Leo awoke in his room bruised up and sore. "I'm getting tired of waking up like this. Sprite, what level is Hiro?" The silence was all that responded. Then it hit him that Sprite was gone. It was going to take a while before he got used to it.
A doctor he remembered from the recovery bay came in and told him he was brought up from the training room. The doctor dropped off some medicine and left.
Leo started to dress the wounds as Sprite taught him. Leo tried reaching to his back but was not flexible to reach. Lucy staring at him saw her chance and walked in. "Need a little help?"
Surprised to see her, Leo said, "yes please." He sat up on the bed and moved his back toward Lucy. She was caught off guard. Lucy didn't know what to do. She never rubbed medicine on anyone or even herself.
"I...I don't know how to apply it." Lucy looked down defeated.
"It is alright. Just put it on my back and rub it in." She nodded her head and did as she was told. Applying the medicine to his back made her blush. She never touched a man in such a place.
Then a flash of memory came into her head. It was her and her lover making passionate love in a large bed. She was embracing the man, and an uncontrollable moan escaped her mouth.
"Ohh..." Awakening from her daydream she realized she did that out loud. She turned beet red and left the room. Leo had no idea what happened and didn't even get the chance to thank her.
Putting on his shirt, he left to the mess hall. Once there he saw, Hiro sitting at the same table from yesterday. "Morning," Leo said very softly. He couldn't help but feel weak when Hiro just beat him up the day before.
"Glad to see you awake." Hiro reached down into a knapsack next to his leg. He pulled out three knives and placed them on the table. The three blades were made of steel and had a pommel at the end of each dagger. The pommels were made of a mixture of gemstones giving off a brownish color.
"These three blades are for you. Where we are going won't be a lot of earth, but with your little control over earth and metal, I figured that throwing knives would be a good fit for you."
Looking at his new weapons, he could tell they were recently forged. "Thank you, Hiro." He picked up the blades and put them in his boots. Leo grabbed some food and sat down to eat with Hiro.
"Hey, you two started eating without me again." Lucy grabbed some food and hurried over. She looked at Leo and wondered if she should ask about the watch. Then Hiro said something.
"Leo do you know anything about the draconian I saw you fighting with in the arena."
"Not much Hiro. I freed her when I was captured by canine beastmen and then ran into her again in the arena."
"You were imprisoned before?"
"Yes, I escaped with the help of some of the cellmates."
"We can talk about that later. I wanted to tell you, that I also brought back the draconian with us."
"Really? Can I go see her?"
"Hold on. She is technically a prisoner, so I will need to get approval. Maybe, you can get her to talk."
The three of them ate breakfast and Hiro called up approval to see the prisoner. Seeing as it was the Thunder Knight asking he got approval almost instantly. The three of them headed to the brig.
Leo saw the orange scaled draconian heavily chained to the wall. Her wounds from the arena still hadn't healed. It was a miracle she survived. She would never walk again.
Leo stepped forward and said, "glad to see you're alive. I think this is the first time we have had time for a full conversation."
Lifting her head, Itmon looked at Leo. "What do you want human? Did you come to look at the crippled draconian?"
Leo shook his head left and right. "No, I came to see how you were doing."
The two of them just sat there for a second in silence. Then Leo said, "if you ever want to talk tell your guard. I'll gladly come to keep you company." After Leo said that to Itmon, he walked out.
"Human my name is Itmen-Anon."
"I'm called Leo."
Leo walked out of the room and told the guard to intercom him if she asked for him. The guard nodded in agreement. Lucy and Hiro were both surprised that this boy treated the draconian as a friend.
"Leo, you know draconians are the enemy right?"
"That one never did a single thing to me. I've learned no matter if you are human, beastman, or draconian you can be peaceful with each other."
Lucy opened her mouth, but couldn't refute what he said. She then saw Hiro and knew he was angry.
"How? Don't you know they invaded our planet? They have enslaved us and killed us? The other races are as bad as the giant beast on our earth. They are ruthless."
"I lived with beastmen for last year. There are good ones."
"Bull crap! All of them are evil. They imprisoned you." Hiro punches the wall in anger. "If I weren't there your pathetic life would be dead. None of those beastmen would have saved you."
"Hiro everyone surviving in their own way. Their own people enslave themselves to their civilization."
"You ignorant kid. You know nothing." Hiro lunged at Leo.
"Hiro stop!" Lucy tried to grab Hiro but was too slow.
A fist landed in Leo's gut causing him to fly into the wall.
"Leo." Lucy ran over to check on Leo. He was slumped against the wall. He was out of breathe, but otherwise, he was fine. The two men stared each other down.
"Be ready for tomorrow mission you two." Hiro turned around and walked away.
"Leo forgive Hiro. Once you learn the truth, you might agree with us."
Leo shook his head and pushed Lucy away. "Lucy, all life is precious." He got up in pain and limped away.
The team didn't talk at all the rest of the day. The next morning the intercom came on and told Team Thunder to meet in the hanger.
Leo walked up saw Lucy and Hiro waiting on him.
"Leo your gear over on that table. Put it on. Once you are done, we move out." Hiro was very stern this morning. He was still upset at Leo's childish ideals.
Leo put the body armor on and loaded into the spacecraft with the other two. "This is Thunder Knight. Is my craft good to take off?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Thunder Team is taking off." The spaceship flew out the hanger opening and towards their mission destination.