TERRIFIED . . . annabeth chase

thirteen.

VAL COULD HEAR could hear someone screaming inside. A red headed girl wasn't asleep in the plane, so Val assumed that she wasn't a mortal, but a probably mortal pilot slumped over the controls, pitching back and forth as the helicopter wobbled toward the side of an office building.

Val understood that the girl in there was probably scared, but either way she needed to get into the helicopter. She landed on the spot where she could walk in and opened the door, smiling softly at the girl.

"Could you keep the door open?" Val asked her. "Just in case I throw up. Or you throw up."

"Y — yeah," the girl looked like she was about to puke as Val's wings retracted. "Am I hallucinating?"

"No, you're not," Val looked ahead, and frowned at the building becoming closer to her. "Shoot. Well, I'm gonna give you the pilot, okay? Just, like, put him somewhere where he won't fall. You know how to fly a helicopter?"

"No," the ginger took the pilot from her, carrying him over. "Do you?"

"I hope so," Val said, going up to the controls and frantically pressing buttons and stuff. "Otherwise, we're screwed."

Moving joysticks and pressing buttons didn't really help the fact that at one point, Cupid had brought her to a helicopter and taught her how to fly one, but at this point she had forgotten most of what had happened, but she just hoped for the best that she knew how to fly one.

"Annabeth's here," the girl suddenly called, as Val nearly screamed.

"She is?" Val asked. "Can she help me with this?"

Talking in the back. Val couldn't hear anything, but then she saw Annabeth go down on one of the pegasi, and she knew that wasn't good.

"She said something about the big funnel cake?" The ginger frowned at her. "And the macaron looking buttons? With the coffee button."

That was a language that Val understood. She moved the right controls.

The helicopter was only a few seconds away from slamming into the side of the building.

Then Val spun in a circle and hovered. Very slowly, it began to descend.

It thudded to a landing in the middle of Fifth Avenue. The rotors spun to a stop. The girl opened the side door and dragged out the pilot, Val following her.

"I just did that!" Val said excitedly, and jumped into Annabeth's open arms. "I haven't done that in years! But thanks, Annie, for helping me out. You really helped me out."

Percy stared at Annabeth in awe. "I didn't know you could fly a helicopter."

"Neither did I," she said. "My dad's crazy into aviation. Plus, Daedalus had some notes on flying machines. I just told Ali what to do."

"You both saved my life," the girl said.

Annabeth flexed her bad shoulder, her good arm still wrapped around Val. "Yeah, well . . . let's not make a habit of it. What are you doing here, Dare? Don't you know better than to fly into a war zone?"

"I—" 'Dare' glanced at Percy. "I had to be here. I knew Percy was in trouble."

"Got that right," Annabeth grumbled. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I have some injured friends I've got to tend to. Glad you could stop by, Rachel."

"Annabeth—" Percy called.

She stormed off.

Val smiled apologetically. "Sorry, she's been through a lot. I'm gonna go after her, alright? I'm exhausted. Call me if you need anything."