Author's Note: Hello there. This is just a little oneshot about Ironhide. I'd gotten an idea and it just wouldn't leave me alone. Read and enjoy!

Title: The Best Fight
Characters: Ironhide, General Cast
Rating: K
Disclaimer: Transformers is not mine. I am merely entertaining myself with this.

It had been a too long day, and the wreckage that had once been the rather organized NEST base proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Debris littered the pavement everywhere. Even the sides of the buildings reflected the intensity of the battle that had taken place and had just recently come to a swift conclusion. Humans of several different NEST teams lay on the hard concrete surface, scattered throughout the rubble, groaning with pain and fatigue. Any remaining ammunition was ignored, as all threats had been thoroughly defeated and sent packing. His own human charge lay in an exhausted heap nearby, just within his reach and breathing rapidly.

Ironhide let a gust of air out of his intakes, letting out tension from his tired frame in the process. The air around him shimmered with heat mirages and steam hissed from his hydraulics. Other Autobots were spread out in the area, all of them showing the tell tale signs of a hard battle fought, and eventually, won. The environment looked like a disaster area.

He still wasn't sure how it had started. Ambush, was all his CPU could come up with to describe the opening events of the afternoon. The attack had come from nowhere, and he was still trying to figure out why his sensors hadn't picked up on it, as war trained as they were. The enemy had been everywhere when they finally struck, and the surprise of the assault had cost them dearly. Skids and Mudflap had been the first to fall. But, he thought, that wasn't really a surprise considering it was them.

The humans had rallied to their aid, defending their Cybertronian counterparts with an aggression they usually reserved for extreme battlefield situations, such as Mission City or Egypt. Many of them would not walk away unscathed. Will Lennox was one of them, sporting several scrapes on his arms and legs from the rough incident. Several others had already quit moving, their breathing and pulses evening out slowly. The medics were in no better shape, and Ratchet was doing what little he could to help at this point.

The old weapons specialist played through his memories of the day, trying to pinpoint exactly what had happened.

He had been talking with Optimus Prime in the main hanger. The lack of Decepticon activity recently had them just slightly worried, just a little on edge. The heat of the past week had done nothing to help the nerves of the humans either. They were just looking for even the smallest excuse to do something. Knowing there was nothing they could do until their enemy made a move, they had settled for inspecting the base, checking for its readiness in case of a surprise attack. The Autobot Commander and weapons specialist had just passed between two buildings, one a storage hanger and the other a human barracks, when several missiles slammed into the Prime's plating, staggering him. Instantly, Ironhide was on the defensive, cannons charged and all senses scanning the area for the source of the threat. Optimus withdrew his rifle from subspace and crouched, trying to make himself a smaller target as he recovered from the attack.

A quick alarm sent out by the commander, and all of the available Autobots converged on their spot, weapons systems online and all senses on alert, ready to defend their Prime. Several humans had poked their heads out of the windows, asking a multitude of questions to figure out just what was going on. Trying to spare their allies as much as possible, the mechs had retreated to a safer area, all systems completely set on their highest settings.

But that had been exactly what the enemy had wanted.

Without warning, hostile projectiles were launched at them from all sides. Amid squeals of confusion, the younger twins had gone down hard. Their yells and shouts drew the humans to their positions, and those who had arrived already armed quickly began to return fire. Disoriented, the bots could only hope to at least try to shield their much smaller allies as best as they could.

It was quickly discovered that the attacking force was none other than a group of humans, all wearing bright green shirts, and some faces were recognizable as the newest members of the NEST personnel, causing the bots to start questioning their true loyalty. Still not quite comprehending the full situation and unwilling to hurt any humans, the Autobots withdrew, hoping to end the conflict with their disappearance and it was only the command of the Prime that kept the others from charging in to attack.

But it wasn't to be.

Humans were swarming after them. Lennox and his team caught up with them, all wearing bright blue shirts, which made distinguishing them easier. The distinctive outfits didn't seem to catch the attention of any of the bots. After a quick exchange of information, the team dispersed, heading in all directions for an assault. Lennox stayed close to his guardian, returning fire with his own stockpile of ammo. The Cybertronians scanned the items, beyond puzzled by what they found.

Everything just seemed to go downhill from there.

The humans were quick and had a plan. The mechs, being so much bigger, were just getting in the way, but there was no easy avenue of escape open for them. Ratchet had run around crazily, going from mech to mech to ensure there were no injuries from the strange weapons being used against them. He became a favorite target of the fighters and couldn't go one step without being drenched with missiles. Sideswipe had simply zipped through all the lines, enemy and ally alike. He made use of his speed to defend his Prime, using his blades to block the shots. Jolt took to using his electro-whips to keep the air around him free of the projectiles, but some lucky shots still made contact. Bumblebee arrived with Sam and Mikaela, and the three of them had enthusiastically joined in the fight. Eventually, the bots had gotten a hold of some understanding of the situation and ammunition of their own, enabling them to finally retaliate against their foes, though the stress of trying to not harm the humans was just as bad as trying to defend them. They did still have that Don't Hurt the Humans rule to follow. A private comm.-link channel opened between them with a serious discussion about temporarily suspending that rule.

At one point, Will had let out a shout of surprise and went down hard. Panic surged through Ironhide's lines at the sight of his friend falling to the ground and wrapping his arms around his head. The black Topkick scooped up his charge and held him in his curled hands, shielding the fragile human from further harm. It was only a matter of a minute later that Lennox had motioned to be set down and had charged back into the thick of the fray. Ironhide kept a very close optic on him after that, never letting him get too far away.

The rest of the long battle was nothing but blurs of motion in his memory banks. Everything had gone down to survival instincts born from many vorns of countless battles. By the time the sun began to set, the attackers had finally caved in and grudgingly admitted their defeat. Their CPUs and processors exhausted from the stress of not stepping on a wayward human and defending themselves from all sides, the Autobots collapsed to the pavement, letting their systems unwind. The humans fell down with them, content to stay where they were for a long while. A handful of humans crawled or limped their way over to them.

"That was…" Mikaela sat down, breathing hard and leaning against the warm blue metal of Jolt's body. Nearby, Prime lay on his side and twitched, but refused to move more than that. Sideswipe grinned from his place draped upside down over his commander's abdominal plating. Bumblebee was still playing video game battle theme music. Sam rested on the yellow scout's outstretched arm, still moaning.

"Oh, yeah," Epps nodded slowly, breathing back under control somewhat. Ratchet sank down behind him, giving him support with his hand against the human's back. He had several pieces of debris stuck to and under his armor plating, just like the others. The humans kept cackling at the sight of the rainbow spotted mechs. The medic kept muttering about holding someone responsible for cleaning his armor up. He wasn't exactly the happiest of them all at the moment.

Lennox grinned, rubbing a soothing hand over his large guardian's cheek. "Best water balloon fight ever."

Ironhide could only rumble his agreement.

A/N: Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you think!