The Lost Brother (a Percy Jackson/HOO fanfic)

Chapter 15

Luke Mendoza POV

I clutched the armrests of my seat on the plane as we took off. I thought it was really too generous of Piper to get us on a plane, but Jason explained her whole charm speak thing to me.

Piper charm spoke a lot in the last hour. To the luggage carriers who wrapped all of mine and Lucy's plus size weapons in the plastic wrap, to security to ignore her dagger and Leo's tool belt, and also to Leo, who started jumping up and down in his seat with the anticipation for flying.

He had definitely been on a plane before. We took a lot of family vacations whenever my dad could get a break from work.

As I thought about it, I realized the stupid goddess might have kept those memories from him for some reason.

The plane shook and went down a little. I felt weightless for a few seconds. I heard gasps. I really hoped that wasn't my fault.

"Hey Piper, how long is this flight?" I asked her. She was in the window seat with Leo between us. Jason volunteered to go sit alone a few rows back.

"From San Antonio to New York is. . . six hours I think."

I banged my head against the headrest. I looked out the window to see the sun was setting. I had exactly 24 hours before the deadline. There was a knot in my stomach I couldn't get away from.

Might as well get some sleep. I closed my eyes.

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Ding! Ding! I was woken by the intercom voice telling everyone to fasten their seatbelts because we were about to land.

When we did, we were the first ones out. We did that with no problem with anyone. It was weird, as if everyone unanimously decided to ignore the four of us.

We hurried to the baggage claim and picked up our weapons. I slung Lucy's quiver and bow over my shoulder and held my sword in my other hand.

We went outside to the surprisingly busy street (in the early morning hours) and Piper tried to hail a taxi, but did so unsuccessfully. The rest of us tried and failed.

After 10 minutes a cab finally swerved to the curb where we were standing.

"Finally!" exclaimed Piper, as she reached for the door handle. Her hand went straight through the thing.

"Well are you gettin' in or what?" asked the cab driver.

"Yes, yes, one second," a feminine voice said from behind us. I whirled around to see a lady lugging her baggage making her way to the car.

She walked right through Jason, whose back was turned. He yelped.

"Okay, that's all kinds of creepy," I said.

"Ditto." Leo looked around.

"This is probably an enchantment or something. We are going to have to walk," said Jason.

"We're not that far Central Park," Piper pointed to the direction which the cab came from.

"Well then let's go," said Leo.

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The flight was long and we had spent some time in the airport. So here we were at four in the morning. The sky was barely turning a lighter blue.

We had been walking for ten minutes when I noticed a tall guy about my age with an orange shirt and brown hair running out of a drugstore, arms full of supplies. What stood out to me was that he was running right through people on the sidewalk.

"Hey! You!" I called after him. He turned around and looked at me. I instantly recognized his messy hair and permanent troublemaker expression.

Connor Stoll.

Connor looked at me and dropped a few supplies. He gulped and walked toward us.

"Connor! Right? Not Travis?" Jason asked and got a nod in reply.

"Hey, dude, what's up?" Leo said. We all walked up to Connor.

"Oh! Uh, hey. I was just getting these things back to the Apollo campers," said Connor. "How'd the quest go?"

"We'll fill everyone in later," said Leo. "Oh, this is my brother, Luke. Well adoptive brother."

"Luke?" I nodded at Connor. He offered his hand under various medicines and I shook it.

"You are much, much taller in person. Also, the fact that you're a demigod and related to Leo? Never saw that coming."

"Wait, you two know each other?" Piper asked.

"Yeah, this is Connor. Lucy's boyfriend. Didn't you meet at comic con or something?" I said. Lucy would have been elated to see him. They had met at a convention for so many things I can't keep track of. They had also agreed to meet at the next one, which would have been next month.

At some point in between, they started dating. Lucy spent a lot of time on Skype with the guy. I walked in on them many times. Connor must have been really funny and flirty because Lucy laughed often and it was not a nice sound.

"Dude you're dating my sister?" Leo gaped at Connor.

Connor chuckled. "Yeah. Wait a second. Where is Lucy? Is she here too?" His eyes lit up with excitement.

He stopped smiling when I didn't say anything. "Luke?"

I cleared my throat. "Lucy was captured by Kronos. If we don't hand over Apollo by sunset..." I stopped talking.

Connor dropped the rest of the goods and ran his fingers through his hair worriedly. "We need to get to Chiron."

"Good idea," said Leo.

"Follow me, it's not far." said Connor and started off in the direction.

"Connor! Your stuff," Jason pointed to the pile of things the Stoll twin had left on the floor.

"Oh yeah!"

Well then there's one more chapter. I think this fanfic will go up until chapter 20.

Thanks so much for 400 reads!!

Hope you liked it! Love you guys,

~Cristy