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The sound of humming engines had become a white noise to Scott even since he was trafficked from his home planet. He had difficulty getting used to it when he was first captured. It was new to him as he had never gone into space. He had learned about ships and the wider galaxies but never expected to experience it till he was older.
Transportia was considered a death world due to the toxic air to most species and the dangerous terrain that only transporters could handle with their teleportation ability. It is still considered a new planet recently inducted into the Galactic Association. But with being introduced to the wider galaxies, it got the attention of poachers and traffickers.
He was one of the unlucky few that had been snatched from the planet. He was alone in his favorite place to stargaze, a plateau on top of a high hill. He doesn’t remember much, just staring up at the night sky and then waking up in a cell with an electron barrier.
Scott quickly realized that this wasn’t just a normal trafficking ship. He had been dragged out of his cell once the guards were notified of his awakening. He was hauled down winding hallways and up flights of stairs before his pointed ears picked up loud cheering voices.
He was brought out of the belly of the ship and was horrified as he stood in the stands of a fighting arena. A Colin, a species from an extremely cold planet, and a Copperite, who thrived in their lava-filled environments, were battling fiercely as other species cheered them on.
Transfixed on the fight, he missed when a Watcher came up behind him. He yelped as a solid heavy weight snapped around his wrist. Frightened and confused, he tugged on it. Soon he realized it was a bracelet that was usually used for dangerous feral non-sentient creatures.
When he tried to take it off, he was given a small zap. The Watcher, who oversaw the ship, explained to him that he’d be transporting aliens from their cells to the arena and back. He had resisted the idea at first, demanding to be let go. The Watcher had simply pointed to the ring, where the Colin was lying motionless in the grey sand with black blood seeping from beneath them while the Copperite stood over them.
They had then explained to Scott that if he didn’t comply, he would be put in the arena with the other opponents. As much as the transporter hated the idea of working for these scumbags, he knew that he would be killed instantly. His world may be a death world, but transporters as a species were built lightweight and lanky. Scott was no different.
Reluctantly, Scott had agreed.
With that, that started Scott’s life as a glorified delivery boy. The guards would escort him to the cell of aliens who were scheduled to fight, and he would transport them to the waiting area. Then he would be brought to watch the fight, standing by his handlers’ side the whole time. When a prisoner was in critical condition, he tried his best to patch them up with the meager medical supplies he was given to keep them from dying before guards could drug their food with healing potions.
Most older captives understood his plight, but newbies attacked him, earning him several scars where claws, teeth, and spikes had gotten him.
So, when Scott could hear a commotion over the hum of the engines, he knew he was in for a rude surprise for the match. Newbies always fight when they are first brought onto the ship. Soon they will learn that it's useless in the end. In the beginning, Scott was determined to escape as well. It ended after he was caught and beaten till he was covered with his own neon orange blood. The only reason he wasn’t killed then was because the guards were too lazy to go back to hauling fighters up to the arena.
Sighing, the blue and orange transporter stood up from his uncomfortable cot, his long slender coiled around his leg with his fluffy tail tip pressed firmed against his calf. He stretched out his arms then his legs as he walked up to the electric force field. His ears twitched curiously as he could hear grunts and shrieks, he never heard from a species before.
As the commotion came closer, he backed deeper into his cell. He decidedly did not want to be seen as a threat toward the newbie. As the guards came into view, his blood ran colder than the home planet of the Colins.
Because in between them was a human.
A very angry, large, human.
And they were heading towards his cell.
He made a distressed voomp that escaped his mouth as he pressed himself against the metal wall. His twin heart sank to his stomach as the field flickered twice before it dropped completely. The guards looked at him with a smirk as they shoved the human into the cage.
“Hope you enjoy your roommate. It already killed a Ghastlin while in transport.” A Watcher guard chuckled deviously.
Scott yelled desperately. “Why!?” He flinched as the human lunged at the replaced door, slamming and howling in pain as it got a shock. “What did I do to deserve to earn a death like this?”
The guards sneered at the transporter. “We finally catch ourselves an Enderian. They are much better at teleportation than your kind.” The other guard nods.
“You burn through too much food. You’ll now be demoted to a fighter…” The guard smirks. “…if you last that long.” Both traffickers laugh as they walk away, leaving Scott alone with the human.
Speaking of the devil, movement in the corner of his eye made him jump away as the human sprung at him. A bunch of jumble garbles and grunts came from the human as they tried to attack him again. Scott made a terrified noise as he pressed himself into a corner, tail curling tightly around itself.
Large tears filled his eyes as he lowered himself to the floor. Making himself as small as possible, he hoped the human would ignore him. Still, it was pointless. The human stalked closer to him. Given their positions, Scott could see nearly every detail on the other deathworlder.
Blond hair flowed down its shoulder from a ponytail like his own duel-colored ponytail. A green shirt covered his torso with a symbol he didn’t recognize on the front of it. Unlike his long brown pants, it-he wore blue shorts that revealed the tan skin matching the arms as well. Nothing caught Scott’s attention like the human’s eyes.
Dark blue eyes seemed to pin him in place as the human stopped and loomed over him. As the transporter stared into those blue eyes, he could tell there was more than a simple-minded animal. This was an intelligent creature just like him.
Abruptly, he turned away from Scott and walked to the other side of the cell. Scott stared after them, teardrops falling off his cheek before he slumped over in relief. He took a breath before he made a silent promise that he would make friends with this human.
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A few hours passed before either of them moved from their corners. It was only when a dish slid through the electro field did the human move. Scott watched from his corner as he grabbed the tray and brought it back to the corner.
