Oliver clawed his way back to consciousness, his head, back, and chest pulsed with pain. Struggling to open his eyes, he was nearly blinded by the white lights overhead. Stories of a white light just before death flitted across his mind. A familiar voice from beside him interrupted the thoughts before he could focus fully.

“Holy shit man, you're awake! Don't move. I'll go get the doctor.” Rapid footsteps and a door slamming open echoed through Oliver's throbbing head before he recognized the voice of his roommate, Gary.

Doing his best to ignore the pain, Oliver tried to focus his mind on his current situation. A doctor? Was he in the hospital? The last thing he could remember was being at a party with his friends when something slammed into the back of his head, then everything went dark.

Before he could make sense of anything, the door opened again, grabbing his attention. Oliver opened his eyes again, not realizing he had closed them, to see an older doctor approaching him with a gentle smile on his face and a small plastic cup in his hands.

“Well, I'm glad to see you're awake Mr. Silk. How about we sit you up and get you some water before we talk? I imagine you feel a bit thirsty.” Within moments the doctor had him propped up with a small plastic cup of water in hand. As Oliver sipped on his drink, the doctor checked him over quickly.

“My name is Dr. Anwar. I'm sure you have a few questions, so I'll jump straight to the obvious ones. “He chuckled as he made a few notes on some charts. “You have been unconscious for about a day. We were somewhat concerned by that, but all our tests showed no real damage to your brain. By all appearances it seemed like your were just in a deep sleep, so we judged it best to simply monitor you and only take action if you were to remain that way for a prolonged period. Ah, could you confirm your date of birth for me please.”

Dr. Anwar looked almost embarrassed for a moment, but Oliver figured it was due to them not having a real answer for why he was unconscious for a day. “The 29th of February...wait, bruises? Is that why my back hurts like hell?”

“Yeah, that asshole Carl stomped on you a couple times before we could pull him off of you.” Gary chimed in before the doctor cut him off with a raised hand.

“I'm sure that's not pleasant for you, so I'll have the nurse bring something in to help with it. But you are in excellent health, Mr. Silk. Barring any unexpected complications, we will have you out of here in the morning. If you start having any problems, let the nurse know immediately.” With another quick smile the doctor was out the door, leaving the two of them alone.

Gary flopped down in the chair with a relieved sigh and stared blankly at the ceiling for a long moment. “Bro, you have no idea how worried everyone was. Shit, I need to text everybody so they know you're fine.”

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Oliver watched his friend pulled out his phone and started texting, taking in the rumpled clothes and black circles around his eyes. It was clear to him how worried his friend was, likely not having left his side. “You've been sitting with me the whole time, haven't you? Did you even sleep?”

Gary glanced up from his phone with a cheeky grin and waved off the question. “I'm good man. No way was I going to leave you hanging, especially after some bullshit like that.”

“What happened? You said Carl tried to stomp on me or something?”

Gary put away his phone with a frustrated growl, hands clenching into fists before relaxing slowly. Jumping up from his seat, he started pacing in agitation. “Fucking Carl man. I guess when you decided to just ignore him and that cheating bitch, they got all pissy about it. You know that big ass lion anime statue John keeps sitting next to his TV? The fucker smashed you in the back of the head with it and tried to stomp on you when you went down.”

Gary dropped back into his seat, staring angrily down at the floor. “If John and his guys hadn't jump in, we would have beat the shit out of that asshole. Then somebody called 911 and the whole party broke up. We got you an ambulance, and I rode along since I was off today. Ed and Marty had work, or they would be here too.”

He relaxed back into his seat, cheeky grin returning with a small laugh. “Words going around that enough people gave statements to the cops that Carl got picked up earlier. Maybe that dick will get what he deserves and end up someone's bitch in prison.”

Oliver grunted at the story, not being too surprised by the whole thing. He knew he should have been more cautious around Carl; sucker punching someone wasn't out of character for him. As his friend wound down, Oliver shook his head at everything. “Not likely man. His family is rich, and this won't be the first time they've had to bail him out. Remember that story he told about his dad getting him out of a drunk driving charge when he was still in high-school? He'll spend a night in county jail at the most, count on it.”

Gary's face twisted in disgust, but before he could get carried away on another rant Oliver shrugged it off. “Don't worry about it man. Sooner or later, shit will catch up to him. No reason to stress over it other than to make sure we don't give him another chance like that. I knew I shouldn't have turned my back on him.”

“Oli, bro, you are way to zen about this shit. Between Jess cheating on you with that asshole, then him trying to fuck you up like that... I would be ready to scream. Or looking for a fight. They damn sure deserve an ass whooping.”

Oliver chuckled at his excitable friend. They were polar opposites. Gary was always full of energy and ready for anything, even a fight. Oliver was often described as 'scary-calm', the kind of person that could stare down the barrel of a gun and tell the gunman how many years in prison he would get for murder, all without even blinking.

“Go home G. You need some sleep if you're going to make it to class.” Oliver paused at the mention of classes, his own busy schedule occurring to him. “Shit, where's my phone? I need to e-mail my professors and let them know I won't be there for a few days. I don't want any absences if I can help it. And I should probably let my boss know I may miss work too.”

Gary laughed, all the stress that had built up in him since the attack bleeding off in an instant. “Way too zen, man. And smooth as silk.” The two grinned stupidly at their inside joke before he spoke again. “All right, if you're sure man. If one of us isn't already here when they cut you loose, just give me a call. You know we got your back.”

With his friend gone, Oliver fired off a couple of e-mails explaining what was going on and tried to relax. Hoping to distract himself, he was searching on his phone for a video to watch when it felt like the world suddenly froze and his throbbing headache disappearing as if it was never there. What looked like a black computer screen flashed into existence before his eyes and words scrolled across it. Time seemed to jump back into motion as he read what it said.

Initialization Complete.

Welcome to the Multi-Dimensional Merchant System.