Centaurions: Chapter 2
Chapter 2
The Twins stood still in their cage. It was a dim, dingy thing on wheels that could be pulled by a large-frame hauler. It was the only place they had to themselves, and even then, it wasn’t much of anything. A bare, rectangular box with three solid walls and a set of swinging barred doors on the back. The circus staff threw some crygrass down on the floor for bedding every so often, and each Twin had in their subspace a thin thermal blanket.
Besides the trailer-cage, the Twins rarely saw anything but the arena, and the view out of the back of the trailer, which usually consisted of the circus staff at their business and their own movable trailer habitations.
Today was different, though. A distance off, just out of audio range, a crowd gathered around a massive red and silver mech and the Twins’ owner. The red and yellow mech and the owner gesticulated and pointed, and though the two half-sparked mechs could hear raised voices, they could not make out any words. They had been in discussion for at least five breems now, and the Twins were starting to get nervous, especially because a lot of the pointing was in their direction.
Eventually, the two mechs broke apart. The red and silver walked away, out of the Twins’ view, and most of the other mechs around them followed. The Twins’ owner watched the other mechs walk away, then turned and walked in the opposite direction, shooting an odd glance toward the Twins a moment before he was also out of their view.
~What was that all about?~ Sideswipe queried as he glanced over his shoulder at his golden brother, who was standing in the deeper, darker recesses of the trailer.
~Who knows. Probably something that will end in more pit for us to go through.~
Sideswipe shuddered and clenched his hands into fists. He could still feel the sensation of his sword punching through that thin collar plating. The image of sparklight flickering along his brother’s sword seemed like it was burned into his optics. He couldn’t stop the memory file from replaying, over and over and over… and there was nothing to distract him in their tiny box besides his brother, and his brother was in much the same situation he was.
Neither of the Twins moved from their positions. Sideswipe remained watching out the bars at the limited view, and Sunstreaker stood in the back of the trailer, in the semi-darkness, his uninjured left side leaning against the wall, his right rear leg lifted to keep the weight off. Sideswipe had performed what limited medical assistance he was capable of when they had been returned to the trailer, but there was not much he could do for the massive dent in Sunstreaker’s rump. It would just have to heal on its own, just as most of their injuries did. Only the most severe were treated, and those only happened rarely.
So the Twins stood and waited and watched and listened.
.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.
The arena was even louder than the day before, it seemed. How, Sunstreaker wasn’t sure. All arenas were deafening already, so much so that usually, the Twins had to turn down their audio intake. But the roar this crowd was producing thundered in the yellow Twin’s struts, shaking him to his core, making it seem like even if he had turned his audios completely off, he still would have been able to hear it.
Sideswipe felt the same. He shuffled his hooves minutely, lifting one, setting it down, lifting another, setting it down, shifting his weight from side to side.
Both had their dual swords gripped firmly in hand. Sunstreaker’s right haunch was still dented in massively, crimping tension lines and wires. It made him nervous.
The speakers crackled to life, the voice thundering in an attempt to be heard over the crowd. Sunstreaker couldn't make out any individual words, just the familiar rumbling rise and fall of their owner's attempts to be theatrical.
Muffled beneath the noise of the crowd, the creak of the gate their opponent would come through seemed silent, eerily so. The ground shuddered under their hooves as the crowd stomped their feet, clapped, screamed, whistled, shouted, anything to add to the noise, so the Twins didn't feel the vibration of the coming monster.
Then it was springing into the light, its roar drowning out even that of the crowd. The tunnelworm was the largest either of them had ever seen, its churning circular mouth full of rotating teeth, a darkened channel of razors and saws leading to a faintly glowing, indeterminate end.
It writhed in the sudden light, its heavily armored sides glistening a dull gray in the heavy illumination of the stadium.
Sideswipe and Susntreaker hadn't moved, staring in awe at the monster before them. Then it was getting too close, mouth end or not. It was large enough that it could crush them easily without even trying, so the brightly colored Twins skittered to the side.
Beady yellow optics flickered around the mouth in a glaring, hungry circle. Despite being a creature from below, tunnelworms had an oddly acute sense of vision, and when the Twins moved, it saw them.
