Bound's shackles have the ability to absorb physical damage and release a pulse of power equal to that of the power stored within them, this pulse is non-lethal. The shackles can also turn into dual pistols when Bound touches them together. These pistols have the same precision and range as a standard .50 caliber sniper rifle while keeping the same fire rate and magazine size of a glock-18 along with adjustable power but with the drawback of multiplied recoil. To counterbalance the kickback, new shackles appear on Bound's ankles to keep him in place but the applied weight is so heavy that Bound can't move until he changes the pistols back into his standard shackles.
Bound is a very slow and deliberate fighter when he is not using his pistols. He tends to stay on the defensive and that can be seen as a fatal flaw. Bound can not move his legs at all while his guns are out. Because he is not a very offensive fighter, the only way he can close most matches is with his guns.
Cultures and civilizations do not progress at the same rate. Different groups of people discover new technology and new ideologies faster than others. This is true, even in deep space. In a far off galaxy, near the galactic core, there are stars and planets referred to as "Rimworlds." On these worlds, there are human civilizations that are farther behind than our own.
"Tsaloth" is a planet whose economy is driven by slave labor, despite being very industrial. Crafts that try to travel into the planets closer to the galactic core are often overwhelmed by the staggering gravitational shift and plunged onto the rimworlds. Men aboard those crafts are usually bound by chains and shackles and forced to work mineral mines or sold to passing slave trader ships while women were used for other dubious purposes.
A woman named Adelaide was taken as a concubine for a man who owns a mine that has proven very wealthy. After the years of serving her employer, one day, Adelaide discovered that she had been gifted with a child. The years of being enslaved by this man warped Adelaide's mind into believing that he was truly a nice individual. She went to him with this news and he dismissed her immediately. As malicious as he was, he could not bare the thought of killing an unborn child with his own hands. He decided to let her have the baby but he would be kept in the slave's quarters and as soon as it could pick up a pickaxe, he would go to work in the mines.
9 months passed and the baby was here. Adelaide, exhausted from the labor, passed out as soon as the baby was the born. While she laid unconscious, the man and his workers took the baby and put it in the slave quarters. Adelaide begged and pleaded to see her son everyday after he was born. She said she didn't care about raising him, she only wished to see him once. After constant pleading from Adelaide, her master grew tired of her company and killed her. She never got to see her only child.
For 8 years, the child witnessed the atrocities that people had been thrown into. He grew up depressed and lonely, as no one cared for him. There was no mother and no father, only work. Along with developing depression at an early age, he also grew up socially inept due to the fact that no one took the time to talk to him for more than a couple of minutes. Everybody around him was broken and beaten and those who weren't would be soon enough. In addition to his other mental and social inabilities, he was not given a proper education. He barely spoke but when he did, it was always in broken English that he picked up from the other workers. He could not read nor could he write. When the child was old enough to carry his own weight, he was given a pick and told to go to work and as a standard precaution for most slaves, he was shackled by his wrists which gave only enough leeway to use the pick he was given.
For 10 years, he worked in that mine. He didn't know of any other lifestyle other than the one he was living. As far as he was concerned, there were only two things in the entire universe that mattered, shiny rocks and pickaxes. He worked day in and day out, with no complaints or plans to escape. Until one day. The day that is now remembered as "Rim Liberation Day."
The planets that were near the galactic core were advanced civilizations of technology that we only dream that we could have. Intelligent, yet obedient AI and automatons. Medical science that can cure most fatal diseases with a simple syringe. Advanced weaponry capable of destroying entire planets in minutes.
The coreworlds, advanced as they are, were completely oblivious to the wrongdoing that was happening in the planets in the rim. They disconnected all contact with the rimworlds because they saw them as ignorant peons and not worthy of speaking to the intelligent citizens of the coreworlds. Until a slave ship that had picked up a _delivery_ from Tsaloth that drifted too far out of the rim and near the core was caught by a core cruiser. The slave traders were arrested and the slaves freed. Once they were freed, they explained what they saw on Tsaloth and what was happening on possibly all of the rimworlds. At that moment, the Core Federation devised a plan to free all the slaves from the rimworlds, capture the monsters involved in the slavery and colonize the planets in the name of the core.
A fleet of over a hundred ships were sent all across the rim to liberate the planets from their evil master's. One by one, every rimworld was claimed for the core and the slaves were freed.
The son of Adelaide had his shackles cut and was put on a transport ship set to land on the nearest coreworld, there every slave would be assessed based on intelligence and physical attributes and sent to a planet that would be most fitting for them. While on board the transport ship, he met a man named Sean. Sean was a middleaged coreworld engineer who was tasked with keeping the ship's main functions working. Sean saw the man sitting on a steel bench, alone and somber while all the other freed slaves talked, rested or rejoiced. Immediately, Sean saw himself in the man and went to talk to him. Sean asked him questions about his life, his upbringing and his experiences. All of his questions were met with broken answers or silence. Sean picked up on the fact that he could barely understand what he was saying. He grabbed his hand and took him to his quarters.
