Chapter XII
"I thought you were going to kill him! What's he doing walking around here, alive?!" said the guard. Osmium and his apprentice had taken him to the arena to test his fighting ability. The guard wouldn't let them pass.
"Would you like to see which species is stronger? His or ours?" said Osmium.
"I already know which is better," said the guard, grasping his spear. Brainwave took a step forward to try and prove him wrong, but Osmium put his staff in front of him to block him off.
"If you're so confident, place a bet!" said brainwave, since he couldn't fight the guard. "If you win, I serve this place for as long as I'm online. I win and I get to go."
"And he can come back anytime he wishes; gets treated respectfully, no exceptions!" Irie added. The guard looked at Osmium to see if the old spider had any say against this. He just stood there listening to the conversation, and he seemed to enjoy it quite much. He was smiling.
"Fine. But don't forget it," said the guard, letting the three pass through. Irie opened the door and led them down a dark tunnel.
"Do you need me to guide you through?" she asked Brainwave. The Mini-con switched on his optics to infra-red and he saw Irie looking at him. H looked straight back and smiled. Through the red vision, he saw her smile too, and continued to walk down the tunnel. Osmium came up to him and said "Impressive."
Brainwave gave out a thanks and walked along side the old Arach, letting Irie get far ahead of them. Brainwave saw white coming at the end of the tunnel, so he figured they were almost there.
"Now, I want you to stand up straight and refer to both of them as 'Your Highness' or 'Your Majesties'. Understand?" said Osmium.
"What do you mean?" said the Mini-con. Irie shushed them. Once Brainwave was close enough to the end of the tunnel, he switched his optic back to normal coloring. The three entered a room made out of encrusted jewels. They were randomly placed to each other to make it seem more magical. Brainwave couldn't help but stare. But Osmium nudged him.
"Stand straight and look ahead," he advised. Brainwave did as he was told and saw at the end of the room four chairs made of red wood. Two in the middle were tall, and the two on either side were smaller.
"Announcing king and queen of Foresstra! King Tungsten and Queen Rhenium!" shouted the soldier at the edge of the small chair on the right. "And their children: Prince Arsenic and Princess Astatine!"
An Arach that seemed three times larger than any other Arach came from behind one of the chairs. He had a green gem in the middle of his forehead and his skin was indigo; Tungsten. Another came from behind him, only two inches shorter. Her skin was green and she had a red gem in her forehead; Rhenium. From the right, a fuchsia-skinned Arach, somewhat taller then Irie, came up; Astatine. From the left was a red-skinned that was just as tall as his sister; Arsenic.
Brainwave, knowing who they were, bowed low as they had claimed their thrones.
"Your Majesties," he said, keeping his body down. Irie followed him as well as Osmium. The king had stared at Brainwave long and hard until the queen had to speak for him.
"Dear Osmium, I thought we had told you to get rid of this contraption," she said. Osmium raised his head to speak to her.
"My Queen, he means no harm. Whatever he wanted to do was to be in silence."
"And you believe him?" the king's booming voice echoed through the room, almost sending it in vibrations. "Honestly, Osmium, you disappoint me."
"I wanted to see how his combat skills are. And-"
"Radon will take of that, then. Radon!"
The soldier Arach held his spear and sent himself flying at Brainwave. Knowing this, the Mini-con lifted himself up and grabbed Radon by the throat before the Arach had time o get his spear in this spark chamber.
"Very bad move, Radon!" he said with a sly smile. Radon choked, asking for mercy. Brainwave nodded and released the Arach, letting him fall to the ground. He knelt beside him and reached out his hand. Radon shook his head. No way was he going to humiliate himself by letting a stranger help him.
"Hmm. Perhaps he's better than we thought," said Tungsten.
"There is something you need to know, sir," Irie spoke up.
"Iridium! You must speak when spoken to!" Osmium shouted to his young apprentice. Irie ignored him.
"There is a bet on this Cybertronian; if he wins, he is treated as a friend and gets to come and go whenever he pleases."
"And if we win?" Arsenic spoke up.
"I serve you for as long as I live, which is much longer than you can," said Brainwave, letting Radon up, despite the struggling. The Arach shook himself loose and went back to his post.
Tungsten gave out a hearty laugh. "Very well, then!" he said. "Let the games begin!"
Irie was in a small, dim-lit room with Brainwave, easing him by putting liquid potions on his metal body. The green water found its way through his joints into his inner system, making the feeling of ease stronger.
"The bet was a stupid idea. What if I lose? I never get to see Jaeda again…" he said. Irie put some more potions on his body.
"Then you shouldn't have placed it," she laughed.
"I was just mad." He sighed. "Optimus was right; I'm more human than Cybertronian. I speak before I think whenever I'm angry."
"Is Optimus your king?"
"In ways. But we don't have kings, so he's a commander."
"Is there a difference?"
"King doesn't care what others think. He carries out a law and expects people to follow it, or there will be consequences. Optimus, on the other hand, accepts everyone's individual opinions and carries out the majority of the votes. If there's some kind of tie, they sort it out. But not by fighting, I'll tell you that!"
Irie laughed. "Sounds kind of nice. Will you take me there?" Irie wrapped her thorn-arms from behind around his chest.
"Maybe someday," he said. "But not soon. I want to see Jaeda first."
"I can wait," Irie answered. She walked away to get more potions. "Whoever you go against, please be careful."
"How bad can it really be?"
Irie sighed. "Arach like to use their teeth as a final resort."
The Mini-con flinched. He looked at Irie, sad look on her face.
"But…you don't even have a mouth."
Irie moved so fast that Brainwave didn't see it coming. She pinned him on the ground and held him there. Her lower face had split open to reveal small pointed teeth. There had to be at least fifty or sixty. Her eyes turned red.
"Don't doubt us," she snarled, her mouth unmoving. Brainwave stared at her in horror and nodded. Irie closed her mouth again so it was smooth as it had been before. She climbed off of him and stood back several feet. Brainwave helped himself up.
"I'll take note of that," he said, wiping the dirt off of himself.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I don't usually scare."
"You were giving me advice, let's just leave it at that," said Brainwave, sitting himself on a tree stump. Irie grabbed a potion from the shelf behind er and brought it over to Brainwave.
"Drink it," she said. Brainwave looked up at her confused. "Just drink it. I promise, it won't do anything."
Brainwave shrugged and chugged down the potion in three gulps. He looked at Irie and she began to look blurry. He realized that he was getting dizzy and he fell to the floor, in stasis.
"Nothing you would hate," Irie finished, and she left the room.
"Iridium, where's Brainwave?" said Osmium.
"Sleeping, if that's what they call it."
"How long? The battle's tomorrow."
"He'll be up in the morning. Don't bother him while he's dreaming." She was going to walk off when Osmium stopped her.
"What did you give him?!" he snarled.
"Dreamer Delight. He wants to see Jaeda? He's going to see Jaeda."
xXx
Author's Note: Heehee! 3 Look up any of the Arachs' name on Wikipedia or get a dictionary and see what I did. (Hint: A science book can work too!P)
