Chapter Nine: When Stars Erupt

Soundwave glanced at the data from surveillance relays planted in the Human satellite network via Trojan horse and couldn't make sense of an odd occurrence. The Autobots had one of their scouts to a place on the eastern seaboard of one of the planet's continents. It was normal operations until the femme named Arcee disappeared from the map and stayed off the map for two standard planetary rotations. Now, the femme popped up again with three odd signatures: two Dark Energon tracers and one new signature that didn't match any of the spymaster's records. The Decepticon Spymaster used the satellite systems of the insects to track the strangers with ease. However, the questions remained: Where did the strange signals come from? Second, did Autobots have access to a previously unknown cloaking technology? Laserbeak, deploy. Objective: Investigation.

Jack felt unease roll through his systems as they rode the road away from camp. The woods around him reminded him too much of that night in the forest which now seemed an eternity ago. The young Prime focused on driving and remained quiet until the pair of vehicles met up with a main road on the way out of Long Island. Jack didn't relax, however. The buzz of combat still roared in the background of his mind. Cybertronian processor notwithstanding, Jack could feel the strain of the massive impact of the series of bombshells to his life in the past few days. He couldn't hope to imagine exactly how this was for the demigods who currently rode in his backseat. He knew of the Roman and Greek gods along with Cybertronian quasi-polytheism. Miko all but confirmed Japanese Mythology. For some reason, Jack's mind traveled to Egyptian Mythology. Jack looked towards the sun and laughed softly as he imagined Apollo and a five-millennium-old drooling senile fool of a man fighting over control of the sun. Jack blinked. Ptolemies… The thought made him shiver in revulsion. Mixing pantheons is never a good idea.

Percy looked at Jack in the rearview before he looked at Thalia warily. "You seem…wound tight for someone on his first quest."

Jack nodded, "You would be right, except this is just my first quest for Greek gods." Jack unconsciously fiddled with The Key under his shirt. "You could say I've been on other quests before I even knew of the Camp." Jack shrugged. "That is actually part of the reason I have this car." Jack smiled at the stunned look of his passengers. Then, the young man watched the shock turn to distrust in a nanosecond. "What did I say?"

Thalia looked at Percy like she was going to kill him. Then, she mouthed, He doesn't need to know of our war!

Did she just call him "Kelphead"? Jack bit back a chuckle. Wait. Then, his mind caught the former bit of the admonition. What does she mean by "their war"? That almost sounds like something Arcee would say.

"Jack," Arcee's voice broke into the young demigod's thoughts. "Look alive. We've got a tail."

Jack adjusted his mirrors and cursed softly as Percy reached for a pen in his pocket of all things. Meanwhile, Thalia calmly turned in her seat and shook her head but said nothing. Jack didn't fail to notice Percy's hand hovering over the pen's cap. The mild bump as the car began to roll on a bridge caused Percy to relax and Thalia to tense. Something in her body language disquieted the young man. He knew from experience. Thalia only grew nervous when things seemed to be completely upside down and backwards to the way she expected situations to go. Percy blamed her father for that one but kept his mouth shut as he turned to study the creature for a few moments. Minotaur, Fury, Chimera, and even Espouse; Percy could handle. However, no one prepared him for stalking by a demented purple flying machine able to move through the air as he could water. The thought made Percy squeeze Thalia's hand a little harder in a bid to calm himself.

"Game plan, Arcee?"

The femme smiled unseen at Jack, "The usual..." With that, Arcee doubled back and launched herself to catch Lazerbeak like a lob ball. The minicon spun out of Arcee's grip and turned his sights on the source of the unidentified signals and shot at Jack's tires. Jack turned quickly to dodge the shots. Next, Jack turned to the drone and activated his blasters. With careful control, Jack fired and sent the minicon falling to the pavement. Then, Arcee vented and looked at Jack. "We can't bring him back to base because Soundwave has always been protective of his minicons, and if we try to hold one, Soundwave will just come down hard on us."

Jack nodded and looked back at Percy and Thalia in concern. To his surprise, the pair seemed to be taking everything thus far in stride. Jack raised an eyebrow at their calmness before the young Prime shook his head and walked to his passenger door. When he opened it, Thalia and Percy got out of the car.

Percy spoke, "Why was that metal chicken after us?"

