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

Chapter 8: Rescue Mission Part 3

The Autobots rolled through the forest in their vehicle modes again, with Optimus leading the group.

"Autobots. Is everyone okay?" Optimus asks.

"Aside from needing to go through even more forest gunk, I'm good," Sunstreaker muttered.

"I'm fine, Prime," Hound reported. "I think the humans are fine too." From Hound's cab, Thalia gave a nervous thumbs up, and Luke looked over at Annabeth, who was still riding in Prowl.

"What about you, Annabeth? Are you alright?" he asked.

"Thanks to my new friend, Prowl, I am!" Annabeth said happily.

"We're not friends..." Prowl muttered.

Annabeth gave a dejected look at this.

"Don't worry, kid," assured Brawn. "Prowl doesn't like anyone. It's nothing personal."

If Prowl had an objection to this, it was interrupted when Thundercracker landed right in front of Optimus.

"Uh, oh," Optimus muttered.

"Get back!" ordered Chromia as she tried to reverse.

But it was too late; Thundercracker unleashed another sonic boom point-blank at Optimus and the other Autobots. The blast sent all of them flying backward.

"WHOA!" Cried Luke as he held onto Hound for dear life. Annabeth screamed in horror, and Thalia grimaced.

"Hang on!" cried Hound just as he hit the forest floor, cab side down.

Luke and Thalia both moaned as they dragged themselves out from underneath Hound. They looked around and saw the other Autobots in their vehicle modes scattered around the forest road. All of them groaned in pain.

"Annabeth!" Luke cried, and he and Thalia raced over to where Prowl had landed, right side up. Annabeth was pounding on the cracked glass of the police car.

"Luke! I can't get out! The doors jammed!" Annabeth cried.

"Prowl! Open the door!" begged Thalia.

Prowl moaned. "I can't!" he grimaced. "My systems are still reorienting themselves. I can't focus!"

"Well, hurry up before-" a thud came from behind Luke. He and Thalia turned around and saw Starscream and Skywarp standing over them.

"You humans have made a lot of trouble for us," Starscream said. He raised his wrist gun. "You're lucky; I'm going to make it fast."

"No way!" Thalia shouted. She slapped the watch on her left hand and yelled "Aegis!" which extended her shield.

"HAH, you think that puny thing will..." but seeing the symbol on the shield—a human woman with snakes for hair—somehow made Starscream uneasy.

"I...you...what is this foul trickery?"

"Whatever it is," Skywarp muttered as he averted his eyes. "We need to stop it right now!"

"I'm glad you agree!" said a voice.

Starscream and Skywarp swerved around and saw a red Dodge Viper with flame decals driving straight toward them, with a white ambulance following behind.

"Time to see what the new alt modes got!"

"Hot Rod!" Thalia said with a huge smile.

Hot Rod began to drive circles around Skywarp and Starscream.

"Hold still!" Starscream said as he and Skywarp raised their wrist guns to try and shoot him.

"Nuh, uh, uh." Hot Rod said as he transformed into his robot mode and grabbed Starscream.

"Not in front of the children!" he grunted as he threw Starscream into Skywarp, and the two Decepticons fell to the ground in a heap.

"Besides," said Ratchet as he transformed from his white ambulance mode. "Don't you know fighting with an injury is generally considered a bad idea?" He converted his right hand into a scalping tool attachment before running up to Starscream and slicing part of his other wing off.

"AH!" Starscream grunted in pain.

He heard the faint sound of multiple other bots transforming. When he and Skywarp picked themselves up, they saw the other Autobots, Chromia, Sunstreaker, Prowl, Hound, Brawn, and Optimus himself surrounding them.

"Still want to come after us, Starscream?" Optimus asked threateningly.

"I mean, I wouldn't mind it," Brawn said, smashing his knuckles together.

"Me either," Chromia said, pulling out her rifle.

Starscream cringed. "Skywarp, get us out of here!" he ordered.

"Got it, SS," Skywarp said. He activated his teleportation powers and surrounded him and Starscream in purple light. With a VOP, they were gone.

With two of the seekers gone, the Autobots turned to Thundercracker, who had been observing all this silently from the sidelines.

He threw his hands up. "Honestly, I didn't even wanna come after you guys. They talked me into it..." Thundercracker said nervously.

"Then run," ordered Optimus.

"Thank you!' Thundercracker muttered as he turned around, transformed into jet mode, and flew off.

Luke let out a sigh of relief. "Glad that's over," he muttered.

Thalia turned to Hot Rod. "Man, Hot Rod, that was awesome!" she said giddly.

"Yes indeed." Optimus agreed. "Thank you for the assistance, friends.".

"Well, someone had to pull your tailpipes out of the fire." Hot Rod bragged.

"Don't get such a big head," Prowl muttered.

"Excuse me?" asked Hot Rod.

"Sure, you saved us, but we could have had it handled." Prowl insisted. "By my internal estimations, that shield Thalia deployed would have delayed the Seekers long enough to let the rest of us recover in time. We didn't need your help."

"Prowl!" Chromia scolded.

"I'm just stating facts," Prowl said.

Hot Rod crossed his arms. "Would it kill you to show some gratitude?" he asked.

Prowl scoffed. "I'll show gratitude when-"

"Enough," Ratchet muttered. "Why don't we sort this out when we're not in the middle of the woods and back on the Ark?"

"Couldn't agree more, Ratchet," Optimus confirmed. "Autobots roll out!"

