Chris appeared before the anti-Abductor organizations headquarters, walking in and heading to the reception desk. "Hello. I'm here to speak with the Director. Or Agent Christine Harris. Or really anyone with some level of authority."

The receptionist blinked, glancing at the picture of Chris pinned up below the divider with the words 'Contact Director Immediately!!!' written on it, with Immediately underlined three times and circled. "I'll- see who's available." She gulped, quickly picking up the phone and calling the Director. Chris nodded, settling in to wait while she worked.

"Director Bridge's office, this is Tanya. How may I help you?" The Director's assistant answered the phone.

"This- this is Mary from reception. I was told to contact the Director when a certain individual showed up and… he's here, asking to meet with the Director." Mary explained nervously.

Tanya froze, eyes flicking to her own picture of Chris, labeled 'Handle With Extreme Caution!!!' the Extreme triple underlined and circled. "I'll- be down shortly." She replied, hanging up as she got to her feet, pulling out her personal phone to text the Director as she walked. After a quick ride down the elevator, she walked over to Chris with a polite smile. "Mr. Vincent, I'm Tanya, Director Bridge's assistant. If you'd please follow me?" She turned, leading Chris back to the elevator and heading back up. She received a text back from the Director and cursed internally. "I apologize, but the Director is currently in a meeting. He should be free in just a little while, but is there anything I can do for you while you wait?" She asked as they arrived at her office, which was just outside the Director's, doubling as a small waiting area.

Chris cocked his head at her. "Are you just being polite or are there actually things you might do?"

Tanya blinked. "Pardon?"

"You asked if there's anything you could do, but that's just something you say to be polite, isn't it? It isn't like you actually have services to provide, right?" Chris elaborated. "I'm just curious what the follow up would be if someone actually took you up on the offer, instead of politely declining as expected."

Tanya hesitated. "We- I could get you a drink from the break room? There's also a vending machine…"

Chris shook his head. "I'm not saying I actually want anything, I'm just pointing out the ridiculousness of the offer. It's polite, and people expect it, but ultimately it's meaningless because you aren't actually equipped to fulfill it."

Tanya stared at him for a moment. "I- believe the key to the offer is 'can', along with an implied 'reasonably'. Taking it word for word would make the offer unreasonable, yes, but within the context, it's clearly something meant to make someone comfortable, to let them know they don't have to worry about asking for reasonable accommodations."

Chris frowned slightly. "I suppose… but what exactly would these 'reasonable accommodations' be?"

"A drink. Maybe a snack." Tanya replied.

"Okay, so why not just offer that then? Why force me to guess what might be available?" Chris retorted.

"Because not everything we're capable of doing is something we know to list. Maybe you'd like the room to be a bit cooler? We could certainly turn the temperature down a bit, but if I just offered a drink or a snack, you wouldn't feel comfortable asking for that." Tanya countered.

"Hm." Chris grunted, before shrugging. "Fair enough."

Tanya nodded, before pausing. "Then… is there anything you need?"

"No, I'm good." Chris shook his head, taking a seat to wait as a drink appeared in his hand and he took a sip.

Tanya's eyes widened slightly, opening her mouth to ask where the hell that had come from, but upon remembering the picture, it snapped shut. "Then- I'll be over here, if you need me." Chris nodded, a book appearing next, getting some reading in while he waited, Tanya giving him another weird look before shaking her head.

About fifteen minutes later, the Director finally arrived, rushing into the office. "Ah, Mr. Vincent! To what do we owe this visit?"

Chris snapped his book shut. "I finally got the tech for the teleportation network." He explained getting to his feet. "Figured you guys would want to see about getting it set up."

The Director froze for a moment, before nodding vigorously. "Yes. Yes, of course. What do you need?"

"Locations, mostly." Chris shrugged. "I have a guy who can take care of it as long as you provide some mass, about a hundred kilograms per beacon, plus twice that for the control center."

"Mass?" The Director blinked.

"Rocks, dirt, trash, whatever you have on hand." Chris shrugged.

"I see…" The Director muttered. "I can certainly arrange that." He hesitated for a moment. "This- will be a private network, yes?"

"Of course." Chris nodded. "The only ones with access will be you guys."

"Good, good." The Director nodded slowly. "I'll need to make a few calls to get things set up, but we should be able to get you everything you need within a few hours."

Chris sighed, opening his book again. "I'll be here."

