Waking up to the sound of river water is always pleasant. Nature is always the best to relax in.

At least, that is if there weren’t any carnivores around.

And that’s exactly what I woke up to, a smile full of sharp, sharp teeth.

Not thinking about my previous experience, my instincts begin full throttle as I lift up my right arm, and initiate the punching motion I’m so used to.

Instead, I move far, far away from where the animal was going to take a bite out of me. The sound of static comes from my bottom, just when did I have it there?

When I look down, that’s when I realize I’m not wearing any single piece of clothing. I’m a nudist!

Wait, that doesn’t matter right now. I need to focus on my survival.

I quickly get off my nudist bottom and stand in the position of a boxer, my arm’s raised up and just at the right level to protect myself from this… wolf?

Pausing for a second, I look at the creature that was going to eat me. It stood on four legs, had a shell on it’s back, and had the face of a fox.

While studying the foxy turtle, my attention shifts to my own arm… Or should I say my new arm? In the place of my metallic blue steel cyber arm was a black arm that had turquoise lines running across it, the color of those lines led directly to my chest, or at least half of it. The black metal seemed to be encroaching upon my body slightly, and moved with my heartbeat. Right where my sternum is, was a circular disc that glowed that very color. Frightening, but it gave off a gentle warmth.

Feeling killing intent from the foxy turtle, I am pulled away from my examination. I look just in time to see the turtle spinning in the air, a slight pressure coming from it’s revolutions.

Sighing slightly, I begin to run straight at the turtle, powering up my arm in the process. I feel the hum of energy enter my arm, and arriving in front of the turtle I punch straight forward.

However, it shocked me as when my arm went forward, instead of a normal fist, my fingers were straightened out like a hand blade. I tried to pull my fingers in, but to no avail as they pierced through the shell, most likely killing the animal where it was. The weight of the animal didn’t affect my new arm in the slightest as the revolutions were forcefully stopped by me.

I then begin to let my arm drop, allowing the dead weight to slide off. It falls with a thud, and that’s when I notice my surroundings, or rather, what is currently surrounding me.

The turtles come and surround all sides of me, fresh out of the water. I look around to try and find the water they appeared from, and that’s when I saw the river.

At least the man from the lab was nice enough to give me food and water in such a dark place.

Instead of dealing with the turtles one by one, I decide to deal with them all at once, and I forcefully grab the water from the river and direct it towards me, in order to sweep away the turtles back into the rushing river.

Surprised by the turn of events, the turtles don’t do that strange hovering power and I am easily able to push them into the river, gone for good. I hope.

Suddenly, exhaustion hits me like a bullet, and my right arm sends phantom pains towards my brain, giving me a headache in the process. That’s when I notice steam coming from my new arm, and so I manipulate the river water to me, compressing it to strain out all the useless gunk in the water.

Once it’s purified, I bring it close to my mouth, and I begin to slurp it down. The taste of fresh water danced across the taste buds, and the refreshing feeling I received blew away the headache and the phantom limb pain.

“Looks like I still have to get used to the new arm then.”

I mutter, looking down at my arm from the man in the lab. I get up and dust whatever grime I have on my knees, and begin to explore where I am, or at least, the area I’m in.

Light filters in from a crack above, a tear that showed blue sky over the darkness I stood in. The walls of the place I arrived in went on for a mile at most, as it appeared that way to me. I couldn’t understand how the river was here though, and in my mind, the image of a shadow laughing at me intrudes.

“Damn that alien bastard. Are you still trying to bar my way to Mother?”

Striding along the ground, I tried to find a way up from where I was. But the area I was in was only the size of a football field, only even narrower. The light from above was definitely a trick on my eyes.

The earthen walls crumbled from my weight every time I tried to climb up one of the walls. Sliding down the wall from another one of my attempts, I slouch and sigh like I would before a boring homework assignment. Except this homework was a much higher hurdle I was used to.

I sit down on the ground, right next to the river, and the one corpse of the foxy turtle I killed is also right next to me. I look down at the overly large turtle, and where I punctured through its shell I can see a small glowing object.

I turn away from it, but curiosity turns my head back slowly to look at the weird glowing thing. Since the thing is already dead, I should help myself to the spoils. I reach my right arm into the hole in its body, and grab onto the glowing object, and pull as hard as I can.

Surprisingly, the thing comes out of the body easily, and the effort I put into pulling it out throws me off balance. The glowing object stays in my hand thankfully, and I open my hand up to find out what it is.

Sadly, the thing is already gone, as the last bit of it seemingly melts into my arm. The shock causes me to stand still, but the pain that comes next causes me to faint.

I didn’t even get time to yell…

Waking up suddenly, I bump my head against something metal, which also meant it was hard. I open my eyes to see everything in a blur, and I couldn’t even make out what was in front of me. But I knew, something was definitely there and is alive.

“Hold it kid. I mean yer’ no harm.”

I look in the direction of the voice to see something contrasting in color from the dark walls I was thrown into. A big, silver figure stood out from those walls, and looked like it was rubbing its head. Well, his head as that voice was definitely not feminine.

