Anger of a Dreamer

Chapter two Arena 

It's been two months. I think. Hard to tell time in this prison.

The scientists take blood, and hair sometimes even more. Once, they took an organ. Ripped it right out of me like I was nothing more than a thing to be studied. It grew back in eight days. Eight days of agony. And for five of them, I survived with just one lung, every breath a battle.

But that wasn't the worst of it.

They can't cut me open with normal scalpels. My skin doesn't break. So they use lasers. High-powered, searing beams that slice through flesh like butter but not without pain. Never without pain. They don't sedate me. They don't dull the agony. They want me awake. Aware.

One time, they replaced my liver. Took mine out, and shoved in something different. Something wrong. It was yellow, sickly, alien. For a month, it burned inside me, twisting, rejecting, changing. I felt it shift, warp until it wasn't foreign anymore. Until it became mine.

The pain? Indescribable.

And they watched. Took notes. Whispered in their guttural, static-laced voices.

Like I wasn't even a person.

Like I was just an experiment.

To them, I was nothing more than an experiment. A specimen. Something new to poke and prod.

I don't know if it was the organ they put in me or if I was just losing my mind, but the voices started soon after. At first, I thought it was hallucinations just my sanity cracking under the weight of everything. But then I realized... they weren't just voices. They were thoughts. Not mine.

The scientists. I could hear them. Their cold, detached musings as they tore me apart and stitched me back together. Their plans.

That's how I found out the truth.

The organ they gave me wasn't just some random alien tissue. It belonged to someone. A prisoner, like me. A Martian. Yellow-skinned. Kidnapped. Dismantled.

And now, a piece of them was inside me. Changing me.

My hands clenched into fists. My breath came slow, measured.

So it's true.

I am in the DC Universe.

I lost track of time after the third month. Maybe it had been four. Either way, the routine had changed. The scientists had taken all they could from me. They had studied, dissected, torn me apart, and stitched me back together. They learned everything they needed.

Now, they wanted something else.

Combat data.

The only way to test my strength, they decided, was in the arena.

Today would be my first fight.

They restrained me inside a containment pod, binding my arms and legs in cold, reinforced metal. I could hear the faint hum of the transport ship as they moved me, the subtle vibrations rattling through my bones. They weren't taking any chances. I had healed from everything they did to me, but they weren't about to let me fight back until they were ready.

The pod hissed. Pressure equalizing. The moment they released me, the scientists were gone and retreated to their safe vantage points, behind their reinforced barriers, watching from the shadows.

I took a deep breath and stood.

The air was thick and humid. The ground beneath me was rough, and uneven—a pit, stone, and metal fused, lined with massive jagged walls that loomed above like the ribcage of some long-dead beast. Above me, I saw an audience. Dark silhouettes, alien shapes watching from the stands, their faces illuminated by the cold blue glow of the arena's force field.

I wasn't just being tested.

I was entertained.

I turned my head. A door. Massive. Reinforced. Behind it something else. Something waiting.

I could hear its thoughts. Hunger. Hunger. Hunger. Over and over, like a maddening chant, primal and relentless.

Fear clawed at my chest. My hands trembled, just for a second.

Then the door shuddered. A deep, mechanical groan as locks disengaged, hydraulic pistons hissing. Metal scraped against stone.

And then it stepped through.

A beast.

It was massive, its body covered in thick, dark fur, like a bear but not. It had four powerful arms, each ending in long, jagged claws. Patches of its flesh had been stripped away, replaced with metal plating, cybernetic implants running along its spine and head. Wires pulsed beneath its skin, syncing with a collar wrapped tightly around its thick neck.

I barely registered the weight around my own throat until that moment.

The same collar. The same dull, pulsing glow.

I swallowed hard.

They weren't just making me fight. They were controlling us.

And if this thing was hungry… then it meant only one thing.

They hadn't fed it.

And I was about to become its next meal.

The beast charged.

And I ran.

Not away around.

It moved fast, tearing across the arena, but I was faster. My feet barely touched the ground as I sprinted, inhumanly quick, my body moving at speeds no normal human could reach. Not that I was human anymore. Not really.

They had tested my strength and dropped an entire ceiling on me just to see if I'd crawl out. I had. They had stabbed me, burned me, dissected me just to watch me heal.

And a few days ago, I floated. Just for a second. Long enough for the scientists to realize I had something extra in my body an organ in my ears, designed to keep me balanced in flight.

I kept sounding more and more like a Viltrumite.

But none of that mattered right now.

Right now, I had to survive.

I zigzagged across the arena, dodging, and keeping ahead of the beast's charge. But it was keeping up.

Screw it.

I turned, leaped, and swung.

My fist connected with its jaw bone cracked. The beast was sent flying, slamming into the far wall so hard the entire arena shook.

For a moment, I thought that was it.

Then it got up. Faster than it fell.

It launched itself at me, four arms spread wide, claws glinting. I lunged forward to meet it mid-air, swinging again too slow.

It was bigger. Taller. Its reach was longer.

A paw the size of my head smashed into my chest.

Pain exploded through my ribs as I was sent soaring. Claws ripped through my skin, leaving deep, burning slashes.

I hit the ground hard, rolling, but before I could even stand, it was on me.

Pinned.

Jaws snapped inches from my face teeth the size of knives, and my breath was hot and rancid. It lunged for my head **missed **and sank its teeth into my shoulder instead.

I screamed.

Pain shot through my body as it tore into flesh, blood soaking my chest.

I didn't think. I reacted.

My free hand grabbed its jaw, forcing it open. My muscles strained, the beast snarling, thrashing. I climbed onto its back, arms locking around its thick, fur-covered neck.

It rammed me into every wall, trying to shake me off. I didn't let go.

I squeezed harder. Tighter.

And then, with my bloodied arm, I reached down, grabbed its massive jaw, and pulled.

Muscles tore.

Tendons snapped.

The beast let out a horrific, gurgling sound.

And then the head ripped free.

Blood sprayed across the sand. The body collapsed.

I barely had time to breathe before a sharp, high-pitched sound ripped through my skull.

Agony.

It was like nails on glass, except inside my brain.

I dropped to my knees, clutching my head. My collar **buzzed**then suddenly, a surge of electricity shot through me.

White-hot pain.

Then darkness.