaking out of us. Ethan was continuously cutting his eyes towards the War God, alternating between glaring and wariness. And, Luke was the worst off, seeing as his eyes were glaring daggers at the god, even though his face was a stoic mask.

Ares was enjoying our reaction to him, if his sudden boisterous laughter was any indication. "Well! You lot are a right sight better than many people that come across my aura!" He gave off another laugh, making me wince at its intensity. Luke had reached out and clenched my hand with his, all the while glaring at Ares. I just squeezed his hand back in comfort.

When Ares saw it fit to stop his maniacal laughter, the waitress had come back with heaping trays of food-cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings, and chocolate shakes. Ares gave her a handful of drachmas. She was shocked and was opening his mouth to argue, but one look at us the four of us had her eyes widen fearfully and shut her mouth with a snap. She then nodded and left with the gold.

Ares looked pleased as she left. "Now that the tramp is gone, let's talk business. I knew you were in town, and I've got a proposition for you." Luke looked like he wanted to snap something degrading, so I beat him to the punch.

"What could we do for you, Lord Ares?"

He smirked at this, then took out his hunting knife, picking his fingernails casually. "I need you to do me a favor, Jackson. Doesn't matter if you do it alone or with your posse, I don't care. Heck, you might even need them, seeing as Blondie there made a stupid oath on the Styx." He then pointed the knife in Luke's direction, making him growl a little. Ethan's shoulders tensed up, and Grover was pulling his arm, stopping him. I just clenched Luke's hand tighter.

"What favor? Erm, Lord Ares." I reluctantly attached the lord part, seeing as he's not acting all that deserving to be called a lord.

"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." My eyes widened at that. I thought that Aphrodite and Hephaestus are back together? What is Ares talking about? Inwardly I cringed a little. Oh dear Aphrodite. Please don't let Ares know that I was the one who convinced you to dump him.

I must've taken too long to respond, because I heard Luke growl a response. "We're not interested. We're already on a quest."

Ares snorted at that. His 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, even though you're Hermes' son. Nevertheless, I'm trying to give you, Jackson, 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."

I sucked in a sharp breath at his statement. Se HE's the one who made this impending war all the more worse by involving Hades! Dad and Zeus are bad enough! The others must've been thinking along the same lines, because Ethan's voice was thick with incredulousness when he spoke. "You told Poseidon that Hades is the one who stole the Master Bolt?"

"Sure. Framing somebody to start a war. Oldest trick in the book. I recognized it immediately. Besides, it would make sense if the Bolt was in the Underworld. That's why we gods couldn't find it." Gods. Dad, give me the strength not to punch Ares in the face, please? This BUFFOON is the source of everything that's complicated in this stupid quest! Clarisse, forgive me, but I'm hating your dad more and more every single passing second.

"Err. Thanks?" Grover's shaking voice bleated.

Ares just smirked. "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 don't need-!" Luke fumed, but one hard squeeze from me stopped his tirade.

"Where is your shield, Lord Ares?" He was now smirking dangerously, making Luke shift in his seat to move closer to me.

"The water park is a mile west on Delancy. You can't miss it. Look for the Tunnel of Love ride. Enjoy the ride." He grinned at me cruelly at that, then snapped his fingers. The next thing I knew, I was staring at an empty space. Grover and Ethan returned to their seat, faces grim. Luke was scowling. I just sighed.

"This is not good, not good at all!" Grover bleated, tugging on his curly hair a bit. "He sought you out, Mare. That's definitely not a good sign!"

"We need to do as he says, sis." Ethan grimaced, his eyes shining with worry. "There's no telling what he'll do to us and the quest if we just blow him off." Luke had his eyes tightly shut, and his hand was clenching mine so tightly, I thought he was going to break it.

"Luke?" He just sighed, opening his eyes in resignation.

"Why does he need us for something so trivial as retrieving his shield? He could just flash in and out of the place in less than a second!"

Ethan sighed. "I have no idea, dude, but we need to go there."

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 eerily like something you'd find in a horror movie where zombies suddenly pop out of the ground and eat your brains or something.

