Path to the Apocalypse

“You found what?!?” Beth asked incredulously.

“Another world.” Chris repeated. “I think. That or an incredibly isolated and highly delusional section of Azza, because they literally have no idea that abilities exist, they've mapped out their entire planet, and they've been to their moon. Also… the City is a game there. Like, they literally have a game called The Maze and it's our lives, in a video game. It's kinda crazy, honestly.”

“Chris, that isn't ‘kinda crazy’, it's legitimately insane!” Beth retorted, freezing as a thought occurred to her, narrowing her eyes at him. “We need to get you checked for mental manipulation. Now.” She jumped to her feet, grabbing his wrist to drag him away, only to stop short as she had no actual way to get out of his space. “Uh, Chris?”

Chris shrugged, opening a portal for her and letting her drag him to the hospital. Now that she'd mentioned it, it probably was a good idea to get checked. They were sitting in the waiting room until a specialist was available when Sabrina walked in. “Oh, Chris, Beth! What are you doing here?” She asked, walking over to them. “Are you finally here to take me up on my offer?”

Beth narrowed her eyes. “What offer?”

“To do some healing.” Sabrina elaborated, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. “I have a few patients waiting on advanced healing, and some with healing resistant diseases your healing may be able to get around. If you're willing, of course.”

Chris shrugged. “We're actually here to get me checked for mental manipulation, but once that's taken care of I don't mind seeing if I can help some people out.”

Sabrina blinked. “You think someone may have messed with you?”

“It's a possibility.” Chris nodded.

“I see… let me see if I can speed things along for you then, alright?” Sabrina quickly rushed off. The idea of a mentally compromised Chris made her very nervous. She'd seen the videos from the military graduation.

Sabrina managed to move things along, getting them a specialist not much later, and soon Chris found himself lying under some sort of machine as his mind was scanned for any discrepancies. The specialist turned to Beth once he was finished. “As far as I can tell, he's completely clear. No significant deviation from previous scans, no signs of repressed trauma, no conflicting thoughts, nothing. Just a healthy mind.”

Beth glanced at Chris hesitantly. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.” The specialist assured her. “He's fine.”

Beth grimaced slightly, before letting out a sigh. “Thank you. Come on, let's go.” She waved for Chris to follow her out.

“So…” Chris began as they walked out of the specialist's office. “If I'm not crazy, then…”

Beth groaned. “We're going to need to learn more about this place you've found.”

“Do you think we should pull the squad in on this?” Chris asked. “Or more, I'm pretty sure this is something we're going to need everyone we can get for. Though we're going to need to be careful. If too many people find out about this, things could get… messy.”

Beth gave him a look, before letting out a frustrated sigh. “I need you to give me a lot more information before I can make a decision. But later. In your space.”

Chris nodded. “Got it.”

Sabrina met them back by the waiting room. “So? How did it go?”

“He's fine.” Beth replied.

Sabrina gave her a weird look. “Why do you not sound happy about that?”

Beth shook her head. “You don't want to know. Come on, let's deal with your patients.”

Sabrina looked between the two of them suspiciously, before nodding hesitantly. “Okay… this way. I already have them gathered together for you.” They followed Sabrina to a large exercise room where a group of patients were waiting. “Alright, let's start with the ones I know you can fix.” Sabrina began, waving the first patient over. Chris opened a portal for them and she led them in, pausing as she took it in. “This place has… developed.”

“Just a bit.” Chris agreed, making a couch for the patient to lay on. “Are you taking care of this, or should I?”

“I'll handle it.” Sabrina assured him, leading the patient to the couch and getting them to lay down, before placing her hand on his forehead.

A moment later, the patient sat up with a gasp, eyebrows raising slightly as he checked himself over. “Huh… that was- interesting.” He muttered as he stood up. He nodded at Chris. “Thank you. It would have been months before the next healer could see me.”

“No problem.” Chris gave him a thumbs up. “Happy to help.”

The patient smiled, turning to Sabrina who sent him out to the nurses for a check-up to make sure there was nothing else that needed to be taken care of before calling in the next patient. Chris wasn't exactly doing anything life-changing for these patients, so they were grateful, but they weren't overjoyed. At most they commented on the above average healing, and that was it. “Okay, now for the ones that I'm not sure about.” Sabrina sighed as the next patient came in. The woman looked rough, thin and gaunt like their body was eating away at itself. Sabrina carefully led her to the couch, laying her down and pressing her hand against her forehead. Something definitely happened as the patient looked healthier than she had, but she was still pretty thin and gaunt.

A moment later, the patient blinked awake. “Did- did it work?” She asked Sabrina.