Sean taught him how to read and write to the best of his ability. The man, despite being an ignorant slave, was very inquisitive and hungry for knowledge on top of being a very quick learner. It only took 6 months aboard the transport ship for the man to begin speaking fluent English. Sean became aware of the fact that after 6 months of being on the ship, the man never told him his name or took off his shackles, when he asked about his name, the man says he was never given one and as a response to his question about his shackles, he stated that he wanted to keep them as a reminder of where he came from. Sean was taken aback by this piece of new information. Sean bestowed upon him the name "Bound" because despite being free of the torment he endured, he was still bound to his past.
Sean also realized that, along with being able to read and write, Bound should also know how to protect himself, if the need should arise. Sean taught him how to fight as best as he could, he was not a fighter himself so he couldn't teach him any advanced techniques but Bound now knew how to kick, punch and block.
After a little deliberation, Sean decided to outfit Bound's shackles with more self defense measures. He installed a damage absorbing plate to the outside of the shackles that could absorb physical pressure and store that energy inside that could be used later as a pulse of energy that could be used to push people away from Bound. Along with that, he installed a morph functionality to the shackles that turns them into powerful technologically advanced pistols with supreme modifications when touched together. Even though the pistols are as advanced as they are, they still have a major drawback, the recoil. No regular person could withstand the kickback of one of these guys under normal circumstances, especially not two, so as a countermeasure, Sean installed another functionality that creates stabilizing shackles on Bound's ankles that will lock him in place so that he can fire the gun without worry.
Soon after the shackles were completely modified, the transport ship finally was ready to dock on the coreworld. Sean explained to Bound that with his background, most likely, he will not be able to stay on the coreworlds, because he was not strong enough to become a soldier or intelligent enough to blend into the core society. They would rather send him to a galaxy that would fit his level of mental advancement. Sean told him that this wouldn't be the last time he saw him forever but it would be for awhile. He asked Bound to remember everything he taught him as he and he also asked Bound not to be lead by his past but to use it as inspiration to strive for a better life.
Bound left the ship along with the hundreds of other slaves freed from Tsaloth and found himself on a beautiful planet filled with tall trees and large flowers. The architecture on the planet was very smooth and rounded, there were many elevated walk ways with thousands of commuters walking to and from workplaces, shopping areas and gardens. The air itself was different than what he was used to, it had a sweet aroma to it that filled Bound's nostrils as he inhaled.
All the slaves were guarded by soldiers and led to a large building that had over 50 small rooms used for one on one therapy and educational sessions. 50 different coreworld teachers started to take the former slaves into the small rooms and assess their abilities, like Sean had mentioned earlier. It took 2 days before Bound was finally ordered into the room with one of the teachers. She asked Bound about his past, his educational background, and what he did for a living before he was enslaved. Bound told her that he was born into slavery and had no prior experiences except for being enslaved, he told her that he only recently learned how to read and write on the transport ship and for a living, he mined gems. She marked his answers on a paper and put that paper into a folder, she then handed him a worksheet with grammar and language comprehension questions along with math problems and told him it was a benchmark test to see where he stood on an intellectual level. As expected, Bound failed the benchmark exam.
What Sean had told him while he was on the ship was correct, Bound would not be able to stay on any of the core planets. He, along with a few other freed slaves who also failed their exams, would be taken to a planet called Earth. For another 2 years, Bound spent his time on another transport ship but this time he was alone. He thought long and hard about what he would do when he got to Earth, he didn't have any skills besides mining and he knew he never wanted to see the inside of a mine ever again. He wasn't smart enough for any other job and on top of that he only had a very bare bones understanding about how civilized society worked. He decided to play it by ear when he got there.
The transport ship finally made it to Earth but this time he wasn't met with a planet with beautiful foliage and wondrous architecture and a bustling shopping plaza with huge gardens and air with a sweet aroma. The transport ship landed in a grassy field far from any cities, the workers on board quickly rushed the small group of liberated slaves off the ship and as soon as the last one's foot touched the grass on the ground, the ship started to leave. Everybody watched as the ship warped out of the atmosphere. Most of the people in the group panicked as they had no idea what to do or where to go but Bound simply walked forward, away from the group.
He walked by himself for about 6 hours before he finally saw a city in the distance. He continued forward towards the city with a small light of hope illuminating his path. After more walking, he finally entered the city and started to wander around it until he found something that could help him. He came across a recruiter for the Rock Hard Gladiators and was told that if he had a thirst for battles and fame that he could join and fight within the RHG. Bound, having nothing else to do, joined the organization and figured that it would give him something to do and something to strive for.
Bound was a slave on a far away planet who was liberated by an intergalactic police force. While he was being transported to another planet, he met a man who taught him how to read, write and fight. He also modified his slave shackles with a plate that absorbs physical pressure and releases it as a pulse that can knock back enemies along with a morph functionality that turns the shackles into pistols when they're touched together. They are very powerful firearms that have a critical drawback, the recoil. To counteract the kickback of the guns, when he spawns them, new shackles appear on Bound's ankles that keep him in place but while they are on, he can't move his legs. After Bound reached the planet he was being taken to, he was tested for intelligence and failed. The planet deemed him unfit to stay on the world and then transported him to another planet of a less developed civilization, Earth. When he got there, he enlisted in RHG because he didn't have the knowledge to do anything else.