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“Well, seeing how yer’s lookin at meh, I think yer’ doin just fine. But what yer’ doin alla way out her’? This ain’t no place fora youngin’ like yer’self.”

I look up that hulking mass of silver, and smile at him. Not knowing who this person is could be dangerous. I best proceed with just a little bit of caution. After all, stranger danger!

“I’m sorry sir, but who are you? I know I can’t be a mile down from the surface, so how did you get down here?”

“Well, I used meh thick legs to jump down her’, because I felta burst of energy comin from down her’.”

“Oh… well I got here from up in the sky.”

I look at the man before me more clearly than before, and can just make out that he has a huge beard on his face. It also looks like he has a pinched up face. It looks similar to that of a dwarf from the bedtime tales my mother would tell me about. I smile at the man before me, and I can tell he smiles back.

“Looks like yer’ not from here, but froma dif’ planet by the looks of yer’. What’s ther’ name of yer’ planet boy?”

I tense up, as I thought this man wouldn’t know anything. Just who is he, to know about different planets. I should be cautious around him, but for some reason he doesn’t seem bad.

“It’s Earth. The man on the ship said this was a P3 planet, and that Earth is a P1 planet. What does that mean anyways?”

The dwarven man widens his eyes at what I say, and begins to look around rapidly before laying his eyes on the corpse that somehow became only just bones, with the only sign of it being new would be that they weren’t bleached in the sunlight yet.

“Boy, did yer’ kill that her’ beast?”

I nod my head, what could possibly go wrong with that? But the eyes of the man before me widens even further than before. I hear him muttering, “Impossible, for such a youngin to killa beast like this one her’ before meh. What would happen when he gets ther’ planet’s radiation in his system…”

“Wait, did you say I would get radiation poisoning?!”

I jump up off the ground, and apparently I am able to look down on the man before me. That is, until I see a lock of my white hair fall before my eyes. But the thing is, I have brown hair…

“Well boy, it looks like this her’ planet likes ya enough to let yer’ live.”

The dwarven man smiles at me, his beard also smiling.

“I best teach yer’ how to survive then, as this may be the will of this her’ planet herself.”

I look at the man in utter confusion, as he begins to get closer to me, and picks me up like a baby. I then hear a buzzing sound, as if many things are beginning to gather before me, but I only see little sparkles in the light coming from above. I look at the man as he smiles at me still.

“This her’ is the planet’s gift to yer.”

“What’s the gift!?” I begin to panic slightly at the volume of the buzzing sound. The man continues as the buzzing gets louder.

“Why, it’s ther’ bility to use radiation.”

With that, he jumps, and minutes after the ground cracks underneath the man, falling inwards to show a deeper, darker area than before. If I had known that there was nothing under me, I would tried harder to get out from the chasm.

Taking no more than a minute, we land safely a few yards away from the edge of the chasm entrance. Before me, as I look around from my vantage point, is nothing but desert, with a few broken buildings in between. It reminded me of a wasteland, of the sorts. I look at the man who put me onto solid ground.

“What was that?”

“What was what?” The dwarven man smirks.

“What, how do you use radiation?”

“In good time, boy. In good time.”

The man begins to walk away from the chasm, heading towards the the opposite end of the ebbing sun. I begin to follow along, but at a slower pace.

“Where are you heading, dwarf?” I quickly clamp my mouth shut at the possibly offensive word. But the man turns around and looks bewildered at what I said.

“How do yer’ know meh race, if yer’ froma Earth?”

“Fairy tales?”

The dwarf turns around to where he was walking towards, with a ‘hmph’. I begin to catch up to the stubby little man, and then he gives me something useful.

“Ther’ names Borin, Borin Striderland. Remember that boy.”

“Ah, yes Borin!”

Seeing as how I only need to access the database in my head, I don’t plan to forget anytime soon. I walk alongside the apparent rescuer, as I begin to drill him with questions.

“What does P3-P1 mean?”

“Radiation levels.”

“Why and how did you find me?”

“Was walkin long when meh felta radiation burst. Decided to check it out.”

“Do you know how I got here?”

“You told meh yerself, from ther ship.”

“How do you manipulate radiation?”

“In good time.”

“Where are we? Where are we heading?”

“Wer’ in ther’ Havan Desert, and wer’ headin east towardsa’ major city for yer own survival.”

“Isn’t it hot in that armor?”

“Neh, meh removed the radiation from inside it. It’s as cool as a married woman.”

“What’s your occupation?”

“Adventurer, explorer. Used ter’ be a Space Pirate, but that’s meh past.”

“That’s so cool!”

“Yer’ really think so? Well, her’s a question for ya, how’d yer lose thata arm?”

“I was born this way.”

“Ah, meh see now. Why yer naked anyways?”

“They didn’t leave me any dignity…”

Silence ensued from our surroundings, as we walked east, to the great unknown. For me at least. Borin was laughing up a storm, which I didn’t mind much.

“So what’s the story about this planet?”

“Vernier? Well she’s ther’ home of all criminals, small nor big, good nor bad. She’s called ther’ Prison Planet for one of two reasons.”

“Why? Why is this the Prison Planet?”

Borin looks at me with a slight pain in his eyes. “Cause no one has got off ther’ surface alive.”