I don't own Transformers or the Riordanverse; they belong to their respective owners.

And as with the last chapter, this chapter contains several canonical dialogues from Lost Hero. I did my best to mix it up to inject my own personal touch, but be prepared to see a bit of repeating what the book said. All credit for that dialogue goes to Rick Riordan, the original writer.

Chapter 14: Some Angry Girl Stabs Me.

Honestly, I don't even know why I suggested the Grand Canyon as a place to visit as a way to get Piper's mind off of her dad being missing. It just popped into my head all of a sudden.

When me and Piper saw the Wilderness School bus, I knew we had to land and see what was going on. I remembered that flash showing me that Piper was meant to go to the Wilderness School before my presence caused her not to steal a BMW. I had to see what exactly she missed out on.

Fortunately, it seems not much if what that kid Leo told us about the school was true.

The only thing she seemed to miss out on was meeting Leo, and even then, she had met him now, so everything seemed to work out.

I didn't know what exactly was up with Jason; I didn't see him in my flash when I saw Piper at the school, but he seemed nice enough.

Things were going fine except for the bad weather when Coach Hedge called over Jason and Piper. Leaving me and Leo to talk.

There was a bit of awkward silence between us.

"So... you ran away a lot?" I muttered, trying to make small talk.

"Six times," Leo admitted.

"Why though?"

"Just never felt like home wherever I went," Leo said. "It was easier to keep moving."

His fingers drummed against the railing he was leaning forward on. I had some experience with kids with ADHD because of Piper, but Leo was a completely different type. He seemed to be constantly in motion, as if he needed to be doing something or else he'd go insane.

"So, what's your deal?" he asked me.

"Oh, you know, I'm a bit of a drifter too," I said. "I'm currently writing a screenplay."

"Oh yeah? What about? Does it have a comedy sidekick? Every good story needs a comedy sidekick," Leo joked.

"Hmm. No, it doesn't." I said thoughtfully, "I'll have to think about it when I'm writing the next draft."

Leo started to ask me something else, but I didn't hear him clearly. I just spotted something odd on the terrace.

My eyes had randomly turned over to Dylan, who was currently standing somewhere on the platform, glaring at Piper and Jason.

I don't know how to explain this, but Dylan's body kind of... shifted. One moment he looked like an ordinary teen, and then the second he was replaced by a creature comprised of black vapor; lightning swirled around him.

The eyes on my holomatter avatar widened, and I disengaged it. The Avatar vanished. I heard Leo audibly wonder where I went.

Next, I transformed into my robot mode and leaped onto the roof of the museum. I heard Coach Hedge yell for everyone to get inside and Piper shouting a protest, and then I fired my wrist guns at Dylan, disintegrating him.

Unfortunately, he rematerialized. I guess he must have been made of actual vapor.

He glared at me. "And you, you're not supposed to be here," he said.

The storm intensified, it began to pour buckets of rain, and lightning crashed all around us.

"Hurry!" yelled Coach Hedge, and he and Jason started working on getting all the kids inside.

But me, Piper, and Leo had our hands full with Mister Storm Spirit, who was still glaring at us.

"What are you!?" Piper asked, panicking.

Dylan laughed, which sounded like a tornado: "My mistress told me to expect two demigods; I was so disappointed to find only one at the school. Now, not only do I have two after all, I get three! And a Transformer to boot!"

"If you hurt one hair on Piper's head, I'll rip you apart," I shouted.

Dylan laughed "You'll find that's quite the challenge in my case," he bragged. His form began to fade as his body became the black vapor form I saw earlier, his eyes became electricity, black wings extended behind him, and he grew to about my size.

As he transformed, the storm around us churned into a miniature hurricane. The wind picked up again, and Piper and Leo were sent flying. Piper managed to grab onto the guard rail, but Leo was sent flying off down the edge of the canyon. He managed to land on a nearby crevice, hanging on for dear life.

"Help!" he cried. "Someone throw down a rope! Or a bungee cord! Something!" he said.

"Piper! Get him!" I ordered,

"Got it!" Piper said, stabilizing herself. She ran toward the ledge where Leo had fallen down.

With someone on the way to help Leo, I started firing my wrist guns widely at Dylan, but all my shots passed through him.

