Rise of New Olympus

Chapter 17

Athens International Airport-

"It's been a while since I boarded the plane," Percy said.

"Why? You don't have planes in your world?" Gil asked.

"No, we do but Zeus was angry at me, so he threatened that if I ever flew by plane, he would smite me in the air."

"That sounds like something Zeus would do," Herc said.

"Unfortunately for him, I had my own Pegasus, Blackjack, to fly me around."

"Alright, let's get going, there comes our Pilot." Herc waved at the Pilot.

"You shouldn't just vanish like that. And on top of that, you took the winged lion chariot. You know how hard it is to maintain it in this era?" The Pilot said. "I heard from Gilgamesh, that you were in New York. Then I saw the Nemean Lion on the news. You, Gil, that boy," he pointed at Percy. "There are a lot of videos on the internet of you three fighting the beast in New York."

"Yeah, that fight was the best," Herc said shamelessly.

"I went there to look for you, but you had vanished once again. And guess who I met in New York, Tiresias. She's living there, opened up a clock repair shop. She told me that the doors of the Olympus were opened once again and you were there. So, I went to Olympus but you disappeared again. This time in freaking outer space..." the pilot guy kept talking.

"Who's this guy?" Percy whispered in Gil's ears.

"That's Perseus, his secretary and..."

"Not a secretary, Assistant!" The guy interrupted and turned back to scold Hercules. "A whole year, a whole year I had to take care of the mess you left behind in Dubai."

"And, Great Grandfather." Percy completed Gil's sentence. He chuckled. "Hi, I don't mean to interrupt but shouldn't we be boarding the plane right now?" He looked at the wristwatch.

"Don't worry, Percy it's a private plane," Herc said.

"Is he Lord Percy that Olympians spoke of?" Perseus asked Herc.

"Hi, it is an honor to meet you. My mother named me after you. I am Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon, but you can call me Percy." He greeted Perseus.

A few hours later-

The plane was now flying over the Egyptian airspace and waiting for the ground controls response.

"Tower, this is H3RC on Delta, how long before we get to land?" Perseus asked Air Traffic Control.

"H3RC, due to the sandstorm we cannot give you permission to land. Please redirect to the Sphinx Airport. Continue on Delta to the west, we will hand you over to the Sphinx ATC, Copy?" the ATC replied.

"Copy, We will continue on Delta to Sphinx Airport." He said and put down the comms. 'Boys, we have been redirected to Sphinx Airport. So hang on to your belts we are about to land in a couple of minutes." He announced.

"Sphinx Airport? Why?" Percy asked.

"Looks like there's some problem on Cairo International," Gil said looking through the window.

Everybody quickly huddled to look through his window.

"Whoa, Whoa! Look out from your window." Gil said.

Percy went to his seat and removed the curtain from the window.

"I can't see anything?" He asked looking through the window.

"It's the sandstorm," Herc said panicking and quickly ran for the cockpit.

"That's weird!" Percy said.