Starscream was running as fast as he could, but he knew he couldn't hold a sprint for long. His thruster-pedes were yelling at him to transform and take off already, but he ignored the rapid strain he was starting to feel as he approached the first obstacle.

His obstacle was a giant… beast. Starscream felt like behemoth was likely too elegant a word for it.

It was almost as big as a combiner. Six arms, four legs, a snout, teeth, hair everywhere. More bovine than canine, but it was still terrifying. It glared at him and gave a throaty cry as it made for him. The seeker pulled out his large sword he had grabbed and dove out of the way of grabby hands that were attempting to pick him up. The little Yterian beside him looked to him, seeking comfort or help like its comrades had apparently received from his transformer brethren. The seeker merely shrugged.

"Yeah... you're not going in my cockpit."

Starscream rolled out of the way of another onslaught of hands reached for him. He ran to the other side of the field when he felt a hard strike to his side that slammed him into a wall. Apparently, a hand that he had missed.

His helm hurt the most, but he felt the impact from being swatted like an insecticon throughout his whole frame. He groaned but was able to move quickly, knowing that the creature would be on him in a matter of seconds. He noticed the Yterian was waving its arms and pointing at him and pointing at the exposed ankles.

Starscream understood. The creature was likely top heavy and striking it in the ankles would make it likely come down. He gave a quick "thumbs up" sign. Then ran in the opposite direction for the end of the obstacle's field, abandoning the Yterian and the monster behind him. "Give it a try," he yelled over his shoulder.

The Yterian threw its arms up in frustration and managed to avoid being smushed himself as he was able to escape through the legs of the creature. By that time, other participants had reached the obstacle, so its attention was distracted.

Eventually the Yterian caught up with Starscream who was looking at the next obstacle in front of them, trying to figure something out. "Thanks for your help," he said, trying to catch his breath.

"Sorry little one. Not really here to make friends," he said squinting as he kept his optics trained ahead of him.

Before them stretched a giant labyrinth with lots of twists, turns, and dead ends.

"Name's Pran, by the way. I already know you are Starscream."

The seeker seemed surprised. "While I'm flattered that you have heard of me, I can't imagine why."

Pran also was studying the labyrinth before them. Giant blue walls that stretched over 300 ft tall (91.4 m) towered over them. To reach the entrance they would have to go down a small hill, so where they stood at the moment, they could see the beginning of the route they should take to get through. "You have your own segment in the news, didn't you know?"

Starscream was startled and looked down at Pran. "…what?"

"Yeah it's like a show dedicated to you. They show footage of you constantly. Tons of speculation into your background and your likes and wants and all that."

Starscream's optics were wide as he swallowed. Of course, why wouldn't there be such obsession with him. He was practically Primus's gift to the fragging cosmos. But… given what he had watched last night, he wasn't sure the obsession was a healthy one. He thought it had been just a one-night thing, but clearly this was a nightly recurrence. He turned back to the labyrinth. "Is this… normal? For the games?"

Pran shrugged. "They usually obsess on the shows over the ones they want to retire."

"…retire?"

Pran turned his head. "We need to get moving," he said noticing the rising shouts from behind him. He started to run towards the entrance.

Starscream was about to protest but had to rush to keep up. The little one was fast.

They moved quickly through the labyrinth, only finding a few dead ends as they went. Very soon they heard the sounds of fighting and other voices telling them that they were rapidly losing their lead.

"What exactly does 'retire' mean?" Starscream asked as they jogged to get to the next set of turns.

Pran frowned. "Well you want to go home, right? That's usually how it works with guests."

"…Yes?"

"Well if they retire you, you get a special status here, usually like a house or something and get to attend parties. And you don't ever return home."

Starscream frowned, not liking the sound of that at all. It vaguely reminded him of the gladiators from the Golden Era who were lauded with praise and honor, and then separated from everyone and everything they knew as a reward. It made sense where that idea had come from now.

He winced and slowed down. "Sorry little one, I need a moment," he said as he leaned against the wall with his servo, trying to remove the pressure from his pedes. They were badly bent out of shape, and their delicate mechanisms were dented to the Pit. Pran looked at them with some pity.

"You aren't really good for this race, are you?"

Starscream groused. "Put me in the sky, and I'm faster than you could even think those words," he said.

