Chuck opened his eyes and looked around. He was in a messy science lab, with a plate of bread lying on the desk. He sat up groggily and rubbed the back of his head. Adrian jumped in through the open window, brandishing a cat and some na-an bread, "Ah, Chuckie! You're finally awake!"
"Wha-" Chuck searched for a name "You... I know you..." He searched his memories, only to find none. All he could remember was his name. Chuck Rodriguez. He studied Adrian for a bit longer, and a name popped into his head. Amy? No, it was different. Adri. "Oh, yeah, hey Adri!" She plopped the cat down on her desk and thought "Never been called Adri before, I like it! It's Adrian though, remember that." Chuck stood up
"Alright, and what am I doing here? What is this place? Who am I?" Adrian giggled "That's easy, Norris, you're my butler!"
A few months had passed since Adrian had told him this, and he had learnt many things. One of them being that he was a new recruit on the council of deities, a council of gods who ran the universe, and that him and Adrian, along with her brother Rainbow and best friend Keycode had founded an interdimensional policing agency that protected the multiverse, that was named the I.F, or Imagination Force. Chuck thought the name was a little off but he stuck with it as one of the lowest ranked member of the team.
It was early morning, and Chuck was making breakfast when Adrian fell through the window and sat down next to him. She was holding the cat again, and stuffing it's face with some form of pitta bread. Chuck had come to learn that the cat was named Dice, and Adrian's favourite food was bread.
He finished making Adrian her breakfast, and as she took it from him he asked her the thing that had been bugging him for a while "So, what did I do before I became your butler?' She thought for a moment and set down her bread. "I think... You were a peasant on the streets who I found when I was a princess!" Chuck nodded "Makes sense" Adrian nodded and continued stuffing Dice with bread. She managed to force the extremely large feline to consume an entire pitta bread before turning to Chuck "So, Keycode wants to talk to us. Dunno what about" Chuck nodded "Key's like that, I guess. Rainbow joining us?" Adrian shrugged "He should be, dunno why I let him join IF with me"
"Yeah, about that, how did he end up with you at the IF" Chuck chewed his bacon sandwich as Adrian shrugged again "I must have let him follow me when I left home."
"Yeah, what is it like in the Rainbow Dimension?"
"Well, it's the Rainbow Dimension, it's just full of tech obsessed morons with wings and horns." Chuck looked at her "Aren't you also a tech obsessed person with wings and horns?"
"Well yes, but I'm not a moron!" Adrian crossed her arms with trademark ignorance and stubbornness as Chuck swallowed the last bite of his sandwich "Alright then, Adri, you go get ready for the meeting. I'll clean up here." Adrian stood up happily and yeeted herself out the window. Chuck shook his head and made a mental note to ask her about her habit of entering rooms through windows rather than doors as he unstuffed the cat of bread and looked out the window of the treehouse lab. What the hell did Keycode want now?
Chuck straightened the pink tie Adrian said he had to wear and walked through the door into Keycode's office. Rainbow was already there, leaning on the desk and chatting to Keycode, the manky-haired know it all. Chuck sighed and sat down, waiting for Adrian to make her attempt at a glamorous entrance. She always tried, but rarely succeeded. Rainbow glanced at him before going back to his conversation with Key, but at least she offered him a wave and a smile. He smiled back as Adrian crashed through the window "TADAA! That would have been better, damn window should have been open." She picked glass shards out of her hair and sat down in a huff. "So, what's the crack?" Chuck looked at her "We were waiting for you to get here." Keycode sighed "I'm guessing you're all wondering why I've gathered you here today." Rainbow nodded "Why don't you just tell us before the meeting? It would save a bit of time, right?"
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"Oh shut up, Rainbow, let her have her mystery!" Adrian leant back on her chair and chewed on a bit of tiger bread as Rainbow tried desperately not to get angry
"Look, sis, I just hate having to waste time with unnecessary explanations! You know this." Adrian turned to Chuck "He's only like this because when we were kids Mother always told him everything before he needed to know it, like his birthday gifts and stuff, so he never liked it when he had wait for something to be explained." By this point, Rainbow was red with rage, but he took a few deep breaths "Thanks for that unnecessary explanation, Adri. Keycode, please can you just tell us what you gathered us here for?" Keycode nodded "So, as you all know, our job here is to protect the multiverse, and we have a problem we need to sort out. We all know that Chuck was found on Earth after the Universal balance shifted don't we."
