Tori: Yes...finally I have it up!

Megatron: (grumbles) Tori does not own Zoids or Transformers


With anxiety grating on her already short nerves, the femme with an odd alt mode stepped forward. She strained her blue grey optics to get a better visage of the dark chamber she was currently being kept in, for the time being anyways. The room was small only 30 feet by 10feet. It didn't need to be very big because the only purpose it served was to be an entrance leading to the main arena grounds. What little light there was seeped in from the narrow slits in the heavy steel door that separated her from the inevitable pain that was soon to come. A clanking noise alerted her to the wench tightening the chains the opened the massive slab of metal. The battle would begin soon so the femme swallowed her fear and readied her claws for the match.

Outside the crowd gathered in the stands high above the arena cheering and hollering like wild animals during a feast On the other side of the arena, a hollow bang was heard as whom ever the femme was to fight struggled against the guards as they forced him into the chamber. The banging stopped soon enough as the announcer's mic crackled to life.

"Outlaws and war criminals!" the enthusiastic mech declared "we have in our mists today is a very special guest, our lord and leader Megatron!"

The powerfully built triple changer that had been addressed let a smirk play across his features as all 500 spectators cheered and shouted the Decepticon oath in their native tongues. Once the thunderous uproar had died down to a tolerable level the announcer once again took up the mic.

"Now with the notices out of the way lets introduce tonight's combatants!" with those words the wench and chains groaned and screeched as they hoisted up the heavily fortified doors. Storm's optics were assaulted by the brightly lit ceiling as the light rushed in the slowly rising gap. She recovered enough to step out on the moist sticky sand. Almost a quarter of a human mile on the other side, her opponent stomped his way over the dark the threshold. The mech was dark, huge and unusually dumb since he was originally built for this arena, unlike the femme who's role had previously been a slave to her creator.

But things were very different now. She was a gladiator, who's only calling in life was to fight until every last drop of fuel in her body ebbed away. There was no escape for those like the femme and the behemoth, the only way out was to ether be bought out by the con army or die. Storm did not want to die, even if it meant she had to kill for her survival.

"In the right side is the reigning champ, Titan!" th enormous brute raised his broad sword to the sky in a show of animalistic pride that provoked riotous cheers from the audience.

"And on the left side the up and coming newbie, Storm!" the crowd didn't cheer very loudly but several cat calls could be heard. Storm scoffed at this and let her titanium claws slip out from between her fingers.

"Battle...began!" with that Titan heaved his heavy frame forward with a force that could topple any human skyscraper. Storm easily dodged and slashed the monster in the small of his back. Titan grunted slightly before pivoting on one leg and slamming the huge blade into Storm's left side. The Lightning Saix yowled in pain as she was sent flying into the hard metal wall, her energon adding to the gruesome abstract already painted on the dull canvas that was the energon smeared walls. Storm's audios cut out for the moment, saving her from hearing the thunderous calls from the stands and the huge mech's roars.

Storm shifted around so that she was facing the wall then used her slim but strong legs to push herself into the air and back flip onto Titan's shoulder. With her feet firmly in place she slashed the stunned monstrosity in the side of the head, energon spewing all over her as a result. Storm, with some effort, managed to hop off of the thing before he battered her off like a fly. She landed hard on the rough sands in a full crouch, her wounded side creaking and groaning in protest. Storm winced as the gash on her side sparked but forced herself to ignore it.

She gazed up through the energon coating her optics to find Titan howling in pain, dumbly clawing at the wound. Several spectators hooted angrily at Titan telling him to get back in the match. A small bit of sympathy for the brute passed through Storm's mind almost making her regret hurting him. The earth shaking foot steps snapped her out of it though and she just barely managed to barrel roll to the side before she was decapitated. She stopped only when she saw the glaring lights of the roof...until the shadow of an extremely large foot appeared above her. Storm had no time to move out of the way as her chest was nearly crushed flat.

She furiously slashed at the foot pinning her to the ground but the mech only pressed harder. Her vocal box finally cut out from the overload and she could no longer scream. The rest of her body soon fell limp from the damage she sustained. With that Titan lifted his heavy foot off of the smashed body and roared in victory.