"Foolish Autobot!" he shouted. He flew up to me and landed a punch, and of course, his attack landed. I got sent back a few feet and engaged my thrusters, starting to fly in mid-air.

"Come get it, freak!" I started to strafe Dylan, continuing to fire my shots, but they all passed through them. At least I kept him busy; his focus stayed on me, giving Piper a chance to run to help Leo.

Meanwhile, Coach Hedge and Jason had managed to get everyone inside, only for them to be trapped outside when the doors slammed shut. Hedge ran over to the area Piper and Leo were in. She was desperately trying to reach him, but Leo was too far below.

"Don't worry, girl, I got this!" Hedge shouted; he handed Jason his baseball bat and kicked off his shoes, revealing goat hooves.

"You're a faun!?" Jason asked.

"Like, Mr. Tumnus?" I wondered.

Hedge let out another goat bleat. "Saytr!" he yelled. "Faun is the Roman term!" He leaped down on the cliffside to try and get to Leo.

Dylan took advantage of the momentary distraction and managed to grab me and put me in a chokehold. "I haven't had the pleasure of killing a Transformer! I'm curious to know what it's like!"

I struggled, but for a guy who could make himself intangible, Dylan had an ironclad grip. His arm grasped around my neck. I kicked and punched, but he wouldn't falter at all.

I lifted my arm, tried aiming blindly backwards, and fired my wrist gun at Dylan's... feet? Whatever his lower half was, it just passed right through him like before, and the shot kept going and nearly hit Coach Hedge.

"HEY! Watch it, you-" He then proceeded to say a bunch of things I'm pretty sure a teacher shouldn't be saying.

I wanted to ask why I—the guy who was trying to save them—was whatever Coach had called me, but I couldn't speak. Dylan's vapory arms tightened their grip around me and began to squeeze. I felt my metal body start to creak. I grunted in pain. I needed to get out now!

Just then I heard Dylan let out an "OW!" and he lessened his grip on me. I took that chance to shove my leg thrusters into him and turn them on. Flames burst from my leg, and Dylan couldn't make himself intangible in time. He hollered in pain.

I flew over the canyon gap and looked to see what had happened. It looks like Jason had thrown Hedge's bat/club at Dylan. Somehow it managed not to get pulled away by the wind and hit him in the back of the head, catching Dylan by surprise.

"What is this thing!?" I asked.

"He's a Ventus! A storm spirit!" Jason answered.

"You will pay for this!" Dylan shouted.

Five wind funnels came down all around us; they turned into even more Venti. Three of them flew right at me, and the other two stayed near Dylan, Jason, and Piper.

The three Venti who came at me were smaller than Dylan but still had the same general look of a being made of black vapor and shadowy wings. As they rushed me, I fired more shots at them, but they just passed right through them, and the three began to swarm me. We had a battle in mid-air above the canyon as I kept throwing punches and kicks toward them, but all of my hits just passed right through the Venti.

Jason and Piper weren't having much better luck than me. Dylan had shocked Jason with an electrical blast that knocked him into the wall and blew off his shoe; somehow, the kid had managed to get up. Piper had picked up Hedge's club and was swinging at the other two Venti. The spirits were playing with her, though; the club went right through their bodies. She screamed something, but the wind was so fierce by this point that it made it impossible to hear.

"You guys got the lightning?!" I shouted, "Here's the thunder!"

I activated my thunder powers, and a massive boom erupted around me. It shattered the glass windows of the museum, cracked the glass on the skywalk, dissolved the three spirits in close quarters with me, who frantically tried to reform as fast as possible, and sent Dylan and the two Venti threatening Piper flying backward.

It was the opening Jason needed; he brought out a gold coin from his pocket, flipped it into the air, and when it landed in his hand, it was a sword! Where the heck did a kid his age get a sword?!

Jason swung his sword at the two smaller Venti. This time the weapon made contact, and the two monsters erupted into gold dust.

At that moment, Coach Hedge lept onto the sidewalk with Leo on his back. "You couldn't leave some for me?" he grumbled.

"Hey, you can have mine!" I shouted. The three Venti around me had managed to reconstitute themselves and were swarming me again.

