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chapter xi. ( the lightning thief ) ❝ the tunnel of love ❞
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A FEW MINUTES LATER, we were sitting at a booth in a gleaming chrome diner. All around us, families were eating burgers and drinking milkshakes. I stared longingly at the food, my stomach grumbling.
Finally, the waitress came over. She raised her eyebrows sceptically. "Well?"
Percy said, "We, um, want to order dinner."
"You kids have money to pay for it?"
Grover's lower lip quivered. I feared he would starting bleating, or worse, start to eat the linoleum. To be honest, I was so hungry, I'm pretty sure I would have joined him. Annabeth looked ready to pass out from hunger. Percy looked like he was trying to think up a sob story for the waitress when a rumble shook the whole building: a motorcycle the size of a baby elephant had pulled up to the kerb.
All conversation in the diner stopped. The motorcycle's headlight glared red. Its gas tank had flames painted on it, and a shotgun holster riveted to either side, complete with shotguns. The seat was leather -- but the leather looked like Caucasian human skin. I shivered at the thought.
The guy on the bike would've made pro wrestlers run for cover. He was dressed in a red muscle shirt and black jeans and a black leather duster, with a hunting knife strapped to his thigh. He wore red wraparound shades, and he had the cruellest, most brutal face I'd ever seen -- handsome, possibly, but wicked -- with an oily black crewcut and cheeks that were scarred from many, many fights. Despite all of this, I swear that something about him was familiar. I suddenly felt angry, like I wanted to punch Percy five hundred times. The biker seemed to send off this aura of aggression, resentment and bitterness. I then realised who he was, where I had seen that face before. The sneer that seemed to be permanently glued was the same sneer that cabin five all shared.
He was Ares, the God of War.
As he walked into the diner, a hot, dry wind blew through the place. All the people rose, as if they were hypnotised, but the biker waved his hand dismissively and they all sat down again. Everybody went back to their conversations. The waitress blinked, as if somebody had just pressed the rewind button on her brain. She asked us again, "You kids have money to pay for it?"
Ares said, "It's on me." He slid into our booth, which was way too small for him, and crowded Annabeth against the window.
He looked up at the waitress, who was gaping at him, and said, "Are you still here?"
He pointed at her, and she stiffened. She turned as if she'd been spun around and marched back towards the kitchen.
Ares looked to Percy, and gave him a wicked grin. "So you're old Seaweed's kid?"