When Luke, Thalia, and Annabeth saw the inside of the Ark-27, they couldn't help but gaze in wonder. Demigods normally couldn't use certain advanced technology, and this was way beyond what was in public use for Earth.

The inside of the ship was orange, with computer monitors scattered around.

"You guys came here in this?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah," Hound confirmed. "Do you humans have anything like this on your planet?"

"Well, there was this colony project or something a few years ago, but we haven't really been able to repeat something like that..." Luke murmured as he looked around.

"Alright." Optimus began, "Now that we're back at base, it's time to sort some stuff out." He turned to the three humans and kneeled to their level. "Any idea why the Decepticons kidnapped you, ms.?"

"Annabeth. I think it had something to do with my shirt. The symbol on it got them really excited for some reason."

"Shirt?" asked Brawn.

"I think it's a type of garment humans use to cover themselves." Hound guessed.

"Yeah, exactly," Annabeth confirmed. "It's just one of my dad's old shirts that I stole."

"Ratchet? Can you analyze the symbol?" Optimus asked.

"Way ahead of you, Prime," Ratchet said as he used a device to take a photo to examine.

"And then what?" Thalia asked.

"You get off," Prowl said coldly. "Just remember. We don't exist, and if you ever-"

Annabeth's and Thalia's faces dropped. Luke's hardened "Wait? You're kicking us out?!" Luke asked angrily. "But we just got here!"

"Yeah, I thought we were like...a part of this now." Thalia protested.

Optimus was about to say something when Prowl stepped forward in front of him. "Look," Prowl said. "This isn't some trip! This is the most important mission in the history of Cybertron! We're on a mission to save our entire race! We don't need native lifeforms interfering in it!"

"And I don't want some organics spreading their gunk everywhere!" Sunstreaker agreed.

"Prowl, Sunstreaker, that's not fair!" Hot Rod protested, "Thalia saved my life! I'd probably be in the custody of the humans and being tortured if she hadn't restored my energy somehow!"

"Nonsense!" Prowl scoffed. "Now, where are your mentors? Give us their location, and we'll return you to them."

"...Mentors?" Annabeth asked, confused.

"Erm. Prowl," Ratchet interjected. "Organics don't have mentors; they have parents," he explained.

"Okay, whatever," Prowl muttered. "Where are your parents? I'm sure that-"

Luke's expression hardened even more. "I knew it!" he shouted. "They're just going to force us to go home!" He swerved around and grabbed Annabeth's and Thalia's arms. "Come on, guys!" he said coldly.

"Luke wait!" Thalia said resisting.

"Luke, they're not bad guys!" Annabeth insisted.

Luke didn't say anything or let go of the two girls, but he did stop.

"Are you alright?" Hound asked.

Luke continued with his silence.

"Luke... I think maybe it's okay." Thalia said.

Luke let out a deep sigh. "Fine," he muttered, facing the Autobots again.

"Well? Where are your parents?" Prowl asked.

Luke looked down at the floor with a bitter expression. "My mom's nuts," he said.

"Mine's a mess..." Thalia said it sadly.

"Daddy didn't want me..." Annabeth murmured.

"And your other parent?" Ratchet asks. "From what I understand, it takes-"

"We know!" Luke bitterly spat out.

"They're gone," Thalia answered with uncertainty.

Hot Rod put the pieces in his head together. "So...what are you runaways or something?" he asked.

Luke nodded. "Over three years now for me."

Everyone was silent for a minute.

"Guys, we can't seriously be considering this!?" Sunstreaker finally asked, "We don't know the first thing about taking care of organics! We're not equipped for it!"

"We can't just leave them, Streaker." Hot Rod said. "Like I said, they helped me out."

"And we know more about Earth than you do!" Annabeth said speaking up.

"Yeah, and they aren't too bad in a fight either." Chromia laughed.

"Come on!" Sunstreaker protested. "How are we supposed to feed them!? Back me up here, Prowl."

Prowl was still silent and contemplative.

"Prowl?" Sunstreaker asked.

Prowl finally spoke up: "I think in the end, the choice goes to our leader." He turned to face Optimus, who had been silent during this debate. "Optimus, what do you think? Do we keep them around?"

Optimus thought about it. Luke, Thalia, and Annabeth looked up nervously.

"...We have found ourselves on a strange new world." Optimus finally said: "I think if we're going to find the Allspark, knowing as much about the planet as possible is imperative. Having some guides would be of great assistance."

"So you'll let us stay?" Thalia asked.

"Yes, so long as you follow our lead and do as you're told," Optimus said.

Annabeth cheered, Thalia beamed, and Luke breathed a sigh of relief.

Sunstreaker groaned. "It's a bad idea," he muttered.

"I'm not big on it either, Sunstreaker, but Prime's got a point," Prowl admitted. "We don't know the first thing about this world. Having native guides-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, I know. Just make sure they don't spread their goop all over my stuff." Sunstreaker muttered as he walked away.

"Well, now that that's settled...Autobots back to work." Optimus ordered. "Ratchet, get to studying that symbol."

"Understood Prime." Ratchet nodded, and the Autobots began to disperse. Thalia trailed after Hot Rod, while Luke and Annabeth went to find a place to put their stuff.

"Hey, Hot Rod?" Thalia asked.

"Yeah?"

"I have a question." Thalia said, "Why do you guys all turn into cars and jets and stuff?"

Hot Rod shrugged. "It's just kind of a part of our culture, a part of us."

"So...what are you like, transformers or something?" Thalia asked.

"Actually, we're called Cyber- You know what?" Hot Rod smiled. "That's not bad."

"Yeah. We're Transformers."

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