-Mika's pov.-

The sun was sinking behind the mountains by the time they have 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.

I snickered at it, and no one commented anything for that.

The main gate was padlocked and topped with old barbed wires. 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 said, as we all stared up at the barbed wire gates, "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. From what I know, his girlfriend might be very temperamental. A slight Tsundere but a little more Yandere...depending on the pomp and circumstances, which definitely isn't the vocaloid song." I said and mumbled the last part quickly, everyone one looked at me strangely. "Don't let me say it." I sighed as I rubbed the back of my head.

As the trio continued the conversation, I tried to think of a way to get in; lock picking would take time, and I shouldn't let them know about my inventory(Gates of Babylon) yet.

"Oh." I heard from Percy. "So how do we get in?"

"Maia!" I then heard Grover. I saw him flew over the fence, did an unintended somersault in midair, then stumbled a landing on the opposite side. He dusted off his jeans, as if he'd planned the whole thing.

"You guys coming?" Grover asked and I rolled my eyes, I started climbing on the gates, manoeuvring my hand to the pipeline-which was in the middle of the barbed wires, I gripped on it tightly. With all my strength, I took a step and jumped off of the fence with a small flip(or turn), and landed on the ground, meters next to Grover who was surprised that I was that quick to get to the other side.

Next were Annabeth and Percy, both held down the barbed wire for each other as they crawled over the top.

The shadows grew long as they walked through the park, checking out the attractions. There was 'Ankle Biter Island', 'Head Over Wedgie', and 'Dude, Where's My Swimsuit?' No wonder this was abandoned. What was good was that there were no monsters coming.

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

"Clothes," Annabeth said. "Fresh clothes."

"Yeah. But you can't just—"

"Watch me." Annabeth said to Percy as she snatched an entire row of stuff of off the racks and disappeared into the changing room. A few minutes later she came out in flower-print shorts, a big red T-shirt, and commemorative surf shoes that were all branded from Waterland. A backpack was slung over her shoulder, stuffed with goodies. "What the heck." Grover shrugged. Soon, all-but not me, were decked out like walking advertisements for the defunct theme park.

"I'll go look around while you dressed like the 80's, I'll shout when I find the tunnel of Yuck." I said and left the three to change into old but technically fresh clothes.

-_xXx_-

"Now where to..?" I mumbled as I looked and walked around, hopefully I could find an old map for this place.

"Hm?" I hummed as I looked around, for a moment...I thought I heard an old man's voice...

I heard again, looking around to find no one.

It said class card...does that mean...

I looked through my pockets and found it, the card that had a guy with a lance. Altria said that she felt her older self is in there, who's a Lancer class. While I thought about the card more, I could've sworn it glowed slightly, well it is still sunset. Must be nothing.

Now off to the Tunnel of Doo-I mean Love!

Deciding to just walk forward to the north, I saw an empty pool that would've been awesome for skateboarding. It was shaped like a bowl and was at least fifty yards across. Around the rim, a dozen bronze statues of tiny Cupids stood guard with wings spread and bows ready to fire.

On the opposite side, a tunnel opened up, probably where the water flowed into when the pool was full. I read the sign above it, THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!

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.

Found it.

Looking back, I saw the trio. Just in time!

"I found the shield guys! Hurry up or your going back to the Past instead of the Future!" I yelled and was suspicious that one of them was rolling their eyes, rude.

As they ran to me, Annabeth asked where was the shield and I pointed to where it was. "This is too easy," Percy said. "So we just walk down there and get it?" I saw Annabeth run her fingers along the base of the nearest Cupid statue. "There's a Greek letter carved here," I heard her murmur. "Eta. I wonder..."

I began to think as well...Eta...As in the Greek alphabet for H?

What does it...oh...is this a trap from?...oh shit, we are definitely screwed over!

"We can do this two ways." I said to my friends, ignoring that voice in my head again. "One, the Mary Sue way where we let Grover fly to get the shield himself without tripping any traps because he's at least floating; Or two, we fuck it up buttercups! You all climb in at the same time and give a show!" I said with my arms up like a kid(even though I am) and twirled. "And I'll stay here, minding my own business" I said, with my arms on my body.