The human paused, looking between him and the tray before taking purple bread and ripping it in half. The transporter was even more surprised as the human approached him with a half in hand and offered it to him. Hesitantly, Scott accepted the offered bread.
The human barred its teeth at him, nearly making Scott drop the bread in fright. The duel-colored-eyed boy froze and for a tense minute neither moved, Only when the blond hid his teeth and walked back to his corner did the transporter consider that maybe teeth barring is a good sign in human culture.
He made a noise to alert his cellmate. Once the human was looking, and with an unnatural movement, he forced his lips to stretch revealing his teeth. The human seemed taken aback for a second before he started to make low repeated huffing sounds as his body shook. Alarmed, Scott dropped his odd teeth barring. Concerned he offended his new roommate.
Said roommate had stopped shaking as much but was making quieter huffing noises and was teeth barring. He said something in a tongue that he didn’t know but seemed to enjoy himself. Relief once again overcame his anxiety as he realized that those sounds were good as well. Scott happily went on to munch his food, his tail wagging.
The tray returned to the force field once dinner was over. The human seemed more antsy the before as he kept looking over towards Scott. He knew he wasn’t much better as he kept looking over towards him trying to figure out how to befriend the human.
Suddenly, the human slowly approached him with his hands out. He was speaking to Scott again in that foreign tongue. Tilting his head, he tried to figure out any similarities between Common and the unknown language. The blond seemed to droop before deciding to repeat once sound.
“Martyn.”
Scrunching his nose in concentration, he copied the word to the best of his abilities. “Mmmar-tin?” He speaks. The human shook his head.
“Martyn.”
Trying again, Scott pronounced. “Martyn.”
He nodded happily then pointed to himself, “Martyn.” Scott tilted his head in confusion before he realized.
“You’re Martyn?” He said as he pointed to the blond. The human nodded happily then pointed to Scott with a tilt of his head.
Recognizing that his cheque to introduce himself. “Scott.” He said pointing to himself.
Blinking with surprise, the blond pointed at Scott and repeated perfectly, “Scott?” He nodded as he gave him an approving nod.
The human barred his teeth at that. Scott decided that he would be happy to share a room with a human.
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Time flew for the two captives. Between them being pulled into the arena, teaching each other their languages, and sharing meals, many cycles have passed for them. And throughout that time, they have grown to care about each other.
In the beginning, there was tension whenever Martyn came back injured. The blond had later admitted that he didn’t want to appear weak in front of Scott. So finally, Scott had enough and dressed the wounds, tired of this one-sided tension. After that, Martyn started doing the same to Scott.
Communication was a learning curve as well. Sometimes Martyn couldn’t pronounce a word properly and would get frustrated. Scott wasn’t perfect either, he had a hard time understanding English as Martyn call it. Some words just didn’t make any sense to him. But together they managed.
Breakfast had just finished as four guards walked up to their cell. An uneasy feeling filled Scott as the force field flickered and fell away. Scott stepped forward to meet them when two walked passed him and grabbed Martyn. The other two grabbed him, making him make a confused reaction.
A malicious smirk spread across the face of a guard and he snarked. “Oh? I thought you would know you’d be fighting each other. No? Oh, that’s too bad.” Scott froze up as Martyn started cursing them out in Common.
Scott was dragged to the waiting area while Martyn was hauled flailing to the other area. While waiting, Scott paced the length of the room, his tail swishing anxiously. He didn’t want to fight Martyn. His ears twitched as he approached the door leading to the arena. He frowned as he looked at his hands, and winced as he envisioned them covered in scarlet.
An announcement came over the loudspeaker catching his attention. “Welcome species from across the galaxies for the biggest fight yet! Deathworlder vs. Deathworlder! Human vs. Transporter! A match to the death!”
Scott swallowed thickly as he looked over toward Martyn who had a determined expression. Softening his expression, Scott closed his eyes silently making a promise to himself that he would let Martyn win. He took a breath before opening his eyes just as the doors opened.
The transporter sprinted forward toward the surprised human. Using his momentum, he lunged at him with his claws out. Martyn dodged, looking hurt and confused.
In broken Common, he asked, “Why? We friends.” Scott nodded at that.
“We are friends is why I’m doing this.” He lunged at the terrain again.
Now anticipating the attack, Martyn kicked him in the chest. A howl of pain escaped him as his ribs fractured from the kick. The crowd went wild as he hit the wall on the other side of the arena. Pain pulsed through his body as he forced himself to stand up, his tail swaying weakly as his plan played out.
He only had a moment before a fist collided with the side of his head, knocking him across the grey sand, similar to how the Colin had been on his first day here. He coughs up orange blood, and with every breath, he can feel something stab into his lung. He guessed that it was one of his ribs.
Footsteps approaching him made him lift his head. Martyn looked down at him with an angry expression. “Why betray me?” He asked. He placed a foot on the transporter’s chest.
Scott gave him a blood-orange smile. “No betrayal. Only protect.” He said in English. Martyn’s face flashed from confusion to realization to horror.
“No…” He said devastated. “You idiot!” He fell to his knee next to Scott as the crowd demanded him finish him off.
The transporter sucked in a pained breath as he was pulled into Martyn’s embrace. Scott hugged back with his waning energy before he coughed up more blood, his frail bones paper under a human’s strength.
“Martyn…” He rasped quietly only for him to hear. “…Survive for both of us….” The fallen transporter could feel the moment when the bracelet was turned off as the organizers thought he had died already. “…Escape…”
With the last of his remaining energy, he transported Martyn out of the arena and as close as he could to the dock. Without Martyn, he fell into the gray sand, blood freely flowing out of his mouth as he closed his eyes. His last thoughts before he passed.
‘I’m sorry, but you deserve to live more I, my friend.’