Chapter 3: Rivalry
POV Megatronus
I slowly opened my optics as the morning sunlight creeps into my room. I yawned as I got out of my bed to stretch out my tired body. I turned to my nightstand to check the time. It was only eight o'clock on a Friday morning. I sighed as I slowly walked to the bathroom to shower and brush my teeth.
Once I've done that, I started to walk out of my apartment to head for the training room in the arena so that I am at the top of my game tonight.
As I walked to the arena, I noticed a large crowd looming over the poster of the list of battles for today.
"Hey, check this out," said a young mech as he pointed at the list.
"What?" asked a young femme who was next to the mech.
"Look at who is fighting at seven o'clock tonight" the mech replied to the girlfriend.
The femme looked at the seven o'clock night fight schedule and said, "Looks like Arron the Terrible is fighting against the fierce gladiator, Megatronus."
"Exactly. It's going to be an epic fight tonight" the mech replied.
The femme turned to him and said; "I heard that Megatronus hasn't lost a match in over five years."
"Ah huh, but Arron is tougher, stronger, and more experienced than Megatronus" the mech replied to her.
"Well, I guess we should buy the tickets now then, right?" she asked as she grabbed the mech's arm.
He laughed before replying, "Yup, we should hurry before they run out of seats."
The femme nodded before the couple walked away from the crowd to buy tonight's tickets.
I stood there in curiosity as I pondered about what the two bots said. "Hmm, this battle may be a challenge after all" I said to myself as I left to go and train.
POV Neonna
As I was drinking my cup of energon, I thought about whether or not I'm going to see Megatron's match tonight. I stared into my cup as if it would give me the answer.
My father noticed me being all quiet that he asked, "What seems to be on your mind, my little flower?"
I sighed as I closed my eyes for a second and shrugged in reply.
"Hmm, did that young mech that took you home last night asked you out on a data? My father replied while rubbing his beard.
I looked at him as I asked, "How did you know that?"
He laughed as he replied; "I was young once too you know. Also I saw the way you two looked at each other."
I blushed as I replied to my father, "I thought you were upstairs in your work room."
He smiled and said, "I was, but I still have a window in that room to see the two of you talking to each other in front of our lawn."
"Oh" I said sheepishly while looking down into my drink.
"Anyway, what is his name?" he asked while drinking his cup of energon.
"His name is Megatronus" I replied.
My father's optics widened in surprise as he asked, "Isn't he a gladiator?"
I nodded in reply.
He leaned back in his chair as he said, "He's not like that other gladiator that you broke up with decades ago, is he?"
I shook my head as I replied to my father, "Oh no he is totally the opposite father."
"Oh, how so?" he asked me curiously.
I blushed a little as I said, "Well, he has a caring spark. He's very polite and nice. And he saved me from…." I stopped myself in mid sentence because I didn't want him to know that robbers attacked me last night.
My father looked at me curiously before he said, "Saved you from what?"
I stumbled for a few seconds before I had no choice but to tell him the truth. I sighed as I said, "Last night, I was attacked by these three crooks who wanted money from me. I told them that I didn't have any with me, but they didn't believe me. They were about to attack me when Megatronus came in and saved me. He then decided to walk me home so that I won't be attacked by those crooks again."
My father nodded in reply before he said, "I would like to meet this young gladiator, Neonna. Where exactly is he taking you out?"
"Well, he wants me to come and see him tonight at seven in the arena to watch him fight" I replied to my father.
He nodded as he asked, "And what did you tell him?"
I looked down and replied, "I told him I would think about it."
"And have you decided on what you're going to do?" he asked.
"I don't know. Should I go or not, dad?" I replied to him for some advice.
"In my opinion, I think that you should decide if you want to go or not. But if you really want to go watch him tonight, I suggest that we go and buy those tickets before they are all sold out" he said as he finished the last bit of energon before getting up from the chair to put it in the sink.
"We?" I asked my father as I arched my eyebrow in confusion.
"Yeah, I'm coming with you so that I can see this gladiator" he replied as he started to grab a few things.