The Twins knew how it went. The mechanimals they were supposed to fight were starved and tortured. This one would be no different, and they were the closest source of food.
It reared back and spit as its churning teeth spun, paused, spun again. The noise drown out its hissing scream.
The split-sparked mechs raised their swords and split apart, dancing lightly on their hooves. The tunnelworm hissed again, flecks of grayish liquid spraying from its mouth as it weaved back and forth like a charmed cobra for a moment, looking back and forth between the moving forms.
It lunged at Sideswipe, and Sunstreaker darted in, swords poking with deadly accuracy. Two yellow optics shattered, and the beast reared back, then swung in toward the yellow Twin.
Its other optics flared and flashed irregularly, looking like a more deadly version of the tacky lights that flashed around pleasure-house signs. Its teeth churned as it reared back again. The crowd screamed, calling for death, gore, energon.
Sideswipe and Sunstreaker stomped their hooves and lifted their swords. Their sparks hummed in sync, their thoughts faded from verbal communications to a base form, animalistic in some sense, berzerker warrior in another.
They attacked, swords flashing in deadly arcs. Sparks fizzled and flew where the charged blades scraped the thick plating. The tunnelworm writhed, coiling over and under itself trying to keep up with the dancing, lithe forms of the two mechs.
It rolled suddenly, knocking Sideswipe backwards, and if Sunstreaker hadn't danced in and poked at an optic, it would have crushed the red mech.
The crowd roared again.
Sideswipe staggered back toward the wall, trying to regain his footing in the loose sand. His left side ached where the worm had smashed into him. Gray streaks marred his red plating.
Sunstreaker was occupying the beast for the moment, dashing this way and that, using its own massive bulk to hide behind, but the red Twin could tell that his brother was favoring his injured rear leg. So he charged back in, ignoring the pains in his own frame. Those could be dealt with later.
There were other things he had to handle now.
.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.
The trailer lurched, startling the Twins out of their already restless recharge. Sunstreaker stumbled away from the wall he had been leaning against, almost falling to his knees, barely managing to catch himself, hissing as he put weight on his injured haunch. Sideswipe, who had eventually sunk to his knees near the open back end of the trailer, lurched to his hooves and smacked his shoulder into the side wall of the trailer, optics flaring white as the impact rattled his battered frame. The crygrass on the floor slipped under their already tenuous footing as they struggled to remain upright.
~Sunny?~ Sideswipe called over their bond and reached a hand out to his brother.
The yellow Twin didn’t respond, only took the offered hand as they watched the dark, starlit scene from behind their bars.
Mechs rushed to and fro, bundles of this or that in their arms. Hauler mechs were in their alternate modes, already hooked up to trailers and pull-behinds and cages holding other freaks and mechanimals and slaves. The owner of the circus hustled around, looking harried and stressed as he did the best he could to direct the chaos.
What made the whole thing strange was the hushed quiet that filled the night. Mechs whispered, there was no laughter, no shouting. Haulers already idling kept their engines low and quiet, there was no revving or showing off. The thump of gear being stowed was muffled as things were set down carefully, not thrown haphazardly.
Their trailer lurched again. Other mechs and haulers were beginning to pull away as well.
Sideswipe's ears pricked as two mechs speed-walked past them.
“- we'll be able to make it?”
“Dunno, Prime really wanted those two.” The words were accompanied by a gesture over his shoulder toward the Twins. “After what they did to that worm...”
And the mechs were gone, beyond the Twins' audial range.
Sideswipe and Sunstreaker exchanged a glance. Prime “wanted them”?
The trailer lurched again, and started moving in earnest. A hauler fell in behind, and a few mechs they recognized as members of the circus's security force fell in around them.
~Don't think they've ever been charged with protecting us before,~ Sunstreaker remarked, almost laughing.
~Yeah, normally its the other way around.~
Their sparks beat irregularly in nervous tension. Fighting, they were used to. Being hauled around, they were used to.
Being taken secretly out of the capitol of Northern Cybertron because the Prime wanted them for some reason? Definitely not used to that.
Sideswipe stepped backward until he was side to side with his brother, their backs to the back of the trailer, facing the open end, and they watched the darkness slip by.
