TRANSFORMERS - DEFENSOR SPOTLIGHT: "I Remembered"

David Ellis
ellistouch@yahoo.com




"Help me! It hurts -- you got to--"

"I'm -- aagh! Can't move my--"

Perceptor's voice filtered into the blackness. "--pears he's coming back online. Defensor, can you hear me?"

Defensor's mind eased out of defensive stasis, the equivalent of a blackout. Automatically, he ran a diagnostic on his gestalt body.

"Save your processors, please," Perceptor urged. "You'd gone into stasis after receiving heavy damage. I am still in the process of investigating why you did not separate into your component Protectobots instead. In point of fact, your mind seems to have erected barriers to prevent the separation from--"

"I ... remembered."

Perceptor fell silent, surprised. But only for a moment. "Please elaborate, if possible."

Defensor looked around at his surroundings. He was lying on his back in one of the immense storage bays of the Autobot stronghold known as Metroplex. Perceptor's laboratory equipment had been moved in; his lab and other such facilities had clearly been too small for a combined Autobot.

His gaze rested on Ultra Magnus, the Autobot's second-in-command, who had been observing from a distance. "Do you need more time to answer?" Magnus asked.

"No. I ... recalled memories. From the Protectobots ... from before they formed me."

Magnus considered this. "Could you describe them?"

"They were ... violent. Chaotic. Victims were screaming. Trapped. Begging for their lives. And ... the Protectobots ... didn't care."

"They didn't?"

Defensor searched his memories. "Blades ... specifically. He only wanted ... the Combaticons."

Magnus' optics brightened with interest. "At the expense of human life, you mean?"

"Yes. I remember ... his words. And ... the intensity of his emotions."

"Your memories of your component Protectobots should be limited at best," Perceptor pointed out, unable to resist injecting his input. "Mnemonic buffers are in place to protect you, the gestalt form, from experiencing sensory overload."

Magnus tried to keep the discussion in plain language. "In other words, Perceptor, when the Protectobots form Defensor, he only recalls the most basic information he needs for the situation?"

"That is an accurate assessment, yes," Perceptor turned to Defensor. "Your memory of specific dialogue and emotions is something of an anomaly."

Defensor was silent, processing this. "Anomaly or not," he stated finally, "I cannot deny it happened. Or the loss of life that resulted."

Both Magnus and Perceptor noticed the sadness in the combined Autobot's voice and glanced at each other, concerned. "Would it be possible for to suppress those memories?" Magnus asked.

"Absolutely," Perceptor answered immediately. "I have a device that will perform such a task. Combiner technology has come a long way since the Constructicons created Devastator. I could initiate the procedure immediately."

Magnus nodded and turned to Defensor. "Is that what you want?"

After a long pause, Defensor shook his head. "No. I wish to ... remember everything."



"So let me get this straight," Rodimus Prime declared hours later as he and Ultra Magnus stood atop Metroplex, watching Earth's sun sink below the horizon, painting the sky red. "Defensor accessed all of the Protectobots' memories of the Combaticon fight."

"Yes, sir," Magnus replied.

"And because he didn't agree with the priorities of one or two of them, he's refusing to separate?"

"He's adamant about it. He sees no other way to prevent further loss of life."

"But this has never happened before," Rodimus argued. "What's going to happen to Hot Spot, Blades, Streetwise, Groove, and First Aid?"

"According to Perceptor, they'll stop being individuals."

"We can't afford this. The Protectobots are too important to us, separately and combined." Rodimus Prime watched the sky darken. "This war with the Decepticons … it's an arms race. And we rarely stop to consider the long-term ramifications."