Chapter 15 Chapter 15 The God of War Riding a Motorcycle

The next afternoon, June fourteenth, seven days before the summer solstice, the train rolled into Denver.We hadn't eaten since the dinner in the dining car the night the train pulled into Kansas.Of course, neither of us had a bath since we left Half-Blood Hill. "We have to find a way to contact Chiron." Annabeth said, "I want to tell him about your conversation with the river elves." "We can't use the phone, can we?" "I don't mean the phone." We walked downtown for about half an hour, and I still had no idea what Annabeth was looking for.The air was dry and hot, not quite used to it now after the humidity in St. Louis.Wherever we went, the Rocky Mountains seemed to stare at me, and Yamagata looked like a tsunami that was about to smash the city.

Finally, we found an empty self-service car wash, took the farthest parking space from the street, and kept watching for patrol cars passing by.We three teenagers who didn't drive were poking around the car wash, and the smarter cops would have thought we were up to something. "What the hell are we doing?" I ask, as Grover pulls out his squirt gun. "It's seventy-five cents," he grumbled. "I only have two quarters, Annabeth?" "Don't look at me," she said, "I've given it all to the food truck." I fished out my last change and gave Grover a quarter, and now I'm left with two dimes and an ancient Greek coin from Medusa.

"Great," Grover said. "We could do it with a squirt bottle of course, but the squirt bottle doesn't last as well and makes my hands sore when I press it." "What the hell are you talking about?" He tossed in a coin, turned the spin button to the fine spray option, and said, "Ask Elise." "It must be wet?" "It's Elise." Annabeth corrected. "Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, sends messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and if she's not very busy, she will also send messages for the half-bloods." "You summon a goddess with a squirt gun?"

Grover pointed to the nozzle in the sky as the water hissed out in a thick white mist. "Unless you know an easier way to make a rainbow." The evening sunlight forms colorful colors under the filter of small water droplets. Annabeth opened her palm, stretched out to me and said, "Please give me the ancient Greek gold coin." I give it to her. She raised the gold coin above her head and said, "Oh, Goddess, please accept our offering." She threw the gold coin into the rainbow, and the coin turned into a golden flash and disappeared. "Half-Blood Hill," Annabeth requested.

After a while, nothing happened. But then, through the mist, I saw Strawberry Fields and, beyond, Long Island Sound.We seem to have reached the balcony of the main house, and the person standing by the railing is facing us, with tawny hair, wearing shorts and an orange sleeveless vest, holding a bronze sword in his hand, and seems to be staring intently at the grass below. "Luke!" I called to him. He turned, eyes wide open, and I could have sworn he was standing about a meter away from the water curtain, though I could only see part of him in the rainbow. "Percy!" He smiled across his scarred face. "Is that Annabeth? Thank God! How are you all?"

"We're... um... fine," Stammered Annabeth, frantically smoothing her dirty t-shirt and brushing loose hair out of her face. "We want to... Chiron... I mean..." "He's over there in the cabin." Luke suppressed his smile. "We're having a problem with the students. Hey, cool stuff you guys are having, isn't it? How's Grover?" "Here I am," Grover said, keeping the nozzle on the same side, before stepping into Luke's line of sight. "What's wrong?" At this moment, a large Ford Lincoln drove into the car wash area, and hip-hop music was playing loudly on the stereo.When the car pulled into the parking space next to us, the subwoofer made the road vibrate.

"Chiron must...what's that noise?" Luke yelled. "I'll take care of it!" Annabeth yelled back, looking greatly relieved to have an excuse to get out of Luke's sight. "Grover, come here!" "What?" Grover said, "But…" "Give the nozzle to Percy and come here!" she ordered. Grover muttered to himself: "Girls are harder to understand than Delphi's oracle." Then he gave me the nozzle gun and followed Annabeth. I adjusted the hose to keep the rainbow going and Luke could be seen again. "Chiron has to settle a dispute." Luke yelled at me to drown out the music, "Percy, things are tense here. The Zeus-Poseidon standoff got leaked out, and we don't know how yet , may be the same person who summoned the hellhounds to come. Now the students are starting to choose sides, much like the second Trojan war is about to start. Or so, Aphrodite, Ares and Apollo Both support Poseidon, and Athena supports Zeus."

