"Are you all ready?" The announcer exclaimed.
The people in the arena cheered.
"What was that? I said, ARE YOU ALL READY?"
The people cheered and screamed even louder.
"Wow, this is quite the lively event." Orion commented.
"Yep, it better be too. The announcer has to make the interludes entertaining otherwise the event itself would be incredibly boring." Dion replied.
"A tournament where mechs kill things can be boring?" Orion asked.
"Heh, you'd be surprised." Dion replied.
Shaking his helm, Orion turned back to the arena floor.
"Alright, for those of you newbies out there watching, lemme break down the Beast Wars for ya." The announcer continued. "Throughout the season, gladiators of all kinds came to fight various exotic beasts from around the cosmos. Now, the top remaining eight are here to battle it out against the semi final monsters. The ones who survive the beasts will go on to face the championship monster until there is only one left standing victorious...or alive. If there are more than one gladiator still alive after facing the championship monster, then they will be left to battle it out for the title, of BEAST MACHINE!"
The arena once again came alive with the screams and cheers of the spectators.
"Now let's meet our contestants for today!" The announcer shouted as seven burly and heavily armoured mechs came walking out from a door from the other side of the arena floor.
The crowd cheered the names of the gladiators they supported.
"Now, let's get this party started!" The announcer shouted.
The announcer ran off of the arena floor and when he was gone, the eight gladiators separated from each other to form an octagon shape around the arena. Then a loud buzzing could be heard and walls came elevating out of the floor. They separated the gladiators from each other and allowed them to be alone with their beast.
The beasts themselves were pretty threatening. They stood tall on four legs and had claws on all of them. Their red eyes glowed maliciously at the gladiators.
"Oh my! The beasts they got this year are awfully terrifying! Here we have eight Coronads from the Ryokor Deserts! A real challenge for our gladiators today!" The announcer spoke from an unseen room.
"Wow, those beasts look real scary." Chromia commented.
Dion nodded in agreement and turned to Orion. "What do you think Orion?"
"...I've seen scarier." Orion replied casually.
"What?"
"Seriously?"
"Where?"
Orion shrugged. "Places."
The other younglings sighed and turned back towards the arena floor.
The gladiators put up fairly entertaining fights against the beasts. One gladiator barely lasted the first minute as the beast he was fighting lunged at him and swiped at his leg. The gladiator screamed as the beast bent down to take him into his jaws.
"Oh no! That was quick!" The announcer proclaimed. "Stonebreaker is out! The other gladiators better hope they last longer than he did!"
The battles waged on until one gladiator managed to kill his beast with a quick swing from his battle axe.
Others soon followed him. One strangling the beast with his whip, the other piercing the beast's chest with his long blade.
"Oh my oh my oh my! There's only one spot left in the finals! Who's it gonna go to?" The announcer shouted.
"Yeah, I wonder. All of them look like they're about to fall down and die on their own." Dion spoke.
Orion watched the gladiators down in the cages. After a few moments he pointed at the gladiator at the farthest corner.
"Him." Orion said.
"What? How do you know?" Chromia asked.
"It's kinda obvious. He's gonna feign to the right and then strike from the left." Orion replied nonchalantly.
The younglings stared at him with wide optics before turning back towards the battle and they gasped when they saw the end of the battle go just as Orion had predicted.
"And there you have it folks! The final four to compete for this year's Beast Wars!" THe announcer proclaimed.
"Woah...Orion, how'd you figure that out?" Dion asked incredulously.
Orion shrugged. "I've been in situations where I've had to analyze things like that. I've just never used it for battle purposes"
The other younglings nodded and turned back down towards the arena floor which had lost the octagon shaped cages.
"Alright everybody! It is time! For the Beast Wars championship final match!"
The spectators cheered.
"Now, let's bring out the Championship Beast!"
From the other end of the arena, a large gate began opening, and out came the championship beast.
The beast was huge! Far larger than the beasts the gladiators had fought previously. It was covered with dark grey fur. It had a long tail with a blade at its end. Four huge legs with claws. It's head was pointed, a collar surrounded its neck, it's jaw was filled with razor sharp fangs and its huge red beady optics glared mercilessly at all the gladiators.
"This is it you all! Do or die! The mech to defeat the beast, will be dubbed Beast Machine! Now, let's get this party started!"
A loud alarm blared throughout the arena and the beast roared then proceeded to charge the gladiators. The first gladiator jumped out of the beast's way, and the beast ran right past him, but the beast lashed out its tail and grabbed hold of the gladiator's leg and threw him across the arena.
The gladiator screamed as the beast came over and crushed him underfoot.
There were several boos and disappointed shouts from the crowd.
"The people seem to be awfully...lax about the mechs dying right in front of them. It's sick." Ariel commented.
"Yeah well, this is the most entertaining thing to do in Kaon. Other than going out and performing criminal acts I mean. These people are used to seeing people die, so mechs going out there to die for their entertainment is a refreshing change." Chromia replied.
"Hmm..." Ariel mumbled.
The beast turned back towards the other gladiators and charged towards them. The next gladiator roared and ran to meet the beast head on, with every intent of surviving longer than the previous gladiator and winning the tournament...
...he didn't fare any better than the last. He was pulled apart by the beast's huge fangs. The next was crushed under the beast's incredible weight. All of the gladiators were brutally beaten by the beast. Torn apart. Mutilated. Eaten.
Chromia and Dion watched and they both had to close their optics several times. Ariel put her servos over her audio receptors for most of the battles. Orion kept his optics wide open the whole time, watching in sick fascination.
When the Energon stained pieces of the last gladiator was cleaned off of the arena floor, the announcer came out once again. "Well, uh...I guess that wraps that up...uh, I guess we're just gonna have to wait until next year's Beast Wars—"
The announcer was interrupted by a young looking femme who came running up to him from across the stadium. When she was close enough she whispered something into his audio receptors.
"There is? Who?...Really? Him? He wants to—okay if you say so." The announcer spoke. The femme nodded and ran back through the door in which she came.
"Well, it's done. You can't back out now." She told the gladiator.
"Yeah. Thanks Sharpshot." He replied.
"You saw those other gladiators. You have a strategy?" She asked.
"Sure. The same as always." He smirked.
Sharpshot rolled her optics. "Wing it and trust that things will work out for themselves. That "strategy" is gonna get you killed one day."
The tall mech reached out and kissed the top of her helm. "Not today it won't. Trust me."
Sharpshot sighed and watched helplessly as her blundering idiot walked out into the cheering arena.
"Now this is a little odd but as the rules state, if there is no immediate winner, then any brave challenger may step forward to compete. So it looks like we have one last minute contender for the title of Beast Machine. He is the youngest gladiator in all of the Pits of Kaon's history! So far he has had a zero losing streak! The silver kid with fists of pure steel!"
The announcer turned towards the door and watched the mech walk out into the light. The crowds cheered and screamed as the young, tall silver mech came into view. He looked only a few cycles older than Orion, and was the smallest gladiator they had seen all day. He wasn't even wearing any big armour and no weapon to speak of other than the fusion cannon on his right(?) arm. However, he entered the arena with a smile and fists in the air.
"Everyone make way for...MEGATRONUS!"
Hey hey hey look who it is!
Let me know what you all think! Comment and review!