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

Chapter 52: An Eyefull of Trouble.

Prowl continued to walk through the dark warehouse with Annabeth on his shoulder, looking for Hot Rod, Hound, Luke, Thalia, and Grover.

"Prowl! Help us!" Cried Hound's voice. "We need you!"

It took everything Prowl had to not try to run off to find Hound. He and Annabeth knew something was up with these voices.

"So where are we going?" Asked Annabeth.

"I'm going to try to reach the center of the warehouse," Prowl explained. "That's the most likely place the monster has set up its lair."

"And where our friends are." Annabeth guessed.

"Yeah." Prowl agreed.

"Annabeth! I need you!" called Luke's voice.

Annabeth forced herself to ignore the crying of her friend. She was broken out of her concentration when she heard a "snap" from beneath Prowl's foot.

Prowl and Annabeth looked down. Prowl had stepped on something white and hard.

"What's that?" asked Prowl.

Annabeth nearly threw up when she saw what it was. "I think that's….I think that's a human bone," she answered.

If Prowl was unnerved by this, he didn't show it. "We need to keep moving," he said calmly. And he kept walking forward.

"Hey Prowl… Is it getting lighter in here?" Annabeth asked.

Prowl looked around. It was indeed getting a bit brighter around them. He could see the faint glimpse of light behind a pile of boxes.

"I think we've found the main room," Prowl said. He walked forward and heard another crunching sound. He and Annabeth looked down and saw another bone… surrounded by a lot of other bones.

"Oh gods!" Annabeth murmured.

"Focus!' Prowl said. He swerved around the edge of the box to face the light source, aiming his gun. He nearly lost his composure when he saw what was there.

It was a campfire of all things. And around the campfire were their missing comrades, all bound and gagged. Thalia, Grover, and Luke were suspended in the air like smoked hams with their arms above their heads linked to chains attached to the ceiling. Hound and Hot Rod merely had their hands tied behind their backs with hard chains. All five of them put on an expression of relief when they saw Prowl and Annabeth.

"Guys!" said Annabeth.

She couldn't make out the words they were making through the gags, but from the sound of things, everyone seemed pretty happy to see them.

"Hang on," said Prowl, moving forward. "Let's get you out of those gags, and then you can tell us who did this."

Just then, Hound's optics widened, and he started to freak out. Prowl stopped what he was doing to look at him.

"Hound?" asked Prowl. "Hound what's–".

All of a sudden there was a big sound of creaking and crushing metal, and Prowl hollered in pain. Annabeth lost her balance on Prowl's shoulder and fell forward onto the floor of the warehouse, hitting the ground with a thud and letting out a cry of pain.

She looked back at Prowl and saw a fist had punched a massive hole in his chest; liquid energon spilled out of the hole, and Prowl fell forward, revealing what was behind him: a giant man wearing rags with one eye.

A cyclops.

"Silly robot," the Cyclops said. "Don't you know you're not supposed to be here?"

Annabeth heard the clanking of chains as Luke, Hot Rod, and Hound struggled to get out of their bonds, but it was clear the Cyclops had tied them up good.

Annabeth staggered backward as the cyclops loomed over her. It glanced at her with an eerie expression. She heard Prowl let out a moan of pain on the ground as energon started leaking from his mouth.

She looked back up at the cyclops who opened his mouth. "Annabeth," he said…But it wasn't the voice he had used earlier; it was her dad's voice. "You don't have to be afraid," it said. "I love you; you can stay here with me forever."

Annabeth wasn't having it. Faster than the cyclops could react, she lunged forward and stabbed it in the leg with her knife. The cyclops screamed in pain and stumbled backwards.

He was distracted, which was exactly what Annabeth needed. She ran over to where Thalia was and tossed her knife to her. Thalia caught it in her arms and managed to cut the bonds on her arms; she fell to the floor, right as the cyclops recovered.

The cyclops roared and started to charge, but Thalia thought fast; she brought out her spear and charged forward, stabbing the cyclops in the chest. It sank in deep.

The cyclops let out a quiet whimper of pain before his body started to lose weight until he dissolved into a pile of dust on the floor.

With the cyclops dealt with, Annabeth ran over to make sure Prowl was okay. Thalia took the gag out of her mouth and ran to get everyone else free. She let Hot Rod out of his bindings first.

"Good work, you two." Hot Rod muttered as he rubbed his hands. "What was that thing?"

"It's called a cyclops," Thalia explained as she finished cutting Hound's bindings and moved over to help Luke out of his. "It's a monster with one eye that can imitate human voices."

Luke grunted as Thalia cut him free. "Yeah, and they love to eat people," he further explained. He glared angrily at Grover. "And you led us right into a cyclops' lair!" he yelled furiously.

Grover looked very sheepish for being part goat in that moment. "I…I was panicking," he said. "I couldn't tell what was safe–"

"Save it." Luke scowled. "You've done nothing but lead us into dead end after dead end. Can you do anything right!?"

Grover looked at the floor.

"Luke, that's not fair." Hound protested. "This isn't his fault; this could have easily happened to us if we'd been on our own."

"Yeah, but he's supposed to be the one to make sure this doesn't happen." Luke pointed out.

"Guys! Prowl!" shouted Annabeth.

Everyone swerved their heads and looked over to where Prowl and Annabeth were. Prowl was holding his side, desperately trying to keep it from leaking energon.

"Prowl? Are you okay?" asked Hound.

"No Hound," Prowl responded. "I got punched right through the chest!"

Hound went over to inspect Prowl's wound. "Ah damn," he muttered.

"What?" asked Luke.

"Well, the wound's non-fatal, but his T-cog's busted," Hound explained.

"T-cog?" asked Thalia.

"It means transformation cog," Prowl explained. "It's the thing that allows us to transform into vehicles. If mine's busted—"

"You can't come with us…" Annabeth said, tears in her eyes.

"I'm gonna have to stay here and call for Ratchet and the others to pick me up," Prowl stated.

"We can't just leave you!" Annabeth protested. "We can't do this without you!"

"Yes, you can," Prowl assured her. "You're almost there, one final push and—"

Just then, there was the sound of glass shattering. Hot Rod turned to look at where the noise came from, and in the dark he managed to see that a giant half-woman, half-bat creature had just crashed through one of the warehouse windows and was glaring right at them.

"What's that!?" Hot Rod asked, pointing at her.

Grover glanced over where Hot Rod was pointing, and a look of sheer horror came over his face at the sight of the woman. "A kindly one! Hades–"

"No time!" Hound shouted as he transformed into Jeep mode and Hot Rod transformed into Dodge Viper mode.

"Get in!" they ordered simultaneously.

Luke got right into Hound, and Annabeth and Grover got back into Hot Rod.

Annabeth hesitated. She looked back at Prowl. "But–"

"I'll be fine, Annabeth!" Prowl assured her. "GO! ROLL FOR IT!"

With tears in her eyes, Annabeth nodded, raced into the passenger seat, and got in Hound. Hot Rod and Hound revved their engines just as the kindly one/fury started to fly right at them and the warehouse doors were burst open by the hoard of hellhounds…

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