Megatronus emerged from the gladiatorial pits, squinting as the strong light of sunset hit his optics. Before him lay a rusty street of Kaon, littered with what was probably parts from vanquished gladiators. This was Old Kaon. No one important cared what happened here. The authorities left them alone and they didn't stir up too much trouble. It was the unwritten rule in the city of gladiators.
Megatronus almost didn't notice the red mech waiting for him, and if it hadn't been for the sun glinting off of his pristine plating, he would have walked right by him.
"Long time no see, Megatronus," Knock Out purred. The grounder was leaning up against a lamp post, sporting his signature smirk.
"Knock Out!" Megatronus enthused. He clasped his friend's extended servo in greeting. "It's good to see you."
"How's life in the Pits treating you?" he asked innocently.
Megatronus grimaced and rubbed his servos together like he was scrubbing them clean.
"Bad match?" Knock Out asked, attempting to read his thoughts.
"No worse than usual," he responded.
"It must be just awful to have thousands of adoring fans chanting your name."
Megatronus made a face like he smelled something foul. "You don't understand."
"You're still alive aren't you? I'd be happy to leave with my spark."
"I keep my spark aflame by snuffing others," Megatronus growled. "I didn't choose this. You wouldn't understand what it's like because you save lives. I destroy them. And I'm good at it. I'm good at murder. It's considered a death sentence to be pitted against me."
"At least your position is... secure?" Knock Out tried to redeem himself. He still didn't understand how being a gladiator was so bad, but it was hard to blame him. He was as ignorant as the average Cybertronian.
Megatronus shook his helm and started to walk away. Knock Out scampered into his line of sight and blocked his path.
"What do you want?" the gladiator asked without looking at the medic.
"You've been ignoring all of my messages," he said, annoyed. "I figured the only way to talk to you was to track you down."
"Then speak. If you must." Megatronus stepped around the small bot.
Knock Out stepped in front of him again. "What's your hurry? No one's waiting for you at home after all."
Megatronus scowled, looming over the grounder. "I prefer to be alone."
Megatronus sidestepped to pass Knock Out again, but the red bot mimicked his movement and crossed his arms. "Nope. No more avoiding me."
The silver bot sighed, his whole frame sagging from the deep ventilation. "Knock Out, you're hardly an indestructible wall. Move or I will make you move."
"You wouldn't dare," Knock Out's voice darkened significantly.
Megatronus leaned in close enough for Knock Out to feel his ventilations. His voice came low and with a hint of threat to it. "I am a gladiator of Kaon. I have slain many with fifty times your strength and stature."
Knock Out bristled for a moment, but then he smirked and stuck out a hip, resting his servo atop it. "Really now, Megatronus. Look around you."
The gladiator slit his optics and cast a shifty glance to both sides. Bots of all shapes and sizes milled around the two, most not paying attention to the conversation they were having.
"What of them?" he said.
"Do you really think that out of all the bots here, there won't be at least one to call the authorities on you should you dare strike a Cybertronian of higher class?"
Megatronus straightened and gritted his sharp denta.
"Now you know I don't like to pull that card on you," Knock Out said. "But I can't have you ruining my finish. I just got it waxed."
Megatronus let out a low guttural noise.
"Let me take you out," the grounder insisted. "To make up for the whole caste mention." He waved his servos in a brushing away manner. "I know of this great place to unwind. It'll take your mind off of everything for a while and I won't mention the Pits."
Megatronus hardly looked impressed.
"The high grade is on me," Knock Out drew out his words invitingly.
Megatronus stared at Knock Out blankly, but the medic's pleading faceplate wore him down. He sighed. "If I go will you leave me alone?"
"Of course." Well, for a while. Maybe a decacycle. At least a megacycle. Don't worry," Knock Out said, patting his friend's back. "I guarantee that you'll have fun tonight."
Megatronus unclenched his jaw but kept his frown.
"You might want to put that away first, though," Knock Out gestured to his arm. "Unless your goal is to frighten everyone. In which case you're already succeeding."
Megatronus lifted his arm and saw that his blade had unsheathed at some point during their quarrel. He retracted it immediately, wiggling his digits a little awkwardly.
Knock Out put his servo on his arm mounted holster. "Honest mistake," he reassured him. "Now, if I recall the place isn't far..."
"Here?" Megatronus' lip curled up in disgust.
"Yes, here," Knock Out rolled his optics. "Now come in and get that stick out of your aft."
