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

Chapter 44: Battle for the Allspark, Part 1

The next day, after everyone had gotten fully recharged (both literally and metaphorically), Optimus had ordered the Ark-27 to make a beeline for the Grand Canyon as fast as possible.

After several more days of traveling, they finally arrived at it, the Grand Canyon...

Hound marveled at the place as he and the other Autobots stepped out of the Ark-27, which had parked a few miles away. The canyon was massive—bigger than anything on Cybertron. The environment was also orange with the desert dirt, and rocks big and small surrounded the area. Small patches of green from pushes and cacti were scattered sporadically.

Hound sighed sorrowfully.

"Something wrong, buddy?" asked Hot Rod.

"I just wish Brawn was here." Hound remarked. "He would have loved visiting this kind of place…"

"Yeah," said Chromia sadly. "He would have... I can see it now. Him just barging in, ready to tear this whole place apart to find the Allspark."

"All the while smiling." Hot Rod laughed.

"Not to be insensitive, but we should probably focus on doing that for ourselves." Prowl reminded them.

"Prowl's right," said Optimus. "We've never been this close before. We need to move and find the Allspark as soon as possible while we have the head start."

"So what's the plan?" asked Nightprowler.

"We split off into teams of three," Optimus said. He got in front of everyone. "Chromia, Prowl, Annabeth. You're one team."

"Yes sir!" Prowl saluted.

"Hot Rod, Sunstreaker, Thalia, you're another."

"Got it, Prime." Hot Rod said.

"Wouldn't have it any other way." Thalia remarked.

"Good," said Optimus. "Hound, Nightprowler, and Luke, you're the other team."

"Works for me," said Hound.

"Sideswipe, Ratchet, you're with me," Optimus ordered.

"Understood Prime," said Ratchet.

"We're at the very end, Autobots. Let's roll out!" Optimus ordered.

"Let's do this thing!" Thalia cheered, raising her fist into the air. Everyone raised their fists as well, and they all ran to the canyon.

Thalia's bravado faded when she saw just how deep the canyon was.

"Oh, right," she stammered. "I forgot…"

"You okay, Thalia?" Asked Luke.

"Yeah…" Thalia gulped. "I'm fine."

Chromia retracted her hand into her arm and deployed a grappling line. She tied the line to the nearest embedded rock on the cliffside and slowly started descending into the canyon below. "Be careful," she warned.

"YeahI know." Sunstreaker remarked. "I don't want to chip my paint job..." He grabbed the line and started descending down with Chromia.

Luke and Annabeth were picked up by Hound and Prowl, respectively, and they two started going down the line with the others.

Thalia looked down again at the canyon floor. It was so far away that the sight was making her dizzy. She tried to move but she couldn't.

"Thalia?" asked Hot Rod in a soothing voice. "Come on, we need to go." He put his hand on the ground so Thalia could step into it.

She hesitated though. "I…I can't…" Thalia said shamefully. "I can't do it."

"Yes, you can…" Hot Rod assured her.

"It's so... high." Thalia shuddered.

"Yeah, I know…" Hot Rod said. "But I'm here, I promise."

Thalia hesitated even more. She looked away.

"You got this, Thalia. You got this…" Hot Rod assured her.

Thalia muttered a curse under her breath. Then she moved onto Hot Rod's hand. "I'm not opening my eyes," she said.

"Didn't expect you too." Hot Rod admitted.

Hot Rod held her close as he descended down Chromia's climbing rope. Thalia's eyes were shut tight as the two moved down into the canyon below; she leaned against Hot Rod intensely.

"Don't worry, Thalia. I'm here…"Hot Rod assured again.

"I'll always be here…"

Meanwhile, just a few miles away, the Nemesis hovered above the Grand Canyon.

All the members of Megatron's crew were onboard the bridge, preparing themselves for the mission before them.

"At last…" Megatron remarked to himself. "Total victory is within my grasp…"

"It's about time we were going after those stupid Autobots again." Quake muttered. "I was getting bored." He pounded his fists together. "Time to kill some more Autobots!"

"Ditto Quake," said Skytread. "Let's roast these Autobots."

"Not without me," said a voice.

The assembled Decepticons turned around. There, limping onto the bridge was Thundercracker.

"Thundercracker?" asked Skywarp. "What are you doing here?"

"You have not been approved to leave the CR chamber yet." Soundwave reminded him.

"I don't care." Thundercracker grimmaced. "I'm seeing this through to the end."

Skywarp stepped forward. "TC, you can't." He pleaded. "You already had a blow to your spark from that human; what if those stupid Autobots and their human bugs hurt you even more?"

"This is my mission too." Thundercracker said defiantly. "Besides. I got a score to settle. I'm not letting you guys do this alone."