"Oh dear gods. Ares is one huge jerk to bring Aphrodite to this place. That's no way to treat a girl!" I huffed, indignant. Jeez! He's such a jerk to Aphrodite! I'm SOOO glad that I somehow push her back to her husband. Ethan was smiling at me and Grover was laughing, amused. Luke, meanwhile, had a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"I'll make sure to take you to the good restaurants, then, Damsel fish." I just sputtered at him, pretty sure that my face was a lovely shade of pink at the moment. Ethan was scowling and Grover was just shaking his head in amusement.

"Come on guys. The sooner we do this, the better." He said as he climbed up the gate like the half goat that he was. He then stopped at the barbed end. "Uh, could someone hold the wire down so I could cross?" Ethan just sighed.

"Hold on a minute, Grover. I'm coming up." As Ethan climbed up the gate, Luke had extended a hand to me.

"Come on, Damsel fish. Let's go."

I just shook my head and put my hand on top of his, making him grin at me.

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? I was alert, expecting monsters to pop out somewhere. I mean, this really isn't going to be that simple, right? This was a side quest given by Ares, for Hades' sake! But, my caution was for nothing. Nothing approached us. Nothing moved but us.

"Why in Hades' name is Ares afraid to go back here? Afraid of the dark or something?"

Luke shook his head at me. "I have no idea, Damsel fish."

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

"Oh dear Poseidon. CLOTHES!" I squealed in glee as I grabbed an entire row of stuff and turned to the others, grin threatening to split my face in two. "Where's the restroom?! I need to take a bath!"

Ethan was gaping at me, probably surprised I had the gall to take things. Luke was looking at me with an appraising glint in his eyes. Grover just sighed and copied me. "Let's just take a shower and get dressed, guys. Mare's not leaving here unless we have a bath first."

"Damn right I'm not. No one's going to get between me and my precious bath. Got that?"

Luke had happily nodded his head and grabbed some stuff, while Ethan took a full minute before shaking his head and sighing. "But didn't Silena already pack us some clothes?"

"Those aren't regular clothes, Ethan. Those are to be used in Las Vegas, or more specifically, casinos. Come on, don't you think it'll be weird to have four well-dressed teens wandering around?"

Ethan looked like he wanted to argue more, but just sighed and reluctantly grabbed some stuff. I aimed my best thank you smile at him.

"Thanks, brother." Ethan immediately lost his frown as he smiled widely at me. I just grinned back as I lead the others in the search for a restroom.

As it turned out, the restrooms were just a few feet away from the souvenir shop, so I immediately dashed in the ladies room, hoping against all odds that the plumbing was still intact. I entered the room, and made a beeline for the nearest sink. I turned on the faucet and almost shouted for joy as water came out. The plumbing was fine! I gleefully entered a shower stall and stripped down before turning on the shower. As water came out and cascaded down, I stuck my head onto the spray, sighing in relief as I felt the cool liquid soak my hair. I didn't care that there wasn't any soap, I just scrubbed all of the grime I could see from my body. I scrubbed my hair, getting rid of the stickiness. After that, I stayed under the spray for a few minutes before shutting the shower off. I dried myself off with a towel from the shop and put on Waterland flower-print shorts, a big red Waterland T-shirt, and commemorative Waterland surf shoes. I then happily skipped out of the restroom to find the others already there waiting for me.

"Feeling better?" Luke smirked at me as he eyes my satisfied smile.

"Much! Come on, then! Let's get this stupid side-quest over with!"

It was dusk when we continued searching for the Tunnel of Love. The growing darkness once more reminded me of how, well, creepy this place was. It was definitely not a good place to have a date, even though you're supposedly hiding from the girl's husband, thank you very much!

"Ares is a total jerk. He needs to take Aphrodite on romantic dates, not creepy ones!"

Ethan and Luke were smiling at my outburst, and Grover looked like he wanted to join them, but worry was warring with amusement on his face. "Mare, it's not good to badmouth the gods, even if they are jerks."

I just sighed, saying nothing, because I was certain that if I opened my mouth again, the next thing that would come out of my mouth was that Aphrodite doesn't even like Ares anymore, and that would really complicate things. Well, it was a good thing too, because we found the Tunnel of Love ride.

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!

