So another update. Everything is good. Power is back. Things are back to normal where I am. So let's get back to the adventure!
Also fun fact, with this chapter, I've officially surpassed the amount of chapters my original "The Hawk and the Dove" story had.
I don't own Transformers or the Riordanverse; they belong to their owners.
Chapter 28: Taking the Dive.
Janet seemed really confused about why her husband was leaving on a trip so suddenly, especially so soon after his long-lost daughter had been found. It took her a while to be convinced, but she finally relented. Frederick got the sense she suspected something was up, but if she did, she didn't say anything.
It took several days for the Ark-27 to get to the Mediterranean Sea from Virginia; during that time, everyone was hard at work getting the preparations for the mission ready.
They mostly stayed quiet during that time; nobody was sure what to think just yet—except for Frederick, who wouldn't stop asking question after question about Cybertron.
At last, after what felt like an eternity, in the pilot's chair, Sunstreaker reported.
"We're hovering above the Mediterranean Optimus. Just a few miles away from those coordinates Ratchet and the human put together."
"Any sign of the Decepticons?" Optimus asked onboard the bridge.
"No," Sunstreaker answered. "They could be cloaked or not in the general area."
"Either way, they can't be far behind…" Hound mused.
"What's the plan, Boss Bot?" Hot Rod asked.
"We're going diving," Optimus said. "We'll travel along the sea floor until we reach the coordinates."
"Wait. You want us to go into the water!?" Sunstreaker asked. "My beautiful paint job will be ruined! I'll get rust all over me!"
"Deal with it, Sunstreaker," Optimus said sternly.
"Yes sir…"
Thalia, Annabeth, and Luke found the Autobots in the loading bay, getting their equipment ready as they prepared for the dive. Ratchet was helping them gear up but would be staying behind as mission control.
"So I guess we're being left behind then…" Thalia lamented.
"Not quite," said Ratchet.
"Huh?"
Ratchet put something on the floor: three pairs of skin-tight diving suits.
"Skin-tight, pressure-insulated diving suits," Ratchet explained. "Something I've been working on for the past few weeks."
"Hah hah! Sweet!" Luke said.
"You didn't make one for dad?" Annabeth asked.
"Well, I didn't exactly know your father would be here when I started making these," Ratchet explained. "Frederick has offered to stay behind to help me monitor the situation from here."
"I see…" Annabeth murmured.
When it was time to take the plunge, Frederick came to see his daughter. He looked very uncomfortable.
"This doesn't feel completely safe to me…" he admitted.
"Dad, I've fought monsters; I can handle this," Annabeth assured him.
"It's just… Promise me if things get too dangerous, you'll come right back." Frederick requested.
"Dad, I can take care of—"
Annabeth looked into her father's worried eyes and paused. She sighed.
"Yeah, okay. I will," she said.
"Thank you," Frederick said. He looked at Prowl. "Take care of my girl."
"I will," Prowl said.
"I think we're all ready, Ratchet," Optimus said.
"Activating loading bay doors," Ratchet said as he pulled the lever to open them. The massive doors of the loading bay opened sideways, exposing miles of open sea that the Ark-27 hovered a few inches above. The smell of salt water started to permeate everywhere.
"Releasing survey drones," Prowl said as he pressed some buttons on his wrist. Various small plane-like things started popping out of compartments on the Ark-27's hull and started diving into the water.
"You're all clear," Ratchet said. "Remember to shift all your weight to your feet so you can stay stable on the sea floor."
"Hah hah!" Brawn laughed. "Let's do this!" He jumped off the ship, started flying into the air, and bunched himself up. "Cannonball! HAH HAH!"
Brawn landed in the water with a big splash.
"Here goes nothing!" yelled Chromia. She nimbly leaped off the side and landed gracefully in the water.
"It's only a little water…" Sunstreaker muttered to himself, "It's only a little wat–"
"Oh, just go, you big protoform." Hot Rod said as he patted Sunstreaker on the back. The pat caused Sunstreaker to lose his balance, and he started stumbling forward. "Wa Wa... WAAAAAA!" he cried as he started to fall off the ship.
