He woke up to the sound of metal clanking. His brain was filled with fog, but he struggled past it to try to figure out what was going on. Where was he? Why did the air smell like antiseptic and numbing patches ?

His eyes cracked open. Yuck. The lights were bright, bright white, and when he slammed his eyes shut again there were spots. The smell was doing two things: It was slowly making him want to throw up, and it was reminding him where he was.

The med lab.

The advanced biotech wing, to be exact. How much did I get paid for this? He tried to remember. Not enough to feel this crappy. Gingerly, he swung his legs over the side of the cot.

"Dammit—" He hissed as pain flashed up his arm. Right. Now he was starting to remember just what they'd done. His arm was covered in ugly, flashy cyber-punk style metal, racing up past his elbow and blending in with his veins. A gun was mounted on the end of it where his hand had been, but almost as soon as he'd discovered it, the metal seemed to move around in front of him. A hand poked its way out of the metal, and as he flexed his 'fingers' the metal obeyed his direction. Useful. Once the pain had gone down, he stood and made his way towards the massive data table set up against the far wall. Just his luck none of the scientists had come to check on him yet. He typed in his own name, wincing at the little shocks that ran up his new arm: Hugo Saithor.

Procedure: Complete

Status: Dead

Well, that isn't right.

Date: 16/19/2092

That wasn't Earth time. That was Solaris time. They'd transferred him? Did I click on the wrong file?

A chill ran down his spine. No, the body was definitely his. It looked like an old mug shot, low quality and 2D, but that was definitely his face.

A new profile popped up. Wait, no, that wasn't right. His file was being erased, new information overlaying what he'd just read.

Name: Devon Sinclair

Registry type: Clone

Procedure: In-progress

Status: Commander

Date: 16/25/2092.

Three things he learned from that: Six days had gone by since he went under, whoever was doing this had a frankly insulting taste in names, and they were trying to make him join up. Well, that sure as hell wasn't happening. He used the system he was in to find the closest shipyard, then punched his metal arm straight through the screen. Glass bits flew everywhere, but only a faint tingling feeling hit his arm. "Now this I could get used to," Hugo said and grinned. The containment door was locked, but they hadn't thought that through. Ignoring the pain and tingling, he concentrated for a moment. His hand morphed, allowing him to slide it into the lock and form a keyprint. He easily unlocked the door, swinging it off its hinges and into the guards' faces. The hand morphed back into a gun and he sent a suppressed bullet into both of their skulls. Then he stomped down the halls. The process of avoiding the guards and reaching the massive spaceyard of the compound was daunting... until he remembered his new overpowered weapon friend. A round of blaster fire echoed behind him and he spun, catching the bullets on his new arm. They bounced off. Once again electricity rushed up his arm. "I'm calling you Sparky." Hugo decided, patting his new arm. "Now whaddya say we get out of this hellhole?"

The treasury was only a few paces away- nope, that was not happening. A familiar shock of red hair hit his vision and he spun behind one of the pale gray walls faster than he would've thought he'd be able to. Maybe the adrenaline surging through his veins was burning off whatever drugs they'd given him. Stupid, stupid, stupid, he admonished himself. You knew she worked in this branch, you shouldn't have ever taken this job. Greedy idiot.

He ran for the spaceyard. Alarms sounded above his head, blasts bounced off his arm and whizzed past him, one caught him in the heel, but he kept running. Idiots set their glorified tasers to nonlethal. He gasped to himself, turning the last corner... there it was. A massive glass dome filled his vision, brimming with purple-green plants and thick grass. A large circle in the middle had been sawed down, leaving a clean, open space for ships to land. What struck him as odd was the lack of other ships in the yard. A chill ran down his spine; he'd seen this layout before. This was a place where people entered, and didn't leave.

A flash of white caught his vision. An old speeder, from before stealth missions were preferred over full frontal assaults. Hugo would be surprised if it still worked. Still- numbness ached up towards his knee from the blaster shot. The sounds of heavily armored pounding feet echoed behind him in time to the pounding of his heart. He'd take what he could get.

Hotwiring a speeder was a little more tricky than he'd expected since his metal fingers weren't the most nimble things ever, but he got there. Then it was off, into the planet's thick, humid landspace. Radios and blaster fire crackled into the fog behind him, but he ignored it. By the time this little secret outpost got their shit together, he'd be long gone.

He didn't notice at first, riding along with the thick, high trees blurring around him. But then he stopped for water and realized they were still blurring. Post-surgery nonsense? That's what he chose to assume. A sip of the thick water only made it worse. Spots exploded in his vision, and his stomach muscles clenched hard. He threw up in the grass. Then he struggled to stand. He couldn't stop just because of a stomachache, he had to keep going, come back for his payment and a little extra later, he had to keep them—

Engines roared in the distance. Hugo found himself leaning against a tree. Breathing was getting harder by the second. For the first time in a long time, he actually felt a little scared. His speeder seemed an impossible distance away.

A noise came from the bushes behind him. He whirled, regretting it right away when his head spun worse. "W—who—" He choked.

"A friend." A calm voice. Was this some sort of hallucination? A boy materialized in front of him: of almost the same age as Hugo, with really dark skin and multicolored eyes. Although person didn't seem like the right word. Being? Creature?

"You're right." He— was it even a he? Said softly. "I'm not what you think I am. But you're not either, are you?"

Hugo swallowed, the action painful.. Was the boy's voice echoing, or were his ears giving out?

"Come with me." The boy urged.. The boy tugged at his hand. He seemed so innocent, so different than the people Hugo had learned to never trust, so different than the scientists he'd made that stupid deal with. Suddenly Hugo felt more like the teenager he was and less like the experienced bounty hunter and thief he pretended he was.

Hugo let the boy tug him into the woods.

A/N: This is the first time I've ever written anything not fanfiction related! I wrote it for a friend's English assignment (don't worry, she took me to the gym a couple times as payment lol) and fell in love with it, so I'm gonna keep writing and posting it until I run out of steam.