I shuddered to think that Cressa's cabin would be on Dad's side.That's when I heard Annabeth arguing with someone from the next parking lot, and the music quickly faded away. "So, what's going on with you guys?" Luke asked me. "Chiron will be sorry to miss the chance to speak to you." I told him many things, including my dreams.I was so happy to see him, and seemed to be briefly back at camp for a few minutes, I don't know how long, until the sprinkler beeped.I know I only have a minute left before I stop spraying, "Wish I could be there," Luke said. "I'm afraid we can't be of much help here, but listen... Hades must have stolen the Lightning bolt. He was in Olympus at the winter solstice, where he was teaching outside school." We've all seen him."

"But Chiron said that the gods cannot take the treasures of other gods with their own hands." "That's right." Luke looked troubled. "It should be him...Hades has the dark rudder, but who else can sneak into the throne and steal the Lightning bolt? You have to be invisible." Neither of us made a sound, and Luke suddenly understood what he had just said. "Oh, hey," he said defensively, "I don't mean Annabeth, she and I know each other so well, it can't be her, I mean, she's like my little sister to me." I doubt Annabeth will like that statement.The music in the parking space next to us fell silent, a boy yelled in horror, the door slammed shut, and the Lincoln sprinted out of the car wash.

"You guys better go and see what's going on," Luke said. "Also, are you wearing flying shoes? I'd be glad if that helped you." "Oh... well, yes!" I tried not to sound like a guilty liar, "The shoes work well." "Really?" He smiled. "Do the shoes fit you well?" The water was turned off and the mist started to disappear. "You guys take care in Denver." Luke's voice faded. "Tell Grover it's going to be better this time! No one ever turns into a pine tree if he still…" The mist disappeared, and Luke's appearance completely disappeared.I'm standing alone in a wet, empty car wash.