"Hmm. Too bad this is on the ground then."

Starscream was so focused on the pain in his pedes that he didn't notice the knife being stabbed into his servo with much more force than should have been physically possible from the tiny organic. Starscream shrieked in pain, trying to pull the knife out, but it held fast to the wall. Energon seeped out and dripped onto the ground as he scraped and pulled.

"You keep making all that noise and they'll catch up to you," Pran said, softly padding away as he ran ahead. "Sorry, gotta go. Not really here to make friends," the organic said over his shoulder before turning a corner and disappearing.

Starscream snarled and attempted to pull his servo away, even though the pain was horrible. With a whimper, he slowly began to realize he could not get enough leverage to pull it away. He sighed and then pulled out his sword from his back, trying not to think about what he was about to do, but instead about what he wanted to do to Pran when he caught up.

"Hmm, we are checking the cameras but we have not been able to find SS-22 and the Yterian for some time. Wonder if they got caught by some combatants and were brutally murdered?"

"Reporatus, you rogue, those are possibly spoilers!" Narrata said, playfully slapping him with a tentacle. "But while we are waiting, why don't we talk about SW-17's great performance in the last leg?"

"Keeping a lead already set for you is hardly something to brag about."

"True, but I feel like there is a hidden depth to this Cybertronian. He's apparently the oldest of the team of transformers-"

"And we will be right back after the next commercial break."

Narrata blanched at the cut-off as the live-feed went dead. She turned slowly to Reporatus who had a make-up artist lightly applying a matte powder to his mask. Apparently, it was too shiny for the cameras.

"What the frag, Rep?"

Reporatus sighed as he shooed away the brush on his face. "Didn't you read the official propaganda line this morning? SW-17 is persona non grata. Don't try and establish an audience for him."

Narrata quickly pulled out her datapad and read over it. No she hadn't read the propaganda lines this morning, she was too busy trying to figure out a way to get Reporatus fired so that she could be the lead anchor. But now that she was skimming over it, she realized how closely she had walked to the edge of being fired herself.

"Doesn't say why though," she said, a tentacle on her chin in thought.

"I think they are going to pull him for a trial."

"Ugh," Narrata said shaking her head. "How boring! He's much better in the games. Plus, he's the only Decepticon support SS-22 has."

"Yeah well some 'support' he's giving. They don't like how he's been treating SS-22. They can't make the story work for the development segments. Also, they are worried that SS-22 is going to break early."

She put the datapad down. "Maybe we should try to do an interview with Artuz. See if he has any additional insight that can help with us with reporting."

Reporatus smiled under his mask. "Knew we kept you around for a reason," he said.

She was about to say something else when a camera drone found SS-22. Both Reporatus and Narrata went slack-jawed under their masks as they saw Starscream pull back his sword to chop off his own servo.

"HOLY-"

"Frag," said Prowl under his breath. He and Soundwave were seated next to each other on the tram with a display showing them what was happening. Prowl grimaced as he watched the two blows it took for the seeker to cut his servo off at the wrist.

"Did we get-"

"Taken advantage of? Maybe," Soundwave replied. "Starscream: not easy to work with even under most favorable circumstances."

Prowl watched the screen as Starscream's anguish was the subject of multiple camera angles as he was able to pull free of the wall and leave his blue servo that was still under the knife. Energon sloughed out of the wound and he swayed on his pedes but he was able to start walking again.

"You really don't like him, do you?" Prowl said with an edge to his vocalizer.

Soundwave said nothing in reply.

Jazz was watching the screen carefully. The last Yterian teammate had been chatting him up a few minutes ago, but as soon as the cameras couldn't find Starscream and Pran, she had slinked away saying she was looking for a different weapon.

Seemed that Starscream had to learn the lesson for them. Trust no one here.

It made sense in a big event like this race. You don't have to rely fully on strength or speed if you can take advantage of some other team's good graces and battle ability. They probably had a big target on their backs since everyone knew they were guests. It seemed Starscream wasn't being as accommodating as Soundwave and Prowl had been, or maybe just not as useful. Jazz figured he might have found himself in a similar situation with the last Yterian had they not taken the opportunity to try and take Starscream out first.

He felt a bitter, metallic taste in his mouth. He had always been a cynic deep in his spark, just lately it had been more floating up to the surface and poisoning everything. Something told him that being an Autobot here was going to be the biggest disadvantage they could possibly have.

