Always Defensor

The Protectobots had become plastic soldiers in a die-cast war.

Their leader, Hotspot, stood awkwardly before his commanding officer. He was feeling typically frustrated at Prowl and his well-rehearsed lectures.

“We are but visitors, Hotspot,” Prowl said. “The humans, their world are unknown variables.”

Hotspot shifted.

Prowl continued: “This world is littered with chemical compounds we’ve never come across before! We need to tread carefully and roll slowly.”

“So the answer’s no?”

“I don’t make these rules.”

“No Prowl, but there’s a certain zeal to the way you enforce them.”

Hotspot primed his cannon, letting the noise echo disobediently across the walls of the Ark’s shuttle bay. His fellow Protectobots tended to their own weapons.

“We’re doing the right thing, right?” Streetwise asked.

“You said it yourself,” Hotspot replied. “You tracked a group of Decepticons to a seam of Ore-13. You said they were building a bomb.”

“That was my, uh, conclusion.”

“I didn’t agree to reassignment from the Fahl cluster to just play with my ladder,” Hotspot urged.

“Getting into a fight is the last thing to do,” First Aid added.

“And what if the Decepticons are more than we can handle?” Groove asked.

Blades stepped forwards, spinning his rotor-assembly in his hands with lethal intention. “Then I’ll save you a slice!”

Hotspot laughed and thought to himself: “There was always Defensor.”

Groove lingered back from the rest of his team, as he always did, as they sped along Interstate 86 north of the town called American Falls; home of a massive reservoir and dam. The sky was clear and the sun was soothing.

Words and static broke the spell. “Groove! Come in! Target ahead.”

On Hotspot’s command, the Protectobots unfolded from vehicle to robot in unison and fired without prejudice at an out-of-place military truck.

Peace snapped unfairly into chaos. Assorted cars swerved in the highway. People tumbled out of their vehicles and ran screaming for safety.

The military truck transformed, dumping its payload carelessly onto the concrete. Hotspot recognised the Decepticon as Onslaught and fired his weapon. Other vehicles transformed too, revealing themselves to be Swindle and Brawl.

The barrage of laser fire launched by the Combaticons cleaved into the highway.

The Protectobots responded in kind.

A stray shot hit Onslaught’s payload, causing an instant and blistering eruption that shattered the ground with such force that it split the American Falls dam in two.

Streetwise barked at Hotspot. The Decepticons could wait. It was the people in the town below that needed saving.

Hotspot did not seem to worry: There was always Defensor.

The torrent of white water approached the town looking like the sheer edge of a cliff-face.

Reacting on instinct the five Protectobots interlinked their bodies to become a new personality, one that distilled their minds into one being: Defensor.

Acting only to protect those he had so foolishly endangered, Defensor narrowed his optics on the approaching threat and then on the town below, wincing at the sight of those that fled.

Summoning all of his energies, Defensor charged his internal electrical batteries, raised his arms and unleashed his forcefield at the advancing tidal wave, certain it would save the town.

A sudden white-hot flash enveloped Defensor. All became black.

Prowl was seething: “Five thousand human lives lost. An entire settlement destroyed. A foolish, panicked strategy. You activated your forcefield into a highly conductive chemical!”

Hotspot, lost for words, let his head hang, realising the problem. It didn’t matter what lengths his team might go to: There was always Defensor.

The end.