Enter Dante, The Rev-9: Book 1: Rogue

Chapter 14: Out of His Head

3rd Person POV

Autobot Base

Dante was relaxing on one of the platforms, deep in thought. Even though the mission had been a success, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. He knew that they hadn't succeeded in killing Megatron, that was for sure, and the Archives had said that he returned after the mission to get the cure for Optimus. But how? He had scanned over the Archives multiple times, and yet he couldn't figure it out.

He was startled out of his thoughts when he heard Miko yell, "Basketball by way of Cybertron! Let the games begin!" She blew a whistle, and Bumblebee spun a large ball of scrap metal on his fingertip before launching it toward the hoop that they had set up, but Bulkhead caught it and threw it in.

"Yeah, go Bulk!" Miko cheered as Bulkhead picked the ball back up.

"Come on, best two out of three," Bulkhead taunted playfully before throwing the ball to Bumblebee.

Bumblebee dodged around Bulkhead and sprinted toward the hoop.

"Dunk it, Bumblebee!" Raf cheered.

However, just as Bumblebee got in range to dunk it, he froze up.

"Hey, quit hogging the ball!" Bulkhead chided playfully.

Suddenly, Bumblebee turned around and whipped the ball toward Bulkhead. With a startled yelp, he managed to deflect the metal projectile and accidentally sent it toward Dante.

Jumping off the platform, Dante barely managed to dodge the ball as it crushed where he had been standing just a few seconds prior.

Dante landed in a roll and got back to his feet. "What the heck was that for?" he demanded.

Miko blew her whistle. "Flagrant foul!" she announced.

"Dodgeball... by way of Cybertron," Jack commented from the sidelines.

"Bee," Bulkhead said, rubbing the back of his head, "hoop's over there." He pointed in the hoop's direction.

"You okay, Bee?" Raf asked in concern.

Bumblebee whirred and held up three fingers.

"Yeah, three out of five," Raf said.

Dante frowned. Something was off with Bumblebee. But what?

The Next Day

Dante was waiting for Arcee to pick him up for school (he was still debating whether he should decide to dropout since nothing interesting ever happened there anyway) when he got a call from Raf.

"Hey Raf, what's up?" he asked.

"Bumblebee didn't pick me up for school. Any idea where he is?" Raf asked.

"Don't know," Dante replied. "Have you asked Jack?"

"Yeah," Raf replied. "He told me that he and Miko are at school."

Dante frowned. "That's strange. Arcee didn't pick me up either. Something must be up at base. Tell you what. I'll call Arcee and see if she can bridge us both to base. Get to your room, and I'll have Arcee bridge you in."

"Ok." Raf hung up.

Dante frowned. Something was definitely up. Raising his phone, he called Arcee. "Hey Cee, what's the big idea leaving me round here?" he asked playfully.