Thalia looked at him and smiled in spite of herself. The daughter of Zeus really didn't have to wonder how he had survived nearly four years of monster attacks and combat in the world without any forward-thinking skills because demigods came wired that way. While Athena children seemed to try and plan for every eventuality, most demigods lived moment-to-moment with thoughts always on how to make it past the current monster or challenge. There was rarely any space in demigods' minds to plan outside of the middle of a combat situation. Thalia simply sighed, "I know it's hard, Percy, but try to relax," she said as the daughter of the lord of the sky rubbed his back. "Gentle waves lap at the beach on Montauk."

Percy took a deep breath and looked back at Thalia with a silent nod of thanks. Then, he looked over and saw the strange drone that chased them. It wasn't like anything Percy knew. "It was after us because…?"

Jack sighed. "It is far too much to explain in detail right now," the young man said calmly. "Suffice it to say that Humans, at least a portion of Human gods, and Cybertronians bear more in common than one might think at first glance."

"…and you would be Cybertronian?" Thalia asked as her eyes flashed in a note of comprehension and warning.

The two-wheeler nodded, "I'm Arcee." She said calmly with a slight nod at Thalia and Percy. "That was a spy deployed by our enemies to look for you," Arcee said calmly. "I still don't understand why…" The femme trailed off and shook her helm. "That's not important right now."

Jack looked at the pair and shivered unconsciously when his eyes met Percy's. Roman instinct from his mom made the young man wary of anyone linked to Neptune. In fact, it was most likely part of the reason why June settled in a desert town: to keep him safe. For a moment, the discussion between his mom and dad came back to the young man, but Jack pushed those thoughts away and walked up to Percy and Thalia before he offered a handshake to each. "Jack Darby, son of Primus."

The "son of Primus" bit sounded like a demigod tag, but Thalia nor Percy couldn't remember ever hearing about any god like that. Sure, back on his first two quests, Annabeth kept muttering about Boston and worries that crazy war gods would start something having to do with "rags and rocks" when it was her shift to sleep, but Percy doubted anything important would come from Lord Morpheus giving Annabeth odd dreams during their quests. After all, strange but important dreams usually came to the person at the center of the quest if Percy's experiences taught him anything. A look at Arcee and the mechanical soft click and whir of Jack's eyes settled it for Percy. "Primus is a Cybertronian god?"

"It depends on how you define 'god'. Some believe the Primes are…lesser gods with Primus as chief and creator of The Thirteen who he imbued with various aspects of his domain," Jack explained as he sifted through The Key for relevant information. "Others see The Thirteen much like demigods or as simple prophets and links from Primus to his people."

Thalia raised an eyebrow at the explanation and smirked, "You sound as if you're reading from a book."

Jack shrugged as he walked over to Lazerbeak and moved to pick up the minicon. "In a way, you can say I was reading from a book." He looked at the children of Zeus and Poseidon. "Are you really going to sit there like overstuffed scraplets?" Jack growled. "Stop gawking and lend a fragging servo. He's not light!"

Thalia nodded, shot to her feet and rushed over to a corned while Percy took the adjacent corner and watched out of the side of his vision in shock as the rider dismounted and took the empty side of the metal creature. Together, the group walked the prisoner to Jack's truck and tossed the miniocon into the open space. Jack looked at the drone and reached down. Then, he sent a bit of power through the drone to shut it down. Now, it would stay in stasis and untraceable until Jack reactivated it and cause no problems on the roadtrip to The Wolf House.

As the lid closed, Percy's eyes glued themselves to Sadie. When the helmet melted into a Human face, Percy nearly drew Riptide. A look of warning from Thalia warned him not to, but when Percy looked back up from the pen and clutched it tightly with his other hand hovering over the cap, the eyes that stared back at him stopped all thought. The eyes were glowing orbs of blue flame that reminded Percy a bit too much of Ares' eyes, the eyes of a being who could kill an enemy easily and never lose any sleep from the death.

"Before we roll anywhere," Arcee growled. "You need to understand something, newbie," Arcee met his eyes through her Sadie holoform. "You don't touch. You don't ride, and you DEFINITELY do NOT leer at me!" The eyes of the holoform bored into Percy's soul. "Am I understood?"

Percy nodded dumbly before he got back in the car. Thalia reached over and shocked him. "Ow!" The son of Poseidon rubbed his backside and looked at Thalia in worry. Was it just my imagination or was that jolt stronger than normal? The thought made him look at her. "What? What did I do?"