"I don't know, father. He asked me to go and watch him tonight. I'm not sure if he's ready to see you just yet." I replied to him.
"Oh, I'm not going to personally interrogate him, my dear. I just simply want to see him in action so that I can decide if he is the right mech for my lovely daughter or not" he replied.
"Well, are we going or not?" he asked as he waited for me by the door.
I sighed as I got up from my chair and said, "Alright, I'll go. But only this once."
Dad nodded in reply as he opened the door for the both of us. We transformed in our vehicular forms as we drove off towards the arena.
Once we got to Kaon, we transformed in our robotic form and walked to the arena. There was a really long line of people standing in line of the ticket stand to buy their tickets for the tournaments scheduled for today.
My dad said, "Maybe you should go and try and find Megatronus while I wait here in this line to buy our tickets."
I nodded my head as I left to try and find Megatronus. I went into the public area of the arena where both gladiators and spectators go to relax, buy energon, and check up on current events. I looked around for Megatronus for a while before I decided to ask a gladiator.
I saw a black gladiator with dark blue, purple, and violet blue colors in and around his armor talking to a royal blue colored femme with a light shade of purple in her armor and faceplate.
I walked up to them and asked timidly, "Um, excuse me for interrupting you two, but do you know personally of a gladiator called Megatronus by any chance?"
The two turned to me as the black mech replied, "Why yes ma'am, we know Megatronus personally. But may I ask why?"
"You see I'm looking for him so that I can tell him something. Do you know where he is right now?" I said.
"I see. He's in the training room right now, preparing for the upcoming battle tonight. I can go and get him if you like" he replied to me sincerely.
"You don't mind getting him for me?" I replied to him.
He smiled as he replied, "I don't mind at all. I'll be right back." He then started to go before he turned around and asked, "Um, would you give me your name so that Mega knows who wants to see him."
"Oh, my name is Neonna" I replied to the gladiator as he nodded in reply before he left to go get Megatronus for me.
"So Neonna" said the royal blue femme next to me. "How do you know my sparkmate's friend? He never mentioned any girl friend he has to me or Shadowwave," she said while looking at me.
I blushed as I replied, "I...I kind of met him last night and wanted...wanted to thank him for walking me home."
"Oh?" she said curiously.
"Yeah" I said while rubbing the back of my head nervously before I asked, "Umm may I ask what your name is, ma'am?"
"Oh, I'm so rude. My name is Aura Light," she said gleefully.
"It's nice to meet you Aura Light" I replied to her.
She nodded before she looked over my shoulders at the clock behind me. Her beautiful pale green optics widened in surprise as she said, "Oh, I'm going to be late!"
She then started to run before she jogged backwards towards me and said, "Would you please tell my sparkmate that I'm going back to work again, Kay. Bye!"
"Okay, I will. Bye" I said as she raced out of the arena before transforming into a jet and took off into the skies.
I sighed a bit as I stood where I was to wait for Megatronus to come. I waited for a long time before I heard someone say my name.
"Neonna? Is that you?" said a familiar mech's voice that I wish I would just forget.
I stood there like a statue as I silently cursed, "Scrape" at the odds of hearing his voice again.
I slowly turned around to see a huge bulky mech with gray armor with white areas on his armor and white outlines in his armor plates. He has solid light cyan blue optics. He smiled at me before he said, "It's been a long time, love."
POV Megatronus
"One hundred and one….one hundred and two…..one hundred and three…." I kept on saying to myself as I was bench-pressing on the machine while laying flat against my back. I've been doing this for the past hour now. Then I heard someone coming into the training room.
"Mega" said a familiar voice.
I directed my optics to my right to see Shadowwave walking towards me. "Shadowwave? What are you doing here? I thought you and your wife had plans this morning?" I asked while continuing my weight lifting exercises.
"We did, but there's someone who wishes to speak to you" he said.
I put the weight back on the rack above my head as I lay there for a few seconds. I asked, "Who wishes to see me?"
"A young femme named Neonna" he replied to me.
My optics widened in surprise. "Neonn...ow!" I said as I sat up too quickly to bang my head against the metal weight bar in the process.
