Annabeth Chase and the Last Olympian

Chapter 20 - Rachel drops in

Flying directly at a spinning-out of control helicopter on a pegasus to rescue your crush's female friend was not how I thought today was going to plan out. But hey, when you're a demigod, anything is possible. 

I guided Guido the pegasus as Percy sat behind me, holding on tightly as our flying steed did some fancy flying to help us avoid becoming chopped up by the blades. As we got near, I could hear Rachel screaming and saw her trying to wake the pilot, who was slumped over the controls. 

"Ideas?" Percy yelled at me.

"You're going to have to take Guido and get out," I said, assessing the distances I would have to cover quickly. 

"What are you going to do?" 

I knew he wouldn't like it so I decided not to answer. Instead I yelled, "Hyah!" and guided Guido into a nosedive. 

We zoomed down to the helicopter, ducking down as the blades whipped past right above our heads, almost giving me a haircut. As we grew close, I pulled both my feet up on to Guido's back and, ignoring the enormous drop beneath me, leapt for the door. I scraped along the side of it and fell slightly but managed to grab hold of the leg, gritting my teeth against the pain as I held on with my bad hand. 

I heard a shout and turned to see Guido spiralling away from the helicopter, one of his wings looking shattered. Percy was bent over him, trying to calm him but it didn't look like he was having much of an effect. 

But I didn't have time to worry about Percy as I dangled beneath the helicopter, pain racing through my bad shoulder even as I could feel my grip slipping. I was racing through scenarios to do when the door slid open and Rachel's head appeared, her red hair whipping around her face from the wind. 

"Grab hold!" she yelled, leaning out and holding out her hand. 

I couldn't risk letting go of my good hand, so I threw my bad arm up, screaming in agony as she hauled me up. She managed to pull me up enough to get my feet on the legs and I clambered inside, my whole body shaking. My vision went slightly blurry from the pain and I had to shake my head to clear the fuzziness that was threatening to come over me. Now was not the time to black out. 

"I am so glad to see you!" Rachel said, her face a mixture of white and green from the wild ride. 

"Save it!" I yelled, pushing past her to get to the cockpit, which was a struggle in itself with the amount of out of control circling and bucking the helicopter was doing. But I managed to haul myself in and shoving the pilot out of his seat, buckled myself in. 

"Do you know how to fly one of these?" Rachel asked, holding on the back of my seat and leaning forward to look over my shoulder. 

"Let's find out," I muttered, staring down at the controls. Memories of my father explaining helicopters came to me unexpectedly, but he'd never actually explained what to do in this situation. Neither had Daedalus' notes when he described the flying machines. 

Rachel started screaming again, and I looked up to see that we were spinning right towards a building. Instinct came over me and I hauled on the cyclic levers, the helicopter instantly swinging away from the building and going into a different spiral. Without thinking, I pressed a button that righted the tail and pulled the cyclic lever, the helicopter righting itself and growing steady in the air. 

I released the breath that I didn't realise I was holding and wiped a stream of sweat from my head. 

"Okay," I said. "Now down."

My mind seemed to know what I was doing and my hands followed suit as I aimed the cyclic lever down slightly while also working the foot pedals. We began to descend slowly, me not being confident enough to go any faster. Finally, we thudded down in the middle of Fifth Avenue, the landing harder than I thought but satisfactory enough for this being the first time I'd flown a helicopter.