Annabeth and Grover came running from nearby laughing, but the laughter stopped when they saw my face. Annabeth put her smile back and said, "Percy? What happened? What did Luke say?" "Didn't say anything." I lied, and my stomach is now as empty as the huts of the three gods. "Come on, let's go find dinner." A few minutes later, we're sitting in a dimly lit diner, with everyone else eating burgers, wort, and soda. Finally, the waitress came over, she raised her eyebrows suspiciously and said, "Huh?" I said, "We, uh, want to order dinner." "Do any of you children bring any money?" Grover's lower lip quivered.I'm terrified he'll start bleating, or worse, eat the linen rug, and Annabeth looks starved to death. I was trying to come up with a tear-jerking story to tell the waitress when the whole house rumbled and a heavy locomotive the size of a small elephant pulled over on the side of the road. All conversations in the restaurant ceased.The headlights of the heavy locomotive glowed a blinding red, the fuel tank was painted with flames, and there were shotgun holsters on each side of the car, with the guns already inside.Motorcycle seats are made of leather, but the skin wants to, um, resemble Caucasian skin. The man on the bike was big enough for a pro wrestler to cry for his mother, and he wore a sleeveless top and black jeans and black leather, with a hunting knife strapped to his thigh.He wears red sports sunglasses and has the most savage face I've ever seen.He was handsome, but evil, with a black, greasy crew cut, and scars on his cheeks from many fights.The weirdest thing is, I think I've seen him somewhere before, When he walked into the dining room, a gust of hot and dry wind blew in, and everyone stood up, as if hypnotized, but the knight just waved his hand contemptuously, and they all sat down again, continuing the conversation just now.The waitress blinked, as if someone had pressed the rewind button in her mind, and asked again: "Do you children have any money?" "I'll pay for them," said the knight. He squeezed into our seat, which was too small for him, and Annabeth was pushed against the window. He looked up at the waitress, who also stared at him dumbfounded.He said, "Why are you still here?" He pointed at her, and she stiffened, turned back as if she had been spun, and walked straight into the kitchen. The knight looked at me, I couldn't see his eyes behind the sunglasses, but bad feelings started to boil in my stomach, anger, rage and bitter emotions.I want to bang on the wall and find someone to fight with.Who does this person think he is? He gave me an evil smile and said, "Are you the child of the old seaweed?" I should be surprised or scared, but instead I feel like I'm facing my stepdad Gabe, and I want to split the guy's head off.I replied to him, "What's none of your business?" Annabeth throws me a warning look. "Percy, this is..." The knight raised his hand. "It doesn't matter," he said. "I don't care about these little details. After a long time, you will remember who is the boss. Do you know who I am, my little cousin?" I suddenly understood why this person looked so familiar, his vicious sarcasm was the same as the children in the half-blood camp, the children in cabin five. "You are Cressa's father." I said, "Ares, God of War." Ares smiled contemptuously.He took off his eyes, where there should have been only fire, and in the empty eye sockets was a small flash. "That's right, idiot! I heard you broke Cressa's spear." "She asked for it." "Very likely, that's cool. I'm not here to argue with you about my kids, I'm here because... I heard you came to this town, and I want to give you a little proposal." The waitress brought out trays of food, including cheeseburgers, fries, onion rings and chocolate milkshakes. Ares handed her some ancient Greek gold coins. She looked nervously at the coin. "But, this is not..." Ares took out the hunting knife and began to clean his nails. "Sweetheart, is there a question?" The waitress swallowed and left with the gold coins. "You can't act like this." I told Ares, "You can't threaten people with a knife." Ares laughed. "Are you kidding me? I love this country, it's the best place except Sparta. Aren't you armed too, stupid? You should be armed, it's a dangerous world, and that's why I That's why I made this offer. I need you to do me a favor." "What can I do for a god?" "Something the gods don't have time to deal with themselves. It's really nothing, it's just that I dropped my shield in an abandoned water park in this town. I was... on a date with my girlfriend and we got interrupted , so my shield stays there. I want you to get it back for me." "Why don't you just go back and get it yourself?" The flames in his eye sockets grew hotter. "Why don't I turn you into a collie and run you over with my Harley? Because I don't want to. Percy Jackson, now that a god is giving you a chance to prove yourself, do you want to prove you're a coward?" He leaned forward, "Or you will only fight where there is a river where you can dive, so that your father can protect you." I really want to punch this guy, but somehow I know he's waiting for me to do so.The power of Ares arouses my anger. If I do what he wants, I don't want to do what he wants. "We're not interested," I said. "We have a mission." Ares' eyes of fire let me see things I don't want to see - blood, smoke, and corpses on the battlefield. "I know your mission well enough, idiots. As soon as that thing was stolen, Zeus sent the most powerful gods to find it, including Apollo, Athena, Artemis, and of course me. If I can't find it That powerful weapon..." He licked his lips, as if he was hungry at the thought of the Lightning bolt, "Well, if I can't find it, you're hopeless. Even so, I'll try to do you a favor , to solve your doubts. When your father came back with me, I actually told him that I suspect that it was a good thing that the dead man Hades did." "You told him Hades stole the Lightning