Dylan hissed, but he had fear in his eyes. "You have no idea how many enemies you have awakened half-bloods. My mistress will destroy all demigods. This war, you cannot win."

The storm erupted into a full-force gale, sending me off balance (yes, you can be thrown off balance in mid-air). More cracks emerged in the skywalk, and rain poured down.

A hole opened into the clouds; it looked like a swirling vortex.

"Well, the mistress calls, and I'm taking a souvenir with me!" Dylan shouted; he lunged at Jason, but Piper tackled Dylan from behind. He screamed in rage, and they went sprawling. Dylan unleashed a shockwave that sent everyone flying backward. Leo hit his head on the banister, and Piper was sent flying into the air again. She managed to grab the railing, but the wind was too strong, and she slipped, falling into the canyon below. I heard her scream in terror.

"Piper!" I shouted. I tried to rush over, but one of the three Venti with me grabbed my leg and wouldn't let go. I tried to activate my leg thruster again, but unfortunately, it seemed these Venti had learned from their leader's mistake and made themselves intangible to the flames. I could only watch in horror as Piper kept falling.

"SOMEONE SAVE HER!" I begged.

After Dylan had thrown Piper off, he managed to grab the half-conscious Leo, but Hedge was able to save him just in time with some Karate Kid-style moves. He tried to headbutt him next, but the storm spirit took hold of him.

"Jason go! Save her!" Yelled Hedge as he struggled in Dylan's grasp.

"Just hurry!" I shouted desperately, trying to get free. One of the Venti got in front of me and punched me in the face; another one grabbed me on my back and shot a bolt of lightning through me. I screamed in pain.

"I'm coming for you next!" the coach shouted at me as Dylan dragged him away.

I could feel the clouds closing in around me. If I didn't do something soon, I was going to be dragged away to wherever these things were planning on taking us.

"Hey! Catch!" yelled Jason. He threw his gold sword at me and then leaped over the edge after Piper.

Somehow I managed to extend my hand, and the closer the sword got to me, the bigger it became. Soon, it landed in my hand at the perfect size.

I swung at the Venti with the sword, and they all screamed in pain as they dissolved into more gold dust.

I looked around for Hedge, but the guy was gone. I guess he wasn't able to get away from Dylan before he was sucked into the vortex.

That's when I remembered, Piper! I flew down into the canyon, desperate to save her. I needn't have worried, though. I found Jason holding Piper in his arms near the middle of the canyon, floating in mid-air.

I went down to Jason's eye level and stared. "You can fly too?"

"Apparently." Jason shrugged.

Piper was silent at first; she just kept looking at the guy who rescued her. She was blushing furiously. I couldn't tell if it was the nerves from the fall, if she was taken by Jason, or both.

"T-Thanks Jason," she said sheepishly.

"No offense, J, but maybe it's best if I take Piper the rest of the way up," I suggested.

"No." Piper insisted, "No, I'm good.". She held on to Jason tighter.

The three of us flew back up to the walkway, where Leo was still lying face down on the ground. Piper rushed over to him and knelt down, shaking him.

"Leo, are you okay?" she asked.

Leo sat up and muttered, "Stupid... ugly-" He stopped talking all of a sudden, and his eyes lit up.

"TRANSFORMER!" he shouted with glee. He jumped up and raced over to me. Piper and Jason just stood there, staring.

"I've never gotten a chance to see one up close!" he said. He turned to Piper and asked, "Why didn't you tell us you were friends with an Autobot?"

"Didn't want to make too big a scene," Piper explained.

I looked around. Seems like the kids in the Wilderness School had no idea what to do or where to go now that their escort was gone; they just stood there inside the building. Security tried to help them out as best they could.

"Can I get a look inside you?" Leo asked me.

"Inside my cockpit?"

"No, your inner mechanics!"

"What? No!" I protested.

"Leo I think there's something else we need to focus on..." Jason muttered, looking around.

"Oh right. The storm things," Leo murmured.

That reminded me, "Here's your sword back." I said, handing it to Jason.

"Toss it," Jason suggested.

I did, and as the sword flew through the air, it shrank down to a gold coin and landed in Jason's palm.

"How did you know the sword was going to shift to my size?" I asked.

"I didn't. I just took a gamble." Jason admitted putting the coin back in his pocket.

