hear me out, there’s the blood stained dust and the roar of the crowd and the unforgiving steel and the adrenaline and glint of the sun in their eyes and the bitter smile of their opponent that’s colder than any winter as they move in
i hope that the oscars next year will just be a straight up fucking roman arena. hunger games but for the rich. a gladiator fight, live footage. last man standing has to give all of their money to a worthy humanitarian or environmental cause, that’s their only reward —
Enjoy some fighting! ^3^ Tagging @rocksinmuffin since she has been part of this kinda from the beginning and she deserves to know how Swerve’s fate continues. ^v^
Swerve was quiet for the whole trip back to sky-high apartment, which his owner didn’t seem to mind. All poor white mech could think about was the sight of his owner’s spike stretching valve as big as Tarn’s like it almost couldn’t fit there. She was so huge that she made even a warborn groan in mild pain during fragging…!
Swerve couldn’t help but to fear for his life. What would happen to him if she decided to frag him? She could literally kill her with her spike only! Oh how he wished he could be free or at least live with Nickel and Pharma… They didn’t appear to be treated badly.
Once they made it back the femme lead him to living room where she made Swerve kneel before her as she took a seat on the couch.
The minibot could feel coolant collecting in his armour seams. Her crotch was almost directly in front of his face…! One klick and she could just pop her spike out and force poor Swerve to take it in his mouth…!
He shivered and weeped quietly, panic steadily seeping into his voice. Slowly, his owner moved her hand down, lower and lower….! Swerve shut his optics tight and there was a click and a loud sob escaped past his lips.
”Why are you crying? Does your intake hurt that much?”
It was about to… Swerve swallowed a lump in his intake and forced his optics open… Only to see his owner’s interface panel still closed. He blinked, coolant in his eyes stinging and looked up. It wasn’t his owners interface panel that he had heard open, it was a bottle of lotion.
There was another click and suddenly the collar around minibot’s intake fell to the ground. Swerve was baffled and didn’t know what to do, especially when his owner pushed the bottle into his palms and got up.
”Rub it on yourself and clean here while I’m gone. Don’t do anything stupid.” She warned him and left through the balcony, making sure to lock the door behind her.
Swerve let out a breath he didn’t realise he had been holding and visibly relaxed. He was safe. Not for good, but safe for now. The minibot looked at the lotion in his hands and mindfully took a little drop of cyan coloured lotion that he spread to his intake.
The lotion was cool against his throbbing intake. The pain from earlier when she had thrown him against the wall had disappeared ages ago, but the collar squeezed his intake and caused bruising on it. Swerve would leave it be as long as possible before she would make him wear it again.
The metallurgist looked around the apartment, daring himself to get up and wander a little bit in peace, now that his owner wasn’t there following his every move.
The apartment was clean — pristine clean. There were no traces of broken table from last night, no energon stains, dust, nothing! What was he suppose to clean? The weirdest thing must have been however how there was nothing personal in whole apartment. No pictures, datapads or anything! It was like she had no personal life or history.
Swerve walked into the kitchen. He doubted he had permission to eat anything, but he could look, right? He pulled the fridge’s door open and was shocked by what he found. A couple cubes of energon and cube after cube of something else. Swerve had an idea of what it was, but he couldn’t be sure until he tried some.
Carefully, he lifted one lid off from a cube of colourful yellow liquid, dipped his finger in and brought it to his lips for a taste. Swerve coughed and quickly put the lid back on it’s place.
Engex, just like he thought and strong one. The metallurgist had some background info about different drinks and such, but this was no doubt black market engex, made by outcast mechs who hid their little factories from officers of law. It was famous for being cheap, but strong as highest grade.
Though it didn’t come without it’s dangers…
Swerve shook his helm and shut the fridge’s door. It wasn’t his business what his owner digested… The minibot wondered around the apartment, looking and searching for something to do or a way to escape perhaps. He knew it would be foolish to try to actually escape, but if he found a way and planned his escape carefully then he could have had a chance.
Sadly, the apartment was very minimalistic. Kitchen, living area, bedroom, balcony door and a another locked door between bedroom and balcony. Swerve tried to open it, only to get an error so he didn’t bother with it anymore. Without the code he could do nothing, just like with the balcony.
In his defeat, Swerve took the most out from the situation and boldly moved to sit on the couch, only to falter and settle on the floor. He was so afraid of his master that he didn’t even dare to disobey or do anything that could set her off, even if she was not home. At least he could rest his head against the soft couch and that moment he felt a little better.
