Kieran awoke as if he had one of the best nights of sleep in his life, feeling energized and refreshed. Memories of the previous night began to flood in as he realized he was still strapped to the bed however. His breathing grew heavy, and he jerked his arms, snapping the braces that held him. His eyes widened from the surge of strength. Flexing his arms, he noticed the bones were no longer broken from the fight with the wolf. There was a strange tube taped down to one of his arms, and he yanked it out forcefully. He winced from the pain, blood starting to drip as a needle pierced within his skin came out.

With this newfound strength he removed the final braces from his legs. Checking his leg, he noticed the previous stab wound was healed as well. Kieran was confused wondering what sort of magic they had used to heal his wounds. Normally wounds like his would take months to heal. He’d seen many soldiers lose a limb due to infection. Once free and no longer in pain his breathing started to relax a little.

“Good morning Kieran.” A familiar voice said.

Kieran darted off the bed to turn around and look for the contraption from the previous night, but nothing was there.

“Kieran, I am detecting an increase in your heart rate. Is something the matter?” it said again.

“Who said that!” Kieran’s eyes darted around to find the source. Was this in my head? No, the needle. “What did you do to me?”

“Why, I have done nothing, I am AIA 256. I have been injected into your body to assist you with the nanobots.”

This world kept getting stranger, and now he had nanobots talking in his head.

“What are nanobots?” Kieran said.

“Nanobots are miniature robots that are approximately the size of a red blood cell. The nanobots work to enhance your body making you faster and stronger. They will also work on repairing any physical damage as well. Your injuries seem to be healing at a faster rate than normal however.”

Hearing this, Kieran looked down at his arm where he ripped the previous needled out. Wiping away the wet blood the hole had healed itself already. He looked at his hands and arms and noticed he was still covered in blood.

“I really wish I could wash all this blood off.” Kieran said.

“Why don’t you use the shower?” AIA said.

“The what?” Kieran said.

“The Shower. Go over to that wall and hold your hand up to the metal spout.”

Kieran walked over towards the metal device AIA had mentioned and inspected it, never really noticing it before. He held his hand up to it and glass walls rose from the ground surrounding him. He felt trapped until water started raining down on him from the metal spout above. The water was warm on his skin and felt relaxing. Kieran removed his clothing and armor to begin washing. Slowly the dirt and blood rinsed from his body, and left through a drain that had opened up in the floor below. Once clean, he just sat in the shower leaning against the glass with the warm water raining down upon him trying to clear his head.

After the tips of his fingers began to wrinkle, he eventually decided it was time to get out. Afterwards, he set his tattered clothes & armor out to dry. Once everything was dry, he redressed back in the armor they had left him with.

Kieran glanced at the broken restraints from earlier wondering if this new strength of his would help him escape. Kieran ran his hand through his hair. “I need to get out of here.” This wasn’t his first time thinking about how to escape, but an opportunity had yet to present itself. He walked over to the door and slammed his fist down on it creating a small dent. This seemed to be effective, so he kept going. Bruises formed and healed as he kept beating into the door harder and harder. The creaking of the metal door bending could be heard as the door began to loosen. With a step back, he slammed his shoulder into the door which caused it to fly open and smash into the opposite wall. An alarm started to sound, and he found himself in a hallway lined with similar doors.

“Kieran you have entered an unauthorized area, I advise returning to your quarters.” AIA 256 said.

“Yeah, like that’s going to happen.” Without hesitating, Kieran chose a direction and started running. Red lights flickered above as he sprinted down the narrow hallway. His senses were heightened from the adrenaline. No, not the adrenaline, something felt different. He sprinted down the hallway with ease, barely getting winded, and he was able to keep a steady sprint. Red lights shimmered against the metal doors as he passed. The clunking of boot against the metallic floor drummed along with his heart beat which pounded in his chest.

As the hallway came to an end he turned a corner and ahead of him was the lizard man from before. When he locked eyes with Kieran, he panicked rushing through a portal to escape. He was halted by a hulking figure stepping through shoving him back into a wall with a grunt. The four-armed monster Kieran had become quite familiar with over the past few days stepped through. Except this time he had a smile on his face.

Kieran didn’t hesitate, surging with confidence he charged the monster. The monster leapt forward with unforeseen speed, Kieran was unable to dodge due to his forward momentum. The monster slammed two fists into Kieran’s body sending him flying, the air forced from his lungs. It felt like being hit with a battering ram. Mid-flight, the monster caught Kieran by his legs swinging him into the wall with a loud crack. His vision swam from the pain resonating throughout his body. Another sharp pain erupted from his stomach as the monster kneed him, pinning him against the wall. The monster let Kieran fall limp to the floor.

Pleasantly finished with the job, the monster turned back towards the lizard man.

“Drax, take this slave to the Med bay. Khitha would be angry if one of his new toys was broken before he could play with it.”

Drax rose to his feet to comply with Cyrvo’s orders. “Yes Cyrvo.”