Sabrina frowned, using her ability to give her a quick scan, before letting out a relieved sigh and smiling at her. “All the tumors are gone! We'll need to do some more tests to make sure they won't come back, but right now, it's looking good!”

The patient had tears in her eyes as she stood up, still weak but feeling better than she had in ages as she approached Chris and gave him a hug. “Thank you! Even if you only gave me a bit more time, I- If you ever need anything-” She froze, eyes widening as she pulled back, staring at a similarly surprised looking Chris.

“That- wasn't my fault.” Chris coughed awkwardly.

“What? What happened?” Beth asked, looking between the two.

“She kind of automatically connected to me?” Chris explained hesitantly. “I don't know why, it just kinda happened.”

“Wait, what!?!” Beth exclaimed incredulously. “How is that possible?!?”

Chris shrugged. “I have no idea. It's never happened before.” He paused. “Wait, actually it may have… when I first connected to Dyrdek, I didn't really do anything for it. He was babbling something about serving me…”

“Wait, you think that anyone who expresses a desire to do things for you automatically gets connected to you?” Beth asked skeptically.

Chris shrugged. “I have no idea. This is literally the second time it's happened.”

Beth grunted, frowning to herself as both Sabrina and the patient looked lost. “What- what is this connection?” The patient asked nervously, even though she felt like she had a good idea already.

“It's a form of domination.” Chris explained. “Unfortunately it's pretty much unbreakable, but honestly I'm not going to do anything with it, so you really don't have to worry about it. The only issue is that when you die, you're going to end up in here… permanently.”

The patient blinked. “I- what?”

Chris cocked his head. “Do you need a better explanation or do you need time to process?”

“I- I don't know?” The patient stammered numbly.

Sabrina coughed. “How about we focus on making sure you're cancer free right now, and you can deal with… this later.” The patient nodded stiffly, making their way out to the nurses. Sabrina turned to Chris. “That isn't going to happen to all of them, is it?”

Chris shrugged helplessly. “I'm not even sure why it happened this time. We should probably make sure they all leave as soon as possible. No sticking around to say thank you or anything.”

Sabrina nodded hesitantly before waving in the next patient, this one a man with a missing leg. He was in a wheelchair, so she didn't bother with the couch and just placed her hand on his forehead. The man slumped and suddenly his form began to twist, his whole body… regressing until a teenager sat in front of them. He blinked awake, looking at them as everyone stared at him in shock. “What? What? What?” He repeated, frowning as he tried to force his voice deeper. “What- gah! Why is my voice all messed up!?!” Chris coughed, making a mirror in front of him, his eyes widening as he took in his transformation. “What- how?!?”

Chris scratched his head. “I think… because you were missing your leg, there wasn't enough material to heal you as an adult, so it healed you as a teenager?”

The man- boy- guy blinked. “But… my wife?”

Chris considered it for a moment. “If we cut off her leg-”

“Chris, no.” Beth cut him off.

“Why not?” Chris cocked his head. “If we make both of them young, then there's no problem, right?” He glanced at the guy. “Right?”

“I- don't know.” The guy shook his head, not sure how to feel about any of this.

“Hold- hold on.” Sabrina rushed out, bringing another patient in, an older woman. Since this was a military hospital, the large majority of the patients were younger, in their thirties at most, but this woman looked to be closer to fifty. She quickly laid her down on the couch and pressed her hand to her head, stepping back and watching in shock as the woman regressed into her mid-twenties. “This- this- this-”

“This… might be a problem.” Beth muttered.

*

Sabrina quickly finished dealing with the rest of the patients, barely giving them time to process what was happening as she rotated them through. As the last patient was pushed out of the space, the portal closed behind them and Sabrina whirled on Chris. “You can make people young again?!? Do you realize how big this is!?! You could make old age a thing of the past!” Sabrina exclaimed.

“I mean, you aren't wrong, but I was already going to make sure everyone I cared about would live as long as I do.” Chris explained. “This just makes it more convenient.”

Sabrina just shook her head in exasperation. “It isn't about you, it's about everyone who wants to use you! Just the fact that you can heal cancer would make you the most sought after healer in the City, but this… There are people who would literally hand you the City on a platter for this!”

Beth and Chris shared a look. “Would you believe we have bigger things to deal with right now?” Beth asked. “On the list of things Chris can do to throw the City into chaos, this comes in like… fourth.”

Chris counted off on his fingers for a moment. “I could probably give it third. Tied with making my space big enough for everyone to live there, which is pretty much the same thing.”

“The hell are one and two?!?” Sabrina asked incredulously.

“One I'm not telling you, but two is making an army of creatures and taking over the Maze and/or City.” Chris replied.