The Twins stood still in their cage. It was a dim, dingy thing on wheels that could be pulled by a large-frame hauler. It was the only place they had to themselves, and even then, it wasn’t much of anything. A bare, rectangular box with three solid walls and a set of swinging barred doors on the back. The circus staff threw some crygrass down on the floor for bedding every so often, and each Twin had in their subspace a thin thermal blanket.
Besides the trailer-cage, the Twins rarely saw anything but the arena, and the view out of the back of the trailer, which usually consisted of the circus staff at their business and their own movable trailer habitations.
Today was different, though. A distance off, just out of audio range, a crowd gathered around a massive red and silver mech and the Twins’ owner. The red and yellow mech and the owner gesticulated and pointed, and though the two half-sparked mechs could hear raised voices, they could not make out any words. They had been in discussion for at least five breems now, and the Twins were starting to get nervous, especially because a lot of the pointing was in their direction.
Eventually, the two mechs broke apart. The red and silver walked away, out of the Twins’ view, and most of the other mechs around them followed. The Twins’ owner watched the other mechs walk away, then turned and walked in the opposite direction, shooting an odd glance toward the Twins a moment before he was also out of their view.
~What was that all about?~ Sideswipe queried as he glanced over his shoulder at his golden brother, who was standing in the deeper, darker recesses of the trailer.
~Who knows. Probably something that will end in more pit for us to go through.~
Sideswipe shuddered and clenched his hands into fists. He could still feel the sensation of his sword punching through that thin collar plating. The image of sparklight flickering along his brother’s sword seemed like it was burned into his optics. He couldn’t stop the memory file from replaying, over and over and over… and there was nothing to distract him in their tiny box besides his brother, and his brother was in much the same situation he was.
Neither of the Twins moved from their positions. Sideswipe remained watching out the bars at the limited view, and Sunstreaker stood in the back of the trailer, in the semi-darkness, his uninjured left side leaning against the wall, his right rear leg lifted to keep the weight off. Sideswipe had performed what limited medical assistance he was capable of when they had been returned to the trailer, but there was not much he could do for the massive dent in Sunstreaker’s rump. It would just have to heal on its own, just as most of their injuries did. Only the most severe were treated, and those only happened rarely.
So the Twins stood and waited and watched and listened.
.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.
The arena was even louder than the day before, it seemed. How, Sunstreaker wasn’t sure. All arenas were deafening already, so much so that usually, the Twins had to turn down their audio intake. But the roar this crowd was producing thundered in the yellow Twin’s struts, shaking him to his core, making it seem like even if he had turned his audios completely off, he still would have been able to hear it.
Sideswipe felt the same. He shuffled his hooves minutely, lifting one, setting it down, lifting another, setting it down, shifting his weight from side to side.
Both had their dual swords gripped firmly in hand. Sunstreaker’s right haunch was still dented in massively, crimping tension lines and wires. It made him nervous.
The speakers crackled to life, the voice thundering in an attempt to be heard over the crowd. Sunstreaker couldn't make out any individual words, just the familiar rumbling rise and fall of their owner's attempts to be theatrical.
Muffled beneath the noise of the crowd, the creak of the gate their opponent would come through seemed silent, eerily so. The ground shuddered under their hooves as the crowd stomped their feet, clapped, screamed, whistled, shouted, anything to add to the noise, so the Twins didn't feel the vibration of the coming monster.
Then it was springing into the light, its roar drowning out even that of the crowd. The tunnelworm was the largest either of them had ever seen, its churning circular mouth full of rotating teeth, a darkened channel of razors and saws leading to a faintly glowing, indeterminate end.
It writhed in the sudden light, its heavily armored sides glistening a dull gray in the heavy illumination of the stadium.
Sideswipe and Susntreaker hadn't moved, staring in awe at the monster before them. Then it was getting too close, mouth end or not. It was large enough that it could crush them easily without even trying, so the brightly colored Twins skittered to the side.
Beady yellow optics flickered around the mouth in a glaring, hungry circle. Despite being a creature from below, tunnelworms had an oddly acute sense of vision, and when the Twins moved, it saw them.