bolt?" "Of course, inciting others to develop is the most old-fashioned technique in the book, and I thought of it right away. Based on this alone, you should thank me for the good deeds I have done for your little task." "Thank you." I muttered under my breath. "Hey, I'm a very generous person. I just want to help you with a little errand, and I will help you continue on the road and help you and your friends arrange transportation to the west." "We can do it ourselves." "Yeah, no money, no car, no clue what's next. Help me with this and maybe I'll tell you something you want to know about your mother. " "My mother?" He chuckled. "You're interested. The water park is on the way to Denasi, and you'll see it if you walk more than a kilometer west. Go inside and find the 'Love Tunnel'." "What interrupted your date?" I asked, "Did it scare you away?" Ares bared his teeth, but I've seen that menacing look on Cressa's face before, so something must be wrong, and he must be upset. "You're lucky to meet me, idiot, the other gods of Olympus are not so easy to talk to, and they won't forgive your rudeness like I do. I'll come back here to meet you after you've done your business, don't let I'm disappointed." I must have been stunned or dazed after that, because when I opened my eyes again, Ares was gone.I thought this conversation might just be a dream, but the expressions on Annabeth and Grover told me it was real. "It's not good," Grover said. "Ares is coming at you, Percy, it's not a good thing." I looked out the window and the heavy locomotive had disappeared. Does Ares really know about his mother?Or are you just bluffing me?Now that he's gone, all my anger is gone with him.I understand that Ares must love to disturb people's emotions. That is his power, which makes my negative emotions increase sharply, and makes you fall into chaos and lose your ability to judge. "This may be a hoax." I said, "Forget about Ares, let's go." "No," said Annabeth. "I hate Ares too, but we can't ignore the god unless you want bad luck. If he says he's going to turn you into a rodent, he's not kidding." I looked down at my cheeseburger and suddenly it didn't taste good. "Why would he need us?" "Maybe there's a problem that needs to be solved with the mind," Annabeth said. "Ares is strong, that's all he is, but brute force sometimes bows to wisdom." "But this water park...he looks terrified of going there. What's going to scare Ares away?" Annabeth and Grover exchanged nervous glances. "I'm afraid we'll have to find it," said Annabeth. By the time we found Paradise, the sun had gone down behind the mountains.Judging from the signboard, it used to be called "Water World", but now the words are a bit peeled off, and it looks a lot like "Xiao Yitian". The gates to the water park are locked with chains and have barbed wire on the gates.The park winds around dry waterslides, tunnels, and pipes, all of which open into empty swimming pools.Old tickets and flyers floated on the asphalt.As night approached, the place took on a desolate air that made one shudder. "If Ares took his girlfriend here on a date," I said, looking up at the barbed wire, "I don't want to see what she looks like." "Percy," Annabeth warned me, "be respectful." "Why? I thought you hated Ares." "He's a god no matter what, and his girlfriend is very emotional." "You don't want to criticize her looks," Grover added. "Who is she? Aichina?" "No, she is Aphrodite, God of Love." Grover's expression was a little hazy. "I thought she was married to Hephaestus," I said. "So?" he asked. "Oh." I suddenly felt that I should change the subject. "Then how do we get in?" "Maya!" Grover's shoes twitched. He flew through the gate, doing somersaults in mid-air, then staggered and fell through the gate.He stood up and dusted himself off, as if everything had been planned. "Are you coming in too?" Annabeth and I had to do it the old fashioned way, we climbed over the door and took turns helping each other down the barbed wire as we crossed the top. When we walked around in the park, the shadows got longer and longer.We looked at the fun rides like "Wonderful Kids Island", "The Play Zone" and "Where's the Swimsuits" to name a few. No monsters came to us, no small strange noises. We found a souvenir shop, the door was open, the shelves were still lined with snow globes, pencils, postcards, and a whole shelf of…   "Clothes," said Annabeth. "Clean clothes." "Yeah," I said, "but you can't just..." "Watch." She grabbed everything on the entire row of shelves and ran into the fitting room.She reappeared a few minutes later, wearing water world printed shorts, a loose red water world T-shirt, commemorative water world surf shoes on her feet, and a water world backpack on her shoulders that was obviously stuffed with more things. "What the hell." Grover shrugged.Within moments, all three of us were dressed as living advertisements for this abandoned paradise. We continue to look for "Love Tunnel".I have a feeling as if the whole amusement park is holding its breath. "Ares and Aphrodite," I tried not to pay attention to the deepening night, "is there something between them?" "Percy, this is old gossip," Annabeth told me. "It's been around for three thousand years." "What does Aphrodite's husband think?" "Well. Hephaestus, the god of blacksmiths, has been lame since he was a baby, because he was thrown from Mount Olympus by Zeus. He is not handsome, but he is very dexterous and clever. But, Aphrodite Rodite doesn't seem to be interested in people with good brains and talents, so you understand?" "She likes bikers." "Maybe." "Does Hephaestus know?" "Oh, of course," said Annabeth. "Once he caught them together, literally 'caught' oh, with a golden net, and then he invited all the gods to laugh at them. Hephaestus Trying to embarrass them all the time is probably why they chose to date in unusual places, like..." She stopped, looked straight ahead and said, "Like that." In front of us is an empty