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

Chapter 22: Stronger, Faster

3rd Person POV

Dante's Base

"Scrap!" Dante cursed as he ducked behind a table, barely avoiding a blue energy bolt that shot over his head. He had thought that he had finally gotten his project just right, but apparently he didn't have the phase focus emitter pointed in the right direction. Hence why he almost had his head blown off.

Dante sighed and sat down in a chair. It had been a week since the whole data cylinder incident, and the Autobots' Energon reserves were at an all-time low.

Dante was about to go over and fix up the calibrations on his projects when an alert sounded, signaling Energon. Rolling over, Dante let his exoskeleton seep onto the keyboard and hacked into the computer. Sure enough, multiple Energon readings came up on his scanners.

Hacking into a drone, Dante piloted it over to get a visual and watched as Optimus, Arcee, Elita, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee chased Knockout and Breakdown down a canyon, the latter having a cube of Energon strapped to the roof of his vehicle form.

At first, he thought the Autobots had this one, but then he picked up roughly fifteen Vehicon seekers flying in. He watched as the seekers unleashed a barrage of missiles that flew past the Autobots and slammed into the walls of the canyon, bringing down several tons of rock and debris to block the Autobots' path.

Knockout and Breakdown pulled ahead of the falling debris, Arcee managing to follow because of her smaller size and speed.

Hacking into the Autobots' comm channels, Dante watched as Optimus and the others skidded to a stop on the other side of the wall of rubble.

"Arcee!" Optimus ordered. "Fall back; you're outnumbered!"

"We're always outnumbered!" Arcee responded. "We need that Energon!"

"Ratchet, lock onto Arcee's coordinates and prepare an emergency Groundbridge!"

"I'm locked on," Ratchet replied. "Arcee, decelerate and prepare to return to base."

"Save it, Ratchet," Arcee replied. "I'm too close."

"Don't be a fool," Ratchet snapped.

Realizing that the Cons would have a clear shot on Arcee, Dante locked onto a set of coordinates over where the Cons would pass, opened up a Groundbridge, changed into his combat appearance, grabbed his Barret and strapped it on his back, and jumped through.

Canyon

Ace leapt out of the Groundbridge, changed his arms into blades, and rammed them into the top of a Vehicon flyer. Steering the seeker into another one and causing the two of them to explode, Ace jumped onto another one, cutting off one's wing in the process, and stabbed the seeker through its cockpit, killing it and causing it to crash into another one. The resulting explosion sent Ace cartwheeling through the air, only for him to land on a rocky perch as the other Vehicons opened fire.

Ace watched helplessly as the hail of missiles arced toward Arcee. Arcee managed to evade the majority, but one missile caught her, sending her skidding across the ground as she transformed into her bot form.

The remaining dozen Vehicons transformed and dropped down, landing in a circle around the fallen femme. Arcee raised her head just as one Vehicon stepped forward and aimed its blaster toward her. Before it could fire, Ace drew his sniping gun and sent a round through the Vehicon's visor, killing it.