CHAPTER FIFTEEN - I BECOME OLIVER QUEEN

By the time we found the water park, the sun was already setting behind the mountains. The gate was padlocked and enforced with barbed wire, but inside I could see dry waterslides and wading pools. One of the concrete lazy rivers was crumbling, the bottom of the canal littered with dead leaves. From what I could tell from the sign, the park was once called WATERLAND, but now it looked like WAT R A D.

"If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date," Percy mumbled, "I'd hate to see what she looks like."

"Percy!" I said. "Be careful about what you say."

"You need to be more respectful," Annabeth added.

Percy looked at her. "Why? I thought you hated Ares."

"He's still a god. And his girlfriend is very temperamental."

Grover continued our chain conversation. "You don't want to insult her looks."

"Who is she? Echidna?"

Grover's face took on a dreamy look. "No, Aphrodite," he said. "Goddess of love."

Percy's brow furrowed. "I thought she was married to somebody," he said, slowly, as if he wanted to make sure what he was saying was true. "Hephaestus."

I gave him a look. "Yeah, and?"

His eyes widened in realization. "Oh." He blushed a bit, and then looked back at the gate. "So how do we get in?"

"Maia!" Grover shouted, and his shoes sprout wings. He flew over the fence, did a front flip, and landed a bit awkwardly on the opposite side of the gate. He got to his hooves and dusted off his jeans, throwing the rest of us a nonchalant smile. "You guys coming?"

I shot him a devious grin. "You call that an entrance, Underwood?"

"Bring it on, Green," he replied, crossing his arms.

I activated my purse-bow and pictured the kind of arrow I wanted in my mind. When I pulled it out of the quiver, I smiled when I saw the rope wound around it. I looked for a potential target: A concrete arch that was above the gate, and a little farther back in the park. Perfect.

"Av, what are you—"

Percy didn't get to finish his sentence as I took aim, and let my arrow fly. The grappling hook tip met its target wonderfully, and the rope extended and then retracted to the arrow, taking my bow, and me, with it. It pulled me through the air, over the fence, and dropped me next to Grover. I landed on the balls of my feet, hardly making a sound. "Oliver Queen," I whispered under my breath, hoping that no one heard me.

Throwing my arms in the air as if I was a gymnast presenting herself to the judges, I gave Grover the widest smile I could manage. "Now that is an entrance."

Grover let out an irritated bleat. "You didn't do a flip, though."

"Oh, please. That was totally unintentional."

We watched as Percy and Annabeth climbed over the fence, holding down the barbed wire for each other so they could climb over the top.

As we walked through the park, I kept a look out for any monsters, an arrow nocked in my bow, even though I knew that there weren't going to be any.

I wrinkled my nose as we passed a dangerous looking ride, the waterslide almost hitting ninety degree turns. "No wonder this place closed down," I mused. "These kinds of rides could kill someone. Plus, what kind of name is 'Dude, Where's My Swimsuit?'"

When we came across a souvenir shop, Annabeth put her arm out across my chest to stop me.

"Clothes," she said. "Fresh clothes."

Percy looked at her like she was crazy. "Yeah, but you can't just—"

"Watch me."

She grabbed an outfit off of a rack, and turned to me. "Avalon, you in?"

I looked at the board-shorts in distaste. "No, thanks. I'm good," I said, readjusting the shoulder strap of my backpack that, thankfully, had an extra outfit in it. I ducked into the changing room next to Annabeth's and changed into a fresh pair of jeans, an orange camp shirt, and my jacket.

Annabeth and I walked out of the changing rooms together. She had on a pair of flower-print shorts, water shoes, and a bright red Waterland T-shirt.

Percy and Grover shared a look. "What the heck," he said, and the two of them went to change into walking advertisements.

While they were changing, I looked around the souvenir shop until I found a box of scrunchies. After stuffing a few in my bag, I pulled my hair into a bun and tied it off. I sighed, and rolled my shoulders around a bit to loosen them up. Dressed like this, I felt like I was my normal self again, at a coffee shop on campus while studying for midterms or something. It was easy to imagine I was twenty again. That is, until, Percy poked my shoulder, telling me to hurry up.

As we searched for the Tunnel of Love ride, Percy tried to keep up conversation. "So, Ares and Aphrodite. They have a thing going?"

I rolled my eyes. "That's old gossip, Percy. Three-thousand-year-old gossip."

"What about Aphrodite's husband?"

