So, the final tally on the "Daughter of the Deep" thing. It looks like most people don't want this story to cross over with it.

Sorry guys. We're going to have to wait a bit to see Ana, Ester, Gem, and the gang. There might still be some nods in this story, but the full-on crossover is going to have to wait for another time.

In any case, let's get into the next chapter.

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

Chapter 25: Crash Course

Thalia and Luke were quiet as Hound, Hot Rod, Chromia, and Prowl passed down a burned-down mansion while driving through Richmond, Virginia, in their vehicle modes. Clean-up and demolition crews were working on bulldozing what was left of the place. Soon there would be nothing left of the building or anything that was in it.

"Wonder what happened there?" Hound asked.

"Yeah… I wonder…" Luke muttered with a bitter twang.

Annabeth was also quiet as she rode inside Prowl and the Autobots drove through her old home city, but it was for completely different reasons.

"I never thought I'd come here again…" she murmured.

"It's not going to be for long," Prowl said.

"What if he tries to take me back?" Annabeth asked.

"We'll stop him," Luke assured from over the comm as he rode inside Hound.

Chromia drove up next to Prowl and had her biker rider hologram look at Annabeth. "So Annabeth," she asked. "Is there a reason you don't wanna go back to see your dad?"

"He didn't want me," Annabeth said bitterly.

"You mentioned that before.'" Hot Rod pointed out.

"He doesn't care about me." Annabeth repeated, "He got married to some other woman and forgot all about mom."

The Autobots were quiet.

"...What!?" Annabeth asked.

"People sometimes move on Annabeth," Hound replied.

"Sometimes they shouldn't…" murmured Prowl.

"Thank you Prowl," Annabeth said as she crossed her arms. "My stepmother doesn't like me either. She never believed me either. This one time, I got attacked by spiders in the middle of the night, and she didn't believe me. Said I imagined it, but I know what I saw!"

"Okay, that does suck," Chromia admitted. "But your dad?"

"I overheard them talking one night," Annabeth said. "Dad told my stepmother that he never wanted me, that I was delivered without much warning on his doorstep. He tried to return me, but Athena insisted heroes must be worshiped by their mortal parent…"

"Okay, I think you're missing some nuance here…" Hound started, but Annabeth ignored him.

"He never had time for me; he ignored me and pretended I didn't exist. My stepmom treated me like a freak." Annabeth continued. "The two kids they had mattered more than me."

"I couldn't take it anymore, so I ran away," she finished.

"I'm sorry," Chromia said.

"Look, it's gonna be okay, Annabeth," Prowl said. "We'll sort this out."

Hound on the other hand, seemed a bit more contemplative. "Was it really that bad?" he asked.

"Yeah." Annabeth scoffed. "I bet he doesn't even remember me; possibly even threw a party. The kid he never wanted was out of his life. He's probably so happy right now…"

Frederick Chase stared miserably at the phone on his desk in his office. It's what he was spending most of his free time doing these days. He'd go to work at his university job, hold it in, then come back home and spend most of his time sitting around waiting for news.

There'd be news soon. There had to be.

"Fredrick?" his wife Janet asked from the doorway to his office.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Do you... want to go out for dinner?" she asked uneasily. "I can call a sitter for the twins."

"I don't know," Frederick replied.

Janet hesitated. "Fredrick. I hate to say it, but... It's been three months. If she-"

Frederick swerved his head toward his wife and gave her an angry expression. "No! She's not dead!" he insisted. "I'd know! I… I would feel it."

Janet was quiet. "Freddie…"

"...Gods Janet there… There's so much I should have said..."

"I don't know what to tell you." Janet said.

"I don't think there's anything you can say…"Fredrick lamented.

Janet opened her mouth to speak again when there was a ring on the doorbell.

Before Janet could audibly wonder who that was, Fredrick leapt up from his chair and bolted to the house door.

When he opened it, he saw a police officer with brown hair and a mustache. "Fredrick Chase?" he asked.

"Yes?"

"I understand you have a missing child's report for your daughter Annabeth Chase?"

"Yes?" Frederick repeated, his voice rising as he dared to hope.

"Well, I've got good news," the officer said. "Your daughter is alive. She's at the station right now."

At that moment, Frederick felt the weight of the world drop off his shoulders like he was Atlas letting go of the sky. "Thank gods," he sighed in relief.

"If you'll come with me, I can take you to her," the officer said.

Frederick turned back around to his wife. "Janet–"

"You don't need to say anything," Janet said, smiling.

"Get in me—my car," the officer said.

Frederick walked down to the curb where the officer's car was parked in front of an armored truck. As he got closer, something caught Frederick's eye. The slogan on the back side of the car, instead of reading "To Protect and Serve," actually read "To Punish and Enslave."