"We're not going to let Grover do everything by himself!" Annabeth protested.

Unfortunately, Percy asked at the same time, "Who's Mary Sue?"

"I don't think I can get it by myself if there are even boobytraps." Grover said next.

"Okay!" I called. "Option number two it is! Remember, you chose this! I am definitely not going in that thing!"

I started striding forward and those three quickly followed, protests on their lips.

"Are you kidding?" I looked behind me to see Annabeth who was blushing at Percy, geez, leave me out of this Lovers quarrel... "What's the problem now?" Percy had said. "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 besides us?" I asked sarcastically as I put my hands on my hips and saw both of them starting to blush. I slapped my forehead and continued going down.

We 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. Why? I noticed something I hadn't seen from up top: mirrors all the way around the rim of the pool, facing this spot. We could see ourselves no matter which direction we looked. That must be it. While Ares and Aphrodite were smooching with each other they could look at their favourite people: themselves.

"How narcissistic are they? I bet Narcissus can count as a third wheel here" I muttered as I reached for the scarf.

Grover elbowed me. "Don't insult the gods!"

I elbowed him right back but kept quiet.

I was now holding that scarf and I wrapped it around my right hand. It shimmered pink, and the perfume was indescribable—Mmmm, it smells so nice; like burning candles and...Emiya's baking? Weird...

I froze, realising what this might be.

"This is some pretty strong love magic...even enticing my senses...naughty little thing..." I muttered. "What?" I heard Annabeth hiss in concern. I waved her off. "Smells like the one true love that I would have in real life...and the chocolate he'll make for me..." I start to drift off to the thought of a real life anime character that was giving his homemade chocolate to me. I smiled, a little dreamily, and was about to rub the scarf against my cheek when Annabeth ripped it out from around my hand and stuffed it in her pocket.

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

"Mika, are you alright?" Percy said as I got back to my senses, I nodded at him and started to step back, "Just get the shield and let's get out of here. I already feel like we shouldn't stay here longer." I told him, hoping that this wasn't a trap and it'll all be fine.

It didn't

"Too late." I heard Percy say to Annabeth as they talked about something, I face palmed once again.

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

"Guys!" Looking up, I grabbed on to Grover who lifted me off of the pool with his flying sneakers.

On the rim, the Cupid statues were starting to draw their bows into firing position and soon 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.

Grover and I tried to help them up, we were already trying to hold open a section of the net for them, but whenever we touched the net, the threads started to wrap around our hands.

The Cupids' heads popped open. Out came video cameras. Spotlights rose up all around the pool, blinding the two demigods with illumination, and a loudspeaker voice boomed: 'Live to Olympus in one minute ...Fifty-nine, 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!"

I slapped my forehead again, why is she saying this right in the middle of a situation!? "Isn't that obvious!? Your smarter than that to just figure it out right now!" I shouted as I still tried to help them up.

But the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic things poured out, they looked like the hand of the other mother from the movie Coraline. But had bronze-geared bodies, spindly legs, little pincer mouths, all scuttling toward us in a wave of clacking, whirring metal.

"Spiders!" Annabeth screamed. "Sp—sp—aaaah!"

I'd never seen her like this before. 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. The little spider like robots were coming out from all around the rim now, millions of them, flooding toward the center of the pool, completely surrounding the two.

I told myself they probably weren't programmed to kill, like Da Vinci's one of many inventions. Just corral, scare, and bite making others look stupid for shits and giggles.

I saw Annabeth and Percy climb into the boat. Kicking away the spiders as they swarmed aboard. Percy yelled at Annabeth about something, but she was too paralysed to do much more than scream.

'Thirty-one...thirty...' called the loudspeaker.

I looked around, trying to find something that would help. And fast!

I saw that the Tunnel of Love entrance was under the net. Percy and Annabeth could use it as an exit, except that it was blocked by a million robot spiders. That won't work...