Knock Out pressed the button for the door and motioned for Megatronus to enter. The flashing neon lights on the windowless building shone off of Knock Out's plating, clashing with his cherry red paint.
Megatronus took one look at the boisterous crowd inside and crossed his arms. "You can't seriously think that I'm going to follow you in there."
"Yes, I do," the medic said exasperatedly.
"I'm not going to give good credits to such a skeevy establishment."
"This is not a 'skeevy' place," Knock Out said, a little offended. "It's the most respected night club in Kaon. They only take the best performers."
"A respected scrapheap is still a scrapheap. Places like this exploit bots for their frames. It's disgusting. They come here because they feel they have no other choice."
"It's entertainment." Knock Out rolled his optics.
"It's demeaning."
"It's no different from your gladiatorial matches."
"Precisely why I refuse to go in."
"Not going in is not going to stop the show from happening. It just makes you a killjoy. The bots in there are just like you. Enjoying what they are forced to do just gives them purpose. If all you're going to do is mope and complain about your situation without actually doing anything, then I don't think that I'm going to introduce you to him anymore."
"Him?" Megatronus questioned, raising an optic ridge slightly.
Knock Out strut inside without a word, and Megatronus swore he saw the grounder smirk before the door shut tightly behind him.
Megatronus huffed and went to leave, but his tank bubbled with curiosity. He clenched his servos into fists and tried with every fibre of his being to walk away. He took a step away, stopped, and glanced back at the building. He sighed angrily, and punched the door switch a little too hard.
His olfactory sensors were immediately bombarded with high grade and various other spilled fluids, and the loud music made his audials ring and his plating rattle. He waved his servo over the payment scanner, immediately regretting his credits going to the owner of such a place. The bouncer waved him in.
He skirted the crowd, his pedes sticking at every step. He avoided making physical contact with anyone and dodged a bot who fell off their chair, their companions laughing at their expense. He squinted, but he couldn't find Knock Out among the mass of frames. He strolled past the bar, searching for the grounder buying his first drink of many, but all he found was overenergized bots trying to get lucky.
He ended up near an empty stage and tried to use its light to find Knock Out. He craned his neck just as the lights behind him blinked out, casting the club into inky blackness. There was a pause in conversation and the music cut out. Megatronus turned to face the stage and was suddenly pulled down into a chair as the crowd began to clap and cheer.
Spotlights illuminated the stage once more and Megatronus looked over to find Knock Out with one leg crossed over the other and his servos behind his helm in a leisurely pose. "I knew you couldn't resist," he said smugly.
"I didn't come in for the smut. I want to know what you meant by introducing me to someone."
"If you were watching the stage you might find out."
"I don't want to watch someone exploit themselves." Megatronus was adamant.
"Suit yourself," Knock Out said, shrugging.
Megatronus grumbled. He was thoroughly boxed in on all sides by bots with heated frames. He settled into his seat as the music started up again.
A panel at the back of the stage slid aside and a slender leg stretched out from the opening, whistles coming from the spectators. High grade from raised glasses rained down on Megatronus and he regretted not getting a glass himself, to ease his oncoming processor ache if nothing else. A particularly rowdy bot behind Megatronus knocked the back of his helm in his inebriated state. The gladiator had a number of barbed words ready to use on the careless mech, but they froze on his glossa.
Sleek thighs, perky wings, a ridiculously tapered waist; a gorgeous mech twirling around a pole captured Megatronus' attention. His frame wrapped itself around the pole as if it were an extension of himself. His hips were hypnotic and Megatronus could not help but imagine them wrapped around his own.
The gladiator watched the dancer's heeled pedes with wonder. They would be impractical to walk on, let alone using them to balance momentarily before twisting back up the pole.
The mech flipped helm over pedes and held the sultry pose for a moment. He landed neatly and arched his back until his wingtips nearly touched the floor. He moved his wings in a slow circular motion and trailed a servo up his leg.
Megatronus' gaze followed that servo up his lithe frame and found intense crimson optics trained on him, as if the show were for him alone. That stare pinned him to his chair and caused his intakes to hitch. A grin spread across the performer's face when he caught Megatronus' attention.
The dancer made one final spin, slowly sinking to the floor with one leg extended across the stage. A crowd member literally reached for his heel, but he picked himself up before he could touch him. Bots hooted and hollered and the mech turned on one heel and strut back to the panel, swinging his hips just a little too much. He turned and grinned, winking in Megatronus' direction before the wall closed in front of him.