"...What's with the slogan?" Fredrick asked.

"It's just a joke. Don't worry about it," the officer assured.

Frederick shuffled nervously. Suddenly, this didn't seem like a good idea. "Actually, I think I have some work to do. If you could bring Annabeth to me-"

"Do you want to see your daughter again or not?" the officer asked ominously.

Parental instinct won out over common sense, and Fredrick reluctantly walked over to the passenger side door and sat down.

The second he did, the door slammed shut and locked on its own.

"Hey, what the-" cables shot out from behind the passenger seat and wrapped around Fredrick, restraining him down. "What the hell?!"

"Don't worry, Frederick. It's going to be quick," the officer said sadistically while sitting down in the driver's seat.

"Who are you!?" Frederick asked, starting to panic. "What's going on!?"

Just then, from the back seat, someone leaned forward and put their arm around it, pointing a gun at Fredrick.

Fredrick froze. He slowly turned his head sideways and saw the arm pointing a gun at him was robotic.

"Fredrick Chase, Welcome to the Decepticons! We're your hosts, Barricade and Frenzy!" laughed a small red and black robot in the back seat.

"What is this!?" Frederick demanded to know.

"Simple really." The officer said as his form flickered like a hologram. "We're kidnapping you."

Frederick opened his mouth to scream for help, but another cable shot out from around the seat and clasped around his mouth.

"Uh Uh Uh. Can't have you making a scene now, can we?" The officer laughed.

Frederick let out a muffled curse as the accelerator on the police car lit up and began to drive away, the nearby armored car following close behind.

As they got closer and closer to her old house, Annabeth felt her skin get colder and colder, and her ADHD began to kick in, and she began to fidget nervously in her seat.

"Annabeth, calm down," Prowl said. "You're giving me sensory overload with all your shaking."

"Sorry…" muttered Annabeth.

"Look, let's just rip the bandage off, okay?" Thalia asked. "It's one visit, and then you'll never have to see your dad again."

"Yeah, I guess you're-"

Just then a black Saleen Mustang police car drove past them on the other lane.

For a split second, Annabeth and Prowl got a close view of it.

Prowl saw the slogan on the back, "To Punish and Enslave."

Annabeth had gotten a look inside at the person in the passenger seat, currently wrapped up in cables.

"DAD!?" she exclaimed.

"That was Barricade!" Prowl shouted.

"And he's got my dad!" Annabeth shouted.

"What!?" asked Hot Rod.

"Why would they have your dad?" Hound asked.

"Soundwave read Annabeth's mind, remember?" Prowl pointed out. "They must have learned about him from that and had the same idea we did."

"Great minds think alike, I suppose." Chromia muttered.

Prowl gave a hard brake and turned into the other lane. "Autobots! Follow them!" he ordered.

Hot Rod, Hound, and Chromia all did their own brakes, turned, and began to follow Prowl in his pursuit.

"Why can't anything ever be easy!?" muttered Luke.

"It wouldn't be our job if it was…" Hot Rod responded.

Soundwave was relieved they had managed to trick the human, Frederick Chase, into coming with them with no fuss. It seemed family was one of the big weaknesses these humans had.

"Uh, Soundwave" called out Frenzy from where he was riding in Barricade. "We got company!"

Soundwave looked through his back cameras and saw a white police car, a red sports car, a green Jeep, and a blue motorcycle following them.

"Autobots," he said.

"You know what to do," Barricade said.

If Soundwave was in robot form, he would have nodded. "Buzzsaw, laserbreak, eject, operation, disengagement."

From the back of Soundwave's armored truck mode, two data discs were launched into the air that both transformed into robotic condors, one yellow and one red.

They screeched and began to fly toward the Autobots.

"Serpentine!" shouted Prowl, and the Autobots swerved back and forth to avoid the laser fire of the two Decepticon birds.

The shots coming down on them forced Hot Rod to swerve into the opposite lane, only to come face to face with another car barreling towards him.

"Whoa!" Hot Rod exclaimed as the other driver honked. He swiftly maneuvered back into the Autobot's lane.

"Gah, these streets are too small!" Hot Rod shouted.

"We don't have a choice!" Chromia grunted as she avoided a laser blast from Buzzsaw.

"Easy for you to say!" Hot Rod shot back. "You've got the smallest vehicle mode!"

"Guys, shut up!" Luke demanded.

Barricade and Soundwave were keeping a consistent lead through all this. Prowl was right behind them, trying to get closer and closer.

"Cmon….Cmon…" he muttered.

"Autobot. You will not succeed." Soundwave taunted as he swerved right in front of Prowl. The sudden obstacle caused Prowl to brake and lose momentum.