"The match is over!" the announcer shouted in excitement "the winner is...Titan!"

On the top podium Megatron scowled at the beaten combatant 'she lost, again!' He inwardly seethed.

An hour latter...

"how could you loose another battle?" Megatron screamed as he kicked the only partially repaired femme into the wall of his room.

"I'm sorry, I..." she whimpered weakly, she was cut off as her 'master' kicked her yet again this time in the side where her worst injuries were making the femme cry out.

"No excuses!" the dark tyrant boomed right into her audios "you failed!" with those words he shoved Storm into her cage and slammed the lid shut and locked it. With a final angry rant Megatron left his room and closed the door so hard it rattled the hinges. Alone, the black and red zoid sorely fell back against the bars.

'Dear Primus how long must I go through this?' she asked herself as the femme gazed at the dents in her arm in the dim blue light of her optics. With no answer in sight she shook her head and allowed her injured body to slip into recharge...

In the control of the Decepticon HQ...

"Judging from you're foul mood I'm guessing that she lost?" Starscream addressed his anger leader with a hint of smugness in his voice.

"Shut up fool, of course she did!" Megatron answered with a snarl "such a useless femme"

"but we need her" Starscream reasoned "if we plan on grabbing that key"

"yes" Megatron relaxed his clinched fists some "but if only she wasn't such a weakling!"

"We don't need her to fight, only to get the key" Starscream replied.

"But the autobots?"

Megatron protested but Starscream held up a hand to cut him off "they don't even know the key still exists. They think that it was destroyed years ago"

"how so?"

"Here's why" Starscream pointed to the screen he had been busy with, the cybertonian text roughly translated the large slate that was pictured above. Megatron read over it carefully.

"I see..." the tyrant grinned smugly "then perhaps if I can teach her to harness this...beast's power by using the cyber key it absorbed then we can be rid of the autobots once and for all!"

Back in Megatron's room...

A bright red vale of stinging searing pain filled her vison. Every receptor, every sensor burned with unrelenting torment, even her audios rang with a high pitched screech that would burst a human's ear drums. The pain chip buried deep inside of her mainframe threatened to overload her already unstable CPU. Storm could not take it anymore and collapsed on the floor in a fetal position, tears falling from her clouded optics.

"please stop?" she managed weakly, her voice only barely being heard by the darkness that surrounded her pain filled world...

With a start, Storm bolted up from her dream and bashed her head on the lid of her cage...hard enough to jar the lock loose. Storm rubbed her head then blinked at the opportunity that had laid it's self out for her

"...maybe Primus does exist!" she smiled for the first time in her life and stood up, quietly pushing the lid off. With as little noise as she could manage she set foot on the tiled floor of the dark room she had come to call home and crept to the door. It was open... light poured into the room from the dimly lit hallway. Storm paused looking to see if the coast was clear before uttering "transform" the rarely used alt mode snapped into place as her body changed shape.

The cat bot sniffed the air, finding no one she launched forward. Claws made very little noise on the metal floor as the cheetah banked in left entering a large room with many warp generators lining the walls. Thankfully no one was ever in the room this late at night, allowing the femme to stand up on her hind legs and activate the one marked Zi.

The silver ring hummed to life the inner part filling with red and violet light. Storm tensed her claws, thinking if she was really going to regret this latter or not. Without a second thought she made a leap for freedom, he dark and lightly battered body disappearing into the thin film of color. The warp gate closed soundlessly behind her.

At the Decepticon HQ...

Starscream, now stuck with monitor duty sigh in frustration, a sudden beeping nearly made him fall out of his seat. The seeker punched the button and checked the stats on the recently activated warp gate Zi. The second in command rubbed his chin for a while before he pieced things together. With a smile he stood up and walked down the hall to Megatron's room...to find that Storm's cage was empty.

"So she has a rebellious streak after all" he mused with a smug chuckled. Starscream then raised his two best soldiers on the comm and told them to meet him at warp gate Z1...


Tori: ... Brain's fired, can't think... Thanks to reviewers... Ow

Megatron: (sweatdrops) I swear to Primus sh'e's stoned

Tori: Shut up