"Guys, look at that." Ethan pointed. 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.

"Geez. This is almost too easy. Why in Tartarus' name didn't Ares just flash in here to get back his stupid shield?" Luke grumbled as he handed his pack over to Ethan, who nodded. I was just about to join them when something made me look at one of the Cupid statues.

I approached one of them and immediately noticed a carving at the side. "Eta." I murmured. Now, why does this strike me as weird?

"Grover, do you smell any monsters nearby?" I heard Ethan ask.

"No, I'm certain that there are no monsters anywhere near here." I heard Grover bleating.

"You know what, guys? I think I agree with Damsel fish that Aphrodite should definitely dump Ares and just get back with Hephaestus." Luke's grumbling voice carried off to me, and with a jolt I remembered that Eta was H in Greek. Hephaestus. My mind suddenly remembered my conversation with the couple after we slayed Medusa.

"Remember, Persis. Look for my signature."

I looked at the carving, body numb with shock. So this was a plan by Aphrodite? If we pull this quest off, maybe Aphrodite won't have to hide her relationship with Hephaestus. I straightened out at that thought, determined. The Love Goddess has been really kind to me ever since we've started talking, and now I have a chance to repay her somehow. I won't mess up!

"Grover, Ethan, you guys stay here in case something goes wrong and we need back up. Damsel fish, you come with me." I heard Luke's voice lay down a strategy and my mind replayed Hephaestus' kind, gruff voice.

"...you'll definitely come across a situation that has both of our signatures on it. When you recognize it, let your paramour handle everything."

Well, I found Hephaestus' signature. If there's something of Aphrodite's here, I'll just follow their advice and let Luke do everything.

"Damsel fish? Perce? You listening?" Luke asked me. I hurriedly turned around to face the others, a smile on my face.

"Yeah. Let's just get this over with." I walked up to Luke and together, we walked down towards the bottom.

We reached the boat. The shield was propped on one seat, and next to it was a lady's silk scarf. I picked up the scarf. It shimmered pink, and the perfume was indescribable-rose, or mountain laurel. Well, this could only belong to Aphrodite. I just shook my head a little. That made my decision. I hope what's going to happen won't be too bad, or else I know Triton's going to blow a gasket when he sees the others, especially Luke. Luke was eyeing me and the scarf, one of his eyebrows raised. I just nodded towards the shield.

"Just get the shield so we could get out of here, Casanova. This place gives me the creeps." He laughed a little at that, taking hold of the shield. Though, the moment he touched it, he instantly stiffened, looking warily from all sides. "Luke? What's the matter?"

Luke's voice was tense as he shuffled closer to me, still holding the shield. "My hand tripped a thin wire." What? Luke then looked at the boat and his eyes widened. "s**t. That's why Ares was afraid to go here! This place is a trap! This boat has Hephaestus' signature!" I looked to the side of the boat, and surely enough, the Greek letter Eta was engraved on the boat's side.

As soon as he said that, noise erupted all around us, of a million gears grinding, as if the whole pool were turning into one giant machine.

"Guys, look up!" Ethan yelled at us. We complied. Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Before we could react, they shot, but not at us. 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.

"s**t! Let's get out of here, Percy!" Luke strapped the shield on one arm, grabbed my hand and we tried to run up the slope. Keyword: tried.

"Come on, guys!" Grover shouted as he and Ethan tried to keep a section of the net opened for us, but every time they would get a hold of the net, the threads would wind themselves up on their 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 ..."

"Oh dear gods. Come on, Luke! Hurry!" I shouted to cover up the building laughter inside my chest. Hephaestus and Aphrodite were so brilliant! This would totally discredit Ares enough for Aphrodite to make her split with him believable enough! We'd almost made it to the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic ... things slithered out. And this is where my amusement turned into horror, because if I could name a single thing that would have me scream in terror it would be this. "Oh gods! SNAKES! AHHHH!"

Now, I really wasn't faking this. Ever since I was little, I had ophidiophobia. I had no idea how or why, it's just that the first time my mom and I went to a zoo, I took one look at a boa constrictor and screamed my little lungs out. We've never returned to a zoo ever again after that.

