We couldn't really say no to the quest, especially not after the threat he just said. He didn't even let us leave the building on our own as he just snapped his fingers and then we were outside, in the forest looking at the distant road and buildings through the trees.
"Well, no time like the present, let's do this and get our ride." I said, shrugging my shoulders.
"But Percy, we don't even know what he lost."
Annabeth interjected, not that it actually mattered since Ares wasn't a God you should piss of if you could avoid it. Not that I wouldn't do it, I was after all Percy Jackson, cause of Anorysma for immortal beings. But it would have to wait until Kronos influence waned as he was otherwise incredibly volatile.
Annabeth didn't like that I ignored her question but thanks to Grover he reminded her that this was a god we were talking about, one that already had a short temper and that we would probably know as soon as we saw it.
So there we wandered again, walking through trees and getting closer and closer to an abandoned amusement park that stood in the middle of a dense forest. One that hadn't been active for quite some time if the murky water below us, hidden in long pipes deep underground, told me anything.
You know what's funny, since the water is somewhere considered deep (as in "deep underground") , even if it is rather shallow, I knew I could exert a lot of control through it. But that wasn't enough, oh no it wasn't. With every step I took, I felt the water move, change and turn. Small streams began to appear, even without any origin, the water turned black, as if I had poured shadows into it and then they connected to something. I felt it, merely seconds before the water had been no deeper than a finger at some points and then enough to go up to your legs at another. But now, even as spacially limited as it was supposed to be, I knew it was deep, deeper than it should have been and deep enough that one would easily drown in the friget cold and violent streams that lay below its surface.
We reached the park entrance. I had been distracted by the water so I didn't notice when the others first saw it but now I did too. It was massive, you could easily go for a walk around it's perimeter and take half a day to return. Signs and windows were stained with dust or shattered from erosion. Some had been clearly colorful displays and other might have been less used but they all lost to the winds of time.
When we entered, past the entrance register, we heard a slight click in a mechanism. Lights appeared and music began to play but only for a few moments before I could hear, somewhere deep inside the park, the sound of a fuse blowing out. The music tried to stop but now it was like it played through an old stereo, deep and distorted.
This was wrong. I knew it was but neither Grover or Annabeth noticed. How could they? They didn't know how electricity on this scale worked or atleast how it was supposed to. Annabeth specialized in Architecture and Grover was about as much of a Nature-guy as you could be without turning into a hippy. The music should have stopped instead of continuing.
I didn't alarm them. That was my fault. I should have.
Security bots, something that was not from this era, but more futuristic and steam punk like at the same time, began to appear, at first they were holding flyers but then, as soon as they saw us, their robotic optics turning, becoming bigger and smaller to get a better look at us, then said flyers were tossed aside, knifes and extendable swords replacing them.
Grover screamed, Annabeth did too but I? Well I couldn't help but grin, something I regretted later.
We began to battle, Annabeth ducking below swords meant to decapitate her, Grover jumping away before landing solid sidekicks in their heads, blowing out their circuit boards. And I was going wild at them, utilizing my skill:Forge to melt them into celestial Bronze, mixing in a few hidden metal ingots I retrieved from my inventory during the fight, making new metals and more from them. I broke metallic Jaws with kicks, burned through armors and weapons by turning them liquid and ripping out important components from their circuitry to save for later. Every robot I killed, remade with Forge or just curb stomped with enthusiasm disappeared into my inventory.
Then finally, when Annabeth and Grover began to clear up their enemies, I began to rely on my water abilities, making the ground break open as I broke the pipes beneath, soaking every robot in water, making them short circuit and fall apart.
"Why did you smile? Did you know what was about to happen? Did you plan it?" Annabeth rained questions on me. It had been a few minutes since the battle, all of us had scrapes and cut littering out skin.
"No Annabeth, I didn't know this would happen, nor did I plan on it. And on the topic of smiling, I was kind of exited to fight robots, since their weakness is water in most cases and I happen to be able to control it."
This apparently didn't satisfy her but she did stop questioning me. Grover however continued to throw uncomfortable and questioning looks at me.
Finally we reached the ride we were looking for.
It was hidden away in a cornor of the park, right behind" Honey where is your slipper!" and" What happend to my pants?" right next to "Why is your finger in there?" and "Succubus suction".
Let me make this clear, every name of these rides was either accompanied by a lot of hearts and symbolism. Or straight up written out moans and more. It made all of us uncomfortable just having to read their names, not even counting the fact that we actually had to look through them since Ares hadn't told us in which ride he had lost his stuff.
Let's just say we found questionable stains in places we didn't think they could be found and other stains where their pure volume was baffling. Well, I said us but mostly Grover and Annabeth, since I did have a wonderful and active relationship with my Nightmare-husband, not to forget our "adventures" oh we did things that would make even Aphrodite and Zeus blush.
Finally we found the "Tunnel of Love" where we spotted an abandoned "ship" in the middle of a drained water ride.
Around the Premier were a lot of cupid statues, all bronze and decorated nicely with small Greek letters on the back of their hands, all of which were the Greek letter for Hephestus.
"Percy." Annabeth said before either of us could do anything, ".. is there anything that could happen when we go down there? I'm just asking because you always seem to know what's going to happen."
It annoyed me that she couldn't just trust me but I decided to give her something, just so I didn't have to lie to her face.
"Well, right now there are no signs that would indicate otherwise. Grover, I need you to stay here, since your hooves wouldn't allow you to leave it. Annabeth and I will go, just keep a lookout for any more robots or stray monsters." He nodded, accepting his position. Annabeth however stared at me for a long minute, doubting what I had just said.