-Chapter 25-

A/N: Oh lookie here, now comes the Gladiator Battles! Let's get started, shall we? Oh and when I said this was actually going to be a fairly long chapter, I lied lol Its an average size, though at first I thought it was going to be long so ha ha :P Lied to myself in the end

"Welcome to the Battle Royale, Outliers!" Shockwave announced loudly into the microphone as he strolled on up to the center of the ice arena. The cheering crowd of the audience full of all the contestants and all soon died down in audio level as the Senator began to speak again, continuing his speech. "Well, its been a long while since the last time we were gathered here like this. So, put on your best show and oh, you know what, no rules since you were going to end up breaking them anyways, except for one! No hitting the announcer in the face! Okay? Well anyways here we go!" He spun around on his heels and pointed to the north entrance and his act would go on for the next as well but with the east, west and south. "On the north wing we have Trailbreaker the master of forcefield ingenuity! To the south give it up for Razzo, he's back in action from the water war and wants some payback! Going on to the west block we have Atrobos and to the east I wanna hear your all cheer for his return, Windcharger!" The crowd whistled and roared loudly as their Outlier brothers stood from their seats and made their respectful ways over to their positions, however once the battles were in the midst you'd have to be quick cause they weren't going to stop to let you grab your sword, axe or mace of paint!

Let the battles begin!

The first battle was swift to come to a start as they all charged at each other, Trailbreaker however having a slightly better advantage than the rest of them seeing how he could control a force field that can dome around his entire being, it was an easy portable shield and therefore he was able to carry two weapons instead of one. But that didn't stop them oh no, they'd eventually outsmart his defenses, it was bound to happen, either that or he'd be claimed as ultimate victor and be the king of the gladiator matches until next time unless he beat next time's champion as well then well, king streak. But nevertheless as distracting as the thoughts were they continued to swing their weapons of paint, the blades or blunt edges scrapping over armor plating or shields leaving their mark. And it was much of a surprise when Razzo was the first to go, Atrobos that sneaky little grounder could see right through his mind tricks. A slash to the shoulder ridding him of his battle logo was all it took and he swiftly dropped his weapon and shield, fleeing to the sidelines for safety as another combatant took his place.

"Oh? Are you guys going easy on me? I wanna earn being king not being nurtured because of the incident! Now come at me!" Windcharger exclaimed as he noticed the easiness of their hits towards, soft, not too much power behind it. Unacceptable! He must earn it himself! And now swordplay was off as they charged at him and it almost seemed like they were teaming up on him now. "Wow, rude on the teamwork there, but that won't last too long." And to be honest, his statement was complete truth, backing up a few steps he hurled himself at them, spinning his magnetic field and taking out their weapons, both Atrobos and Macasten knocked off their pedes and, oh Trailbreaker you're so lucky you have that forcefield of yours! Fumbling to pick up their gear Windcharger dashed at them again when a sudden announcement escalated the odds.

"Fifth combatant enter, Vio!" The four of them dove for cover to the edges of the ice arena, sliding around on their heels and slipping as the black green trimmed mech slid in with a big entrance of letting out a large burst of a stun field. No doubt for how powerful it was had Mr. Stun Gun over there been charging that up for his big intro and of course they couldn't help but to take the force of the impact upon his opening scene. Their servos, arms, legs or a combination of the three went numb and they were force to stay where they were, completely defenseless from the lack of limbs or unable to move to attack, well everyone exact Windcharger and Trailbreaker. Its why forcefields come in handy, they block out that sort of stuff and hey, Windcharger doesn't need his legs to move about! "Oh Primus, I think this might be the end for poor Atrobos and Macasten!"

"Not helping on encouragement there Senator!" The gray teal trimmed flyer commented loudly enough for the other jet to hear, the older shrugging it off like it was nothing, and during the tournaments, really it was nothing. What was done was done and that's the settled final score of that. However he did happen to call out a snarky reply to him saying; "better luck next time Macasten!" and if the other had the ability to at the moment, he'd palm face. "Yeah, thanks." Though it was a bad time for him to get distracted as Vio made his way over to the temporarily handicapped Outlier, easily taking out his battle logo on his shoulder and the other sighed as he scooted himself off the ice platform and off to the sidelines with the help of Razzo. And of course, that's when the real champion came charging into the battle. The former king-though it was reset due to it being so long-Visoran jumped in taking Atrobos out in a flash as the speedster skidded around on the ice as if he was dancing.

