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Pandimala: *looks around* I think something is wrong.
Swindle: *confused* What could be wrong? Things are going great.
Pandimala: *nods* That's the problem. Things never go this well for long. I've got a bad feeling about this.
Swindle: *waves servo dismissively* You worry too much, femme.
Pandimala: *glances at Authoress* I don't think so.
Chapter 12: Growing Reputation
Soundwave's 1st P.O.V.
It had been eighty solars since the femme had been brought onto Swindle's compound. In that time, I had seen her improve from what I had seen. And that was in her fights and personality, which were already well off. Of course, I still had some reservations about the femme. She acted too accepting for a bot who had been forced into this as she was. Bots in those circumstances almost always fought against their owner. A few bounty hunting jobs were available in lower caste city-states like Kaon to find the escaped fighters and return them to their owners. While it wasn't as lucrative of a business as the Pits were, it was the safer option. Bots in the Pits could be unpredictable on their better solars, let alone when they might be in their moods.
That was partially the reason I kept an optic on Swindle's bots. Currently, he has fifteen bots under his care who fought. Fourteen of those were mechs. That was another way the femme stood out where she went. Femmes usually looked for safer, though that term in itself was used loosely, work. The Pits were unforgiving, and a femme especially needed to stay focused. I was glad to see that Pandimala seemed to be doing just that. The only other femme that Swindle had ever had didn't even last her first fight. She could put up a fight, but bots looked to expose any weakness they could to win within the rules. And Tholi allowed her opponent to mess with her helm with his remarks, which distracted her. And it cost her spark in the end…and her helm.
Some had tried with Pandimala. Her last match had a rather repugnant mech try to make her uncomfortable. However, Pandimala had simply laughed at his attempt. In doing that, her opponent ended up being the one to lose focus. If he had a processor, he would be thanking Primus that Pandimala had her no offlining rule. Over her eighty solars here, the femme had certainly made more than one bot grateful for that clause.
That was even if they were upset with it at the beginning of their fights. One mech, in particular, had been furious that they weren't fighting to the offlining. He went by the designation of Cantankerous, and he reveled in offlining his foes. Even during their fight, bots could see that he was trying to push that rule to the side when he struck at her. However, Pandimala had been able to dodge his strikes and counter with speed that seemed almost impossible for a grounder femme as large as she was. Ultimately, the mech surrendered once Pandimala had disabled both his legs and strong arm. Of course, there was a lot of energon spilled. One didn't do that much damage without losing some.
And yet, the femme hadn't had a personality shift. Most bots, especially those who won frequently, allowed those wins to get to them. However, Pandimala entered each fight as she did the previous one unless the bot she was fighting was antagonistic in the worst way, which was only four bots from what I had kept track of; she was making connections with the gladiators she fought. Some had come here as visitors to converse with the femme in question. Of course, some of those meetings went poorly when Rillen got involved.
That was another puzzle that I still didn't understand about the femme. Despite how most on Cybertron treated bots like Rillen, Pandimala made it her mission to stay close to the mech. She was currently even watching one of his creature fights with Swindle. From what Swindle said the other solar, she was trying to convince him to let her fight with Rillen in one of the fights. Given how easily Rillen could get distracted, he was hesitant, but I knew he was thinking about it. I wasn't sure what her goal was in that play, though. Outside of a select few creatures reserved for top-tiered events, the creature fights were lackluster and wouldn't help the fighting profile that she was creating. Or at least the one that she seemed to be making.
"Hey, boss bot," I glanced down at Frenzy as he sat on the desk beside my keyboard. "Frenzy says that new bot is causing problems at the energon depot."
I let out a small vent as I stood and replaced my visor. Colvan, the newest bot Swindle acquired ten solars ago to replace Nitine. Honestly, Swindle wasn't the best at picking bots. Well, for the most part. Once in a while, he got a decent fighter. Pandimala was showing that she was one, and I also counted myself as one. While some were poor at fighting or slow like Rillen was, the others were similar to Nitine. This Colvan seemed to be heading in the same direction.
Leaving my room, I turned down the hall and approached Swindle's energon depot. I was almost finished healing, and if this mech caused me to stay in recovery longer, I would take his spark. The solars I had already spent in recovery were too long. If I didn't know the extent of the damages that D-16 placed on me, I would have been fighting Swindle to get back in the ring. Being in the fights meant that credits were coming my way, and I was earning a place for myself and my symbiots to stay safe.