I fell backwards, barely feeling the pain on my bottom, as I stared horrified at the slithering things on the ground. I was sure they were all staring at me, ready to bite me, to strangle me. I barely heard Luke's urgent voice pleading with me. "Percy! Percy, snap out of it!" I barely felt him tug me on the boat to get some leverage. I barely heard the loud speaker counting down to the twenties. All I could think about was that there were thousands of snakes slithering towards me.

And, the worse thing was they opened their mouths and shot out something from their fangs, making me scream in fear as I thought it was venom. All I could do was cover my head with my hands, fearful of the venom making contact with my eyes. It barely registered on my mind that wherever I felt something connect with me, it felt like sticky string. I vaguely noticed that Luke was shuffling beside me, trying to get the things that stuck to me off. I barely heard his shout. "Grover, Ethan! Find the control panel for this thing! Turn the water on!"

"..Three, Two, One, Zero!"

As I heard the count end, water exploded out of the pipes. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the snakes. I felt Luke grab me, hugging me, just as the tidal wave slammed into our boat, over the top, whisking the vile slithering things away and dousing us completely, but not capsizing us. The boat turned, lifted in the flood, and spun in circles around the whirlpool. The splash from the water roused me from my terror.

I blinked at the water, which was full of short-circuiting snakes, some of them smashing against the pool's concrete wall with such force they burst. Spotlights glared down at us. The Cupid-cams were rolling, live to Olympus. I registered that Luke was calling my name. "Percy!"

"Yeah?"

"Oh thank the gods!" Luke's relieved voice had me feeling sheepish. It really wasn't my fault that I have such a strong fear of snakes, right? "Can you control the boat?"

I tried, reaching out with my senses to try and control the boat. I willed it to ride the current, to keep away from the wall. I breathed a sigh of relief as I felt the boat responding. "I can control it not to capsize or crash, but it's the best I can do!"

"That's good enough!" Luke yelled as he hurriedly fastened his and my seatbelt. We spun around one last time, the water level now almost high enough to shred us against the metal net. Then the boat's nose turned toward the tunnel and we rocketed through into the darkness.

Luke and I held tight, both of us screaming (well, I was certain I was screaming. I just imagined Luke screaming because all I could hear from him was delighted laughter) 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 we were out of the tunnel, the night air whistling through our hair as the boat barreled straight toward the exit. Now, if this wasn't a defunct water theme park, and if the ride had been in working order, we 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 us were now piled against the barricade-one submerged, the other cracked in half.

"Oh, Holy Poseidon!" I yelled. Really now, was a little luck too much to ask?! Luke unfastened my seatbelt and undid his. "What are you doing, Luke?!"

Luke, meanwhile, just smiled at me, holding out his hand for mine. "Do you trust me?" I paused for a bit, startled by his calmness when awhile ago he was scrambling for our lives. But I saw a confidence in his eyes that wasn't present before, maybe because my behavior back there startled him so much because it wasn't usual for me. So, I just smiled a little and nodded as I grabbed his hand. His smile turned into a grin and pulled me to him, hugging me. He then shouted one word. "Maia!"

As I watched, Luke's sneakers sprouted up wings, and we flew up, away from the impending crash we could've suffered. We flew a little bit higher before looking down and watching as the boat we were riding smack into the pileup, cracking into pieces form the force. "Uh, Luke?"

"Yeah, Damsel fish?"

"Can we go down now? Heights make me nervous."

Luke blinked for a moment before laughing a little and nodded. I held on tightly to Luke as he carefully navigated us back to the ground. Grover and Ethan were running towards us, relieved smiles on their faces. "Thank the gods you were there, Luke, or else Percy would've completely lost it." Ethan smiled as he hugged me, making Luke let go of me.

When he let go, Grover replaced him and hugged me as well. "What is it with you and trouble, Mare? Why do these things always happen to you?" I laughed a little as I hugged my bestfriend back.

"Seriously, Hircum? I have absolutely no idea."

"By the way, Damsel fish, why did you freak out back there?" Luke asked, his tilted in a questioning manner. Oh dear gods. Was it just me or did it make him look adorable? I shook my head to get rid of the thought as the question sank inside my mind.

