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• user can shoot fire as a defense mechanism

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Phoenix Fire had noticed it pretty early on.

Ever since you’d been captured and folded into the team, you were calm.

Like… unnervingly calm.

The kind of calm that made you stand out without even trying. You never snapped, never raised your voice, never did that thing most Cardbots did when things went sideways: you know, the sharp words, the flaring optics, the whole dramatic meltdown.

You just… rolled with it. Smooth. Steady. Ocean-level unbothered.

And honestly? It was nice.

Most of the team ran on tension and caffeine-equivalent energon. You were different.

A quiet presence in the corner, a steady hum in a room full of static. Sure, there were gaps, little things you never talked about, questions that never quite got answered, but Phoenix figured that was normal.

Everyone had their locked files. He wasn’t exactly an open book himself.

What he didn’t expect was the fire.

Jun had called the two of you in to deal with a rampant Cardbot, routine stuff, or so Phoenix thought.

In, restrain, out. Easy.

He didn’t even catch what the Cardbot said to you, just a sharp, nasty line thrown your way like it was nothing.

Apparently, it wasn’t nothing.

Because that was the moment your calm finally cracked.

Not loudly. Not dramatically. Just suddenly, terrifyingly gone.

One second you were still, optics dark and unreadable.

The next, flames erupted from you in a raw, uncontrolled burst. Real fire. The kind that doesn’t warn you first.

Phoenix Fire barely had time to register the heat spike before he was moving on instinct: lunging forward, wrapping his arms around you, hauling you back while blasting his hose at full pressure.

Water hit everything at once: you, the Cardbot, the scorched floor. Steam hissed. Sparks died out. Disaster narrowly avoided.

Now, moments later, Phoenix was still holding you, arms locked tight around your frame as if letting go might make the world catch fire again.

Water dripped steadily off your armor, pooling on the ground beneath you.

Jun was a few steps away, crouched beside the other Cardbot, muttering as he assessed the damage, slightly charred, but alive.

Phoenix glanced down at you, spark still hammering in his chassis.

So much for “just calm.”