I focused as I entered the depot room. Immediately, I took stock of the situation as I could see it. Colvan was standing in an aggressive stance, an empty cube of energon in his servo. On the other side, I saw Combshredder standing opposite the new mech with energon dripping from his plating. Combshredder was a flier with a mechanobeast appearance to his armor, though his alt mode was similar to hunter-class aerial modes. He was among the few bots here who, while respectable, were poor at fighting.
And he had a temper if pushed.
"Take that back, you fragger," Combshredder seemed to strain when he spoke. Whatever Colvan said, along with his actions, was getting Combshredder closer to starting a fight. And, unless that energon was directly involved with a fight, that would most likely put Combshredder at fault if I didn't step in soon. Swindle did not tolerate infighting between us without us being on the training field, as Pandimala had been with Nitine.
"Report," I used a recording of Swindle to hopefully get the point across to the two of them that I was acting in Swindle's stead during this. Most of the bots here knew that; however, I wanted to ensure Colvan got that point. I worked with Swindle's authority when he wasn't here, so I would investigate this as he wanted.
Combshredder turned to me and motioned to the energon dripping from his plating. "That slagger walked in here and snatched my cube from my servo. Spewing some scrap about how he deserved to get his ration before any of us. When I demanded my cube back, he did this!"
A huff from Colvan sounded like he thought this situation was beneath him. It was not a good start to whatever defense he tried to dig up for this disaster. "He should be happy I allowed him to keep the energon. You all are obvious failures in fighting," Did this mech not realize who I was in this compound? Of the hundreds of fights I fought, one of my few losses was to D-16. No, this mech was more of a failure than I could ever be…and I was reasonably confident that, while he won his first fight, he lost the next three he had. He was too predictable.
"Are you neurotic, or did you work to be that stupid?" That caused Colvan to turn and glare sharply at Wallshade. Out of all the mechs under Swindle's reach, he was one of the few bots with a level helm to make rational decisions. He was a mech who tried to stay neutral in everything he was involved in. So, the fact that he was speaking up now meant that he understood how badly Colvan was fragging up. "Sure, you do about average for Swindle's compound. And if your overinflated sense of ego wants to act as if that makes you the ruler of the universe, then, by all means, keep it up. Even without what you just said, Swindle would find out about your waste of the energon. And the last mech who messed with the compound's energon was shipped to the Kaon mines."
"So why are you speaking up?" Colvan growled at Wallshade.
Wallshade looked more amused than angry at that. Thankfully, as the focus was off of Combshredder, said mech was calming down. Good. Combshredder, while not the greatest fighter, could cause issues in being detained. Importantly, it could cause problems in my recovery. I would remember how Wallshade was helping later.
After a few clicks, Wallshade finally answered the mech. "To give you a chance to get out of this with only a minor infraction instead of forty solars on medical restrictions."
"Hah, forty solars on medical restrictions?" Colvan was digging his own smelting pit with every word that left his vocals. "And who in this place could put me there? You?"
"Me?" Wallshade laughed. "I could put you in there for two or three solars. But forty?" The mech then shook his helm before he held up three digits. That made me curious about who was on his list besides myself. "Three bots who are under Swindle could do that. If he was pointed in the right direction, Rillen could cause you a scrap ton of damage." That was a fair point. Rillen certainly had the strength to do so. However, as Wallshade pointed out, the mech had to be directed with the right motivation.
"Right, like that scrap for processor could put enough processing power together even to realize I was his opponent." Colvan seemed amused at this.
Of course, I knew that wouldn't last. "And I'll give you another bit of advice. If you want to survive here without more trouble, don't let the second bot on this list hear you say anything against Rillen. She might be the most recent fighter here besides you, but Pandimala has shown in her fights that she will take you down without hesitation. And she will ask Swindle to let her tear you apart if word gets back to her about what you just said against Rillen."