swimming pool with a diameter of at least forty meters and shaped like a big bowl. Skateboarding in it must be very exciting. There are twelve bronze statues of Cupid beside the pool, with their wings outstretched and their arrows resting on their bows.Opposite us there is a tunnel opening, probably to allow the pool to flow out after it is full.Above the entrance of the tunnel is written: Horror love journey, this is not your parents' love tunnel! Grover walked slowly to the edge of the pool, "Look." Lying alone on the bottom of the pool is a pink and white two-seater boat with a canopy, and the whole boat is painted with small hearts.On the seat on the left, the shield of Ares gleamed faintly, it was a polished round bronze shield. "It's so easy," I said, "we'll just walk down there, shall we?" Annabeth's fingers traced the base of the bronze Cupid. "There are Greek letters carved here," she said. "Eta, I suspect..." "Grover, do you smell a monster?" I said. He sniffed the smell in the air and said, "No." "No? Is it the same as when you said you didn't 'smell' Aegina at the Arch? Or did you really not?" Grover was hurt. "I tell you, that's the basement." "Okay, sorry." I took a deep breath. "I'm going down." "I'm coming with you." Grover didn't sound very enthusiastic, and I think he's saying that to make up for what happened at the St. Louis Arch. "No." I told him. "I want you up there in your flying shoes. You're an air fighter, remember? I want you to be my back in case something goes wrong." Grover puffed up his chest and said, "Of course, but what's the problem?" "I don't know, it's just a feeling. Annabeth, come with me..." "Are you kidding me?" She looked at me in surprise, like I just fell off the moon.Her whole face flushed red. "What's the problem now?" I demanded her. "I, shall I go with you...'The Horror Love Journey'? It's so embarrassing! What if I'm seen?" "Who will see it?" Actually, my face also started to heat up, and going with girls made things very complicated. "Okay, I'll go by myself." But when I started to walk into the pool, she followed me, muttering about boys always messing things up or something. We got to the side of the boat, the shield was standing on a chair, and there was a scarf beside it.I try to imagine Ares and Aphrodite here, this pair of gods met in a boat in the abandoned paradise, why?That's when I noticed something on it that I hadn't seen before.The swimming pool is full of mirrors, and the mirrors are all facing this place, no matter which direction you look, you can see yourself.That's right, when Ares and Aphrodite embrace, the best person to look at them is yourself. I picked up the scarf.It has a red luster, and the fragrance on it is very indescribable, like the aroma of roses or three laurel, in short, it smells good.I smiled, feeling a little dreamy.When I was about to pick up the scarf and caress my face, Annabeth pulled the scarf away and stuffed it into her pocket. "Hey, you can't do this, stay away from love magic." "what?" "Kellyhead, grab your shield, and we'll get out of here." The moment I hit the shield, the trouble started.My hand broke something attached to the dashboard, I think it was a spider web.But then I saw a wire stuck to the palm, so thin it was almost invisible.This is an institution. "Wait," Annabeth said. "Too late." "There are also ancient Greek letters on the side of the boat, which are sunken." All around us was the sudden noise of a million gears turning, and the whole swimming pool seemed to be one gigantic machine. Grover yells, "Hey!" The bronze statue of Cupid by the pool drew his bow to full capacity, and before I had time to ask everyone to take cover, the arrow was fired, but not at us.They shot arrows at the bronze statue opposite the pool. The arrows were tied with soft and smooth cables, forming an arc above the pool.When the arrow hits the opposite side of the pool, it forms a large golden star at the point of entry, holding the cable in place.What's even more miraculous is that many thin metal wires began to intertwine between the two cables, forming a net. "We have to get out," I said. "Damn it!" said Annabeth. I grab the shield.We started running, but in this swimming pool, climbing up is not as easy as sliding down. "Come on!" Grover yelled. He tried to help us pull a small piece of the net, but as soon as he touched the net, the gold thread began to catch his hand. Cupid's head snapped open, the cameras appeared, and the spotlights around the pool went up so we could barely keep our eyes open.Then, the loudspeaker sounded a low voice: "One minute later, Olympus will broadcast live... fifty-nine, fifty-eight..." "It's Hephaestus!" cried Annabeth. "What a fool I am! Eta is H, and he set this trap to catch his wife and Ares. Now we're going to be broadcast live to Olympus, Looks like a fool!" We were about to climb to the edge of the pool when suddenly the whole bank of mirrors opened like a hatch, and thousands of little metal...stuff poured out. Annabeth started screaming. It was a group of creepy spiders that would make people lose control of their emotions. They had bronze bodies, slender feet and pincer-like beaks, and they quickly attacked us amidst the sound of beeping and buzzing metal. "Spider!" Annabeth yelled, "Spider...spider...ahhh!" I've never seen her like this.She backed away in terror, almost completely overwhelmed by the spiderbot.I pulled her up and dragged her back toward the boat. That thing is now constantly pouring out from the edge of the pool, and there are probably millions of them rushing towards the center of the pool like a flood, surrounding us.Maybe they weren't designed to kill us, I told myself, but just to drive us away, or bite us and make us look like idiots.Besides, this is a trap designed for the gods, and we are not gods. Annabeth and I climbed into the boat and I started kicking the spiders off the boat.I yelled at Annabeth to help me, but she was so scared that she could