"Hot Rod, I'm gonna get you for–" Before Sunstreaker could finish, he hit the water with a massive splash.
"Wanna ride Thalia?" asked Hot Rod, extending his arm to his friend.
Thalia nodded and climbed up onto Hot Rod's shoulder.
"WAAAAA HA HOOO!" shouted Hot Rod as he jumped in.
Hound and Optimus calmly lept in, with the latter carrying Luke on his back. This left Prowl and Annabeth.
Annabeth gave one final look at her father before jumping in with Prowl.
After the descent to the ocean floor, the next half of the journey was just walking across the seafloor bed. The Autobots walked across the sea floor, passing jagged rocks that pointed upward to the sky, the three kids swimming alongside them. Moving through the water was like moving through molasses; it pushed against them, and while the current wasn't strong, it whipped around them, as if teasing the Autobots to lose their focus and drift away.
What was unsettling was that occasionally they'd find the wreckage of a ship; they were all from different eras of history, and it seemed like they were all around them. Some had rotten and decayed into almost nothing, but a few were still intact.
After about an hour, they came across another of these ships; this one looked like an old Greek trieme.
"This would be so cool if it wasn't so morbid," Annabeth muttered as she looked upon the ship sadly.
"I don't like this…"Hound muttered as he guided the way with the Jeep headlights on his chest serving as their light. "Every time we come across one of these ships, it's like they're watching us…"
"I agree, Hound." Optimus lamented. "It is most ominous," he then turned on his comm. "Ratchet, have the drones picked up anything yet?"
"Not much, Optimus," Ratchet said as he and Frederick, from their place in the Ark-27's control room, watched all the monitors.
"Why are there so many wrecked ships around here anyway?" asked Chromia.
"The Mediterranean Sea is infamous for its violent storms, and due to being landlocked, it makes the already rough waves worse," Frederick explained over the communication line.
"Great," muttered Luke.
Prowl sighed. "Let's just keep–"
"Wa!" Sunstreaker yelped as he tripped and stumbled on a rock. He struggled to get his balance against the current and ended up falling flat on his back onto the trieme, crushing it underneath his weight.
Frederick winced over the comms. A priceless piece of history had just been crushed.
"Sunstreaker? You okay?" Brawn asked, walking up to him.
Sunstreakered groaned as he picked himself among the wrecked wood of the ship. As he moved his hand to rub his head, he saw that a small creature with a large head and eight limbs was latched onto his arm.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" he screamed. "Get it off! Get it off!". Sunstreaker shook his hand up and down desperately, trying to shake the creature off, but it was hanging on for dear life.
"Calm down Sunstreaker," Annabeth said. "It's just a harmless octopus."
"It's creepy and gross, and get it off me!" ordered Sunstreaker nervously.
"Hang on," said Thalia as she swam over to Sunstreaker. She brought out her spear and leveled it at the octopus, giving it a gentle stab.
The octopus, taking the hint, jumped off of Sunstreaker, but not before launching a spread of black liquid as it raced away.
"GAH! What is that!?" Sunstreaker yelled as he edged away from the black cloud.
"It's just ink, Sunstreaker," Thalia explained. "Octopuses use it as a defense tactic. It's harmless…"
"Just keep it away from my paint job," Sunstreaker insisted.
"Suck it up, you protoform," Brawn muttered under his breath.
"WHAT!?" Sunstreaker yelled.
"Cut it out, you two!" Optimus ordered. "NOW!"
Sunstreaker huffed and looked unhappy, but he did so.
"So...how much farther?" asked Brawn.
"A few more miles," Ratchet answered.
"Let's go then!" Brawn cheered.
