Hi! This is Innoverse! Sorry the chapter took so long... but it's quite a doozy. Don't kill me! Haha. But this is a pretty good chapter, with a nice Percabeth touch. *grins* I added some extra details, too.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Seaweed Brain, Wise Girl, or Goat Boy. :)

- Chapter Ten: Eight Legged Monstrosities -

Our train rolled into Denver the next afternoon. The three of us stumbled off, feeling exhausted and hungry since we hadn't eaten since somewhere back in Kansas. Not to mention we were quite smelly, since we hadn't had a shower since Half-Blood Hill. But still, I kind of wanted to tell Chiron my suspicions about this quest. Maybe he'd understand it.

"Let's try to contact Chiron," I told Percy and Grover. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."

"We can't use phones right?" No, seaweed brain, I want more monsters to come after us.

"I'm not talking about phones."

I continued leading them throughout down-town Denver, looking for somewhere to make a rainbow for an Iris message. Maybe I could find a store that sells prisms? No, we're nearly broke. Maybe there was a fountain around somewhere? No, Denver didn't seem to have any fountains on the street, even if it was a thousand degrees outside. It must be so humid because of the Rocky Mountains... they must not get a lot of rain because of the rain shadow...*

Finally, I spotted an old do-it-yourself car wash, and led the boys towards one of the empty stalls—the one farthest from the street, so that less mortals saw us. It's already shifty when you have three kids in a car wash who don't own a car, but even more so when one of them is a fugitive.

Grover grabbed the spray gun from the side of the car wash. Percy frowned. "What exactly are we doing?"

"It's seventy-five cents," Grover mumbled as he dug through his pockets. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth?"

I shook my head. "Don't look at me. The dining car wiped me out."

Percy pulled a fist-full of change out of his pocket—a quarter, two nickels, and a drachma. He handed the quarter to Grover, even though he clearly still had no idea what was going on.

"Excellent," Grover said. "We could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good, and my arm gets tired of pumping."

"What are you talking about?" Percy asked.

He put the quarters into the slot and turned the knob to FINE MIST. "I-M'ing."

Percy's eyebrows scrunched. "Instant messaging?" I resisted the urge to sigh.

"Iris-messaging," I told him. "The rainbow goddess Iris carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for half-bloods."

"You summon the goddess with a spray gun?" Well, when you put it like that...

Grover squeezed the spray gun and a veil of mist squirted out. "Unless you know an easier way to make a rainbow." Light reflected off the water droplets, and the colors fanned out into a rainbow.

I held my out to Percy. "Drachma, please."

He handed it to me, and I raised it up a little. "O goddess, accept our offering." I tossed the drachma in, and it disappeared in the rainbow. "Half-Blood Hill."

The mist shimmered. Camp Half-Blood appeared, first the fields of strawberries, and then the Big House. It shimmered right onto a place on the porch. There was someone standing there—but it wasn't Chiron. It was a teenager, wearing an orange tank top and shorts, holding a sword, with sandy blonde hair and... oh gods. It was Luke.

"Luke!" Percy called, to get his attention.

He turned, and I felt my heart do a little flip. "Percy!" he said, grinning. Of course, the bitter part of me thought. He acknowledges Percy first. "Is that Annabeth, too? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay?"

"We're... uh... fine," I said, not-so-smoothly. I suddenly realized how bad I must look, so I started trying to comb the dirt out of my hair and straighten my t-shirt. I still looked like a mess. "We thought—Chiron—I mean—"

"He's down at the cabins," Luke said, shutting off his smile. "We're having issues with the campers. Listen, is everything cool with you? Is Grover all right?"

"I'm right here," Grover said, turning the nozzle and stepping into Luke's view. "What kind of issues?"

Right at that moment, an enormous Lincoln Continental pulled into the stall right next to ours, blasting their hip-hop on their stereo. It was so loud it shook the pavement a little.

"Chiron had to—what's that noise?" Luke yelled, trying to make himself heard over the music.

