What Do You Want from Me

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Content warning: This chapter contains heavy themes some readers might find disturbing. Please proceed with caution.

Ninja

The azure Bean had watched through thick wire mesh as he was exchanged between Alder raiders, a duo of pig-like aliens who constantly argued as they drove their hovervan through the backwoods of a swamp planet, and now the insectoid creature said pig-aliens were selling him to. The insectoid, who resembled a giant red grasshopper, took them inside a domed stone building lit by gas lanterns. Setting Ninja's cage down on a desk, the pig-aliens talked enthusiastically to the grasshopper thing, repeatedly pointing at him. The grasshopper seemed amused by the whole situation, which annoyed the pigs; one punched the table and the other looked a bit frothy at the mouth.

It took a bit before the grasshopper finally shrugged its shoulders and handed over some amount of credits to the pigs. They took their money and ran, leaving Ninja alone with...his new owner. God, he hated that idea. But he took a deep breath and remained resolute. He couldn't show his fear. If he submitted at all, he gave his enemies a chance to trample on him. And he would let no such thing happen.

"私は誰のものでもない," he muttered as the grasshopper picked up his kennel and carried him down a set of concrete stairs, into the Dome's basement. Dozens, maybe more than a hundred, cages filled the musty-smelling space. Ninja saw all kinds of creatures, all of them armed quite literally to the teeth. Most had fangs and claws. Some had venom glands. A couple were outfitted with armor or metal shanks. The animals stared hard at Ninja as he was carried past them. The Bean took notice of their scars and surly attitudes, and slowly things began to fall into place.

The grasshopper yanked Ninja out of his kennel, making him yelp, and tossed him into a cage shambled together from wire. Lifting his face out of the hay, he met gazes with the cage's other occupant, a fat wingless bird with a bunch of spiked collars around its neck. It squawked in disgust and pecked him with its sharp little beak, making him cry out. He retaliated with a swipe of his paw. The bird cawed and nipped him, drawing a bit of blood. Ninja swatted it again with his paw, sending it stumbling into a far corner of the cage. It stomped one foot, then the other, and hesitantly lowered itself to the floor, not tearing its gaze from him. Ninja cautiously reached his paw towards it, which resulted in the stupid bird screaming and lunging to bite him again. He retreated to the other corner of the cage. This...wasn't a good situation.

He heard a shrill chirping sound behind him; turning, he saw the grasshopper alien watching the whole spectacle and laughing. It said something to itself as it left; if he had understood the rapscallion's language he would have heard it say something like "can't wait to see how this thing behaves on the sands."

Ninja hadn't quite figured out yet that he was in an underground critter-fighting ring. Well. He'd know soon enough, on the eve of his first fight.

Stoner

He had woken up a few times after fainting, only to get confused by his surroundings and fall asleep again. The last thing he remembered was a group of purple aliens attacking the Skeld and kidnapping the others. He was too out of it to panic, or at least do so outwardly, when he found himself in an animal carrier being rolled towards a great gray brick of a building. Stoner wondered if this was a MIRA mission, but that didn't explain why he was in a cage or why angry space lizards blew up the Skeld.

His cage was strapped to a flatbed truck-like vehicle, which drove into a spacious garage connected to the building. A pair of green creatures with huge, hulking torsos and comically small waists hopped out and started unpacking the truck's cargo. They weren't careful with Stoner's crate and dropped him right on the ground. He yelped as he bounced up and hit his head on the top of his tiny prison. The blow stunned him long enough to keep him from resisting as the creatures carried him into the bowels of the building.

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