Offensive Power

Up on the rim, the Cupid statues were drawing their bows into firing position. Before they could suggest taking cover, the cupids shot, but not at them. They fired at each other, across the rim of the pool. Silky cables trailed from the arrows, arcing over the pool and anchoring where they landed to form a huge golden asterisk. Then smaller metallic threads started weaving together magically between the main strands, making a net.

"We have to get out," Percy said.

"Duh!" Annabeth said.

He grabbed the shield and ran, but going up the slope of the pool was not as easy as going down.

"Come on!" Grover shouted.

Y/N and him were trying to hold open a section of the net for them, but wherever they touched it, the golden threads started to wrap around their hands.

[ TIME SKIP ]

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

They'd almost made it to the rim when the row of mirrors opened like hatches and thousands of tiny metallic ... things poured out.

Annabeth screamed.

It was an army of wind-up creepy-crawlies: bronze-gear bodies, spindly legs, little pincer mouths, all scuttling toward them in a wave of clacking, whirring metal.

"Spiders!" Annabeth said. "Sp-sp-aaaah!" 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 things were coming out from all around the rim now, millions of them, flooding toward the center of the pool, completely surrounding them.

Annabeth and Percy climbed into the boat. They started kicking away the spiders as they swarmed aboard.

"God just scream already Y/N!" Grover shouted. She whipped her head towards him and he said, "Dude I know what Apollo kids use as weapons. Just trust yourself and do it! We can just tell them to shut their ears!"

"Thirty, twenty-nine," called the loudspeaker.

[ TIME SKIP ]

They were walking towards the diner parking lot where Ares was waiting for them.

Too much happened but the important thing is that Annabeth and Percy were safe. Ofcourse, at the end of it, it was a combined effort. But Y/N felt happy after a long time.

"Hey," Percy cleared his voice, "That was cool, what you did there."

"I'm just glad that you guys are safe...and your ears are working fine." Y/N said. When Percy and Annabeth were on the boat and the spiders were surrounding them, many getting into the boats they were in, Y/N yelled them to cover their ears. Ofcourse, Percy immediately screamed asking why but after Annabeth told him to do as said, he covered his ears.

And after that Y/N screamed. Yes, that was her offensive power. Her voice was as sweet as a nightingale but she can use it as a weapon at times too. Her voice was loud and the soundwaves blew most of the spiders away. Some of the screens of the cameras also broke because of her pitch. She was finally feeling relieved to be of some help in the quest.

"Uh, I guess we didn't have time to thank you...so.." Percy said.

"Oh so other than that you aren't even bothered to talk to me right?" Y/N asked teasingly.

"Wait, that's not what I meant," Percy stuttered, "we wanted to thank you but-"

"You've been using 'we' a lot Percy," Y/N smirked looking forward, she had the same teasing tone, "Is there something you wanna tell?"

"Well uh.." Percy hesitated, and then remembered that she was Annabeth's best friend. "N-Nothing. What are you-"

"Percy, both of you are my friends. I won't snitch around~" Y/N said, "Besides, neither of you are good at hiding it."

"What do you mean?"

Y/N looked at him - the same sea green eyes looking into hers - she looked away quickly, "Both of you are too egotistic to tell this to each other. But," she sighed, "I feel like you are much less than her. You will...tell her right?"

"Yeah...I think so," Percy smiled looking at her, "Grover told me..she felt the same. Yes."

It didn't matter how much she wanted to feel happy for them. A part of her still selfishly wanted it to not happen. But Percy just confirmed it. She smiled bitterly, and said, "Look, Ares."

Percy walked towards the god of war.

"Well, well," he said. "You didn't get yourself killed."

"You knew it was a trap," Percy said.

Ares gave him a wicked grin. "Bet that crippled blacksmith was surprised when he netted a couple of stupid kids. You looked good on TV."

He blushed and shoved his shield at him. "You're a jerk."

Annabeth and Grover caught their breath.

Ares grabbed the shield and spun it in the air like pizza dough. It changed form, melting into a bulletproof vest. He slung it across his back.

"See that truck over there?" He pointed to an eighteen-wheeler parked across the street from the diner. "That's your ride. Take you straight to L.A., with one stop in Vegas."

The eighteen-wheeler had a sign on the back, which he could read only because it was reverse-printed white on black, a good combination for dyslexia: KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL: HUMANE ZOO TRANSPORT. WARNING: LIVE WILD ANIMALS.

Percy said, "You're kidding."

Ares snapped his fingers. The back door of the truck unlatched. "Free ride west, punk. Stop complaining. And here's a little something for doing the job."

He slung a blue nylon backpack off his handlebars and tossed it to him.

Inside were fresh clothes for all of them, twenty bucks in cash, a pouch full of golden drachmas, and a bag of Double Stuf Oreos.

Percy said, "I don't want your lousy-"

"Thank you, Lord Ares," Grover interrupted, giving me his best red-alert warning look. "Thanks a lot."

"You owe me one more thing," Percy told Ares, trying to keep his voice level. "You promised me information about my mother."

"You sure you can handle the news?" He kick-started his motorcycle. "She's not dead."

The ground seemed to spin beneath him. "What do you mean?"

"I mean she was taken away from the Minotaur before she could die. She was turned into a shower of gold, right? That's metamorphosis. Not death. She's being kept."

"Kept. Why?"

"You need to study war, punk. Hostages. You take somebody to control somebody else."

"Nobody's controlling me."

He laughed. "Oh yeah? See you around, kid."

Percy balled up my fists. "You're pretty smug, Lord Ares, for a guy who runs from Cupid statues."

Behind his sunglasses, fire glowed. They felt a hot wind in their hair. "We'll meet again, Percy Jackson. Next time you're in a fight, watch your back."

He revved his Harley, then roared off down Delancy Street.

Annabeth said, "That was not smart, Percy."

"I don't care."

"You don't want a god as your enemy. Especially not that god."

"Hey, guys," Grover said. "I hate to interrupt, but..."

He pointed toward the diner. At the register, the last two customers were paying their check, two men in identical black coveralls, with a white logo on their backs that matched the one on the KINDNESS INTERNATIONAL truck.

"If we're taking the zoo express," Grover said, "we need to hurry."

[ TIME SKIP ]

After they ran out of the truck and released the animals captured inside it, the demigods found themselves at a dead end, standing in front of the Lotus Hotel and Casino. The entrance was a huge neon flower, the petals lighting up and blinking. No one was going in or out, but the glittering chrome doors were open, spilling out air-conditioning that smelled like flowers-lotus blossom, maybe.

They got in, but Percy noticed something strange after some time. The people in this casino never got out. He managed to shake his friends out of the trance and obsession they were in and escape the timeless casino.

They ran to the nearest newspaper stand and read the year first. It was the same year it had been when they went in. Then they noticed the date: June twentieth.

They had been in the Lotus Casino for five days.

One day was left until the summer solstice. One day to complete their quest.