"I'll take care of it!" I yelled a little too quickly. I really wanted to get out of sight, I didn't want to be seen like this in front of Luke. "Grover, come on!"

"What?" Grover said, looking confused. "But—"

"Give Percy the nozzle and come on!" Grover handed Percy the spray gun and followed me, muttering something about girls under his breath.

We rounded the corner, and saw some guy, just sitting in his car, blasting his music. I rolled my eyes, and went up to the car, and knocked on the glass of the driver's side window. The guy completely ignored me. I pounded again, this time harder. He still didn't move. How could you not see someone right up in your window? I slammed my hand onto the glass and shouted, "HEY!"

The guy looked up then, and angrily rolled down his window. "Hey, you're gonna break my window!"

"Then why don't you look up when I'm trying to get your attention?" I shouted.

"I couldn't hear you!"

"Because you're blasting your music loud enough for the whole state to here it!"

"Oh yeah," he said, leaning a little ways out of the window. "Why do you care, kid?"

"Because we don't want to hear your music," Grover shouted at him. "Shut it off!"

"I'm not gonna listen to a couple of kids," he said, about to roll up the window.

I leaned down it into his face, giving him my hardest glare. "Turn it down."

"Fine, fine," he sighed, and turned the music down so that it wasn't shaking the pavement anymore. "Happy, little miss princess?"

I drew my knife from my shirtsleeve. "You did not just call me princess."

His mouth dropped open, and he screamed, pealing out of the car wash stall as fast as he could hit the peddle. I smirked and shoved my knife back into the sheath.

Grover laughed. "Did you see his face?"

"I know, right?" I responded as we walked back into the other stall where Percy was. We both stopped laughing when we saw the blank and confused expression on his face.

"What happened, Percy?" I asked. "What did Luke say?"

"Not much," he said, though it looked like a lie. "Come on, let's find some dinner." My stomach agreed with that proposal.

Percy ushered us into a diner, and we sat down at a booth like we actually had money to pay for the meal. I didn't know what he was going to do this time, but it better be good.

A waitress came over, looking at us skeptically. "Well?"

"We, um, want to order dinner," Percy told her.

"You kids have money to pay for it?"

We all looked at each other, everyone looking completely tired and hungry. Grover looked like he was going to start eating to booth seat, and Percy and I were about to pass out. Percy looked like he was trying to figure out what to tell the waitress when an enormous rumbling sound shook the entire diner.

All conversation stopped. Everyone looked over to see a biker, pulling into the parking lot on an enormous bike, complete with red headlights, shotgun holsters, and flames painted on the side. The seat looked like it was made out of human skin, which was more then a little disturbing.

The biker was a large, muscular man with a jet black crew cut and a scarred, brutal face. He wore a black duster over top a red muscular shirt and black jeans. There was a hunting knife strapped to his thigh, and he wore red wraparound sunglasses over his eyes. I recognized him, all right—Ares, the god of war. The only god I hated more then Poseidon.

Everyone in in the restaurant stood as Ares walked in, but he waved his hand and there all sat back down again. Their conversations continued, as if nothing had happened. The waiter repeated, "You kids have the money to pay for it?"

"It's on me," Ares said, sliding into our booth, even though it was too small. He pushed me over towards the window, and that didn't make me happy at all. I wanted to kick him—but that was probably just his aura. Or maybe not.

He looked at the waiter, who was still staring at him. "Are you still here?"

He pointed at her, and she stiffened and turned away, walking as if she were being pushed away from the table. Then, Ares swung his gaze over to Percy and grinned. Uh oh.

"So you're old Seaweed's kid, huh?" he asked.

Percy glared at him, flexing his fingers as if he wanted to punch him. "What's it to you?"

I tried to warn him not to get on Ares bad side. "Percy, this is—"

Ares raised his hand, cutting me off before I could finish. Did I mention that I hate being interrupted?

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

Realization passed through Percy's eyes as he look Ares over. "You're Clarisse's dad," he reasoned. "Ares, god of war."

Ares grinned and took off his shades, exposing the tiny nuclear explosions instead of his eyes. "That's right, punk. I heard you broke Clarisse's spear."