So

Then I saw a glass-windowed booth next to one of the Cupids, that must be the controller's station. I ran inside it and saw many buttons and switches but I realised something, 'This park's abandoned meaning electricity wouldn't work!' I thought irritatingly, knowing that whatever Hephaestus did, everything was automatic and it would be working in his workshop's signal or something.

Then I heard them again.

The voice said, but instead of the old man voice, there were many different voices calling out an once.

Some were familiar even...

But one called out more than the rest.

'Fifteen...Fourteen...' The loudspeaker said.

Looking at the card that I took out. It started to actually glow gold, I heard the voices starting to whisper words over and over, looking over at the pool, I guess I have no choice.

"Install!" I shouted and the card began to glow brightly in gold.

'Ten...' I heard from the loudspeaker.

"Lancer..." A bright light started enveloping the booth, I think I heard Grover yelping.

'Nine...'

"𝗘𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗱𝘂"

-Percy's pov.-

I saw a bright light flash in the booth, Mika and Grover where there. I didn't know what had happened, but I hope they're okay.

I closed my eyes and thought about waves, rushing water, the Mississippi River. I felt a familiar tug in my gut. I tried to imagine that I was dragging the ocean all the way to Denver.

'Three...two...one...zero!'

Water exploded out of the pipes. It roared into the pool, sweeping away the spiders. I pulled Annabeth into the seat next to me and fastened her seat belt just as the tidal wave slammed into our 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.

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

But I could only concentrate on controlling the boat. I willed it to ride the current, to keep away from the wall.

Maybe it was my imagination, but the boat seemed to respond. And I definitely saw a few of the cupid statues got shot down to the pool by golden chains. At least, it didn't break into a million pieces. But who would've done that?

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.

Annabeth and I held tight, both of us screaming 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.

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 gate 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.

Before I could yell at Annabeth, chains shot out from behind us and smashed through the boats and chains, letting us enter unharmed.

"What was that!?," I yelled at Annabeth and we both turned to see someone familiar.

It was Mika!

She was wearing a white dress with long sleeves, white pants, and a long black leather necklace that had a spear tip. She was somehow flying towards us. And fast.

"Mika!?" I yelled again to her and she responded by summoning weird chains that shot out from the ground and directly to our boat making it stop. She grabbed those chains and tugged at them. The chains stopped us from going further to the exit pool, if she didn't stop the boat we could've landed on the concrete asphalt since the water was still filling up the pool.

Mika flew towards us and grabbed Annabeth from behind, I saw Grover behind her as well. In midair, he had grabbed me by the shirt, and was trying to pull me out of a crash landing, Mika did the same with Annabeth.

We spiraled toward the ground, both Mika and Grover doing their best to slow the fall. We almost smashed into a photo-board, but we were all okay. Grover and Mika dropped Annabeth and I off and we tumbled to the ground, banged up but alive. Ares's shield was still on my arm.

Once we caught our breath, Annabeth and I thanked both of our friends for saving our lives. I looked back at the Thrill Ride of Love. The water was subsiding. Our boat was still chained, but they disappeared by a golden glitter; the boat was now free to be smashed to pieces against the pool's walls. The water was still flowing halfway in the pool.

A hundred yards away, at the entrance pool, the Cupids were all either smashed or broken off. There was one statue left, it had swiveled so that its camera were trained straight on us, the spotlights in our faces. But was instantly smashed through by a golden chain, looking behind, Mika was the suspect. She was lowering her hands which made the chains disappear in a golden flash. She then mumbled something and she wore her normal clothes which surprised all of us.

"How did you make those chains? Did you-" Annabeth asked Mika those questions; Grover and I was also confused. Where did she get those and what was with the dress?

Mika looked tense at first but breathed a sigh like she disappointed someone, "Promise you won't tell?" She asked and all of us agreed. Saying it would be a long story, Mika then began explaining while we all walked away from the ridiculous ride.

The park was quiet and dark as the lights shut off, except for the gentle trickle of water into the Thrill Ride of Love's exit pool. I wondered if Olympus had gone to a static screen, making the watchers confused. I hefted the shield on my arm and listened to what Mika was explaining.

We definitely need to have a little talk with Ares after all of this.

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