"Where'd you even get that?" Piper asked.

"How should I know? I told you I don't remember anything." Jason reminded her.

"Oh... Right..."

"Can someone tell me what the heck is going on here?" I asked, rubbing the back of my head.

"Maybe we're all having a shared hallucination," Leo suggested.

Piper put her hands on her hips, "Leo. What kind of hallucination is shared between three humans and a robot?" she asked.

"And if we were, wouldn't Coach Hedge still be here?" Jason pointed out.

"Oh yeah..." Leo said "I can't believe the guy saved my life..." he muttered.

"Twice." Piper pointed out.

"Also, what did that thing call you guys? Demigods?" I asked, "Like in my story?"

"I don't know about Demi, but I'm not feeling very godly. You guys feeling godly?" Leo asked.

At that moment, there was the sound of dry twigs snapping. We looked down; my thunder boom had damaged the walkway; it was probably going to give any second.

"We need to get off this thing," Jason said. "Maybe if we-"

"Okay. I think we're definitely hallucinating." Leo interrupted, pointing up to the sky.

Coming toward us was a flying chariot with two people inside. It was being pulled by-

"PEGASI!" I said. It was my turn for my eyes to light up.

"Oh boy." Piper groaned.

"I guess that must be the extraction team Hedge told us about," Jason noted.

The chariot landed on the walkway carefully; two people were in it: a blond girl with storm-grey eyes who looked vaguely familiar, and a bulky dude with a shaved head.

The girl lept off the chariot with a dagger and ran toward us.

I spoke up first, "Can I pet the-"

"Where is he!?" she shouted.

"Where's who?" Jason asked.

She frowned, like his answer was unacceptable. Then she turned to Leo, "Where's Gleeson Hedge? Your protector?" she asked.

"Got sucked into a tornado," Leo explained.

"What happened?!" she demanded to know.

We did our best to explain. She accepted our story, bizarre as it was, but she seemed confused when we called the storm spirits Venti.

She looked frantic after we finished. "No, no!" she said. "She said he'd be here!"

"Who would be here?" I asked.

"Annabeth!" The bald guy grunted, "Look." He pointed at Jason's foot, the one without a shoe.

"What? Does he look daft with only one shoe?" I asked, quoting a show I'd seen once.

She glared daggers at me, then she glared those same daggers at the sky. "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?" she screamed. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE-" she paused. She looked at me again carefully.

"Are you responsible!?" she asked. "Did you do something to him!?"

"Do what to who?" I asked, "I don't know what you're-"

She interrupted me by stabbing me in the foot with her knife.

"YEOW!" I shouted. It hurt. It actually hurt. Which was weird because normally most human weapons don't hurt us. Daggers were in the "don't hurt" category.

"Hey!" cried Piper. "Leave my friend alone!"

"Friend!?" the girl asked in disbelief. "But he's a-"

"Look, Annabeth, calm down," begged the burly guy. "Let's get these three to camp and figure it out from there," he suggested.

"What about Thundercracker?" Piper asked.

The girl—Annabeth, I guess—scowled. "What about him?"

"I'm not going anywhere without him." Piper insisted.

"Well, I'm not going anywhere with her!" I gestured toward the girl, "She stabbed me!"

"Like you didn't deserve it!" the blonde girl said.

"What did he do!?" Piper demanded.

The big guy hesitated. "Annabeth, calm down," he repeated softly but firmly.

She grunted and walked back to the chariot with a forlorn expression on her face.

The guy turned to us. "Look, you gotta cut Annabeth some slack. She had a vision telling her to come here to find a guy with one shoe. That was supposed to be the answer to her problem."

"What problem?" Leo asked.

"She's been looking for one of our campers, who's been missing for three days," the burly guy said. "She's been going out of her mind with worry. She hoped he'd be here."

"Who?" Jason asked.

"Her boyfriend, a guy named Percy Jackson."

The burly guy paused dramatically.

"We still have no idea who that is," I said.

"Oh... Right." The guy muttered.

This was a tricky chapter to do. The action scene ended up being a lot more complex than I thought it'd be, and I had to make sure not to repeat too much of what Rick had already written, even if I was still following the same beats for the most part.

Thanks for reading; don't forget to leave a review!