When Ares called Percy punk, he looked ready to rip him limb from limb. But instead, he just said, "She was asking for it."

"Probably. That's cool," Ares said, shrugging it off. "I don't fight my kids' fights, you know? What I'm here for—I heard you were in town. I got a little proposition for you."

The waitress came back out and set a tray of food—burgers, fries, milkshakes—on the table. Ares handed her a few gold drachmas, which she looked at nervously. "But, these aren't..."

Ares pulled his hunting knife off his thigh and started cleaning his nails. "Problem, sweetheart?"

The waitress swallowed nervously and took the gold. Percy looked at Ares incredulously.

"You can't do that," he protested. "You cant just threaten people with a knife."

Ares laughed cruelly. "Are you kidding? I love this country. Best place since Sparta. Don't you carry a weapon, punk? You should. Dangerous world out there. Which brings me to my proposition. I need you to do me a favor."

"What favor could I do for a god?" he asked.

"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."

Percy glared at him. "Why don't you go back and get it yourself?"

The little explosions in Ares' eye sockets became a little brighter. "Why don't I turn you into a prairie dog and run you over with my Harley? Because I don't feel like it. A god is giving you an opportunity to prove yourself, Percy Jackson. Will you prove yourself a coward?" He leaned down into Percy's face. "Or maybe you only fight when there's a river to dive into, so your daddy can protect you."

I didn't need to read emotions to be able to tell Percy was about to strangle him—which would've been nice except for the fact that we really didn't any more enemies at the moment. I didn't really want Ares to turn him into a rodent, either.

I reached under the table and put my hand on Percy's knee to stop him. He let out of short sigh and sat back in his seat. "We're not interested. We've already got a quest."

Ares frowned. "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 stiff out a weapons that powerful..." He licked his lips, which looked kind of disgusting. "Well... if I couldn't find it, you got no hope. Nevertheless, I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. Your dad and I go way back. After all, I'm the one who told him my suspicions about old Corpse Breath."

Percy raised his eyebrows. "You told him Hades stole the bolt?"

"Sure. Framing somebody to start a war. Oldest trick in the book. I recognized it immediately. In a way, you got me to thank for your little quest."

"Thanks," Percy grumbled sarcastically.

"Hey, I'm a generous guy," he said. I resisted the urge to laugh. "Just do my little job, and I'll help you on your way. I'll arrange a ride west for you and your friends."

"We're doing fine on our own," Percy snapped, even thought we all knew that wasn't true. We were broke, with no food, no ride, and no other way of help. As much as I absolutely loathed the prospect of doing something for Ares, we needed to.

"Yeah, right. No money. No wheels. No clue what you're up against. Help me out, and maybe I'll tell you something you need to know. Something about your mom."

Percy's expression softened immediately. "My mom?"

Ares grinned at him. "That got your attention. The water park is a mile west on Delancy. You can't miss it. Look for the Tunnel of Love ride."

"What interrupted your date?" Percy mocked. "Something scare you off?"

Ares scowled at him, but I'd seen that scowl a million times on Clarisse. It was just to cover up their fear, most of the time. "You're luck you met me, punk, and not one of the other Olympians. They're not as forgiving of rudeness as I am. I'll meet you back here when you're done. Don't disappoint me."

Ares snapped his fingers and Percy's eyes fluttered shut, and he slumped down into his seat. Ares disappeared from the booth in a puff of smoke. Percy's eyes opened again, and he sat up stiffly, rubbing his face.

"Not good," Grover said nervously. "Ares sough you out, Percy. This is not good."

Percy looked out the window, towards where Ares' motorcycle had been. He looked depressed and tired instead of angry now. I could tell the comment about his mother had gotten to him. He must miss her a lot.

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

"We can't," I said, hating myself for admitting it. "Look, I hate Ares as much as anybody, but you don't just ignore the gods unless you want serious bad fortune. He wasn't kidding about turning you into a rodent."

His shoulders slumped. He stared down at his plate. "Why does he need us?"