"The femme?" Colvan laughed. Great, a genderist. Perhaps I would suggest to Swindle to tell Pandimala about this. From what I had studied from her, I suspected that she would enjoy that. "The solar a femme beats me in combat,"
"Will be the solar any femme even half as good as Pandimala runs into you in a fight." Wallshade interrupted the mech. "You couldn't take her on if you got a blessing to do so directly from Primus himself." He then held up one of his digits to point at me. "And the third bot on that list is Soundwave here. He fought pede to pede with D-16 and only lost that fight at the last nano. So, you tell me newbie," He then smirked. "Do you want to test your luck against him?"
At the mention of my fight with D-16 and how close it was, the smug look vanished off of Colvan's faceplate. He glanced at me, realizing I was a threat to him, before he spoke up. "He can't touch me. Swindle doesn't allow infighting, and he won't let his best fighter offline another one." At least he realized he wasn't the best fighter in this compound now.
"True," Wallshade admitted. Colvan looked relieved at that until Wallshade continued. "But Swindle values his observations and intelligence work to the highest degree. All Soundwave would have to do is tell him that you did all of this, along with the recorded footage he has been taking since before he arrived, and you could end up against somebot like Scissorsaw. His manager pays decent credits to other managers who send bots for the slaughter Scissorsaw's way. Mech has a real addiction to grinding bots up in his blades."
The energon seemed to drain from the mech's faceplate as he looked back at me. "I…I'm sorry. It won't happen again, sir."
I would be reporting this to Swindle, of course. However, I would abstain from giving such a harsh suggestion to the mech. However, it was tempting. Colvan needed to be taught a lesson, and a serious one at that. Perhaps other fighters could teach the mech the lesson he needed…if he survived it. I'd have to think more about that later.
For now, though, this mess needed to be cleaned up. "Combshredder, to the washracks. Colvan, clean this mess up." I let the clips order the two before I turned and walked out.
However, as I returned to my room, I let my thoughts return to Wallshade's statements. He saw that three of us gladiators were on a higher level in Swindle's care. Rillen, as he said, was there purely on the strength side. If there was a way to fix his processor without costing all of our sparks, I was sure Swindle would look into it. I knew the mech would be hard to beat if he was in a contest of brute strength alone, even from larger framed bots and bots with strength mods.
And the only other one on that list besides myself was Pandimala. The femme was strong, but what worried Wallshade was her way of getting revenge. The femme seemed to fight better when she was defending something. On her first solar, she fought Nitine because she was defending her future here and her honor once he made those comments. Her fight against Blude, a larger framed mech, six solars ago had been close until the mech made a smart remark about having some bots visit Swindle to rough him up some after he won. That caused Pandimala to fight to defend Swindle, and the fight was over faster than anybot saw coming—even Swindle. Most recently, Pandimala had ended up in a fight with a bot called Relab, a bot about my size who was a slightly better-than-average fighter, the other solar. As many bots who knew Rillen did, the mech tried to taunt Pandimala by saying, right before the fight started, she was worse off just being associated with the mech.
Saying that the fight lasted a click might give the mech the benefit of the doubt.
No, Pandimala was a fighter who was only going to get better. However, she needed to learn to harness the fighting power she had in those fights with her regular fights. That would get her into a larger sphere of recognition. From how she acted since coming to Swindle's compound, that was what she wanted. We'd see how the future went.
Pandimala's 1st P.O.V.
"Swindle, thank you so much for this!" I practically cheered after the mech told me what he could do.
In turn, the mech shook his helm. "I don't know how you convinced me of this, but the organizers agreed. The fight between Scissorsaw and Rakean went much faster than planned, and they had a large opening before the next match. So, you and Rillen are going to be fighting about fifteen pachyphels. They aren't easy to fight, so ensure you two don't return to me too damaged."
What the frag was a pachyphel? "Care to give a femme a description of what these things look like?"
Swindle let out a vent, but before he could answer, Rillen spoke up with a big grin. "Ooh, I know this! Pachyphels are small, metal, fleshy, rammy bots. They hit us with their heads!" Of course, his version of small meant that they were about five meters tall. While being half of my height was necessarily tall, I wouldn't call it small either. They could do some damage if I got hit. Swindle would offline me if I asked for this and then got beaten up by some techno-organic…wait…those sounded familiar.
No way.
Was I about to fight fifteen of those ramming dinosaurs like the one in Jurassic Park 2? And something told me that the non-organic parts of these things would include the top of their heads…the things that would be hitting us. "Joy." I let out before I shook my helm. I wasn't doing this for me. I wanted to show Rillen some new tricks he could use with how he fought, and this might be the best way to go about it. Even if that meant I had to fight techno-organic dinosaurs that were larger than their counterparts.
