"Natasha... Natasha, are you around?" Steve knocked on the door of the S.H.I.E.L.D office. After a while, a rather attractive female agent came out. Steve stepped back and said, "Oh, Agent Carter, is Natasha around? I need to see her."
"She is in the psychological clinic." The agent called Carter pointed to the other end of the corridor, then walked away with her coffee.
Steve watched her retreating figure, feeling somewhat intrigued. But soon, he remembered his purpose and headed towards S.H.I.E.L.D's psychological clinic.
Just as he walked over, Natasha walked out from the room, even shutting the door behind her. Surprisingly, she looked rather worn out, with a trace of helplessness on her face.
"Hey, Natasha, I was wondering... What's been up with Schiller lately? He seems to have become forgetful. He's called me in for re-examination dozens of times in the past few days, making me think I have some serious illness..."
"And there's Tony. He's been to the Arkham Sanatorium dozens of times recently... I mean... I'm not worried about him, I just want to know if there's something wrong?"
Natasha was just about to reply when her communicator went off. After answering it, she said, "Office No.3 on the 2nd floor? Alright, I'll be there right away…""
"Sorry, Captain, I have work to do right now. You can come back later."
Having said that, Natasha briskly walked away. As Steve was about to follow her, the door to the psychological clinic opened. Schiller walked out and upon seeing Steve, he said, "Captain? What brings you here? I thought you had moved out already? Anyway, come in and answer a set of test questions to see how your mental condition is."
"Um... I did three sets just yesterday... Alright, don't get upset, I'll do it now." Steve sighed and followed Schiller into the clinic.
In his doctor's persona, Schiller always had a peculiar aura about him, which made Steve reminisce about his childhood trips to the dentist. Even though he knew continuing the appointment wouldn't yield any results, he didn't dare to challenge Schiller.
After spending another hour, Steve finally completed his 26th psychological examination for the week and came out looking distraught, running into Stark.
"Natasha, are you there?" Stark called out in the corridor. Suddenly, he turned around and saw Steve emerging from a room. Stark stared at him, surveying Steve's worn-out appearance, and smiled with schadenfreude.
Steve gave him a fake smile and walked past him, shoulder bumping him along the way.
Stark made a funny face at him. Just as he was about to retort, Schiller walked out from the room. Seeing Stark, he said, "Oh, Stark, what brings you here? Perfect, come and do a set of test questions to see if your anxiety has gotten any better..."
"Hey, wait! I just did it yesterday! What I mean is, I did three sets of tests yesterday, still can't figure out the symptoms?"
"Hey, don't drag me! Even if you want to make money, you can't treat people who are healthy!... I'm really not sick, let me go..."
Steve laughed sardonically and walked down the stairs. Just as he reached the first floor, he again bumped into Agent Carter. They walked and chatted together. While the conversation was still lively, Carter reached her destination. Laughing, the female agent said to Steve,
"I wouldn't have thought we'd have so much in common, Captain. Unfortunately, I need to pick up a file from the adjacent office and take it to the 6th floor. This might come off as presumptuous, but could you wait here for a bit? We can go to the café once I'm done with my work."
"Of course, Miss Carter, it's been a while since I've had such a pleasant conversation. Feel free to complete your work. I'll wait here."
Carter left with a radiant smile. Steve found an empty bench in the corridor and started reading a magazine. After a while, Carter returned and the two of them moved towards the S.H.I.E.L.D. canteen's café.
Having coffee, chatting, and tea time went quite pleasantly. After a while, Carter had to go on a field mission. Steve hesitantly bid her farewell; they decided to meet again the next day. Steve was preparing to leave,
However, just as he was walking across the first-floor lobby, he ran into Schiller again. Seeing Steve, Schiller immediately caught up with him and said, "Captain, what brings you here? This is perfect, come and finish the test."
"Uh, no! Wait a minute! I just finished one, an hour ago..."
"But there's always another set. Let's go, this is important for your mental health. If Captain America develops a psychological problem, the whole of New York would be in trouble...""
Despite his protests, Steve was dragged into another clinic by Schiller. After spending another hour on a full set of psychological tests, Steve was so exhausted he lay on the table not wanting to move.
The questions used in psychological treatments and research are often lengthy and miscellaneous: from understanding your life philosophy to whether you like watching the news while eating. All sorts of predictable, unpredictable, and absurd questions, even more challenging than exams faced during schooling years.
