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In the bustling streets of a long gone city, a lone youngling wandered aimlessly. Their memory banks were void and (probably) damaged, where they’d come from and who they were had all been left blank. No creators, no guardians, no mentor, nor designation. The space under designation had been left blank, though there was a faint echo. ‘丂闩爪’.
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It was untranslatable to the Cybertronian tongue, yet at the back of his processor a little line of coding insisted ‘Sam’ it was their name (designation).It was illogical.The programming keeping them alive (guiding them), said it wasn’t logical. Nothing more than a glitch. They had to believe. They had to, even after learning how to run system diagnostics, finding a hidden section in their memory banks. They were encoded, in gibberish, they understood. Accessing them had been a mistake. They had remembered a faint past, for a short time. Still, it was nothing more than a glitch.But… he remembered being squishy, and briefly… human. A human would be out of place. There were none here, none in sight, none at all. Nothing organic, nothing breathing. Humans would be crushed under foot, starve or suffocate. Better they focused on the reality of surviving. Day by day they scavenged for energon, sought better shelter and if they were lucky, they gained a shanix or two.One particular day, the youngling wandering further, more than they ever had. It had been worth it. The half full tanks he had were an achievement, he’d never made before, fuel had to be rationed to last a couple days. It seemed a little to easy though, but the small amount would last him a couple of days. They were gleeful but in need of some serious recharge. The youngling soon found themselves in quite section in the shafts of some old building, settling into recharge.When they onlined, they were no longer in the shaft they’d curled up in. Instead, they found themselves weak and hazy, in a dimly lit room. A while later, lucid, they realised there were other youngling too, not one nor two but a couple dozen. Most were lucid now too, some weak and others clearly fearful or lashing out in rage, and all but few fields were hazardously sprawled out, churning in anticipation.After what seemed like an eternity, and walls had been clawed inches deep, every youngling frame bared some sort of evidence of brawl, and all had low powered optics despite the dark, till their cage door finally open.Everyone frozen from the smallest youngling in the corner clinging to the ceiling to the biggest curled up in the corner.A mech thrice their height entered the room. “Mechs to the left, femmes to the right.” The mech’s black amor merged with the dark despite the light and his purple bio lights. “Line up.”His command held either held weight, or the fear of the prod in his hand sparked compliance. The younglings hastily divided themselves like the red sea, all except for one (our) youngling. Being a mech or femme had never been necessary before. Panic surged. They weren’t sure what they were, join the majority of them or the few femmes on the right, he was small like most of them.In their… panic they didn’t realise the mech nearing them. Not till he was a few steps away. About fleeing, the mech grabbed the youngling by scruff bar. The black mech lifted the limp youngling in the air inspecting the collar on their neck.“Looks like we have a dim-witted one here.” Red optics locked onto yellow optics. “E-23, Mech.” He placed the youngling back on ground keeping his hold on him.The mech moved back to the front of room E-23 in tow. “Those on the right, follow the femme by the door. The mech’s red optics turned to other side of room. “I advise you all to behave, the collars adorned on you aren’t for decoration.E-23 and roommates soon found themselves been hustled into an empty arena, (which was more of a circular train hall,) alongside some other mechling from another room.A stern bulky mech enter the hall as they all settled. “Welcome to your new home.” He announced. “You are now gladiators in training. You will fight for your lives and for the entertainment of others.” The mech declared.The mech introduced himself “I am known as Lanistas……”When E-23 hear the glyph, ‘gladiator’ the youngling was divided. Something stirred with in him from its dormant state whirling to life, just as Sam onlined. He remembered stories of ancient times and their gladiator fights, and it filled Sam with angst which he fed E-23 (tried too). The youngling’s battle programming shut it down, offlining it and his memories to a dormant state, just as it had been.E-23 turned his attention back to Lanistas as the mech dismissed the mechling and left the hall. Another mech came forward along with a grey scared mech gathering the younglings in the hall and leaving. As for him he was left he behind, as Nox Lux ‘what kind of name was that?’ still had him by scruff bar.“Oh my, Nox what ya got there.” A purple and green mech, seemingly appeared next to the other mech. E-23 was pretty sure the mech had been the one to guide the other group to the hall.“E-23, I think the mechling’s a new spark. Seems younger than the rest and didn’t even know it was mech, either that or he’s draft.” Nox says looking down at the youngling, before lifting it in the air. “Besides youngling don’t go completely limp like new sparks.”“True.” Highgear hummed. “It could have come from one of the hotspots. Heard once in a while a spark can emerge from them even though they’ve been dormant for megavorns.”“Really now, I do recall Hazard mentioning Lockdown found a wander.” Nox spoke as he began to head to the exit. “At least the mechling came with some sort of battle programming, saw his optics flicker in the hall. Programming came online for a moment or two.”“Seeker coding and battle programming, what a mix.”“Seeker?”“Mechling has wing numbs.” Highgear pointed out, poking the mechling’s wing numbs, causing the mechling to curl up into a ball. “Could be a halfie though, but seeker coding is definitely involved. Tripline sent a holo of the damage. At least 25% of the claw mark damage remind me of Viktor.Nox rolled his optics, “Anything seeker reminds you of Viktor.”“So, what exactly are we doing with the little mech, dumping with the said seeker.” No, I’m leaving mechling with some of the older mechling. The older ones can look after him, there’re at least house trained. Maybe they’ll teach him a thing or two.” Nox said. “Plus, there’s a flight mecha or two amongst them.”