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

Chapter 18: Metal Attraction

3rd Person POV

Autobot Base

Dante stretched and yawned. It had been a week since the whole fiasco with MECH and Arachnid, and things had gone better with his revelation than he had hoped. He and Arcee were still on good terms, same with Elita, but he couldn't help but feel that they saw him differently than they had before.

Currently, Dante was hanging out in the main room with Arcee, Elita, Jack, and Ratchet. Just then, an alarm started beeping, startling Dante out of his thoughts.

"A vehicular form is approaching," Ratchet announced.

"Decepticon?" Arcee asked as Ratchet pulled up a closer image of the incoming vehicle.

"Worse," Dante groaned, recognizing the car.

"Mom," Jack sighed.

"Again?" Elita asked with an amused smirk.

"At this point, I'd prefer some Cons," Dante grumbled. In fact, he'd rather be dealing with a group of Rev-7s than June's random check-ups on Jack and the other children.

"She worries," Jack conceded as June pulled in and parked next to the Groundbridge.

"Hi honey." June greeted her son and hugged him. "Finished my shift early at the hospital, so I thought I'd swing by." She looked over at Ratchet. "Good to see you again, Doctor. Elita."

Ratchet glanced at her before turning back to his work, while Elita gave her a nod.

June turned to Dante and Arcee, and after greeting Arcee, turned to Dante. "Hi Dante, how are you doing today?"

"Oh, you know, haven't been tortured by Cons in a few months, so I guess everything's all good," Dante responded casually.

"I see," June said, slightly unnerved at how casually Dante talked about being tortured. When she had first found out about that, she had nearly driven him to the hospital to get him checked before he managed to assure her that he was fine.

"Think I'd get away with showing her my endoskeleton and scaring her off?" Dante muttered to Arcee hopefully.

Arcee shrugged. "At this point, I might just let you."

"If she finds out about my past or my PTSD, please save me," Dante requested.

Arcee shrugged, just as June spoke up. "So, where's Optimus?"

"He's on a scouting mission with Bumblebee," Ratchet answered. "Sorry to disappoint."

"And I wore heels and everything," June joked.

"MOM!" Jack exclaimed.

"You do know that his Sparkmate is standing right over there, correct?" Dante checked as Elita's eye twitched ever so slightly.

Meanwhile, Ratchet was checking over one of the monitors. "That's odd," he muttered. "This is an extremely unusual magnetic flux for any planet."

Just then, Bulkhead pulled in, and Miko and Raf jumped out, laughing. "Did you feel the Gs on that last turn?" Miko exclaimed happily as Bulkhead transformed behind them. "Bulkhead's an animal!" Then she noticed June. "Remember when this used to be a secret clubhouse?" Miko whispered to Raf.

"Uh, don't worry Miss Darby, we were wearing seatbelts," Raf assured her.

"I'm sure you were, Rafael." June turned to Miko. "Hi Miko, how's school going?"