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

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

Grover and I exchanged a nervous glance. "I'm afraid we'll have to find out."

By the time we managed to find the old water park, the sun was already setting. The sign was broken, the lettering that once said 'WATERLAND' now said something like 'WATRAD.' The only entrance was a chain link fence, topped with barbed wire and locked. Old, worn-out rides spiraled around the park, dry tubes leading into empty pools. Old napkins and advertisements rustled around as the wind blew. It looked pretty sad.

Percy looked up at the fence. "If Ares brings his girlfriend here for a date, I'd hate to see what she looks like."

"Percy. Be more respectful," I scolded, even though that was like telling a fish to walk on land.

"Why? I thought you hated Ares."

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

"You don't want to insult her looks," Grover warned.

Percy snorted. "Who is she? Echidna?"

"No, Aphrodite," Grover said wistfully. I rolled my eyes. "Goddess of love."

"I thought she was married to somebody," Percy pointed out. Ever heard of an affair?

"Hephaestus," I said.

"What's your point?" Grover asked.

"Oh," Percy said, shifting his weight a little. "So how do we get in?"

"Maia!" Grover's shoes grew wings, and he flew up and over the fence, turning a somersault, and then landing awkwardly on the other side. "You guys coming?"

Percy and I climbed up the chain links, holding the barbed wire out of the way for each other as we jumped over the top.

As we walked around the park, I couldn't help but notice how strange things were. No monsters came out of the shadows. Nothing even so much as moved. But I still had this bad feelings, like there was a slight chill in the air. I kept my hand on my dagger.

We stumbled across an old souvenir shop that they had failed to clean out. The shelves were still full of products—like cheap sunscreen, plastic sunglasses, post cards, and... I almost cried out in relief.

"Clothes," I told them. "Fresh clothes."

"Yeah," Percy said. "But you can't just—" And I thought he was supposed to be the delinquent here.

"Watch me."

I pulled an entire row of clothing off the shelf, and shut myself in the changing room. I peeled off my grimy, sticky clothes and put on the fresh Waterland attire. It felt so good not to be waking around in nasty, disgusting clothes anymore. I shover some other stuff into a backpack I'd picked up—a bottle of sunscreen, some extra clothes, a red ball (though I didn't know how that would come in handy), and a pair of sunglasses. I came back out, looking like a walking billboard.

"What the heck," Grover said with a shrug. The boys grabbed some clothes and changed too, and we kept walking around, looking for the Tunnel of Love ride, like Ares had said. The park still felt creepy, and I kept getting chills. It was also getting darker, and I didn't want to stick around here in the dark.

"So Ares and Aphrodite," Percy muttered, looking around nervously, "they have a thing going?"

"That's old gossip, Percy," I said, even though it felt a little strange to be talking about relationships with him. "Three thousand-year-old gossip."

"What about Aphrodite's husband?"

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

"She like bikers," he said a little dumbly.

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever."

"Hephaestus knows?"

"Oh sure," I said. "He caught them together once. I mean, literally caught them, in a golden net, and invited all the gods to come and laugh at them. Hephaestus is always trying to embarrass them. That's why they meet in out of the way places, like..."

I stopped as I saw the ride in front of us. "Like that."

We stopped in front of an empty pool, almost bowl shaped, like a basin. Statues of cupid lined the rim of the pool, each of them holding a bow and arrow. There was a tunnel on the opposite to us, probably leading into the pool where the boats emptied into. The sign read, THRILL RIDE O' LOVE: THIS IS NOT YOUR PARENTS' TUNNEL OF LOVE!

Grover looked over the edge. "Guys, look."

Down in the empty pool was a two-seater boat—decked out in pink and white, complete with a canopy over the top and little hearts painted all over it. In the seat to the left was a circle of polished bronze—Ares' shield.

Something was definitely fishy about this.

"This is too easy," Percy said nervously. "So we just walk down there and get it?"

I looked at the closest Cupid statue, and noticed something unusual. I ran my fingers over the base. "There's a Greek letter carved here," I said. "Eta. I wonder..."