Maybe he could take a nap. He didn’t sleep that well thanks to earlier night’s nightmares and his owner’s violent outburst. Little in his mind, the minibot let his mind wonder into dreamlands.
Swerve didn’t actually dream, he was just wondering from darkness to light and back. Maybe it was stress or fear, but when he heard the tiniest click through his hazy dream he bolted upright. The balcony’s door creaked open and Swerve’s owner stepped inside with a box in her arms.
Swerve forced himself to smile, even if it came out as awkward. ”H- Hi, welcome back! H- How was your trip, good I hope!”
”Where’s your collar?” The purple con asked, ignoring Swerve’s attempts to start a conversation. The minibot’s smile dropped as he looked down and picked up his collar, obediently putting it back around his neck and clamping it shut.
The femme nodded, mumbling something incoherent under her breath and took the box to the kitchen. When she returned, she was carrying a small cube of energon which she brought to Swerve. ”Drink. Then you get to go to sleep.”
The metallurgist nodded and thankfully took the cube from his owner. Instead of gulping the energon down like he had done day before and at morning, he took mindful sips and his sweet time with it. The femme didn’t seem to mind it, but once he was done she silently ushered him into the berth room.
Swerve sighed as he crawled underneath the berth and curled over himself. Maybe he could have some peace this night? His wishes were short lived, just as were his dreams and nightmares again. Hours after midnight there was a loud crash that sent the minibot in such panic that he accidentally slammed the top of his helm against the berth above him.
Groaning and whimpering in pain, Swerve made his way out from under the berth and carefully made his way to the door. He pushed his audial receivers against the heavy door and tried to listen any noises from other room, but he only got handful of words here and there.
Was his owner with someone? He wasn’t sure and when Swerve opened the door and stepped out of the berth room, he felt like he made the biggest mistake in his life, the second being rising his hand against a mech higher than him. His owner was stumbling from side from side, walking between room while taking support from the wall.
”Fragging told you… You scrap for heads…” She grumbled before shattering the cube in her hand to the opposite wall and shouting, ”It was a suicide mission! You murderer!”
Swerve swallowed a lump in his intake. Even without ever seeing the effects of black market engex in flesh, he knew the tell-a-tale signs of the side effects the engex had. Nausea, momentary blindness, hallucinations, paranoia and finally after everything memory loss. Swerve’s purple owner wouldn’t probably remember anything that has happened tomorrow if she kept drinking as she was, but for now, being close to her was dangerous as frag.
The metallurgist moved to back up back into berth room, but when his pede hit the edge of the door with soft thump he froze and his owner snapped her helm towards him. Swerve froze in horror and before he could even mutter an apology, the femme had jumped over the couch and ran to him.
”Minibot!? Are you a bomber!?” She shouted at Swerve’s face, anger and fury very evident on her voice and the minibot shook in fear. Wherever she was she wasn’t in reality at the moment. It was common practise during war times that quick and agile minibots would be used as suicide bombers as they could make it to the enemy territory without being detected, but Swerve would have never passes for one with his bulky frame.
Not that it mattered to her. With a single hand she lifted Swerve from the ground and threw him to the berth room’s wall. The minibot hit the wall painfully hard, a pained cry leaving his mouth as he fell to the ground. Next thing he knew, the door was shut and locked after him. Swerve whimpered and crawled his way back under the berth. For now, it was the only place he felt safe in whole universe.
He regretted stepping outside of the berth room without thinking the situation through… And now… Now Swerve had an idea what his life would turn out to be…
Next morning couldn’t have come any quicker. The white mech slowly and carefully made his way outside of the berth room and there his owner was again, sitting and holding her helm in her hands. Usually black market engex gave similar relaxing and intoxicating effects as any other engex, but some bad patches gave the side effects Swerve had witnessed last night and next day would be spent in processor pains and memory loss.
There was a stingy sour smell that made minibot’s tank twist in nausea and he noticed a large bowl next to his owner’s feet. He put two and two together with experience. At some point during the night cycle, she had purged her tanks empty from poisonous engex. Good part was that she wasn’t probably in tremendous pains or in sour mood, bad part was that she was probably on a bad mood.
When Swerve had been a helper in a bar, he was usually made do the jobs no one else wanted. Wipe people’s puke from floors on his hands and knees as overcharged mechs would spill and sometimes pour engex over him on purpose and laugh at his expense was the main job of his and as humiliating it was it kept him from becoming a plaything. Until the other day.