"Just avoid their helms, and you can avoid most of the damage," Swindle said as a farewell before he left the preparation room.
We had about five clicks until our fight was going to start, so I turned to Rillen. "Rillen, just to remind me, what weapons do you have?" I knew what he had, but I wanted the mech to go over them with me as often as possible so he didn't have to think about what he could use. That was a part of his problems. If he had to think, it debilitated him.
The mech paused for a nano; he looked like a toddler trying to think hard about something, before he smiled and started to show me the weapons as he spoke. "I have two blasters," Those transformed from each of his servos. "A blade," That came out of his right servo. "I can do this to make a big blaster," He transformed his servos together to make a cannon, kind of like how, in my dimension, the Megatron from the movies did, though Rillen's was bigger. "A sword," He pulled out a sword about two-thirds the size of my broadswords, which was pretty big for an average bot. "And Thunderboom!"
And that was his battle ax. True to what its name might imply, it could have the head of the weapon circulate electricity around it. And it was a giant ax. In total height, the axe was six meters tall. The head was bladed on both sides with curved blades, with space between the heads for a spear point reaching half the ax blades' height. Small details etched onto the blade made it look as elegant as it looked deadly. And from what Rillen told me about it, he was created with the ax. From the story he told me about it, it was the first word he had been able to say.
Back to the present, though. "Perfect. And while I don't have nearly as much as you do, I do have my two broadswords," I took them out to show him before I put them away and motioned to my cannons. "And I have these cannons that can shoot blaster shots, fire, and ice."
"I'm sure Mr. Swindle can get you more if you ask him. He's really nice," I smiled when Rillen gave me his form of encouragement.
"Maybe once I get used to fighting with what I have some more." I appeased the mech, though I had no plans on upgrading my gear anytime soon. Glancing at my internal clock, I saw we had about two clicks until we went out there. "Okay, Rillen, we are about to go out. These things are probably going to hit us low and fast. I know you've normally just fought them helm on in the past, but can we try a new rule?"
He nodded quickly. "Yeah. I like your new rules," He was speaking on some of the 'games' the less savory bots under Swindle's care told him about. Once I told Rillen my 'new rules', I went to those bots and taught them a lesson in misleading Rillen. "They make our chores more fun," Yeah, because he wasn't doing all of them alone, and he had the proper supplies.
"Okay, so new rule. Try not to let them touch you. Can you do that, Rillen?"
He looked confused at my idea. "Ms. Pandi, how can we beat them if we don't touch them?"
I patted the wall next to me and smiled. "We let them hit themselves. If you get out of their way when they run at you, they will hit the wall and possibly break their helms open."
The mech thought on that for a few nanos before he smiled. "Like the story you told me about the mech who fell down a hill and broke his helm. Nobot pushed him, but he hit his helm all by himself!"
"Exactly," Well, not quite, but I could see that Rillen had a basic idea about what would have to be done. That was a good step for now. Of course, he had to implement it, but I felt I could help him if needed. But I didn't think he would. "If you have more than one near you, you can fight one, but try to dodge the others if you can. Okay?"
"Okay, Miss Pandi!" I smiled when he cheered. The mech was a bit of joy in this existence that I didn't know I needed until I met him that first solar I was here.
The arena gate opened before we could say more, so I motioned Rillen to lead us out. As we made our way out, I noticed that there were more bots in the stands than when Rillen had fought by himself. I guess the more spark-threatening the fight was, the more bots it attracted. And since there were two of us fighting, we would have more dangerous fights—lowlife scum.
"And we have a special treat for you all this solar," The announcer started. "First off, we have the simple warrior, Rillen, joining us for the second time this solar. And he isn't alone! Joining him is the merciful rookie from the competitive fights, Pandimala!" Merciful rookie? I guess I could live with that. At the mention of my designation, the crowds cheered louder than before. "The two of them are facing a pack of fifteen pachyphels! Will our two fighters have what it takes to avoid all the damage these creatures are known to inflict? Let's find out now!'