Why was there a Greek letter carved in an abandoned theme park?

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

Grover sniffed. "Nothing."

"Nothing—like, in-the-Arch-and-you-didn't-smell-Echidna nothing, or really nothing?" Percy accused, obviously still miffed about having to fall six-hundred and thirty feet. I didn't really blame him.

Grover sniffled. "I told you, that was underground."

"Okay, I'm sorry," Percy apologized, running a hand through his eternally messy hair. He took a deep breath and said, "I'm going down there."

"I'll go with you," Grover declared, even though he didn't really look like he wanted to. Maybe he just wanted to make it up to Percy because of the Arch.

"No," Percy said. "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 looked much more satisfied with that idea. "Sure. But what could go wrong?"

"I don't know. Just a feeling," Percy said. I felt the same way. "Annabeth, come with me—"

I realized what he was asking and turned bright red. There was no way I was going down there with... him. That would be so embarrassing! Not in a million years... "Are you kidding me?"

"What's the problem now?" he asked irritably, completely oblivious to my discomfort.

"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?" he asked, even though he had a light blush covering his face, too. He just puffed out his cheeks, and turned back to the ride. "Fine. I'll do it myself." But I followed him anyways, knowing that if he went alone, he'd screw something up.

"Leave to a boy to mess everything up..." I muttered under my breath.

We walked up to the boat, and looked down. There was the shield in one seat, and pink scarf in the other—probably Aphrodite's. Now that we were down in the bottom of the pool, I could see that there were a bunch of mirrors lining the inside of the tunnel, so you could see yourself any way you looked. We looked pretty bedraggled.

Percy picked up the scarf, and looked at it for a second, before getting this weird, dreamy smile. He was about to rub it against his cheek, but I snatched it out of his hand and put it in my pocket. There was no telling what it'd do to him, and since I was the closest female... "Oh, no you don't. Stay away from that love magic."

"What?" he asked, sounding a little dazed.

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

Percy reached down for the shield, and I looked at the boat. I realized something else strange... what was that doing there?

Percy was looking from the shield to his hand strangely when I said, "Wait."

"Too late," he muttered.

"There's another Greek letter on the side of the boat, another Eta. This is a trap."

Just then, noise erupted around us, like the sound of clanging gears. "Guys!" Grover yelled.

The cupid statues pulled their bows taunt, and then fired across the bowl, leaving a trail of silky strands like the ones Percy had broken on the shield. The strings started weaving together, forming a huge golden net over the pool.

"We have to get out," Percy pointed out nervously.

"Duh!" I yelled.

Percy grabbed the shield, and we started trying to go up the edge of the pool. It was a lot harder going up then going down.

"Come on!" Grover shouted. He was trying to hold the net open for us, but the net kept wrapping around his hands, trying to trap him.

Suddenly, all the cupids heads popped up, and video cameras became visible. Spotlights also rose out, as well. A loud speaker broadcasted: "Live to Olympus in one minute... Fifty-nine seconds, fifty-eight..."

"Hephaestus!" I screamed. I couldn't believe I hadn't figured this out earlier. "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!"

We were almost at the rim, when the rows of mirrors opened, and thousands of little metallic things streamed out, heading right for us.

I screamed and lost my grip, sliding back down into the pool. "Spiders! Sp—sp—aaaah!"

The little creatures started crawling on me, and I screamed louder, swiping wildly, trying to get them away from me. I felt Percy lock his arms under my armpits and pull me up into the boat, kicking the spiders away with his foot. I clambered into the seat, screaming as Percy kicked spiders away and yelled for help. I hated spiders so much... they were the only thing that I really feared.

Vaguely, I heard the loudspeakers. "Thirty, twenty-nine."

The spiders started spitting out the little silky strings, trying to tie us down, but Percy was breaking the strings and trying to kick them away, while I cowered behind him, screaming and clutching his pant leg. He looked around desperately, trying to find a way to get us out, since I wasn't doing much more then screaming.