"You okay, Megatronus?" he asked me with concern.
"I'm alright, now" I said as I rubbed my head tenderly before I got up off the machine. I turned to my friend as I asked, "So where she is right now?"
Shadowwave nodded as he replied, "She's in the public area of the arena on the west side."
I nodded as I replied, "Thank you" before heading out of the room.
I stopped dead in my tracks when Shadowwave said, "She's a beautiful femme, Megatronus."
I blushed as I turned around and replied, "What do you mean?"
He smirked at me and replied, "You know what I mean, old friend."
I blushed even more as I retorted, "But...but we just met. I doubt that she and I would really become a couple."
"That's what I thought when I met Aura Light. As you can see, we fell in love with each other and then we became more than just boyfriend and girlfriend. Then we finally became sparkmates" he said.
I looked down as I replied, "I don't know if she feels the same way about me. I mean we hardly really know each other."
"Then ask her out on a date so that you two can get to know each other a little more" he said to me.
I sighed as I replied back to him, "I'll think about it, okay."
"Hey it's only a suggestion. Don't take it like you have to do it" he replied as he started to walk past me. Then he said, "We shouldn't keep her waiting any longer."
I nodded in agreement as I followed him.
Once we got to the west side of the arena, we heard a commotion between two bots, which one of them was a familiar voice.
"Oh come on, I said that I was sorry" said a mech.
"Sorry is an excuse for what happened twenty years ago!" shouted a familiar femme's voice.
Shadowwave and I turned to see Neonna and a huge grey and white mech in a heat of an argument.
"Hey if it makes you happy, I dumped her a long time ago" he retorted back to her.
Neonna narrowed her optics in fury as she shouted back, "AFTER I FOUND OUT!" She rolled her eyes to the side as she said, "Only Primus knows what you'd been doing since then."
I narrowed my metal brows in anger as I asked Shadowwave, "Who is this mech?"
"That would be your opponent for tonight's battle" he replied.
"Arron" I said hatefully as I walked towards them with Shadowwave following behind me.
"I swear upon the Allspark that l haven't dated any femme since I dumped her" he retorted.
She retorted, "Those are just empty vows!"
He was about to say something when I cut in. "Is there a problem, Neonna?" I asked while glaring at Arron.
The two turned around and saw us as Arron said, "This doesn't concern you, rookie."
"Actually it does concern me to see my friend like this" I retorted back at him.
He looked at me and then at Neonna as he said, "I see that you have already moved on."
She huffed and retorted, "It was bound to happen eventually. Now if you excuse me, I would like to have a friendly conversation with my friend." She then walked towards me and grabbed my servo as I was being dragged away by her.
We only walked a few steps before Arron called out, "Hey rookie!" I turned around and looked directly at him. He then said, "You're name is Megatronus, right?"
"Who's asking" I retorted back at him.
He smirked as he replied, "How about we make a friendly deal."
"About what?" I asked even though I kind of had a clear sense of what the deal is about.
"Megatronus, I think we should just ignore him and go" Neonna whispered to me.
I replied, "I have to see what he wants first then we will leave, okay?"
She sighed as she replied, "Fine. But make it fast. I don't want to spend another minute with him around."
I nodded as I turned my attention back at Arron and said, "What is this deal you have in mind?"
He smirked evilly as he replied, "I just want a friendly bargain between us fellow gladiators."
"What is this deal, Arron?" I asked while watching him come closer to us.
"If I win our match tonight, I want you to never set optics on Neonna ever again. For she is my girl not yours!" he said while leering at me.
Neonna looked at him hatefully as she started to walk towards him and said, "Why you son of a scrape…."
I cut her off by placing my servo in front of her and replied to Arron, "And if I win, you shall never harass my friend ever again."
He looked at me before he placed his servo was out in front on me as he replied, "Then it's a deal."
I took his servo and shook on it as we both glared at each other while trying to crush the other's servo in this stand off.
"So I guess we are rivals now" he said as he let go of my servo.
"Yeah, I guess we are" I replied back to him as I turned around and guided Neonna away from that creep with Shadowwave following us.