“Alright, Alright. Let’s break this down.” Gabe started to pace around the basement, “I woke up, Zara took me to a building.” He sat down in a nearby chair to think.

“She said something about going to her father for a trial.” and crossed one leg over his thigh, putting a curled finger to his lips. “I was wondering around in darkness and ended up back home.”

He switched legs, “I think I’m in the trials, right now.” How quickly he figured it out probably meant that it didn’t matter whether he knew or not. Now that that matter was settled a new issue arose, How did he get here? It was obvious that it probably wasn’t real since Zara had literally no idea what a human was and the chieftain chose to speak to him in Caloricean instead of English. Let’s put it to the test then!

He got up from the seat and went upstairs. He emerged from the depths and out into the kitchen. The basement and the kitchen were separated by a singular door. He picked up a knife that was left out on the counter. He pressed the cold stainless steel blade on his palm, he took a few breaths of bravery.

“Three...Two…” He slid the blade downward, blood splattered across the floor “Aaaahhhh Mhmhm.” He screamed at first but closed his mouth to muffle. He ran to the sink and instantly turned the faucet on while his hand was under. The original idea was that he was put underneath some form of hypnosis and that just like a bad dream, he’d wake up from physical harm, that showed to be pretty much a failure. The only success was that he now had a bleeding hand.

“Stop being a bitch!” A voice called from the adjacent room.

“Fuck you, Lance!” Gabe returned a response.

A shuffling could be heard behind Gabe. “Fuck did you just say to me?” Lance was the taller, older twin brother. Being Twins the two had similar facial structures, the only difference was his hair, although they were the same color he took looking different as a priority, He shaved the sides of his head and left the top moderately short.

Gabe turned his head around, “H-h-hey Lance.” He stuttered the hey in an enthusiastic way.

“Whoa, what the fuck did you did?” Lance had seen the blood on the knife and on the floor. He got closer and saw his hand.

Gabe thought of a way to lie his way out. “I… tried to catch the knife?”

He stood there in silence for a second. “You’re a fucking idiot.” He walked away to grab the towel that was hanging off the oven door. “Here, don’t move.”

Gabe stopped the faucet, Lance wrapped his hand the towel. “Thanks, Lance.”

“Yeah, Yeah, Anytime.” He was applying slight pressure to the cut. “How’s that ‘teleporter’ of you’res coming along?

“Oh, uhm, well, It’s going.” Gabe gave him a trademark Anaya smirk.

“By the way, don’t you have to go meet Phil in a bit?”

After being in space surrounded by a numerous amount of aliens for an extended amount of time, Gabe had totally forgotten his prior obligation he made before he tested his machine.

“Shit, you right.” He started to leave the kitchen.

“Just wrap your hand before you start touching door handles, I’d rather not see what I look like in a casket.”

Gabe was about to grab the door handle, but did an 180-degree turn and went for a first aid box in the bathroom. It took him a few minutes but he managed to wrap his hand to a perfection where it wasn’t too tight and it wasn’t too loose, he walked out the front door.

The sun was shining, the weather was warm considering on Earth it was summer. Gabe was walking down the sidewalk, He had agreed to meet with Phil at a local coffee shop. He stopped halfway there. Why was he was doing this? Even if he proved that it wasn’t some sort of induced hallucination there still wasn’t a point in continuing on a path that’ll lead him away somewhere. He turned back around to head home, The scenery had changed.

“What.The.Fuck.” He stood in shock.

The buildings around he became run down, broken or had fire blowing out of the windows. The sun was experiencing an eclipse. The air was heavily saturated with a thick haze that smelt horrible. Black ships could be seen flying through the air in groups of three. Gabe started to sprint home.

He burst through the door, to his dismay he found no one in the living room. He ran to the kitchen where his brother was last seen. The scene that awaited him was nightmarish, His brother and mother laid on the floor in a bloody heap. A male wearing a black uniform stood next to them, His face was hidden behind a black metallic mask with a white triangle intersecting the two eye goggles.

The person spoke in an uniteligentable grunt. The alien figure started to move towards him, he ran out the door. The location changed once more, he was onboard a ship. The room he was in was very bare, a singular black uniformed alien sat in a chair. Gabe looked to the walls, a good majority of them had been glass windows with a view of open space.

Gabe felt something in his hand, It was a Cartollian sword. He gripped it hard, the grip made a sound as the leather wrapped around the handle received pressure. The person stood up from their seat, put a clawed hand on their helmet and removed it.

Gabe’s eyes went in wide in surprise, The face was revealed to be Anaya, he shook his head and tried to remember that this was still not real. She produced her own blade and ran at him with a strike. He blocked the downward swing raising his blade above his head. He shoved her forward with a shoulder bash, He swung diagonally, she blocked it, he repeated with another swing to the other side. She blocked that one too. He changed his direction by swinging upward, she stepped to the side and swung when he went forward, His back was now bleeding profusely.

“Yah gotta try harder than that.” She smirked at him

This infuriated him, He came at her wildly. His strikes had almost no thought to them, they were hard to predict and hard to counterattack against. One swing sliced at her leg another cut her stomach, another cut the muscles in her arm. She got in one block and pushed him away, the amount of blood she was losing was too much, her body dropped to her knees. She could no longer hold the sword in her hand, she kneeled defenselessly.

He approached her with the sword held loosely in his hand. Her head had been down, he picked up the sword in both hands as he did so, she raised her head to reveal it was Rhenixa’s, at first he hesitated but brought the sword across, her head fell to the ground and rolled slightly, her body fell harmlessly to the side.

Once again, the head changed again, to his. He punted the head across the room. The jumpy dreamlike scene didn’t end after this, He approached the seat and sat down. The room was entirely empty, If this had been a trial of strength, wouldn’t it had ended by now? He crossed his leg, his rage and adrenaline were starting to die now. Maybe it was entirely something else they were trying to get to. Wait. the reason for the trials actually came clear to him.

He woke up on the floor in a room surrounded by the two heavy guards, the chief, and Zara. He’s never felt so much clarity in a single moment than he did then. He sat up and instantly looked for the chief,

His face twisted into a sinister smile, “I want to fight you.”

The chieftain face went into a smile himself, You saw what you wanted?”

Gabe didn’t say anything, He just stared with the fire of desire in his eyes.

The chieftain gave out a hearty laugh, “I accept your duel, Tomorrow at midday!” He turned around, signaled his guards to leave with him.

Zara approached Gabe and extended and arm for him to grab and pull himself up with. She asked him a question. “Why did you just challenge him?”

“Because I’m going to show the universe that Cartollians are to be feared.” Gabe’s vision provided him with enough reason to make a weak race that rarely ventures into space, the greatest. In reality, this had been him projecting his anger that his race was practically non-existent.

Zara smiled with most of her fangs showing, this had been her genuine smile. She knew what he meant by this, she could already smell the blood that was going to be spilled.