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

"But—"

"Do it!" The spiders were slowly overtakign the boat. I kept screaming louder, while Grover was desperately flicking switches, trying to turn the water on. Water, the back of my brain that wasn't focused on the spiders thought. Good thinking, Seaweed Brain.

"Five, four—"

Grover shrugged helplessly. Percy closed his eyes, and tried to focus.

"Two, one, zero!"

Suddenly, water exploded out of the pipes from behind the mirrors. Percy pulled me into the seat and strapped me down just as a wave of water hit the boat, soaking us and washing away the spiders—much to my relief. We started rocketing down the ride, the corpses of the spiders floating around us as Percy focused on keeping the boat from smashing into the cement walls with his son-of-Poseidon powers.

I was aware of the spotlights shining down on us, and the cameras rolling, but I couldn't find it in myself to care at the moment. I just wanted to be on dry land again.

Suddenly, the boat launched itself into the darkness, and I grabbed Percy's t-shirt, pressing my face into his shoulder as we shot through the tunnel, the water carrying us much faster then it should've been. He wrapped his arms around me, and we both screamed as we shot around corners fast enough to squash us on impact.

Suddenly, we were back outside, where the sun had set, and we were rocketing towards the exit. But there was something wrong. The 'Gates of Love' (remind me to gag later) were chained shut. We were going to be grated against the fence.

"Unfasten your seat belt," Percy yelled above the wind that was whistling in our ears and ruffling our hair.

"Are you crazy?" I yelled back.

"Unless you want to get smashed to death," he said, hefting Ares shield with one arm. "We're going to have to jump for it."

As dangerous as it was, it was the only way. I held tightly onto his hand, wishing not to fall out and be smashed against the concrete. I wasn't thinking about how my mother was probably sitting on Olympus right now, seeing me holding a son of Poseidon's hand. Oh, I'm going to throw up.

"On my mark," he said, which I knew wasn't going to work.

"No! On my mark!"

"What?"

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

"Fine!" he screamed back. "On your mark!"

I waited for the right moment, trying to get us enough lift to be able to make it over the fence. Just before we hit, I shouted, "Now!"

CRACK!

Percy and I flew through the air, right over the gates, and—unfortunately—right onto the pavement. I'd overcompensated. We hadn't quite needed that much momentum. I said a silent prayer, hoping not to die like this. Then, I felt something grab my arm.

"Ouch!" It was Grover. He'd snagged Percy and I out of the air, trying to keep us from hitting the pavement too hard. But we had all of the force, and we were dragging Grover down.

"You're too heavy!" he shouted. "We're going down!"

The three of us crash landed into a photo-board, Grover's head going through one of the slots so he looked like Noo-Noo the Friendly Whale. Percy and I landed in a heap on the ground, me right on top of him. I scrambled off of him, and we pulled Grover out of the photo-board and thanked him for saving us.

We looked over and saw the Cupids still aimed at us, filming, with the spotlights bearing down on us in the dark. Percy glared at them.

"Show's over!" he yelled angrily. "Thank you! Good night!"

The cameras shut off, and the cupid swiveled back to their original positions. The water stopped flowing in the tunnel, slowing down to just a trickle.

We'd been tricked, and then broadcast as some kind of joke. And now, all of the gods had seen me screaming like a little girl, and holding onto Percy. I wanted to melt into the dirt.

Percy turned towards us, pulling Ares' shield up on one arm. His expression was downright murderous. "We need to have a little talk with Ares."

*I actually looked this up. Denver does, in fact, happen to be in the Rocky Mountains rain shadow, thus making it drier from the lack of rain. I just thought I'd add a little Annabeth 'smarty pants' thinking... haha.

Phew! That was a LONG chapter. And I mean, like, 5k+ words long. That's why it took so long to get out. I'll have the next chapter ready faster, I promise! Haha.

This chapter had a quite of a bit of Percabeth... teehee! I love adding little details like that, where Riordan doesn't quite describe things. Even if Annabeth does act disgusted. She's just in denial! You know you want your Seaweed Brain, Annie!

Anyways, I'd really like some reviews. Do it for Percabeth! :)