The Twins knew how it went. The mechanimals they were supposed to fight were starved and tortured. This one would be no different, and they were the closest source of food.
It reared back and spit as its churning teeth spun, paused, spun again. The noise drown out its hissing scream.
The split-sparked mechs raised their swords and split apart, dancing lightly on their hooves. The tunnelworm hissed again, flecks of grayish liquid spraying from its mouth as it weaved back and forth like a charmed cobra for a moment, looking back and forth between the moving forms.
It lunged at Sideswipe, and Sunstreaker darted in, swords poking with deadly accuracy. Two yellow optics shattered, and the beast reared back, then swung in toward the yellow Twin.
Its other optics flared and flashed irregularly, looking like a more deadly version of the tacky lights that flashed around pleasure-house signs. Its teeth churned as it reared back again. The crowd screamed, calling for death, gore, energon.
Sideswipe and Sunstreaker stomped their hooves and lifted their swords. Their sparks hummed in sync, their thoughts faded from verbal communications to a base form, animalistic in some sense, berzerker warrior in another.
They attacked, swords flashing in deadly arcs. Sparks fizzled and flew where the charged blades scraped the thick plating. The tunnelworm writhed, coiling over and under itself trying to keep up with the dancing, lithe forms of the two mechs.
It rolled suddenly, knocking Sideswipe backwards, and if Sunstreaker hadn't danced in and poked at an optic, it would have crushed the red mech.
The crowd roared again.
Sideswipe staggered back toward the wall, trying to regain his footing in the loose sand. His left side ached where the worm had smashed into him. Gray streaks marred his red plating.
Sunstreaker was occupying the beast for the moment, dashing this way and that, using its own massive bulk to hide behind, but the red Twin could tell that his brother was favoring his injured rear leg. So he charged back in, ignoring the pains in his own frame. Those could be dealt with later.
There were other things he had to handle now.
.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo.
The trailer lurched, startling the Twins out of their already restless recharge. Sunstreaker stumbled away from the wall he had been leaning against, almost falling to his knees, barely managing to catch himself, hissing as he put weight on his injured haunch. Sideswipe, who had eventually sunk to his knees near the open back end of the trailer, lurched to his hooves and smacked his shoulder into the side wall of the trailer, optics flaring white as the impact rattled his battered frame. The crygrass on the floor slipped under their already tenuous footing as they struggled to remain upright.
~Sunny?~ Sideswipe called over their bond and reached a hand out to his brother.
The yellow Twin didn’t respond, only took the offered hand as they watched the dark, starlit scene from behind their bars.
Mechs rushed to and fro, bundles of this or that in their arms. Hauler mechs were in their alternate modes, already hooked up to trailers and pull-behinds and cages holding other freaks and mechanimals and slaves. The owner of the circus hustled around, looking harried and stressed as he did the best he could to direct the chaos.
What made the whole thing strange was the hushed quiet that filled the night. Mechs whispered, there was no laughter, no shouting. Haulers already idling kept their engines low and quiet, there was no revving or showing off. The thump of gear being stowed was muffled as things were set down carefully, not thrown haphazardly.
Their trailer lurched again. Other mechs and haulers were beginning to pull away as well.
Sideswipe's ears pricked as two mechs speed-walked past them.
“- we'll be able to make it?”
“Dunno, Prime really wanted those two.” The words were accompanied by a gesture over his shoulder toward the Twins. “After what they did to that worm...”
And the mechs were gone, beyond the Twins' audial range.
Sideswipe and Sunstreaker exchanged a glance. Prime “wanted them”?
The trailer lurched again, and started moving in earnest. A hauler fell in behind, and a few mechs they recognized as members of the circus's security force fell in around them.
~Don't think they've ever been charged with protecting us before,~ Sunstreaker remarked, almost laughing.
~Yeah, normally its the other way around.~
Their sparks beat irregularly in nervous tension. Fighting, they were used to. Being hauled around, they were used to.
Being taken secretly out of the capitol of Northern Cybertron because the Prime wanted them for some reason? Definitely not used to that.
Sideswipe stepped backward until he was side to side with his brother, their backs to the back of the trailer, facing the open end, and they watched the darkness slip by.