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

Chapter 50: Beginning of the End

Two days after the battle in the Grand Canyon for the Allspark, the Autobots were taking it easy. Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Chromia, and Nightprowler were still in critical condition, and Optimus was still badly hurt from being hit by the Allspark explosion point blank, so Optimus had decided to hold off on deciding their next action until everyone was ready for action again.

The Autobots had landed the Ark-27 somewhere in Arizona and at the moment were content on just staying there for the next couple of days while everyone recovered.

But there was an uneasy silence that hung in the air during that time…

Thalia found herself in the middle of the woods at night, pine trees all around her. Above her, a massive thunderstorm rained down. The rain soaked her clothes as lightning cracked all around her.

As she looked around the woods, she saw a dog walking through the woods with another dog and two puppies. A giant hawk came down and grabbed one of the two adult dogs and hauled it into the air, where it crushed it within it's talons. The other large dog ushered the two puppies to safety before it rose up and tried to bite the hawk, but it was too high in the sky.

The dog then turned and looked at Thalia directly. Thalia staggered backward as the dogs gaze pierced into her. It felt like it was looking straight into her soul.

"You'll do," a sinister voice said.

Thalia tried to run, but her feet wouldn't move. She looked down and saw her feet were digging into the ground. Her shoes were ripped up as her toes dug into the ground, and her skin was turning brown and hard. She tried to move her arms, but they weren't moving either. She looked to her sides and saw them rising into the air, turning brown and hardening.

She was turning into a tree!

Thalia glanced back at the dog. It gave a sinister smile and lept forward at her, Thalia screamed.

Thalia screamed as she sat upright in her sleeping bag in her, Annabeth and Luke's room.

"What happened?" Luke muttered, woken up by Thalia's screaming. "Did the Decepticons invade the ship again!?" he asked in a drowsy voice.

"I hope not…" muttered Annabeth as she rubbed her eyes as she woke up as well

Thalia rubbed her head. "Sorry guys," she muttered. "I had a bad dream."

"What kind of dream?" Luke asked.

Thalia hesitated and sat up. "I don't wanna talk about it…" she muttered.

"You sure?" asked Luke.

"Positive." Thalia confirmed as she walked out.

Thalia walked down the halls of the ship and found Hot Rod doing some target practice at the onboard shooting range.

"Hot Rod?" Thalia called.

Hot Rod took a minute to look back at his human friend. "Thalia, hey," he greeted. "You're up early."

"I didn't have a good nights sleep." Thalia explained.

"Sorry to hear that." Hot Rod said. "What's up?" he asked as he kneeled to Thalia's level.

"Do you remember what we talked about?" Thalia asked. "About going to see my mom after we found the Allspark?"

"Of course I do." Hot Rod answered.

Thalia hesitated. "Could we... could we go soon? Please?" She begged.

"Just say the word, and we can go anytime you want." Hot Rod answered.

Thalia smiled a sad smile. "Thanks, Hot Rod–"

Just then there was a small banging noise at the hull door.

"What's that?" asked Thalia.

"Guess we better check it out." Hot Rod noted.

Meanwhile, Prowl was in his private chambers meditating when Annabeth walked in. "Hey Annabeth." Prowl greeted. "Would you like to join me?" he asked.

"Uh. Yeah." Annabeth said before she sat cross-legged on the ground. The two of them sat together with their eyes closed, focused, and composed.

And then, Prowl felt something.

"Something's here." Prowl said, standing up and bringing out his rebuilt sword.

"What where!?" asked Annabeth.

Prowl stepped out into the ships hall and looked around carefully. "Do you see anything?" he asked.

"No…" Annabeth said a little confused. "Are you sure you're not just paranoid, Prowl?"

"Trust me Annabeth I have good–" Prowl paused. He looked at the shadows of the nearby wall.

They seemed to shimmer a bit…

Once they got to the hull door, Hot Rod opened it, and he and Thalia looked outside and saw a familiar, awkward-looking young man panting and breathing heavily.

"Hey!" Thalia exclaimed. "You're that guy from Carowinds!"

"Right," Grover panted. "Took you a while to track you down while you were with these abominations."

"Don't make me step on you." Hot Rod warned.