"Hephaestus," I said. I paused, gathering my thoughts on what I could say without getting blasted into ashes. "God of blacksmiths and fire. After they got married, Hera was angry with Zeus because he kept straying, kept siring more children with other women. So, she decided to have a kid by herself. Don't ask me how she did it, because I really don't know, nor do I want to know, but she did. Except, since he was created by magic or something like it, he didn't come out completely right. So, Hera threw Hephaestus off of Mount Olympus, which crippled him. Hera doesn't really like that version of the story, so she tells everyone that Zeus did it."

I looked nervously at the sky. When nothing happened, I decided it was safe for me to continue. "Hephaestus isn't the best looking flower in the bunch, you know? He's clever with his hands, but Aphrodite isn't really into brains and talent."

Percy gave me a funny look. "She likes bikers."

"Yeah, I guess."

"And Hephaestus knows?"

"Oh, sure," Annabeth said. "He caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them, in a golden net, and invited all of 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, and pointed straight ahead of us. "Like that."

We were at the edge of an empty pool. Cupid statues lined the rim, all pointing to the tunnel at the opposite end of the pool, where the water would flow into if it was full.

I pointed down into the pool. "Look at that."

At the bottom of the concrete bowl was a canopied boat, like the kind you would see in old movies, with two young people floating down a duck pond, the girl wearing a fancy dress and holding a parisol. In the left seat sat Ares's shield, glinting in the last rays of sunlight.

Percy shook his head in disbelief. "This is too easy," he said. "So we just walk down there and get it?"

Annabeth crouched down and ran her fingers along the nearest Cupid statue. "There's a Greek letter carved here. Eta. I wonder..."

"H," I mumbled under my breath. It was a good thing I remembered what was going to happen, so I'm able to psych myself up for the thousands of creepy-crawlies that are about to flood this pool.

"Grover," Percy said, "you smell any monsters?"

He sniffed the wind for a second, and then replied "Nothing."

Percy didn't look convinced. "Nothing—like, in-the-Arch-and-you-didn't-smell-Echidna nothing, or really nothing?"

I put a hand on his shoulder. "Perce, that wasn't his fault."

Grover looked hurt. "I told you, that was underground."

"Okay, I'm sorry." Percy took a deep breath, and then looked down into the pool again. "I'm going down there."

"I'll go with you," Grover said.

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

Grover nodded, and stood up a little straighter. "Sure. But what could go wrong?"

"I don't know," Percy admitted. "Just a feeling. Annabeth, come with me—"

Annabeth's cheeks immediately flushed red. "Are you kidding?"

"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?"

By now, Percy was blushing too. "Who's going to see you?"

I stepped up between them, taking my backpack off of my shoulders. "I'll go. Annabeth, why don't you stay here with Grover?"

Annabeth looked at me like she had been slapped. "What? Why?"

I looked her in the eyes. "Trust me, I think you're going to want to sit this one out." I lowered my voice to a whisper. "It's uh...it's not friendly to a child of Athena."

She looked at me a little weird, but decided to take my word for it. I gave her my pack and followed Percy down the side of the pool, keeping my bow at the ready.

By the time I got to the boat, Percy was holding a pink, silk scarf. He turned it over in his hands, and was about to rub it against his cheek when I grabbed it from his hands and stuffed it in my pocket. "Oh, no. No love magic for you, Percy."

He blinked, and the mini spell broke. "Why did you tell Annabeth to stay with Grover?"

"I—" My tongue curled up in my mouth. I tried to speak again, but my voice was gone. I stomped my foot in frustration. "Oh come on, I thought I was done with that!"

"What?"

I sighed, and looked at my best friend. "Just get the shield, Perce, so we can get out of this place."

He gave a weird look, but obliged my request. I heard the distinct sound of a trip wire being snapped, as soon as Percy touched the shield. He looked at me, eyes wide. "Oops."

I sighed through my nose, and looked up at our two friends at the top of the pool. "And the trap is sprung. You have to admit, Hephaestus is pretty clever."

Gears grinded from inside the concrete walls, and the Cupid statues turned and fired across the rim of the pool, golden cables trailing from the arrows.

"Get out of there!" Annabeth yelled.

Percy grabbed the shield with one hand, and my hand with the other. We raced up the side of the pool, but the silky threads were already almost completely covering the top of the bowl. Annabeth and Grover were holding a section of the net open for us, but they had to keep letting go and re-grabbing it, as the golden threads wound around their hands.

"Come on!" Grover shouted.

The Cupids' heads popped open, revealing little video cameras. Spotlights trained on us, blinding us with light, and a voice boomed over the loudspeaker: "Live to Olympus in one minute...fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight..."

"Hephaestus!" Annabeth shouted. "He made this trap for Ares and Aphrodite!"

"Yeah, we gathered that, thanks Annabeth!" I snapped, still struggling to get up the side of the pool.

