Assembled: Earth's Last Heroes (A Riordanverse and MCU crossover)

Chapter 12: Apollo

"Caldecott Tunnel, Orinda, USA."

Apollo was reading the address to Camp Jupiter on the small slip of paper Piper had given him for the twentieth time. Meanwhile, Meg, his demigod master (long story) was lying down on one of the front seats in the private jet Piper had given them, twirling her twin imperial gold rings that he knew would turn into two siccae blades if anyone crossed her path.

It had felt like ages before he was last in the burning maze, seeing Jason die, seeing Crest die, yet it did not make him feel better as he reviewed the memories in his head.

He recalled his last encounter with the goddess Styx:

"More broken promises," she hissed.

"Jason Grace is dead," she continued. "And the young pandos."

"Do you begin to feel the folly of your rash vow upon my waters?" asked Styx. "There will be more deaths. My wrath will spare no one close to you until amends are made. Enjoy your time as a mortal, Apollo!"

Oh how he hated having time to spare. To be finally able to process everything that has happened in his brain. To finally be forced to accept the fact that Jason is dead. Crest is dead. All because of him.

A sob built in his throat. But he could not give in to the sea of grief now. He was scared that if he went too far in, he would not be able to pull himself back out. No. He had a job now. He had to find Reyna and put a stop to the Triumvirate. He would not allow Jason and Crest and everybody else to sacrifice themselves for nothing.

Suddenly, the pilot screamed.

Apollo ran to him and he saw something he didn't know was possible. The pilot was...disintegrating. He was turning into dust from his hands up.

"No." Apollo muttered. What was happening? "No, no, nononono..."

The plane lurched violently as the pilot finally dissolved into ash. Apollo frantically got into the pilot's seat. He didn't have time to process what was going on. Right now, he had to safely land this plane. Oh, why couldn't his godly power come into use at his most dangerous moments? If only he had his powers back, just for a second, he could teleport himself and Meg at least down to the ground safely if not all the way to Camp Jupiter.

No time to think now, Apollo. Just land the plane, godly powers or not.

He rushed to the wheel and started pressing random buttons, unsure what to do. He remembered watching all those movies with planes on Hephaestus-TV. Some of them were excellent and some were just downright terrible. Oh, why couldn't flying a plane be just as easy as flying his sun chariot?

He recalled the pilot pulling a lever down, but he surveyed the plane and there were countless levers around him. Stupid movies making everything look so easy...

He randomly pulled levers down and there was another lurch as the plane descended head-first to the ground.

Meg stirred. "What's going on?" she moaned.

"That," replied Apollo pointing at the window.

"What on earth did you do?" yelled Meg as she jumped up immediately and ran to the pilot area and pressed a few buttons.

The plane stopped crashing down head-first and hovered in mid-air.

Since when did Meg know how to fly a plane?

She pressed another button and started steering the plane down. Suddenly, the plane started spinning down to the ground. Everything started beeping and flashing red at once.