"So-Hmmm...Visoran put himself on the list, okay then." Shockwave said as he scrolled through the list on his HUD, muttering things to himself and just wondering who else from the sign up staff put themselves in on this. But the battles continued to rage on, Windcharger and Trailbreaker keeping on their pedes as they dodged, attacked and counterattacked, soon more fighters were jumping in and now, Serb, Skids, Glitch-really he finally entered the battle to!-Trailbreaker and Windcharger were now there as Trance entered in next. The crowds were roaring loudly, loud enough it almost seemed to deafen them but then, suddenly out of nowhere when it was in the midst of what seemed to be the final round something odd yet funny happened and of course not to mention it was being said through the announcer's microphone to. "Swish, slash! Um...I don't know anymore, quick someone give me another noise a sword makes!"

Pausing in their tracks the six combatants turned to look at the jet who hushed himself for a moment, the large crowd quieting down as all their optics-hidden behind a visor or not-gazed upon him. It too a few astroseconds to process the full attention of all his students before he jet gave a soft innocent laugh as he rubbed the back of his helm, realizing exactly the reason for the spotlight being placed on him was for now. Clearing his throat he quietly told them not to mind him he was simply making the show more entertaining for himself and they all shrugged and got back into the flow of adrenaline they were running off on. And it didn't even take ten kliks to pass before Shockwave was at the deed again with making his little sound effects to the battle. Surely they wouldn't mind if he'd so kindly take of the mic headset he was wearing. Heaving out a short lived sigh Skids motioned them all to stop and hear him out.

"Okay, well how about we go around it like this? All in favor of attacking Senator and no one gets to be king this deca, say aye." Skids betted the offer up like it was an idea of a poll to be posted on the academy's board and it came to a skyrocketing end as they all started to chant; "aye! aye!" and the Senator bolted upright from his seat. Starting to back away slowly he raised up his servos in a feeble defense to show them he meant no harm or wrong doing, but they didn't buy the act as the paint coated Outliers leisurely strolled on over to him and dragging him out to the arena.

"Oh come on now, can't we settle this civilly?" The white blue light green trimmed Senator asked timidly as he tried to squirm him way out of this one however, when he least expected it he was tossed a shield and sword from the side and he caught them with ungracefully as they fumbled around in his servos as if the equipment was unfamiliar, but truth be told, he was probably the best non-Outlier combatant of the whole academy after all, he was the one who perfected coming up the with ideas of the tournaments to. So, nothing here was new to him, not after watching them all and their fighting styles, he was sure to manage his own fairly well out there, you know, when he decided to join on in, but this time he had no choice was forced into this one. Well, I did originally want to join...He thought to himself.

"Civil huh, Senator? Don't you remember, this is civil. No rules except for one important little detail, that was not to hit you in the face, you never said anything about bringing you out and fighting against the rules, so let's face facts, there you have it." Glitch chuckled as he slid over and stamped the brand of the watermark battle logo onto the older mech's shoulder making him an official fighter of the gladiator battle royales. "What? You afraid we're going to kick your aft in this?"

"Well, slag...Fine whatever I'll join in this, but I'll have this as a fair warning to you, I'm going to be hailing king this time." Shockwave said as he carefully took off the microphone headset and tossing it over to one of the many taken out Outliers to the games. It was a bold remark they had to give him that much, but it was rare to see him in the arena and he was only in them during the first few, his battle style was completely unknown, even if Skids could learn his skill set during the time of this, he had to wonder if they'd be able to defeat him. It was rumored that Senator Shockwave hails undefeated-well, we'll have to see if that statement is true or not now won't we? Skids thought with a grin. Flipping the shield and sword so the tips were facing downwards toward the ground Shockwave presented himself in a battle stance none of them could remember if they've seen before or not. "So, come and get me."

Because there is no way you're winning, not even you Skids.