The Director headed into his office, quickly followed by Tanya to help with the phone calls. The biggest issue was figuring out where exactly to set up the beacons. As their surveillance network improved, sightings of the Abductors were increasing, but they still didn't have a pattern they could rely on to predict where they might arrive. The Abductors seemed to arrive in a random location, do some brief scouting, then grab the nearest acceptable target and disappear. They knew it couldn't be truly random, or there would have been instances of Abductors appearing within large crowds of people, but the actual methodology of it was a mystery to them. After consulting a few of his specialists, the Director decided to set the beacons up in a few cities that had acceptable levels of surveillance, but weren't packed to the point where any response would be delayed by the sheer congestion of the city. Which was how Chris found himself on a private plane with Christine and Tanya, heading to Portland, Maine, the first of their many, many stops.

Chris glanced around the plane. "This is nice. Much better than the public one I took before." He paused. "I want one."

Christine shivered. "We- could see about arranging that."

"No need." Chris waved dismissively, opening a portal to Greg. "Greg, could you scan this plane?"

"Chris, why are you on a private plane?" Victoria, who was with Greg along with Andrew, and another Chris, asked, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"It's for the Abductor thing. We need to set up some teleportation beacons, but we need to actually get there first. Which reminds me, Greg, I'll need your help with the beacons too." Chris explained.

"Sure, sure." Greg waved dismissively as he stepped through, before letting out a low whistle. "Damn, this plane is nice. But can't we fly using my smoke? Like the ship in my World."

"That works for you." Chris replied. "I want this for me."

Greg raised an eyebrow at him. "Can you even get something this large out of your world?"

"With some effort." Chris shrugged. "Or in pieces. I'll find a way."

"Fair enough." Greg shrugged, chuckling slightly as he sent some smoke into the plane, turning his attention to the women. "I'm Greg, by the way. Nice to meet you."

"Christine." Christine introduced herself, eyeing him cautiously.

"T-Tanya." Tanya added nervously, looking between him and the portal. Who were these people?!? She'd seen enough evidence of the Abductors to know that there was more to this world than she'd previously thought, but to see individuals with actual powers just sitting there… It was hard to process.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"I'm Andrew." Andrew introduced himself as well, heading through the portal and giving them a small wave as he found a seat.

"And I'm Victoria." Victoria sighed, stepping through the portal since apparently this was what they were doing now.

"Are you all from Azza as well?" Christine asked.

"No, they're-" Chris began.

"Chris- fuck it, why do I even try." Victoria interjected, before sighing in defeat.

"Misplaced sense of responsibility?" Greg offered, smirking slightly, before turning to Chris. "But yeah, we should probably keep a lid on the whole Eternal thing for now. Which-" He turned to Christine. "-I know has to create this burning curiosity in you, but hey, that's life, eh?"

Chris sighed. "I suppose. I'm not sure what keeping it all secret actually accomplishes, though. I mean, the truth always comes out anyway."

"Because you keep telling people!" Victoria exclaimed.

"Hey, Greg tells people too." Chris retorted.

"That doesn't make it right!" Victoria growled.

Chris shrugged. "Fair."

Christine looked between them all with a twisted expression. "Do you have any plans to hurt this country or the people that reside in it?"

Victoria blinked. "No?"

"Then where you come from doesn't matter." Christine nodded firmly.

Victoria raised an eyebrow at her, before nodding back. "I agree."

"However, I must ask what you can actually do." Christine continued. "Are you like him?" She gestured to Chris. "Terrifying, but benign?"

"That's- a good way to put it, actually." Greg chuckled. "Yeah, we're all fairly terrifying. I dissolve things and recreate them, she fucks with people's minds and makes them stronger, and Andrew here just kills things."

Andrew grimaced. "I can do more than kill things! I can also create Bonds now."

"Oh really?" Greg raised an eyebrow. "How does that work?"

"I just have to condense my aura through two things with cores that are touching and put an intent into it." Andrew explained. "The intent is what determines what the Bond does, like sharing abilities or summoning each other like Bonded."

"Neat." Greg commented. "Also, finally. Took you long enough to figure out what you could do."

Andrew sighed, nodding in agreement. "Yeah… also, I might be able to heal people, but it's slow, and I sort of killed the guy I was testing it on."

"Andrew, if your healing kills people, it isn't really healing." Victoria pointed out.

"I didn't kill him using the healing! I- just ended up wiping out the entire tribe, because they sucked, and well… he was a part of the tribe." Andrew explained.

"You- you killed a tribe?!?" Tanya asked incredulously.

"Of frog-goblin things, not people!" Andrew quickly elaborated. "We don't kill people."

"Well…" Greg trailed off. "I mean, we do, but they generally deserve it, and it's always our last resort. Not everywhere we go has a legal system we can appeal to, after all. Also, just because they're frog-goblins doesn't mean they aren't people. Sapient is sapient, no matter what form it's in."