"Look, that doesn't matter right now!" Grover insisted. "You're in danger!"

Thalia and Hot Rod gave a blank stare at each other before turning to Grover. "Uh yeah, not news." Thalia remarked.

"No, I mean—" Grover took a deep breath and composed himself. "Everyone knows you're a child of Zeus now," he explained.

"What!? How!?" asked Thalia, who was starting to get nervous.

"That big battle at the Grand Canyon." Grover explained. "When you declared yourself a daughter of Zeus, a lot of people in our world heard it."

"Yeah, and I'm guessing the Allspark explosion would have gotten people's attention." Hot Rod murmured awkwardly.

Thalia shook her head and tried to focus "So wait...who's coming after me?" she asked.

Just then a massive ear-splitting scream erupted from inside the Ark-27.

"Prowl!" cried Hot Rod. He pulled out his pistols and started running to find him. Thalia pulled out her spear, and Aegis and joined him.

"Hey wait!" Grover cried awkwardly as he tried to follow them.

When Hot Rod and Thalia found Prowl, they found him and Annabeth fighting off a dozen of dogs, all of which were dark-haired and big as cars. Their eyes glowed yellow, and their fangs almost looked like they were on fire.

"What in the name of Primus!?" Hot Rod asked.

"Just help us out!" Prowl yelled as he slashed one of the dogs in half, and it dissolved into gold dust.

Hot Rod joined in, pulling out his laser pistols, and started shooting. Thalia started stabbing with her spear. Grover stayed back; he wasn't a fighter and knew he probably should stay out of the actual fighters way.

"What the hell are these things!?" asked Hot Rod as he blasted one of the dogs point blank.

"I don't know!" Prowl answered. "They just popped out of the shadows!"

"They're called Hellhounds," Annabeth explained as he jabbed her dagger into one of their eyes. "They're dogs that work for Hades!"

"Hades!?" Thalia exclaimed. "The ruler of the dead guy is after me!?" she said as she bashed Aegis into a hellhound's face.

"Can't he just wait a couple of decades for you to die of natural causes!?" Hot Rod asked as he slammed a hellhound to the ground and stepped on it.

"You'd think for an immortal he'd have some patience!" Thalia added.

"They do seem to have a problem with that…" Grover agreed as he sidestepped out of their way.

Prowl, Hot Rod, Annnabeth, and Thalia kept fighting it, but it was practically no use. It seemed like every time they killed one of the hellhounds, another took it's place.

"Son of a glitch, these things just keep coming!" Prowl shouted with frustration.

"Wait. Where are Hound and Luke!?" asked Hot Rod.

A few minutes earlier, Hound and Luke were walking down the halls conversing with each other.

"Any idea when Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, and Nightprowler will be fixed up?" Luke asked.

Hound shook his head as they began to near the Ground Bridge control room. "Ratchet says they were hurt pretty badly…"

"Yeah, no duh." Luke crossed his arms. "Do you think Optimus holding off on figuring out the next action until everyone is repaired is him stalling?" he asked.

"Stalling?" Hound asked. "About what?"

"Doing something about the cons." Luke explained. "He didn't seem thrilled about the idea of bringing more soldiers down here."

"I can't say I blame him." Hound muttered.

Luke's expression hardened "You're gonna have to do something sooner or later, Hound." Luke pointed out.

Hound shrugged. "I know, but for now, I want to enjoy the peace and quiet–"

Just then, as they passed the Ground Bridge Control Room, they heard a VOP followed by a loud crash.

Hound and Luke flinched at the noise. They both looked at each other and rushed to see what it was.

Right in the middle of the room, next to the destroyed console, were Skywarp and Starscream.

"You two!?" Hound exclaimed as he brought out his rifle.

"Yes, us," smirked Starscream.

"This is our second stop after busting your engines again." Skywarp taunted.

"Your here to attack the Ark-27 again, aren't you!?" Luke asked, bringing out his sword. "We weren't here when you did it last time, but we are now!"

"Yeah, but this time we got some new friends." Skywarp said.

"Who?"

Skywarp and Starscream both smirked. The shadows around the room shivered.

And then hellhounds started bursting out of them.