The Yterian that had been working with Starscream was in the final stretch of the labyrinth according to the reporters on the display in the sky. He lightly padded out, not really in a rush. He was smiling with multiple rows of teeth and his chin out as he practically strutted. Jazz noticed the other Yterian yelling and waving her arms frantically, a slight panic creeping into her voice. Pran didn't seem to notice, just was showboating and bowing as more yells and jeers came from the watching combatants behind the line.

Finally, Pran heard the words "behind you" and "watch out." He glanced over his shoulder to see a murderous Starscream running up, closing the distance between them and bleeding energon all over the ground in his wake. With fear spurning his step, Pran dashed and made it across the finish line where his teammate took off running with a dash.

Pran laughed as he caught his breath, only to be stabbed through the chest by a thrown sword.

The seeker was panting with his arm outstretched, having fallen to his knees to steady himself for the throw. He locked pained optics with Jazz. The saboteur gave him a reluctant smirk. Starscream chuckled and then pulled himself to his swaying pedes and closed the distance between them, falling across the finish line.

Jazz wasted no time in trying to catch up to the fragging Yterian.

Pran was shrieking as the sword was still lodged in his chest, and Starscream smiled at the sound.

Jazz ran as fast as he could, but he was always a few steps behind the Yterian who also seemed to be the fastest of their team. He noticed that he did have a few other runners closing the distance behind him, so he tried to pick up the pace.

Their first obstacles were a set of solid hurdle walls that ran down a narrow path so you could not avoid them. The walls varied in size, shape, and material ranging from solid steel to walls of ice and fire. Jazz was able to acrobatically jump and glide over the hurdles as if he was born for it. Usually he had to fall into a tumble as he cleared the hurdles, but he was able to keep his momentum.

The Yterian was struggling, likely because of her size. Jazz caught up to her and passed her, hearing her shriek at his proximity and then again in anger that she was being overtaken. Jazz chose not to engage her but gave her a withering look as he cleared the hurdle and dashed ahead.

He realized now that being at the front of the pack in the final leg maybe wasn't the best strategy. As he cleared hurdles over the top, he heard the sound of shouts and then saw projectiles just barely miss him. One well-thrown energy blade had managed to graze his cheekplate, but at that point he had cleared the obstacle and only had one left.

The last obstacle came before him, and it was a multi-rigged canopy over top a pit of spikes. There were bars and ropes and poles that he could use to get across, but this was going to require a lot of upper-frame strength, which wasn't his favorite. He sighed and his blue visor flashed as he jumped into the air, grabbing some rigging and started to make his way across.

He had a pair of energy blades as his weapons of choice, choosing to take one out now and disable the rigging as he went. The participants behind him would have trouble taking the same route as he did. He felt more projectiles being thrown at him, barely missing. He jumped to a pole that was suspended from the canopy and wrapped his legs around it as he pulled his energy knives, ready to strike should someone get close.

"Seems we are down to the wire, aren't we Reporatus?" Narrata said, eagerly leaning forward in her chair. "It's all down to these last few moments!"

"It seems that while J-06 was getting into position to defend his lead, he missed the little Yterian girl coming up behind him and deftly passing him!"

"And a few more surprises, there are other combatants rapidly gaining on them too. Seems the Yterian is mad about her comrade whom SS-22 injured in the last leg. She's giving J-06 a piece of her mind and he's… wow that's a rude gesture, giving our censors a run for their money! No they seem to be going at it, her teeth against his blades…"

"Seems she is going for a desperate attack, but will it work?!" Reporatus said, his voice rising an octave.

"NOOOOO it will not!"

"Oh wow, did anyone order skewered Yterian, rare? Hahaha."

"Yeah we need a close up of that! Seems like she got a little greedy. Wait what is J-06 doing? Is he… sad?" Narrata almost sounded disgusted.

"He's just looking at her body… honestly he's got this in the bag, what is he doing… oh okay there he goes. Phew! Thought he was going to throw the game!"

"And the Cybertronians win again! Second win in a row, folks, perfectly executed and well worth the wait. Stay tuned for tonight's recap show. Until next time, I'm Narrata!"

"And I'm Reporatus and this is The Games Commentary!"