Doing what he knew best, Swerve approached the bowl, ready to pick it up and get rid of the waste inside it, but just as he was about to pick it up his owner snatched it from his reach. ”I’ll take care of it…” She grumbled as she got up and walked off to the kitchen. Swerve felt neither happy or sad. He felt hopeless.
Everything fell into a routine of some sorts after that. His owner would wake up before him and just sit and space out for bigger parts of the day, put him to berth and start drinking until she would fall into recharge middle of the night. Sometimes Swerve would wake up in middle of night to his owners awful retching as she emptied her engex filled tank.
Some days she locked Swerve outside of the berth room for her private time. The small mech couldn’t see what she did there but he could hear her groaning here and there and he had an idea what happened. At those points he was just glad he was on other side of the door, but for how long?
The constant fear of becoming killed or molested had the minibot on the edge and it took it’s toll on his mental health. Swerve would wake up on his own, get energon, sleep till night, get more energon then go to sleep again. He saw no real point of staying awake when all his owner did was neglected him most parts to the point he would even welcome some roughhousing and pain.
One day Swerve’s owner walked up to minibot while he was doing dishes. The white mech kept his gaze solemnly in hot bubble water, not daring to take his optics off from it or look at his owner.
”Are you healthy pet?”
The question came so out of blue that poor Swerve almost dropped a slippery cube in his chubby fingers. The panicky minibot quickly turned to look at his owner staring down at him without a hint of emotion visible in her field.
Swerve gulped and put on his biggest winner smiles. ”W- Why wouldn’t I be, ha ha, you take such a good care of me, feed me and I’m just overall happy!”
”Happy?” She inquired and the minibot had to fight against flinch. The very word sounded so foreign to him when heard from other people’s mouth. Like a lost memory… Swerve forced himself to smile as he nodded. ”Y- Yeah! This is me, happy as I can be, there is no place I rather be or belong to, ha ha!”
His owner kept staring at him and the minibot felt so painful to force himself to laugh so freely. He couldn’t remember when he had truly laughed in joy. Finally, the purple femme nodded and said the words Swerve dreaded to hear his whole life as a plaything.
”We’re going to Colosseum.”
Swerve shook in his armour. There he was, in V.I.P room meant for biggest bidders and gladiator owners, shaking so hard that his amour almost rattled against his protoform. He could feel mechs left and right, all big guys in status and size eyeing him up and down. Some gave him death glares like his breathing only was a insult towards them and some looked him with lust in their optics. Swerve wasn’t sure who he feared most. Then Overlord decided to appear and suddenly he knew who to fear the most.
”Oh, you have no idea how glad I am to see you!” The giant mech beamed and at first Swerve thought he was talking to his owner standing beside him, but when the blue mech kneeled before minibot to pinch his cheeks he realised he was talking about him.
”You’re the one that got away from me… Here to sell him for me? I knew you’d come over when you ran out of shanix.” Overlord laughed as he shot a grin at Swerve’s owner. She wasn’t happy, slapping mech’s hands off from Swerve and the minibot couldn’t have been anymore thankful.
”Frag off, I’m here to place a bet.” She grunted and pulled Swerve tight against her leg, much to minibot’s dismay. What was with bigger mechs and their possessive attitude?
”Oh? Interesting. Who are you placing your money on? We have Deathstrap going, Ironmine fighting and the veteran Goldfang.” Overlord intrigued with a nasty smile. Swerve shivered in fear. All those mechs sounded like big deals…! He couldn’t possibly fight against them so they would probably put him as chew toy. Mechs would bet how long Swerve would live through torture or how long the mech could keep Swerve alive through the torture… Either way, Swerve was doomed.
He was just about to give up on his brave shell and start crying on the spot when his owner surprised him. ”None of them. I’m placing my money on myself.”
Swerve’s optics snapped open behind his visor and he looked at his owner. She would fight? Sure, she was a warborn, but with what at state? Overlord seemed to think same as Swerve because he grinned and rose to his full height. ”Oh? What did you think of betting on? If I remember correctly, you’re poor as rustrat.”
Swerve couldn’t see his owners face through her face guard, but he could sense in her field how she was agitated and angry. ”You don’t take credit, do you?” She inquired and Overlord smirked. ”None. You bet what you can with and that’s it.”
Swerve hoped that it would be it, that her owner would let things go and just take him back to her apartment and have him clean and sleep like usually, but no, she wouldn’t let it go.
”Then I’m placing him as my bet.” She said as she laid her hand over Swerve’s shoulder plate and he froze in horror and took a double look at his owner. She was completely serious. Overlord grinned harder. ”Are you sure? Playthings come with ease these days. He won’t be worth much for me.”