Thalia sighed, "It doesn't take a daughter of Aphrodite to know what's going on between them," Thalia shook her head and muttered something about boys before her voice went back to normal. "You're getting into some dangerous territory, Perseus Jackson."

Percy felt a shiver crawl up his spine. Only monsters or his mom used his full name and both cases always unnerved him. When Thalia used the name however, Percy felt an odd paradox of ice and boiling heat roll through his body. The sensation didn't strike him as painful, just strange. Percy raised a brow. "I screwed up. Okay?" He growled. "Jack, do you know what's going on with them?" He jerked a thumb at Thalia and implied Arcee.

Jack shook his head. "Mom says, 'Women are like starts,' Percy." Jack said. "Gravity pulls you in. Beautiful to look at from a distance, and while the beauty remains as you get closer, you realize just how dangerous and powerful they are, yet you never can completely understand the enigmatic nature of women. Sure, pieces come to light every once in a while, but to try and understand the whole…" Jack shook his head and laughed. "You're better off living on the moon."

Percy breathed a sigh of relief to see that Jack was defending him.

"However, Cybertronians have their own customs when it comes to what is and is not acceptable, and when you moved like you were going to get on her saddle when we left Camp, that was like groping her." Jack turned and glared at the boy with disappointment and restrained anger. "For the sake of your health, do us all a favor, and don't try it again."

An uneasy silence descended over the group as they continued to roll westward. Two worlds were now ready to collide. Jack's mind couldn't stop thinking of what the drone, for lack of a better explanation, sedated in his trunk. I just hope I can help these two be ready for what waits for them in the future, the youngPrime thought as he continued to roll along the road on his way to find a place for the group to stop for the night. As Jack looked around, he spotted a hotel in the night. The hotel looked beat to Hell. Even with his enhanced optics, Jack could make out precious little in the night. When a person walked up to him and put a hand on Jack's shoulder, Jack tensed and turned on him.

"I'm sorry, sir, but you and your friends look tired. Can I over you a place to stay?"

Percy, Thalia, and Sadie walked up as Percy greeted them with a large yawn. "It would be nice to sleep in a bed for a night."

Thalia looked like she wanted to argue with Percy for a moment. Then, she looked up at the hotel manager and resistance melted from her face. Jack and Sadie looked at each other in worry. The femme and Cybertronian demigod looked at each other in confusion. Sure, it was late, but surely, teen soldiers knew how to keep themselves awake on a battlefield or seek recharge in shifts when required. Something shimmered in and out of focus on the manager's body. His body seemed to undulate and shimmer in the night. Jack looked up to note that the sky was unnaturally clear with a large full moon that seemed to shine directly onto the man and move with him. When the name badge cleared enough for him to read, he raised an eyebrow.

"Eddie?" Percy said with a blank stare. The old building super seemed different somehow. His body shimmered in the moonlight, but the man still had some of the mild friendliness from when Percy knew him. The son of Poseidon drew Riptide as a test. "How are you alive?!"

The man looked up at the full moon wistfully and completely ignored Riptide's sheen. "Oh, how I miss you, Selene!" The man muttered somberly. "I thought escaping and becoming mortal again would help me get over…her." He smiled sadly at Percy. "You weren't the only one protected by your odious stepfather," the man laughed. "Gabe could hide a room of non-mortals so easily with his stench!" The smile turned to a grin. "I am Endymion," he said with a quick bow. "Sleeping for eternity isn't as fun as you'd think, and Lord Zeus is a backstabber for treating ME that way!" He glared at the demigods and Sadie. "So, with a little help from Hypnos for the sleep magic, I return the favor."

Sadie and Jack both lunged for Thalia and Percy as the greeks slumped to the ground, unconscious. Moonlight seemed to solidify and hit both the Cybertronians with the force of blaster fire. Jack cursed and summoned his sister's gift. The blade, easily twice the height of Jack radiated light and made Endymion cover his face and begin to smoke as the light of the blade overpowered the moonlight of the night.

"Endymion, be gone!"

As the thing disappeared under Jack's strike, the clouds rolled together with a violent crash and roared like thunder as they did. The sound stirred Percy and Thalia out of slumber as fast as sleep came to them. After a quick glance around, Percy saw the hotel fading into nothing and shivered as Thalia shook her head and shivered. Silently, the four shared a nod and agreed to keep moving as fast as they could to get to The Wolf House then Camp Jupiter.

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