only lie there and scream. "Thirty, twenty-nine..." The sound of the loudspeaker sounded. The spiders started spitting out wires trying to tie us up.At first the threads were easy to snap, but the threads became more and more numerous, and the spiders kept coming.I kick the spider off Annabeth's foot, and its pincer mouth bites off a chunk of my new surf shoe. Grover hovered over the pool in his flying shoes, trying to loosen the net, but to no avail. Think fast, I tell myself, think fast. The entrance to the love tunnel is under the net.We can escape through the tunnel, but the entrance is now blocked by a million robot spiders. "Fifteen, fourteen..." The loudspeaker sounded. Water, I thought, where does this water trip come from? At this moment I saw the big water pipe behind the mirror, where the spiders came out, and above the net, next to a bronze Cupid statue, there was a glass-window sentry box, which must be the control room. "Grover!" I yelled, "Go to the sentry box! Find the 'ON' button!" "But……" "Go!" It was a crazy wish, but it was our only chance.Now that the spider is on our bow, Annabeth is screaming with all her heart, and I must try to get us out of here. Now Grover was banging buttons in the control room. "Five, four..." Grover looked up, looked at me desperately, and raised his hand.He wanted to let me know that all the buttons had been pressed, but nothing had happened. I close my eyes and think about the waves, the rushing water, and the Mississippi.There is a familiar pull in my body, and I try to imagine pulling the whole sea down to Denver. "Two, one, zero!" Water spurted from the hose and roared into the pool, washing away the spider.I pulled Annabeth into the seat next to me and helped her buckle up.At this time, the waves rushed into the boat, and the water flooded the top, washing away the spiders around us in an instant, and we were all submerged in the water at once.But the boat didn't capsize, and turned, rose, and circled in the swimming pool in the torrent. The water was full of swirling spiders, some of which smashed into pieces against the concrete walls of the pool. The spotlight is on us, the Cupid camera is filming, live broadcast to Olympus. But at the moment I can only concentrate on sailing.I used willpower to control the flow and keep the boat from hitting the wall.Maybe it's just my imagination, but I think the ship seemed to respond, at least it didn't crash into a million pieces.We made one last turn and the water was now almost high enough for the metal mesh to shred us.Then the bow of the ship turned towards the mouth of the tunnel, and we sped off into the darkness. Annabeth and I clung to each other, loudly every time the boat made a sharp turn, or huddled around a corner, or passed a picture of Romeo and Juliet and a bunch of valentines at a forty-five degree angle Call. Then we came out of the tunnel, the night air howling through our hair, as the boat headed straight for the exit at high speed. According to the regular way, we will slide down the slope, pass through the golden "Gate of Love" exit at the end, and safely land in the exit pool, splashing a lot of water.But now there is a problem, the "gate of love" is on a chain.Two boats had been washed out of the tunnel before us and were now raised barricades, one half-sunk, the other broken in two. "Unbuckle your seatbelt," I yell at Annabeth. "Are you crazy?" "Unless you want to be reduced to pieces." I strap Ares' shield to my arm. “We have to jump over it.” My idea was simple and crazy, when the boats collided, we used the force of the collision as a springboard to jump over the gate.I've heard of people who were thrown more than ten meters away from the scene of the accident in this way when they crashed, and thus saved their lives.If we're lucky, we'll land in the pool. Annabeth seemed to understand, and she grabbed my hand as the exit got closer. "Listen to my password." I said. "No! I'll shout!" "what?" "Elementary physics!" she yelled. "The magnitude of the force multiplied by the elevation angle of the projectile..." "Okay!" I yelled: "You shout!" She waited...waited...and yelled, "Jump!" boom! Annabeth was right, if I jumped at the time I thought we should hit the gate, she let us get the maximum ascent. Unfortunately, this is a little more than we need.Our boats rammed and we were thrown into the sky, over the gate, over the pool, and down onto the hard asphalt. Something grabs me. Annabeth yelled, "Oops!" Grover! He grabbed my shirt and Annabeth's arm in mid-air and tried to pull us up before we crashed, but Annabeth and I had a lot of momentum. "You guys are too heavy!" Grover said. "We're going to fall!" We spiraled down to the ground, and Grover did everything he could to slow our descent. We bumped into a photo stand and Grover's head went straight into the hole where tourists put their heads to pretend they were cute whales. Annabeth and I fell to the ground with a thud.But we are all alive and well, and the shield of Ares is still on my arm. When we recovered, Annabeth and I pulled Grover out of the camera stand and thanked him for saving our lives.I look back on this "Horror Love Tour".The water is receding and our boat is already smashed to pieces on the exit. Nearly a hundred meters away, in the swimming pool at the entrance, Cupid is still filming.The statue turns so that the camera is on us, and the spotlight hits our faces. "The show is over!" I yelled, "Thank you! Good night!" Cupid returned to his original position, and the lights went out instantly.The park has returned to silence and darkness, except for a thin stream of water flowing into the exit pool of "Journey of Horror Love".I don't know if Olympus has commercial breaks, and I don't know if the ratings of our program are good. I hate being bullied, I hate being lied to, and I have ample experience dealing with bullies who bully me.I weighed the shield on my arm, turned to my friend and said, "We must speak to Ares."