"I've always had a fear of snakes. Didn't you guys know? That was why I was so affected by Medusa, aside from her magic food, and, well, being my Dad's Ex." The three of them looked surprised before Grover snorted.

"So that's why you've never wanted to go near the science room back at Yancy. There was a tank with a constrictor there."

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up." I grumbled, my cheeks feeling hot. It wasn't really my fault! On hindsight though, I really can't blame Hephaestus on what he uses as his machinery, though it really rankled on my fear of snakes radar a little bit too much.

Luke, though, took one look at me and smirked sexily, draping his arm around my shoulder as he leaned closer to my face. "I don't mind. It makes me want to protect you even more."

"Oy, hands of my sister, Castellan!"

As we laughed at where the conversation was going, I noticed that 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. I then faced the cameras and did a theatrical bow. "Shows over, Lords and Ladies! Thank you for watching! Goodnight!"

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.

"We need to have a little talk with Ares, now." I said, as Grover nodded, and Ethan and Luke smiled devilishly.

The War God was already waiting for us in the diner parking lot.

"Well, well, you didn't get yourself killed!" He laughed at us, making Luke take a threatening step forward. I clamped a hand on his arm, and I saw at the corner of my eyes Grover doing the same to Ethan.

"You knew it was a trap, Lord Ares. It was a trap for gods, not for halfbloods. We could have been killed, and it was filming straight to Olympus. Our fathers would have filleted you alive. Didn't this worry you?" I asked him as I unstrapped the shield from Luke's stiff arm and approached the god. Yeah, I was playing on the 'lost and wounded puppy' card, but what the heck, didn't this even occur to him?

Ares faltered for a split second before regaining his haughty stance. "If you didn't succeed, then you're not the Child of the Prophecy. Simple as that, kid." He then grabbed the shield from my hand and spun it in the air like pizza dough. It changed form, melting into a bulletproof vest. He slung it across his back.

"See that truck over there, kiddies?" He pointed to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner. "That's your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas." The eighteen-wheeler had a sign on the back, which I could read only because it was reverse-printed white on black, a good combination for dyslexia: KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.

I heard Grover's whimper somewhere at my side. "Dear Pan."

"You're joking." Ethan gaped, while Luke just fumed.

"Free ride west, kid. Can't ask for more. Though, as I am a generous god, I'll give you an extra reward for bringing my shield to me so fast." He got a blue nylon backpack from the handlebars of his bike and threw it at Luke's direction. He caught it, but didn't check it, too busy glowering at the completely unrepentant god. Ares saw this and just smirked as he snapped his fingers. Immediately, the back door of the truck unlatched.

I looked back at the diner, which had only a couple of customers now. The waitress who'd served us dinner was watching nervously out the window, like she was afraid Ares might hurt us. She dragged the fry cook out from the kitchen to see. She said something to him. He nodded, held up a little disposable camera and snapped a picture of us.

Oh dear gods. I did not need another front page dedicated to me!

Ares straightened out of his leisure slouch against his bike, and looked at me. And I mean really looked at me. Like, top to bottom. He then looked straight at me, lifted his sunglasses and winked at me. "You did a good job, girlie. You've got strength, even though you freaked out at the snakes. Get a few more years to you, and I might sweep you off your feet." With all of our mouths hanging open at his statement, he mounted his bike and road down Delancy Street.

OH DEAR POSEIDON. DID ARES JUST SAY THAT!?

I felt someone hug me, and I turned to look, finding Luke with a dark expression on his face. "God or not, if I see him do that, I'll rip his head off, after I rip off his pride." Luke growled.

"I'll tie him down for you, dude." Ethan snarled.

"Err, guys? I hate to interrupt seeing as I really want to join you guys in bashing the dangerous War God, but we need to get going." Grover said, pointing towards the diner. At the register, the last two customers were paying their check, two men in identical black coveralls, with a white logo on their backs that matched the one on the KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL truck.

I winced, reminded that we have to watch poor animals be miserable inside their cages, but was left with no choice. With money less than a hundred dollars, we really couldn't afford any transportation to L.A. Besides, I'm sure we've all had our fill of Denver. We ran across the street and climbed in the back of the big rig, closing the doors behind us.