It still made little sense to him, but Jupiter wasn’t in a mood to argue with Vulban on the subject. He’d half expected for him to explode at the mention of Jupiter’s confusion, and it made no sense to push his luck, especially since Vulban seemed quite set on his purpose.

Regardless, there were more constructive things for them to do with their time than argue about what they’d do once they had won. After all, they had to win first. And to do so, they would need a plan.

He was at a disadvantage, as he saw it. Were they on his home planet, he would be at the top of the food chain, but the sad circumstances were that they were not. No, here the atmosphere was thin and empty, devoid of both the nutrients that he needed to survive and the elements that his throat could ignite into light. That was the whole reason for the tube: it constantly pumped the nutrients of his home planet into him without giving him a favorable atmosphere. The Terrans had become smart when it came to his weapons.

That left him with only his huge frame to commend himself to battle. Surely it was nothing to take for granted: his large wings gave him a huge reach and his natural armor gave him near invulnerability to the weapons that he had experienced so far. His physiology even gave him an advantage should they end up in a situation with no air or a poisonous gas: his race was a space-faring one, and as such had evolved beyond the need for respiration as most of their enemies would almost undoubtedly still require. He still had to be careful not to inhale too much of a poison to avoid eating it, but he doubted that they would be facing any such threat, anyway.

However, Vulban’s powers were still a mystery to him. He had said that he specialized in punching things, but that told Jupiter little of their potential. Was Vulban’s a strong race? How would he fair against the more-common ones that they would face? And where would his weaknesses be, so that they could plan around them?

“I think that it is time for us to discuss the competition,” he said solemnly. “We must know each other’s strengths and weaknesses if we hope to survive to get your revenge.”