The first thing Drew noticed when he woke was his massive migraine. His entire head pounded and his thoughts were muddled as he struggled to concentrate on any specific thought. He groaned as he sat up from the hard ground and wiped his eyes.

“Have a good nap, princess?” Matt asked from across the room.

Drew grunted a response.

“You prolly wanna eat some more of that nasty meat before it goes bad. Gotta top your core up.”

Drew did his best to ignore Matt and focus inward on his core and its condition. It seemed that the fight with the anteater had used a little over half of his chi.

Matt’s right, I need to refill my core.

Despite the logic, Drew’s stomach turned at the thought of eating anything. His mouth was also incredibly dry, and he could still taste the dredges of the poison cloud on his tongue.

Absently, he tipped his head back and began to summon water, directly above his mouth. The water materialized, but his headache spiked. The sudden pain caused him to jerk in surprise, which spilled water all over his face. Despite the mess, he quickly corrected his position and greedily swallowed the cool, refreshing liquid.

Once his thirst was quenched, he released the spell and his head immediately felt better. Now that something was in his stomach, the thought of forcing raw meat down his throat no longer made him want to gag. The idea was now merely unpleasant.

Drew sighed as he climbed to his feet and stomped across the cell to the room temperature chunk of muscle. The slab was now a quarter of its original size and covered with grit from the floor. He picked up the mass and began brushing it off. When that did not work, he braced himself and summoned water to wash it clean.

“That’s not gonna make it taste any better.” Matt mused.

“Yeah well, sand doesn’t exactly improve the texture either.”

Finally, when Drew felt it was somewhat edible, he tore off a bite with his teeth. It was just as awful as he remembered, and after he gingerly chewed it to pieces, he forced himself to swallow.

I miss recharging with electricity.

“So, I take it you were forced to fight like a Pokémon too?”

“Huh?”

Drew had of course heard of Pokémon, but had never watched the cartoon. Vaguely, he remembered his son liking the show when he was a kid. Sarah and he had given a Pokémon video game and trading cards to him for a birthday and Christmas. However, as Adam grew older, he had grown out of the phase and moved on to the next fad.

“Don’t tell me you’ve never heard of Pokémon, old man.”

Drew rolled his eyes. “Of course I’ve heard of it, I just never watched the cartoon. I’m an adult.”

Matt muttered under his breath, then began explaining to Drew the plot of the show. He went on for many long minutes until Drew held up his hand.

“Ok, I got it, I got it.”

The long diatribe had somehow made his headache worse as he was forced to listen to Matt’s horrible story-telling. Instead of starting at the beginning and laying out the plot and background in order, he had jumped from place to place as he suddenly remembered something new and important. It had been very frustrating to keep track of.

“See, I told you. The aliens are like Pokémon trainers.” Matt exhumed smug satisfaction.

“Except, you and I aren’t beasts, we’re human.” Drew pointed out.

Matt dismissed his argument with a wave of his hand. “Naw, fam. Did you hear that alien bastard? To him, we might as well be beasts.”

“I still think it’s closer to the Romans and the coliseum, they had prisoners and slaves fight each other, and sometimes animals like lions for entertainment.”

“Ooooh!” Matt exclaimed in sudden understanding. “You mean like that old movie Gladiator?”

“It’s not that old.” Drew protested.

“Fam, it came out before I was even born.” Matt replied, deadpan.

“Just how young are you?” Drew asked in disbelief.

“I was born in 2003.”

“So, you’re what, 20 years old?” he asked.

“21 a month ago.” Matt stated proudly.

“Well, happy belated birthday.”

After Drew congratulated him, he forced himself to rip off another chunk of meat with his teeth. While he chewed, Matt regaled him with his fight in the arena.

“So, after I saw how beat up you were, I figured they were going to torture me or something. Imagine my surprise when they wanted me to fight a Koffing!”

“A what?”

“Koffing, ya know, a poison Pokémon.”

“Oh, you had to fight an anteater, too?”

“So cringe.” Matt shuddered.

