Enter Dante, The Rev-9: Book 2: Revelations

Chapter 4: Operation: Bumblebee: Part 1

3rd Person POV

Somewhere in Texas

Dante stalked through the woods, slashing foliage out of his way with his hunting knife. "Stupid bugs," he muttered as he swatted away a horsefly the size of his thumb. "Why do they even bother me?" he wondered. "I don't even have blood for crying out loud!"

Shaking his head, he checked his memory banks for the set of coordinates given to him by Trevor before pulling them up on his HUD.

He didn't want to bridge directly to his target, for fear of him sensing it, so he bridged roughly five miles away before setting off in the direction of his objective.

Dante pushed his way out of a line of trees and saw a large gorge up ahead. Gauging the distance, he realized that it would be too far to jump, so he would have to find another way across.

Before he could set on this new mission, a call came in. "Yes?"

"Dante, where are you?" It was Arcee.

"Just hanging out in Texas," he replied. "What's going on?"

"Bee just got back from a mission with Optimus and Ratchet," she replied. "Figured you might want to see what they uncovered."

"Alright, send a bridge, and I'll be there in five."

"Okay, but what are you doing out in Texas?"

Dante was silent, debating whether he should tell her or not. "I'm checking in on something," he replied. "Futuristic stuff and all that."

Arcee sighed. "You're not gonna say what, are you?"

"Not until I confirm my suspicions," Dante replied. "Also, could you please send a Groundbridge? I don't like the way these things are eyeing me." He glanced warily at a pair of gleaming yellow eyes in the shadows.

"What do you know?" Arcee teased. "Dante's scared of big cats."

"Just send a bridge," Dante muttered, glancing at the jaguar as it gazed at him with its lamp-like eyes. "And I wouldn't say scared, more like weirded out."

"Whatever you say, partner."

"Just send me a bridge," Dante grumbled.

Timeskip

Dante leaned against a railing in the Autobot base, watching in amusement as Bumblebee recounted his 'heroics,' using a model car to demonstrate.

"Loop-de-loop, huh?" Arcee said with a smile as Bumblebee gave Raf back his car.

"You have some brass bearings, Bumblebee," Bulkhead complimented the scout.

Glancing off to the side, Dante saw Ratchet, Elita, and Optimus conferring over an artifact that they had found. Sideling over, Dante scanned the item and ran it through his database. It was the spark extractor, a devastating weapon capable of removing the sparks of all Cybertronians in its blast radius.

Shaking his head, Dante shifted his attention back to the others as Arcee asked, "What's an Autobot locator doing on that?" She gestured to the relic for emphasis.

"The Class A Decepticon weapons confiscated during the war were sealed within the vaults below Iacon," Optimus explained.

"Where you once worked as an archivist?" Bulkhead asked.