The Nemesis

The first thing Frank noticed when he woke up was that it was dark. He had his eyes open, he thought. Maybe. He couldn't be sure because no matter how many times he blinked it stayed dark. The next thing Frank figured out was that his eyes actually were open, but there was a bag over his head. At least he had one thing figured out. He tried to take the bag off his head, but found that his wrists were tied together with something itchy. He was lying on his side on something metal too. Frank couldn't hear anything so he assumed he was alone. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, hoping that this would be a dream once he woke up.

Frank must have passed out again because the next thing he saw was white everywhere. He squinted and blinked as his eyes adjusted to the bright light. When he could see properly, he glanced around to try and figure out where he was. The room was round with several bright lights hanging from the ceiling. The walls were a dull grey metal and the floor looked like it had never been cleaned. This time he was seated in a rusty chair which was bolted to the floor. Unfortunately, he still had his hands tied behind his back.

Someone cleared their throat and Frank whipped his head towards where the sound came from. Leaning against the wall to his left was Blue. He was wearing baggy black pants and a worn out black shirt. He had his head down so his shoulder length hair obscured his face. It was only when Blue lifted his head that Frank cursed himself for being even more of an idiot than usual. Blue wasn't a man, it was a woman.

"What's the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost", she drawled.
Frank just gulped. There was nothing he could do with his hands tied and his mouth didn't seem to be working. Blue seemed pleased at his reaction and smirked.
"Not much of a talker. Shame. I was really hoping you'd scream or something, make it more fun", Blue said as she stepped closer to Frank. "Normally they have some questions or at least beg to be let go".
"They?", Frank squeaked. "Who's 'they'?"
Blue chuckled. "Prisoners. Targets. People like you basically", she answered.
None of this information was making Frank feel any better.
"Who are you?", Frank managed to ask after a pause.
Blue grinned. "Excellent question".

She stood up and walked to the back of Frank. He started to panic when he heard the sound of metal grinding against the floor. He heard footsteps as four people made their way into his line of sight. The guys from the store.
"This", Blue started pointing to Red, "is San. This guy right here", she nodded to Green, "is Sep. And this", she patted Yellow on the shoulder, "is Zori".
They all smirked at me and just generally acted intimidating.
"And I", she spread her arms wide, "am Elli and we're pirates".
Elli. Not the kind of name Frank would have guessed for a pirate. In fact they all had weird names, probably from the Delta Sector or somewhere like that.
"And who might you be?", questioned San.
Frank didn't answer which was probably a bad choice. San frowned and drew his fist back. He brought it forward to connect with Frank's left cheekbone causing a loud crack to be heard. Frank yelped in pain causing his captors to laugh.
"Keeping secrets won't help you here kid. We don't need to know your name to complete our objective", Sep warned Frank.

"Objective? What objective?". Frank was getting worried now.
"Yep. We had your picture already, all we had to do was find you.
Frank noticed they didn't actually answer his question so he tried again.
"What's your objective?"
All four pirates laughed at his question. Frank didn't take that as a good sign.
"We were sent to get you and take you somewhere. Don't even bother asking, we won't tell you where", answered Ellie.
The others snickered and turned to leave. Ellie blew him a kiss and walked after her crew. As the door shut, the lights flicked off and plunged the room into darkness.

Frank sat in the darkness for what seemed like forever. It could have been hours or days, but he was sufficiently bored. He decided to pass time by trying to figure out where he was. Frank thought back to the encounter with the pirates and what they said to him. He remembered the walls and floor being made from metal, and the lights being embedded in the ceiling as opposed to hanging down. Frank came to the conclusion he wasn't anywhere near the markets or his usual area. The buildings around that area were all concrete to help them survive the constant storms on Hadron. This conclusion couldn't actually tell him anything about his location because he had no way of knowing how long he was out for after the incident in the shop. Frank sighed deeply and closed his eyes to try and sleep.

When Frank woke up, the lights were on again but he was still alone. His chair had been turned around though so it faced the door. The lights made everything seem bright compared to the black Frank fell asleep in causing him to blink several times to clear his vision. He gazed at the door. It was a single door made of what Frank thought was red metal. Beside the door was a small panel with blinking lights which he assumed was the control panel for the door, lights and anything else that may be in the room.

Frank startled when the door slid open and Zori stepped into the room. He had a bottle in his hands and the contents sloshed around as he walked over to Frank. Zori grabbed the back of Frank's head, pushed the top of the bottle into his mouth and tipped it upwards. This caused Frank to choke on the liquid until he managed to remember how to drink properly. When the bottle was empty, Zori let go of Frank and turned to leave.
"Wait", Frank called.
Zori stopped and turned back to Frank and looked at him expectantly.
"Where am I? Where are we going?" Frank asked.
"You don't know?" Zori replied looking surprised. "We thought you were kidding when you asked before".
Frank shook his head and Zori began to chuckle.
"Too bad for you. I suppose I could tell you, after all, you'll find out in a few hours", Zori said as he walked back over to Frank.
He took a seat on the floor and gazed up at Frank.

"Well for starters, why don't you tell me about yourself? Just so I know what to skip over", Zori suggested.
"Well", Frank thought for a minute.
Frank considered not saying anything, but then he remembered that last time he did that he was punched in the face. He didn't see any harm in telling the pirate before him what he wanted to know. If they were going to kill him, it would happen no matter what he said.
"My name is Frank", he started before trailing off, considering what to say next.
"What no last name?" asked Zori.
"Nope. Never knew my parents. First thing is remember is being in an orphanage on Hadron, but I left that place when I was six 'cause the streets seemed like a better place".
Zori frowned at that but didn't say anything. Frank took that as a sign to continue.
"I would take things from tourists and then sell them in the markets. I was sent to a detention planet when I was caught stealing a transport..... That's really my life in a nutshell actually. Not much to tell", Frank said.

Nothing was said by anyone for a few minutes before Elli appeared in the doorway.
"Well as tragic as that story was, I guess we should tell you what we know about you", said Elli.
Frank looked up at her, not having realised that she was standing there. He nodded sheepishly to urge her to talk.
"Actually we don't know that much about you", Elli smirked. "All we know is that a rich guy payed us a lot of money to track you down and then take you back to him. He seemed pretty determined as well. Said we had to take you from where ever you were to his place on Baer. And before you ask 'why?', he didn't tell us".
Frank gaped. A rich guy was after him for no apparent reason other than he could. Great.

While Frank was thinking things through, Elli and Zori left saying they had to get ready for the drop in a few hours. Baer was in a whole different solar system to Hadron, that meant that Frank was on some kind of ship. To make matters worse, because he was on a ship there was no possibility of escaping until he got to the other planet. Frank took a deep breath and sighed. There was nothing he could do, so he closed his eyes and tried to clear his head and not think about what was going to happen.

Notes