"We would appreciate your aid, Thundercracker." Starscream said in his slimy voice. "Your loyalty to the Decepticon cause will be recognized."

"I believe I should be the one to say that." Megatron said sternly.

"Yes…I suppose you should…"Starscream said bitterly.

Megatron rolled his optics; now wasn't the time to deal with Starscream's envy. "In any case," he growled. He moved forward to address the Decepticons all at once. "After several long months on this planet, we have finally found the Allspark's location."

"Or at least it's probable location." Quicksand muttered.

"Quiet!" ordered Barricade.

"In any case." Megatron repeated with his teeth grinding against each other. "Now that we have the location, we can finally start the beginning of the end. Today, the Autobots lose."

The gathered Decepticons cheered. "All hail Megatron!" they shouted.

Megatron grinned with satisfaction.

Now came the fun part...

Hours passed…

Hound, Luke, and Nightprowler found themselves in a remote part of the canyon. The hot desert sun beat down on them.

"Hold on…" Luke panted. "I need a minute to catch my breath…"

"You got it," Hound said.

Luke sat down on a rock and took a sip of water from the canteen he'd made sure to bring for this. He took several deep breaths.

"I think the sun is getting to me," Luke muttered.

"It's getting to me as well..' Nightprowler wheezed. "My beast mode isn't made for hot environments…"

"It is quite a stunning environment though," Hound said looking around.

Luke gave an irritated look at Hound. "Hound, I know you really like this planet and all, but we don't have time to sightsee!" He reminded him.

"Right. Sorry…" Hound muttered sheepishly.

"Yes…"Nightprowler said as he picked himself up and walked a few feet forward. "I need to put aside my concerns and–" he paused.

"Nightprowler?" asked Hound. "What's up?"

Nightprowler took on a determined expression and shifted into his beast mode. "I sense something," he said. "A familiar energy I've felt before..."

"The Allspark!?" asked Luke.

"Possibly." Nightprowler answered. "Follow me!" he started sprinting in another direction. Hound transformed into his Jeep mode, Luke hopped in, and the two started following Nightprowler.

Nightprowler guided Hound and Luke a few miles forward, until eventually they came across a remote location in the canyon. It didn't seem like the area got many visitors.

Inside the area was a huge, secluded pit, and in that pit were the remains of several wrecked airplanes.

"I think we found it." Luke said, jumping out of Hound, who assumed his robot mode right away.

Hound turned on his wrist comm. "Hound, this is Optimus," he reported. "We found an area with a bunch of wrecked planes."

"Good work, Hound." Optimus complimented. "Can you locate the Allspark's signal?"

"I think so." Hound said. "It's not showing up on any of my sensors; it must be shielded somehow, but Nightprowler is still managing to sense it."

"It must have something to do with him being the Allspark's guardian." Optimus guessed. "Find it as soon as possible and contact me when you do. I'll radio the others, and we'll start heading over to that location."

"Got it, Prime," said Hound. "See you soon." He turned off his comm and turned to Nightprowler. "Lead the way, buddy."

Nightprowler's snow leopard form gave a grin. "It will be a pleasure," he said, and he started going into the pit, Luke and Hound close behind...

Unknown to either Autobot or Luke, someone had been watching them as the Decepticon Ravage observed their conversation from his hidden spot in the cliffiside…

As Hound, Nightprowler, and Luke got to the aircraft, they looked around. Every single plane there was damaged beyond repair. It was like a ghost yard.

"Yeah, these are definitely the same planes from the flight recordings." Luke noted. He pointed to one of the husks of the plane; the same symbol of a cobra was prominently displayed on several of the aircraft.

"Something isn't right here," Hound noted.

"Why do you say that?" Nightprowler asked.

"Well, look around." Hound said, gesturing at the various plane wreckages scattered around. "All these planes are intact. But why? Shouldn't someone have come to salvage them at some point?"

Nightprowler thought about it and looked around. "Yes, that is a bit worrisome."

"Well, the good news is, it means the Allspark is probably still here." Luke reminded them.

"Can you sense it, Nightprowler?" Hound asked.

"I think so." Nightprowler said. He went over to the biggest plane and entered it's husk. Hound and Luke walked inside to join Nightprowler. "Yes…over there!" Nightprowler said, lifting his paw to point at a shielded section.

"Come on, let's go!" said Luke, and he started running over there.

"No wait!" called Hound, but it was too late. As Luke ran over there, there was a "click" sound.

Hound thought fast. He jumped forward and shielded Luke with his body just as a massive explosion ripped through the hull, blowing him and Nightprowler out of the wreckage.

Hound's vision started clearing, and he saw Luke in his arms, looking shocked. Nightprowler lay nearby, picking himself back up in robot mode, looking dazed.

