Gleen woke up slowly, his senses first returned to him at a snail's pace.

First, there was his consciousness, then he regained his sight and hearing, slowly his smell returned.

Finally, after what felt like an hour. He could feel his tongue and taste his mouth. Then his sense of touch returned as well. He could finally feel the full realm of the human spectrum. It felt like shit.

What people don't tell you when you wake up from what was presumably a watery grave, is that you felt like shit. First, there was the wrinkly skin you got from being underwater for too long. But also there was the fact that his entire skin ached and burned something fierce.

It was like he had gotten a sunburn or something.

Gleen slowly turned his head left and then right as he observed the room he was in.

The room was plain brown with wooden walls and floor surrounding him every which way. The walls looked chipped or dented in some places. With parts of it hanging on by a thread, sometimes more literally than Gleen would've liked.

The floor was average, not too bad considering the state of the walls. And kept as in pristine condition as could be.

That was the thing about floors, in ships you had to have decent ones due to the simple fact that if you didn't, well, the danger of tripping and breaking something dramatically increased. And when that was coupled with handling supplies, it was an easy way to get into debt quickly.

Plus most sailors, regardless of attitude or air, didn't want to step in hardened shit for their work.

On a table across from him, Gleen saw dozens of vials and other medical contraptions. Including equipment for Bio-Augments. Nate must've gotten injured pretty badly if they needed equipment like that.

Gleen's mood turned sour as he thought about the bastard that had ruined his life. If he hadn't existed or if he gave him his gun, none of this would've happened. Gleen would still be enjoying his life, and Nate would be doing god knows what.

Gleen's head turned to his right, his gaze directly landing on Nate.

His eyes bulged at the sight. Nate was perfectly fine, well, most of his body was. His leg had been cut off, having been replaced by some blue foot that was slowly attaching itself to him. The body apart rippling and fusing itself into Nate's genetic code and body.

Gleen himself didn't know a whole lot about genetic tampering. But he had opened up basic books about it before. So he knew that the foot was integrating itself to slowly become a replica of his foot. Exact in both, height, toe length, and foot shape.

It was a common medical treatment for most injuries that Vat-Born faced. The fact that the ship had such a treatment meant two things, either there were enough Vat-Born on it to force them to use it. Or the entire crew was made up of Vat-Born.

Both didn't sound good at all. Here he was, some random Birthed who helped assault and kill several innocent people in an attack that was surely setting Muddenburg on fire. He could only imagine the protests, the back door meetings. And everything in between that was happening.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

He hoped they didn't recognize him. But that was a sour hope at best, he could only hope they didn't feel the need to kill him.

Something that probably wouldn't continue when Nate woke up.

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Nate's consciousness woke up to nothing but blackness. Actually, he woke up to blackness and pain.

He felt his foot or lack thereof. And he screamed so hard. In his mind of course.

Nate hadn't yet gained full control of his body so he was stuck screaming inside his mind. Which was a good thing since the person guarding the door leading to their room was a very irritable Vat-Born by the name of Jack Spike.

Had Nate woke up screaming it would've been likely he would've come in ad beaten him into unconsciousness. Which, when compared to Nate's current health would not be good. Actually, it wouldn't be good to punch people in the hospital period.

So all in all, if Nate knew of how close he was flirting with another beating. He would be counting his lucky stars he didn't have access to his physical body yet.

But since he didn't. Every time he stopped screaming due to the pain of his foot reattachment, he would be cursing the numerous drugs put in him before he went right back to screaming. It was a good thing too because if drugs had personalities, they would currently be very offended at the amount of profanity Nate was currently thinking towards them.

Nate slowly stopped screaming, not due to the pain lessening, but that would be a small factor. It's because after internally screaming for so long, he got bored. Plus when one's entire waking existence was pain. If it didn't change quickly it would slowly bleed out of the victim's mind as they focused on other more novel concepts.

Nate had regained his sight during his period of indeterminate internal screaming. And he's used it to observe the surrounding room. He found wall's which looked old and worn down to the point of threads in some places. The floor was decent, nothing really stood out outside that it was on a ship.

Nate looked around the room, spotting numerous medical equipment on a table near him. Several small Vats, stood there, each very small. Only small enough to make random vermin or body parts.

The Vat's themselves were painted in a very thick coat of black paint, with dozens of nozzles and buttons on the side painted gold.

Numerous different things were growing in each. From random fingers and chunks of flesh to pieces of muscle that looked enhanced in a way. He also saw one random Vat with several fin-shaped claws. Though Nate didn't know why they were making something like that.

Nate slowly turned his neck around, looking straight into the eyes of Gleen. The man who had beaten him.

The man who had gotten him into debt and be convinced by Doctor Pemberson to do crime. The man who had assaulted him in his home and nearly killed him.

The man who had ruined his life in more ways than one. That man was currently staring into his eyes.

Both stared into each other for several minutes, before Nate promptly looked away. He couldn't do anything at this point. And even if he could move his body, why would he attack Gleen?

Nate didn't know on whose ship they were on, and while he could make some educated guesses. He very much doubted they would like him murdering on their ship.

So Nate and Gleen were at an impasse until they learned who owned and operated the ship. They couldn't do anything.

Nate stared at the wall, and slowly drifted off to sleep. The pain in his foot being completely ignored.

Blue Paste was a recent invention made during the twenty-second anniversary of the beginning of the Great War. Thousands of men and women were dying because they couldn't replace their limbs, with normal Augments being borderline useless for Vat-Born. So research was kick-started into finding a way to create Bio-Augments that could be mass-produced. It was during this time that Blue Paste was discovered. If put on a wound such as a cut or a bullet wound. The paste would mimic the genetic code of the victim and slowly integrate itself into the body. Usually being fully absorbed in a day or two for minor wounds. Blue Paste was a revolution in the development of modern Bio-Augments. As it would allow the complete integration of Bio-Augments into a person's body.

- History of the Science of Augments