”I see how you look at him…!” She all but hissed at his face. ”You want him so he’s worth something for you. I’m betting him. 100 000 shanix if I win against your toughest gladiator and if I loose he’s yours.”
”Fight until the death?” Overlord proposed. Swerve’s owner nodded. ”Until the death.”
”Deal!” Overlord laughed and shook hands with Swerve’s owner. Swerve watched in fear and horror how they exchanged their credit informations and next thing he knew, he was pulled aside by pretty femmes that took care of him, asking if he wanted something to drink or eat. Not that he could eat or anything, he just walked with them until he was on the giant glass wall that gave huge view on the stadium.
Swerve gulped as he took a seat on the tiny seat offered to him by lovely mech and he felt himself rattle again in stress. If his owner lost she would not only loose her life but loose him! Swerve didn’t know which he cared more, that his master put his and her lives at stake or that they could both die depending on the results of this fight!
There was a loud cheer as next champion gladiators were made public. Rigorkill and Swerve’s owner. They pronounced her name, but Swerve couldn’t hear it over the noises his spark made in horror.
He watched as his owner and a mech just as big as her took the podium and he shivered in fear at the sight, silently hoping his owner would come victorious. All that hoped died before him as Overlord took a seat next to him. He grinned down at Swerve. ”Nervous?”
Swerve opened his mouth to speak, but wisely close it. Overlord laughed. ”You should be! Rigorkill hasn’t lost a single battle since I found him and he’s always thirsty for energon…!”
Swerve gulped and next thing he knew the audience outside the V.I.P room cheered as the match started.
The minibot watched in horror how Rigorkill went straight after his owner, throwing punches at her that could easily take off a bot’s or con’s helm, but Swerve’s owner dodged each punch and returned the punches with her own jabs but he dodged them also.
Swerve watched how both tried to go for the quick kill, but neither could land a blow so they switched strategies. Rigorkill tried to throw a punch at her face, but she dodged quickly to the right and punched him to his abdomen.
Rigorkill recoiled and grabbed hold of her arm still lodged in his abdomen and twisted, horrifying crunch sound leaving from the purple femme’s arm. Swerve’s owner groaned in pain and quickly tore her claws through mech’s face, being the first one to draw energon.
Rigorkill howled in pain, backing up and holding his bleeding face. The audience cheered at the sight of blood and Swerve felt sick how people could enjoy this. The purple femme took hold of his arms and pulled and Swerve felt like retching at the sight of his owner trying to rip opponent’s arms off, but failing as Rigorkill recovered and slammed his bloody face into femme’s face.
Swerve’s owner recoiled, now holding her own face as her mask cracked and fell onto ground with a sad thud. That’s where her downfall started. She wouldn’t let her face be seen, keeping hand over her lower face and with her other arm twisted she was a standing open target to Rigorkill to toy with. The crow was going wild as the battle went on and Swerve watched with cold energon in his cables how his owner took a punch after another from her opponent.
She was barely even fighting anymore, rather taking hits and blows than giving them. It felt to Swerve like she had given up the moment her face was was revealed. Why wasn’t she fighting anymore? A large hand wrapped around the minibot’s body and suddenly Swerve rose into air and found himself sitting over Overlord’s lap.
Poor minibot flinched and tried not to twist, but then Overlord laid his hands over Swerve’s chubby thighs and pulled them apart. Swerve twisted around the best he could and shot the warborn panicked look. ”Wh- what!? Why!? The match is still going on!”
That didn’t stop Overlord’s advantages as he raked his fingers through Swerve’s armour’s seams. ”You’re already as good as mine…!”
The distressed Swerve tried to look help from other V.I.P area’s mechs and femmes, but everyone ignored him, completely oblivious on purpose to Overlord’s claiming.
”I knew your master wouldn’t fight with her face out for everyone to see…! That’s what I told Rigorkill and he did just as I instructed him to do…!” He purred as he twisted tip of his servo between Swerve’s legs to his interface panels. Swerve whimpered out loud and tried to move bigger mech’s hands away but he was too weak to fight against warborn warrior.
”I certainly hope you’re as tiny down there as you look… I do love it when you playthings bleed when I frag you raw…!” Overlord rubbed Swerve panel harder and Swerve whimpered, pleasure building slowly in his processor, but even greater shame rose behind it. He couldn’t let this happen, please someone, anyone, save him…!