Immediately, I tensed and prepared to dodge. If I was going to have Rillen fight this way, I would do the same thing. At the sound of a buzzer going off, a gate on the opposite side opened, and the pachyphels ran straight toward us. I would admit I was surprised at the speed at which these things charged at us. The first one that reached me almost clipped my side as I dodged it. Thankfully, I could move out of the way as it slammed its head into the ring, immediately taking it out. I couldn't focus on that, though, as a second one started its run at me. And while I could dodge it, it slowed down before it hit the wall. So, they were learning from the fight. Taking a risk, I glanced at Rillen and smiled when I saw that the mech already had two killed by the method I told him to use. He grabbed a third one to swing at the others as they ran by him.
"You're doing great, Rillen!" I called to the mech as I dodged another of the pachyphels.
Using the one now offline in his servos to knock another off its path, Rillen glanced up at me and smiled. "I'm winning, Ms. Pandi!"
I laughed at that. "Then I better step up my game, Rillen," I called out to him as I focused on the three coming up on me. Taking a page out of Rillen's playbook, I grabbed one as I dodged the other two. The one in my servos struggled, but I could hold on as I assessed the other two. One had met its end, ramming its helm against the wall. The second had stopped in time and was turning to face me. As it charged, I waited until the last possible nano before swinging the one in my servo at it with as much strength as I dared to spare. In a surprising moment, not only did I get the one I was aiming at, but I caught a second one.
While the first one and the one in my servo offlined at the force of the contact, the unexpected one tottered on its legs for a nano before it turned to me. Since I didn't feel comfortable wielding the offlined one anymore, I dropped it and prepared to dodge it. Honestly, it felt like I was dodging a bull when I did. Also, I took a nano to glance at Rillen again, and I smiled when I saw that he only had two more online by him. We just had to take care of these. I wondered why Swindle worried about me fighting in this to cool off. It felt more like training than it did an actual fight. He might even consider letting more bots do these fights for training purposes.
A cry from the one in front of me caused me to focus as it started its charge. This was it. Once it got close enough, I began to dodge out of the way. However, the creature moved closer to me as it ran by, and its helm clipped my hip. A yelp escaped me as I fell to the ground. Thankfully, the creature kept running and hit its head against the wall. I guess these things weren't as bright as they looked.
"Ms. Pandi, are you okay?" I glanced up from where I was lying to see Rillen standing above me with a distraught look. From the sound of the announcer talking in the background, I realized our fight was over.
Nodding, I took Rillen's offered servo, and he helped me get on my pedes. "Yeah, I'm fine, Rillen. The last one tried to get me, though. I'll have the medics fix me up in clicks once we get back."
Boom!
We both glanced toward one of the other gates, and I felt my spark fall at what I saw. What the frag was that?!
A roar sounded from the giant techno-organic dinosaur as it walked out of the cell it broke out of. Rows of metallic sharp teeth glinted as the creature made its way into the stadium. This thing resembled a t-rex, but the snout was longer, which meant more teeth, and it had four eyes on its head, two organic and two optics, that were roaming the stadium. Its tail had a spiked end on it, and the creature's arms were twice the size of a t-rex in comparison, though it was three-fingered like the t-rex from the movie was. On top of its head, spikes protruded, discouraging attackers from getting it from there. Of course, the spectators were safe behind their stasis shields, but Rillen and I were not so protected.
This must have been what Swindle was worried about.
"Ms. Pandi," I paid attention as Rillen did his best to whisper. "That's a tyrexian. They are supposed to be for big fights."
So, not for two bots. Slag! "Do you know anything about it?"
Rillen seemed to watch the beast move around the field, slowly approaching us. "Its optics only work up close. And the fleshy eyes work when we move. If it bites us, it will offline us, Ms. Pandi."
Slag, we only got this break until that thing got close enough for its optics to see us. Thankfully, the movement in the stands kept causing the creature to attack the stasis shield. That was buying us a little time. But, from how Rillen was tensing, we had maybe two clicks, if that, to make a plan without moving. My instincts told me to go for its legs, but that tail and its longer arms were causing me to hesitate. Looking back at Rillen, I realized he might have something to get us out of this. With the techno-organic nature of the tyrexian, I wasn't sure that ice would affect it like Earth science said it should on reptilian creatures.
"Rillen, once I get its attention, I want you to run in the middle of the ring and get Thunderboom ready. Once you're ready, I'll lure it to the middle, and I want you to swing at it as hard as you can with the sparks going. Can you do that for me?" I could keep the creature distracted long enough for the mech to do that.
