When Chris came to, he found himself back in the white room. He took a second to gather his bearings before standing up. Or trying to at least. His lower body was hazy like he was stuck halfway between a man and a cloud.
'Looks like the k-test has begun.' he thought.
Chris closed his eyes and simply waited until his body was completely engulfed in the haze. He could have manipulated the test if he wanted to but in the end, chose not to.
'So be it' He thought.
'If the cosmos deems me a sinner, I'll just end it. It's not like I wanted to live. Not at the expense of all those people.'
As Chris recalled the faces of those people in the square, he felt an indescribable sadness.
In the real world, the four interrogators stood over the slumped over Chris.
"So?" asked Liz. "The fuck we plan on doing with him?"
The tanned man peered at Chris before turning to the rest.
"we obviously can't leave him alone. The karmic test found nothing but that doesn't mean I'll just let him go. He may have knowledge that could prove dangerous if it fell into the hands of others."
The blonde boy furrowed his brows.
"But the test said he's innocent! You can't seriously want to keep an innocent guy locked up?!"
In response, Liz glared at the still unconscious Chris.
"I really don't give a fuck. If he proves to be a liability, I'll take him out back and shoot him myself."
"Liz! That's enough!" The tanned man barked.
Liz shrunk back but didn't lose the glare in her eyes.
"I've already decided what to do." The tanned man solemnly spoke.
Chris slowly opened his eyes as his consciousness returned. He sat up slowly before looking around. He was in a bed in some sort of infirmary. On one side of him was a sprawl of poorly organized medical tools piled next to various liquids, one notably labeled 'mystery juice'. On his other side was the room's door and a small desk with large stack of paper piled on it. The desk slightly caved in on itself as if suffocating under its weight.
Behind said desk was a squirrely little girl with frizzy green hair and large, round, red glasses that seemed to dig into her nose. She wore a white lab coat that went way past her feet and draped onto the floor, making the bottom frayed and dirty.
"Oh! You're up!" She perked up over the mountain of paperwork and squeaked in obvious joy.
She got up and rushed over to Chris' bedside, her coat suffering more dirt and dust as it raggedly glided after her. Once she reached his bedside, she jammed a thermometer into his mouth and began to pry open his eyes with an unsettling amount of force.
"Mmph!" Chris flailed about as the small girl shone blinding lights in his retinas and started poking all around his face.
Chris tolerated it for a few seconds before deciding he'd had enough and pushed her to the foot of the bed.
"Uhh, excuse me but I have a couple questions."
The girl took a second to compose herself and readjusted herself so she sat cross-legged just in front of his feet.
"Ahem, yes of course. I'm here to answer any- oh wait you don't even know my name, I'm sorry, I mean my name isn't sorry, not to say I'm not sorry, but, I mean, uh my name isn't sorry but I am sorry-"
"Stop. Please. I'm begging you here." Chris placed his hand on his temples and gently pressed down.
"Oh no! Are you okay! Is it a headache?!"
The small girl sprang from the bed and dashed to the medicine cupboard before haphazardly grabbing bottle after bottle from the shelves and pouring it into a nearby, half-filled coffee mug. After mixing her...medicine into what Chris assumed to be a cappuccino, she thrust into his hands with a smile and a high pitched "Drink!"
Chris reluctantly grasped the mug's handle and peered into a pulsating purple liquid that may or may not have been radioactive, alive or both.
"Umm, what... is this exactly?" Chris' eye twitched.
"DUDE! PUT THAT SHIT DOWN!" A shout was heard from behind Chris as the mug in his hand shone bright blue before blinking out of his hand.
Swiveling his head, his eyes met the blonde boy from earlier as he stood at the door, an outstretched hand holding the mug. He wiped off the small sheen of sweat that appeared on his forehead before pouring the mixture into a nearby sink and directly throwing away the mug.
"Elina! What did we say about trying your 'medicine' on the patients!" The blonde boy reprimanded.
In response, Elina shrunk back and looked at the ground, clearly downcast.
"...I'm sorry. It's just that he seemed like he was in pain and I really wanted to help so..."
"haah" the blonde boy sighed.
"He'll live, why don't you go grab the others while I brief our friend here?"
Elina meekly nodded before shuffling out of the door and out of sight.
"Sorry about that." The blonde boy turned to face Chris.
"She's pretty awkward around strangers but she means well."
He reached over and grabbed a plastic chair and sat down next to Chris.
"I never did introduce myself, did I? I'm Zach, pleased to meet'cha!"
The two shook hands.
"So Zach, judging from the fact that I'm not restrained, I take it the test determined I was innocent?"
"Yep." Zach nodded. "Passed with flying colors. Anyway I'm gonna run through what's gonna happen real quick before the other show up."
Zach leaned forward.
"We're gonna set you up with a new identity. You'll be Mr Blutzki's adopted son so you can keep your name. However, we can't afford to just let you strut around without supervision. So we're gonna, well... supervise you. Oh, and we'll need you to check in monthly with a report on your progress fitting in."
Zach and Chris were interrupted when the door opened again and the rest of the group swarmed in and crowded around him. The tanned man stepped forward and stood beside Zach.
"Hello Christopher. You can call me Seven. I lead my team as the head of The Hub's protection agency called The Keepers. As I'm sure Zach has told you, you passed the k-test. I'll skip the rest and tell you now that even though we're letting you go, if you make a scene, we'll know. So for the sake of less paperwork, try to live an uneventful life, okay?"
Chris simply stared.
"Can I go now?"
Seven nodded.
"You may, but I've assigned a guide to help you get settled. She'll tell you the basic info you need to survive and act as the relay between you and us."
From behind Seven, a woman with long dark hair stepped forward and towered over Chris.
"Listen up pipsqueak, I don't like ya, and I don't plan to. But you'll listen to me cause your life may well depend on it." Liz threatened with open hostility.
Chris glanced and Liz before turning to Seven.
"Excuse me, I'd like to reroll for a new character."
One beating later, Chris sat on the edge of the hospital bed with a noticeable bulge above his left eye. To the side, Elina flailed her arms around and hopped on her feet in frenzied panic while meekly crying out "w-a-w-a-w-a."
In front of Chris was Liz, standing over him with murderous eyes and a cold sneer.
"Listen up punk, ya may not realise but you're my problem now. And since we got time to kill, Ima show you the real way ya respect authority!"
And before Chris knew it, he was hoisted up by his collar and thrown through a newly formed portal back into the white room.
...
Chris finished his recollection of the past week as he stood up.
"It's been long enough, I should have adapted to the point they'll let me leave."
As if on cue, a portal opened, shimmering a hazy picture into Chris' view. A picture of what looked to be a front desk in a Highrise building.
"....Ah, fuck it. What's the worst that can happen? After over a week of dealing with the beta avengers, I'm ready to feel the sun, smell the city and drink a fucking coffee."
And with that, Chris took his first steps towards his new life.