The sun beat down on the hard rocky floor. They were in a deserted location, far away from any prying optics. Far away from tongues that might wag.
Sleek metal gleamed in the hot glare of the sun. Two turbo foxes stood side by side seemingly alone in the barren desert.
But optics watched.
The com links crackled a single word.
"Begin."
Dust scattered into the air. The two exploded a frenzied sprint, their legs moving as a blur.
At first the smaller one kept pace with the larger of the two, stubbornly holding his ground even as his intakes were completely overwhelmed and warnings flooded across his HUD.
He could not bear up to his brother's greater capabilities and fell behind.
He lost by a huge margin.
Everyone was waiting at the start line.
"It's been a whole cycle." A turbofox from the small group growled. "You've taken twice as long."
There was a glare. "Your brother arrived in half a cycle"
His intakes were still heaving, every breath caused him pain. His spark for all it's unusual strength was taxed beyond its limits.
His brother was looking away, he knew what was coming next.
The Ambus turbofox spoke.
"As the first in the House of Ambus race you are henceforth, Dominus Ambus."
The Ambus turbofox turned back to the smaller of the pair, who was still heaving away.
"And henceforth as last in the race you are Minimus Ambus."
Word study!
Prestigious meaning: Inspiring respect and admiration; having high status.
Pretentious meaning: Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance or merit than is actually possessed.
These two words perfectly sum up everything the house of Ambus is about. Due to the cybertronian society being controlled by the functionalist having a beastform alt mode was ranked by the functionalist as the bottom of cybertronian societal value. The house of Ambus get around this by disguising their turbofox features with a highly convincing suit that makes them look normal and transform into something are the ultimate transformers hiding their true identities from their own society. They aren't turbofoxes but they are beastformers transforming into turbofox alternate form.
The universe they come from is the IDW comics. Super violent at times(if you're reading and Overlord or the DJD shows up skip and spare scarring your eyes) and with some really twisted bad guys but some parts are really quite good.
I know I said that The Best Mathematicians are the Best Warriors was the first and last story but I randomly typed this short story on a random creative whim and it seemed like a waste to not publish it, especially since this topic is one that doesn't get much attention or stories like this are rare.
The story is connected to art I drew of Dominus Ambus and Minimus Ambus full on racing in turbofox form which you can see on my deviant art profile along with a few other art pieces I posted. Because Fanfiction doesn't allow links or URLs to be posted(or I can't get them to show up), if you want to see my art go to Deviant Art's website, click on the search button, type turbofox dominus ambus in the search bar and my art will show up( apparently it is a topic that doesn't get much attention). You can then select my profile Sunsetwater and see all the art I published of various transformers. e.g. IDW Whirl, Glit the only nice decepticon medic and the best, more turbofox alt form art(there's not much around surprisingly! I guess they are quite evil looking).
If you're wondering about my backstory I wrote an explanation on my profile why I'm cutting down on the digital.
Enjoy! All the best and I hope you are in the best of health!