He looked happy for a nano before he suddenly looked worried. "But what about you, Ms. Pandi? You haven't fought one of these before. They can be really mean."
Awe, he was worried about me. "I'll be okay, Rillen. We can play one of the games I taught you after the medics are done with us."
That made the mech happy again. "I like the games, Ms. Pandi!"
Of course, the mech's yell drew the attention of the tyrexian. "Wait until it follows me, Rillen." I reminded the mech before I darted away from our position. One glance at the creature burned an image that would be in my worst nightmares for a while. The beast was darting across the field toward me, mouth slightly ajar and those rows of metallic teeth glinting in the stadium's light.
Scrap.
How the frag did I get myself into these situations?
I could feel the vibrations that told me the tyrexian was getting closer. Of course, the increasing volume of the roars also conveyed that well. Never in my existence did I see myself getting chased by a fragging mutant techno-organic dinosaur! Fate, I wanted a fragging refund! As I made my rounds around the edge of the ring, I risked a glance at the middle of the ring and noticed that Rillen was standing there with Thunderboom out and ready. Perfect.
Digging my pedes into the ground, I pushed to the side and sprinted toward the middle. This was it. If this worked, we would disorient the creature enough to get in the killing blows. This had to fragging work. I wasn't sure I could make another plan with Rilln, with the beast focused on us now.
A screech of pain left my vocals as I felt the impact of the tyrexian's tail slamming into my side. Metal tearing filled my audios for a nano before I started to roll across the ground. The world seemed to blur as I continued to roll toward the center, pain shooting through my chassis. Faintly, I heard Rillen yell my designation as I started to slow down. Vibrations grew stronger as I knew the creature was moving toward us. But I couldn't slagging move. The hit must have stunned my systems. Once I stopped rolling, I glanced toward where the creature was and felt panicked as it was getting closer, mouth open. Slag it, move chassis!
Just as I was getting movement back in my chassis, the creature stood above me, its mouth open to close around me. Slag it, slag it all! I felt my spark racing as time seemed to slow. The creature's mouth slowly moved toward where I was lying helplessly. No! I wasn't going to offline like this! I wouldn't!
With that push of inspiration, I rolled out of the way as Rillen swung at the creature. I couldn't see the hit, but the screech from the creature told me that Rillen had hit it! Thank Primus, he got that hit in. Once I was on my pedes, I took stock of the situation and saw that Rillen's hit had dug into the creature's open mouth and ripped up toward its eye and optic on its right side. Both of those were destroyed beyond all repair.
Before I could move, I felt my spark stop as I saw the creature swat Rillen away with its arms. No! As the creature moved toward Rillen, I felt my chassis move on its own as I raced toward it. I would not let that creature take Rillen. No chance! Taking out my swords, I let out a battle cry before I launched myself at the beast, driving my left blade into its metal neck plating. My strike caused the creature to jerk its helm away from where it was about to bite Rillen, taking me with it. But I wasn't letting go. Instead, I swung myself over the creature, so I was sitting on the neck, avoiding the head spikes, thankfully. Using the momentum of that swing, I let out a cry as I dug my right blade into the other side of its neck and started to pull both toward me. The creature thrashed about, thankfully away from where Rillen was, as it tried to dislodge me. The warning signs flashing in my helm almost overtook my vision, but I couldn't let go. Instead, I pulled harder on my blades.
Silence filled the stadium as my blades pulled through. I couldn't see much, and all my audios could pick up was the sound of my racing systems trying to analyze all the damage I knew I had taken. My systems started to race again as I felt myself thrown from the falling creature. Immediately, my systems rerouted themselves to prepare for the impact I was about to make on the ground. However, as I heard the booming sound of the creature hitting the field, my chassis impacted metal that moved with me. What..?
"You saved me, Ms. Pandi. I will make sure I save you one solar. I will." Rillen's voice hit my audios as the world around me went dark. "Ms. Pandi? Ms. Pandi!" His voice sounded far away as darkness took over.
D-16's 1st P.O.V.