"Scrap!" muttered Prowl.

Just then Soundwave's back door opened up, and sitting right there on a mini laser turret was Rumble.

"Oh no," Annabeth said.

"Normally I'm more of an earthquake guy," Rumble boasted. "But this, this will be just as fun."

He pulled the trigger, and the turret started shooting rapidly at Prowl and the other Autobots.

"GAH!" cried Hound as he was hit on the hood.

"Scrap, this is scrudded!" cried Chomia as she was dodging and swerving attacks from both Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, and now Rumble on the turret.

"Prowl! Get in closer!" Annabeth ordered.

"Why in Primus's name would I do that?!" Prowl asked as he dodged another close laser shot from Rumble.

"I got a plan," Annabeth said smugly.

Prowl didn't say anything, but he did hit the accelerator and moved forward closer and closer to Soundwave.

He was just about to get to the Decepticon when he and Barricade rounded a corner. Prowl grimaced and skidded down the turn with a loud SCREECH sound. He just barely managed to keep up with the two Decepticons.

Prowl's engine roared to life, and he got right up close to Soundwave.

Annabeth reached up out of the passenger window and slowly began to climb onto the roof.

"Annabeth!" Prowl shouted. "What are you doing?!" he asked.

"I told you," Annabeth said as she reached Prowl's roof and did her best to keep her balance on it. "I got a plan!"

Rumble fired another shot at Prowl, and Prowl was forced to take it, lest another dodging attempt throw Annabeth right off. "Okay!" Prowl grunted. "Just hurry."

Annabeth steadied herself, then she started running forward on top of Prowl.

"Hey!" Rumble exclaimed now, noticing the human, "What the-"

Annabeth jumped at the edge of Prowl's hood and landed right inside Soundwave's back.

"I did it!" she cheered.

"I remember you!" Rumble jeered. "You're the insect who took my eye!". He converted his arm into a piledriver. "I'm gonna enjoy smashing you into—"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Annabeth said as she leapt up and stabbed Rumble in the left eye before he could react.

"AH! Not again!" he cried in pain.

Annabeth shoved Rumble aside and raced to the front of Soundwave.

"Human!" Soundwave stated. "Get out of me this inst—"

He was interrupted when Annabeth threw her dagger at Soundwave's front window, shattering it. Soundwave grunted in pain, and Annabeth leapt forward, diving through the broken window onto the Decepticons hood.

"Stop her!" shouted Soundwave.

Rumble, trying to recover from Annabeth's attack, got up and pulled out one of his guns. He pointed it at her.

Annabeth looked back at Rumble, then looked forward at Barricade, whom Soundwave was still following close behind. She had to think fast.

It all happened at once: Rumble fired his gun, and Annabeth jumped forward off of Soundwave's hood, narrowingly avoiding the laser shot.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion for Annabeth; it only lasted a second to two, but she felt like she had been staring at the pavement below for hours.

But she made it; she landed on the top of Barricade's trunk. She felt herself starting to slip, but she quickly dug her dagger into the back of Barricade to keep herself stable.

Silently, Annabeth thanked her ADHD battle instincts.

"Annabeth, you're crazy!" Prowl shouted.

"No. I'm smart!" she stated.

She then started to climb up to get to Barricade's roof.

"Frenzy! Get her!" ordered Barricade.

Frenzy nodded and started to climb out of his teammate's window to confront Annabeth on the roof.

"You humans have caused us a lot of trouble, you know..." he said threateningly.

"We get that a lot," Annabeth admitted cheekily.

Frenzy growled as he finished climbing up on the roof. Activating his magnetic clamps to stay stable, he turned his arms into drills. He grinned and jabbed them forward at the girl.

Annabeth swiftly dodged the drills and narrowly avoided them by leaning off the side of the roof.

In his position, tied up in the passenger seat, Fredrick overheard the commotion on the top of the police car.

"What the hell is going on here?" he thought to himself.

Just then he saw a small girl with blond hair swerve into a position where she was hanging on top of the side of the car. His eyes widened when he saw who it was.

He made a muffled sound that was probably meant to be the word Annabeth.

Annabeth didn't say anything upon seeing her father; she just kept dodging Frenzy's drills by swerving, grabbing, and crawling all over Barricade's roof, hood, windows, and trunk.

"Gah! Get this pest off me!" Barricade shouted disgustedly.

"Annabeth, hang on!" called Prowl.

Annabeth looked back at her friend. Prowl had just managed to get past Soundwave and was now trying to drive up to Barricade. She could see Hot Rod and Hound doing their best to keep Soundwave from being able to move forward by boxing him in. She couldn't see Chromia right now, but she guessed she was doing something behind Soundwave, probably still dealing with Laserbeak and Buzzsaw.