We had almost made it when one side of the pool cracked open and thousands of tiny, metallic spiders poured out.

Annabeth screamed like a banshee and threw herself away from the edge of the pool, pulling Grover with her, and effectively cutting off our only way to get out.

Even though I knew that they were coming, seeing them crawl over each other, trying to swarm us, made my mind overflow with fear. I didn't scream, like Annabeth, but I couldn't move either. I just stood there, eyes wide, as I watched the metal arachnids scuttle towards me.

Percy saved me, again. He gripped my forearm and dragged me back to the boat. He tossed me in – not very gently, I might add – and that got my brain working again. I stood up and Percy and I were back-to-back, kicking the spiders away from the boat.

"Thirty, twenty-nine," the loudspeaker counted down.

"Grover!" I called to my friend, who was hovering above the pool, trying to find a weak spot in the net. "Get to the control booth, and turn on the water pumps!"

Percy looked at me, and grinned. "Of course!"

"But—"

"Do it!" Percy yelled. "And get Annabeth out of here!"

I sat down in the boat and fastened my seat belt, and started to shoot the advancing spiders away from the boat.

"Five, four—"

Percy closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Two, one, zero!"

The cameras started rolling as a tidal wave of water exploded from the pipes and washed into the pool. Percy grabbed onto the canopy just as the water slammed into the boat. Water rushed over the side and completely soaked me. Of course Percy was dry, but I don't think he noticed. The boat began to spin in a whirlpool, the water sending high velocity automatons into the side of the pool.

Percy managed to control the boat. The nose turned toward the tunnel and we were plunged into darkness.

I figured that the tunnel ride must have been fun when the park was up and running. Perfect for lovey-dovey couples who wanted some secluded time away from prying eyes. But, it wasn't very fun when we were moving at thirty miles an hour and the lights in the tunnel weren't working.

After a minute we shot out of the tunnel, barreling towards the exit. Except the exit was a death trap. The gates were chained shut, and the two other boats, which must have been stuck in the tunnel, were cracked in half at the base of the gates.

I quickly unfastened my seat belt and went to stand next to Percy.

"We're going to have to jump for it!" Percy yelled over the wind. And I was all for that idea. Because of the story, I knew exactly when to make the boat our springboard (thank you Annabeth). But something caught my eye a second later, and I knew in that moment, that this would be less painful.

"Wait!" I pointed to a nearby tree with my bow arm. One bough hung just over the exit gates of the ride. Percy followed my gaze, but I could tell that he didn't understand what I was getting at.

Without giving him an explanation, I pulled out another anchoring arrow, the same kind I used to get inside of the water park. Nocking it in my bow, I turned to Percy. "Do you trust me?" I asked.

It took Percy a few precious moments to decipher what I was about to do. I half-expected him to refuse and try his way of escaping, which would have only gotten him killed. Instead, he gave me a tight nod.

"Then hold onto me, tightly."

I waited until the boat got as close to the gates as it would have if we were jumping, and then fired my arrow into the tree bough. The cord attached tightened and pulled me and Percy, who was wrapped around my shoulders, out of the boat in the nick of time, our mighty vessel crashing into the gates a second later. We swung upward, over the gates, and fell back to a small patch of grass near the ride.

When we were close enough to the ground, I yelled to Percy over my shoulder, "Let go!"

Thankfully, he understood, and unwrapped his arms from me, plummeting to the ground. I saw Annabeth and Grover running up to him, checking to see if he was alright. I landed next to them (much more gracefully than Percy, if I might add) and cut the rope from my bow.

Percy and I stood there for a while, trying to catch our breath, and get our bearings. Annabeth was stuttering out apologies for freaking out about the spiders, and Grover was just looking at the two of us, smiling so wide that I was sure his face would get stuck like that.

I turned to face the entrance to the ride, where the Cupid statues were still filming us. The spotlights were shining in our faces, and I could hear the buzzing from all the cameras.

Setting my face in a neutral expression, I elbowed Percy gently in the side and then nodded to the Cupids. Percy took on the same expression as me. He was mad, mad that we had been used as entertainment for the gods.

"Show's over!" Percy yelled. I gave a mock bow, to add to the ever-growing pile of fuel that he was making. "Thank you! Good night!"

A second later, the Cupid statues shut off, the park going back to its dark and silent nature. The only sounds were our still-heavy breathing, and the gentle trickle of the water from the ride.

Grumbling to himself, Percy hefted Ares's shield onto his arm. All of that, for a stupid shield. I was just as frustrated as he was.

I met his gaze. "We need to have a little chat with a god," I growled.