"Well, that probably explains why no one's bothered to salvage these." Luke muttered as he regained his composure.

"Yeah. Explosions would probably be a safety hazard." Hound noted. He put Luke out of his arms and pulled out a device on his wrist to scan the aircraft.

"Hmm… " Hound noted as he went over the data he was picking up. "Yeah, it looks like there's a few of these scattered around the plane. We're going to have to be careful."

"Are you sure the Allspark is in there somewhere, Nightprowler?" Luke asked.

"Yes." Nightprowler replied as he dusted the soot off of him.

Luke turned to "Can you outline where the explosions are?" he asked Hound. "If I know where they are, I can probably get to the Allspark."

Hound wanted to protest putting Luke in that kind of danger, but he'd seen the kid in action as a thief before. "I can do that," he confirmed. "Just be careful. Second, it gets too rough. you pull out."

"Hey," said Luke with a cocky grin. "I can steal anything; it's in the blood."

As Luke dipped and dodged his way through the husk of the plane, he couldn't help but be a bit impressed by whoever designed this thing. He had a feeling they had a knack for violence.

He made sure to stay off the ground, lest he activate any ground mines like last time, and he kept away from the walls; according to Hound, there were a few explosions lined in there.

He couldn't help but wonder what exactly some aircraft from a Russian base were doing in North America, but he supposed that didn't matter now.

At last, he made his way to the center of the massive plane; right in the middle of the plane's huge cargo bay was a dome-shaped structure that looked heavily shielded.

"That's got to be it…" Luke mused to himself. He walked up carefully to the structure, making sure to avoid the traps that Hound had pointed out.

He got up to the structure and found a door; surprisingly, it wasn't locked.

He looked inside. From what he could tell, it was some sort of portable lab or storage device.

There was some other stuff inside, some scattered equipment, and other junk, but Luke could barely focus on anything in the structure.

Because right in the middle of the structure on a small operating table was a cube. The cube was about the right size to fit into a transformer's hand, and it was bronze-colored and covered in various symbols. Luke recognized the symbols right away; he'd seen some of them during the search.

The Allspark.

After so many long months, they'd finally found it.

Luke stared in awe for a couple of moments before he shook himself out of it. He could be in disbelief that they had found it later. Right now he needed to get it out of here.

He walked over to the cube and immediately ran into a problem. It was way too big for him to carry out.

Luke put some thought into this and looked around to see if there was something he could use. His eyes eventually locked onto a small pushcart that was scattered to the side.

"Must be how they moved that thing," Luke thought to himself. He went over to the cart and then placed it by the pedestal, then he moved to push the Allspark off the pedestal and onto the cart.

Luke expected the Allspark to weigh a ton and for him to struggle pushing it, but surprisingly it was lighter than it seemed. It fell onto the cart with a small clanging sound.

"Okay." Luke sighed to himself. He moved over to the cart and started pushing it out of the structure. "Now here comes the hard part…"

Luke looked over the path from here to the outside He'd made sure to memorize where Hound had outlined each explosion booby trap was, but he still had to be careful.

He took a deep breath in and out.

Then he started running.

The next several seconds were a blur for Luke as he pushed the cart through the plane wreckage as hard as he could. Don't get too close to the wall or you'll set off an explosion; dodge that pile of scrap metal; don't lose momentum; keep going in case you do set off an explosion.

As he darted and weaved and found a path through the wreckage, Luke couldn't help but think that as much as he didn't like his dad, it was times like this he was glad to be a demigod.

His return journey only lasted about two minutes, but it might as well have been an eternity. At last he broke through the wreckage and emerged outside. The second he was clear, Luke stopped and let out a massive sigh of relief.

Hound and Nightprowler sat nearby, and they looked with surprise as Luke emerged from the wreckage. Their optics widened when they saw what was on the pushcart that Luke had brought.

"That's it!" Hound exclaimed.

"Yeah…" Luke panted. He gave a weak smile and a thumbs up.

Hound rushed over to the pushcart and picked up its cargo. It fit perfectly into the palm of his hand.

The Allspark.

They'd finally found it.

Nightprowler walked over and inspected it. "This is it…" he said.

"Yeah, it is," said Hound happily. He turned to Luke. "Thank you, Luke. You did it."

"Great," Luke remarked. "If you don't mind, I'm going to have a heart attack now," he said snarkily.

Hound laughed, and so did Nightprowler.

Hound was about to radio Optimus to give the good news when he heard a "click" behind him.

He, Nightprowler, and Luke turned to see what the noise was.

Right there, nearby were two familiar transformers. Barricade and Quake. Both of them had their guns out and had them pointed at the three.

"Thanks for doing the hard work for us." Barricade greeted mockingly. "We'll be taking that Allspark now."

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