Her train of thought was interrupted by another jab from Frenzy.

"Try to get your dad loose!" called Prowl.

"Yeah. Right!" Annabeth responded. She moved over the passenger side window and held onto the roof. Her father let out a muffled sound.

Frenzy growled, stood on top of the roof, pulled out his gun, then pointed it at Annabeth, "No, you don't."

Prowl rammed into the back of Barricade. Annabeth held on as tighter as she could onto the roof. Frenzy with nothing to grab onto, staggered backward and fell off Barricade.

"Whoa!" he cried as he fell to the pavement.

He picked himself up just in time to see Hot Rod coming right at him.

"Incoming!" Hot Rod yelled.

"Scrap," Frenzy muttered.

The last thing he saw before being knocked into stasis lock was Hot Rod crashing right into him.

Annabeth moved to free her dad. She hung off the side of Barriacade, then used her dagger to break open his passenger side window, and then cut the cable over her dad's mouth.

Frederick took a moment to catch his breath and just stared at his daughter for a moment. "Annabeth?" he asked. "Is that really you?"

"Yeah, Dad, it's me…" Annabeth said quietly as she attempted to cut his other bonds.

"Annabeth, what's going on? What's happening?"

Annabeth didn't answer; she just kept trying to cut her dad loose.

"Annabeth, answer me!"

"Look, I'll explain when—WAAAH!"

At that moment, Barricade swerved and tried to scrape Annabeth against a nearby freeway fence.

"Look out!" Prowl shouted.

Annabeth jumped back onto the roof right before Barricade collided with the fence. The sound of metal on metal was agonizing; Annabeth had to fight the urge to cover her ears.

"This is insanity!" Frederick yelled.

"I know!" Annabeth shouted back. She leaned upside down off the roof of the car and attempted to cut off her dad's bonds again through the window.

"Soundwave! Help me out!" Barricade yelled.

"Can't get close!" Soundwave shouted in frustration as Hot Rod and Hound continued to block him from going forward. "Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, disengage Chromia and attack the human known as Annabeth!"

From behind Soundwave, the two robotic condors flew forward and right toward Barricade.

"They've got robot animals too!?" Frederick asked in disbelief.

"Just hang on!" Annabeth shouted. "I've almost got-"

Laser fire from Buzzsaw and Laserbeak erupted around her, and she lost her concentration.

"Hang on!" shouted Thalia. She leaned outside of Hot Rod's window and shot a bolt of lightning at the two birds. It struck them, and with a cry, the Decepticon birds lost focus.

It was the opening Annabeth needed; she cut her father's last bond. "Got you!" she shouted.

Prowl tried to get over to Barricade's passenger side so Annabeth and her father could safely jump to him, but it was no good. Barricade was staying as close to the side of the road as he could, making it impossible for Prowl to get in position. "Annabeth! I can't get over there," Prowl shouted. "You're going to have to jump off the roof!"

"What!?" Frederick exclaimed.

"Just come on, Dad!" Annabeth shouted; she extended her hand, and Fredrick reluctantly took it and shakily started climbing out of Barricade's window and onto the roof.

"Somebody stop them!" yelled Barricade.

Laserbeak and Buzzsaw, now recovered, launched another volley of lasers at Annabeth and her dad; one struck Annabeth in the arm. She grunted in pain.

"Annabeth!" Frederick cried as he hung onto the roof for dear life.

"I'm okay!" she answered, but she still looked hurt.

Prowl got as close as he could to Barricade from behind.

"JUMP!" he ordered.

Annabeth and Fredrick jumped, and once again, everything went into slow motion; what was a few seconds seemed like a lifetime...

Then they landed on Prowl's hood with a thud.

Prowl hit his brakes. "Get in! Get in!" he ordered.

Frederick and Annabeth hurriedly moved off the hood and got into Prowl on the driver and passenger sides, respectively.

"Annabeth, what's going on?" her dad asked.

"It's a long story, dad," Annabeth admitted.

Prowl was just about to accelerate when something collided with him from behind. Soundwave had managed to get past Hot Rod and had rammed him.

Frederick and Annabeth cried, and Prowl screamed in pain.

"You cannot escape us humans!" Soundwave taunted.

Meanwhile, upfront, Barricade turned on his comm.

"Megatron, it's Barricade." We're going to need backup…"

Sorry if certain parts of the action scene weren't clear. This action scene ended up a lot more complex and clustered than I thought it'd be.

Also, yes, I used the name Janet for Annabeth's stepmother from shiiki's "Daughter of Wisdom" series. I was honestly surprised when I looked it up, and I couldn't find a "canon" name for her on the Wika. All credit for that name goes to them.

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