Cyrvo passed Drax and left through the portal. Once the portal closed and the lights stopped flashing, he looked down at Kieran who was now unconscious.

“Pfft, that damned lug head. Always making me deal with his mess. Take out the trash Drax. Clean up the bodies Drax. I swear, one of these days he’s gonna get what’s coming to him. Well I better get this idiot to the med bay, or it will be my head.” He grabbed Kieran by the shoulders and started dragging him to the med bay.

When Drax finally got to the med bay, he rolled Kieran’s body onto a metal operating table which then levitated into the air. Leaving the body suspended, he turned around to gather some medical equipment and bandages, when clicking and grinding noises started from behind him. Pausing, Drax turned around to investigate the noise setting the items on the operating table. Looking down at Kieran’s broken body he could see something moving beneath his clothes. Cautiously, Drax cut away Kieran’s shirt with some sheers exposing his chest. The noise came from the bones in his rib cage grinding back in place. Small cuts began to knit themselves back together, and newly formed purple bruises covering Kieran’s body also shifted colors from black to yellowish, then eventually faded away.

Drax’s jaw dropped watching as the body healed itself over time. It usually took the medical pod a couple of hours to make these kinds of major repairs. He leaned closer to watch the colors of the bruising shifting rapidly poking at it. It was truly an amazing sight.

Kieran’s hand snapped up around Drax’s throat gripping tightly. Drax flailed, grasping at his throat trying to loosen the grip causing syringes bandages to clatter to the floor below. Kieran sat up wincing with pain, his body not quite finished healing.

“Kieran, your body is still in the process of healing. It is advised to continue resting.” AIA said.

“Not now AIA.” Kieran replied. He stared angrily at Drax. “Where am I?”

“Me..mee...med…. bay.” Drax choked out.

“Did you just talk?” Kieran released his grip on Drax. Drax fell to the floor gasping for air coughing.

“Of course I can talk you idiot!”

“But, why can I understand you now?” Kieran said.

Drax got up off the floor carefully hiding a scalpel that was near his hand. He slowly moved to the other side of the table trying to keep his distance from Kieran.

“It’s because of the nanobots, they automatically translate the language for you.”

“AIA is that true?” Kieran wasn’t sure why he asked her as he didn’t quite trust her yet. She seemed to have been trying to help him so far though.

“That is correct,” AIA replied. So many questions raced through Kieran’s mind. He just started blurting them out.

“Why am I here? Where is here? I mean, not the med bay, this building. Why was I taken here in the first..”

Drax held up his hands trying to get Kieran to slow down. “Slow down before you bite your tongue off jeez. You’ve been captured to fight in the arena for entertainment. Some suicidal maniacs do it for glory though.”

“Well I was right about the gladiator slave at least. So where is here exactly?” Kieran said.

“You’re on the great Thruveas’ lanistas Ship. The best fighters the galaxy has known come from here, or at least, that’s what he says.” Drax's demeanor began to relax as the conversation continued. If he could keep this slave talking, maybe he could think of a way out of this mess.

“I’m on a ship?” This was the steadiest ship Kieran had been on in his life. He couldn’t feel any sway from the waves at all.

“Yeah,” Drax said. “I think we’re somewhere in the Eridani quadrant right now.”

Kieran noticed Drax tapping his fingers on the table and glancing towards the doors. Unfortunately it looked like Kieran was running out of time with his questions.

“Well I don’t know where that is, but I think It’s time I left, and you’re leading the way.” Kieran reached for Drax across the table, but Drax ducked back brandishing the scalpel he retrieved earlier and sliced at Kieran’s arm. Kieran flinched back and Drax took the opportunity to flip the operating table at Kieran. Kieran caught the table easily only to be smashed backwards by a kick from Drax. Drax took this opportunity to run towards a portal to escape. When he turned around to look, he found Kieran rising to charge. He rushed through the portal which brought him out into another hallway.

He turned around to shut the existing portal off, but before he could disable it Kieran came flying through, tackling him to the ground. Drax struggled against Kieran strength, and was forced to drive the scalpel into Kieran’s thigh. Drax was then able to shove Kieran off and scrambled to his feet. He started sprinting down the hallway looking for another door. An idea formed in his head and he stopped at one frantically trying to open a new portal, the clanking of Kieran’s boots getting closer. The portal appeared just as Kieran slammed into Drax pinning him against the wall.

“How do I get out of here?” Kieran demanded.

“The portal.” Drax continued to struggle as he pointed towards the newly formed portal.

“You’re coming with.” Kieran said. Grabbing Drax and twisting his arm back, he forced him forward walking through the portal together. As the tingling sensation enveloped his body, he found he was no longer holding Drax. Soon after his eyes adjusted he found himself encased in a glass tube at the training grounds. Kieran looked around the training grounds, which appeared to be empty other than Drax with a very unpleasant look on his face. Drax was also encased in one of the glass tubes. Kieran screamed in anger and slammed two fists into the glass. He was met with a powerful shock that left him paralyzed on the ground.