Andrew hesitated. "Well… they were bad sapients. Like, systematic, pedophilic rape bad."

"I- I see." Tanya gulped, deciding to place these people in the same category as Chris. It probably wasn't a good idea to offend people who casually eliminated tribes, no matter their composition.

The plane fell silent for a bit, until Greg sighed. "Okay, now I'm bored. Anyone want to play a game?"

"Read a book." Chris retorted, waving his own book at him.

"You know I need to pace myself." Greg retorted. "Otherwise I run out."

"I feel like there are more than enough books out there." Andrew commented.

"Not enough good ones." Greg grumbled.

Victoria froze. "Oh, shit, what if we're in a bad book?!?"

"In?" Christine asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Uh…" Victoria trailed off.

"See?" Chris commented. "The truth comes out."

"Shut. Up. Chris!" Victoria growled through gritted teeth.

"Are- you- you people think we're in a book!?!" Tanya asked in horror.

Victoria sighed. "Not exactly. It's more like the World is based on a book. And, I just realized, not necessarily a good one…"

"I don't think it really matters?" Andrew offered. "The World just sets up the rules, right? And it's based on how people think about the book, isn't it? So even if the plot is… weird? It's still going to be fine?"

"There's no such thing as a bad plot, only bad execution?" Greg muttered tentatively. "Not sure if that's true, but since the execution of it depends on, you know, people, it shouldn't be an issue? Maybe?"

"I guess?" Victoria agreed hesitantly.

"How- do you know all this?" Christine asked hesitantly.

"We found someone who regularly travels the Multiverse and she told us all about it." Greg replied. "So I suppose we don't know it's true, but… it does explain quite a few of our experiences."

"I- see." Christine nodded, not sure what to make of that information. Though she hadn't really been sure what to make of any of this. She'd had her hands full worrying about Chris, let alone three more just like him! She glanced over at Tanya, who looked like she was close to having a full on panic attack, letting out a sigh as she turned to Greg. "You said you had games?" Hopefully playing something would help calm Tanya down, or at least distract these people enough that they wouldn't say anything to freak her out even more.

"Indeed I do!" Greg nodded, sending out some smoke to a pile of his favorite games. "What do you want to play?"

*

The rest of the plane ride passed peacefully as Christine, Greg, Andrew, and Victoria played games, while Chris read his book and Tanya slowly calmed down from her existential crisis, with quite a bit of help from Christine. By the time they landed, she almost felt normal again. "Alright folks, welcome-" The pilot began as he walked out of the cockpit, only to freeze as he saw he had twice the passengers he'd had before. "How- are there more of you?"

"Magic." Greg chuckled, their game turning to smoke as he got to his feet.

"Hey! I was winning!" Victoria protested.

"No you weren't." Christine retorted with a smirk. "I was going to combo next turn."

"Damn it, now I'm disappointed." Andrew sighed. "I love watching Victoria lose."

Victoria glared at him. "You're a petty little shit sometimes, you know that?"

"Nyeh." Andrew stuck his tongue out at her.

"Nyeh!" Victoria stuck her tongue out back.

"This-" The pilot began.

"Is above your pay grade and none of your concern." Tanya interjected as she stood. "Just forget about it."

"I- yes, ma'am." The pilot nodded. "You're free to disembark whenever you're ready."

"Thank you." Tanya nodded back. "Have the plane refueled, we'll be leaving for the next destination as soon as possible."

"Yes, ma'am." The pilot agreed, heading back to the cockpit.

"So, where are we going?" Greg asked as Christine and Tanya began to pack up.

"We're going to place four beacons at cardinal locations around the city." Tanya explained. "The supplies are already there, and a car is waiting to drive us to each one, before taking us back here." She paused. "Though… the car was only prepared for three people."

"They can wait in my world while we travel." Chris replied, opening a portal. "Greg needs to get the blueprints for the beacons anyway."

"Man, I wanted to sightsee." Greg complained, walking through the portal.

"We can come back whenever." Victoria rolled her eyes as she followed.

"Or you could just leave some smoke here." Andrew added, walking in after them.

"All true." Greg nodded thoughtfully, before Chris closed the portal behind him.

"I- feel like we should be worried about that." Tanya muttered to Christine.

Christine sighed. "Tanya, I think worrying about what these people will do is pointless. It's going to happen whether you like it or not."

Tanya froze, before gulping nervously. "We're doomed, aren't we?"

Christine paused. "Actually… I'm pretty sure they're on our side. Things might get weird, but ultimately… I think we'll all be better for it."