As I arrived back at Finaqua's compound, I could tell he was excited about something. This solar was one of my mine solars, so it couldn't be about any fights I had. As far as I knew, the mech wasn't setting me up for any challenging matches as I regained my strength. My fighting solars were filled with weaker matches arranged with managers who wanted to get rid of some of their gladiators. And while Finaqua said I needed them, he wasn't happy at the 'lackluster' fights they produced for me.
"What is it?" I asked the mech to get him talking about his excitement.
"It's been an exciting solar of fighting." Finaqua seemed to be in his game-playing mood.
However, given the mine collapse a few shafts over, I wasn't in the same mood. "Speak what you will, Finaqua. It has been a challenging solar for me."
My tone must have sobered the mech up. "Trouble in the mines again?"
Finaqua intervened a few times when the wardens in the mines tried to rough me up or some other miners tried to cause trouble. The bots down there knew that if my manager got involved, it didn't end well for them. So, I needed to calm the mech down before he got riled up on my behalf. "I'm fine. One of the shafts collapsed, and we lost ten miners. We will be loaded with their workloads until the miners can be replaced."
As we walked inside his compound, a hum came from my manager. "I'll keep that in processor when arranging your fights. I'd say I'd get you some creature fights to help you cool off from your work, but given what happened this solar, that might be more stressful for you than not."
Something happened at a creature fight? They weren't exactly well known for drawing in the masses. Now that I thought about it, it was strange that Finaqua heard anything about them. He usually didn't bother with them. "How did you find out about whatever happened?"
"Scissorsaw's fight went faster than anybot expected, and I tried to get them to schedule a fight for one of my new bots, Ashkin. He isn't bad, but I need to get the mech some more experience before pitting him in any of the worthwhile fights. Cycliar said he could have one of his poorer fighters fight Ashkin if I could schedule the fight. But, when I got to the office, Doan was leaving it, and he told me that Swindle got in with them first. What surprised me was that Doan said he would stick around and watch the fight, even though he didn't have any other scheduled fights for the solar."
And I could tell that Finaqua was getting onto one of his story-telling rants. "To the point, Finaqua."
He paused in talking for a nano before he pouted. "You aren't any fun. Has anybot ever told you that?"
I looked at the mech pointedly. "You, every time I try to keep you focused."
That got a laugh out of the mech. "Never change D-16." He then shook his helm. "Anyways, when I asked him why he was going to watch the fight, he told me that it was going to be a creature fight for Rillen,"
"That isn't anything unusual. The mech almost solely does creature fights." I interrupted the mech in annoyance. He kept me guessing for that? When Rillen first came on the scene, we were worried due to his brute strength. However, once we learned that his mental capabilities weren't on the same level, we realized we had nothing to worry about from the mech.
"If you wouldn't interrupt me," Finaqua snapped back with some sass. "I was going to add that it was a creature fight for Rillen and Pandimala."
I focused as Finaqua let go of that information. We had been studying the femme ever since she first came on my manager's radar, and every solar, she was proving that she would be a great fight once both sides were ready for one. However, it was surprising that Swindle let the femme fight in a creature fight. Not only did they not do much for a bot's reputation growth, but they had other problems. "Swindle allowed Pandimala into a creature fight?"
My manager nodded at that. "From the rumors I heard, she practically begged the mech to let her fight in one with Rillen." That was interesting to hear. The mech wasn't very popular due to his disability. "The organizers arranged for the two of them to fight fifteen pachyphels. It was not the easiest fight, but from what I've seen from both of them, the fight was predicted to go in their favor. And it did. Even better. They both only took superficial hits from the creatures before they put them all down."
"Something tells me you are building up to something." I jumped in to hopefully encourage Finaqua to get to the point.
"Oh, am I," He agreed before he shook his helm. "One of the handlers lost control of a tyrexian, and it barged into their field."
My optics widened at that information. Tyrexians were usually saved for large-scale fights, having at minimum five gladiators working together to fight one. For one to have gotten onto their field with just the two of them, and with Rillen's disability in play, the odds were not great for them to survive. "What were the casualties?"
"The tyrexian."
I waited for Finaqua to add more to the list. However, when he didn't, I realized why he was so excited about this fight. Pandimala and Rillen had, somehow, defeated the creature by themselves. None of the organizers were brave enough to be on the field with anything stronger than a single pachyphel, so they wouldn't have stopped the fight. "They defeated it?"