“Hey! I saw it first, so I get to name it. We’re not calling it a coffin or whatever you said, it's an anteater.”

Matt hung his head in defeat. “Fine, but you really suck at naming things, fam.”

“Uh huh.” Drew motioned with his hand. “So, how did you end up defeating it?”

“Oh, it was super easy. I just flew up in the air and launched fireballs at it. It kept blowing up the gas and making tons of smoke, which gave me an idea. I waited for it to release a whole bunch of gas and then blew it up. Then, before it could clear away the smoke, I made a huge dome shield and trapped all the gas inside. I kept making it smaller and smaller until it was just slightly bigger than its domain. Then, I just waited for it to run out of air.”

Drew’s jaw dropped at the simple solution.

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Matt shrugged. “I think they’re starting us off with really easy fights that’ll get harder and harder so they can find out how strong we are. Wait, you said you fought a Koffing too.”

“Anteater.” Drew corrected.

“How’d you get so beat up?”

Drew told him about his experience out in the arena. By the time he got to the end, Matt was laughing uproariously.

Matt wiped away a tear and said, “Oh fam, I bet those alien bastards loved watching you fight. Mine was pretty boring, so they all just sat there like they were frozen or something.”

Drew shook his head. “Well, I was kind of busy trying to survive, but from what I saw, they looked bored watching me fight as well.”

“Then why watch us if we’re boring?” Matt asked.

Drew shrugged. “I don’t know, I’m not an alien. I was focused more on the red sun and how it made everything look orangish.”

“Yeah, that was freaky!” Matt agreed. “Really brings home the fact that we’re on an alien planet.”

“It does.” Drew cocked his head to the side. “Did you feel the chi in the air when you were outside?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that! I was too busy poppin’ off to check it out, but it was freaky.”

“Yeah. I don’t feel any underground here. Do you think those symbols are blocking the chi from reaching us?”

Matt shrugged.

Before Drew could discuss the runes further, the latch to the door suddenly opened and the gray alien entered. Both Drew and Matt silently rose to their feet and backed away until they hit the wall. The alien ignored them.

After it entered the cell, the door closed behind it, and it slowly strode to the center of the room. It abruptly stopped, placed its hands on its long, brown robe, and raised it as it sat down upon the ground. The being settled on the ground with its legs folded and its back straight.

TEACH

Drew winced as the thought was blasted into his head. The word ‘teach’ was easily understood, but that was not the entirety of its message. Like the previous communication from the alien, it was accompanied by far more nuance. The entity had impressed upon him that it was going to teach them something important.

Good, maybe we’ll finally figure out why we’re here.

The gray humanoid suddenly raised a hand and pointed a thin finger at itself.

MASTER

Again, the intention was clear. It had pointed at itself while informing them that it was their master. However, that was not the end. After a short delay, it opened its tiny mouth and strange sounds were expelled from it. The speech sounded like clicks and snorts, just as the aliens in the common room and the announcer had used.

After a short pause, it repeated itself.

Matt rolled his eyes. “We can’t understand you, idiot.”

Suddenly, Matt shrieked in pain and he fell to his knees. He clutched at the metal collar around his neck that had suddenly lit up. The symbols, which had softly glowed before, flared brightly.

Drew rushed over to his friend, but could do nothing to help him. He turned back to the alien who was seated calmly with no expression on its face and yelled, “Stop it!”

Either the alien did not understand him or it was ignoring him, as Matt continued to squeal in agony. Finally, however, Matt’s screams cut off, and he began to breathe deeply in relief.

“Why?” Matt croaked out from a sore throat.

Drew narrowed his eyes. “I don’t think it liked your insult.”

Matt suddenly looked up to Drew and then the alien. “You think it understands us?”

“You’re the one that said it can read our minds, what do you think?”

LEARN

The alien suddenly pointed at itself and then repeated the same clicks and grunts as before.

REPEAT

It was obvious that it wanted them to repeat its verbal communication. However, Drew was at a loss of how to accomplish that. The noises weren’t just strange and meaningless to him, they were also impossible for him to reproduce. There was no way his voice box was capable of mimicking the ridiculous sounds.

