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"Divided Views" 分かつ思い (Wakatsu Omoi)
Published in	Super Robot Magazine #12
Cover date	June 19, 2003
Story	Naoto Tsushima
Art	Naoto Tsushima
Continuity	Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity

When the latest product of Autobot and human technology goes berserk, it's up to Optimus Prime to prove to doubting humanity that the Autobots are here to protect them.

Synopsis

Three months after the Decepticon attack on the Trigger, Megatron, Soundwave and Starscream observe a news report announcing the commencement of the device's reconstruction. Megatron is content to wait the six months that the repairs will take, but Starscream advocates destroying the "primitive" machine to stop the Autobots from using it. Megatron laughs at Starscream's short-sightedness, explaining that the Trigger will allow them to transport five times the amount of energy than their space bridge will, and wickedly wonders aloud if Starscream's brief passage through the Trigger's portal has made his cerebral circuits as "primitive" as he claims it is.

Meanwhile, at an American military base, a small group of Autobots consisting of Optimus Prime, Bluestreak, Wheeljack and Bumblebee arrive to help conduct a test of the latest product of human and Autobot engineering. The scientist in charge of the test, Professor Adle, has some history with Cybertronian technology: a year and a half beforehand, he had injured himself and his daughter in a military field test, costing him his right arm and his daughter, her legs. They were saved by Ratchet, who replaced them with incredible prosthetics, proving to the professor that the Autobots and their technology were here to protect humans. In an effort to prove this to the rest of the world, the professor has leaked news of the test, resulting in a large crowd of protestors assembling at the site that will, the professor hopes, witness the protection that the Autobots and their tech can offer.

The subject of the test is soon unveiled: a huge robot named C-X, which strongly resembles Prime himself. The plan is for Prime to spar with the drone to test its capabilities and gather data to improve it, and the team wastes no time in beginning the procedure. For the first stage of the test, Prime hand-fights the robot, with Wheeljack offering advice on how to improve its speed. Next, they test C-X's weapons, and find that the robot is unable to get a lock on the fast-moving Prime, prompting Bluestreak to suggest expanding the AI's predictive abilities. Unbeknownst to the Autobots, however, Laserbeak is hiding beneath a military truck nearby, wired into the base's systems and observing and recording the whole test. When C-X prepares to test its weapons on minimum power, nobody is expecting the blast that erupts from its rifle to create a huge explosion. Chaos erupts as the protestors scatter, the scientists attempt to figure out what has gone wrong, and the Autobots call to Prime, hidden from view by the dust cloud. Prime soon emerges, but as he walks out of the cloud, he is suddenly struck from behind by C-X, who then opens fire on him and the other Autobots. As the scientists realise that C-X has gone berserk, the drone aims its weapon at the crowd of protestors, and Optimus Prime attempts to tackle it, only to find that he cannot move due to damage to his leg. Instead, Prime transforms to truck mode and barrels down on C-X, transforming one arm at the last moment, seizing a pole, and fish-tailing his trailer right into the giant robot. C-X's shot is thrown off, and Prime quickly disconnects his trailer, transforming back to robot mode and attacking C-X with his energon-axe, neatly slicing the drone's head off.

This whole catastrophic display has only served to convince the protestors even more that the Autobots and their technology are a danger to Earth. Prime's attempt to explain that the humans cannot defeat the Decepticons on their own falls on deaf ears, while his claims that the Autobots will destroy all the weapons they create before they leave the planet are found unconvincing at best by the angry humans. The crowd is silenced by a cry from Katua, Professor Adle's daughter, who has been watching the test from a nearby hill and has come to the defence of the Autobots. A protestor claims that the Autobots are cold, unfeeling machines who don't understand pain or fear, but Katua refutes these allegations of heartlessness, revealing her prosthetic legs to the crowd. She explains that even though they are artificial, her legs can still feel warmth and pain: physical, emotionally-charged sensations that the Autobots' would not have been able to replicate if they could not feel them themselves. A hush sweeps over the crowd, and Prime speaks again, telling the humans that they did not wish for the power that they wield—they had to obtain it in order to protect those who suffer.

At the Decepticon base, Megatron, who has been watching the whole affair via Laserbeak's feed, proves most amused at what he believes to have been the work of Soundwave. Soundwave calmly explains that neither he nor Laserbeak were responsible for tampering with the C-X, but that some other party accessed its databanks. Megatron wonders, who would dare…?

Elsewhere in the Decepticon headquarters, Starscream stares at his reflection in a window, angrily recalling Megatron's joke that the Trigger has made him primitive. And while that might not be true, something has happened to Starscream... because his reflection is talking to him...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

• Where Ratchet's chevron is black in "First Contact", his chevron here is white (or a very light gray).

External links

• Hydra's TF Pulp commentary on "Divided Views" at The Allspark (archived)