Upon Fangs of Fate

~Chapter 1~

There were only a few days left before my next match, I was exhilarated because I was closing in on a championship match.
All I had to do was keep performing well, and I was on my way to the top!
Today was time for a celebration, just for a day, I decided to let myself have a few drinks.

I never let myself get even a tad drowsy, but today was the exception for myself.
I was so ready for the days to come, just a day to enjoy a beer or two had to be fine!

When it finally came time to leave the bar, I chose to walk since home wasn't that far.
Everything will be fine, it's only a short walk.

That was what I thought...
It was almost dark, and I was too arrogant to think I would be the unlucky person to face the same fate as a grandma getting mugged on the side of the road.

I walked onward to where my day would end, but as I passed close to a wall, an arm holding a sharp object lunged out at me.
I barely caught it thanks to my good reflexes, and just before I wrested it onto the ground I saw it was a syringe, not a knife like I had quickly assumed.

The man quickly cussed and pulled a knife that forced me to let go, though I managed to make him drop the knife by slamming his swinging hand into the wall.

'Who the hell is this?', I thought.

I swung my fist at his face with a slight stupor, but even slightly drunk I wasn't going down that easily!
The man easily ducked my first punch and used my second to grab my arm and pin me to the ground.

He grabbed the syringe off of the ground and stabbed my chest with it while I tried to grab his neck or push him off.
It burned like hell, it was without doubt the most painful way to be injected with anything.

I managed to grab the knife that had fallen earlier to stab him with, but he ignored it and held me down even better.
It wasn't longer than a minute before I couldn't move, and not long after that my hopes of championship were gone.

---

My next moments of consciousness were pitch black, I thought I had to be in the afterlife.
There was no way I made it through that.

Being cramped in enclosed walls doesn't seem like heaven, and I don't think I did anything that should have landed me in the hell of any reasonable god.

When I heard faint voices outside I knew I had to get out of here no matter where I ended up, even if I couldn't hear them well enough yet.
I wasn't going to be stopped by a wall.

I slammed against it and hit it until it shattered into pieces and I went flying out onto the floor of a giant glass... Cage? Terrarium? Box?

I heard chatters pick up in intensity, but it didn't feel like I could hear anything. It was like it was all in my head.

"We have a late hatcher!" One of the voices shouts into my head.

"What the hell do you mean by 'hatch'?!" I thought, but it was picked right out of my head.

"Oh. You haven't looked at yourself yet, have you?" The voice responds.

I quickly look at myself and find that my whole body is now completely silver... And covered with scales!
This isn't my body! I'm never going to be a martial artist again like this!

"What?! What the hell am I?! Is this reincarnation?! Don't tell me I've been isekai'd?!" I cried.

"Calm down, look at me. I'm on your right. We're all like this, we wish this was reincarnation but reality hits hard." The voice explained as I turned right to see a green lizard looking at me.
"First of all, you have to imagine your thoughts in a sort of bubble around yourself and who you're talking to. Otherwise the messages get sent to everyone. We're lucky none of the scientists were around when anyone hatched, new dragonets never know how to control their mindlink when they first learn about it. We aren't even sure if they can hear it, but we don't want to take the chance."

I tried hard to follow the instructions and managed to do it, as far as I could tell.
It felt like I was doing it right.

"Good. My name's Jayla."

"Nice to meet you, I guess."

"You should prepare yourself, it's almost time. Whatever you do, you have to pretend to be an animal in front of the scientists, and they're probably going to do more tests with you because of how... different... you are."

"What do you mean I'm different?!" I panicked, "Am I the wrong color or something?!"

"No, silver is a common color among the dragonets, but you're bigger and you've got a very strange looking tail." Jayla pointed out.

Now that I paid more attention, my tail was slightly flatter and noticeably longer than any of the other dragonets, and had hard stripes of bone or keratin running down the sides.

Just as I was done inspecting my tail, one of the scientists was busy opening the top of my container and reaching to grab me.
I hissed and growled without even knowing I could make those sounds.

There was no way for me to fight it at all, and I even swung my tail at their glove that they seemed to be wearing to avoid being clawed.

To both my, the scientist, and the other dragonet's surprise, my tail actually slices through the glove to some degree, prompting them to hurry up and drop me at the intended destination.

They do the routine tests everyone else had, but then I was faced with a small rolled up bundle of plant fiber.
It clearly resembled a miniature tatami mat.

The scientist was even boldly baiting their hand in front of it, it was obvious they were trying to get me to attack it.
Whatever, if it gets me out of this faster, then I'll just do it.

I had no idea how to actually use my tail, but I just did what felt natural and spun around to slam my tail through it.
My tail dragged across the mat and made a clean slice through the entire thing.

After I admired my work I was grabbed again, and moved back to the container I was originally trapped in.
This time they also held my tail still, too.

"Welcome back." Jayla called to me through the mindlink.

"It's not very welcoming to be back here." I fussed, still agitated and angry.

"We haven't seen any of the scientists have such a panicked look on their face in a long time! You really gave us something fun to watch! So, what's your story?" She inquired.
The others were starting to nag me about it too.

"You can call me Kairo, I'll gloss over how I ended up here if you really want to know."
I explained the deal to them and they seemed to enjoy it like they were reading a book.

"You're quite unique then. At least you got to stab one of those bastards before you got transformed. There were a few dragonets that used to be military, but not even they got such a cool tail weapon."

I guess I'm just special.