"Wait, WHAT?" Chuck looked up from where he was sat in the corner, and turned to Adrian. "You said I was found on the streets of the Rainbow Dimension capital!" She laughed nervously "Sometimes I forget..." Keycode looked unfazed and carried on "Yes, you were dying and she saved your life."
"WHAT?"
"Talk about it later, we have more important stuff to talk about now." Keycode waved away his protests and continued "So I believe that I've found the cause of the Universal shift. The essence of my evil took physical form and broke out of the Dark Dimension." It was Rainbow's turn to be confused "WHAT?" Keycode stood up, pulled out a projector and set it up. She flicked to a slide with an image of Keycodes twin, with blood red eyes and an evil grin "This is Tracy Jones, she's an expert in time space hacking."
"Time space what?" Rainbow started pacing the room. Chuck sighed "it's basically real life cheat codes and stuff, she can warp reality with code." Keycode nodded and flicked to an image of a burning village "Already she's taken over hell, we had loose grip over it after we destroyed Satan." Chuck nodded, remembering how they implanted Lucifer's essence into a young fairy named Dan, who'd recently joined the council of deities. "Yeah, so we need to go take her out?" Keycode shook her head "You can't, she's too powerful, and you can't find her just like that. She comes to you, you don't go to her." Chuck sighed "I guess real life cheat codes are quite good..." Adrian piped up from where she was sat "Maybe if we used my Time Machine to stop her being born!" Keycode stared at her "I destroyed it last week, remember? You can't mess with fate." Chuck nodded in agreement "They're very disagreeable ladies, don't mess with them." Rainbow was still pacing "So if we can't find her... Or destroy her... What do we do? Try and keep the damage to a minimum?" Keycode nodded "That's all we can really do at the moment. Keep alert, try to think of ways to strengthen our powers or something." Rainbow adjusted his armour "Sounds good, Key. We'll keep the people of the multiverse safe." Adrian glared at him "Don't act like you can do everything, and who wears armour as an everyday thing? Moron."
"It's for protection, Adrian! Jesus, like you know anything about safety, jumping through the window like that." Chuck looked over "Yeah, about that, why do you use windows instead of doors?" Rainbow looked at Chuck as if he'd just sparked a full on rant from Adrian, but she just shrugged and said "Doors offend me" Chuck had a feeling that there was more to it, but left it at that. He also got the feeling that he didn't want to know. Keycode put away the projector "That was all I wanted to say, you guys can go off and think about how we can strengthen our powers" she sat down and began writing in her journal "Go!"
It was several hours later, and Chuck was still stuck. He had no clue how they could increase the teams strength and he was also doubting everything Adrian had told him about his past. He got up from his desk and walked over to the mirror. He studied himself, the tiny nick on his nose, which he assumed was just a scar from his childhood and the neatly combed beard that was in need of a trim. Was anything Adrian said true? Who was he, really?
Chuck sighed and sat back down, overwhelmed with the feeling of doubt and looming disaster. He had a feeling he'd run this place one day, at the cost of hurt and destruction. He tried to push away those thoughts, get back to his work, but he couldn't. He grabbed his longsword from where it lay on the desk and struck it against the wall, once, twice, before it disappeared and he calmed down. His ability to teleport weaponry came in useful at times like these, he could calm down by just teleporting a knife in his hands. But where did it come from? Nothing Adrian said truly added up, and he was starting to doubt her loyalty. He sat back down, and in a sudden wave of exhaustion, fell asleep.
He awoke in a dark room, with a TV sat in front of him. Chuck tried to stand, but found it impossible to move. His attention turned back to the TV, an old model with antenna and large body. It turned on, and began to play a familiar show.
Childhood. Trauma. Torture.
Service. Love. Family.
He was remembering.
He jolted awake, back in his office, his mind overflowing with information. He stood up quickly, grabbed his coat, and walked out. He had places to be.