He forced his gaze to the stadium and shame and embarrassment washed over him at the sight before him. The whole audience had a good look at Swerve being molested from jumbo screen and so did his owner. The femme stared at the image of Swerve’s mouth gaping as Overlord’s servos rubbed between his legs and suddenly something clicked in place. She let her hand fall from her face and she went offensive, attacking and returning everything Rigorkill gave her.
She punched him, tore her claws over his protective armour as she aimed for the cables beneath and even went as far as using her twisted arm, which Rigorkill grabbed with her next sloppy move and tore off from her body!
The audience went wild as purple femme dropped onto her knees, holding her bleeding shoulder where her arm had been and Overlord’s boisterous laughter filled V.I.P room. ”I knew she was rigid thanks to cheap slag she drinks but I didn’t know she would loose her nerve over a plaything!”
Swerve whimpered as Rigorkill threw his owner’s arm to the side like it was a piece of bad energon and moved closer, kill in his mind. He clenched his fists together and brought them over his head, ready to bash purple femme’s head inside out before all the onlookers and Swerve felt his spark stop for whole minute when gladiator’s fists fell down…
He never got to hit minibot’s owner. Before he could, she caught his fist with her still attached arm. The audience went wild yet again as the old gladiator missed his kill shot because Swerve’s owner willingly took a hit with her only good arm. There was a blink as the mech moved to snap her neck and another as she impaled her opponent’s abdomen with her claws.
Time felt like it had stopped and slowly, too slowly, Rigorkill’s arms fell to his sides and he slumped into the ground. The audience cheered and winner was clear. Swerve couldn’t believe his optics. His owner had won. He wouldn’t be raped and killed by the monster holding him captive at the moment.
Swerve felt especially thankful and happy when he saw his owner look at the V.I.P room’s direction where he was being held and draw her engex painted claws over het intake. Overlord seemed to take a hint as he pushed Swerve off from his lap and on the ground.
”Tch, what a shame. It appears you get to wait for my spike for another day plaything.” The bigger mech grunted as he left the room. He waved his hand at the smaller femmes serving other bidders. ”Clean him up and prepare winner’s credits. I must tend my needs.”
Swerve shivered as he watched Overlord disappear but not before yanking and taking a server with him by force. The pretty little femme looked like she had just been thrown into lion’s den. She looked everywhere for help, only to be ignored by others. No doubt, no one wanted to take her place by Overlord’s side…
The metallurgist looked from side to side. Everyone were ignoring him. Maybe he could escape? It was worth a shot. Swerve got up on his feet and ran to elevator. He pushed the ground floor button repeatedly, almost breaking the button for sure. It felt like forever for doors to shut and floor numbers to flash over the said door.
Swerve’s spark shook in his chassis, but he wouldn’t let it stop him. He watched numbers flash before his optics before they finally moved to ground floor and doors to freedom opened before him. Or so he thought.
Before him stood his owner, bloody and scattered, holding her still energon spurting shoulder with her intact hand. Swerve’s mouth fell open in horror and without his realisation he smiled. ”Master! You’re alright!” Swerve moved closer and to his utter horror he found himself hugging his owner.
The femme must have been just as surprised as he was because she just stared at him, while Swerve blabbered his mouth off by how scared and worried he was. Maybe it was a finally realised way to protect himself? Either way, as long as his owner didn’t know that he had tried to escape then he would be okay.
Finally, he pulled away from the hug and she allowed it. ”A- are you okay?”
”No… We need to go.” She grunted and motioned to the side and Swerve followed her gaze until it landed on another Warborn. The one and only Tarn stood there, waiting them. ”Had enough? Wanna get patched?”
Evidently this line was the handiwork of a kid from the make a wish foundation! That makes it a million times more awesome!!! It shows how great the people at marvel are
What if Mer Kev was turned into a gladiator and forced to fight other mers to the death in basically what's a more violent version of SeaWorld?
[Masterpost]
I’m glad to inform you anon, someone else had a similar idea! Great minds…
Here’s Gladiator MerKev!
However… the possibilities of mer on mer fight… hmmm…
It’s soon clear the shark mer has nothing to fear from marine creatures. Handlers start bringing him to events and larger battle circuits, pitting him against his own kind.
MerKev does not bat an eye. He seems to have zero qualms about fighting other merfolk.
While he shows all the skill and cool mindedness of a sentient, experienced fighter, there is something feral in the way he takes his opponents. It’s captivating, in a very different way than other beloved gladiator mers are captivating. There is no working the audience, no basking in the glory of battle or pride in proving one’s prowess.
From the moment he spots his opponent, to when they breathe their last, his every movement screams: I am not dying here.
[to be continued in next ask another ask later lol]