In the skies above the Medditeran Sea, Spinster hovered in his helicopter mode. Using a sonar device attached to the bottom of his alternate mode, he scanned the seas, darting around the rough area of the coordinates that Soundwave had put together after combining the notes they'd gotten on the various Allspark symbols with the knowledge of Ancient Greek Language Soundwave had managed to pull from Frederick Chase's mind.
It had been a few hours, and still, there had been nothing.
Nearby, several miles away, the Nemesis was also hovering above the skies. Inside, Barricade, Quake, Skytread, Soundwave, and Megatron waited as Spinister, Starscream, and Skywarp continued their survey.
"Anything?" Barricade asked over the comms.
"Nothing yet," Spinster reported.
"Gah, this is infuriating!" Quake grumbled. "I just wanna get in there and bash some Autobots processors out, and we're stuck here!"
"I know patience isn't exactly your strong suit, Quake, but calm down," Megatron said assuringly but with a hint of a threat. "It's only a matter of time."
"I can't believe Starscream, Spinster, and Skywarp get to have all the fun…" Quake muttered.
"You think this is fun!?" asked Starscream over the comm. "This has to be the most boring detail ever! There's nothing to see but water!"
"Yeah, I'm with Screamer on this one," Skywarp answered. "This sucks!"
"Could be worse." Skytread pointed out.
"Oh yeah?" asked Quake. "Worse how?"
"Could be stuck in the CR chamber like Thundercracker," Skytread answered.
"I can't tell if he's lucky he's missing this snoozefest or unlucky that he's gonna miss all the fun once we find this Atlanta." Skywarp muttered.
"Atlantis." Soundwave corrected.
"Whatever!" Skywarp responded.
"SILENCE!" Megatron hollered.
"For once, thank you, Megatron," Starscream said. "I can finally hear myself think and can focus on the search."
"You're welcome…" Megatron said with a hint of sarcasm.
"Wait!" yelled Spinister.
"What?"
"I think I got something!" Spinster reported. "Deep sea sonar is going crazy!"
"Investigate it now!" ordered Megatron.
Spinster transformed into robot mode and let himself fall into the ocean; he started sinking into the dark depths….
"Are we there yet?" Annabeth asked.
"We'll get there when we get there," muttered Prowl.
"How long have we been walking?" asked Brawn.
"Or, in some of our cases, swimming." Luke pointed out cheekily.
"About an hour…" Ratchet reported over the comms.
"Too long…' Brawn muttered.
"Why are we even walking?" Hot Rod asked. "Why don't we just drive there?"
He paused. "Actually, in fact." Hot Rod transformed into his Dodge Viper mode.
"Hot Rod, wait!" said Hound, but Hot Rod didn't listen. He tried to move, but his wheels spun helplessly on the sea floor, and he started to float up.
"Hey, what gives?"
"No traction on this kind of terrain plus a low gravity environment..." Hound explained.
Hot Rod sighed as he transformed back into robot mode. "Now you tell me..."
Thalia fidgeted nervously.
"Hey, something wrong, Thalia?" Hot Rod asked.
"I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but I don't know how safe this is for me," she admitted. "The sea is Posiden's domain... I don't know how he'd feel about me.
"Hey, don't worry about it," Hot Rod said assuringly. "I'm sure that–"
"Guys!" shouted Chromia, who was a bit more ahead of the others.
"What!?" asked Optimus.
"Come over here!"
Everyone rushed over to the edge that Chromia was on and looked on in wonder.
There, in a sunken valley in the middle of the sea, were the giant ruins of buildings. The design of the buildings was nothing like anyone had ever seen before—a mix of classical Greek architecture and some kind of original design.
Half of the buildings seemed intact, but the other half were damaged and crumpled wrecks, and even the ones that were still standing had a bunch of cracks in them.
Everyone was silent for a moment, taking in the awe-inspiring sight.
"Atlantis," Annabeth said.
"We're finally here..." Optimus said somberly.
Just then everyone heard a loud, high-pitched noise over the comm line.
"What was that?" asked Prowl.
"It's Frederick. He's squeeing…" Ratchet muttered.
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave a review!