My manager nodded, confirming the idea that I still couldn't believe. "It was incredible. The femme distracted the creature while Rillen prepared his ax to use." Thunderboom. That was what the mech called it. During our initial research into the mech, before we found out about his disability, that ax had been one of our concerns. "But, when the femme went to draw the creature toward Rillen, it caught her on its tail spikes and flung her past the mech. I don't think I've ever seen Rillen that angry before. When the creature went to devour the femme, the femme was able to roll out of the way as Rillen used his ax to tear the side of its mouth apart and damage one side of its sight. But that wasn't the end of it. The creature used its arm and flung Rillen away, disorienting the mech. With the easier prey, it went after the mech."
"Pandimala was still able to fight?" I assumed the femme must have stopped Rillen from being devoured since Finaqua said the only casualty was the creature.
"You would have loved to see it!" My manager confirmed in his roundabout way. "Once the tyrexian went after Rillen, the femme seemed to get a second intake. She moved across the field as if she wasn't injured, and before the creature bit into Rillen, she stabbed it in the side of the neck. When the creature tried to yank away from her, she hung on and swung herself on its neck before she drove her other blade into it. She then fought the creature as she pulled her blades through the creature's neck. In the end, she struck the final blow by half-decapitating it."
Every report that Finaqua brought of the femme spoke of her constant growth in the pits of Kaon. If she continued at this pace, I could see myself fighting her by the end of this stellar. "So, they both survived," I commented more off-servo than anything.
However, Finaqua felt like he needed to respond to that. "They did. But slag was Swindle ready to tear the world down once the fight was over. He wanted the bot responsible for letting the tyrexian loose offlined before the end of the fights for this solar. I've never seen him so angry. I guess risking some of his more lucrative bots outside of Soundwave, of course, like that was not something he expected for the solar. That was despite the boost beating a tyrexian did for both Pandimala's and Rillen's reputations in the circuit. While Rillen will just see an increase in profits in his creature fights, Pandimala will see an increase in gladiators wanting to fight her. Defeating her will essentially be the same as defeating a tyrexian in their processors. Of course, that's once they both heal. While Rillen was conscious, the femme succumbed to stasis due to her injuries after the creature was defeated." He then paused before a big grin came on his faceplate. "I can't wait for you and Pandimala to fight."
Before I could say anything about that, the mech almost darted down the hall.
Glancing to my right, I saw I had arrived at my room, so I stepped inside. A quick rinse in my washrack removed the grime from my chassis before I laid on my berth. Once I was starting my shutdown procedures for the solar, I allowed myself to think about everything I learned. While I knew the femme would be a decent fighter when Finaqua first brought her to my attention, I hadn't realized the femme's full potential. Now that I knew what she could do with a bot like Rillen with her, I found myself excited for the solar we eventually fought. I would need to see footage from her fight this solar. I needed to start studying her more closely than I had before this.
Until then, though, I needed to recharge. I let myself leave consciousness with simulations of that future fight against the femme in my helm.
Pandimala: *sitting on med berth* I knew it! I fragging knew it! We had too much good luck, so I got attacked by a techno-organic t-rex!
Authoress: *shrugs* It could have been worse.
Pandimala: *exasperated* Worse? How the frag could it have been worse?
Authoress: *motions to notes* I originally planned to have the tyrexian and techno-organic velociraptors show up. So, you should feel lucky I just stuck to the tyrexian.
Pandimala: *speaks in increasing pitch* Techno-organic velociraptors? *crashes*
Swindle: *peeks in* Haptic, she's down again.
Haptic: *shakes helm* I don't get paid enough.
AN: And here is the next chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it! This chapter was a lot of fun to write. We get to see how Pandimala is doing in her fights and there are parties who are interested in her progress. D-16 is becoming more intrigued with her, and Soundwave also has his optic on the femme. And then we get to see how wrong things can go in certain fights. Poor Pandimala. It seems like her fights recently have been putting her on medical restrictions. At least this time won't be for as long. Things are building, and she must be ready to face them.
But, until that point, here are the names of the upcoming chapters!
Chapter 13: A Chance Encounter
Chapter 14: Turning Point
Chapter 15: ...(I will hate writing this one. Yes, I will.)
So there you have it, folks! Thank you for all of your support. Until next we meet, TTYL! *listening to The Whiskey's Gone by Alli Walker*