Luke and Hound were taken aback by the sudden rush of animals and were unprepared for the initial attack. One of the hellhounds bit down onto Hound's leg; the bite pierced the metal, and Hound screamed in pain.

Another hellhound leaped at Luke and pinned him to the ground. Luke thought fast and managed to jab his sword into the hellhound's gut, causing it to start dissolving into dust. "Hound! We gotta move!" Luke cried. "We need to find the others!"

"Right!" Hound responded as he tossed two hellhounds off him, and he and Luke started running down the halls to find the others.

"There's no escape, Autobots!" Starscream shouted as he ran after them, firing his lasers.

"Yeah, that girl is gonna be scrap when we're done with her!" Skywarp taunted as he followed Starscream.

Back with Hot Rod, Prowl, Grover, Thalia, and Annabeth, they were still hard at work fighting as many hellhounds as they could.

Hot Rod grabbed a hellhound and punted it against his knee, causing it to dissolve into dust; Annabeth jabbed one in the neck; Thalia bashed one in the head with her shield; and Prowl slashed at one that leapt at him.

"Ratchet, are you okay!?" Prowl asked, turning on his comm.

"It's not great, Prowl!" Ratchet answered. "I'm holed up outside my lab right now! These things are swarming us!"

"Are Optimus and all the other injured okay!?" asked Hot Rod.

"For now!" Ratchet answered. "They're all locked up in the lab safe and sound. But they're in no condition to fight, and I don't know how long I can hold out!"

"We need to get these things out of here now!" Annabeth said as she finished a hellhound off.

"How though!?" asked Hot Rod as he kicked a hellhound away from him.

Thalia paused mid-combat… which ended up being a mistake as a hellhound leaped at her from behind, but luckily Hot Rod managed to shoot the hound mid-leap. "Thalia, what are you doing!?" he asked. "Move!"

"R-Right." Thalia said a bit shakily. "It's just—" She took a moment to bash a hellhound's face in with her shield. "These things are after me, right!? Maybe we need to get me out of here!"

"Thalia's right." Grover answered, speaking up from the corner he was hiding in. "These things don't care about you guys. They only care about her."

"Then let's transform and roll out!" suggested Hot Rod. He knocked away all the hellhounds he could, then transformed into his Dodge Viper mode. "Thalia, get in!" he yelled as he opened his car door.

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Thalia answered hastily as she jumped right in with Grover close behind.

"URG. I can't believe I'm inside one of these things." Grover shuddered.

"Now's not the time to get picky!" Thalia shouted.

Likewise, Prowl also transformed into his police car mode, and Annabeth hopped in it. The two Autobots revered their engines and started racing down the halls. The hellhounds dropped everything and started to chase them.

"Hound, come in!" Prowl shouted on the comms. "Are you there!?"

"Right behind you!" shouted the voice of Hound as he, in Jeep mode, came up close behind the other two Autobots with Luke riding inside.

"Let's lose these hellhounds!" Hot Rod said.

"It's not just hellhounds.' Hound muttered.

"What?" asked Annabeth.

On cue, laser fire erupted from behind them. The shots came from Starscream and Skywarp, who were flying in midair after them.

"Oh, come on!" Hot Rod groaned. "The cons are involved in this too!?"

"It would appear—" a shot whized past Prowl's car mode. "-so!"

The three Autobots drove out of the Ark-27 with the hellhounds and the two seekers in hot pursuit.

"Guys!" Ratchet's voice appeared suddenly over the comm line. "I don't know what you did, but it's working. The monsters are leaving!"

"We're moving away from the Ark-27." Prowl explained over the comms. "We're gonna lure these things away."

"Understood." Ratchet answered. "Contact me when it's safe.!"

"Over!" Prowl said, and he cut the line as he heard Skywarp and Starscream shift into their jet modes behind them.

"Pathetic fools!" Starscream yelled. "There's no escape!"

"THIS IS FOR THUNDERCRACKER!" shouted Skywarp as he launched a barrage of missiles at the three Autobots. The missles started hitting the ground all around them.

"GAH!" Cried Thalia in fear.

"WHOA!" Luke shouted.

"We need to lose these guys now!" Hound shouted.

The three Autobots revved their engines as they drove off into the nearby forest, Starscream, Skywarp and the hellhounds right behind them…

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