When both Matt and Drew just stared at the alien rather than try and repeat its speech, it suddenly punished them both. Drew dropped to his knees and cradled his head as pulses of extreme pain lanced up his neck and into his brain. He knew intuitively that the sensation originated from the metal collar he wore, but no matter how hard he pulled on it, he could not remove it.

Suddenly, the pain stopped.

REPEAT

It once more pointed at itself and then voiced its gibberish. By that point, Drew had heard the string of noises multiple times and realized that each repetition was identical.

With a sigh, Drew did his best to repeat the sounds, “Chk’grn’xnk.”

Matt snorted. “Yeah, that’s totally what it said.”

The alien turned its blank stare at Matt. When his friend just looked defiantly back at it, he was punished again. Finally, around ten seconds later, Matt’s screams cut off, and he lay panting on the ground.

“Just play along, Matt. I think it’ll just sit there all day and torture you if you don’t.”

REPEAT

The gray entity once again pointed to itself and then repeated the word or phrase. Drew tried to mimic it, and only partially succeeded. Matt decided he had enough torture, and also began snorting and clicking.

Over and over, the process continued. However, no matter how hard they tried, it was impossible for them to get it correct. Their throats were just not capable of repeating the odd noises.

Either the alien did not realize what he was asking was not possible, or did not care. After ten attempts to mimic the being failed, it began to torture them. Each failure was met with jolts of pain.

Finally, Matt snapped. “Hey asshole! We can’t make those sounds!”

The remark was met with further punishment as it stared emotionlessly on.

Suddenly, Drew had an idea. “Hey Matt, what if we use chi to alter our throats so we actually CAN make those sounds.”

Matt coughed and then said, “Go ahead.”

Drew closed his eyes and focused internally. It had been months since he used chi to upgrade his body. Once he had hit diminishing returns, the effort stopped being useful.

I hope I can still make changes.

He was not sure if it was upgrading his fortitude and strength that were no longer possible, or his body as a whole. If he had somehow maxed out his body’s possible changes, that would be bad. Rather than worry about it, he tried to adjust his throat.

Luckily, after chi was sent to the region, it began to morph and change shape. Drew wished he could observe the alien’s body with his domain so he could replicate the shape exactly. However, the gray being had a domain of its own, which made it impossible. Instead, he was forced to use trial and error.

Luckily, the alien allowed him the time. It either read his thoughts and understood what he was trying to do, or sensed the changes being made by his chi. Either way, Drew was relieved that he would not be forced to make the changes between bouts of torture.

Drew began the tedious process of making a change and then trying to recreate the strange noises the alien had made. He had continuous failures, but the entity seemed content to simply observe his experiments.

That did not mean, however, that it allowed Matt to passively observe. It continued to punish him until he too followed Drew’s example. For what seemed hours, they continued to work on repeating the alien exactly. Finally, when they were able to replicate the alien’s strange speech perfectly, it moved on.

It pointed at Matt and then Drew.

SLAVE

It then spouted a new collection of sounds. While the noises as a whole were different, Drew could tell that the individual sounds that made up the word or phrase were the same as the previous statement. They were now just in a different order.

Drew and Matt repeated the sounds.

This time, it took only three tries before they were successful. After it was satisfied, it pointed at itself and waited.

They repeated the original word it had taught them, and then its finger was then aimed at each of them. Once they said the new word, it moved on once more. It then pointed down and rested its finger on the ground.

FLOOR

Another string of syllables were spouted. When Drew and Matt were both able to replicate it, it moved on once again and pointed upward.

CEILING

By that point, Drew realized it was teaching them its language. While he hated the being in front of him for destroying his world and then enslaving him, he also realized that knowledge was power. If they were able to learn its language and then communicate with the other slaves, they might learn something that could help them escape.

When he realized where his thoughts had turned, he quickly focused once again on learning the new words. After all, if the alien could read his mind, it would sense his rebellious thoughts and potentially punish him. Needlessly antagonizing it would only lead to more torture.