What's more, during the process of answering, you constantly wonder what each answer represents about your mental state, you keep doubting, if I choose this option, will that mean I am turning evil and bringing about the world's destruction?
It's hard enough to finally select an answer that you believe is correct. But then you reflect on it and consider that there could be other situations occurring when you're doing this thing and want to change your previous answer.
This is incredibly exhausting, both physically and mentally. It even leads you to question if "is this world really worth it?
When he finally left the psychological clinic again, the sky had already turned completely dark. Steve, dragging his weary body through the corridor, ran into an even more exhausted Natasha.
Natasha was too tired to converse with Steve. She held out her hand, gesturing at Steve, who just nodded at her. The two passed by each other in silence, not speaking a word.
Upon reaching the ground floor lobby, Steve saw a haggard Stark sitting on a long bench in the lobby, cupping his forehead in his hands, lost in thought.
Steve sat down beside him. Stark straightened up and leaned back against the chair, letting out a sigh, "I must be hallucinating…"
"Hallucinating? What hallucination?" Steve asked.
"I just saw three Schillers, leaving S.H.I.E.L.D one after the other. Looks like my anxiety has reached an incurable level."
Steve's eyes widened, raising his voice, he said, "Three Schillers? It seems like you really are hallucinating!"
With weary eyes, Stark closed his eyes. "Thank goodness for Schiller. He sacrificed several days to treat my condition - running between Arkham Sanatorium, S.H.I.E.L.D, and Stark Building, surely he must have made dozens of trips…"
"Wait, he was treating your illness these past few days?" Steve turned towards Stark, looking puzzled, "But he's been following up with me dozens of times these past few days..."
Stark gave a skeptical look to Steve, "If you want to mock me, now is not the time…"
"I'm not lying!" Steve spoke seriously, "During these days, I was constantly travelling to and from Arkham Sanatorium, taking a dozen or so tests…"
"Good heavens, me too! When did you see Schiller yesterday?" Stark asked.
"From ten in the morning until twelve thirty..." Steve replied.
"Impossible! Schiller was in Stark Building giving me psychotherapy at eleven in the morning yesterday. It was booked by Pepper and we even have the appointment record…" Stark stood up and Steve followed suit, both realizing something was not right.
"Battlesuit!" Stark yelled.
Soon, a mecha flew in. After Stark put on the battlesuit, he asked JARVIS to bring up the surveillance footage from Stark Building and projected it in the front of Steve.
From the light alone, it could be determined that Schiller had just walked through the doors of Stark Building, yesterday at eleven in the morning.
"Could I have been hallucinating too?" A puzzled Steve said, "It was exactly twelve thirty when I left Arkham Sanatorium. I couldn't have remembered it wrong…"
Suddenly, both men paused; Steve and Stark looked at each other. Stark gasped, "Could it be..."
Steve quickly added, "… There are two Schillers??"
After blurting out this conclusion, they froze for a moment, then Stark quickly flew out the door and Steve was quick on his heels.
They raced to the Avengers base and sent out signals to all members.
Peter was the first to arrive. Captain Universe had gone to check on Eternity and hadn't returned. So he returned to his own universe first to ease his family's concerns.
Soon after, Matt, Erica, and vampire hunter Eric arrived one after another at the base. Stark stood in front of the table and said, "I have a potentially shocking news to share. Today, Captain America and I saw three Schillers at the S.H.I.E.L.D base!"
"Three???" Peter exclaimed suddenly, covering his mouth quickly afterwards.
But by this time, Stark and Steve had already turned their heads towards him. They detected a shock in his tone but it seemed to be due to the number rather than the situation itself.
"What's going on? Peter? Do you know something?" Stark pressed.
"If something unusual happened to Schiller, Peter would certainly know. He's the one who deals with Schiller the most," Matt chimed in.
Stark and Steve stared at Peter who wore an uncomfortable expression on his face. He stuttered, "Three Dr. Schillers... maybe he pulled off some kind of avatar magic trick again, it's not that big of a deal, is it?"
Stark snorted and said, "Peter, you are too young. You don't realize the severity of the situation. If there are three Schillers, it means..."
Steve quickly added, "...there must be countless others where we can't see."
After uttering these words, he stood up, looked around the room, and smacked the table with his shield, saying:
"Avengers, assemble!"