Beth frowned. “Where would you put increasing your physique and ability energy to ridiculous levels?”

Chris waved dismissively. “Oh, that's the lowest one. Even getting super strong, if it's just me, it isn't that big a deal. Plus if someone managed to kill me, I'd have to start all over.”

Beth nodded slowly. “So then you're putting the new thing at number one?”

“Oh yeah.” Chris confirmed. “Honestly, you could probably split it into three or four parts and each part would still be more City shaking than anything else I could do.”

Sabrina clutched her head, struggling to process that statement. “How- how is that even possible?!?”

Chris frowned, before letting out a sigh. “Sorry, I don't trust you enough to tell you that yet. It's that big. The rest are things I can control, so any effect they have would have to go through me, but this… this could destroy the City, and there's nothing I could do about it.”

Sabrina's eyes widened, her breathing quickening as panic began to set in. The man had just outlined four ways he could personally throw the City into chaos, and yet this was something he had no control over? Even Beth was looking at him nervously. “I-” Sabrina froze as an idea occurred to her. “I- I will do anything to help you stop whatever that is from happening!” She declared, her chest tightening as she felt the connection between her and Chris form. “Do you trust me now?”

“You- did she just-” Beth looked between the two of them in shock.

Chris grimaced. “She did.”

“What the hell!?!” Beth exclaimed, whirling on Sabrina. “Why would you do that!?!”

“Because I'm not going to be shoved aside when I hear that the fate of the City is at stake!” Sabrina snapped. “If this is what I have to do to be involved, then so be it!”

Chris sighed. “Can't exactly argue with that… fuck it, fine. I need to tell Beth the details anyway.” He waved, making a chair for her and a couch for him and Beth. “Sit down and get comfortable.” Chris spent the next few minutes explaining everything he'd found on the other side of the portal. “And that's all I know so far.” He finished. “I'm not sure if the information in the game is completely reliable, but I don't think it's safe to dismiss it.”

Sabrina gulped. “Do- do you think you're the Conqueror?”

Chris shrugged. “Probably? There isn't really anyone else it could be, is there?”

“If we don't push higher in the Maze…” Beth muttered.

Chris shook his head. “It's probably a good idea to avoid that, but we can't say for certain that's what caused the invasion. We need more information, and the only place we can get it is in that game.”

Beth hesitated for a moment, before nodding. “You're right. We need to get people in there searching for answers as soon as possible!”

“Right. We just need to solve a few issues first.” Chris sighed. “Over there, we have no money and no internet connection. I'd suggest we steal, but I don't think it's the brightest idea to get involved with the authorities in the middle of all this.”

Beth frowned. “No, it probably isn't… are there any resources we can get our hands on here that would be easy to sell over there?”

“I'm not sure… we'll need to do some research.” Chris replied thoughtfully.

“Could you sell your healing?” Sabrina asked. “If this place doesn't have abilities, there should be a demand for it.”

Chris cocked his head. “Maybe… but I don't think it'd be smart to advertise that I'm some kind of magic man from a different world.”

Sabrina shook her head. “No, of course not, but if you can disguise your portal, we can set up your space so it looks inconspicuous, and then I'll simply put them to sleep, use my ability, and they'll wake up healed!”

“Okay, but how do we explain that?” Beth asked. “We need some plausible explanation for the healing, or it's just as suspicious as just using our abilities.”

Sabrina frowned. “True…”

“I think what we need to do right now is gather as much information as we can about this world over the next few days.” Beth explained. “We know too little to make any sort of reliable plan at the moment.” The other two nodded in agreement.

“So, should we get the rest of the squad in on this then?” Chris asked. “The more people we have working on this, the better.”

Beth considered it for a moment, before nodding. “Yes, we should. It isn't like we're going to be able to hide it from them very well anyway. If we don't tell them, they'll probably think we've been taken in by some terrifying creature on the surface.”

“They're probably going to think that anyway. Like you did.” Chris pointed out. “We should get some proof first.”

Beth frowned. “Like what?”

“I could take a video of the town with my phone?” Chris offered tentatively.

“That could work… I have no idea how a creature would be able to fake a video.” Beth agreed. “Okay, you go do that, I'm going to go gather the squad.”

“What should I do?” Sabrina asked.

“Don't you have work?” Beth asked, scowling at her.

“I would, but someone just healed all my patients, so I'm free for the rest of the day.” Sabrina smiled back.

Chris paused. “Start doing research? I can drop you off at the library. The computers are a bit slow, but they're at least something.”

Sabrina nodded. “Got it.”

Beth clapped. “Alright, come on people, let's move! We’ve got a City to save!”